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Unaligned Insubstantiates
Species without hard physical bodies, usually made of gas or energy, with inherent unaligned powers.Aamer
Living clouds of decaying atoms.- Lifespan: 100 years
- Diet: Matter
- Habitat: Cosmos
- Socioeconomic Status: Oppressed
Bodied: PRO 8 ATH 12 STR 10 AWA 15 WIL 12 PRS 4 STH 8
Ancestor
The cumulative memories of all ancestors to the Fall, taken form.
- Lifespan: Until their line is gone - because some ancestors are bonded to a found family, lines can be revived in some ways
- Diet: None
- Habitat: The realm of memory
- Socioeconomic Status: Varies
Ancestors, sometimes called ancestral spirits or by many other names, appear to be as they were in life, usually appearing as they were in a moment in which they had the most profound connection to the living descendant who calls upon them. In the Talunese city-state region, they are called mani.
Ancestors have a clear memory of their entire lives, including things they could not remember when they were alive, and their essence as living ancestral memory means they are connected to their direct lineage dating back to the Fall. They do not have the same clarity for memories not their own, but they can reach back beyond what was their own time and see some things.
Because they are merely memories, they cannot use any powers they had in life unless those powers were psionic in some way - they are entirely made of psionic resonance. Even if the power was verbal or vocal, they cannot wield it unless it was harnessed entirely through the mind.
Only in very rare circumstances can a called ancestor operate independently within the Spirit Realm (where Shem is). This happens because of very specific rituals in which their descendant(s) call them into a body, either a vessel such as an animal, statue, or even the descendant’s own body. It is possible to summon an ancestor into an unrelated mortal’s body with consent of that mortal, but it is very difficult and does not last long.
In these rare instances, the ancestor will have a limited amount of time in their body to act, but they will have access to powers they had in life if the body is capable of them.
Ancestors exist within the mindscapes of all mortals. They only appear when called. They do retain some of the personality they had in life, however, and may or may not be helpful when called. If they were powerful or violent in life, they may seek to induce such in those who call them; if they were kind and compassionate, they will engage with those qualities when called.
There are many different traditions, rituals, ceremonies, spells, and other rites to call upon ancestors. These vary by culture and time period. The culture most strongly associated with ancestral memory is that of the Ladryans, but every living thing is capable of accessing it. Ancestors therefore exist in every culture.
When called, ancestors behave much as they did in life, but they are often compelled to share their memories regardless of their inclinations in life. Unless they had a strong reason not to, they will feel more open about what they remember.
Ancestors are aware of their being. They know they exist within the collective ancestral memory and can interact there with other ancestors, though mostly only those closely connected to them in life. Though blood relationship is often the most potent, any social or emotional connection will draw them to others in the memory. As such, people with found families are often more close to those than to their blood families.
Within the realm of memory, ancestors are free to act as they please, but there is a limit to their actions. They can only exist while their lineage exists - whether blood or social - and the realm of memory reflects vague impressions of where they lived in life, a faded remnant on the edge of dreams.
In the rare circumstances when an ancestor takes a physical body in the Spirit Realm, they will usually have been called into that body for a specific reason. Their personality and motivations in life may compel them to do other than what they were called for, but if this is the case, the shaman or other caller might try to stop them or compel them to do what they were called for. But they will have free will and a soul while doing so.
If a player chooses to play a mani, they will be one in a corporeal body shared with a living being, and thus their stats will vary.
Athak
The living void.
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Lifespan: 120 years
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Diet: Energy
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Habitat: Sublunar caverns and caves or outer space
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Socioeconomic Status: Native or Oppressed
Most athaks are shapeless, colorless clouds of energy (often called “the Vast”). Many, however, take an anthropomorphic form by negating their own formlessness. These are usually featureless figures. Those that dwell underground on Shem are more affected by gravity and narrow spaces and tend to be about 3’ to 5’ tall and have smaller than proportional limbs and phalanges, while those who dwell under the lunar surface tend to be about 6’ tall and have elongated limbs and phalanges.
To outsiders, solid athaks appear to be jet black because their bodies negate light. To each other, athaks have perfectly clear skin and a riot of colors swirling within themselves.
Athaks contain void. They can discharge void energy from any part of their bodies - energy or solid - at the cost of some of their lifeforce, which they can recharge with food and rest.
