Snails, and Others Who Go Too Far

In Desul there are those who forsake the powers of magic. Whether in a religious extreme or a clinical obsession, they strip their own bodies of the potential for magic. This involves a surgical removing of the ears and the sensory organs just below the skin around the skull. These anti-magic deafs are nicknamed "Snails," for they move slowly. Most will crawl along the ground and lean against walls. This is because they have lost not only their hearing, but their entire center of balance. The surgery is ironically magical in nature and cuts the Snail off from vibrational frequencies, also limiting the Snails in their sense of touch as well. They experience injury, but they cannot feel pain. Their physical stamina is nearly limitless. They can crawl and crawl without ever tiring. A Snail's body will crumple and die before it gives up on its pursuit.

They are completely unaffected by magical ability. A magical flame will have no effect on a Snail because the 'waves' of heat emitted by the sounds of the magic are unregistered by the Snail. The flames are not even visible to a Snail. Illusions do not appear in their field of vision. They cannot be cursed or blessed. Magic of all kinds no longer exists to Snails. Magic is rendered invisible, intangible, immaterial. 

Most of those who go through the extremes to become a Snail do so to enhance their ability as mage assassins. Wizard's tracks can easily be discovered when the magic shielding said tracks does not exist to their hunter. Snail assassins creep gingerly through corridors, clutching the walls, breathing loudly, mundane dagger in hand, for their target is vulnerable to any ordinary blade in the sweating hands of such a mutant.

Children of the Gong are terrified of Snails. The Children of the Gong believe that magic is more potent the louder a ritual is performed. This seems to ring true. They construct fortress-sized siege vehicles covered in precisely-angled drums that funnel the noises of a magical totem through a sound chute that exponentially increases the totem's volume. They wear full-body armor that, when struck, plays a reverberating tone that is charged with an active magical effect. Devices as tall as a castle tower have been built to, in theory, magically affect hundreds of people within miles. 

They are technocrats who, under the guise of advancing society, hope to gain political power. The Children of the Gong worship Noise as a God.