Anatheloths

## Description:

Anatheloths, more commonly known as the Val'Giduth in their language, are a primordial race of hyper-intelligent, over-evolved eel-like monstrosities not native to any known Realm of the K2 Universe; at some point in the distant past, however, they were locked away in The Unbeheld by forces unknown, and there the Anatheloths continue to live. Their over-evolved nature allows the Anatheloths to survive in most environments without much issue, including more hostile Realms like The Unbeheld; most commonly, they are found in The Unbeheld, the Elemental Realm of Water, or the Material Realm. Anatheloths can range widely in appearance, but generally are found to be between ten (10) and fifteen (15) feet long, although the oldest known individuals have reached lengths of over one hundred (100) feet; Anatheloths are very dense creatures and can weigh around one thousand (1,000) pounds on average, assuming an average length. Anatheloth musculatures and internal organs are entirely foreign, as no specimen have been captured or retrieved for dissection as a result of their permeation with Umbrafluid.

Anatheloths always have been three (3) and eight (8) eyes, arranged either vertically in the middle of their face or in a patterned arrangement on either side of their heads; these eyes can range significantly in color, with sclera, irises, and pupils that can each be a different unnatural color; common colors are red, black, gray, purple, blue, white, and orange. Their eyes are also the primary means of communication for Anatheloths, discussed later. Anatheloths have no hair, but some bear tentacles atop their heads which can act similarly; Anatheloth skin can range from plain gray, black, blue, or white, but can also be patterned in more striking colors with stripes or spots of red, orange, white, yellow/gold, etc. While almost all Anatheloths, save for some rare variants, can produce bio-light from their eyes, most Anatheloths are bioluminescent in other ways, either in strips along their body, along their tendrils or tentacles, or from their head-lures or mouths.

Anatheloths are completely alien, even to races not native to the Material Realm, like Kraken, and are regarded strictly as unnatural, strange, aberrant, and deviant in structure. While most creatures across the K2 Universe do not know about Anatheloths, those that do are repulsed or terrified by them and the legends which surround them. Anatheloths are not humanoid, and only tangentially resemble the deep-sea creatures to which many witnesses compare them.

What little accounts of Anatheloths are kept within K2's many records and libraries and legends tell of the Anatheloths as unimaginably and malignantly intelligent. Their terrifyingly long lifespans, supplemented by their unique, perfect, and nigh-instantaneous means of long-distance communication ensure that their history is also perfectly preserved, down to every last detail; this level of exact knowledge transferal prevents the decay of information over time and allows future generations to continue where their predecessors left off. Without any loss of information over time, Anatheloths have proven to be one of the most devious and intelligent of creatures, with a mastery of biology, light, and psychology that allows them to easily and readily manipulate nearly any sentient creature they come across; their abilities and extensive knowledge regarding the manipulation of light also allows them to control sea life at will. Anatheloths are not, however the wisest of monsters; their innate desire to dominate other sentient individuals and regain the empire they claim to have lost impedes their ability to develop more beneficent or charitable ethical codes. However, Anatheloth intellect includes an almost all-encompassing knowledge of sentient creatures' religions and philosophies, allowing an individual Anatheloth to handily best even the wisest of priests or shamans in debates on spiritual or theological matters. Anatheloth biology can hamper their use of technology, a fact only exaggerated by their underwater habitat, which prevents the development of conventional industry; to supplement this, Anatheloths rely on Magic and mind-controlled sentient creatures to do the labor for them, including ordering cults to construct grand factories or conduct elaborate Magical rituals to serve their Anatholeth's needs.

Anatheloths reproduce sexually but possess a series of lifecycle stages which are completely alien to most other creatures native to K2. Anatheloths are hermaphroditic, and as such can reproduce even if completely isolated from others of their species; however, Anatheloths prefer to mate with partners in order to further evolve their species. When an Anatheloth's egg(s) are fertilized, they are laid akin to salmon, in that they are laid in a large clutch of eggs ranging in number from one (1) to ten (10), each about the size of a human head; these eggs develop small multi-eyes tentacled polyps, which hatch from the eggs and continue to develop as neo-embryo, adapting to their environment. This early adaptation allows Anatheloths to live in all kinds of aquatic environments, including saltwater, freshwater, and Umbrafluid. These polyps then grow into "Anatheloth Tadpoles," long eel-like monsters which resemble smaller Anatheloths with less pronounced eyes and much shorter tentacles in addition to missing the head-lures of adult Anatheloths; despite only being a few years old, Tadpoles are easily as intelligent as grown adult humans, and are capable of using their head-tendrils to manipulate tools. Furthermore, Tadpoles still consume food in more conventional means, using their catfish-esque mouths to feed on ocean floors or surfaces. Tadpoles develop into "Anatheloth Spawn," the "teenage" stage of their lifecycle that lasts from fifty (50) years old to around two hundred and fifty (250) years old, which sees the adolescent abomination grow to resemble a smaller Anatheloth; these creatures communicate less frequently and with less tact and efficiency than the adults, and are considerably less dangerous, but still pose enough of a threat to take out small boats of sailors singlehandedly. Anatheloth Spawn often develop larger, toothed mouths more commonly found among adults of their species, although Spawn of lower castes will lose this mouth in favor of alternative means of intaking sustenance. Generally, young Anatheloths are treated well by their parents, and taught all that their species has to offer before allowing the child to leave and travel elsewhere, often within communication range.

