Spyrite

 

Spyrites are small gregarious spirits, belonging to the Lemures family and renowned for their ability to quickly obtain and spread information among themselves about everything that happens near one of their colonies. 

They are also often found in association with creatures stronger than them, such as witches or ghostly overlords, whom the spiariti assist in exchange for protection. Although they usually act in large groups, it can happen that a particularly strong bond is formed between a specific spiariti and the witch or magician with whom it collaborates; in these cases, the spiariti prove to be exceptional, extremely loyal familiars. 

These small lemures practically never appear on the Plane of Phosphorus (or material plane), since for them taking a physical form is not a useless waste of energy, difficult to maintain for more than a handful of seconds, but also a torment for their very acute senses evolved to the measure of the Otherworld; and yet they are capable of gleaning information even from the material plane, listening to conversations and even using drawings or images that resemble eyes as portals to observe beyond the Veil.

Etymology 

The term spyrite obviously comes from the union of the words "spy" and "rite", meaning magical rituals. Beyond their role as familiars or subordinates of tyrants and figures of power, spyrites are in fact very curious, especially if they sense fluctuations in the energy fields that betray the hand of a magician, so it is natural that they discreetly approach the source of the phenomenon to gather information. An old hypothesis is that the origin of their name is a distortion (cryptonym) of the word "spirits" used to speak, precisely, of the spirits listening without attracting their attention in a negative way. 

Appearance

Spyrites are medium-small lemures, whose adults vary in size depending on the amount of food they were able to find during their delicate growth period as paralarvae. 

The average spyrite measures about 46 centimeters from the tip of the large ears to the tail, and can count on a wingspan of up to 1.45 meters in total extension. A spyrite raised in such a way as to always have abundant food and care available easily reaches the size of a large flying fox, with a wingspan that can reach 1.70 meters; considering that such conditions do not occur often, also given the altruistic nature of this species that shares food and information equally among the members of the colony, it is often correct to assume that it is an individual raised as a familiar and raised from an early age by a loving hand. 

The majority of spyrites are not so imposing, stopping below the average size. Their multicolored body paint is based on shades of purple and petrol blue, perfect for blending in with the darkest places in the Veil Beyond, while the menacing bright green and red patterns on their ears and wings fool intruders into thinking they are being watched by the wide eyes of a creature much larger and more dangerous than a spyrite. 

This lemures has a pair of feathered wings, relatively large and rounded heads, topped by two large ears that are wide at the base and pointed, and their body fades into a crude "tail" that the spyrite uses primarily as a tactile organ. 

Although their body is dotted with patterns that resemble eyes, their real ones are dark and very small, made even more difficult to spot thanks to a dark mask that crosses their face; there are six on the front and two positioned on the back of the head. The ones on the back of the head are a bit larger and more complex than the six on the front, each pair of which is specialized to allow the spiariti to capture as much information as possible through sight, specializing in the details of shape, movement, and color. The mouth is large and lipless, with the corners turned upwards as if smiling. The spiariti close their mouths only to express displeasure or malice, leaving them open at about thirty degrees when at rest to be able to use their tongue: bright green like all their mucous membranes and forked, even when still it is able to taste the air and perceive slight fluctuations in the energy fields near them. 

Spyrites have sharp canines, spaced apart, to allow them to bite the smallest spirits without touching their core.

 

Diet and Habitat 

Spyrites prefer dark, quiet places inhabited primarily by other spyrites; however, while they use one to three specific dens as meeting points for the colony, they are surprisingly wandering, exploring the surroundings in small groups of two to five individuals. When they associate with a protector, they will spontaneously begin to frequent the environments in which the protector lives, such as the home or territory, to bring back information.

As babies, or paralarvae, spyrites feed exclusively on ectoplasm. If they do not have a benefactor, they will mainly eat the scraps of other lemures' meals or free ectoplasm, even if it is of very low quality. As adults, they become opportunistic hunters, preying primarily on the paralarvae of other spirit creatures. They thrive when under the care of a protector such as a ghostly feudal lord.

Reproduction and life cycle

Reproductive frenzy  

In times of prosperity, entire adult colonies of spyrites can enter a state of reproductive frenzy that leads them to temporarily migrate to a quiet and relatively uninhabited area. Here they will mate with other members of the same colony, apparently chosen at random.  

Like most lemures, spyrites are not divided into males and females, but have a single sex capable of contributing half of the genetic material necessary for the formation of a new individual, a small one called a "paralarva", born directly from the temporary fusion between two adults. Once the new generation is born, the adults will return to their territory, leaving the young to fend for themselves from the start. It seems that at the end of the event at least one paralarva is born for each adult specimen, creating a colony that is, in terms of number of specimens, as large as that of the parents.  

The reproductive frenzy alters the internal electrical pattern of the spyrites, leading them to a sort of sensory inebriation. For this frenzy to manifest in a spyrite, it seems that not only a period of abundance is necessary, but also to remain in contact with more than five individuals of their species who are in a similar state of mind for a certain period of time, bouncing electromagnetic signals back and forth until they reach a paroxysm; alternatively, like many other lemures, the reproductive frenzy can be triggered when temperatures exceed thirty degrees and a large magical organism is present, whose aura can act as nourishment for the paralarvae and for the parents who need to reintegrate themselves after the fusion. This particular encoding of their being is so intense that it is comparable to obsessions.  

A single spyrite, or even a pair, will never experience a moment of reproductive frenzy, no matter how comfortable their living conditions.

Paralarvae 

Little spyrites are gregarious just like adults, and baby colonies are made up exclusively of paralarvae of the same age. 

The life of a little spyrite is not easy: not only do adults not practice parental care, but if they have difficulty finding food they do not have too many scruples about using the colonies of their young as food pantries, eating the members until they are large enough to have developed a personality and the ability to respond to aggression, or to escape and hide effectively from predators. Added to this are predators of other species, capable in tragic cases of exterminating the entire baby colony in one go. Due to predation, infant mortality of this species is very high. However, the paralarvae of spyrites are quite robust and vital, and, if they are not devoured, about 80% of the young in the baby colonies will thrive to adulthood.

Trivia

• Although the spyrites are technically capable of performing a spirit possession on a creature of the material plane, the way they interact with the world is so strictly tied specifically to their senses that such an experience would be much more traumatic for them than for a host body, so they never do it. 
• Among the spyrites, different colored liveries can appear spontaneously.