The Amna

The fortresses of important families on Klausdhar all have internal corridors separating the inner structure where the vault and the main chambers are from the region that touches the external gardens. Those corridors are long, curved, and left deliberately without guard because that is the most efficient way to block the best thieves of Klausdhar.
Amnarai, the Nest, is the core organization of Thieves Caste in the city. It is directed by an Amnai, a member of Amna specie.
Amna are not humans, they are not involuntary immigrant either. Their specie was created by magic on Sharitarn, by a combination of Creation Way, Fire Magic, Illusion Magic and Mind Ways, whit drops of Shadow Magic. 
   In essence they are magically assembled AI, running as holograms in other people's minds, both conscious and unconscious.
As long as there is a sentient being present they are real, as corporeal as you and me. They can stay at the border of perception, unnoticed. Can move freely from a crowd to the next, and steal objects from a room where the only person present is sleeping. As long as they stay in the range of the senses of this organism, they exist and can remain solid for all practical purposes. Despite the fact that by some definitions they do not exist.
Without magic is impossible to catch an amnai by surprise, since they know all fields of perception that exist in the area where they stand. Even whit magic is hard to think about ways to find a member of this specie, they have a stealthy nature that comes from the fact that they know exactly where is the border between other people's conscious and unconscious mind.
Fast than sound, silent, and impossible to hurt without magic, they specialized in being spies and above all else thieves.
However, they cannot carry their booty through areas that are not inside the rage of perception of some sentinel. That's why those corridors work so well.
The amnai who reaches the area disappears. It can retreat and stay inside the vault or "jump" into non-existence and (whit a bit of luck) reappear in the other side. Possibly right outside the house, or next to the last friendly face he saw. Everything being carried falls on the floor when the thief fades.

Basic Information

Anatomy

To describe the amna as holograms is that particular kind of imprecision that consist in say the oposite to fact. Light is exactly the one aspect of reality that never interacts with this beings (here we could actually use the term "creature" in its Sharitarne meanin: local humans and most other species on Sharitarn are not creatures, but amna are).
   Each amnai is a combination of two elements: 
    There is a shapeless field of magic, that allow the individual to interact with physical reality by caring objects or wearing solid clothes, playing musical instruments and even eating. Safe for the intensity that can vary from one individual to the next and from one period of life to other in the same person that part of an amnai has no individual characteristics. No shape, memory, personality or feeling. 
    What the amnai is runs in the minds of other beings able to perception much like a software runs in a computer. They need a minimal level of sentience to be instantiated, but no awareness or even life. Undead and other immaterial beings can suffice. Instead of say they are holograms would be closer to reality to say that each amnai is an hallucination. To be precise, a collective hallucination that is consistent and continuos in time.   
    The characteristics of each amnai are mostly intersubjective, they are just not "objective" properly speaking because there is no object holding them. Small discrepancies are found in descriptions made be two different people about the same amnai. One way to expose amnai hidden as humans is keep a left-handed guard working with right-handed ones, because the hand perceived as dominant in an amnai changes depending on what the dominant hand of the people looking at him. 
   The mind of a amnai works mostly like the minds of any other talking being, and follow the general template of human minds. As their appearances and habits mostly follow the human civilization. Notwithstanding they fully know that they are not humans, and most would not wish to be.   
   Amna don't age like humans do, but they suffer a sort of degradation over time. Varies largely from one individual to the next, and is hard to predict. One amnai can expend thousands of years without feel any sign of degradation, and then go from perfect health to dying of "old age" in a week. Their equivalent to medicine uses mostly Mind spells. 
   However, they do not exist in the astral plane (except by the magic field) or any sort of telepathic atmosphere. They are information running in the neuronal systems of other species. Being shared by a net of unconscious signals between all present consciences, awaken or not.

Genetics and Reproduction

Absurd as it may seem this is a sexual specie, and expect for not have females who produce actual milf they are mammals. The mages who created the specie did so mostly by accident while trying to perfect war tools based on Mind Way spells. Far more of the human cognitive structure was transferred to those sub products of their research than the human mages intended. 
   Amna males and females generate new individuals of their race much like human males and females do.

Growth Rate & Stages

Amna males and females generate new individuals of their race much like human males and females do.
 Except for the considerable detachment from objective time scale. Intercourse can take seconds, hours or years. Pregnancy can be as brief as intercourse or last indefinitely. Babies usually became walking children, able to talk and argument, in mere days. After that their growing continues in its normal irreversible direction, but time has no predictable influence on it. And eventually the individual stops aging, finding out that he or she was fixed in the definitive size and shape. To most that is the general appearance they will have up to death.

Ecology and Habitats

Most amna live in cities. The specie is common in the North of Main Continent, around Lauwriin (which is likely  to be their origin). 
  They can travel the wilds chaperoning Merchant Caravans or as members of the crew on long-distance ships, but most avoid to do that. Since their existence depends on being around people vast empty territories cause some discomfort to the specie. 
   Some individuals do moved far to the south, and the reason why they do that is almost always the same: to get as far as possible from Mage Universities that teach Mind Whispers and/or Mind Carver Ways. Because those Ways are an ambivalent thing to the amna. 
   For one side they are essential to heal them, is they get sick. The closest thing to Medicine they have. While, on the other hand, the Mind magic Ways are also the source of most diseases and treats that can affect them seriously.

Dietary Needs and Habits

They need no physical nutrients, but they do consume food and drinks socially, or pretend to. Proximity of other species is necessary for them, preferably groups. Large cosmopolitan societies are healthier than small ones. Species with more complex neuronal systems and individuals with higher intelligence are preferable for their health as well. 
   The amnai dense field needs Xar in a certain level of purity to exist, it can be weakened by polluted Xar and hurt by anti-magic spells.  When a amnai enters a Xar-Scar it dies. The individual continues its life even inside the Xar-Scar, but will never be able to interact with physical objects again.    
   Members of that specie can learn to create clothes and objects that have no more substance than themselves, and are less dangerous to modify than their faces and corporal shapes. That way they can walk on the streets looking like humans, and move through walls and ceilings and floors doing small jumps through non-existence when it is useful. However, most the time they prefer to dress solid clothes and jewelry, carry weapons and even armour accordingly to their sex and caste. 
   Those solid objects limits their mobility radically, since they do not pass through solid objects. The compensation for that inconvenient is that keep this close contact with objective reality helps the amna to keep a consistent internal structure. 
   In addition to postpone their degradation the frequent contact whit solid objects does for them as muscular exercise does for us. They are nor physically strong if compared to average humans (fast, amazingly agile, yes: but weak) this helps reduce the disadvantage.  
   For the same reasons they buy houses, fight for social influence and prestige, celebrate contracts and kill enemies.

Additional Information

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Amna are a talking specie, and like any other they do generate some individuals with magic potential. 
   Except for those individuals who develop magic potential and learn Mind Spells they cannot read thoughts. But they have a sense of attention and perception, knowing what any individual in the room is absorbing from his senses and where the attentions are focusing. Thanks to that they are able to move furtively without effort. 
    You would imagine that they could be invisible, or change their appearance at will, since there is nothing holding those characteristics but information. The opposite is true, they actually need to keep their image consistent in time for more carefully than other species because even minor changes like the color of hair or the shape of nose carry in them a certain risk of accelerate degradation.

Scientific Name

Creature, unused sentients