Inderland Races

These are the different races of Inderlander found in the Hollows.

Banshee

The Banshee is an humanoid apex predator (even higher than the undead vampire) and feeds exclusively on emotional energy that comes from the victim's aura. They are extremely powerful and can kill without touching their prey. Banshee are exclusively female, and reproduction usually involves the death of any male they choose due to the extremely large amount of energy they draw during mating to produce a child. There are typically only a few per city, as they are extremely territorial. All Banshee can create something known as a Banshee's tear, a tear-shaped item that is left by the Banshee in emotionally charged areas so that the emotional energy can be devoured at a later date. Banshee children are unable to control their powers until the age of 5, and so will kill anyone who come into direct contact with them if they are not closely monitored by their parent. Any child born will become an almost carbon copy of their mother, as the male's genetic information is slowly worn away by the Banshee genes.

Demon

Demons are extremely powerful, and can be male or female, though there are only two female demons in existance due to both the Rosewood Syndrome and a massacre perpetrated by Newt (who was tricked into it by Ku'Sox ). They are Rachel Mariana Morgan (Jariathjackjunisjumoke) and Newt herself. Both are capable of producing full blooded demon children. Demons can take any form they wish, but most often draw from their victim's fears to choose a form. They seem to prefer a humanoid shape, though their true form is slight, dark as midnight bat winged cat-like humanoid, but witches look human as well and they are descended from demons. Demons and their familiars can spindle ley line energy, with females able to hold a great deal more than males. This enables them to do stronger and more frequent ley line energy, and to defend themselves when another inderlander attacks them by trying to "burn them out" with raw ley line energy. All demons can perform demonic magic, which consists of curses(created by mixing ley line & earth magic) that cause smut (black marks) on both the aura and the soul, though these are not marks of evil, but marks of the natural imbalance that demonic magic creates when it twists the natural into the unnatural. Demonesses can create a construct within their soul called a Tulpa, which allows them to project a false environement on their surroundings, and then bring in the soul of a male demon who can fix it in the reality of the Ever After for all demons to enjoy while removing the female demon's soul from the construct so they are not harmed by the process.

All demons can create and use scrying mirrors to contact other demons, and can be summoned once they have registered a summoning name. Aside from Rachel, no other demon can walk in the daylight - as she was born after the demons severed the Ever After from reality, she is not bound to it like other demons. Ku'sox was also born after this event, but he can no longer walk in the daylight unless summoned due to an ancient curse Rachel forced into him. Once summoned, a demon can refuse or agree to do the bidding of the summoner - despite the common misconception that they must obey. A demon's word can be trusted, but only to the very letter of the agreement, and those who deal with demons often find themselves outwitted and dragged into the Ever After. Those who cautiously consort with demons to make deals often consult lawyers (or those experienced in demon law like Ceridwen) to avoid the consequences of a poorly written deal.

All witches are descendended from demons, despite elven propoganda to the contrary. Witches were created when the elves cursed the demons to have magically stunted children who could not kindle demon magic, and witches were the result.

Dryad

Dryads are a race that originally bound themselves to trees, moving to statues placed on ley lines to avoid extinction due to deforestation. Despite this they have been rare since before the Turn.

Gargoyle

Gargoyles are winged creatures with lion tails that look like they're made of stone, with glowing red eyes. They like to live on churches and with witches or demons, and they defend their home to the death from invasion. They can camouflage themselves against any surface, change their shape to fit through narrow openings, and travel by flight or crawling along surfaces--even upside down. Young gargoyles are unable to stay awake during the day, and spend it as a stone. A gargoyle will bind to a witch when it matures to adulthood. An unbound gargoyle can move through anyone's circle as if it isn't there. When a gargoyle touches a witch's skin, the witch can see ley lines all around her like a map. Gargoyles are necessary for witches to jump through ley lines at will, for travel. Having been designed by demons to enable them to hear the lines, all wild gargoyles who knew how to travel the lines were killed and that is also why they frequent holy ground, to be safe from demons kidnapping their young.

Human

While most of humanity is just like humanity in the real world, some humans can work ley-line magic, though they don't have the blood to kindle earth magic. Those few humans that can work magic have elven blood in their ancestry. No pure humans are capable of magic.

