Origin: Created by Naevra
Primary Home: Morgrom
Nature: Divine servants
Known Abilities: Psionic communication, manipulation of metaphysical relationships
The Bound are the servants of Naevra and the native custodians of Morgrom, the Anchorhold. They were created to maintain the stability of the realm, preserve the relationships through which it anchors Creation, and tend to beings who become stranded there when necessary. They serve Naevra exclusively and recognize no mortal government, faction, religion, or other authority.
Although the Bound live among the extraordinarily diverse population of Morgrom, they do not participate in the city as one of its cultures. They establish no districts of their own, take no part in factional politics, and appear uninterested in wealth, status, property, or most forms of mortal conflict. To the inhabitants of the Anchorhold they are simultaneously familiar and alien: an ordinary presence in the streets whose motives and perceptions remain fundamentally difficult to understand.
Appearance
The Bound possess a broadly humanoid form, but only at first glance. They are tall, elongated beings with four arms arranged in two pairs and proportions that seem subtly inappropriate for a creature shaped by ordinary biology. Their bodies appear to consist entirely of polished mineral or crystalline material rather than flesh, with individual Bound resembling amethyst, sapphire, ruby, pale ivory-like crystal, smoky stone, or other substances that may have no familiar equivalent.
The material is not armor or an external shell. A damaged Bound reveals no conventional flesh beneath its surface, and the boundaries between what mortals might call skin, bone, and internal structure are difficult to identify. Their crystalline bodies can possess slight translucence, internal reflections, veins of differing mineral, or slow changes in luminosity that suggest processes occurring within them without resembling circulation or respiration.
Their faces are recognizably shaped enough that most mortals instinctively assume they should be capable of speech. A mouth or mouth-like structure is normally present, along with features suggesting a face designed to interact with beings accustomed to recognizing one. Even so, the Bound never speak aloud. Whether their mouths serve some other purpose or simply reflect Naevra’s decision to give them forms comprehensible to other beings is unknown.
The Bound ordinarily float several inches above whatever surface lies beneath them. They do not walk unless circumstances make physical contact necessary and display none of the shifts of weight or balance associated with ordinary movement. Instead, they glide smoothly through space, often without turning their bodies toward their destination. Their apparent indifference to ordinary orientation can make them particularly unsettling when they manipulate something behind themselves or respond to someone they never appeared to notice.
Psionics
The abilities of the Bound are usually described as psionic, although this term represents mortal classification rather than an explanation supplied by the Bound themselves. Their powers differ from ordinary arcane spellcasting in that they do not appear to manipulate The Confluence through recognizable spells, gestures, components, or magical formulae. Instead, the Bound seem capable of perceiving and directly altering the metaphysical relationships among beings, objects, locations, and states.
Their most common use of this ability is communication. A Bound never speaks aloud, even when conversing with a creature capable of understanding ordinary language. Instead, it establishes a relationship between minds through which meaning is conveyed directly. The recipient does not usually experience this as hearing a voice inside the mind; the intended meaning simply becomes known with unusual clarity.
This communication can feel more intimate than spoken language without necessarily revealing thoughts the recipient did not choose to communicate. The Bound do not appear to require a shared language, and their messages can convey distinctions that would require much longer explanation through ordinary speech. Mortals sometimes find this precision uncomfortable, particularly because ambiguity, tone, and rhetorical evasion are difficult to impose upon meaning transmitted in this fashion.
The Bound use the same principle to manipulate physical objects. What appears to an observer as telekinesis does not behave exactly like invisible force. A Bound may alter the relationship between an object and its location until the object moves to resolve the discrepancy, with no visible strain or acceleration suggesting that it has been pushed or pulled.
They can apply similar effects to creatures, structures, and planar phenomena. A Bound might reposition a person without touching them, hold an object in place against considerable external force, or perceive that a magical effect has created an unstable relationship between things that should remain distinct. Their most sophisticated uses of these abilities occur in maintaining Morgrom itself, where they perform alterations to Vergeways and other metaphysical structures that mortal observers often cannot meaningfully describe.
Creation
Naevra created the Bound to serve the needs of the Anchorhold and the broader stability of Creation. They are therefore not a naturally evolved people, transformed mortals, or descendants of an earlier ancestry. Their purpose is inherent to their existence, though this does not appear to reduce them to mindless constructs.
Individual Bound display awareness, judgment, memory, and the ability to adapt their actions to circumstances. Two Bound confronted with the same problem may choose different methods of resolving it, particularly when mortal lives or competing relationships are involved. They nevertheless show no indication of rejecting their service to Naevra or pursuing ambitions independent of the responsibilities for which they were made.
This makes them superficially comparable to the Ordai, but the similarity is limited. The Bound do not appear governed by rigid procedural rules or fixed interpretations of purpose. Their actions often demonstrate considerable discretion, and maintaining relationships sometimes requires them to preserve change rather than prevent it. They are servants of the Anchor, not agents of immutable hierarchy.
