Mystic Empress: Species - Lash'shada (Thermal)

Concept art for an original alien species from the original Magical Girl setting "Mystic Empress". They are known as "Lash'shada", and this particular type are known as "Thermal Lash'shada" due to the type of energy that composes their bodies. Every member of the species is magic capable and the majority also practice magic -- unusual in the Mystic Empress setting.

Lash'shada:
Lash'shada were one of the three species to have come in contact with a First Life artifact that granted knowledge and understanding of magic early in their development. They encountered the artifact on their world several thousand years after the Ancients, but they still eventually developed a sprawling civilization across an entire galaxy before becoming founding members of the Mystic Empire. Lash'shada were considered strange by many other sapients. Their focus on extra-dimensional magic, and magic that altered space-time, made them somewhat removed from social interactions in many cases.

Almost all Lash'shada used magic, which was very uncommon for an entire species. Even the Ancients had a large portion of their population composed of non-magical individuals. The Lash'shada spent much time peering into other worlds, alternate timelines and universes, and studying the underpinnings of reality itself. They were valued for the accuracy of their predictions of weather, the future, or of reading the past. Some Lash'shada set themselves up as prophets in order to receive tribute and worship from more primitive peoples, while others preferred a scholarly route -- though not necessarily any less manipulative. Lash'shada frequently employed whatever means they felt were best to obtain the information or other focus of their desires that they set eyes upon.

Biologically, Lash'shada were comprised of radiant energy rather than matter. They frequently assumed the appearance of a wholly material form when dealing with other species, however. What form of radiant energy an individual Lash'shada was composed of varied, thus there were those of nuclear energy, those of thermal energy, electricity, light, and so on. The ones most shunned were rare deviants comprised not of radiant energy but a sort of living "null force". This null force increased entropy by negating all forms of energy they came in contact with and rendering such energy "unusuable" -- meaning it did not return to the universe.

Magic could occasionally keep this null force contained if a Null Lash'shada was kept monitored and kept its activity level subdued, but any Null Lash'shada who studied or practiced magic quickly gained an increase in the strength of their null force bodies that made them able to overcome magic barriers. These magic-using Null Lash'Shada were incredibly dangerous, and there was a period of a several centuries where a circle of powerful Null Lash'shada wizards threatened the stability of the entire Magic Empire.

Afterwards, extreme precautions were implimented by the rest of the Lash'shada to prevent the birth of any more Null Lash'shada -- including predicting which unions of their people would result in such an aberration being born, and such pairings being forbidden as a result. If Null Lash'shada were born, they were quickly killed.

The Lash'shada were one of countless sapient species believed to have been completely eradicated by the Breakers, though there were reports of some Lash'shada attempting to flee to other dimensions or alternate universes. Some also attempted time travel, but nothing has ever been heard again from those who did such. Their inability to predict or detect the appearance of the Breakers despite being unparalleled in their knowledge of divination helped cement the fact that the Breakers are invisible to all forms of scrying and magical perception.

--------

I made this picture with a mouse in Paint for Windows 7.

The Lash'shada and the Mystic Empress setting are my creations.