Mazoku

Written by Agent Serro

A mazoku (Japanese: 魔族まぞく Kanji translation: Evil Race or Demon Race; Romaji: mazoku; English: Monster) is a genderless spiritual being that resides on the astral side.

Mazoku do not have a true physical form, but ones with enough power can project an image onto the physical plane to represent themselves. They also have a so-called beast form; a form that is closer, but mostly not equivalent to, their appearance in the astral side. They are the force opposite the Shinzoku. Also referred to as creatures of chaos, the ultimate goal of their existence is to return Kantania into its original form - the Sea of Chaos, effectively destroying it in the process. It must be noted that regardless of her occurrent desires, The Golden Mother of Darkness is not a mazoku, although even high ranking shinzoku and mazoku are known to believe otherwise. Mazoku are not born or spawned by sexual reproduction. When a mazoku decides to reproduce, it basically chops off a chunk of its astral body, essentially itself, and that becomes a new, weaker mazoku. The amount of power the newly created mazoku possesses depends on the amount of power its creator sacrificed in order to create it; the creator basically gives up some of its own might and passes it to its new underling. Although a mazoku can gain power by itself by consuming sufficient amounts of negative energy, that is a very slow process. Mazoku society is filled with apparent contradictions. As it was stated before, they are beings of chaos, and individuality is not a trait, but a necessity for them, and still, they are all part of a quite strict hierarchy, where subordinates usually obey their masters without question. To see the reason for all this, it must be stated that the mazoku do not really have a choice. Just like spells calling upon weaker mazoku cannot damage the more powerful ones, lower class beings cannot even scratch a mazoku of higher stature. So, not obeying orders would clearly be not only pointless, but suicidal: A servant might live only as long as it proves to be useful. Should its master think otherwise, the mazoku will be destroyed, or even reabsorbed. As Mazoku are from the astral area, only magic weapons can hurt them. Most spells have no effect whatsoever because the true creature is still within the astral plane. Divine magic will harm them but never control them, influence them or have anything to do with their spirituel, soul or mind. Mazoku’s are masters of deception, deceit and manipulation of all forms. Manipulation is their biggest strength, it's their main tool, preferred method of chaos and they are simply the best at it. They do not die, living forever and always practicing the art of manipulation. When a Mazoku loses its life essence, they simply fade away as this projection is broken and the true creature cannot return again until they build up enough strength to do so. They seldom ever reveal their true forms, as a last resort they are fierce fighting beasts each have unique abilities and can easily slay large squads of soldiers with ease. Always think of a Mazoku as being a hybrid breed of half demon and half monster The different ranks and types of Mazoku comprise the negative energy side of Kantania. The weakest of these Mazoku are in fact what is commonly called the Occultist but are actually Zhethrh'ithar. Hierarchy of the Mazoku