Flay Makers

"We smelled it long before we saw it, the scent surrounded us... yet it fell upon us and flayed my friends before they could even scream"

~A survivor of a Flay Maker, rendered blind by its claws

Basic Information

Anatomy

A Flay Maker resembles its original Warforged or Golem body, but wears the flesh of its victims like a wrapping or tunic about itself.

Genetics and Reproduction

The condition is believed to be not contagious by the traditional sense, however the rumored existence of the condition is enough to give pause to the New Blood Houses. The "disease of the mind" is spontaneous at best and random at worst.

Growth Rate & Stages

Prior to becoming Flay Makers, Warforged and Golems typically served as armed guardians or servants to New Blood Houses and their facilities. At some point during their service they abandon their duties due to some unknown catalyst and retreat from most of society and begin hunting within it.

Ecology and Habitats

Typically found in ruins of Urban environments, where flesh and fodder is plenty for them to hunt at the fringes of society.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Flay Makers feel the compulsion to consume the flesh and organs of sentient beings in hopes of feeling the warmth of life in their artificial bodies. Despite the fact that they lack the faculties to digest such offal, resulting in them regularly purging putrid rot from their mouths in a toxic manner.

Biological Cycle

Flay Makers are, or at least were, some form of Warforged or Golem prior to the degradation of their psyche. They were created by an Artificer or through some form of arcane tradition and thus have very little in biological growth or faculty.

Behaviour

The scent of rotting flesh and offal precedes them where ever they go, and they leave naught but a trail of flayed corpses and death behind. The Flay Makers are typically either Warforged or some other form of sentient or at least semi-sentient Construct like a Golem or Automaton that is suffering a unique form of dysmorphia or psychosis that compels them with the desire to become more life-like by clothing themselves in flesh and consuming the organs of various Humanoids. It is unclear what triggers this destructive development in a Construct's mind, but many have verbally expressed sensations they should be incapable of feeling such as coldness or depression. In any case, once a Construct starts down this path it cannot be swayed or cured and must be purged.

Additional Information

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

It retains what perception skills it had prior to the condition.

Lifespan

Unknown

Conservation Status

Reviled as a concept, considered a rumor but there are enough witnesses to give pause.

Average Height

7-8 ft

Average Weight

Medium size and weight

Geographic Distribution

• The Freelands

Related Ethnicities

• Freelancer