Darklings

## Overview

Darkling is the term used to describe those Overlords who yet to gain control of their Darkseeds. Depending on their age they are volatile beings often losing control of themselves.

### Anatomy

The exact creation process of a Darkling is largely a mystery. Though invariably conceived by mortals with rich sexual lives, what causes a female to give birth to the abominations known as Darklings is yet unknown. What is known is that save for a slightly heightened appetite and a black organ in their chest cavity they in all aspects resemble their parent race. For a guardian it can be difficult to notice if one's adolescent is a Darkling. Easily mistaken for prodigies, they are stronger, faster and smarter than others of their kind but display no distinguishing traits in their early lives. So few differences can be seen or felt that seldom does the Darkling itself know its true nature.

### The Black Baptism

A Darkling's true colors reveal themselves in the Darkling's mid-teens. With a body now capable of handling the process, the Darkseed lodged in the Darkling's chest burrows its tendrils deep within its host's beating heart. Hungry for control, The Darkseed occasionally penetrates the host's pulmonary artery blocking it. As the Darkling's blood clogs, pulmonary embolism and eventually death is predictably common. It is ironic that those who perish are the lucky ones. For those who survive finds the very essence of the Shardgods pumped through their every vein and artery. The flow of dark energy ceases minutes later as abruptly as it began but the Darkling's life will never be the same.

### Ruination

The signs will come in small packages at first. A plate will break at the Darkling's touch. Animals will bark and hiss at their approach. A rising tendency to hostile behavior. As time progresses, the signs will increase in severity, eventually culminating in self-destruction. This climax varies from Darkling to Darkling. For some the catalyst is anger. For others sadness. Regardless, one lapse in mental health is all the Darkseed needs to take control. In a surge of void energies the Darkling will hurt those they care about most. Friends, family members, pets, the killings are always gruesome in nature. Furthermore, the emotions are always fleeting, and as the void energies fade, they leave nothing behind but the Darkling, atrocities and shattered consciences.

### Hunted

What happens next depends on the Darkling's mental state. Some ask for help from local authorities hoping their condition can be cured. Others break down or flee the scene entirely. Regardless of good-willed actions they always end up dogged by Greathower Cathedral's Inquisitors. Hunted like an animal the adolescent will lose everything. Wherever they take shelter the Darkseed will brutally destroy. Whomever tries to help them will end up dead at their hands. Over time they will come to be regarded as monsters, no better than the ravenous Bloodfallen or the cave-dwelling Skraals. And while the Darkling can flee from their physical assailants, they cannot flee from their Darkseed. In its clutches, psychological lapses are torn open. The smallest hurdles are made huge. The tiniest scares made into horrors. The mildest frustrations flared to rage.

### Ripened

It is few Darklings that do not break or die. Sometimes it takes weeks. Sometimes it takes months. A few Darklings have lasted for years. It matters little. As the Darkling's mental state crumbles around it, the Darkseed pounces. Emitting a surge akin to that of the Darkling's baptism the Darkseed ruptures a portal to the void through which immaterial tendrils pull its screaming host.

### Birth of an Overlord

The Shardgods have little power within the realms. They cannot enter them and materializing anything without a mortal vessel through which to channel is an exertion of strength seldom worth the effort. The void is another story altogether. Here the Shardgods reign supreme and take sadistic pleasure in molding those unfortunate souls sent their way. Emotions are reforged and amplified. Those who feel even the slightest anger will become furious. Those who have developed twitchy and anxious tendencies find themselves overloaded and incapable of harboring emotions at all. The work never stops with the mind. With the Darkseed working from the inside and the  Shardgods working from without, the Darkling's physique is contorted to resemble their minds. There are never two alike but archetypes exist nonetheless. The Infernals, the Reapers and the Corruptants simply to name a few.

As the Darkseed and the Shardgods' journeys through the host's paralyzed frame link up, the Overlord is finally born. Relinquishing control over the black organ, Erisycthylon at last grants the Darkling the ability to control the  Darkseed themselves. Directed by the newborn Overlord's twisted emotions the Darkseed's raw power is focused into physical strength or horrifying spells as the Overlord desires. Finishing the last touches on their precious creation, the Shardgods warp the Overlord to their new realm. Here the Overlord will shape their home and test out their abilities in a safe environment before they inevitably return to Caleleth.