The Magic Wilds: Codex to Mythrolhia: Words and Terminology

By Terrarian Kitsune
WARNING: Content of this story may include violence, gore, modest romance, swearing, crossovers, and references to several other video games and TV shows. Any jokes, character morals, or fourth wall breaking should not be taken seriously. If anyone is offended by any of the content listed above, then please turn back now. You have been warned.
...and adventures.
Story:
Terrarian Pony presents...
The Magic Wilds
Codex of Mythrolhia
Words and Terminology
Chapters: The Magic Wilds
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Author's note: This page is a codex of Mythrolhian words and terminology, for readers who may want a more in depth explanation of some of the language in my series, The Magic Wilds. There will also be other pages of the Codex of Mythrolhia for lore purposes. Easier than having to explain everything within the story. This codex will be updated as the series continues to expand.
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* Norma: Non-magical creatures. Norma come in a large variety of species, and subspecies. The name norma is based off of the word "normal", because they do not have any magical abilities. However, they do have other talents, mainly having to do with physical strength, agriculture, medicine, hunting, etc. They are also stronger instinctually, which means many of their abilities and survival practices are tied to their genetics. This also means that norma are more prone to feralhood. While norma are naturally non-magical, they can use magic through the use of magical artifacts, crystals, wands, or alchemy. They can also become magically enhanced by merging with elemental crystals.
* Arca: Creatures of Magical potential. The name arca comes from the term "arcane", because of their magical abilities. These creatures come in many forms, many of them mirroring the appearance of normal creatures, such as a fox, dog or a cat. Arca are born with different types of magic, the most common of which is elemental. Elemental arca are born with an "elemental core", that determines what type of element they use. Like normal, they can merge with elemental crystals to add a new element to themselves, however this new element's power cannot be extended beyond the power of their core element, so in order to do so, the power of their core element must be trained and strengthened first. Arca may be magical, but they can also have physical strength, depending on their species, or in some cases if they decide to train more specifically in that area, but it is less likely due physical limitations.
Arca are weaker in the instinctual sense, in that their survival instincts are less active. For example, while some norma species can detect subtle changes in their natural, physical environment, arca have more of a connection to the spiritual environment. The weaker instincts also makes activities such as hunting, and vegetation harvesting more difficult. Sometimes the physical strengths of certain norma may even prove challenging for an arca in combat. But arca have their own talents that prove useful to creature civilization as well. Talents like Magical theatrics, protection, object enchantment or imbuing, magical healing. (Some situations may require magic or medicine separately)
Regardless of species, arca always produce eggs when giving birth. The reason for this is because their bodies would not be able to physically handle producing a fully formed creature with untrained magical energies.
* Shadra: Shadow creatures, or creatures made from pure, concentrated living shadow. They mainly look like any norma or arca creature, but their bodies are totally pitch black, with glowing eyes of any color. Shadra are not born like any other creature. In fact, their birth happens when a dark wizard dies. As dark wizards begin to practice dark magic, regardless of what class, they begin to build up energy called shadow essence. Once they die, this essence is released to form a small black blob with glowing eyes. The process takes two to three days before it develops a living entity.
One can prevent a shadra from being born before it becomes alive, simply by throwing salt on the body. Despite common belief, this act is seen less as a way to prevent shadra from growing in population, but more so that the shadra does not have to endure the burden of being born alone in a such a cruel world without anyone to help them grow and learn to survive. Unfortunately, many shadra are born from dead dark wizards, and those who are born without someone to guide them, are known to live a cruel life.
Shadra don't actually have a specific culture they grow up on, and they don't even match the personality of the dark wizard they were born from either. They are first born as blobs of living shadow, but they easily adapt to their environment, both physically and mentally. In other words, they literally transform themselves to fit their environment. If one somehow finds themselves in a city of wealthy individuals, the shadra will take the form of a creature of their choosing, say a cat, and even replicate the appearance and function of clothing using their own body. From here, they will teach themselves to act in the same manner as those who surround them, but will usually do so from a distance until they feel they can fit in. If by this point they have found someone who willing to help or guide them, the shadra will begin to take on the personality of the creature that is caring for or teaching them, and may even take on some of their outward features as well. 
They learn from example, much like any other creature. Say if a they fall into a bandit gang, they follow the group with unquestioning loyalty. If they are raised by a business creature, they begin to mimic entrepreneurial skills. Shadra cannot speak like other creatures, but instead sing a melodic tune with their "melodic organ". However, they do have the ability to speak telepathically, sending thought waves to another creature's mind. They cannot receive such information from the other creature, however, unless the other allows it. If they grow up around other shadra, when speaking telepathically, they refer to just about anything in terms of "song". They hear talking as a form of singing, but they see life as a never ending song, sung by many voices and no voices at all at the same time. They also judge creatures based on their "song" or personality. Basically everything is a song to them, and trying to debate that only leads to much unwanted confusion between both parties.
Shadra who are born alone, away from society, either take a form that suits their wild environment, and adapt to their surroundings to survive, or they find themselves lured to the Shadow Lands, where they are taught nothing but hatred, even towards those of their own kind, and are forced to work under the dark wizards who live there, who dedicate themselves to reviving the Shadow Lord. Some shadra in the Shadow Lands, however, secretly rebel against the dark wizards, and the high-ranking shadra soldiers. An indication of a rebel is their faith a deity known as Ara'Khan, the God of Shadows, who is said to give shadra their free will.
Shadra can transform into a shadow of just about any creature, but are still unfortunately infertile even between their own kind. There is a way around it, if they wear a seed charm, or an egg charm while mating. The magical enchantment from the charms will be enough to temporarily allow breeding.
