Maiko's Note
They do not walk — they drift.
They do not see — they know.
The Sulejel are not beasts to be hunted or tamed. They are echoes of what was, guardians of what lies beyond.
The Endulani do not fear them. They leave offerings where the mist thickens and whisper the names of the dead.
It’s said that if one appears before you, something in you has already begun to die — a memory, a guilt, a truth too heavy to carry.
I understand that feeling.
The Mistwalker
Shindjal: Sulejel
Faction:
Endulani
“We command the mist. Not the ghosts who walk within it.”
— Shint’twalan Asukul
1. Overview
To the untrained eye, the Sulejel are forest ghosts. To the Endulani, they are sacred phenomena - guardians of memory, death, and the unseen forces that shape life. Appearing rarely and always in veils of morning mist or moonlit haze, these towering figures haunt the deepest woods near the sacred groves of the Fleshtrees, where the elders are buried in ritual.
Their presence stirs primal awe: not due to grandeur or violence, but because reality itself feels thinner in their wake. The air quiets. The trees seem to lean inward. And minds - those who sense them - ache with unfamiliar truths.
2. Appearance
The Sulejel do not look human, nor beast.
Their heads bloom like great alien flowers, layered in shifting, petal-like plates that open and fold as if sensing unseen currents.
They stand upright, lanky yet balanced, with bark-textured skin and limbs like woven root and bone, draped in natural tendrils and moss.
Their torsos seem hollow or stretched thin, often glowing faintly within the mist.
They have no visible eyes, yet people claim to feel seen by them.
3. Abilities and Effects
Those who encounter a Sulejel do not speak easily of it. But common threads emerge:
A pulse of fear - not panic, but an ancestral tremble.
A drain of mental clarity; thoughts slow, speech falters.
Some experience visions: glimpses of dead loved ones, forgotten truths, or symbolic riddles that take years to interpret.
Others collapse, waking hours later with no memory at all.
In battle, they are said to weaken the will of nearby foes. A single Sulejel sighting has been enough to scatter an entire patrol of Hanjelani soldiers.
4. Cultural Significance
The Endulani revere the Sulejel as manifestations of the fourth sphere: the realm of death, memory, and spirit.
Unlike the beasts of land (Krovil), sea (Ulmorith), and sky (Shadunar), the Sulejel do not rule—they observe.
They are never hunted, touched, or summoned.
Their presence at a grove is taken as a sign of approval or warning from the ancestors.
Rituals invoking the veil of mist - often through fungus or chant - are said to increase the chance of witnessing them.
The Empire has tried to erase them from record, fearing their implications and psychic influence. Officially, they do not exist.
5. The Mist and the Summoning
Though the Sulejel cannot be commanded, they are not entirely beyond reach.
In times of war, the Endulani have learned to call the mist by interacting with the Sulanum mycelium that threads through the roots of Endudjan. By activating certain fungal clusters through ritual, breath-synchrony, or drum resonance, they can cause the Shulunbao to emit thick psychic fog.
This veil of mist disorients enemies, muffles sound, and chills the mind - but it may also trigger a Sulejel to appear.
The Endulani do not summon them directly.
They summon the conditions that might draw them forth.
The Sulejel appear when they choose, if they choose.
When this happens on the battlefield, enemies often break and flee. Some die without a wound on them, their minds shattered by what they saw. To the Endulani, such an event is not merely victory - it is the forest fighting back.
This tactic is rare, for the Sulejel do not appear often, and even the Endulani fear their judgment.
6. Scientific Notes
The Shint’twalani scholars have long debated what the Sulejel are. Some suggest they are not lifeforms at all - but forest phenomena tied to the unique properties of the vast subterranean Sulanum mycelium web that connects the forest's ecosystems.
The Shulunbao, the Fleshtrees, where Endulani elders are ritually buried alive, are deeply entangled in this web. Over time, it is possible that neural patterns - memories, emotional imprints, even identity fragments - become etched into the mycelium.
Occasionally, when conditions are right - moisture, light, temperature, memory resonance - the forest blooms back a figure in kind: the Sulejel.
They may be manifestations of ancestral echoes, myco-psychic projections, or natural defense mechanisms evolved through symbiosis.
No remains have ever been recovered.
No Sulejel has ever been observed for long.
They vanish without trace, as if the forest reabsorbs them.
7. Terminology
Sulejel - Spirit Guardian or Mistwalker
Tharuun - Old Endulani word
Rakijul - The Sulejel often are just called "nightmare"
Shulunbao - Sacred "Fleshtrees" used for burial of elders
Sulanum mycelium - The mycelial root-mind beneath the Endudjan
Mist Veil - The ethereal fog through which Sulejel often appear
Maiko's Note
They do not walk — they drift.
They do not see — they know.
The Sulejel are not beasts to be hunted or tamed. They are echoes of what was, guardians of what lies beyond.
The Endulani do not fear them. They leave offerings where the mist thickens and whisper the names of the dead.
It’s said that if one appears before you, something in you has already begun to die — a memory, a guilt, a truth too heavy to carry.
I understand that feeling.