Elf

The Elves have spent the last 10000 years at war with demons, who were once their allies. They were trapped in the Ever-After by demons in punishment for enslaving them. The elves migrated from the Ever-After 2000 years ago. They have a very attractive humanoid form with pointy ears unless they are docked, and can interbreed with humans (but not witches). They are often discribed as manipulative tricksters filled with deviltry. They are the ones who originally cursed the demon's offspring creating the witch race. In response, the demons cursed the elves to have a increasingly decayed genetic structure. Until the advent of genetic manipulation, elves inter-bred with humans to stave off their extinction. Unfortunately, this resulted in the elf population taking unprecedented damage during the Turn along with humans, since their DNA had hybridized so extensively. Full-blooded elves were not affected by the Turn. There are several ten thousand full-blooded elves alive.

Thanks to the work of Trent Kalamack and the theft of a 5000 year old elven blood sample, the genetic structure of the elves is now repairable, and so far two elven children have been born healthy with the successful treatment.

Elves are the only known practitioners of Wild Magic, which involves religous overtones and is closely linked with nature. It has a variety of uses and is extremly effective, but possesses a horrible unpredictability as well as horrible power. When elves use wild magic their voices take on a musical quality and it sounds as if they are singing. Elves are also capable of using ley line magic and are fully capable of using it for black charms and spells, though they do not have quite as high a capacity for storing ley-line energy in their chi as witches or demons do. 

Elves mature quickly and have a life span of 160 years. Their goverment was once a monarchy (Dulicate family) but now have two branches of goverment, Enclave (movers and shakers) and Dewar (spiritual leaders).  Elves have a sense of honor and often when you cause harm to one they hunt you down. Their scent is of cinnamon, wine and evergreen. Pixies adore elves. 

Faerie

Faeries are tiny Inderlanders, at 6 inches tall they are slightly larger than Pixies, with pitch black eyes butterfly-like wings they use for travel. They have long, sharp teeth and are insectivores, eating a wide variety of bugs. Faeries are generally regarded as bad for gardens, as they tend to strip them of all life in their pursuit of bugs to eat, and do not tend the habitat. They also have large clans & families, and frequently go to war with Pixies over land. Unlike Pixies who hibernate in the winter, Faeries fly south and come back once winter is over. Faeries are also good at surveilance and make excellent assasins.

Leprechuan

Leprechuans are short-statured Inderlanders with an Irish history who can grant apparently omnipotent "wishes". An adult leprechuan is about the size of a two-year-old human child when not magicall enhancing themselves. Wishes are symbolized by little coins tied with ribbon. Leprechuans often offer wishes as bribes to get their way, but can give them out at will, after which they can be traded to other people like a commodity. Once a person decides what they wish for, the wish is automatically invoked, even if the leprechaun is not around. Any money promised to a Leprechuan can not be cheated away from them afterward.

Nymph

Nymphs are a race originally thought to have died out during the Industrial Revolution, they have trouble breathing even with today's less polluted air. They have the approximate strength and speed of a living vampire and have a great deal of control over air.

Pixy

Pixies are tiny winged creatures, similar to faeries but far more human in appearance, that typically have a lifespan of 18-20 years. They mate for life; however if one mate dies the other will kill him or herself on their partner's funeral pyre to be with their dead mate. Children are born in batches, and are called newlings until it is certain they will live long enough to be named. Pixies are passionate about family and friends and will fight to the death against any foe who threatens them. They require a nearly constant sugar intake as a result of their high metabolisms, and tend to eat a lot of peanut butter & honey, but are healthier with their choice of seeds and plants than on processed sugar. Their most prized food is natural maple syrup. Unlike faeries, pixies take meticulous care of their gardens.

A sustained temperature below 40° F will push a pixy into hibernation. During the winter pixies hibernate and the risk of death is great, but if there is a warm enough environment they will stay awake all winter instead. Most steel and metal is poisonous to them, requiring special care to handle; they are even sensitive to the plastic and gasoline in synthetic clothing materials, so they dress mostly in silk and spider silk.

The ultimate goal of any pixy is to obtain a garden where they can raise and feed a large family. Pixies have a highly developed sense of smell that can identify the race of different Inderlanders. Because of their small size, pixies are excellent for surveillance and defense, but they also make good assassins as most people underestimate them because of their size.

Pixies may or may not have been made by elves, based on Ceri’s comment, “Gargoyles are to witches as pixies are to elves.”

Troll

Trolls are somewhat amorphous Inderlanders that live underwater, preferring to remain under the same bridge for years. They enjoy the shade of bridges because they dry out rapidly in sunlight. Trolls are able to increase in size dramatically by filling themselves with water. They are considered pests as they will eat the foundations of their bridges to suppliment their diet. Able to absorb water to gain mass and intimidate enemies they are keenly aware of everythping that goes on, on and around their bridg.

