Funera

**Multa funera**, or **funera**, are a nearly extinct race of supernatural predators who can disguise themselves as human beings.

They catch prey by entering their mind, where they confront them with their greatest fear and kill them with it. Funera can only digest corpses that have been scared to death, though they don't actually need "food" to survive and are immortal.

Their one enemy is the fairy race, who hunted them down with the intention to eradicate the species fully.

They were first mentioned in the Ed, Edd n Eddy fanfiction "Until I See You Again".

## History

The story they're introduced in notes that Earth suffered a deadly disaster before the "arrival" of the funera. They're dubbed the first lifeforms to emerge after everything was wiped out. The mythological creatures that followed believed they came from the destructive comet and originate from another world, which the funera never confirmed.

Being dangerous and unstoppable, the fairy race became obsessed with ridding the world of the demons and the two groups became mortal enemies.

Many fairies and other creatures were sacrificed in order to understand the inner workings of the funera, and eventually, it was discovered their method of killing could be stopped by erasing a target's emotions; and not allow fear to be felt or understood.

Though seen as impossible, the fairies worked hard to train their offspring to be emotionless, though it entailed horrid abuse. The emotionally crippled fairies were then sent to the battlefield. The funera would travel to meet these armies with an eagerness to fight, but were caught by surprise and massacred every time. The war lasted mere months.

When the few survivors understood to be no match for the stoic soldiers, they chose to hide and live an inconspicuous life.

With no funera sightings being reported, victory was called, and the fairies where highly celebrated by the world. Nevertheless, the upbringing the soldiers endured made them unable to return to a life of normalcy or enjoy their victory. The fact a sacrifice like this was needed to kill the once powerful monsters earned the fairy race a royal status as compensation, which never truly faded. Though already pompous beings, they started acting like their given title and would rarely show up to mingle with other species. This helped the surviving funera to get some peace during their retirement.

## Behaviour

Funera are sadistic, yet social animals, and generally don't like being without each other's company. When they were still the dominating species on Earth, they were considered a global evil, as they killed whoever crossed their path. Eating isn't necessary for them to survive, though it does increase their strength. Funera that don't eat can act lacklustre and indifferent, while regular ones are noticeably more cheerful and energetic.

As they're capable of digging through the memories of any living creature -whether or not these have the brain capacity to store memories- and hypnotise entire crowds into believing their own death, they're considered powerful and unbeatable by most. In order to evade their attack, one needs to understand they're being held in a trance and not fear their own greatest fear. This is a paradox by itself, though the fairy race managed to produce emotionally distant warriors to fight them off.

Funera have nearly all gone extinct due to this lengthy war. While those who survived felt degraded and angry, they tried not to openly engage with anyone anymore after their defeat. They make their survival and hunting practises a secret by doing it little or not at all, even though the likeliness of the fairies replicating their ancient victory is low, as they stopped training their forces to deal with funera and the practise on how never documented.

They're capable of living like human beings and operate normally in their presence and that of mythological creatures, though seeing or even hearing a fairy's voice for too long can test their patience and make them lash out.

It's noticeable that humans are least likely to be attacked by them, while they're one of the easiest targets. It might have to do with humans and funera not having much of a history together, nor do they really give the fairies special treatment.

## Appearance

Funera are smoky, yet oily-looking creatures with a deformed appearance. Their movements are shaky and off, as if they're struggling to keep themselves inside the realm of existence and every part of their "body" is controlled by someone else.

They have holes for eyes from which extremely bright, condensed light is seen. It induces headaches when looking directly at is. A gaping mouth with fangs and sometimes (multiple) clawed limbs are visible as well.

While moving around, a sound can be heard which is similar to a slowed down melody that's rapidly cutting in and back out. Their voice is similar, though sounds more like a pained moan, and sometimes ominous laughter.

When someone sees a funera, it's safe to assume they've already been hypnotized, as they'll rarely allow people to see them like this in any other setting.

When the human race was formed and made their presence known on Earth, the funera managed to successfully take on their appearance, which is not seen as a positive by other mythological creatures. The ability to look like a non-magical creature/human being is either a curse in this world, or reserved for the cursed; those with immense powers and evil intentions.

## Trivia

* "Multa funera" is Latin for "many deaths".