Divine Blood Races

The following races, all those included in the RPG supplement, represent less than half the population of non-humans on Earth leaving room for people to come up with their own minor races.  They include the most common non-humans as well as some stand-out rare species. As a note, I deliberately kept total population numbers of various species low enough that combined they don't equate the world-wide population of non-humans. It leaves space for people to make their own thing.

Adze

Adze are collectively intelligent swarms of a flies. They are capable of portraying illusions around themselves. They are a vampiric species feeding on blood or, more often, purchased nutrient drinks. Their ability to spread their conscious across multiple bodies tends to disturb Demons and some Gods who view it as a shade of the "devourers" that they remember some of the first bearers of the understanding became. However, most adze swarms show no desire to consume other minds and expand their existence across multiple bodies the way the devourers had. Some Gods and Demons theorize their species would have become something similar, just with larger component bodies, if they had evolved naturally rather than stabilizing themselves via artifice they way they did.

Chiang Shih

 

Chiang Shih are a species of biological vampires that descend from spiders. To humans they appear very corpse like and grotesque, but to them humans and many other species appear to be bloated and disgusting as well. They are all capable of web-production, but only a few are capable of production to a degree that would be useful in a crisis. They were scattered when Burma spread over much of South-East Asia and are now a dying race due to their disconnection from others of their kind.

Chijou Oni

 

Oni were a species engineered by the manipulation of the sidhe to serve as a slave species. They were originally created to have a lack of self so that they could not refuse orders of their masters. It was eventually discovered that consumption of alcohol counteracted this trait and oni escaped sidhe slavery as a whole sometime late into the collapse of the sidhe power in ancient days. The species eventually split into two varieties. Chijou oni remained on Earth and interbred frequently with humans and thus usually appear very human. One in a hundred chijou oni possess the vibrant red, blue, or green skin oni are said to have in myth but all have tiny horns. They all seem to be a little bit tougher and stronger than the average human due to a mild and unconcious psychic enhancement. They do require a fairly constant diet of alcohol in order to avoid dropping into a fugue state. This can cause problems with young oni dealing with age limits for alcohol.

 

Demon

 

Demons are one of the most ancient races and one of the few that predates humans. They possess the Understanding as a race and are part of either the Orochi or the Ashvattha collective mindscapes. For Demons, trust and self-determination are two of the most important virtues one can have. They usually appear as human beings with a slender, athletic look and small fangs. Demons are born with an unlimited life-span, save those that were born as humans, of course. Most Demons reincarnate themselves every 400 years or so in order to keep mentally and spiritually healthy.

Dryad

 

No one is born as a dryad. Dryads are the victims of a God-created parasite that cripples their psychic abilities and even inhibits their musculature to a degree. All dryads are female, whether they were before eating the fruit that carries the infection or not. Men who eat the dryad-fruit usually die and those that don’t become female when the parasite takes over their nervous system. The dryads seem to have been created as part of a breeding experiment as their children are often very powerful or intelligent, though sometimes they are deformed or insane.

Dvergar

 

Dvergar range from five to eight feet in height and are very broad and stocky. They all appear to be extremely masculine but are actually hermaphroditic. In the ancient past they were thought to have been driven to extinction by the Purges, but some have been making an appearance recently showing they survive somehow. They were created by the Gods to be brilliant craftsmen. Many suffer from a genetic defect that results in the loss of an eye. This defect only rarely seems to affect both eyes.

Galatea

 

Galatea appear to be human with skin colorations that resemble various sorts of rock and greyish hair-colorations. This can be concealed using make-up and hair dyes, though some try to pass it off as a skin condition instead. They appear to be a naturally evolved species and their existence can be pointed at back many generations. It is unknown if they evolved from humans or evolved from some other species to simply appear more human. They are most well-known for their talent of hardening their skin to resist damage. However, this act is painful for those galatea that have not trained the talent too much.

