About Elnins and Eyre

The purpose of this page is to give you a bit of background on Elnin and Eyre lore! There's a lot that still needs to be fleshed out here.

For the moment we'll be keeping a lot of the lore on this page but as areas of the group grow some of these sections may expand and become their own pages with appropriate informational resources.

Elnin are one of many species in Eyre! They thrive in communities of other elnin across Eyre and at times attach themselves to a humanoid caretaker for companionship, convenience, and belly rubs.

[Aging]:

Elnin live significantly longer than humans and most purely biological creatures. It's safe to assume that 100+ is pretty common for elnin, and the oldest nins are probably ancient by most reckoning (Sunleth/ELN001 is old as dust). But the world is pretty dangerous so most elnins tend to die of unnatural causes. Aging does not deteriorate an elnin. Even elnin that are old enough, or currently have grandkittoms, are seemingly as young and spry as their offspring and grandkittoms.

[Intelligence]:

Elnin are sentient creatures, each with their own unique experiences and personality much like humans! At times their actions can come off as whimsical or fickle. They're generally known for having a great deal of pride in their chosen professions.

[Language & Writing]:

Elnin speak vocally in chirps, purring, and small barks and share a lot of body language similarities with the typical house cats. They are capable of speaking telepathically in words (or projected emotions and images) with other Eyre residents and species, assuming the recipient is open to the interaction.

It's safe to say if an elnin wanted to tune another elnin out and just not listen they could, and that other Eyre residents who are incapable of telepathy would similarly ignore or otherwise reject this type of communication if desired. To be clear though elnin cannot read minds! When receiving feedback from non-elnin species they would listen with their ears.

Eyre has a general written language that elnin use called Eyrescript! The alphabet can be found here (Eyrescript Alphabet Key) and the Old Eyrish alphabet can be found here (Old Eyrish Alphabet Key). Many elnin flyers and posters can be found covered in Eyrescript. Writing is a difficult task with just little toe-beans so most elnin choose to take gijinka form to write longer, smaller, or more detailed messages since they cannot physically grasp most writing utensils easily with their paws. Alternatively, elnin may request assistance from their pomu familiars who have a little more dexterity but vary in attentiveness and whims.

As far as things like sign language, elnin who are in gijinka form can use whatever form of sign language Eyre might have, but in a feral state tiny paws will likely not articulate well enough and they may be missing a digit required to convey certain signs depending on the nin.

Elnin Lore/Community FAQ:

• Q: So, possibly a weird question. bonded elnin have an attachement to their owner. Now, are there actual owners in lore? I know there are humans, but can humans actually own elnin likea pet?
  • Some elnin live in communities of their own, but other elnin may choose to live with another Eyre species (generally humanoid) as a caretaker for companionship, convenience, and belly rubs. They're sentient and fairly whimsical little creatures at times, so while they aren't exactly "owned" by other Eyre residents they may choose to cohabitate with them for mutual companionship benefits.
  • It's worth mentioning too, even in elnin communities elnin with very low MP, like nestlings, tend to get a little more babying treatment from their caretakers and other elnin. This isn't to say they're not adult elnin, but they're generally very prone to miasma/shouldn't be leaving safe warded towns/villages/paths. So community members do fret over them and may at times pamper them a bit more. ovob They might also steer them away from dangerous spots for obvious reasons.

[Nobility]

Elnin observe a nobility ranking system based on mana concentration in the blood.

• High mana correlates with a high magical resistance trait, which is important because much of their world, Eyre, is covered in a dangerously poisonous miasmic fog.
• Most major settlements and cities are well shielded, but safe paths through the Overwilds are often shifting, and trips between sanctuary locations tend to be perilous.
• Having this increased tolerance means that elnin nobility are at a reduced risk of getting sick while traveling outside of warded cities. This makes them an invaluable asset to most of Eyre's major societies and guilds.
• Unlike some cultures, nobles are considered the working class in elnin society. The higher the rank the more responsibility they are expected to carry. Low ranked elnins live a cushy and easy life, while high nobility are expected to utilize their natural talents for the greater good and are frequently working in dangerous conditions.

[Hierarchy]

Nestlings

• Nestlings have less MP than the average Eyresian, and are prone to contracting mana sickness when exposed to even the smallest amount of miasma. They are called nestlings because they rarely leave the place they were born in. They are often babied by higher ranking elnins and generally aren't expected to do much.

