Endermen

Long Ago...
Countless eon's ago, the Amon'Kabal (Endermen) lived in peace and prospered upon their homeworld, free of many of the universe's magical influences. They were once giant humanoids, they dominated the land with their physical superiority and intellect. Then one day, a shaman of of one of their wandering tribes delved into the unknown. Using artifacts, rumored to have come from the sky itself, the shaman unlocked the secrets of the Void. That was when the Age of Wonders began. Using the energies from the Void, the Amon'Kabal advanced in technology, magic, and their power grew. They created cities in the sky, they created countless constructs to do their bidding, and the Shaman was revered as a king. However, it was near the end of this "Age of Wonder" that a dark twist began to reveal itself.

Unbeknownst to the Shaman, to most of the Amon'Kabal, dark whispers began to corrupt the minds of their people. Cults began to burrow under the skin of their society, growing bigger and bigger. Previously, Void magic had been strictly controlled, with Void Walkers being trained by the Shaman King himself. But these cults were taught from a different source, and being promised power, they punctured a hole in reality... Only to find horrors and ruin on the other side.

The Tear had catastrophic results on their home world, which was already strained by the use of void magic, something it previously never had to withstand. The world began to split into pieces, gravity ceased to exist, and monsters began to terrorize all that lived on the doomed planet. However, the Shaman King came to his people's rescue. He gathered as many people as he could upon the floating paradise known as "The Ark Ship" and went the only place he could think of... which was up. He flew away from the planet, away from the monsters, leaving many countless souls behind as he tried to save the few he had gathered...

And then... Something went wrong once more... No one knows how it happened, if it was part of the Shaman King's plan, or if the universe was punishing them for their curiosity. However, it was then a portal opened before them, and brought them into endless darkness. They were brought into the void, and the sudden and violent transition from the natural universe and the void had brought everything to ruin. When they finally lit a match and gathered their lights, for there were no stars in the void, they beheld themselves with shaky horror. They had been corrupted, they had become a shrunken and disgusting version of their previous selves, those that survived the process... Many more lay dead and shriveled, even the Shaman King was found dead, his body already starting to turn into a fine sheet of dust.



The Ark had experienced a similar corruption as they had, now most of the rock was barren, and the few plants that remained were twisted by the void, sometimes much more violent and more energetic than their previous selves. The Ark was no longer a paradise, it was their prison, their exile, the last remaining piece of their home world. Their species was long dead, and a new one had risen from it's ashes, the Amon'Kabal, or "Lost Pride".

New Reality
The island was barren, with hardly any food nor life on it other than it's cursed denizens. The remaining plants and few animals they had brought with them couldn't support the last remaining "Amon'Kabal" for long. As for the plants and animals, not all had survived and kept their passive nature. Almost every single one had transformed into abominations of the void, creatures of darkness, many that wanted to do nothing but consume the survivor's flesh and rend their bones.

There were only 60 or so survivors, many whom had fallen ill to unknown parasites, diseases, or simply from insanity... The few among'st them who were well desperately held onto life, some even resorting to cannibalism to survive. Many dissolved into unthinking beasts, and acted nothing more than beasts. Their race, at the end of the "Age of Wonders", fell back beyond the veil of feral instincts they had evolved from...

A year's time would pass, with this desperate fight for survival... There was no indication that time had passed either, as there were no stars nor moons to base it by... However, not a single one of the survivors would forget the day they were once more granted the gift of wind. It was a pleasant breeze, it flowed through every building, every cave, every crevice. In that moment, every intelligent creature gave pause, as something such as this was only a pleasantry they had experienced on their home world, if they could even recall it after so long.

However, the wind was only a harbinger to what was truly coming. As in only a few hours time, the edges of the black abyss below the island began to move. Great scaled beasts arose from the never ending depths of the void, and the mighty black dragons settled upon the dirt of the pitiful rock they now called home. It was then the great dragon queen "Talza the Conniving", as she was called by the rest of her race, rescued the dying race. At first, the survivors didn't know whether to fear or attempt to fight the great beasts. They became even more unsure when Talza declared herself queen...



No one knows where Talza came from, no one cared to ask, and she never cared to tell. However, her taking the Kabal under her wing was the beginning of their best chance at survival. They brought order to the island, dominating it as the top predators and letting the Kabal live in their shadows. Their deal was simple, attend to them and serve, and you will live. Rebel and betray, and be trampled underfoot. A lesson in which the Kabal learned quickly.

Over the next thousands of years, the Amon'Kabal, alongside the their dragon rulers, would grow beyond what they thought was possible. They would raid eldritch strongholds, pillage worlds and ships that had fallen into the void, and slowly add onto their riches and their island. The Amon'Kabal had found a purpose once more...

Description-
Large humanoids that compared to the regular human stature are giants. The Kabal are composed of corrupted DNA barely held together by void energy, making their bodies extremely unstable. In order to prevent their bodies from falling apart, The Kabal have evolved to teleport short distances. Every time they teleport their bodies resets and the slow process that withers their bodies along with it.

Height is an estimated 7 feet (2.13 meters) to 10 ft tall (3 meters). They have black skin, long legs, and glowing eyes (often purple). The longest an Kabal has lived is 1016 years in Mortal Time ("normal time").

Kabal mature at 20 years of age, where they start to grow bigger and develop hair. Although Kabal are mostly bald, they do have the option to grow hair. However, it takes 3-4 years to grow a full head of hair (depending on desired length of hair). Because of the corruption of Kabal, many of their characteristics such as hair or skin color have been greatly reduced. Kabal can only have black, gray, or silver hair, all other hair colors are unnatural. Eye color however, is of great variety. Kabal eyes can be purple (most common), red, yellow, blue, cyan, green, any other eye color is of unnatural origins.

Other than hair and eye color, Kabal have the usual thick black skin, long legs and arms, and elongated stature. Kabal also sport a pair of hind legs, which is one feature that differs them from humans. Another feature of theirs that is quite unlike humans is their pair of horns or the "headdress", as they call it. These horns grow up and out of the head upon maturation, and often come in various shapes and sizes, some headdress features even marking individuals of powerful families. Lastly, Kabal often have a assortment of spikes around their body, on their chin, down their neck and spine, at the ends of their elbows, etc. The only spikes that grow continuously are their chin spikes, which need to regularly be cut or filed, as a spike that grows in the wrong direction can easily grow into the unfortunate individual's neck.

Another feature of Kabal is their uncanny ability to dislocate their jaw at will, which is quite a scary feature. When this happens, don't ask questions, just run. The reason for such flight would be because this feature is often only seen in Feral Kabal. Feral Kabal are the void sick individuals of the race, driven insane by void corruption leaking into their minds at birth. As a result, they are nothing short of animals or mental patients, they will kill you and eat you whole for simply looking into their eyes for too long. "Ferals" are extremely strong and dangerous, being able to bare-handily rip a full grown bull limb from limb and even pick them up with ease. A common sign of a Feral Kabal is their red eyes, which some Kabal say reflects their inner rage at the world around them.