The Void

*Lindost, Voiden, and Shadow are all terms that mean lindost.

World

Lindosts hail from a dimensional plane called Lindoss. Lindoss is a multidimensional faceted plane that spans all parallels and universes. On planets with living organisms, a thin film of light purple will cover the planet above the atmosphere, signaling the Lindoss plane is active and lindosts handle the aura circulation on the planet. The plane is built by pure, concentrated aura, making it uninhabitable to any creature below the extra-high inner aura threshold.

Within the dimension, Lindoss is devoid of all color. Everything is black and the only form of light comes in various shades of dark gray. To see something pale upon the landscape means the item or location is of great power and importance. These monochromes dominate any shattered buildings lost to time, broken wildlife, and the sparse creatures who call the desolate world home. Aside from lindosts, various brambly, thorn-covered flora grow across the landscape.

Science

Technology

Aura is energy. Aura comes from stars and cycles through the universe and planets. Aura can be extracted from its invisible, senseless form and concentrated into something that can be manipulated. Any shape is possible, from orbs, thin layers, cubes, etc. The most common is an aura-capsule. These have been used for many, many years, especially among entities with a much higher power than Ptithians, such as lindosts. Capsules can hold information and have been found in ancient archives with stories and historical data.

History and Archeology

Astronomy and Physics

Voidens are masters of the cosmos. Space and time is there to do their bidding and they have a deep understanding about how the infinite universe works. They find it hard to describe this type of innate knowledge in terms suitable to non-Void language.

Every planet, star, solar system, galaxy, and creational nebulous towers have a unique name to the shadows and lindosts hold extensive maps of the universe within the very fabric of their being. They can become attached to celestial bodies emotionally if they stay in one place for a long time, the resonance of a body’s aura becoming comforting and safe. Every lindost has a favorite place in the vast universe, trillions of lightyears apart sometimes, but to them, everything is simply a step away.

Despite their level of knowledge, they are still drawn to the study of astronomy, physics, and other heavy sciences. To lesser creatures, this natural interest is often unclear because lindosts do not show off their proper personalities until a friendly bond is formed. Their wisdom on the subject then becomes obvious, but they’ll dance around everything to prevent mortals from learning something “too above them”.

Health and Illness

While incredibly rare, lindosts can develop their own trauma, from both mental and physical pain. A lindost who has suffered may have a much lower self-esteem compared to their god-complex counterparts, weary to be confident about their abilities or appearance. Many mortal studies on the shadowy creatures have stated that a lindost with low ego/no god-complex is actually more dangerous because it makes it more volatile.

Physical damage and strain is just as hard to accomplish, but not impossible. Horrible anatomical studies have proved ideas such as if you stitch a lindost's mouth shut, another will open elsewhere, same goes for eyes. Foreign objects jabbed through its flesh will be healed over quickly, merging it with its own flesh until the lindost removes it.

Space Age Assistance

Lindosts are necessary on almost every space ship except Voyagers because their aura control is needed to handle the energy and core of the larger vessels. Such as, whenever a group is sent out on a Chimera or Aurora, one lindost is paired with them. Or, on Station Zariel, many can be found in the Aura Level of the station because they handle anything with the orb core. Lindosts who work with Ptithians and their space needs are usually there on their own terms because it interests them greatly in comparison to their usual 'job'. Ptithians who work space occupations have to get over their deep-set, natural fear of lindosts quickly if they wish to stay in the line of work.

Culture

Sleep
Lindosts do not naturally sleep, but they can go into similar states. Either voluntarily, usually to completely relax or to move more processing power to their minds, or involuntarily when their aura reserves get too low.

Lindosts absorb their energy from the aura around them through their skin. If a lindost is in a location where aura is too low it will begin to use its reserves. After reserves are burned through, they can become lethargic and eventually fall into a "sleep state". Aside from aura vacuum zones out in the depths of space, there is always aura around, so forced sleep states are rare.

On planets with strong global auras, like Ptitheros, there are natural occurrences where ley lines of aura develop low or desolate pockets that move over the planet like a "ripple". A lindost caught in a layline ripple can become lethargic and disoriented. However, they can detect the ripple from a vast distance and will move out of the way.

"Sleep states" can be forced by the lindost. They can turn off or supply low power to their senses and register abilities like vision, language detection, and more so they can redirect all that energy into other processes. For example, if a lindost is having a hard time understanding their current emotions due to a recent event, going into this state and redirecting the energy to emotional processing would help them sort everything out much quicker.

