Shimteak

A Shimteak with a halo.

Shimteak -- sometimes simply called angels -- are tall, powerful, intelligent, and silent humanoid beings who appear to obey Nikina and are consequentially associated with the Red Temple religion. They are always covered head-to-toe in shimmering armour made of materials resembling gold, silver, and obsidian, and overall emit a gentle light akin to moonlight. They act as supernatural warriors and guardian spirits, and have no known residence or place of origin. There are rumours among commoners that high priests of the temple, Hireos, or other similar heroes can ascend humanness to become an angel or Shimteak.

History

The first known sightings of Shimteak were when Arngos was visited by Nikina just before the Nor Vastin Kingdom was founded. Legend says Nikina himself was flanked by a host of angelic warriors wearing gold, silver, and black, and they seemed to drift along the ground and move so gracefully they wouldn't even disturb the very air around them. Nikina explained their presence as "divine guardians" or "warriors of life". They weren't seen again until the Darkness, where hundreds of accounts of humans fighting against monsters alongside strange angelic warriors who came from nowhere arose. After that, the only Shimteak are rarely during certain Black Storms, and scattered through the rest of Benevan history, whether that be in dreams or while awake.

Nikina also describes the Xelevikenar as being members of an ancient fallen order of Shimteak of especially great ability who were stolen by Votorin and corrupted, turned into weapons to be used against humans.

Abilities

Shimteak seem to possess great skill in both melee and magical combat, and act intelligently, cooperating with humans. They wield weapons of varying lengths that are made of a blazing light that appears to match the flarus, fonus, eftheron, and cimas of the casting process of magic: The light ranges from yellows through to reds, purples, and blues and often emits heat; it distorts the air around it much like cimas streaks; it emits a lot of sound and heat; and a swirling wind encompasses the weapon. Overall, Shimteak weapons are powerful, loud, hot, and dangerous, and they seem to be able to ignite and dematerialise them at will. Though they have no known voice or language, they seem to be able to communicate with one another due to their coordinated behaviour witnessed in the past, and they have wielded magic mainly from the diviniturgy order, with some valeturgy and elementurgy less commonly.

When falling in battle, a Shimteak's body seems to somehow vanish and they also appear to come from nowhere in particular, though no confirmed accounts of seeing one appear or disappear exists. They are also known to visit people very rarely in dreams, and in some cases the Shimteak presents an item during the dream, and the person wakes up holding the item as though the item went from the dream to the waking world. Some priests believe that Shimteak can control people in their dreams to achieve this.