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Kineirah Chimera: the lore
3 years ago
Kineirah lore 6-20-2022
The lore of Kineirah Chimera centers around its three resident souls and their Book of Shadows.
Kindness Butcherbird: The de facto leader of the triad who comprise Kineirah. Based on an Australian Magpie with corvid hybrid elements. Female. Ancient in age, she has used the Book of Shadows with her lover Certainty to hopscotch around Death for many generations.
Certainty Cerastes: The serpent soul within Kineirah. Based primarily on a spider-tailed horned viper. Male. The most magically adept of the Triad. Parted with his corporeal form many centuries ago, and cannot exist for long without co-residing in Kindness or Faith’s living body.
Faith Devilfox: The youngest and most brutal of the triad within Kineirah. Female but masculine expressive. Based on a common red fox, but she hates her commonness and readily took on the other two partners as cohabitant souls. This is her first generation of life.
The Book of Shadows: A hardbound, giant book of spells. The Book of Shadows is Kindness and Certainty’s mechanism for cheating Death and surviving indefinitely. At its origin, a young Kindness transcribed all of Certainty’s spoken wisdom and magical doctrine into the book over many years. When Certainty’s final bit of knowledge was transcribed into the Book, he passed from this life and his soul was encoded. Kindness carried the book around until her later life, searching for a host body for Certainty to possess. She succeeded, and Certainty then used his new body to reciprocate her favor; meaning, Certainty transcribed all of Kindness’ code into the Book, and she slumbered there until he found her a new host. This is their game of existential hopscotch.
The mechanism of possession is for the “living” partner to take on an unsuspecting protégé and have them learn the spells and enchantments inside the Book of Shadows. As the student memorizes text from the Book, the Book’s resident is downloaded into the pupil’s mind. At some critical threshold point, enough of the Book’s passenger is programmed into the host that control starts to be ceded to the invader. From that point on, the puppeted pupil finishes their memorization of the Book, and the stowaway soul lives again. For the period of time when both Kindness and Certainty walk the earth, the pages of the Book are empty.
Faith was simply meant to be this generation’s iteration of the hopscotch game. Kindness found Faith as a teen, and coaxed her into studying the book in the same manner as had succeeded many times before. However, Faith stood out from all of her predecessors. Faith was remarkably adept at magic right from the outset; she showed an extraordinary affinity for Blood Magic in particular. Further, there seemed to be no depths of darkness Faith would resist diving toward. By young adulthood, Faith had already amassed several murders, including her own kin. The premise was that ending others’ lives heightened one’s compatibility with Black Magic, and a bountiful harvest of blood kept Faith’s proficiency high. Kindness was quickly and permanently impressed with her Devilfox mentee.
Most remarkable, though, was Faith’s receptiveness for Certainty. Faith recognized early on that someone was being built into her mind. As soon as Certainty had been programmed formatively enough inside Faith to be recognized, Faith greeted him. Never before in Certainty’s pattern of possession had he been invited, welcomed, and cherished so warmly. Before Faith, Certainty’s standard protocol was to subdue, dismantle, and eject the host’s germane soul. Oppositely, Faith became an instant friend and colleague. Faith voraciously studied the Book of Shadows, and Certainty’s occupation of her body was quick and high-fidelity. Kindness and Certainty conferred and agreed to allow Faith into their partnership, and an elated Faith happily joined their crew.
Kineirah Chimera: Before Faith, the standard practice of possession would see the invaded host slowly metamorphize into the invading soul. It didn’t matter what species or gender the student started as; once Kindness or Certainty was implanted and rooted, the host would become a corvid or serpent (respectively). This transformation was a condition of existence for the invading soul, and was not something to be modified or controlled… until Faith.
After Faith downloaded a sufficient fraction of Certainty’s soul, she began to take on serpent qualities. However, given that their partnership took on a collaborative quality instead of a supplicative one, the two found that they could purposely and purposefully control the balance between fox and serpent. Through experimentation, they discovered ways to configure their combined body into several forms: lamia, gorgon, et cetera. The balance between the two is a dance of body and mind. Certainty can pilot Faith’s body around while she sleeps or co-pilots, Faith can replace her mammal appendages with serpent replacement parts via spellcasting, and even the gender of the host body is malleable pursuant to the team’s wishes. The speed of transformation has improved with practice, too.
The ultimate experiment came about following Kindness’ re-entry into the Book of Shadows, once the pages had been blanked of Certainty’s presence. The gambit was that Kindness could also be programmed into the same living body in which Faith and Certainty cohabited. The team recognized there was a very real risk associated with this endeavor – all the souls in one form would be vulnerable to Death simultaneously, with nothing but a blank book to serve as a potential epitaph. Additionally, three souls within one body could prove to overwhelm the mortal form, risking catastrophic physical failure.
