Cyberpunk Fantasy Heartbreaker: Bestiary

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 9:56 pm

Demihumanity

The Asura

Jotun, centimani, naga, gorgon, deva, yokai: all words that mean “asura” in different regions. An asura is a demihuman with four arms. Their skin is usually either red or blue, but other colors happen in rare instances. Asura are the most common demitype in South Asia. In particularly isolated areas, they are sometimes worshiped as gods or hunted as monsters, but that sort of thing is rare in urban areas.

Biology of the Asura

An asura is on average 1.7m tall and 80 kilograms. Asura have only seven ribs, but an enlarged sternum to fit their two clavicles. The hands on the lower limbs are mirrors of the hands on the upper limbs, with the thumbs pointing downward when the palms face forward. Additional fingers and toes are common. Asura usually have at least 4 nipples, and it is not unusual for them to have 6 or even 8, with the additional nipples falling on the normal human nipple-line. Generally only the primary four nipples will have associated breasts. There is generally no underarm hair on an Asura, and they tend to have little in the way of arm or leg hair. The intestines of an Asura are shorter than those of a human and fit into a smaller area. Asura tend to eat more meat as they get less calories from vegetable matter than other demitypes.

Asura have a more thoroughly partitioned brain than other demitypes. An asura can “concentrate” on two different tasks at once, as their upper and lower appendages are controlled by different brain segments that have few connections. Every asura has dissociative identity disorder to one degree or another, with the different hemispheres of their brain maintaining distinct motion control as well as at least slightly different emotional states.

Magic of the Asura

Asura have natural talents in the magic of evocation. This allows them to exert force at a distance, dilate time around themselves, speed up or slow down moving objects, and even change the weather. As an asura becomes more magical they grow extra parts. In extreme cases, this manifests as a third set of arms (either behind and between the first two sets, or situated below the lower pair). Asura can have what appear to be snakes grow out of their body, extra tiny heads growing out of their head, neck, or shoulders. Sometimes they gain other snakelike traits as well: fangs, a forked tongue, a snake tail. Other body parts can be duplicated, with a third eye or additional fingers or nipples being pretty common.

The Deep Ones

Kappa, ningen, vodnik, taniwha, siren, dakuwaqa: these are names given to the deep ones. A deep one has gaps in their skin between their ribs through which they can breathe water. Deep ones have webbing running between their fingers and toes and often grow scales. Every deep one is fully amphibious, and capable of living in fresh water, salt water, or dry land. There are several undersea countries of deep ones that are state sponsors of terror, and deep ones are mistrusted in many parts of the surface world. Deep ones are most common in Polynesia and the East Coast of North America.

Biology of the Deep Ones

Deep ones stand an average of 1.6m tall and weigh an average of 65 kilograms. They have webbed fingers and toes. The oxygen requirements of deep ones are very low, and they can get enough to live by exposing themselves to water through their intercostal gills. Their hypoxic metabolism leaves them needing to eat a high proportion of protein. Deep one urine smells like ammonia. The lower jaw of a deep one is oversized, giving them a pronounced underbite and very wide mouth. Deep one skin sometimes sprouts dermally derived scales.

Deep ones are possessed of an extra sense similar to the magnetic homing sense of migratory birds. This sense makes the deep one peripherally aware of distant looming presences in the oceans. These locations appear to be in R'lyeh, Y'ha-nthlei, Ker-Ys, and as-yet unrecognized locations in contested waters in the Northern Pacific and the Sea of Ronne. Deep ones feel that these areas are much closer to them than their actual physical distance would indicate, and often get the feeling that these looming presences are watching them or getting closer. A significant number of deep ones move to one of those locations, and generally cease all communication with the surface world upon doing so.

Magic of the Deep Ones

Deep ones who develop their magical natures gain perception and space warping abilities through astral magic. Deep ones can see things through intervening objects and even spatially displace themselves short distances essentially instantly. The magical abilities of deep ones can unravel other magical effects. As deep ones become more magical, they also become more fish-like. Deep ones become greener and they become scaly and can gain dorsal and ventral fins. The mouth of a deep one becomes more pronounced and grouperish as they become more magical, and their eyes become flatter. Very magical deep ones have their eyelids turn transparent.

The Dwarves

Gnome, menehune, caipora, smurf, korobokuru, gremlin: these are names that mean “dwarf”. Dwarves are short and strong, and well trusted as mechanics and doctors. But they are also feared and mistrusted as destructive saboteurs and con artists. It is well known that when a dwarf demonstrates a device functioning, it could easily do nothing at all when it has left their hands.

Biology of the Dwarves

Dwarves average only 1.2m in height, but their heavy builds lead to them averaging 45 kilograms. The hypothetical average dwarf would be very hairy, but that is because about one dwarf in four produces an incredible amount of androgens and grows a large beard (regardless of sex), the remaining dwarves have the same hair density as a human. Dwarves are disproportionately strong and can generally lift more than a comparably fit human.

