Species

A species is an aspect of a creature that helps build a framework for how it will interact with the world.

## Overview

A species will act like a preset for a creature, where it will define certain aspects of that creature, which the specific creature's qualities can then build on or completely re-define. Any quality granted by a species may be overwritten by the creature itself. For example, a human might change their form until they have twelve arms. While the standard template for a human will only have two, that specific creature has twelve because it altered that aspect specifically.

In this way, a species will act like a framework for a creature to help fill in some details that would be arduous to list. If there are two humans in a hallway, it can obviously be advantageous to have a shorthand for a bipedal, furless, etc etc creature and then note any qualities that change from that framework by the creature.

This being said, not every creature will have a stable species, or a species at all, as if the list of exceptions is greater than the list of qualities, then that defeats the purpose of listing the species.

## Re-production

Some species, such as humans, can re-produce within their species and therefore make new life without shifting or death. Whether or not this is possible depends on if all creatures involved are close enough to the given species, regardless of what species they were originally. For example, if a human successfully shifted their form into a dyrell of a given sex, they could re-produce with the other two and produce fertilized eggs.

## Augmenting and Diminishing

In the event that a creature is required to ascend or descend due to its level, it may be required to change species, or take additional effects based on its current species. A species will list its specific effects in the event that it is augmented or diminished, and this should be marked by either a + or a - next to the species name on the character page (such as Human+). A Species may not be augmented or diminished twice, and attempting to do so will collapse the creature into a new form, either creating a new species or becoming another species that already exists, usually as a result of this process (such as Swarm).

Augmented and diminished creatures have a very difficult time re-producing, even with other augmented or diminished creatures of the same species.

## Belladon

*Main Article:* Belladon

As a pure manifestation of a life, Belladon do not have any discernible species as each Belladon is utterly unique. There are certain templates, however, that may be used to give the same sort of baseline that a species might give, however these are far more vague than any species classification.

## List of Species

Below is a non-exhaustive list of species templates. Other templates may be used, but they must be defined first. They are broken down into tiers, however Time, Place and Mera have been omitted as they refer to fundamental properties of the plane, rather than creatures. Additionally, they are only listed in the common language, and they might be referred to by different words in other languages.

### Mata

* Chiromata
* Dhrokumata
* Exumata
* Ghramumata
* Nolumomata
* Syclomata

### Belladon

*Main Article:* Belladon

* Ephemeral
* Brihn
* Hoxen

### Kindred

* Arbiter
* Druhuruhn
* Fae
* Pilgrim

### Driven

* Arcen
* Dyrell
* Human
* Lyrin
* Mox
* Naathi

### Primal

* Undone
* Surfeit
* Bonbola

### Hollow

* Nexi
* Swarm