Mortal Species

***I could see the air quotes out of the corner of my eye.***

*The following is an extract from* Worth the Candle: A Brief Description of Aerb*.*

[Juniper’s Notes: The “mortal species” encompass roughly two hundred types of humanoids, near-humanoids, and a handful of other sapient species. The phrase is a political one that dates all the way back to the First Empire, when it was crafted as a term of law to refer to a specific class of people that the law would apply to. Some people use it with abandon to encompass anything that’s remotely a person, myself included, but who is or isn’t in the ‘mortal species’ is kind of the whole point of the term. Without really thinking about it I’ve adopted what’s actually a very liberal policy on the matter. There’s also a distinction between ‘mortal’ and ‘mortal species’, since there are some individuals who are definitely mortals, but also definitely not a species of their own.]

## Aboria

Large, traditionally nomadic humanoids with sharp, rending claws, flat teeth, and enormous guts which hold the stomachs they use to digest immense amounts of wood. Their society largely revolves around felling trees and eating them, then sitting around to digest before moving on to the next one. They have a limited role in the international community

## Ahu

Dark-skinned humanoids. The males have antlers, which are a form of signalling worth and often decorated, but since the days of the First Empire, the women have taken to wearing false antlers (‘susliq’), which evoke similar feelings to those evoked by a male with a prominent rack. Since they’re false, can be made more impressive, to within the limits of engineering. Their species has a large focus on presentation and detail work.

## Altek

Altek are a species often mistaken for human, though their proportions fall well outside the human norms, with wasp-like waists on both men and women, and calves that are almost as thick as their thighs. Additionally, their faces tend to be heart-shaped, and their eyes a bit larger. With proper clothing, these are barely worthy of note, and altek will often dress so as to minimize their differences. One other major factor which distinguishes them is the males and females pair-bond for life, to a level unknown to other species; if one half of the pair dies, the altek refer to the survivor as ‘half dead’, and re-bonding is completely unknown.

## Animalia

Every so often, for unknown reasons, an animal will transform, becoming anthropomorphic (though on the more animal, less human side of anthropomorphism). The process of transformation results in a creature which is within 50%-150% of normal human height and weight, bipedal, and able to manipulate objects with hands (sometimes gaining limbs in the process). During the transformation process, which takes between three months and two years, the Animalia will become more intelligent (or at least more neuroplastic), adapting quickly to language and society. This intelligence fades down to human levels once that process is complete. Animalia can only breed with other Animalia of their own source species. (They are not traditionally considered as part of the mortal species.) Like forge frenzy, the process doesn’t follow population numbers; there are far more cows in the world than tigers, but cow Animalia don’t have the same ratio to tiger Animalia.

## Anolia

Lizardlike in appearance, this species has the unique ability to view aspects of the soul with their inherent magic, requiring only visual inspection rather than physical touch. In the wake of the collapse of the Second Empire, they were often employed to ensure minimal alterations to the soul, to confirm that soul mages had removed their ability to do soul magic, and to assist in hunting down rogue soul mages. The relatively small population of anolia as compared to the hexal population means that they’re in near-constant demand, which has greatly increased their standing in the world. Prior to their “discovery”, they were a pre-metal swamp-dwelling species.

## Broshe

A tall, muscular species of long-lived warriors. Broshe have low fertility rates, and while they’re renowned for their combat prowess, it’s actually rare that they engage in fights that they’re uncertain they’ll win. While it’s always tricky to make generalizations about a species’ mindset given the overlaps between culture and species, the broshe tend to be incredibly conservative, driven to fight but without the bloodlust that’s typical of other warrior-oriented species like the Ha-lunde.

## Changeling

A shape-changing species. One of the “forged” species created through magic, entads, or divine will rather than “naturally” occurring on Aerb, changelings were designed as infiltrators and assassins, but they turned on the mage that created them shortly after he gave a command so heinous that they would not accept it. The exact nature of this command was lost to time, and it was tradition among the changelings that each time they would make up a different story. Given changeling morals, these imagined commands were universally beyond the pale. Following their freedom from bondage, they formed a small, tight-knit society, one which took joy in transgressing against the others. Uther Penndraig, with the help of a turncoat changeling named Forty-Two, wiped them out, making Forty-Two into an endling.

## Chelloni

Chelloni women have thick shells on their backs, which they adorn with elaborate decorations in order to attract chelloni males, signal status, and find personal satisfaction. Males have a thinner shell, which is typically unadorned, though there are some cases in which a female will do minor work on a male’s shell as a way of signaling commitment/dominance. Chelloni are one of the ‘peacock’ species cluster, with a heavy focus on elaborate and largely useless aesthetic displays, though there’s a wide amount of overlap into labor-intensive endeavors.

## Crantek

A short green-skinned species that spends much of their time feeding on the sun, which they do by stripping naked and laying in the grassy fields that are their normal habitat. In the winter months, they tend to hibernate, sequestering themselves into earthen houses where they eat through the food they’ve saved up and do their best not to move. In climates where winters aren’t so harsh, this hibernation period is much more brief.

