The Silenced Ones

Deep in the caves that dot the southern coasts there live creatures that are beyond imagining, great hulks of flesh that quiver and groan, and little rats that will eat the flesh off of your still living bones, but there is none so disturbing in their own right as the Silenced Ones. Monsters that are all the more horrifying because they were once men, and for the fact that they represent the punishment that awaits those who commit sins of the tongue in the realms of Sama.

In appearance they are emancipated and broken, husks of men and women. Where there once were ears there is only rusted metal, bound to the bones in their heads through divine grace. Their mouths are sewn shut, their tongues are cut off, and after that all, their very teeth are fused together. In a sign of mercy, or maybe to further silence their screams, their throat is cut open, allowing them to eat, after a fashion.

To further curse them, and foil any attempts at suicide, they are given life eternal; the span of their days will never be cut short by old age or disease. And they are given the gift of magical healing, so that their wounds are healed almost as soon as they are taken. However, their bones won't set themselves if they're broken, and if one of their limbs are cut off it will be left as a stump for the rest of their lives. They are undead and undying, cursed to walk the land for all eternity.

And their actions are only a little less disturbing than this. All they wish is to tell their story, and to ask forgiveness. In the first weeks or months they will often write out their life's tale, and many, many attempts to seek penance with the gods, any god. Then they start praying to the demons, scribing all many of foul and blasphemous symbol on their body in an attempt to end their suffering.

But soon the grasping claw of insanity will take them, and they'll begin hunting for anyone or anything to tell their tale to. And when they finally find someone, a passing trader of a band of adventurers, they resort to communicating the only way they remember how, the words of violence. They'll lunge for the mouths and ears of the person they're speaking to. They'll try anything to make their unspoken words sound out loud and clear.

Soon they'll begin collecting the severed ears and/or mouths of their victims, in rings and hoops about their neck, or sewn into their very body. These are their only prize, and they'll brood over them, keeping them in the best possible shape and even 'talking' to them. Making high, whining sounds they'll tell their tale over and over in the hopes of someone listening to them and taking pity on their plight.