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Random Zenith ponderings
Just putting down some of my worldbuilding ideas for my future story cycle, Zenith.
In the world Zenith takes place in, there are five sentient races, referred to as xenos. They are as follows:
- Humans
Humans are humans. They are populous, resilient, and as a race do not particularly excel in anything, but have an amazingly broad variety of skills. They are not the greatest mages in the world, but they are able to perform limited elemental manipulation, certain healing spells, and a wide variety of simple utility spells.
Their primary language, known as Gener, has more or less overtaken the world; almost all sentients learn how to speak Gener at some point. Some individuals of non-human xenos will converse with each other in Gener, even though it is not their native language. Gener is not innately magical; for humans to cast spells, they rely on the constructed magical language they refer to as Arcanum.
- Vampires
Vampires are actually a genetic subset of humans - we would classify them as Homo sapiens vampyrus, most likely. At some point in their development, they became unable to absorb the ambient form of the ubiquitous life energy known as ley - this was most likely a gradual development. Very possibly, the earliest human ancestors of vampires were noted to have a certain weakness, and were driven away from their settlements. They probably had to inbreed extensively to keep from perishing entirely, which deepened their disability and forced them to adapt in other ways.
While they are unable to absorb ambient ley from their environment, they can still survive on the biological form, which is most efficiently taken from living blood. To this end they have evolved sharp canine teeth, which are shed and regrown several times a year to ensure that the bite is always as quick and efficient as possible; some especially anal vampires continually file their fangs to keep them sharp. The teeth on the lower jaw have developed a sort of groove that the canines fit into smoothly. Vampire mothers produce breast milk for much longer than human mothers, and infant vampires grow their first fangs at about six months of age.
Vampires also have an extremely keen sense of smell, which facilitates their hunting. They rarely get ill, as they have a peculiar hereditary immune system that renders them completely immune to any illness that any of their ancestors have been exposed to. (For this reason, marriages between vampires from different areas of the world are particularly smiled upon. Effective vaccines can also be extracted from vampire blood.) When they do get sick, it is a serious matter as it drains their internal ley reserves quickly, and they are not easily able to replenish them. A bleeding wound of any kind is also a deathly serious matter for a vampire. A vampire who refuses, or is unable, to feed on blood but is otherwise in good health will eventually go into a bloodthirsty berserker state in which they will assault and drain the nearest living creature until they are sated again.
Traditionally, vampires live in close-knit social groups, and are happiest when they have company. Vampires in rural areas typically settle where large animals can be found and fed upon without significantly harming them. They are very aware of and conscientious about their parasitic nature, and for the most part their sense of consideration and courtesy tends to extend into all areas of their lives. Vampires living in cities tend to develop large support networks of willing blood donors, who they generally become very good friends with. They feed from a different donor each week, to allow the others time to recover. An average adult vampire takes a pint of blood per week. When a vampire is completely sated on blood, potent healing enzymes are released into the saliva. The vampire will then lick the bite, causing it to heal very rapidly.
Due to their inability to absorb ambient ley, it is very rare for vampires to become mages. Magic use requires ley, and while it is possible to learn how to extract ley directly from the environment, mages typically start out using internal ley and must train to change their focus.
There is also a type of recreational drug, known as Rush, that greatly speeds up the rate at which the body uses ley. A vampire who takes this drug will enter his berserker state very quickly, and instead of being sated after one attack, will have to continue feeding until the drug wears off. Needless to say, vampires should not take Rush.
Even though they are closely related to humans, vampires have so many very specific and necessary adaptations that they cannot crossbreed with humans. A few offspring have been produced, but they typically have the vampire's disability without the vampire's abilities to deal with it, and die quickly once they are no longer given breast milk.
- Elves/Sylvans
Elves are one of the oldest sentient xenos on the planet. They live almost exclusively in forests, thus why they refer to themselves as "sylvans". They are typically reclusive and suspicious of other xenos, but have developed a sort of friendship with humans. It was the sylvans who originally guided humans and eventually introduced them to magic. They are long-lived compared to humans - the oldest sylvan on record was 214 years old when she died. They are a little taller than humans.
Their language, known simply as Sylvan, is innately magical and is used in their spells. Their magic talents largely overlap with humans', and many of the basic spells that apprentice human mages learn were originally written in Sylvan.
