Genta Candidates, Part 1

In yet another beautiful display of creativity, the Dreaming Door community has dreamed up several new forms for life to take on Newhome. With its countless unique ecosystems bounded by the Melt, the possibilities are endless!

As with last time, when all of the candidates have been revealed, two polls will be set up and you, the patrons, will choose which of these will be featured as a minor species in the world of Hierophant. They will be portrayed, mentioned and featured visually at least once in the game and be the subject of at least one event. While they are not likely to play a strong role in the overarching plot, they may factor into the existing fabric of interspecies relations in some interesting ways.

After reading each one over twice, a brief synopsis of each potential species has been prepared, and will be released piecemeal over the next week. Some minor elements may have been changed to avoid conflicts with already-existing species and ideas, but every effort has been made to preserve the spirit of each submission. Note also that each species may or may not have a Hierophant, a Draak-Kin associated with it and ruling over it in some sense, at the time that Hierophant takes place, hundreds of years after the Starfall.

Today, I give you our first three candidates. The Luxa, to whom most of the world looks for their taxonomical needs, call them the Fyrsa, the Rofsa, and the Chaka, but they call themselves the Phyrsen, the Lofs'vagor, and the Ch'akakyr.

Candidate 1: The Phyrsen (Fyrsa)

Any being encountering the Phyrsen would assume that they had encountered not one species, but several living in complex symbiosis. In fact, despite being hugely morphologically diverse, all Phyrsen share a common genetic base code, including the Scout-class Phyrsen who glide along on six wings, the Farmer-class Phyrsen who use their sickle-like appendages to harvest food for the community, the Engineer-class Phyrsen who build structures and terraform the land, and more.

In its base form, a Phyrsen vaguely resembles a large, fleshy horseshoe crab: a flat, circular body tapering to a long, trailing tail. It uses its twelve foot-ribs to move along solid ground, but its strong tail is more frequently used for locomotion in the mercury marshes of their native island. Its body is covered with thick overlapping flaps of skin concealing hidden features; some cover eyes, which they have on both sides of their bodies, while others can be extended for short-distance gliding and improved underwater movement.

This base form is, however, temporary. At the onset of adolescence, a Phyrsen begins to transform into one of several more advanced forms, each of which serves a role in their society. It is unclear whether or not the individual consciously decides which form to take, but once the transformation begins, it is permanent, locking them into a particular role. While these roles or “classes” differ greatly, all adult Phyrsen can communicate with each other through sounds generated by rubbing the limbs together and can breed with any other Phyrsen, regardless of class. Interestingly, they seem to actively favor reproducing with classes other than their own, and no class is seen as intrinsically superior to the others, with community leaders originating from any and all. Property, food, and offspring are all considered to be communal. Extreme omnivores, they can digest anything from plants to animal bones.

Though the Luxa have made recent progress in decoding the Phyrsen language and have begun diplomatic relations with them, much remains to be discovered when it comes to this highly metamorphic species.

Candidate 2: The Lofs'vagor (Rofsa)

Deep in the warm tropics lies a unique island. Despite its latitude, the expanse of the land is constantly blasted by fierce winter storms which spring up seemingly from nowhere and can rage unpredictably, turning water to ice and freezing plants over in minutes as the temperature drops precipitously. Puce clouds can crowd a clear amethyst sky right before one’s eyes, and what was a sunny field of paintbrush flowers one day might be the eye of a frost tornado the very next. Life, however, is tenacious, and even on this island of extremes a Genta species has arisen.

Calling themselves the Lofs’vagor, The People of the Hunt, these thick-furred carnivores follow the migrations of the herds of megafauna as they attempt to escape the icy weather. Four-limbed, with tall triangular ears, lupine muzzles, and long tails which sweep away their tracks behind them in the snow or sand, they stand bipedally at about two meters tall. Their fur can be any shade of grey, from nearly white to nearly black, and a few rare individuals are crimson. They wear cloaks made of the hides of their prey for heat conservation and to mask their scent while hunting, but prefer to decorate their bodies with blood and bones, including the skulls of their own ancestors and fallen family members, at other times.

