Moon Rabbits

Moon Rabbits

A humanoid race with the capability of transforming between a humanoid form with rabbit ears, and a full rabbit form. The moon rabbits are a female only matriarchal race who are created by the kami long ago. Because women are seen as inherently more spiritually attuned in Shinto, all moon rabbits have been made female. Moon rabbits have a disposition to be haughty towards mortal races, as they consider themselves the most pure devout beings, and see most races as half hearted in their spirituality. Because of this they prefer to stay in Luneste and are rarely seen on the earth except as guardians of the altar between the earth and moon. By the Japanese people they are highly revered in a similar way an angel might be: an other worldly religious icon.

Physiology

Moon Rabbits are hand crafted from precious stones by the kami in a long and difficult process. They are made of a type of gemstone like ruby, emerald, amethyst, Opal, etc., and then imbued with life from the heavenly Ki of the kami. These rabbits initially start much smaller than newborn children, and are encased by the kami inside magical fruit that is used to as a vessel to transport the new moon rabbit magically from the kami's realm to Luneste. Once the fruit arrives, the high priestess will use a ceremonial moon stone katana called the Mizugashinagi to chop the fruit in two, and the magic sword will leave the new moon rabbit untouched. The type of fruit that the moon rabbit is sent in, along with the gemstone its composed of is considered to be predictive of the nature of the newborn. The sweetness of the fruit is said to determine the rabbit's kindness, the size, its power, the thickness of the skin its mental fortitude and confidence, and so on. The gemstone they're made of will show in the eye color and sometimes the hair of the rabbit, and also have meaning. Ruby indicates feistyness, sapphire indicates calmness and composure, and so on. However similar to humans, moon rabbits are also complex and cannot be watered down to a couple one word attributes. The two fruit halves do not decay, and are kept by the moon rabbit as a treasured item. Despite being made of gemstone, the bodies of moon rabbits are not only still flexible, but are often times more agile and mobile than normal humans, particularly their jumping ability. This is due to their divine magical infusion of their life-force, which allows them to defy the conventional behavior of gemstone material. While their gemstone bodies are sturdy, if for any reason they were to have a part of their body break off, they would not feel physical pain, but would need to seek a magical means to repair themselves. Moon rabbits are not able to reproduce, but are always given female personas and appearances to honor the Japanese belief in females, and particularly human shrine maidens, having a naturally stronger spiritual connection. In appearance, moon rabbits look like female humans with rabbit ears on their heads, and white skin . They have red lips, and have a red outlines around the eyes like a geisha would. Moon rabbits typically have black hair, though sometimes might have more unnatural and colorful hair colors that match their eyes, and will typically have heian style large teardrop shaped eyebrows that are further towards the center of the face. Moon rabbits are impervious to disease and decay unless they don't consume gemstones, but can be killed if they are sufficiently destroyed. Killed moon rabbits will generally be recovered by other moon rabbits and have their shards offered up back to the kami in a solemn ritual. The dust will then be offered on an alter to be accepted back by kami so that he may reincarnate the moon rabbit. They will retain their personality, but not their memories or power, meaning that in a way moon rabbits are partially immortal. A moon rabbit when reincarnated will be given its fruit halves from its previous life, and will theoretically continue to accumulate more as reminders of their past lives. If a moon rabbit is killed by their body being irreparably shattered, or their body is captured, retrieving the dust or body parts becomes a high priority for the other moon rabbits. The biggest downside to the physiology of moon rabbits however is their expensive core materials and diet which also consists of gemstones. In order to continue functioning, a moon rabbit must consume about 1/100th the amount of gemstones as a human would eat food per day. If they go too long without eating they will start to suffer fatigue and spiritual decay which can lead to death if not alleviated. Gemstones are sufficiently provided through sacrifices of the Japanese people though.

Luneste

A village that is established upon the moon. Luneste is home to all moon rabbits, and has a very small population because of how few moon rabbits there are, the total being over 100.

The Order of the Lunar Shrine Maidens

The purpose of the moon rabbit race is to provide powerful spiritual guardians for Japan. Luneste acts as a religious centered community, where every member of its modest population serves some role in supporting their role as magic users and members of the religious community. All moon rabbits are born into the Order of the Lunar Shrine Maidens, the organization that dictates the role of every moon rabbit. They run the Shrine and the Altar between the moon and the material world, as well as keep the recipes to strange elixirs not found anywhere else. The head of the Shrine Maidens, and the matriarch of all moon rabbits is the High Priestess. High Priestesses are anointed by the kami after the previous High Priestess passes away.

Tsukiyama

Tsukiyama is a mountain in Hokkaidou that hosts a large shrine that contains the altar that allows moon rabbits to return to Luneste after arriving in the material world. While moon rabbits are able to transport to any number of shrines in Japan from Luneste using their own side of the altar, the only way to return in from Tsukiyama.