Fulmin
Fulmin: Arrival
The Fulmin and the Kar'chari arrived together on Duende, their ship crashing on a large island southwest of Rigda. The location proved to be rather ideal for both species. The Fulmin claimed the land and air of the Dark Crescent Flame Isles while the Kar'chari claimed the rich waters of the inner and outer rim.
Fulmin: Overview
The Fulmin are a race of draconic humanoids from the planet Mataria. On their world they were the unrivaled master of the earth and sky. Like their neighbors, the Kar'chari, the Fulmin are functionally immortal, never dying from old age and ever increasing in size. Despite their low birth rates and high mortality rates brought about by life on their harsh planet, the Fulmin eventually grew in number until feeding their growing population became a legitimate concern. After a period of internal conflict that threatened their very existence, the Fulmin developed a methods of agriculture that allowed them to create sustainable food sources to support their growing numbers and in the process discovered how to use their innate magical abilities to transform their bodies into a humanoid form by shifting some of their mass into a space outside of the material plane. It was these changes, more than any other, that allowed them to finally start to truly master their world.
Fulmin: Homeland
Their home-world of Mataria consists primarily of massive oceans and three main continents set far apart. The oceans themselves are slightly acidic, making the waters toxic to the Fulmin. Additionally, the seas are home to titanic predatory creatures in addition to its otherwise rich and diverse marine life.. Life on Mataria was dominated by three main facts: violent ocean storms and dangerous sea life made ocean travel nearly impossible; the young age of the planet made much of the open surface inhospitable and dangerous; and the availability of a mana rich mineral known as tetrandite. As a node planet, Mataria is highly magical, constantly bathed in energy from the twin stars that make up its binary star system. It is so saturated in free mana that the mana started to bind with corundum forming crystalline structures called tetrandite. During the formation process, the tetrandite absorbed other minerals from its surroundings, altering its color and composition.
Their attunement to these crystals began early in their species history and shaped the course of their evolution. In their draconic forms, the Fulmin would consume small quantities of mineral material to help harden their scales. As the Fulmin developed, they learned to focus magical energies through these crystals to enhance the potency and efficiency of their magic. Later, the development of their arcane language into a written system of runes coupled with the usage of tetrandite and other minerals allowed them to form powerful icons that greatly amplified their magical abilities.
Fulmin: Pre-Era of Desolation
In the early stages of their species' rise to civilization, the Fulmin split into three main groups: the Fictilis, the Volantes, and the Hippurus. The divergence of these three groups was largely due to the limitations and strengths of their draconic forms, but as time progressed it also became a matter of cultural divergence as well. Because of the hardships that Mataria imposed upon them, however, what could have been a cause for a harsh caste society instead became a unifying strength among the people.
The Fictilis were land based Fulmin that excelled at life underground. After domesticating the lories, a highly lithovoric species that could tunnel through stone at relatively high speeds, they delved deep below the planet’s surface, building the first subterranean cities. It was the Fictilis that discovered that the different colored tetrandite crystals were caused by the surrounding mineral deposits, but because the vast majority of their people specialized in alteration and earth magic, they were not the ones to recognize the significance of their discovery.
The Volantes were the winged masters of the skies on the surface and were the tamers of wild places. A hardy nomadic people, they viewed it as their duty to make the surface of their planet safe for their kind. As they tamed the wild places, they also discovered a six-legged bovine like creature that they dubbed the Tonga, which grew to become primary food source for all Fulmin.
The serpentine Hippurus were the masters of the forests, lakes, and rivers. More importantly, though, the Hippurus had an intense love of knowledge and the strongest natural aptitude for wielding. It was they that first developed the ability to alter their forms, allowing for the first cities to be constructed above ground.
Fulmin: Origins
In the early stages of their species' rise to civilization, the Fulmin split into three main groups: the Fictilis, the Volantes, and the Hippurus. The divergence of these three groups was largely due to the limitations and strengths of their draconic forms, but as time progressed it also became a matter of cultural divergence as well. Because of the hardships that Mataria imposed upon them, however, what could have been a cause for a harsh caste society instead became a unifying strength among the people.
