The Voidborn

In Iskandria, virtually every living thing possesses a faint, luminous tether to the Aether, often allowing them to access incredible abilities. As a consequence, those known as Voidborn are a terrifying anomaly; individuals born not merely without magical talent, but with a soul that acts as a profound, hungry vacuum for arcane energy. They are walking negation fields that instinctively unravel the weave of magic and, as a consequence, make them incredibly dangerous creatures.

To a commoner, a Voidborn feels simply “wrong”, a person who evokes a primal, hair-raising instinct of revulsion, like seeing a corpse move. But to those that depend on Aether to fuel their power, they are nauseating. An arcanist standing near a Voidborn feels a sensation akin to sudden asphyxiation, a “static migraine” as their own internal reservoir of magic is silently siphoned away into the nothingness of the Voidborn’s presence. Enchanted lights flicker and die as they pass, potions turn to inert sludge in their vicinity, and complex spells shatter into harmless sparks before they can fully manifest.

Because of this, Voidborn are rarely allowed to live normal lives. In superstitious villages, they are often left to die of exposure, believed to be soulless husks or changelings sent to drain the life of the community. However, those who survive are inevitably discovered and conscripted by the powerful, as they are the ultimate weapon against the arcane. Some organizations train them as Null Hounds, leashing them in anti-magic shackles and unleashing them to break the wards of rogue sorcerers. A single Voidborn can walk through a wall of magical fire as if it were a gentle breeze, or step into a wizard’s tower and render the archmage inside as powerless as a child.

Yet, this existence is a lonely torture. They are incapable of feeling the warmth of a healing spell or the comfort of a blessing, and they live their lives isolated by the instinctive dread they inspire in everyone around them as living ghosts who can touch the world, but whom the world recoils from in return.