Races

Kal`aire - by T.A. Saunders ©1997 v3.5

Racial Articles Guilt Versus Innocence: Understanding the Kal'aire

The Spirit of Vengeance empowers the Kal'aire by giving them extraordinary gifts to increase their survival. While Kal'aire are not undead, they are in fact supernatural in that their souls are given to Vengeance when The Choice is made to do so. It is this co-existence with the Spirit of Vengeance that acts as a conduit to their powers. Each Kal'aire in effect becomes a fractional avatar of the Spirit's will.

A Kal'aire can be born from any mortal race. The only requirements of becoming a Kal'aire are a need to replace one of the ten and a will to serve Vengeance without fail. Once The Choice is made, it cannot be unmade unless rather desperate measures are taken. Like vampires, generally the only way to escape such a doom, is to undergo the effects of very rare and powerful temporal magic, or beckon for divine/infernal intervention. The other solution of course, being death.

The mindset of the Kal'aire is one of neutrality, meted by brutal means. The Edicts of Vengeance guide everything a Kal'aire does and says, though the interpretation of such things tends to have a wide berth. Some Kal'aire are more zealous than others, some are more cautious than others. Some have been compared to a blunt instrument, others have been likened to a patient snake, lurking in the tall grass for the unwary. Whatever the method, means and action there is always the Edicts of Vengeance to act as a moral compass and failing that, dire consequences from the Spirit of Vengeance directly.

Kal'aire also simply don't show up and judge every bad person that has ever done something bad. The intercession of a Kal'aire is a final arbitration; a form of natural justice embodied in a physical entity and unleashed. Such things are reserved only for the most heinous of acts and the most sinister deeds that no form of mortal punishment or justice could ever address properly. There are acts so abhorrent that there is only one way to rectify their doing and that is through the primal balance true vengeance offers.

The most common way that the attention of the Kal'aire is drawn, is through the Black Prayer. It is mostly considered urban legend that to utter this prayer to the Spirit of Vengeance, that his attention will be drawn to a particular act and judgment will be made, whether the attention of the Kal'aire is required. The exact words of the Black Prayer are not known, as there are many variations though many old wives tales insist that simply speaking the Spirit of Vengeance's name is enough. Whatever the case, if the Prayer is answered a Kal'aire is summoned forth and justice is mete in favor of the innocent and the guilty is purged.

The other way Kal'aire are drawn to a conflict is if The Culling is called on a particular person, people or land. One such example was D`Mir when it finally fell; the city had grown so infested with the Guilty, the Spirit of Vengeance it is said simply directed all the Kal'aire to converge upon it and ensure the entire city was razed to the ground. This is a most fearful (and rare) showing of Kal'aire power, but such an unleashing of The Culling has happened more than once in Imarel's past. Ultimately, The Culling is the final act of purifying the world in order to maintain Cosmic Balance; it should be looked upon as natural order righting itself, rather than senseless, brutal violence, begetting violence.