Are six limbed egg laying creatures that seem to appear from nowhere. All that is known is that they come Heavily armed with weapons of peace and war. Not much else is known about them past, their physical description. But what is known is that when they visit your world it would be better to fall dead where you stand then to see a Nostrum in the flesh and worse still to live and not be marked.
Their numbers are unknown but “The Book of Laws” Vol. 2 estimate their numbers at 10,000 and what has been observed and recorded since time immemorial along with being 10K strong are the existence of four distinct castes of Nostrum
A. The rearrest are referred to as the Council
“I have come for the living, not the dead”
The Council is the first Nostrum to be seen and they seem to be responsible for overseeing all that follows. What is believed is that they visit the stars, and the planetary systems that beckon and call. They surveille them for the health of the galaxy. Once an imbalance or some such disturbance has gotten their attention by any action or threat. The Council will take curative action from summary execution to dispatching their parasitic armies to judge, execute, and destroy all cancerous entities with a rapacious voracity that challenges description.
B. Next second only to the council are the Judges
“Those so marked belong to me”
Their numbers are greater but also semi-rare. The Judges are second only to The Council in rank. The Judges will screen through the state of mind, body, and spiritual health of the marked, the chosen, to determine the survival of the individual and/or of the collective. If the Judge believes the subject is not healthy enough, they will help to heal the subject, if the subject is unhealable, they will weigh their soul and the future deeds that soul has been chosen to accomplish if found lacking they will be destroyed otherwise they go free reinvested in their reason for being.
C. Then we have the Executioner – the most feared by far of all the Nostrum
“I extend life to the living and feed on the dead”
The Executioners are specialists, they carry with them a book. And woo, to those whose name is written there in. You have been cursed by many and their cries against you with the stench of your deeds is carried on the wind.
You will see the executioner coming, the Nostrum likes to season their meat with fear. The executioner is a skillful hunter. They stalk and play with their food until you are perfectly seasoned. The executioner might play with you for days or even weeks if they have laid eggs inside you. The ancient texts say it takes fifteen days for the babies to hatch and eat their way out.
The “The Book of Laws” Vol. 3 says every morning just after you rise. Close your eyes and listen for a moment to the screams of those whose names are written in the book. This will keep your actions just and your soul righteous.
D. The Automaton
“We have been given a way, to feed”
The Automaton parasite, moves across the land, air and sea as a horde, is ever ready and waiting to complete a task that has been given to them. When they are let lose, they are rapacious, ravenous, savage to all they come upon. They have but two rules branded deep into their DNA. The marked and the judged are not to be touched.
The universe is ever-changing, all living things, visible and unseen alike exist, change, appear, and disappear in various forms, seeking the most natural balance in the infinite cycle of destruction, reconstruction, enhancement, and immunity.
The atoms of the universe do not annihilate, and more secrets of the NOSTRUM remain to be discovered.
You might think The Nostrum a myth, a legend, or simply a mystery but nothing could be further from the truth. The reality is they are here, among us. The Council is already on the move… yet we are still clueless as to what fate awaits us.
