markermage

[markermage]

Neutromorphs in Warclema - Kisei (Character)

Admittedly, I don't have a huge list of neutromorph characters ready. I do have one neutromorph character named "Kisei" that I can go a bit deeper about. I had made him for a story that I've long ago decided to call "The Heartless Parasite", though it's been about 20 years, and I'm thinking of changing the name. I decided to put the game into the poll for next Warclema topic in case you guys want to read about it, but for now, I think I'll expand on Kisei.

Appearance

Yeah, I'm bringing out this sprite that was in the neutromorph introductory lore post, because it was specifically supposed to be a sprite of Kisei. If I was to zoom in and put in more detail, there would likely be a patch of sheep wool from her parent, and a feather or two from the penguin (specifically an oschan homing penguin) she took as her starter host body. Usually, she would be draped over a host body kinda like this...

That's supposed to be her parent with a cloud sheep as a host body.

Personality

Kisei is naïve at first due to her story taking place with her beginning her naming quest. She has more heart than sense and little understanding of her limits. This ends up getting her into trouble when the opportunity to switch from her healthy host body to an injured host body presents itself, but you can find out more about that if you vote for Heartless Parasite in the poll.

She is also rather submissive and has trouble speaking up for herself to the point of readily letting her host body do as it likes. Because of how her culture deals with the gendered language they've retained from their human ancestors, this leads to her thinking of herself as female and her host body as male, regardless of whatever genitals it has. This also gets her into trouble.

Name

She doesn't receive the name "Kisei" from completing the naming quest, but from a human friend that she makes as part of the Heartless Parasite storyline. Because I've long planned for her to be a videogame character, the intention would be for the name this human would give to her to ultimately be decided by the player, with "Kisei" being a default.

In a later storyline where Kisei completes her naming quest, her friend goes with her and points out that due to having been Kisei's host body at one point, the name that they (and the player) gave to her fits the spirit of rules for the name that Kisei officially receives. This would be an excuse for the player to keep the name that they came up with for the character or to optionally have her take on a name that's traditional to her species and would be influenced by the actions of the player.

[markermage]

Next Week's Warclema Topic

It's time to decide what part of my personal worldbuilding project, Warclema, I'll be doing 5 days of posts for. Previous choices carry over. I think I'll actually give the names of each option this time.

If you want to see what I've posted so far about Warclema or see other information about the options, you can check out the master post I made.

[markermage]

Neutromorphs in Warclema - Oscha Culture

One of the earliest neutromorph settlements is Oscha. It was founded by proto-neutromorphs who had banded together. They had learned to control the slime that parts of their bodies had melted into, but were still dealing with how it would turn back into slime if they weren't paying attention. They thought banding together to start a village would reverse the chaos that their lives had become, so they reversed the syllables of "chaos" and named the village "Oscha". While I'm still determining the relative size of settlement in the later parts of Warclema's timeline, I do have ideas for some cultural practices and I work under the idea of Oscha's culture being the most dominant culture for neutromorphs.

Host Body Bond

Oscha culture focuses a great deal on the use of living animals as host bodies. The neutromorph uses their shape shifting to simply connect their brain to the creature's circulatory system so that they can share nutrients with the creature in exchange for using improving the creature's survival. Many see their host body as a companion to form a bond with. This bond can be a permissive one where the neutromorph generally gives control over to the host and tends to give rewards for good behavior. Some can be more overriding and directly puppet their host body, using them only for their unconscious control over their body.

Due to neutromorphs inheriting the human language from their ancestors, they've ended up being sexless beings with a gendered language. Their approach to pronouns is generally to refer to one in charge of the host body with male pronouns and others with female pronouns. They also refer to the host body by the name of the neutromorph inhabiting it.

Early Childhood

Neutromorphs are created when a parent transforms part of their neutroslime into a brain. They can have some help with this from others. Once the brain is stable enough to not transform back once the parent relaxes their focus on it, they will connect it to their host body and maintain the connection themselves.

Naming Quest

Due to the strong physical connection between the parent and child combined with a high early mortality rate, neutromorphs generally don't get a name until they prove that they can be physically separate from their parent on a permanent basis. Until then, they are generally considered to be a part of their parent.

