Welcome to Gaia! ::

Overview:

By nature, Sand Shepherds as merely spirits in mortal flesh. They do not quite possess the same level of power as they did in the spirit realm, but retain a basic repertoire of their abilities. In the Sand Shepherds' case, they all possess a suite of hypnotic abilities and the ability to tap into and manipulate mortal subconscious.

Abilites all Sand Shepherds possess:

- Ocular hypnosis: Targets meeting eye contact while this power is active is subject to this ability. Targets with strong wills or are visually challenged are typically immune. Effect takes as short as a few seconds to as long as a few minutes, depending on their will level. Once succumbed, target will slip into a deeply entranced sleep.

- Sleep dust: This ability rapidly depletes mana reserves, but produces an instantaneous effect. Unless hypnosis, the target coming in contact with the dust quickly succumbs into a non-entranced, normal sleep. Due to the potency of this ability, it's seldom used outside of emergencies.

- Touch-based telepathy: All Shepherds have pads on their fingertips and palms. This it to facilitate one of the most crucial process in order to dream eat. By touching the target with bare hands, they can form a telepathic connection between each other. they often wear gloves, to prevent accidentally melding with people they inadvertently touched. When a telepathic bond is formed, the sensation usually feels pleasurable, which helps lowers a target's subconscious resistance. This is not true of a Fiefdom Sand Shepherd (Refer to their profile below).

- Dream eat: Sand Shepherds do not possess a digestive system, but still need to feed to stay alive. They do this by dream eating. When a target is hypnotized or asleep, a Sand Shepherd can meld with said individual's mind. Once melded, a Sand Shepherd simply absorbs a the dream the target is having through melded telepathy. The target is usually unharmed by this, often experiencing just merely a dreamless sleep.

~~~~~~

Elder Sand Shepherds

Bio: This variant among the oldest-known type of Sand Shepherd, with proof of their intervention with mortals extending well into prehistory and perhaps the more friendly and accepting of the three factions. Despite being ousted from the spiritual plane along with the rest of their brethren, they still carry out their goddess' will by serving mortals the only way they know, by bringing sleep to the sleepless. At one point in history, they were so prevalent that insomnia was considered a thing of the past. Their numbers have been slowly dwindling over the years, as while all Elder Sand Shepherds cannot die from old age, they can still perish from unnatural causes and possess a very low fertility rate.

Because of this and their longevity, they often become nomadic, traveling city to city. some to attempt to settle down, but ultimately the innate drive to bring slumber upon insomniacs drives them to find fresh feeding grounds.

Courtship and reproduction: Elders are by nature, friendly and prefer the company of mortals. As a result, they rarely mate with their own. Like most Shepherds, they do not fair well under monogamy, but Elders are perhaps the only subspecies known to be successful at it. Elders are typically pansexual and will take partners (known as bondmates) on the basis of not on physical appearance, but the vividness of their dreams.

Offspring will always resemble the parent that is not an Elder, but may develop psychic abilities of their own upon reaching adulthood. Although it's always not the case.

Patron Deity: Hypnia, goddess of sleep, dreams, and inner peace. She is typically regarded as a deity of Light, meaning that her intentions are usually benevolent in nature. Although she has been known to harshly punish her children for harming mortals. She is known to be worshiped only Elders, but her doctrine welcomes converts from other races. Her doctrine condemns harming innocent mortals and forbids the use of force mental manipulation upon them unless under the most extreme circumstance.

Appearance: Golden wool. Elders that are very advanced in age often develop silver fleece.

General moral alignment: Lawful good.

Unique abilities:

- Experience sieve: Given their benevolent natures, Elders often forge very close bonds with hosts. As a result, their minds become intimately connected during dream eating. People have compared a bond with a friendly Elder to be like having a thousand conversations at once. Sometimes, a great deal of information and experience is passed to each other this way. Either Elder or target has a good chance of acquiring skills or talents, depending on the target's nature.