Dwarves have a difficult time adjusting their expectations to conform to the reality that materials behave differently in their immediate presence than they do the rest of the time. This is considered the concept of “object transience” and is an intensely counterintuitive concept for dwarves – especially those who were born as dwarves. The natural assumption of dwarves is that things continue to exist and to behave as they do in their presence when they are not directly observing them, which since this is not the case leads many dwarves to feel that they are being sabotaged by something they can't perceive.

Magic of the Dwarves

As dwarves become more magical, they gain powers of thaumaturgy. This manifests as an implicit feeling of whether things around them are whole or damaged, as well as the ability to change those states from one to the other. Dwarven magic can corrode and destroy and it can repair and fortify. More magical dwarves sometimes gain discreet arcane traits in the bargain. These include having glowing eyes, having their feet reverse direction, or having their skin turn black or blue. Sometimes dwarves will acquire dermatographic urticaria or have their hair growth accelerate. A few dwarves also become even more proportionately strong.

The Elves

Yaksha, sidhe, dryad, vanir, faery, apsaras: all words people use to refer to elves in different parts of the world. Elves vary wildly in height, but have the same average height as humans (just a flatter distribution). They have pointy ears, bug traits, and eat a lot of vegetables. Elves are frequently loners, and are almost as mistrusted as deep ones. Elves are the most common demitype in Central Asia and Western Europe.

Biology of the Elves

Elves are generally gracile. Despite an average height the same as a normal human, elves average only 60 kilograms. Elves have pointed and elongated ears. Elvish eyes have multiple pupils that change in individual aperture rather than have a deformable lens. The intestines of an elf have several extra meters of large intestine, and their stomach produces small amounts of cellulase, an enzyme that allows them to get limited sustenance by eating grass or sawdust.

Elves do not suffer from loneliness. While not strictly anti-social, an elf is not psychologically distraught in the absence of inter-personal relationships. Elves do still receive satisfaction from the esteem of their peers, feel sexual desires, and in other ways are incentivized to interact with other demihumans. They simply feel no anxiety when social stimuli are withdrawn.

Magic of the Elves

Elves who become more magical acquire powers of illusion. They can turn themselves and other things invisible, they can project feelings and thoughts into people around them. They can create fanciful holograms. Some elves develop functional insectile wings, and elves who develop their magic can get antennae growing out of their scalp. Some elves shed glowing yellow dust.

The Ogres

Yaoguai, giant, troll, oni, rakshasa, fomor: all words for “ogre” in the modern world. Ogres are the largest of the common demitypes. They are statistically more common in East Asia than other parts of the world. Ogres have sharp teeth and hair on less of their scalp and body than humans (though the hair they do have often grows quite long unless it is cut). Especially magical ogres grow spines or horns and some change color.

Biology of the Ogres

Ogres are large, both in that they average 1.9 meters in height at age 25 (ogres continue to grow, albeit slowly, as they age), and in that they are more heavily built than other demihumans and average 140 kilograms. An ogre gains at least three sets of teeth during their lifetime, with the human “adult teeth” being replaced in an ogre's late thirties. An ogre's second set of teeth is 34, including two “tusks” that grow continuously throughout their lives. Unlike the other teeth, the tusks are not replaced when new teeth come in. Some ogres gain additional tusks with their 3rd set of teeth. Ogre biochemistry requires large amounts of dietary vitamin A, and deficiency is marked by pain and violent outbursts.

The proprioception of an ogre is incomplete. There are parts of every ogre that they do not identify as being part of their selves, having no internal feeling of where those parts are or what they are doing. Sometimes this will be a patch on the back or some other relatively inaccessible body region, but for other ogres it can include expressive portions like the hands or face. Ogres frequently make strange expressions that they are unaware of, and are prone to body dismorphism related to the persistent feeling that parts of their body do not belong.

Magic of the Ogres

Those ogres who become more magically charged acquire abilities of enchantment. Many ogres can change into animals, clouds, or even other people. Ogres can also use their powers on others, transforming people into statues or birds. As ogres become more infused with magic, they experience a decrease in the amount of their body that hair grows on and a compensatory increase in hair growth in the places where hair remains. Sometimes an ogre will have one or more horns grow. Horns that grow from parts other than the head are called “spines”, but they are chemically the same as head horns. In especially high stress cases, an ogre's eyes may fuse into a single eye or their skin may change in color to red, black, or blue.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 10:27 pm

I REALLY like your Dwarves and Ogres, and the Fairy/Plant Elves made me laugh ^^
As for the deep ones . . no Squid-Heads? O.o

RadiantPhoenix · Post by **RadiantPhoenix** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 11:15 pm

Dwarves do not have a specified location where they are most prevalent; is this omission deliberate or accidental?

Orion · Post by **Orion** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 11:25 pm

So if Yaoguai are ogres, why aren't Yokai also ogres, considering that it's literally the same word from an adjacent culture that doesn't (to my knowledge) go in for Asura-like myths?

CatharzGodfoot · Post by **CatharzGodfoot** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 11:49 pm

That is a lot of info on asura nipples. Maybe you could just leave it to the illustrations.

Depending on how alien you want them to be, deep ones could have hemocyanin blood. Also they might as well breath only in through their mouths, and out through their gills, with saltwater-safe lungs in between.

Oh, and this looks great!

Almaz · Post by **Almaz** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 11:55 pm

Orion wrote:So if Yaoguai are ogres, why aren't Yokai also ogres, considering that it's literally the same word from an adjacent culture that doesn't (to my knowledge) go in for Asura-like myths?

Japan has a strong Buddhist influence, including in its myths, which means that there is a decided presence of Asura-like beings, though Ogres are more prominent (see: oni).

The yaoguai/youkai term, while linguistically almost identical, and having on the surface a similar meaning, is in fact interpreted differently in Japan and China. This is fundamentally because China and Japan perceive the natural world and death on somewhat differing terms, which means that when Japan imports a Chinese ghost story wholesale that it still, over time, becomes distinctly Japanese... the underlying story alters even if many of the trappings remain similar. Indeed, over time even native phrases like "oni" mean two different things, such that looking at different time periods of the myth would suggest different magical beings with different zones of prowess. Far more recent oni look more like asura, whereas older ones closer to their origins look more like ogres.

I would say the most stand-out yokai that are asura-like are their demon-spiders, hydra-like serpent-beings such as Orochi, and last but not least, tengu, who except for the extra-arms thing fit almost perfectly: red skin and wind/weather powers, which fit in with the Evocation theme of action-at-a-distance. Then again, it is not like people are counting how many limbs karasu-tengu really have what with their wings and feathers getting in the way, and other forms of tengu sometimes sported all kinds of extraordinary descriptions.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 12:07 am

RadiantPhoenix wrote:Dwarves do not have a specified location where they are most prevalent; is this omission deliberate or accidental?

There is a Dwarven Kingdom called Helheim in the North Sea.

fectin · Post by **fectin** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 12:08 am

Some thoughts:

The Asura entry is very focused on nipples. That's... kind of weird.

Beginning of sentence 4: "Asura and the most..." 'and' should be 'are'

What is the correct form: "Deep One", "Deep one", or "deep one"?

"Deep one urine smells like ammonia". All urine smells like ammonia. Was this as intended?

Smurf (under the Dwarves entry) might be IP. Wikipedia says the original word was made up in 1958, and "smurf" came from the translation.

"(regardless of sex), the remaining dwarves" should be a semicolon.

Section on "object transience" is cool, but needs cleanup. It also needs a better lead-in; I had to re-read several times to understand that objects do work differently near dwarves, and I still can't tell in what way they work differently. Maybe just move it into the section on magic?

"Dwarven magic can corrode and destroy, and it can repair and fortify"

"Elvish eyes have multiple pupils that change in individual aperture rather than have a deformable lens." Deformable lens gives you focus, aperture controls intensity, iirc. I don't think this makes sense.

"Some elves shed glowing yellow dust. " Eeew.

"An ogre's second set of teeth is 34," doesn't parse. Try, "There are 34 teeth in the second set an ogre grows,".

"The proprioception of an ogre is incomplete...." This sentence doesn't help convey your meaning. Try deleting it and tweaking the second sentence. Maybe "There are parts of every ogre which feel alien to them. Ogres have no sense of where those parts are or what they are doing."

"In especially high stress cases, " these descriptions have been from an in-world perspective so far. Is stress a game term or an in-world term?

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 12:13 am

Stuff dwarves make works as long as it's close to dwarves.
As soon as it gets taken away from their presence, it stops working.
Kinda like the WH40K Orky Technology that only works because Orks think it should work like this and thus does work like this. And as soon as somebody has killed the orks and tries to use their stuff . . it's rubbish. Looks like it could work from the outside, but it simply does not work.

Stress is both in world and game term.

RiotGearEpsilon · Post by **RiotGearEpsilon** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 12:29 am

Ogre proprioceptive impairments... How does that affect their relationship to cybernetics?

Edit: I feel bizarre asking this... regarding the asura, is the 'nipple line' a pair of vertical, parallel lines running along the torso as the spine does, or the horizontal line across the chest that intersects both nipples?

Vebyast · Post by **Vebyast** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 12:31 am

RiotGearEpsilon wrote:Ogre proprioceptive impairments... How does that affect their relationship to cybernetics?

