TheNexusProject/KreshInik

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Kresh’Inik

by Paladinltd

"‘e's the only one I don’ like! ‘ave you seen any of ‘is worshippers lately? Neither ‘ave I!"

- Flittering Shroud, serial worshipper

"Hmmph! Why can’t I get crystals like that?"

- Icefire Jasmine, royal bitch, to her latest girl-toy

"So pretty!"

- Worshipper, name not given

---

Most of the spirits living on Drunken Wind Street are tired gods, kicked out of Yu-Shan for a million and one reasons. Some, however, are just oddballs, who have never had anything to do with the Celestial City. Kresh’Inik is one such oddball.

Kresh’Inik is a being of thousands of pure crystals. It has a bright light in the center that undulates like a great heart, ever-shifting, never the same shape twice. It never moves from the room that it has claimed as its own, and it has no need to: worshippers come to it -- actually, not worshippers so much as addicts. The sheer beauty, the shifting scintillation, transcends mere visual interpretation. Entire universes are born, live, and die in mere moments in his body. The sound it makes puts the greatest of symphonies to shame and would make the blackest heart weep with joy. All, mortal or no, become enthralled by the glory of its splendor and never wish to leave, often leading to their demise.

No one knows of the true origins of Kresh’Inik. It rarely speaks, and when it does, it never talks about itself. It didn’t even have a name until one of its worshippers gave it one: a corrupted Old Realm word crudely translating to “greatest beauty”. It is even unclear how he came to be in the small house towards the end of the street; Qurtok, god of unclaimed luggage, claims to have given the house out of the kindness of his heart (though most suspect that he is addicted to Kresh’Inik’s beauty).

For the most part, Kresh’Inik is deeply feared throughout Nexus, and some believe that it is an incarnation of the Wyld area scarring Firewander. Some of the more paranoid citizens have pleaded with the Council to remove it, but their pleas fall on deaf ears. Whether it is because they have better things to do or they cannot remove it is unknown.

Rumors

• Kresh’Inik is not just the incarnation of the Wyld area; it is a weapon left by Raksha who invaded the city during the Great Contagion. The bodies that are piled around it, who supposedly died of dehydration, are really its energy source. When it has enough Essence it will detonate, creating an even bigger Wyld area -- one that would cover half the Scavenger Lands.
• Stealing Shadow, a hunter of Wyld creatures, is secretly preparing to destroy Kresh’Inik.

Secrets

• Kresh’Inik is not a creature of the Wyld. It is a child of Luna, the embodiment of change. Its alien intelligence doesn’t understand what it is doing to people; it is, in a sense, just a child, who only wants to understand the world around it. Gen, the Minister of Ways, has taken sympathy on the creature and has persuaded the council to let it stay in Nexus. They all know that Luna has a plan, and that Kresh’Inik is central to that plan.