Overview
Language
The Language of their folk, Anaphite, is not well recorded. While not guarded, few keys to translation exist and what do are often only partial. While their spoken language is dead and has not evolved in several thousands of years, its written one can be seen time and again in primitive Amol-Kalit, and derivitives of it evolving into unique
languages and scripts. The age of the language means that, while challenging, when spoken it can be understood to some extent. When read, a translation key must be on-hand to even gleam an idea of the meaning.
Otherwise, they speak and write other languages as easily as a human; often their grammar and parlance falls behind by several years, sometimes hundreds, due to having learned it in a bygone era. On more than one occasion, miscommunications have occurred due to speaking an outdated tongue. To smooth things over, magic charms are often employed, icons with a language recorded into it to ease the burden of communication.
Appearance
Tall, strong, and otherworldly, the Anaphite are almost the definition of divine. While they share some traits with Jackals, they also are more closely in shape related to Man. Only their feet and heads are clearly different, though the fur which covers their heads, chest, back and legs often adds to the strangeness of it all. While some do have fur across their whole bodies, not all do.
Well built to a man, regardless of gender, Anaphite are imposing figures. They tower over mortals and through weight of their presence and age can even intimidate the wiser
dragons and
elves into showing respect. While the naive will always treat them as strange oddities, no different from a
werewolf, it is well within an Anaphites ability to match these creatures, with the cunning to utilize their abilities.
Their eyes begin to glow after their seventieth year, thanks to their diet of souls, the over-abundance of digested magic causing them to go seemingly-blind, their eyes becoming a solid color. When starved or exhausted and in need of food, their eyes will lose the glow and be perceptable normally. Their
iris seemingly expands to consume the eye whole, though their eyesight is not critically hampered when in this state.
Habitat
City of the Dead
Somewhere, connected to one of the lost
portal stones, exists a city. This place, the Anaphite city, is lost to outsiders; those who know the combination to reach it are usually slain well before they can report its existence. The only thing known about it is a strange sight seen by observers when Anaphite depart through the portal, that of a massive temple, a staircase rising into the sky where it meets a vortex of immense size in mid-air. No other information about their capital is known, outside of it being the true home of the Anaphite. Wherever, or whenever, it is, the city is largely understood to be beyond exploration by mortal races.
Enclaves
Anaphite Enclaves are small
settlements, no larger than a cathedral, where between twenty-five to eighty Anaphite will live for an extended duration. These Anaphite tend to chores, duties, and rituals all within the scope of an agreed upon goal. Enclaves are the polar opposite of their City of the Dead; welcoming, offering shelter to all, and freely sharing items and goods for trade or donation. Divided into three sections, the Enclave can be understood as a pair of rings within a rectangle; the Courtyard, the outer sanctum, and the inner sanctum.
The Courtyard is usually watched but not guarded. Anyone who approaches is usually regarded pleasantly but not significantly, and may ask for trade or supplies. Usually, near
cities or population centers, this becomes a thriving village in its own right with many merchants setting up camp to sell their own goods under the protective watch of the Ancients. Access to the Inner Sanctum is through a single large door, narrow enough to allow no more than two Anaphite at a time through it.
The Inner Sanctum is a garden; fountains,
plants, tiled pools, and a menagerie are often kept. Usually considered an administrative center, visitors must leave their weapons at the doors to proceed. When inside, anyone within is guaranteed safety so long as they abide by the rules: No violence, no blasphemy, and no magic. Non-Anaphite Violators will usually be reminded once before being asked to leave if they do not stop. The Anaphite do not ask a second time; the violator will be either cut down on the spot or tossed from the Enclave if the Tomb Knights are feeling merciful.
The Inner Sanctum is off-limits to all non-Anaphite. It is here they rest, perform rituals, and inter the dead of those that ask it. The Anaphite offer a protected and guaranteed burial and afterlife for those who approach them, though such bodies are never seen again. It is here that captured prisoners and offerings are brought to be mummified alive and have their souls carefully extracted into canopic jars, which are then either distributed as food or shipped back to the City of the Dead for use there. Any Anaphite which dies in an Enclave is buried in the Enclave.
Traits
Anaphite cannot be resurrected; no magic is capable, regardless of exertion, of bringing them back. Why is a subject of debate, as the Anaphite state that their dead return to the Gods to serve further. A more accurate explanation might lie in their peculiar ossification. After death, the Anaphite turn to sandstone over a period of a week. Their weight in life reflects this, and once they pass the process begins immediately.
Anaphite strength can be accurately measured as obscene. They can break softer stone with a few blows or a kick, and have strength enough to shatter bone with a focused backhand. Their landspeed is between sixty to seventy kilometers per hour at a sprint, though they can sustain a slower run of fifty or less for long durations. Their leaps are able to propel them into the air upwards of twelve meters, enough to clear most obstacles and catch low-flying beasts.
Anaphite are able to devour souls unaided. When their jaws clamp around the heart or the ethereal form of a creature, they are able to rip free the and consume the spirit itself. While the act is arguably evil, the Anaphite assert that any soul they devour is digested of its sins and is guaranteed a peaceful afterlife without pain. While they can extract magical power from consuming
undead, it will offer them no sustenance and as such they prefer not to do so though may threaten with the oblivion of their appetites should it come to such.