Pascid
From Mizahar Lore
| Familiar | |
 | |
| Major features | Made of highly mobile quicksilver, fast, intelligent |
|---|---|
| Abilities | Reshaping, using its body as a weapon |
Pascid are a Familiar type from the Lightface of Fyrden. They are made of liquid quicksilver (mercury), which blesses them with the fluid nature of water and the density of metal. As such, they can reshape themselves into almost any form and with unmatched speed and adaptability. They are sensitive to cold, which can make them sluggish and eventually kill them. A Pascid is extremely difficult to control because of its proud and arrogant nature. While useful, these Familiars are a lifelong challenge for any wizard.
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Appearance
Pascid Familiars are made of raw quicksilver. They can withstand Fyrden's Lightface and its temperatures, and consider themselves the kings of their home planet. While they would look like crawling blobs of mercury in their natural form, they virtually never choose to do so. Instead, they will move in a form of their choosing and tend to stick to it until they grow tired of it. On Fyrden, this form is often abstract - cubes, spheres, pyramids and so on. On Mizahar, once bonded with a wizard, they tend to enjoy animal forms. Wizards attempting to guide the Pascid's choice of form will most likely be scoffed at. The Familiar will tolerate no interference in choosing what it should look like.
Pascid are heavier then they appear and generally will walk alongside the wizard rather than stay perched on their body. They cannot fly or float, but they can perform decent jumps. Pascid dislike sealed form as they value mobility and are generally incapable of staying still for any length of time. The only time they will choose inaction is if they are wounded or hurt.
Personality
Pascid, like their Kirt counterparts among the Darkfacers, were once rated as Critical difficulty bondmates by pre-Valterrian wizards. Both were considered the most challenging types to live with, for entirely different reasons. The Kirt are shrewd and manipulative, whereas the Pascid are simply unwilling to compromise no matter what. It's their way or the highway. A Pascid is always 'more'. It is smarter, stronger, better than anyone and anything. Other Familiars are dismissed as inferior. The wizard's friends and acquaintances are dismissed as dumb. The wizard is often dismissed as a necessary evil, too.
This attitude is dangerous to both the Familiar and its bondmate. The Pascid is always correct in its own mind, and will react badly to its judgment being questioned, and vice versa. On the positive side, the Pascid truly is smart and resourceful. The best candidate for bonding with one is a subtle, diplomatic wizard who can lead the Familiar while making it think it is in control. Bashing heads with a Pascid is, more often than not, a waste of time and a source of friction. Indirect means and psychology tend to fare better.
Abilities
Their shapeshifting is unmatched by any other Familiar except their great rivals, the Kirt. A Pascid is much faster at reshaping than a Kirt, but is less resistant to blunt force, which will cause it to shatter in a shower of tiny droplets, like a Sarawanki. The drops can usually reassemble themselves in time, but the creature will end up smaller and weaker. Also, a Pascid can take on much more complex forms than a Kirt, but it has a harder time with colors. Its forms will usually only sport a single color, and sometimes no color at all but their natural quicksilver grey.
A Pascid needs no nourishment under normal conditions. However, when it has sustained damage, it will need to consume mercury to return to full shape. It is a good idea to keep some in stock, as the substance is not easily found outside specialized labs. Cold makes the Pascid sluggish and slower to transform. Freezing cold will kill them outright, but that level of cold is rarely witnessed on the Mizaharian surface. Magical cold is much more of a danger to the Pascid.
Lifecycle
A Pascid's lifecycle is the same as their Familiar brethren. They grow in size throughout their lives by absorbing material and radiations from Fyrden's environment. When their bodies grow too large, they fracture into two or more "children". These spawn-siblings, as they are called, are entirely new creatures and inherit some of the parent's knowledge, including language, but not necessarity its personality. This accretion/spawning process is halted once they are bonded with a Mizaharian wizard.