Bloater

Bloaters are a collection of related creatures named after their swollen forms. Aside from smooth, tumid bodies, all bloaters have small heads with round, somewhat lamprey-like mouths; they have no apparent joints, but rather can bend and twist their limbs fluidly, like tentacles. Bloaters are very pale in color, with highly translucent skin through which can be seen the vague forms of their organs within. Despite its near-transparency, however, a bloater's skin is fairly tough and resistant to cutting and piercing.

Reproduction

There are a number of different types of bloater, but bloaters of any type are not natural creatures, and do not breed true. They are, in fact, created by magical transformation of other creatures, including humans as well as unintelligent beasts. The bloater's original species does have some influence on its form as a bloater; a bloater's color will be a much etiolated version of the original creature's color, and, for example, a bloater made from a creature with six limbs will have two more appendages than a bloater of the same type made from a creature with four limbs. (Descriptions of bloaters usually assume typical original creatures; starting with a different creature may occasion differences in the bloater's form.) It is possible for two bloaters formed from the same original species to reproduce with each other, but their offspring will be a creature of that species, not a bloater... though its parents (if they're ellogous) or their masters, if applicable, are likely to quickly turn it into one.

Though certainly some spells could turn a creature into a bloater, bloaters are generally produced through diagraphy. The bloaters themselves—the ellogous varieties—certainly know the proper schemata, but they are not widely known by outsiders—not so much because the bloaters keep them a secret (on the contrary, most bloaters would like the figures to be more widely used to increase their numbers) as because few people are interested in them.

Origin

The origin of bloaters remains mostly conjectural, though it certainly happened at least tens of thousands of years ago. There is reason to believe that the ithigandi were the first type of bloater, and that the first ithigandi began as human, but this hasn't been proven. A certain legend has it that the first bloaters were produced by a little-known abar, which continues to turn unwary users into bloaters today, but no abar with such powers has been identified, and most magobiologists regard this as only a fable. It does seem likely, however, that bloaters originated on Lothenmydhe, perhaps in some obscure veigur which may or may not still exist, though they can now be found on many other planes of Dverelei.

Habitat

Bloaters are found all over Dverelei, in all sorts of environments, specialized forms of bloater having been created apparently for the express purpose of being able to survive in certain exotic surroundings. However, they tend to be found in collections of different sorts; generally one or more types of ellogous bloater is dominant in an area where various other types of bloaters are also found either in domestication or as wild pests. This is not always the case, however; some areas have been found populated by a single type of bloater with no other varieties nearby.

Types

The most common types of bloaters include:

• Ithigandi - Probably the original type of bloater, ithigandi resemble their original human forms slightly more than other bloater types.
• Asakari - A two-headed, quadrupedal bloater type the ithigandi use as mounts and guardians.
• Mithi - Long-necked, six-legged predatory bloaters.
• Thelikar - A huge, floating bloater that more intelligent bloaters use for transportation.
• Ishikei - A small two-headed bloater that moves like an inchworm.
• Phegari - Large and strong but slow, the phegari is also sometimes known as a glutton.
• Emelak - A voracious, tubular type of bloater thought to be created by mistake.