| The Species | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Nov 30 2016, 06:45 PM (4 Views) | |
| ♠ Tim | Nov 30 2016, 06:45 PM Post #1 |
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Shadowhunters Descensus facilis Averno est, “ The legend of the origin of Shadowhunters is that they were created more than a thousand years ago, when humans were being overrun by demon invasions from the other worlds. A warlock summoned the Angel Raziel, who mixed some of his own blood with the blood of men in a cup, and gave it to those men to drink. Those who drank the Angel's blood became Shadowhunters, as did their children and their children's children. ” –Hodge Starkweather, City of Bones Shadowhunters, also known as Nephilim, are a secretive race of beings who are humans born with angelic blood. They are the appointed warriors on Earth of the Angel Raziel. They are appointed specifically to control and preside over the Shadow World, as well as over the demons and Downworlders who inhabit it. They have fought the demonic forces valiantly for well over the span of a thousand years, creating their own culture and civilization within human society. Their mandate is to keep the peace in the Shadow World and keep it hidden from the mundane world while protecting the inhabitants of both worlds. Despite their ancestry, Shadowhunters are mortal and therefore vulnerable to old age and death; however, their angelic blood endows them with special abilities that allow them to achieve feats beyond humanly possible through the application of angelic runes. Vampires “ It is how we are made. We are drained, blooded, and buried. When he digs his own way out of a grave, that is when a vampire is born. ” –Raphael Santiago, City of Ashes Vampires, also known as the Children of the Night, are a species of Downworlders. Along with werewolves, vampires are humans infected with a demon disease. However, unlike the former, vampires are considered "undead"; that is, their bodies are no longer alive in the sense that living humans' are. Their undeparted human souls reside within their own animated corpses, kept intact and animated by the demon disease and energy. Description Vampires generally tend to look pale, sallow, and thin, as though weakened by malnourishment or disease. Contrary to this semblance of death, their blood shimmers a bright red, brighter than the blood of humans; they even shed blood instead of tears when they cry. Being reanimated corpses, vampires do not have a heartbeat, nor do they need to breathe, although they are able to inhale oxygen in order to utilize their heightened sense of smell, to pass as human, or to blow on something. Their lack of breath makes them impervious to such things as asphyxiation, drowning, or gases. A vampire and a sire also have some sort of connection. Particularly, upon the death of one's sire, a vampire will experience a momentary jolt of pain, presumably feeling the same pain their sire felt at death. Additionally, the dirt of the grave in which a vampire was buried holds special properties for that vampire. He or she can tell, for instance, if that grave has been disturbed or is being trod upon or if dirt from that grave is removed from its site. Vampires have made use of this power to communicate simple messages over long distances—for instance, breaking a container of a vampire's grave dirt could be used to alert and summon that particular vampire. Clans sometimes even have a spot where a jar of every member's grave dirt is hidden, used for emergency purposes for when a leader needs to call on all their vampires. Vampires also cannot be tracked by normal tracking magic, either demonic or Nephilimic; however, powerful vampires tend to travel with mundane subjugates who can be tracked. Like warlocks, vampires are immortal and sterile; though unable to bear children, they are able to continue their vampiric bloodline by turning humans into vampires. Werewolves Werewolves, also known as Lycanthropes and the Children of the Moon, are a species of Downworlders. Like vampires, werewolves are humans infected with a demonic disease, which gives them the ability to transform—or Change—into powerful wolves and gain their inhuman strength and enhanced capabilities. Description Lycanthropy transforms a human into a werewolf, a demihuman whose demonic infection causes them to transform into large wolves under the light of the full moon, though they can also Change at will. Werewolves in their lupine form possess unnatural strength and speed comparable to that of demons, with claws and canines strong enough to be able to slash through a chain-link fence or bite through a padlock. While they still bear a little bit of resemblance to their human selves while Turned, their eyes become that of a wolf's, and even their eye color changes to either blue or a bright color ranging from yellow to orange or gold. In addition to their supernatural strength, grace, and reflexes, werewolves have the same unnaturally accelerated healing abilities as most other Downworlders. They cannot regenerate a severed limb, but they can recover quickly from most mundane wounds. In human form, they look fairly normal, albeit a little ragged, as many of their kind do not care much about their appearances and do not bother to clean themselves up. Werewolves also retain their superhuman speed and strength while in human form. Werewolves are also mortal; they age and die normally like ordinary