Mortal Forms
In the beginning, there was nothing.
And then, there was magic!
Basic Information
Anatomy
Due to the unique makeup and hivemind-esque behavior of the mana networks, Mortal Forms in their base state had a mass variety of anatomy, usually dependant on the material they were directing. After the arrival of The Tower, the Transmutation seemed to favor two arms, two legs, and one head with a single pair of eyes, singular nose and mouth, and two ears as the base structure. Even Mortal Forms that originally varied from this structure found themselves being arranged into this format.
The most key point of variation to this was the subspecies of Mortal Forms known as Bestial Forms. While this subspecies was still largely bipedal, the mana that piloted them also observed the traits of various pre-historic animals that had been urged into existance by nudges of evolution millenia prior, and found ways to adopt them into their bodies. When the Transmutation struck them, they found themselves taking on the physical attributes of those self-same creatures.
Genetics and Reproduction
Mortal Forms did not reproduce in a physical manner like their Transmuted descendants do, but occasionally they would release a small portion of their internal mana network to start their own colony.
Growth Rate & Stages
A Mortal Form could measure growth via how complex and refined their body was, with the increased intake and cooporation of other Mana Nodes would allow for greater, and larger, control over the body.
Ecology and Habitats
Given that Mortal Forms were spawned from pieces of their immediate environment, it was not hard for a Mortal Form to survive and sustain themselves. It also helped they did not possess things like sensory needs, nutrition, or biological processes.
Biological Cycle
While Mortal Forms were functionally immortal, so long as the Mana could stay together smoothly, some would have to worry about the brittleness of their respective materials, and physical damage such as erosion or blunt force damage could still harm them.
Behaviour
Mortal Forms, after getting used to their new bodies, were driven by a natural curiosity. How can they refine this body they were in? What do they do with the mana left behind? What is this world they're seeing in an entirely new light like? How can they leave their mark upon it? Some of these desires, especially the desire to leave a legacy, persisted into their Transmutation into the various species of Edda.
Additional Information
Social Structure
The Mana Nodes that animated and acted as the joints of Mortal Forms communicated with eachother in a hivemind-like format, with each one simultaneously working in tandem in order to achieve movement, fine motor skills, or even simple maintainace of their body. There was no direct hierarchy to this structure, as their instinctive intellegence did not have a concept of it, but the Node that made the "head" was often the largest and the one that needed to be most protected.
Average Intelligence
Mana in this primordial state had a keen intellegence all its own, but a rather instict-based one as well. When turned into Mortal Forms and put into communication with other nodes of sapient Mana, they developed a different level of language and communication with one another, and the exploration of the primordial Edda only increased this refinement, turning their instinctive intellgence into a system of conciousness and sapience.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
The mana networks had what would be referred to now as a telepathic rapport with other networks, allowing for nonverbal communication. This same telepathic-esque ability gave them perfect clarity of their surroundings, for as much as they could understand it.
Civilization and Culture
History
At the beginning of the universe, there was Mana. The cellular form of magical energy, capable of just about anything. It was from disprate mana in the universe, hyperpacked and in a split-second hyper collision, that created the known universe and the physical materials that make it up. Solid rock, strange moisture droplets, various forms of gas and plasma, all came at the collision of mana particles.
Over the course of eons, these created materials would collide and fuse on their own terms, creating stars, streaks of material through the night sky, and the physical ground that would create the celestial bodies. So too did mana exist when those bodies were formed, and each particle could have its own thought. They were primal, instinctive thoughts, but they were persistent nonetheless, and one impulse kept driving them: curiosity.
After the physical planet of Arcanoterra, on which Edda resides, was formed, various waves and clouds of Mana spread over the land, wishing to discover what it was like. Many of these turned into the specific mixture of materials that made Edda hospitible, but trillions of other minute particles were simple observers, as omni-present as oxygen in the atmosphere.
Then, came the First Cataclysm. There's no possible way to know what occured, but some universal event occured that forced Mana in the atmosphere to flee, condensing together and hiding within the physical material of the planet all around it. This rapid condensing created many more materials on the planet, allowing water and more vegetation to form, but many of these condensed clumps merely remained in the ground and the world around them.
An unknowable amount of time passed, but eventually whatever caused the Mana to flee passed, and the condensed clumps of mana attempted to return to their former state. However, not only did they find themselves permenantly connected in Mana Nodes, small nuculi of magical power with many disprate mana particles orbiting them like a planet, but they were sealed inside the material they had fled into as well, with no ability to remove themselves.
Many such nodes of Mana found themselves in the same situation, and telepathically, for lack of a better word, reached out to one another for assisstance. To those who were successful, they would begin to work together in tandem communication and orient their physical-material bodies in ways that would allow them to explore and learn. This was the advent of Mortal Forms, as mana networks made of various different materials throughout Edda began to explore and grow.
But, this was not to last. Even though they had eons to refine themselves and prepare, all things must come to an end. Thus, did the Second Cataclysm come. It began with a sudden screeching being heard in the sky for thousands and thousands of miles. Then, a strange tower manifested where the screeching was loudest. It's tiered form, looking almost like segments on a spine, twisted in a corckscrew formation to the ground as many Mortal Forms gathered to see what was going on.
And then, it touched Arcanoterra. The very second it hit the ground, a shockwave rippled throughout and across the entire planet. In one fell swoop, in a matter of seconds, every Mortal Form was Transmuted from connected mana and raw materials into sapient creatures of flesh, blood, and proper intellegences. They had no idea of knowing what was possibly happening, but they had the emotional depth to feel fear, to feel sorrow, and to feel despair.
Reeling from their sudden transformation, a mysterious guest appeared. They were a green-faced creature adorned in violet, with a voice of stone and pain. They spoke to the now flesh species of Edda, offering riches and power for those who could pass the test of The Tower, of which they were the emmisary of. The new species had no concept of riches or power, but they still had their curiosity, and so many attempted to face The Tower.
None came back.
After a week, The Tower vanished as quickly as it came, with a pre-historic world forever changed, and the Mortal Forms all turned into the prototypical ancestors of the species of Edda in the modern day. Those at the epicenter of this event, in modern Afallon, had the preciense to record, in rudimentary terms, the events of The Second Cataclysm, giving modern Eddans the only source they could've possibly had about these events.
EXTINCT
Scientific Name
Mortali Forma Rasa
Lifespan
Immortal until destroyed
Average Height
Varied based off of material
Average Weight
Varied based off of material
Average Length
Varied based off of material
Related Myths
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