Celestial Metahumans

Magical metahumans with inherent celestial or popular powers.

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Aerligian

Those whose tongues hold the truth.

• Lifespan : 70-120 years

• Diet: Common mortal fare

• Habitat: Subarctic to northern temperate coastal lowlands and rolling hills

• Socioeconomic Status: Oppressed

Aerligians have the same range of appearance as humans, with a copper-tinge to their eyes and red highlights in their hair no matter the rest of its color. They call these highlights "sparks." Their tongues have intricate patterns that look like dark, inky tattoos on them. These are their True Names.

If an aerligian places both of their hands against the skin of another and wills it, they can force another to speak true. Doing this is exhausting for the aeriligian and the target and does not last longer than a few minutes except with the most powerful aerligians.

When an aerligian speaks, their True Name is affected by it. If they speak of someone else or something unrelated to themselves, their True Name reacts neutrally, but if they speak of themselves, whether they speak truly or falsely, their True Name reacts as if it were true. Thus, if they lie about themselves, it becomes true. This does not mean that they may speak themselves into Divinity, however, because if they speak falsely of themselves in a manner that is greatly distant from their truth, it will instead simply rip themselves apart. Furthermore, if they speak falsely of themselves, it reduces the amount of the energy of truth that exists within them, weakening themselves overall. Thus, they cannot speak themselves into a strength they do not have.

It is a contradiction. If they speak falsely of themselves, it becomes true, but their truth diminishes. This is the inherent paradox of the aerligians. If they, however, speak only truly of themselves, the inherent truth within them, the truth magic that they embody, becomes stronger, and they gain powers based on their honesty and sincerity.

If an aerligian speaks a knowing lie, even if it is not about themselves, their tongues grow clammy and cold, which feels unpleasant, but is not debilitating. If they speak a knowing truth that is difficult to speak - speaking truth to power, admitting something that will have negative consequences, etc. - their tongue feels warm in their mouth, and they feel a mild frisson of pleasure.

An aerligian can identify anything they consume if they hold it long enough in their mouth before swallowing if it is edible (edible meaning that it has nutritional value to them, as opposed to merely being digestible). Inedible things (limited by size or digestibility) are engaged the same as any normal item in the mouth.

Aerligians are adept at knowing when someone is speaking truth or lies. They can often understand the nuances of subjectivity in what others are saying very easily.

Aerligians come from a coastal country far to the east. As honesty is a highly held cultural value, there is a constant struggle internally for a certain level of respectability from leaders, which has led to violent conflicts. Though religion is a major part of the lives of the original nation of aerligians, there is a deeply held principle that the church be separate in terms of personnel from the government. This often leads to conflicts between the two and debates on where the line is.

In early times, they were in more separated communities, and individual communities often engaged in sea-raiding for survival in harsh winters. The descendants of these early raiders still have great power in the coastal regions. Craft unions also exist as a political force, especially in the cities.

They come from a democracy, but there is a complicated relationship to their pre-democratic past. They have more progressive values, value radical honesty, and believe themselves servants of the community first. They hold their physical prowess to be an important value as protectors of the community.

Aerligians know their True Names and therefore live their truth, which includes their true gender. They assign at-birth a binary gender, but once the child can speak, they know soon the child will reveal their true self. Therefore, there are many genders among the aerligians, and they are welcomed and cherished.

Aerligians are usually seen in other societies as unusual for their cultural honesty, but they are valued by those who believe in truth and honesty or those who seek to use those powers for gain. As such, aerligians are sometimes cautious of outsiders. This has led some to view them as aloof, but once they get to know someone, an aerligian will usually prove to be a close friend and confidant. Outside their own societies, they usually gravitate toward journalism, legal professions, or investigatory work. Feldaers, as a socialist republic, is often accused by other countries of being a totalitarian state that forces their version of the truth on everyone.

