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World Building- Races
While the two most prolific races on the planet are humans and monsters, others do exist. Many have had their numbers severely reduced by the cataclysmic war and knowledge of them is spotty at best in the modern-day. Several are mistaken for monsters or odd humans.
Elves-
Elves are technically a fruit. They grow on a tree and while made of flesh, at their core is a seed which contains their soul. They do age, but their incredible longevity lies in the seed, which if removed and planted, will allow them to grow a new body while retaining all their memories. With experience, an elf can control the process and usually emerges as a late teenager.
Elves have always had low numbers, mainly due to the difficulties they face in reproduction. The trees necessary to produce a new elf fruit require a specific environment, and so even in the days when elves could be found around the world, there were only a few places an elf could have originated. Following the cataclysmic war, there are less than a thousand elves left in the world, spread far and wide. Fortunately, even this amount is enough to save their race as the elf seeds carry genetics from thousands of generations.
Coming in any colour you can imagine on a fruit, elves can sometimes pass for human depending on the tone. They're famous for their fabulous hair, which also comes in a rainbow of colours and hundreds of textures. Though they have very dull physical senses, they're in tune with nature and often piggyback on the senses of other lifeforms. Their bodies are quite fragile, but so long as their soul seed exists, they can be reborn.
Elven Power, an ability unique to elves, is the process of transforming willpower into mana. This makes elves who excel at Elven Power excellent spellcasters, granting them near bottomless mana supplies. All elves are capable of Elven Power, but it requires intense training and focus to use successfully.
All elves were always a part of a singular nation, with minimal conflict between themselves. Always stalwart allies of humanity, but not necessarily all human countries, it wasn't uncommon in earlier times for human settlements to be under the protection of elfen rulers. While humans have always been the chief nemesis of monsters, elves are a close second.
Elves are not part of the reincarnation system. When their soul seed is destroyed, they join a collective of souls that becomes a part of nature. There is a singular exception to this- Helen Arany, a human, made herself reincarnate into an elf through sheer force of will,.
Notes:
I like weird elves.
All of the named elves so far are named after a defunct royal title, e.g. Ece as a Turkish word for queen and her husband, Khan.
Dwarfs-
Dwarfs come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and materials. Their soul resides in a specially carved stone heart, which is then infused with two or more dwarf's Dwarfen Power, placed inside a forged body which springs to life and becomes flesh. All dwarfs can revert their bodies to the original material they were crafted from, but usually, they spend most of their time as flesh because it's more comfortable. Every reversion resets their biological clock, making dwarves remarkably long-lived. They're often fond of body modification, transforming into their material form and making adjustments. Ancient dwarfs will sometimes be massive with hundreds of limbs equipped with a variety of tools and tricks.
Dwarfen Power is an ability all Dwarfs possess, the power to transfer some of their vital essences into their creations. Those particularly skilled in Dwarfen Power can thus craft items that possess a will of their own, a desire to fulfil the task for which they were created, granting subtle but powerful greatness to them. When the Dwarfen Power of multiple dwarfs mingles in a suitably sturdy medium, it results in the birth of a soul- a brand new stone heart, ready to be just as bizarre and confusing as its family. They're also capable of siphoning life from others, though rarely enough to be useful in combat- mostly it's done to pass the essence of another to an item. Having equipment made with the user's spirit grants a unique link between the two. A stone heart filled with only one dwarf's Dwarfen Power makes a gnome, a simple-minded creature usually made for a singular purpose, such as mining a particular resource for its creator. Should a gnome's task be completed, they'll run off to do whatever takes their fancy. If they live a long and chaotic enough life, they may gain Dwarfen Power of their own, mingle it with that of their creator's and become a full-fledged dwarf.
Dwarfs are incredibly individualistic, and a dwarfen settlement of ten is considered a crowded city. They prefer to live alone following their own personal obsessions, only coming together for a purpose. By the standards of most races, dwarfs are extraordinarily eccentric and have no regard for any sort of authority beyond themselves. Every dwarf is their own nation in their mind and does what they want. Just two things really unify them- they're all creators by nature, and they're all horny on main. Despite, or perhaps because, sex doesn't factor into their reproduction. They're all lascivious, know what they're into and go for it every time.
Dwarf numbers have not much changed since the cataclysm, a few hundred at a time. Many dwarfs stayed so far from the action they didn't even notice the war, still working on their personal obsessions in remote locations. Though many do live far underground or on mountain tops, they can also be found in deep-sea trenches or isolated islands.
Dwarfs, as much as can be generalised of them, have been neutral in the human monster conflict. Each dwarf makes their own decisions and rarely cares for anything but themselves. They would not usually align themselves with anyone on ideological grounds, but making deals to get what they want is well within their nature. Dealing with a dwarf is a dangerous thing, as they're often powerful, ancient and unwilling to part with anything unless the transaction is skewed heavily in their favour.
