Unicorns

Unicorns are a race of soul-bearing beings in Tirónar native to the tropical regions beyond the Southern Mountains, specifically Tandeli.

Unicorn changelings are called Nomes. Unlike many other beings, Unicorns and Nomes have become significantly estranged from each other, with stark cultural and behavioral differences

## History

Unicorns lived throughout the Ayuda Forest and beyond in some cases. However, when the Waldren Trading Company colonised what would become Tandeli, they began to hunt unicorns. Back then they exhibited a wider range of colours, and a significantly longer horn, the average of which was about 50cm long. It was said that the horn of a ‘fairy horse’ (an old name for unicorns) was lucky.

This began several centuries of hunting unicorns for sport and profit, in which the population dropped dramatically, and the unicorns retreated deep into the dense and treacherous jungle, where Waldren couldn’t follow them.

Over the years it became less about the money and more about the prestige and showing off your wealth. You had the time to spend days, weeks in the Ayuda forest, doing nothing but hunting for unicorns? You must be filthy rich!

When Waldren left, the practice died down a bit, but still continued in some places. The newly appointed Royal family and high up political families would still hunt for sport. Although now that Waldren was gone, it wasn’t as damaging as it was.

This practice continued until 1586 when war on Grancinco was announced. Suddenly there was no time for such leisurely activities, especially with multiple rebel groups trying to stop the war. Once the Revolution was complete, the political shake up also left no time for such pursuits, and then Head Advisor Thomas actively banned the practice.

This caused a lot of outcry among some influential families, so the ‘rationale’ was given. The centuries of hunting had decimated the population and gotten rid of the more spectacular coats. Give them time to recover, they’ll be more to hunt, and the coats would be better. Naturally, of course, Thomas did not say how long.

In the modern day numbers are still low, but steadily rising. The Armoured Branch of Tandeli’s Armed Forces as the secondary duty of stopping illegal hunts in the Ayuda forest.

### Modern Day

The current population of unicorns is alarmingly low, approx. 100 individuals. It is likely the species will go through a genetic bottleneck, but should come out of the other side. These 100 individuals are all part of the same herd, banding together for safety, and having a total herd range of 100km2 within the Ayuda forest. This is something of a superherd, twice the size of a normal herd. Their population has been slowly climbing since Head Advisor Thomas outlawed their hunting.

A large number of unicorn pelts, horns, mounted heads and frankly poor taxidermies of unicorns exist in Estalta and Triti.

Tierra Mélgica has a unicorn on its flag because it is a widely known species that has been studied extensively from hunting records. It is a symbol of knowledge to some and to others a sign that there is more to learn, as unicorns are now so elusive and mysterious.

## Physical Traits

Unicorns are ruminant beings that resemble the real-life Okapi, but colourful and with a horn. The main body is solid colored, with a paler colour for muzzle and legs and stripes on the legs and rump. Colour can vary, although colours found in the natural habitat or more muted are more common, green, brown, black, red.

They have standard herbivore teeth and a long, black, prehensile tongue.

They have a single horn just taller than their ears, about 15cm (male and female). Their horns do not shed, but continue to grow throughout most of their life, going from a small nub to just taller than their ears in most cases, approx. 15cm. Some have been known to grow taller or have unusual shapes, but those are few and far between. Their horns have a live bone core with a thick layer of keratin protecting it. It is completely bare, and the same colour as an individual’s predominant coat colour. Horns generally have a spiral pattern, and are wide at the base, tapering to a point.

There is little sexual dimorphism. As a general rule, the females are taller and heavier than the males, by a max average of 25cm and 50kg.

Calves are almost entirely striped when they are born, and over time the white fades into the same kind of pattern as the adults. Although each stripe pattern is unique.

Their eyesight is not as good as their sense of hearing and smell, however, their sight is good enough to determine body language, recognise individuals and see horn glows.

