Name
Equida
also: Horsekin,
Not: Pony, Centaur
Body Description
Equida stand at around six feet, capping out at 7 feet tall in some edge cases. They possess sturdy bodies, particularly around their core and lower body, capable of running extremely fast and pulling great weights with little effort. Equida possess ears and tails akin to horses. The coloration ranges from the entire range of horse fur colors and patterns, and their head hair is always the same tone as their ears.
Despite their great power, Equida possess little stamina, due to which they are rarely used to deliver messages but are very popular as drafters, pulling heavy carts with little complaint, especially among demihumans, as they are not legally allowed to own draft animals such as horses and oxen. This popularity got them into a rivalry with the Bovids, who value strength and are severely jealous of the natural power of Equida. Unlike the Bovids, Equida are often vegetarians, but just like them, they both enjoy heavily salted food to the point that only those two can consume the amounts of salt they like to add.
Personality
Equida are very proud of their bodies and strength and will use whatever chance they get to show off the latter, especially. They do not have a high combative drive, preferring not to engage unless absolutely necessary yet once they do engage will not stop until they are certain their target is absolutely taken out. Though they potentially could, the very idea of carrying someone on their back is a sensitive topic to Equida, as they consider it too close to acting like actual horses.
Stats
Power: 4
Agility: 2
Toughness: 1
Mental: 2
Perception: 0
Mana: N/A
Core
Equida possess the wood core, which is seated in their spine. It allows them to channel the same strength plants can use to shatter stone through their own muscle, allowing much greater feats of strength.
A secondary effect of the wooden core is a slight healing factor which is not strong enough to regenerate wounds noticeably faster until they manage to master it, but it allow their bones and joints to regenerate the daily strain from dragging carts, which is the reason they can do so till old age without trouble. A mastered wooden core meanwhile halves the time the body requires to heal from any injury or effect.
Name
Leporid
also: Rabbitkin
Not: Bunny, anything related to their ears or body size.
Body Description
Leporids are between two and four feet tall, with the average being around three feet tall. They possess a wiry body composition and are the demihuman with the hairiest bodies, growing the closest to possessing actual fur on their bodies, despite their faces being hairless. Some possess whiskers, some possess buck teeth, some both, and some neither.
Leporids possess two pairs of ears. A pair of human ears and one pair of Rabbit ears that extend around one and a half feet from the top of their head. Their hair colors range from different shades of brown to black and white, as well as spotted. Their hair color is shared by their ears.
While most non-Leporids don’t know it, and a lot of Leporids hide them, they possess small tails.
Personality
Leporids are quite fearless, due to their high mental stat, worrying more for others than themselves. They are unapologetic in how they act and tend to be quick to anger, yet also quick to calm down again.
Despite what one might think based on the Bovids and Equida, Leporids enjoy eating meat. The reason varies between Leporids. Some simply state they enjoy the taste. Some claim it to be revenge against the bigger creatures. Some state they feel a craving for it.
Stats
Power: 0
Agility: 2
Toughness: 1
Mental: 4
Perception: 2
Mana: N/A
Core
Leporids possess the wind core, which allows them to increase their physical speed manyfold. This speed can only be accessed in short bursts, which allows for quick strikes or dodges. The utility outside of combat is very limited, the exception being tasks such as chopping wood or beating the dust out of carpets.
A fully mastered wind core allows them to keep their bursts of speed for much longer, up to five minutes at a time. Their speed during this time, however, is extraordinary.
Relationship between Demihumans and Rolanders:
Though the original Roland never had deep interactions with demihumans, as they only began appearing after his active period ended, every Rolander of either gender since has had Demihumans in their adventuring group. The most common were Felids and Canids, though Leporid and Kitsune of the opposite (or same in a few cases) gender enjoyed popularity as “travel companions” and “team members”.
After generations of such a close bond, the fantasy of being whisked away on a romantic adventure by a Rolander is strong in those inclined to enjoy romance stories and poems. Every couple of years, a trend resurges, of young human nobles wearing false ears and tails, fully enchanted to stick and move like the real thing, behind closed doors to play out such fantasies among each other. Some of these accessories are still being made for the day the next Rolander appears…
Most Rolanders ignored such topics as slavery and injustice, stating that “this is just how this world is”. ignoring their political and personal power that could be used to effect changes. Some contented themselves with simply being a “good owner” others treated it as perfectly reasonable as it is.
Among the 14 Rolanders before the current one, including the first Rolander, six have made attempts to change the status quo. Some of them and their actions will be added to the Interlude regarding past Rolanders. For now, all that's important to know is that, despite their best intentions, they did not achieve much, and half of them lost their lives in the attempt.
They were accidents officially, attempts at rituals to increase their powers that failed, secret trials to acquire magical artifacts that failed, a Rolander that went to bed drunk with their concubines but simply never awoke again, but to anybody who looked deeper into it would′ve noticed that these incidents kept happening shortly after these rolanders first stepped before the king to argue in favor of demihumans, followed by stricter policies on demihuman existence due to the circumstances of death being “invited by demihuman distraction or presence.”
Sub-Demihumans
While in most cases a pairing between two different types of demihumans will result in true-bred demihumans of either parent's type, there is a chance between 1 and 45 percent, based on moon phase, the age of either partner, and the time of the year, to result in a so-called “Sub-Demihuman.”
Sub-Demihumans possess the cores of both parent types. The parents' gender is irrelevant as to which type of Sub-Demihuman the offspring becomes.
Any Sub-Demihuman that has a Leporid as part of their parentage, becomes what is called a Wolpertinger, in which a mostly Leporid body acquires up to six different attributes possessed by other apparently random Sub-Demihuman types. Common is two or three additional features.
Eg: A wolpertinger may possess a gargoyle’s scaly wings, a deer’s antlers, and a lamina′s poison teeth on top of their Leporoid features.
Sub-Demihumans tend to leave home at an early age, seeking their own place in the world. While Demihumans are often persecuted and put down, something about the comparative rarity of their body types does not quite give the same effect for Sub-Demihumans who often find employment as support in adventuring parties or as a travel ons.
This is because they exist in a sort of legal grey zone in which they are not considered the same as the defined six types of demihumans while also not being officially humans, granting them much more freedom while their innate dual cores at birth grants them a much greater potential for strength, especially those who include Corvid parentage as their basic core once more raises their ability to improve more cores.
Demihuman x Human relationships will either give birth to full human or fully demihuman children, though even twins can be one human one demihuman.
Do you have any remaining questions? Do not hesitate to ask them in the comments.
Proper chapters will resume on monday, but I hope you enjoyed this little Interlude.
Have a wonderful day.
As announced on wednesday Im considering adding up to 3 characters to the main group over time. To me, their type does not matter so I wanted to give my readers another opportunity to change the flow of the story. The Poll will stay active till up until March 14. (Not gonna include what we already have (Male Leporid, Female Equida, etc.) and Rebecca will not allow for another Canid of either gender to join them.) To be completely honest I did not notice that I kept a perfect 50/50 split on the genders so far, lol.
