Ektus

Fibrous and towering, the ektus embody pride and stability in the face of hardship. Though their ancestral deserts were lost to the hunger of the verdancy’s roots they survived, and some of their oldest kings still remember the days of sand and soil.

The typical ektus is cactoid, long-limbed and weighty, their fibrous skin decorated with spines, blooms and rough-healed scars. Though they lack identifiable facial features each ektus is set apart from their fellows by size, posture, bloom-scatter and head-shape. Despite this the flowers growing on an ektus are far from decorative, and many double as sensory organs.

Ancient Culture Preserved

The ektus are the longest-lived of the bloodlines (save perhaps for those that exist in a permanent state of un-life), and many of the oldest specimens claim to remember, if a little vaguely, the time before the wildsea’s arrival. While this sheds little light on the specifics of the wider pre-verdant world, it has had the effect of keeping various ektus enclaves (which were as split as those of any other bloodline during the verdancy’s apocalyptic arrival) culturally homogenous, at least for the most part.

The Eaten Desert

Many ektus still hold a strong connection to the Icterine, a blazing hot reach of ironspine cacti far to the west. It’s not the current state of the reach that intrigues and pulls them back, but its history - in the pre-verdant era the desert played host to a huge empire of red and white stone, the greatest achievement of this now-scattered civilization.

Questions to Consider

When you incorporate elements of the ektus into your character, consider the following questions…

• What is your connection to ektus history, or the eaten desert? Is it a legend you hold in your heart, or a ghost of the past you’re trying to move on from?
• Do you trim your spines for the benefit of those around you, or leave them long to scratch and catch on your fellows?
• Though lacking a mouth, ektus still eat (usually by crushing food in their hands and absorbing the juices). What delicacies have you discovered on your travels that keep you coming back for more?

Alternate Presentations

Ektus are treated as singular cactoid entities by the rules, but their cultural focus on grafting might be played up into creating an individual composed of many cactus specimens grown together, working in harmony. Alternatively the spined element could be downplayed to make a more traditional plant-based bloodline - an ektus based on intertwined bromeliads perhaps, or lilies, or roses.