Axiod
Axiods are shards of cosmic force given consciousness who construct intricate exoskeletons to interface with the mortal world. Both an integral part of the underlying processes of the universe and strangely set apart, axiods look to aeons to understand their existence. Axiods aren’t entirely clear on their own origins. Some historians think them a failed experiment of a wizardly cabal, possibly a splinter of artificers from the a pre-Cosmic Schism society, who accidentally conjured shattered scraps of an aeon. Others believe axiod were built by their ancestors using an accelerated, iterative evolution process as natural as one designed by those who build portions of their own bodies could ever hope to achieve.
The true form of an axiod is an abstract chunk of spiritual essence. While their being exists beyond the truth of humanoid senses, to the mortal eye, their body usually resembles a globe of light, darkness, or space. Floating, internal pinpricks of illumination sit inside the ball, slightly obscured as if peeking through a gelatinous substance. These “cores” surround themselves with bodies made from still-living wood, creating the form that most people recognize as an axiod. Axiods themselves are called to a path and, once they find it, shape frames to create a suitable form, leading to a wide variety of appearances.
As an axiod ages, the supple green wood of their body hardens, causing their limbs to lose mobility. Axiods must constantly grow new arms and roots for their living exoskeleton, leaving their frozen limbs as immobile effigies along their shell. Axiods can’t maintain their integrity without their wooden exoskeletons. An axiod that loses its exoskeleton dissipates and dies, though they can be returned to life with magic like other beings.
There are three distinct types of axiods. Maintainers tend and care for others, believing they must cultivate a proper balance between various forces. Shapers build and direct those around them, and feel that balance is maintained by those who strive to preserve the world’s equilibrium. Lastly, correctors fix problems of all sorts, often acting as stalwart bastions of law who perceive the world in absolutes, with few to no shades of gray.
The axiod homeland, simply called The Nursery, is located deep in jungles of Usa-Aweh. It is here that shapers tend to a strange grove of trees, looking after young axoids.