Dwarfs have no form of afterlife whatsoever. When their hearts are shattered, so are their souls, becoming numerous spirits that carry some traits but no memories from their originator. These spirits often come to inhabit minerals and become creatures of the land themselves.
Notes:
Since, in the real world, the size based connotations of the word dwarf are derived from the mythological creature, and that was applied by later adapations, there's no shortness implied in the Rexverse. Some hypothesises on the etymology of dwarf are that it's related to dizziness or dreams, due to their supposed relation to mental illness and confusion. So the idea of dwarfs being maddeningly eccentric was where I went.
Gigantes-
Gigantes, also known as giants, are the largest sapient race. They grow continually throughout their long lives. This is sometimes to the detriment of their health. They start upright, then slowly begin to travel on all fours and finally move into the sea as their weight drags them down.
Though they are mostly humanoid in shape, their limbs are snake-like and have an excellent sense of touch that helps them travel without destroying everything around them. Giants have some variety in limb shape- some possess hands and feet with tentacle-like digits, and others possess heads on the ends of their limbs, most often serpent heads. Some have their arms one way and legs another. It's not uncommon for giants to have more than four limbs. They have a complex nervous system similar to an octopus, allowing their limbs to make complicated actions and even simple decision making under the direction of the brain. This helps them remain functioning at exceptionally large sizes where their senses and thoughts can take a while to add up. Very old and therefore very big giants are prone to senility, relying on their limbs acting instinctively to care for them. Once a year, they shed their skins as they continue to grow.
Gigantes are known for their incredible architectural achievements. Being able to finely manipulate massive amounts of material at once, they can build large structures quickly and finely. The phrase 'a giant's year' is used to mean a short period in which a great deal of work was done in reference to giant's being employed to build entire cities in a year.
All giants possess Gigantes Power, but very few can use it well. It is the ability to control the materiality of themselves and other objects. The skill requires a clear and serene mind, devoid of worries. Through the use of Gigantes Power, a giant can become weightless and able to pass through matter selectively. Alternatively, they can use it to craft from impossible materials- most famously, castles floating on clouds. Only masters of Gigantes Powers can remain on land as they age, though masters will occasionally choose to give up their material form entirely or become so solid they turn to stone.
Gigantes are, barring artificial outside help, functionally extinct. There are not enough gigantes left to produce a viable population, and most of the existing ones are incapable of producing offspring naturally due to the differences in size between them. Various individual giants allied with humans for personal reasons, but the entire race was targeted by monsters, to prevent them from helping humans build new military facilities. Regardless of their size at conception giants lay snake-like eggs, which hatch into children roughly the same size as a human newborn. From there they grow steadily, becoming inhumanly large by the time they're in their early twenties. While they are young they can pass for human, so long as they can hide their hands and feet, and take care to bend only where humans have joints. Giants traditionally provide no parental care, letting their children fend for themselves, but are known to form symbiotic relationships with communities of other races.
In the modern-day, all gigantes are nomads, some wandering aimlessly and others fruitlessly searching for more of their kind. At least one, a giant named Abraxas, functions as a town. He slowly swims around the world with a small human civilisation living on the floats he has attached to himself to keep his head above water (and a small population in his hair and beard). The residents of Abraxas care for him with grooming, medical care and feeding, as he is helplessly senile but aware enough to protect his little friends from harm.
Gigantes are part of the reincarnation system, and souls can interchange between human and giant lives. Often those that had brutal, short experiences as a human will be reborn as a giant and have a long life without natural predators.
Notes:
Lots of ancient buildings, whose construction methods were unknown at the time, were attributed to giants and cyclopses by ancient people.
At some point, Greeks started portraying giants as having snakes for legs and being unable to stand up straight. I thought this was so weird I had to elaborate. Similarly to the Norse origin of the word dwarf having no size connotation, the Greek origin of the word gigantes, which later lead to the word giant, didn't imply large size either. I decided not to defy this one. Big people are fun.
A young gigantes pretending to be human could at some point mistake Rex for another of their race.
Zitiron & Merrow-
Aquatic creatures closely allied with humanity. Though actually one species, outsiders have long considered them to be two separate lifeforms due to their differing appearances. Even so, members of the species usually make the distinction themselves and only begrudgingly accept the collective term merfolk. They'd prefer it if you called them 'zitiron & merrow' or 'merrow & zitiron.' The order doesn't matter.
