My Personal Fictional Species[WIP]

[Quickbronze]

This is a place to collect and record all my information on my personal fictional species. It is a massive work in progress and advice/constructive criticism is appreciated.

Planet

I haven't really done much development on their planet. However, I have the general feeling that it should be kind of separated from the rest of the universe, kind of... hidden. The planet is the first to be created, as the species is the first sentient species. I kind of have a mountains-and-forests aesthetic for their main dwelling place, so perhaps that can be a large biome on the main continent. 

Society 

The species is ruled by a single government, due to the large-scale war(See:War on Demonkind) that at some point in the past forced them to unite into one nation rather then many different nations as on Earth. 

-The Senate: The Senate is the main political body of the species. They hold most of the law-making power in the government. Each of the states of the empire(formerly independent nations) are allowed one representative, along with a certain amount of "tiebreakers" according to the state's population, along with the leader of the SSP Humility Branch. Important issues are settled by election of a committee by the general Senate to peruse the issue. The size of the committee and the time they have to debate the issue is set by the SSP Humility Branch leader. Once the time allotted has elapsed, they vote on the issue, and the decision is then made official. Other, less pressing issues can be settled by general vote.

-The Star of Seven Points: The Star of Seven Points, frequently abbreviated as the SSP, is an organization founded by the original members of the species(See:Origination). It used to be the dominant force in the species, with every member of the species also being a member of the organization. Later, when the species was larger, they simply became the largest branch of the government. In modern times, they are now more like the active and administrative branch of the government, with most of the real power in the Senate and administration and enforcement left to the Star. It is split, as might be guessed, into seven branches(See:The Seven Divine Attributes and the Seven Hateful Vices). The Virtue branch and Wisdom branch are academic, teaching philosophic and logical subjects respectively. Temperence and Compassion primarily work with socioeconomic issues, Justice and Diligence run law enforcement and military matters, and Humility administrates governmental interactions. Each branch is lead by the eldest child of it's founder, who also possess their parent's powers. These leaders are known collectively as the Firstborn.

-The Seven Divine Traits and the Seven Hateful Vices: These attributes, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Slothfulness, Wrath, Envy, Pride, Virtue, Wisdom, Temperance, Diligence, Compassion, Justice, and Humility, collectively known as the fourteen attributes, form, for the most part, the basis for philosophy, theology, and morality in their society. Each branch of the SSP is based off one of the Divine Attributes(See:The Star of Seven Points).

-Demonification: Demonification is when a member of the species begins following The Rebel(See:War on Demonkind). A name change(See:Names) is involved, as well as destruction of every record on the person that contains their original name.

Biology and Abilities:

-Physical Appearence; The species are nearly identical to humans, with a few subtle differences. The best sign is their eyes, which contain softly glowing flecks in the iris of a slightly lighter shade then the rest of the iris. It is easy to miss in daylight, but quite obvious at night. Apart from that, they tend to be taller and slenderer then humans, but this is by no means universal.

-Longetivity: The species is practically immortal; while it is possible to kill the body of one with conventional means, they can regenerate their bodies with sufficient time, or ask a friend to do so for them. It is possible to kill one permanently, but it requires an astronomical amount of power(Firstborn can also be killed this way). In addition, upon reaching a certain age, a member of the species will simply vanish into light, seemingly disappearing into nothing, with the exception of the Firstborn, who are completely immortal as far as anyone can tell. This is because their Divine Sparks are tied to a bit of their parents'. There is a sort of magical... Decay members of the species experience after discovering their magic(See:Magic) which pulls them towards becoming human(See:Reincarnation). However, their parents' souls are already pure divine spark(which is the process performed by death, the complete transmution of emotional, mental, and physical energy into divine spark energy). Thus, the pieces of their parents souls are trying to become pure divine spark energy, while their natural constitution pulls them towards losing their divine spark energy. The two forces cancel each other, leaving the Firstborn permanently in their current state.

-Reincarnation: When a member of the species "vanishes", as mentioned in the above entry, they in fact reincarnate as a human, which explains the near-identical biology of the two species. Currently, however, members of the species are unaware of this.

