Images - DragonDawn (previously Dragonborn) Mod for Medieval II: Total War: Kingdoms

The Cthonae do not belong in Reality. Every moment they spend in Reality they are anathema. The fabric of creation attempts to expel them, to crush, break or destroy them in any way possible, ejecting them from Reality. They cannot breathe clean air as it decays them, their bodies are decomposing all the time, swifter than normal decay, probably by about 10X.

As they wander, they recycle their own fluids...what they could bring of themselves is retained, as the fluid and the 'anti-matter' is what sustains them. Their power comes from devouring Reality by collapsing it in on itself. Where angles and lines are broken, a large amount of energy is created in brief flashes, allowing them to force back creation itself. The presence of negative emotion attracts them like nothing else does, and they seek to devour it, to drink it, as we would water. Hate, pain, all are taken like food and water to them, and they can sustain them to a degree. At the same time, Reality unravels with the explosive decay of broken mathematics, physics tearing apart in their presence. Both seek to destroy the other - save that Reality is simply asserting truths, and the Cthonae simply thoughtlessly seek to exist, even if for a very short time.