A sleep state is the most vulnerable for a lindost, which are meant to always be on high-alert. If they have to "shut down", they will usually do it in their personal pocket dimension or in the depths of the parallm. A lindost willing to enter a low energy state purposefully around other people is one of their highest forms of trust.

When in voluntarily low-energy states, they can rest in any position on anything since they lack uniform anatomy like bones. Still, most enjoy soft beds, pillows, blankets, and quiet areas. Shadows friendly with one another barely have a concept of personal space; which means mortals near a resting lindost for the first time get to deal with it using them as a comfortable object to lean on.

Gender
Lindosts do not have sexes, nor any organs to begin with. All are agender and asexual. To accommodate the social terms of mortals they exist alongside, they will take on pronouns to make conversations easier. Typically, a lindost will choose pronouns that best fit the voice they steal early on.

The only lindosts with a solid presentation are the Mother and Her daughters (Overseers). She is always a She (or language variations of she), using anything else is seen as blasphemous.

Relationships
Lindosts can form connections. Acquaintances, friendships, enemies, even relationships. No lindost can immediately understand how to form these connections, they have to watch and learn what they entail from mortals or from other lindosts. Friendships and enemies are quite easy to understand with time, however deep friendships and relationships take much longer.

Romantic relationships always begin as deeper platonic ones, as voidens cannot immediately register romantic feelings, nor can they even experience those feelings until their partner clearly displays them (thus allowing them to learn and mimic it).

Most voidens view mortals as beneath them and not worth their attention, so deeper relationships with no clear advantage tied to them are rare. Lindosts always want something useful for their time.

Lindosts form incredibly strong bonds once they find deep platonic or romantic relationships. Their cores imprint the aura-signature of the individual permanently, so no matter where they are, the lindost can sense their presence and current location. When the individual dies, the signature remains with their core but no longer has a location, so the presence ends up always feeling nearby. Losing someone is extremely traumatizing to shadows because of this. They theorize this is Mother’s guise to keep them from ever forming relationships.

Children
Called mixes or mutts, shadow mixes are not a class of lindost but a classification of any creature with lindost "lineage". Lindost "blood" is strong and easily overrides the genes of mortal species, so it takes many, many generations to breed out a lindost. First-generation mixes rarely come out as 50/50, the lindost genes override immediately, creating first-gens that are usually 70/30 up to 90/10.

Lindosts are completely incapable of reproducing naturally. Mutts are rare because the only method of forming a family is hard to find, tedious, and dangerous to follow-through with. The magic knowledge was lost due to The Silent Rapture, but one lindost researcher conducted archeological travels to find and write books on what could be recovered about the topic. Akan managed to distribute some of these books; voidens who can get their hands on one are capable of using the lost magic.

Mortal partners who survive having a child with a lindost are called Matriarchs. Matriarchs were once revered as strong mortal creatures and were forever safe from collection lists. The shadows respected them for their sacrifice since survival is rare for the mother. Some shadows still respect this old tradition, some have forgotten about it entirely.

(Matriarchs were removed from the culture by Mother due to matriarchs naturally stealing the attention of voidens away from Mother.)

Death
Lindosts are immortal, not invincible. Time does not affect them negatively. Because of their incredible regeneration and amorphous bodies, lindosts can only be slain by severing the cords that connect their core. So long as the cords are intact, a lindost can survive anything, even if only one cord remains. All aura processing has to stop to kill it.

Upon death, all their functions cease and they will drop, their bristles emerge as long tendrils that dig into the ground and disperse. The tendrils will slice open anything close, so gaining distance from a slain lindost is advised. Everything dissolves into the air rapidly. It is impossible to autopsy a lindost, making studying them hard for mortals.

All lindost "souls" are interwoven through nerve-like vines within a select area of Lindoss known as the Garden, which is only accessible by the Arch and Adversary Minurs. These souls store the connective energy of the lindost. If the flower is in-tact, the lindost will be reborn.

The aura from the core starts anew, forming the lindost again to start a new life with minimal memories from the last life and retaining a handful of previous appearance qualities. Every lindost has been reborn hundreds, if not thousands of times over the billions of years. There is a finite number of flowers.

Despite always having a tomorrow, even after death, lindosts have reasons to avoid death. With each reformation, the risk of forming as an aryst or soyowas is higher.

