Solki are alien.  While most ‘inhuman’ races are accepted to be some sort of mergence of the spiritual realm and the physical plane at some point during the Great Fall, the Solki are another matter.  Although it is generally accepted that the Solki are not demonic beings made manifest, their physical presence is nonetheless disturbing to many. For example, unlike the Muilan, for whom the line between earthly and spiritual existence is blurred, uncertain, and easily traversable, and whose countenance hints at their unworldly co-existence with the earthen and spiritual planes, the Solki are wholly of the physical world in body.

 

They are completely in-human in appearance; while other races at least hold a semblance of human origin, two eyes, a nose, a mouth and an upright posture, Solki are entirely different.  Solki have no gender, and therefore do not breed; but they also do not age, claiming to have ‘always been and always will be’.  They are at best described as insect-like, though this is a lose similarity.  Black exoskeletons that are completely impenetrable by blade or blunt encase their inner organs (if they even have them- Solki are not taken to disease or death, so no autopsy has ever been preformed).  Posture is bent downwards, and though they have four limbs, two legs and two arms, they have neither hands nor feet, simply thin, blade-like mandibles.  Fairly devoid of faces, their long heads have six eyes layered in two rows of three; these are usually reddish in hue and solid- no iris.  There is neither nose nor mouth, though they do have a mass of hair-thin fibrous ‘tentacles’ that look similar to a ponytail or long beard at the base of the head- this is used for speech and ‘eating’.

 

The Solki are most notable for their symbiotic relationship with mortal races, primarily the humans they share habitat with. Though evidently ‘grounded’ to this realm, the Solki exist and sustain themselves the same as do the beings of the far side of the Veil – essentially, they are sustained through the spiritual consumption of emotional manifestation.  To be precise, the Solki absorb the spiritual emanations of pain- in all the forms of emotional turmoil as well as the psychic echoes of physical pain.

 

Through the consumption of these spiritual emanations, it is possible for a Solki to drain a mortal being unto the point of death. (This is far more the exception, rather than the rule) For this ability to bring such a decisive and irreversible end to mortal suffering, they are misunderstood and often feared.  However, the Solki who have settled among the mortals of this realm, particularly in the Solki Islands, have reached a state of equilibrium through a symbiotic relationship of emotional and spiritual culling that does not kill their adopted mortal families, but rather continuously saps them of spiritual pain.

 

There is no small debate of whether or not their existence is a vibration and evolutional deterrent in this world.  Because the mortals coexisting with a member of the Solki are sapped of their spiritual pain, some argue that they are thusly deprived of the spiritual evolution which is the ultimate yield of mortals’ struggles with physical, psychic, and emotional pain. Undoubtedly, there are definite side effects, although not physically devastating, from long term exposure to the continual sapping presence of the symbiotic Solki.

 

Society:  Solki themselves do not have any definable separate culture; they exist in harmony with their human counterparts, and have assimilated themselves to that culture to a level far beyond the ‘human living in a non-human’ culture as is in say, the Tazu or Clan cultures, respectively.  This is due in part because of the Solki’s inability to breed and apparent inability to age or die.  Paterfamilias, or ‘heads of household’ are the position held by Solki in a particular area, taking one or several families under their wings as quite literally, family.

 

At their best: They are a stable source of comfort and relief in times of darkness and stress.

At their worst: Men and women have become dependent upon a Solki’s presence, incapable of leaving their side without becoming overwhelmed by the emotions felt beyond their sphere of influence.