The Tykrenv are scavengers of the deep desert, humanoid in body but possessing the head and secondary wings of a vulture. They subsist by feeding on the eternally regenerating corpse of a cursed giant god in the desert's heart. This diet of divine, rotten flesh has made them immune to disease and capable of digesting anything organic.
The thing in the desert's heart is older than any nation that has ever tried to claim the sands above it. It is a titan, or close enough to one to share their curse, struck down in the deep age when the Ezz flood drove the titans mad, and unable to finish dying the way titans never finish dying. Its flesh knits back as fast as the desert can rot it. Left to itself it would neither rise nor decay; it would lie there mending against its own death without end. The Tykrenv are what stands between the world and that. They are the world's vulture-function given a body and a single carcass, the cleanup crew for one wound too large and too divine for ordinary rot to close. The curse that holds the titan between death and rising is the same one that fixed the Tykrenv to it: whatever first fed on that flesh was bound to it and bred true as its keeper, and no Tykrenv born since has been anything other than the corpse's eater. Every one of them that has ever lived has lived off this one body, and the body is no smaller for all of them.
They are patient observers, often circling battles from high above, waiting for the combatants to weaken or die before descending to feast. Tykrenv society revolves around the sacred corpse at the center of their territory. They believe it is their duty to consume the god's flesh and keep it from rising again, and they are right to: the eating is the only thing holding the dead titan under.
Vitals
- Size: Medium
- Height: 5-6 feet
- Weight: 90-130 pounds
Aspects
- Scavenger's patience
- Carrion feeder divine
Game mechanics
Flight
Passive ability. Your wings allow you to fly with a fly speed of 40 feet. You cannot hover, and you must move at least half your fly speed each round you remain airborne. You can glide for hours on thermal currents without tiring—while gliding (moving horizontally while descending at least 5 feet per round), you do not need to use your movement to maintain altitude.
Iron Stomach
Passive ability. You are immune to all ingested poisons and diseases. You can eat any organic matter—rotten meat, bone, leather, wood, or offal—without ill effect and gain full nourishment from it. You have A2 on all saves against disease from any source, and you can identify whether something is poisonous or diseased by smell alone.