Khadi

A Khadi is a creature who has had their heart and soul removed from their body in a process that grants effective immortality. The origin of the ritual, locally called a cardioectomy, is lost to time, though it is known to have been practiced widely in the Burning Sands, a stretch of land in and around the Arabian Penninsula, and used chiefly to create ageless, undying servitors.

Contrast with Lichdom, which is typically performed by an experienced magic-user on themselves to escape the limitations of the living entirely, which produces a similarly soulless creature.

The Basics

Study demonstrated that after the cardioectomy is performed, the subject's body is 'frozen' physically and metaphysically at their current physical age. As a result of this, all Khadi evince similar qualities: phenomenal regeneration, agelessness, and in most cases, a heightened aptitude for magic.

Regeneration

Khadi regeneration procedes at an obviously unnatural pace, healing from minor cuts and scrapes in the space of seconds, mending broken bones in less than a minute, and regrowing lost limbs and heads. Even killing a Khadi does not put a halt to this regeneration; their body continues to regenerate damaged tissues, and the Khadi regains consciousness when their body is capable of sustaining it.

Loss of Soul

The removal of the soul from the body has a powerful maladjustive effect on the personality and mindset of the Khadi. This generally manifests as a slow inexorable descent into insanity-- often into some form of sadistic megalomania-- as the mind tries to reconcile itself with the knowledge that it is not entirely whole. Most fail to do so. Subsequently, following the long and storied tradition of immortal beings, there is a long history of Khadi who delve into the pursuit of hedonism or into dark alien magic as a distraction from the tedium and suffering of their everyday life, embracing their newfound inhumanity in the process as their state of existence continues to wear away their minds.

Vulnerabilities

For all their relative immortality, there are still ways to incapacitate and permanently kill Khadi. Violence still works perfectly well on their bodies, especially if repeated constantly enough to keep them from regenerating, though it is only a temporary solution. Owing to their soullessness, khadi are also affected adversely by spells and rituals that specifically affect evil or otherworldly creatures (though many can mount counterspells, so this is not always reliable).

The greatest vulnerability of a Khadi is its heart. Anyone who holds a Khadi's heart, or even so much the container that it rests in, can compel the Khadi into servitude with but a thought as long as it is in their possession. Actually destroying a Khadi's heart annihilates its former owner. Because of this, most Khadi go to great lengths to secure their heart where it will not be found by their enemies, putting it behind traps, guardians, wards, anti-scrying measures, and unflinchingly-loyal servants. While the final destination of a khadi's soul after they are slain this way is not known, very few guess it to be anything but unpleasant.

The only reliable way to divine the location of a Khadi's heart is through a technique developed by the Ashalan (a pre-Human race) to specifically combat their menace. A knife forged from crysteel and crafted in a heartseeker's shape, when used to stab a Khadi, compels said that Khadi to relentlessly and unknowingly move as quickly as possible towards the location of its heart.

In #suburbansenshi2

The first Khadi to make an appearance in Ten'ou House was Yaijinden, and what is known of Khadi lore comes mostly, though reluctantly, from him. While not a survivor of the once-great order that controlled the Arabian Penninsula at the dawn of the common era, his own experimentations and explorations of that forgotten lore have yielded their secrets to him, including the secret of the cardioectomy. He has performed this ritual only upon a few others.

The first was a table married to the infamous Oronde,Oronde's Wife. The second was Mango Kattan, then Go-Go Yubari, then the man known as Whistler, and then a girl named Hitomi, an old friend of Jordan Davis. Of the lot, only Mango and Oronde's wife are for certain still technically immortal. Go-Go managed to reclaim her heart and have her soul stitched back into her chest. Whistler's nature changed with the results of the Infinite Crisis of Suburban Senshi to being in servitude to some other bleak power; Hitomi's newfound ambition outstripped her reach, and her attempt to compel her master, Yaijinden, into servitude ended with her own death. As a result of Hitomi's attack, though, Yaijinden was forced to sunder the connection between his soul and his body, and he become something strange and new in the process.