The Six Husks

The corpses of the gods, left behind as engines of infinite annihilation

The Bodies of Gods, Left Behind

The Six Husks, while being six of the greatest threats to Zheng-Kitar in living memory, are also some of the creatures with the most tragic story - after The Spirit Kings were summoned to the material plane by the sacrifice of The Six Great Ancestors, they were given corporeal forms where once they were only metaphysical concepts, beings so powerful that the mere thought of stuffing themselves into corporeal forms was a baffling notion. However, it was made a reality thanks to the sacrifice of The Six Great Ancestors - and in the end, The Spirit Kings were summoned and with their awesome power, drove off the Yema that had driven the people of the continent into extinction and had all but rendered the continent itself wholly unlivable - a barren, desolate wasteland devoid of all life and vibrancy.
Over the course of the 1400 year long Age of Rebirth, their bodies were theirs and theirs alone - freely moldable and changeable, and things they could stand as tall as mountains or as small as normal creatures, at their own discretion. Their power was immense, and with their awe-inspiring might that far outclassed even the likes of the Primordial Yema Gods of Air, Ground, and Water they ruled absolutely as benevolent overgods, breathing new life into the land of Zheng-Kitar - though, in the end, it would not last. Towards the end of their reign, the bastardous Witch Kings of Bhorsis-Razghûl rose their heads and challenged the unholy power of the The Spirit Kings in a way none had before.
Weaving unholy songs of power in sonorous chants filled with blasphemous power, The Witch Kings of Bhorsis-Razghûl waged a brutal war against The Spirit Kings that very nearly undid all the work that they had strove to accomplish on Zheng-Kitar - though thankfully, in the end, the power of The Spirit Kings proved supreme and they claimed victory over those vile masters of magic, defeating them and sealing them away...though, not without great cost.
In their final battle against The Witch Kings of Bhorsis-Razghûl, The Spirit Kings endured songs of power so vile and blasphemous that their mortal, corporeal shells were cracked under the tremendous strain of such colossally powerful beings as themselves wielding power while under assault from such horrendously evil might - their bodies "cracking" in the sense that the tremendous power of The Spirit Kings could no longer be contained in them forever. In the end, their power lasted little more than a scant few decades after their forms were cracked at the hands of the Witch Kings, and they were forced to bid farewell to the land they had revitalized and the people they had given new life and function.
However, what is not known is that, though they bid the people of Zheng-Kitar farewell, their bodies did not evaporate and vanish - had they been in perfect condition, they might have, but thanks to the assault of The Witch Kings of Bhorsis-Razghûl, such was no longer possible. Instead, The Spirit Kings were forced to leave their bodies behind on the material plane as they vanished back into their normal state as formless, slumbering overgods of reality- leaving their former bodies sealed away in prisons that would hopefully ensure they could never awaken or threaten the people they had once saved.

Elemental Voids

However, the tragedy that The Spirit Kings endured at the hands of The Witch Kings of Bhorsis-Razghûl was too tremendous to go without lasting consequence - though The Spirit Kings themselves abandoned their bodies in various, secretive prisons across Zheng-Kitar, their bodies remembered the horrible, soul-rending power they were "cracked" by, and over the course of milennia slowly began to transform into things most horrid and vile.
In the end, they became unique existances known as "Husks" that became voids in reality - anathema to the very building blocks of reality that, just as they were the bodies of The Spirit Kings and thus each associated with one of The Elements, they developed a terrible ability to absorb and destroy the element of their opposite and opposing element(Fire to Air, Earth to Water, Etc). And not just in the world around them, but in people too, such as how Isfet-Ptah was known to steal away The Element of Fire from people and thus stealing away all it represents(Passion, Life, Law, Etc) and rendering creatures into freakish husks devoid of aspects of life itself...while the other Husks steal away their own respective elemental opposite.

