Paradox Spawn

Paradox spawn were once mortals who dabbled in the arts of chronomancy and were forever punished for their sins, their forms twisted, and what they once were stretched, warped, and altered forever. They appear as grey skin humanoids whose features and form are wrapped in on themselves, pushed, pulled, and growing in odd knot-like patterns, completely devoid of color save their singular large eye located somewhere on what could be considered the head of the entity, the eye which is not always upon the forward facing side of the head.

There are five known variants of Paradox spawn, each identifiable by the coloration of their eye, slight consistencies in their body types, and unique oddities unto themselves.

The yellowed-eyed paradox spawn are known as "Accelerated paradox spawn" These paradox spawn are born from those that attempted to venture into the future only to be caught and punished being granted their wish as they move swiftly in their mostly mindless search for a means to save themselves.

The orange-eyed paradox spawn is known as the "Sluggish paradox spawn", they were mortals that sought to slow the world down and capture every moment with great clarity, they delayed all around them save themselves as though time had become treacle.

The red-eyed paradox spawn is known as the "Flickering paradox spawn", they sought a power to control the world itself, the ability to stop time even if briefly, and were damned for it, their minds and bodies destroyed in a moment that stretched beyond comprehension as their punishment arrived.

The purple-eyed paradox spawn are known as "Unweaving paradox spawn", they are unique as they seek to travel across time and plunder the alternate paths that could have been taken, they are unique as divide themselves upon contact soon becoming a legion, the only way to identify the original is that only the original possesses an eye.

Finally, the blue-eyed paradox spawn known as the "Redacting paradox spawn", sought to undo mistakes of the past and destroyed themselves as a consequence. Obliterating who they were from the very actions they undertook, that concept persists within them as they flow backward through time upon injury to a point prior to the injury was made, use of this ability will also flow back their physical location to where the injury was taken.

Distribution

Paradox spawn are thankfully low in population, however when found they are typically in groups of three to five, rarely higher as the group would exhaust their food supplies.

Habitat

Paradox spawn exclusively appears in places with high magical saturation. These areas are often cut off from the rest of the world and secluded so as to not disturb the entity's consumption of lifespan from living entities, once an area has been made lifeless they will move to new grounds of consumption.

Diet

Paradox spawns feed upon the mortal world to sustain their own lifespan, ingesting the lifeforce of whatever is present and available to them to absorb upon direct contact. They prefer fauna or sentient creatures with a particular desire for beings with awakened Aurums but will drain any living thing until a point of total death.

Relations

Paradox spawns are hostile to all living things and will actively attempt to drain anything with an active aurum. targeting them over all other things

Mechanics

• Paradox spawns drain lifeforce upon physical contact with any living creatures.
  • This process is painful and causes the affected areas to turn grey as they decay during the process.
  • This process can be interrupted and takes time to become life-threatening.
  • This process requires direct physical contact with a living target through which the whole mass of the target can be drained.
• Paradox spawn will prioritize their attempts to feed on living things in the following order.
  • Living creatures with an active Aurum
  • Sentient creatures
  • Non-sentient Fauna
  • Flora
• Paradox spawn has two sensory inputs.
  • Auditory
    • Being able to pick up on sound acutely within 10m of themselves.
  • Life Detection
    • Centering from their eyes and being projected in a cone, the paradox spawn is able to see all life it can drain as forms of light within its "vision"
      • The range of this cone of effect is 20m and can penetrate objects up to 2m in thickness.
      • This form of vision does not require visible light for them to see.
• Paradox spawns are susceptible to all forms of damage but will regenerate unless their eye has been removed from the majority of their mass.
  • Regeneration is equal to that of feeding, three turns of feeding is sufficient for complete regeneration.
  • Tissue not in direct contact with mass in contact with the eye will not regenerate and will disintegrate when exposed to air.
  • Eye removal is defined as the eye being out of direct contact with over 50% of the mass of the paradox spawn.
• Paradox spawn dependent upon eye color are able to use time-based abilities.
  • Vassas blessed are immune to these abilities and their effects.
    • "Accelerated paradox spawn"
      • Able to accelerate the flow of time for itself for up to 3 turns granting increased movement speed and reactions.
      • Ability has a cooldown of 2 turns.
      • This ability affects only the paradox spawn using it.
    • "Sluggish paradox spawn"
      • Able to reduce the speed of everything within a radius of 10m by half for up to 3 turns.
      • Ability has a cooldown of 2 turns.
      • This ability affects everything within the radius including other paradox spawns which will also be slowed.
    • "Flickering paradox spawn"
      • Able to stop time within a radius of 10m for 1 turn appearing as a blink to a non-Vassas blessed.
        • During this effect it is unable to feed upon any target
        • Upon physical contact with a player the effect is canceled
      • Ability has a cooldown of 2 turns.
      • This ability affects everything within the radius including other paradox spawns which are also paused.
        • This ability does not affect other Flickering paradox spawn
        • This ability when viewed from the outside will appear as if the paradox spawn teleported instantly.
    • "Unweaving paradox spawn"
      • Able to upon being injured in any capacity this instance of paradox spawn will create a copy of itself.
        • This copy is itself from the future, any injury to the original will be reflected upon the copy.
        • The copy can be identified by the eye within the copy being colorless.
      • The copy will appear within 1m of the original's central mass.
      • The copy is not able to create further copies of itself
      • The original is able to produce up to 3 separate copies of itself at maximum.
      • This ability has no cooldown but is limited by the cap on the number of copies.
    • "Redacting paradox spawn"
      • Able to rewind itself up to 2 turns of movement to a prior location.
        • Ability has a cooldown of 4 turns
      • Able to rewind itself up to 1 turn following injury in correspondence with movement prior to injury.
        • Ability can only be triggered through injury of the paradox spawn.
        • Ability will not activate if the eye is removed from the central mass of the paradox spawn.
• Upon being killed by a paradox spawn, your corpse will be turned into a paradox spawn of roll 1d5
• Paradox Spawns are known for sometimes being summoned by a desperate mage, but they have almost always turned on their master, causing a dangerous outbreak.

Material Properties

• Eye Gem: Composed of the remnants of the soul that once made the paradox spawn, the gem has potential as both jewelry and as a mana + soul catalyst. It is obtained once the paradox spawn is defeated by cracking the eye casing open revealing the gem within. This runs the risk of the destruction of the gem.

Alchemical Properties

• Paradox Ash: Collected from the remains of a paradox spawn Paradox ash causes perceptional augmentations for a limited period upon ingestion, This substance must be stored in an airless environment or it will disintegrate.
• Achronal Ichor: Collected through extraction and distillation of the flesh whilst the creature is still alive, if ingested will cause any summonings to fail with a low chance of a paradox spawn instance being summoned for a limited time.