ocumati
ocumatus (singluar) ocumati (plural)
Origins: Ocumatus guards were a common footnote in surviving historical records made by dragons during the First Age. Their exact origins are unclear as is the case with many of the non-dragon creatures that emerged in the First Age. It’s not known whether they were created to aid the dragons, harm the dragons, or someone wondered “what would happen if I created sapient floating eyes?”
Most scholars assume the first Ocumati were created to aid the dragons by either a dragon transmuter or one of the Nine. Their natural arcane abilities suggest Greymoria , goddess of magic, may have been in involved in their creation. While she is unlikely to have deliberately created a race to aid the dragons, more than a few of her Children have gone astray.
ocumati
The ocumati have their own story. The ocumati claim that they essentially created themselves. They sprung from the original dragons, the mightiest mortals who aided the Nine in fighting Turoch. When the greatest dragons died a natural death, the first ocumati emerged from their eye sockets. A few even go farther and say the first ocumati sprung from Turoch's eye sockets putting ocumati on the same level of divinity as the Nine.
First Age History: If the ocumati were originally created as antagonists to the dragons than they didn’t maintain this antagonism very long. They commonly worked for dragons, usually working in security, keeping an eye on things so to speak. Mainly they served elder dragons by spying on young dragons making sure their elders knew if the young dragons were poking their snouts where they were not wanted.
They served their dragon masters loyally, or at least they showed up for guard duty when ordered to. When the dragons were not watching they scavenged as much material as they could, creating their own communities in isolated locales with scraps scavenged from the dragons far grander cities, usually underground. Some modern dragons claimed that these ocumati communities were not secret as the Eye Tyrants believed. They say their First Age ancestors knew about these ocumati cities and just didn’t care. It made the ocumati feel good to have a “secret” and the dragons didn’t mind throwing their servants their proverbial table scraps.
Surviving the First Unmaking: The initial outbreak of the First Unmaking caused many ocumati casualties. When the elements began fighting en masse, ocumati underground holdings were hardest hit as a lot of ocumati communities were buried by cave-ins or flooded by newly spawned underground lakes and rivers.
After the initial onslaught, the ocumati were aware of what was going on. They were able to take the steps needed to survive. ocumati survivors quickly abandoned their dragon masters in favor of their own kind. They can hold their breath a long time, eat almost anything, and (at the time) were not overly materialistic. They could stay mobile and hover and above or below the danger of the day. Once the survivors were able to deploy organized watches for dangerous outbreaks of elemental activity, they were able to give advanced warning and appropriately switch between the underground, surface level and high altitudes to avoid where the danger was greatest.
Second Age History: The ocumati felt like they were forsaken by the dragons (who in turn thought the ocumati were cowardly deserters). In any event, the ocumati were looking out for their own kind above all others. Now that they didn’t have to bite their tongues around the ears of their dragon masters, ocumati began referring to all non-ocumati, dragons included, as the half-blinded. A few even hoped the Second Age would be the Age of Ocumati but the power plays of these Eye Tyrants was so short-lived and so unsuccessful against the far more numerous elves that it was barely a footnote in even the most comprehensive Elven historical chronicles. Their would-be coup failed, but two cultural shifts drastically changed the temperament of ocumati forever.
The ocumati had been guarding the homes and treasures of dragons for centuries and now since most of these dragons were dead, their treasure was up for grabs by whoever got to it first (assuming the elementals didn’t destroy these treasures). The ocumati suddenly went from living on the leftovers of the dragons to now possessing amazing wealth. When they had little, the ocumati were community focused. Now they became jealous and covetous of protecting their wealth from each other (and every other race).
The second major change was that newly born ocumati began diverging physiologically developing new appearances and new eye stalk powers. It is unknown why and how this happened, but the most common theory is the release of elemental power during the First Unmaking altered the magic that sustained them. The ocumati became increasingly distinct from each other. The vain, visually focused ocumati began splitting themselves into smaller and smaller groups sticking with those as close to themselves as possible.