With the island’s freak temperature drops and sudden storms preventing long-term settlement, the Lofs’vagor are expert nomads, erecting temporary shelters quickly. Differing tribes observe various unique traditions, but the Blothlaig, the ceremonial dividing of the prey after a kill, is central to all, and everything about a Lofs’vagor from its appearance to its genetics to its behavior plays a role in how resources are shared. Martial ability… that is, the ability to defeat both others of their own species and their large, strong prey… is highly prized, and most adult Lofs’vagor rightly consider themselves expert combatants. Though their culture often reflects the ruthless environment, with little concern for concepts like justice or equality, their tribes and families are very tight-knit and provide strong social support, a steady warmth amid the cold. Those who commit serious crimes or are too disruptive may be banished, a fate which usually brings death by cold and starvation fairly quickly, though redemption through blood and sacrifice is possible.

Luxa research teams have had difficulty establishing relations with the Lofs’vagor (which the Luxa call the Rofsa). Miscommunications and physical attacks have been many, but certain tribes have begun trading with both the Luxa and, more recently, the Tapa, and some seem to be seeking a way off of their native island, despite the dishonor and state of permanent exile this would entail by tribal law.

Candidate 3: The Ch'akakyr (Chaka)

The Ch’akakyr (meaning Those Who Weave What Shall Be) are a small Genta civilization inhabiting the temperate island globally known as Chakalo and known to them as Hisaya, the Deep Forest. Less massive than the Tapa but bigger than the Kaga, they have six limbs and blunt-muzzled faces similar to an Earth iguana, but are covered in luxurious, well-tended fur of medium to long length. This fur tends to be colored somewhere in the red spectrum, ranging from dark burgundy to very light red, or even pink in some cases. They walk on their rear four legs in a slightly stilted gait like the careful climbing of a chameleon, and all of their limbs end in nine dexterous digits.

Long ago, the Chaka were slow and steady omnivores, crawling across the island in loose family groups and dining on tubers, sugarleaf, freshwater algae (their island is rife with rivers and lakes, and Chaka tend to be excellent swimmers) and insects, including the Glitterwing, a dog-sized insect whose larvae were both plentiful and delicious.

The Glitterwings were to play a large role in the history of the developing Chaka civilization. The insects’ wings, a dazzling rainbow of color at all times, would glow with a beautiful radiance immediately before each electromagnetic Pulse, and they would dance in the sky in tens of thousands just before each one. This stimulated awe and the beginnings of a deep aesthetic sense in the Chaka, who practically worshipped the Glitterwings as a source of sustenance, order, and beauty. Though the adults were sacred and left alone, they were considered haute cuisine at any point in their lives before that, and eventually someone tried boiling a Glitterwing cocoon and discovered yet another gift: silk.

Chaka civilization then began in earnest. Silkweaving became a common skill among all Chaka, with everything from shelters to accessories and even weapons made out of silk. Trade and language flourished. The silk, being the creations of the semi-divine Glitterwings, was believed to have some of their oracular abilities; just as the Glitterwings were somehow able to predict when the Pulse was about to occur despite having no clear way to sense that, tapestries woven from their silk were thought to have prophetic properties. One particularly talented weaver, under the influence of a very powerful and highly secret local hallucinogen used in certain ancient rituals, wove an immense tapestry which was said to contain the secrets of the future within it. Though the weaver died of poisoning from the drug  just before finishing the work, the Chaka were in awe of its incredible complexity and the spiritual implications of what it foretold. One of its first prophecies… that the Glitterwings would soon leave them forever… proved true, as a deadly disease destroyed the entire Glitterwing population very soon after. This tapestry became the central “sacred text” of the Chaka, and they endlessly debate the meaning of its prophecies, but all hold them to be, in some sense, true.

Today, Chaka society is dominated by the Fateweavers, talented artisans of silk who also have access to the dangerous shamanic substance which inspired the first. Their weavings are commissioned as answers to every question ranging from military matters to marriage disputes, and their verdicts, according to the Chaka at least, have never once been wrong. A strange combination of artist, magician, and judge, the Fateweavers guide the Chaka, and are in turn guided by the mysterious drug (of which very little is publically known, for a wide variety of reasons) and (they claim) the spirits of the departed Glitterwings.

It was not the Luxa but the Tapa who first encountered the Chaka. The two species quickly established peaceful relations, both fascinated by the arts and crafts of the other, and while most choose to remain on their home island, more than a few weaving studios, fortune-telling establishments, and drug dens in Tapalo are run by Chaka. They have a reputation for being the most superstitious of all known Genta, reading signs and portents in practically everything they see and giving huge credence to even the most dubious of foretellings, but their moderately gentle nature and fantastic weaving-work have made them at least tolerated on many other islands since the Opening.

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Feel free to let your opinions be known in the comments, but much, much more will be coming in the next few days, so keep an open mind!

-L