Vampire

There are two kinds of vampires, the living and the undead. Living vampires have two different classes - there are the low-blood vampires known as Ghouls, which are humans that have been infected with the vampire virus and will require additional undead help to become undead when they die for the first time, and there are the high-blood vampires - those born with the virus shaping them while still in the womb. High-blood living vampires are decended from ghouls but are seen as better because they are born with many of the special abilities of the undead, whereas ghouls are not. Undead vampires are living vampires who have died once and lost their soul. In order to continue existing they must avoid sunlight and feed on the living to maintain the semblence of an aura. If the undead vampire waits too long to feed, its body will commit suicide by walking into the sunlight because it will recognize the loss of the soul and seek true death.

When living vampires are excited in some fashion - whether it be arousal, fear, anger, or any truly intense emotion they may begin to pull an aura, which causes their eyes to go black and their instincts to come to the forefront. Pheromones leaked into the air by strong emotion cause living vampires to lose control. They will become extremely sensitive to fear, and most will attack any who exhibit it nearby while they are in this state. Undead vampires typically have more control over themselves - it's a necessity that comes from pretending to be civilized and friendly around the society that knows you do not possess a soul. Many living vampires suffer long and drawn out abuse at the hands of a master undead vampire, as the undead seem to take a perverse interest in tormenting their living counterparts.

While living vampires do not need blood to survive, they enjoy taking blood much as other species enjoy sex. Vampire bites can result in the subject being "bound" to the vampire's will. Vampire saliva carries a toxin that converts pain to pleasure in their victims, as well as a virus that remains in the victim's body forever, able to produce the toxin whenever the subject is excited by another vampire (bound victims, or "shadows", can only be excited by the vampire who binds them). During the first death, a soon-to-be vampire's body is preserved by action of the vampire virus in his cells, but one vampire's version of the virus is not compatible with another's, and if an undead vampire sustains a bite from another undead vampire, he will die as the two viruses compete and destroy the body.

All vampires possess superior strength, senses, and reflexes than humans, with undead vampires having far more than living vampires. Vampires are all related to humans, and the living vampires can inter-breed with humans.

Were

Weres are thought to have originally come from a human children cursed by demons to become wolves, however Weres cannot inter-breed with humans (though humanoid in appearance). All Weres possess the ability to turn into wolves, and their political structure is pack-based, with most Weres showing absolute loyalty to the pack. They typically possess superior speed, strength, and sense of smell. In their wolf forms they are larger than real wolves due to the greater body mass transferred over from their humanoid form. Disputes are normally settled in fights between the Alphas of packs, but the I.S. may get involved if things get out of hand. Weres are known for their fierce loyalty to those they consider friends and kin, which is why most vampires will not take a Were for a shadow, fearing brutal and immediate retaliation from the pack. Pack affiliation is shown by sporting the pack's registered tattoo. Loners (those who have no pack) are significantly more vulnerable. Unless one holds the Were Focus, a were must be born, not created. The holder of the Were Focus is able to change humans into Weres by exchanging bodily fluids through biting, scratching, or sex.

Witch

Witches are humanoid, but are not related to humans and cannot inter-breed with them. They are descended from demons, and their evolution is the direct result of an elven curse created to wipe out demonkind by preventing their children from having the ability to perform demon magic. Witches have two kind of magic they can perform: earth magic, which involves creating potions and charms, and ley line magic, which is magic created by pulling on a ley line. A true witch cannot perform demon magic (which mixes earth & ley line magic) at all, but they can twist black magic and summon demons. Black magic creates an imbalance on the soul and aura; it is not necessarily evil in nature, but is a perversion of the natural order, which is why it stains the individual. Presumably, both earth magic and ley line magic can be used to create black magic, but ley line magic seems to be the weapon of choice for twisting black spells. Witches do not have the raw power of Weres, Demons, Banshees or Vampires, but their magic holds society together, providing services vital to the sustainability of the multi-Inderlander & human community. It has been said that were witches to band together and seek to take power from the other reigning inderlanders, they would be a serious and dangerous foe, but for the most part witches are content to police themselves and stay out of the limelight.

Warlocks are those of the witch race who haven't learned to stir their own spells.

Many witches carry the recessive gene for Rosewood Syndrome, a fatal genetic disease that will kill any witch child who inherits the gene from both parents before age 2 unless they undergo serious and illegal genetic tampering.This disease is the result of the elven curse - any child who survives the Rosewood Syndrome is in fact a witch-born demon, not a witch, and can kindle demonic magic.