Familiars

**Familiars** are summoned companions that optionally serve individual characters as friend and guardian. A Familiar is bound to their Master's Aether; They will never be more powerful than their owner. They will possess the same magic type - if a Master specializes in White Magic, they will as well (*See Character Creation for Magic Types*).

Master and Familiar are able to communicate telepathically, while all Familiars past Stage 1 are able to communicate verbally in addition. Their connection allows them to feel each other's emotions and locate each other when separated. A Master can summon and unsummon their Familiar at will once in possession of the Beast Pact ability.

While they are summons, they have physical bodies that can be harmed. Should a Familiar be wounded excessively, they will unsummon by force and their Master will be unable to re-summon them until they have recovered from the damage (*if a Familiar gets eliminated in a battle, you may not use it for the rest of the battle, but it can return afterwards*). Familiars cannot die.

Familiar have their own personalities, opinions and feelings. They may or may not get along flawlessly with their Master. In rare cases, a Familiar may disobey their Master's orders, in which case their emotional connection must be improved. They are sexless, but may pick a pronoun preference for themselves. Given this fact, Familiars are unable to breed, although they can develop romantic feelings.

Should a user be unhappy with a character's Familiar, they are free to purchase design and statistic changes via the group's Shop.

**Familiars are not to be treated as replacement for playable characters.**

## Beast Pact Regalia

A jewel that will find its way into an individual's possession once Yggdrasil considers the person worthy of summoning a Familiar (the roleplayer of the individual will decide when that time comes for their character and what marks them as "worthy" in their own personal development). For some it might appear right upon entering Yggdrasil's Realm, while others may obtain it as time passes. The jewel will bind to the individual's Aether upon use and disappear.

Each Familiar Stage possesses an own Regalia, and will have to be activated and bond to a person's Aether to summon the related Stage. Masters have the freedom of summoning their Familiar in any unlocked Stage (*i.e. even if the Familiar has unlocked Stage 5, the owner may still summon a smaller Stage if desired. Stage 1 Familiars who were evolved before will be capable of speech*).

## Evolution

Familiar Evolution is triggered if the relationship between Master and Familiar deepens, and the Familiar is trained enough to take on new challenges. The Master will be granted the next Stage Regalia by Yggdrasil.

When the evolution happens, the Familiar will unsummon briefly, then return to their Master's side in their evolved stage. It is not untypical that evolution happens in the middle of crisis situations. Evolutions do not have to follow a particular pattern. Whether the features of a previous stage are are kept similar or entirely different in the next stage is entirely up to preference (*For example: A Familiar that had a feline start can either rank up into strictly feline stages or wildly jump through various species. It will not have to stick to a feline evolution line*).

Evolution has to be unlocked before it can happen in canon (*see requirements below*). All Stages of Familiar have to be approved before they can be made canon. Make sure to double check ideas that go outside the "Accepted" category before creation. If your companion differs heavily from the requirements, it will be declined.

## Evolution Stages

#### Stage 1

* **Requirements:** Character must obtain Beast Pact Regalia in canon (via submission or roleplay)
* **Abilities:** Wield the basics of one element of choice, Speak only in baby language or sounds, Float
* **Appearance:** Tiny in size. Weak and clumsy like toddlers.
	+ **Acceptable:** Facial Features, Beaks, Feet, Item Resemblance
	+ **Review needed:** Great resemblance to animals - Wings, Hooves, Tails, Paws, Animal Ears