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Crossroads Peoples: Sapient Constructs

Mar 6th, 2024 by

Illustration of a black mechanical horse walking through a park. This illustration is altered from a photograph by RonPorter.

 

Sapient Pronunciation: SAY-pee-uhnt

Overview: A Sapient Construct is an object built by a person that has gained a magical form of animation and sapience, meaning that they are capable of human-like thought.

Physical Description: Any object shaped or constructed by a person can become a Sapient Construct. Because objects shaped like living beings, such as statues, become sapient more easily than other kinds of objects, the majority of sapient constructs are shaped like humanoids and animals. Sapient sculptures, clockwork automatons, and stuffed animals are all particularly common. In most cases, the magic that animates the Sapient Construct is the same magic that makes it sapient.

Awakening: Each Sapient Construct gains sapience in a unique magical event. This event is called the Sapient Construct’s awakening. Because each awakening is unique, so are its magical effects. Some awakenings are intentional, while others are accidental. For example, an animated suit of armor used to defend a town might become sapient when a spell designed to enhance it goes awry. Or an explorer’s tool chest could be awakened by the unpredictable magic of the Warped Magic Zone they are exploring. Another example is a Sapient Construct parent that procreates by intentionally creating a Sapient Construct child. Continue Reading »

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Crossroads Peoples: Sapient Animals

Mar 6th, 2024 by

Portrait of a raven with their head up in an alert posture. They have the left side of their face turned toward the viewer and their beady, black eye is watchful. This artwork is a modified photograph by mgabor.

 

Sapient Pronunciation: SAY-pee-uhnt

Overview: Sapient Animals are highly magical beings with the bodies of animals and minds capable of human-like thought. Most Sapient Animals have a trait that clearly marks them as magical.

Physical Description: Sapient Animals can be any type of animal, though the majority of sapient animals are medium or large. Most Sapient Animals are also vertebrates (animals with skeletons), though there are a few important exceptions, like Sapient Crabs and Sapient Octopuses.

Most Sapient Animals have one visible or audible trait that marks them as magical. For example, they may have glowing eyes, hooves that spark, fur that is an unnatural color, a forked tail, trailing shadows, a feature from a different type of animal, feathers that make delicate chiming sounds, or scales patterned with runes. Outside of this trait, and a mind capable of human-like thought, Sapient Animals are indistinguishable from non-magical animals.

Because their bodies are infused with magic, many Sapient Animals have additional magical traits, such as telepathy, regeneration, and magical flight. Like these three examples, many of these additional traits are abilities that aren’t apparent until they are used. These magical abilities can be quite dramatic, such as a Sapient Elephant with a magically malleable body that is able to squeeze through a six-inch gap. Continue Reading »

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Crossroads Peoples: Humans

Mar 6th, 2024 by

A cutout-style portrait of a black person with a long face looking at the viewer with their head tilted and mouth slightly parted. They are wearing a black turtleneck shirt and their hair is in a short, spiky afro. Artwork by Arl_Dlt.

 

Overview: Humans are a non-magical, sapient, omnivore species known for using tools to adapt to a wide range of different environments and for significantly altering the environments they live in.

Physical Description: Humans vary in height, build, and ability, as well as skin, hair, and eye color. The variation between individual humans is much greater than the variation between different populations. For example, the biggest difference in height between human populations is eight inches, but individual human height ranges from a little under two feet to a little under nine feet tall. Five and a half feet is the average human height. Continue Reading »

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Dissociation and Disability

Nov 11th, 2023 by

An abstract artwork that conveys strong, varied emotions through contrasting patches of color that are pushed up against, and bending around, each other. The different zones of color have simple patterns on top of them, many of which are thin lines that form shaky spirals and scribbles that emphasize areas of struggle and the borders between zones. This artwork is from a painting by Nika_Akin.

 

I’m working on an article on depicting dissociation for the Mythcreants blog, and I wanted to a place to put information on dissociation and disability down, because that is beyond the scope of the article. That’s what I’m doing here, starting with the information I had to remove from the article. Hopefully I will get a chance to expand this soon.

Many disabilities involve dissociation in big or small ways, making it important for respectfully portraying them. To start with, there are dissociative disabilities, such as dissociative amnesia and dissociative identity disorder. Dissociation is also important for disabilities that involve trauma, like PTSD and panic disorder. Hyperfocus, where a person becomes so absorbed in a task that they are oblivious to everything else, is another form of dissociation that is part of several common disabilities, like ADHD and autism. In addition, brain injuries can cause dissociation, as can a wide range of psychiatric disabilities, including borderline personality disorder, anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.

