Ûzul-Skaa

Warriors of Green Foul Gnaw represent as well an own species as also a society of warriors and clerics, around which a manyfold of legends, mysteries and stories grow up around.
They belong to a group of people of former humans and elves, which have been coming to exist by the pestilence of the ‚Curse of Fleshlessness‘.
This lepre-like disease spreaded out of the swamps of the south onto the middle continent, eastwards, and even in the more northern areas of the middle world.

Warriors of Green Foul Gnaw belong to a kind of stamina-wise / physically especially resistent elves, immortal one’s or superhumans, who survived despite of this pestilence, and began in any past to wander over the countryside as a kind of roaming warrior monkhood, and to follow mysterious businesses of unknown nature.
Zûmakh is the name of the first infected, who once founded their warrior- and monk order, and initiated their own culture as enlightened one.

The Ûzul-Skaa step up in obscure, shady and proud appearance, mummed with cloak and hood, wrapped up in long flowing grey coat and draped with purple scarf or sash.
In the musculous, gloved fist they use to carry a long wander- and at the same time battle staff or trident as a sign for their own tribe and as pilgrims.
Their traditional grey cloak of rags is tattered and torn up to fringes.
They cover up their faces partly with leather masks, suiting tightly to their head, decorated and slitted eye bandages, in form of cloths of old, grey or greyblue, or also purple fabrics.
( Veils or subtle fog- and shadow magic ) 

The Ûzul-Skaa are extremely tall grown, and onto over 1,90 m in body height, and mostly rather ressemble giants, than men.
Their bodies are partly – in different individual grade – fouled off and rotten, some even miss whole body parts / halfths of faces, limbs like fingers, a whole hand, one arm or one of their feet is fouled off for example, so that toes miss on it, a lower leg is rotten almost onto the bone, other body parts being otherwise swollen with water, or like mummified.

Their skin – which is probably mostly grey or almost green – has partly leathery, partly shrunkened up, parchment-like consistence, and is stretched up therefore over the bones and ribs covering the hardened and dried out body flesh inbetween the bones.
At other body parts of some Ûzul-Skaa heir flesh especially on legs and feet is bloated, parly also accompanied by single emerging of blisters, and in some cases their bodies build out pus-bag-like extremeties, big swollen bumps and skin bags, which are filled with liquid.

Warriors of Green Foul Gnaw have got varied hair- and eye colour.
As soon as they have got hair, then, and are not completely bald, they also unsually cut them to a special, ritual and cultic important hair-do, up to one mohawk, a single pigtail, or in form of a tonsure, which is mostly shaped like a holy or magical symbol, a glyph or rune.

They are extremely strudy, robust and resistant, strong and powerful in combat abilities, and are in cases sometimes coming close to the body power of more than one man, united in one single person.
Equip over an extra-ordinary high constitution and resistance also against poisons and diseases ( other than their own pestilence itself ) and are in no way undead, but still partly possess a high, superhuman life expectation of onto over 200 years.
Their own kind has got culture, traditions and an own religion.
Earn their money in sense of bread making as begging monks, fighters and healers, wise mystics and magicians.
Their belief includes strict guidelines, ruled up rites, meditations and sacrifices to the gods, in not live form, and prayers.
( > Grey Lords, justice, balance and anger / death fairies )

Their warriorship is lightly stamped by old roots of shamanic traditions, but still rather orientates in the concrete practise of the presence as mentalistic monkdom, which can be compared to the modern religion of St. Gaayus and the Church of Light.
As warriors the Ûzul-Skaa fight as shamanic / cultic / cleric berserks and roaming warrior monks / High Warrior Monks, using martial arts, exceptional for noble, honourable and good, virtueful goals – in defence of ill one’s, old one’s, weak one’s, dying one’s or miscreated / freaks, and any kind of minority, socially out-casted or ‚impure‘, generally avioded and shunned. 
The Ûzul-Skaa work and proceed a little bit in ways of a special elitary task force of warriors, who intervene and take action, anywhere where wrong, evil deed or crime towards the humanity is done – may it be in course of a war, or inside of a specific country, a region or at a place, inside of some political system, or also a form of society, in which weak, disadvantaged, minorities, rightless, or even slaves are supressed, exploited, or treated indecent, or where conditions exist, which kick the basic rights of any individual with feet.

As healers and in function of a priest, they comfort the dying and sick at the same time, lend pastoral care, and are versed in lore and knowledge about herbs, medicine and poisons, provide orderly balance of the natural balance inbetween life and death, and work thus also as teachers, educators, birth helpers and physicians.
While some of them are also philosophers, scholars and mages.

Their holy berserks / rather martial kind of High Warrior Monks are fanatic fighters of users of black magic, pervertly influencing or twisting life, harming forces, undead or chaos forces.
( Just as well as also their products and creatures )
They follow virtues like love to life, to earth, to nature and the elements, light and moon, and never expose themselves in true appearance.
By their masks, veils, hoods and mummings and swamp-related attributes they become very fastly confused with Shurikaan / Swamp People on the first glance, for this reason.
But this is a mistake.

