Created Sunday 23 October 2022

Cursed beings who can use mystic powers revolving around emotion. They can hide theirs, dig into others, manipulate others perspectives and emotions. They are also known for being dangerous physically. They can be extremely fast, they can slow their perception of time, they can survive stuff that'd normally kill a mortal. Their one weakness is they are emotionally unstable and are more likely to develop mental health issues.

Maligned are connected to a shared unconcious often called the Abyss. This shared unconcious is malevolent. Their conection to it can make it so they doubt their own sanity, question the motives of others, and guide them to extremely selfish acts. They are not naturally evil, but this mixed with the negative perception of them by... everyone, really, they can become monsters.

A specific way the Abyss affects the minds of maligned is, well. A lot of maligned are capable of hearing surface thoughts of others. Some might hear just the negative ones, some might hear all of them but also hear whispers from voices that aren't real and are often malevolent. Some might not hear any, but instead have a monstrous voice attempting to provoke destructive and violent behaviors. Some might see things that aren't there, or they might be made to feel paranoid about everyone they know. Some may instead have a voice that sounds like their own, feels like their own, that only says negative things about them.

Their powers often appear in ways that reflect heat, cold, and darkness. Heat is traditionally linked to passion, aggression, violence. Cold is traditionally linked to apathy, hatred, and a lack of connection to others. Darkness is traditionally linked to the most emotionally unstable, the most dangerous powers, and also death. These aren't solid categories and there is some overlap, and even within them maligned powers can manifest in very different styles.

Basically, Maligned have a set of bad vibes that the Abyss tries to drag them towards: Lust, Violence, Hatred, Wrath, Apathy, Greed, Fear. There are others, but the way it works is basically that the Abyss is constantly attempting to twist and turn Maligned thoughts and perceptions towards desiring these things to the point where it hurts them and everyone around them. Example: Violence might sound odd. It's not the act of being violent, more a bloodlust. A desire to be violent, a love of the act, a feeling of rightness while doing it. Hatred is similarly a desire to hate or a desire to be hated, or a need to hate onesself. Just like the powers manifest in different ways depending on the maligned, their specific issue also manifests differently.

The Maligned are mysterious, with not even the gods knowing where they come from. The one example to the contrary could be Orin, but their amnesia limits them.

Physical Qualities

Maligned have claws and wings. These manifest differently per maligned. Wings are not permanent nor are they always physical in nature. Not all maligned get wings, but all maligned are capable of getting wings. None know what this means, though plenty assume it has something to do with some unknowable measure of 'strength'. Maligned have minor unconcious control over when wings and claws will manifest, but this is based on emotion and they can sometimes accidentally make it happen without realizing. They also can have other physical forms, also caused by emotions. Some can have many forms. This can be as simple as different musculature, different gender presentation, and different bone structure, or as complex as a total transformation of the body.
Maligned have special eyes. They aren't always manifested. For example, Khazhek's natural eye color is green like Ishamel and Outerras, but his maligned eyes go from yellow to deep red and look like fire, glowing and moving like it out from the center, no pupil iris or sclera distinguishable. Half maligned eyes can change but not fully, so his in this state just have his pupil and iris look like this while his sclera stays white. Maligned infused folks eyes change but not by much. Eŕe's outer rims of his irises are a deep red that glows, but his inner iris is sea foam green. Khar's eyes are non-glowing orange irises and always bloodshot.

Killing Maligned

The specific circumstances to kill a maligned are often specific magic, including weapon magic, or specific emotional states when they die. If a maligned dies while they feel entirely hopeless, they probably won't come back. If a maligned's claws pierce another maligned's heart, they will not come back and instead will pass right then and there. This is not easy because maligned's soul will more often than not produce some sort of protective barrier when deathblows are imminent, even when suprised (but not always). This protective barrier can manifest in different ways. Example: One maligned character's protective barrier manifests as a giant sphere of fire and force. Another manifests as layers and layers of glass-like flame. Another has one that turns the air into solid ice that is hard to break.

Maligned Powers

Maligned powers manifest differently as well. There are familial powers, and sometimes powers can be shared between two close maligned who are not physically related. Familial and relational powers are inherited, but how that specific power manifests and how powerful it is depends.

Half-Maligned

A half maligned is the child of a maligned and non-maligned. Maligned can not have children together. Mortal mothers of half-maligned have a higher risk of death during child birth. The normal rate is 1% per child born (the normal rate for time periods before the 1800s). The Maligned birth death risk is closer to 20% of all births, with another 30% having lasting physical harm or severe pain for the rest of their lives. The other 50% are fine. Half-Maligned tend to have a 30/70 AFAB/AMAB split. The reason for this is because Maligned children are born the same AGAB as their maligned parent more often than not, about three fourths of the time, and over time this has lead to this result.

So the reason maternal death happens so often with maligned is that maligned blood is actively dangerous. When in the womb, their blood mixes with the mothers and thus can cause damage. Fire maligned blood can catch fire or just spontaneously combust and it can cause burns. It also runs fairly hot in their veins. Ice maligned blood is freezing cold and can cause frostbite. Shadow maligned blood can cause necrosis. The fact it isn't more common is because some maligned offspring have less dangerous blood, and sometimes their blood can be helpful.

Half-Maligned are seen as potential monsters at worst, and bad luck at best. Maligned are considered to be potential threats at all times, but most hunters (and there are hunters) do not bother them until they actually do something (because it can be hard to tell if someone is a maligned for most hunters (with exceptions)). It is theorized that the half maligned and maligned populations are actually higher than estimated, on the assumption that most try their best to not be obvious. Maligned can be killed, but if not killed in specific circumstances, will just come back.

Maligned Possession

Some maligned are capable of possession in the right circumstances, but it requires them dying to do it so most do not even attempt to try this skill. Usually when they die they either die for good or they get sent to the shadow realm, However with training they can learn how to hold their soul and force it to hide within a mortal. They cannot possess non mortals and they cannot possess anyone who is trained to not be affected by some of their special abilities. It's better if the person possessed is unaware, and it's easier the younger the person possessed is, but it takes practice and the knowledge of the possibility to achieve. And at that point depending on how weak they are, they might be basically just a ghost. They can slowly regain power and with enough they can interact with and eventually puppet their hosts, but under the right circumstances they can be forced out. Possession is nearly entirely undetectable. If a maligned takes control of the host when they are close to being fully refreshed, tehy can manifest their powers in a way that directly effects the host body.

There is exactly one recorded case of a maligned even capable of possession, a maligned woman who asked for explicit consent from her hosts. This is not a requirement, however.

Its predicted the reason possession is so rare is the one thing all maligned experience and agree on: dying hurts a lot. This is not necessarily true for nonmaligned, especially if they die quickly or otherwise have a clean soul/spirit disconnection. Maligned souls do not disconnect cleanly and instead cling to life, unless the maligned has fully given up and lost hope or the will to live, which is a permadeath. In general, a maligned that has fully lost the will to live is both more dangerous and more vulnerable than one that hasn't. They don't hold back, but they don't heal and their soulshield (usually) stops

The Abyss

The Maligned psychic subconcious, aka the abyss, is an actively hostile and hellish place that all maligned and maligned-blood have some access to. It is both metaphysical and physical and physically it is understood (by the most accepted hypothesis) to be underneath the infinite plane of the world Basically it goes Sheakara proper, then a few hundred feet of earth, then the Abyss, then maybe something else because the abyss isn't infinite
No one knows why the abyss is so negative and hostile/mean to maligned, but the best guess is that they're cursed by the gods, or that it isself fulfilling, or that it's because of how they're hated by others, or maybe all of them