They are born with many scale colors which often reflect a combination of their elemental affinity and the need to supplement their diet with the mineral tetrandite. Their hair slowly became bleached silver, but their eyes slowly change color to match the color of tetrandite that they use to focus their personal magics, becoming more vibrant in color. Given that there is some link between what type of crystal they work best with and what type of magic they use most regularly, eye color and color intensity are taken as signs of status and power among the Fulmin.
The Fictilis were land based Fulmin that excelled at life underground. After domesticating the lories, a highly lithovoric species that could tunnel through stone at relatively high speeds, they delved deep below the planet’s surface, building the first subterranean cities. It was the Fictilis that discovered that the different colored tetrandite crystals were caused by the surrounding mineral deposits, but because the vast majority of their people specialized in alteration and earth magic, they were not the ones to recognize the significance of their discovery.
The Volantes were the winged masters of the skies on the surface and were the tamers of wild places. A hardy nomadic people, they viewed it as their duty to make the surface of their planet safe for their kind. As they tamed the wild places, they also discovered a six-legged bovine like creature that they dubbed the Tonga, which grew to become primary food source for all Fulmin.
The serpentine Hippurus were the masters of the forests, lakes, and rivers. More importantly, though, the Hippurus had an intense love of knowledge and the strongest natural aptitude for wielding. It was they that first developed the ability to alter their forms, allowing for the first cities to be constructed above ground.
Fulmin: Society
The Fulmin as a whole are masters of the arcane, viewing it as a combination of science, religion, and philosophy. Early members of their race spent nearly the entirety of their extraordinarily long lifespans devoted to the study of mana and its interaction with the world. Their delving into the inner workings of wielding lead them to develop a runic language that is tightly bound with the workings of mana along with a system of crafting that creates circuitry that can direct and control the flow of mana. The availability of this knowledge slowly trickled through the entire race until, to a certain extent, it became common knowledge.
While much of the civilization is focused on arcane academia, no civilization can flourish without its industry. Most of Mataria’s non-magical industry focuses on farming the reedy Tonga plant that grows well on the planet’s surface. Over the last several millennia, the Volantes have been using Tonga farms to convert the surface’s volcanic crust into more usable farmland. The hardy grass like plant was highly nutritious, incredibly rugged, and was able to be processed into everything from paper, rope, clothing, food, and construction material. Perhaps more importantly, Tonga’s unstoppable root systems break up the volcanic rock, decomposing it into rich soil. Outside of the tightly defined spell form channels, only Tonga was allowed to be used as a building material so that it could not interfere with the spell. Though many among the less educated didn’t understand the reasoning behind it, it was considered an ultimate taboo to break the tradition.
Outside of Tonga, the mining and production of Tetrandite crystal was the dominant industry on the planet, assisted in no small part by the Fulmin’s domestication of Loricatorum: a lithovoric species whose hide was covered in thick stone-like plates and robust thick claws that helped break apart heavy stones that they could not fit into their mouths. Their unique metabolism transferred nutrients from rocks to their hide and claws, making them as tough as most metals. Avid burrowers, Lories, as they are called, are used for digging mine shafts into tetrandite caverns.
Lories grow in stages, their size increasing dramatically during the transition from one to the next. When they make this transition, they shed their tough outer armor and claws, regrowing new ones once they have reached their new size limit. The Fictilis collect these pieces and craft them into incredibly durable armor and weapons, augmented by arcane energies and sometimes even infused with tetrandite. These weapons and armor, though not particularly rare, are exceedingly valuable on their metal deficient world.
The Hippurus contribution to their civilization came from their mastery of using magic to construct great cities to protect them from the harsh environment, and from their study of the arcane. While this could have led to a form of elitism, early clashes among the Fulmin demonstrated clearly how dependent they were on each other for survival.
Heritage Facts
Homeworld: Article LinkContinent: Article Link
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Capital City: Article Link
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Average Lifespan: Article Link
Heritage Member Species
Ratings:- HP: EDD
- SP: DEE
- MP: DDE
- FP: EDD
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