Athaks can nullify any esoteric energies other than paradoxical energies that targets them. If they do so, these energies will become void in an amount equal to the amount by which they defeated the energy - i.e., if they are targeted with a 10 in mana, a form of fey magic, and they roll from an 8 in void and end up rolling a 15 against the mana’s 12, they will gain and consume a 3 in void. If they fail, they take damage at half the failure - i.e., if they fail by 2, they lose 1 void point permanently. Some energies are less potent against them and some are more potent. Mana is equal to void.
In order for them to feed effectively, they must discharge less void than the energies they consume.
Athaks dwell underground on Shem in a technocracy that is inscrutable to outsiders. Those in imperial lands are usually there seeking to exchange technological knowledge.
PRO 8 ATH 8 STR 7 AWA 9 WIL 9 PRS 8 STH 9
Elimo
An insubstantial being manifested by a mortal’s intense beliefs. Pl. bilimu.
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Lifespan : As long as they are believed to live; this varies by culture or individual; the Elili are believed to live for 200 years
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Diet: Belief
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Habitat: Varies
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Socioeconomic Status: Enslaved
When mortals began to put their faith in concepts higher than themselves without a concept of the Divine, bilimu began to manifest. Bilimu take the form of what they are imagined to be. The originals were all imagined to be invisible, shadowy figures whose eyes glow pale yellow, but those formed in other cultures might have different forms, though all take on some kind of shadowy substance.
Bilimu have the powers those who believe in them believe them to have. This varies drastically by culture, individual, and time period.
Bilimu exist because they are believed in, and once they are manifested, they must find a way to absorb enough belief to exist independently of their believers. To do this, they must appear before those who do not believe in them, preferably beings of entirely different communities or cultures. To do this, they must influence their believers to interact with others in a space or way that allows them to appear. Until this happens, they are bound to their believer and can only manifest near to them.
Once freed, they may believe in themselves and manifest individuality. They will retain any powers they had at the time they broke free.
Almost all bilimu are believed to have insubstantial bodies but still be able to interact physically with their hands, if they are believed to have them.
Some bilimu are known to have certain powers because of the culture that believes in them. The main example is the original bilimu who are believed to have the power to complete almost any simple task for the believer if the proper ritual is performed. Some have the power to steal the souls of anyone who threatens their ward, as they are the imaginary protectors of children. Others believe them to be imaginary monsters, boogeymen, who take children away to the Nether Realm, and others still believe them to be invisible servants who take care of various tasks while the believers sleep.
They existed at first as shadows that followed nomadic tribes, but as these many different tribes interacted and developed technologically, as they began to settle in one place, they began to coalesce into a distinct people who began to drift and dwell independently in the deep rainforests there.
The local nations - of many different species - still create new bilimu all the time, and they welcome them to their homes. They often travel into the spaces of these nations to recruit new bilimu, and for the most part, they are welcomed, for it is believed that the permanence of an elimo is a sign that the needs that manifested them in the first place have been met. They are also believed to be able to create new bilimu on their own, so they can and often do.
Their communities are built to foster shadows. Canopies and tents (often made with leaves or animal skins) with openings to the sun are used in every structure; there are no glass windows, but there are openings for light to come through when heavier materials (such as wood) are used for the structure. Every room has many nooks and crannies where they might lurk, which is how they rest.
Their communities are led by their spiritual leaders. These leaders guide the community in everything, not just religion, but their spiritual guidance is their primary role. Usually, the leader is the wisest and eldest of them, but not always. They are believed to center their whole culture on their faith. Every member of the community’s role ties into their faith somehow.
They fear fungi and never kill it. The power of belief from fungal beings is overwhelming to them.
They are believed to have clawed, shadowy hands that allow them to rend the flesh of animals or the bark or leaves of plants. They use these not for food, but to gather materials for their communities - leaves and skins used for canopies and tents, bones and branches used for support structures, blood and sap used for rituals, flowers and eyes used for ornamentation, and so on. Every animal or plant killed must be ritually honored.
They wear clothing only among their own. When they leave for other mortal communities, they go naked so that they can hide more easily. Amongst their own, they wear desiccated animal eyes as amulets, believed to allow them to see better, and dried and pressed flowers as crowns, believed to make them prettier to one another. To give one a flower is to tell them they are ugly; to snatch a flower from them is to tell them they don’t need ornamentation to be beautiful.
PRO 9 ATH 9 STR 9 Insubstantial form n/a AWA 8 WIL 10 PRS 8 STH 12
Jamuqa
Emotional imprints come to life.