I'd guess it was an intentional change by the gengineers to make them more amenable to extensive cybernetics. If you're already used to part of your body being not part of you, it's a lot easier to get used to getting more of your body replaced.

Grek · Post by **Grek** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 12:34 am

There should be at least 75% less mentioning of Asura nipples in the final draft.

fectin · Post by **fectin** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 12:35 am

That could make a lot of sense. Give them a social penalty and let them ignore a little stress from cyborging.

Endovior · Post by **Endovior** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 12:36 am

RiotGearEpsilon wrote:Edit: I feel bizarre asking this... regarding the asura, is the 'nipple line' a pair of vertical, parallel lines running along the torso as the spine does, or the horizontal line across the chest that intersects both nipples?

I'd imagine it's vertical lines running along the torso, as with most animals that have multiple nipples.

LR · Post by LR » Sat Jul 16, 2011 12:41 am

Grek wrote:There should be at least 75% less mentioning of Asura nipples in the final draft.

I was going to give the first few sentences a pass, but I started getting uncomfortable about the whole thing when I reached the Stress nipples.

Chamomile · Post by **Chamomile** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 12:44 am

Seconding the bit about the Asura and nipples. For a moment there it seriously felt like I was reading FATAL (though the writing had much better flow).

Also, you've made Ogres sound like a race that I might actually want to play. That is rather an impressive feat.

EDIT: Expanding upon the nipples thing because it's really bugging me for some reason. Yes, the nipples are something which has lots of finnicky details that are immediately visible from the outside as opposed to, say, the arms, wherein you don't bother to tell us the way the new set of arm bones attaches to the rest of the skeleton or if the blood veins have to do anything weird and what exactly does it mean for the heart to be pumping blood to an extra set of limbs anyway, not to mention the nervous system and the brain must surely look different if it's got two separate personalities and etc. etc. I don't know how accurate any of this is, but none of it is visible from the outside and the nipples are.

But you're writing entertainment, so the important bit is that it comes off as creepy when over half of a creature's biological description is focused on a thoroughly fetishized body part. There doesn't need to be anything more than the mention that they typically have four breasts in the biology, and sometimes get extra nipples from the magic, just like they get extra eyes, fingers, and medusa's haircut.

Endovior · Post by **Endovior** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 12:51 am

I'm going to disagree with the popular opinion regarding the nipples: I didn't actually notice the description as especially unusual until everyone started harping on it.

On a second glance, though, it might help if the description was longer, so as not to seem to emphasize the nipples; more on the 'has four arms' bit would probably make more sense.

Count Arioch the 28th · Sat Jul 16, 2011 3:47 am

I want to play any game that lets me be a cybernetically enhanced ogre with a giant gun. That would be awesome.

Chamomile · Post by **Chamomile** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 3:51 am

What's impressed me about this game is that so far I'm having a hard time trying to find an archetype I wouldn't want to try out.

Count Arioch the 28th · Sat Jul 16, 2011 3:54 am

They all seem pretty cool, but I always pick Ogres when I am able to. I identify with being a klutzy, loud, outcast who is freakishly strong and is so large that he doesn't even feel like he's the same species as the other humans around him most of the time, I tend to slide in that role easily.

Draco_Argentum · Post by **Draco_Argentum** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 4:54 am

"Asura and the most common demitype in South Asia." and=are

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 7:06 am

Endovior wrote:I'm going to disagree with the popular opinion regarding the nipples: I didn't actually notice the description as especially unusual until everyone started harping on it.

On a second glance, though, it might help if the description was longer, so as not to seem to emphasize the nipples; more on the 'has four arms' bit would probably make more sense.

I think that's basically the best solution. My experience with creatures that have a reason to have non-standard nipple configuration is that if you don't lay it out ahead of time you get really long nipple arguments.

How's the new version?

-Username17

Endovior · Post by **Endovior** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 7:08 am

I find that notably better, yes. That said, I suppose the real opinion you need is that of all the people who think you're some kind of creepy pervert for mentioning nipples.

For reference, I find it somewhat weird that it's thought weird, although it did seem like little but the nipples were described in the first version.

zeruslord · Post by **zeruslord** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 7:38 am

Vebyast keeps mentioning gengineers, which doesn't really jive with the concept of demihumans as magical beings. Also, genetically modified fantasy creatures seems like a much more transhumanist deal, or at least a much farther along transhumanist deal than a cyberpunk setting is expected to be. Am I confused or is he just totally full of shit?

Endovior · Post by **Endovior** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 7:58 am

Think he's full of it; all the magical creatures are supposed to be around because magic, not because some geneticist has a hard-on for mythology. Also, it would be kind of stupid to have magical creatures that are the sole products of genetic engineering in a game setting that contains actual magic.