Both possess humanoid features from the waist up and fish tails in place of legs. Their tails have six flippers, and they can 'walk' slowly on land. By human standards, they're both androgynous, though merrow are usually more feminine appearance and zitiron more masculine. Merrow are smaller, with their torsos roughly human-sized and often slender in their physique. Their bodies are scaleless and flexible. Zitiron are twice that size and usually have massively developed muscles. Their bodies are covered in thick scales that act as armour, with a retractable 'helmet' which gives them the appearance of undersea knights. Zitiron have a few natural weapons their smaller counterparts lack, namely claws on their hands and flippers, and poisonous spines down their back. Merrow are more dextrous as a result. There is no taboo between mingling the two- any children will be one or the other variant though very rarely one may possess features from one parent.
Merrow & zitiron have short lives and reaching fifty years old is considered being a venerable elder. Their method of mating is usually unemotional and impersonal, though they still have romantic partnerships- reproduction just doesn't come into it. Their young are hatched from anonymously fertilised eggs, with lineage considered unimportant as they care for each other equally. Without families, all zitiron and merrow start on level footing (finning?) in their society, and their positions are based on merit. A great deal of emphasis is placed on discovering what one is good at and specialising on it.
They are the only species to have two different powers, with some members manifesting both, though this is exceptionally rare. Merrow Power is a type of clairvoyance, able to convert relaxation into visions far away places and times. Thus masters of Merrow Power are the most laidback, lazy members of the race, often meaning that the ones that know the most about the world are the ones that care the least to do anything with that knowledge. Typically when a potential seer is identified, they're pampered in exchange for answering questions about the world. Zitiron Power is the ability to convert stress into durability, their armour becoming stronger. Putting more pressure on a Zitiron Power user makes them all the more troublesome, their spines and claws more fearsome and skin harder to pierce.
In the past, they were the self-proclaimed rulers of the sea and developed their civilisation earlier than other aquatic species. They used other underwater races, especially rogons, as slaves to build wondrous cities. However, they were always under threat from marine monsters, harder to control than their surface cousins, and were stalwart allies of humanity. When the war began, monsters made a priority of freeing their slaves, not only causing their society to collapse but gaining allies in the process. In the modern-day, zitiron & merrow have become nomadic, with their cities now occupied by Rogons and monsters. Most of their breeding grounds were sites of cities, making the recovery of their numbers slow. While it has been devastating for their population and empire, the species has lost its arrogance, and though they have much less than they once did, they are more willing to offer it to others. Unfortunately, most modern humans have no idea what they are and assume any zitiron & merrow they come across are monsters. Frequent seafarers and ocean side cities sometimes have positive relations with them, but otherwise, there's not much mingling between the races.
Merrow & zitiron are part of the reincarnation system, their souls interchangeable between merrow & zitiron but not other species.
Notes:
Zitiron are another mythological creature I found so strange I absolutely had to include them- mermaids, except they're in plate armour they can't take off! Genius!
Rogons-
The other primary marine race, rogons are actually amphibious but can spend their entire lives underwater. Something like a humanoid hybrid between a shark and a frog, with webbed fingers and toes plus a tail, rogons present a much less pretty man-fish.
Their inexpressive faces and fearsome appearance lead others to see them as unintelligent brutes, but rogons are not stupid- they are however straightforward and lack subtlety. In stark contrast to their once slavers, rogons follow a strict caste system almost religiously. This was encouraged when they were slaves, as it meant their masters could simply hold their queens captive to ensure their allegiance. Queens are the only members of their race able to lay eggs, making them vital to the species. Shortly after hatching, rogons are sorted into the role assigned to them, which they retain their entire lives. This practice was not a natural part of rogon development, imposed by zitiron & merrow, but it continues now that rogon are free.
Rogon Power commonly manifests, most rogon being at least a little capable of its use. Rogon Power allows a user to convert their physical stamina into energy, usually heat. While used offensively as a blast of heat from the mouth, it was used extensively by rogon to help build their master's cities- without fire, it was critical to construction.
In the modern-day rogon occupy the cities of their erstwhile masters. The method of suppression proved to be the method of their freedom- monsters rescued their queens, and the rest rose up en mass, heedless of their own safety. Rogons have little concerns beyond survival and have transformed the cities into fortresses, where they gather resources. They would stay within them and keep to themselves entirely if not for their debt to monsters. Grateful to their monster saviours, rogons help monsters navigate the seas and provide them with homes beneath the waves.
Notes-
Rogons might seem like takes on a Gill-Man, but they're actually a reference to E.V.O.: Search for Eden, a pretty fun and also stupid SNES game. Look it up. It's good. The Rogons are fish hyper-evolved by Martians, that want to stop mammals coming back to the sea, but also have legs? They have rayguns and ride sharks.
The spitting fireballs, however, is a reference to Zora from earlier Zelda games where they were enemies.
Monsters-
Monsters are the result of Apollyon's imprisonment in the centre of the planet. Apollyon's soulless, immortal body continues to try to live. His lifeblood emerges on the surface as slime. The slime possesses the ability to replicate the qualities of other phenomena, regardless of how illogical. As a result, monster bodies can be made from animal, mineral, vegetable, energy or even negatives such as shadows.