The way that Oschan neutromorphs prove themselves worthy of a name is by going on a special naming quest that is initiated with a ceremony attended by young neutromorphs that think they're ready (or are being forced out by their parent) and neutromorphs that have completed the quest and are ready to receive a name. The ceremony starts with giving names to the successful neutromorphs before preparing the new candidates for the naming quest.

The rules for the naming quest are simple. The neutromorph is provided with a hooded cloak and a starter host body, and sent outside of the village to survive until the next ceremony. They are allowed to switch host bodies. If the ceremony is missed, the neutromorph just has to wait for the next. Once they arrive back for the ceremony, they are welcomed back and the elder examines the successful candidate's host body and cloak to decide a name. There are some rules for this that I haven't come up with yet, but the overall idea is that the name comes from the host body.

Oschan Cloak

The cloak that an Oschan neutromorph receives when they leave on their naming quest becomes a form of identification. It lets others know that the beast that wears it is host to a neutromorph and warns not to attack it. It also serves to visually distinguish the neutromorph from other neutromorphs by being an element of their appearance that won't be in flux.

The neutromorph is encouraged to decorate the outside of it slowly over time, usually with mementos from past host bodies, the first of which is usually provided by their parent before they leave on their naming quest. An Oschan cloak's decorations can serve as a summary of that neutromorph's life up until that point, and it is believed that if the cloak has changed enough to be unrecognizable to what it was before, it is because the neutromorph it belongs to has similarly become unrecognizable from what they were once like. This cloak will be the only identifiable remains they leave behind when they die, and it is what is focused on in funerals.

Neutromorphs are encouraged to sew pockets and straps on the inside of the cloak to hold things and more securely attach it and themselves to their host body. Many will unravel the thread that makes it up to form these additions.

Next Post

I suppose this will do for now. I'm sorry for being late in getting this one out. I'll get to work on the weekend poll and a character post for the next day.

[markermage]

Neutromorphs of Warclema - Neutroslime

Neutroslime is a substance in Warclema that ultimately comes from an incompatibility between its native physics and matter from the dimension that the humans came from. It is what neutromorphs are made of, and it's what they return to when they die. To be more precise though, it's more that they die when they return to it. It is also able to be used by other creatures, though most of them aren't dependent on it.

What It Does

It pretty much changes form and chemical properties. I go with the general idea of the neutrons in it being able to switch to acting like protons and back again. its shapeshifting nature can have it used to act as an adhesive, substitute for any number of items with enough knowledge of the item, and be able to exert pressure through the forms it is made to take on.

What Controls It

Pretty much mental/psychic energy, though I have used "electron movement" to describe it a few times in my notes so that electrical machines could conceivably manipulate it. There is no "this person has weaker/stronger psychic powers" for this. This is a "Do. Or do not. There is no try." sort of thing. When two people try to manipulate it at the same time, proximity is the overriding factor in who gets to control it. It is easier to manipulate it when it's closer to your brain, and easiest when it's inside of your brain and making it up.

That said, it is relatively easy to lose focus on it, resulting in it reverting to its natural state and being able to be manipulate by anyone nearby.

How to Defend Against It

The simplest way is to just put your head near it and try to think panicky thoughts. It is a terrible thing to make weapons out of, and will generally only be effective in a fight when used with something with a long handle to wield.

Next Post

That seems like enough for now. The next post is about the dominant culture for neutromorphs.

[markermage]

Neutromorphs in Warclema - Early Drafts (Oscha)

The neutromorphs of my original setting, Warclema, have gone through a few changes since I first came up with them. My first idea for them had them being basically a Final Fantasy black mage with the face hidden in shadow. I started thinking about what could be hidden in that darkness. At some point the idea of chaotically shifting mass entered my head. I then though "But why wouldn't they be constantly changing height, width, and arm length and such, and I came up with the idea of their robes being enchanted to control that shapeshifting or otherwise limit it. I went with it being a "lock it in" sort of control.

