Dhaol Dwr
Dhaol Dwr (pronounced /ˌðɑʊəlˈdʊər/) is one of the wizardly covins that secretly exert power over the societies of Curcalen. The wizards of Dhaol Dwr have a penchant for the grotesque, believing that their strange and twisted creations demonstrate their ability to think beyond the commonplace and their virtuosity with obscure and difficult magics. Not only do they alter their own forms into bizarre parodies of their natural contours, but they do the same to others when they have the opportunity, and they command weird creatures with shapes aberrant and unearthly.
Naturally, the members of Dhaol Dwr control spells of transformation and physical alteration, as well as spells that allow them to create new creatures and objects. They use these spells to maintain their power, sending bizarre creatures after their foes, and fashioning new abominations—either from existing creatures transformed, or created from scratch—specially designed to carry out certain useful functions.
If the wizards of Dhaol Dwr were too obvious with their alterations, of course, they'd lose the subtlety and secrecy that all the covins find more useful. Though members of Dhaol Dwr do change their forms, they do so in a way that can be hidden when they go among among the public. Either they retain the ability to transform back to their natural forms when necessary, or they learn to mask their twisted appearance with illusions, or they alter themselves in ways that can be concealed beneath clothing or cosmetics.
Philosophy and Goals
Members of Dhaol Dwr see themselves as a force for diversity and for the ultimate exercise in creativity and personal fulfillment. In their bizarre and teratical creations, they see not only a show of their skill, but also an affirmation of their individuality, and a general promotion of acceptance of differences and of self-actualization, of living according to one's own ways and desires and not forcing oneself to comply with social conventions. Dhaol Dwr's ultimate goal is to help everyone to be himself; it strives for a world where conformity is a thing of the past, where people are not only allowed but encouraged to live their lives their way and to become what they want to become, a world free of disgust at the alien and monstrous, where being radically different is considered a badge of honor and a positive sign of originality.
At least, those were the principles the covin was nominally founded on, but that's far from saying that every member of the covin always has those ideals consciously in mind in his actions, or even that he joined the covin because he was really interested in those ideals in the first place. Many members of Dhaol Dwr simply enjoy creating grotesqueries for whatever reason, and take the covin's philosophy as an excuse. While there may be many members who do fervently believe in the covin's stated mission, Dhaol Dwr also tends to be something of a magnet for malcontent wizards who don't feel as if they fit in with society at large, and who turn to the covin as a way of showing their disdain for the social order that they feel has rejected them, and getting back at the communities they failed to find a place in. Such shallow misodemists rarely rise far within the covin's ranks, but make up a fairly large proportion of its lower orders.
In any case, Dhaol Dwr's ultimate ambitions, unlike those of many covins, do not include political conquest or worldwide dominion. They want to bring about a new social order, but they don't necessarily want to be in charge when it comes to pass. In fact, the whole idea of Dhaol Dwr's philosophy is that everyone should seek individual fulfillment their own way, which means they don't ultimately want anyone to be in charge—Dhaol Dwr's intentions could be thought of as basically anarchistic in nature. Be that as it may, Dhaol Dwr does still involve itself in secretly taking over nations and organization; some of the covin's plans do involve gaining some political power in the short term, the better to use it as a lever to subvert other nations and organizations and bring about its long-term objectives.
Hierarchy
Rising through the ranks of Dhaol Dwr requires passing tests of magical prowess and of creativity. Those who fail the tests, if they survive the experience, may, depending on the degree and manner of their failure, become transformed into terrible monstrosities such as nwrgons and jeneba, or, if they comported themselves well, may simply be required to wait for some period of time before essaying the test again. Those who fail the tests but nevertheless showed considerable measure of ingenuity or imagination may be taken under the wing of a higher-ranking member and prepared for the retaking of the test; this mentor relationship may become a long-lasting one. The different ranks within Dhaol Dwr are, like much else associated with the covin, called by seemingly nonsensical words taken from long forgotten languages, words such as "aiaglo", "ruvaav", and "zeyy".
As they progress through the ranks, Dhaol Dwr members are expected to take upon themselves further physical transformations, therefore becoming, as they rise in power within the covin, less and less human in form. High-ranking members of the covin are truly monstrous in shape, and either hide away from the common populace or develop ways of disguising their forms with illusions when they must go in public. The leader of Dhaol Dwr, known as the Qaj, is an enormous mass of seething flesh, constantly birthing diverse monsters from its everchanging form.
Headquarters
Like most of the wizardly covins, Dhaol Dwr has hidden meetingplaces and bases of operations all over Curcalen, in unassuming shops and warehouses, in subterranean complexes, and in wilderness fortresses. The first kind of base by necessity must be somewhat unremarkable in appearance, though even there Dhaol Dwr tends to exercise its fondness for the outré, favoring as its covers eccentric curio shops and libraries of esoterica. When they have free rein to design their structures more according to their own wishes, however, because those structures are hidden underground or far from civilization, Dhaol Dwr produces characteristic edifices that make full use of its transformative abilities and that reflect its members' individualistic tendencies. A typical Dhaol Dwr building is sprawling and asymmetrical, a seemingly patternless labyrinth of twisting passages, with weird and mismatched architecture as if no two rooms were designed by the same person. Incorporated into its walls and other surfaces are features made of living flesh, traps and controls and furniture alive and moving.
Dhaol Dwr even takes advantage of its transformative skill to create living headquarters. In some forests, Dhaol Dwr has caused trees and other organisms to grow together into structures for their use, and under the seas Dhaol Dwr makes use of great fishlike beings called yaellars whose interiors are filled with chambers and passageways. Noteworthy is one structure called Zhechone that is literally made of the fused bodies of the covin's enemies; captured foes are brought to the fortress and then magically incorporated, still alive, into its structure.
Magic
Dhaol Dwr's magical research focuses on spells of transformation and of creation out of raw materials. Given the nature of the covin's predilections, most of the spells have results that many would consider disturbing, giving rise to monstrous things of twisted and unearthly appearance. Characteristic is the teratophyon spell, which causes the subject to branch into strange growths in all directions, some of which growths develop their own organs and appendages and later split off into full-fledged bizarre organisms. Another typical spell of Dhaol Dwr is the dreambeast spell, which cobbles together some sort of creature out of elements from a subject's literal dreams.
The covinists of Dhaol Dwr have also created some magical items and materials to help them in their goals. Warpsoil, for instance, is an substance they add to normal soil that causes plants that grow from the affected area to take on strange and novel forms. Another of Dhaol Dwr's favored creations are bodyblocks, miniature representations of various body parts—human and otherwise, mostly the latter—that can be assembled into whatever forms are desired and then animated on command to form a full-sized version of the modeled creatures.
Monstrous Creations
Dhaol Dwr is responsible for the creation of a number of strange organisms that now roam throughout Curcalen—and some of which have spread to other worlds as well. The dalrand, the eogeltane, and the ngenge, among many others, all originated as inventions of Dhaol Dwr. Among the covin's most successful creations is the garagalmoi, which is now found on many worlds throughout the plane of Zien.
Relations
For the most part, Dhaol Dwr has neither strong allies nor strong enemies among the other covins. Most members of other covins consider those of Dhaol Dwr to be strange and disturbing, but have higher priorities than fighting it unless it stands in the way of their own covin's goals. This isn't to say that Dhaol Dwr never comes into conflict with other covins; it does, frequently, but the clashes are usually brief and do not tend to lead to long-lasting enmities.
Of all the covins, the Velvet Mask is the one that probably gets along the best with Dhaol Dwr—the two couldn't really be considered allies, but the Mask is at least more tolerant of Dhaol Dwr than are most other covins.