PRO 9 ATH 8 STR 8 AWA 9 WIL 9 PRS 9 STH 6

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Ispilu

Twinned metahumans with a deep equilibirum

• Lifespan : 120 years
• Diet: Common mortal fare
• Habitat: Anywhere
• Socioeconomic Status: Oppressed

Ispilu have the same range of appearance as humans do, but they always come in pairs of twins whose appearances complement one another. While height and frame will be roughly the same (though one might eat more or have an accident that leaves their bodies altered), eye color, hair color, and skin color will always differ. They will be otherwise identical. Habits, especially in appearance, might also be complementary. For instance, one might wear their hair long while the other keeps it short, or one might be more athletic than the other. On rare occasion, instead of being born as twins, they are born as one intersex individual.

Ispilu have the ability to trade places with their twin every three years, magically swapping via teleportation.

Each pair of ispilu has an emotional bond such that they know what the other is feeling at almost all times if they are closer than 2,000 miles apart. They can always understand one another, even if both don't speak the same language (which is very rare). They can also act in concerted effort, moving as one or in complementary fashion. Ispilu warriors often use this in combat, but any ispilu pair can do this in any circumstances, whether taking a test, washing the dishes, or casting a spell. As long as it is an action and not a mere thought or feeling or biological process, they can act together. Metaphysically, they share a True Name but not souls.

The local ispilu are embedded in the wider native culture.

Ispilu are greatly demonized by powerful countries. Prejudices and stereotyping of twins in general are rooted in hatred of ispilu. They are accused of mind-reading, identity stealing, and terrorism.

PRO 8 ATH 8 STR 8 AWA 8 WIL 9 PRS 8 STH 8

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Nitotem

Metahumans who bond via trust.

• Lifespan : 120 years
• Diet: Common mortal fare
• Habitat: Anywhere
• Socioeconomic Status: Oppressed in the imperial lands, Matriarchal in their native lands

Nitotems are indistinguishable from humans.

Nitotems are empathic, but their range is smaller than most empathic species - only 5' radius. However, they gain greater range if they are near to anyone they trust - these people they can sense within 40'.

If they form a deep trust with someone, they may link hands and form a magical bond that allows them to sense each other at any distance. The deeper the trust, the deeper the bond, the more power they can share. Those they trust implicitly and completely they can empower in any creative endeavor or social experience. In the most potent bonds (often between family members or lovers), they can take physical damage for one another. If their trust is betrayed, the bond is broken, and they suffer physical harm.

Because they can sense emotions, their trust is influenced by what they sense in others. They cannot form a perfect bond with someone they just met, even if it is justified. They can form a bond after two interactions or four hours of engagement, assuming trust is established, and after that, they must maintain trust for either 25 interactions or 100 hours of engagement to be able to achieve a perfect bond. That bond is still only possible if the feeling is actually there.

Nitotems live in small communities in the area. In these communities, they use their deep bonds to protect and care for one another, know each other's needs, and support one another. These matriarchal, egalitarian communities are often under attack by those who wish to steal their land, resources, or people, and they have learned to create complex defenses.

Those that end up in the imperial lands are usually there as slaves. They mostly do basic labor and service work, and they are usually deeply traumatized by their experiences.

PRO 7 ATH 7 STR 7 AWA 8 WIL 8 PRS 9 STH 8

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Taala

People of healing clay.

• Lifespan : 120-150 years

• Diet: Salt- and mineral-heavy mortal fare

• Habitat: Temperate hills, flatlands, and valleys

• Socioeconomic Status: Oppressed

Taala appear to be humans made of clay. They move and operate just like humans, have blood and organs like humans, but their flesh is made of reddish clay.

Because their flesh is made of clay, taala can reshape it as they see fit. They cannot create new clay except through growth, nor can they shape bone, organs, blood, etc., but they can make their flesh into different forms and shapes.

Taala can take parts of their clay and press it into other taala in order to share clay. When they do this, they allow the other taala to feel their emotions and sense some of their thoughts.

The clay of a taala has healing properties. If they sacrifice their clay and use it as a poultice, wrap, tourniquet, bandage, or otherwise apply it to a wound, it will heal that wound slowly but surely, even if the wound should be fatal. If they apply it to the head, chest, or stomach of a sick person, that person will heal slowly but surely, even from fatal diseases. There are limits to their powers, but they go beyond what most healers can do.