Villagers

• Villager elnins, like nestlings, will more than likely remain in one city their entire life. They do not have high enough mana to venture around the outskirts of warded areas, but will typically devote themselves to a craft that can be done locally.

Adventurers

• This group probably represents the largest portion of the elnin population. Adventurers are a hardy group, and are capable of modest treks through most areas of the Overwilds. They generally have the widest range of occupations.
  • [Knights] These elnin are a special sub-class, and refer to adventurer elnins who have been trained for combat support. Knights can only be appointed by royals.

Nobles

• Nobles are able to withstand almost all forms of miasma exposure. The only location off limits to elnin nobles is the area directly surrounding the Night Gate itself. Certain tasks are reserved for this rank. For example, only nobles are employed to follow Great Spirits through the Overwilds and map any new safe pathways that are created by their passage.
  • [Champions] A noble knight. Often working directly with royalty.

Royals

• Royal elnins are so saturated in mana, that they radiate their own miniature shielding effect. Due to this, they are frequently employed within Eyre's exploration guilds. Royals work closely with all Daeva hunting expeditions, and are in charge of training elnins for combat. In addition, there are always two elnin royals stationed at the Night Gate to observe any changes to the miasma flowing out of it. Daeva are the race of monsters that inhabit the miasma.

Eyre, as it exists now, is just a small piece of a larger world and history.

[Eyre Origin]

The land of Eyre is, in truth, just one small section of a much larger world that was decimated centuries ago by a ruinous curse. This other world can be seen far above, a dark and smoldering husk looming in the sky. The true name of the planet has long been lost to memory, and is now simply referred to as Dusk for it seems to steal the very light out of the sky that surrounds it.

It is important to note that even though Dusk hangs like a baleful moon high above, Eyre is still part of it, still attached to this dead planet. Eyre exists in a place between realms, sustained by a cocoon of magic that displaces it from its mother world. No one really understands how it maintains this state of dislocation, somehow being apart from and part of Dusk at the same time.

History pieces together a mystifying account of Eyre's creation and how it came to exist in such an odd state. The oldest surviving writings say that many many ages ago, Dusk was a flourishing and verdant planet watched over by an assembly of benevolent deities. These deities worked closely with the people of Dusk, walking among them rather than choosing to remain aloof and apart from the mortal realms. However, as it tends to be with most aspects of life, there had to be a balance, an opposing darkness to the light. This darkness came to exist within the core of Dusk. It seethed there in the deep shadows, far removed from the gaze of divinity, waiting.

There aren't enough clues remaining to complete the puzzle of how the Ruin was invoked, where it came from and why, only that once it began it was absolute and unstoppable. A virulent miasma boiled violently up from the depths of the world, seemingly without warning, consuming and corrupting everything it touched. The miasma turned people and animals into foul monsters, the Daeva, whose sole purpose was to further spread destruction and despair. The Ruin lasted all of nine days as the miasma and swarms of Daeva swept relentlessly across the land. The deities could not stop it, though their efforts were mighty. In the end, they spent the last vestiges of their considerable power in one desperate gambit. They gathered the remaining survivors into small sections of uninfected land, and then tore them forcibly away from the corrupted Dusk. These stretches of earth were not wholly removed from the world, as the deities did not have the strength left in them to sustain so many islands floating independently in the ether. Instead, they severed the manaflows connecting the land to Dusk, and surrounded each sundered region in layers of shielding enchantments to further close them off from the dying planet. These small regions were still physically attached to Dusk, but their energies, the manaflow that sustained the life of the land, were somewhere else entirely.

This elsewhere is a realm called the Boundless, a place the deities created from their own living essences in a final sacrifice for their people. The Boundless is a vast ocean, where each of the small portions of sundered land manifests as an isolated island. The effect is such that the people in these regions seem to live far away from Dusk, on their own sheltered isles with the dark planet a distant threat in the sky above.

