Inversion Scribes
Species - Bestial - the Other An Inversion Scribe is a wandering Jvanic animal that exists to create short-lived 'void shadows' of the living beings it encounters on its journey. Relatively simple in appearance compared to other Jvanic constructs, Scribes, also called voidsketchers, are not dissimilar in composition to Jvan herself. Most of their body is composed of a sinewy grey tissue, flexible but very firm, that emits a pale blue aura at all times. This gives them a ghostly appearance at night.
Scribes have no organs, skin or skeleton and very few muscles, and are arranged like somewhat haphazard skeletal frameworks of conventional (if often non-existent) animals. Although they tend to be quite structurally sound, they little resemble normal endoskeletons, as they lack the physical demands of unnecessary flesh. Their slender 'bones' are all connected, having little in the way of true joints, and are often 'ribbed' together or coiled around one another. Asymmetrical quirks are fairly common, especially after birth or injury. Their general outline (empty though most of it may be) tends to be long, slim and streamlined, with few projections. Due to their odd shape, even an adult voidsketcher the height and shape of a horse does not weigh more than a man.
General body plan varies greatly among scribes. They may have anything from one to eight legs, and occasionally lack a 'head', or have multiple. Often they resemble fleet-footed ungulates, tall, flightless birds, ground-hunting spiders, or kangaroos in shape and gait. In water, they tend to mimic slender fish, particularly sharks and catfish, or crustaceans. It is not unusual, however, for voidsketchers to be tripods, one-legged hoppers, flexible cephalopod-like beings, or simply a set of grasping limbs attached to a central junction. In size they tend to vary from turkeys to camels, averaging at about the size of a pony- Some, of course, are low and long, others thin and tall.
Aquatic voidsketchers are much the same as terrestrial ones. Due to their empty, skeletal shape making swimming motions difficult, however, their legs and tails are often rayed into slender, flexible spines in a fan-shape- Fins. These are webbed with transparent grey tissue, the same as the rest of their bodies, only even thinner. This webbing may occur in terrestrial variants in vestigial form, with little function. It is rumoured that there have been tiny airborne Scribes with four finned wings and long, slender tails ending in a fan, but this has not been confirmed by mortal eyes.
All Scribes have at least two 'styli', and can have up to about eleven. These are limbs or appendages with which a Scribe creates its void shadows. Any limb that is not used in locomotion, and even some that are, will end in a stylus. Heads and tails often carry one in the place of a snout or tail-tip, and can carry more in the form of horns, forked tails, antennae and jointed 'mandibles'. Often a one or more styli will occupy their own limb, forming a dextrous 'stylus wing'. The addition of a stylus limb to a Scribe's ordinary shape can turn 'horses' into 'pegasi', give 'crests' to 'ostriches' and 'tails' to 'spiders'. A stylus ends in a particularly sharp point, often darkened in colour, where the voidsketcher's glow is concentrated. They trail short, thin rents in space-time that bend light around them.
Inversion Scribes have no voice other than the sound of sharply pointed hooves, but sometimes, very rarely and only at night, they will produce an echoing chime-like or plucked-guitar sound from an unknown source. This semi-telepathic signal can be heard for miles around, but always sounds close and quiet.
Void shadows, commonly called Inverts, are difficult to describe. They are living entities made of nonexistence delicately stretched into the approximate shape of something their parent Scribe has observed. They are usually composite, composed of numerous existential 'hollows' that pull on one another as if stitched together. These 'hollows', and thus the void shadows themselves, are significant spacial anomalies. Sometimes they occupy a certain amount of space, but have zero volume. Other times they occupy no space at all, but contain a certain volume of emptiness. Occasionally they do both at once. They do not 'move' so much as propagate, constantly cleaving and re-sealing conventional space. They are neither three-dimensional nor two-dimensional, and are therefore always seen from multiple angles at once regardless of the perspective of the viewer. This gives them the impression of creatures designed in a style that is both cubist and minimalist, an ephemeral series of clefts and sweeping lines with planes suspended between them; Something that does not resemble the true shape of a living thing, but emulates its proportions and movement just enough to give the impression of similarity to that thing. To watch one in motion is horrifying.
