Ekenblim

*"I saw one once when I was a child. A beautiful mote of light floating down on a moonbeam. It reminded me of a moth or a firefly as it came to me and asked me to dance... So beautiful... I would have said yes had my mother not entered the room and scared it away."*

The Ekenblim are a race of moth like humanoid fey native to the Yosekai.

**Physical Appearance**

Ekenblim range in height from 4 feet to the upper end of 9. They largely resemble bipedal moths with all the grace and dignity of the most ancient of elves. Their smooth chitinous faces resemble expressionless masks in a resting state, with their emotions becoming exaggerated when the occasion suits them. The eyes of the Ekenblim are wide black orbs with only a flicker of white pupil, like looking into the night sky with only a single star to guide you. Their regal plumage blooms from their torsos and up to their necks in a soft fuzz resembling almost a fur, made of the same chitinous material as their faces. But by far the most important and notable feature of the Ekenblim is their wings. Often resembling moth or butterfly like patterns that people know in our realm, the wings of the Ekenblim flow like nobles robes around them in enchanting patterns. But as they are beautiful, they are equally dangerous. A thin powder coats the wings of the Ekenblim, a powder that when found in great enough quantities can raise a corpse into a mindless unread that only seeks to consume the essence of a living being. Depending on their linage these features can vary but often still remain insect like in some nature.

**Abilities**

* Dust: the Ekenblim shed a dust that is incredibly powerfully magical. The individual particles are of the school of magic of transmutation, enchantment, and conjuration. Things the dust can do include: if you make a circle of it and sing in a way that matches its harmonic, the circle of dust can be used to teleport those who step inside back to Yosekai. A circle of dust becomes a portal if you sing the harmonic of the dust. If you let the dust permeate you after death or throughout your life, there is a chance your body will rise again after death and become a mindless undead known as an applefinge. There's so much energy and chaos in the dust that it's sort of like a spark of life, but it's cruel in that it doesn't care what you want, like how mutating a living being is not necessarily a kind thing to do.
* Disguise: Being masters of illusions and glamours, Ekenblim have the ability to disguise themselves as other creatures of varying sizes and shapes so the previous passage refers to their natural forms in Yosekai.
* Souls: It is mentioned in Babysitting The Stars that their souls are not desirable? Able? to be possessed by devils and demons.
* Aging: Ekenblim do not age or die of old age.
* Hierarchy: Every Ekenblim has a clearly defined, named ranking in the Ekenblim social hierarchy.
* Emotion: Ekenblim are fairly emotionless because they give their soul away during the Ekenblimification process. They abandon their family and friends and don't care that they're never going to see them again. They could go see them, there's nothing physically stopping them and they can teleport using their dust, but because they have chosen to abandon them and don't feel emotions about them, they don't.
* Reproduction: Ekenblim cannot reproduce. They can, however, convert people to become Ekenblim.
* Cultural Parasites: Ekenblim are weak at creating new ideas and prefer to parasite upon the art of other cultures, appropriating it (and converting the members of that species that created it) as their own rather than creating themselves.
* Weakness: It is mentioned in Babysitting The Stars that their business partner Bonaventura Halevy is seeking to know the weakness of Ekenblim that would give him the upper hand in his dealings with them. The strongest negotiator knows their ally's weakness.
* Immunity: In Pop Fiction, Aegis Industries developed a process to do to the dust that inoculates any who ingest it to be immune to becoming applefinge (mindless undead) or Ekenblim. See dust section below for list of immune characters who have drunk Soul Fizz.

**Known Ekenblim**

* Glorbo Singh, who was pretending to be a kid to become one of them undercover-style and later recruit them.
* It is unconfirmed that Rose Korhonen is an Ekenblim because she didn't remove her disguise during Petrification In Red.
* Trevor Horbiger: was taken by Blitz Quispe on behalf of the Ekenblim right before the events of Petting Zoos and Finding Clues and Dudu The Pudu At The Zoo Zoo. He was partially converted to Ekenblim but the process was stopped in Dusty Deeds and Dust Busters.
* In Dusty Deeds, it's learned that an adult actor (who had been very talented but underappreciated for political reasons), a child elf, and a child fire person were recruited / kidnapped by an unknown identity Ekenblim from Mishui. Also in that adventure, Slickdraw Buchel got left behind in Yosekai but is unlikely to have been recruited by the Ekenblim, as he is neither an artist nor a child.
* Maelaurian is an Ekenblim (mentioned in Dust Busters).
* Berry Pertinax: a moth winged person seen captured and freed in the adventure Pop Fiction
* Elios Van Hoofenstuff: a musical idol
* Adranuch Raja: a relatively low ranked Ekenblim in the hive palace who pays attention to new Ekenblim hatching and escorts them to their bottom-ranked job.
* Tendai Huaman: a relatively high ranked Ekenblim in the hive palace who does an unspecified job on floor 64 that involves overseeing other Ekenblim and coordinating invading new worlds.

**Allies**

* Bonaventura Halevy
* Blitz Quispe
* Rictavio Brittlecorn

### Enemies

* Bud DeLuxo and his family were petrified by the Ekenblim long, long ago because he dared to lead a revolt against them. After being released from imprisonment in Petrification In Red, he became the CEO of Aegis Industries, captured an Ekenblim, and began using Berry's dust to make a soda pop, Soul Fizz, that would inoculate any who drank it so they wouldn't turn into appelfinge, mindless undead, when they die.

## Dust

* Characters who have encountered Ekenblim dust (at risk of becoming mindless undead when they die):
	+ Stella Argentine: tripped into an Ekenblim teleportation circle in Petting Zoos and Finding Clues. Had become a little addicted to dust after Dust Busters.
	+ Wing/Nugget: sniffed to follow the trail in Petting Zoos and Finding Clues. Drank Soul Fizz and became immune to becoming an applefinge or an Ekenblim in Sitters And Souls.
	+ Jenny: touched dust, sniffs, and licks and has consumed Ekenblim dust in Dudu The Pudu At The Zoo Zoo
	+ After the events of Dusty Deeds and Dust Busters, the heroes gained a way to remove dust from their bodies thanks to an iron rod invented by artificer Barry Rawlings. It was discovered that this rod causes pain to Ekenblim and people in the process of becoming Ekenblim.
* Immunity: After the events of Pop Fiction, anyone who has drunk the soda pop Soul Fizz is inoculated against Ekenblim dust and won't turn into appelfinge, mindless undead, when they die. They also won't be able to become Ekenblim. The list of people who have drunk Soul Fizz includes Jade, Cordelia, Gatsby, Wing, Nugget, and a number of Niqamui citizens, mostly mothers.
* The Ekenblim hive palace is protected from being teleported into by just anybody. You'd have to either hack in (like Anaril Evanara did in To Wing Or Not Two Wings) or bypass the firewall in some other way (like Pan did in Pan's Handlers).
* Anaril Evanara has developed a powerful healing potion from the Ekenblim dust, as demonstrated in Chet-conomics. She has also created multiple iron-like rods that remove the dust from a person when it's waved over their body. Using their true name, she was able to redirect the dust's energy to permanently polymorph and transform targets.

## Recovery

* A small subset of the Ekenblim have regained the ability to create new things themselves after the events of Bottoms Up Buddy, where Stella's infusion of her dragon soul into Pugsley enabled him to crystallize and share happy memories with Maelurian.