Tox

The Tox are a race of Skeletal beings from the planet Yonrova.

The Tox numeral system is base 16, with each number corresponding to a moon.

## Anatomy & Physiology

Tox are skeletal beings, powered entirely by the magic that replaces their bone marrow. They stand at about eight feet on average, and usually have wings. Each Tox has a few fleshy parts, corresponding to the animal they're based off. If said animal also has horns, they will always have those horns. Tox also always have tails, whether the animal they're based off has one or not. being skeletons, they can also painlessly and harmlessly remove any bone in their body.

Tox can also be very difficult to kill. They can't be suffocated, cut, effectively shot, or burned. Though they are vulnerable to crushing and lasers. Even then, the adults are extremely durable. Adults are also very strong and can defeat creatures much larger than them easily. However, the species young are still very weak. While an adolescent Tox could reliably beat an adult Human assuming they're unarmed, they're still very vulnerable to many of the dangers actually on Yonrova. The younger a Tox is, the weaker they are.

Tox are hypocarnivores, meaning that most of their diet isnt meat. kind of like a bear

tox dont really need to breathe to survive, but going for too long without doing so is painful to them.

All tox are biologically capable of growing beards, a feature shared with their god.

the tox have a psychological need to be with others of their specise. they can form equally deep relationships with members of other specise, but theyll start to show symptoms similar to humans in extended solitary confinement if kept away from other tox for too long.

a tox's whole body essentially acts as their brain.

theyre ambiguously long lived, probably somewhere from a million to a billion years old

### Traits

Traits are powers of their creator and their family passed onto the Tox. Usually, there is only one trait per Tox.

Venomous: Venomous Tox can either have snakelike fangs (which can move back and forth in the mouth to rest against its roof or go forward to spit venom), or simply ooze venom like a komodo dragon.

Healing Bite: Like venomous Tox, healing bite Tox either have snakelike fangs or simply ooze, but instead of venom, healing bite Tox have a healing solution that can fix any wound. However, the magic that makes this possible is highly unstable and can have a variety of mutinogenic effects. It resembles the effects of radiation in fiction and the real world.

Swarming: Swarming Tox have the power to dissolve into a large pile of arthropods in a number roughly equaling the Tox's default weight. the Tox's mind is split between the individual arthropods as a hive-mind. Swarming Tox can merge back into their original form, but only if all their arthropods are in one place.

Teleportation: These Tox can teleport only to places they've already been, but there is no range.

Reality Bending: These Tox have very weak reality bending powers. They can manifest and destroy items, as long as said items can be held in one hand and consist of three parts or less. They can also destroy parts of more complex items like guns or clocks to make them stop working. They can also influence a situation to cause something to happen, as long as it's likely or unlikely to result from the current situation, but not impossible. For example, they could make gun jam or explode from an incomplete discharge, but not develop a mind of its own and attack its wielder.

### Reproduction

Tox reproduction is more like a ritual or a spell than anything, going like this:

* On a night where all moons are visible (not necessarily full, just all in the sky at once), take a bowl carved from the bones of a beast of Yonrova, untouched by any hands before those of the prospective parents.
* Take this bowl into the wilderness, far enough that the only lights are the moons and the stars.
* The bones of all parents must be broken, allowing them to bleed until the bowl is full.
* A bit of organic material (popularly a bit of fur or a small bone) from each parent must be put into the blood, at which point it will begin to emit a unique scent, only discernable by the sensitive snouts of the Tox.
* Any beast longer than the length of a mouse from the tip of its snout to the base of its tail (excluding most insects) must be killed upon entry into the sight of any of the present Tox. Its body will vanish, and the solution in the bowl will start to glow.
* The prospective parents must sleep around the bowl, and in the morning, it will contain a child instead of blood and fur. the child will share features with the slain animal.