As a result of their variety, monster capabilities, lifespan and intelligence differ immensely. The term 'species' is not appropriate, as there is no genetics involved, and the accepted name for different monster forms is 'types.' Monsters of the same type appear uniform to most observers, with only subtle distinctions that are more obvious to monsters themselves. One of the fastest ways for an outsider to gain a monster's respect is to be able to tell the difference between two monsters of the same type.
As an invasive lifeform, monsters have no afterlife on Terra. When a monster dies, most of their body dissolves into slime and sinks into the ground, carrying traits and partial memories to the collective potential of new monsters. Monsters that have replicated a reproductive system can have children, but few have reproductive instincts and instead cultivate slime to make more monsters. Monsters do not have usually have souls. However, if a monster has an unyielding will to live, often affixed to a particular goal or conviction, that monster becomes a demon and gains a soul.
Demon souls are reborn repeatedly, travelling to the nearest slime pool, to create a new body. The new form is a reflection of their experiences and character, rather than the typical monster makeup of history and duplication. This process is referred to as demonisation. Demons are generally significantly stronger than the average monster, as well as able to cheat death endlessly so long as they do not lose the will to live. If a demon's will to live wanes or they lose their personal conviction, they can once more become a mortal monster. As a result, most Demon Lords are somehow sealed away when defeated or have their dreams destroyed so thoroughly they return to mortality. The demons most challenging to do away with are those whose desires are immaterial and cannot be easily made impossible- for example, Stolas wishes to learn everything and everything he learns raises more questions to answer, theoretically meaning he will never stop returning. On the other hand, a demon who sought to complete a particular plan will become a monster when that plan is irreparably foiled.
Monsters have a very collective sense of self, especially compared to the very individualistic humans. While they are naturally inclined towards teamwork, they typically lack structured leadership. Monsters tend to value authority and following respected members of the community more than an intricate power structure. The introduction of the 'royalty' system they currently use, in which a Demon Lord rises to power, is the result of the outside influence of Sorrowman. Monsters do not even have names naturally. Instead, they refer to one another using contextual terms that are sometimes quite personal to the one speaking. It can make listening in on a monster conversation quite confusing to a non-monster, but monsters have an intuitive understanding of the meaning of the terms. Names are considered a sort of honourable title to monsters, as 'being the same person to everyone' denotes a certain degree of greatness. Monster names develop naturally and are usually descriptive, e.g. Strongjaw, Ironclaw, Hatchet Hacker. If a monster's form becomes a recurring type of monster, that monster type will be often be named in their honour. They thus find other races arrogant for giving all their members names as if they are celebrated by default. Demon Lords are given a name by the Demon Emperor, Baal, in an ancient long-forgotten tongue.
Monsters and humans have been in conflict since monsters first emerged. Before monsters developed sapience, they most often battled and fed on humans simply because humans were the most numerous civilised race. Humans, never able to resist making themselves the centre of the universe, misinterpreted this as being actively targeted by monsters. This attitude became a self-fulfilling prophecy, with human attempts to rid themselves of monsters making them natural enemies. To further complicate the issue, when it became clear that humans were roughly an even match for monsters, Sorrowman focused on pitting them against each other. The desperate battles between equal sides produced phenomenal results in Sorrowman's attempts to develop an army capable of invading Heaven.
With the true origins of monsters unknown to the majority of the world (including monsters themselves), humans have many hypotheses as to where their mortal enemies have come from. Many human religions claim that monsters are embodiments of evil, are a punishment for human sin or are the result of humans failing to pass to the next world. Conversely, monsters often think of themselves as being born from nature and ironically think of humans as the invasive species. Some monsters go as far as to consider their race to be explicitly created by nature to prevent humans from destroying the world.
Traditionally, the Demon Empire has directed monsters from afar, with the emperor setting tasks to notable demons and appointing Demon Lords. The Cursed Continent is where the centre of the empire rests, the country of Hell. Hard to find and nearly impossible to enter, Baal has ruled the Demon Empire for tens of thousands of years. Baal is also the only person in the world who knows of Sorrowman's goals and willingly assists him because Baal's demonic conviction is the less than noble desire to enjoy himself as much as possible. And nothing amuses Baal more than watching others suffer, an eternal sadistic child.
In the modern-day, monster numbers have flourished. With human infrastructure devastated, monsters had the opportunity to recover without their chief rivals. However, they are much more fragmented than before the cataclysm, with very few groups loyal to the Demon Empire. It is only in the last twenty years or so the emissaries of the empire had had success in converting others to the cause when the famous monster Cerberus was killed by Helen Arany. As the first ever successful invasion of Hell, by a single person no less, it sparked unrest amongst monsters that the empire has taken advantage of.