Anatheloths can live for thousands of years. Their maximum lifespan is believed to be somewhere around twenty-five thousand years (25,000), but no confirmation has been obtained as of the time of writing. This means that most adult Anatheloths, who "come of age" around age five hundred (500), have millennia to accrue more and more knowledge and work their ways on the sentient creatures of whatever Realm the monster inhabits. As a result, Anatheloths tend not to consider an individual defeat to be particularly negative; similarly, the destruction of their home or even the obliteration of their favorite cult is but a blip on their total lifespan and is therefore considered generally insignificant. When it only takes a few years to set up a newer, bigger, better cult, what was all that fuss before really worth? In theory, Anatheloths can use either technology or Magic to extend their lifespans indefinitely. Anatheloths that reach truly ancient ages grow to massive sizes; known instances can be over one hundred (100) feet long or large enough to wrap an entire village in their tentacles. These gargantuan aberrations are believed to be much, *much* older than the aforementioned limit.

### Personality:

Being a very isolated, separate, and solitary species, Anatheloths tend to have goals that reflect this isolation; their objectives are as varied and individualized as any other sentient humanoid. However, most of these goals often require the assistance of other creatures, either because the Anatheloth cannot carry out the tasks themself or because they are too lazy to do the tasks themself. As a result, Anatheloths are most commonly found surrounded by cultists or employees of some sort; either these servants are willing, and volunteer for the position thanks to the power and knowledge that an Anatheloth can bestow, or the Anatheloth used its strange light-based powers to force the individual to bend to the creature's overpowering will. In either case, Anatheloths have an instinctual need to domineer over beings they deem lesser than themselves.

Anatheloth individuality extends to their temperament, which can range wildly from the patience of an immortal being to the impatience of a human toddler. And these two moods do not appear to be mutually exclusive; an Anatheloth may be patient one day and furious the next, seemingly for no reasons that any mortals can divine. Anatheloth temper is often likened to The Unbeheld itself, ebbing and flowing with the movement of the Realms and celestial bodies; that is to say that their temper is completely unpredictable, and their emotions strange and otherworldly. All Anatheloths are, however, incredibly egotistical; they perceive themselves as gods above mortal beings, entities worthy of worship and sacrifice. This stems from the Anatheloths' beliefs regarding their origins as rulers of the cosmos before being sealed away in The Unbeheld; they wish to regain their once-great rumored empire of old by any means necessary.

Anatheloths tend to treat their mortal servants poorly. With natural instincts for the structuring of societies, manipulation of communication and language, and a mastery over theology and philosophy, Anatheloths often construct their cults to be as demeaning or humiliating as possible for their mortal servants; this suffering is seen as humorous for Anatheloths, whose megalomaniacal tendencies compel them to demonstrate their power over others. Anatheloths often treat each other as inferior to themselves as well; Anatheloth society, as disparate as it may be, is believed to be incredibly complex and full of intense etiquette, structure, and hierarchies which mortals could not hope to properly comprehend. As such, every Anatheloth knows where they sit in their species' great totem pole, and most wish to climb it as fast as possible.

Anatheloth biology is unusually alien, even for entities from The Unbeheld, in that Anatheloths are biological creatures found in a Realm antithetical to normal matter; this physical nature is likely what drives Anatheloth hedonism. This, combined with their megalomania and arrogance, leads Anatheloths to adorn themselves with the most expensive of jewelry and the finest of silks; they make sure to have constant attendants caring to their every possible need, palatial chambers decorated with trophies or artifacts from every corner of the world. Anatheloths living in other Realms besides The Unbeheld are often most guilty of this pleasure-seeking, since pleasure is very hard, if not impossible, to come by in The Unbeheld. Art plays a very important role for Anatheloths, whose perfect means of photokinetic communication allow them to experience things like the "written" word or music in an extraordinarily alien way; while these light-based displays treated like "music" by the Anatheloths are likely to drive a mortal man insane or permanently blind, Anatheloths treat them as among the highest of pleasures, as presumably the photokinetic shows are designed to induce pleasure via subliminal influence. Sculptures, reliefs, murals, tapestries, songs, paintings, and performances are all common artistic features of Anatheloth-worshipping cults as well.