The Awakened Harmony Name: The Awakened Lifespan: 729 years to the day. Brief Description: To the eyes of many, an Awakened resembles a golem formed of transparent crystal. Unlike a golem, however, an awakeneds form actually consists of a number of unattached pieces of crystal, bound together through an unknown force, believed to be some form of ancient magic. Awakened usually shape themselves into a roughly humanoid appearance, revolveing around a single central piece. Their colouration ranges from grey to pale blue, with transparancy varying, usually dependant on the size of any given crystal. [img=http://justpressstart.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/n1NAW9s.jpg] Location: The Harmony can be found in a valley in the Spine of the Forest mountain range, along with the majority of the Awakened. Mageblood Rates: 1/1 - All Awakened possess the capacity to manipulate magic, as it is a core aspect of what they are. Almost all of them are limited to the Natura blood, with the majority knowing only Geomancy, which comes naturally to them. What is the Harmony? Physically, the Harmony consists of 9 immense crystal spires. They are situated above a series of lakes in the mountains near Ironstead. The Harmony is far more than a series of constructs however. Within each of the spires exists a vast consciousness as old as the world itself. These 'minds,' for lack of a better term, do not think or comprehend as those of the fleshy mortals do. Rather, a single thought can take a year or more to form and a decision can take a century or more. None can say what it is the Harmony thinks about, only that the nine spires do communicate with each other. They can emit soft sound across the entire spectrum, and the often beautiful tones formed when they speak their years long words are what gave them their name. Not even the Awakened know precisely what it is the Harmony speaks of, as the mind of an Awakened is far too fast to comprehend them. Attempts to study the Harmony have been fruitless, and attempts to damage their physical forms fatal. When their form is damaged in any way, the damaged Harmony emits a piercing scream loud enough to strike any race deaf, and shortly after kill him. This is no magical effect, but rather a physical one - the sound waves first burst the ear drums of the victim, and then reach sufficient intensity to burst all the blood veins in the witless being, as well as eyes. What is an Awakened? Every 729 years a process known as 'the awakening' occurs beneath the Harmony, marking the beginning and the end of a cycle. First, those Awakened of the previous cycle who have returned to the Harmony stride purposefully into the lakes, disturbing the otherwise perfectly still surface. Their forms dissolve as their life comes to an end. Only rarely do all 81 of the Awakened return to the Harmony, but after only a few minutes, the water begins to bubble as 81 new Awakened Harmony are formed, bound together and given life by whatever ancient magics the Harmony wield. These 81 will rise from the waters when they stop bubbling and take the place of the last set of Awakened. An Awakened Harmony resembles a golem in many ways, but it is clearly not one. They are formed of the same crystal as their much larger namesake, which is transparent where it is thin, but the most striking difference between an Awakened and a Golem is that the Awakened is comprised of multiple free floating stones, as if a powerful Geomancer had assembled a display of power. These varying pieces all forma  roughly humanoid shape, and there is always a central piece with what most would call a 'head' around which the other smaller pieces form. These pieces of crystal appear to have no bindings to each other, and indeed they do not, but no one part of an Awakened Harmony may travel further than its 'arms reach' away from it. It is most simple to for an Awakened to retain its original humanoid arrangement, a task that requires no magic or thought on its part, but with focus a Harmony can re-arrange itself, limited only to its imagination and the 'arms reach' in which its immaterial bonds function. This requires no magic on its part, only focus. Material Hardness remains constant, though Geomancy can affect this aspect of their form. An Awakened Harmony is capable of magic, and almost every one is a natural Geomancer, finding the stone and metal around it most familiar. Their magic is that of the blood, though they do not have blood in the sense of an organic creature. Every individual part of an Awakened possesses at least one set of lattice-like 'veins' in which an Arcanite solution resides. This is the 'blood of the Harmony' and while within an Awakened, functions much like an organic creatures blood would. In addition, this substance is what maintains the unliving physical form of the Awakened - any damage inflicted on one great enough to break into a 'vein' will cause the substance to slowly leak to the surface, where over time it will harden into more of the crystal that is their form, plugging holes, sealing cracks and re-finishing surfaces. In the right light, an Awakened Harmonies 'veins' can be seen within it, and the sight is almsot always described as beautiful and entrancing. The 'head' of an Awakened Harmony emits a soft light, usually pale blue in colour, though other colours, always pale, have occured on occasion. This is their sensory hub, and this is where an Awakened sees from. They feel touch on any surface of any of their component pieces, but they do not have a sense of taste or smell. Covering their 'head' will render them blind just as it would any race with eyes. They see a wider field of view than humans, roughly 180 degrees in their front, relative to the central piece on which the 'head' is located. They hear by feeling the sound on their form, and thus it is very hard to deafen an Awakened Harmony or block out all sound from it. Replacing the senses of organic races is a sort of 'mineral sense' in which an Awakened can sense any unprocessed stone or metal within thirty or so