Nythari

Timeless Mimics

Origin: ‘Void’ (full blooded)

Lifespan: Timeless

Pros:

• Transformation into human forms (/clone) (natural form, /rc)

• Extreme healing abilities due to the nature of their forms

Cons:

• Risk losing themselves if they take too many forms too quickly

• In extreme circumstances a Nythari that is too distressed or exhausted they can start to loose control of their current form, becoming fractured as they mind starts to fray and unravel slightly. This can cause parts, or indeed all, of their form to shift without warning to a previous guise

• Iron can disrupt their ability to hold a form

Origins

The Nythari (Ni-thar-ee) are not creatures of flesh or shadow, but something far stranger, born from the fractures in time itself. They are the splinters of moments that never should have been, fragments of eternity shattered and given form.

Some say they were born when the edges of time frayed, when reality cracked beneath the weight of something it was never meant to hold. Others claim they are echoes of space unravelled, where what existed and what never could have collided. Whatever their true genesis, they are not bound to this world, nor to its dimensions.

The Nythari do not think as mortals do. They do not move through time step by step, but seem to fold it, slipping through cracks, stepping from what was to what is without being seen. To remain in the world, they anchor themselves by taking the faces of the living. These faces are not mere disguises, but tethers that allow them to exist here; if only for a while.

The faces they steal are flawless, unsettling in their perfection. But this mimicry is never harmless. Victims describe a hollowing effect: a wrongness in their spirit, like a clock whose hands no longer align, as if something has been scraped away.

In their natural state, Nythari are formless, malleable, and transparent, like thick water flowing out of place, a ripple in reality itself. They are intangible and weakened, ever at risk of being drawn back into the Void without an anchor.

They first appeared only after the rifts began opening more consistently in 1869. None walked Earth before that time. Some believe they are scavengers, piecing themselves together from fragments of the living. Others whisper that they are not individuals at all, but shards of something larger, as though time itself were walking among us.

Traits

• In their natural state, Nythari are transparent distortions in the air. They bleed only when copying a living form.

• They are perfect mimics, able to copy a host in flawless detail, though never mixing parts between different beings. The host must remain alive for the mimicry to hold.

• Hosts often feel numb, hollow, and drained, as though part of their spirit has been siphoned away.

• Nythari can feel pain, though differently than mortals, often as pressure or weight rather than sharp agony.

• Their mimicry is innate, not illusion magic. Yet they may learn and wield magic like any other caste.

• Their relationship to time is fractured. Some seem able to sense what is to come, not through sorcery but through their very nature. Those who become unstable may forget where they are in time, slipping too far forward or too far back.

• Some Nythari absorb not only the face but also the personality and history of their host, occasionally forgetting their true nature entirely. Such confusion can end in collapse when reality asserts itself.

• They heal quickly, their borrowed forms “bouncing back” into place, but injuries to their host are reflected upon them. This regeneration is tied to their mental stability.
  
  

Weaknesses

• Iron and magic disrupt their concentration and destabilise their form, forcing them back into their natural state.

• They cannot copy magical or supernatural abilities of those they mimic.

• They cannot take the form of the dead, the unliving, or things shaped by unnatural magic. Attempting to do so tears their essence apart.

• When unstable, old wounds may reopen or new ones vanish entirely as they forget the details of their current form.

• Their unanchored form is vulnerable, intangible, and fragile, driving them to seek a host at any cost.

Culture

The Nythari have no fixed culture or homeland. They are mercurial, fitting into societies wherever they roam, adopting customs and guises as easily as they don new faces. To them, culture is fluid, borrowed, and discarded when no longer needed.

Because of this, they are often misunderstood, distrusted, or outright feared. The Ma’ii in particular are sensitive to them, regarding the Nythari as near-opposites: where the Ma’ii are bound to the Earth, the Nythari are alien echoes of the Void.

Even among themselves, Nythari rarely recognise one another. Their mimicry is too perfect, concealing their true nature even from their own kind.

More Information

Shifter Restrictions

Nythari may flawlessly mimic the living, but they cannot become what is not alive. They cannot shift into objects, constructs, or reanimated corpses. They are restricted to living hosts, which must remain alive for the mimicry to endure.

An Unstable Form

In their natural form, Nythari are intangible and transparent, shifting in and out of existence. This leaves them weakened and vulnerable, the call of the Void ever present. To avoid being drawn back, they seize new hosts to hide within.

Magical Proclivity

While their mimicry is innate and not magical, Nythari may learn and wield magic like any other caste. Many show affinity for illusion, and their fractured link to time allows some to dabble in forms of divination.

Afflictions and Illness

• Nythari are immune to most mundane and magical diseases, though they can act as carriers, passing illness to others.

• They can suffer temporary symptoms of cursed castes (such as bloodlust from a vampire’s bite), but they cannot become cursed beings. The effects fade in time.
  
