Zagame
The Zagame are a race of sapient beings in the Ethermos Story. They are found throughout worlds in that Story, including ones like Solmundo. They are the closest thing in this setting to demons, having their own sort of arcane magic, and often being associated with chaos and evil, though not every Zagame is chaotic nor evil.
Appearance
Zagames are humanoid, often fairly tall with an average range of 6' (roughly 182.88 cm) to 9' (roughly 274.32 cm) in height. They have a mix of traits of different animals, in the following ways:
- Antlers/horns, eyes, body: deer, cows, goats, sheep, pronghorns
- Mouth, ears, tail: fox, wolf (things like coyotes and other non-wolf large canines included here), cat (big cats mostly), procyonid (raccoons, coati, etc.), mustelid (weasels, otters, badgers, etc.)
- Wings on their backs, lower arms, beaks: corvid, vulture, owl, hawk/eagle/falcon/kite, secretarybird/caracara
Note that what would normally be antlers (such as deer antlers) are permanent horns in the Zagame. They are not shed seasonally, and they are always present. Also note that they cannot fly with their wings, but they can use them to jump higher as well as gliding from up high.
Other Physical Attributes
They are fairly long lived, living around 200 years on average.
Note that Zagames are not carnivorous like their supposed ancestor, though they do tend to eat more meat and organs on average than other races. If not meat, their meals will usually involve fruit and vegetables. Their bodies cannot digest grains and dairy very well, including consumables made from one or both (including but not limited to: bread, beer, cheese, yogurt, cake). If they eat anything like that, they end up with terrible stomachaches.
They also have the same problem with sweets like milk chocolate and caramel. Even just something made mostly from sugar, such as lollipops or gummy worms, tend to cause digestive problems, though not as severely as compared to bread and grains. Still, for most Zagames, if they're in the need for something sweet, they'll prefer fruits over candy.
Origins
It is believed that the Zagame were "evolved" from Siéhnam, particularly from those with the wing mutation. No one knows for certain, at least not anyone within the Ethermos Story. Regardless, they originated from Solmundo, given that Siéhnams can only be found there, and then spread out to other worlds on the Ether Mists.
Abilities
The following subsections go over various abilities that Zagames are known for.
Magic
Zagames are believed to be the strongest magic users in all of the Ethermos worlds. There is no real limit on the type of magic they can use and cast. Magic is in their blood! But therein lies the problem: magic is in their blood, literally, and it cannot simply be "used" like with other magic users.
Their blood has to be extracted, usually just siphoned from the wrist or crook of the arm (not cut out, it's more like extracting blood for blood donations and blood tests in the real world). From there the blood can be used like ink in order to create sigils, paper wards/talismans, magic circles, and so on. From there, Zagame can construct whatever spells and magic they want.
Items can also be blessed by having Zagame sigils written/drawn on them. Unfortunately, unlike other blessed/magical items, one with Zagame sigils need to have their magic replenished. This is traditionally done via "feeding" the item Zagame blood, though really any source of magical energy (such as spellwells or a magic user channeling part of their energy into the item) will work too.
The Zagame magic system is thus based on the need for writing and drawing certain symbols and words, in order to correctly direct and cast the magic in the blood ink. It is a language in and of itself, although it is not a spoken language, and has some similar concepts as programming languages in particular. Zagame scholars have studied their own blood for centuries in order to catalogue most if not all of the words, symbols, grammar, etc. that are needed to cast spells. Much like a real language, there are also "accents" in certain locations where Zagame live, and even "slang" that gets adapted into the language over time.
Zagame blood can also be used by non-Zagames to write and draw the necessary symbols needed for magic. They simply need to know enough of the Zagame language to write whatever magic they want performed with the blood. However, most older generations of Zagame are fairly strict about who gets to learn their language outside of actual Zagames, so being able to learn the language may be difficult in some cases.
Collecting
The Zagame are known to have something that they collect in some way. Sometimes these collections are made up of physical things like rocks, swords, clothes, books, and teacups. However, sometimes what they collect is a bit more strange, like shades of a certain color, or recordings of animal sounds.
The type of thing a Zagame collects is usually referred to as their "Focus", with a capital F. How much they go out of their way to collect whatever their Focus is will vary between different Zagames. Some only collect it casually because they think it's neat, while others are more obsessive, akin to a fan of some sort of media series who feels the need to collect rare merchandise of said series.
In a way, it is similar to hyperfixations in some humans, but again it is to varying degrees from Zagame to Zagame. Some Zagame may end up getting a job based around their Focus, while others may have jobs or skills unrelated to their Focus.
Voice Mimicry
Another unique trait of the Zagame is their ability to mimic voices. As long as they listen to someone speak for long enough, they can then perfectly mimic that person's voice. Some Zagame are particularly skilled at this, being able to mimic voices after only hearing them for a short while.
Typically, a young Zagame will simply mimic the voices of their parents and other relatives. Over time, the Zagame will listen to other types of voices they like the sound of, and then effectively synthesize their own unique voice from the ones they like. Some Zagame may seek out voices with specific accents or other qualities that they like. Zagames will rarely if even want to simply keep imitating an existing person for their own permanent voice.
