Werefolk

**Werefolk** or **Werepeople** are human-beast hybrids born out of experiments with forbidden magic in the attempt to create soldiers capable of using magic like magical beasts. The resulting hybrids are able to shapeshift between their human and Emperor Beast forms, use all elements like a human, and use true magic, but lack beasts' natural affinity to certain elements as well as beast's instincts and the skills of an Awakened.

Werefolk possess two mana cores and two life forces, preventing them from Awakening or bonding to a cursed object due to being fused to their beast half. They can't Awaken because their two cores need to be refined at the same time and they are unable to control them separately, making their output unstable. They have a breathing technique in which the twin cores breathe in what the other breathes out, wasting no world energy and generating a slow, constant flow. Werefolk are different from normal hybrids because by having a second body and a second core, each life force has its respective space, keeping the conflict between them from reaching a critical point. A werefolk's smell, like beasts, is their most developed sense.

Werefolk are highly sought after by all races, as they wish to look for a way to get access to the Fringes. Very few would respect a werefolk's privacy - even the elders of the beast Council would spare no effort to squeeze the secret out of them. Werepeople hate humans for using Forbidden Magic on them and for turning them into hybrids.

On the rare occasions when Werepeople tribes contacted each other, they would use a broken rune to recognize one of their kind and guarantee their sincerity. The runes have no real magical property, but are just the experimental serial number that the humans had used to identify the different tribes of Werepeople. The rune symbolizes their shared past and its broken state is a memento of the day when they had freed themselves. To all tribes, the act of breaking an oath taken upon their ancestral symbol is akin to stooping as low as humans.

Each tribe of Werepeople has its own ritual to attract Mogar's attention.

## Abilities

The werefolk's two cores grant them double the mana and twice the effects of fusion magic, but they can only use one life force at a time. Their senses are so sharp that they can perceive even the aura of things like arrays and mana crystals even while in human form.

Hybrids don't live as briefly as humans nor as long as Emperor Beasts. Their average lifespan amounts to 150 years, but they age well and due to their beast half, Werepeople retain most of their muscle mass.

## History

After the experiment, the werefolk ancestors broke out of their cells, drank the blood of mages to quench their thirst, and then feasted upon the arrogant nobles families who had commissioned the job. They ancestors tried to live among the beasts, but because of their human minds, their society was hard to cope with. Moreover, their reproductive preferences remain unchanged, no matter the nature of their animal half.

Living among humans turned out to be impossible as well - the werefolk tried to hide their magical talents at all times, but were drive away from civilization by the fear of being discovered and being subject to experiments again. Adults could hide their abilities, but kids were hard to handle while newborns can be born in animal form and shapeshift according to their stress levels.

The werefolk withdrew from the world, taking up residence in Mogar's Fringes where they could live in peace and find a way to remove the duality in their nature, to succeed where their makers had failed. The werefolk are cut off from Mogar, don't belong to any of the four races, and cannot evolve further. Throughout history, when a Living Legacy couldn't be contained nor destroyed, it was entrusted to one of the clans for safekeeping.

Over the centuries, the Rezar and Dewan tribes became so blinded by their grief that they had turned the safe haven that the Fringe was into a prison of their own making. By cutting all ties with the outside world and by relying on Mogar for everything, they clipped their own wings. They kept not finding answers simply because they failed to understand that they were asking the wrong questions.

## Rezars

A nearly extinct tribe of Werefolk bonded to the **Rezar** species of Emperor Beasts, with the appearance of humanoid Pangolins. They were entrusted to guard Dawn by an Elder Phoenix named Lady Sinmara after the latter defeated her. Over time, the tribe exchanged company for her knowledge about all kinds of light magic, hoping that Body Sculpting would help them find a way to merge their twin essences and put her skills to good use. They never succeeded, but over time they became legendary Healers and Light Masters and became known as the **Lightkeepers**. The Rezars used a broken water rune.

The Rezars had given up on Mogar, putting all their hopes in Dawn's teaching and her ever-increasing mastery of light magic. Even though Dawn was a monster, they could relate to her. Also, unlike with Mogar, thanks to the complex array system that Sinmara had taught them, the Rezars had been able to subdue Dawn at any time, forcing her to do their bidding. Dawn was locked inside a chest, hidden in the chieftain's house, and protected by several arrays they inherited from their ancestors. However, she used light magic to see outside her prison and seduced Acala into bonding with her, annihilating the Rezars. The last surviving member is Nalrond.