  

Summary

The Nythari are fragments of fractured time, tethered to reality through the faces of the living. Alien, mercurial, and uncanny, they exist only by anchoring themselves to others. Though perfect mimics, they remain fragile against iron, magic, and their own instability, elusive flickers at the edge of vision, shadows that do not belong.

Nythari FAQ

• Question: Do Nythari bleed / have blood?
  Answer: In their natural forms; no. However, if they are currently copying the form of another being, then yes, they do; they are perfect mimics.
  

• Question: Do Nythari feel pain?
  Answer: They can feel pain, since their copy of the human form is a perfect rendition of that form. However, they might not feel pain in the same way; they might feel pressure rather than pain.
  

• Question: Do Nythari use Illusion Magic to transform and mimic?
  Answer: No. The Nythari’s ability to transform into other beings and mimic them is an initiate ability, not magic.
  

• Question: Does this mean that Nythari can’t use magic?
  Answer: No, Nythari are able to learn magic just like any other caste!
  

• Question: Can Nythari use Premonition Magic?
  Answer: In a way, yes. However, a Nythari’s ability to sense time is more due to their nature than any magic that they may or may not wield.
  

• Question: What are Nythari like in their natural state?
  Answer: They are a formless, malleable, ‘ooze’ that can flow like thick water. They are not really able to interact with the world about them in their natural forms and run the risk of being drawn back into the Void without an anchor.
  

• Question: How does the Nythari’s weakness to Iron and Magic work?
  Answer: Iron and magic is able to destabilise their chosen form and is able to force them back into their natural states. It disrupts their ability to concentrate and hold their form.
  

• Question: Does the Nythari’s ‘host’ have to remain alive?
  Answer: Yes, the Nythari is only able to copy a living host. Which means that they need to make sure that their host remains alive so that they are able to maintain their form. This sometimes means that the Nythari will ‘stash’ a favored host somewhere safe.
  

• Question: Can Nythari be infected by the cursed-casted?
  Answer: Yes, however, they are not able to be destroyed by these curses as they have no solid form of their own to transform. Instead, they can suffer the symptoms of the curse until cured (such as feeling a bloodlust if bitten by a vampire). This, however, does not make them a vampire, nor can they become one. And the effects do not last forever.
  

• Question: Do illnesses and diseases affect Nythari?
  Answer: Nythari are immune to most mundane and magical illnesses due to their nature. However, they can become asymptomatic and become a carrier of an illness that could pass on to others.
  

• Question: Can Nythari mimic player characters?
  Answer: Mechanically; no. Logically; yes, however it would require player consent to do so.
  

• Question: How does the ‘host’ feel when a Nythari is mimicking them actively?
  Answer: They would have a ‘hollow’ or ‘numb’ feeling about them, since the Nythari is actively linked to them with an invisible bond. This bond is essentially leeching/borrowing a part of the host’s spirit. The host would feel worn out, tired, empty.
  

• Question: Can Nythari mix-and-match what parts they copy?
  Answer: No. They are only able to copy their ‘host’ as a full entity. They can not, for instance, copy someone’s arms and someone else’s legs. It is all or nothing. The only time this can be a “maybe” answer, is when the Nythari is affected by something that might cause them to lose concentration, or affects their connection to their ‘host’.
  

• Question: How to Nythari heal?
  Answer: Due to them not being human, nor in any way related to humans, and due to their natures, Nythari are able to quickly heal most of the time due to their body being able to quickly ‘bounce back’ to their borrowed forms appearance. If their host, however, is hurt in any way, they will quickly start to show those injuries upon themselves. This healing factor only works as long as their mental state is in good order.
  

• Question: How are Nythari created?
  Answer: Nythari are created within the Void. They are formed from the nothingness that fills the Void when energies collide and consolidate. No one is quite sure why, or how, and the Nythari are not really too sure themselves.
  

• Question: How do Nythari appear in the world?
  Answer: Nythari are able to enter the world, either in Darraknoir or on Earth, when the rifts open and the Void leaks into them.
  

• Question: Were the Nythari upon earth previous to the first rifts starting to open in 1869?
  Answer: No. The Nythari did not appear upon Earth prior, during the Scattering, as they only started to arrive in either lands (Darraknoir and Earth) when the rifts started to open more consistently. Being drawn out from the Void and into the worlds by the constant rift activity.
  

• Question: Would any of the other castes be particularly sensitive to Nythari?
  Answer: Yes; the Ma’ii people would be particularly sensitive to the Nythari since they are almost polar opposites of one another. The Ma’ii are very much tied to the nature of the Earth, and the Nythari are very, very alien.
  

• Question: Can Nythari recognize one another as Nythari?
  Answer: No. As the Nythari are considered to be perfect mimics they would even have a hard time recognising one another.