* Dark Wizard: Dark wizards are creatures, mainly arca, who choose to study corrupting magics, such as blood magic, or necromancy. Creatures don't necessarily have to be born with magic to become a dark wizard, as to become one, all it takes is absorb or consume taint. Taint is a substance that carries with it what is called shadow essence, which flows through dark wizards and makes up the physical structure of shadra. Dark wizards practice arts such as blood rituals, sacrifices, necromancy, soul stealing, mind control, torture, and on extremely rare occasions, falling death, which is a spell made to, as the name implies, cause massive damage within in a large area, killing anything in its wake, at the cost of the lives of all six casters performing the spell.
* Seed charm and egg charm: A seed charm is a magical artifact enchanted to be worn by a male creature while mating with a female creature of a different species that they cannot normally breed with, who is wearing an egg charm. This allows the couple to bear an egg which hatches a hybrid of the two creatures who is fully fertile. While not all norma are usually capable of producing eggs, the charms will force them to produce an egg regardless of their species or whether the female is are arca or not. This is for the same reason that arca produce eggs instead of fully formed creatures. The offspring of the hybrid will also be hatched from an egg as well. These charms are rare, and considered a gift from the gods, especially to creatures who are considered endangered.
* The Magic Wilds: The magic wilds, or simply, the wilds, is used to refer to areas outside of civilized settlements, such as towns, cities, villages, and even many tribes and clans are considered civilized because of alliances. The wilds is home to creatures who have either been shunned from society, gotten lost, or who were born in the wilds. The magic in the wilds is mostly different from civilized settlements, because the flow of mana picks up on the wild naturally wild energies, and begins to mirror it.
If creatures become lost in these wilds, and become exposed to these wild forms of magic for a long period of time, this coupled with the mental stress of separation from civilization, the creature in question have a chance of eventually become feral. Many do not, though, as there are creatures who have developed bandit gangs, outlaw hideouts, and tribal villages within the magic wilds. This is possibly because the creatures who build up such communities or even isolated homes, somehow forces the magic in the area to adapt and be less wild.
* Wild/Wilder: Wilders are creatures who live in the magic wilds, whether they still maintain their mental stability or not. Wild creatures are often criminals, or tribes of creatures, although tribes are not always found in the wilds. Wild creatures can also be feral. 
Wilders who are born into a wilder families, are allowed to join some civilized settlements, through a process of reformation and education in a separate settlement. In this settlement, they can what is called a "magic marker" which allows them to show that they are civilized. These markers are harmlessly placed on a creature by a spell, which the creature who receives it can recast in order to display their marker, in the form of affiliation banners (such as Phoenix Meritocracy or Utopian Society) to identify the creature's affiliation. Before entering a settlement, creatures are vetted by checking wanted posters sent to settlements all over their respective province, as a way to identify ex-civilized criminals.
* Feral/Feralhood: Feral refers to a creature who has lost all sense of civility, and is forced to act totally on instinct alone. This can be caused by a number of factors, but most commonly, and most likely, extensive exposure to the flow of mana surrounding the magic wilds, mixed with isolation and/or madness, as well as forced adaptations to the elements of the environment. Mythrolhian studies have shown, however, that the more "homey" for lack of a better term, a creature makes their environment, and the more living, non-hostile individuals within the environment, causes the flow of mana in a particular area to be less toxic to the mind, not to mention the reduced mental stress from the "homey" conditions, and/or comfort of other living creatures. Simply adding a house plant, or even miraculous taming one of the local wildlife, adds a whole new dimension of comfort to the experience of trying to evade feralhood.
Ferals can be tamed by civilized creatures, sometimes to act as guard dogs, or even as a companion. The morals of the practice are debated between many creatures. While it is highly, and daresay extremely uncommon, there have been instances of creatures regaining their sanity through vigorous mental training. And those who have returned to being civilized, often cannot fully recover, and some even willingly return the wilds, but one thing to note, is that they reportedly have a stronger mental capacity due to their first experience, and likely do not become feral again.
Ferals can also be, and are most commonly, born into feralhood. These are called feral-born. Many times, ferals will find other ferals capable of breeding, and will form a family. Many ferals can be found in groups of the same species, such as a pack of wolves, a litter of cats, a flock of birds, etc. Being born into a group, vastly changes their behavior, depending on species. Feral-borns are more susceptible to being turned civilized at a young age, but it is still extremely difficult.
* Savages: Savages are wild creatures who are neither feral, nor tribal, but somewhere in between. Instead, they fully embrace the madness of the magic wilds willing, and are quite violent. They build fortifications made of wood and bones, and ward intruders with the skulls of their kills. These types are made up of both wild-borns and ex-civilized creatures. The leader of a savage gathering, known as the "tamer" or "Shepard", depending on the gathering, is most likely to be the most mentally stable of the group, and slightly charismatic. If the leader happens to die, the rest tend to frenzy and attack even their allies.
If one is unlucky enough to be captured by savages, they will likely go through painful, and traumatic experiences. Creatures who die by them are often torn apart, painfully. Savage gatherings do not make their fortifications near other gatherings, simply for the fact the tamer knows the other is just as crazy as them, and likely unpredictable. They are also not big on alliances, and other groups like bandits, outlaws, tribals, ferals, and even cultists tend to avoid savages at all costs. To NOT do so is considered "far beyond stupid", and "in the realm between drowning oneself and death by a thousand pointy hitchhikers". Thankfully, savages are few and far between, and have a very insignificant presence in Mythrolhia.
* Raiders: A group of creatures who prey on tribal villages, wilder settlements, and trade caravans. The difference between these creatures and bandits, is that they're actually organized, and they tend to favor taking over homes and communities built by other creatures in the wilds, and turning them into forced laborers.
Work in progress...