The final race of the Detritus game is highlighted today. The largest threat of the game come from the Consumers.
Consumers
The last of the races to arrive in Detritus is also the most violent and corrupt. Intelligent, malign and utterly corrupt. Little is known of the race and their capabilities, but what we do know is collated here.
Firstly, the Consumers came through the same portal as we, the Lost, arrived through. The Lost have no recollections of their former existence and so have no true understanding of who or what the new race is. We do know, from observation, that the Consumers are a spiritual race, much like the Erudite. They draw items of Detritus to them when they need to but this is rare as they seem to stay in spiritual form.
Their spiritual matter is formed out of a dark substance that is cold and has a malevolent feel about it. They seem to feed off the life forces of others around them and they actively hunt the Lost and the Forgotten to fulfil this need for their energies and hold them in thrall as slaves once most of the life energy is removed from them.
The Consumers are masters of telekinesis and also are empowered with a spiritual attack where they strip the beliefs of a being away until such time that they can be controlled. They do this only when it is immediately threatened by anyone as the Consumers prefer to send out their Hunters to collect their prey. Consumer spirits are exceptionally rare to be encountered unless you go looking for trouble. They largely have set up strange lairs known as “Thrones” near the portals. Only six of the twelve Consumers are located in known “Thrones”.
Each Consumer’s energy seems to be much different from the others of its kind. The only way that they can be considered a complete race is the fact that they are all able to possess those that are imbued with belief such as the Lost and the Forgotten. Jugo have beliefs but once they are broken they crumble into singular insects and disperse rather than being controllable by the Consumer.
Most known Consumers create Hunters to collect Lost and Forgotten if they can manage it. A Hunter is an artificial construct that is created by the Consumer to hunt us down. They take many forms, dependent on the detritus it has collected, and is a “powered” construct so the Forgotten tell me. They have at least a singular orb, sometimes more, normally set as the creatures eyes that glow a disturbing shade of red. This is apparently a key sign that they require “electricity” and of the ones that have been defeated (a rare occurrence) the Forgotten have been able to harvest many “electricity” sources called batteries.
As such, it has been noticed that many of the Forgotten who actively harvest this “electricity”, such as the King of Mayfield, have come under attack on multiple occasions from the Consumers constructs and slaves. His defences so far have managed to hold out. He is not the only one that covets this power among the Forgotten and it is unknown how many of the others have fallen victim to the Consumers and allowed them to build larger and more powerful Hunters to war with us.
It is not the only thing that the Consumers stock pile though. Anything that can make life easier for any of the races they seem to gather from the detritus around them. They do this to be in a place to bargain with the races and offer them things they desire in trade for information or services to the Consumer. They do not eye all as food or slaves and are willing to deal with those that are weaker than the rest of us. As far as we are aware those that deal mostly with the Consumers are the Forgotten in a small number and it is rumoured that some Jugo have also sided with the Consumers for favours. It has not been recorded that any of the Lost have ever made a deal with them.
Assaults have been made against Consumers before in their “Throne”. The news is not good though, as it seems that nothing we have done to them to this stage seems to have harmed them in the least. In the situation where they have taken physical form (they seem to do this when needing to machine materials for a new Hunter) we can damage the physical detritus around them but it seems to have no effect on the spirit in any way. We need new minds and warriors to take the fight to them and find their weakness.
The Consumers seem to focus on those that may know material to do with the Erudite. The Hunters, when employed will attack those Lost that have had dealings with, or are a part of, the Church of the Erudite. If a Hunter has a choice of a helpless Lost or a well defended priest, it will always leave the helpless and try to attack and capture that which is of greater interest to the Consumer. The Consumers also seem to have intelligence on those that have dealt with the Erudite in the past as the Forgotten or Jugo that are attacked are almost always those that have dealt with the Erudite previously.
It is unknown as to why that may be the case though there are some that suggest the Consumers want to draw out the All-Giver and take complete control of Detritus. It is nearly fully accepted that the Consumers have a way to destroy the Erudite and if they are successful in destroying more of them the current residents of Detritus believe the end of their existence would be near.
The reason for the Consumer intrusion is not known. Are they predators from their own reality that have been forgotten? How could these creatures truly be forgotten anywhere? Are they the entirety of their race or are they like the Forgotten? Is there a way to defeat them? All of these questions need answering and we hope that this message reaches you and brings help from Earth to destroy these creatures. Who is to say that if Detritus falls, perhaps they will find a way to make it to Earth next.