Ossmere

Ossmere are a long-lived, unhurried people who hold death and memory sacred, treating grief as a shared civic duty rather than a private burden. Soft-bodied and octopus-like, with a ring of tapering limbs in place of arms and legs, they speak plainly about mortality in a way that unsettles most other races, and their deep physiological aversion to violence has made them among the most trusted neutral mediators in the known kingdoms.

Country of Origin: The Hush

Physical Traits:

• Ossmere are non-humanoid, with an elongated head fused directly to a soft, mantle-like torso — there is no true neck, and no rigid internal skeleton.
  • Standing height (measured mantle-to-limb-tip when upright) ranges 5'0"–6'5", though Ossmere are just as often found in a lower, more spread posture that reads as considerably shorter.
• In place of arms and legs, Ossmere have six to eight long, tapering limbs radiating from the base of the mantle. Two to four upper limbs end in fine, sucker-lined tips capable of delicate manipulation — writing, fine craftwork, sign-language-adjacent gesture — while the remaining lower limbs are thicker and used for locomotion, a slow, deliberate multi-limbed glide rather than a walk or a crawl.
• Skin is soft, matte, and faintly damp to the touch, in ash-grey, bone-white, or faded slate tones; it does not tan, flush, or shift color with temperature or emotion, though its texture can subtly ripple from smooth to slightly pebbled under strong feeling.
• Eyes lack visible sclera — solid, dark, and still, giving Ossmere a famously unreadable gaze — and sit low on the head above a small, near-hidden mouth folded into the underside of the mantle, used for both eating and speech.
• Fine, hair-like filaments (not true hair) grow from the crown of the head and drift faintly even in still air; they thicken slightly during grief and thin during long stretches of contentment.
• With age, an Ossmere's filaments and skin pale further, and their limbs stiffen and shorten, until near death they appear almost translucent — a slow decline called Thinning.
• Interbreeding: Despite their markedly different physiology, Ossmere are fully capable of procreation with Humans, Valka, and all other playable races, following the same standard hybrid rules (Amalgam, Halfling, Mixling) as any other pairing.

Abilities and Traits:

• Natural Abilities:
  • Extended lifespan - Ossmere can live up to 400 years, the longest-lived of the known races.
  • Stillsense - Ossmere can passively sense recent death or unusually concentrated grief in an area; this is a deeply attuned instinct, not detection magic, and reveals only that something significant happened, never cause or identity.
  • Bonding - Ossmere typically bond with Wraithmoths.
    • There is no cost to join an Ossmere that is already bonded with a Wraithmoth; if bonding after joining, they will be charged the standard bonding cost (250c).
  • Shapeshifting - None; Ossmere do not shapeshift.
• Strengths:
  • Ossmere have a natural compatibility with both Magic and Technology, same as Ignean; when joining a character, choose EITHER Magic OR Technology (they cannot have both).
  • Near-universal trust as neutral mediators, hospice caretakers, and treaty witnesses, both within Ossmere communities and abroad.
• Weaknesses:
  • Innate Pacifism - Ossmere physiology makes sustained intentional violence against another sentient being genuinely difficult; the adrenaline response that fuels aggression in other races instead triggers nausea and disorientation. This is a real physical limitation, not a moral choice a character can opt out of.
  • Stillsense is passive and non-specific; it will not solve a mystery on its own or substitute for actual investigation.
  • Their unhurried pace and discomfort with urgency can create genuine friction in fast-moving situations.

Society and Lifestyle:

• Organize society around the Long Ledger, a communal, ever-growing record of every ancestor's name, deeds, and final words, maintained collectively and recited at gatherings.
• Treat grief as a shared civic duty rather than a private matter; declining to participate in community mourning without real cause is a genuine social lapse.
• Have no standing military, given their pacifism; instead are widely sought after as mediators and neutral witnesses to treaties and disputes.
• Speak of death plainly and often; a common greeting translates roughly to "may your name be worth remembering."
• Favor exhaustive, patient negotiation over confrontation in resolving conflict.
• Believe the dead linger briefly in a state called the Hush before moving on, eased by Wraithmoths; there is no formal deity, only reverence for memory and proper observance.

Relationship with Other Races:

• Alliances: None formal. As neutral mediators, Ossmere deliberately avoid close alliances that might compromise the trust they rely on to do their work.
• Conflicts: Lucenthi — the two peoples hold nearly opposite philosophies of mortality; Lucenthi treat death as something to meet loudly and joyfully, while Ossmere hold it sacred, unhurried, and communally solemn. Neither finds the other's approach comfortable to be around for long.
• Neutral: Caelduran, Quoravyn, Ferronax, Volari, Auren, Delvyn, Ignean, Rockfolk, Mirajin, Zenoxi

Concept Images

Concept art pending.

Wraithmoths

Wraithmoths are silent, softly glowing companions native to The Hush, distinct from the Astrofel found elsewhere; they share an innate bonding affinity with Ossmere and are believed to ease the recently dead partway into rest.

• Wraithmoths are moth-like creatures roughly the size of a large owl, with broad, translucent wings that carry a faint, steady glow — usually pale silver-blue, ash-white, or dim violet.
  • Their glow dims further in the presence of genuine grief (echoing rather than clashing with it) and brightens faintly in moments of peace or resolution, making them a subtle emotional barometer much like an Ossmere's own filaments.
  • Their bodies are covered in fine, soft down rather than true scales; the down is cool to the touch, never warm, even when the Wraithmoth is active.
  • Their eyes are large, dark, and multi-faceted, unsettling in the same understated way as their bonded partners' own eyes.
• Wraithmoths fly in slow, deliberate patterns rather than the erratic fluttering typical of moths; their flight is nearly silent, and they're capable of hovering motionless for long stretches.
• Wraithmoths do not vocalize in any conventional sense; they communicate through subtle shifts in wing-glow brightness and pattern, a "language" that takes patient partners months or years to read reliably.
• Bonding is initiated by sitting vigil for a full night at a graveside; a Wraithmoth that lands on the mourner and stays until dawn has chosen them.
  • Wraithmoths bond for life; if a bond is severed or one partner dies, the surviving Wraithmoth typically returns to whatever graveside it first bonded at and rarely bonds again, though exceptions exist after long solitary periods.
• Wild, unbonded Wraithmoths are drawn to sites of recent death or deep grief and are gentle by nature; they pose no threat and tend to simply observe from a distance until (or unless) approached.
• Mating and Family: Wraithmoths do not pair-bond in the conventional sense; reproduction is tied to place rather than partnership. A single Wraithmoth returning repeatedly to the same significant gravesite over many seasons will eventually lay a small clutch of soft, papery eggs there, with no second parent involved in any consistent way documented.
  • Clutches are small, typically 2–4 eggs, and take several months to develop, drawing ambient stillness from the site rather than requiring active incubation.
  • Hatchlings emerge with no glow at all and spend their first weeks flightless, developing their characteristic luminescence gradually as they mature — Ossmere folk tradition holds that a hatchling's first true glow means it has "found its first name to remember," though this is belief rather than confirmed mechanism.
  • Because reproduction isn't tied to a mated pair, young Wraithmoths are not raised by parents in any active sense; they orient toward the gravesite itself, and the first mourner they encounter as they mature is often who they eventually bond to.

Concept Images

Concept art pending.