## Criios

White-skinned humanoids with black hair that can’t tolerate temperatures much higher than freezing. Many ice mages came from their ranks, until Uther crushed the last of the ice mages and the school became a lost art. There are extremely few places on Aerb that criios can make their homes, though in the modern era it’s somewhat common for wealthy criios to have “winter retreats” to places that drop to suitable temperatures in the winter months. Given their incompatibility with so many other members of the mortal species, criios have a limited role in the international community, and are rarely found outside specific geographical regions unless they have heavy magical support.

## Demonblooded

Not technically one of the mortal species, but not a hybrid of them either. There were many stories in the past about how they came about, but it’s now known that they’re created when a demon or devil inserts itself into the reproductive process shortly after conception, tainting the species with infernal physical traits (mental and social traits are a more contentious issue, but there are several demonblooded exemplars that serve as examples of capacity for good and cooperation). The term is always “demonblooded”, even when the suspected infernal is a devil. Demonblooded are rare, as the process the infernals must undertake is difficult and typically unrewarding.

## Dragons

When first hatched, dragons are consumed with hunger and will hunt and kill anything they think they can get away with killing in order to feast. As they grow older, this hunger begins to abate, until eventually the dragon begins on their hoard, which will grow to sustain them in perpetuity. Possessed of incredible speed and power, an inborn resistance magic, sharp fangs and claws, and the ability to breathe dragonfire, dragons are among the most formidable lifeforms on Aerb, especially in their fully mature forms. Their hoards are one of their only weakpoints, not just in the sense that they are a source of power for the dragons, but in the sense that they give the rest of the mortal species something of a handle on dragonkind. A dragon whose hoard centers around music, for example, will have cause to hire musicians and composers, for example. The exact nature of how a dragon’s hoard is chosen is unknown, and dragons tend to be cagey about what their hoard is composed of, as well as its location. Example hoards include medical equipment, seeds, geodes, poetry, fabrics, and preserved insects. These hoards inevitably include extremely rare and expensive pieces. Of note, dragons are extremely heterozygous, with their varied abilities not directly following family lines.

## Dwarf

Dwarves are the second most populous mortal species on Aerb, though somewhat disconnected from the rest of the world due to their social organizations, underground cities, simple tastes, language, etc. Dwarves are parthenogenetic, capable of either self-inseminating (creating a clone) or copulating; their single physical sex codes as male, and they are often referred to as such. Traditionally, dwarves live underground and farm an organism that eats rocks and produces a barely-palatable but highly nutritious material that “bakes” into a bread. Dwarves are responsible for the majority of mining done on Aerb.

## Elf (General)

Generally speaking, elves are a tall humanoid species of obligate carnivores with uncanny non-magical luck and an obsession with perfection. In many respects, they have significant advantages over humans and most of the other mortal species, being stronger, faster, and more intelligent, but these features come with significant psychological and sociological limitations. Elves live long lives, but have difficulty with (and hostility toward) change, especially in their later years. Almost every elf of historical note has been aberrant.

### Elf (Star)

Star elves were the first wave of elven immigrants from Celestar, though as their name suggests, they had originally meant to colonize the stars around Aerb before finding them inhospitable. They are characterized as being the most bloodthirsty of the elves, difficult to conduct diplomacy with, incredibly proud, and very much set in their ways, even more so than the other elves. The story of their emigration from Celestar is complicated and largely lost to history, but appears to stem from a lack of adequate living space.

### Elf (Moon)

Moon elves were the second wave of immigrants from Celestar, coming to Aerb directly through then-new (and then-unexcluded) teleportation methods. In this case, the proximate cause of emigration was a bloody civil war whose topic was the proliferation of variant forms, fundamentally a disagreement over the nature of perfection, as many elven disagreements are. Moon elves were on the losing fundamentalist side, and the descendants of the second wave remained, to large extent, hardliners.

### Elf (Dark)

Dark elves are nominally the third wave of immigrants, though their own history is largely lost to time. It is theorized that during the Flourishing Era which followed the schism that the moon elves came from, a band of elves adapted themselves to a more perfect form suitable to living underground in complete cold. Their transfer to Aerb is likewise shrouded in mystery due to gaps in the historical record, but they were found living in the Gelid Depths circa 4 FE, with scattered sightings prior to that. They are noted for their teeth, which are flattened and human-like, and their general goodly nature in comparison to their counterparts. The majority of the dark elf population still lives within the Gelid Depths.

### Elf (Wood)

Wood elves mark the fourth wave of immigration from Celestar, and the last prior to the cataclysm that permanently scarred their moon. Similarly to the moon elves, the wood elves were on the losing side of an ideological debate, this one primarily centered on whether the struggle for perfection (not the term they would use) should be oriented toward the past or the future. The wood elves, largely possessed by a desire to return to a time and society that never really existed, immigrated to Aerb and established nature-oriented ideal communities, isolationist beyond all reason. Wood elves put a lot of stock in ritual and ceremony.

