"A simulacrum, specifically. You see, in the kingdom of Navarra, there are specialized mages, the Mortalitasi, who are tasked with interring the remains of the dead inside the Grand Necropolis for all eternity. Simply put, it is their custom when someone well-to-do dies to affix their soul to their corpse and seal them in their tombs. It's said in older parts of the Necropolis some of them have gotten free and wander about. Tragic, really, but that is hardly the point."

He makes a motion to his purplish-black doppelganger. "The simulacrum, in contrast, is a shell of entropic energy, quite tasty to a death spirit, given my exact form, a combat skill. I would, after all much rather an opponent attack this than myself. Entropic as it is, and mine, some of the energy expended in attacking it moves back down the link and ahhh is rather like a refreshing spring. Healing, that is."