(Note: Insufficient information is available at this point to guess at the place of the Nethygi in the natural ecology in the Black Steel world, although a handful of educated guesses can of course be made.)
Though some can be seen walking the streets of Night Harbor or purchasing wares in its famed slave market, and though - during the quiet war between certain Shalasian powers and an enclave of shadow elves and their allies - Thaqz has actually killed one, the Nethygi (this is the plural form; the singular is Nethygian) are largely an unknown quantity to Black Steel and to human beings in general. In appearance, they are a mass of powerful tentacles (probably five or six; no one in Black Steel has ever had both the opportunity and desire to actually count them) emerging from a head some half a meter in diameter, much more nearly round than that of an octopus. Their tentacles also lack octopus-like suckers, but are lined with bony ridges, perhaps in the nature of nails or horns, at least along the ends of their inner surfaces. All the Nethygi ever encountered by or described to Black Steel personnel have had extremely pale white skin.
In their dealings with human beings, perhaps aware of the revulsion with which most humans see them, Nethygi typically stand "upright" on their tentacles, and wrap themselves in long cloaks, often cowled, that completely conceal their tentacular "bodies" except when they part the cloak to reach for something. It may be that interacting with Nethygi is at least slightly more palatable to the average human when a Nethygian can be imagined as at least a vaguely human-like or humanoid being. Even so, the illusion of near-humanity must be consensual; no matter how carefully cloaked and cowled, no Nethygian in motion or in speech would ever be mistaken for a human.
The Nethygian vocal apparatus is capable of roughly reproducing human language, but not apparently without effort, and never perfectly. Nethygians speaking human words sound something like someone trying to talk while choking, hissing, and gargling alternately or simultaneously. No member of Black Steel has ever heard Nethygi speaking in their own language, though they may speak in voices too low or high to hear, or communicate by nonverbal means -- some informants in Night Harbor claim to have seen Nethygi silently twine their tentacles with one another's when presented with the sort of business deal that should require consultation.
The ease or regularity with which Nethygi can attain sorcerous power is unclear, but it is apparent that some, at least, have magical ability. The Nethygian that Thaqz slew, for instance, managed to induce a seizure in him before the wizards whom Thaqz had led to its hiding place came to his assistance, allowing Thaqz to break free and strike the killling blow.