The same forces that isolated the ocumati from each other isolated them from the half-blind. A few old-school dragons were able to successfully bully or bribe ocumati into serving them again, and a rare few elves managed to recruit ocumati guards for their own holdings. For the most part, the ocumati were just another monster at the edge of the map in the eyes of the half-blinds. The ocumati rarely antagonized the elves or other half-blinds but they did viciously defend their territories from any and all interlopers.
Surviving the Second Unmaking: The Void Demons wanted to consume all mortal souls and the ocumati had mortal souls just as delicious as the elves’ souls. A few ocumati tried negotiating with The Void Demons. “If you spare me I’ll tell you where a bunch of elves are hiding,” but the demons would just take the information and then consume the ocumati if they stopped to listen at all.
The ocumati tried their strategy from the First Unmaking and tried to make themselves mobile, but there were several reasons this strategy didn’t work as well before. First, the ocumati were barely speaking to each other, so they no longer had the exceptionally large information networks of yesteryear. Second, a lot of Eye Tyrants were reluctant to abandon their treasure hoards, and thus lost their mobility, often dying on their large piles of gold. Third, they were evading intelligent, determined pursuers, not impersonal supernatural disasters.
Far fewer ocumati survived the Second Unmaking versus the First Unmaking . The few ocumati that survived were either the luckiest or the ones who banded together with half-blinds and offered their arcane abilities to the groups in exchange for safety in numbers. Though in the ocumati case it was not always “we fight the demons together!” some of it was “you don’t have to be faster than the demons, you just have to be faster than some of your ‘friends’.”
Recent History and Distribution: A brush with total annihilation softened modern ocumati a little, but did not reverse their cultural shift in the Second Age. They are slightly more likely to negotiate with the half-blind than their Second Age ancestors and they are moderately more likely to work with “inferior breeds” of ocumati than their ancestors were.
Ocumati are few in number but as one of the oldest races on the planet they can be found in every corner of the world. When pragmatism forces them to work with half-blind, they prefer to deal with relatively weak non-civilized creatures that they can wield a huge measure of power over like roving kobold or goblin clans though a few take employ of powerful humanoids. Most remain isolationist.
A few ocumati cities have been reclaimed. These tend to be carved in solid rock by ocumati’s arcane powers underground and oriented vertically to deter non-hovering intruders from being able to easily and safely navigate. Each ocumatus gets its own tunnel and personal lair for privacy.
The ocumati remember their failed coup against the elves, so they haven’t tried any major attempts against the human race as a whole, but some are scheming for ways to incrementally weaken the humans or at least build up a power base enough that they outlast the humans in a hypothetical Third Unmaking and make the Fourth Age the “Age of Great Sight”.
Life Cycle and Society: ocumati have a maximum natural life expectancy somewhere between eight hundred and a thousand years. ocumatus adolescence occurs at about ten years when they start to gain full control of their eye stock spell like abilities. A ocumatus is functionally an adult around forty years old though they continue to get stronger as they age, they just gain mystic potency very slowly after forty. They usually produce their first clutch of eggs around the end of their first century and their last around the end of their fourth century.
Ocumati asexually reproduce creating an egg sack under their tongue about four or five times in their lifetimes with clutches ranges from four to eight eggs. Ocumati that live solitary lives tend to produce fewer clutches and smaller clutches than those that associate regularly with their own kind. Ocumati that live around others of their kind often produce young that takes on traits of their neighbors. Even ocumati that tolerate each other do not physically touch so it’s believed by some scholars that Eye Tyrants pick up traits of those around them by looking at them. No one has dared test whether prolonged exposure between humanoids and ocumati has any genetic info shared. It is too horrifying for both parties to contemplate.
