Cultures

Cultures are large groups of magi that have formed their own unique reasons, beliefs, and focuses on different aspects of magic or life in ODIN.

The following lists what main ones are currently prominent.

## Religious Sects

### The Holy Church of Ysu

*Officially Founded on 1 December. 2038.*

The Holy Church, located in the city of Ysu, is the main holy sect within Odin that worships the God originally from the Bible. They were created in 2040 by an small, undisclosed group of faithful followers of God led by a single girl who proclaimed herself to be a Saintess of Sin. Due how much time passed between the First Magi War and their upbringing, almost all bibles and written text of it were lost to time. Very few individuals brought over holy manuscripts from the other continents, however, there are a handful that had survived and exist in Odin.

The Holy Church has a large influence over the continent and is the primary group for providing medical aid and care for people that are wounded throughout the land. There is no Pope nor any high-council of any sort, however, there are priests, Saints, and Saintess that are self-appointed. Saintess' are very rare and almost all of the powerful members of the Holy Church are exclusively male.

These individuals who follow in the steps of God's teachings bring themselves to the spotlight to serve Him publicly, and their merit is earned by their actions and words, and not their position. This is a double-edged sword though; the self-appointing of oneself as a devout member of the Holy Church. Crafty or suspicious people have been seen attempting to gain fame or glory through the Church's name. It is believed that members of other gods are trying to discredit the Holy Church by infiltrating it.

There are no clear evidence of this, but many of the renowned members have noticed several newly-appointed individuals acting very suspiciously, or seemingly not willing to praise God easily, or have signs of struggling to do so.

The Holy Church also believes that *The Gift* was a disaster meant to completely wipe out the Earth after WWIII, but God gave humanity a second chance and instead blessed the meteor and its fragments with special properties and powers.

### Church of Stet'e, the Blood God

*Officially Founded in 2037.*

The Church of Stet'e is a group of individuals who seek to sate the appetite of their god Stet'e by killing humans. They try to kidnap whoever they can find, drag them to the Church's secret altar, and sacrifice them to their god.

Much is unknown of this group except for their very hideous rituals of killing hundreds of people and offering their blood to Stet'e, their righteous and acclaimed deity.

Information about their rituals were leaked by a less-devout member who managed to tell the Holy Church, but ended up being assassinated the following night. The location of their hideout remains unknown, but it is believed to be located somewhere in the dangerous volcanic mountains to the southwest of Odin.

It is believed that the church of Stet'e was once a small group of less than a dozen as people began to migrate to Odin, but only managed to build up a large following after the 1st Magi War ended.

### Umbra Church

*Officially Founded in 2038.*

Similar to, but not to be confused with the Church of Stet'e is the Umbra Church. It's nickname is the "Church of Destruction", the name it formally used from during the 1st Magi War.

During the 1st Magi War, they killed as much Magi as possible. Post-war however, they have resorted to more cruel tactics to retrieve information from victims, and often use them as hostages or human shields.

The Umbra Church is now a group of Magi that practice dark-art magic that maximize pain, suffering, and torture. It is believed that their objective is to bring fear all over Odin in order to drive everyone out and claim the entire islands for their own. Although it's not exactly widely known, members of the Umbra Church have been witnessed enslaving weaker Magi, mind-controlling, and manipulating people of importance.

There is no information about where they reside other than rumors that they blend in by living like ordinary citizens, so it is assumed they meet at random members' homes to avoid suspicion.

Rather than outright killing people like the Church of Stet'e, members of the Umbra Church seem to slowly drain the lifeforce and willpower from people over a long period of time, and crush them after being emotionally and mentally defeated.

### House of Levi

*Officially Founded in 2041.*

This group of Magi are people who denounce the existence of any god, and that magic and mana are just new forms of energy- and are nothing more than that.

The House of Levi are primarily made up of aristocratic individuals who own large lands and wealth. Money, power, knowledge, and fame is what drives members of the House of Levi to acclaim their group as the strongest and brightest in Odin. They hate every single other religious sect that believes in gods and dismisses them as foolish and incompetant.

Rumors about the House of Levi is that there is a smaller group within the sect that attempts to control parts of the Holy Church in an attempt to surpress their power and monetary affluence.

## Magical Races

*In the year 2045, researchers made a breakthrough and managed to inseminate the eggs of humans with the DNA of animals. As a result of this, the resulting "people" were labeled as beastkin; a new race appeared in Odin. Afterwards, it was found that beastkin could fornicate like regular humans and breed new babies. This was the start of new races appearing in Odin that originally were not possible to breed before.*

### Beastkin

This group were halfbreeds between human and animal. The researchers who originally created the first beastkin were a group of Japanese otaku scientists with the sole goal of making cat-girls a reality. They eventually did succeed and the first cat-girls were nurtured into adulthood. The scientists quickly released their research to other groups, and slowly more beastkin types emerged over the next few years.

### Demon Halfling

These were once regular humans that obtained the power of demonic gods. The method of becoming a demon-halfling is unknown. It is known, however, that demon halflings can only breed with other demon halflings and not with humans due to an incompatibility of blood and DNA. Demon halflings have extraordinary strength and mana capabilities, and usually tout one or two horns upon the top of their heads. They are usually stigmatized as evil heratic beings. More often than not, they are associated with the Church of Stet'e, the God of Blood.

### Dryad

Essentially plant-like humans, scientists crossbred plants and humans after the prior beastkin research was released by the cat-girl fanatics. It was found that dryads had a great affinity for earth and water-based magic, and could manipulate large amounts of mana. Due to their plant genetics though, they are very prone and flammable to fire magic, and are very physically fragile (and flammable due to cellulose embedded within their bodies).

### Fairy

Fairies are creatures that were once just mana. Under some unknown circumstances, concentrated amounts of mana became sentient and transformed into fairies that roamed Odin. Fairies are extremely dense mana pools that have their own consciousness. Due to the lack of a physical body, they cannot cast magic on their own and often require a host of some kind to do so. Fairies usually play together in quiet forests alongside dryads, or just by themselves, and often remain secluded and unseen (and invisible to the naked eye). Fairies and their stronger spirit counterparts are both very respected by the majority of the Odin population, but there are several individuals and groups who have sinister intentions towards them.

### Spirit

These beings are just very powerful fairies. They lead packs of lesser fairies as their leader, and act as motherly or fatherly figures. They can use illusion magic to create a non-tangible body to talk to beings that cannot see them under normal circumstances.

### Gods

The newfound gods in Odin are believed to have similar origins like fairies, but require emotions of sorts to act as a catalyst for a "god" to be born. Gods, like fairies, do not have a physical form and can only do things via hosts or followers that pray to them. Gods can however cast illusion magic to give themselves a non-tangible form like spirits that cannot interact directly with the world. It's known to the very faithful that the gods that reside in Odin often toy with humans and play/move them around like pieces on a chessboard for their amusement, but they remain loyal regardless. Very little is factually known about them as they tend to not reveal themselves except to their most loyal and trusted followers.