- 367
- #2
Humans [Human]
Physical
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Humans are … humans. Tall, short, or average, lean or fat, humans are for all intents and purposes herein, Earthian humans, ranging from 16 to 120 years old or beyond.___________________
Ahem.
Humans are glorified, bipedal apes who lost all their fur and got a big brain. This made them exceptionally successful on their home planet.
They have extremely adaptable and variable bodies as well, with common heights ranging from 4.5 to 6.5 feet, with outliers even beyond these extreme differences, it is rightly said humans have a wide array of sizes. Likewise, their musculature varies in similar extremes, with their forms capable of bearing hundreds of pounds of muscle or existing with barely enough to move their bones.
Humans are also exceptionally versatile in diet, bearing omnivorous dentation and being capable of eating not only both plant and animal based diets, but also ingesting several substances otherwise considerable as toxic to many other species, such as cocoa, caffeine, capsaicin, and alcohol.
… they're also annoying little buggers capable of existing in the entire temperature range of their planet, with help from their technological prowess.
Despite all this humans have 0 natural shape-shifting ability and are typically looked down upon by Endless creatures because of it … at least at first.
Mental
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Humans continue to be intelligent, adaptable, and social creatures with a wide array of mental oddities and disabilities present in their species. They also continue to have an extremely heavy reliance on technology – as phones, cars, computers, and all modern conveniences are present.___________________
Unlike most if not all of the Endless races, humans, as a whole, are extremely receptive to Providences. While their bodies are not mutable, their minds and their life forces are, leaving them capable of resonating with multiple Providences as they will, bearing time and effort to do so. This reason alone, however, is also why they’re such a good food source for those races from beyond.
Reproduction
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Birds and bees.___________________
For the purposes of our lore, characters under sixteen years of age are disallowed, rendering human reproduction irrelevant beyond sexual pleasure.
Culture
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Please regard the section on Earth for a gist of their home.___________________
- 1509
- #3
Espers [Esper]
Physical
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Espers have no physical form and are essentially psychic "ghosts," though they're not actually ghosts of anything. It is speculated and generally accepted that they're simply a different form of life; some researchers believe they may have come into existence when the Earth portals opened from within the Void, as a residual effect of mixing the physical reality of Earth’s universe with the more mutable, energy-based reality of Endless.___________________
Any “challenging” theory bases itself off the notion that espers are definitely not an Endless race. This hypothesis does have an ounce of merit, as espers exist on the same sort of space wavelength, or harmonic if the term is preferred, as human emotions and mental energy, all while being different enough to be distinct and sapient in their own right.
To a purely physical being, an esper might seem like an unseen presence; someone watching one in an empty room, for example, or the sensation of a person standing behind one’s back when nothing is there in the reflection of a mirror. The hair-raising feeling of being followed, however … just joking. All of these could likely be attributed to an esper, not a sudden onslaught of psychosis – or could they?
Digressing.
To an Endless being, an esper is a very real, very tangible storm of energy, sensate even if not entirely 'there'. In the same way alliosa can directly consume emotional output or sanjaru might devour life energy, their unique signature is perceivable and distinct in that strange space, and it is there they are most often described as being one cloud-like entity.
Espers themselves may, if they so choose as some have, project imagery of their choice as a temporary manifestation, in either location. This form is not actually corporeal, but those the esper is choosing to project it to will sense it as such. They may, if they choose, project to anywhere from one individual to an entire crowd, all at one time; specifically, they may project to those they intend to target and only those – no one else may interact with this projection, and it is not all encompassing.
As one might imagine, this exclusive ability has lead to more than one odd scenario as both endless and mortal are affected differently, meaning what one may see as a terrifying killer or a beautiful unicorn, another might witness as nothing more than a cloud, or even nothing at all.
Fortunately, or not, depending on what one might think of these unique creatures, espers also have the ability to concentrate their essence into non-living objects exclusively while on Earth, essentially allowing them to possess it. The degree of this ability seems to vary between espers, with some being only able to move a few pebbles or act as a soft breeze, while others have been known to be capable of possessing things as large as a human corpse – much to the distress of many of the race.
Particularly high-energy espers may even be able to crystallize their essence into a physical form. This creates a permanent reservoir of themselves in much the same way one might look upon a lich’s phylactery, allowing recovery from powerful psychic attacks or relentless assault. This understandably takes a great deal of energy, leaving the esper weakened and sometimes near-death for a period of time.
