The Heads of Zaid

DESCRIPTION:

The head of the statue stands roughly five feet in height with a vaguely monkey-like shape. The eye sockets are split to encompass the four eyes that sit side by side under the heavy brow. A thin, down turned mouth sits below an equally narrow nose, giving the face a pinched look. Long, drooping ears hang down to below the jawline before burrowing into the ground while a single horn juts upwards from its forehead. Moss, dirt, and grass cover much of the statue's exposed face.

Every single statue that has been discovered and excavated has been carved in the same fashion. They all appear to be in decent shape considering their age. The creature is crouched down with its long tail wrapped nearly twice around its body. Short legs reminiscent of a monkey and two sets of arms, one set is smaller and lower on the torso holding the torso semi-upright, the larger set of arms higher on the torso and holding a scroll in its hands out in front of its body. The larger set of arms stretch to nearly twenty feet in front of the statue. The statues are just over eighteen feet in height with a torso nearly eight feet in diameter. If they had been carved in a fully erect position then the statues would have stood over twenty-five feet tall. Each of the statues has been found with primitive hide armor and twin shortswords, one on each hip, all carved from the same stone.

ORIGINS:

The Zaid were carved to act as border guardians for the Pythian Empire. The scroll in the statues' hands is inscribed with extensive divination and communication spells, carved in a proto-language that seem to predate and possibly have even been the basis for Draconic, Celestial, and Infernal languages. The spell scrolls allowed each of the Zaid to watch over the borders of the Empire and communicate with nearby guard posts that patrolled the region.

Each Zaid, Guardian in the Pythirian language, was carved in the likeness of the ideal member of their race. The Pythian Empire eventually died out during a vast restructuring of the planet, nearly a full millennium before the first elves walked the reformed land. Eathquakes, volcanic activity, ice ages and other natural disasters buried, moved, or even sank some of the statues into the oceans. Due to the vastness of the Pythian Empire the statues were widespread across the multiple continents of the planet and could in theory be found anywhere, even at the bottom of the oceans buried in the muck and mud.

THE TIME AFTER THE FALLEN EMPIRE:

The statues stood silent and unknowing, their creators dead for several centuries, however the magic that empowered them started to change them as well. They continued to monitor everything that happened in their area. Soon they even were able to reach out and observe outside of their area thanks to the divination spells. Then it happened, they started communicating among themselves and became aware. The Zaid became alive while at the same time still trapped in a body carved from stone. The isolation they endured, except for the occasional communication with another Zaid, drove most of them insane.

They have watched as the first elves stepped timidly from the forests, dwarves slowly peer out of their mountainous holes, orcs peer at the hated sun with their nearly blind eyes. And they have watched humans, short lived creatures, run around and try to conquer everything set before them.

Celestial and Infernal beings intrigue the Zaid, dragons avoid them due to their age, knowledge, and rumored strength. The Zaid watched as the current gods and dragons were born. They all seem as children to the eternal Zaid.

Several mages have cataloged an anomaly within the magic that powers the Zaid. They have theorized that at one time they may have been animated, used as proper golems in the defense of their Empire. No Zaid has moved on its own in nearly four thousand years. The theory holds that the magic that allowed them to move was warped to give them life, but with magic that old who can tell...