### Elf (Partite/Cataclysm)

Though the exact cause of the cataclysm that scoured Celestar is not precisely known, it is widely believed that it was caused by some sort of magic that the elves there were doing. The final wave of elven immigration immediately preceded the cataclysm, and was much more varied than the other waves. Partite elves come in a much wider variety of skin color and body shape, though they still tend to have the pointy ears characteristic of elves, along with being tall and lithe. Partite elves, as a general rule, place a lot of importance on personal perfection, but they’re much less invested in any elven society. Some mistake them for being free thinkers, which is simply not the case; they are as rigid and carnivorous as their cousins, but simply more independent as a rule.

## Ell

Outwardly identical to humans, the Ell are a long-lived species that take roughly 100 times longer to do everything humans do. They reach maturity at around 1800 years old, middle age at 4000 years old, and generally speaking, become elderly around 7000 years old. This elongation extends to almost all aspects of their lives: their pregnancy lasts 4000 weeks, sleep lasts 800 hours, digestion takes hundreds of hours, etc. They still move, speak, and in some respects think as fast as humans do, but are slower to learn new skills or adapt to new information. They are extremely rare, for obvious reasons. Ell possess internal extradimensional organs which hold a hundred times the mass that normal organs for a human.

*Extracted text ends here.*

Among the things that take Ell a hundred times as long are developing PTSD, defecating, sex, and farting. It takes 100x the dose of any drug to affect them, and the effects last 100x as long.[*citation needed*]

They learn more slowly than most mortals, but *not* a hundred times more slowly, meaning that they can develop quite formidable skills over the millennia. Many Ell train with the Elon Gar to reduce their otherwise extremely problematic need for sleep. It's said Ell are slow to change their mind, although like any species, this varies depending on the individual. Ell tend to make the same mistakes for a hundred times longer than it would take a human to learn their lesson, although they can sometimes intellectually recognize and correct for this.

Because of their reliance on their magical, extradimensional organs, they're lethally vulnerable to wards against their species' magic and other anti-magic effects.

Many of the Ell were targeted by the Second Empire, mainly for their wealth. The Ell featured in the story are Speculator Masters and Raven Masters.

Juniper invented the Ell when he was 10, and considered them sloppy and childish worldbuilding, although Aerb had rationalized their design somewhat.

***I could see the air quotes out of the corner of my eye.***

*The following is an extract from .*

## Endlings

The endlings are not a specific species, but rather, a designation given to any species with either non-viable populations, or occasionally, species whose population would take centuries if not millennia to bounce back. [Juniper’s Notes: There are a surprising number of these, given that Aerb has a fuckload of species. Some of the remaining ones are just treading water, going through braided breeding patterns to keep their species alive for as long as possible, or interbreeding with other species in order to at least have something of their kind survive, but it’s shitty all around. Also, the term ‘endling’ on Earth refers to specifically the last of a species, but there was apparently some linguistic drift on Aerb, because they don’t use ‘relict’ or ‘relictual population’, instead preferring ‘endling’ as a word that encompasses a lot of different cases.]

## Ghill

Traditionally a savanna species, the ghill have long, grass-like hair on their backs, which they use for camouflage. Psychologically, they’re most noted for their extreme patience, combined with moments of rapid movement and energy, which can sometimes be interpreted as laziness by other species.

## Gimmal

A species which, significantly, has a single sensory organ, deep within its belly. Rather than sight, sound, smell, or even touch, the gimmal have a very finely tuned gravitational sense which takes the place of all other senses and can be used to sense in all directions. Their form is vaguely humanoid, more hunched over, and their traditional mode of movement uses three limbs (as the gimmal are lacking a left arm). Their head is largely vestigial, lacking eyes, mouth, nose, or ears. The traditional environment of the gimmal is underground, and their skin comes in varying hues of gray. For sustenance, the gimmal appear to absorb gravity, which they also have some minor ability to manipulate.

## Gnome

Gnomes are one of the prototypical diminutive races, very similar in appearance to humans, but with proportionally larger heads, hands, nose, ears, and feet. Gnomes are noted as having a high incidence of neurodivergence, which gave rise to the idea of gnomes as wild, madcap eccentrics. Within gnomish culture, this divergence is venerated, but outside it, gnomes are often looked at with a raised eyebrow, since you never know what you’ll get when you meet a new gnome. Gnomes are often compared to apples, in the sense that a seed won’t breed remotely true, though this applies primarily to their minds and not to their bodies. Gnomes are disproportionately both innovators and mental patients.

## Goblins

The image of a goblin as a hoarder of gold and treasures is a relic of earlier times. Now, goblins almost universally hoard books and other forms of the written word, a direct result of Uther Penndraig’s intervention. Goblins are short, with large, floppy ears, exaggerated facial features, and sharp teeth, though their diet is typically more omnivorous than their teeth would suggest. Goblins hold the largest libraries on Aerb and greedily hoard their books. It is theorized that goblins and dragons are distantly related for this reason.

