-The Vaporite-
Haunting the abandoned caves of Narshe before the Fall are the enigmatic Vaporite, so called because of their vapor-like bodies that seem to have no form at all. Also called Spritzers by those in the Figaro region, these clumps of magical gas are relatively harmless to normal folk. One could wave them away as easily as a puff of smoke.
As a mage, I have had the unpleasant experience of seeing the more deviant side of these spirits, however. For centuries, it was a mystery what kept the gas clumps together, and how they fed or reproduced. Once magic was rediscovered, and people began applying its proven existence to the natural world, the mystery of the Vaporite was solved. These creatures were living magical conglomerations, like giant amoebas. They normally fed on the tiny amount of ambient wild magic that permeated the world before the Fall. Once they fed enough, they simply split into a new Vaporite, fully-formed, and the process continued. With the loss of magic, so too did Vaporites gradually fade away and die out. I doubt there are many who would miss the pests, who were more annoying than they were interesting.
Normal people that lack magical power took little notice of these creatures, and being non-magical, the creatures took little notice of them. But put a mage in their midst, and watch as they would flock to him like flies to a carcass. Singly, they were not much of a threat, but when a concentrated source of magic presented itself, watch out! Swarms of the pests would attach themselves to the unlucky victim, and in a few minutes all magical power would be drained. This usually resulted in unconciousness at the least, which is an unfavorable condition in the untamed deeper parts of the Narshe Mines, where more flesh-hungry beasts lurk in wait.
Although these creatures primarily inhabited the mines of Narshe before the Fall, they were also known to appear on the outskirts of Mt. Koltz, albeit rarely. The ones that appeared there were usually referred to as Spritzers, although the creatures were identical. Why they seem focused on the mines of Narshe was a mystery until I uncovered the great book, An Esper's Compendium of Magical Beasts, by the legendary Esper warlord and historian, Maduin. He, too, studied the strange creatures, and theorized that the creatures originally coelesced from the first wave of wild magic that rushed out from Crescent Mountain on the day magic was brought into the world. Where the waves grew thick along the ancient laylines of elemental power, magic condensed into various tangible forms. Depending on the environment, many strange entities were born. The cold air and falling snow of the Narshe Mountains were given a sort of primordial lifeforce by the wild magic, and thus Vaporites began popping up wherever particularly cold eddies of wind howled through that deep valley.
During the year after the Fall, Vaporites were only rarely seen . This was not due to lack of magic to feed on, though, as the chaos following the Fall drastically increased the amount of ambient magic in the world for the short year before magic ceased to exist altogether. During that time, the intrinsically unstable nature of the loosely formed Vaporites underwent a sort of hyper-evolution. Where once the small, bluish clouds gathered, now great golden masses of uncontrolled magic grew like weeds. These super Vaporites, called Psychots, were extremely violent and would suck the lifeforce from anything they encountered, magical or no. The proliferation of such dangerous vermin was part of the reason Narshe had to be abandoned after the Fall. Unlike the regular beasts that lurked in Narshe, these Psychots could pass through solid rock and house walls. Like phantom arrows, they struck without warning or mercy, stealing the lives of countless victims while they slept, ate, worked, or played.
Thankfully, once magic vanished, so too, did the Psychots, as well as their lesser forms, the Vaporite. Now, these strange spirits of pure magic exist only in annals such as these, and as they were pure parasites that added nothing to any ecosystem they were found in, this can only be a blessing.