I had called them "oscha" at the time. I had come up with the name through a simple process.

chaotic shapeshifting

chaos

cha os

os cha

oscha

I ended up using this naming convention two other times, one of them being last week's race, the fistar. Later on, I had read a tumblr post about advice for naming races, and I noticed the "-morph" suffix and thought to use it with what I had started calling the slime they were made from, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

I wanted them to be able to use their shapeshifting to use monster techniques, and I had thought maybe they could use a sample of a monster to influence their shapeshifting. This kinda morphed into incorporating the part into their body, and I eventually thought about the idea of them preferring these static body parts because of stability, and I kinda shifted to them trying to have as much of their body not be their own as possible. Eventually, I realized that they could probably just take a whole body from something instead of just the bits and pieces, and I realized that they were essentially a symbiote that had the option to frankenstein a body together and use their shapeshifting to cover for anything damaged or missing.

I would come up with the idea of their default form being unstable or unlivable, and that the other parts let them avoid going into it. I realized that I could use concentration as a limiting factor. This left the idea of their shapeshifting being chaotic with the only control being a lock in sort unneeded. I still felt they should have the clothes, which became a hooded cloak in later designs, be of some use to their shapeshifting, so I came up with the idea of them having numerous straps and pockets in them to hold their monster parts, both currently used internal parts and stowed away external parts. I would later decide that these were called "oscha cloaks" due to being popularized by some settlement of them that they called "Oscha".

Next Post

Well, I'm already late to posting this, so I think I'll stop here and focus on the next post. Speaking of which, it's going to be about the neutroslime substance that neutromorphs are made up of.

[markermage]

Neutromorphs in Warclema - Introductory Lore

So the winner of the last poll seems to be "A race inspired by the visual design of Final Fantasy black mages." The name of the race these correspond to is "neutromorph". In the last poll, there were listed as being "Consequences of humans being unable to resist checking to see if the instant death barrier still causes instant death", and in the poll before that, they were listed as "Amorphous symbiote race that started out as a blue mage race".

Appearance

Luckily, I've got an example image ready.

It's a sprite that I had made to represent one in a game that I have been putting off making. Neutromorphs are amorphous beings that are made out of a shapeshifting orange slime. That orange slime is their default state and what they return to if they relax their shapeshifting.

The pictured neutromorph is wearing a rather common piece of clothing used by the species called an Oschan cloak.

Origin

So, remember when back in the introductory lore post about humans in Warclema when I mentioned that humans were unable to leave the areas that emulated the physics of their home dimension at first? It was because matter containing neutrons would transform into an orange slime when under the effects of Warclema's native physics. This slime is called "neutroslime".

After a while though, it seemed that humans were able to avoid being entirely transformed. They didn't know it at the time, but this was due to a particle native to Warclema called a "watron" (you may remember me mentioning them while describing replicators in the human technology post). It basically does what neutrons do under our physics, but it retains those properties under both sets of physics. A number of these watrons had managed to get cycled in through the air, and as more watrons got cycled in and replaced the neutrons in the bodies of humans, they would be able to have less of their body transformed when they tried leaving the emulated physics around their dimensional ships.

Eventually, some humans managed to leave with enough body to survive and enough brain to realize an interesting property of the slime that was formed by the foreign particles.

So the big thing about neutroslime is that it shapeshifts in response to thought, psychic energy, or whatever you want to call the energy that comes from someone concentrating on something. With a bit of practice, you can make it take different shapes and material properties. This does require you to be under the effects of Warclema's native physics, preventing you from being able to manipulate it from a space under the effects of emulated physics.

Some humans managed to figure out how to manipulate the neutroslime to replace the body parts that had transformed into the substance. Some learned how to use it as a weapon. Some tried transforming it into a brain, and that's where neutromorphs came from.

Abilities

Neutromorphs, being entirely made of neutroslime, are able to freely shapeshift their body. The only restrictions on this are that they cannot create or destroy mass, and they have to maintain some level of concentration on the form in order to maintain it. If this concentration drops, the form drops, reverting back to the neurtoslime from which it was made.

This also applies to their brains, which must keep some concentration upon its own form in order to avoid transforming back, losing all brain function and memory in the process. As you can probably guess, having your brain melt into an orange slime substance kind of kills you.

