The Abyssal are not a unified species, and have varied morphs, with unique physiology. It is unknown whether these morphs are of the same species, or a conglomerate of many.

Some features remain common between morphs. All have slimy, near translucent skin that can change color and pattern at a moment's notice, making of blending in to their surroundings near seamless. The number of eyes can vary, most commonly being mono-ocular. Their limbs resemble tentacled arms, though this is not a uniform adaptation.

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Abyssal
Commonly called squids, prototypical Abyssal are humanoid in appearance, save for their bulbous, featureless heads. Tendrils drip out of the bottom of their faces in place of a lower jaw. They have been recorded having as many as three eyes. Most commonly, a single, inky black eye peers out of the centerfolds of their head. Scholars speculate whether the number of eyes displayed by the Abyssal holds some social significance.

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Scuttlers
Squat, shrimp-like creatures that, while upright, are barely humanoid in form. Their heads are small and insectoid, wet round eyes sheltered safely between the high armored humps upon their backs. They walk awkwardly upon land on short legs, and instead of hands they have long, probing claws. These scythe-like limbs are bony and hard, strong enough to stop the slash of sword, and swift enough to land a counter blow.

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Striderpods
Mindless, wandering creatures. It is unclear if they are a true morph of the Abyssal, or merely some domesticated beast. Their bodies are armored with a hard carapace, save for a soft underbelly full of poison. Four tall and jointed legs take them in strides across the land. Glowing stingers that dangle from their bellies drag down like the tentacles of a jellyfish. These tentacles contain a paralytic powerful enough to ensnare a human adult. Once caught, the striderpod will attempt to drag its prey back to the ocean.

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Barnacles
Strange creatures reported to accompany Squid raids. Burrow into the flesh, chewing threw bone, and have been seen to enact some sort of reanimation process upon beings it has infected.

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Thralls
The humanoid Abyssal ‘squids’ are able to assert some level of control over captured species, and those on the surface are no exception. Since the Abyssal have primarily attacked human settlements, it is human bodies that make up the bulk of their thrall hordes. Most thralls lose their ability to reason and speak. They have the appearance of drowned ghouls - tender, bloated flesh, discolored mottling, and barnacle-like growths on the skin. It is currently unknown if more drastic changes may occur.

It is unknown where the Abyssal hail from, only that they rose from the depths of the seas so cold and dark that not even the kivren venture down there.

• The Abyssal have a system of magic that does not interact well with the leylines of the surface. Their psionics are difficult to understand, and even harder to counter.
  
  
• Weapons that make use of liquids in ways unseen upon the surface. Blades that shimmer with a strange ripple of dark water. Claws that crush bone, only to open and let loose jets of pressurized drink, propelled with such force some reports claim to see it cut sailors clean through, from farther than any start arm could throw a javelin. All of it, seeming to pulse, and beat, as if alive. Made of strange coral and carapace.
  
  
• Like their weapons, the humanoid abyssal have been sighted in strange suits of armor. Encasing their whole being, the chitinous plate seems more exoskeleton, than fashioned protection.
  
  
• Tactical, the Abyssal “Squids” rarely seem to be on the frontline of an attack. First encounters describe the humanoids acting as might an officer in a formal military, sending scuttlers, human thralls, and other horrors of the deep forward before risking themselves.
  
  
• Hit and run, then hit again. Skirmishers, who prefer ambush tactics, the Abyssal have not been reported to maintain a prolonged presence in any one area.
  
  
• Cloaked hunters. Lightly armored Abyssal Squids have been reported to have the ability to disappear utterly. It is unknown if this is an innate ability, or the result of some technology.
  
  
• Abyssal raids on the surface result in villages’ worth of disappearances, but few casualties. They prefer to capture victims alive whenever possible, and drag them back out to sea. No one has returned from an abduction to tell the story of what happens to them beneath the surface.
  
  
• Ransacking is not common. Abyssal seem uninterested in the riches of the surface - they leave gold, weapons, and other valuables completely untouched, creating nearly intact ‘ghost towns’ in places where they’ve attacked.

“Through the brine and through the break the spiny shell did wake. Silver and sleek, but a mountain it was. A mountain come from the deep. A mountain they rode. A mountain they dragged them down into [he laughs, sharp as broken glass] they dragged them down into that mountain. Silver and sleek. Silver and sleek, they rode it into the deep.”

- The rambling of a fisherman, returned after three weeks lost at sea.

???

The Syzygy: Rise of the Abyssal

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