Coguine

## **Biology**

**Purity:** 20%>

Generally considered to be a trash species, a Coguine is pretty much any creature that’s sapient but doesn’t fit the requirements for any pre-existing species. Almost all of these creatures are born as a result of breaking the 20% rule, which has led to many major deformities. Incompatible genes will fight for dominance, and oftentimes multiple dominant genes will try to exhibit themselves at the same time. Coguine at best look like an impure monstrosity, and at worse will live a short and miserable life. By definition, a Coguine is only a creature whose deformed due to breaking the 20% rule. On very rare occasions a recognized species can be born when it’s parents break this rule, such as a Satyr being born to a Kodin and a Human, but this isn’t the norm.

What a Coguine looks like varies by region. Typically, they’ll most closely resemble two of an area’s most common species. A Coguine from Vertgate may resemble both a Kodin and a Human, whereas a Coguine from Tuf may look like a Sinvian. Some may not even resemble an existing species at all due to deformities, and some may look more like an animal species rather than a pure being. The possibilities are endless, seeing as any creature can interbreed due to the effects of Blue Magic.

Coguine are riddled with genetic deformities, many of which cannot be seen just by looking at them. They’re a weak and sickly “species”, if you can even call them that, who usually don’t live all that long. In general a Coguine will only live half as long as it’s parent species would have. Because of this, many people of Mirror Domain will have them culled at birth to negate the issue. That, and so the parents don’t have to deal with the social backlash.

## **Personality**

Coguine are often a sad and depressed race. Society looks down on them and condemns them. Many are cast out from the general population from an early age, causing them to be more unintelligent than most. Those who have managed to weasel their way into society are essentially wet doormats. They’ll let anyone and everyone walk all over them just so they don’t have to be alone. Behaviour varies from species to species, which has led to many Coguine acting strangely or irrationally. They’ll inherent behaviours and quirks from both of their parents, and more often than not these behaviours will conflict in some way.

Areas with a higher Coguine population will usually have slums or ghettos where they’re confined to. This has led to many Coguine to form gangs or factions where they take out their frustrations on higher beings. Violence is very common when they get in a large group, even amongst themselves. Coguine often get into arguments with each other for petty reasons, like who’s most pure or who can pass as another species better. Many of these arguments end in violence.

## **Civilization/Culture**

Coguine don’t typically have much influence when it comes to global culture/tradition. They’re a hated race that people would much rather forget about. Whenever a Coguine makes some sort of innovation, the success is either swept aside or taken by another higher creature. That said, Coguine have somewhat formed a few of their own countries. A place where their kind runs rampant and racism is less prominent than other parts of the world. Most of the Coguine that live in the countries of Tuf, Fairn, and Verdant are isolated. The few that do socialize are more radical forms of the factions that tend to form in other parts of the world.

Oddly enough, in areas where Coguine are prominent, the Coguine there tend to value lower purity. Being a high purity Coguine is more or less a death sentence. Neuter higher purities or other Coguine want to deal with them. Most Coguine want to be freed from the confines of the purity scale, and the only way they know how to do that is to dirty their genes to the point where they aren’t considered pure beings at all. The lower one’s purity is, the closer they are to being “free”.

Body modification is extremely prominent when it comes to Coguine. They’ll either make themselves look as pure as possible by any means possible, or make themselves as monstrous and animal-like as they possibly can. What side they lean towards depends on the area they live in. Those who live in an area with a lower Coguine population will generally make themselves look more like the native races in order to better fit in. Those who lean towards the monstrous side will go all out. Tattoos, piercings, and even more extreme things like amputation. This has proven to work when it comes to “escaping” the purity scale. Those with modifications like this are usually mistaken as animals or Demons.

Coguine are generally considered to be jack of all trades. Given they can have pretty much any skill set from any race they’re made up of, they’re able to specialize or excel in just about anything. That said, most higher beings will either use them as slaves, servants, or lowly workers. Individuals are commonly paid very little for the jobs they do, because higher beings see it as the equivalent of having a slightly more intelligent work animal. Payment in the form of goods is more common than actual money.