So they do what they can to simplify their form. They will incorporate objects that don't transform into their bodies to use as filler material and replacements for required organs to keep the brain functioning and able to keep a required amount of unconscious concentration upon itself. Some sticks and stones can make a decent replacement for bones. A heart from a random animal can pump blood just as well as a human heart. Heck, they can just hook their brain up to the circulatory system of a living animal and that will take care of most of their needs.

Role

Warclema's neutromorphs are defined by their shapeshifting and their ability to use the bodies of other creatures, whether as individual parts or as a whole body. This lets them fill a blue mage role by collecting monster parts that would let them execute monster skills.

[markermage]

Setting Idea - Xenos Café & Grill

This eating establishment in space has recently gotten their caffeine license. The food is decent, but the real draw is the waitstaff, who represent a wide variety of species from across the galaxy. It's pretty much like a Hooters or maid café, but with a focus on a variety of alien species, their exoticism, and their individuality. There isn't a uniform, but instead an accessory that clips on wherever and creates a holographic projection above the person that indicates their name and position to serve a nametag role. The waitstaff are expected to come up with their own character and style that suits them, and the overall result is the place seeming like some small-scale vtuber agency.

The place would not be high class. The "Café &" part of the sign for the establishment looks like it was clumsily attached. The owner is a cheapskate (but still a bit caring at times). The newest employee is a member of a genetically engineered plant species created to be companionship slaves, and the owner of the restaurant was lucky enough to be around when the dignitary that bought her found out that his species is allergic to oxygen. Got a new worker and was paid a disposal fee. The focus on exoticism and individuality is pretty much an excuse to avoid needing to buy uniforms. The nametag holographic projectors are rather easy to hack due to how cheaply made they are. Overall, Xenos is a restaurant that is just managing to stay profitable, though there could be a Kitchen Nightmares plotline at some point.

I'm still working out the cast of people that would work there. Besides the plant girl mentioned before, I think there would have to be a robot that worries about being replaced with genetically engineered life, a talking cat with thumbs who claims to be to be descended from the pet of a royal family, a slime girl that is desperate to get the cat to wear a hairnet so that she wouldn't pick up as much cat hair, and an aquatic species whose sex changes to the least-represented sex in the room.

Sample Scene

Cat: Why is that mess assigned to one of my tables? He's dripping everywhere. As a fluid, I cannot interact with him out of concern for cross contamination.

Bot: I doubt that. You've got bones.

Cat: And those bones are suspended in a fluid body. I can take the shape of any container and I leave residue behind.

Goo: Sadly, I can't convince the boss to accept cat hair as residue, even though it keeps clogging up my slime.

Cat: You see? Even our gelatinous coworker agrees that I'm a fluid.

[markermage]

Why Haven't I Seen a Monstergirl That is Themed Around Penis Fencing?

So for those that don't know, penis fencing is a neat behavior seen in flatworms.

Flatworms are hermaphrodites—they’ve got both the boy parts and the girl parts. But carrying eggs is a huge energy drain, so naturally, neither wants to play mom.

So how do they decide? By dueling each other with their penises. Whoever jabs the other first wins the honor of being the dad. That’s right—literal penis swordfights. It's called penis fencing, and it’s real. Look it up.

So I've put some thought into how a monstergirl could be themed around it. Personally, I would go with it being a slime girl and have the "penis" be a sort of pseudopod that she sends out. It can come out of various places, but she might prefer to have it come out down there or from a hand so that it seems more like a rapier made of her slime. Inside of her body, there would be a golden core. This would be the thing to penetrate. Give it a jab with anything, whether it be a pseudopod, a finger, or a lengthy straight stick, and it releases chemicals into her that ready her to receive male reproductive material and leaves her too tired to resist.

Her human partner however, wouldn't have a golden core for her to penetrate, though she might have heard from a kappa monstergirl that human boys actually do have one that is hidden deep inside and is called a "shirikodama". What she has found out is that when one of her pseudopods goes up where it is said to be, the human boy certainly reacts like he's had his core penetrated.