## Greensnouts

Greensnouts are a large, piglike species with green snouts and a green stripe down their back. [Juniper’s Notes: That’s really all there is to them. Usually when things I made get ported over into Aerb, they become rich and complex, with all the care and thought that I might have put into them, if I could have been assed to. Greensnouts were lazy, but the curious thing about them is that they stayed lazy on transfer. They have no great defining characteristics that might make them cool or worthwhile, they’re just reskinned humans, more or less. Everyone else has their own “thing” but the greensnouts have no niche.]

## Ha-lunde

The Ha-lunde are a unigendered species of necrophiles, presenting as large, humanesque males, typically six or seven feet tall, with all the secondary sex characteristics of a human male (chest hair, lack of breasts, facial hair). As part of their reproductive cycle, a Ha-lunde will find or make a fresh corpse and copulate with it, using their phallus to leave an egg inside of it. From there, the egg will proceed to use the corpse as fuel, with birth taking place some weeks later. Among the mortal species, the Ha-lunde have experienced some of the most radical social changes over the course of the past five hundred years, going from a species that existed mostly through pillaging and conquer to one of the stalwart members of the Empire of Common Cause, a transition helped by the discovery of domesticable species of cow that suited their reproduction.

*Extracted text ends here.*

## Hæt

The hætan people are "thermophiles", known for their ability to survive higher temperatures than the other mortal species. They were disfavoured and oppressed during the Second Empire, and have historically been a particularly marginalized group, much of whose history has been lost.

The Second Empire's dislike of the hæt, however, did not extend to point that they were willing to pass up on recruiting and training the hætan man Fyrest Treow (who was a prodigy at Ash Magic.) This proved a mistake; Fyrest secretly attempted a mass ressurrection of his people in what would become the Æ Exclusion Zone, using samples he had taken from an old hætan burial ground. The ÆEZ is now overrun with confused hæt ghosts from averiety of time periods. They are one of the only species capable of operating in the harsh desert of the Æ Exclusion Zone, and essentially the only group interested in it, with a small colony honouring and studying the ghosts on the border of the EZ.

***I could see the air quotes out of the corner of my eye.***

*The following is an extract from .*

## Halfling

Halflings are almost exactly the same as humans in terms of physical appearance, scaled down by half. These similarities extend to their social and mental attributes as well. Where humans have largely spread themselves out across Aerb, halflings are consigned to those areas that are inhospitable for large species with higher caloric needs, generally preferring highlands. While halflings are often remarked as humble, this is a result of their place in the world and a consequence of their typical communal agrarian lifestyle. If an imperial city has a Small Town (a place with structures built to a smaller scale), it will typically be dominated by halflings.

## Harmonia

Harmonia are insectile humanoids with extra arms and a multi-hued shell. They originated from the Isle of Kīṭa, which has many insects of different varieties, but have done a fair job of spreading across Aerb, making them one of the most common non-humanform of the mortal species. They are also the originators of carapace magic. [Amaryllis’ Notes: Obviously one shouldn’t say that they have “extra” arms, one should say that they have “four arms”, because to say “extra” brings in the reference frame of humanity and the humanoid species.]

## He’lesh

The he’lesh are smokers, through and through, with a unique smoke magic available to every member of their species, though to varying degrees. In their blank, unsmoking state, he’lesh tend to feel dull and lifeless, capable of carrying out simple tasks or holding uninspired conversation, but not truly living. When they smoke plantlife of varying kinds, they come to life, imbued with emotions and a spark of liveliness. The he’lesh tend to carry around a collection of cigarettes to smoke as the mood suits them, switching from one emotional dominance to another as circumstances warrant. Some he’lesh like certain emotions more than other, or will choose one for their default state, though most shy away from strong emotions. A he’lesh who chooses to can gain expertise in smoke magic, which has many possible avenues, all of which revolve around smoking various magical substances. Physically, they have skin ranging from orange to red, three fingers on each hand, and would stand roughly nine feet tall if they didn’t tend to walk with their legs mostly bent.

## Human

It has been noted as a matter of simple fact that humans are “average”; if you took every member of the mortal species, humans would be within a single standard deviation of the mean on almost every axis. They are also the most populous of the mortal species, accounting for roughly 40% of the world population. Additionally, humans have the highest score on the Syfriend Breeding Compatibility Scale. The primary thing that sets humans apart is their eagerness and ability to integrate into other culture. This should not be confused with strict adaptability, as this integration is often maladaptive and sometimes fatal; the distressingly common Human Derangement Syndrome (HDS) occurs when a human integrates with a foreign species to their own detriment, and often with deleterious effects on their health. (The term “humanoid” is in wide use to describe bipedal species with two arms and a head.)

