Mistling

Mistlings are life forms made of living dreammist, believed to form spontaneously from the ambient magic that permeates dreamspace, or at least the parts of dreamspace near the worlddisks. Mistlings come in many varieties, varying in colors, sizes, and abilities, though all of them have an amorphous, vaporous form. They feed on dream energy, their exact feeding methods depend on the species.

Formation

The exact process of the formation of a mistling is still a matter of some conjecture, and there are no definitive accounts of its ever having been witnessed. Most scholars, however, believe that they form when a particular patch of dreammist absorbs enough ambient magic to actually animate, producing a new life form. The different circumstances that lead to the formation of different kinds of mistling remains in hot dispute; some scholars believe that it depends on the color or some other feature of the dreammist, while others believe that some quality of the ambient magic is more important. Still other scholars, however, believe that the color and features of the dreammist are determined by the ambient magic, which makes these two explanations essentially equivalent.

In any case, studies that have been made to track mistlings and discover the sites of their formation have suggested that they nearly always seem to form at the dreamseas, the borders between the (usually) colorless air directly over the worlddisks and the often brightly colored dreammist between the worlds. Some mistlings then continue to haunt the dreamseas, while others wander out into dreamspace and still others find their way to the worlddisks. These last are the ones most often encountered, since most inhabitants of Charos spend most of their time on the worlddisks.

Description

A mistling appears simply as a vague, misty shape; most types of mistling have no more form than a wispy blob, though there may be some differences in their appearance: some may be compact and globular, while others may comprise masses of ethereal tendrils; in some, the mist that makes them up may remain relatively still, while in others it's constantly churning or whirling about. A few take on more distinct shapes or features, and some are able to alter their shapes and even make passable imitations of other beings or objects, at least as long as one doesn't look too closely. Some species of mistling are of distinct colors; others may be mixtures of different colors; and many species may come in different colors that have no obvious correlation to any other characteristics. Not all types of mistling can be easily distinguished visually; telling apart certain species may require magical divination or other more subtle methods.

Creatures of magic, mistlings have no real anatomy; they are simply coacervations of dreammist held together magically. A few species do have "organs" of a sort, local areas within their forms that serve special functions (and often, though not always, are colored differently). Because of their rarefied consistency, mistlings are somewhat susceptible to strong winds and other similar forces; the magic that sustains them does much to keep their forms together, but too powerful a gale could potentially tear them apart and destroy them.

Diet

All mistlings feed on dream energy, though how exactly they acquire that dream energy varies by species. In any case, they utilize the dream energy to magically sustain themselves, and in some cases to grow by accumulating more mass of dreammist. Some mistlings can only process certain forms of dream energy, and in fact may be poisoned by exposure to the wrong form. However, which forms they are able to process varies widely by species.

While a few types of mistling get by by simply absorbing more ambient dream energy, many types have to take a more active part in seeking out their sustenance, drawing it from various enchantments or from magic-using life forms. Depending on their feeding methods, some of these mistlings may pose an inconvenience or a real threat to humans and other beings.

Varieties

There are many known varieties of mistling (and possibly even more unknown), but some are more common and better known than others. Black nightmists seek out people who are dreaming and feed on their accumulating energy, thereby not only reducing their hosts' available dream energy but also giving them terrible nightmares. Habitants enter magical talismans, battening on the dream energy contained within. Absorbers envelop people and other beings full of dream energy and consume them completely, assimilating their physical forms as well as their dream energy. Dozens if not hundreds of other types of mistling also exist, though some are known only to a handful of scholars; mistlings come in such variety that taxonomists place them in an order of their own (Limomichle), sorting them into a number of classes within that order.