The yamadroli (/ˈjɑməˌdɹəʊli/) is a black stranger with a lithe build, split tail, small "ears", and colorful marks across its face. It smells like burning rubber; its odor nearly painful, and pungent from up to forty feet. Its monochrome flesh and organs regenerate almost instantaneously from damage, but grow soft and disappear when rubbed firmly by a sensitive's palm.

The yamadroli mewls in a human-like voice that rises and falls like a poorly-tuned gaohu. Its cadence is imitative of a human in conversation, and grows fast or slow to match the air currents around it. In a still space, it is silent.

The yamadroli appears only in those quiet neighborhoods with low buildings and wide back alleys, bushes and against fenced trash bins, and stone walkways that lead to kitchen doors.

It appears in areas of complete darkness. Its body is solid black when it first steps into the world, with its markings growing in one-by-one in varying order.

A full moon halts its generation.

The yamadroli's disposition is that of a being that has lost its innocence and become secretive above all else. It is more scorning of its environment than it is curious, and leers from side to side as it slinks through its dominion, its nimble paths mimicking the routes of a stray animal. It climbs all walls with ease, and remains completely silent in its interactions with the physical world. Even as it jumps from garage roofs to land on gravel, it makes no sound, leaving even pebbles undisturbed¹. When not roaming, the yamadroli rests beneath parked cars, atop trash cans, or on the tops of cement dividers.

The yamadroli is able to identify and seek out any object that has been touched by a sensitive. Upon finding one, it turns and scrutinizes the object from all angles (sometimes for up to an hour), always placing it back where it found it. It continues to return periodically, checking any changes in these "keepsakes."

Once a yamadroli touches a keepsake, the object begins to dematerialize. The nature of this corrosion varies between keepsakes — objects seem to melt to nothing, become riddled with holes, or chip away. Regardless of the method, this disintegration (which affects only keepsakes) leaves no particles behind². Objects always disappear fully within three months.

As the night reaches sunrise, the yamadroli retreats into the shadows, becoming unseen and remaining absent until lulled out by the dark again.

Yamadroli is indifferent to its companions, and individuals do not directly interact. Groups within a shared territory do form small "clans", which defend their space against other clans. Border skirmishes are loud, but brief. They leave lasting grudges, but no marks.

Though predominantly either wary of or disinterested in most other strangers (and outright predatory towards smaller strains), it will observe (from a hideaway or a vantage point) all interactions between sensitives and predatory strangers. In the aftermath of a sensitive's death, once quiet settles in again, all nearby yamadroli approach the corpse (if there is one) and place their hands upon the forehead. The corpse then begins to disintegrate, much like the yamadroli's keepsakes. Unlike the keepsakes, however, corpses disappear much faster, with none lasting longer than one hour and forty-nine minutes³.

The yamadroli actively avoids sensitives, and is thus rarely encountered. It recedes with slinking steps into the dark, or over walls to avoid any contact, usually evading with ease.

It does, however, grow somewhat less aware of its surroundings when engaged with a keepsake. A sensitive is often able to get within fifteen feet of a sufficiently engrossed yamadroli, even without pussyfooting. Once the yamadroli notices the sensitive's presence, it behaves as though caught doing something it wasn't supposed to, and surreptitiously places the object where it had been, never to return to it, before slipping away.

It interacts with sensitives only when cornered, displaying no fear, but instead, only a resigned acceptance of its situation. Upon turning towards the sensitive, it attempts to place its hand upon any bare skin, before it voluntarily dies in a breath of black.

The yamadroli's touch causes a general compulsion to discard, destroy, or deface objects once the sensitive is finished interacting with them.

This action is compulsive and automatic, though not impossible to stave off after several months of focus and meditation. Larger or less easily destructible objects (such as cars, computers, and furniture) cause little to no arousal of such a response, and a sensitive never seeks out tools to assist in any object's destruction. The compulsion never goes away completely, however, and relapses are common.

The yamadroli's markings blur as it ages, as do the edges of its body. Its boundaries grow less and less distinct each nightfall, until it finally retreats to the place where it was born.

Yamadroli that observe a companion's death place their hands upon the spot of death, nod their head once, and then return to umbral secrecy once more.