Notes-
All Demon Lords are named after the 72 demons of the Lesser Key of Solomon, which is also where Sorrowman received his name.
Elves-
Elves are technically a fruit. They grow on a tree and while made of flesh, at their core is a seed which contains their soul. They do age, but their incredible longevity lies in the seed, which if removed and planted, will allow them to grow a new body while retaining all their memories. With experience, an elf can control the process and usually emerges as a late teenager.
Elves have always had low numbers, mainly due to the difficulties they face in reproduction. The trees necessary to produce a new elf fruit require a specific environment, and so even in the days when elves could be found around the world, there were only a few places an elf could have originated. Following the cataclysmic war, there are less than a thousand elves left in the world, spread far and wide. Fortunately, even this amount is enough to save their race as the elf seeds carry genetics from thousands of generations.
Coming in any colour you can imagine on a fruit, elves can sometimes pass for human depending on the tone. They're famous for their fabulous hair, which also comes in a rainbow of colours and hundreds of textures. Though they have very dull physical senses, they're in tune with nature and often piggyback on the senses of other lifeforms. Their bodies are quite fragile, but so long as their soul seed exists, they can be reborn.
Elven Power, an ability unique to elves, is the process of transforming willpower into mana. This makes elves who excel at Elven Power excellent spellcasters, granting them near bottomless mana supplies. All elves are capable of Elven Power, but it requires intense training and focus to use successfully.
All elves were always a part of a singular nation, with minimal conflict between themselves. Always stalwart allies of humanity, but not necessarily all human countries, it wasn't uncommon in earlier times for human settlements to be under the protection of elfen rulers. While humans have always been the chief nemesis of monsters, elves are a close second.
Elves are not part of the reincarnation system. When their soul seed is destroyed, they join a collective of souls that becomes a part of nature. There is a singular exception to this- Helen Arany, a human, made herself reincarnate into an elf through sheer force of will,.
Notes:
I like weird elves.
All of the named elves so far are named after a defunct royal title, e.g. Ece as a Turkish word for queen and her husband, Khan.
Dwarfs-
Dwarfs come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and materials. Their soul resides in a specially carved stone heart, which is then infused with two or more dwarf's Dwarfen Power, placed inside a forged body which springs to life and becomes flesh. All dwarfs can revert their bodies to the original material they were crafted from, but usually, they spend most of their time as flesh because it's more comfortable. Every reversion resets their biological clock, making dwarves remarkably long-lived. They're often fond of body modification, transforming into their material form and making adjustments. Ancient dwarfs will sometimes be massive with hundreds of limbs equipped with a variety of tools and tricks.
Dwarfen Power is an ability all Dwarfs possess, the power to transfer some of their vital essences into their creations. Those particularly skilled in Dwarfen Power can thus craft items that possess a will of their own, a desire to fulfil the task for which they were created, granting subtle but powerful greatness to them. When the Dwarfen Power of multiple dwarfs mingles in a suitably sturdy medium, it results in the birth of a soul- a brand new stone heart, ready to be just as bizarre and confusing as its family. They're also capable of siphoning life from others, though rarely enough to be useful in combat- mostly it's done to pass the essence of another to an item. Having equipment made with the user's spirit grants a unique link between the two. A stone heart filled with only one dwarf's Dwarfen Power makes a gnome, a simple-minded creature usually made for a singular purpose, such as mining a particular resource for its creator. Should a gnome's task be completed, they'll run off to do whatever takes their fancy. If they live a long and chaotic enough life, they may gain Dwarfen Power of their own, mingle it with that of their creator's and become a full-fledged dwarf.
Dwarfs are incredibly individualistic, and a dwarfen settlement of ten is considered a crowded city. They prefer to live alone following their own personal obsessions, only coming together for a purpose. By the standards of most races, dwarfs are extraordinarily eccentric and have no regard for any sort of authority beyond themselves. Every dwarf is their own nation in their mind and does what they want. Just two things really unify them- they're all creators by nature, and they're all horny on main. Despite, or perhaps because, sex doesn't factor into their reproduction. They're all lascivious, know what they're into and go for it every time.
Dwarf numbers have not much changed since the cataclysm, a few hundred at a time. Many dwarfs stayed so far from the action they didn't even notice the war, still working on their personal obsessions in remote locations. Though many do live far underground or on mountain tops, they can also be found in deep-sea trenches or isolated islands.
Dwarfs, as much as can be generalised of them, have been neutral in the human monster conflict. Each dwarf makes their own decisions and rarely cares for anything but themselves. They would not usually align themselves with anyone on ideological grounds, but making deals to get what they want is well within their nature. Dealing with a dwarf is a dangerous thing, as they're often powerful, ancient and unwilling to part with anything unless the transaction is skewed heavily in their favour.
