For those who haven't read my blog post detailing the origin of The Amüli Chronicles, the ekra first began as a sort of vampire species, and were loosely termed vampires in the first eight or nine drafts of what was eventually to become The Soulbound Curse. Ekra initially looked like this:
And while they maintained a few key differences from the vampires of Earth lore--namely, their symbiotic relationship with blood-mites--they still weren't quite where I wanted them to be yet. Over the years following the creation of these creatures, I slowly constructed a culture surrounding them. In 2003, I decided that there were about 30 clans of these vampires wandering the Inrugian wilderness. Most had come from a fallen city off the coast of what was then the Floating Islands of Aka'thea (now the Eye of Ilanderi and the surrounding Shattered Seas). The city of Ya'Schnare--still by the same name--was where the vampire culture had come to witness the falling of the deity Ilanderi-karais and the ensuing shattering of the western lands, and where the deity had, in the original version of The Soulbound Curse, saved the vampire people from slaughter.
This tale has changed quite a bit, as ekra did not settle Ya'Schnare until hundreds of years after the event forming the Eye of Ilanderi, the Shattered Seas, and the Lacefields, simply because if a city had existed on the outskirts of the Eye of Ilanderi at the time of the event, the city would have been obliterated.
Once Ya'Schnare was demolished, both in the present history of Inrugia and the previous drafts, ekra broke apart into 30 clans and became nomads. Each clan has a strict hierarchy, adhering to the need for new ekra only when older ones die or leave the clan. Population control is extremely important to the ekra people, because they live within the balance of nature instead of segregating themselves in cities as the amüli do. Therefore, they realize that their numbers cannot be too vast, or the strain on the environment will outweigh what can be provided.
About six or seven years ago, I read The Color of Distance by Amy Thomson, and that book has stayed at the top of my list of all-time favorite reads ever since (note that this book came out long before James Cameron's Avatar, okay? He likely read it and borrowed heavily from her work). Thomson's creation and design of an alien culture with a strange and, in some ways, barbaric method of life, opened my eyes to what could be accomplished by changing the then-vampire culture. I also wanted to explore things that might seem barbaric to us, or to amüli, but were perfectly normal parts of life for ekra--and not just normal, but had a reason for existing.
So, at that time, I stopped writing and dove deeply into re-framing how the peoples of Inrugia came to be, how their cultures worked, and why amüli look so humanoid. I didn't like the idea of amüli--and therefore ekra--appearing humanoid simply because I wanted to write about angels. The next few years entailed a lot of rewriting and drafting of amüli and ekra history, and the end result?
The ekra became a non-gendered species that reproduced by building their young from the bones and flesh of dead animals--amüli included. This is why most newer ekra, like Eti, are bipedal and have some human and amüli features.
While this design isn't exclusively what all ekra look like, it is one of the more popular designs when older ekra build the next generation. It's an effective form and doesn't rely heavily on smaller bones that may have been lost to time. It also makes good use of skin and muscle, and allows the new ekrim to walk either bipedally or on all fours.
In redesigning the ekra culture, I also worked heavily on how their symbiotic relationship with blood-mites impacted them. What did blood-mites actually do? Initially, they were what infected a vampire's victim and turned them, but I didn't much like that idea. It seemed too... well, staged. There was no real reason behind the blood-mite, and I needed to change that. Fast-forward a few years, and the blood-mite became the circulatory, digestive, and healing systems of all ekra.
An ekrim could also fight with a blood-mite in a combat style known as vretbah and the blood-mite could survive a short time outside of the host body--and the host could in turn survive without the mite. The blood-mite could move about on its own and had its own level of intelligence, and truly became a living creature of its own merit, which made for a much more powerful relationship and species overall.
In The Soulbound Curse, one of the main point of view characters is an ekrim. Eti and other ekra play a large role in the workings of Inrugia as a whole, and their relationship with the amüli people, both past and present, will have an enormous impact on the larger story within The Amüli Chronicles. I am still exploring the ekra culture, and in my upcoming short story, Paper Sun, you will be exposed to an ekra exclusive story and the inner workings of several separate clans. No amüli and no humans are shown in this story, only ekra. I think it's important to have stories that are exclusive to such a fascinating species, because while the Chronicles are primarily about amüli, they aren't the only sentient creatures inhabiting Inrugia.
How many species have you created? What are your favorite alien species an author has created? Why? Share with me in the comments below!
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