Phage

A Phage is an undead, immortal creature that has been transformed by the darkest of magicks into an ever-hungering devourer of energies. They do not age and remain frozen from the moment of their succumbing. A Phage cannot be born; they can only be created by their possession and transformation into a Phage.

Similarly to the magic that creates Phages, Phages themselves are known by many different things in many different cultures, and can be called different things by characters. For the sake of simplicity this documentation calls it 'Phages'.

At first glance, even being dead, a Phage appears to be an ordinary Human and runs the gamut of appearances like anyone else. They have no unique physical characteristics by default that set them apart. They can even still appear to have a pulse and breathe.

Instead, there is a distinct impression that something is off about them. This is true regardless of the species interacting with them. On the one hand, people are naturally drawn to them, a hard-to-resist pull like natural charm or charisma; and yet, simultaneously, people are also naturally repulsed by them, a subconscious warning to stay away. Which feeling takes prominence in any given moment is Player Choice.

Otherwise, there is no outward sign or indication that a Phage is different to anyone else. This is a passive ability, a defense mechanism and hunting tactic all in one in a way, that all Phages possess to the point where even other supernatural creatures can sometimes have a hard time recognizing when a Phage is in their midst.

In addition to this pull/push, Phages tend to have an area of effect on everyone around them, thanks to their magic. Phages affect others differently; some find their own personal magic enhanced, they feel physically, magically, or mentally stronger, their emotions are heightened or increased, like their energies have been amplified to a degree; others find it to be the exact opposite, like a drain or a dampener on them, their emotions decreased or lowered. And others still find no effect on themselves at all.

Who is affected and in what way are Player Choice between the Phage and the other party.

All Phages have two forms: their Human form - the form they had prior to their death and transformation - and their Phagein form, that they are forced to take from sundown to sunup each day.

A Phage's Phagein form is the physical transformation and manifestation of the magic that has infected and infested their bodies. There are two parts to the Phagein form: the 'truth', and the 'illusion'.

All Phages generally have the same kind of 'truth' to their Phagein form: their bodies are forced to transform and become grotesque, twisted versions of themselves; with long, spindly, elongated limbs, a mouth that encompasses most of their face with a split jaw that can unhinge for wider opening, razor sharp claws and rows of razor sharp teeth, and a skin that becomes more of a thick, unbreachable hide. The 'truth' part of the form does not change and remains the same always.

(It is a kind of horrific monster form that has been in the imagination of humanity for centuries, so the minutiae design of this appearance is left up to Player Choice; just make sure to describe it in detail in the app or link a picture as appropriate.)

The 'illusion' part of the Phagein form, however, differs from Phage to Phage and is the form most often seen by those it hunts or encounters. It is a projection from the Phagein form. Whether through terror, confusion, sadness, joy, anger, or something else; the Phage appears to the viewer to be a person or thing designed to paralyze the target.

The 'illusion' is an imperfect one and is to be treated more like a bait to a trap than a true illusion that could be accomplished with other magic. It is also possible to see through this illusion to the 'truth' of the form, whether via sheer force of will or magical means.

Phages can control and change the 'illusion' part of the form to an extent, as well as switch it off and on at will. The design can also look different to different people simultaneously, unlike other illusion magic. The design of the illusion part is Player Choice between the Phage and the party being targeted.

While their Human forms are akin to a regular Human, the Phagein form can be near invincible. The hide is essentially armor and can be nearly impossible to cut through or damage, and they have the speed and strength to match most other species they may hunt. They can absorb most magic thrown their way without harm.

That being said, they do not have rapid healing abilities in either form and should their hides actually be injured in a meaningful way, a Phage can take weeks to heal.

Phages can imitate voices or noises to near perfection in both forms, especially useful when luring their victims using the illusion of their Phagein form.

The magic that creates Phages is widely considered to be the second oldest system of wild magic in the world. The original name for it - and the curse that allowed it to take hold of living beings - has been long since lost to time. So, there is no commonly understood or recognized name for it; it is called different things in different places and cultures and can be called different things by characters. The term we will use for the documentation is phagous magic.

In general, Phagous Magic is the embodiment of dark, black magic, of 'evil' to assign it a moral sense. It is said that the initial manifestation of phagous magic was directly caused by the first instance of suffering in a living being. And it has been impossible to eradicate from the world ever since.

The first instance of Phagous Magic transforming a being into a Phage was via a curse, a curse long since faded from living memory and outside the reaches of anything but legend. Ever since then, any Human is susceptible to being possessed and transformed by the phagous magic the way they can be turned into any other species.

By day, a Phage appears to be an ordinary Human; but from sundown each night until sunrise the following day, Phages are forced to transform into their Phagein form. It is not possible for a Phage to control this process on their own - they cannot transform during the day and they will be forced to transform and stay transformed for the duration of the night.

Sundown is defined as when the sun has fully set below the horizon line and sunrise is defined as when the sun has fully risen above the horizon line, for the location the Phage is in. So times will vary by location as well as throughout the year.

The transformation process is extremely painful for the Phage by default. This is not a shift from one form to another like with other species, but a literal mutation where the bones and skin are extended and changed to the Phagein form, and back again come morning.

The transformation can only be controlled via the use of enchanted, magical items made specifically for that purpose, most often via amulets. While this does not allow them to transform during the day, this will prevent the automatic transformation at night and allow the Phage to control where, when, and if they transform during night hours

Being dead, a Phage exists on their phagous magic, and the phagous magic survives by consuming energies from living beings. 'Energy' is a word used as a loose term to encompass a variety of sources: physical, emotional, mental, and magical.

It is the energy of life that the phagous magic eats from, it can only be taken from living beings, and the phagous magic is insatiable. How much and how often a Phage has to feed depends on the Phage, but it oftens requires at least one full-bodied victim each night to stay fed.

