Ectovoelen
In summary, ectovoelen are creatures magically created out of a part of one's soul which contains a strong emotion. They are typically made by necromancers, witches and enchanters, but only on rare occasions, as the method required to make one is not well known, inhumane, and exhausting.
They are beings bound to one or more bodies, husked of their spirit and prepared for ethereal attachement. This is not a simple process, as it utilizes the use and entanglement of many advanced spellcrafts and techniques from various forms of magic. Some of those being spiritual sealing, polymorphic projection, advanced runecrafting, auto-evocation, fate linking and zombification. After the process is complete and the ectovoelen is born, it is capable of simultaneously morphing to any forms it had been binded with, whether animate or not. Though ectovoelen can be creatures of great magical power, this is only due to their violently spirivorous nature. They will ruthlessly consume the souls of the innocent, seeking and preying on large, untainted personalities such as those of young adults and courageous children.
Appearance
Ectovoelen are normally completely and beautifully pale white, regardless of if their current form is inanimate or animate. They are typically tangible and have physical bodies. If the body they appear as has fur, hair, or other long and soft parts, they will tend to float and dance around like flowing water due to the intense amount spiritual energy.
In animal and human bodies, the specific methods of zombification used often gives an ectovoelen peculiar features akin to that of some undead. Such features may include misty eyes, unusually sharp nails or claws, and large teeth akin to the blades of daggers or needles. Due to these physical features, ectovoelen can often be mistaken for powerful demons, especially due to their overall rarity and bleached out colouration.
No matter if animate or inanimate in form, an ectovoelen is absurdly unlikely to not have runes or seals decorated across it's body, ranging in density depending on location. If this is not the case, these runes or seals may be either physically or magically hidden.
Diet
Ectovoelen feed on the souls of living creatures. This diet allows them a large and bountiful source of magical energy to draw from, making them intensely powerful magical beings. Though this power is only as strong as it's creator allows it to be, as spells are typically runed into the ectovoelen's various bodies and attached to the its spirit's own magical reserves.
Depending on the allowance of power, ectovoelen diets range from small animals to large and intelligent magical creatures. The most common ground in between being humans and demi-humans. On occasion ectovoelen will be speciliased in feeding on only a few allowed species of soul to increase efficiency and metabolism.
The actual mechanism behind their dieting habbits is made up of a complex series of runes and seals grafted onto the bodies of the ectovoelen. These runes may be located in many locations for various reasons, including but not limited to ethereal conductivity, magical conductivity, alchemical make-up and surface area to work with. Typically the runes will be designed for distanced feeding, up to 5 meters away in the longest cases. Some are designed for touch only for fast and uninteferred with consumption, but this is rare due to survival inconvenience of the ectovoelen. A victim being preyed upon will experience symptons of emotionlessness, hopelessness and weakness in the first half hour of feeding (for 3 meter distanced). After this period, the victim will begin to disintegrate slowly into ash, and unassisted escape will become difficult. After an entire hour, the victim will be no more.
The vague details of how ectoevelen consume souls are as follows. The ectovoelen destructably detaches the soul from the victims body over an hours period of time. This will often cause spectral tearing, a process in which a soul is so stretched out that it begins to rip, with the bonds to its body snapping violently. This causes the body to decay, turning into dust. The torn soul is then fed to the ectovoelen's cannibalistic soul through some of the runes on the body. The ectovoelen's soul envelopes the victim's and the lack of wholeness from the ectovoelen's soul creates a magical vacuum, greedily absorbing mana from the soul of the victim. Once the soul has been completely deprived of all energy, and thoroughly depreciated, it is ejected out of the ectovoelen's body as a mutilated spectral mass. Over time, the victim's soul will heal and replenish to it's original nature. But such a process could take months, and as the previous body will of typically been destroyed, the soul will often never return to it's original owner.
Their diet as well as construction almost categorises ectovoelen as undead. Yet their similarities to golems as well as specters warrant otherwise. This brings them into that awkward classification that tends to be an easy target to misunderstanding, similar to fungi. Neither a plant nor an animal, yet closely related to both.
Removal and Eradication
Ectovoelen are in fact intelligent beings, though their level of sentience is perplexing and some debate may be entirely independant of the individual. It is important that you approach an ectovoelen with extreme caution and great professionalism. If you assume to have found one, evacuate the area immediately and do not allow anybody to come near enough for it to prey. If the ectovoelen had been found in a location previously devoid of human or intelligent contact, such contact may rouse it and stimulate activity. When eradicating or relocating the ectovoelen, only allow the practical minimum number of people to access the site.
Use of wards and protective spells and charms is vital in the handling and/or wrangling of an ectovoelen. Eradication should be carried out using magic dispelling means should they be available. With nothing binding the creature together, it will break apart like a small animal exposed to acid. Banishment, should such a process be necessary, should be carried out using inter-planer techniques. If further investigation and study is deemed necessary, spiritual seals will normally supply adequate containment, whether through runic entrapment or vesseling into a durable object. Most forms of inverse as well as absolute necromancy have no effect on ectovoelen, with few exceptions. For this reason it would be advised not to attempt to use holy water, blessed objects, or any form of undead repellant in the process of eradication or relocation.
DO NOT allow soul imbued objects to be brought near the site, even under proper protection. The unnecessary presence of such objects may rouse the ectovoelen and insight a violent response.
DO NOT attempt to remove the ectovoelen without proper equipment and magical or spiritual understanding. Proper precautions should always be taken lest risk exposing the ectovoelen to the greater community, allowing it to become a lethal threat.