Sadikh

Sadikhs (also known as Companions) are servants of the Arisen that are chained to their death-cycle. Their counterparts are the Fasad that serve the Shuankshen.

Most Sadikhs are former cultists of the Arisen that have proven to useful to let them die. The cultist must offer himself willingly as the mummy proceeds to conduct the Rite of the Engraved Heart. This rite binds the soul of the Sadikh to that of the mummy, leaving him in a death-like sleep filled with dreams over his unlived life. Through dream life, the Sadikh soothes the psychic wounds he has likely experienced in the Arisen’s service and keeps his general knowledge of the living world relatively fresh. Arisen can strengthen their Companions by infusing them with their Pillars, strengthening their souls and making them able to use some Utterances they have mastered themselves. Furthermore, Sadikhs are extremely resilient to damage and even when they die, their master can call them back from the dead after a year has passed if he seems it fit. If a Sadikh truly fades away from the world, the memory remains within the Arisen’s soul, giving him solace and clearance during his Descent.

Each Sadikh responds to his master’s commands with an easy deference and usually only challenge her assumptions when her frail memory impedes her sound judgment. This loyalty is not artificial, but instead the catalyst that allowed the original Rite. Arisen often regard Sadikh as natural extensions of their own selfs. Companions remember their true lives well, and their memories do not suffer quite the same degenerative effects as their masters’. While their false lives are remembered with some haziness, this is because it is only when they are with their masters that companions truly feel alive and valued. Only their time together is of real importance, and that easily justifies the haziness of the work-a-day life they dream when their beloved masters are entombed in death. This makes companions more mutable and adaptable than their masters, but also less mentally resilient. As the ages pass, companions will quickly and subconsciously change their clothing and speech to fit the trends of the day, but as the years roll on, the horrors they have witnessed and the contradictions of their dream lives will likewise catch up with them eventually. Sadikh are only reflections of their eternal masters’ unnatural power and cannot indefinitely endure the rigors of immortality, as they seem to do.