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D'ivers

Page history last edited by wijd140h3 10 years, 11 months ago

D'ivers

 

 

Like the Soletaken, they are individuals capable of transforming into some kind of animal. Unlike the Soletaken, they veer into multiple copies of that animal, forming swarms or packs. The name may derive from the archaic English form of "diverse," which was simply "divers."

 

For a list of known D'ivers, see Soletaken and D'ivers - known forms


Abilities

 

The entire group of animals comprising a d'ivers remains under the control of a single intelligence. Each "copy" seems to be equally important - there is no "lead" animal. D'ivers can add to the numbers of its veered form and survive the loss of any number of those copies, only dying when none remain. However, losing copies does mean a loss of power or strength, just as an increase in number represents a gain. This suggests that D'ivers are more powerful than Soletaken, agreeing with their description as a "higher order" than the Soletaken. 

 

As with Soletaken, D'ivers release a spicy scent when veering or sembling. Also like Soletaken, they are said to sicken those they wound, resulting in muderous insanity or death. This may be related to the insanity of the Beast Ritual, and so only a side-affect of those D'ivers from the Human First Empire.

 


Origins

 

Many of the d'ivers encountered so far originated in the Human First Empire, which was destroyed in the runaway Beast Ritual that turned much of the population into Soletaken and D'ivers. Many of these Soletaken and D'ivers were killed by the T'lan Imass who arrived shortly thereafter to slaughter them, but most d'ivers seen within the novels are survivors of that time. Most survivors of that Ritual have since turned insane and generally remain in their bestial forms, but a few have maintained their sanity, such as Gryllen, Treach (until a few centuries before the novels) and Messremb.

 

A large number of soletaken and d'ivers from across the world were killed or entombed within the Azath House Tremorlor during the Path of Hands.

 


Exceptional Cases

 

Ryllandaras

 

Ryllandaras is one of the surviving First Heroes affected by the Beast Ritual during the Human First Empire. Unlike most shapeshifters, Ryllandaras not only maintained sane, but mastered the gifts of soletaken and d'ivers. Ryllandaras has changed forms over time, transitioning between different wolf-like forms, including jackals, ay'tog and desert wolves. The number of forms he veers into have been shown to increase as he has gained in power. Additionally, a single half-man, half-jackal monstrous form of Ryllandaras exists on the Seti plains. Since the d'ivers desert wolves Ryllandaras co-exist with the man-jackal, it has been speculated that Ryllandaras detached a single one of his forms containing the inherent insanity of the d'ivers, which became the man-jackal, while the rest of him is the d'ivers desert wolves.

 

 

Trake's Legion

 

After ascending and becoming a God of war, Treach bestowed upon his own followers some of the abilities of Soletaken and d'ivers. Trake's Legion, the military group lead by Gruntle, have a reverse-d'ivers ability to veer from many humans into a single enormous tiger. As the tiger, they are able to travel swiftly and they also used the form to fight hordes of undead K'Chain Che'malle in the Battle of Coral. When the tiger sustained wounds, members of Trake's Legion would die and fall out of the tiger in their human form.

 

 

Ho

 

Ho is a mage who became d'ivers-human after studying Ryllandaras. The individual forms of Ho have demonstrated unprecedented independence from one another, with three turning on a fourth, their ability to coexist far away from each other and an apparent ability to think and act seperately from each other.

 


 

D'ivers: A higher order of shape-shifting.

DG Glossary

 

'The fangs and claws of D'ivers and Soletaken bred a singularly virulent sickness, often culminating in hallucinations, bestial madness, then death. For many who survived, the madness remained, reappearing on a regular basis for one or two nights nine or ten times each year. It was a madness often chracterized by murder.'

DG, UK MMPB, p.146

 

'The fangs and claws of D'ivers and Soletaken bred a singularly virulent sickness, often culminating in hallucinations, bestial madness, then death. For many who survived, the madness remained, reappearing on a regular basis for one or two nights nine or ten times each year. It was a madness often chracterized by murder.'

DG, UK MMPB, p.146

 

"The historian saw a swarming cloud approach Bult from behind and shouted a warning. The Wickan whirled, long-knives in his hands. He screamed as the first of the wasps stung.