Whether Naevra continues to create new Bound is uncertain. Morgrom’s inhabitants occasionally claim that a Bound has appeared whom no one remembers seeing before, but the city’s population is too large and the Bound too uninterested in mortal recordkeeping for such observations to establish anything with confidence. No one has observed them reproduce in a biological sense, and the Bound do not discuss their own origins.
Role in Morgrom
The Bound maintain the structures and relationships that allow Morgrom to function as the Anchorhold. They tend stable Vergeways, respond to dangerous distortions, remove or contain objects and beings that threaten the realm’s metaphysical integrity, and perform repairs beyond the understanding of most mortal spellcasters. Much of this work passes unnoticed until something unusual causes several Bound to gather in the same location.
They also maintain the basic provisions through which Naevra ensures that those stranded in her realm need not die merely because they arrived without resources. Clean water and simple nourishing food remain reliably available throughout Morgrom without charge or factional ownership. The Bound maintain these provisions as part of their service but show no interest in transforming them into a broader system of welfare or governance.
Beyond these limited responsibilities, the Bound generally ignore mortal affairs. They do not enforce the rules established by Morgrom’s factions, investigate ordinary crimes, mediate commercial disputes, protect property, or intervene merely because someone is being treated unfairly. A violent confrontation in a street might receive no response at all until it threatens a Vergeway or damages something related to the Anchorhold’s deeper function.
This distinction is well understood by longtime residents. The Bound are not guards, judges, or rulers, and appealing to them for justice is usually pointless. Their concern is Morgrom, the beings whose survival Naevra has charged them to support at the most basic level, and the relationships necessary to preserve coherent Creation.
Authority
The Bound recognize Naevra as their only authority. Mortal territorial claims, faction laws, ownership records, and political agreements have no effect upon their behavior when those claims conflict with their responsibilities. If a Bound determines that it must enter a sealed building, remove an object from someone’s possession, cross a restricted district, or relocate an individual, it simply does so.
This does not mean they exercise arbitrary control over Morgrom’s inhabitants. They are remarkably uninterested in doing so. A Bound is unlikely to interfere with something merely because it could, and most residents can live their entire lives without receiving a direct instruction from one.
When a Bound does act, however, there is little practical avenue for resisting its authority. Even Morgrom’s strongest factions have learned that attempting to physically prevent the Bound from performing their duties is both dangerous and usually futile. The most successful response is generally to determine what has drawn their attention and ensure that the problem does not escalate.
Relationship with Naevra
The Bound are the most visible evidence of Naevra’s continuing presence within Morgrom, but even they rarely provide insight into her thoughts or intentions. They do not conduct public worship, deliver sermons, demand reverence, or act as priests. Their service appears to be a direct relationship with Naevra rather than a religious institution built around her.
Whether they perceive her constantly in the same way that mortals feel her presence throughout the Anchorhold is unknown. They sometimes act with remarkable coordination despite no observable exchange of information, leading some scholars to suggest that their relationships with one another are psionic as well. Others believe their connection through Naevra allows them to share awareness more directly than mortal minds can comprehend.
Even the Bound react noticeably when Naevra manifests physically. Reports from the rare historical occasions when she has appeared describe them abandoning ordinary tasks and orienting themselves toward the event with unusual immediacy. They do not appear frightened, but their behavior changes enough that longtime residents recognize it as another sign that something has gone profoundly wrong.
The Bound and Mortals
Mortals living in Morgrom hold widely differing attitudes toward the Bound. Some regard them as benevolent protectors whose quiet labor allows an impossible city to exist. Others consider them unsettling reminders that the Anchorhold ultimately belongs to a divine power whose priorities extend far beyond the lives of its inhabitants. Both views contain some truth.
The Bound can demonstrate considerable compassion in practical circumstances. They may guide a newly stranded traveler toward food and shelter, stabilize someone harmed by a dangerous transition, or move an injured person away from a planar disturbance. Yet the same Bound may ignore suffering elsewhere because it falls outside whatever responsibility governs its attention.
Their direct mental communication contributes strongly to their reputation. Being addressed by a Bound is difficult to mistake and difficult to forget, particularly for someone unfamiliar with Psionics. Residents often describe the experience as simultaneously reassuring and invasive: there is little doubt about what the Bound means, but equally little illusion that communication has occurred entirely on familiar mortal terms.
Morgrom-born children generally grow accustomed to the Bound long before they understand why visitors find them frightening. They learn not to obstruct them, not to assume that silence means ignorance, and not to expect them to intervene in ordinary trouble. To such children, a four-armed crystalline figure silently drifting down a crowded street is simply part of the city. Visitors tend to take longer to reach the same conclusion.