Stone Eaters

Stone Eaters were humanoid beings native to the Stillness who were products of a pairing of magic and orogeny. They were "born" when magic-sentitive orogenes excessively tapped into and used obelisks, a process that fossilized their bodies and erased their memories. They appeared to the causal observer to be humans made entirely of rock and crystal with diamondine teeth. Able to move through the earth (solid rock) at will and capable of transporting human beings (and presumably other living creatures) with them, they possessed both superhuman strength and speed. Their name came from the fact that they literally ate rocks and crystals.

## Name

Stone eaters were simply named, deriving their collective demonym from the fact that they literally consumed rock and crystal. Their teeth were diamondine both in appearance and hardness, allowing them to literally chew and swallow rocks. In the Broken Earth, Hoa demonstrated to Essun when he ate a bit of the crystal that came from his geode chrysalis. He further explained (in the Stone Sky) that this was not a nutritional requirement, merely "something we do."

## Origin

Stone eaters were created by the shattering, when the primary precursor civilization attempted to use the obelisks to exert further control over and therefore deeper and more egregious exploitation of Father Earth than had been previously achieved. This was for the purpose of easy and convenient access to magical energy and its innumerable benefits for the precursor's society. This attempt, which involved the use of genetically engineered orogenes with magical abilities, ultimately failed, sent the moon into an extended parabolic solar orbit, and resulted both in the shattering and the advent of fifth seasons. Any humans or orogenes with magical abilities that could use the obelisks were therafter transformed into stone eaters.

## Appearance

Stone eaters appeared essentially to be human-shaped statues at first glance. They seemed to move either with extreme, preternatutal slowness, or superhuman speed. Stone eaters were capable of appearing more passably human if the need arose. Hoa was able to "birth" a more traditionally humanoid form inside of a geode specifically for the purpose of appearing human and interacting with Essun. Although his shape and form previous to this was unknown, once he emerged from the geode, he was more or less indistinguishable from a normal human child, other than his icewhite eyes and diamond teeth. (NOTE: It can be inferred that the form Hoa chose to interact with Syenite was based on a memory from his original form.) This indicated that stone eaters both existed as incorporeal and corporeal beings, and were capable of choosing their physical form at will.

## Abilities

Stone eaters were capable both of orogeny and of magic on many levels. As a group, all possessed the ability to travel through any medium on the planet at an appreciable fraction of the speed of light. In one instance, Hoa moved from Yumenes to Allia (a distance of several hundred miles) in a fraction of a second. They were capable of sessing and locating both their own kind and human orogenes over planetary distances. They also possessed superhuman strength, and could magically alter the tissues of living things, turning them to stone almost instantly. Hoa used this ability on a khirkusa that attacked Essun and Tonkee following the Rifting.

## Procreation

New stone eaters could only be created from orogenes with a magical connection directly connecting to and using an obelisk. The act of magically accessing the obelisks (especially the Onyx) caused said orogene to begin to turn into stone. Depending on the skill of the orogene and the amount of energy used by the chosen task, this process could be controlled. Essun was able to choose which body parts were fossilized, due to her immense power. Alabaster however, appeared to have no control over his transformation due to the amount of energy he expended. During this process, any use of magic or accessing of the obelisks would result in more of the orogene's body becoming quickly fossilized. Stone eaters were able to consume any part of the body that turned to stone. Once this process was complete, the subject would become a stone eater, and awaken with no memories of their life as a human but with all of their orogenic power and mental faculties completely intact. Hoa guided the former Essun through her transformation, providing the narrative voice for her chapters in all three books. The story is told from Hoa's first-person perspective as he describes Essun's/Syenite's/Damaya's former life to her as a nascent stone eater, hoping to help her understand herself and her previous life. Whether or not this is a typical practice or a special courtesy shown to the former Essun was not revealed.

## Age

Stone eaters were, for all intents and purposes, immortal. Hoa and Antimony were over 40,000 years old at the time of the Rifting. They could be trapped in crystal via magic (as Essun did to the ones attacking Castrima), but it was unclear if they were capable of being killed by nonmagical means.

## Culture

Almost nothing was known of stone eater culture. It was clear that they, being former human orogenes, had a factional society based on ideological differences and similarities. As such, when the Rifting occurred and it became clear that humanity would be annihilated without intervention, the stone eaters were split along lines of attempting to correct the problem by reestablishing the moon in its orbit to end the seasons, or to allow things to play out and let humanity's extinction proceed. These sides could be termed the "Hoa" and "Father Earth" factions, respectively. Humans commonly avoided stone eaters, but upon encountering one, both stonelore and the general wisdom was to leave them unmolested at all costs, as there were credible lorist accounts of a single stone eater obliterating an entire comm whose geomest inhabitants attempted to capture and study it.