"The world is ugly, but we are beautiful."

Zoology

	Sapients
Sentience is merely the utilization of sensory organs. Sapience is the ability to think and act with judgement and to understand the existence of oneself. Ahret hosts many sapient species, some of which are even elemental monsters. However, the dominant civilizations of four particular species leave little room for the others. Only those four routinely call each other sapient, regardless of whichever other creatures deserve the honor.

Human Homo sapiens

You are probably one of these. (Edited by U.S. Department of Justice.)		Physical: Humans are thinly-haired bipedal mammals who share a common ancestor with apes. A few distinct breeds have arisen as adaptations to climate ranges, but the differences between them are superficial. Most humans range in height from five to six feet (1.5 - 1.8m), with males generally being larger. Adulthood tends to begin between ages 18-21, but earlier and later maturity is possible. Lifespans vary widely, but given optimum nutrition and safety, some humans can live over 100 years. Psychological: Remarkably adaptable, especially when young. Nearly all humans value borders, whether they define territory, one's individual tastes, or the trappings of a particular culture. A unique trait of humankind is that adolescence may lag well behind the pace of puberty. Some adults are permanently stunted in psychological maturity -- here meaning "acting for more than the survival and pleasure of oneself" -- and some never attain it at all. Sociological: Humans' love of borders has made the species very fond of distinction, such that neighboring cultures may have entirely different laws, food preferences, social mores and/or forms of government. They define themselves further as peoples and individuals by distinct bodily adornments, usually clothing. In any culture, stepping outside any boundary without the proper ritual is taboo and usually punishable in a justice system. No single institution unifies humanity, but the vast majority of human cultures have the same distaste for murder, theft, adultery and dishonesty. Distribution: Over one billion humans populate three continents: Ragloa, Tergai, and the island continent Dorn. The highest concentrations live on Ragloa, as Dorn is relatively small and Tergai is also claimed by monsters, wilderness, and other sapients. Elementalism Potential: High. Humans can learn any element of magic with relative ease.

Raiza Grandpiscis sapiens

Physical: The only bipedal members of the class Cardinichthyes (or "hinge fish," so named for articulate skeletons), raiza are neither human nor shark yet resemble both. The rate of raiza maturity is directly proportional to food supply; a well-fed raiza can reach adulthood around age 10. Male raiza are comparable in height and lifespan to human males, but some female raiza may reach seven feet tall and 150 years of age. Psychological: Raiza dislike artificial boundaries, arguably because they evolved from a long line of exclusively aquatic creatures. Most raiza prefer the company of a close community, to which they are highly protective -- an unusual trait for natural apex predators. Additionally, they seem to be predisposed to spirituality, or at least to seeking a "higher purpose" in life. Again, this may come from a genetic heritage of weightless existence. Sociological: Residents of the ancient raizan homeland are tribal fisher-gatherers. Only three social threads bind them to their far-flung cousins. The first is universal matriarchy. The second is the continuation of two sets of oral history, local and species-wide. The third is a visit to the Magnetic North Pole at least once in a lifetime, where the wider history is updated with events of greatest importance from local history. Raiza assimilate well into nearly all sapient cultures and are respectful of their rules; for example, females usually cover their functionless muscular chest ridge when living in human cities. Distribution: No accurate census numbers exist, but an awful lot of raiza live all over the world. Most raiza live near water, but they can and do live comfortably anywhere except in hot and/or arid regions. The northern continent Nhoarket and the surrounding islands are claimed as the raizan homeland. Elementalism Potential: Moderate. Raiza have more difficulty than humans when it comes to summoning elements, but their swift and powerful bodies more than compensate.		Female raiza, politely respecting human sensibilities. See the original by ASM.

Ketzalral Aerserpens sapiens

Part snake, part dragon, part parrot. Sketch by ASM.		Physical: Feathery-winged, warm-blooded, dragon-faced reptiles with serpentine bodies and thin, humanlike arms. Many different color combinations exist, similar to the colors of tropical parrots, but the average ketzalral has green and blue feathers. Ketzalral reach sexual maturity at age 5 and only stop growing when dead; an elderly ketzalral can reach fifteen feet or more in length. As a trade-off, most live only 40-50 years. Despite their short lifespans, ketzalral are prolific breeders, and the power of flight lets them travel easily -- even across oceans. Psychological: Ketzalral are predisposed to following rules and making rules where none exist. Nothing gives them greater joy than organization of themselves and of others. That, coupled with a capacity for memorization which is nothing short of astonishing, makes them fanatical about whatever rules they have and whatever feelings they form towards them. Individualism is of little value to ketzalral. Sociological: Ketzalral civilization is theocratic, organized by a complex hierarchy of religious officials into thousands of well-armed agricultural colonies under the rule of a fortified forest metropolis. The species' natural flying ability and affinity to elementalism makes most forms of technology moot, though most ketzalrals are are well-versed in methods of gathering and refining vessel materials. Distribution: Several hundred million at least, spread over the forests and plains of the continent Vanrul`Naav with isolated pockets in the deserts. A major war evicted them from Tergai, Ragloa and Dorn. Elementalism Potential: Very high. Ketzalral can learn elements faster and use them more often than humans, but the depth to which they can learn the forms of elementalism is still only marginally greater.

