The Virborne

Among the Morvaren's many experiments came a discovery unlike anything the world had known. Fascinated by anything that decayed and facilitated entropy, they came across a small supply of a unique fungus.

They had discovered—and through magical enhancement transformed—a parasitic fungus they later named virpaela.

More than just a parasite, they found that the virpaela formed a bond that augmented its host’s strength and endurance. Natural infection remained curable. Healthy hosts could sometimes overcome it, and skilled healers could purge it entirely. Curiously, virpaela proved completely inert within Wardens. They could find no way to cultivate it, and could find no more of it.

In an attempt to make the most of their limited supply and in hopes of possibly being able to create a larger source to draw from, they turned to Bioweaving and began permanently weaving virpaela into subjects.

Their first subjects were the great primates, chosen both as a suitable trial before experimenting upon sentient beings and because they promised to make formidable guardians should the process succeed.

The virpaela emerged from the subjects as a living outer layer of mycologic skin. Far more potent than it had ever been as a simple parasite. This second skin hardened with age, granting extraordinary resilience and accelerated healing. Wounds that cut through the fungal layer often failed to reach the true flesh beneath. The subjects also possessed astonishing physical strength as if the skin was functioning as an exoskeleton. Yet they sacrificed almost all discipline and higher reason, becoming even more savage than the beasts from which they came. Most astonishing of all, every subject survived. These became known as the mighty trolls.

Emboldened by the unprecedented survival rate, the Morvaren made one final gamble. With the last remaining virpaela, they performed a Bioweaving upon willing volunteers drawn from every mortal race: elves, men, dwarves, and halflings. The process was as successful as before.

Rather than a single race, the transformation resulted in two distinct races. The orcs and the goblins had joined the world of mortals. Their bodies and physical prowess were enhanced, yet their wits were still below the standard of the Morvaren. How could anything stand up to a warden that couldn’t master the arkane? Even the halflings, whose minds proved the most resistant to influence, grew instead more cunning of a type that could even be called parasitic in nature.

Though some became physically capable of challenging a Warden under favorable circumstances, none possessed the judgment required to become the equals their creators had envisioned or even join the society they were created in.

The transformations were irreversible and passed down to offspring. The descendants of these peoples still bear the living legacy of virpaela, seen as a blessing to some, to many an inherited curse that forever placed instinct above reason.