Lesser vruul
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The lesser vruul has tough, leathery hide, as black as midnight. Bat-like wings sprout from its back, but they do not look large or strong enough to support its weight in flight. The vruul's claws are long, sharp and appear to be stained with the blood of many victims. Its eyes are eerie, solid green orbs that seem to glow with an inner power.
Hunting strategies
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Other information
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Behind The Scenes
Vruul were originally called "gogor", a special kind of artificial being. They were invented by the Empress Kadaena, along with many dark races, and several other kinds of malevolent construct. The I.C.E. age form of Marlu (Morgu) was known for plundering ancient crypts, looking for gogor, his favored pets left over from the First Era of Shadow World. They slumbered in urns filled with a foul necrolytic fluid, and appear to be activated involving some brutal ritualistic sacrifice. Gogor were supposed to be able to fly, but these ones cannot, presumably being older than the mechanics for flying creatures. They were not considered undead, but unholy is plausible. His interest in them was never given a canonical explanation in the Shadow World source material. Teasing out the meaning of the Dark Shrine and the importance of the vruul is thus subtle and heavily context dependent with obsolete lore.
In the Shadow World history, the Dark Gods did not appear until the Second Era. Without being here in the First Era, there should be no relationship with Kadaena, or her Lord of Essaence followers. The significance of the "gogor" and Dark Shrine is in establishing this relationship between them both during and prior to the Wars of Dominion. Andraax notably wrote a poem addressing her dark creations that began with: "Once She whispered and life was death. Gogur arose, his wide wings spread. Talons to tear and fangs to feed, the skies were darkened with dread." This can be interpreted as "Gogur" referring to Morgu, the archaic form of Marlu, as being made ("spirit born of death") as her servant and master of her vruul.
The invoking element to the Dark Shrine was: "Morgu lyxatis kort. Thro dyar K'mur." The loose translation of The Temple of Darkness Poem from Iruaric was "Marlu, Cruel Master. Guard the Dark Queen." More literally, "lyxatis" means something like "one who is the act of causing dread", or "dread incarnate." "Kort" means "master", but Marlu is the servant in this context, more like "the master's dread" or "the dread who masters [my servants]." "dyar K'mur" is a subtle play on words. While it means "dark female Lord", which is to say Lords of Essaence, the "Queen of Evil" who created the gogor was Kadaena. K'daen or Kaeden itself means "queen", or Kadaena as "high queen" or "Empress." Thus, the translation is more accurately a command, which can be more pointedly rendered as: "Dread Marlu, Guard Kadaena."
This implies a relationship between the Lords of Essaence and the Dark Gods dating back to the First Era. Iruaric was the language of the Lords of Essaence, and would otherwise be out of place when speaking about the Dark Gods. However, there is another play on words, given the literal meaning of "dyar K'mur." The Lornon (Charon) deities were known as the "Dark Lords", and "Lady of Darkness" was the epithet of Eorgina. Eorgina (Orgiana) was not the queen of their pantheon in the archaic theology, and resided at the time in the Black Hel with a theocracy run by the daughter of Kadaena. The Dark Path called Kadaena the "Guardian of the Forbidden." "Thro dyar K'mur" in this context means roughly the same thing as "Throk Farok."
Marlu was originally a "Dark Spirit", similar to Voln, which were extensions of will of the Dark Lords. It would thus make no sense for Kadaena to have made Morgu unless she was herself one of them. Interestingly, the poem alludes to Orgiana as the "Mother" of darkness, which plays off Morgu being "born" to guard the Dark Queen. It conflates her identity with Kadaena, who used Ordainers as bodyguards. The Dark Gods were speculated by some Loremasters, like Uthex Kathiasas, of having originated in Lord of Essaence experiments with creating non-corporeal life. Similarly, surviving followers of Kadaena were said to have created Great Demons, who were also demi-gods. The phonetic representation of Iruaric here indicates it was the "modern" form of the language, even though it is insinuating a relationship from a hundred thousand years earlier. These followers of Kadaena were known to have worked with the Dark Gods during the Wars of Dominion. Uthex was killed in the same year that one of them conquered this whole region.
References
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