Daxti of Xartaski Temple
The sun burned hot, pushing down on the sand and the stones that composed Xartaski Temple and everything around it. Daxti scanned the horizon, looking for trouble that the priest said could be coming. Axtrami was not a trickster god, but he did often challenge his faithful in creative ways. Daxti felt a pull of satisfaction as he saw the sign of raiders comeing for the temple. Doubltess it was another band of wretched orbless exiles, cast-aways who had not found their way to one of the jackal dens of the Sect of the Shattered Orb.
The battle was violent, the raiders taken in with a band of marauding Latrani Orcs and other desert chaff. Daxti fell thrice in defence of the temple and on his third fall he did not rise again. The sun burned into his eyes as he saw a face of storm clouds and bright eyes. Hands tocuhed him, something was placed in his mouth and he could no longer speak. Agreeing to a pact Daxti rose again and shrugged off the strikes of the orcs and the mongrel orbless. They fell back in horror as the glass warrior fell upon them in silent fury, slashing with a half destroyed ouzala and the fingers of his off hand hard and sharp as tempered glass.
Ouzquin Xactaki: Revenants of Glass
On rare occasions, faithful Ouzquin Dremorix are chosen by their god Axtrami to continue serving him even past the end of their mortal life. These become Revenants of Glass, also known as glass zombies by the less that pious of Axtrami. They have been prepared for the afterlife, hemisa placed in their mouth and mirrored circlet placed over their eyes. When the revenant rises to do it’s duty the hemisa remains in its mouth and though the circlet often falls away, the eyes have taken on the vitrious texture of glass and are perfectly clear.
The extremeties, name the fingers and the toes harden into nearly unbreakable glass claws. This vitrification continues throughout the existance of the revenant, progressing about half an inch or so a year. After a century, such a revenant will have arms made almost entirely of smooth glass with the hands being refined into slashing weapons, the fingernails now honed to razor sharpness. The legs progress slightly slower but to much the same effect. After several centuries the revenant can be made entirely of glass and begin to exhibit odd ornamentation, such as decorative fluting, recarved body barbs and other things to turn the revenant into a undead weapon.
Most of the Revenants of Glass are attached to a certain area, with several being known to haunt the ruins of Xartaski temple. Though the temple was ruined some many centuries ago, the small number of glass revenants that were spawned defending it have rendered it inviolate since then. combat is launched from a surprise position, with the revenant often hiding just below the sand. Claw attacks are fast and rather than linger one a single foe until dead, the glass revenant will use cleaving attacks, attempt to disarm foes, and other such violent disabling actions until all percieved foes are disabled and defeated. Then at its leisure the revenant dispatches the foes with it’s glass clawed hands.
The body of a glass revenant is tough. During the early part of its long existance, it has the same toughness as a typical zombie, immune to pain, able to weather many direct hits and keep coming. As the glass slowly dominates it’s body, this toughness increases. For each century that a glass revenant survives, it gains a increased resistance to magic, as much as 5% a century to a max of 30% resistance. For each century of existance, the creature’s armor trait increases by a point. While thin glass is easy to shatter, thick glass can be incredibly strong and durable.
Wounding and Healing
Piercing and slashing weapons like arrows and swords deal half base damage to glass revenants, and bludgeoning and crushing weapons deal regular damage. Once the body is entirely glass, usually taking two centuries, the glass revenant is completely immune to fire mundane or magical. The glass revenant can absorb lightning strikes or lightning based magics and convert the damage into health gained as lightning is the holy element of Axtrami. Othewise healing is done through slumbering buried in the sands near a holy place or near the site of their mortal death.
Gouzali the Traitor
The name of Gouzali is not spoken of in polite conversation among the Ouzquin. Gouzali was a glass shifter who had the sacred task of creating the hemisa that his fellow Ouzquin would wear throughout their lives. Yet despite this position of importance and prestige, Gouzali wanted more, much more.
To this end he would ‘sell’ hemisa to members of the Sect of the Shattered Orb. The price was generally the broken pieces of a certain orb, often belonging to a rival of his. In this fashion, Gouzali made himself an important and powerful man. He would sell his glasswares in secret to outsiders, told lies of the people, and decieved all he could to gain green natural glass, gold, and jewels.
It was Gouzali who lead the Sect and the orcs to Xartaski Temple, and it was he who threw open the doors of the inner mysteries to loot the relics of Axtrami. Such betrayals do not go long unnoticed and many would have considered vengeance served when Gouzali faced the first of the glass revenants and perished in the sands. Unfortunately for him, rather than shatter his orb the revenant placed his orb in his mouth and circlet over hie dead eyes, trapping him within his body where Axtrami’s touched him and changed him.
Gouzali rose, his eyes burning chips of obsidian, his hands twisted and blackened into shards of obsidian. Pain wracked him as his spirit recoiled from the ancient heat the blasted the black glass out of the earth. The spirit of gouzali was tormented with thirst and with hunger, and with the pain of volcanic fire. Many centuries after the fall of Xartaski Temple, the numbers of obsidian revenants, those who violate the faith by deed and creed, have risen in number.
Nantuin Xactaki: Revenants of Obsidian
These zombies of black volcanic glass progress in much the same fashion as Revenants of Glass, save that rather than being converted to glass and being filled with a certain radiance, the obsidian revenants draw in and hold the heat of the sun and are tormented by this. They have the same improvements in armor and invunerabilities to weapons and such. However, fires actually cause the obsidian revenants to heal damage, though they still feel the full pain of being burned. Fire magics are preferred as the exposure time is much shorter and the health gain is faster. Lightning, conversely actually deals twice the normal damage to the obsidian revenants, though in recorded time, no obsidian revenant has been so blessed by Axtrami to be blasted to pieces by one of his bright shafts.
While Revenants of Glass are quite rare and bound to stay in certain areas, Revenants of Obsidian are rather more common. While this might seem like a great problem considering how powerful these creatures can become, the Glass Revenants all tend to be much older and quite wise while the Obsidian Revenants tend to be less than a century old and often bestial in nature. This is explained in the sutras of the Ouzquin as the Revenants of Glass were created to protect holy places and people, whereas the Revenants of Obsidian were placed to test the skill, courage, and faith of Axtrami’s people.
The Easy Kill
The revenants, glass and obsidian, have a singular weakness. The hemisa in their mouth is the keystone to their functioning. While difficult, a called shot to the mouth has a chance to break the hemisa and undo the holy power that holds the revenant together. A glass revenant’s hemisa is hard to see as its head and jaw are glass, just like the hemisa itself. When struck in this fashion, rather than collapse, the glass portions of the revenant explode outwards. young revenants do no damage with this, but a five century old revenant would detonate like a 300 pound glass bomb, likely perforating the body of his slayer.
Obsidian revenants face a more painful end. When the hemisa breaks the heat of the obsidian is unchecked and what organic parts of the revenant remain are quickly boiled dry by the heat, often causing them to wail and spew hot blood everywhere. Older obsidian revenants flare with magical fire and collapse into a smoldering heap of obsidian shards.