Most ocumati view themselves as the epitome of what ocumatus should be, but they also have a sense that even lesser ocumati are better than everyone else, and they don’t want the race to go extinct. Tolerances vary from Eye Tyrant to Eye Tyrant, but ocumati often slay their own young that do not look sufficiently like them. City ocumati tend to be more tolerant of imperfections than solitary ocumati, but city ocumati tend to produce more extreme imperfections in their clutches, so they tend to kill their young at the same rate. On average, ocumati slay half their young upon hatching. More forward thinking Eye Tyrants opt to groom their disappointing offspring into cannon fodder roles. If they are allowed to live, ocumati educate their young usually until adolescence at which point they are driven away, unless the parent in question wants to cultivate expendable minions and is confident enough in its ability to bully other ocumati.
The ocumati cities generally only have two dozen eye tyrants at most and are nearly always underground. If one ocumatus is, for whatever reason, considerably more powerful than the others, that Eye Tyrant will be in charge but most community decisions are discussed as a group when time permits. This tendency to consult others comes from pragmatism not altruism. Even the Eye Tyrants that truly live up to their name don’t want to be constantly challenged or have all their subjects leave when needed most. The most successful and long-lived ocumati collectives usually managed to enslave or at least regularly bully and extort a nearby group of half-blinds. Even if a ocumatus rankles at lowering its gazes around an alpha, it at least knows that as a ocumatus it is superior to the half-blinded.
Solitary ocumati are more common. Ocumati prefer living underground, but they are not limited to the underground. They will claim any territory that meets their needs for food, safety, privacy, and visual stimulation. Ocumati tend to stake out a territory around their lair to hunt or if necessary forage in. The most ruthless kill any sapient being who trespasses on its territory, but they are generally interested in “greater sight”. They want to know what is going on outside their territory and are apt to question visitors. They might even let them leave alive after talking….maybe.
Solitary ocumati are not friendlier than ocumati in cities, but they are pragmatic enough to realize that they cannot utterly dominate every half-blind they encounter. Solitary ocumati often have working relationships with various half-blind races, such as some kobold or goblin clans. Both sides know that the kobolds or goblins have the numbers to take a ocumatus down if pushed too far, but they would suffer horrible losses while doing so.
A common arrangement is that the kobolds can call upon the ocumatus in extreme circumstances to slay or intimidate a mutual threat. In return the kobolds will provide periodic tribute of food and treasure to their ocumatus “protector.” More importantly, kobolds will report interesting things they see in their supposedly joint territory. It’s generally more common for the kobolds to be the flunkies in these partnerships than the other way around. When working with far more powerful creatures such as dragons, Eye Tyrants can be amazingly obsequious to its master’s face, but it will surely plot to turn the tables as soon as possible.
Religious Practices: There are exceptions to this, but in general ocumati have an attitude towards religion like this. “The Nine favor the half-blind above us and thus should not receive our adoration. The Nine are far stronger than we are and thus should not receive our scorn, lest we anger them.” ocumati do not have biological sexes or sociological genders. Since 99% of sapient creatures have some form of sexual dimorphism and gender roles, ocumati are aware of the concept, but they do not ascribe genders to the gods like most do. The standard honorific that all the Nine receive is Name of deity, who is of unsurpassed vision.
Ocumati religious practices are very simple and pragmatic if they bother to pray to the gods at all. When a ocumatus is facing a difficult challenge relating to a specific deity’s expertise, they issue a short business like prayer, then move on with their day. Almost always following the formula. ______ who is of unsurpassed sight, please allow me success in this endeavor so that I may sustain my sight.
"Maylar who is of unsurpassed sight, please allow me to find prey on this hunt so that I may sustain my sight.”
"Phidas who is of unsurpassed sight, please allow me to evade these Void demons so that I may sustain my sight.”
“Sustain my sight”, of course means “survive.” To a ocumatus, blindness and death are synonymous. Eye Tyrants rarely invoke the gods for anything not related to their own survival. They certainly are not apt to pray for others or give thanks for what they have.
The rare few ocumati who choose to become priests or divine spell-casters do with the goal of becoming seers focusing on the sphere of Divination. They tend to gravitate towards the Nine predisposed towards having oracles, most often Korus and Nami although Phidas' and Hallisan's dominion over the underground has attracted one or two devoted Eye Tyrants per generation over the millennia.
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