Ged-zari

The Ged-zari were created by the magi as psychic spirits of intellect and knowledge. They gave these spirits the ability to learn and adapt, but the inability to create more of their kind. Inside of each spirit is the sum total of the knowledge of the Sha’rek’ta and the magi.

The Ged-zari are sentient, but not truly sapient as seen in other mortals. While they can adapt and gain wisdom, the vast majority of their intelligence is bound up in the knowledge of their creators. They cannot end their existence nor can they do anything that would pass the knowledge locked within them to others. They are driven as slaves by the knowledge of the Sha’rek’ta.

A Ged-zari is a pure spirit of intellect and knowledge - it has no physical form. Instead it must inhabit the physical form of a sapient creature. When this happens the original sapient's spirit is destroyed leaving the Ged-zari in control of the body. It is possible that a powerful host spirit could survive, but it would be driven to madness by the power of the Ged-zari.

Spiritually the Ged-zari are the most powerful psychic spirits on the world. They are so powerful they would cease to exist if they could not inhabit a sapient creature. Most pure spirits can inhabit non-sapient forms, some even use non-intelligent bodies, but the Ged-zari are too powerful to survive in such a limited body.

There is no natural life cycle of the Ged-zari. They are the living embodiment of all of the knowledge of the magi - spirits of pure intellect and knowledge. They cannot grow old or young - they simply exist until they do not.

The nature of the physical world would destroy a being of pure spirit as the mortal plane is a physical plane. To allow them to live upon this world, the magi gave the Ged-zari the ability to inhabit the forms of physical objects. The magi intended the Ged-zari to inhabit the bodies of their other creations, humans or the Brund, but over time the Ged-zari found they could inhabit any sapient on the world.

Several of the spirits have been ensnared by the powerful and foolish, but it would take a power like the Well of Life, the gods, or devils to destroy them utterly.

The Ged-zari do not seek out others of their own kind to build any long-standing community. They find each other over time in order to exchange information, but then quickly leave. This allows new knowledge to be spread between the others while minimizing the risk that anything that kills one Ged-zari could kill more than one.

The Ged-zari do most of their time among the communities of others. They inhabit the bodies of those accepted by the community in order to learn from them. They cannot give up any of the knowledge of the Sha’rek’ta that the magi locked within them, but they can share lifetimes of knowledge gained since the Ged-zari were created. In time the body the Ged-zari inhabit may be seen as an oracle or wise man, which often prompts the Ged-zari to flee the area as they have drawn undue attention to themselves. Still, they are drawn to the communities and scholars among the other species.

The nature of a species is about the ability to interbreed (either successfully or not), but the Ged-zari cannot breed as they are immortal vessels of knowledge. This means that they exist or do not, they cannot pass down of themselves or make another of their kind.

There are no other races of Ged-zari as their physical form is immaterial. They can use the body of any other sapient creature upon Miranda.