War Dancer

War dancers are not just physical Mages they also have body modifications on top of their already magically enhanced frames additional muscle and organs grafted onto them and strengthen tendons and Bone and on top of all that a nice cocktail of drugs before sending them off into the war but why do they wear what looks like a ceremonial Garb into battle and why are they called War dancers well it all started with the pillar men the beacons of Hope and varus's religion called zeni ISM there are these giant pillars believed to hold up the Heavens called the world pillars and xenop ISM believes that these pillars are a trial by the gods to allow humans to ascend to heaven so they started climbing them these climbers known as the pillar men started being revered and trained to be the best they can be but also to be beacons of Humanity's culture grace and beauty because if they were to reach heaven xenop ISM believes they should present only the peak of humanity to the gods now that's how it started but as the war waged on and varus's Desperation to reach salvation grew ever more they started to modify these pillar Men first training them in physical magic but eventually twisting their bodies with augmentation and magical enhancements turning them into beasts though verus still desperately tries to cling on to the elegant and beautiful facade dressing them in ever more elaborate and decadent ceremonial attire and parading them around the capital in Show those of grandeur and most might yet still believe in the beauty of the pillar but some Whispers of doubt have crept through in hushed conversations if we truly reach the heavens one day what will the gods think of what we've done to their Creations now this process of creating pillar men isn't perfect accidents happen sometimes pillar men fall and get injured or go mad through the unimaginably painful procedure what happens to them such a waste it would be for them to just retire they are still incredibly strong enhanced humans and in the end still property of the high churches and it would be such an embarrassment for the churches to admit that their beacons of Hope just failed of course not there are no pillar men that fail the high churches say these select few pillar men have chosen to foro their duties of reaching the heavens for they have been granted boons by the gods strength and Zeal and the overwhelming urge to fight in the war for how will vuse reach salvation if there is no verus left to speak of and so be it the Fallen pillar men were sent to war drugged to Blind them of their pain and fill Fill Their Minds with rage for the high churches are Petty and force these Fallen these failed pillar men into armors and masks with the visages of monsters and beasts ugly tusked things like those Wars from Ram but you can only send crazed lunatics in humiliating costumes into the war for so long until your people start questioning if what you said was true soldiers right back we've been granted aid from the high churches in the form of their pillar men but these things don't seem like Warriors of the Gods to me more like Abominations though their effectiveness cannot be denied we were using them to break enemy formations so we could go in and clean up the rest though there wasn't much left to clean up the high churches hearing of this growing suspicion commissioned religious plays to be performed around verus plays depicting the elegant pillar men ascending their pillars only to be overcome with determination to fight in the war and save verus from the clutches of yorm these plays depicted the Fallen pillar in a different light elegant yet brutal stomping the ground and Swinging their weapons still with danike grace these plays were highly successful and helped quell the concern of the people but also the effectiveness of the Fallen pillar and the war made it so the high churches realized if the pillar meant to climb were so effective why don't we make pillar specifically designed for war but not just Mindless beast but tempered with discipline and training to be as elegant yet brutal as the performances that once depicted them for the previously known as Fallen pillar men now called War dancers were trained as such believing themselves to be a part of a great play in front of the gods and their stage is the battlefield not only to be more effective but also to save face nowadays before War dancers are sent out to battle they perform in stadiums to show their prowess before the people of verus War bores and captive ROM prisoners sent in to face them for them to dismantle with brutal Elegance to the Delight of the verian people their ornate decorated clothes that could rival those of the true pillar men still have beastly masks to pay homage to those first wretched failures the high churches are indeed very Petty...

this creature is not mine its from rust&trenches all credit goes to monstergarden