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Lifespan: 200 years
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Diet: Refracted light
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Habitat: Waterfalls
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Socioeconomic Status: Oppressed
Jamuqas are amalgamations of multiple people who have existed in an area, who have touched the waters of a cataract, and thus, they look like many thousands of people imprinted on the cascade of water. Therefore, they appear to be anthropomorphic images filled with rushing water. They tend to be very colorful and have features of multiple species.
Jamuqas are living personalities imprinted into water, and so their bodies reflect that - they are made of light and fluid. They can control the water and use it as another being might use a more solid body.
They often take on different images within their waters to represent different facets of their personalities. Their tender side may be one image while their depressed side might be another and so on.
Jamuqas can see emotion not as an immediate thing, but as an ongoing thing - they see emotion on a timescale - they see the outline of a person’s emotional journey when they see a person. They see the emotional shape of their personality.
They can hear the words spoken all along the waters they dwell within 10 miles of the falls.
As jamuqas age, their images begin to fade, and they have less control over the water that makes up their bodies.
When light strikes the waterfalls or their bodies and refracts, they absorb it as nutrition.
If a jamuqa wishes to leave their waterfall home, they must carry the water with them. In order to do this, they must find something within the plunge pool of the falls that will hold water safely. If nonesuch exists, they must use the waters of the falls to craft it, holding a stone or shell or piece of wood to be shaped. Once they have this, they can step out of the falls, and some of the rushing waters will follow them.
Their water bodies will be immune to most physical weapons unless those weapons can disrupt their bodies so significantly that they cannot reform themselves - i.e., powerful explosives.
The voices of jamuqas speak with the voices of thousands of people, and therefore they sound as loud as the waterfall itself. Their voices hit deep within a person.
Jamuqas live in communities clustered around large waterfalls in secluded parts of vast mountain ranges on Shem. Each waterfall has about three or four dozen jamuqas, but large waterfall systems may have complex cities with thousands.
The higher up the waterfall their image dwells, the higher their status in the community. The community is led by the highest jamuqa. The rest of the community is very heavily tiered based on popularity, power, and location, and there are constant internal conflicts to see who gets to dwell at which position.
When new jamuqas are formed, they are very aware and have fully formed personalities immediately, but they are small and vulnerable. They are cared for by the lowest ranking jamuqas in the falls until they are ready to live on their own. They then take a place on the lowest part of the falls until they manage to rise.
Unless the jamuqa is directly next to the light as it strikes the waterfall, the refracted light that nourishes them is captured by the jamuqa at the top of the falls and stored, meted out to the others.
The culture of the jamuqa is focused on the plethora of beings within themselves; they seek to find new forms of self-expression. They seek to find ways to express the multitude within themselves that none have ever conceived of before, and thus, art - especially art that combines water and light, the physical parts of their being - is their primary passtime. Their art is renowned the world over, though it is almost never understood fully by anyone but the creator, as it is all deeply personal.
PRO 8 ATH 9 Fluidity 14 STR 8 AWA 11 WIL 8 PRS 11 STH 7
Nedulant
Living matrices of light.- Lifespan: 500 years
- Diet: Energy
- Habitat: Anywhere
- Socioeconomic Status: Oppressed
Pusaran
Souls made manifest.
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Lifespan: 1,000 years
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Diet: Varies
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Habitat: Rainforests
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Socioeconomic Status: Oppressed
Pusarans appear to be swirling vortices of blue and white light with a single eye in the middle. Their vortex bodies have tendrils that whirl around them, and each tendril is covered in markings. They speak only soul-to-soul, and often only with one another.
Pusarans see only inwardly with their central eye, but the tendrils of their vortex bodies have supernatural senses that perceive all souls around them. Anything without a soul is invisible to them.
The soul is the inmortal essence within the living, the ageless animus of all things. Pusarans are beings whose souls are manifest without the shell of a body, mind, or heart; they are sometimes called “living souls” (though all souls are living) for they interact directly with the world without filter, without anything to prevent immediate alteration to the soul. Thus, pusarans constantly react to the experience of existing.
As pusarans experience different things, they change. Every experience leaves a tiny mote of light in them, and this mote may grow and change as they experience new things. Eventually, experiences may amplify into features or powers. Powers vary greatly, but most revolve around interacting with other souls. Most pusarans cannot even communicate with non-pusarans until they gain enough experience with other beings.
Every pusaran comes from the rain forests of Shem, often as slaves or servants, though some come as refugees from strife on the planet. They integrate either into imperial or native cultures in the area they are in.
PRO 7 ATH 7 STR 4 AWA 7 WIL 15 PRS 8 STH 7
GrandGuignol
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