Lurutt Ambulataegis sapiens

Physical: Stout, armored creatures visibly similar to bipedal tortoises. Lurutts' shallow shells are split with hinges at the lower back to allow for forward and backward bending of the spine. The position of lurutts' vocal folds makes their voices sound somewhat nasal. Lurutts develop slowly, only reaching maturity after about 50 years of a lifespan which routinely passes 200. Despite their potential centuries of growth time, very few stand taller than four and a half feet (1.37m). Psychological: Lurutts are highly disciplined, at least from an outsider's perspective. The stereotype of a silent and diligent lurutt belies the species' somewhat selfish motives: they work primarily to amuse and improve themselves as they see fit, with the commercial viability of their work as merely a bonus. That work ethic is widely credited for the fact that stress-related illnesses are unknown to most lurutts. Individuality is highly important to lurutt, as is modesty; they hate to brag, but they love to identify. One of the lurutts' most distinctive characteristics, their "accent" of third-person speech and occasionally repeating syllables, is thought to have arisen as a method of personal identification. Sociological: Lurutt culture is based solidly on refining skills -- any skills at all -- and passing them along to whoever likes them too. For that reason, lurutts tend to identify themselves by their profession ahead of their first name. Since a bare neck is as immodest to lurutts as bare genitalia are to humans, practically all members of the species wear some kind of neck covering daily. While lurutts do mate for life, lurutt children are considered communal and are raised by whoever enjoys raising them, though the parents get first dibs, so to speak. Distribution: Lurutts were unknown outside of thousands of densely-populated communities on Vanrul`Naav until humans visited the continent. Now they have a wide hold on Tergai and only a few remaining settlements in Vanrul`Naav's mountains and desert. Some also live on Ragloa and Dorn, having been imported as skilled labor. Elementalism Potential: Low. Most lurutts care little for something as insubstantial as magic anyway, however pretty it may be at times.		Male or female? It's hard to tell. Sketch by ASM.

Bestiary

Animals
Juvenile rüstung.		Animals are all forms of life in the kingdom Animalia of the human system of taxonomy. Humans themselves are animals, as are all sapients and all beasts domesticated and wild, but the word "animal" usually denotes non-sapient creatures. Some animals have adapted to civilization, such as the opportunistic dwarf wyvern (Aerdraco furis, "dragon" colloq.), a winged scavenger reptile. Others have had civilization thrust on them, such as the dire kiwi (Dinornis roroa), a short-necked, long-beaked moa used for transport. Most animals are entirely wild. The dire anteater (Toxilingua superior), a forest predator, is an intelligent anteater endowed with opposeable claws and caustic saliva with which to kill and ingest far more complex animals than ants. Some animals, wild or not, are of interest to elementalists. The rüstung (Birgus giganticus), a giant relative of the coconut crab, grows the vessel material for Water magic as its exoskeleton. Despite that, rüstungs are not able to summon Water magic due to their low intelligence and lack of a proper tool. However, there is a way for them or any animal to summon elemental magic without a tool or even a vessel. They simply have to be born as freaks of nature.

Monsters
Monsters are animals which were born with elemental magic focused in their bodies -- essentially elemental mutants. They control magic of their birth element as if it were an appendage. Monsters of certain elements develop predictable characteristics, such as great size and/or armored bodies among Earth monsters. Exactly how elements focus in unborn bodies is unknown, but long-term proximity to magical surroundings is key. Water monsters tend to arise from animals which live in or near water, for example. Birds tend to be Air monsters due to their natural flying ability. Arid regions produce many Fire monsters. Plains, forests, and mountains produce many Earth monsters. A monster cannot reproduce unless it finds another monster of its former species and of its birth element. For that reason, most monsters go extinct in a single generation. The lucky few which find compatible mates are vulnerable to inbreeding. Though the vast majority of monsters can only summon a Basic Element, a very rare few can summon a Combined Element. These monsters have a low probability of arising from chance matings between elementally different monsters of the same former species. These surpassingly rare elemental chimeras or "daemons" are highly powerful, often long-lived, and leave a lasting impression on cultures which witness them, yet they are born sterile. Thunderbirds (Atavavis procella), for instance, gained their human name due to a daemon. Thunderbirds are ordinarily Air monsters. Somewhere in human prehistory, one of them was born full of Air and Fire magic and thereby controlled Lightning. It followed storms, summoning lightning at random and destroying villages. However, it died young, unable to contain its power.		Devotional statue of a thunderbird.

