Spell-Weavers, also known as the "Anu-naki," are strange, other-worldly creatures with incredible magical powers, who originally hail from a faraway, alternate dimension.
Appearance
Only vaguely humanoid in appearance, Spell-Weavers appear as gaunt and hairless, with chalky white skin and six arms.
They are exceptionally rare and mysterious, typically encountered only when they appear to steal magic items for unknown purposes.
Spell-Weavers usually act alone, but on rare occasions, small groups of the creatures perform highly coordinated raids to achieve their objectives, using magic to hide or disguise themselves in humanoid society.
Spell-Weavers have no spoken language; instead the creatures speak only with their own kind, through a silent combination of powerful telepathy and sign language. Spell-Weavers will sometimes utter a strange series of whistles and clicks as verbal components when they cast spells.
Long ago, most other races discovered that telepathic communication with Spell-Weavers is extremely difficult and even dangerous; usually resulting in temporary insanity for any who attempt it.
The insanity lasts up to seven days, with effects as per the mage spell 'confusion.' Unfortunately, the insanity is sometimes permanent.
All Spell-Weavers possess a "Rod of Synergy;" a chromatic silver rod, encrusted with various magical gems of different colors.
The gems store massive troves of spell-weaver memories and also store magical energy for spell casting.
The secrets of controlling these rods are lost to all other races other than the Spell-Weavers, and any attempts by others to use the rods has met with insanity or death.
History
The history and motivations of the Spell-Weavers is largely unknown to outsiders. The very rare cases in which sages have been able to decipher the alien Anu-naki language hint at a vast, ancient empire that mysteriously vanished thousands of years ago.
Those unlucky few who have successfully made telepathic contact with the spell weavers have later recounted strange, horrific visions of huge, iron pyramids; hundreds of feet tall.
Bas reliefs from ruined ziggurats of ancient Sha'Dur depict six-armed figures that sages have identified as spell weavers. Ancient Shadurian texts refer to these beings as the "Anu-naki."
The Shadurians believed these creatures to be a race of gods, who helped lift Sha'Dur out of barbarism and taught its people magical secrets with which they built their civilization.
Finally, there have been discoveries of mysterious stone structures built by Spell-Weavers, scattered across the Sha'Dur Mountains of Azoria.
The "Collective," the Spell-Weaver Empire
A number of years ago, a great scholar named Criswell, discovered and deciphered a series of ancient Shadurian texts that illuminated the beings that are known today as the Spell-Weavers and learned some of their darkest secrets.
Over 25,000 years ago, in an alternate dimension of existence, there was a great city called Schavra, which was home to the Anu-naki.
The vast city was centered around a massive, 1000 foot-tall pyramid constructed from iron and stone, which was powered by a powerful magical furnace.
Using the energies of the pyramid, the Anu-naki travelled many worlds and planes. Once there, the Anu-naki built new colonies called "Nodes;" each with its own pyramid.
Every colony, and its pyramid, was interconnected by a complex matrix of magical portals. The Anu-naki Empire was unlike most empires; in that it was based on acquisition of knowledge, not military conquest.
The "Collective"; as the Anu-naki called their civilization, became a intellectual society which only occasionally subjugated other races or beings for use as menial labor.
The Anu-naki were interested in two major fields of study in their everlasting quest for knowledge. First was the study of "Semantics," and second was the Study of "Magical Synergy."
In pursuit of these two topics, Anu-naki scholars traveled across the universe; visiting many worlds and making contact with every imaginable civilization, to learn from them the secrets of semantics and magical synergy.
For thousands of years, the weavers learned innumerable languages and symbols; including hundreds on the world of Oris alone. Through these pursuits, the Anu-naki learned the ability to cast or "weave" multiple spells at once and to use telepathy over extremely long distances.
Sages theorize that the Anu-naki's grand plans to acquire the knowledge of Magical Synergy led to their ultimate downfall.
At their height of their knowledge, success, and power; the Anu-naki began a grand experiment to alter the very fabric of space and time throughout the universe.
However, this grandiose and dangerous experiment resulted in failure, causing a catastrophe of colossal proportions.
Starting in Schavra, the magical furnace within every Anu-naki pyramid exploded in a chain-reaction; obliterating the pyramids, and the cities which surrounded them.
In one, tragic moment, the entire Anu-naki Collective came to a tragic end. To the Anu-naki; this terrible event came to be known as the "Disjunction."
Spell-Weavers Today
After the tragedy of the Disjunction; the Anu-naki society was completely devastated. But a few of their members survived and swore to rebuild their once, great collective.
Before the Disjunction, the secrets of the experiment were psychometrically bound into these gems as a security measure and then scattered across the universe.
When put together; the gems revealed something the Anu-naki called the "Code of Reversion." The Code referred to an intricate magical formula used by the Anu-naki to bring about the Disjunction.
This quest for the Code of Reversion, became the driving force of all surviving Spell-Weavers. All surviving Anu-naki believe they will someday find this formula and, using the magic of Chronomancy, engineer those same codes to restore their collective and prevent the Disjunction.
In furtherance of this quest, the Spell-Weavers are ever seeking out magical gems imbued with "codes" that only they can decipher.
It is for this reason, that Spell-Weavers will sometimes "steal" gems with magical powers; for they believe those same gems will aid them in their eternal quest to re-build their lost civilization.
Sometimes Spell-Weavers will add their stolen gems onto their Rods of Synergy; which the creatures carry with them at all times.