So this gives an excuse to have some fencing-themed foreplay between the slime girl and the human. There is certainly some queerness to it, and it can be a way to justify some male pregnancy. Alternatively, maybe it does something else. Maybe the human and the slime girl might be biologically incompatible (without some special magic, medicine, or whatever), but the slime contains some chemicals and hormones that can have some effects on the human...

So what if the human getting a pseudopod up the shirikodama hole acts like a bit of hormone replacement for him. It may wear off after enough time. It might be made permanent through certain actions. It might even get undone or reversed by giving the slime girl's core a poke and sticking something into her slime to absorb the chemicals and hormones released by the core. So this can result in the simple rule of "win to get your masculinity back, or lose and have it taken away".

Maybe it could be used in a story of a champion fencer who meets the slime girl, finds out that her species has its own fencing rules, and decides that he needs to try it out without even the barest attempt to do any research beforehand. He is left unprepared for when the slime girl explains that she'll let him start with his pants on as a handicap.

[markermage]

Found birb.

Birb not move, even when I get close.

Gave water.

Waited with birb.

Birb moved after long, uncomfortable silence.

Did not drink.

Birb gone now.

[markermage]

Fistari in Warclema - Characters

OK, so continuing the pattern from last week, today's post would be characters that belong to this fantasy race built around their regenerative abilities. I've mostly been thinking of them as a collective threat instead of individuals, but I have managed to come up with basic ideas for two of them.

Fistar Who Joins Annul's Party: Pretty much a racial representative for the hero's party for his fight against the demon lord. Annul refuses to fight back, which confuses the fistar and eventually leads to the two of them to understand each other. After the demon lord is defeated, he is the one that points out how weird it is that the demon army knew the humans' language despite their extradimension origin, drawing on his experience learning the language. This would then follow into the reveal of them being from an EDS that didn't make it to Warclema.

Fistar Grafter: Likes to try grafting things to his body during his regeneration.

...

Hmmm...

That doesn't seem like enough to justify this post. How about I add in one from an old story I wrote for a character creation contest on the MS Paint Adventures forums way back in 2014. The overall idea was each participant was given a randomly chosen classpect and had to make a character that fit it and a theme chosen by the previous winner. I ended up with "Bard of Breath". Here's the link to the entry. I kinda included Homestuck stuff since I was writing for a contest on a Homestuck forum. The story itself is non-canon to Warclema, but I think I can make some adjustments to turn it into something that can fit the canon.

Subject 01: The first fistar to be captured alive due to relative docility.

That's All I Got For This Week

I've already posted the poll to decide next week's topic here.

[markermage]

Another week of posting about my worldbuilding notes for my original setting has passed, and it's time for another poll to decide the next topic. Old choices have carried over from the previous poll, but I've swapped in a new race to replace the fistari and added a "see results" vote. I'll have the fistari characters post put up later.

[markermage]

Fistari in Warclema - Views on Humans

So I'm doing something closer to storytelling than lore this time. Feel free to take a look at the introductory lore post about my fistari if you missed it.

Metal Regenerators

None of us knew where the metal mountains came from. We just saw them pop into existence, fully formed one day. If we tried to approach one, our bodies would lose their life. Eventually, we saw figures moving within the mountains, beyond that field of instant death. They looked different from us, but they move like we do. They would sometimes poke and prod at the death line themselves, but it seems that it has an effect on them as well. Their reaction to it is much more enviable. They would always retreat into their metal mountains and come back with new limbs that sparkled and shined. It would be so nice to regrow new parts so easily.

Eventually, there came the day when their regeneration had given them immunity to the death boundary, and they left their mountains. We had more than just ourselves to interact with. They make different sounds than us, but surely we can come to figure out what those sounds mean. They held out a limb. I think I understood. I reached. I grasped. It came off so easily—I wondered why they needed help with its removal. They had responded rather positively to it though, using special shiny limbs that sliced through our bodies amazingly easy. Maybe we just specialize in different types of damage. One thing was clear though, we get along well. They go above and beyond the repayment of injuries. If you help them tear off even the smallest part, them and others of their kind will band together to make sure that most of your body will be growing back for a long time.

