Introduction
The Shaen were created at the beginning of the War of Tides, through modification of human stock, as weapons to be deployed by the Drakkan’mirr. It is believed that many species of the Shaen, created without the ability to reproduce, were driven into extinction in the course of a few years after the Abandonment. This is intended to be a compendium of all species known to be extant within the confines of the known world.
For the purposes of classification, the Shaen are divided into two kingdoms. The Shaen’Loke kingdom possesses all entities with physical bodies. The second kingdom is composed of the Shaen’woa. This latter kingdom consists of beings who exist solely in the Essential Fields, and which take over human hosts in a process known as Infestation.
The Shaen’Loke
After the first distinction between Shaen entities is made, the Loke are then divided into two separate phyla.
The first phylum contains those species of Shaen that require human beings to successfully reproduce, or those that retain some sort of human resemblance without being human. The second phylum is composed of those Shaen that seem more animal than human.
Cuckolds:
Cuckolds are Shaen’Loke that at some point in their life cycle adopt a human appearance. They are so named because many Cuckolds require human mating to produce successful offspring. Their impact on social structures cannot be overestimated.
Seducers/Seductresses (Lorennatteck SHADT)
These Shaen have a normal appearance, and function mainly as vectors for forms of venereal disease. As a species they exert a sort of attractive field that makes them irresistible. As with most of the diseases spread by the Shaen, infections carried by Lorennatt are incurable wasting illnesses. Once infected a host can linger for as long as two months, spreading the disease further, before dying of total system failure.
It is calculated that every ten or so years these Shaen will enter a hormonal cycle in which they will not infect their human mate, but attempt reproduction. Those young women unlucky enough to become pregnant by a male Lorennatt will experience a dramatic five-month pregnancy, at the end of which they will give birth to another Lorennatt. The child develops at as much as ten times the normal rate, and reaches an early pubescence. At the end of its growth cycle the new Lorennatt will kill its human parent often times by repeated copulation.
Lorenatt are not especially quick or strong, but their attractive aura makes them especially dangerous. They do not heal quickly and can be killed in much the same way as normal people. They have been known to subsitute their blood supply in the same manner as Agents, by draining it from animals or their victims. Although captive Lorenatt generally die within months of capture, they are believed to have a natural life span of over two hundred years.
Spreaders (Brishatteck SHADT)
Spreaders go through a long period of their lives (the length of this period is believed to be anywhere from fifty to seventy-five years based upon several documented cases) without ever looking like a human. As adults they reach a short, one or two-year phase where they will adopt a human exterior, but this is for breeding purposes only. After this period ends, a Spreader dies.
All Spreaders are male in human form. They impregnate women with a child that reaches maturity in no more than three months. During the labor the infant chews through the mother’s stomach, resembling a half-reptile half-human slug. While it does this it is protected by a thick coating of acidic mucus.
The child that is born has no normal placenta. Rather a sort of mammalian insect hive takes the place of the placenta. The hive is filled with insects known as Oaz. It is believed in the womb these creatures perform the same function as placental tissue, distributing oxygen and nutrients to the child. For the first part of its like the Oaz Sac hangs from the Brishatt’s belly like a misplaced tail.
After a short period, one or three months at most, a Brishatt gains enough size to become fully motile and will begin to produce mature Oaz. The Oaz are symbiotic winged parasites that migrate from the Brishatt’s Sac to live inside of its body. The Oaz provide the Brishatt with bodily substances vital to its Shaen metabolism. Without the Oaz the Brishatt adopts a human appearance and dies a few years later of most likely as a result of build up of unused metabolites. It is believed that the Oaz are born with a sort of genetic clock that renders them all sterile after a certain period, thereby forcing a Brishatt to enter its reproductive cycle.
These Shaen are poisonous, a bite will kill if the flesh around the wound is not quickly burned, excised, or treated with Rush Blossom. The Oaz can strip flesh to the bone in a matter of minutes and can only be stopped by certain toxic fumes from plants not native in most parts of the world. Brishatt regenerate quickly and cutting them in any way releases a large spray of thick acidic mucus. It is only during the reproductive phase of their lives that these characteristics begin to fade. However, even when appearing human, the blood of a Brishatt is still poisonous. Brishatt are most easily killed by decapitation or fire.