Sylvans tend to have a high aptitude for architecture and engineering, surprisingly, and sylvan architects are in high demand in most major cities. Their own cities, with the advent of better building technology and materials, have by and large evolved into glittering organic metropolises designed to exist in harmony with the forests they are built in. It should surprise nobody to learn that sylvans, along with dragons, are keenly concerned about environmental preservation.
The sylvans' relationship with the sabanei is rocky at best. While the major cities frown on the practice, many smaller and more remote settlements are known to take sabanei as slaves, regarding them as subsentient creatures. Even in the larger cities, sylvans have little regard for sabanei.
- Dragons
Dragons only just edge out the sylvans for the title of oldest sentient xeno. Up until recently they have lived exclusively in remote mountain areas, canyons, and cliffsides. They are omnivorous, and while they have no natural predators they are thick-skinned and scaled to protect them in their harsh habitats. They are increasingly being edged out of these areas by human settlement, however; in response, some have fled to still harsher locations, others have stuck to their guns and stayed in their homes, and still others have moved into the cities.
Their language, Draask, is also innately magical, and unpronounceable by non-dragons - though non-dragons can learn to understand it and interpret. Their magic is limited and unique; they are able to transfigure objects to a limited extent, and to completely transform their own bodies. Their first interaction with other sentients were with sylvans, and their anthropoid forms were based on sylvans. They are distinguishible from sylvans by their slightly smaller ears and slightly greater height.
Dragons in their anthropoid forms can, surprisingly, crossbreed with sylvans and humans. The resulting offspring will not be a hybrid, though - it will be either completely human/sylvan, or what dragons refer to as a "skink".
Skinks are dragons born in their anthropoid form. Genetically and in all other respects, they are draconic. They, like all dragons, have the potential to use their xeno's magic. However, because the language tied to draconic magic is Draask, and the anthropoid mouth cannot pronounce the sounds needed to speak Draask, they cannot perform magic and cannot change form. They are typically shunned by dragon society, and tend to feel lost and isolated; they know they are "supposed" to have a dragon form, and often feel a keen longing to be able to take one. Skinks are born when dragons crossbreed with other species, or when they breed with each other in their anthropoid forms. "Skink" is a derogatory term more than anything, but there isn't really another term to describe them. The term "werdraak" (pronounced WURR-drahk) has been put forth, but it has been very recently coined and hasn't caught on yet.
- Sabanei
Sabanei are the youngest sentient xeno. They were living in fairly primitive tribal societies on the savannas when human explorers (at a stage of cultural development equivalent to our mid-1800's) first found them. Their language, Eisa, has no magical properties; they are, however, a highly spiritual people and their shamans do seem to have a strange predilection for psionic abilities. Copper was coveted and considered sacred by the early tribes, and even now sabanei generally wear copper above any other metal.
When they first encountered humans, they were not aware of other xenos and referred to themselves simply as Ei, or "the people". When they eventually heard the land they lived on described as "savanna", they likened it to their word "saban" - referring to their shamanic ritual drums, literally "the drums that speak" - and found it fitting enough to start calling themselves sabanei, "people of the savanna/ritual drums".
Due to their outward resemblance to sylvans, they are often incorrectly called 'savannan elves'. However, they share very different ancestors; they are in fact descended from felinoids, despite being almost entirely anthropoid in appearance. They have vividly colored eyes with slit pupils, mobile expressive ears that are larger than sylvan's ears, vestigial tails and fangs, and four mammaries. Females' breasts are typically very flat when they are not nursing offspring, and even then are comparatively small. Sabanei typically give birth to twins, with single children and triplets being rare. Like cats, they are carnivorous.
- There is another type of sentient being; these are known as Wild Spirits. It is not known how or if they reproduce; they seem to be sentient embodiments of magical energy, with an unlimited command of magic. They have a strong sense of honor, and if a mage can outwit or otherwise defeat them in a fair confrontation, they will pledge themselves to the service of that mage.
Ley is life energy. It is found in two forms; ambient and biological. Ambient ley exists everywhere - in the soil, plants, rocks, air, and water. Most species draw the ley required for life from their surroundings, where it is converted to biological ley. As biological ley is used up by the body, it leaks out into the atmosphere where is is recharged as ambient ley. Vampires are the only species that cannot absorb ambient ley.
The body is very efficient at using biological ley, but some of it inevitably leaks out. Vampires are able to absorb this leakage, which seems to explain why they're so much happier when they are in close proximity to others. In vampire settlements, they constantly pick up and redistribute each other's leakage, making it possible for them to take less blood less often.