The experiment succeeded, though. The team found themselves all comfortably and happily resident within Faith’s very strong body. This is the advent of Kineirah Chimera - a monster who can possess the physical qualities of a corvid, a fox, and a serpent in any combination they deem necessary. Further, Kindness and Certainty were able to encode Faith into the Book of Shadows; resultantly, the two ancient lovers could be together in the same body. This achievement had never been attempted or imagined by them before Faith joined their equation, and they celebrate their Devilfox friend for bringing them a unity they’d never known before.
Experimentation brought practice, and practice brought mastery. The team even learned how to document two souls at once into the Book of Shadows. Soon, the following configurations were realized:
- Two partners present in the body, one in the Book.
- Two partners present in the book, one in the body.
- All three partners present in the body, blank Book.
Unknown yet and unexplored is the notion of all three partners being inside the Book; it is unclear what would become of the unoccupied body left behind.
The more partners that reside in the body, the greater physical strength of the resultant form. The more partners that reside in the Book, the greater magical power given to the one left in the body. Therefore, management of who is “in” and “out” is a tradeoff between strength and arcane skill. Certainty is the frailest physical being, but having Faith and Kindness in the Book gives him immense magical power. Faith is the strongest corporeal being, with Kindness being second-strongest; when Faith and Kindness co-reside the body, the monster is physically vicious but has comparatively low magical ability. The “name” of the mortal body depends on the balance between the resident souls; it could be known as Faith, Certainty, or Kindness even when a partner beyond the named party is present. When all three inhabit the body, the gruesome beast is known as Kineirah. It is formidable in might but is without spellcasting skill.
The beasts accessible to the team, to date, include but are not limited to:
- Anthro fox with sentient snake tail (Faith x Certainty)
- Anthro fox with bird wings (Faith x Kindness)
- Beaked and winged feral fox (Faith x Kindness)
- Beaked and winged anthro fox (Kindness x Faith)
- Lamia with fox top (Certainty x Faith)
- Lamia with corvid top (Certainty x Kindness)
- Siren with fox top and sea serpent bottom (Faith x Certainty)
- Anthro fox with gorgon (snake) hair (Certainty x Faith)
- Chimeric cockatrice (all three)
- Chimeric manticore (all three)
- Chimeric wyvern (all three)
...and many other more nebulous combinations of the three or any two therein. Horns, forked tongue, slit pupils, ‘spider’ tail, viper fangs, wings, feathers, claws, talons, beak, and scales are all accessorizable.
The lore of Kineirah Chimera centers around its three resident souls and their Book of Shadows.
Kindness Butcherbird: The de facto leader of the triad who comprise Kineirah. Based on an Australian Magpie with corvid hybrid elements. Female. Ancient in age, she has used the Book of Shadows with her lover Certainty to hopscotch around Death for many generations.
Certainty Cerastes: The serpent soul within Kineirah. Based primarily on a spider-tailed horned viper. Male. The most magically adept of the Triad. Parted with his corporeal form many centuries ago, and cannot exist for long without co-residing in Kindness or Faith’s living body.
Faith Devilfox: The youngest and most brutal of the triad within Kineirah. Female but masculine expressive. Based on a common red fox, but she hates her commonness and readily took on the other two partners as cohabitant souls. This is her first generation of life.
The Book of Shadows: A hardbound, giant book of spells. The Book of Shadows is Kindness and Certainty’s mechanism for cheating Death and surviving indefinitely. At its origin, a young Kindness transcribed all of Certainty’s spoken wisdom and magical doctrine into the book over many years. When Certainty’s final bit of knowledge was transcribed into the Book, he passed from this life and his soul was encoded. Kindness carried the book around until her later life, searching for a host body for Certainty to possess. She succeeded, and Certainty then used his new body to reciprocate her favor; meaning, Certainty transcribed all of Kindness’ code into the Book, and she slumbered there until he found her a new host. This is their game of existential hopscotch.
The mechanism of possession is for the “living” partner to take on an unsuspecting protégé and have them learn the spells and enchantments inside the Book of Shadows. As the student memorizes text from the Book, the Book’s resident is downloaded into the pupil’s mind. At some critical threshold point, enough of the Book’s passenger is programmed into the host that control starts to be ceded to the invader. From that point on, the puppeted pupil finishes their memorization of the Book, and the stowaway soul lives again. For the period of time when both Kindness and Certainty walk the earth, the pages of the Book are empty.
Faith was simply meant to be this generation’s iteration of the hopscotch game. Kindness found Faith as a teen, and coaxed her into studying the book in the same manner as had succeeded many times before. However, Faith stood out from all of her predecessors. Faith was remarkably adept at magic right from the outset; she showed an extraordinary affinity for Blood Magic in particular. Further, there seemed to be no depths of darkness Faith would resist diving toward. By young adulthood, Faith had already amassed several murders, including her own kin. The premise was that ending others’ lives heightened one’s compatibility with Black Magic, and a bountiful harvest of blood kept Faith’s proficiency high. Kindness was quickly and permanently impressed with her Devilfox mentee.
