Jotnar

The following is a transcript, lightly edited, from a heretical text distributed among those that call themselves scholars of demon kind. It is presented here, to those who are about to enter the service of the gods, to stiffen your resolve against these lightless followers of darkness.

The jotnari (yot-NAR-i, singular jotnar, YOT-nar) are beings from beyond the Dark Beyond. They are anti-life, essences of non-being. Immaterial and indestructible, they enter the Dream through the Oblivion Gate and well up out of the Abyss whenever that realm comes in contact with the other planes. In a way, the abyss is a prison for the jotnari. It is believed among the Wise that the betrayal of the Nameless either caused or was caused by these beings of infinite hunger. Whatever the truth, it is known that the Oblivion Gate was not in the original design for the universe, and that only the presence of the prisoners of the abyss in that realm acts as a buffer against the jotnari.

Both undead and demons owe their existence to the jotnar. The first are dead bodies, animated and given a semblance of life by summoning a jotnar into the corpse. As such, they drain the life out of all around them just by their existence. The latter are living beings who play host to a jotnar, feeding it souls lest it devour their own soul and gaining power from that act. They trade their humanity for eternal life...until the jotnar inside of them consumes them as well. Mourn them, brothers, for their sacrifice delays the ending of this world.