 

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Crossroads Peoples: Merpeople

Oct 23rd, 2023 by

Watercolor of a merperson with pale skin and a red, gold, and blue fish tail sitting on a large rock on the ocean floor. Their back is to the viewer and their blue, green, and gold hair is sweeping through the water in a graceful curve that obscures their face. Beyond them, a shipwreck sits on the ocean floor. This watercolor was created by R-region.

 

Overview: Merpeople are a sapient, part-human and part-fish, aquatic species. They can breathe both water and air, and regularly use wheelchairs for mobility on land.

Physical Description: Merpeople have a humanoid upper body and a fish tail. How human-looking their upper body is varies from population to population. Some groups have entirely human-like upper bodies, while others are much more fish-like, with fins, scales, and webbed hands.

The scales of most merpeople are in shades of silver and blue, but a significant number have the vibrant coloring and patterns of coral reef fish. Similarly, many merpeople have simple, stream-lined tails, but a significant number have tails with dramatic fins, spines, and other appendages. Most merpeople have hair, or something hair-like, such as fins or tentacles, growing on their heads.

Most merpeople can transition quickly between breathing water and air, and can live in both saltwater and freshwater. How long a merperson can stay out of water varies more widely. Quite a few merpeople need to keep their skin moist to prevent injury and are sensitive to heat and dry environments. Continue Reading »

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Crossroads Peoples: Shifters

Oct 20th, 2023 by

Illustration of a howling wolf silhouetted against an enormous moon that is surrounded by a deep blue sky. The wolf is standing on a rocky outcropping. The sky is pricked with tiny stars. This artwork was created by JOhaza.

 

Overview: Each Shifter can shapeshift between one humanoid and one animal form, which are deeply connected. Humanoid and animal forms vary from person to person.

Language: The type of animal that a Shifter turns into is important, so different types of Shifters are categorized by their animal form. For example, there are Wolf Shifters, Antelope Shifters, and Dolphin Shifters. Each type of Shifter also has a WereName (for this “were” is pronounced “wehr”), making them WereWolves, WereAntelope, and WereDolphins. Both terms are regularly used.

Physical Description: As a magical species that originated from a group of mixed-species humanoids, Shifters have diversity in both their humanoid and animal forms. Most Shifters have humanoid forms that are mundane species, like Humans, Hobs, Orcs, and Merpeople. Of these, Humans are the most common.

For Shifters, mammal and bird animal forms are the most common, but there are plenty with marsupial, reptile, or amphibian forms. Insects forms are rare, as are magical animal forms, but they do exist. For example, there is a family of Unicorn Shifters that live in the Rainbow Hills.

It is important to know that being a Shifter is more than being capable of shapeshifting between humanoid and animal forms. Members of other species are capable of shapeshifting. What is distinct about Shifters is that they have a deep connection between their two forms and these two forms mark and enhance each other.  For example, a human that shifts into a coyote is likely to have enhanced senses in their human form and be larger than a mundane coyote in their animal form. Continue Reading »

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Crossroads Peoples: Fungal Vampires

Oct 9th, 2023 by

A cutout-style, close-up illustration of the face of a person with stark-white skin and pitch-black hair. They are looking directly at the audience with eyes that are dramatically emphasized with black makeup. A few strands of hair are lying across their forehead. This artwork was created by PublicDomainPictures.

 

Overview: Fungal Vampires are an interdependent partnership between a Mutualistic Vampiric Fungus and a living, vertebrate host (a person with a skeleton). They subsist on the life force energy that they get from drinking blood, resulting in a unique range of benefits and limitations.

Physical Description: Becoming a Fungal Vampire is a transformation than can happen to any member of a living vertebrate species. Each person who undergoes the transformation gains multiple vampiric species traits and vulnerabilities, but they also retain some of the species traits and vulnerabilities from their pre-transformation state. Fungal Vampires also retain their pre-transformation appearance. In most cases, the only outward sign of a Fungal Vampire transformation is a distinctive set of fangs.

The Transformation: A person becomes a Fungal Vampire by drinking a large quantity of Fungal Vampire blood, which contains Mutualistic Vampiric Fungus spores. The spores germinate within the person’s gastrointestinal tract, growing into a magical fungus that completely transforms their whole digestive system. The fungus is able to absorb life force from blood, which is a potent energy source that sustains both fungus and host. The host gets all of the other nutrients they need from the blood as well. In fact, most Fungal Vampires are only capable of digesting blood and will become ill if they consume anything else.