In the world Zenith takes place in, there are five sentient races, referred to as xenos. They are as follows:
- Humans
Humans are humans. They are populous, resilient, and as a race do not particularly excel in anything, but have an amazingly broad variety of skills. They are not the greatest mages in the world, but they are able to perform limited elemental manipulation, certain healing spells, and a wide variety of simple utility spells.
Their primary language, known as Gener, has more or less overtaken the world; almost all sentients learn how to speak Gener at some point. Some individuals of non-human xenos will converse with each other in Gener, even though it is not their native language. Gener is not innately magical; for humans to cast spells, they rely on the constructed magical language they refer to as Arcanum.
- Vampires
Vampires are actually a genetic subset of humans - we would classify them as Homo sapiens vampyrus, most likely. At some point in their development, they became unable to absorb the ambient form of the ubiquitous life energy known as ley - this was most likely a gradual development. Very possibly, the earliest human ancestors of vampires were noted to have a certain weakness, and were driven away from their settlements. They probably had to inbreed extensively to keep from perishing entirely, which deepened their disability and forced them to adapt in other ways.
While they are unable to absorb ambient ley from their environment, they can still survive on the biological form, which is most efficiently taken from living blood. To this end they have evolved sharp canine teeth, which are shed and regrown several times a year to ensure that the bite is always as quick and efficient as possible; some especially anal vampires continually file their fangs to keep them sharp. The teeth on the lower jaw have developed a sort of groove that the canines fit into smoothly. Vampire mothers produce breast milk for much longer than human mothers, and infant vampires grow their first fangs at about six months of age.
Vampires also have an extremely keen sense of smell, which facilitates their hunting. They rarely get ill, as they have a peculiar hereditary immune system that renders them completely immune to any illness that any of their ancestors have been exposed to. (For this reason, marriages between vampires from different areas of the world are particularly smiled upon. Effective vaccines can also be extracted from vampire blood.) When they do get sick, it is a serious matter as it drains their internal ley reserves quickly, and they are not easily able to replenish them. A bleeding wound of any kind is also a deathly serious matter for a vampire. A vampire who refuses, or is unable, to feed on blood but is otherwise in good health will eventually go into a bloodthirsty berserker state in which they will assault and drain the nearest living creature until they are sated again.
Traditionally, vampires live in close-knit social groups, and are happiest when they have company. Vampires in rural areas typically settle where large animals can be found and fed upon without significantly harming them. They are very aware of and conscientious about their parasitic nature, and for the most part their sense of consideration and courtesy tends to extend into all areas of their lives. Vampires living in cities tend to develop large support networks of willing blood donors, who they generally become very good friends with. They feed from a different donor each week, to allow the others time to recover. An average adult vampire takes a pint of blood per week. When a vampire is completely sated on blood, potent healing enzymes are released into the saliva. The vampire will then lick the bite, causing it to heal very rapidly.
Due to their inability to absorb ambient ley, it is very rare for vampires to become mages. Magic use requires ley, and while it is possible to learn how to extract ley directly from the environment, mages typically start out using internal ley and must train to change their focus.
There is also a type of recreational drug, known as Rush, that greatly speeds up the rate at which the body uses ley. A vampire who takes this drug will enter his berserker state very quickly, and instead of being sated after one attack, will have to continue feeding until the drug wears off. Needless to say, vampires should not take Rush.
Even though they are closely related to humans, vampires have so many very specific and necessary adaptations that they cannot crossbreed with humans. A few offspring have been produced, but they typically have the vampire's disability without the vampire's abilities to deal with it, and die quickly once they are no longer given breast milk.
- Elves/Sylvans
Elves are one of the oldest sentient xenos on the planet. They live almost exclusively in forests, thus why they refer to themselves as "sylvans". They are typically reclusive and suspicious of other xenos, but have developed a sort of friendship with humans. It was the sylvans who originally guided humans and eventually introduced them to magic. They are long-lived compared to humans - the oldest sylvan on record was 214 years old when she died. They are a little taller than humans.
Their language, known simply as Sylvan, is innately magical and is used in their spells. Their magic talents largely overlap with humans', and many of the basic spells that apprentice human mages learn were originally written in Sylvan.
