#askagonycradle

Good question! I think some wretches never learn to communicate at all. But many are periodically released from their cradles and made to do slave labor, so they can learn things during that time.

Also, they have nothing better to do than watch and listen to the things going on around them while they lie in those cradles. They are desperate for any distraction from their pain, so they pay close attention to activity happening around them. They listen to the chatter and see interactions between cultists, and I think they passively absorb knowledge from that. Those cultists often interact with the wretches too (usually just to insult or torment them, but still...)

As for the wretch in Agony Awakens...it's weak and slow, but the fact that it can walk at all suggests that it's been let out of its cradle occasionally. I think the skorpius guardian released the wretches from time to time so they could help maintain the ruins. That is a lot of work for one skorpius to do alone (especially considering, you know, it doesn't have fingers...) so it would make sense to take advantage of the help.

But when these wretches weren't keeping the ruins from collapsing, they were shoved back in their cradles and their agony was used to charge the staff.

This is a typical existence for most wretches.

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Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

STAND ASIDE, LOSERS.

THERE'S A NEW MONSTER IN TOWN.

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Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

Wretches are just normal people, sorry if I didn't convey that clearly! They're often mistaken for undead, but they are very much alive. They fall into the "afflicted" class, as enough time in the cradle will transform them and give them abilities they didn't naturally have before (like feeding through their skin). They still have souls.

Mostly they are victims who were kidnapped by Crescent Cultists during raids. These cultists frequently terrorize villages and cities (usually Morite ones, because Yerim-Mor Kingdom doesn't have the resources to stop them) and one of the ways they terrorize the citizens is by kidnapping family members.

These kidnapped people can be any species, any sex, any age, including infants. They can meet many different fates at the hand of the cult: slavery, blood sacrifice, test subjects for dark spells, food for skorpius, or worst of all: they can be thrown into an agony cradle and transformed into wretches.

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Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

I think the wretchification overrides a species original dietary needs and intolerances (sort of like vampirism). So, goblin wretches can ingest meat and blood just fine. Cecaelian wretches don't need fish blood specifically, they can get by with any type of blood like the other wretches can.

It's one of the very few perks these critters have. They really aren't hard to feed!

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Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

Now that's a really good question. I think regeneration might delay the process, but ultimately the agony cradle will win the battle. This is magic vs. magic here, so normal rules of biology won't always apply.

I'm going to say that cecaelia can be "wretchified", and after a certain point their regeneration powers will just restore them to their wretch forms instead of their original ones.

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Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

Thankfully this hasn't happened...yet. It's terrifying to think about though!

I think most divines would be too powerful to be contained in an agony cradle, or get captured by cultists in the first place.

Crescent Cultists are actually pretty chickenshit. They pick on the weak first, and only take on stronger opponents when they have to. Trying to capture a divine would be a lot more trouble than it's worth. Disgrace has been trying to get his hands on Karenza for thousands of years, and despite all the gold and lives and time this quest has cost him, he's still empty-handed.

There is a reason this cult victimizes women and children above all else...because they are rotten, lazy, cowards.

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Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

Yes, any species of people can become a wretch and they all feed the same way. The agony cradle breaks down skin and changes its properties, and I imagine it would do the same thing to gorgon and sirene scales.

Enough time in the cradle will change someone's appearance drastically. Often they are unrecognizable, as they lose most of their hair, their bones/muscles/facial features deform, and their skin changes color and texture, becoming mottled and gray-ish.

I imagine scales would become soft or just fall off entirely.

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Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost