Aaron_McMillan

Aaron lives on a world similar to ours, Rashorra. It’s a big place, larger than Earth and with a similar climate, and even shares a good number of flora and fauna with earth, but that’s about where the similarities end. To start off the differences, there exists a substance in Rashorra’s galaxy called Aether. Emanating from the stars that make up the galaxy, Aether is a magical substance, pervasive in nearly every corner of said galaxy, and is naturally aspected to one of several different elemental varieties, ten in total. While the balance of elemental Aether can vary, Rashorra itself is fortunate to sit in an area where the elements are in relative harmony with each-other, which has allowed a gigantic variety of life to flourish on the planet, including a greater variety of intelligent life. Humans are still the world’s most populous intelligent life form, but they’ve got plenty of company.

Intelligent life on Rashorra can be broken up into a few broad categories. Humanoids are the dominant type, and also the least-diverse. Humans are, unsurprisingly, the most populous type of humanoids, and they are joined by Hamazan, tall, physically-strong humanoids that were renowned as warriors in past ages; Elves, that have a more lithe frame, pointy ears, and an aptitude for the arcane; and Liminals (like Aaron), a diverse group of humanoids with a number of animalistic features - usually just the ears and tail of an animal, but sometimes a few other physical traits as well. All four species of humanoids share a common evolutionary ancestor, and all four are perfectly capable of reproducing with one-another; in such cases, their children are most likely to share their mother’s species, although about a quarter of them take after the father.

Mosaics are the next most populous group, and they’re much more genetically diverse than humanoids are. They all (generally) have the torso of a humanoid, and a head resembling one as well, but the rest of their body is distinctly non-humanoid, and each species has a lot of internal variation within itself, as well. The big four are Centauroids, which have the lower body of an ungulate mammal and the size to go with it; Harpies, avians with feathered arms, clawed legs, and lightweight frames that are capable of flight; Lamia, cold-blooded creatures with a long snake’s body where a humanoid’s legs would start, and Merfolk, water-dwelling fish people that have the largest amount of genetic diversity of any type of intelligent life on the planet.

The rest of the intelligent life on Rashorra is hard to fit into neat categories, comprised lots of individual species that don’t have many close relatives. From the (mostly) subterranean Kobolds to the capricious Fae folk, or ancient, towering dragons, to name a few, there are plenty of creatures that exist only in fiction on Earth, but are a reality on Rashorra and its moons, and that’s to say nothing of the wide variety of non-intelligent life as well. Rashorra is home to a truly staggering amount of biodiversity in both flora and fauna, both mundane and magical in nature. And speaking of magic...

Aether, Magic, and Technology

Aether is the keystone of Rashorra itself. It’s a naturally-occuring, intangible substance that emanates from celestial bodies all across the galaxy that Rashorra is located in, and flows almost imperceptibly through it. It comes in a number of different “elemental” aspects, and is the backbone for the arcane arts. With enough training (and some genetic luck), a person can learn to harness and channel the ambient Aether around them, focusing it into what’s usually called magic in the common parlance. Most people have the aptitude to learn at least a moderate amount of magic, and it’s not uncommon for a person to have at least one or two minor magical talents. To say nothing of naturally-occuring magic, either, there’s a fair number of flora and fauna with their own natural Aetheric abilities, such as the flickering panther, which can “bend” light to make it appear like they’re several feet away from their actual positions, or the snapdragon, a type of flower that can “breathe” fire as a defensive mechanism.

As mentioned, most people who aren’t born with it have the ability to learn at least a small handful of magical skills, usually something that’s helpful in their everyday life. A chef might know some simple telekinesis to act as extra “hands” in the kitchen, making a pot of soup stir itself while they work on another task, for a basic example. To learn to channel Aether is a long process, however, which is why most people don’t bother beyond one or two simple skills. To advance beyond that requires a lot of dedication and a little luck. While most everyone has the aptitude for simple magic, not everyone has the capacity for more advanced magic. Those that do - and that choose to dedicate a big portion of their life to its study and practice - are rewarded with a large repertoire of more advanced skills.

