Wirlomeyan

= Wirlomeyan =

The wirlomei or wirl are an infertile species of shape-shifting creatures native from the Nether, who have managed to spread to the overworld and currently grow in deep pit-like structures known as pisai. The wirl are known to act in a somewhat bestial nature unless civilised by an outside force, they are also known to adopt vices and traditions from external agents extremely quickly.

Wirl posses no known true physical form, instead taking multiple shadowy and demonic appearances or adopting a pale, corpse-like skin complexion, with thin and frail bodies and delicate fingers ending in claws, sharply pointed teeth with two prominent pair of fangs and red eyes. It is uncertain, even amongst wirl themselves, whether this is their actual humanoid form or just a mixture of Niedene and Lamiantrophi features.

Overview
The wirl appear to be made out of a dark dust-like substance known by them as singru, this substance is produced out of their own bodies and it flows like blood; they appear to get weaker by the minute unless they hide in a pisus, retreat to the nether or murder someone to steal their soul.

Wirl act similarly to predators most of the time they are not forced to behave otherwise, hunting and stalking victims in order to eat. Wirl are capable of eat pretty much anything, but all food ingested by them just makes them physically denser, wirl don’t gain any nutrients from their food and actually survive by consuming emotions or by stealing souls via murder. It's also been noted that the resources of an area a population of wirl is inhabiting deplete dramatically and may take centuries to recover, it is known wirl are responsible for this although it's not entirely understood what purpose this fulfills.

Wirl mainly feed on negative emotions such as dread, hate or stress, but have been seen to feed on more positive ones as well. It’s noted that wirl change their appearance significantly depending on the kind of emotion they’re exposed to.

Although wirl do not have a consistent appearance, even when in their pure singru form, they do follow certain patterns on their shapes. In solitude they take an animalistic or soldieresque appearance, remarkably spiders or empty armour suits, when in society they take a humanoid appearance, and when in a stressful situation they seem to lose control of their appearance, thus taking senseless and uncanny shapes. In fact, depending on the emotions of a wirlomeyan or the environment surrounding it, wirl involuntarily change details of their appearance to fit better with the climate of the situation or to fulfill a purpose.

Origin
Wirl tell tales of a mythical land known as Ivrea, a fertile land located in the nether where all wirl were born and developed in before being vanished to the overworld by the accelerated decaying of the Nether dimension.

There are no records of any wirl children, nor of a wirl dying of natural circumstances. Wirl have also been seen to get gravely injured or outright destroyed just for a completely identical wirlomeyan to grow like a fungus in a nearby pisus. These clones are indistinguishable from the original, reason by which so far are considered to be a reincarnation. This makes wirl practically immortal as the only proven way to kill them is by having another wirl assassinate a target.

Wirl are extremely friendly amongst one another, whereas showing hostility to pretty much any other species in Rathnir, the species is also proven to posses a sort of hivemind via which they communicate.

This is understood as an evolutionary trait as wirl appear identical to common supernatural beasts whilst in the wild and, despite their clear humanoid tier intelligence, lack any form of language in the wild and have problems communicating with one another in speech form even when in civilisation.

Another hypothesis is that they are just a variation of Lamiantrhophus, who separated so long ago it evolved into a completely different species incapable of interbreeding with any other creature in Rathnir. This, however assumes the humanoid form of the Wirlomei and does not explain why the species holds no ancestral land, being dispersed all around Rathnir nor their shape-shifting nature.

Historically, wirl people tended to gather within ruinous citadels from time immemorial. It's unknown whether these citadels were constructed by other wirlomei long ago or if they were occupied illegally; nor is it known what exactly was inside them. The only two known wirlomei citadels are Ninansuyo and Utumno, of which neither stand today.

History
The origin of the wirl people is surrounded in mystery as most historical sources are heavily biased towards a mythological origin or entirely nonexistent, so there is still no saying about where or how did the species originate, as specimens have also been found all around Rathnir.