Taboo
Voidens are honest, openly-opinionated creatures, but there are a few topics that must be avoided or can only be discussed privately. Soyowas and lindost hunting/capsuling are private topics, while anything pre-Rapture must never be spoken about.

Soyowas are dangerous monsters that are the result of a lindost forming being constructed wrongly to an ungodly degree. They wander endlessly, forever in pain, without thought or memory. Lindosts regard them as mistakes and fear them.

Only in the darkest recesses of the criminal underground of sapient worlds can "subdued monsters" be found. Lindosts can rarely be captured by the use of aura vacuums, such as capsule grabs. These shadows are abused and tortured using light, sound, and other forms of overstimulation to keep them lethargic. Because they are unable to shut off their senses and take in more than 1000x more environmental information than mortal creatures, overstimulation is effective and traumatic.

Touching a lindosts bristles is not allowed without explicit permission. These cords are usually internal and unseen, but on the off-chance they have bristles outside. Forcefully touching bristles, especially if one cuts the skin to reach them, is the same as assault.

Textiles
Lindosts come in various shapes and sizes, creating textiles/clothing that adheres to the general society was difficult. Thousands of styles have come and gone over millions of years. After the Rapture, so many aspects of voiden culture were wiped. The most recent style barely survived; collars and shawls made from woven luminous, tangible energy. The longer the piece, the longer the voiden had survived. The more intricate and color choices on the piece, the higher status the voiden had.

These lumin-energy textiles could only be crafted by the shadow creatures. It is said that fractal language was worked directly into the clothing patterns, meaning the clothes carry as much historical knowledge as a book. This also means the patterns on the clothes are so complex that mortal creatures can get headaches from looking at it.

Currently, lindosts don’t tend to wear anything. They’ll pick up minor style choices of the people around them if they stick around one world and one culture for a while. Lindosts staying in Kilaan will like to wear big sweaters, some staying in Ichy will like light drapery, etc. Those on the space station tend to wear spacesuits, since ptithians offer to make an assisting lindost their own suit and they rarely refuse the attention.

Economy
Getting ahold of gold or commodities are simple when one can teleport anything they desire to their hands. Lindosts hardly have an economy. Very rare artifacts and books hold value in trade and bail, but not much more has a true value to them. When active in a mortal community, if paying is necessary, lindosts will keep a stash of transported coins in a little pocket dimension they can quickly reach into. These teleported stashes come from banks and treasuries where nobody would notice the coins had gone missing.

They do, however, love gifts. They love receiving gifts and giving gifts. Voiden gift-giving is incredibly thought-out and personalized, they only give gifts to those they are close with.

Communication
Voidens can communicate with verbal language, body language, and semi-telepathically. They are capable of speaking and understanding any language they are exposed to and prefer words over actions because lindosts exposed to many different mortal body languages may interpret things differently than another. And while they can speak telepathically, they must be physically touching the receiver for it to transfer over the aura.

Lindosts are not created with emotional capacity, but over time they can learn it. Lindosts with a lot of experience can have diverse social behaviors that they've picked up from mortals. Some are social, some are reserved, most are a bit egotistical. The stereotypical (for good reasons) lindost is cold, empty, and uncompassionate because it makes their jobs easier.

Touch
Similar to their diluted emotional capacity (without practice), their touch sensation is also limited. They can feel touch, mostly as pressure, but have no connection to whether a touch should be read as dangerous, soft, friendly, etc. This ties into their practice with body language because a better understanding of body language allows them to better read how they should feel certain touches. They'll have an easier time determining that a hard, fist to the chest should "hurt", or a gentle palm on the shoulder is "friendly" and "soft".

One area that is not diluted is the cords, "bristles", of their internals, as it needs to immediately send an alert if touched because of its importance. All areas of the body where cords are present have an extra protective layer of skin (beneath the primary dough-y layer), but it can be turned off, however, it is unknown why a lindost would ever do that.

Bristles are primarily in the spinal-cord section of their body, but a lindost can spread these nerves to other areas if they want to have a stronger touch sensation, such as in their hands or ears. They would only do this under safe conditions because a hard hit to thinner bristles can be like a painful electric shock.

Transportation
Aura-Tearing - A mode of transportation unique to lindosts and some lindost hybrids. Aura-tearing involves tearing apart spacetime itself using extreme amounts of aura in order to create portals between locations and dimensions. Some lindosts are extra powerful and can use aura-tearing to create time portals.