-Magic: All members of the species have magical abilities. These unique sets of abilities are known as Magic. Each one is unique, with the exception of the Firstborn, who possess their parent's abilities. Their abilities come from their massive divine spark, which is far larger then those of a human. In fact, their Divine Spark is so much larger, for the vast majority of their history they assumed humans had none. They also have the ability to see into the second dimension. I may explain the universe's dimensional workings in another thread, as they aren't super important in relation to the species. All members of the species gain their powers in a single instant of realization; once they tie down their own worldview, both their magic and their ability to see into the second dimension appear. Before the "tying down" their divine sparks appear lackluster and they have no abilities. After they accomplish this, all their abilities are manifest, and their divine spark takes on a special sheen.

-Alchemy: Alchemy is the study of magic in the natural world. The art of magic is the use of your own power; the art of alchemy is the use of the power of other creatures. Alchemy is much more versatile then magic, but also much more difficult to perform. 

Language

This language has some very minor influences from the Japanese and Hebrew languages. If you want to give me name recommendations, keep that in mind. 

-Alphabet: The species' letter system is revolves around a large alphabet of runes that denote various important concepts, such as life, death, and the 14 attributes. The language only has five vowel sounds, ah, oh, ih, uh, and eh. Each of these is represented by a small addition that can be added to a full letter to indicate that the vowel sound should be pronounced after it. Each letter has it's own trochaic sound associated with it. Because may of their words consist of several runes, this makes it quite time-consuming to pronounce. There are also various punctuation marks, etc.

-Written Words: All words in the language are made up of the runes of the alphabet, which each have their own meanings. Because each word is often written simply as it's definition in the letters, it is often possible to understand a word simply by knowing the alphabet. Many words also have a motivation attached to them; the letter for one of the fourteen attributes may be added to the end of a word to signify the spirit in which the thing the word is describing should be taken. Letters signifying one of the fourteen attributes can only be used in this way, with the exception of names(See:Names). If a word has no symbol for one of the fourteen attributes at the end, that makes it neutral. Many of the trochaic sounds associated with each letter don't fit together, so a vowel symbol may be added to any letter to signify that you should use that vowel to bridge the two sounds. A good example of all these concepts is the word "kill", and it's child words "execute" and "murder". "Kill" in the language would be written with the two runes "Make; force to be" and "death; dead". So taken literally, "kill" in the language is to "make dead", and can be easily understood simply by knowing the letters. Adding to that a rune for a Divine Trait would signify to kill for good or morally acceptable reasons; to "execute". Justice is the most commonly used Divine Trait rune in this word, for obvious reasons. Conversely, adding a Hateful Vice rune to the end would signify "murder"; to kill for wicked reasons. The most common Hateful Vice runes in the word murder are Wrath and Greed, with Lust being occasionally used. 

-Names: Names in this species consist of two parts; the family name and the personal name. Names are written with the family name first and then the personal name, separated by symbol that acts like a hyphen but is only used in names. Family names consist of two runes combined, with the first syllable of the first rune combined with the second syllable of the second rune. Vowel sounds are optional in family names. All personal names begin with a sound/letter for one of the Heavenly Traits. This is the only case in which a rune signifying one of the Heavenly Traits can be used as something other then the last letter. Those who have been disowned by or have disowned their families typically go by an invented family name, rather then removing their family name altogether. A person who has been demonized has the first letter of their name swapped with a symbol for one of the Seven Hateful Vices in all records of them(See:Demonification).

History

-Early History: The species began when the seven original members awoke in a wide forest that nearly spans a continent. These are known as the Fatherless. Over time, they began developing culture; language, art, craft. After a couple centuries, the first great city of the species was founded. By that point, there were several hundred members of the species, and it soon grew into a small, but prosperous city. Over time, the civilization spread.

-War on Demonkind: When the first civilization in the universe had near completely spread across their home continent, they experienced their first war. Oh, they had had conflict before, of course, but all conflicts had been settled by the power of and respect for the Fatherless. This was... different. A young explorer decided to lead an expedition in search of another landmass. The expedition, comprised mostly of very young(200-700 years old) explorers sets off into the sea, including the eldest son of one of the Fatherless. Months passed, then years, then decades. Finally, after two thousand years had passed, the explorers returned; but not in the swift, small sailing vessels they had departed in. Instead, their vehicles were large ships of war. They began killing those they captured, binding their Divine Sparks to slavery in order to increase their own power. After a long and bloody battle with the Fatherless and their servants, the colonists were defeated. The war caused the Fatherless to invent something new; weapons that magically killed the target. Hunting weapons were made that were magically altered to be better at killing animals, but weapons had never been used to attack a member of the species, largely because anyone with the motivation to do so knew it would be useless. However, by storing a piece of their own divine spark in a physical and mental shell, they created weapons capable of destroying a person's cognitive matrix and rendering them incapable of restoring their bodies. These they used to execute all of the most powerful members of the rebellion, sparing only the Firstborn who had joined them and their youngest members. These they imprisoned and demonified(See:Demonification), along with all of the common members of the rebellion. The prison was originally on their home world, but was later moved to another planet.

