Hand of Planegifts

Sketch by Miaralei Nuraminarena.

A scaly humanoid. It has thin wings of stretched skin. Its black scales are jagged and overlapping. This night creature was first created by ♂ human Ad Xetanrozmo after horrible experiments on the human Ebe Authoredamaze in Ramulkadi (known in the common tongue as Planegifts) in the year 340. The hands of Planegifts are a race unique to Orid Xem, not even found in the Orid Xem Proxima world cluster.

There are almost 1000 known named Hands of Planegifts, the most famous of these being Metuganra Pewtha.

They experienced a tremendous explosion in population between the years of 734 and 749, with a total population of almost two and a half billion at their peak, before a mysterious event saw their population crash down to its present number.

In time, Hands of Planegifts have raised in status in Orid Xem, starting to occupy different noble functions in several civilizations.

Near-extinction

Several explanations have been posed for the disappearence of over 2 billion of their numbers:

This section may require copy-editing to fit in the context of the world.

• The gods of Orid Xem never intended them to become this numerous, and they just decided to smite the lot of them rather than have mortal agents (Necromancers, adventurers, etc) deal with them indirectly. Plain, simple, but not exactly very deep.
• The HoPs there were affected by a disease of some kind (perhaps a mutated strain of the Silver Plague, which somehow made its way to the far north), which proved highly lethal to them due to their altered physiology. Most of them died from the effects of the disease, and the remainder turned on one another for what little uninfected land and shelter remained, effectively dooming themselves due to the massive casualties from plague and violence alike. Perhaps a few survive long enough to be encountered by adventurers and explain what happened, or perhaps rumours start spreading of cities full of inhuman corpses, left to rot in the streets where they died.
• Considering that they're all packed into the mead hall(s) of the sites in question? Reality ensues, and the vast majority of them are either crushed to death or suffocated due to how tightly they're packed in
• Alternatively, they begin undergoing nuclear fusion due to how tight they are packed, and explode/burn the hamlet to the ground.
• The HoPs there were a catspaw for one of the many death-aligned deities of Orid Xem, with the HoPs there being mass-created to wipe out all life on the planet and feed the death god a massive amount of souls. The other deities and powers figure out the DG's plan, decide having a few billion omnicidal maniacs running around in the mortal world isn't a good idea for any of them or their followers, and smite the lot of them while erasing the souls of the vast majority of the HoPs from existence to prevent the death deity getting a major power boost.
• The HoPs there started out as a catspaw, but one of them eventually figured out they were going to get used either way - either they die fighting and feed the power of the deity that created them, or they kill everything and feed the power of the deity creating them anyway. The HoP that figures this out starts planning the DF equivalent of Ragnarok, intending to quite literally storm the heavens and take revenge on the deity behind this. Of course, deicide is against the Rules, and so they get smote by the gods for their antics.

Further reading

• History of Hands of Planegifts by AotM ♂ Suril Gugirfensast of Mong Uthros.