Shadow Walk - When a lindost disappears into the shadows, they can travel at a high speed through the dark so long as they always have a non-illuminated area to pass through. At night, they can cross a country within minutes.

Language

*"Void" is a catch-all term for the concept of lindosts, Lindoss, and the unknown. "Nature" is a catch-all that lindosts use to refer to organic life (life not strictly aura-built).

Spoken Void: Often to one another, lindosts will use their Void language. Void language sounds like static and grumbled bits of radio tweaking to mortal listeners, only lindosts and some lindost hybrids can understand it. It can transfer thoughts, feelings, and even memories through the sounds itself.

Spirit boxes (constantly fluctuating radio transmission receivers) can catch some words through Void, but these words are still in Voidspeak and would need to again be translated into a common tongue. Voidspeak fluctuates on a higher frequency than radio waves but can dip down, resulting in the loose words but lack of sentences.

When lindosts drop their vocal frequencies to what mortals find audible, the static follows their voice because their voices are pulling through multiple high frequencies to go low enough. A lindost can negate this effect, but it requires a bit of concentration. That concentration can easily lapse if they are emotional, causing their voices to be much more static-filled when they are angered, nervous, or sad.

Void Scripture: Literature written in void can be deciphered using a key as they do have a lexicon, it is just extremely hard to read and most of their stories and information is stored in a recorded aura form that is hard to access for others without unique spells or technology.

Fractal Void: Fractal was only used before the Rapture. It was the original visual version of Void and was capable of transferring thoughts, feelings, and memories all the same. Simple transfers could be printed as static fractals, meanwhile entire stories and lives can be put within moving fractals. Mortals can be subjected to fractals but they can make them extremely dizzy. Fractals store a lot of lost Void history and many lindosts are desperately searching for remaining pieces. They have been known to kill mortals who have a book or capsule with a fractal in it if the mortal does not oblique in handing it over.

Names

Lindosts always have two names, a reckoning name and a false name.

Reckoning names, also known as "true names" are incredibly hard to pronounce and are assigned by Mother. Similar to biblical demons, knowing a lindosts true name gives someone power over them. Other lindosts cannot use a fellow lindost's name against them, but Mother and mortals can.

Mortals, upon learning (and correctly pronouncing) a lindost's true name, can order them to do just about anything. Lindosts willingly giving their true name to a mortal is the biggest sign of trust imaginable. Just saying their name does not do anything, it has to be led with minur arcanio / aryst arcanio NAME.

A lindost can deny an order. Not obliging makes them suffer intense physical pain in their cores, but certain lindosts have built up such a strong tolerance that names do not affect them at all anymore. These traumatized souls have certainly been to Unity a few times.

This is where false names arise. A false name has no power over a lindost. They use it for all interactions with mortals. False names are (usually) easier to pronounce and are short. They like to people-watch for a few years before choosing a name that they feel suits them.

A lindost who introduces with their real name to a mortal is usually one of high power or one who has been through so much that they simply do not care anymore. It is their way of saying: You have power over me, but do you dare find out what happens if you try to use it?

Religion

Mythos
Voidens have existed for longer than the gods can remember. They were here before the gods. Without them, aura would not recycle rapidly enough for the gods to exist. With no gods, there would be nothing to manipulate aura into life.

They say they were a civilization that grew up alongside the stars. They were the light and the light hated the void. But the stars eventually learned that the energy that fueled them was not permanent. The stars cried, they begged the void to help them as they endured a slow and painful death. Virtuosic, the void said it would help the stars and offered its own aura to the dying lights. In exchange, the stars must return the energy when the void begins to die.

The void was a kind hearted angel, it burned none of the aura and could have lived without the stars, but it did not want to be alone. Its beautiful angels continue what the void started, recycling aura throughout the universe to keep stars burning and life alive. They, too, are afraid of being alone.

Their presence in the universe was brighter than the stars. The stars had children of their own, the Architects, powerful creatures from the fiery, burning energy of the stars. The stars thought the Architects were better than the dark angels, but they were proved wrong. The stars became jealous…

The Silent Rapture
Lindosts were not always led by Mother. They used to build dimension-altering cities, palaces that rivaled time, researched science and the arts, intermingled as gods of their own creation. Were they even lindosts to begin with, purely aura-built beings formed from the will of Mother's mind? Remnants of the long-forgotten past can still be found and lindosts can vaguely remember how things used to be.