### Extinct Variants

There used to be unicorns existing within the southern mountains and the calorona desert. The mountain variants had more goat-like feet, and the desert ones had camel-like feet, lighter colours, and larger ears. These variants no longer exist, hunted to extinction by high officials of the Waldren Trading Company and later prestigious families of Tandeli.

## Social Traits

Naturally shy and skittish. In danger, they are more likely to flee, use their surroundings to hide, or turn invisible. Despite being designed as a prey animal, unicorns have no true natural predator. However, there is still the risk that large predators may take the chance, such as big cats. In recent history, those large predators have been humans, and as such, Unicorns are still highly wary of them to this day. To allies, they are friendly and affectionate.

They are herbivores, and as a rule, don’t cook their food. They may use fire as a source of heat or entertainment. Cooking may occur on specials occasions.

They're usually found in the Ayuda Forest, as far from human settlements as they can get. They will shelter within natural hollows and use their magic to construct shelters from the wind and rain.

### Social Dynamics

Largely solitary, although there is often territory cross over and individuals will visit each other. To better explain the crossover, think of a Venn diagram, overlapping circles right? That more or less sums up a unicorn’s territory; they have their own space, and space that is part of their territory that is also shared with others, which they don’t mind so much.

As a general rule, an individual will have a range of approx. 1km2, with the crossover described above. They will have an area within the centre of their range which is about 200m2 (about twice the size of a soccer field). This is their space and their space alone. Another individual cannot enter this area without permission.

The only time they will remain in the company of others for more than a few days if they are young or with calves. Then there will be a loose family structure until the young can fend for themselves (around 5 years old on average). While they are in this loose family structure, it’s more likely they will visit other unicorns, especially if they also have a calf. It is to help the calf learn to behave around unicorns that aren’t family.

### Herd Roles

Despite not being too social, they do exist in herd-like groups. A group of overlapping territories in one area can be considered a herd. Within that herd, there are some established roles, such as healer, magic tutor, elder leader, and patrollers.

A healer is exactly how it sounds, a unicorn who specialises in healing magic. They don’t have as large of a range, making them easier to find. Since they don’t have as big a range to find food, patients or members of the herd will leave food for the healer. The healer can also of course travel to an area within the herd where there is plentiful food that is not within any one individual territory. There may also be a midwife, although the healer can also fill that role.

A magic tutor is, again, how it sounds. Parents will usually teach their young magic, but if they wish to continue to learn magic, they can seek the magic tutor, who will also take food in exchange. The magic tutor also holds the knowledge of magic that unicorns frown upon, such as destructive and combat spells. These spells are rarely taught, usually only to the unicorn who was set on becoming the next magic tutor for the herd.

The elder is the oldest, and therefore supposedly wisest of the herd. They can summon any of the herd or all of them. Unicorns will go to them for advice, and should there be some issue with another herd, the two elders will meet. They will often decide where an exact territory will begin and end, and where the communal areas of the herd are.

The patroller’s area group of unicorns who patrol their herd’s borders, watching for humans, large cats and other dangers to the herd, as well as constructing natural looking fences were necessary. They will call for the elder if needed. Despite their role, they are not particularly combative. They are more likely to observe silently before reporting back. If they are spotted, they will either run into the brush or use their magic to obstruct their opponents' path or make themselves invisible.

Communal areas within the herd’s territory-usually where there is a large amount of food or water present, and it wouldn’t really be fair for them to be in the territory of one unicorn.

### Language

Unicorns can't speak human languages in the conventional sense, yet despite what Waldren settlers thought, unicorns do have a language. It is not an immediately recognisable language, as it is made up of ‘animal like’ sounds such as chuffs and snorts, body language, and horn glowing. It is not known if any human has ever convered with a unicorn.

### Life Cycle

Unicorns reach what is basically puberty around 4 years old, and leave their parents at around 5. However, they won’t start a family until the age of 10 usually. It’s more of a cultural thing than a biological thing. They will usually only have one calf, although twins have happened. These partnerships are monogamous, but not for life. A mated pair will stay together until their calf reaches adulthood (or, unfortunately, otherwise dies, once the grieving process is over), after that, they will split apart. Another partnership can be formed with a different individual.