An Invert cannot touch, nor be touched. Sometimes they will pass through the objects they interact with, and sometimes they will come apart upon attempting to touch something. More often their 'body' will simply refuse to come within touching distance of solids. They do not make sounds, but a very high-pitched whining noise, like tinnitus or radio feedback, accompanies their close proximity. Sometimes it resonates with nearby telepathy, producing a distorted crackle.
Life Cycle: Inversion Scribes are short-lived. An adult voidsketcher will last for anything from a few months to a few years before one day simply curling up and shrivelling away, their flesh softening and rotting readily, the remains desiccating into a flaky white dust. The glow fades from their body over the course of several minutes after they die, and the hours preceding death are the only time at which they are guaranteed to emit a sound. They will never die while working on a void shadow or while 'pregnant'. Beyond this a Scribe shows no sign of aging or imminent death.
During its life, a Scribe will produce either none, one, or two offspring. The process is simple- A new set of beams and sinews will fray into its design and rapidly grow into a large 'bulge' of ligaments, with limbs of its own. This extension detaches after one or two weeks of rapid growth, at which point it can walk unassisted, if gracelessly. The parent follows its child for a few days, righting it if it stumbles and carrying it away from aggressors until it has found its legs. The offspring will grow to its full size within a few more weeks at most. Offspring can grow from any point of the parent's body, but only one at a time. Sometimes they resemble their parent, and sometimes they do not.
As they approach adult size, voidsketchers will begin the work of creating Inverts. Each Invert takes between a few minutes and twelve hours or so to produce, depending on size, and a Scribe will create an Invert every few days, with intervals between creation also increasing substantially with the size of the void shadow. True to the name, void shadows only ever resemble a real, living being the Scribe has encountered. The Scribe will watch this being from a safe distance for hours or days before travelling to a location where it can settle down for a while to work on its Invert. Inverts are never sketched in close proximity to one another, and never sketched twice by any Scribe.
Inverts come apart quickly. Even the stationary ones designed to resemble plants move internally, and with every movement the connection between the hollows grows more disoriented, loosening, trailing and disconnecting. Once isolated, the hollows will twist and warp around on their own for only a short while before disappearing. The smallest and fastest void shadows are annihilated within hours; Even the largest and slowest last a week or two at most.
Needle fae, being the great neutralisers that they are, 'unwind' and annihilate any Invert they come into contact with.
It is worth noting that, although void shadows are neither alive nor intelligent and do not have souls, a Scribe's ability to create something that mimics intelligent behaviour is uncanny. Inverted mortals will act out great confusion and distress upon 'waking up', as if they know that something terribly unnatural has occurred to them.
The mind of a voidsketcher is not contained by a brain. Rather, it exists as a psychic suspension hung on the frame of its body. Sufficiently damaging its body, therefore, will destroy its mind, effectively killing the Scribe. Where and how the tendons are cut does not matter, so long as a sufficient number are damaged beyond repair. Though Scribe tissue is tough, this number is surprisingly low, and four-legged Scribes rarely survive the loss of a single limb. A 'slain' Scribe will continue to glow and fail to decompose until its allotted time is up, but will not act outside of reflex. If the Scribe survives trauma, however, it will soon regenerate its wounds, and any amputated limbs will grow into exact clones of the original. They will 'sing' and eventually die at the exact same time. If they meet, they will not separate, and will collaborate on Inverts.
Though they have no sensory organs, voidsketchers are keenly aware of the world around them. They can perceive all forms of electromagnetic radiation as well as several kinds of magic and unmasked divine trails. Materials are chemically 'scented' by touch, and Scribes are sufficiently sensitive to vibrations to effectively ultrasound an object by tapping their feet sharply against it; Echolocation is easy by comparison. They bolt if they sense an earthquake coming. Scribes can perceive electric fields, including true north.
Scribes do not eat, drink or breathe. They often go through the motions, however, dipping their 'heads' into water (if they have any) or nuzzling at fruit, leaves and old carcasses. A few even make faint breathing movements. Occasionally, and only in daylight, they will lay down and feign sleep. After vigorous exertion, too, they will slow down and seek rest. Do not be fooled: Inversion Scribes neither tire nor slumber at any point in their life. They only think they do, and will rapidly discover otherwise if put to the test.