## **Relations**

The other races of Mirror Domain detest Coguine. Even lowly races like Sinvian take solace in knowing that there’s still something beneath them. Those who aren’t killed at birth are used as societies punching bags. It’s not unheard of for abuse or murders to get swept aside because the victim was a Coguine. Breaking the 20% rule is one of society's biggest taboos, and the resulting offspring have to bear that burden for the rest of their lives. The only place where Coguine are tolerated, other than their newly formed countries/territories, is Havenlyn. They aren’t accepted with open arms, but people will put up with their existence. Some of the Coguine of Havenlyn have been able to live relatively normal lives.

## **History**

Coguine have been around since the very beginning of Mirror Domain’s history, although they weren’t recognized as their own race until after the initial purity scale overhaul back in 3426BDI. Species have always been able to interbreed, therefore Coguine have always been a possibility. Many pure species started out with the Coguine label as well. Even after being recognized as a race, it wasn’t until 3152 BDI when people started understanding where they came from. Once they were linked to the 20% rule it was downhill from there. After being linked to breaking the 20% rule many people rallied to get Coguine stricken from the purity scale entirely. Luckily for them, as hated as they were, people realized that most Coguine were still sapient creatures and that removing them from the scale would only cause more problems in the future. Why bother starting wars or inciting violence when the majority of the species won't even survive into adulthood.

## **Religion**

Generally speaking Coguine do not follow a set religion. Those who do will more often than not follow the predominant one in the region they live in. If it’s Sinvian dominated, they’ll follow Dreamer. Human dominated and they’ll follow Tilvet. That being said, given the stigma surrounding Coguine as a whole, most of them have turned away from religion.

## **Languages**

When it comes to languages Coguine are all over the place. Not only do they speak whatever language is dominant in their region, many of them due to physical malformations are able to speak in either Whispers or Bellows, even if their parent species is unable to do so. This can prove to be beneficial at times, especially in areas where these languages aren’t commonly understood.

## **Names**

Most Coguine do not survive into adulthood for one reason or another. Because of this, parents of Coguine don’t often name their offspring. A lot of the ones that do happen to survive into their early teens or even adulthood have been left nameless. As such, they’re left no either name themselves or adopt whatever name the community has taken to calling them. Those who name themselves will pick names based on things they like or things that make them happy. It’s one of the few choices they get in life, so they may as well make it a good one. Some of them will intentionally pick their name as a means of pissing people off or making people leave them alone. Demonic names are relatively common in Coguine factions or areas of the world where they’re more common. Without context of their species, other pure creatures will avoid a person with a name in Demonic.

## **Adventures**

Coguine aren’t wanted anywhere, so most of them see no reason to leave their homes in search of a “better life”. A better life simply doesn’t exist for the majority. Why put in the time and effort to travel if wherever you end up is going to be more of the same? It just isn’t worth it. Most of the time when you see a Coguine traveling it’s because it’s traveling with a trusted friend, boss, or slave owner and not of their own volition. They may also up and move if a particularly bad disaster strikes their home, but other than that they’re a pretty sedentary race.

## **Abilities**

One of the few upsides to being a Coguine is their physical abilities. Those who are strong enough to survive into adulthood almost always have at least one major advantage over other pure creatures. Many Coguine are also sorcerers. They can replenish their Mana very quickly, which in turn allows them to use magic far more often. That said, while they are naturally tied to magic, many of them have low Mana. A Coguine may be able to replenish their Magic very quickly, but they aren't able to learn very powerful Magic without years of study.

Physical abilities are all over the place with Coguine. It all boils down to what their parent species are. They have the potential to inherit any manner of ability from both of their parents. They could get lucky and inherit desirable traits from both, or they could get unlucky and get downsides from both. It’s all left up to chance at that point.