Agents (Sheara’dinn’Larrakk SHADT)
By far the most common Cuckold not driven into extinction, Agents exist as fodder for woa parasites, and in their natural phase exist for no other purpose than to mate with humans, though for some unexplained reason only male offspring are viable. No woman impregnated by an agent has ever given birth to a female.
The labors of women raped by Agents are usually normal and non-violent though mothers have been known to self-terminate in sudden bouts of depression or hysteria. The children develop very quickly and tend to be outwardly violent. Around adolescence these children become visibly disturbed after which time their eyes turn completely black and they begin to suffer from rageful delusions. Although capable of human speech, they seem unable to grasp certain higher mental functions such as mathematics and music. To an Agent a beautiful symphony is no more than noise.
Agents have greatly augmented strength and speed.
No Direct Translation (Gababatteck SHADT)
The classification of this Shaen entity is heavily disputed for numerous reasons. It reproduces not by direct sexual contact with humans, like most others of its kind, but by viral transmission. The virus in question is not even spread by an adult Gababatt but a species of spider that reproduces independant of the species.
The spider involved in reproduction is a very rare creature that tracks pregnant women by scent. When the spider bites the woman it vomits a virus into her body. This virus attacks her unborn child, altering its anatomy in such a way as to give it the latent ability to become a Gababatt. The name of the spider involved is simple: Fear (BLOT).
The child will come much later than is normal, by as many as one or two months, and have all the appearance of a normal infant. The child will often be thought of as a deaf mute because in its childhood it will refuse to use language. The reason for this silence is not understood, as how Gababatteck that have been captured before maturation seem to have fully functional vocal cords and fully developed brains.
The child will enter a late puberty, some time around sixteen or seventeen during which time its pupils will dilate until the iris is no longer visible. It becomes extremely light sensitive during this period, and craves dark hiding places. The child will sweat constantly and become agitated for no apparent reason. Often times, this is confused with a fever, as how this child is rarely seen as a Shaen before entering adulthood.
The first signs of change are noticed when the child begins to vomit a thick creamy substance, which is neurotoxic to unaltered humans. Using the properties of this excretion the young Gababatt paralyzes as many humans as it can by means of long distance projection. Once it has captured a large number of people it will take their bodies to a remote location and begin to make a cocoon using their tissue and its own bodily excretions.
After it builds the cocoon around itself the Gababatt will dissolve into a jelly-like proto-form after a week and then begin to coalesce into its true form, as an adult Gababatt.
When emerging from the cocoon, as much as two months later, the Gababatt will no longer resemble a human in any regard. Its skin will have become a maggot white and it will have four arms and a tail and two very large insectile wings. Its face will look like the head of a giant mosquito. Its paralytic projection abilities will have vastly increased. Gababatt are quick and strong but rarely come close enough to physically attack someone but instead only paralyze their victim and then slowly eat them alive.
Providing a person can get close enough to attack one of them they are relatively easy to kill.
Measures taken against Cuckolds:
Pregnancy is closely watched and observed by the community. All pregnancies which result as a product of rape are terminated immediately. No woman is allowed to hide the paternity of their child. Women who deliver children too early or too late must stand before the local government to prove their child’s humanity. If after delivery it becomes clear a woman has been impregnated by a Cuckold, the child will be killed by exposure to the elements.
In cases where a woman has been told her child will be killed and flees to give birth in seclusion, a warrant is issued for the woman’s arrest. This instinct to protect the child is either the natural human response or induced by the child in the mother’s womb, no one is certain. In whatever case, many times the mothers of these strange children will fight to the death to keep them. Depending on the laws of the country the mother will either be released from custody after the labor or executed.
Because human women are vital to the reproductive cycle of all Cuckolds and because women are now kept under close vigilance, Cuckold pregnancies are occurring in smaller frequency with each passing year. It is believed however that some sort of means exists on Ewil Brenven for Cuckolds to reproduce without human women.
