Species
8 entries
Carceri
The Carceri are living architecture. Whether they are beings that became structures or structures that became beings is a question without a satisfying answer and the creatures themselves seem unable to answer.
Humans
The most numerous species in Nod and the most vulnerable. Humans have no innate magical ability, no natural weapons, no biological advantages beyond adaptability and sheer reproductive tenacity. The only things preventing their extinction are their ingenuity and their numbers. They survive everywhere, including places some of the other species would not willingly go.
Kaarn
The Kaarn are not from Earth. They originated in a prehistoric Domain whose name, if they ever had one for it, has been lost. They are among Nod's oldest immigrant populations and what rare members dwelled on Earth for any length of time are the origin of myths regarding giants, ogres, and trolls.
Masques
The Masque's defining ability is perceptual manipulation. They do not shapeshift in the physical sense. They project a glamour, a filter layered over the observer's perception that makes the Masque appear as whatever the Masque wants them to see. A Masque can look like a specific person, an idealized stranger, or something totally unique. The projection is convincing but not omnipotent. It affects sight, hearing, and even touch, but it does not fool cameras or mirrors reliably. And it requires conscious effort, which means a sleeping or unconscious Masque is seen as it actually is. In their natural form Masques are difficult to describe; observation seems to slip off their unhidden form, causing a sort of exhaustion and mild confusion. Concerted attempts to observe Masques without their glamour generally create a sense of unease due to their generally incomprehensible appearance.
Skulks
Skulks are small. The tallest stand perhaps four feet; the shortest are half that. Beyond their diminutive size, the species displays considerable variety. Some are wiry, sharp-featured, and quick, the sort of creature that might inspire stories about clever brownies or helpful kobolds. Others are hunched, greasy, and foul-smelling, the sort that inspired stories about gremlins, goblins, and the things that live in the walls and steal your children. The difference is largely environmental. Skulks who live in reasonable conditions look reasonable. Skulks who live in the Middens look like the Middens.
Subsapient Species
Not all named creatures in Nod's ecosystem are sapient species. Some are entities from specific Domains or products of ambient magic:
Theriae
Theriae are the truth behind every human myth about beast-folk. Kitsune, nagas, tengu, cat sìdhe, and a hundred other legends are distorted accounts of a single species: humanoids whose biology incorporates animal characteristics in ways that vary by lineage, individual, and circumstance.
Woven
A Woven is not an individual but a colony of thousands of small organisms cooperating to form a single coherent entity that walks, speaks, and by every observable measure, thinks. The component organisms are individually non-sapient, roughly analogous to insects in scale and complexity but diverse in their individual appearance. Sapience appears to emerge from their collective interaction, the same way a thought emerges from neurons that cannot individually think.