The ethological patterns of the wirl species are similar with the description of many evil spirits and malignant forces in multiple cultures, in addition with their seemingly timeless existence and anachronistic arrangement of family relations and friends, it is widely believed wirl are what multiple ancient cultures understood as demons in the past. This is of course not without controversy, but it is generally agreed that ancient wirl are responsible for many historical famines in Nieden, Alteniquia, Syltör and Ummarnu, especially those who have coincided with mysterious decreases on crucial minerals for plant growth in the layers of sedimentary rock analyzed in the continents.

Wirl have also been known for stealing and dealing with souls as well as blood magic, Faustian Bargains, necromancy, curses, etc.

It is hard to piece together the ancient history of the wirl people, as all of them claim to be born in a land outside of time. The historical influence of wirl is messy and fractured, it is not known whether wirl construct pisai in the wild or whether there was one or multiple wirl civilizations that did so, archaeological evidence so far has even suggested that the most ancient pisus, the one in Céruma, generated naturally.

The only recorded instance of wirl settlement so far is Utumno, led by Axyr I Trafalgar. Study of this civilization however is problematic as it postmortem physical and psychological analysis seem to indicate Axyr in particular was incapable of accessing the hive mind, apart of multiple other inconsistencies such as he being the only recorded wirlomeyan in history to actively enslave and murder his own species (something the aforementioned hive mind should have made impossible).

This in particular posts an issue given how most specimens were known to haunt the citadel of Utumno, in the Eastern Empire, before it was destroyed by Axyr during the Usurpation of Yimmu-Audal and any wirlomeyan he did not deem loyal enough was murdered, currently an unknown amount of wirlomei have adopted a nomadic lifestyle or have settled in the League of Falsáivrea, in Haven and Ardat.

Culture
The land of Ivrea has not yet been found nor has been possible to formulate an alternative for the origins of the wirl since they are not like all other intelligent species in the world, and for that matter not even like creatures from other worlds such as the Jagdasi, given how they are the only known intelligent species to be infertile by design. Not a single wirlomeyan hybrid has been produced by the union of two different individuals nor has a wirlomeyan been born naturally out of the union of two specimens.

It’s important to remark wirl have been successfully reproduced in a controlled environment by the use of wirl necromancy. However, this was done by and for the Trafalgar dynasty who are not generally regarded as the best example of wirl natural behaviour. It’s also to be noted that, despite it being considered a myth; there is archaeological evidence, albeit disputed, of a land pretty much like Ivrea existing in the Nether, such is the case with the Cérumid Netherlake found surprisingly near the palatine, a well-known and very ancient wirl pisus.

Wirl have only been proven to have settled permanently in Utumno, 15 years ago. Since wild wirl behave almost identically from settled ones, and considering the Udún civilisation is way too young to be properly studied, it’s disputed whether it could be said Wirl have a culture or whether the quirks on their demeanour are simply due to their pure ethological biology.

Wirl claim to be the blood of Kallistos, their god and creator who allegedly grants them their supernatural abilities such as stealing souls and necromancy. They believe his rotting corpse is the Nether and the pillar on which Rathnir is standing.

They also have multiple rituals that shape their social groups. Despite having little to no sexual dimorphism, wirl seem to clearly distinguish between sexual and female individuals; their groups are also remarkably patriarchal in nature whilst in the wild.

Female wirl are required to be top fighters under penalty of torture, as well as good fighting teachers under penalty of torture; whereas male wirls are usually seen causing havoc in nearby population, depleting the resources of the zone they currently reside, expanding the limits of wirl sorcery under penalty of torture.

These particular practices fell out of favour after a numerous amount of wirl settled on the Caliphate of Ardat-Mosul, there is still however a extremely notable social disparity between wirl males and females, as wirl males tend to withdraw themselves from public life and live in complete isolation, working as sorcerers or architects if at all; females on the other hand are prolific in pretty much every aspect of society in Ardat-Mosul and Céruma.