in their manner Learned guards must root out potential assassins and employ several methods to so • Some subject visitors to casual beatings, hoping to betray a Boneshard by forcing any internal weapons to deadly damage while still hidden away • Others use magnetic stones to detect any metal weapons that might lie beneath the skin • Magic is the most expensive method of discovering hidden weapons, but it is also the most reliable • While well known among the security conscious, Boneshards remain mythical among the masses Most believe assassins riddled with deadly, poisonous weapons exist only in stories Thus, they take no special precautions against them until it is too late • One of the bigger secrets is how to hire a Boneshard to assassinate someone specific Most tales mention sarhaks picking up psychic impressions of people looking to hire a Boneshard among the thought clouds in marketplaces or rulers’ courts The sarhaks then secretly act as liaisons between assassins and employers without ever revealing the faces of either and providing plausible deniability for all concerned New Challengers Gone are the days of tribal dominance The preceding groups drive Khitus today, each vying for control and each with its plan for dominance and hopes for their future on Khitus But new rivals have appeared on the scene as well, unforeseen and undeniably powerful, and their challenges match or exceed those coming from the blasted landscapes Krikis (The Hivekin) The Krikis are perhaps the most widely recognized threat, stirring with newfound intelligence in their bleak, forbidding Hivelands For eons, they were predictable bugs that needed only be tolerated and contained in their portions of the planet Now they wander further afield, threatening the dwindling fertile lands like locusts with a plan The questions left to far too many are: Why are they on the move? What is their objective? Can they be contained or parlayed with? Oritahl (Cold Skins) Similarly, the savage lizard folk who were once content on the unwanted fringes of the world have grown more numerous and bold Reptilian Cold Skins who once fought solely with tooth and claw now forge weapons and armor, though from whom they learned these skills is unknown They tend to be solitary when encountered, which makes them a largely 32 shambolic threat Still, with the ongoing changes in krikish behavior, folk worry that the Oritahl might also learn to band together and insist upon a role in the future of the world Yenfansa (White Eyes / The Devil’s Children) A pregnancy is announced, and parents and family make joyous preparations, even in these meager times Time passes—too little time, to be sure—and the young mother grows large far too quickly She is hidden away, her loved ones suddenly nervous and unresponsive to queries, the father exhausted from bringing food to satisfy his wife’s ravenous appetite In time the mother re-emerges from hiding, belly flat, eyes sallow and distant, and not a word is spoken None need be Everyone knows that another Yenfansa has been born, and all hope it has been abandoned sufficiently far out in the wilderness that it will never be seen again The Yenfansa are born hairless with stark, pupil-less white eyes Such births are infrequent but growing more common A Devil’s Child is easily turned out into the world For one thing, it bears no resemblance to its parents, who ultimately have no connection to the child For another, the Yenfansa are born fully alert and cognizant, babbling a demon’s language, hate-filled and almost visibly growing – one can fend for itself in the wild in a matter of hours White Eyes are doomed to short lives but emerge onto the world with unsurpassed wisdom With puberty comes rapid deterioration and a painful death In the meantime, a Devil’s Child never sleeps, devoting itself single-mindedly to its pursuits, perpetually an outcast, shunned by the fearful, sought out by the wise The Yenfansa have some mysterious role to play in Khitus’s unfolding story, that much is certain Dangers Yet Unknown Certainly the least understood encroachment onto Khitus comes from beyond the sky The Bev al-Khim are ambassadors for one such threat, for where could the denizens of the Black Tower – and even the Black Tower itself – have come from but from some other world? What is their goal? Are there others like them who will plant their flags in Khitus’s sands? Are their scouts already among us? These new challengers make the future murkier still Any one of these groups may leave its mark on Khitus, as did the savage gods and the Daragkarik of old Perhaps destiny marks one of them as a potential ruling force to restore Khitus to stability and future health All folk know for certain is that death comes foe all should the mettle of these agendas or agents prove insufficient to the task of taking control of this world and its peoples