The Shaped
8-Bit fanart by King Bendix
Name: The Shaped
Creature Type: Undead; Humanoid;
Has Soul: No
Appearance:
The Shaped are essentially skinned corpses with all of their extremities carved into deadly weaponry engraved with foreign glyphs by which enchantments to their bones are made. These horrific cadavers are still when not in use but can be awoken at the will of a skilled blood mage to do their bidding. Most of them walk on two legs, but some prefer an arachnoidal manner of locomotion. Additionally, every once in a while a Shaped may open their chest to reveal its insides, transforming their ribcage with the attached flesh into additional limbs at the expense of protection.
The arms are usually carven to the bone, resembling thin, curved swords. The legs usually resemble poles or pointy lances.
The Shaped, once awoken, constantly leak pungent fluids and always leave a red trail on the ground they traverse.
Abilities:
Hack and Slash:
The Shaped lash out at their victim, cutting their meat and rending their flesh. Due to the enchanted bones, they may sap life, stamina or magicka on hit as well.
Lunge:
The Shaped jump at their victim, biting them or driving their blades deep into them.
Burst:
The Shaped tear open their rib cages, revealing their internal organs. The ribs stretch out and become flexible and independently controllable. A bursted shaped can then envelop its victim to feast on them or immobilize them.
Backstory:
The Shaped are what happens when a crazed blood mage discovers a forbidden ritual to make someone their slave. In this case, the Shaped have been mass produced by the Crimson Cultists to build an army of followers and to gather bodily materials they view as crucial.
To create a Shaped, one must first find a victim and remove all of its skin. Then one must remove all flesh from the underarms and lower legs. After that, the bones need to be engraved with certain glyphs and a specific phrase has to be spoken for the spell and enchantments to take effect. Those who create Shaped typically carve the bones into melee weapons for them to be used as indefatigable infantry.
In 4E198, head of the Imperial Investigative Division Thorus Blackward happens upon a swarm of Shaped during his investigations into the case of the Heartland Kidnappings. While these vile creatures posed a serious threat to him, he managed to field test his prototype weapon, the Cloudbreaker, on them with terrifying results.
This creature first appears in:
Tales of Darkness - Shape Your Flesh - Episode I: Chapter II
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