These shielded islands drifted around in the Boundless for a short time before they ultimately began to be drawn toward a point of gravity. There was one place where the shields were weak, one place in the Boundless that was open to Dusk. This island is now called the Night Gate, for the minions of Dusk, the Daeva, have built a structure there in worship of the miasma that pours through the rift. The Night Gate calls out to the disparate islands because it is connected to their true home, and they cannot help but be drawn to it. Eventually, the largest regions clustered together around the Night Gate into what is now the world called Eyre. ​

[Miasma & Survival in Eyre]

There aren't very many ways to deliberately remove miasma from an area once a wave of it has settled in. That being said, miasma behaves in fairly predictable ways and life throughout Eyre has adapted.

Notes on miasma:

• Veils of miasma come and goes by themselves during the changing seasons (referred to as miasmic tide), with the heaviest concentration during deep winter, and all but disappearing during the late spring/summer months.
• There are very few areas in Eyre that remain shrouded in miasma year round, with almost all persistent miasma being localized to the Vahl D'sari region. Sometimes, small pockets will linger after the spring ebb, but these sites are quickly identified by pathfinder adepts, surrounded with wards and monitored until they disperse on their own.
• There are permanent warding shrines all over Eyre that are effective at preventing the spread of miasma. (Note, this type of warding isn't particularly effective at removing miasma from an area once it has rolled in, it only prevents waves from encroaching on a protected region). These wards are made of naturally occurring white anima from the regions south of Hadaven. This purifying anima can be attuned to keeping miasmic waves from encroaching on settlements. The caveat is that these structures drain ambient mana in order to function and require one of two things to be effective at keeping up a miasmic ward:
  • 1. A sizeable population of mana sensitive creatures. A village of native Eyresians can power its own miasmic ward just by existing in the vicinity for extended periods. The warding shrine doesn't actively drain mana from living creatures, rather it creates a sort of symbiotic spellweave between itself and creatures that remain close to it over time. This does rely on locals remaining close if there is no other natural source of mana to feed the ward, but during the months where the miasmic protection is vital, people generally stay close to home for safety regardless.
  • 2. A sizeable local source of naturally occurring mana (manawells, leylines, etc). Almost all major cities on Eyre are settled atop these wellsprings of power, and as such are well protected from seasonal miasmic fluctuations.
• Royal elnins actually repel miasma as they move through it. However, the purifying effect of their aura is not permanent and miasma will eventually fill the void again once the royal has passed through. It is possible for a royal to purify an area by attuning themselves to it over time but this would require an extended stay and days spent entirely in meditative channeling, which is an effort most royals would find unnecessary given their busy schedules and the transient nature of miasma.
• It is technically possible for certain spiritualistic guild sects to remove miasma from an area, but generally speaking, the resources and expertise required are prohibitive. Plans are usually made to install wards during low miasmic tide in order to expand protected regions beforehand, while any existing miasmic contamination is left to disperse on its own.

Miasma FAQ:

• Q: Could an Elnin handle the corrupted anima shards with tools? (As in; pick them up with special tools and wrap them in a few layers of (mana-infused?) cloth & then transport them?)
  • Pomu are the only way to safely transport them at the moment. Other races don't generally deal with things that elnins are specialized/adapted for. They are considered the caretakers of Eyre's mana systems almost everywhere.
• Q: Also, do the Pomus only turn back to normal once the anima shard is purified at the shrine or could the nins take the anima shard out of the Pomus hands and it turns back to normal again?
  • Pomu go back to normal once the shard is purified/removed, in theory it could be removed from the pomu before it's purified but it would be like unsealing the shard that the pomu are protecting their elnin from so it's considered a bad approach to even attempt other methods of transport/would run counter to what's expected of the act.
• Q: The description said, purified anima shards can be left at the altar - but that isn't a must? Could someone potentially turn it into a charm and treat it as "I've overcome the obstacle of almost running into a Daeva and made it out alive" (Basicially a good luck charm/ using the purifying act as coping mechanism for going through the whole ordeal of the seeping miasma quest.)
  
  • For the shards, generally they are left there as a sort of offering to nature and the cycle of renewal. The shard will deteriorate over time if left unattended, sort of dispersing back into the ether. There is nothing specific stopping an elnin from taking the shard though if there is significant personal attachment. The shard would diminish in size still but at a very small size in theory it could stay intact as a bauble of sorts as long as it's kept close to a stabilizing entity (the elnin), rather than being left to completely degrade.
• Q: If the purified anima shards can be taken....can they be crushed? Like, could my nin Lenore turn it into sand shards and make into an hour glass?
  