-Age of Discovery: The species continually grew in knowledge. They discovered a way to travel between planets, and Alchemy(See:Alchemy) was discovered. During this time, a groundbreaking discovery was made; humans and sentient magical constructs with no Divine Spark were discovered on other planets(Note: Originally, this species thought humans were weaker magical constructs, as they could not discern their Divine Sparks. However, in reality, humans simply have a very small Divine Spark, making them more of a weaker version of this species). This period fills most of the history of the species. Many worlds were discovered during this time, and the species colonized many planets and interacted with many cultures. Because of this, many worlds have at least one language that is derivative from or heavily influenced by the language of this species.

-The Second War on Demonkind: The prisons holding the rebels begin weakening. The Firstborn who joined them mentally contacted humans on a nearby planet, teaching them to bind souls to themselves. Originally he taught them a lesser version that bound a persons cognitive structure(a web of second-dimensional essence that makes up a being's cognition). However, eventually they learned how to bind Divine Sparks; therefore, the traitorous Firstborn was the first to realize that humans have Divine Sparks. By this point in time, the eldest Firstborn(excluding the imprisoned one, of course) had long since inherited the power and positions of the Fatherless, who had vanished. It was by their power that the prisons were maintained. Eventually, the humans influenced by the corrupt Firstborn managed to free him and the others who had been imprisoned long ago. This Firstborn, who, for obvious reasons, had spend a long time thinking on the subject, discovered a way to make swords capable of killing a member of this species. He taught his servants to create such weapons, which they used to prevent the resealing of the prisons. Shortly after, a sudden attack on the capital ended in the death in all but two of the Firstborn. The remaining two escaped with the children of the other five Firstborn. The ensuing war didn't last a year, but was extremely bloody and hard-fought nonetheless.

Things to be added: 

-In-universe names for pretty much everything.

-Map of the planet

 

Key:

Bold = Heading

Underline = Sub-heading

Italics: A reference; when used with underline, references a sub-heading, when used with bold, references a heading

 

 

Edited February 11, 2018 by .50 Caliber Gentleman

[Quickbronze]

Sixty one views and zero replies 

Uh, bump?

[Ammanas]

Looks like you put a lot of time and thought into this; hope it works out! Best of luck!

[Yezrien]

Maybe you could explain the background a bit more. What powers did the founders have? What gave them these powers? Where did they go? Why are their children, the Firstborn, running things, and not the founders themselves?

Could you tell us about the project as a whole? This is some good worldbuilding, but what's the story about?

[Quickbronze]

I'll probably do that in another thread, as these guys are the most developed part or that. As for history, I should be able to get around to that today.

Edit: History is complete, or at least as complete as any other part of this

Edited December 3, 2017 by Ookla the Noble

[SilverTiger]

Just a question, they live on another planet, right? And do they know about humans (if so, where do the humans live?).

[Quickbronze]

They do know about humans, but humans do not live on the planet. 

[Quickbronze]

Three posters 

One hundred and sixty views 

[The Allomantic Metalhead]

Cool.

[+Hoiditthroughthegrapevine]

On 11/29/2017 at 10:22 AM, .50 Caliber Gentleman said:

Planet

I haven't really done much development on their planet. However, I have the general feeling that it should be kind of separated from the rest of the universe, kind of... hidden. The planet is the first to be created, as the species is the first sentient species. I kind of have a mountains-and-forests aesthetic for their main dwelling place, so perhaps that can be a large biome on the main continent. 

I think something that could be significantly awesome, as far as the science for where this story is set, would be to have the planet this is set on be actually one of 8 moons orbiting a gas giant like Jupiter. Another detail, that would synch well with the 14 divine attributes would be to have 7 additional planets in the solar system your story takes place in. The solar bodies might be the divine positive attributes, the lunar bodies might be the 7 base attributes. One is farther away, more steady in their presentation, the other are seemingly more erratic in nature.

Just an idea, the outline sounds great. Good luck with your story!