Phage

Phages are a parasitic race, more akin to viruses than any living creature. In their true forms, they are thin, spindly things with four limbs ending in sharp claws, and a thin membrane stretching across them that they glide on like flying squirrels. Their necks are long, their heads small and covered with many eyes, and their mouths are filled with sharp teeth. They are extremely flexible, and individually very fragile. For this reason, they are adapted to be parasites, infesting the bodies of other creatures, devouring them from the inside out, and using their insides as living space, protection, and puppets. Phages will attack living creatures and attempt to enter their bodies, killing the host, and using their body as both a shelter, and as food for their young. These puppeteered bodies become host to potentially dozens of demons, which burst forth when the body is destroyed. They are fragile individually, but when a legion of them takes possession of a body, their combined strength and durability is frightening. They can possess any living creature, mortal, beast, or dragon, and grow throughout their entire lives. The older and larger ones are capable of surviving and acting outside of bodies, and act as commanders and directors for their offspring. They are utterly without pity, without mercy, without any value of any life, even their own, driven only to produce more of themselves and spread like a plague throughout the universe. However they are not stupid, they are remarkably cunning, and a possessed body may even be able to pass as living, until it begins to rot at least.

The exact origin of Phages is unknown, but they appeared in the year 1800 AC (See Calendar System) and immediately began causing spectacular havoc. The extent of their destruction was so great it was feared that they might conceivably cause the extinction of all life on the broken worlds. In response to this, the order of the Bonded was created to contain them. The Bonded proceeded to wage a catastrophic war against the Phages that lasted for five years before the Phages numbers were depleted to a sufficient point to allow travel through the Astehu again. However, the Phages have not been exterminated. Their numbers have been kept low, but many remained, hidden in the Astehu, and also otherwise uninhabitable portions of Kohatu and Munus. Furthermore, with the number of bonded approaching an all time low, their numbers have begun to rise, and sightings are becoming increasing each year, as well as reports of new forms of Phage not yet documented in any record.