[Juniper’s Notes: Humans are always a toughie when you’re talking about fantasy races, because most of the fantasy races are just different flavorings of human, aspects of our cultures and societies, or divisions of our psyche. Humans usually get to be either adaptable or the jack-of-all-trades, mostly because it leaves them as human, and the other races as still having traditional human elements. Aerb humans take adaptability up to the nth degree, to the point where there are a lot of sterotypes and jokes about it. I think in that respect they’re different from Earth humans, but I would need to do a study of people ‘gone native’ to know whether there’s some actual difference.]

[Amaryllis’ Notes: Humans seem more common than the demographics would suggest, largely because the next biggest portion of the population, the dwarves, are largely confined to their dwarfholds. The same is true of a few other mortal species, who have big populations, but haven’t spread out all the much, either because of their physiology, temperament, or history. Criios are one big example, since they’re confined to cold regions and there are only a small handful in the more temperate areas that dominate Aerb. So while the population of humans on Aerb is fairly large, to walk through one of the big imperial cities, you would probably think it was much higher than it actually is.]

## Igno

A lizard-like species that collect rocks which they hold in their mouths, rather than having teeth. In the modern era, most of these rocks are made or carved in industrial processes. The species deals well with tedium and discerning minute differences between similar things on visual/tactile inspection. They have excellent vision and tend to be very patient. [Amaryllis’ Notes: It’s not really clear whether it’s more to do with igno psychology or igno culture, but a very disproportionate number of them ended up being important members of the Second Empire.]

## Kle’tan

Claustrophilic tunnel dwellers, most comfortable when their movement is heavily constricted. For this purpose, kle’tan garb often includes as many pieces of elastic as possible, and where that’s not possible, they sometimes employ binding to give some tension to their movements when out in the wider world. Kle’tan traditionally fill their homes with as much as they possibly can, though they mimic the cleanliness of their ancestral burrows, rather than hoarding possessions (which is the stereotype). Also notable for having a strong odor of almonds to the human nose.

## Lenssi

Fluid with a skull in the center. The lenssi typically assume a humanoid form when not amongst their own kind. Though the fluid looks similar to water, it’s a biological solution unique to the lenssi which regenerates slowly if lost. If the skull in their center is destroyed, the lenssi will die, but they are otherwise immortal, even if the vast majority of their fluid is lost. Lenssi are incapable of producing speech sounds, instead relying on a gestural language system or written words.

## Lodona

A tall humanoid species. The lodona have a number of “moods” which alter their relative aptitude for different tasks. The lodona switch between “moods” by ingesting herbs native to their home continent, typically switching four or five times over the course of a day. To outside observers, a londona in a different “mood” might seem like a completely different person, but the lodona often liken it to the effects of alcohol on most humanoids. In the modern era, massive herb farms supply the lodona, with herbs typically consumed in the form of tea, a consequence of industrial drying processes and sterilizing bulk teleport. Lodona are vegetarian.

## Mezin

Mezin are a lanky species of climbers with elongated necks. Native to the cliffs of Cidium, their pre-civilization forebears spent most of their days climbing up and down the cliff walls, eating a combined diet of mosses, eggs from the local birds, and when they could catch them, the birds themselves. The mezin have the distinction of being one of the last species to be civilized, having never developed civilization on their own, despite being of quite keen intelligence. Once introduced to civilization, in 131 BE, they migrated nearly en masse, with very few left living on the cliffs they had long made their home. Curiously, even modern mezin have an enormous distaste for climbing, despite their universally good aptitude for it.

## Non-anima

Not technically one of the mortal species, but rather, the complete absence of species. Non-anima are nearly human in appearance, though with skin and hair more lacking in pigment, and red eyes, which aren’t typical of humans. There are two major concerns with non-anima. The first is that a variety of wards simply do not work on them, given their lack of a soul. The second is that infernals can possess them for extended durations with startling ease. Throughout the Empire of Common Cause, the non-anima are considered kill-on-sight; this includes at birth. (Non-anima appearance does lend some credence to the “default human” theory of specification.)

## Orc

Prior to Uther Penndraig, the largest orc civilizations were matriarchies, with a female head of each clan, a social organization due in part to the ease of orcish pregnancy and childbirth, along with the perilously high rate of death for adult orc males. Orcs were stronger, faster, and more physically fit than the average human, as well as being able to subsist on a much more varied diet. Following the defeat of the Dark King by Uther Penndraig, he began a radical campaign of alteration to the very fabric of orc society, starting by the effective decapitation of their matriarchy through extensive incarceration and utter destruction of their admittedly warlike culture. The orcs were further diminished by the Second Empire, though they never rose to the level of threat that other species did, and weathered the years better than most of the historically ‘malignant’ species.

