Tsochar of Athas date back to ancient times, long before the discovery of defiling magic and the rise of the sorcerer-kings. In this distant past, the tsochar were banished or fled to the deep, dark places of the world, falling into a slumber that preserved their physical forms. These tsochar buried themselves in lightless chasms, hid in subterranean caverns, and hibernated in the darkest corners of long-abandoned cisterns and wells. For eons they slept, and their existence was forgotten.
The rise of the sorcerer-kings also coincided with an increase in both the volume and potency of psionic power across Athas. Since the sorcererkings are themselves masters of psionic power, the most powerful beings on the planet began giving off waves of psionic energy, which reached these dark recesses of the world. The tsochar awakened, the lure of psionic energy causing them to stir from their self-imposed exile and creep toward the surface once more. Upon their emergence, the tsochar found the world much changed, and they quickly began seizing new host bodies.
Even now, some tsochar have not yet awoken from their millennial slumber. Adventurers bold enough to delve into forgotten structures or explore the ruins of cities long buried in the sand can sometimes awaken tsochar—not that anyone outside of those expeditions ever notices. Though most Athasian tsochar are solitary, in some rare cases a band of adventurers uncovers a small nest of tsochar that seizes control of each member of the expedition. A group of explorers heads into the ruins as a band of adventurers, then emerges as a group of mobile hosts for parasites so ancient that even the sorcerer-kings have no knowledge of their existence.
Indeed, the awakening of tsochar in recent years takes advantage of the ignorance about them. Many of the eldest tsochar have made it their goal to infest a sorcerer-king. Getting close to a sorcerer-king is no mean feat; many sorcerer-kings are reclusive and paranoid, and they have guards and wards in place to prevent their enemies from infecting them with maladies (the same wards which, conveniently, keep the tsochar at bay). Perhaps more relevant is the fact that the sorcerer-kings are so powerful that, even if a tsochar got close enough, it could not seize the ruler’s psyche quickly enough to prevent the inevitable counterattack. Still, the tsochar are persistent, and at least a few of them have wormed a way into the ranks of the templars of various city-states.
Tsochar of modern Athas have adapted to the new world into which they have emerged. The abundance of psionic power has worked so far to the tsochar’s advantage. When a tsochar infests a creature with psionic talent (latent or otherwise), something about the bond between the tsochar and the host breaks through subconscious barriers in the mind of the psion, effectively magnifying the host’s psionic might. For this reason, tsochar are most aggressive in their pursuit of those Athasians who have cultivated psionic talent, since both tsochar and host grow more powerful as a result of the bond. The tsochar also possess some basic defenses against psionic attacks, creating an unpleasant surprise during a psychic duel for an opponent unaware of the tsochar’s presence.
Not all aspects of modern Athas are as beneficial to the tsochar. The presence of defiling magic is an obstacle for them, since defiling weakens the life force of potential hosts. Tsochar who infest defilers find that their host rots from within once the infestation has taken root. A tsochar in a defiler host is also afflicted by a hunger, which in turn leads the tsochar to behave recklessly. To the outside observer, a tsochar-infested defiler appears not only to go mad, but also to become gluttonous while wasting away as though starving to death. Tsochar rarely stay in defiler hosts for long. They only willingly choose a defiler as a host when no other option exists, or when the tsochar needs to infest that particular host for a short period of time. As a result, those tsochar who have taken templars as hosts choose templars who show no predilection for defiling, and instead pick those who possess psionic might.