Yilum "The Pariah Race"

When a child is stillborn the parents whisper about their curses. When an tank of nutritive algae or yeasts go bad they are accused of sabotaging the vat works. When raiders and mutants come howling out of the wastelands they are accused of being spies.

The Yilum, "The Pariah Race," are a human-like people of especially unsettling aspect. Hairless, the Yilum are practically identical in appearance to humanity, aside from the six fingers and toes; double pupils; two rows of teeth; and gelatinous, transparent skin that reveals leprous silvery, gray and purple muscles; a dirty yellow-gray skeleton; the circulatory system; and blotchy, throbbing internal organs. In moist conditions their skin exudes a greasy mucous; in arid conditions this mucous dries into translucent waxy gray filmy scabs that shred and hang off their skin. Some Yilum have a third eye, set vertically in the center of their forehead; many three-eyed Yilum also have three pupils instead of two.

Although tolerated by most civilized settlements, the Yilum and despised outcasts who often perform degrading and hazardous tasks that True Men feel to be beneath them; and when ill fortune strikes the Yilum are often scapegoated as poisoners, spies or warlocks. Certainly no True Man would allow a Yilum to touch him or enter his abode.

Some folk tales say that the Yilum are simply mutant Men, other say that they were created by the Great Old Ones at the dawn of time when the Lords of Light formed Man. Another legend says that they are the descendants of an Ancient Baron who betrayed his Autarch and had his progeny cursed as a result.