Oni

"Do you know what it means to be loved by Death? What it is like to have Death know your name?"

Oni are a demihuman species who primarily live in the Cursed Wastes and in the foothills and caves of Ingmarl Badlands. The oni have faced much adversity and persecution from their creators, the humes, who call oni by the pejorative "dark ones."

Physiology
Oni are humanoids with blue-grey or green-grey skin, varying from very pale to very dark skin tones. They have blood red or gold eyes with a dark or red sclera and pointed ears. Oni possess black, blue, grey, purple, or in rare cases, red hair. Blue and white hair are also common. Oni can stand between 6-9 feet tall, making them larger than other humes. Some, but not all oni possess horns, though these are able to be hidden behind a glamour.

They are sensitive to light, have tough skin, and possess tremendous strength and a constant bloodlust they must keep in check. In prolonged daylight their reactions become dulled and lethargic, and exposure to the sun enough for a sun burn will immobilize them and turn their skin stone-like instead. Due to their light sensitivity they prefer to be active at night. Even in old age, they are not as frail or incapacitated as other creatures.

There are four distinct races or subspecies of oni: Orkul | Ogrul | Gargul | Dracul

Orkul
The orkul are a group of oni with greenish-grey skin and a pair of boar-like tusks. They are the most numerous of all types of oni and are savage fighters and raiders, though shaman-like orkul have been encountered. They have long ago accepted their cruel fate and wear their scars with honor and pride. To the orkul, a scar sustained from protecting another oni is a mark of beauty, and a reminder of the pain and sacrifice they have endured.

Ogrul
A dark-grey skinned type of oni, ogrul are the strongest and largest type, reaching heights of over three meters tall with protruding canines. Both males and females are extremely well-muscled with massive limbs, and must consciously limit their strength. As oni have been struggling to survive, some ogrul have taken to farming, pulling the plows through the fields themselves.

Gargul
A blue-grey skinned oni variant and the smallest physically, gargul are unique in that they possess a patagium and can glide on updrafts and on the wind, though they have to be a good distance above the ground in order to take off. Their sharp claws can dig into rock, and they can use this to climb vertical surfaces. Gargul are also excellent swimmers.

Dracul
A type of oni with pale-grey skin, the physically smaller and leaner dracul use their retractable upper canines to feed. Some dracul have even learned to experience their victim's memories when feeding on them, psychically draining their victim as well. Dracul possess unnerving speed and a natural ability to cloud the minds of those whom they lock gazes with, similar to basilisks and the Gorgo.

Culture
Due to their history of mistreatment and violence from humes, the oni are withdrawn from most species, only showing in territorial skirmishes and the occasional midnight raid. They are a tribal society with some who wander in nomadic bands, and are ruled by the strongest and most cunning individual of their group, called a khaga. Those who have settled in villages have domesticated cows and horses. The largest oni settlement is the city of Arctarus, which was built on the ruins of an older empire. Grimhal is another.

Diet & Hunting
Their diet is mostly carnivorous, and being originally bred for war, each race of oni tends to specialize in a type of prey or hunting tactic. Most oni stick to livestock such as cows or chickens, or even slightly questionable meat such as horse or donkey, but feral oni will consume the flesh of sentient beings. Those who give in to this dark impulse are driven even deeper into ferality.

Religion
They do not worship any of the hume gods, for they believe those gods to be either cruel, indifferent, or impotent to let their children run amok. Instead they worship their hero Du'Ru-khan, a headless dracul rider who wields a scythe. Du'Ru-khan is a legend to the oni, standing up to hume oppressors and even fighting on for a time after he was decapitated; they wait for his return one day to exact vengeance on their behalf.

Humes
Due to their history the oni tend to be mistrustful of humes; although strides have recently been made in protecting oni in hume society, old tensions on both sides still simmer.

Beast Tribes
They have a complicated relationship with the Beast Tribes. Many of the beasts look down on the oni as inferior, particularly the centaurs, in part thanks to the Cestra making it part of their culture. There are also beasts who recognize the truth and their similar beginnings, but do not wish to go against the humes.

History
The oni were created by powerful Cestran magi as experiments. They injected hume subjects with demonic blood and grafted various body parts, eventually using these hybrid surrogates to breed new generations of oni. These subjects were usually slaves, prisoners, or other undesirables, and this treatment only served to deepen the resentment the new oni felt against their creators. Many did not survive the transformation process due to their bodies rejecting the demonic components, and of those that survived, some lost their minds, becoming feral creatures.

Originally conceived as a response to the Demon War by making a stronger soldier, their creation was a controversy poorly received by many other Cestra. This perception turned around when they were eventually adapted as a tool for personal convenience, becoming servants, guard dogs, soldiers and meat shields, and even jesters to their masters. They eventually came to resent their treatment at the hands of their cruel masters and rebelled after a series of tragic events that placed the lives of Cestrans over the oni.

The initial response from the Cestra was brutal as they sought to reclaim what they saw was their property, and many oni were slaughtered. Yet the uprisings could not be quelled, and the pressing threat of the demon hordes along with the internal pressure of their fracturing empire caused the Cestra to re-evaluate priorities. They decided to tolerate the existence of the oni for the moment and focus all their efforts on repelling the demons.

The Cestra turned their attention back to the oni at the conclusion of the Demon Wars, utilizing the techniques learned from working on the oni to create the Beasts. They believed that these Beasts would be more docile, and were not so corrupted in appearance. Initially, the Beasts — and especially the Tauri — complied, hunting the oni down. But after being taken for granted the same way and treated as playthings, the Beasts came to sympathize with the oni and rebelled for their freedom as well.

The Cestran empire was in serious decline at this point, and the remaining oni were able to form a truce with the Beasts and relocate beyond the reach of the Cestra.

However, even today some sadistic humes hunt oni for sport, justifying their actions as demon slaying, and earning the disdain of actual Hunters and Slayers. Many humes today are against the violent treatment of oni, but would much prefer not to have them around, either. When oni started arriving in "liberal" cities, many venues enforced "hume only" restrictions, only lifting them reluctantly as dictated by local governments.