humans, though they do grow slightly faster. Warlocks “ Better to love and fear than feel nothing. That is how we petrify. ” –Catarina Loss, City of Heavenly Fire Warlocks, also known as Lilith's Children, are an immortal race of Downworlder offsprings of demons and mundanes. Description Warlocks are born from demons and humans, usually rape or deceit from shape-shifting Eidolon demons, disguised as humans or a human's loved one or an object of sexual desire. Warlocks are immortal beings. At one point in their lives, they stop aging—which point exactly will depend on their warlock parent. At one point, however, after an unspecific but long duration of time, warlocks, like most immortal or long-lived beings such as Silent Brothers, can "fade" and "petrify"—when they grow bored or unsurprised by life and stop looking forward to their years ahead, when the weight of their long lives settle on them, they may begin to lose their minds, and/or stop feeling and living, in all other essences of the word except literally. A universal trait among them are their warlock or demon marks, a part of their body that is strange or unique that identifies them as unearthly. These can be extra, inhuman body parts such as bat wings, goat feet, lizard tails, scaled hands, cat eyes, or differently-colored skin and hair. Additionally, warlocks are unable to have children. Warlock pregnancy always results in stillbirth as they are crossbreeds and are thus sterile. An exception from these limitations are the very rare offspring of demons and unmarked Shadowhunters; without Marks to resist the demonic energy in a fetus, the pregnancy results in a living child—particularly, a dominantly Shadowhunter being with traces of warlock abilities. The only known case so far is Tessa Gray, who does not have a warlock mark and has given birth. Because of their half-demon, half-human nature, other Downworlders sometimes insultingly refer to them as "half-breeds." Faeries “ Do not sign any contracts or agree to any bargains with faeries. Faeries love to haggle but will usually do so only if they are sure they will win. Do not eat or drink anything a faerie gives you. Do not go attend their magical revels under the hills. They will paint a beautiful picture of what awaits you there, but its beauty is false and hollow. Do not tease a faerie about their height. Do not expect direct answers to direct questions. Do expect indirect answers to indirect questions. ” –The Shadowhunter's Codex Faeries, also known as the Fair Folk or fey, are an extremely cunning race of Downworlders. Description Due to the legend of their origins, the faeries are associated with the beauty of angels and the viciousness and malevolence of demons. Besides angels, they are the least understood of all magical people—the great ancient mystery in the Shadow World. Although they are widely believed to be hybrid descendants of demons and angels—something that their kind has seemingly not bothered to deny—faeries possess human souls just as other Downworlders do, and they are counted as members of the human race by the denizens of Heaven. The Fair Folk are known for their unearthly beauty and fair skin, appearing in various pastel hues of blues, greens, and violets, even pearl, to name a few. Faeries commonly incorporate flora and multiple forms of vegetation as part of their ensemble. Many faeries are extremely attractive with delicate and regal faces and exquisitely colored features, such as their eyes, with colors "as clear as glass". The gentry subdivision faeries are the knights, kings and queens, and court members; they are close to the monarchs and considered a part of the central Court society. They mostly resemble human beings, with the pointed ears and an occasional other odd quality. The common folk are the other kinds of faeries such as nixies, pixies or piskies, brownies, selkies, satyrs, mermaids, kelpies, hobgoblins, and boggarts; they generally look less like humans. Among Downworlders, only faeries are more committed to notions of honor and etiquette than vampires. But while faeries always exactly follow the letter of any promise they have made, they deliver these results with great irony, and often use clever wordplay to their advantage in order to create loopholes. They are known for their cunning and their cruel sense of humor, and they especially delight in tricking humans—both mundanes and Shadowhunters alike. They frequently seek to bargain with humans, offering someone their heart's desire but failing to mention that the desire comes with a terrible cost. As time typically flows differently for them and in their realm, they are very long-lived and become only more artful and powerful as they age, though they are not immortal. The Fair Folk are also unable to lie. They might, however, tell what they believe is true, even if it is not. They may also expertly weave lies into sentences by using methods such as not telling the whole truth, letting others assume things, or not correcting the people with whom they're speaking; this does not, however, apply to half-fey, who can lie as easily as any other being. Just as the fey delight in manipulating humans, they delight in manipulating one another, and usually if the problems of the fey intrude into the rest of the world, it is the result of conflicts between rival courts; some of which are playful, while others are serious and brutal. |
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3:36 PM Jul 11