Scile

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Also known as incandescents, these tiny motes of light flit about the Quasielemental Plane of Radiance, draining color, their sole diet, from outside visitors. Fairly harmless otherwise, scile are nevertheless quite the pest to those traveling through the plane.

Appearance

These creatures, tiny specks of pure energy, appear to be nothing more than tiny fireflies, buzzing around Radiance and feeding on the endless colors there. They're especially attracted towards things from off the plane, however; the colors of such things seem to be somehow different in a way only they can see. They swarm around such visitors, either living or inanimate, feeding on their colors and eventually draining them transparent. Beyond this, they are entirely benign, without even the means to harm others let alone the will.

Scile live in vast collectives known as cloud-clusters on Radiance, composed of thousands if not millions of individuals. They can communicate telepathically with any others of their kind, and their society is purely egalitarian; all scile are equal to one another, with no superiors or leaders. Scile are by some standards barely living things; though they feed, they never age, never suffer illness, and they've never been known to have died from natural causes, although it is known they cannot survive outside Radiance for more than an instant. It's unknown if they even reproduce or not, with some believing they're an entirely finite creature, unable to replenish themselves from the occasional violent or accidental death.

Not all scile are wholly peaceful, though. There exists a subspecies of scile, the ravagers of color, who appear identical in all respects to the standard variety. This subspecies is entirely evil, however, draining only a single color from their victims so as to unbalance their personality. They enjoy the carnage and suffering such actions draw, to them a fair price for the limiting of their own sustenance.

References

• Planescape MCIII, pp. 94-95