Gitme
Those who have forgotten
The cacophony of sobbing echoed up from the cavern below. The Kor's caves were known for blowing in all manners of sounds from the windy exteriors of the mountains. Like auditory illusions that would, at worse, unnerve its traversers. But this time, there was something different, the essence of something that seemed both real and...hollow. What else would curiosity have us do but send a team to investigate...
Etymology
From Ancient Common, getheme means "shallow" and was first used during the War of the Scourge. The transition to Varian Common during the Second Era borrowed getheme and altered it into gethme. By the Third Era, the refinement of Varian Common further changed gethme to gitme. This alteration arguably resulted from the ironic, colloquial phrase of "forget-me-not", truncated to "'get-me-not", and ultimately "gitme."Basic Information
Anatomy
A gitme's anatomy reflects the physicality they possessed in its previous life, typically humanoid. The most prevalent characteristics of gitme bodies are tight, blackened musculatures and maws filled with blunt teeth. Instead of eyes, they possess hollow sockets that glow a dull white. Shadowy wisps or dripping mucus often accentuates their forms. They typically retain the modes of movement particular to their states prior to becoming gitme.
Genetics and Reproduction
Gitmes are not born. Much like other subspecies of the Scourge, they were initially created by magical means known only as the Curse of the Forgotten. The curse affected swathes of humanoids during the War of the Scourge, resulting in the first generation of gitmes. The species propagated by targeting other sentient creatures. Gitmes incapacitated their victims and gradually fed on their memories, ultimately destroying their sense of selves. Their victims' mental degradation presumably causes the transformation into gitmes even without the infliction of the Curse of the Forgotten.
Growth Rate & Stages
Gitmes keep victims alive so as to perpetuate their suffering and feed on the raw emotions and experiences which the creatures lack. An individual in the process of becoming a gitme first loses their mental faculties, reverting to a primal, feral state as they are stripped of their sense of self. Simultaneously, the victim's musculature toughens and wraps tighter around its skeletal structure before it eventually takes on a blackened, almost charred coloration. Lastly, the matured gitme develops a maw full of blunt teeth meant to torment, rather than kill, its victims.
Ecology and Habitats
Gitmes can exist in any particular habitat, and they do not typically alter the environments they exist in. Typically, they congregate in isolated areas, such as dilapidated ruins or subterranean complexes.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Gitmes lead immortal lives of insatiable hunger, though they do not require any form of sustenance. The process which turns a creature into a gitme leaves it hollow of past memories, including its identity. The aftereffect leaves the creature to indefinitely desire similar experiences, which results in it targeting the minds of sentient creatures.
Biological Cycle
After a creature's transformation into a gitme, time no longer affects its physiology.
Additional Information
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Gitmes possess the ability to see in dark and dim light conditions for well over a hundred feet around them. By focusing their senses, they have the ability to detect emotions of sentient creatures within a limited radius. Their senses of hearing and smell are not particularly notable otherwise. Gitmes also have a sensitivity to direct sunlight which hampers all their senses and physical movements.
Unending Hunger
Gitmes possess a desire to recover the memories and identities they lost during their descent to their current state. This hunger for thought, emotion, and memories inflicts a constant state of physical and mental pain on a gitme. However, it also drives gitmes to a constantly feral, hostile state towards any sentient creature.Gitmes can hunt individually, but they seem to search in groups as if driven by an instinctual sense that numbers may lead to mental sustenance. Typically, they physically incapacitate victims, often by multiple gitme restraining a single target. Afterwards, they use either their claws or blunt teeth to cause perpetual pain to the target. Death is the ideal result for their victims by this point, but again as if driven by the sense of perpetuation, gitmes may only cause enough harm to render their prey helpless. Instead of further physically harming a target, gitmes will use an innate ability to siphon memories from their victims. Feeding upon their victims in this manner provides limited reprieve, for they eventually exhaust the individual's finite supply of memories. The brief experience of satiation ultimately exacerbates the painful abyss of their hunger. As a result, they have periods of inactivity where they are left to wallow in their misery. This stupor immediately breaks upon a gitme sensing any valid prey in the vicinity, replaced once more by the drive to satisfy their hunger.
Genetic Ancestor(s)
Lifespan
Indefinite
Average Height
Varies (4 - 7 ft.)
Average Weight
Varies
Average Length
Varies (2 - 4 ft.)
...We waited for the team for over an hour. The sobbing continued during that time before ceasing. The rest of the crew held their breaths, until choked cries echoed after them. We should've left then and there, but we'd sent Marlo down there. Marlo was an old friend, excavating longer than I've then, and I refused to leave the mountains without him. But, people weren't so keen to join. And understandably so. I wrangled just two others to check out where the first squad had gone...
We followed their route, going by what tracks were left behind. They'd gone for subtlety and made the trek harder. Our path continued at a gradual decline until eventually, we reached this dark, narrow cavern. The lanterns couldn't even see past some of the outcroppings. But, the noise kept echoing, even by this point, from ahead of us...
I remember looking around our feet, spotting supplies, a lantern, blades, bits of cloth...before we got around to the blood. No doubt that it was fresh. The noises hadn't gone away but they'd changed. The cries and sobs were replaced by a chattering. And I, we looked up to the sight of at least a dozen pairs of hollow white eyes staring down at us. It was like time started to slow as a dozen maws escaped from the darkness above and all simultaneously released a scream that would have curdled even the insides of the most damned hardened vets of the central wars. And in that moment of realization, I caught the glimpse of a gloved arm hanging limply from a ledge above. We hadn't found them...They'd found us.
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