Races of Eden: Ainyu

Some of Eden’s common races have much more to them than can be seen at first glance. The Ainyu are in the company of other mortal races, but they are Spirits in reality, their lifespans stretching much further then their mortal kin, and their strange powers and behaviors different from those of mortal soul. The Ainyu have their place in Adel’s societies and myths, their mystical, kindly ways inspiring Adelians for generations untold.

Physiology

Ainyu are humanoids with height comparable to a Iomadi, perhaps a bit shorter, around 5’3″ to 5’6″ as adults. They have skin, hair and eyes with exotic coloration, silvers and golds and darks arrayed in fashion unique to their race. Their hair tends to be rather long and their bodies slender. Their humanoid forms are varied in shape as any human or iomadi would be however, distinguished mostly by the small markings upon their bodies, as though natural tattooes. They look very well like ordinary people from just their bodies alone. Their exotic trait comes in the form of their motes, floating orbs of light that congregate around the Ainyu. The positions of these lights relative to the main body, as well as their colors and temperature, are all as indicative of the demeanor and identity of the Ainyu as its face, hair and body type would be. Physically, Ainyu have separate genders as a species, male and female, with the correct anatomy for each despite this not playing any part in how they reproduce. It’s just another anthrocentric phenomenon of the Spirits, where their forms will mimic the humanoid norm more often than not.

The motes are pieces of the Ainyu’s essence and share its aura, making them effectively parts of its body. The motes are their own simple but individual minds forged from pieces of the base personality that is the Ainyu as a whole. The motes can speak to and be understood by the Ainyu, and they can “sense” in ways the Ainyu can perceive. They cannot move more than thirty feet or so away from the Ainyu, but anything they “see” and “feel” can be relayed back to the main body. The Ainyu has 3 motes per ten years or so of life, but there may come a point where the Ainyu gains no new motes, or where motes begin to waver and vanish, depending on the Ainyu’s health and age. A very healthy Ainyu can keep producing motes. The ainyu has control over the brightness or dimness of its motes. At their strongest, they shine like small candles. An Ainyu can briefly channel aura through their motes into a natural magical defense.

Though Ainyu can engage romantically with other races, they do not produce children through regular sexual contact – male-bodied Ainyu do not fertilize females of other races and female-bodied Ainyu cannot become pregnant. Rather, Ainyu instead must merge some of their motes into a new Ainyu child when they reach a certain age. Though they can do this without a partner, emotional, mental and bodily health all play a part in the Ainyu’s ability to create children this way. An ainyu that is lonely is much less likely to succeed, and may end up just hurting itself. This child is in essence a small copy of some of the Ainyu’s traits, with others being either randomly selected or “sculpted” by the parent Ainyu’s will. The child will eventually grow into its own entity, but it begins very close to what its parent wants it to be. The Ainyu can split off its motes this way a few times in its life, again depending on its overall health. As a child, the Ainyu play a game where they “marry” their motes together – this little exercise foretells the Ainyu’s ability to join their motes together into a child, and usually, the motes that the Ainyu marries in its child play are the ones it will spend to “give birth” in its adult life.

All Ainyu can shed motes this way. However, the Ainyu’s psyche has a lot to do with this as well. An Ainyu that identifies as a male (this does not necessarily mean it will have a male body) will have a harder time with the creation of children, while Ainyu who identify as female (this does not mean a female body, again) can join Motes more easily. Commonly though, female-bodied Ainyu, as is usual for reproduction, are the ones who perform the function of “child-birth.” But any Ainyu can give birth if it wants to. Many choose not to, however, and only really do so when they feel well enough and loved enough.

Ainyu are extremely long-lived, but can choose to die at any point. Their leftover motes will involuntarily join together to form a child upon the Ainyu’s death, one only partially related to the dead Ainyu, as a sort of instinctual survival mechanism. Ainyu often choose to die in order to leave the mortal coil with a loved one, but some may also commit this sort of suicide for other reasons, some more tragic than others.

History

Like most Spirits, Ainyu don’t have much of a real history. They have been part of legend and myth for very long, and only past the intolerable war have they been considered to be “citizens” of civilization the way Iomadi or other mortal races are. Many of the myths about the Ainyu involved them being royalty adrift from palaces in the sky, seeking asylum from cruel masters. On the ground in Adel, they fall in love, and come upon the dilemma of bloodlines and lineages. Is an Ainyu child truly an heir? In the past, this question was, according to myth, solved by having a concubine produce a “legitimate” heir instead. Presently, few, if anybody, care about how the Ainyu reproduce, or perhaps the question is just not important anymore. Ainyu just suddenly seemed to “appear” as part of the overall civilian population of Adel after the Intolerable War, with few real historical records of where they came from or how they originated. They are therefore accepted as being one of the spirit races, albeit friendlier and less reclusive than most other species.

Way of Life

The Ainyu are spirits representative of love and life. They are very kindly and do well as healers and clerics, or serving villages as guardian spirits. They will rarely fight violently, even to defend themselves – they would rather take the beating than respond aggressively. However, if it is to defend someone they hold dear, Ainyu will fight, though with nonelethal force, seeking to incapacitate whatever the source of danger is and hopefully run away with their loved one rather than have to kill. Ainyu are prone to being swindled or abused because of their kind-heartednesss and determination to see good in people. They are also unabashed optimists who always believe that things will go pretty well.

An Ainyu that is none of these things is referred to as a “blank” because their motes drain of color and their main bodies become gray-ish. This depression might happen if something particularly terrible happens to the Ainyu. Though most can surpass it, it is a dangerous state for an Ainyu to regress to, particularly since they have the ability to commit suicide at any point. Blanks are often cared for by locals to prevent such terrible events from unfolding, since this condition is pretty common knowledge nowadays. It is also very possible for an Ainyu to become malicious, particularly after undergoing a vulnerable Blank depression period. Such “fallen” Ainyu are undergoing a sort of spirit’s schizophrenia, and though not completely to blame for their mental state, they are nonetheless capable of shocking and horrible actions that they will be held painfully responsible for.

Social Standing

Though Ainyu used to have a problem when Adel was a society based more on landed inheritance, due to their unique reproductive methods, they now share a somewhat privileged status in society. Though much shorter in number than other races, they are renowned for being generally helpful, kind and good-meaning folk. They are often in the lower class economically, mostly because they lack the ambitions that certain other races (particularly their mischievous counterparts, the Rhonnu) possess, and so rich Ainyu are very rare, unless they married into money. Everyone can count on an Ainyu to be goodly and a credit to the community, so they tend to be well-loved. Which makes it all the more shocking if an Ainyu ever falls to baser desires and performs some act of criminality or brutality.

Ainyu In Play

An Ainyu’s entire life is important to consider, right from the circumstances of birth and any periods of depression throughout its life, as well as its ultimate identity. Was your Ainyu born from its parents suicide or from a “loving birth”? Does your Ainyu have its own loved ones and community? What is your Ainyu like as a person? While PC Ainyu can indeed be goodly, kind paragons of virtue, they can also “break the rule” and be more grumpy or unreasonable as well.