For diet, it appears espers feed on excess energies of any types, and are often fond of feeding on the races of the Endless as they are more or less pure energy condensed into a conceivable form. Even grimmalkin in all their curiosity are leery of being near these strange creatures, as while an esper can likewise be absorbed, they very often tend to be quite difficult to corner or manipulate.
More often than not espers prefer being benevolent rather than hostile, and as such they prefer to siphon off whatever strikes their fancy at the time. Indeed, many of them live among humans unknown and simply ‘vacuum up’ excess emotions and life energies, though some espers have even contrived how to survive on the electrical and thermal, blurring the line even more between the so-called spiritual and physical.
Mental
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Despite their very nature espers aren't some sort of preposterous 'ascended' race. Instead, as far as their mentality goes, one might choose to consider them akin to the creative human, whether logician or enduring artist. In fact, often times will they project themselves stealthily in order to join human societies. Reasons are particular to the esper themselves, but experimentation or simple contact have both been offered in explanation.___________________
That being said, it would not be the first time one complained about the burdensome task of projecting one’s self to everyone in a room! Taking such a notion into consideration, they typically prefer to be on the ‘shier’ or more ‘quarrelsome’ end of relationships, opting to keep only a handful of friends total.
Espers also typically enjoy the same forms of entertainment and media humans do, as much of their world is shared. Remembering they are an exceptionally young race, even the oldest of their kind remember technology and humanity going hand in hand, as well as always being there.
Most espers willingly focus themselves into a more human-like level of sensory interaction in order to enjoy the technology and entertainment available to them, but all are capable of a more extensive range of senses. Their innate perception is based on physical aspects that can reach their energy core. For example, what they can see is based on all forms of light that pass through their location, and what they can hear is based on all vibration which reach the same.
These fine senses are entirely able to be adjusted manually, that is to focus on what ‘level’ of sense they wish to have at that moment, but, much like a fleshly being might, they are still subject to being mentally overwhelmed. For this reason, most ‘fine tune’ their abilities to a range that falls more in line with a human’s, unless, of course, their surroundings call for more.
Understandably, espers struggle with certain physical concepts. Many of them, particularly those who enjoy interacting with humans, will play at adopting certain identities in order to fit in; typically they do give a valiant attempt to understand the raw concepts of race, gender, or other physical traits, but remember in one’s dealings that these constructs are quite difficult for most espers, as they simply don't share these human traits themselves.
This extends to other, more concrete issues such as disability and physical limitations. While espers understand the concept of reaching a limit natively, not being able to walk or see is utterly alien to a creature that senses its environment on a pure level of existence and likewise moves through it via pure force of will.
Reproduction
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Currently completely unknown, as new esper seem to simply appear from nothing over time.___________________
Culture
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One may liken an esper’s overall culture to that of any human’s, as often they choose to integrate into the same. However, espers are extremely potent and extremely dangerous Providence users.___________________
As one might suspect, as beings of pure energy they have even more control over their harmonics than humans do, allowing them to master multiple ones as well. These capabilities are a double edged sword, however, as any esper utilizing their skills must be extremely cautious not to over or under compensate with their adjustments.
Espers essentially have what can be affectionately referred to as accidental wild magic. They are quite capable of honing their skills with a Providence in a traditional or expected way, but any single thing, no matter how insignificant one may consider a spell or charm, could cause them to disrupt their harmonics, in turn effectively causing the intention to go haywire.
As a racial rule due to this, espers may not be masters of Creation. Their energies are simply too disruptive to the process of forging existence itself, and their machinations have been proven to be entirely unstable, sometimes to the point of destroying their creator. They may try, of course, as nothing expressly prohibits them, but the resulting spatial distortions, immediately dissolving creatures, and general failure have made this accepted as a general rule.
Espers also suffer the same danger as the Endless races that they may overwrite their existence, though in a slightly different way. Any esper focusing too much energy into a particular spell may accidentally harmonize their entire being into that Providence, effectively merging with it and losing their identity – themselves.
While this irregularly happens to an Endless after long amounts of practice, and often insanity or power lust, as they are able to feel how 'corrupted' their essence is by a providence, it can and has happened completely accidentally for espers. Rather sadly, it is in fact far more common an incident for novice of the race, as they are less experienced in controlling only a part of their overall energy and often over-focus.