Heap

Heaps are a type of creature that occur as an unintentional or random byproduct of brilliance manipulation, most typically animancy. They are rare and hard to classify, and mostly exist theoretically. Heaps have yellow-green auras.

Early Animancy
As with all holon skills, animancy was not always as refined and precise as the current day. Before Particle and Oriel, holons dabbling with brilliance manipulation would often produce random or inconsistent bursts of energy, sometimes creating life by accident. These forgotten creations would slink away into the depths of the planet, some dying, some staying hidden for eons, and some gaining strength and emerging in different forms.

Ghosts
Ghosts are heaps, living creatures that exist in the cracks between the world that can be seen and the world that cannot. Because of their phantasmal appearance and tendency to acquire the likeness of other creatures, a common but incorrect theory is that they are "spirits" of dead fauna returning to menace the living.
 * It is suspected that most ghosts were created during the era of early animancy. Shivermancy has the ability to create heaps, though some question if the intention factors in to their classification and that modern ghosts should be considered animates instead.

Mushi
Main article: Mushi

Mushi are similarly strange creatures whose origins are unknown. Some suspect that they are heaps similar to ghosts, but while ghosts seem to choose their form arbitrarily or remain formless, mushi tend to have specific forms that they inhabit. Additionally, while ghosts appear to be ancient, areas bereft of mushi will be repopulated over time, suggesting that they have a way to procreate.

Animates
Some have posited the concept that all animates are in fact, heaps, and should not be given their own denomination as a type of life. This kind of thinking has been all but discarded, however, as modern animates can sustain themselves and show as much awareness as holons themselves.