Engines of Destruction

Compounding the issue of their terrifying ability to absorb and steal away their opposing Element, the Six Husks languished long as mindless bodies devoid of any intellect - but over time, though The Spirit Kings had long ago abandoned them as bodies and left the material world behind, the Husks began to develop sentience and will of their own, developing wills and intellects most vile and damnable, thanks to the power of The Witch Kings of Bhorsis-Razghûl that destroyed them in the first place.
And universally, these personalities showed themselves as twisted echoes of The Spirit Kings that had once inhabited them - each holding a burning desire to "fix" the broken lands of Zheng-Kitar and its people, though in twisted and malformed ways that lead them to further the cause of their own Element to the exclusion of all else, leading to calamitous and horrible results. They are terrifying Engines of Annihilation, beasts of void and ravenous consumption that seek to 'help' the world by spreading their element to all corners of it - completely blind to the fact that a world ruled by one element would destroy its balance and damn its people and creatures to a fate most terrible.
So are they kept sealed away - though some, like The Wanderer and The Enenra, have managed to slip their shackles and prisons and remained at large for some time.

The Six Husks

Below are listed the Six Husks themselves - one for each of The Elements, and The Spirit Kings. Some are less known of than others, while others still have been lost to time, the locations of their prisons or homelands either lost or purposefully erased.

• 
  The Enenra, Husk of Fire
  Associated Spirit King: Huofeng
  Status: Escaped its bounds and now roams the world, reaping the breath of innocents and delighting in slaughter, carnage, and mayhem.
  Description: A horrible shapechanging beast born of smoke and flame that terrorizes the Othraka and Giyaani peoples - visiting children in the cradle and stealing their breath and their Element of Air away from them. A much feared beast for not only its unrivaled destructive power to create lethal superstorms and spawn the terrifying material known as Enenranite, but for its shapechanging abilities that let it take on any from, even air and vapor. For more information, see The Enenra page.


• 
  Isfet-Ptah, Husk of Air

Associated Spirit King: Ziyouqi
Status: Unknown. Believed sealed away and imprisoned, but it is not known where. Perhaps only the most ancient of Kami yet remember its place of imprisonment.
Description: One of the Husks of whom information has been both lost to time and purposefully erased, Isfet-Ptah was a beast who escaped notice from mortal eyes for some time, hiding as it could amongst the clouds and traveling the world's skies, stealing away The Element of Earth in those who would gaze up into the clouds longingly and unknowingly glance upon its enormous bulk. Evaded detection after escaping its original prison for a thousand years, known only to Kami as a bringer of calamity and storms, until it was discovered by an ancient Tarthan High Lord during a magic ritual to divine the weather. What ensued was centuries of conflict between Isfet-Ptah and the mortal world, after which is was presumably sealed away to parts unknown. For more information, see Isfet-Ptah's page.

• 
  Korvaddegon, Husk of Earth

Associated Spirit King: Baoshan
Status: Imprisoned in an unknown location. Information on it has been lost thanks to the actions of The Wanderer, Husk of Void, who destroyed the civilization that was believed to be watching over its prison, far in the north of the Shenchuan Tundra.
Description: A towering dragon made of rock and stone, Korvaddegon was a terror of the northern regions of Zheng-Kitar and bringer of something referred to only as "The Stagnation Plague" - believed to be an ancient interpretation of its element-stealing nature as a husk, which likely saw it steal away the element of Water from those it attacked, preventing them from ever changing, having new ideas, or accepting different things ever again. Little information on it remains outside of the ruins of the mysterious Northern Civilization in the Tundra. For more information on it, see Korvaddegon's page for more info.