Dwarfs have no form of afterlife whatsoever. When their hearts are shattered, so are their souls, becoming numerous spirits that carry some traits but no memories from their originator. These spirits often come to inhabit minerals and become creatures of the land themselves.
Notes:
Since, in the real world, the size based connotations of the word dwarf are derived from the mythological creature, and that was applied by later adapations, there's no shortness implied in the Rexverse. Some hypothesises on the etymology of dwarf are that it's related to dizziness or dreams, due to their supposed relation to mental illness and confusion. So the idea of dwarfs being maddeningly eccentric was where I went.
Gigantes-
Gigantes, also known as giants, are the largest sapient race. They grow continually throughout their long lives. This is sometimes to the detriment of their health. They start upright, then slowly begin to travel on all fours and finally move into the sea as their weight drags them down.
Though they are mostly humanoid in shape, their limbs are snake-like and have an excellent sense of touch that helps them travel without destroying everything around them. Giants have some variety in limb shape- some possess hands and feet with tentacle-like digits, and others possess heads on the ends of their limbs, most often serpent heads. Some have their arms one way and legs another. It's not uncommon for giants to have more than four limbs. They have a complex nervous system similar to an octopus, allowing their limbs to make complicated actions and even simple decision making under the direction of the brain. This helps them remain functioning at exceptionally large sizes where their senses and thoughts can take a while to add up. Very old and therefore very big giants are prone to senility, relying on their limbs acting instinctively to care for them. Once a year, they shed their skins as they continue to grow.
Gigantes are known for their incredible architectural achievements. Being able to finely manipulate massive amounts of material at once, they can build large structures quickly and finely. The phrase 'a giant's year' is used to mean a short period in which a great deal of work was done in reference to giant's being employed to build entire cities in a year.
All giants possess Gigantes Power, but very few can use it well. It is the ability to control the materiality of themselves and other objects. The skill requires a clear and serene mind, devoid of worries. Through the use of Gigantes Power, a giant can become weightless and able to pass through matter selectively. Alternatively, they can use it to craft from impossible materials- most famously, castles floating on clouds. Only masters of Gigantes Powers can remain on land as they age, though masters will occasionally choose to give up their material form entirely or become so solid they turn to stone.
Gigantes are, barring artificial outside help, functionally extinct. There are not enough gigantes left to produce a viable population, and most of the existing ones are incapable of producing offspring naturally due to the differences in size between them. Various individual giants allied with humans for personal reasons, but the entire race was targeted by monsters, to prevent them from helping humans build new military facilities. Regardless of their size at conception giants lay snake-like eggs, which hatch into children roughly the same size as a human newborn. From there they grow steadily, becoming inhumanly large by the time they're in their early twenties. While they are young they can pass for human, so long as they can hide their hands and feet, and take care to bend only where humans have joints. Giants traditionally provide no parental care, letting their children fend for themselves, but are known to form symbiotic relationships with communities of other races.
In the modern-day, all gigantes are nomads, some wandering aimlessly and others fruitlessly searching for more of their kind. At least one, a giant named Abraxas, functions as a town. He slowly swims around the world with a small human civilisation living on the floats he has attached to himself to keep his head above water (and a small population in his hair and beard). The residents of Abraxas care for him with grooming, medical care and feeding, as he is helplessly senile but aware enough to protect his little friends from harm.
Gigantes are part of the reincarnation system, and souls can interchange between human and giant lives. Often those that had brutal, short experiences as a human will be reborn as a giant and have a long life without natural predators.
Notes:
Lots of ancient buildings, whose construction methods were unknown at the time, were attributed to giants and cyclopses by ancient people.
At some point, Greeks started portraying giants as having snakes for legs and being unable to stand up straight. I thought this was so weird I had to elaborate. Similarly to the Norse origin of the word dwarf having no size connotation, the Greek origin of the word gigantes, which later lead to the word giant, didn't imply large size either. I decided not to defy this one. Big people are fun.
A young gigantes pretending to be human could at some point mistake Rex for another of their race.
Zitiron & Merrow-
Aquatic creatures closely allied with humanity. Though actually one species, outsiders have long considered them to be two separate lifeforms due to their differing appearances. Even so, members of the species usually make the distinction themselves and only begrudgingly accept the collective term merfolk. They'd prefer it if you called them 'zitiron & merrow' or 'merrow & zitiron.' The order doesn't matter.
Both possess humanoid features from the waist up and fish tails in place of legs. Their tails have six flippers, and they can 'walk' slowly on land. By human standards, they're both androgynous, though merrow are usually more feminine appearance and zitiron more masculine. Merrow are smaller, with their torsos roughly human-sized and often slender in their physique. Their bodies are scaleless and flexible. Zitiron are twice that size and usually have massively developed muscles. Their bodies are covered in thick scales that act as armour, with a retractable 'helmet' which gives them the appearance of undersea knights. Zitiron have a few natural weapons their smaller counterparts lack, namely claws on their hands and flippers, and poisonous spines down their back. Merrow are more dextrous as a result. There is no taboo between mingling the two- any children will be one or the other variant though very rarely one may possess features from one parent.
