"These lovely bones... I will cherish them."

"These lovely bones... I will cherish them."

The Last Gentle Thing is an elusive being spoken of in scattered accounts across Elyxium. Most descriptions place him at around eight to ten feet tall, though few who meet him seem unable to recall his full shape with certainty. He is known as the maker of all Plushex, the one who shapes their Plush Hearts and seals the souls within them before they can pass on. With unsettling tenderness he stitches new bodies from cloth and thread, remaking beings into soft immortal vessels that may outlast the fragile forms they were born into.

Though feared in many stories, he is not known as a cruel being. The Last Gentle Thing is drawn mostly to Aphex, admiring the strange beauty of their lives and creation. Some say he seeks those on the edge of death, appearing when illness, injury, or time itself has made a body impossible to bear. Others whisper that he may be sought out willingly by those who are dying, suffering, or simply cannot bear to remain as they are.  To become a Plushex is to surrender one's body and be remade into something new.

Not all who wake remember who they once were. In many cases, memory fades like old thread, softened by the process of rebirth. Others retain pieces of their former life, especially if the remaking was slow, deliberate, or deeply wanted. Because of this, becoming Plushex is often seen as both a mercy and a loss. One is preserved, but never unchanged.

Little is truly known of where the Last Gentle Thing came from. One old story tells of an Aphex who lost their beloved to the slow cruelty of mortality and, unable to accept the divide of death, sewed a doll in their image from grief and devotion. The doll stirred to life for only a moment before falling apart in its maker’s hands. Heartbroken, the Aphex gave themself entirely to the craft, refining it again and again in the hope of creating a form that would never rot, fail, or be taken by time. Whether this tale is truth or only a myth, many believe it is where the first Plushex began.

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