Invincibility and Regeneration
This is a trait of the Zagame that is particularly striking. In essence, a Zagame cannot be killed by most means. They can die from natural deaths via the depletion of their natural lifespan. However, they cannot die permanently from dismemberment, beheading, disease, drowning, being set on fire, and so on. If they "die", they simply regenerate.
The magic in their bodies takes care of the regeneration process automatically, sometimes siphoning off energy (be it magic or even just life force) from other nearby creatures in order to speed up the regeneration process. Otherwise, depending on the extent of the damage, the regeneration process can take anywhere from a month to several years.
Essentially, the magic in their blood is said to not allow them to die. Whether this is meant in a more literal sense (i.e. their magic is actually and genuinely sapient) is up for debate. Regardless, the magic will allow the Zagame to regenerate no matter how little of themselves is left. The only way to truly kill a Zagame is to destroy them down to their very atoms, which is of course a difficult thing to guarantee.
The regeneration usually starts as soon as the Zagame reaches a point where any other creature would have been dead, though some maybe be able to "force" the regeneration to activate sooner. It is said that forcing the regeneration is difficult to do, and sometimes it can cause issues where the regeneration happens too quickly and thus the healing turns out "wrong" (such as a broken arm healing but staying stuck at a crooked angle).
If a Zagame is cut into pieces, only one of the pieces will regenerate into the original Zagame. Thus, new Zagames cannot be "cloned" by being cut into pieces and making said pieces regenerate separately. Many Zagame scholars have tested this and failed to achieve cloning, though many still attempt to find a way to do so.
Gender and Sex
The Zagame do not have a physical sex at all. No internal sexual organs, no external genitalia, and no characteristics that would otherwise be specific to one sex or another. Note that as mentioned earlier, antlers in Zagames are permanent parts of their bodies, and so they cannot be used as an indicator of physical sex.
Luckily for them, procreation in Zagames does not involve having sex. Instead, at least two Zagames perform a ritual, combining their blood together in a summoning circle, to effectively create a new Zagame. The process can take several months, with the circle basically acting as an incubator for the child to form. It needs to be regularly "fed" blood from whatever Zagames created the circle in the first place, as well as fresh food, typically meat, organs, vegetables, and fruits. Eventually, it will finish forming int a Zagame baby!
This same "procreation ritual" can be performed with other races as well. At least one parent needs to be a Zagame, though it will require more blood from them in order to balance out the lack of magic in the other parent/parents' blood. The result is either a Zagame baby, or a baby of one of the other parent/parents' race with a higher proficiency for magic than normal.
In addition to not having physical sexes, the Zagame do not have a concept of gender either. They may wear clothing and attire that is traditionally feminine/masculine/etc., but these are not indicators of any particular gender identity. Indeed, many very traditionally-minded Zagame may outright hate the concept of gender in the first place, seeing it as a "cultural parasite" being imposed on them by other races (particularly by humans).
Younger generations of Zagame are not nearly as strict about their gender (or rather, lack of gender). Many younger Zagames may even take on a binary gender (i.e. man or woman), or otherwise a nonbinary gender other than agender/genderless. Zagame who are women will also sometimes shave down their horns/antlers, sometimes getting them permanently removed, though most will keep their horns/antlers regardless of gender.
Examples of Zagames
The following are some named examples of Zagames throughout the Ethermos Story. In parentheses next to each one is the animal parts that comprise their appearances.
- Crow the Story Collector (white-tailed deer, red fox, common raven): Their Focus is stories. Working as a merchant, they like to collect all sorts of stories (both fiction and nonfiction books, poems, oral folklore, and even just gossip) in exchange for various items and services. The more unique the story, the larger/rarer the payment they will give in return.
- Lady Rousseau (alpine Ibex, maned wolf, bearded vulture): Her Focus is the color red. She collects objects of various "interesting" shades of red, and even has an entire orchard of fruits like apples and strawberries that she has cultivated herself into particular shade. She is incredibly rich from selling just small portions of the custom fruits she grows, and is always on the lookout for new shades to add to her collection.
- Zimri (Cameroon sheep, snow leopard, pearl kite): His Focus is music. He donates his own blood to non-Zagame magic users, in exchange for enchanted seashells (i.e. ones that are not enchanted with Zagame runes, so they won't run out of magic). These shells can then be used to record sounds and "replay" them later. He uses them to record musicians he hears during his travels. He will also collect vinyl records of music, which he admits is a bit easier than having to get other people to produce the enchanted shells he needs.
Gallery
Crow the Story Collector
Trivia
- Crow is the fursona of DragonMarquise, the creator of this worldbuilding wiki.
- The idea of using the concepts and set up of code (and language in general) in order to create spells was inspired by this Reddit post from the Worldbuilding Subreddit. Before that post, the Zagame magic system was still based on magic blood that had to be written/drawn with on paper and objects to cast spells. However, back then there was no actual language nor particulars on how it had to be drawn/written in order to cast spells.