Which leads us to industry on Rashorra. It’s a modern, technologically-advanced world, but instead of harnessing electricity like Earth, Rashorra powers itself by harnessing Aether. Indeed, the world underwent its industrial revolution when its citizens figured out how to capture and refine Aether into usable fuel. Crystallized Aether quite literally powers Rashorran society, a renewable, non-polluting energy source that simply dissolves back into the Aetherflow when expended: whether it’s Lightning-aspected crystals in your cell phone, Fire-aspected ones in your toaster, or Wind-aspected fuel that makes an airplane go.

Magic plays a role in medicine, as well. Since prehistoric times, primitive shamans figured out how to channel their magic in order to heal the injuries and maladies of their companions, and the practice has only been refined and perfected in the ages since then. Modern healers can mend broken limbs in minutes instead of weeks, virtually eradicate illness from developed areas, and even bring people back from the dead. Indeed, a skilled enough healer can pluck a soul from the lifestream and put it back in a healed (or even reconstructed) body. Nowadays, a person can even be “vaccinated” against permanent death, using a brew concocted from phoenix blood.

Which leads us to potions and other related items. A skilled brewer can imbue all sorts of effects into consumable form, often combining the world's magical flora and fauna with magical reagents. The results range from highly-effective medicines, to energy pills, to temporarily (or even permanently) modifying one’s body, to even temporarily granting greater magical powers. And with the industrial revolution, this potion and medicine-making has expanded to an industrial scale as well. Depending on its effects, you can find them everywhere from the pharmacy or the medicine aisle for substances with medical applications, to even the beverage cooler or toy store for the more fun ones.

Predation and People-Eating

There’s a certain quirk about life on Rashorra. It’s not something that’s immediately obvious on the surface, but most every living thing on the planet shares a dietary preference: they find people to be delicious. There is no finer food in the world than the meat of an intelligent person, and so people play a role in the world’s food supply as much as regular animals do. That’s not to say being eaten is the end of the line, far from it, in fact. Ever since ancient times, tribal shamans have devised ways to bring people back from the dead, and that was used to indulge in the world’s favorite foodstuff without (major) repercussions. This certainly hasn’t slowed down in modern times, either: people dine upon their fellow man regularly, with or without much fanfare. From something as mundane as elf burgers or deer-taur stew, to the spectacles of whole roasts on special occasions, the Rashorran diet is decidedly a carnivorous one.

That all said, people generally aren’t too thrilled about being on the receiving end of a fork. While being someone’s (or something’s) dinner isn’t the end of the world, it’s still inconvenient at its best, both in the time it takes to be turned into a meal and the time spent out of the action while their body is reconstructed, and it’s generally unpleasant to be butchered or even cooked alive. Most people only go along with it out of obligation as a result, though it’s not entirely uncommon for someone to be forced into it as well. Still, it’s rare that someone will make it out of high school without it happening to them at least once, and most people go through it a half-dozen or so times a year through their teens and twenties, before slowing down in their thirties.

Most species of intelligent life on Rashorra can not naturally swallow another person whole - their skeletal structures are as rigid as ours, even if their flesh is a tad more elastic. Lamia and some species of Merfolk are notable exceptions, but there is a cocktail of potions one can consume to temporarily grant a person that can enable someone do just that: eat an entire person, whole and alive, and be able to digest that much meat without too many negative side effects. Impractical, sure, but it’s lead to the fad of “throating.” Throating is all the rage nowadays, especially among younger people, and it’s much more common to see someone with a squirming, distended stomach nowadays than it was for most of the rest of Rashorran history.

Both throating and “normal” eating are very intimate processes. While most people do not like it happening to them, there are a number of people that get a thrill out of it, in much the same way that there are people that like extremely spicy food or jumping out of airplanes, and there’s a smaller subset of those that get a sexual thrill out of it. But because people are so delicious it’s not uncommon for someone to end up as the centerpiece roast on their family’s table for a holiday or special occasion, and given the demand for people as a food item, there are a handful of people who make their living selling their bodies as food.