Ostovite

Skittering scavenger vermin common throughout the Abyss, ostovites roam battlefields to harvest flesh and bones. After the ostovites dissolve and slurp up the flesh for sustenance, they craft the bones into elaborate shells they refer to as "bone chariots."

These bone chariots move under the ostovites' command and serve as an important marker of rank in ostovite nests. To the tiny ostovites, bigger is better, and building large skeletal conveyances is the only way for them to increase their standing in life. Although they feel deeply inferior to creatures larger than themselves, this fear can be overwhelmed by the ostovites' visceral desire to harvest those creatures' bones to increase their own status. When confronted with a particularly massive skeleton, ostovites generally fight among themselves and end up splitting the haul. However, there are rare instances of the selfish creatures working together to puppeteer a much larger bone chariot.

Ostovites' faint understanding of anatomy results in bone chariots that look more like a nightmarish attempt at art than any creature the bones were pulled from. Some powerful fiends and their admirers collect this strange art by bribing ostovites with skeletons or finding ways to kill ostovites without disrupting the chariot around them.

Despite ostovites' origins in the Outer Rifts, they are neither demons nor qlippoth. Without the protection of the major fiends, they find their homes in nooks and crannies along the corners of their home plane. Though they have no innate ability to cross the planar boundaries, flaws in the Outer Rifts' fabric often lead them to worlds across the planes. Ostovites that have thus migrated are often much happier. Away from demonic abuse, they usually can be found near mortal crypts and battlefields. In the Universe, they rarely have to face any threats other than the undead, clerics of Pharasma, and families of the deceased.