Mornachts

Mornachts have actually been around longer than the Cherubians. They hate Ianoda, the creator of all things, and they absolutely hate the humans, whom Iandoa loves the most. Their war with the cherubians began because the cherubians, who were created to guard and protect the humans, refused to let the mornachts torment the humans.

Physical Characteristics of Mornachts:

• Bodies: Mornachts have leathery skin that looks as though it dried up and decomposed ages ago and with withered, torn, flightless wings (all that is left of their pre-rebellion form). They look like a cross between the orcs in Lord of the Rings and the mummies in The Mummy. They are about the same size as cherubians, but they walk in a crouched position, and sometimes on all fours.
• Movements: Mornachts often jump or bound across the ground, and they can climb on walls like insects. They just can’t fly. They are quick–quicker than cherubians if possible, but they aren’t as smart.
• Physiology: Mornachts have two defining characteristics. First, they smell like sulfur (a combination of rotten eggs and burning garbage). Their odor is a disadvantage in battle, for most cherubians can smell them coming. Second, their bodies decompose in approximately three minutes, and the whole decomposition process ends in an explosion. The blast can’t knock out any buildings, but it can kill anything in a two-yard radius, and anyone three hundred yards away can hear it. This makes reconnaissance operations difficult for RSO’s, who can’t kill mornachts in their path for fear of exposing the operation.

Military:
The Morvenian military is not as well defined as the Elysian military. It consists of a few generals who hate each other and are always trying to kill each other for power. These generals govern the commanders under them, and the commanders govern the rest. Morvenian infiltrators make up the mornachts’ reconnaissance operation forces. They’re the most highly trained of the bunch, but they’re also power hungry and overzealous.

Morvenia:
Mornachts live in Morvenia, a country to Elysia’s south and southeast. Morvenia is located over a huge lava bed close to the crust of Heaven’s Realm. The land is hot, and steam often escapes the many faults throughout the countryside. Morvenia’s most notable landmarks are:

• The Poisonwood Forest: The poisonwood forest is full of poisonwood trees so venomous that a cherubian standing under them during a rainstorm will become disfigured for life. A river runs through this forest and into a deep basin the middle of Morvenia called:
• The Poisonwood Swamp: Well, RSO’s haven’t asked any mornachts to find out what it’s really called. They call it the The Swamp of Death or Bloodsucker Swamp. Please don’t ask them why.
• The Dungeon of Enbed: No living cherubian has seen the Dungeon of Enbed, but they know it exists. Cherubians know many stories about the horrors of the dungeon, but they refuse to talk about them.

Economy and Government:
The Morvenian government consists of whoever is in power at the time and still alive. It’s quite disheveled, but revolving leaders make it difficult for cherubians to take control of the country. Mornachts export ore from their mines and import metal they need to make weapons from the gnomes–a point of contention between the cherubians and the gnomes. Cherubians suspect the mornachts are importing weapons as well as metal from the gnomes, but they can’t prove it.

Weapons and Armor:
Morvenian weapons tend to be homemade and inaccurate. They use swords, but their swords are usually not sharpened. It is also possible to find a mornacht carrying a club or a mace. Their most lethal weapons are poisonwood arrows. The acid from the arrows spreads throughout a cherubian’s body, making his or her death slow and painful. A cherubian can only survive a poisonwood arrow if it barely grazes the skin and then only if the cherubian slaps mud on the wound immediately. (The mud and water absorb the acid somehow.) Mornachts don’t wear much armor, just a leather breastplate and maybe some chain mail if they can steal it.

Miscellaneous:

• Cherubians still do not know how mornachts reproduce. Scientists suspect they have some sort of a pod system, but no one has asked, and RSOs refuse to risk their lives for non-military research.
• Cherubians have also not looked for female mornachts. They probably exist, but RSOs are the only cherubians who have ever set foot in Morvenia, and if they have to go checking out females, they would prefer to check out cherubian women in Elysia.
• Mornachts hate water and can’t swim.