• 
  The Judazhai, Husk of Water

Associated Spirit King: Yezhiha
Status: Sealed away and imprisoned. Believed to rest beneath The Tripalm Spine Mountain Range, which draws its name from the fact that many believe the mountain range to quite literally be the "Spine" of the colossal beast.
Description: The biggest and most destructive of the Husks, rumored to be hundreds of miles long that slumbers beneath the continent, bringing assured continent-wide destruction if it so much as wakes and begins to move. Little information on the actual beast, its mindset, personality, or tendencies is unknown as, even for one of the husks, it is the most alien and incomprehensible among them - its thoughts and "speech" are totally gibberish to most, as even the simple act of speaking or thinking is so slow for the beast that to finish a sentence or thought would likely take five or ten years. Adding on to this is the ancient language it speaks, older than anything else in the world which only it is believed to recall or remember - not even the Kami know the language it speaks, making it a mystery to most all who know of it. See the page for The Judazhai for more info.

• 
  Baruchiel, Husk of Light

Associated Spirit King: Guanyong
Status: Unknown. Believed to be imprisoned, but moreso than any other husk information on it seems to have been and yet is actively eradicated from the public and private eye by parties unknown.
Description: A mysterious figure venerated as a deity in the mythos of an ancient, now defunct civilization that once dwelled on the Isle of Khyarmani, same as the Tarthans do in the modern era. Remaining records of it tell a tale of it uplifting a tribal people and giving them countless gifts that gave them advanced civilization, installing itself as a divine figure for those peoples, who venerated it above all other things in their society. All remaining records speak of it as a benevolent savior, though some surviving accounts paint a picture of the society it gifted to those people as utopian, and possibly Dystopian - a place where the self and The Element of Void was wholly nonexistant. Later accounts do not reference it exactly, but instead reference a figure known as "The Betrayer" that is believed to be the same as Baruchiel themselves - simply seen through the lens of a people who had realized in their twilight that their god had stolen everything from them. Imprisoned and sealed away in a last ditch effort by the peoples they once uplifted. See the page for Baruchiel for more info.

• 
  The Wanderer, Husk of Void

Associated Spirit King: Xu-Jie
Status: Alive and free. Wanders the furthest reaches of the Northern Shenchuan Tundra, but actively avoids nearing civilized areas, and mostly keeps to itself. It is unknown where it was imprisoned or how it broke free.
Description: The second largest of the husks, and second most dangerous by the standards of most modern scholars - a titan of unrivaled proportions standing over ten miles tall that walks as a terrifying engine of destruction. Thankfully, it seems strangely ignorant or possibly even free of its nature as a husk - it seems to actively shun contact with others and avoids civilization centers in a strange display of either mercy, fear, cowardice, or maybe even simple isolation. Roams the northern tundras as the locus for a terrifying winter blizzard measured in miles - and is a notorious attractor(willing or not, is unclear) of ghosts such as Yuki-Onna, Tsurara-Onna, and other ice-based beasts and monsters. See the page for The Wanderer for more information.

Founding Date

Formed when the Spirit Kings left the corporeal world behind around 1429 ASK.

Type

Secret, Occult

Alternative Names

The Husks, The Six, The Divine Beasts of Destruction

Guardians of the Husks

The Husks, though they lay imprisoned, are not without those who watch over them - each husk is believed to have been entrusted to a specific family, group, or organization that was charged with watching over their respective husk throughout the milennia and ensuring they do not escape. The identities of their groups are unknown, save one - the famous "Guardians of the Tripalm Spine" said to have been carved by Baoshan and imbued with life by the rest of The Spirit Kings. These titanic stone monoliths carved from solid stone are constructs and golems of terrifying size scattered throughout the Tripalm Spine Mountains, each said to contain the spirit of a legendary warrior who served The Spirit Kings during the Age of Rebirth, entombed within a gigantic construct to keep an eternal vigil over the original world-serpent known as The Judazhai.
The rest of these 'guardians' are unknown, and are assumed to operate in the shadows - though the guardians of the husk known as Korvaddegon are believed to have been destroyed or mostly so by The Wanderer. The identities of these guardians, should they ever become public, would likely lead to many seeking to find and destroy them, as each of the husks is well-known to have cults dedicated to them that constantly seek to free them...

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