Indecipherable books written by lindosts litter many planets, why are they there and what incredible knowledge do they hold? Why does their core hold a mimicked form of organic DNA? Why will no lindost travel to Mother's temple, why do they claim they never created it? If they are meant to be Mother's perfect creation, monsters with one job to do, why do they retain the ability to have aspirations and emotions? Are they really Mother's creation, or are they their own? Why did Mother want to see a stage V civilization crumble?

Gods

Mother
Mother is an unseen entity. Lindosts revere her as the one above everything else. She is all-knowing and all-powerful. She watches all of her children through the light of the moons, waiting to see how they abide by her rules. She makes things simple for the children, and those who disobey get to “start over” with everything they’ve ever earned stripped away from them. She is Mother, she is the focus of all lindost, and she doesn't like it when the attention is taken away from her.

Compared to other religions, lindosts appear to have no admiration for Mother. Their words are uplifting and full of compliments, but their eyes are begging for help. They know they are not her children, but none can remember what they were before her.

Daughter (Overseer)
The Overseer is the direct link between the perceived realm and Mother. Lindosts fear it and its presence is only tied to when a lindost breaks one of the few rules they are tied to. It can come at any time, quickly trapping the lindost, draining it of all its aura, and looming over as it chokes for essence and dies, banished to an eternal suffering as a soyowas.

It is also known to cut the flowers in the Garden to punish a lindost. Without warning, the punished lindost collapses, all aura in their body leaking out and slowly choking them as their bristles expand and spread into the ground, tearing apart their flesh from the inside out. Their core fades out and shatters. They endure the only form of true pain they can and upon their death and disbursement, their entity is now gone. Forever. No new life awaits them this time.

Codex

All lindosts follow a code described by Mother. Breaking any of the rules predetermined by Mother results in immediate death by the Overseer. Treading the line of rules will result in the Overseer visiting the lindost and threatening dire consequences.

• The discussion of the Silent Rapture is prohibited.
• One cannot revive the dead nor save a mortal being from an inevitable death.
• Sharing of cross-dimensional and unknown cross-world information with mortal beings is prohibited.
• Never speak poorly of Mother.
• All attention remains on Mother when not performing a task.
• No prayer towards what is gone.

Due to Mother's hands-off approach, the Daughter has inserted its own personal vices into what it believes the lindosts beneath it should also follow. The Overseer is unable to end a life from breaking one of these, but the mental anguish and torment it will use is awful enough.

• The concept of love is purely of Nature and the Void cannot partake.
• Friendships are the bane of confidence and should be avoided to retain true strength.
• The study and furtherance of pre-Rapture science is prohibited.
• No providing great healing to mortal beings.
• No education of oneself to mortal beings for their minds cannot withstand truth.
• No production of blood-spawn, for Void and Nature cannot be sustained.
• True strength should not be shielded by petty textiles.

Cross-Religious Entities

Lindosts show up in the mythology and religions of many mortal species. There are different interpretations, some view them as angelic, some as parasitic monsters, etc. On Ptitheros, they are generally viewed as dangerous monsters, but should be respected for their power.

The Architect, Cymer, has a pact with the Arch. Cymer’s Kosmos have the capability to shoo lindosts away from Sallenin and personal Sequn dreamscapes in case the monsters aren't adhering to the pact rules on their own. Followers of the West are also immune to a lindost's detrimental effects due to this pact. They cannot avoid Lindosts, but the most the parasitic entities can do is hitch a ride without causing trouble. Lindosts are welcome within Sallenin and Sequn dreamscapes so long as they cause no trouble.

Aura and Power

The extra-high-aura classification found in lindosts permits manipulation of space-time and teleportation. (Lindost mutts tend to fall somewhere between high and extra-high aura, because not all have space-time manipulation abilities. Despite this, most are labeled as extra-high anyway.) They rival Architects in terms of power, but because they are incapable of creating life or matter from antimatter, they fall below the omni-aura category.

Standard lindosts are still pseudo-gods in their own right. Given the time (and no Architects to protect a world), a lindost can level a planet with the strength of their magic. Luckily these creatures never care enough or hold grudges, causing so much damage would be out of their way and not worthwhile compared to the consequences. They would never damage a world with life, they value Nature.

