Life in Elmeron

The Rainbow of Life

Life in Elmeron is as diverse as the magic flowing within, and for good reason. As all life is, just like the world, made of raw magics. These magics can manifest in literally infinite different ways, with the Coral people of the southern Sespa, the Sandstorm people, fickle as the wind, of Ra'akar, or the grounded Stone and Lava people of Grrdrr.

Rules of Life

There are some basic laws of life to keep in mind when navigating life forms in Elmeron.

1. All things alive must contain a Soul, a piece of Pure magic that is the basis for all life, feeling, and emotion.
2. All things alive must have a physical form made of Hued magic to contain the raw magic of the soul.
3. Once this physical form is damaged beyond repair, the soul will leave the form (usually through the last breath) and ascend back into the Stars.

Formation of Physical Forms

When a being is conceived, whether it is within a(n) womb, egg, or otherwise, it will begin to collect Pure magic from Soul Rain and form a ball of Energy we know as a Soul. Once the soul is born, it begins to create a shell around it, the body. It starts by taking magic stored from contraception and using that to form a small, crude shell to keep the soul contained until maturity. From this point on, we will shift the focus to Humanoid development processes, as all beasts have varying ways of arriving at adulthood. This process will begin taking in magical energy from the world around it, mixing with its parental magics. This will combine to create what will become their permanent physical form after anywhere from 10-20 years depending on the types of magics composing the form. This process is very similar to real puberty, as the mixing of different magics can influence the Pure Soul magic that is adapting to the shifting form. A note about magical puberty, this process is far less common amoung the beastial and plant life, and while it still is a force in development, usually animals have evolved to be accustomed to particular magical surroundings, with the nomadic nature of Humans being a rare occurrence in nature. This manifests as different physical apperences, however the scale and prominence of these changes are based on species and race. For example, humans who have absorbed magics from the sun and heat itself might manifest as Fire, with almost lumesent orange hair, deep red to bright pink skin, and slight warm to the touch, while a primoridal Fae's form is entirely determined by the magics they are born of, and can vary in apperence immencely just because of that fact.  Another prominent change happening within the physical form during this time is the integration of the Soul with the physical form, as while this form slowly becomes more permanent, the Soul also is merging with the form, becoming bound to its body, turning into something similar to metaphysical blood. During this metamorphosis, the Soul will consume microscopic amounts of Hued magic, allowing for individuality to be developed as the person grows older. It is during this process that the instictual Weaving of magics immerges into its final form.

Low Intelligence Lifeforms

Throughout Elmeron lay seemingly endless amounts of unique and colorful plant and wildlife. A quirk about the difference between animals is that most animals have adapted to thrive in very specific environments, and thus have not evolved to gather magic for the physical form during adolescence. This also means that most wildlife can be associated with particular Hues of magic, however there are some exceptions to this rule, usually in creatures that have evolved to live nomadically. However, not all beasts are 100% non-intelligent, with beings such as the Wyrmlings, who possess advanced social grouping and war-like tendencies with each other, or the Sea Levithan, who uses their heightened intelligence to hunt very effectively using stealth. Usually these slightly higher intelligence beings will be those who possess the ability to better utilize magic, and thus evolve better incorporation of magic in the adolescence period. However they are not the only low intelligence lifeforms who utilize magics, with most animals learning to use their instinctual prowess for magic to enhance their chance of survival. This has created a strong competition for heightened magical usage in nature, with most every animal possessing a strong magical ability of some sort, making places of nature a colorful and (literally) magical area.

Plantlife

Now we enter into the extremes of the spectrum of intelligence, beginning with plants. Similar to animals, plants have no need of taking in magic during adolescence, as they will almost never see the world outside their forest. While most plant life does not utilize magics, as they possess a far lesser portion of Pure magic in their soul, some have evolved to twist and weave to allow for the channeling of Nature and Life magics, with none exemplifying this more than the Cherry Tree, a species of tree native to Yakala which draws nature magic into its leaves using its knots and curls all throughout the roots and trunk. Once the magic is stored within, it consumes the magic as sustenance allowing it to live forever, without intervention. Others utilize this differently, like frost berries drawing in raw cold magic, freezing the seeds and juices within permanently solid, which can survive the digestive system of any animal while leaving the rather unhealthy seed behind, creating a mutually beneficial relationship between the consumer and the bush that has allowed the Frost Berry bush to spread throughout all of The Great North like a wildfire.

Intelligent Lifeforms

From here we enter into the area of the intelligence spectrum at the very tip, where we reach the Soul Cap, a physical limit on how much Soul can be contained within a body before it bursts at the seams. All sentient life contains this amount of Soul within, as those who evolved into an increased amount of Soul quickly rose the scale of survivability, and thus those with more Soul, and thus more intelligence, lived longer and procreated more, quickly hitting the cap in only a few thousand years. Humanoid beings were the last to achieve this form of sentience, only arriving at that point around the 75000 BR mark, however Humans were not the first to achieve this landmark. True Wyrms achieved this first, however they are some of the rarest creatures in all of Elmeron, with only a scarce few hundred living at any time in the history of the world. Next came the Avians, who never managed to get the push into forming civilizations until the era of equatorial civilizations, at which point they also began to adapt along with them. Then come the Aquatic folk right ahead of the common Humanoids by about 5 thousand years.
Some notable quirks of Sentient life are as such, they all possess an equal potential for magic, and make good use of it. They have the most adaptability in all regards, especially magically, and are very adept at making themselves at home in any environment, evolving to allow for biological shifting to any environment in but a few hundred years. They also are what allow for the birth of Gods, as 99% of all non sentient life cannot practice that of Belief magic. They are also some of the few beings capable of Ethereal magics, with very few animals evolving complex enough magical control to cast these magics outside of incredibly basic divination magic for better senses, or basic Darkness magic for better traversal of the night.

Type

Natural