Petrokin

The Petrokin are the animated statues of the victims who have fallen under stone magic and have been revived through either a mindless curse or a blessing of sentience. Their physical and mental attributes are highly dependent on the magnitude of their physical forms.

Characteristics
The Petrokin are simply stone incarnations of their former selves, so they can appear in all shapes and sizes. Due to the reanimation magic on the individual, they can freely function their physical movement and can even merge with different stone parts, regardless of form. Motion is powered by the mind, so the disadvantages of being heavy and slow can be turned agile with enough willpower. When the mind is at rest, the stone becomes inanimate and their glowing eyes vanish, opening up camouflaging opportunities.

The stone form brought upon by magic is out of the ordinary when regarding properties. Whilst standard rocks take an extremely long time to develop, Petrokin grow within decades and rarely come to a halt. Furthermore, it is resistant to heat and most physical strikes. When the stone ages, it becomes more prone to being covered in substances such as moss or coral. They can vary appearance wise, but most Petrokin visually resemble marble.

The mind is not just a single floating presence, for knowledge, wisdom and emotion are stored within the statue, accessed by the conscience. As the stone grows, mental capacity also expands. To a greater extent, a Petrokin's thought process and alertness is more clear when their bodies are carefully carved and their roughness is smoothed. When oversized, a Petrokin may destroy a chunk of their bodies to a shrunken amount, but they will lose a portion of their mentality within the remains.

History
Before the reanimation of the Petrokin, the stone-turning power dates back as far as the mythological origins of the Garjana, vile serpentine creatures who were infused with stone magic by their unknown progenitors. The Garjana who mastered their stone abilities would bite their victim deeply, injecting a surge of petrifying energy and turning them into stone form. The idle victims would eventually fall under a cursed summoned by a necromancer, granting them life that only responded to the commands of their sinister masters.

The summoning of Petrokin rose when the Garjana started kidnapping unfortunate bypassers, especially those attempting to uncover the lost worlds beneath the ocean surface, transforming them into mindless stone fighters that guarded their lairs. However, they would not leave seclusion until centuries later when Gorgos, a vengeful general and sorcerer in solitude, unleashed an aggressive yet furtive invasion on the kingdom of Shangrilantis, increasing the number of animated Petrokin.

Masses of mindless Petrokin fought for Gorgos, some even possessed by ancient Garjanan spirits, until many of them were abandoned and defeated. However, death was not their fate, for the divine presence of Shangri, the powerhouse of Shangrilantis, spiritually blessed countless amounts of Petrokin, not only lifting them from their curses but also granting them free thought and sentience. Though some ran away to outlandish regions, numerous Petrokin found refuge and acceptance in the Shangrilantean grounds, under the nurturing of the scholars and Shangri herself.

Culture and Society
For the most part, Petrokin culture is not very unique, as most have adapted to Shangrilantean cultures and traditions mutual to the kingdom, including values, language, technology and religion. Regarding those outside the citizenship of the kingdom, they live in secretive tribes and inhabit ancient Hellenic ruins. Having been forced into nomadic life, they prioritise their physical form over anything else, for the knowledge within their stone bodies are precious to them.