4.11 Duamvi

The Duamvi are a race from the Spirit Plane, who serve the Triad of Angels in cohorts of unique training. The first of these came to Sapience by accident. Preceptor Merkava, Nianvi, and Asim arrived via the Orb of the Dawn, but it broke in their flight from encroaching shadow in their war-torn plane. Servants of Ael'mael, they brought the Templar teachings to the Paladins, and helped them grow with more potent skills with which to fight. They have since established a home in Enorian, followed decades later by Exarch Aban and his contingent of Akkari warriors.
 
Unique in their anatomy, Duamvi are a symbiotic race. A host must willingly accept their Duamvi counterpart, a being that appears as changing, trailing light. This union is a complete merging of the two: not two consciousnesses but one, Spirit and Body empowering each other. This ritual is closely protected by the Illuminai and the Akkari, who safeguard the process within their Bastion.
 
Native hosts of the Spirit Plane were bred for the purpose of this unity. Exarch Aban is the strongest known of these Duamvi, blessed by Ubarin and Ascended above his kin. Mortals from the Prime Material Plane may not be as ideal, but their substance of mixed elements both allows Duamvi to better acclimate to the Prime Plane, while also providing constraints they would not face in their homeland.
 
Duamvi can be slain, but their bonded souls find order and draw back towards the Spirit in the Prime Material Plane. This vulnerability is painful for both.

Roleplaying as a Duamvi:
Being Duamvi is to be one entity. There is no dual-consciousness or split personality. While the symbiote is intelligent, it is not communicative in the way that Sapient races are. This is a complete merger that you will become less aware of over time. Symbiotes themselves are nameless, but Spirit-native Duamvi may refer to them by their previous host, when one vessel is damaged beyond healing and another is needed to preserve the symbiote. 

The symbiotes of Symbiosis are fresh from the Spirit Plane, and do not have the same history as those who have lived for centuries within a host, such as those of the Akkari and Templar.

Duamvi are easily identified by occasional auras of light, as well as for their Sapient relatives, a sunburst-shaped scar over the chest where the merger takes place. Light might react more naturally to your outreach, oddly tangible but not enough to shape constructs beyond the orbs you can generate. You might find some of your tastes change a little bit, savoury rather than salty, or the reverse. Maybe you find another colour appeals to you more! These alterations are subtle, and would feel more like deja vu - a memory that has always been there, you just forgot for a time.

Life in Sapience is an enriching one but full of challenges. Duamvi symbiotes are entities of pure Spirit. The adaptations and use of the Grand Flame has allowed the Symbiosis ritual to purify a Sapien more completely, in order to be a host. However, there is a physical toll for the symbiote. The mixed essences of elements in the environment are similar to living in smog. You adapt, but it is not comfortable. 


See also: HELP DUAMVISTATS