Sylvans tend to have a high aptitude for architecture and engineering, surprisingly, and sylvan architects are in high demand in most major cities. Their own cities, with the advent of better building technology and materials, have by and large evolved into glittering organic metropolises designed to exist in harmony with the forests they are built in. It should surprise nobody to learn that sylvans, along with dragons, are keenly concerned about environmental preservation.
The sylvans' relationship with the sabanei is rocky at best. While the major cities frown on the practice, many smaller and more remote settlements are known to take sabanei as slaves, regarding them as subsentient creatures. Even in the larger cities, sylvans have little regard for sabanei.
- Dragons
Dragons only just edge out the sylvans for the title of oldest sentient xeno. Up until recently they have lived exclusively in remote mountain areas, canyons, and cliffsides. They are omnivorous, and while they have no natural predators they are thick-skinned and scaled to protect them in their harsh habitats. They are increasingly being edged out of these areas by human settlement, however; in response, some have fled to still harsher locations, others have stuck to their guns and stayed in their homes, and still others have moved into the cities.
Their language, Draask, is also innately magical, and unpronounceable by non-dragons - though non-dragons can learn to understand it and interpret. Their magic is limited and unique; they are able to transfigure objects to a limited extent, and to completely transform their own bodies. Their first interaction with other sentients were with sylvans, and their anthropoid forms were based on sylvans. They are distinguishible from sylvans by their slightly smaller ears and slightly greater height.
Dragons in their anthropoid forms can, surprisingly, crossbreed with sylvans and humans. The resulting offspring will not be a hybrid, though - it will be either completely human/sylvan, or what dragons refer to as a "skink".
Skinks are dragons born in their anthropoid form. Genetically and in all other respects, they are draconic. They, like all dragons, have the potential to use their xeno's magic. However, because the language tied to draconic magic is Draask, and the anthropoid mouth cannot pronounce the sounds needed to speak Draask, they cannot perform magic and cannot change form. They are typically shunned by dragon society, and tend to feel lost and isolated; they know they are "supposed" to have a dragon form, and often feel a keen longing to be able to take one. Skinks are born when dragons crossbreed with other species, or when they breed with each other in their anthropoid forms. "Skink" is a derogatory term more than anything, but there isn't really another term to describe them. The term "werdraak" (pronounced WURR-drahk) has been put forth, but it has been very recently coined and hasn't caught on yet.
- Sabanei
Sabanei are the youngest sentient xeno. They were living in fairly primitive tribal societies on the savannas when human explorers (at a stage of cultural development equivalent to our mid-1800's) first found them. Their language, Eisa, has no magical properties; they are, however, a highly spiritual people and their shamans do seem to have a strange predilection for psionic abilities. Copper was coveted and considered sacred by the early tribes, and even now sabanei generally wear copper above any other metal.
When they first encountered humans, they were not aware of other xenos and referred to themselves simply as Ei, or "the people". When they eventually heard the land they lived on described as "savanna", they likened it to their word "saban" - referring to their shamanic ritual drums, literally "the drums that speak" - and found it fitting enough to start calling themselves sabanei, "people of the savanna/ritual drums".
Due to their outward resemblance to sylvans, they are often incorrectly called 'savannan elves'. However, they share very different ancestors; they are in fact descended from felinoids, despite being almost entirely anthropoid in appearance. They have vividly colored eyes with slit pupils, mobile expressive ears that are larger than sylvan's ears, vestigial tails and fangs, and four mammaries. Females' breasts are typically very flat when they are not nursing offspring, and even then are comparatively small. Sabanei typically give birth to twins, with single children and triplets being rare. Like cats, they are carnivorous.
- There is another type of sentient being; these are known as Wild Spirits. It is not known how or if they reproduce; they seem to be sentient embodiments of magical energy, with an unlimited command of magic. They have a strong sense of honor, and if a mage can outwit or otherwise defeat them in a fair confrontation, they will pledge themselves to the service of that mage.
Ley is life energy. It is found in two forms; ambient and biological. Ambient ley exists everywhere - in the soil, plants, rocks, air, and water. Most species draw the ley required for life from their surroundings, where it is converted to biological ley. As biological ley is used up by the body, it leaks out into the atmosphere where is is recharged as ambient ley. Vampires are the only species that cannot absorb ambient ley.
The body is very efficient at using biological ley, but some of it inevitably leaks out. Vampires are able to absorb this leakage, which seems to explain why they're so much happier when they are in close proximity to others. In vampire settlements, they constantly pick up and redistribute each other's leakage, making it possible for them to take less blood less often.
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