The Root Witches ARU

Brood Hatcher Incubator

“Sisters! Mothers! Heed me. We all bear the wounds of this embattled world, for the path of the Worthy is hard and fraught. There are those among you who know the pain of bearing their last seedlings, or burying children lost to trails, or worse, those who have never known the joy of birth. To these sisters among our number, know that Laculathon has not abandoned you, and through me, offers you Her boundless fertility. Such is the Covenant of our Great Mother. No soul is beyond healing; no body is below service!”

— Mala, Voice of Laculathon

​Life on Nuath is hard, dangerous, and short. Between diseases, storms, and predators, Aru often find themselves wounded, maimed, or otherwise debilitated. In defiance, many “once-mothers” and “never-mothers” offer themselves to Mala’s tribe as Yatl’aoi’xlat (meaning “unconquered flower”). Reborn from the fertile pools of resin at the base of Latchatca, Yatl’aoi’xlat join their ailing forms with lymph/womb tissue from the Blood Mother, transforming them into Incubators. In battle, these fertility witches draw blood from the fallen to aid in the siring and hatching of quitl, and in groups can overwhelm enemy positions in a tide of chittering teeth and liquified organs.​​

Exemplar of the Cycle Dread Sister

During the Battle of Izupal, then-Zenith Lord Mala abandoned the Chorus and bore the God Tree Laculathon into the realm of Creation. She was not alone in this sacred labor; many among the Iratek’s Priesthood of the Sought Form answered their Lord’s call, spurning the teachings of the Zenith Born and embracing the Blood Mother’s transformative touch. Through their intimate bond with Mala, these matriarchs became the first Root Witches, and the First and Greatest Sisters among the Aru.

Two centuries of war, sacrificial rites, and divine meditations have shaped these individuals into fearsome instruments, whose terrible magics rip life from flesh and birth monsters from corpses. Known by their subjects as Ezlilti, or Dread Sisters, these priestesses command fear and respect among all segments of Aru society and answer only to Mala, their original Lord.

Ceremonial Slayer Bone Stalker

Where the fraternal tribes of masked hunters jostle, peacock, and strut, each seeking the attention and affections of high-ranking females, the Bone Stalkers sit in meditative silence, each individual possessed by visions of future hunts. Their births prophesized by Xol in anticipation of the Great Hunt, these individuals belong to the fearsome Aru strain of “Icta’Nuat,” or “those that take the bone.” Bone Stalkers possess the ability to control their metabolism, sex drive, and sensory input, allowing them to stand stone-still for days. In this meditative state, the Covenant of Bone is invoked, and light itself is fooled by the God Tree, hiding the stalkers from view. Only when their victims draw close to the Bone Stalkers break their vigil, moving with unnerving speed and striking with lethal precision.

Living Wraith White Wood Reaper

With Xol’s birth came a strange advent, the next sign in a string of prophecies put forth by Mala: the birth of the first albino Aru. Regarded by their kin with fear and reverence, the “Icta’Nuat” represent the Aru’s promised afterlife, the White Wood: a realm where the balance between the living and the dead is so complete that no divide exists at all. Chief among this new strain of exalted hunters are the Icta’Nuat’Tzlaka, or “Bone-Takers from the White Wood.”

Born sterile, sexless, and mature, the White Wood Reapers embody Laculathon’s vision for the Covenant of Bone: an ultimate hunter unburdened by mortal needs. Reapers possess a unique blend of hunting instincts and senses sourced from over a dozen species, and are gifted weapons and armor made from Laculathon’s internal organs. Those that are cut by these weapons have their consciousness temporarily joined to the Reaper that wounded them, granting the hunter an intimate knowledge of the quarry’s anatomy, emotional state, and physical location.