The Brown Vadeli are greed personified, so greedy that they take
back the life and soul they contributed to their own children by
eating them. This reminds me a little bit of something that Don Juan
talked about to Carlos Castaneda in one of the early Don Juan books,
in which a magician had to take back the magicsoulstuff that he had
given to his own children, or else never reach his full power...
"they'll never miss it." Anyway, I'm sure that the Vadeli would see
it as something along the same lines. "Until they're adult they
aren't really intelligent anyway, not under our definition, so it
doesn't count as murder to eat the little buggers." And as a result
they keep their immortality spells up, as a result of not diluting
their spirits. They are also capable of cloning and of creating
homonuclei.
The Red Vadeli are violence personified, so violent that the only defense against them is to cut your own throat or to feign death. They are also cannibals, except that instead of eating their own children they eat their foes in ceremonies that use a principle similar to that of Tap which destroys the characteristics of their foes and adds some fraction (about half) of the destroyed characteristic to their own. The characteristics are considered to be embodied in body parts, so head=INT, hands=DEX, heart&liver=POW, belly=SIZ, muscles=STR, bones=CON, skin&hair=APP. In the culmination of a grotesque ceremony the Reds must eat the appropriate parts of their still-living foes in order to augment their characteristics. The characteristic increases last until the sorcerous extensions wear off. They also have a peculiar enchantment that binds them in a pact with a particular type of weapon, so that if anyone uses that weapon against them it will turn in its hands and strike its bearer rather than the Red Vadeli it was aimed at. One Red might have a sword pact. Another Red might have a spear pact. And another might have an arrow pact. Red Vadeli reproduce sexually, but the parents must be dead before Red children may cast their immortality spell, so often Red parents kill their children before they become a nuisance.
The Blue Vadeli are cold and calculating, and it is my belief that
they are not especially gruesome. They prey on the minds of others,
not on their bodies. The Blue Vadeli have a spell which hides their
"hearts" away in a secret place and makes them immune to non-magical
damage. These "hearts" are actually their own birth bodies
alchemically reduced to a small stone, and they inhabit soulless,
immortal, blue-skinned clones of themselves as long as the clones
last and can be properly fabricated. They are under no onerous
strictures for immortality, except that they may not make new clones
of themselves while they have living parents or offspring.
Additionally if all their bodies are destroyed by magical damage then
their spirits can range within a certain distance of their hidden
hearts and attack beings in spirit combat in order to possess them.
They prefer to possess Vadeli, especially Reds, then Brithini, and
only in a pinch will they possess humans, trolls, aldryami, mostali,
or other races. They have the same possibilities for immortality as
the body they are possessing. Their possessed bodies are just as
immune to damage as their original bodies. They look like normal
members of the race of the person they have possessed except to
second sight and similar powers. Their auras glow with a sickly blue
radiance that stretches out one meter from their bodies for each 5
POW. There is also a faintly visible cord of blue energy that points
in the direction of their heart, and if it is followed then it will
lead to the Blue's heart. Note that their hearts are well guarded.
Note also that their auras are visible momentarily at sunrise and
sunset, as with all other Gloranthan enchantments.
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