Umbranymph

The only living creature that isn't a Hateling that miraculously not only survives in the Black Forest but has found a way to thrive, the Umbranymph is an insect with extraordinary abilities.

Anatomy

The Umbranymph has compound eyes, sports a black glossy exoskeleton and six legs, three on either side of its body. Most specimens have wings, but they seem to be vestigial as the Umbranymph has been observed to be flightless. The chitinous plates of its exoskeleton are articulated in such a way that they form an interlocking "armor" around the Umbranymphs abdomen.

Habitat and Diet

Umbranymphs nest throughout the Black Forest, with specimens having been encountered as deep as the outskirts of the Demented Glen. They burrow into the black trees of the forest and excavate a nesting chamber for themselves, in which they return to sleep and eat, which is an unusual behavioral pattern among arthropods. The fact that the Umbranymph seems to be utterly immune to the corrupting influence of the Heart of Hate makes this small insect of great interest to the scientific community of Nascindor.

Umbranymphs hunt tiny hatelings that crawl along the dead forest floor, as well as scavenge at the corpses of larger ones. It is theorized that the Umbranymph's extraordinary abilities are, at least in part, a result of feeding on Hatelings.

Capabilities

The Umbranymph possesses several astonishing quirks.

Its exoskeleton is covered in photosensitive cells that the insect can agitate at will. Once it does so, the cells activate and begin to absorb all spectrums of visible light that are cast upon it, making the surface of its exoskeleton a true blackbody.

When in this state, the Umbranymph looks like a pitch-black silhouette superimposed on reality, and it uses this to its advantage by curling up into a ball or otherwise posing itself against surfaces to make itself seem like a hole or a crack on the side of a tree, most often completely escaping the notice of any would-be predator.

The second and even more impressive feature of the Umbranymph is its ability to, for lack of a better term, "enter" shadows. The insect seems to be able to use shadows like one would a doorway, simply walking through onto the the other side. What that other side is remains a mystery, but the insect can traverse this parallel realm and emerge from other nearby shadows back into this reality. The Umbranymph uses this ability to great effect when hunting, often lying in wait within a shadow and pulling a passing Hateling into that umbral realm with it, only to emerge from the shadows of its nesting chamber with its prey in tow.

Theories posited by the Enlightened Few suggest that perhaps the Umbranymph has some innate ability to traverse between this world and the Tapestrum Arcanum using shadows as a medium. A more radical theory makes the claim that the Umbranymph is not a species native to Nascindor at all, and has in fact migrated from the Tapestrum.

Lifespan

2-3 weeks

Average Height

0.5 - 1.5in/1.2 - 3.8cm

Average Weight

0.07oz/1.98g

Average Length

0.5-3in/1.2 - 7cm

by Midjourney

_{A Umbranymph}