Description: Inversion Scribes are probes designed to blend in with nature while recording biological data. In creating a void shadow, they externalise an Inversion of an observed organism, simultaneously internalising an exact copy of the traits they observed in that organism. This data is transmitted to Jvan telepathically via Ovaedis every time a Scribe 'sings'.
The voidsketcher population is low and relatively constant. They are extremely rare sights, with only a few thousand in existence at most. They migrate according to telepathic signals transmitted from Ovaedis.
Scribes are intelligent, though not sentient. However, they tend to imitate the intelligence of the animals around them rather than use the full capacity of their own. They are therefore largely unaware of the remarkable physiology that renders them immune to disease, exhaustion, hunger and thirst, as well as their own phenomenal sensory kit. (They will, however, unwittingly pick up on stimuli other animals do not notice.) They will startle like animals, play like animals, sleep like animals, and, if backed into a corner, lash out like animals- Again, styli are remarkably sharp, sharp enough to make up for their lack of muscle weight. They also avoid mortal habitation.
Typically, Scribes are shy. They will sprint at a remarkable pace away from perceived danger, including sudden movement and loud noises. However, they acclimatize to the presence of non-threatening intruders quite quickly, especially when young. Though two Scribes in close proximity, barring clones, will always seek to migrate away from one another, they often attempt to socialise with herd animals. It is possible to tame and train them, especially from birth. The urge to migrate when commanded is strong but not insurmountable. The instinct that drives Scribes to create void shadows, however, cannot be suppressed.
The void sketching process is the only time when Scribes seem to use the full extent of their intelligence. The process of creating a void shadow is a challenging one that cannot be executed through simple instinct. Scribes display behaviour uncannily similar to mortal metacognition in designing each Invert, experimenting and adjusting it in multidimensional detail until they consider it perfect. There is good reason why Scribes usually spend hours on a void shadow when it takes seconds at most to produce each hollow.
There are only two scenarios in which a voidsketcher is ever violent- Extreme duress with nowhere to run, and in the defense of an unfinished void shadow. Do not disturb a Scribe at its work. Do not mistake its tolerance for placidity.
Do not make yourself threatening.Interactions: If their habit of Inverting can be ignored, Scribes make curious pets. Outside of exotic display, they can be taught to track scents, including inorganic chemical traces such as ore deposits, or potentially act as guard animals if given the means to rouse their owner. Their nocturnal nature is useful in this respect, though they can be trained out of 'sleeping' in daylight. Scribes are not strong enough to be draught or even pack animals, but can very quickly carry written messages, provided they do not decide to stop and sketch on the way- A not uncommon occurrence that can cause days of delay.
Meeting your own Inversion is, of course, an
extremely unnerving phenomenon. The warning signs of an upcoming Inversion can be recognised, and a Scribe can be dissuaded from sketching a particular individual during the observation phase if there are others close at hand for it to redirect its attention to- However, this requires violence. In the long term it is far easier to avoid or suffer through the Inversion than it is to prevent it. If you are determined and sound of mind, your Inversion will likely avoid you, too. Once the voidsketcher has finished its work, a live faery in a box can also be used to dissipate an Invert. It is wise to keep a Scribe around only a few humans, many other animals, and different kinds of plant. This also prevents them from going on long sojourns to sate the urge.
Despite their sadly restricted lifespan, the fact that voidsketchers reproduce asexually makes it possible to keep and train a line of them for many decades. They are easily trained when young and grow up fast. Active suppression of the migration instinct, however, is required constantly and very soon after birth. It is probably best practice to send away the parent when a child is born in order to keep the younger specimen.
With regards to faeries, Scribes emit a psychic signal opposite that of Lenslings- That is, fae will avoid Scribes like the plague. This adaptation- Or rather, Jvanic design quirk- Prevents faeries from destroying Inverts while a Scribe is still working on them.
It goes without saying that Sculptors can communicate with voidsketchers somewhat, much like they do with fiberlings, fae, and halos. They are not as intelligent as fiberlings (or at least, do not act like it) nor as easily dominated as fae, but they are considerably easier to train than either.
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