~~~~~~


E'Nocti Sand Shepherds

Bio: Perhaps the most bizarre of the Shepherds, the E'Nocti are also the most common, living in cities and often in questionable lifestyles. While not inherently evil, they have fallen far from Hypnia's influence and often live like hedonists. They relish in their talents and seldom use it for beneficial purposes, although they never enthrall anyone against their will. However, they do often acquire a stable of "Av'Telios" {Hypniathine for "charmed ones"}, people who willfully submitted to an E'Nocti's hypnotic sway, either as servants or or as concubines. Harems are not uncommon, and often are filled with Av'Tielios of both gender and often from many races. Unlike the essentially mindraped Thralls belonging to the more sinister Fiefdom Sand Shepherd, Av'Teilos do not suffer from mental degradation under prolonged E'Nocti hypnosis. This is largely believed to two different elements that separate them from Thralls. One is the willful submissive nature of the entranced state, and that it's often accomplished slowly and gently by the Shepherd. The second element is the E'Nocti themselves, which while many of their kind have forsaken Hypnia's favor, it's widely believed that she never punished E'Nocti on the same level as the Fiefdom. The E'Nocti's abilities are simply not corrosive to mortal minds, but in fact, they seem to benefit from it, although not nearly as much as Elders.

E'Nocti often dwell deep inside the seedy parts of population centers. They do not possess the drive that Elders do to be nomadic and thus often root themselves in places for several generations before becoming bored and moving on.

Courtship and reproduction:Like Elders, they take mates on the caliber of their dreams, but they will not take them if the mate in question does not agree to become an Av'Tielios. If agreed to, the prospective mate is charmed and placed in a harem-like stable of other Av'Tielios. This is not always the fact for E'Nocti, as some choose not to live in such a morally questionable lifestyle. However, many E'Nocti will still prefer charming their mates despite their lifestyle.

Appearance: Often purple, with black highlights in their fleece.

Unique abilities:

- Av'Telios summon: These entranced servants of the E'Nocti are not quite as fanatical as Thralls. In fact, they still reserve some form of free will and will retreat from a fight if injured to severe incapacitation. However, they have an extraordinarily high threshold for pain. Hostile Av'Telios should be stuck or shot in vital spots to cripple them. Some Av'Telios that have been under E'Nocti sway for extremely long periods of time have been known to take up to three shots to the head before dying. Killing an Av'Telios' master/mistress will free them from the E'Nocti's influence and "awaken" them.

- Charm: A very ineffectual technique for combat as it's useless against hostiles, but Av'Telios are created through this method. This ability takes from several minutes to up to hour to take effect, as the E'Nocti has the lull the willful target into a trance. Once done, the target becomes susceptible to commands, and usually it's then when an E'Nocti assumes their role as the target's master/mistress. E'Nocti prefer doing this through pendulums, as they allow the Shepherds to channel their hypnotic powers more smoothly and rhythmically, which is necessary for charming. Ocular hypnosis is often too potent to produce Av'Telios, and thus is an avoided practice.

~~~~~~

Fiefdom Sand Shepherds:

Perhaps the most cruelest ones and the least known about, these Shepherds are perhaps also the fewest. Hypnia punished these spirits the hardest for their crimes against the mortal plane when the Fiefdom attempted to take over the known world through psychic domination, cursing their touch to be an unbearable experience by mortals. It was Hypnia's harsh punishment that twisted these spirits into something more darker and spiteful of the world. They forbid any form of deity worship in their territories and conquer other kingdoms through their Thrall armies. Beyond that, little more is known as few people never leave a Fiefdom's stronghold without becoming a Thrall or getting killed.

Appearance: Red fleece. Some possess golden fleece, as some Fiefdoms used to be Elders.

Unique abilities:

- Enthrall: Even the E'Nocti regard this practice as abhorrent. Fiefdom can use their hypnotic abilities to turn any mortal into a mindless drone, or Thrall. This can be done rapidly and the few who ever emerge from the trance in one piece often compared it as being forcefully turned into a dullard devoid of any will, and often say that it felt like their minds were viciously violated. Enthralled have a lifespan of five years before the forced trance begins to wreak havoc on the victim's brain, spurring an early development of Alzheimer's and other forms of degenerative dementia. Thralls have no sense of self-preservation, and will fight for their Fiefdom until death. They have a pain threshold that trumps even Av'Tielios, and would require a killing blow or shot to stop one completely. Hammers, mauls, or shotguns are suggested.

- Corrosive bonding: Perhaps the most tragic reason Fiefdoms have become such horrid spirits is the fact that they can never bond and feed upon mortals without causing discomfort. A Fiefdom always leaves vivid nightmares in place of the dreams they eat, whether intentional or not.