Technological Terror
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To create a pest species of demonic Dark Side Spirits to function as minions/familiars for Dzara members
- Image Credit: Link and Link
- Canon: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Links: N/A
- Name: Firewisp
- Designation: Semi-Sentient
- Origins: Hell/The Netherworld, bound to a visible form by the Dzara
- Average Lifespan: Indefinite
- Estimated Population: Common within their native environment, Scattered within the known galaxy
- Description: Weak, malicious, possessive Dark-side spirits.
- Breathes: N/A
- Average Height of Adults: 21-26 centimeters
- Average Length of Adults: 17-20 centimeters
- Skin color: Typically grey, chitinous bone-like carapace.
- Hair color: N/A
- Distinctions: Independent flight, incorporeal form, weakness to strong Light-Side emanations
- Races: N/A
- Force Sensitivity: All
- Demonic: Firewisps do not require air, food, water, or sleep. Likewise, they are impervious to poison, diseases, radiation, extremes of temperature, and vacuum.
- Ethereal: Firewisps (in their disembodied state) can freely pass through solid objects or entities, and can become invisible to the naked eye (though not scanners). Likewise, they are somewhat resistant to mundane weaponry.
- Possessive: Firewisps can attempt to semi-permanently possess physical entities (alive or dead), with varying degrees of success. Possessed life forms usually exhibit greatly-increased strength, speed, and resilience, though diminished mental faculties.
- Annoying: Firewisps, though terrifying in their way, are individually rather weak. Lone wisps (despite their resistance to most weapons) can be relatively easily killed, and will struggle to possess awake, aware, and sober prey.
- Banished: Firewisps are very vulnerable to Force Light, or similar powerful Light-Side energies, which will eject them from their hosts and often kill the demons in the doing.
- Diet: None
- Communication: Spoken languages (usually Galactic Basic)
- Technology level: Firewisps do not create technology, but may be seen utilizing it should they manage to seize a physical body.
- Religion/Beliefs: Firewisps possess no organized religion or creed, as they are mostly-feral, predatory monsters.
- General behavior: Firewisps are, unless properly bound/summoned, intensely aggressive towards most living things. Left to their own devices, they simply wander aimlessly until they happen upon an organism to attack. Almost all Firewisps existing within the galaxy are bound by the Dzara, and thus, can be most often encountered in their service. When interacting with Dzara personnel or other such familiar persons, Firewisps are more mischievous than malicious. They might follow an annoyed individual for hours, loudly screeching for attention or affection, possess household pets to destroy furniture, or otherwise harass (but seldom really harm) such victims. As such, Firewisp handlers are advised to never allow the creatures to become bored for too long.
A sort of demonic parasite, Firewisps were (until recently) almost exclusively found in the Netherworld.
Within their home dimension, these creatures are extremely numerous. Nonetheless, they are rarely seen in the galaxy, occasionally appearing to make a mess of botched summonings or congregating around portals to their own nightmarish habitat.
Filling a niche not dissimilar to carrion or detritus feeders in saner ecologies, they are drawn to the galaxy through the actions of Neryn Ka, who seems to have an innate rapport with them (and other, similar demons).
A typical Firewisp can vary somewhat in appearance, but most present as semi-translucent, vaguely humanoid skulls surrounded by flickering otherworldly fires. All are capable of flight under their own power, and are seemingly entirely unaffected by gravity. In their normal state, they are ethereal, and incapable of physically harming solid living beings. That does not mean, however, that Firewisps are harmless.
It was Neryn who discovered the means of summoning and binding these malicious entities en masse, and they frequently appear as his personal minions. Likewise, bound Firewisps might be found accompanying other Dzara personnel, though their inherent unreliability and aggressiveness makes them rather unpopular bodyguards.
Firewisps are typically hateful and aggressive towards living things, particularly Force-sensitives. For all their malice and depravity, though, Firewisps can occasionally display more emotional depth. Some Dzara Force-sensitives have been known to keep them as pets or minions, finding the demons' impish behavior and frequent complaining to be more endearing than annoying. Nonetheless, such persons are advised to remember that Firewisps are not safe creatures, and that a strict upper hand should be maintained at all times.
Firewisps are not considered fully sentient, though they can usually be taught to understand spoken languages. Despite this, they normally don't speak (at least while disembodied), and when embodied will usually only snarl or howl with rage. In either case, their most frequent vocalizations are nonverbal whining/laughing (when bored or wanting attention), or equally nonverbal, deafening screams of rage and hunger (when spotting prey). They are capable of understanding and utilizing technology in theory, but are physically incapable of doing so without first possessing a material body.
