Meokdan

As the least of their kind, meokdans suffer a constant and painful hunger, for they lack the ability of more powerful nindorus to derive nourishment from a reincarnated soul. This hunger drives the meokdan to constantly seek food and often compels them to eat dirt, stones, and refuse that offer little (if any) nutritional value. Regardless of how much they eat, a meokdan always remains painfully thin in stature. Regardless of how hungry they get, they never starve to death.

A meokdan's emaciated frame appears human in shape, with thick, tangled hair that grows directly from their face as well as the rest of their head, leaving only the meokdan's gaping mouth visible. Their arms appear to be broken and unnaturally long, with equally long fingers tipped with ragged nails. Small, open sores pockmark their skin.

Meokdans epitomize the cycle of food, from consumption to the creature themselves being consumed in the end, be it by predators or the environment growing from their remains.

When an evil mortal soul that has been reincarnated multiple times is wrenched from the cycle of souls and corrupted, it can undergo a horrific transformation into a fiend known as a nindoru. A force for entropy and the breaking of cycles, nindorus are hideous creatures whose bodies often appear distorted, who wield weapons that have been shattered yet still function, and whose true face is often hidden from view. They display traits one might expect to see in an undead creature, such as decaying flesh or exposed bones, yet a nindoru is very much still alive.

Each nindoru epitomizes the fracture of a specific cycle, be it one from the natural world or from societal traditions. To the nindoru, nothing is more delicious than the consumption of a creature who has reincarnated multiple times, with those who are theoretically about to ascend to true enlightenment presenting the tastiest meal. Those slain by a nindoru are themselves torn from the cycle—the lucky ones move on to the Boneyard for judgment, but many are instead corrupted to form more of these horrific fiends.

Followers of Sangpotshi find nindoru to be particularly abhorrent and count them among the greatest threats imaginable. Most commonly found in regions of the world where the reincarnation cycle is strongest, nindorus are, like rakshasas and oni, associated most strongly with the Material Plane.

Reincarnated Souls

In some cases, you'll know if a creature a nindoru attacks has a reincarnated soul. Ancestries like samsarans are always reincarnated souls, and a PC's backstory or even their background can often indicate the presence of a previous life. All of the PCs in Season of Ghosts qualify as reincarnated souls, as they've relived their lives over and over for decades. If you ever need to determine if a creature's soul is reincarnated for the purpose of adjudicating a nindoru's ability, attempt a DC 11 flat—on a success, it has a reincarnated soul.

Nindoru Demigods

The most powerful nindorus are demigods, although their cults are quite rare. Prone to reincarnation after death, nindoru demigods like Kugaptee are more properly known as "nindoru ascetics."

Nindoru Traitors

While most nindorus are purely chaotic evil in nature, legends tell of exceptionally rare nindorus who manage to escape their own nature and ascend, reincarnating after death into kami or other more benevolent spirits and shedding the nindoru trait as they do so. Of course, these "traitors" are regarded as the most delicious meals imaginable by the nindorus left behind.

Nindoru Butterflies

One of the strangest shared traits of the various types of nindoru are the blood-red butterflies that seem to follow them around, nest on their bodies, or periodically emerge from their wounds. These unnerving insects are physical manifestations of the nindorus' thoughts and symbolize the countless past lives they once lived but turned their backs on. Nindoru butterflies never last long once they flutter more than a few feet from their source, fading away into smoke that quickly dissipates into the air.

Other Nindorus

Many other types of nindorus exist beyond the four presented on these pages. Others include the corpse-copying akashtis (sobbing nindorus), infiltrators of society known as kagekumas (lurking nindorus), the dead defiling shisagishins (crooked nindorus), and the powerful and brutal argyrzeis (headless nindorus).