World background information

Alomyria is a world somewhere far away. Nobody knows where this world is situated, or whether or not it’s even in the same universe as ours. The world is inhabited by all kinds of mythical creatures, from unicorns to gryphons, from dragons to flying cats. But what probably sets it apart from our world the most, is the fact that all of its humanoid creatures are hybrids with other creatures. Think of mermaids, cat people and fairies with insect wings, but also werewolves, vampires (who in this world possess bat wings) and the like. This hybridization is what gave them their magical powers.

This wasn’t always the case, however. A long time ago, perhaps thousands or ten-thousands of years, the humanoid population of Alomyria possessed no magical ability whatsoever. The only thing that set them apart from us humans were their pointed ears, and perhaps some unusual eye- and hair colors from time to time. The animal population of Alomyria however, possessed great power that the humanoid population strongly envied (and which sets them apart from animals on Earth). So they cried out to the Guardian Spirits — who eats represent one of the non-humanoid creatures — to give them some of that great power. However, the Guardian Spirits would only grant them these powers once they promised that they’d “live in harmony with nature” and “with utmost respect to the other creatures”. In fact, this was the reason they never gained magical abilities to begin with, or rather, lost them when they evolved into sapient creatures — due to this newly-gained sapience, the Spirits no longer deemed it necessary for them to keep them, especially since this sapience had caused them to start disrespecting nature and pollute the land. This taught the people of Alomyria a lesson — to never let intelligence and knowledge corrupt them again. They promised the Guardian Spirits to clean the lands and to no longer treat their fellow creatures with disrespect again. As a reward for keeping their promise, the Spirits lent the people their powers, each related to whichever Spirit one had bonded to. Promptly, each kind formed their own tribes related to bonded Spirit and geographical location. Their magical powers also caused them to live significantly longer.

While each tribe mostly consists of members of the same hybrid species, intermarriage does occur from time to time. This, however, was forbidden for a long time, especially for royalty, each of which reigns over their respective tribe. This despite the fact that, while any hybrid species can reproduce with any other hybrid species, only a few closely related hybrids can produce mixed offspring (think of it akin to mules, ligers, etc.). Other times, the children would simply inherit the bonded Spirit from one of their parents, which meant that as soon as they reached adulthood, they were expected to live with the other tribe. As a result of this relative lack of “Spirit mixing”, and the natural processing of society, this hasn’t been forbidden anymore for a few centuries now.

Despite their close relationship with nature, Alomyria does have several aspects that could be considered “modern” — there is, in fact, technology, powered by a magical source of energy. As a result, pollution has no longer been an issue since the people of Alomyria had gained their powers.

With its tribal nature, many wars have indeed been waged, but none was ever in any way similar to the war occurring right now. People had been used to inter-tribal wars — but perhaps for once, they’re all united against one enemy.