The Sundered

Overview

The Sundered were made by Xyphra, the Unraveller, a Beyonder that does not smash things but dissolves what holds them together. Each was a person whose body came apart in the Shatter and did not stop living. They drift around anyone still bound to others until those bonds are cut, and everyone they touch begins to come apart the same way.

Xyphra has never reached Caeldon, and no one there has been sundered; what follows is what its hosts would be.

Appearance

A Sundered is a person in pieces that are not broken. The head hangs in the air a hand's breadth above the neck; the neck a hand's breadth above the shoulders; the arms float beside the torso, the hands beside the arms, each part whole and clean, with no blood and no wound, only empty air where the joints should be. The pieces never touch. They move together, a little out of time, like a reflection in disturbed water.

The eyes are wide and terrified. Clothing has parted along its seams and hangs from each piece separately; a belt floats around nothing. The Sundered drift rather than walk, the feet skimming the ground some way below the legs. When one moves, there is a faint crystalline crack, like a pane breaking far off, and then a silence where a sound should follow. They have no smell; the air between their pieces is cold.

Habitat and Range

The Shatter would be where they keep, where the ground splits into islands floating apart and two rooms that share a wall no longer share a door, and they would drift out of it in search of bonds. Their numbers would be small beside other hosts: most of a Cult of the Final Fracture would come apart in the Fracture, and only a few go on among the Sundered.

Behaviour and Temperament

The Sundered seek out bonds. They go to families, friends, lovers, guilds, and villages, to anyone still bound to others, and drift around them, slowly circling, pieces turning. A floating hand settles on a shoulder; then another. They do not seize, bite, or strike. They do not need to.

Behind the terrified eyes there may be something left; no one knows. The Sundered make no sound by which to tell, and they never stop moving away from each other.

Abilities

Wherever a floating hand of the Sundered settles on a traveller, the traveller's own body begins to drift apart, a finger first, then a hand from a wrist. Bonds near them are cut too: a rope parts, a clasp opens, a friendship sours in an afternoon, a vow suddenly feels like someone else's. Near and far lose their meaning around them, so a companion a step away seems a field away.

They cannot cut what is held hard. Joined hands, names spoken, a promise kept, a wedding ring, a shared heirloom, or a written vow keeps a pocket where things still connect, and a loose bond is the first they cut.

Life Cycle

The Sundered are made in the Fracture, never born. A Sundered does not eat or age, and its pieces drift slowly further apart over the years. When Xyphra was driven back and its cuts mended, the pieces of a Sundered would fall to the ground where they hung, and its people would gather them and bury them together, the hands placed in the hands.

Uses and Dangers

The Sundered take what makes a person part of others, and then the person. Their danger is greatest to the living who love them, who try to hold the pieces and come apart in turn. Communities near a Shatter would hold hands at every crossing, tie their children to their belts, and renew their vows aloud.

Lore and Belief

Many would believe the Sundered were oath-breakers split for it, and warn the faithless with their image. They would be no oath-breakers, only people the Shatter reached. Some would hold that the pieces can be put back if every part is found and bound with a vow.

Where It Appears

• Xyphra, the Unraveller