....

Rats scampered over the soft ground, shrilly screaming as they attacked a writhing bundle of snakes.

... 

The historian felt heat on his legs, looked down. Fire ants swarmed up his thighs."

DG, UK mmpb, p.181

 

"Not poison. More like an infecting warren. I can deal with this Duiker. As with your legs."

DG, UK mmpb, p.183

 

'Is there a blending between shapeshifting and Elder Tellann? Unknown. Perhaps the D'ivers and Soletaken are simply passing through the warren - imagining it unoccupied by T'lan Imass and therefore safer. Indeed, no T'lan Imass to take umbrage with the trespass, leaving them with only each other to battle.'

DG, UK MMPB, p.183

 

'There were some D'ivers that he (Fiddler) feared more than others. Beasts are one thing, but insects...'

DG, UK MMPB, p.776

 

'a sudden sleet of ice-cold water from above, the savage opening of a warren. Emerging from within that hovering, strangely suspended spray...the enormous head and maw of a dhenrabi lunged into view, wreathed in uprooted sea grasses, kelp and strange, skeletal branches...Three more dhenrabi appeared from that torrential portal. The roiling spume of water seemed to burn off wherever it descended...yet the creatures remained suspended, riding the hissing maelstrom.'

DG, UK MMPB, p.781

 
'the forces that are Soletaken and D'ivers are that old...They were old even in Elder times. No one species can claim propriety, and that includes the four Founding Races: Jaghut, Forkrul Assail, Imass and K'Chain Che'Malle.

DG, UK MMPB, p.455

 

Felisin Paran:'...How are they (shapeshifters) created?'

Kulp: 'They aren't. They're born.'

DG, UK MMPB, p.581

 

'No shapeshifter can abide another - under normal circumstances, that is. There are exceptions...Yet, within them all, there is a hunger as deep in the bone as the bestial fever itself. The lure to dominance. To command all other shapeshifters, to fashion an army of such creatures - all slaved to your desire. From an army, an Empire. An Empire of ferocity unlike anything that has been seen before-...a miasma of chaos'

DG, UK MMPB, p.455-6

 

'Her daughter chose the Path of the Soletaken, a fraught journey, that. She was hardly unique, the twisted route was a popular alternative to Ascension. More...earthly, they claimed. And older, and that which was old was in high favour in the last days of the First Empire...It was understandable that Elders of the day sought to ease their children's chosen path. Sought to create a new version of the old, risk-laden one - for that had crumbled, weakened, was cancerous. Too many of the Empire's young were being lost - and never mind the wars to the west-'

DG, UK MMPB, p.514

 

'Soletaken and D'ivers...The ritual unleashed powers that ran wild. Like a plague, shapeshifting claimed thousands, unwelcomed, no initiation - many went mad. Death filled the city, every street, every house. Families were torn apart by their own...All within but a handful of hours'

DG, UK MMPB, p.516-7

 

'the strong spicy smell that came with the change'

DG, UK MMPB, p.108

 

'The fangs and claws of D'ivers and Soletaken bred a singularly virulent sickness, often culminating in hallucinations, bestial madness, then death. For many who survived, the madness remained, reappearing on a regular basis for one or two nights nine or ten times each year. It was a madness often chracterized by murder.'

DG, UK MMPB, p.146

 

'A bite (from a Soletaken) can poison you, a cyclical fever of madness, but you do not become a shapeshifter.'

DG, UK MMPB, p.581

 

'There is a bond between the T'lan Imass and Soletaken and D'ivers, a mysterious kinship that was unsuspected by the dwellers of this city - though they claimed for themselves the proud title of First Empire.'

DG, UK MMPB, p.517 

 

"The final days - so long ago now - had been chaotic. The ritual had unraveled, unexpectedly, unpredictably. Madness gripped the Soletaken. Madness splintered the more powerful of his kin, broke one into many, the burgeoning power wild, blood hungry, birthing the D'ivers. The Empire was tearing itself apart."

 - Narrator speaking of Treach

MoI, US HC p.264

 

 

 

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