Liiran

Liiran is a bonelord of Varra who has the form of a vast field of jumbled bones and bone fragments, covering nearly a thousand square kilometers. It is constantly, though slowly, growing, adding more bones to its body and increasing the area it covers. Ultimately, Liiran hopes to spread to cover all of Varra, and then worlds beyond; in the meantime, it finds it useful to maintain some servants independent of its own body, to carry out tasks in the areas it has not yet directly reached.

Appearance

Liiran looks like nothing so much as a sea of mismatched bone from many different creatures and from all parts of the body, all heaped together in a loose mass between two and five meters deep. Some of the component ossa are intact and others broken or shattered into shards. Its haphazard appearance is deceptive, however; while the bones look to be merely loosely piled, in fact they are all joined together by Liiran's ëlan mortal, and the bonelord can move them with remarkable speed when necessary, whipping out a spiky tentacle of bones, or surging part of itself to cover a foe. As a whole, Liiran can move only very slowly, and in practice seldom bothers to move at all, but its parts and limbs are very mobile when it needs them to be.

Domain

Through its servants and powers, Liiran controls a much larger domain that its form physically occupies. In all, Liiran lays uncontested claim to an area of about thirty-seven thousand square kilometers, most of which lies in three long valleys, the largest of which is the location of Liiran itself. Liiran has no particular name for the area under its control; it tends to simply think of all Varra as its future territory. Others, though, have various names for it, one of the most common of which is the Sorrowvales.

Most of the Sorrowvales are bleak and barren, swarming with Liiran's servants, but with little other life. Creatures without exoskeletons—arthropods, for example—are tolerated, and those that cause no harm to Liiran's servants may even be intentionally encouraged to make their homes there, the better to help protect the vales from living invaders. Any other living thing entering the area is quickly set upon and slain, its bones, if any, added to Liiran's mass. There is little reason to enter the Sorrowvales unless one wishes for some end to speak with Liiran itself, or to avail oneself of one of the élan crystals that exist there. Rumor has it that Liiran has spread even to some of the crystal worlds accessible from its domain, though the extent to which this is true has not been verified.

Within this wasteland, however, there are oases of life, anomalous communities of humans and other noetic creatures that manage to survive there by herding and agriculture. These souls are not resisting Liiran's encroachment; rather, their settlements are intentionally fostered there by Liiran, and are, to the bonelord, nothing more than bone farms, its inhabitants cattle raised for it to harvest their bones. It raises for this purpose noetic creatures rather than only simple beasts partly because it finds their bones particularly useful—their prehensile hands, for instance, allow it to easily create skeletons capable of weapon use—but mostly because they can exist in limited areas with less care and supervision than unintelligent beasts would require. Many of the inhabitants of the bone farms have existed there for generations and are resigned to their fate, knowing nothing better; more recent arrivals—for Liiran's forces do occasionally kidnap new victims to keep the farms well populated—may at first try to resist, but surrounded as the farms are by Liiran's forces this is generally impossible. Liiran considers sometimes somehow expanding its supply of fresh bones, but is reluctant to allow the bone farms to grow too large lest their inhabitants start an inconvenient rebellion.

Servants

Though it cares little for other beings and would be content to be the only living thing in the world, until it has reached this status Liiran does create undead servitors from its own form to help it carry out its goals. It has little loyalty toward its creations, and is quick to reabsorb them if they show any signs of rebellion. They seldom show any such sign anyway, because it is not in their nature; Liiran intentionally creates servitors with little or no independent thought or will. This does have a downside in that it means that Liiran's servants are less capable of showing initiative and reacting to new situations than those of other bonelords, but what they lack in tactical ability they make up in Liiran's ability to exercise its powers through them.

Though ordinary undead skeletons are common servants of Liiran, the bonelord uses many other types of servitors as well. Shapeless ghelrogs, like miniature versions of Liiran itself, creep along the ground. Winged ardibans provide air support for Liiran's forces. Mindrills burrow about underground, and long-legged cackaters loom over battlefields and carry other creatures.

Powers

In addition to its ability to shape and move its own form, Liiran has the power to create various noxious substances, from poisons to acids. Each of these substances it can cause to pool in its immediate vicinity, or to shoot as a jet that can reach several meters, from any of its bony orifices.

Specifically, there are at least five fluids Liiran has reliably been known to produce, though there are stories of several more that may or may not be based on fact. None of these substances is known to have a natural origin or have any source aside from Liiran, and they all disappear within a few hours of their creation (though of course not without doing their damage first). A yellow liquid called carnel is highly corrosive, dissolving flesh and bone alike and even eating its way more slowly through stone and metal. Red ucar is comparably corrosive—dissolving some substances better than carnel, others less so—but useful to Liiran in that when carnel and ucar come into contact, they explode, the force of the explosion dependent on the quantities of the liquids involved. Green raud is not immediately harmful, but extremely sticky, useful for immobilizing Liiran's enemies and making them easier prey. Purple charcen is a deadly contact poison, deadlier still when ingested. Finally, blue tissaner quickly hardens on contact with air, making it, like raud, useful to immobilize enemies, as well as to suffocate those that need to breathe.

What makes Liiran's powers especially dangerous is that it can use them at the location of any of its servants as well, causing armies of skeletons to blast charcen or seep carnel. Given Liiran's lack of attachment to its undead servitors, it is perfectly willing to have them employ those substances in a self-destructive manner, as long as it promises to cause more destruction on its enemies. Fortunately, there do seem to be some restrictions to how much Liiran can do with its powers at a time, though the exact limits have yet to be tested.

Goals and personality

Liiran has little interest in interacting with any other being with anything other than hostility. It may tolerate for a period someone it finds flattering or amusing, but its patience invariably wears thin after a while. This isn't to say it's impossible to make deals with Liiran; it may be persuaded to form a temporary alliance against a mutual enemy, or to strike some other bargain that seems to work toward its interests. By and large, though, Liiran wants only to conquer, to kill and to amass more bone to grow its own structure. Ultimately, Liiran hopes to grow to the point that it covers the entire world. (This would obviously mean defeating the other bonelords, but, while most of them are aware of Liiran's ambitions, they see it as a distant enough threat to not require immediate action.) It's a long-term goal, but being undead and immortal, Liiran fully intends to be around for a very long time.

And if Liiran ever does accomplish this goal... well, then there are still other worlds for it to spread through...