Their lifespan is generally 30-40 years. When one of their herd dies, they just know. The elder and their closest friends will collect the body and leave it at one of Tandeli’s rare Fae Gardens. No matter how long it takes, they will find the garden, if humans didn’t take the body first.

## Magic

Like all beings with souls, unicorns have magic, which unlocks by default around adolescence.

All unicorns learn magic by the time they reach adulthood. Their magic has a unique, delicate marker, and is usually used as a form of telekinesis, which they are very skilled at. It is used to collect food, construct shelters and or use tools. Another key factor of their magic is horn glowing, which can be done for a variety of reasons, but often in communication. Other common spells are invisibility, making lights in the air, healing and making small flames. Each unicorn’s horn glows a different colour, which tends to match their predominant coat colour. It can change though with some practice.

### Physical Focuses

Unlike humans and their mind-based magical focuses, unicorns have something called a physical focus. Physical focuses do the exact same job as their mental counterparts but focus the magic through a physical trait, rather than a phycological intent. This is a trait they share with dragons, whose physical focus is their eyes. For unicorns, this physical feature is their horns. Unicorn magic is much more gentle than dragon magic.

A unicorn's horn is the physical focuses of the magic in their souls, in the same way that a human's eyes are a physical feature that lets us focus the light coming from the outside world into an image. Just as other animals use things like echolocation to "see" instead of using eyes, in this world, some creatures focus the magic of their souls through a mental focus instead of a physical one.

If a human loses their eyes, they can't necessarily find a new way of seeing, but they can still use their other senses to get around and get a sense of their surroundings. We might not ever develop echolocation, but we can still make it work. Just like how, if someone loses their tongue (a physical thing that lets us focus vibrations of our throats into communication) or otherwise becomes mute, they can still communicate through sign language.

Therefore, if a unicorn lost their horn, they could still do magic, but it would be very difficult to adapt. They'd have to learn from scratch (i.e. unlock it again), and it would never be as precise as the magical skills they had before because they'd be stuck with all the downsides of a mental focus, where you have to be very self-aware as a person to hone it into something useful and controllable.

To go back to the blindness analogy: Humans are designed to use eyes to see. They are not designed to use echolocation. However, if they go blind, they can learn to "see" through listening to the world around them, though not as clearly as they would with sight, nor as clearly as an animal designed to use echolocation could interpret those sounds.

Similarly, unicorns are designed to use horns to focus their magic. They are not designed to use mental focuses. However, if they lose their physical focus, they can learn to focus their magic mentally, though not as precisely and easily as they would with their physical focus, nor as easily as a being designed to use a mental focus to cast magic.

TL;DR: Yes, beings with physical focuses could learn to use a mental focus if they lost their physical focus and thrive with this disability, but it would be an incredibly difficult learning curve and would put them at an inherent disadvantage.

## Changelings

> *See Also: Nome (Unicorn Changeling)*
>
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Nomes are based on the small, cone-shaped creatures in Little Nightmares. In-universe, they are similar to the concept of dragon changelings, but with a horn instead of an eye.

It's no coincidence that a unicorn changeling is the same feature as their physical focus. However, it is difficult to pin down exactly *why* this is the case; only that there is some sort of correlation. What we know is that the physical forms of changelings reflect the state of the species as a whole, are based on the remains that the Fae Folk can find, usually include any physical focuses, and also fit an established "idea" that the Fae Folk have about what this species should look like. Which of these details are causes and which ones are effects? Do Fae Folk include physical focuses because that fits their idea of what a species should look like, or because that's all they can find to base it off of? Or is it that because Fae Folk can only find the remains of physical focuses, that's their idea of what a species should look like? Is the symbolism/reflection of the state of a species a coincidental side effect of the Fae Folk not being able to find stuff to base the changelings off of, or is it an inherent part of how the Fae Folk decide what their "ideal" of what the physical form of the species should look like? No one knows for sure, but you could spend all day debating it.