Shadow Blossoms
Shadow Blossoms are believed to have been made through intense modification of human stock. With rare exception, they have self-contained life-cycles. Their intelligence varies by species.
Haroc Redeck (Death Spiders SHADT)
Death Spiders are known to inhabit only Bathlaen and Ewil Brenven in any significant quantity. They resemble gigantic, three staff tall spiders with the abdomens and arms of people. Their faces, while containing certain human components, are hideously deformed. They often have as many as thirty eyes, all of which are eerily human shade of blue. Their mouths resemble those of spiders as does the rest of their body, including their many legs.
They are quick and agile and strong. To date no way to penetrate their hides except with use of the Essential Fields or an Angardi blade has been found. They spin a hard web, which they use to imprison their food, and excrete a substance on the ground beneath them that acts as an epoxy to any organic matter that comes into contact with it. A Death Spider can leap over fifty staffs.
To reproduce they capture a living creature of significant size, including other Shaen, and plant up to four or five of their offspring inside of its stomach in larval form. This process is asexual in nature. These offspring once hatched kill each other for food until only one or two remain. They grow without the supervision of their parents. They can adopt only certain low grade Shaen’woa Enhancers.
Baovogeck (Worms SHADT)
Baovog are small maggot-like parasites that drive through a host’s pores and live in their muscle fibers. They can remain dormant for as many as five years. Once this period ends however these parasites reproduce inside of the host, eating his organs. The host will only be in agony a few days, during which time he will excrete blood in his bowel movements and be bedridden with pain. After this time the Baovog will have eaten enough of the host brain to assume mental control.
The Baovog will then begin to infiltrate the host’s life, all the while continuing to digest the internal tissues, with the exception of the skeleton and various nerves necessary for motility. Fortunately, this cannot last more than a few months as the Baovog quickly run out of food and what little is left of the body begins to rot.
The skin of the host becomes white and decayed. Their teeth often turn black from lack of nutrient. The eyes of the host will have rot away after the first three or four weeks. The Baovog then, usually around as many people as they can find, burst through the pores of their host. The Baovog then jump out into the crowd tearing the host’s skin apart and leaving only a few bones behind. There are certain herbs that can prevent the growth of the Baovog parasites and even kill them, but they must be administered quickly after the initial infection.
Mroneck (Soldiers SHADT)
Mroneck are believed to be the first made of the Shaen, as they lack the finesse of being that is inherent to all other Shaen. The Mron are, simply put, human-lizard hybrids. Their skin is scaled, their fingers are taloned, their eyes are reptilian, they have tails, and their knees bend backward. There are two distinct subspecies of Mron, namely Winged Mron and Foot Mron.
On average a Foot Mron is usually a staff and two hands tall and has strength and speed approximately equal to that of an Angardi Metal Weaver. Winged Mron are usually only five hands tall and lack the physical strength of their counterparts. Their enormous wings also make them clumsy foot soldiers. Mron cannot reproduce with humans, but instead reproduce with each other, making them the most commonly found Shaen breed. While a simple Mron is not overly dangerous, some Mron are capable of adopting certain classes of Shaen’woa parasites, a trait uncommon to most Blossoms. Mron are extremely susceptible to cold-temperatures as they lack the ability to regulate body temperature.
Dihaukeck (Wasps SHADT)
Dihaukeck resemble mosquitoes, only they can weigh as much as five buckets and be over four hands long, from mouth to stringer. Their wings are massive and stinging to the touch. They, travel in packs of no more than ten or twelve. Any larger swarm immediately falls into constant in-fighting for dominant position.
The most notable sign of these habitually nocturnal creatures is their massive waste depositing. Their caves are easily identified by the piled remains of their victims. This waste contains bone fragments and hair, and is incredibly noxious.
Dihaukeck are most easily killed by first disabling their flight abilities, and then penetrating their brains. Dihauk will thrash violently after their death. Dihauk are capable of tearing off a man’s head with their long arms and can fly up to twenty-five rods an hour. Dihauk can also release a toxic spray from their stingers that will suffocate a normal human being.