### Rezar Fringe

The Rezars' Fringe is bigger than Lutia, with orange-streaked tall grass, a gentle spring breeze carrying the smell of rain, luxurious green meadows that extend as far as the eye can see, fruit trees with blue streaks covering their brown bark and branches filled with ripe fruits. Small animals resembling silver furred chinchillas and bright feathered birds reside there. After the Rezars' Fringe merged with the Dewans' Fringe, it gained a thick mass of tall trees.

There are grasslands as far as the eye can see and at the horizon woods so big that they dwarf the Trawn woods. Behind them is nothing but the silvery fog that separates the Fringe from the rest of Mogar. It forms a dome that becomes visible only when up close. Even from a few meters of distance, the fog reflects its surroundings like a mirror, giving the Fringe the impression to be boundless. The thick mist is comprised of pure world energy that allows the distorted space to remain stable, no matter what happens both inside and outside the dome.

### Communication Ritual

The Rezar ritual requires drawing the ancestral runes Mogar welcomed them with the first time they entered their Fringe and another to conjure the world energy. It works in a way similar to Forgemastering circles. The drawn circles are comprised of six runes, each a different element, that generate an artificial flow of world energy to open a channel to Mogar. The circles have to be recharged periodically to keep them from fading away. The runes are merely containers for the mana necessary to boost the energy signature of its user to the point that it appears as powerful as that of a Guardian. The werefolk caster only has to practice the same meditation technique they use to draw upon the world energy and hasten the recovery of their twin cores. With each breath, the Spirit Magic of the circle and the world energy mixes inside their body, until they extend their consciousness towards a light that shines from above them.

The elders believed in mixing their blood into the ground of the magic circles with earth magic as a way to pay respects to the Great mother, as life comes from Mogar and to Mogar it has to return, though Quylla disproves this and reveals that the ritual merely establishes a mind link to meet Mogar as an equal and the great number of circles serves as a shield to protect the caster's sanity.

## Dewans

A tribe of Werefolk bonded to the **Dewan** species of Emperor Beasts. Their Dewan halves resemble a giant humanoid rhinoceros, grey-skinned with small black eyes barely visible behind the three horns on the muzzle and the two upward tusks coming from the mouth. Their hands and feet only have four fingers. They are taller and heavier than Rezars, yet incredibly nimble thanks to their affinity for air and water magic. Their thick skin and powerful muscles make them akin to heavy infantry units that move as fast as cavalry. While hybrid Rezars had been developed for mining operations, Dewans are living weapons. The Dewans use a broken fire rune.

The Dewans' knowledge of magic is quite outdated. Having the same abilities as Emperor Beasts, they can practice all elements and specializations, but without ingredients their ability as Forgemasters, Wardens, and Alchemists are limited. On top of that, having spent centuries in peace and isolation had slowed down their magical research. The lack of any form of interaction with the outside world meant no threats but also no free exchange of information. The Dewans also have no concept of Runesmithing or Forgemastering spells.

Elves lived inside the Fringe for long before the Dewans' arrival and had the monopoly of the mystical resources that had formed over time. After the Rezar Tribe was wiped out, the Dewan's Fringe fused with the Rezar tribe's Fringe. The Dewan tribe were lacking resources in their previous Fringe so they migrated to the ruins of the Rezar tribe's village. They had long given up on asking Mogar's advice after losing too many talented youths and elders to the communication ritual. With Nalrond's arrival, the Dewans hoped to become powerful enough to protect themselves once forced outside the Fringe by Mogar, but his refusal to share Light Mastery leads the Dewan elder Kimo Bahn to strike a deal with the elves led by Elf Lord M'rael to capture Nalrond and his companions in exchange for learning Light Mastery.

* Kimo Bahn
* Sephe Bahn
* Yunma

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 882
2. ↑ Chapter 978
3. ↑ Chapter 883
4. ↑ Chapter 1065
5. ↑ Chapter 876
6. ↑ Chapter 1432
7. ↑ Chapter 1552: Mutated Monsters (Part 2)
8. ↑ Chapter 1120
9. ↑ Chapter 1158
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Chapter 1172
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Chapter 1173
12. ↑ Chapter 875
13. ↑ Chapter 1049
14. ↑ Chapter 1148
15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Chapter 1158
16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 Chapter 883
17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 Chapter 1199
18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Chapter 884
19. ↑ Chapter 1151
20. ↑ Chapter 1156
21. ↑ Chapter 1181
22. ↑ Chapter 1184
23. ↑ Chapter 1183
24. ↑ Chapter 1171
25. ↑ Chapter 1174
26. ↑ Chapter 1157
27. ↑ Chapter 1225
28. ↑ Chapter 1186