by thricewire » Tue Nov 26, 2013 4:15 pm
SPECIES OVERLOOK
>> sirens
There's nothing to be said because you will hear about no bad thing. They are needlessly dangerous, and that is objective; should one set its eyes on you, there is no escape. They are breathlessly beautiful; that, too, is objective. The way to look for a siren is to look for flaws - if there are none, then you're in deep trouble. Their name, should they tell it to you, is never repeated the same way; you may think one is Katherine and talk about a Katherine, but your friend may hear a Katrina and say the name back, which will still be Katherine to you. They keep true bodies, attractive or not; there are a few who can see these bodies and listen to their name, often humans or shapeshifters but sometimes others.
Their powers work on nearly any species, terminating only at the angels, whom see them as something to guard against, and the capall uisce, who just receive a part of their power and will see them as beautiful, but, often, not beautiful enough. This can be extremely irritating to the sirens, who see anything of the water as something to be had; as a matter of fact, the latter can often be seen outside in the rain. A curse placed upon the race at the beginning of the apocalypse prohibits them from leaving H for a place closer to the sea, although they are slowly growing in numbers. Ancestral traces force them to look for something more and hold it close, and that thing - that species - is doomed to be one who will recognize their flaws.
Often, their actual romantic interest and the uisce are not the same person.
>> angels
Angels.
Of all the things to supposedly stay myth after the apocalypse, these seemed to be singled out. There were reports of creatures that could singlehandedly raise the dead before they became demons, ones that could summon wings at the flick of a finger and stave off the perpetual darkness before it hunted someone down. The sad irony is that they were deemed "wolf cries", the area around the alleged angel still being overrun by demons (and werewolves).
The truth is, the ones on earth are mostly wanderers out to guard a specific area or person. Literally, guardian angels. They are nearly emotionless and have a basic grasp of human concepts, not having ever been human, but their powers know nearly no boundaries - except for demons. They cannot kill demons unless on command, and even then, only ones that pose a threat.
They are intelligent beings that serve nobody on earth; they may take vessels, but can avoid nearly all manners of lethalities in their chosen bodies. However, they can very easily be weakened through other means, and it can take weeks for one to fully recover; they do not rest.
>> demons
Demons are an unhappy case. All of them died some point before they became demons; and all of them have some sort of possessive power. However, there are two kinds - the ones that take on the body they had when they died, and work with short-term possession, and those whom have none to take, and therefore can take the same body for years and then move on to another one. Both speak fluidly and express vague signs of emotion; mostly anger, feigned happiness, and, at times, a melancholy shade of sadness. Most are just manipulative, but others have a very physical strength and will exploit it.
There are no signs but blackening of the eyes to indicate a person is possessed; however, they can only keep up acts for so long before they slip, and if that's when someone dies, so be it.
Salt is a serious irritant, although it mightn't kill a demon; if they have their body, they'll be in pain for a long time; if they don't, they will immediately leave the host.
When faced with a Siren, they are about as susceptible as a human or shapeshifter, which is very vulnerable. Love is not beyond a demon, although it's a dark sort of love.
>> capall uisce
Able to hold their own in the world, uisce are a curious offset of a shapeshifter that can't be classified as one. They are held in high regard by sirens, and, inexplicably, often have an attractive physical appearance that can't be explained away by genes. Most are male.
Their animal forms are horses in varying shades of water; their very coat looks like it could turn to liquid at any second. They are extremely strong beasts, a little less intelligent in their animalistic form but elegant.
They are forced to change when exposed to the rain of H, which, most often, occurs in a timespan of roughly an hour and a half a day in verifiable torrents.
>> vampires
Their disease is less contagious than it could be and does not transfer from a bite unless their bodies are producing an overload of the virus and transferring it to their saliva, which occurs on occasion in the daytime to stave off heat. They are sensitive to nearly everything, from sound to touch, and can pick up on more than would be expected. Their canines only appear when they are ready to obtain blood.
Not very powerful creatures.
>> humans
Humans are the same as they were when it first started - only less plentiful and more cautious. They are still lured into traps on occasion, tricked into painful shenanigans, but they don't let their guard down very often. There is maybe one friend a human can make. Two. They keep different kinds of equipment with them depending on the situation, although guns and a small amount of salt are the weapons of choice. Skeptical and determined to survive.
>> shapeshifters
Shapeshifters appeared in the middle of it all and never went away. They were so sudden - humans that could change into animals at will. A half hour of the day, however, is allotted for voluntarily changing into their designated critter; otherwise, they lose much of their humanity for forty-five minutes and become far more dangerous. The misnomer "selkie" actually just applies to one of these in seal form.
>> werewolves; werehyenas; werefelines; weredolphins
These creatures are incredibly efficient, and, often, incredibly deadly. They share one aspect of their personality with their respective beast - just one, it can be subtle - and when they morph, it's either because of an extremely intense anger or the full moon. They are far more dangerous than their purely animal cousins and it's hard to tell why, but they feel entirely at ease with the world - not much is a threat to them. Their disease is only virally transmittable to about a quarter of the remaining humans and a much smaller percent of non-human humanoids, antibodies having been produced at a rapid rate once infections started becoming common. Vampires cause a egregious blood loss if they break the skin, and thus they tend to avoid any areas where they are common, but these werebeasts suffer very little otherwise.
Weredolphins are a bit of a special case.
Last edited by
thricewire on Fri Dec 06, 2013 1:05 pm, edited 16 times in total.