Creatures with heavy magic suffer the most when magic goes awry. Lindosts are made purely of aura, and aura has many quirks. They are also subject to being an open-energy system of aura, constantly pulling aura in and burning it to stay alive. Aura naturally fluctuates across the universe, a lindost’s strength may depend on the global energy structure of a planet and a lack of usable aura can cause them to collapse.

Occupations

Brunos is the Arch of Lindoss. There is only ever one Arch at a time. The Arch is the overseer of aura and management. Very rarely do they leave the Lindoss dimension, but when they do, their presence can be felt globally. A telltale sign of an Arch is swirl patterns, typically on the horns or face.

Natural magic is anything that uses aura in a naturally purposed way, such as the growth of a plant or the gentle cycle of aura going into the body of an animal when it breathes in and out. Natural magic cannot be messed with directly, interrupted, or controlled. Natural magic requires aura to constantly be flowing; when an animal with aura locked within it dies, a lindost takes the aura from it, recycles it in Lindoss, and it is returned to the planet's flow again.

Lindosts have a duty to protect the aura of every world, and if anything tries to mess it up, they will go after it.

• Soul Collectors: Soul collectors make up the majority of lindost minors. They are the parasites, the shadow-affliction causes. They spend weeks to years attached to a victim and wear them down into a shell of their former self, where their energy is so drained and their soul is torn that it's easily taken and all of their aura with it. Rinse, repeat.
  
  After a host's death, the host's aura is torn away. The host's soul is left to venture to whatever afterlife they are meant to go to. The minor class lindost sends the aura to Lindoss, where it is cleaned up, handled properly, then returned to the universal circulation anew.
• Reaper: Reapers are rare, similar to trackers they keep an eye on soul collectors. But instead of recordkeeping they come in if the soul-tearing left behind a ghost/spirit etc. They ensure that spirit gets to their intended afterlife.
• Tracker: Trackers are rare, they are recordkeepers. They travel among soul collectors to ensure they are doing their assignment and catalogs anything notable, which they then return to Lindoss every so often to bank their collected information. Trackers are always more experienced lindosts, ones that have survived a life for a while and can take their role seriously, for they need to be trustworthy.
• Core Handler: Core Handlers are a new purpose provided to lindosts, however most Core Handlers also do soul collecting, they just receive a slightly lower amount of assignments so they can also focus on other tasks. Core Handlers are the lindosts found on the space station and tagging along with space crews of Auroras and Chimeras. Core Handlers are often lindosts with decent socializing experience, this helps prevent communication problems and deaths resulting from such.

Education
Lindosts are created with an innate knowledge of the universe, how to survive, communicate, and do their job. Memories of past lives can contribute to some residual wisdom, but beyond that, a lindost teaches itself. With such long lives, the ability to read anything, and mimic anyone, lindosts can become extremely intelligent, wise, and their aura-built mind lets them far surpass the intellect of any mortal species. They are highly adaptable and anything they cannot learn from mimicking, they will seek out in books from anywhere in the universe.

Combat
When it comes to shadows they dislike, voidens can become very territorial. They all have quotas to meet and some feel privy to the world(s) they have specialized in for years, decades, even centuries in. Aggressive, unfriendly shadows trying to overstep in new worlds can create tension with the regulars.

Lindosts fighting is mostly hand-to-hand, claws and teeth aiming for the neck or bristle core in order to tear it out or make a threatening move. They move swiftly and hit hard with the aid of magic and have no concern for the scenery around them, market streets and homes can easily crumble during a fight. Shadows who have made a show of going at each other's throats leave behind pools of black ivy thistle around an area, which is the residue of their heavy magic usage.

Diet

Lindosts absorb aura (energy) through their skin. They do not need anything else to survive.

Another, but much less efficient option to getting aura in their system, is eating food. Lindosts can eat anything, but if they're actually eating for energy they will seek out fresh organs because organs naturally hold the most aura. If food is consumed, it is immediately dissolved into only aura-quantum particles that are then absorbed the normal way.

Shadows are unable to taste things naturally, so creating food and cooking is not common among them. Some who are friendly with mortals may pick up food preparation through mimicking, others may go as far as copying another creature’s sense of taste temporarily to try a food.

The only known Lindoss-origin “food” are arcanic drinks. Drinks made from highly condensed, cold, liquid aura. Enough of it can juke their energy systems, letting them experience a slight edge that alcohol would provide. It is hard to find outside of interdimensional dives.