Paranteck (Snakes SHADT)
Snakes are seafaring creatures that are impregnated by various other Shaen in a pouch on their backs. Snakes then carry these Shaen to some distant shore where they beach themselves, giving the Shaen on their back easy access to land once they leave the Infestation Pouch. Snakes have also been known to land in underwater caves to leave their Shaen.
They reproduce asexually only twice in their lives. Snakes are often sought out upon beaches and burned once they are found, hopefully before the Shaen in their pouch hatch. Snakes are massive and can reach sizes of over seventy staffs. The only known ways to kill a Snake while it is in the water is to trick it into swallowing a large amount of Rush Blossom or to lead a pack of whales to it. Whale songs are lethal to Snakes as are all other sounds of the same frequency. It is believed the sound causes a form of seizure.
Fontatteck (Pipers SHADT)
Pipers are relatively benign creatures in and of themselves, that exist only to serve Shaen’woa parasites in search of cover from sunlight. They are large, usually ten times as large as a dog and have massive hollow bones jutting through their back.
A piper will eat whatever gruel and rot it can, which will then go through its unique digestive system. The waste produce of this digestive system is fed through the hollow bones on the back of the creature and emitted in large black cloud. The Piper’s huge lungs power this cloud emission. The dark cloud is toxic to breathe to normal humans and contains numerous bacteria. Pipers are blind but have an adept sense of hearing. They are unable to sustain a Shaen’woa parasite. Any normal person walking into a Piper’s cloud is sure to become Infested or die in it. Pipers also emit a long series of organ like sounds, hence their name.
The Shaen’woa
The Shaen’woa are divided into four phylum. The first being the Shaen’woa that are immediately lethal upon Infestation. The second being those Shaen’woa that endow their hosts with great physical strength and speed. The third category consists of those Shaen’woa that Infest only Shaen. And the fourth and most feared phyla of the Shaen’woa consists of those that endow their hosts with the ability to manipulate the Essential Fields.
Thankfully all Shaen’woa share common weaknesses. Shaen’woa are unable to tolerate the touch or presence of metals that conduct electricity, so long as that metal is held by another person who has not been Infested. Contact with these metals will badly burn a person Infested with a Shaen’woa and often times kill the parasite itself. The most notable of these metals are Woven Moonlight, Spun Fire, silver, copper, and iron. The Shaen’woa aversion to lodestone is not quite as strong. Sunlight, fire, and all sources of extreme heat are also harmful to Shaen’woa. In very large quantities pools of water are uncrossable by Shaen’woa. Ald Lines will stop and kill a Shaen’woa. An Aodani’s use of the Voice is the easiest known way to kill a Shaen’woa.
Grippers
Grippers are not necessarily fatal if the person being Infested has prepared themselves for the contact. They can be driven out with metal or can be prevented altogether with a method known as Boxing. In Boxing a person is repeatedly put into a trance and ordered to be unresponsive to a Shaen’woa’s method of attack. This method only works however with Shaen’woa that do not directly attack a body system. On Angard all citizens are periodically Boxed by Metal Weavers. Metal Weavers, who have not yet been Branded, are Boxed more thoroughly than common citizens.
No person can be attacked by multiple Grippers at once.
Stranglers
These Shaen induce a feeling of extreme claustrophobia. A person will go insane trying to claw their way out of even a spacious room, often times killing the people around them in an attempt to generate more space. After a time the host’s throat will seize up upon itself and the person will die of asphyxiation. They can be cast out by the strong-willed or with preparation known as Boxing.
Tappers
Tappers latch themselves to a host’s brain and completely overrun the part of the brain responsible for fear. The host becomes ridden with delusions and becomes afraid of everything around them. Often times the host’s hair will turn white before the heart explodes. This can be prevented with in-depth Boxing methods.
Thrashers
Thrashers latch onto a host and begin to send sporadic shocks through his nervous system that will cause the victim to thrash. Eventually the host’s heart seizes up and refuses to beat, leading to death. They cannot be stopped with Boxing.