Most remarkable, though, was Faith’s receptiveness for Certainty. Faith recognized early on that someone was being built into her mind. As soon as Certainty had been programmed formatively enough inside Faith to be recognized, Faith greeted him. Never before in Certainty’s pattern of possession had he been invited, welcomed, and cherished so warmly. Before Faith, Certainty’s standard protocol was to subdue, dismantle, and eject the host’s germane soul. Oppositely, Faith became an instant friend and colleague. Faith voraciously studied the Book of Shadows, and Certainty’s occupation of her body was quick and high-fidelity. Kindness and Certainty conferred and agreed to allow Faith into their partnership, and an elated Faith happily joined their crew.
Kineirah Chimera: Before Faith, the standard practice of possession would see the invaded host slowly metamorphize into the invading soul. It didn’t matter what species or gender the student started as; once Kindness or Certainty was implanted and rooted, the host would become a corvid or serpent (respectively). This transformation was a condition of existence for the invading soul, and was not something to be modified or controlled… until Faith.
After Faith downloaded a sufficient fraction of Certainty’s soul, she began to take on serpent qualities. However, given that their partnership took on a collaborative quality instead of a supplicative one, the two found that they could purposely and purposefully control the balance between fox and serpent. Through experimentation, they discovered ways to configure their combined body into several forms: lamia, gorgon, et cetera. The balance between the two is a dance of body and mind. Certainty can pilot Faith’s body around while she sleeps or co-pilots, Faith can replace her mammal appendages with serpent replacement parts via spellcasting, and even the gender of the host body is malleable pursuant to the team’s wishes. The speed of transformation has improved with practice, too.
The ultimate experiment came about following Kindness’ re-entry into the Book of Shadows, once the pages had been blanked of Certainty’s presence. The gambit was that Kindness could also be programmed into the same living body in which Faith and Certainty cohabited. The team recognized there was a very real risk associated with this endeavor – all the souls in one form would be vulnerable to Death simultaneously, with nothing but a blank book to serve as a potential epitaph. Additionally, three souls within one body could prove to overwhelm the mortal form, risking catastrophic physical failure.
The experiment succeeded, though. The team found themselves all comfortably and happily resident within Faith’s very strong body. This is the advent of Kineirah Chimera - a monster who can possess the physical qualities of a corvid, a fox, and a serpent in any combination they deem necessary. Further, Kindness and Certainty were able to encode Faith into the Book of Shadows; resultantly, the two ancient lovers could be together in the same body. This achievement had never been attempted or imagined by them before Faith joined their equation, and they celebrate their Devilfox friend for bringing them a unity they’d never known before.
Experimentation brought practice, and practice brought mastery. The team even learned how to document two souls at once into the Book of Shadows. Soon, the following configurations were realized:
- Two partners present in the body, one in the Book.
- Two partners present in the book, one in the body.
- All three partners present in the body, blank Book.
Unknown yet and unexplored is the notion of all three partners being inside the Book; it is unclear what would become of the unoccupied body left behind.
The more partners that reside in the body, the greater physical strength of the resultant form. The more partners that reside in the Book, the greater magical power given to the one left in the body. Therefore, management of who is “in” and “out” is a tradeoff between strength and arcane skill. Certainty is the frailest physical being, but having Faith and Kindness in the Book gives him immense magical power. Faith is the strongest corporeal being, with Kindness being second-strongest; when Faith and Kindness co-reside the body, the monster is physically vicious but has comparatively low magical ability. The “name” of the mortal body depends on the balance between the resident souls; it could be known as Faith, Certainty, or Kindness even when a partner beyond the named party is present. When all three inhabit the body, the gruesome beast is known as Kineirah. It is formidable in might but is without spellcasting skill.
The beasts accessible to the team, to date, include but are not limited to:
- Anthro fox with sentient snake tail (Faith x Certainty)
- Anthro fox with bird wings (Faith x Kindness)
- Beaked and winged feral fox (Faith x Kindness)
- Beaked and winged anthro fox (Kindness x Faith)
- Lamia with fox top (Certainty x Faith)
- Lamia with corvid top (Certainty x Kindness)
- Siren with fox top and sea serpent bottom (Faith x Certainty)
- Anthro fox with gorgon (snake) hair (Certainty x Faith)
- Chimeric cockatrice (all three)
- Chimeric manticore (all three)
- Chimeric wyvern (all three)
...and many other more nebulous combinations of the three or any two therein. Horns, forked tongue, slit pupils, ‘spider’ tail, viper fangs, wings, feathers, claws, talons, beak, and scales are all accessorizable.
I love that you have such an intimate relationship with Faith. When I first met you, I always though it was Bandi that you were closest with, but at one point you referred to him as your "Mascot". And I think I understand now.
You also keep using the term "totem" for your cast and I'm just on the edge of my seat waiting for a totem pole drawing.
YET