Pure-Element Monsters
Jotun standing upright.		The most powerful non-demon monsters are those with a long hereditary connection to a particular element. Whereas ordinary monsters are new elemental species, pure-element monsters have been monsters for so long that they make up their own genus. Their affinity to a particular element is a defining genetic characteristic. For example, all jotuns, giant ground sloths of the genus Terratherium, summon Earth magic. No jotun cannot. A few pure-element monsters can shapeshift. The kelpie (Backahasti nix) is a notorious example. Kelpies are carnivorous Water monsters with the base form of a reticulated horse and the alternate form of a human. Their human forms are always blindingly beautiful specimens of the opposite gender of their intended victims. Shapeshifters shift shape by toying with their own mass. To take a smaller form, they convert excess mass into magic and shunt it into the Aether. To change back, they draw on the Aether and convert magic to mass. The process is simple yet dramatic, as each time the Aether is accessed, its magic manifests as water, wind, combustion or vibration. Shifting forms exhausts the shifter if done in quick succession. As a rule, shapeshifters can only take one additional bodily form and cannot increase in size more than the natural extent of their birth form. Only the most skilled species can turn themselves into elemental manifestations -- amorphous gels for Water monsters, ultra-fine wind-carried powder for Air monsters, ethereal slow-burning gases for Fire monsters, or adamantine statues for Earth monsters. Shapeshifters of that caliber usually sacrifice intelligence or even sapience for their skill.

Sacred Beasts

The most revered of all pure-element monsters tend to be shapeshifters, but not always. Among humans, four particular monsters hold special spiritual importance as "sacred beasts." The serpentine imperial dragon, Lung princeps, represents Water magic. Imperial dragons are unusual among the order Draconis for having hair: thick, silky manes and long whiskers. They are by far the most culturally structured of all Sacred Beasts, and are the only ones who truly enjoy thinking of themselves as sacred. Imperial dragons maintain an undersea capitol roughly equidistant to the three human-populated continents. Their ability to summon rain and take human form have won them much reverence, though they occasionally suffer from egotism as a result. They have a long-standing rivalry with raiza, whom they see as uncivilized. The wind tiger, Caeltigris anima, represents Air magic. Also known as "tiphyrs," most live as solitary spiritual nomads from maturity until they establish a mate. They have characteristically deep connections to family and enjoy interacting with humans yet still enjoy wandering in solitude. Like dragons they can take human form, but they can also speak in natural form via air vibrations. Many Elementalists have established temples and/or villages in areas populated by wind tigers, which the wind tigers themselves are fond of visiting.		Devotional image of a wind tiger. Courtesy of ASM.

Devotional image of a great tortoise.
Courtesy of ASM.

The Phoenix, Phoenix immolatus, represents Fire magic. It is a sapient, cranelike, permanently migratory one-member species known as the Phoenix (and other names). At the end of her life, which may be 500 years long, the Phoenix burns herself to ash to expose an egg which will hatch into the next Phoenix. Contrary to popular belief, she does not carry memories of her past lives; she can, however, recall in intricate detail (and many languages) every moment that her current life has experienced.

The great tortoise, Gigachelone terrae, represents Earth magic. Though legendary for being the size of a mountain, in reality great tortoises can only reach 15ft (4.57m) tall with a shell 20ft (6.1m) in diameter. As they age, deep rifts in their shells accumulate soil which harbors plant life up to and including trees. The effluvia is easily shed if a great tortoise takes human form, but if a tree's roots manage to penetrate its dense shell, its shapeshifting ability is lost until the tree dies.

Great tortoises are the most seldom-seen of all Sacred Beasts aside from the Phoenix. They live a life of idle browsing and meditation in deep forests, preferably on or near mountains. They greatly enjoy company yet rarely get to experience it, living as far from civilization as they do.

The human forms they take are invariably elderly and nearly flawless, allowing them to move and even live among humans with no one knowing their true identity. Anecdotal evidence from the lucky humans who have knowingly met them suggests that great tortoises can only die of predation or accident, not old age.

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Back to Main Back to Aether Torrent	Ahret, the world in which Aether Torrent takes place, is different enough from Earth that some explanation is in order. Imagery has been taken via Google unless otherwise noted.