## Parovartako

Parovartako are one of the species with variable biology, though not to the extent of the changelings, and of limited use in infiltration. Instead, the parovartako (paro) are capable of altering their physiology on a temporary basis to become more beastial, which increases their strength, dexterity, endurance, and typically gives them natural weapons such as sharp claws or rending teeth. This transformation can be done in part or in whole, lasting between ten minutes and two hours depending on the magnitude of transformation (greater transformation resulting in lesser time transformed). The paro are one of the ‘cloaked’ species, indistinguishable from humans without magic or biopsy.

## Penumbral

Penumbrals possess a ‘reverse photosynthesis’, feeding on shadows rather than light, a form of sustenance which is entirely magical in nature. In appearance, they’re roughly humanoid, with slightly smaller stature on average and generally remarked as having imperious features, with the primary distinguishing feature being that they have no pigmentation in their entire body aside from black, white, and shades of gray. Penumbrals require large amounts of shadow to live, and if given the option, will spend most of their day in complete darkness. More than four hours of sunlight per day are enough to make them ill, with more than six hours of direct sunlight being invariably fatal. Penumbrals are also possessed of unique specic shadow magic.

## Renacim

Rebirthers with a limited population of 20,000. When one dies, they will reincarnate within a few days, taking the place of the closest available embryo in an already-pregnant woman. Their skin is a vibrant pink. They have the skills and memories of their past lives at the same age, with skills and memory fading for long-ago lives, and less strong for ages older or younger than their current age. Renacim are extremely resilient with regards to effects that alter the soul, and in many cases, damage taken in one life will be completely erased at the beginning of the next, for unknown reasons.

## Rhannu

Rhannu are a humanoid species which engages in mitosis rather than sexual reproduction. After roughly thirty to forty years, the rhannu undergo compulsory splitting, with each descendant rhannu getting approximately half of the skills, memories, and personality of the original rhannu. Distribution is approximately equal in ‘volume’, but not in particulars, meaning that one might get almost all the memories at the expense of something else. Splits can also ‘misfire’, resulting in the death of one (or rarely, both) of the descendants. Rhannu society is largely structured around pairbonding of rhannu who are ‘off-cycle’ from each other, such that they can take care of each other when they’re in their vulnerable post-split state, which often involves some amount of relearning how to speak, walk, eat, etc. and might be likened to intensive physical therapy.

## Salin

The salin are a slave species, and though the identity and intent of their original creator has been lost to time, their peculiar physiology gives some hints as to what he/she/it might have had in mind. The salin are infovores, sustained by the creation and cataloging of information, with much of their actual efforts devoted to numeracy. Like many of the so-called slave species, salin are severely lacking in agency and have a strong tendency to become enthralled by other species, living in pseudo-slavery or otherwise abused. The majority of the salin work at the Athenaeum of Mathematics and Metaphysics, with the second largest cluster currently working for the goblins.

## Shellback

Shellbacks are one of the carapace species, though they don’t grow shells of their own, and rather, find them or make them from found parts. Aside from this peculiarity of their anatomy, they’re a typical scavenger species with manipulating tentacles ending in a beak-like protrusion that they use for cutting or acts of manipulation that require additional pressure. Psychologically, the shellback are possessed of an obsession for the found or refurbished, and a disdain for the newly created. A consequence of this has been that the shellbacks thrive in urban environments of other species, but are virtually incapable of sustaining a civilization of their own.

## Testudines

Testudines closely resemble anthropomorphic turtles, to the extent that it’s possible for a casual onlooker to confuse a testudine with a turtle Animalia. The primary difference is in the shell, which sits further forward on a testudine, and the articulation of the fingers, which is worse on a testudine (as is fine motor control in general). Testudines are commonly known for their tendency to hoard food, water, and personal possessions, even when such hoarding is wasteful or detrimental to their other goals. Successful testudines develop complex coping mechanisms to deal with these desires or to give them a safe and healthy outlet.

## Tuung

The tuung are an amphibious species that requires constant application of water to survive, typically delivered in the form of mister tanks when they’re not in an appropriately wet climate. Their species is notable for the ability of their females to determine the sex of the many eggs they hatch, as well as the wild changes in their male psychology when exposed to the proper female scent. Tuung are also notable for having virtually no members of their species within the Empire, largely as a result of their matriarchal gender-imbalanced societies, with rights abuses and living conditions that would disqualify them as members without reforms.

## Tywood

The tywoods are one of the more diminutive species, native to many of the deserts of the world, particularly those with large amounts of sand. They originally made small pits for themselves in the sands, each no bigger than their bodies, to wait out either intense midday heat or midnight cold depending on climate. Eventually the existence of the tywoods was changed forever by a variant of the same mold the dwarves used to process rock into food, which caused a population explosion as the tywood were no longer dependent on what little they could cultivate in the wild. Eventually, the tywood developed large undersand dwellings, supported against the crushing weight of the sands by their own unique architectural processes. Unlike traditional dwarves, tywood are typically welcoming of outsiders and were early adopters of successive waves of imperial cultures. In physical appearance, they’re lizard-like, with legs that bend backward.