Unlike elemental lifeforce, the energy within taala is celestial lifeforce, which is distinctly the energy of healing, health, curing, medicine. Elemental lifeforce includes and understands that death and disease are a part of life; though it can be used to heal someone or even revive someone from death, it must be forced to. Celestial lifeforce, which is part of the clay of the taala, will automatically do so if applied to someone. The default of their healing magic is that it will restore a body to the state that is most conducive to living longer.

If a taala needs to alter someone’s body in order to heal them in a manner that does not automatically heal, they must have a knowledge of what they are doing to direct the energy. That is, they can heal automatically with no knowledge of biology if they simply use their clay undirected, but if they direct the energy to do something, they need to know what they are telling it to do or they could cause major problems.

The power required to heal something is equal to how close it has brought someone to death. A disease, any disease, caught early, can be easily cured, but in late stages, if the body has suffered a lot of damage, even a common cold will be hard to cure.

The power a taala has is determined by how much clay they use, how healthy they are, and how much they have used their clay to heal before - the more they have helped others, the more power they have to keep doing so.

If they misuse their power to harm others (excluding the undead), they will lose their powers to a degree equal to the harm they cause. If they completely run out of power to heal, their bodies dry out and they become conscious statues, a fate worse than death.

Some general guidelines on difficulties:

• Flesh wound: 1

• Normal wound: 7

• Deep wound: 13

• Re-attaching a newly missing limb: 16

• Mortal wound: 19

• Restoring a newly missing limb without having the limb to re-attached: 22

• Near-death or technically dead: 25

Celestial lifeforcedoes not take social factors into concern - i.e., it will not turn a person of an oppressed group into a member of a non-oppressed group. Some forms of paraplegia, for example, will not be healed by default. If there is a current source of that paraplegia affecting a person - ongoing damage to nerves, damage from disease, or an unhealed wound - that will heal and probably restore walking ability, but if a person has an old injury that is not life-threatening but prevents use of their legs, the energy will not automatically heal it.

Forcing celestial lifeforce to alter a body in order to heal in a manner that isn’t the default is not difficult - it simply requires the taala touch their clay that is being used to heal with and will it to do so - but it comes with a risk. If the taala alters the body in a manner that will shorten life rather than extend or preserve it, the powers of healing within that taala will weaken, possibly even go away if they kill someone with it. And if they lose this power, their clay becomes unliving, thus turning them into conscious but immobile statues.

As such, there are certain conditions considered maladies in class societies that are not truly maladies - autism, having a great weight, being transgender - that celestial lifeforce will not affect unless willed to do so by the taala using their power.

Most taala will not alter someone’s autism, as altering the brain is very risky and they probably don’t know how to alter it to change the autism anyway, even if there is ample evidence that ableist culture is harming the autistic person.

Taala do not casually alter someone’s weight, either - it’s difficult to create mass for thin people (it requires transforming clay) and removing weight requires (a) doing something with the excess tissue and (b) it can lead to unforeseen health complications without knowing how to change weight safely. Only those taala who have studied anatomy and biology will even try to do something about a person’s weight, and then only with what they deem a very good reason. For those people who weigh more than average and have health conditions related to it, the celestial lifeforce simply heals the condition and not the weight. For the most part, this is all that’s needed, anyway.

For transgender people, taala are sometimes capable of altering their bodies to better match society’s expectations relatively safely. Thus, it depends on the taala’s comfort level with altering someone’s body, their own beliefs about gender and bodies, and their confidence in altering a body. They can, however, use their clay to alleviate the physical and mental stress of dysphoria, even if it’s only temporary.

For other questions, consult the GM.

The original nations of the taala come from far to the east. They were once human, but they engaged in a ritual seeking to heal the entire world, ridding it of disease, and through this ritual burnt themselves into malleable clay forms. Or so their legends say.