Their regeneration seems to happen differently from ours. Their new parts tend to be made of metal, just like their mountains. None of us have yet witnessed the regeneration itself, for they go into their metal mountains to do so. If you can, try to help them reach their mountains after injuring them. It seems they move to a new vessel if they don't get to a metal mountain quickly enough after injury.

They have other life that they bring out from the metal mountains sometimes. This other life comes in many forms. Most are smaller. Most do not regenerate. Use caution.

They don't seem to understand our language, but we've been working on understanding theirs. We think we've figured out some phrases for polite injury requests. We are still nowhere close to discussing ideas, though. One day, we will figure this out, and we'll be able to talk about so many things with them.

Next Post

I suppose tomorrow's is going to be fistari characters. Sadly, I have so few made for this species in my notes. Hopefully, I can invent some good ones before my usual posting time tomorrow.

[markermage]

Fistari in Warclema - Spawn Points

Warclema's physical laws differ from our own, and as a result, Warclema has different natural phenomena. One such phenomena is spawn points, which will spawn matter that's usually of an organic nature in a set area for a long enough time for local wildlife to become dependently adapted to it.

Why Organic Matter?

The lore explanation is that it is copying matter that passes through another point, and because organic matter is more likely to be in motion, the matter being copied is more likely to be organic, specifically of a meat variety. My reason for having it that way is so that I can have it justify some videogame mechanics in the setting.

Respawn Point

Conceivably, I could have a character work out a way to exploit a spawn point to create a copy of them at the spawn point's location. This could be used with some way to have it work when they die so that they would respawn in whatever spawn point they have attuned it to.

It could also possibly form a copy too soon and you'd end up with a clone of someone that's still alive, which has its own drama.

Boss Monsters

Because the spawn point sticks around for awhile and produces mostly meat, carnivorous animals are bound to start using it as an easy source of food. Have it around for enough generations, and they are going to become more adapted to holding territory than hunting and catching prey, resulting in a big thing that eats meat and prowls the area of the spawn point. Oh, hey! That means that the spawn point would be very close to the boss fight!

Anyway, eventually, the spawn point will go away, and this often results in whatever creatures that adapted to it suddenly being without a food source and without the skills to properly hunt. So they get hungry. They get desperate. They get to seeing that human village over there as a possible replacement for the spawn point. And that's why there is money to be made in monster slaying.

Item Dupe Glitch

If you know where the matter is being copied from, you could possibly pass an object through it to make a copy of it, though there isn't any visual indication of the area to pass the item through.

Fistari Regeneration & Origin

So the fistari somehow have a localized spawn point that copies their cells and makes new ones to replace lost parts. I know I mentioned this in the introductory lore, but I felt it worth repeating here.

Also, there is the thing about them having appeared from a spawn point. The thing is though, they knew how their bodies worked when they arrived. Could this be innate knowledge, or could it be that they were copied from some unknown part of Warclema that's hidden away?

Next Post

So tomorrow's going to be... Hmmm... I can't make a racial variety post about them... I guess I'll try writing out a story of their first encounter with humanity.

[markermage]

Fistari in Warclema - Early Drafts (Fishtar)

I shared the introductory lore about the fistar race yesterday. Now I'm sharing the design process that I remember. This one had admittedly not gone through as much change as humans did through my drafts.

Admittedly, I'm having trouble remembering the order of things for this race. I remember wanting to create a race that was low effort to play as. You'd be able to avoid using equipment and just grind away mindlessly and get stronger with a Final Fantasy 2 (NES) system where using something made you better at it. I think from there, I had went with the idea of "hurting them makes them stronger" and paired it up with the idea of an internet troll that wants you to attack them.

I also thought of combining it with idiocy and stupidity. At the time, I had been a fan of a website called Tech Support Comedy, which would use the term "starfish" to refer to stupid users, as starfish have no brains. It felt natural to call my own idiot race that, though I had swapped the syllables into "fish star", or "fishtar", or "fistar". I remembered hearing once that starfish could be cut in half and each half would regenerate into a full starfish, and thought that would make an interesting ability for my fistar race. The only real change that I remember making to them is their role as antagonists.