*Extracted text ends here.*

### Ur-tyr

The ur-tyr were final product of Mendelian breeding magic before it's exclusion, created from tywoods by the Second Empire (breeding magic was easier to practice on egg-laying species because it required contact at the actual moment of fertilization.)

The ur-tyr have an isolationist city-state of Mendel in the Mendelian Fauna Exclusion Zone, as well as several colonies outside the Zone throughout the continent of Nostrail. By agreement with them, Imperial policy forbids attempts at entry to Mendel by the other mortal species. Ur-tyr culture appears to require that any births be overseen by the breeders in their capital, and they return to Mendel at regular intervals, preventing their colonies from being truly independent. They are generally isolationist, appear to have little interest in world affairs, and regard themselves as intellectually and morally superior to the other mortal species.

Historically, the ur-tyr successfully rebelled against the Second Empire's brutal breeding program (in which each obsolete generation was discarded as soon as they had reached breeding age and reproduced) at around the time that breeding magic was excluded; whether the exclusion was due to the project itself, or something the ur-tyr did with it after siezing control, is unclear. Thanks to the exclusion and the embarassment of the whole affair, the Second Empire did not pursue reprisals against them.

Although this isn't known to the public, Mendel contains a number of extremely dangerous ur-tyr breeding projects, which have required the Infinite Library's intervention to prevent the end of the world on eleven occasions.

***I could see the air quotes out of the corner of my eye.***

*The following is an extract from* Worth the Candle: A Brief Description of Aerb*.*

## Vitric

One of the three so-called ‘sapphic’ species, vitrics have only one physical sex and present as female. In terms of appearance, they’re characterized by blue hands, bald heads, and being somewhat larger in stature than male humans. Their principal advantage is their control of lightning, with that magic entirely locked to their species. Their skill with lightning (its power held within their blood), along with their longevity, has made them one of Aerb’s most powerful species, and since their proliferation beyond the island their kind began on, they’ve seen the most growth. When a vitric wants to have a child, she will seek out a male of (nearly) any of the mortal species and copulate with him, which will produce a pure-bred vitric.

## Yentrin

Yentrin have an extreme dimorphism, with the males being half the size of the females. When the yentrin mate, the female will absorb the male in a process that takes several years of constant contact, eventually leaving the pair permanently fused, with the bones of the male “passed” and many of the internal organs absorbed or repurposed. The yentrin female then ends up with a subordinate brain and the ability to self-fertilize. Yentrin society is largely segregated between males, females, and the bonded, as their lives, desires, and abilities are radically different from one another.

## Zildin

Males have young on their faces, attached to nipple-like growths that are covered up by the eel-like young. The eel-like young grow during the zildin’s equivalent to puberty, and remain on their face until they’re either used for impregnation of a female, or die through neglect, accident, et cetera. Zildin skin is a dark purple, and they’re hairless, with bumpy ridges where their eyebrows would be. Female zildin tend to be larger than the males, with darker skin and a stronger frame.

*Extracted text ends here.*

## References

1. ↑ “Posttraumatic stress disorder,” I replied. “You’d call it shellshock, or maybe combat neuroses?”

“ERD,” said Amaryllis. “Event response disorder.”

[...]

“Ah, I think I’m well familiar with the phenomenon,” said Bethel. “Tell me, does it take one hundred times longer to induce it in the Ell?”

“Yes,” said Raven. She seemed to be holding her breath. - Chapter 123: Medieval Stasis
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 “But how did your sleep actually work?” I asked. “I mean … are you just out hard when you’re asleep? How can you actually make it through a month without being interrupted? How do you survive without food?”

“You invented the Ell,” said Raven. “You tell me.”

“Huh,” I said. “I mean, I didn’t actually put that much thought into it. Sorry. If I *had,* I think my answer would be that the Ell have a bunch of adaptations that you might find in a human, like new parents waking up for a brief few minutes to take care of their infant then going back to sleep, but new parents are perpetually sleep-deprived, so I don’t know if that’s a good model. Maybe it’s just brief moments of groggy lucidity before returning to sleep, like a bear in hibernation. And Ell metabolism pretty much has to be fucky in order to follow the multiply-by-one-hundred rule. I doubt that you eat enough to get through a whole month of sleep, because if you did, you would have, uh, BMR times whatever, something like a hundred thousand calories, which would be what, twenty-eightish pounds of fat?”

“You love math,” said Raven with a nod.

“I’m not sure that I love math,” I replied. “I love answers. Math helps to find answers, so I like it, at least some of the time. So what *is* the answer?” I felt mildly embarrassed that I hadn’t asked before. I didn’t even know how she *ate,* except that she did.

“A few of our organs are extradimensional,” said Raven. “You can actually kill an Ell with a fairly basic ward against the unique magic of our species.”

“Huh,” I said. “And to use the adapted human analogy, you … drink by having lots of sips and eat by having lots of small snacks, effectively?”

“Effectively,” replied Raven with a nod. “Though we can eat in bulk, if we wish to.”