When faced with potential prey, Firewisps will typically emit the aforementioned earsplitting, echoing wail, and charge directly at their intended victim. Most likely, these vocalizations are intended to disorient and frighten, though they carry no supernaturally-efficacious component.
Should they manage to reach a potential prey creature, they will usually attempt to physically possess the creature's body. Unfortunately for the Firewisp, clear-minded individuals can quite easily fend this attempt off, simply ejecting the demon from their consciousness without great effort. Even many non-Force-sensitive beings possess the requisite willpower to do this, at least when alive and conscious.
For this reason, these creatures are most often encountered in groups, where they may combine their efforts to overwhelm a victim's concentration. In even small numbers, they are dramatically more dangerous, operating with an instinctive pack-hunting behavior to disorient and weaken their prey.
Individuals who are emotionally unstable (as many understandably are when confronted by a screeching, flaming monster), under the influence of alcohol or narcotics, or otherwise mentally compromised are significantly more vulnerable to the creatures' predations, and typically cannot resist with any real efficacy.
Should they succeed in overpowering a potential victim, one of the wisps present will invade and suppress the victim's personality, transforming them into a host for the demon. Firewisps are simple creatures at their core, and will usually use their newly-acquired physical form to wreak violence and bloodshed to the best of their ability. The reason for these actions is somewhat unclear, but it is theorized that Firewisps find the sensation of commanding a physical body irresistible. They will often immediately attempt to experience as much extreme sensation as possible, and being evil creatures, this most often comes in the form of violent action.
When possessing a physical body, they gain the ability to interact with the physical world, and may utilize weapons, tools, or technology as their new body allows. Likewise, they gain access to their host's skills and memories, and may utilize both at their discretion. Most will attempt to seize humanoid life for this reason, as it enables them to interact with their environment most comfortably.
Nonetheless, Firewisps tend to make for inexpert controllers, and it is unlikely that a possessed individual will be mistaken for a sane, normal being. If left to their own devices, most will howl and snarl gibberish words, engage in seemingly-random violence, harm themselves, attempt to devour non-food objects, or perform other nonsensical actions while possessed. This is fortunate for the victim, as Firewisps typically lack the restraint needed to use their victims for the purposes of infiltration or sabotage.
Despite this, Firewisps under the immediate command of Dzara personnel will follow orders with reasonable accuracy, and large crowds of possessed individuals can make for dangerous enemies indeed when capably led and commanded. Those possessed by Firewisps exhibit tremendous physical strength and resilience, usually far greater than what they would normally be capable of. It is theorized that the creatures' possession process removes the body's natural regulatory systems, effectively weaponizing the host's endocrine system to flood them with adrenaline.
Possessed individuals seem impervious to typical pain or shock responses, and will remain animate despite normally-fatal physical harm. Often, the only way to dispatch them is to destroy them to the extent that movement is no longer mechanically possible.
Under most circumstances, the possession process is indefinite in duration, and Firewisps will certainly never give up their new toy willingly. Nonetheless, they can be ejected in a number of ways. Powerful electric shocks (such as that provided by commonly-found defibrillators) can sometimes agitate and eject the entity, though this method is somewhat unreliable. Most often, Firewisps find the sensation of violent electrocution to be entertaining more than threatening.
Force Light or similar powerful Light-side manifestations can much more reliably eject Firewisps from their bodies, with a near 100% success rate. These have the added benefit of leaving the victim unharmed, though individuals that received normally-fatal injuries while possessed will most often immediately expire upon removing the animating demon.
Should no such ejection occur, the effects of long-term possession are dire. Over time, the victim might begin to show physical signs of the demon's presence, as the terrible energies roiling within them gradually deform the body. These can include a bewildering variety of physical mutations and alterations, such as horns sprouting from the victim's forehead, the growth of long, jagged snaggletoothed fangs, or luminescent yellow eyes. Those held in longer-term thrall to these malicious little imps are much less likely to survive the creature's ejection, as the changes wrought can be too severe for a normal body to withstand.
Firewisps most often prefer to possess the living, as they can more easily appreciate the myriad sensations of the physical realm. Nonetheless, they can and will seize corpses if they are all that is available, including those that have decayed severely. In one recorded incident, a flock of cackling Firewisps infested a tomb on Kohlma, resulting in an outbreak of animated skeletal corpses.
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