Merrow & zitiron have short lives and reaching fifty years old is considered being a venerable elder. Their method of mating is usually unemotional and impersonal, though they still have romantic partnerships- reproduction just doesn't come into it. Their young are hatched from anonymously fertilised eggs, with lineage considered unimportant as they care for each other equally. Without families, all zitiron and merrow start on level footing (finning?) in their society, and their positions are based on merit. A great deal of emphasis is placed on discovering what one is good at and specialising on it.
They are the only species to have two different powers, with some members manifesting both, though this is exceptionally rare. Merrow Power is a type of clairvoyance, able to convert relaxation into visions far away places and times. Thus masters of Merrow Power are the most laidback, lazy members of the race, often meaning that the ones that know the most about the world are the ones that care the least to do anything with that knowledge. Typically when a potential seer is identified, they're pampered in exchange for answering questions about the world. Zitiron Power is the ability to convert stress into durability, their armour becoming stronger. Putting more pressure on a Zitiron Power user makes them all the more troublesome, their spines and claws more fearsome and skin harder to pierce.
In the past, they were the self-proclaimed rulers of the sea and developed their civilisation earlier than other aquatic species. They used other underwater races, especially rogons, as slaves to build wondrous cities. However, they were always under threat from marine monsters, harder to control than their surface cousins, and were stalwart allies of humanity. When the war began, monsters made a priority of freeing their slaves, not only causing their society to collapse but gaining allies in the process. In the modern-day, zitiron & merrow have become nomadic, with their cities now occupied by Rogons and monsters. Most of their breeding grounds were sites of cities, making the recovery of their numbers slow. While it has been devastating for their population and empire, the species has lost its arrogance, and though they have much less than they once did, they are more willing to offer it to others. Unfortunately, most modern humans have no idea what they are and assume any zitiron & merrow they come across are monsters. Frequent seafarers and ocean side cities sometimes have positive relations with them, but otherwise, there's not much mingling between the races.
Merrow & zitiron are part of the reincarnation system, their souls interchangeable between merrow & zitiron but not other species.
Notes:
Zitiron are another mythological creature I found so strange I absolutely had to include them- mermaids, except they're in plate armour they can't take off! Genius!
Rogons-
The other primary marine race, rogons are actually amphibious but can spend their entire lives underwater. Something like a humanoid hybrid between a shark and a frog, with webbed fingers and toes plus a tail, rogons present a much less pretty man-fish.
Their inexpressive faces and fearsome appearance lead others to see them as unintelligent brutes, but rogons are not stupid- they are however straightforward and lack subtlety. In stark contrast to their once slavers, rogons follow a strict caste system almost religiously. This was encouraged when they were slaves, as it meant their masters could simply hold their queens captive to ensure their allegiance. Queens are the only members of their race able to lay eggs, making them vital to the species. Shortly after hatching, rogons are sorted into the role assigned to them, which they retain their entire lives. This practice was not a natural part of rogon development, imposed by zitiron & merrow, but it continues now that rogon are free.
Rogon Power commonly manifests, most rogon being at least a little capable of its use. Rogon Power allows a user to convert their physical stamina into energy, usually heat. While used offensively as a blast of heat from the mouth, it was used extensively by rogon to help build their master's cities- without fire, it was critical to construction.
In the modern-day rogon occupy the cities of their erstwhile masters. The method of suppression proved to be the method of their freedom- monsters rescued their queens, and the rest rose up en mass, heedless of their own safety. Rogons have little concerns beyond survival and have transformed the cities into fortresses, where they gather resources. They would stay within them and keep to themselves entirely if not for their debt to monsters. Grateful to their monster saviours, rogons help monsters navigate the seas and provide them with homes beneath the waves.
Notes-
Rogons might seem like takes on a Gill-Man, but they're actually a reference to E.V.O.: Search for Eden, a pretty fun and also stupid SNES game. Look it up. It's good. The Rogons are fish hyper-evolved by Martians, that want to stop mammals coming back to the sea, but also have legs? They have rayguns and ride sharks.
The spitting fireballs, however, is a reference to Zora from earlier Zelda games where they were enemies.
Monsters-
Monsters are the result of Apollyon's imprisonment in the centre of the planet. Apollyon's soulless, immortal body continues to try to live. His lifeblood emerges on the surface as slime. The slime possesses the ability to replicate the qualities of other phenomena, regardless of how illogical. As a result, monster bodies can be made from animal, mineral, vegetable, energy or even negatives such as shadows.