Constrictors
Constrictors attack the vascular system, causing all arteries, veins, and capillaries to contract. The host’s body will often become purple, and blood vessels of appreciable size stand out like black lines on the victim’s face. After a few hours, the host dies of internal bleeding.
Combustors
These Shaen’woa rarely cause people to burst into actual flame, but rather simply alter a person’s metabolism in such a way that they become extremely hot until they die. Very rarely a person will burst into flames.
Endowers
Enhance the physical attributes of humans. No person may be Infested by more than one Endower.
Ibrannoi (Strengtheners SONT)
Ibrannoi can give a normal human being a proportional body strength as many as three times that of a normal human being. It is not uncommon for an Ibranno to lift a twenty buckets. However, the physical strain of this is hard on the Host body and after a few months of Infestation the body quickly deteriorates.
Felmannoi (Quickenners SONT)
A person Infested with a Felmanno can run up to forty rods an hour for a ten- minute stretch. One of the first things a Felmanno will do in a host body is tear off its own nose and dislocate its own jaw to make a larger airway. After a few weeks of Infestation the host’s chest will have puffed out and his lungs will have doubled in size. Dexterity and reflexes are also increased by the presence of a Felmanno.
Larinnoi (Regenerators SONT)
Larrinoi give their hosts the ability to heal quickly and can even incite true regeneration, limbs etc. They, because of the incredibly quick cell regeneration, run their hosts body temperature far above normal. Larinnoi also feed on incredible amounts of food. A few weeks of this cellular treatment quickly kills the Host body.
Kabbanui (Jumpers SONT)
Kabbanui, as well as endowing their host with the ability to leap incredibly far and perform unheard of feats of agility, also harden their host’s skeletal structure. Kabbanui can live indefinitely in a Host body once properly acclimated. The longest reported jump by a Kabbanui was over fifteen staffs (90 feet).
Sarantoi (No Direct Translation SONT)
Sarantoi are the most common of the Shaen’woa Endowers. They give their host great strength and quickness as well as the ability to use the Voice. The Hosts can live indefinitely with a Sarantoi parasite. Their hosts also adopt black eyes.
Jambui (No Direct Translation SONT)
Jambui require weeks to truly reach their full potential in a host body. They replace all bones in a host body with a cartilage like substances, and the brain becomes nodular in nature. A Jambui can slink its way through spaces of incredibly small size, are extremely flexible, and are incredibly fast. The best way to spot them is by their thin statures and by looking at their drooping, wrinkled, and sagging skin. They most often Infest pubescent children because of their size.
Enhancers
All pure Shaen may hold no more than one Enhancer at a time, and when they hold it they adopt all of its weaknesses. Enhanced Shaen can be easily killed with metal and sunlight.
Dictators (Hascheck SHADT)
Dictators give their hosts the ability to control the minds of the Shaen below him. For a Dictator to exert control over a Shaen, or a human, he must first touch that person.
Seers (Kanndaneck SHADT)
Seers bond to pure Shaen and give them telescopic vision, night vision, and thermal-vision. Often used as scouts. They can bond only to Shaen with visual organs.
Listeners (Farrareck SHADT)
Listeners give their hosts an extreme sensitivity to sound that allows them to hear almost anything that moves around them. They can bond only to Shaen with auditory organs.
Hounds (Benneck SHADT)
Hounds give their host an extreme sense of smell that allows them to track any scent. They also become incredibly susceptible to certain air-born toxins.
Strokes (Ghaddeck SHADT)
Strokes are the most feared of the Enhancer Shaen’woa. They give their host the ability to kill by touch. A person touched by a Stroke Infested Shaen will experience the sensation of millions of tiny bugs crawling over their body before they die. The corpses a stroke leaves behind have snow white hair. Aodani and Nymphioradi bare a certain degree of protection from a stroke.
Voices (Tarabeck SHADT)
Voices give their hosts the ability to use the Voice, though they rarely do this to the degree necessary to kill someone. They have an ability, after a fashion, to use the Voice to create Dictation Bonds.