I had originally planned for them to be a villainous force for the first big story, but later gave that role to race of interdimensional demons. In that original idea, another race of my setting would have been studying them, and found a way to make one smart enough to re-think its ways and join the player.

I also recall a desire for them to say some nonsensical things that would cause mental damage from trying to understand them, but that kinda faded from them and got replaced with the plan to have them splice together inflammatory statements.

Next Post

Tomorrow's post is going to be about the magic spawn points that are responsible for their creation and regeneration.

[markermage]

Fistari in Warclema - Introductory Lore

So, the poll has completed and it was a tie. Taking away the vote I made to get an early look at how the voting was going so that I could get an early start on this post (Note to self: include a “see results” option next time.) resolves the tie though and leaves the consequences of humans being unable to resist "reaching out to a newly discovered species" as the winner. This choice also corresponds to the "regenerating brute race that started out representing trolling and stupidity" choice of my first poll. Well, the species that both refer to is the Fistari, starfish people with amazing regeneration.

Appearance

Big and ugly with starfish-like skin. Honestly, I really need to work out more about how they look. I mostly imagine a sort of quadrupedal form without thumbs that doesn't allow for the use of most human equipment. They have enough of a face to see, hear, and speak.

Origin

The first fistari literally appeared out of thin air. They did so through a phenomena of Warclema known as a spawn point (I'll get into the details of them on Wednesday). Such points spawn matter that's usually organic in nature. The first encounter between Warclema's humans and fistari ended in disaster as a human held out a hand to shake, and the fistar proceeded to rip the entire arm off.

However, this isn't the first time that fistari have spawned in Warclema. Discoveries made late in Warclema's timeline uncover evidence of fistari having been around much earlier.

Abilities

The most iconic ability of fistari is their regenerative abilities that involve creating a localized spawn point to create organic matter to replace missing body parts. The spawn matter is imperfectly copied from nearby matter, resulting in whatever parts of the fistari are left determining the abilities of regenerated parts. This allows for them to gradually become stronger as they regenerate from injuries.

They can regenerate from the smallest of pieces, and they actually reproduce by getting cut or broken into two or more pieces that will then regenerate into separate fistari. Because they rely on external energies of a spawn point to regenerate, they can actually use their regeneration in place of eating, as their regeneration creates parts with abundant energy. A positive reaction to pain results in them actually enjoying getting injured.

So getting damaged lets them regenerate stronger and sometimes even reproduce like the brooms from Fantasia's Sorcerer's Apprentice bit. So how do you kill these things? You starve them. They cannot actually ingest anything and rely entirely on their regeneration of new parts to nourish themselves. If they still have a part, they can't regenerate it, even if the part has no energy in it. So you just need to keep them from getting hurt. Most fistari die of old age by reaching a point where they are too tough to find a way to injure themselves. They try to delay this by cycling through different injury types—letting one resistance fade while focusing on a different kind of damage.

Another weakness of theirs is that they instantly lose all bodily control upon entering areas following the humans' emulated physics. This is due to their brains actually being more like receivers that receive input from a sapient section of Warclema's physical laws. There is actually a set number of these sections and each can only control one fistar at a time, putting an upper limit to their population. If there are too many fistari, new ones just don't regenerate. If their population is less than that amount, that bit of physics just waits for a fistar to split and takes one of the pieces as its own. Memories are kept in this process. It's sort of like a species-bound reincarnation system.

Role

They are the trolls and/or orcs of Warclema. They're big. They're tough. They're violent. They're stupid. Except they're not really all that stupid. Their biology benefits from injury, so they seek to become injured, which results in them engaging in behavior that is seen as suicidally stupid to others.

They serve an adversarial role with humanity due to some misconceptions between the two races. Namely, they each expect there to be similarities between the two that are not there. Humans expect to be able to discourage the fistari by hurting them and the fistari assume that humans have regenerative powers similar to theirs. To be fair, with the first human they met who went for a handshake, they had assumed that the human was requesting help with removing the arm so that a new one could grow, and that human did come back with a new arm that had a lovely silver color to it and was much more durable.

