Soulrider (Monitor)

Although soulriders can grow quite large, most of them are narrow creatures only a few feet long. Even once they've attached to a soul and passed between planes, they must complete their adaptation to the new environment before beginning their growth.

These smallest soulriders might be found anywhere in the mortal Universe with a portal to the Outer Sphere or a history of summoning magic. Large batches of spawn in the wilderness are often culled by natural predators, but individual spawn can survive for years and travel many miles as they search for a host.

Resembling a lamprey or hagfish with a long whiplike tail, a soulrider uses its harmless sucker to hitch rides on a creature's soul. This seemingly simple connection transcends the physical, attaching directly to the host's soul and even riding along with the soul to its final destination. Once there, a soulrider leaves its host to absorb the surrounding planar energies, adapting to the new environment and growing large enough to produce spawn. However, it can only do so in the mortal Universe, so it must find a portal or other way to return. With this cycle, they've spread to every plane in the Outer Sphere, as well as many mortal worlds.

Although increasingly widespread, soulriders only appeared a little over a century ago. Thought to be a fleshwarper's attempt to cheat Pharasma's judgment by attaching several innocent souls to their own, soulriders' numbers have grown explosively since then.

Soulriders require little more than air to survive, but they're instinctually aware of their need for a mortal soul. Although their suckers are harmless, soulriders who feel threatened or become impatient will finish off their hosts or nearby threats with their tail.