Gargoyle

 

Gargoyles are a species that left the Earth to settle in the cosmology. They evolved from bats and appear as large, grey-skinned creatures. They are tough to kill and in their shards outside Earth maintain an advanced but rigidly controlled culture all their own. They maintain some anchors to Earth just in case and sometimes use spies transformed to appear human via shaping rituals. They guard the entrances to their dimensional shards jealously, resulting in such myths as the Jersey Devil.

God

 

The second of the Immortal races, the Gods predate humans but have begun to take the form of humans with blue facial marks and often bulky builds ranging from the seductively curvy and the heroic masculine to the healthily plump and even somewhat rotund. Gods hold duty and consideration to be the most important virtues to possess. They possess the Understanding as a whole race and possess an unlimited life-span. As with the Demons, they reincarnate every few hundred years to maintain their health. Also like the Demons, many Gods were born human.

Gorgons

 

Gorgons are a race of shapeshifters descended from humanity. In fact, gorgons are occasionally born to human parents. Some gorgons go their entire life without ever awakening their powers. However, once awakened, they can never quite appear human again. The appearance of the gorgon reflects their own state of mind. A happy and friendly gorgon will appear beautiful, if somewhat alien, while one that is angry or scared will appear frightening and ugly. They always appear reptilian, however. Their powers are stronger in the throes of extreme emotions. Some are healers; others can actually turn people into stone.

Jurougumo

 

A species distantly related to the chiang-shih, jurougumo have frequently married humans. Every generation, fewer jurougumo are born, though not because they are having fewer children. It is assumed that eventually, the jurougumo will be simply the ancestors of a particular group of humans. They themselves are fine with this often stating "humans are cute and have aggressive genetic codes". Juruougumo look almost entirely human but have two black spots over their eyes where most people have eyebrows. A close look reveals these spots as extra, compound eyes. A number of jurougumo have a poison touch, but most who do have trained to use it in ways that promote healing.

Kitsune

Kitsune are an enigma to most of the other races. They are a fox-like species of illusionists, though how fox-like they are seems to vary from Kitsune to Kitsune. Some appear like humans with fox ears and a tail while others appear to be bipedal foxes. They hide what they are from humans via their illusions. All kitsune have at least one tail, and some few have as many nine. Those with nine are often very odd, mentally speaking, almost as if they were multiple people in one body. How a kitsune acquires more tails is not something they talk about much.

Lemurian

Lemurians once upon time were known as Deep Ones. That was before Lovecraft targeted them with a campaign of prejudice generating propaganda. They eventually changed the name they called themselves and began to consider Deep One to be a slur. They still have a poor reputation among other supernaturals in the world.

Nekomata

 

Nekomata are a species of two-tailed shape-shifting cats. Most nekomata are fairly limited shapeshifters such that they can gain the appearance of human face and hands but find it easier to just cover the rest of their body when avoiding attention from humans not in the know. As children they appear to be full-sized adult cats moving into bipedal posture and stature as they grow older. A fair number of nekomata take on the persona of "cat-lady" in order to conceal their biological children among actual cats. Nekomata have a flexible relationship with gender and sex, being able to shift their physical sex relatively easily. They also have a cultural fondness for low magic. About one in eighty nekomata is vampiric and requires the same sort of protein drinks consumed by vampyr and chiang shih.

 

Oread

Oreads are a result of the same parasitical plant that creates dryads. An oread is a person who ate a dryad fruit and managed to at least partially fight off the parasite. Instead of becoming a dryad, their body has become frozen at the age it was when the fruit was eaten. The parasite has entangled and replaced much of the person’s nervous system, but has not entirely reached a place where it can finish its job or cripple the victim. Other than their agelessness and an ability to “feed” the parasite in order to build up a reserve Life-Force, oreads remain the same species and gender they were before eating the fruit. Oreads have never successfully become a God or Demon.

Raven

 

The Ravens are the combination of several avian descended species into one whole. They have bird-like taloned feet as well as wide wings, though rarely are they capable of true flight. Ravens have no means to disguise what they are, but most groups have a close relationship with Psyche and the Community and exist sheltered by that relationship. Ravens are polyandric, meaning women usually take multiple husbands.

