Synthfish

Description
The synthfish are magic based constructs made of copper, stone, and amethyst crystal cores, that look and for the most part act like fish.

Groups of synthfish can appear in any large body of water, and exhibit many behaviors of a fish variety, though if one is attacked, the rest will flee and perhaps eventually despawn, it is also possible to rarely fish them with a fishing rod.

Six hearts of health, if killed, they drop themselves and can be smelted into copper ingots, on rare occasion they can also drop a 'crystal core' item.

There also exists a rare variant of the synthfish, simply named: the gunfish, as oppose to the rest of them, the gunfish will actually fight back if it or any other synthfish is attacked, it can shoot short beams of light which do 4 hearts of damage and a lot of knockback, if killed, the gunfish will always drop itself, and can be used as an item weapon that does the same attack as the mob version, although doing 3 hearts instead and with a bit less knockback, it consumes exp for ammo.

Visual
"Visually made of copper, stone, and glowing amethyst, which proves to be the most visible attribute about them. These aquatic... forms appear to be some form of artificial construct, animated by a remarkably complex set of spells that seem to be stored in the lattices of the crystal. Found usually in groups, with rare instances found alone, they come and go in the waters, arriving from seemingly nowhere and eventually leaving the same way."

- Anonymous Alteniquian Researcher

Behavier
"At first glance, their behavior isn't unlike your typical wild fish: travelling among the waters, avoiding of larger fish and strangely they even seem to eat things occasionally as well. But, look deeper and you'll find them always using patterns, a group of them arrives, they circle in the same patterns at least 3 maybe even 5 times; Sometimes they spread out, sometimes they are drawn to seemingly random areas and simply do nothing for hours, and their arrivial and leaving almost seems like they are purposefully concealing their trace, and most peculiar, they always seem to know where each other are, there are times when the entire group is separated and all at once they circle in to a specific point and join back up, and if one is caught, the rest will immediately act in some new way, usually fleeing."

- Alek, Frosmarchian Fishmaster

Synthfishes uses
"I dunno where they came from but if those things stick around, all sorts of metal working is gonna boom! They can be melted down into copper you see, and copper's been a problem for the metal workers cuz the mines have less and less every year, it'll save a lotta time looking and a lotta money for buying if we can just catch these little metal marvels and use them instead. Also, if you cut them just right, you can get the glowing jewels out without shattering them, i'm sure those will sell well in some jewellery."

- Anonymous Metalworker in the Osterian-Plagosi Trading Company

Locations
"At first they were pretty rare, and honestly still are, but at this point I've started seeing them everywhere, every other time you go sailing and decide to look in the water, you see these faint glowing lights from below the waves. Naturally back then I thought I was seeing things, but eventually people started talking about it, like some ghost story or omen, but the next thing you know they started catching them! Fish made of metal and rock! I thought it was ridiculous but I've seen one being caught a couple times now, and that only makes it more strange that they've just shown up out of nowhere, all over Rathnir. I think I even heard some travelers from Eldham talk about them, but they also seem to be more common to the west of Rathnir interestingly enough, still, hopefully this isn't some kind of bad omen."

- Talvessirel, Aurlunoren Sailor

Origin
"Those fish, in general, seem to have shown up in the oceans some... one, maybe two years ago depending on when people first started noticing them, which is funny strange because most people didn't know they existed until around now. I've heard some say they had something to do with that relatively new island settlement in the foggy oceans at the eastern edge, I am yet to see why."

- Tlaverix, Akan'nashen Moonfolk Explorer

Gunfish
"The local sailor group had a run in with a group of the elusive metal craft fish during their recent fishing expeditions, and they were near land so they did the swimmer tactic. If you just try the rods you usually catch just one and the rest leave, so sometimes its actually better to have some good swimmers go down there and trap them. One of the swimmers noticed a fish that appeared to be more shiny than the rest - more copper in it - so they went to trap it but were blasted away by an arc of light! This could be alarming because so far the metal fish just fled when hunted, and some people already consider them a bad omen, is this aggressive and powerful metal fish a sign of what's to come?"

- Artollós, Alteniquian Scholar

Gunfish uses
"The whole thing's sort of a half secret for now because its best for the knowledge of an aggressive metal fish to be a slow trickle... No, we haven't given it to the metalworkers, we don't want them to know it but, once the thing is in it's sorta half dead state, if you tug on it just right, it will release one of those searing beams, it makes a great weapon, or even just tool for clearing pests I suppose. You just need to be careful with it, no one wants the place burnt down. I imagine it's only a matter of time before more get their hands on these though.

- Anonymous Audalad Fisherman

Magic
"Everyone loves a good mystery, or at least trying to crack it, and these new crafted fish of metal and stone sure are one in many ways. Sure, not that many are talking about because they're new and what not but out of those who are, one thing I don't see anyone people talking about is the nature of the spells that animate them! If I ever get to keep one I would give it to experts in magic and not metalworkers or jewellers makers because I've looked at the crystal and they're infused with... And the spells I'm able to sense in them are on a level of intricacy that I don't know if even a master of a mage could make them the way they are, let alone infuse them with crystal this way, this neatly cut, its truly a wonder!"

- Anonymous Lunari Mystic

Vanshae
Communicator Nitlovis Tliavan, it is safe to assume the Synthfish activated around the same time the tower suffered the Reactivation Event and that the VyrTiculem Intelligence does not share their connection and cannot communicate with them. As such, it is safe to assume they have their own secluded intelligence group that follows its own tasks and that they are maintained and created by their own little structures which they keep very well hidden. Their purpose is unknown but it is clear their separate nature from the tower's intelligence is on purpose by the Vantashae, perhaps they tend to the environment in some way. I shall delegate a Molar to conduct the reminder investigation while the Nach Shadar focuses on other matters around the Rathniri region, hopefully I will have more information regarding this soon.

- Maw Ilaver Itlovan