Since their early days, they have been hunted and enslaved by empires, and for Ages, this was their existence. Very few lived outside of enslavement. But as empires rose and fell in their home region, some were able to escape and reclaim their culture. They live in small communities isolated from other nations because of the long history of enslavement they have suffered. As an oppressed nation with no country of their own, they have long since left behind their distant roots as a matriarchal society and integrated into the various countries they now dwell in. Some of their customs do survive, however.

In the imperial lands, they are all enslaved or descendants of slaves. None are native, but they are often welcomed in native groups and assimilate to them quickly.

Traditionally, gender among the original taala has been seen as malleable, and given their mutable bodies, they did not connect biology and gender until forced to do so by oppressing nations. They still have some customs that eschew gender norms among them, particularly their respect for those who do not match the rigid gender roles of their oppressors (effectively, trans people). Among them, trans folks are honored as more potent healers (which statistically is true, though not set in stone). Same-sex marriage is honored among them even when it is not by their oppressors.

They are viewed as a means to an end by ruling classes, and as heretics or cannibals by others. This latter is a misinterpretation of the sharing of clay that is intentionally spread by those who seek to keep them oppressed. Those who get to know them or live closer to them tend to realize how untrue it is and how potent and helpful their healing powers are.

PRO 6 ATH 8 STR 9 AWA 8 WIL 8 PRS 7 STH 7 Clay 11

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Ysian

Metahumans whose forms change as they come to understand themselves.

• Lifespan: 80-120 years
• Diet: Common undersea fare
• Habitat: Undersea
• Socioeconomic Status: Oppressed

Ysians appear to be humans with gills, fins, and flippers, but their forms change often into many, many other shapes. The only consistency is that they have biological adaptations to dwell in the depths of the seas.

Ysians are shaped by their self-perception. The greater their self-esteem, the greater their ability to shape themselves. The closer their self-perception and their bodies are, the more potent their magic. And the healthier their self-image is, the more potent their magic is. If their self-image requires harming others or physical alterations that might kill them, their magic weakens. However, their alteration magic is such that they can change themselves far more than a mundane human ever could and still live.

To wield their magic, ysians must not be forced or told how to present themselves in any way that has sway over them. If a parent or authority figure tries to mold them when they are young, it will damage their self-image. They need freedom to be who they are.

If they have achieved a strong and healthy enough self-image, they can not only shape themselves, they can store some of their self-esteem in mirrors to wield the power later to help others.

Ysians live under the sea. The original ysians came to dwell there when an ancient sorceress sank her homeland into the sea to avoid being forced to conform to patriarchal notions of appearance. They evolved magically since then to live underwater and to preserve their own identities. They live in mirrored, bubbled cities where they constantly reinforce each others’ perceptions and seek to let all define themselves freely.

In imperial realms, they suffer greatly.

PRO 8 ATH 9 Swim 11 STR 9 AWA 9 WIL 8 PRS 9 STH 7

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Zasagina

Metahumans with jewel-hearts that shine when full of emotion.

• Lifespan : 120 years
• Diet: Common mortal fare
• Habitat: Anywhere
• Socioeconomic Status: Oppressed

Zasaginas are humans with jewels in their chests, just above their hearts. These blue jewels shine with emotion when the zasagina has a full heart.

Zasaginas are empathic. When they sense positive emotions or negative emotions fueled by something good (i.e., grief fueled by love, righteous anger, etc.), they are stronger and faster and more aware. When they sense negative emotions or positive emotions fueled by something bad (i.e., pleasure formed by exploitation), they grow weaker.

A full heart is defined by a heart empowered by nine different positive emotions at once (felt by people other than the zasagina). In this state, the zasagina can provide magical protections, empowerment to base stats, empathic senses, and celestial light to those who are fueling their power.

Zasaginas are from a country in the west where their nation is also oppressed. They fight for their independence there, but it has been a long struggle. They have an ancient culture of deep faith in each other, music and dance, forming strange statues, and holidays based around emotions.

Those in the imperial lands are usually there as slaves or descendants of slaves. They are usually very traumatized, but they are also defiant and often join resistance movements.

PRO 8 ATH 8 STR 8 AWA 9 WIL 8 PRS 9 STH 8