Fistari love humans and the various ways humans have developed for injuring others. There are fistari that have given up on ever getting injured again and starving to death, only for some human blade to easily slice them in two. And that's not even counting the weaponry they use from within their big cities. Fistari have actually been attempting to figure out the human language so that they can more easily request help with getting injured. They think that the phrase “yorma ther [censored]” translates to something like “Please injure me so I can regenerate.”

Next Post

The next post is going to be about whatever I can recall regarding how I came up with them and how the idea evolved.

[markermage]

What Are Your Intentions, Hero?

So you're the fated hero everyone's talking about, and you want to take my baby away from me to fight the demon lord.

Yes sir.

I doubt you'll find a finer companion for such a quest. It cost me a lot to send her to that wizard, but I'm sure her magical abilities will aid you greatly. I look forward to hearing stories of the two of you saving the realm together. However, I've heard stories of heroes that fall for some new demonic friend found in a dungeon and forgetting about who got them so far into their adventures. Some even have the nerve to sell off their oldest and most trusted companion as soon as they find some pretty little thing with curve and jewels in a desert town. But you, my boy, you're a virtuous sort that would never do anything like that, aren't you?

Y-Yes sir.

Good, good. You know, her big sister, Bertha, is in the town guard. She is the sole reason that the demon lord doesn't send his strongest over here anymore. She's stationed just above the entrance. She's the one in black with a scale from the dragon she killed decorating her pretty self. She'll be there to see the two of you off, and she'll be there to welcome the two of you back, as will I once I hear the news. And if it's not the both of you we see coming back, you'll get to see why even the demon lord is afraid to come out this far. (Pulls out a ballista bolt.)

(In walks a lady clutching a sheathed sword in her arms.)

Ah, there's my girl now. (Takes the sword and unsheathes it.) Some of my best work, and loaded with enchantments that will help out whether she's cutting goblins or demons. Even with the enchanted durability, I expect you to take care of her. She is for slicing through flesh, not chopping wood or prying chests open. Wipe the morning dew off of her at the start of each day and make sure the blood is washed off of her after every battle. Give her a good sharpening once a month. Sure, the enchantments on her can do some maintenance, but it uses up mana that could otherwise be used for more important things. (Resheathes sword and hands it to the hero.) Take good care of her and she'll take care of you. If you don't take care of her... (Turns the ballista bolt to show an inscription of the word "CARE" on it.) ...I'll have to show you my own care. Understand?

Y-Y-Yes sir!

(After the hero has left with the sword...)

I'm going to need you to watch the shop while I'm gone.

Really?

The boy's going to need a demonstration so that the whole "save the world" thing doesn't leave him thinking he has a chance of surviving if he mistreats my baby. Sure, her big sis, Bertha, is a rather intimidating-looking ballista, but looks aren't enough. The boy needs an idea of the range and accuracy. Luckily, there's a goblin camp within her range that he'll probably go after. Not enough of a threat to be worth the bolts needed to exterminate them, but I think I can convince the town guard to let me fire off a bolt I've been holding onto. (Leaves with the ballista bolt.)

[markermage]

Idea For Gnoll Monster Girls

Gnolls are usually inspired by hyenas—and in hyenas, females have a pseudopenis: a female organ shaped like a phallus, complete with an internal canal and urethra. In some degenerate communities, this trait is already iconic, but I’ve been thinking about how to exaggerate that masculinity in a monster girl interpretation while still keeping her as the one being penetrated.

My take? A gnoll monster girl with a massive pseudopenis—not just phallic in appearance, but functional in a way that demands submission from her partner.

Picture this:

The opening is on top, with some space between it and the tip.

Internally, the canal curves into a U-turn in the tip, so to penetrate her, a guy has to straddle it to be in a position to thrust in from base to tip.

The result is a monster girl with futa werewolf energy whose phallus thrusts between her lover's thighs while her lover thrusts into her phallus. She’s still the one being filled—but in a way that emphasizes just how big, powerful, and commanding she is.

Maybe she could also have two stages of erection, the first one being the right size for slipping into her lover.