Celestials

Celestials are a bit of complicated case for a demihuman. They are somewhat tolerated, treated with less active hostility and more extreme distrust. This is caused entirely by a certain element of their nature that makes them a bit of a tragic case by default.   They are generally counted among the more integrated species, although only to a certain degree.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Celestials are best described in terms of their anatomy as 'humans+'. In short, they are humanoids that also look nearly indistinguishable from humans. There are, however, certain supernatural changes to their body, that just remains mostly hidden from the people on the outside. In the case of celestials, most of the changes lies in their skeletal structure.   Their bones are made of hardlight, a paramaterial connected to the power of the Ancient of Days. It's both harder and lighter than normal bones, while also glowing slightly unless this is actively suppressed with magic. This means that wherever skin is rather thinly veiled over the bones, one can expect a faint glow to go through it. This is especially visible in their skulls, causing a form of glowing halo around it.   This halo is of golden and white hue naturally. The colour is different for the flawed celestials, where it can instead display every imaginable color. You can expect every open breaking of bones to cause bright light flashes in 'their' default colour. Even internal breaks might cause a visible (if weak) light to be emitted through the skin.   The biggest anatomical difference is the fact that parts of their shoulderblade bones sticks out of their body. Or, to be more exact, it merely reaches the surface, being best described as stiff part of their back, about 10 centimeters in diameter. This forms a base of their wings, although wings themselves can be switched on/off at will. This prevents them from limiting celestial's movement.   Those wings are made of various forms of hardlight. They are less spawned/despawned and more 'compressed' and 'decompressed'. Their skeletal structure is made of much stiffer and resistant from of this, resembling solid golden matter, with the area between them being often described as 'sparkly' and have an appearance of much less uniform structure. However despite their looks, they are still perfectly solid.   The combination between their wings (which tend to be really large - enough to cover their whole body if wrapped around it) and lesser weight (due to lighter bones) allows them to flight, although they are far from being naturally profficient at it. They are excellent gliders and they can use their wings for short maneuvers, but you can expect them to use hardlight platform if they actually want to stand mid-air in front of you.   Their low-weight is a double-edged sword. While it makes them quick and there is no loss of resistance to impacts, they are uniformly lightweight. This means that they are vulnerable to both heavy impact (that might send them literally flying) and wrestling (their enemy will almost always have an upperhand against them there). Even if their strength is notable, their low weight will still drag them down.   This is why celestials just don't cut it for a strenght-based close quarters engagements. Blocking their opponents' blows is a uniformly bad idea for them, instead it's much wiser to dodge them. They also have a preference for spears, as the worst case scenario they can stab someone and then let their spear's hilt rest on the ground which helps them negate the enemy strength.

Genetics and Reproduction

Relatively normal. They can have children with normal humans and other celestials, however the children will always be celestials. They also aren't particularly fertile, with chance of conception being significantly smaller than between two humans. However, the difference isn't large, and in exchange the chances of them being downright infertile are rare. In a way, their average is below human, but their lower end is higher than theirs.

Behaviour

Celestials are, by rule, kind. They tend to be nice people, rather temperate (if not downright ascetic), chaste and patient. They are also intelligent, charismatic and empathetic - still by the rule. In short, celestials are naturally great people. If that was, however, without its exceptions, the celestials would have been universally accepted among the humans of the world. And there lies the problem.   Celestials might be nice - but they are brittle. They can shatter irreversibly with a sufficiently strong blow to their emotional state. All you need is a traumatic event in their life, and they'll promptly go completely insane, in a way that no therapist can treat. This is, in fact, less a conventional insanity and more a major personality twist. From kindness to sadism, from chastity to extreme lustfulness and so on.   They are seen as incredibly dangerous due to those changers being always for the worse, always massive and completely irreversible - all while they remain intelligent, charismatic and capable of reading people's emotions easily. This makes every flawed celestial a horrible threat and a kill-on-sight target regardless of their flaw. They will always cause horrible events to happen, regardless of their personal attempts on restraining themselves.

Additional Information

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

They have a normal human range of perception. They appear to have slightly worse nightsight than average humans, but the change is still within what can be considered a 'normal human' range.

Celestial

Summary

Type: Demihuman
Subtype: Ancientbound
Status: Tolerated (with exceptions)
Estimated Numbers: 15-30 000
Censor's Veil: Displayed as humans.
 

Alignment

Creator Power: Ancient of Days
Alignment Status: Varied
Sanity Damage: Immune [fear, mental changes]
Corporeal Stability: Immune [physical harm]
Magic: Free casts of Lore of Days [mental exhaustion]
 

Combat

Combat Behaviour: Damage Dealer [Melee]/caster
Threat Rating: 3
Physical Damage: Vulnerable
Magical Damage: Vulnerable
Glyphs: Immune to Wards
Notable Vulnerabilities: Wrestling, blunt force

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