Augmentors
Augmentors are the Shaen’woa most susceptible to injury by metals. All Augmentors require a certain period of time after Infestation before their host can use access their new powers. All Augmnetors give their host some use of the Voice, however small. And all Augmentors are easily killed by Aodani. Augmentor hosts can live indefinitely. Sometimes a Mron can accept an Augmentor parasite but this is very rare.
Ban Shorai (Maw Feeders SONT)
For a Ban Shora the host does not become capable of using its Essential Field powers for as many as three days. When the Host body reaches maturity the hair will cling to the head only in patches and the teeth will have rotted out. The throat adopts a noticeable bulge and the eyes yellow.
A Ban Shora can open its mouth and emit seemingly nothing but a shimmer of air. This is in fact an intense wave of heat. Anything that comes in contact with the heat beam from the mouth of a Ban Shora will first char and then burst into flames. The heat wave is hot enough to and melt steel.
Hibrannoi (Controllers SONT)
Hibrannoi give their hosts the ability to create Dictation bonds. This is different from a Dictator parasite because a Hibranno can control anything in its sight radius. The effects of a dictation bond can be lessened with metals and Boxing techniques. Hibranno have diminished physical strength. It takes over two weeks for a host to use this power.
Narilloi (Killers SONT)
Narilloi are similar to Strokes for Shaen, but a Narillo can kill anything in its sight radius. As well as turning the hair of their victims white a Narillo also bursts the heart of their victims. A Narillo requires only a few hours before it can use its gift. Only Nymphioradi and Aodani bear any protection from the touch of a Narillo.
Epharauntoi (Whisperers SONT)
Epharauntoi drive their victims insane with paranoid delusions. Epharauntoi have black eyes and require only a few hours before they can use their gift.
Pagarantoi (No Direct Translation SONT)
Pagarantoi give their hosts the ability to walk through walls. This ability becomes active in a few hours. A Pagaranto can also make any number of weapons pass straight through them, however when it makes a death strike it must by necessity become tangible. Pagarantoi do not have the ability to make sentient beings intangible.
Tasharoi (Movers SONT)
Tasharoi give their hosts the ability to move objects with the power of their minds. This ability becomes active in only a day, during which time the host is almost comatose.
Aroi (Approximately translates to “Fire Starters” SONT)
Aroi give their hosts the ability to start fires with the power of their minds. They need over two days for their gift to become active.
Channoi (Approximately translates to “Ice Makers” SONT)
Give their hosts the ability to drain a victim of heat and leave them frozen.
Items of Note Concerning Infestation
After Infestation occurs the mind of the Host is lost in the first few hours and the body is then controlled by the will of the parasite. People Infested who escape it in some way become tolerant of Shaen’woa parasites and are forever after able to sense their presence.
Women pregnant with human children are immune to Infestation. The more children an adult woman has had the more resistant she is to Infestation. Use of depressants, such as alcohol and Shadow Bloom, enable a Shaen’woa to easily Infest a person. Use of stimulates will temporarily prohibit Infestation, but after the effect wears off a person is more vulnerable to Infestation than on average. Aodani and Nymphioradi are immune to Infestation. When the human Enhanced are Infested (Metal Weavers and Avatars) the Shaen’woa has no physical effect upon them, however they are still under its mental control.
A Footnote
Any compendium of the Shaen must of course include a cursory note that no compendium of the Shaen is ever truly complete. There are doubtless many species of Shaen living on Bathlaen and Ewil Brenven that no man or woman has seen since the War of Tides. Reports from the Assault on Bathlaen alone report many species we have never seen before. Everything from small bugs with human faces on their backs that scream when they’re crushed, to large trees with branches full of bloody fibers that hang like moss and eat passersby.
A soldier in service of the Dawn must always remember that merely because a person suspected of Tide agency does not match a particular profile does not mean they are not one of the Shaen. There is much we do not know about our adversary, and for as much as we guard against what we do know, we must always keep an eye out for that which eludes us.
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