Unaligned Insinsi

Mystic beings connected to a specific unaligned discipline.

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Cephalan

Science-driven mystics.

• Lifespan : 1,000 years
• Diet: Nutritionally designed fare
• Habitat: Arctic tundra
• Socioeconomic Status: Privileged oppressed

Cephalans appear to be anthropomorphic beings with high foreheads and a variety of color skin hues (bottle green, dark grey, dull blue, or light violet). They have fingers that are proportionately longer than one might expect from the size of their hands. They have hair on the fringes of their heads but not on top.

Cephalans can hyperfocus on something and sense its molecular structure without seeing it. This innate sense is accessed by meditating on a thing for anywhere from 6.023 minutes to 6,023 minutes, depending on the size and molecular makeup of the object. Though they can do this from any age, they must be taught how to use the sense, and then they must be taught what they are sensing means. They do not have an innate understanding of molecular physics, chemistry, or periodic elements. Thus, they can see shapes and forms, but only understand them as they learn.

Cephalans are attuned to scientific experimentation because they have developed a special, circumstantial resistance - the inherent paradoxical energy of possibility within them ignites and protects them when they engage in earnest experimentation with the intent to learn something - and only with that intent. In other words, any experiment that is done with intent to benefit personally or to solve some tangential problem, they will not be protected. Only pure experimentation will work.

Most cephalans in the imperial lands have come seeking freedom for their experiments, and thus, they try to assimilate into local culture to curry favor from the ruling elites. They are viewed as eccentric outsiders, and thus, they face discrimination unless they prove themselves useful to the rulers of the empire. Many are employed in universities, used for their scientific focus, being exploited. Others use their knowledge to rise in the ranks, become wealthy, and fully assimilated. Others still are outright enslaved.

Most cephalans who have not assimilated still naively believe in a meritocracy and think the imperial lands are one. They have a belief in scientific purity, and as long as that is met, they don't care what else happens. Like in their homelands, even in the imperial lands, each individual cephalan has a preference for a specific kind of science.

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

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Gondal

Subterranean mystics who absorb precious metals.

• Lifespan : 1,000 years
• Diet: Minerals and metals
• Habitat: Underground
• Socioeconomic Status: Privileged oppressed

Gondals appear to be anthropomorphic beings with high foreheads and a variety of color skin hues (golden, shimmering diamond amidst a sea of black, silver, iron, ruby and sapphire). They have fingers that are proportionately longer than one might expect from the size of their hands. They have hair on the fringes of their heads but not on top.

Gondals can see in low light and are resistant to both higher temperatures and lower temperatures.

Gondals can phase through solid matter such as stone and metal (but not living matter). y phasing through stone, gondals accumulate trace amounts of metals. These are converted in their veins into pure mashoaab, which allows them to absorb more metals as they phase through stone. As they accumulate, they must expel the excess mashoaab, which they do either by releasing it into the stone (by touching with their hands) or into other gondals (usually children who cannot yet feed themselves or the sick, disabled, or elderly) through touching their heads. Their capacity to accumulate increases as they age, and around the age of 120, assuming they are healthy and have had an average amount of accumulation over the course of their life, they can keep what they accumulate no matter what. At this stage, sharing their accumulated energies is no longer compulsory and they can hoard if they choose. Most choose to share, but at a price.

Gondals come to the imperial lands from the subterranean realm, usually as traders, merchants, and business owners seeking new opportunities. They often engage with and assimilate into the ruling class of imperial lands if they come with money; if they come without money, they are easily exploited and taken advantage of, believing as they do in a fairness to trade that doesn't exist in the empire. The contracts they live by in their homelands mean very little in the imperial lands, but they often come thinking this is the way of things everywhere.

Some gondals are from nations that are less pure in their contractual beliefs, and therefore, more willing to engage in the more exploitative, violent, and ruthless commerce of the imperial lands. These assimilate much better and often already use some of the powers commonly used in the empires.

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

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Managpanunot

Insinsi who embody logic.

• Lifespan : 1,000 years

• Diet: Fish-heavy mortal fare

• Habitat: Tropical rainforests

• Socioeconomic Status: Privileged oppressed

They appear to be anthropomorphic beings with high foreheads and a variety of color skin hues (greyish blue, greyish green, or brownish purple). They have fingers that are proportionately longer than one might expect from the size of their hands. They have hair on the fringes of their heads but not on top.

Managpanunots have muted their emotions to the point that they generate almost no emotional resonance and are hard to detect via empathy.

Managpanunots have psionic powers relating only to data collection and storage:

• Mind-reading: scanning the conscious thoughts or subconscious thoughts of another.
• Scanning: scanning an area for any conscious minds without reading them.
• Transference: transferring information (data, memories, or skills) from one mind to another.
• Copying: copying the data, memories, or skills of another to oneself.

The original managpanunots formed a community devoted to gathering information locally. This quickly expanded into all forms of investigation and study, creating a school to preserve their quest for all information, and developing psionic powers to help them expand their minds to store the data. Over the ages, they developed a culture that mixed local customs with their own purpose. At the core of their culture is the collection of information. They use every method they possibly can to gather information, ranging from scientific and esoteric experimentation to journalistic investigation to research and collaboration. They have schools, which are the heart of their communities, built on low elevated platforms, often with thatch ceilings.

Everything they do is to improve their collective metaphysical and mental capacity. They have many practices they believe help with this. For example, when one of them dies, their skull is preserved and used as part of the base of a building, for it is believed this allows the knowledge of the dead to join the knowledge of the living. They eschew drink or inebriants of any kind. They have special dances taken from the local culture which they engage in because they believe they improve their capacity for knowledge. The former they associate with rivers, the latter with pots. They also wear headwraps called bangal.

They keep massive libraries of what is mostly non-fiction information, but they style with which they record it includes a great deal of religious framing. They write of the rivers that are memories and knowledge; they write of which soul information comes from or is stored in. They write about the souls of objects. But in the midst of this framing, unbelievable amounts of information is kept. All of their art is like this - spiritual and full of data. Songs, paintings, drawings, and ceramics are common.

In the imperial lands, they are often there are professors or scholars, seeking new information.

PRO 7 ATH 7 STR 7 AWA 17 WIL 11 PRS 7 STH 8