#surki

"Who Mends the Broken", digital, 2025.

(art by Christina Kritikou on Artstation)

A reflection is a curious thing, a perfect carbon copy of a person appearing just beyond the surface, mirroring every movement.

In the real world, we know this is nothing more than an illusion on a highly reflective surface, the physics of light creating an effect that looks to all onlookers like a second subject or even environment existing just beyond the surface.

But in a world of magic, feeding into the folklore of mirrors? Mirrors may in fact be a portal to another world.

The fact that mirrors also reflect people can also lead to some sneaky folk seeking to emulate that in their deceptive arts. Certainly in pathfinder, using illusions to create fake doubles or disguises is nothing new.

But for some, this goes much further, with some characters seeming to almost become a living mirror of sorts, cloaking themselves in illusions and even weaponizing mirrors, going far beyond what even other masters of disguise can do.

The base dedication for this archetype allows the alter ego to observe someone for an extended period to learn how to mimic the act of going through the motions of their daily lives and career, allowing them to mimic working and acting in that role, or at least pass themselves off as doing so. This doesn’t actually disguise their appearance, but it makes it much less likely for them to be noticed as being out of place when they do so.

Like any good improv actor, these deceivers can “yes, and” an ally’s deception, helping them fill in the blanks of their story in a convincing way.

While some use manual disguises to complete their playacting, some others instead begin to tap into illusory magic to change their appearance, adopting a disguise with a gesture.

When assuming a role, more skilled individuals can pantomime applying multiple relevant skills to at once, allowing for more and more diverse roles.

People tend not to notice things they expect to be there, and these sneaks take advantage of that when blending in to places where their current role would be expected to be, such as a waiter at a fancy dinner party or the kitchen.

Some alter egos go far beyond visual illusions to do auditory ones, throwing sounds and voices, or creating magical silence.

Mimicry can even come in handy in combat, allowing these sneaks to observe the physical maneuvers of others and replicate them.

Going far beyond minor magical tricks, some alter egos can tap into the ethereal plane through mirrors… to swap places with or ambush foes through them. If done especially well they can even briefly trap foes in the reflection for a few seconds as well.

With another illusory trick, some learn to extend their deceptions to parchment, badges, and other symbols of authority, causing others to view these items as the expected proof of their identity and legitimacy.

Most alter egos prefer nondescript identities, but when they have to do a specific disguise, or learn things that cannot be gleaned by observation, some develop the magical skill to probe the minds of targets to learn from them, though it takes prolonged contact and observation to do so.

When the jig is up or the ruse has run it’s course, more dramatic individuals have a knack for dropping their disguise in such a way as to leave foes unnerved and vulnerable.

This is a fun disguise-based archetype, and useful for both nonmagical sneaks and true illusionists, or perhaps. Picking up feats that enable and reward information gathering and sneaky stuff are all very important here.

While many of these masters of disguise are probably fine, pretending to be other people on the regular can lead to a distorted sense of self. Exactly what that means can be fun to explore with your character.

The nearest parts of the Aether overlap into an area glimpsed in the reflections of mirrors. The surki inventor Scorched Shell has made that area the subject of their study, and they’ve made some interesting headway there, able to use subtle magic to blend in with other species by becoming their reflection.

Paranoid of shapeshifters and illusory infiltrators sneaking into the lab complex he oversees, Dr. Kolglas has devoted a certain amount of his study to the mechanics of physical and illusionary disguises, the results of which include many mewling and timid skinskitter fleshwarps, among more dangerous horrors.

Surki's cats Coffy and Orzhov stealing their office chair

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You might be wondering why the image for today’s entry is a nudibranch, and that is for a simple reason: When the subject of today’s archetype are separate from a host, they resemble such a sea slug.

The Ostilli are curious creatures that display traits of both animals and plants, and like the insectile surki, they survive mainly by metabolizing the ambient magic in the air.