Ûzul-Skaa are proud, upright, keen and ambitious for virtue, purity and moralic-etchical values and good deeds, highly intelligent and wise, and worship an aspect of the birth- and death goddess and black fairy / Banshee ANNABETHA!
And pray to her, as just, neutral and incorruptable goddess of death, birth and life, and their balance.
By prothesisses, artificial face parts and body parts of metal ( in some cases also made from Mythrill, Eog or Laenn ) and things like glass eyes, steely hook- or scissorhands, skeleton-like gripping claws out of silver, eye patches and body limbs of wood ( partly made from magical, live wood of holy and awakened trees ) they try to make their disfigured and deformed shape appear ‚more human‘.
Above all in order to not scare anybody, intimidate anybody, bring anybody to shame, or wake mistrust, when they step into the public, and meet people, who aren’t used to their kind of species.
( In cases the Ûzul-Skaa also use these body-prothesisses somehow as well, to limit or stop the progress of their pestilence )

Ûzul-Skaa are mysterious, rare and exotic seeming, lonely figures. Underneath the shadow of their mummings their faces seem to be partly diffuse like through fog or concealed with deception magic.
It is said about them, that they are standing in contact inbetween each other in mystic telepathic connection by own nature, hence own, supernatural effect of common disease or magic – and belong to the alliance of a ‚same, one spirit‘, which enables them, to receive thoughts from any other brother.
( Also over great local ranges )
In times of big plague of any kind which spreads, they work as corpse collectors, plague doctors and appeasers of the gods and spirits, in order to bring mercy, sympathy and reconcilation.
Ask the gods in forms of intercession, in ceremonies and prayers.
And join up lepers, impure one’s or also avoided groups of humans ( criminals, whores, unpopular races or discriminated ) with complete security, and naturally, without any shame, shyness, fear or prejudices.
 
They are loyal, tolerant, normally rather self-balanced, peaceful and calm, and full of confidence.
And thank to their spiritual and mental condition, their middle and rest in inner peace, in any situation a rock in the waves.
They come and go usually as single pilgrims, but still now and then meet up among another ( probably for important, big common rites and gatherings of unknown nature )
And particularly pray to Dhool, the Calling One, Thraana, the Holder / Mover of the Universal Wheel, Mistress of Time and Thought ( and the destiny ) and the embodiments of the Black Reaper and death himself, the horned grey scytheman of the moon, the Great Habitgod of the Night > Morrgovaan / Morrgown an.
Presumably their - all in all nine - own main gods respectively build pairs of three with related but still different aspects.
The death symbolized by the trinity of Dhool, Annabetha and Morrgovaan;
Life symbolized by the giver and preserver of life Dyadîra, Fátumord, the Fairy of Fate, and Ushtanah / Ashténiell, Aufánea, Mysféniel, Naevra’ell / Niaala, Glascypheré, Marlynell and Veil’vraana / Vilven...
The neutrality and mediator inbetween death and life also symbolized with the Black Lord
Vforrmorl, the Brother of Evernight, and wanderer in the dark, Lordbrother of the black death ( who leads the souls out of the darkness of the underworld and the death back to the light of reincarnation and in some new terrestrial life )
* Partly also similar to the angel ‚Uriel‘, who seals the mouth of a new born with a pointing finger put to the upper lip of it, in order to make them forget the former life and the memories of paradise, before they enter their new life on earth, so that a light notch is emerging on top of the mouth of any man according to the legend, therewith also cleansing all guilt and knowledge of the immortal souls, keeping the innocence and godly knowledge in form of secrets, which no mortal is allowed to know, and with which’s knowledge no common mortal is also not able to live, at all... But would rather fall prey to insanity, become an illuminated one – or also get slaved to evil unpurified along with his own soul’s salvation...
( Aether, original source of life, true form of the human soul, and human consciousness )

The Scarlet Priest Roi-Mandias, Brother of the Bloody Sun, Wanderer in Eternal Twilight, Lordbrother of the Red Death, and Judge of the Mortal ( who weighs their hearts up hands a scale against their worldly deeds ), merciless and just Punisher-, Justice- and Law God, Lord of the godly Knowledge about the terrestrial existence, and Highpriest of the godly basical laws;
( Matter, Worldliness )

And Falkanus, the White, Monk of the Final Light, Keeper of the Knowledge and the Secrets after death and keeper of the worldly wisdom, protector and escort of the ceased spirits in the ‚Autre Monde‘ of the White World, in shape of a tunnel, gate or river ( or as ferry man for fee ) depending on personal belief and religion, life style or deeds of the dead as people say – and therefore sometimes also in appearance of a ‚Light-Angel‘ / Seraph with splendid, white wings at each shoulder...
Or also as Prince of Purgatory, Key Master of the Elysium, Master of the Purging Mountain, and ( especially in the extremistic light religion ) administrator of hell, and devil’s figure. 
( Hereafter, life after death, astral aether and ‚heaven‘, redemption and eternity after death – outside of time and space )
* harbringer and warner of the leper

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