Wychfiend (Etherfiend)

This strange extraplanar humanoid has ruddy skin covered in tattoos, green eyes, pointed ears, and a long braided ponytail protruding from the back of his sleek great helm. His piercing eyes stare defiantly at you, making you feel uncomfortable.

WYCHFIEND SOCIETY

Wychfiend society is based on martial and magical might. Wychblades serve as the military and law enforcement, while wychlyn function as leaders, healers, and govern society as a whole. The following describes the wychblade and wychlyn organizations in detail.

Wychblades

Wychblades fight on the front lines and enforce the laws of the wychqueen. Some are magi, true eldritch knights who wield both blade and spell with great skill, while others are simply cavaliers or fighters who wield sword and shield on behalf of their queen. In either case, wychblades favor plate armor and bastard swords when engaging in battle. Such armor and weapons are crafted from a special metal alloy called wychsteel (see Wychsteel), whose secret is known only to greatest of Wychfiend metalsmiths.

As the Wychqueen’s consort, the Ovarch has total command of the wychblades, though he is often superseded by command of the Wychqueen. Despite this, he is the supreme commander of all wychblades throughout the Ethereal Plane, otherwise referred to as the Grand Army. Next in command is the Wararch, or General in the common tongue, who oversees the training and discipline of the entire wychblade army for a given city. Each city army is divided into 2 legions numbering anywhere from 1,250 to 1,440 Wychblades, and is under the command of their Exarch or Commander. Further divisions include brigades of 200-240 commanded by Tovarchs or Captains, companies of 45-60 commanded by Zhivarchs or Lieutenants, and squads of 8-12 under the command of a Navarch or Sergeant. Leadership positions within the wychblade organization are always filled by magi with the wychblade archetype. 

Few females are numbered among their ranks, but those who do so have proven themselves as skilled warriors and capable leaders within the organization. 

Table: Wychblade Order of Battle

Wychlyns

Wychlyns (witch-lins) are arcane spellcasters, primarily sorcerers or witches, who wield powerful otherworldly magic and rule the wychfiend society. While wychfiends tend to be wary of other races, they consider those outside their race who are of the sorcerer or witch classes as kindred spirits by simple virtue of their magic. Though they will readily destroy such outsiders, the fact they are trained in the “wyching” powers may spare such an individual long enough for one to charm his or her way to freedom or escape.

The Wychqueen has complete dominion over all within the empire, but takes singular pride in commanding the wychlyn, for she herself is one of them. She oversees all the wychlyn within her empire by counseling with the Naik (nye-eek) and her six Hajjan (hah-zhahn), who serve as the ruling body of each city and over see each city’s circle. The circle of each city is divided into 4 warrens of 36 wychlyn, with each overseen by a Sersan (sur-ahn). A warren is further divided into covens of 6 wychlyn, overseen by a Vadeesh (vah-deesh). Wychlyns tend to garb themselves in rich and ornately adorned robes, decorated in such a manner as to denote their city of origin, as well as their individual warren and coven.

Male Wychfiends with a predisposition towards pure magic may join the wychlyn. Those few who have done so have been called wylochlyn (wye-lok-lin) by their sister wychlyn, in an attempt to differentiate them from the rest of them. Nevertheless, they are welcomed as full members of their order.

Table: Wychlyn Hierarchy

Wychfiend Covens

When six wychfiends of the appropriate spellcasting classes gather, they can form a coven under a Vadesh (7 HD or class level) to gain increased magical ability. Any combination of six wychfiends with the sorcerer (wychlyn archetype) or witch class can form a coven, but sorcerers with the wychlyn archetype are the most common members of such gatherings.

Whenever all six wychfiends of a particular coven are within 10 feet of one another, all six of them can work together to use any of the following spell-like abilities: baleful polymorph (DC 18), bestow curse (DC 17), blood biography, charm monster (DC 17), forcecage, geas/quest, imbue with spell ability, planar adaptation, possess object, reincarnate, skeleton crew, spell crash (lesser), spellcrash (greater), spellcrash, spellscar, vision.

All six wychfiends must take a full-round action to take part in this form of cooperative magic. All wychfiend coven spell-like abilities function at CL 9th (or at the highest CL available to the most powerful wychfiend in the coven). The save DCs are Charisma-based, and function as if with a Charisma score of 16 unless one of the wychfiends has a higher Charisma score, in which case the spell-like ability DCs are adjusted by that wychfiend's Charisma modifier.

At the GM's discretion, certain more powerful wychfiend covens might have additional spell-like abilities. 

Wychsteel

Wychsteel is an extremely rare bluish metal that is lighter than steel, but just as hard. An alloy forged from mithral and the mystical mists of the Ethereal Plane, the secret to its creation is known only to the greatest of wychfiend metalsmiths and wychlyn, and is used primarily in crafting the highly prized armor and weapons used by wychblade warriors. Most suits of wychsteel armor are one category lighter than normal for purposes of movement and other limitations. Heavy armors are treated as medium, and medium armors are treated as light, but light armors are still treated as light. This decrease does not apply to proficiency in wearing the armor. 

A character wearing wychsteel full plate must be proficient in wearing heavy armor to avoid adding the armor’s check penalty to all his attack rolls and skill checks that involve moving. Spell failure chances for armors made from wychsteel are decreased by 15%, maximum Dexterity bonuses are increased by 4, and armor check penalties are decreased by 4 (to a minimum of 0). Shields are never made from wychsteel, for they tend to hamper wychblades in their blade and spell combat techniques. While this strange mystical connection is not fully understood, it is the reason why wychfiends will sacrifice life and limb to regain or retain items made of wychsteel. Wychfiends that have the Wychsteel Bond feat improve these benefits.

Weapons made from wychsteel weigh half as much as the same weapon made from other metals. For such weapons, this lighter weight does not change a weapon’s size category or the ease with which it can be wielded (whether it is light, one-handed, or two-handed). Weapons not primarily of metal are not meaningfully affected by being partially made of wychsteel. (A longsword can be a wychsteel weapon, while a quarterstaff cannot.) 

Weapons or armor fashioned from wychsteel are always masterwork items as well; the masterwork cost is included in the prices given below. Wychsteel has 30 hit points per inch of thickness and hardness 15.