However, these creatures are more than mere adorable magic-munchers, they have one other trick up their sleeve, and that is to merge symbiotically with a willing host, incorporating themselves safely into the bodies of their hosts, not only taking up the role of any missing tissue but also giving the host a way to metabolize magic.

The ostilli normally use these symbiotes to replace their own magic-metabolizing organs when they are missing or damaged due to injury or congenital defect, which makes sense given how important the ability to absorb magic is to their metamorphic life cycle and general health.

However, Some choose to invest their time truly becoming one with their symbiote, using them to gain some control over ambient magic around them in various ways, from offensive to defensive to utility usage. This has led to other species to also bond with ostilli in the hopes of gaining power from the process, though obviously one must be a friend of the surki to have a chance to do so through legitimate means.

In any case, this archetype promises a selection of useful magical abilities to anyone who likes the aesthetic of having a weird magical symbiote inside their body.

The base dedication with this archetype is to bond with the ostilli in the first place, which of course comes with research into the creatures to better understand them. Ostilli cause translucent tentacles that can glow from within with magical light to sprout from the host’s body, so it is fairly easy to recognize a host unless they take pains to hide it. In any case, the ostilli at it’s base can provide some basic protection against incoming hostile magic, or unleash a dart of magical energy as an attack in the magical equivalent of spitting up as a defense.

With training, the host can induce their symbiote to release magic as a healing wave of positive energy through their body.

Many can also tap into the ostilli’s magical senses to notice the mystical potential of nearby creatures.

Normally the dart shot by the ostilli pierces flesh, but with training it can be reshaped into a cutting blade or a blunt bludgeon. Later on, the host can teach the ostilli to evoke a single element in the magic, dealing elemental damage.

More stealthy hosts can learn to use the magic to blur and hide their form for a few moments, letting them confound foes and strike from vulnerable angles.

By attuning the defensive manifestation to an element instead, some learn how to set up a minor ward that blocks different types of elemental damage.

Those focused on using the dart regularly often learn to fire them at longer ranges.

Similarly, others learn to maintain the cohesiveness of the bolt so that it can bounce off one target and hit another.

Others learn to make the projectile more deadly, dealing more damage overall and also potentially leaving lingering damage as the foe bleeds or is burned.

The ostilli feeds on magic, and a strong one with a dedicated host can reflexively try to consume an incoming spell, counteracting it before it can harm them.

The offensive zenith of the ostilly allows them to spray their magical projectiles in abundance, hitting multiple foes in a cone at short range.

The most powerful hosts, however, can rely on their ostilli to save them in dire situations. When they go down, the ostilli can tap into hidden reserves to induce rapid healing, getting the host back on their feet and keeping them there for a bit before their energy is tapped out.

The ostilli and their hosts are fun and thematic, with some fun ways to get and improve an innate ranged attack, as well as some defensive buffs and reactions. However, the fact these buffs only last for one round does mean they can be quite limited. They can be good uses for when you have actions left over and nothing to do, but the most effective use for them is knowing what your foe can do and what they’re likely to do soon. As such, your lore and knowledge-type skills will be very important to whatever build you go with, as will your perception.

While the ostilli are not sapient, they still do form strong bonds with the host, so it is possible to roleplay them communicating feelings and whatnot through their physical connection. Also consider that outside the Lost Omens setting, these symbiotes might be living weapons designed to grant a small measure of magic to others. Alternatively, a caster character could reflavor their own magical power as being the result of said symbiote.

In Vanashi, occult magic is the most prominent, and even those with no psychic potential have an opportunity in the ostilli. However, such a conflux of mental magic also attracts dangers that love to prey on the desires and ambitions of those that come here seeking power and mastery, such as vetalarana vampires.

Ashen and prone to be mistaken for a hryngar, Valgana is in fact a dwarven dhampir, the result of a dark dalliance over a century ago. Though unnecessary, the shadowy merchant has a taste for blood, and has discovered an exotic new flavor when she tasted the blood of one hosting a strange magical symbiote. Now, she seeks to “acquire” such hosts to explore the new sensation further.