 *But what about pooping?*

“You’re wondering about bowel movements and urination,” said Raven. She sighed.

“I was,” I said. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” replied Raven. “I’ve gotten the question so often that I know the particular feel to the silence it engenders when someone is holding back.”

We sat for a moment.

“I’ll look it up later,” I said.

“Thank you,” said Raven. “And please never discuss it with me.”

I nodded at that.

(I did end up looking it up later. It wasn’t a subject that came up in *The Book of Blood,* which was more concerned with which species Ell could reproduce with (the same as humans), how long their sex lasted (hours), what pregnancy was like (really, really long), and other questions that had occurred to Alek Syfriend and been only partly cut out by successive editors. Instead, I found a book in Sable’s library that covered all the various species specific magics in detail, until eventually I got to the entry on Ell. Apparently, they had poops that lasted for roughly twenty minutes, which expelled a huge amount of waste that needed special logistics that other species didn’t have to deal with. This was one of those things that probably would have made me scrap the Ell if I had thought of it when I was making them, because it was silly and gross, but I had been a young, reckless worldbuilder.) - Chapter 169: The No Sleep Club
3. ↑ “That’s *crazy,* ” said Valencia. “Farts are great.”

“I wouldn’t say they’re great,” I said.

“They’re funny,” said Fenn, through a mouthful of slushie.

“They’re not that funny,” said Raven from the back. I looked back there, and the locus was curled up with her head on Raven’s lap, taking a nap.

“Wait,” said Fenn from the front. “Are Ell farts —”

“Yes,” said Raven. - Chapter 249: There's No Knowing Where We're Going
4. ↑ The Ell took longer to learn things than the other mortal species, but not a hundred times as long, which meant that Masters would in theory have had time to learn some other discipline as well. If I ballparked him as looking about fifty years old, then he was really five thousand years old, which was … well, daunting to say the least. - Chapter 110: Bubblegum
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 The Ell were one of the earliest races that I ever made, the kind of sloppy worldbuilding that you’d expect from a ten-year-old. They looked human, but lived a hundred times slower. That meant that when they slept, it was 800 hours, not eight. Their meals were one hundred times bigger, but spread out over one hundred times longer. There was a lot about the concept that hadn’t made too much sense when you thought about it, but they existed on Aerb, and all the rough edges of that amateur effort had been sanded down in various ways.

“You trained with the Elon Gar,” said Valencia.

Masters nodded once, cautiously. “It’s not uncommon for my people,” he said. “Sleep is more of a thief to us than almost any of the other mortal species.” - Chapter 108: The Dream That Skewers
6. ↑ “It’s always the same arguments,” said Raven, shortly after he was out the door. “They say that’s how it is among the Ell, that we’re slow to change our minds, but he goes beyond that. He never *listens,* not to me, not where Uther is concerned.” - Chapter 141: Monty Haul
7. ↑ “I hadn’t quite been Ell, when I was with Uther, and I can feel that I’m no longer quite that with you. Ell have this infuriating way of failing at things, over and over, making the same mistakes a hundred more times than a human would. You can shortcut it by realizing where you’ll eventually end up and just forcing it, even though you aren’t quite there mentally, but not all of us do. Sometimes you have to burn your hand on the stove a hundred times just to have it sink in.” - Chapter 206: Parallel Lines
8. ↑ Raven got sick not too long after. I’d worried that she was just going to die, or possibly explode, but instead she passed through another door of the Long Stairs and doubled over in pain, clutching her chest and stomach.

“Well, that’s it for you,” said Fenn with a sigh. “Come on, I’ll guide you back to the maze Landing and we’ll wait it out.” The way she said it, it was like she’d been waiting for some excuse to fuck off and not be with us anymore. After everything she’d said, I was surprised that she’d kept going after we were done with the labyrinth Landing.

“No,” said Raven. “Give me a second, I’ll be fine.” She was panting hard. The Ell had massive internal extradimensional space as one way of allowing for their ridiculous conceit, and I had no idea what was physically happening to her, only that it couldn’t have been good.

Uther knelt down next to her. “It’s your time to go,” he said. “I’ve appreciated seeing you one last time, but if you go further, you will die.” - Chapter 243: Long Memory
9. ↑ Some of the Ell were targeted by the Second Empire, mostly for their money, but I was spared, because the Second Empire pretended to be the heir to the First Empire - Chapter 169: The No Sleep Club
10. ↑ “So we’re left with what you remember?” asked Raven, sinking slightly in her chair.

“Yes,” I replied. “You have to understand that Aerb draws on *everything,* nearly a decade of work, a lot of it throwaway stuff, some hasty or poorly thought out, especially the earlier things,” *like the Ell,* - Chapter 146: Terrors of the Black Age
11. ↑ Worth the Candle: The Exclusionary Principle, 9th Edition - Chapter 54: Æ
12. ↑ Worth the Candle: The Exclusionary Principle, 9th Edition - Chapter 13: Mendel