Race Bio: Channeler

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Channeler

Body piercing is the new thing.

Channelers and Ascendants share a common ancestor, although the Channelers have taken a somewhat different turn since ancient times. While the Ascendants migrated to Desia's cliffs, the Channelers stayed close to the shore, preferring the simpler (and less vertigo-inducing) lifestyle of fishing the seas for food.

Their sea-based life allowed the Channelers to become closely connected with the Gluaglians through a system of land-and-sea-based trade routes. The Channelers found that they could fortify their aquatic trade routes by migrating to the Sumiria Archipelago just off the northern coast of the south continent. Here they discovered that there was more to these seemingly innocuous islands than they had anticipated.

The Gluaglians began appearing at the Channelers' trade ports with strange, blue, luminescent crystals. The Channelers were intrigued and did everything they could to acquire more of these crystals. After some probing, the Channelers discovered that the Gluaglians had been mining the crystals from undersea caverns around and under the Simiria Archipelago. Ordinarily, such crystalline objects would be fashioned into simple jewelry. But there was something strange about these crystals.

The Channelers began their own undersea mining operations, and they soon were hauling thousands of pounds of the crystals -- which later became known simply as Essence Crystals -- on a day to day basis. The Channelers believed that the crystals had supernatural qualities to them, although they couldn't quite bring such properties to light as of yet. They became obsessed with the crystals, and they strip-mined the foundations of the Sumiria Archipelago so drastically that the islands began to sink. But by that time, the Channelers' hyper-exposure to the Essence Crystals had begun to reveal some side effects. Namely, the Channelers discovered that, if they remained in close proximity with the crystals, they could manipulate water with their willpower alone. They could freeze it, boil it, direct its flow; they could even steer the humidity in the air around them, directing the air currents and allowing for a form of levitation.

Fearing that the Essence Crystals would be stolen from them, the Channelers made a pact with one another. If these mystical objects fell into the wrong hands, they could be dire weapons of war and destruction. The best way to guard the crystals, they decided, was to gather them all up and to implant the crystals into their bodies.  And so they did just that. The Channelers from ancient times are still alive today; the crystals seem to have granted them a form of near immortality. The Channelers are peaceful and patient, although they can be quite easily agitated if they believe someone (or something) is coming after the crystals they have embedded in their bodies.