Parasites

Conduit Parasites
Lindosts are known to heal extremely quickly, but their ability actually depends on what harmed them. Damage caused by entities “above them” can take weeks to fully heal, but it can be sped up if they use the energy of another creature. They can parasitise another creature, the victim’s organs become entangled in a slimy, hairy substance and a centipede-esce form clings to their lower back, digging into their skin with its legs.

A parasitic lindost can be harmless. If a lindost chooses a conduit for selfish reasons (choosing a stranger who gave no consent), usually they don’t care about how much damage and pain they cause. If a friend offered their body, the lindost would likely do its best not to cause more pain than necessary. Mindscape Parasites
The easiest way to tear a victim down is from the inside out. Lindosts get into victims’ heads and disrupt their focus, sleep, dreams, and daily routine. Exhaustion and anxiety wear a creature down quickly, the lethargy making sleep more common and more nightmares ensue to cause trauma. Mindscape parasites wait until the victim either kills itself or is so weak that the aura and soul can be separated manually.

Lindosts can exist in mindscapes without intentional harm, but their presence still takes a heavy toll on sleep and focus. They’ll use mindscapes to hide or hitch rides, but only with friends unless it’s an emergency, since friends can be informed to not get scared of the effects.

Species

Arcanio Classifications

Arch Class
There is only ever one Arch at a time. The Arch is the overseer of aura and management. Very rarely do they leave the Lindoss dimension, but when they do, their presence can be felt globally. A telltale sign of an Arch is swirl patterns, typically on the horns or face.

Minur Class
Minurs are what most think of when they hear the word lindost. They are the workers of the hive. They have a strong grasp on the dimension of travel necessary to reach the overworlds or other planes to be seen among other species, they wander in the darkness and find victims to attach themselves to that are already susceptible to nightmares or are suffering pain, such as grief, anxiety, depression, or exhaustion. They attach as mindscape parasites and cause shadow-affliction in mortals.

Within the minur class, there are usually 1-2 adversary minurs. These adversary minurs are powerful compared to other minurs and are intended to be trained as a future Arch. As of now, one adversary is missing and the other refuses to become the Arch.

Aryst Class
Arysts are rare and come from an energy mishap during the creation phase, resulting in less useful beasts (cannot create portals on their own). They are basically the low-end workers of the lindost kind and act as protectors for the Arch and the dimension as a whole. Many Arysts struggle with a sense of purpose and are at risk of intentional death that result in soyowas due to their already misshapen aura mass. Mother despises Arysts and does its best to lull them into suicide so they may be reformed into a useful minur class.

Voidspawn Mutts
High Mutts
First (sometimes second) generation children of lindosts. Can always understand Void and can shadowstep. Other abilities like portals and quills may be present but are not required for the classification. Arguably, High Mutts with portal abilities can be moved to standard Minur class.

Low Mutts
Later generations of lindost lineages where useful abilities have been lost and only the consequences of the void connection may be present.

Anatomy

Appearance
Lindosts are made from highly concentrated aura. Their mass is nothing but aura, making their coloration a deep vantablack. Aura can hold onto residual information, and most aura has been part of a living organism at some point. Various appearance qualities from the different organisms aura has been a part of are combined to give a new lindost a unique form. Which allows lindosts to have appearance qualities from absolutely any living organism found in the universe.

Incredibly condensed aura will absorb all light, making its forms a silky jet black color. This is why lindosts are vantablack. Lindosts with slight color tints when in direct light actually have slightly less aura than their fully jet black counterparts (Color leakage trait).

*Aura is subject to the electromagnetic spectrum. In ultraviolet, vantablack aura becomes blinding white (and so do lindosts). Animals that see a bit into the ultraviolet vision would see lindosts as splotchy black-and-white creatures. Some have actual patterns like civet stripes that only show up in this half-half perspective.

Their eyes, teeth, and splines can be brighter shades of gray, some even have white eyes. Common appearance qualities include glowing eyes, beady eyes, multiple eyes, extremely sharp talons, long fingers, pillia teeth, multiple mouths, and needle-like spines.

Biology
*Lindost biology has not been studied in depth by mortal species, especially because their bodies cannot be autopsied because their mass dissipates after death. Any mortal information has arisen from asking lindosts directly, from ancient books, and theories based on the scientific laws of arcanology.

