Somnan

80 years

Somnans are creatures that have evolved to survive in the near-total darkness of the Wild Zone. They have a roughly humanoid skeletal structure, but with thick, pale skin with so little pigment that blurred portions of their bones and internal organs are visible. Their fingers are spindly and long, nearly a foot on average, with four stark joints that each feature a bio-luminescent pocket to help somnans navigate the darkness. Their eyes are about twice the size of a human's, have round pupils, and are specially adapted to work with very low amounts of light. Similarly, the ears are wide and pointed like a bat's, and the nose is long and tapered, enabling an incredibly strong sense of smell. There are small fleshy nubs on each side of the neck that contain scent glands, used to identify individuals and help express emotions.

Rather than ingesting physical matter, somnans feed on the Life Force of other beings, sapient or otherwise. They have two long fangs jutting from their mouths, each made of a material similar to Crystals that draws energy out of their prey's Energy Channels and into their own body. They lack traditional digestive systems and can't eat typical food.

There are three somnan sexes: male, female, and "carrier." Carriers are the only ones that actually bear young, taking genetic material from both males and females and triggering many mutations in the unborn child's DNA. This helps a group avoid problems associated with inbreeding, as somnans do not track family ties. Carriers aren't born as such, and instead start producing related hormones to change their bodies when a new carrier is needed. (The process is voluntary, but cannot be reversed.) They are several feet shorter than other somnans, and have significantly more body fat to protect their children. How many carriers there are depends on the size of the clan. Somnans have a rapid gestation period and are born already able to walk, developing quickly from there.

In order to increase their harvests of life force, somnans are skilled at Soul Control magic, even in non-sapient souls such as plants and animals. They have a deep understanding of how the soul's Life Force distribution functions, and can coax it into producing more or less life force on a whim. Somnans even use this skill to speed up each other's natural healing and increase their bodies' ability to fight disease.

As far as more traditional magic goes, somnans' Energy Channels are structured in an unusual way in order to take in external life force and use it to power their own bodies. Unfortunately this makes Elemental Energy physically difficult to use, affecting even their ability to cast Light Magic and Dark Magic.

Somnans place a lot of emphasis on the greater good of the clan, and each individual's ability to contribute. They do not keep track of family ties, nor do they discriminate based on age – everyone from the young to the old is expected to contribute in some way, whether it's helping to gather food, maintaining the village, caring for the children, or anything in-between. If a somnan fails in their duties, or otherwise doesn't fit into the community, they are exiled and left for dead in the thick of the Wild Zone.

Settlements are constructed with simple structures and plenty of open spaces between buildings so there's less chance of everyone bumping into things. There's always a central meeting place where the entire clan regularly comes together to share stories and knowledge, as they have no written word and rely on word of mouth to keep information alive.

As they don't necessarily need to eat life force from sapient creatures, they keep farms of native fungi and small livestock. They are, however, well known for feeding on Exans that wander too deep in the forest. They make a point of not killing anyone, but only for pragmatic reasons; a harvested exan will need plenty of time to fully recover, but they will eventually – assuming they make it back home alive in the first place – and with luck, they'll come back for another feeding in the future. A common philosophical debate among somnans is whether it's morally acceptable to keep exans as livestock.

Somnans wear clothes in order to keep warm. They're usually made from wild animal furs, and may sometimes be selected for an interesting smell, texture, or rustling sound (as opposed to their looks).

Chosen One is unknown.