meters. This includes the type and location of the mineral, and has made Awakened an incredibly valuable asset to mining operations when one can be persuaded to work in such a line. Just as the Harmony emit sound, so too can an Awakened speak. They do not come into the world with knowledge of any language of man, elf or dwarf but once they learn it they can form the sounds perfectly. Their voices come from their own resonance, and always have a deep, distant sound to them, like the earth itself was shifting far away. Normally they are softly spoken, but can generate sounds somewhat louder than even the roar of an Esyire when they choose too. It is possible for an Awakened to float, just as the Harmony itself does, rather than walk with its legs on the ground, however they cannot fly, and must, in normal circumstances, keep the ground within their sphere of influence (arms reach) when they do. This ability to defy gravity does negate almost all instances in which an Awakened would be damaged from falling, however they may still impact the ground before floating if they were falling fast enough. They do not move quite as fast as a human, but their strength can easily match that of an Orc, and their grip in particular is described as 'having a boulder hold you.' The mind of an Awakened Harmony is driven by one thing: curiosity. When they first awaken, it is all they can think of, all they can comprehend, and they immediately set out to leave their place of origin and learn all that they can of the world. Initially they learn quickly, especially with languages and sounds. After the first few years they learn slightly slower, coming more in line with the rate at which the short lived fleshy races learn. They will often be strange conversation partners, ever driven to find more knowledge and sometimes forgeting or ignoring the strange customs of the flesh-beings in their pursuit. As creatures made essentially of rocks, their thought process and decision making is not swift, and while they are not necessarily patient by nature, they may seem it to those unfamiliar with the time it takes for a rock to decide on something. The reason for their thought speed is that they are essentially miniature, accelerated versions of the Harmony. Those learned in the nature of the Harmony have suggested that the 'Awakened' should instead be called the 'Quickened' as that is essentially what they are in comparison to their inanimate cousins, the spires that hover over perfectly still lakes. at the end of its 728th year, an Awakened will feel an undeniable urge to return to its orgin. All 81 will try, though not all will make it. Should an Awakened not reach the Harmony by the end of the last day on its 729th year, it will cease to exist as a conscious entity. The constituent stones that make it up will fall to the ground and lose their glow, clouding over within minutes. In the coming days the clouded crystals will begin to grey and become stone from within, until they are naught but oddly shaped greystone chunks. Their Arcanite solution 'blood' will begin to deteriorate the moment they cease to exist, and by the time they start becoming stone, it has completely hardened within its veins and will become stone along with the rest of the form. When an Awakened pushes itself magically, it will deplete the Arcanite in its 'blood' just as an organic being would. The affect this has on the Awakened, however, is somewhat different, as much of the Awakened Harmony is not actually alive, and so cannot suffer from Arcanite depletion. An Awakened will feel nothing of the depletion until it reaches a much lower state than normal, but when the Arcanite levels in its form are depleted to this extent the mind and consciousness of the Awakened will slow significantly. If it continues to push even at this stage, it will drive itself into a dormant state. In their dormant state, an Awakened Harmonies form will simply stop moving, the many component parts of it gently rotating around the central. This state can last anywhere from days to months, and during it the Awakened cannot sense the world arround nor act upon it in any way. It is, for all intents and purposes, a pretty rock formation during an Aracnite defficient dormancy. A side effect of this dormancy is that the fluid that would normally repair major damage to an Awakened Harmonies physical form will act much slower, and it is during this state that they are most vulnerable to physical destruction. As creatures of stone, the means by which an Awakened Harmony can be damaged or destroyed are somewhat different to how one would go about killing a human. The stone of an Awakened is harder than skin or even the scales of Esyire, but while that attribute means it will easily turn a blade, it suffers other vulnerabilities. The stone is fairly brittle and will crack or splinter under a heavy impact, even shatter if the force strikes hard enough. Against magic, they have only marginally more defense than a flesh-being. Lightning will still shatter them, heat may melt them. Fluid exists within them that can be manipulated, and acts as water for the intents of magical attacks. They suffer a particular vulnerability to Geomancy, as their entire form is made of unprocessed crystal, a substance that is not difficult for Geomancer to manipulate. Vitamancy is of much less use against them, however, as they have no flesh to manipulate. The blood analogue that exists within them can still be manipulated by a vitamancer in the same manner as regular blood. Punching a Harmony will be ineffectual. Punching with a Gauntlet may scratch it. A warhammer will crack and splinter a Harmonies form. The average Geomancy propelled boulder will cause a partial shatter if it impacts. Any impact stronger than that will completely shatter the section it strikes. An awakened does not feel physical sensations like hunger, tiredness or pain as an organic being does. They do feel higher emotions though, albiet slowly. If they suffer damage they will feel a fear of death and loss, just as an organic being would.