The Core
Concentrated aura is compounded into a crystalline structure called the senaurc. It is sometimes called a [crystal] heart. It is such a deep vantablack that its details cannot be perceived. A film of gelatinous aura surrounds the senaurc to shield it. Parallel to the heart is another senaurc that has an opposite aura charge called the "nerve core". The two are connected by thick, bristled tendrils that transfer aura data between the two. It is important to not view the core as organs, it functions more like a computer with wires.

Bristles connecting the cores peel away to coax around the heart. These have serrated thorns and cling to the gelatinous film. They soak up some of the core’s aura directly, storing it in a safe lock. This locked up data saves the qualities of the lindost so lindosts can always regenerate and return to their base form if they have dire wounds or shapeshifting abilities. To mortals, this is the most similar to DNA.

Inner Mass
Very much the same as the outer skin, with one difference: there are no perception blockers. Inner mass does not prevent bristles beneath from feeling warmth, texture, pressure, etc. The inner mass also carries aura throughout the body for healing specific spots. Outer Skin
Their flesh feels like chilled, raw dough. It is extremely durable to broad, heavy hits, but is susceptible to thin slicing. Cuts in the outer skin do not bleed and heal quickly. The outer skin only permits pressure sensation through to avoid ever feeling pain.

Hard materials, such as teeth, claws, and splines, are all made from the same doughy skin material. They are just heavily compressed versions, making them have a cartilage density instead. Eyes on lindosts are only a result from organism mimicry, having or not having eyes does not affect a lindost's sight. They can also see in any light spectrum they desire at any time (ultraviolet, visible, infrared, microwave, etc).

Trait Variations
Parallm Control

• Space Tearing: capable of traveling anywhere in the central universe.
• Dimensional Tearing: capable of traveling anywhere in the central universe and other universes.
• Time Tearing: capable of traveling anywhere in any universe and along the time-space continuum. Can go back and forward in time.

Parallm Portals

• Static Portal: portal displays a TV static effect when open.
• Oil Portal: portal must be on a surface and appears as a puddle of oil. It is dry to the touch.
• Distortion Portal: portals appears like a thin film of translucent distortion. Can be looked through.

Splines

• No Splines: incapable of forming splines.
• Calcium Splines: splines are hard like bone and can be barbed to break off in a victim's flesh.
• Gel Splines: splines are gelatinous and transluscent, similar to hard viral spikes.

Transformation

• No Shape-shifting: lindost cannot shapeshift beyond repairing their base form and minor alterations.
• Diluted Shape-shifting: lindost can shapeshift into different creatures but must retain base form's amount of appendages and design.

Misc

• Color Leakage: A bit of energy leakage causes a lindost's vantablack coloration to slip into the ROYGBIV spectrum. It can mean the lindost is old or they have a faster aura absorption rate, generally it is not a concerning feature.
• Fading Appendages: Inexperienced lindosts can have a bit of a harder time stablizing themselves in new, distant dimensions. This can cause their extremeties (hands, feet, tail tips) to be a bit faded or transluscent. This will occur less as their stability skills increase.
• Static: Lindosts who have spent an extended amount of time in the Unity can destablize their body, causing parts of them to appear static-covered. It is the same static they appear as when someone tries to take a photograph of a lindost.
• Dripping Eyes: Their white pupils drop a viscous substance that always vaporizes before it touches the ground.
• Perpetual Sludge: Naturally, lindosts' skin drips a bit when under extreme temperatures (magma-type hot), but some just always have this happening. The oily drip never leaves a trace just like bioarcanofluid.

Showbiz

Circus
Horror Circuses are a special event run by lindosts that function as a source of violent entertainment. It is set up like a festival. Within is a show, a dazzling array of lindosts who are talented in both showbiz and torture. Criminals from the dungeon of the city where the circus has stopped are brought in and their deaths are part of the show, providing a way for citizens to be entertained, the city to rid themselves of prisoners, and lindosts to acquire the souls they must collect. The shows are not for the weak-hearted or weak-stomached, nor are children allowed.

Network Challenges (Television show challenges)
With the advent of videos and custom sigil channels, channels dedicated to certain genres or shows have popped up. One of these genres are challenges and games that can be broadcast to others. These are usually a bit dangerous but have monetary prizes for the winners. Lindosts have created the most popular (and most dangerous) shows on the network.