Phages can only feed in their Phagein forms. They can eat and drink in their Human form for appearances during the day, but it has absolutely no nutritional effect on them whatsoever and they will starve throughout the day until they can access their Phagein forms.

Phages consume energy by 'eating' it from their target - while this can be done in a metaphysical sense (absorbing magic thrown at them or emotions directed their way, for example), the most direct and easiest way is by literally consuming their victims alive through the 'meat' of flesh and bone. This allows the Phage the biggest influx of energy as they can absorb all the energy that is released on death.

Victims of Phages often do not survive the encounter for this reason. They also cannot store 'food' as corpses to eat later, because once the victim is dead the energy is gone and the body is useless to a Phage.

Because magical energy is something a Phage can feed on, Phages can feed from all species indiscriminately, including fellow undead creatures like Vampires and Ghouls. Their preferred victims are Humans just because they have no natural magical defenses against the Phage's magic.

Phagous Magic is not magic in a traditional sense that allows magic to be performed. Rather, Phages have shared abilities and physical characteristics they have access to in both forms.

Victim Regeneration: Phages have the ability to 'regenerate' their victims. This is normally used to keep their victims alive when they shouldn't be, and regenerating flesh such as restoring lost limbs, etc. This is specifically used when the Phage has a food source they don't want to lose, so they can have multiple feeds from the same person. How this ability is used varies between Phages and is Player Choice.

Masters of Stealth: All Phages excel at stealth and are near-perfect hunters, knowing and using every inch of the territory – they can move silently in both forms and are usually only seen when they want to be seen.

Claws: The terrible claws of a Phage are almost dagger-like in appearance and sharpness, never seeming to dull. Being slashed by a Phage is extremely painful, almost akin to a ripping, burning sensation. If a victim survives the attack, the wound will more often than not become infected. These infections can be hard to cure.

Invisibility: A Phage, as an extension of the mastery of stealth, is able to cloak themselves using their phagous magic to become invisible. This is useful for stealing prey and avoiding unwanted attention. While using this ability, they can only be detected by magic or aura. Other Phages can see each other faintly.

Water: Phages can't stand water, especially running water like a river or salt water like from the ocean. Leaving water too long on their skin in Phagein form will cause patches of the hide to become weak almost as if the water erodes the hide away, which can allow injuries to occur to the Phage.

Note this can still affect them in Human form but for the most part water is harmless in that state.

Wards: The only magic that Phages seem to struggle to absorb are those created by wards, particularly when created by runes. Hence why enchanted items can be used to control their transformation and the Phagein form.

Starvation: Deprived of sources of energy to feed from, Phages are driven into a blind frenzy in attempts to feed their magic. It only takes a short amount of time (how long depends on the Phage) to starve them out and kill them. The difficulty being that the Phages can often feed off whatever the captors are using to starve them out.

The Human Form: The easiest way to dispatch a Phage is through the simple use of attacking their Human forms during the day. Phages do not carry any of the natural defenses of their Phagein form and so can be handled appropriately at that point.

Because a Phage is frozen in the moment of their turning, they are immortal creatures who do not age. A Phage is functionally immortal and can continue to exist for eternity, provided there is a source of living beings to feed from.

We allow Phages up to 6,000 years old on FMRP.

A Phage does not gain any particular abilities or powers as they age, since they are at the height of their power from the moment of turning; rather things just get more difficult as time goes on as the curse grows stronger and the phagous magic demands more energy to feed on to live. Typically a jump happens roughly every 100 years.

So although Phages are immortal, it can be rare to find ancient ones because they often do not survive to reach such ages.

A Human can be turned into a Phage by being possessed by the phagous magic and driven to an act of desperation. How the possession is done can occur in a few different ways.

Being around a Phage in general for extended periods of time tends to make Humans more susceptible to the curse, due to the area of effect all Phages naturally carry. The phagous magic tends to enhance all negative energies in a person and causes the Human who is more susceptible to the curse to become the worst reflection of themselves. Which allows the magic easier access to possession.

However, a Human overcome by insatiable desires in general (similarly to the phagous magic's insatiable desire for energy) are more likely to be possessed by the curse. A Phage need not be involved at all. How much the Human needs to be affected is Player Choice.

Once a point of weakness has been established, the phagous magic seizes hold and begins a possession process. The human brain absorbs the magic and the affected Human will begin to act strangely. Many will struggle to keep their sense of identity while being possessed.

All that is needed once that state is reached is for the Human to be driven to a desperate act, whether by the possession or just from life in general - what exactly that act needs to be is Player Choice, but usually involves the consumption of something, such as the taking of a life or an act of cannibalism.

This triggers the turning process to begin, with a countdown timer to the Human's death. The Human will die from mysterious or unknown circumstances within 1-4 days of the phagous magic taking hold, and upon the first sundown after their death, will rise again as a Phage with an uncontrollable desire to feed.

Please note that not all Humans can or will be turned if possessed. The magic can only retain hold for a period of about 7 days, at which point it will lose its possession and the Human will be spared from turning. A Human can have this process repeated multiple times throughout their lives and never turn into a Phage from it.

No other supernatural species can be turned into Phages. The only creatures that can be turned into Phages are Humans. Once a Human has been turned into a Phage, there is no going back. The change is permanent.

Phages are incapable of producing children, whether with others of their own kind or another species. The only 'children' a Phage can make are the others they possess and turn into Phages.

It's not uncommon for lonely Phages craving that one lost aspect of existence to "adopt" families and name the mortals as their own. It's also not uncommon to steal children to raise as their own children.

A Phage can tell other creatures apart by scent and magic signatures. Each species, Humans included, have unique scent signatures that Phages can smell. Individuals also have unique scent signatures that a Phage can use to tell them apart from others.