Ebenient

The chthonic **ebenients** are an extinct insect-like race of demons that came to Hephestia during the Sorjachani Invasion. They were unleashed by the Sorjachani to weaken and penalize the resistant mortals, with three queens brought with Tyrant Saartur from Alaniji to breed an army that could hollow out the very earth underfoot.

Called **World-Eaters**. The Devouring Plague.

* Hecatonchireids, "The Hundred-Handed Ones"
* Hecate, "Three-Faced Goddess"
* Hecatomb, "hundred bulls" a sacrifice of one-hundred oxen.
	+ Tribute paid to keep the demons' appetites sated.
* Lampads, torch-bearing nymphs of the underworld and servants of Hecate.
	+ fireflies
* Called **crossroads demons** because of their winding subterranean warrens and their hunting strategy of tunneling underneath congested road junctions and devouring travelers.

## Characteristics

* Subterranean. Tunnel-carvers who dig out hive colonies underground.
* Originally thought to communicate through pheromones like other insects, but discovered to actually be fully sentient beings, relying on an enclosed psychic network within each hive to relay news and receive commands from the queen.
* Emit odorous gases which are said to be nauseating. Their hives are filled with the noxious miasma.

## Biology

### Types

#### Prelate

The prelate is an unordinary exception to both demonkind and mortal.

## History

### Sorjachani Invasion

The ebenients, being subterranean creatures, spent their time during the Sorjachani Invasion tunneling beneath the surface to set up their breeding hives. The preexisting underground tradeways built by the dwarves in Cremalia and [Spain] expedited the ebenient excavations, who expanded on the stone-set corridors with labyrinthine warrens of carved earth. From beneath the surface, the ebenient could stage attacks on the unsuspecting above, literally undermining defenses and reconnaissance.

### Great Purge

The threat posed by the ebenients was unignorable, as whole towns would disappear in artificial sinkholes and their inhabitants devoured or enthralled. When the Great Purge was initiated, Weldfan slaves bought from Besperia by the Meridoque Empire were conscripted to serve in the empire's less grandiose expeditions against demonkind, since the demons' noxious gases, the risk of tunnel collapse, and the horror of being eaten alive by demons was work only slaves could be asked to do. Fighting alongside clerics from the Order of Botaine, these Alfaran warriors were tasked with clearing out the ebenient infested the tunnels underneath the surface. Given crude polearms, linen masks, and whatever armor they could scavenge from the ebenient's leftovers, the Alfaran had a high turnover rate and mutiny was not uncommon.

The Elven Rebellions ignited when dwarves from Gidan struck gold in the Pell Hills, which were swarmed by the nearby Pelshik Hive, whose tunnelers had already made headway into accessing the richest mineral veins. The Meridoque Empire drafted its Alfaran legions to siege the hive, an impenetrable fortress of poisonous gas and darkness, and sent squad after squad to their deaths for an inch of sunless ground. The Alfaran general Taras di Soliflor, aggrieved of humanity's abuse of his people, murdered his commander and deserted the campaign with his comrades, who banded together and slew their Meridoquian overlords. Taras ordered the demolition of the Pelshik Hive and its tunnel systems, collapsing the earth on top of the ebenient queen and sealing her brood in their own tombs, denying anyone access to the gold hidden deep below the earth amidst the rubble.

Elsewhere, alfaran commanders heard of Taras' feat in Pelshik and followed his example by executing their overseers and collapsing the ebenient tunnels assigned to them, spiting their masters by refusing to sacrifice their lives in the underground. Hive by hive, the ebenients were exterminated by the elves, and those that escaped were hunted down on the surface.

No ebenient sightings have been reported since the days of the Elven Rebellions, and the species has been presumed to be wiped out.

## Society

### Hives

The hives of the ebenient demons matched the metropolises of the Bagharn in their grandeur, but, in contrast to the multi-faceted society of the Stoneborn, the hives revolved around subsistence and reproduction, with all members devoted to the central goal of attending their queen. When corrupted, the queen's will reflects the socraj, and despite not channeling sorjin themselves, the ravenous ebenient are among the most zealous troops of the tyrant's armies.