### Disabilities and diseases

Fossilization: semi-rarely, a tox can be born with fossilized bones. fossilized tox are heavier, more fragile, slower and less agile than other tox. theyre also prone to brain fog, and can have difficulty with math and similarly difficult pursuits.

opalisation: semi-rarely, a tox can be born with opalized bones. opalized tox are very fragile, often completely unable to do ordinary tox activities like hunting. they also have a higher chance of getting proper diseases, and they can have a short attention span and ADHD-like symptoms

## Society & Culture

tox culture is highly religous, as well as decentralized. the highest authority in Tox culture is priests, who themselves only bow to the Tox's god. Tox view bones as holy in some manner, and almost everything they make has a bone component engraved with a blessing in argeu (literal: holy bone), their written-only holy language.

Polyamorous relationships are considered the norm in Tox society, so much so that a monogamous relationship is seen as worrying. It's also normal to have close friends and/or family members living in your house alongside your romantic partners.

Tox based off of herbivores are often seen as weak, with a notable exception being moose.

the tox are hostile to athiests and those who worship other gods, but only if they are tox. they shun them, and as an open athiest/heathen its extremely difficult to find any buisenesses that will serve you. when tox develop proper space travel and become a part of the galactic community, this inspires many athiest/heathen tox to join an offworld tox gang known as the dog pack.

tox dont hold this attitude twoards athiests and heathens of other specise, as they generally understand that its unfair to expect them to worship a god that didnt create them.

the tox are FANTASTIC cooks. most of their dishes are meat of course, and they dont really have a concept of vegtables? its just fruit, fungus, and occasionally alge. however, the tox also have to be very careful when cooking for other specise because a lot of what they use is toxic to meat beings. bioluminescent plankton from rentom make killer sprinkles if you get them fresh, but they produce what is essentially antifreeze as a byproduct of the chemical reaction they use to glow.

### Creation Story

Once, there was a being unlike any other, bestowed with the power to bend reality itself. This being was immortal, as well as exceedingly kind. Over time, a small civilization rose around the being, every aspect of it loved dearly by the being. but one day, a being of equal power came and destroyed it.

Everyone was dead, every building reduced to ruin. Driven by an unfathomable rage, the being pursued their enemy for centuries on end, enabled by sheer fury to never eat or rest. Eventually, they were able to kill the destroyer.

But once again, the being was alone.

Everyone they cared about had been killed, everything they loved had been destroyed. So from the draining life essence of the being they had just killed, they created two children.

But something had happened to the being. perhaps it was a curse placed on them by the thing they killed, perhaps it was an inability to let go of the titanic rage they felt, but whatever the case, they turned into a monster.

One child disappeared, but the other was made to stay. After many years of abuse, they snapped and killed their creator.

Once again, there was a beast unlike any other, possessing the stolen power of their creator.

The beast was alone like they had never been before, even alone in their nature as a being. So, with their newfound power, the beast created a world, populated with beings like them.

They distributed the attributes of them, their sibling, and their creator through the population, one to each being.

exausted by the usage of their newfound power, the beast fell asleep in the planets core. there they have slept since, and likely will sleep for many ages more

## History

Unknown other than the creation story and that they've had access to their planets moons since ancient times due to their ability to fly and the fact that as skeletons they don't strictly need to breathe. However, it was a long and difficult journey with a high death rate.

## Naming Conventions

Tox are named after any Toxic substance, but the Tox always shortens and modifies it as a nickname. For example, a Tox named Asbestos might go by Bessie.

the whole nicknames thing is also sort of a religous thing. their true names are supposed to be known only to them, their parents and their god, at least until they find love. the closest thing the tox have to a mairrage ceremony is an exchanging of true names

## Trivia

the tox being the tox, their version of sburb (sbone) is a lot more difficult that other versions, to provide the same amount of difficulty proportionate to the tox's toughness

## Etymology & Inspiration

"Reality Bending" Tox trait inspired by the Dream World from "Cat" by John Wick