The host receives multiple benefits from being able to directly absorb life force. While the specific benefits each host receives vary unpredictably, the most common ones involve enhanced health, such as rapid healing. As a result, many Fungal Vampires have increased life spans and only age slowly. A few don’t age at all. Continue Reading »

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Crossroads Peoples: Orcs

Oct 7th, 2023 by

Black and white illustration of Ort Cooper, a male Orc in his mid-thirties with broad shoulders, a strong jaw, a sculpted beard, and a flamingly gay hair style. His hair is shaved on the right and long on the left and middle, and it is sculpted so that it arches from the middle to the left, hanging down to frame his face. Ort is wearing fashionable fabric armor with a row of buckles that go down his chest. Illustration by Jessica Kuczynski.

 

Overview: Orcs are a plant-eating humanoid species that are, on average, larger and more muscular than humans. Most Orcs have tusks, green skin, pointed ears, and colorful hair.

Physical Description: On average, Orcs are six and a half feet tall, a foot taller than the average human, and they find it comparatively easy to put on and keep muscle, giving many muscular builds. While being muscular is common, Orcs have just as diverse a range of sizes, builds, and body types as humans, including short-statured orcs, scrawny orcs, and disabled orcs. Orcs are as diverse as humans in other ways too, having just as broad a range of ethnicities and cultures.

Most Orcs have green skin, with the shade of green ranging from yellow-green to blue-green and from dark to light. Green is also the most common hair color, but Orc hair can be any color of the rainbow, including vivid shades, like fluorescent pink or electric blue. Most Orcs also have tusks that protrude from their lower jaws. Other common features are small, pointed ears and strong jawlines. Continue Reading »

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Crossroads Peoples: Animal-Folk

Oct 2nd, 2023 by

Illustration showing a Parrot-Folk character, a Dragon-Folk character, and an Elephant-Folk character. All three were illustrated by Jessica Kuczynski.

 

Overview: Animal-Folk are human-animal hybrids. Most Animal-Folk look like humanoid versions of animals.

Physical Description: As human-animal hybrids, each type of Animal-Folk, such as Otter-Folk or Phoenix-Folk, is composed of parts from humans and parts from a specific kind of animal or magical creature. There are three common body plans for how these parts are combined.

  • Evenly Blended: This body plan is a mostly even mixing of animal and human, though the head is usually more animal-like. It is most common when the animal being mixed is capable of standing upright, like bears and kangaroos, or has hand-like front paws, such as raccoons and beavers. The Dragon-Folk character illustrated above is an example of this type.
  • Mixed Parts: This body plan has some parts that are more human-like and others that are more animal-like. The most common version of mixed parts is a human body with an animal head, feet, tail, and skin. Two examples of this are minotaurs and the Elephant-Folk character in the illustration above. Another common version of mixed parts is a human torso with an animal lower body. Centaurs are a prominent example of this. Mixed parts is most common when the animal or mythical creature being mixed with a human has nothing that can be used as a hand.
  • Mostly Animal: This body plan is quite animal-like, but it has one or more human traits. Common human traits are having hands, being human sized, and having human senses. Being mostly animal is common for animals with bodies that can already do most the things humans can, like squirrels, and flying animals that need to maintain their ability to fly, like birds and bats. An example is the Parrot-Folk character shown above.

Continue Reading »

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Crossroads Peoples: Pixies

Sep 23rd, 2023 by

Black, white, and red watercolor illustration showing a slightly green eye peaking through a gap between gray and red leaves splattered with black and red droplets. The eye looks human, but the eyebrow sweeps up in an uneven, jagged arc that looks like tufts of fur. This image has been modified from a watercolor by Nika_Akin.

 

Overview: Pixies are the embodiment of turmoil and disturbance, such as the turmoil that causes, and is caused by, storms. Physically, pixies are one-foot-tall, vaguely-humanoid beings that are a mixture of insect and other animal traits.

Physical Description: Pixies appear more insect-like than anything else, but they are vertebrates, meaning that they have bones. They do have many insect traits, such as chitinous armor, segmented bodies, multiple sets of legs, mandibles, jagged claws, and stingers, with a scattering of traits from other animals, such as shark teeth, goat eyes, lizard scales, snake mouths, and tiger fur. Most pixies have wings and their faces and upper bodies tend to be humanoid. As might be expected for a species embodying turmoil and disturbance, their physical forms are diverse and frequently unsettling. Continue Reading »

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