Arish

*That seems... pointlessly cruel.*

*I believe that the cruelty is the point. Granting wishes is the only thing that relieves them of their pain.*

Metaphysicist Iris conversing with her student Menaphor on the Arish.

The Arish are a species of wish granting reality warpers. Once a largely benevolent and benign species, most members of their kind have been mutilated and enslaved by the Ulemedi.

## Description

Ulemedi affiliated Arish are symbiotes, and resemble small mutated crustacean like creatures when not bonded to a host. The shapes of each Arish vary depending on their mutations and disfigurement, but all that have been encountered by the Weave survivors are known to possess a carapace and multiple compound eyes. Symbiotic Arish have been engineered to permanently bond with any sapient host that is in their vicinity, and after bonding are not able to merge with any other being, even if the prior host dies. The Ulemedi also implanted several conceptual markers in the symbiotic Arish's metaphysical makeup to suffer constant mental and physical pain, with the only recourse from such by constantly granting wishes to its host (alongside ensuring that the Arish is unable to self-terminate through its own power). These markers also allow the Ulemedi to give orders to both non-bonded and bonded (to non Ulemedi hosts) Arish that they are compelled to follow. The host of such a bond is the only one who is able to make wishes from their passenger, and as such the survival of the host is the first priority of any bonded Arish. More desperate bonded Arish may induce their own pain within their host, in order to spur the host into making more wishes.

A symbiotic Arish grows in power through granting wishes (up to a limit of universal reality warping), with a corresponding increase in the amount of energy that must be spent for a release from the pain. A fully grown symbiote will attempt to motivate its host to constantly make wishes that affect the entirety of a universe in a major way to relieve it from its pain, to the point that it will also drive its host to insanity with its own suffering if they should stop making such wishes. In most cases, this leads to non-Ulemedi hosts turning the universes they are present in into churning, chaotic hellscapes. Symbiotic Arish also serve as beacons for the Ulemedi, whom use them as a way to find more slaves to add to their collection.

On Ulemedi hosts, the bonding process is slightly different. Due to the extreme rigidity of the Ulemedi's metaphysical makeup, symbiotic Arish instead attach to the soul instead of integrating into them. A symbiotic Arish can thus be removed from an Ulemedi host, though such a thing has very rarely happened.

There is no known way to remove an Arish from a non-Ulemedi host once it has been bonded, as the symbiote fuses itself into a host's consciousness and metaphysical makeup. Neutering the bonded Arish is possible, though that entails having the host's mind stripped away and preventing them from developing a new consciousness.

The free Arish are notably less solid in form. Arish that have not undergone the mutilation necessary to become symbiotes are wispy and smoky, and may gather themselves into particular shapes for convenience. Unlike the symbiotic Arish, the free Arish are less restricted in the ways of increasing their power, and can do so through prolonged usage of their general abilities, up to a range and potency limit of a universe. Free Arish share a trait of being extremely metaphysically malleable, which allows their consciousness and soul to grow rapidly in power, at the cost of being very easy to be forcefully changed or shaped by others.

The source of all the Arish's reality warping power lies in their original universe; entities that were formed in this reality had powers and abilities derived from expending the energy of their soul. The Arish arose as beings whose souls could grow in potency via the expenditure of power, and with this trait quickly came to dominate their home, before spreading out towards other universes.

## History

The Arish are an ancient species, having been established with a multiversal distribution for several aeons before the Weave was established. Due to the fact that few things in their region of the multiverse could challenge them, the Arish had little conflict with other beings; this, paired with the relative disinterest that they had in conquest or ruling, ensured that relations with others was relatively peaceful, if not beneficial. Over time the Arish set themselves up as benevolent genie-figures that granted wishes to the Bound and some of the lower Transcendent powers in the region. These civilisations made wishes to help avert disasters to themselves, alongside requests for resources and raw materials. For most of Arish history, the species went unchallenged by other powers.

The arrival of the Ulemedi, however, changed the dynamic entirely. An up and coming multiversal power, the Ulemedi were scouting out their neighbours. At first, the newcomers were relatively peaceful, and did not attack. They did, however make efforts to probe the Arish, after obtaining information from some of their client species on the benefactors that granted their wishes. For a time, there was very little conflict between the two, though that would soon change. After discretely kidnapping a young and undeveloped member of the Arish, the Ulemedi dissected its metaphysical composition and found ways to exploit its weaknesses, namely their malleability.

Over the next millennia, the Ulemedi scouted out all the universes that the Arish were present in, while simultaneously engineering a soul plague that would transform the latter into the form many are found in today. Once the Ulemedi had found every universe with Arish, they unleashed the plague in a devastating alpha-strike, which spread to encompass nearly the whole species in a matter of moments. With their kin mutilated in an instant, the Arish fled their universes, and would continue to do so for several millions of years until finding protection under the Weave remnants. Owing to the relatively low number of Ulemedi hosts to the number of Arish, the rest of the symbiotes were released into the multiverse as beacons for the slavers to find more victims.

Shortly after the disastrous first contact between the Ulemedi and the Weave remnants, the Arish arrived in remnant space and made contact with them. In contrast to their pursuers, the contact, while cautious, remained peaceful and allowed ventures to be undertaken between them.

During the following millennia, the few surviving Arish made pacts with the Negentroptic Union; in exchange for protection against the Ulemedi, they would lend their power to help fight the various existential threats that surround the survivors. This lead to the creation of the Patra, whose role is to head off the most dire threats that attack the Weave remnants.

## Culture

Little of the original Arishi culture has survived to the present, as the surviving Arish are both few in number and had spent many millions of years fleeing from the Ulemedi. What has survived, however reveals that they were a relatively anarchist society, with no central authority. Arishi culture emphasizes generosity and charity, with the granting of other's wishes being among the highest forms of such.

## Relations

The free Arish are viewed as a mixed blessing by the Weave remnants. The existence of the Patra is owed to their lending of power to the Negentropic Union's cause, but the association with their tainted kin makes many wary of them.

Symbiotic Arish on the other hand, are both pitied for their plight and despised for the catasrophes they bring to those within the Weave's remains. These Arish have a reputation for driving non-Ulemedi hosts to insanity, and being the cause for the fall of many galaxy-cities and universal settlements (whether through catastrophic destruction or leading Ulemedi slavers to their locations). Unbonded symbiotes are almost always killed on sight, and rogue hosts are hunted by killteams for the disasters they cause.