As a result of their variety, monster capabilities, lifespan and intelligence differ immensely. The term 'species' is not appropriate, as there is no genetics involved, and the accepted name for different monster forms is 'types.' Monsters of the same type appear uniform to most observers, with only subtle distinctions that are more obvious to monsters themselves. One of the fastest ways for an outsider to gain a monster's respect is to be able to tell the difference between two monsters of the same type.
As an invasive lifeform, monsters have no afterlife on Terra. When a monster dies, most of their body dissolves into slime and sinks into the ground, carrying traits and partial memories to the collective potential of new monsters. Monsters that have replicated a reproductive system can have children, but few have reproductive instincts and instead cultivate slime to make more monsters. Monsters do not have usually have souls. However, if a monster has an unyielding will to live, often affixed to a particular goal or conviction, that monster becomes a demon and gains a soul.
Demon souls are reborn repeatedly, travelling to the nearest slime pool, to create a new body. The new form is a reflection of their experiences and character, rather than the typical monster makeup of history and duplication. This process is referred to as demonisation. Demons are generally significantly stronger than the average monster, as well as able to cheat death endlessly so long as they do not lose the will to live. If a demon's will to live wanes or they lose their personal conviction, they can once more become a mortal monster. As a result, most Demon Lords are somehow sealed away when defeated or have their dreams destroyed so thoroughly they return to mortality. The demons most challenging to do away with are those whose desires are immaterial and cannot be easily made impossible- for example, Stolas wishes to learn everything and everything he learns raises more questions to answer, theoretically meaning he will never stop returning. On the other hand, a demon who sought to complete a particular plan will become a monster when that plan is irreparably foiled.
Monsters have a very collective sense of self, especially compared to the very individualistic humans. While they are naturally inclined towards teamwork, they typically lack structured leadership. Monsters tend to value authority and following respected members of the community more than an intricate power structure. The introduction of the 'royalty' system they currently use, in which a Demon Lord rises to power, is the result of the outside influence of Sorrowman. Monsters do not even have names naturally. Instead, they refer to one another using contextual terms that are sometimes quite personal to the one speaking. It can make listening in on a monster conversation quite confusing to a non-monster, but monsters have an intuitive understanding of the meaning of the terms. Names are considered a sort of honourable title to monsters, as 'being the same person to everyone' denotes a certain degree of greatness. Monster names develop naturally and are usually descriptive, e.g. Strongjaw, Ironclaw, Hatchet Hacker. If a monster's form becomes a recurring type of monster, that monster type will be often be named in their honour. They thus find other races arrogant for giving all their members names as if they are celebrated by default. Demon Lords are given a name by the Demon Emperor, Baal, in an ancient long-forgotten tongue.
Monsters and humans have been in conflict since monsters first emerged. Before monsters developed sapience, they most often battled and fed on humans simply because humans were the most numerous civilised race. Humans, never able to resist making themselves the centre of the universe, misinterpreted this as being actively targeted by monsters. This attitude became a self-fulfilling prophecy, with human attempts to rid themselves of monsters making them natural enemies. To further complicate the issue, when it became clear that humans were roughly an even match for monsters, Sorrowman focused on pitting them against each other. The desperate battles between equal sides produced phenomenal results in Sorrowman's attempts to develop an army capable of invading Heaven.
With the true origins of monsters unknown to the majority of the world (including monsters themselves), humans have many hypotheses as to where their mortal enemies have come from. Many human religions claim that monsters are embodiments of evil, are a punishment for human sin or are the result of humans failing to pass to the next world. Conversely, monsters often think of themselves as being born from nature and ironically think of humans as the invasive species. Some monsters go as far as to consider their race to be explicitly created by nature to prevent humans from destroying the world.
Traditionally, the Demon Empire has directed monsters from afar, with the emperor setting tasks to notable demons and appointing Demon Lords. The Cursed Continent is where the centre of the empire rests, the country of Hell. Hard to find and nearly impossible to enter, Baal has ruled the Demon Empire for tens of thousands of years. Baal is also the only person in the world who knows of Sorrowman's goals and willingly assists him because Baal's demonic conviction is the less than noble desire to enjoy himself as much as possible. And nothing amuses Baal more than watching others suffer, an eternal sadistic child.
In the modern-day, monster numbers have flourished. With human infrastructure devastated, monsters had the opportunity to recover without their chief rivals. However, they are much more fragmented than before the cataclysm, with very few groups loyal to the Demon Empire. It is only in the last twenty years or so the emissaries of the empire had had success in converting others to the cause when the famous monster Cerberus was killed by Helen Arany. As the first ever successful invasion of Hell, by a single person no less, it sparked unrest amongst monsters that the empire has taken advantage of.
Notes-
All Demon Lords are named after the 72 demons of the Lesser Key of Solomon, which is also where Sorrowman received his name.