  • If the shard is crushed into fine sand-like particles it'would just fully disperse/degrade at that point so an hour glass/curshing the shards wouldn't work out in this case.
• Q: Would exposure to even purified, rendered down shards be at all dangerous?
  • The purified shards are not dangerous no. They're basically a very very dilute type of anima shard at that stage.

[Technology & Magic]

Eyre is a primarily ye old fantasy setting. The technology on Eyre is not the same as Earth, but there are certain cities that have some similar level of advancement (very few, and only the very largest). Electricity doesn't function on Eyre normally though, so everything is done via some form of magical engineering. Something more akin to steampunk/high fantasy might fit into Eyre but magical items of substance are not common. Most technology would run on limited use anima crystals or tie into large city sources of mana.

There are varying schools of thought on magic throughout Eyre but to use anything beyond simple magic tool equivalents (anima shards powering something akin to a lamp) or a very small and simple spell tied to your elnin's sigil crown, you must be trained as a mage or otherwise. At this time these occupations are not accessible, however studying the theory and books is allowed. Just keep in mind most elnin are not trained to use magic and should not be depicted using magic in prompts.

Most elnin (aside from a few sold with the Knight and Champion status) cannot wield weapons well as they lack dexterity and training. It's hard to wield a bow for hunting with toe beans that lack sizable thumbs. Elnin are close to house cats in terms of strength so you won't see them wielding anything grand or acknowledged as trained combatants without actual training. They are also more likely to accidentally hamstring a person tripping on their own ear fluff by carelessly running around with a common cooking knife or small dagger.

You might wonder if elnin can learn martial arts instead since they're unable to wield weapons well! There is nothing preventing them from learning hand-to-hand martial arts, but you'll still be encountering physical strength issues since elnin are more or less fairly weak physique-wise (they're basically cats so trying to throw a human wouldn't really be a thing even in gijinka form). They wouldn't really be any sort of formidable threat, although maybe a bit more balanced/skilled in moving their body around. Not necessarily faster or anything either in a general sense/stamina would still run out.

Normal weapons in Eyre are not capable of fighting Daeva (the monsters dwelling in the miasma). There is a complicated path of training through the Hunter's Guild that an elnin must undergo to actually acquire a weapon that can damage Daeva. At this time such training and guild status are not available to users within the community until proper Guild systems are set up. Standard weapons for things like hunting food exist, but nothing that would stand up in a real fight.

Noteables / Tech FAQ:

• Q: Is there technology in the world? I really want a gamer Elnin!
  • At this time there is no known video game type culture in Eyre since the ye old fantasy setting currently doesn't have known technology that would let something like this arise.
• Q: What if technology or magical abilities from another world are brought through a portal to Eyre?
  • Any majorly disruptive abilities of other creatures are rendered mostly ineffective in Eyre's sphere of influence (in other words the magic here overrides most foreign energy/magic/technology/etc).
• Q: Does Eyre have wheelchairs?
  
  • If you can be steampunk/high fantasy about it, sure!
• Q: What kind of airships does Eyre have? What kind of travel is common?
  
  • Treasure Planet vibes for sure! Caravans are the most common form of travel followed by sea travel, but there is regular airship traffic between major cities.

    The frequency of airship/transit availability is a different matter though. Not all are daily, but at most you'd have to wait a few weeks if you wanted to take an airship from like Eiloen to Bejali. Just depends on the region. Like Ealei's Skyhaven would have a lot more traffic than Zevija's Hadaven. You wouldn't see airships go to Sulapei as it is too remote even though it's a populated area! So it's worth factoring tidbits like that in.

[Regions]

There is a lot of information pertaining to Regions and their relation to prompt and act backgrounds. You can find all information related to regions through our Regional Affinity Guide page.

[Seasons & Weather in Eyre]

"Seasons" in Eyre are not temperature based and instead are largely based around the amount of miasma throughout Eyre. Weather can still vary a little in Eyre regions but those weather patterns align with what is expected of a certain region's typical environment. (For example frequent rain might occur in Kyendi given it's jungles, sandstorms in Azha where there are dry deserts, gentle rain showers in Palu'au and Faerindell, and snowy and sunny but cool days in Strynhalde.) Extreme deviations in weather like heatwaves in Strynhalde or snow in Palu'au would not occur!