Seraph

 

Seraphim are a genderless race that reproduces via what is known as a homonculus ritual wherein the genes of separate individuals are combined into a new life which is grown within specially enchanted psychic tools. They appear to be rather bland humans, and probably even descend from humans, having likely been created by the Gods. They are thought to be extinct in the Purges, but there have been some who have seen them returned of late.

Sidhe

 

A race of deal-makers with a singularly disturbing perfection of appearance, the sidhe are the only known species that produces people capable of creating dreams. In the past they were a major power in the world, with a nation driven by their own perceived superiority over other species. In modern times, only a small number of sidhe remain allied to the old ways with most living among humans. Sidhe cannot breed with other sidhe and must seek out humans in order to have viable children, all of whom will be sidhe.

Succubus

 

Succubi were originally created by Demons in the period between usurping their insane elders and uniting into a political whole. They are an entirely female race that reproduces via biokinesis, using sex only as a way to hype their ability. They are thought extinct; having been one of the races targeted by the Purges, but sightings are still reported now and again. In natural form, they are set apart from humans only their eyes, which have four-pointed pupils and lavender sclera, which would be white in a human. That said, a succubus raised among people with substantially non-human appearance would lean more towards appearing like that people more than human, or, alternately what that people thought a human should look like.

They have illusions to conceal that and can also use an illusion of the more stereotypical demonic woman as a self-defense method. Succubi latch onto an archetype early in life and subconsciously mold themselves to fit that archetype by using their empathic nature to find the ideals in the minds of those they grow up with and their biokinetic ability to alter their genetics accordingly. Like many supposedly extinct species, people have been claiming to meet succubi of late.

Succubi appear to age at a human rate and then slow down. However, they do not hit a true puberty until they are in their mid-twenties. Before that, they appear to be adult from a human standard, but don't start to come into sexual maturity until well into their twenties.

 

(AN: Was once asked by someone if it was possible to cause a succubus to grow into being a "catgirl" and realized that it was vaguely possible to do so, but that it would require abusive levels of control of the succubus's childhood surroundings such that catgirl was the only archetype they could latch onto. Yay for unintended consequences and new nightmares.)

Therianthrope

 

The single most successful non-human, mortal, race today. Therianthropes are shapeshifters descended from wolves. They are probably the most well known of werewolves in the psychic world. However, over time, many have learned to take other animal forms than those of wolves and many families have forgotten the wolf form. As such, therianthropes also include weretigers, weresharks, werebears and any of a number of other such people.

Troll

 

Trolls are an all male race created as warriors by the Demons ages ago. Like many of the races created by the Gods and Demons, they were targeted by the Purges. Unlike many, it is known that several bloodlines survived to the modern day. However, there seem to be more of them lately. Trolls are six to nine feet tall purple men appearing to have a primitive, almost neanderthal, appearance. They reproduce with the women of other species, the male children being trolls while daughters having a slight purplish tint to their skin and being somewhat stronger than normal, but otherwise of the mother species.

Vampyr

Vampyr are a rare species occasionally born to select human bloodlines. They fit the appearance of the stereotypical vampire, complete with fangs. They are biologically incapable of digesting most solid foods and most live on a specialized diet prescribed for them by a doctor. Most vampyr go through life without knowing what they are. The trait that determines the birth of a vampyr always seems to skip generations and even the children of two vampyr is rarely another vampyr. Vampyr also have troubles with bright light and some that don’t take precautions go blind early in life.

Wolfen

 

The wolfen are one of the only remaining sentient species that has nothing like a humanoid appearance. They appear as wolves for the most part, though recent generations have started to be born with the Talent of shapeshifting into the appearance of other canines such as dogs. They have a telepathic ability which they use to communicate with and to control lesser animals to act as their hands. All wolfen seem capable of growing or shrinking as necessary to the situation as well.