Fantasy Flight of the Phoenix Lore

[ScatheAriiasqDrayceon]

• Rough lore

• 
  
  ~Phoenixes~
  As you have likely gleaned from the premise, phoenixes are born from the combination of a rare mutation and an "activation". Knowledge of the activation isn't common (although most phoenix hunters and active phoenixes know of this). In order to activate phoenix wings, you must set your wings on fire (which is dangerous for obvious reasons). Activation comes with a physical change in the wings (they become particularly shiny, have a slight glow, and turn red, orange, yellow, or a combination of those colors), and access to the abilities associated with a phoenix.
  
  Phoenix abilities vary between individuals, but the one they all share is rebirth. If a phoenix is killed, then they will revive within a day and revert back to the state they were in when they were activated with their memories intact. This usually leaves them weak and tired for around a week afterward, but it this can go on for a month depending on how much energy it took to reverse their death. The only way to permanently kill a phoenix is to remove it's wings, otherwise prevent them from using the magical energy within them, or make them use up all of their magical energy without giving them time to replenish it.
  
  Phoenixes may also have secondary abilities, such as fire resistance, fire manipulation, or healing tears. These vary greatly, but they all are at least somewhat linked to what abilities we would imagine a phoenix having (fire related, healing related, etc). Keep in mind that they already have self-revival, so try not to go too overboard with these.
  
  The phoenix mutation is not limited to bird-based wings. Anyone could have the phoenix gene and no one (themselves included) would be any the wiser. However, pre-activation phoenixes tend to have no secondary abilities related to their wings (regular secondary abilities explained under "Wings"), and -if they do have them- then they will lose them upon activation in exchange for their new abilities.
  
  Parts of phoenix wings (feathers, scales, wing dust, etc) can be used to power strong spells due to the large amount of magical energy within them. However, phoenixes cannot use these components for themselves. This is because these magical energies are already harnessed to them for the purposes of sustaining their life-force and/or powering their secondary abilities. Even an unrelated phoenix trying to use a phoenix-based component cannot, because the component is naturally predisposed to sustaining the life-force/powering the secondary abilities of phoenixes.
  
  ~Wings~
  Secondary abilities are not limited to phoenixes. Wings come in all shapes and sizes, and oftentimes come with abilities secondary to flight. A person with dragon-based wings might be able to breathe fire, for example. Some bird-based wings may come with air current manipulation. These abilities may be similar to spellcasting, but -while they technically may be powered by magical energy- they are not considered spells. They're just something that some people can innately do. Not everyone has secondary abilities, but they're fairly common (it's about a 50/50 split).
  
  Some wings also come with secondary physical traits, such as claws, patches of feathers, or sharper teeth. These traits are almost always somewhat minor, and never alter a person to the point that they are unrecognizable as human. For example, a person with dragon-based wings may have sharper teeth, but they won't have an entire dragon head. A person with bird-based wings might have eyes similar to an owl's, but they won't have a beak.
  
  Wings are genetically inheritable. Excepting odd mutations, a child will have wings of a similar type to their parents. Two people, one with falcon-based and one with hummingbird-based wings, may have a child with seagull-based wings, or various other types of bird, but they will likely not have a child with insect-based wings.
  
  ~Magic~
  Magic as we imagine it is far less defined than the magic of Aerynthia. What we may think of as magical -dragons, flying whales, etc- are just their everyday. When they use the word "magic", they are referring to a broad field of science that focuses on magical energies, their sources, and how to harness them. It has many subfields, such as alchemy (the conversion or purification of various materials), enchantment (permanent spells, usually placed upon items or locations), and divination (predictions of the future, usually only finds the most likely events). Like many fields of science in our world, magic overlaps with other sciences. An alchemist needs have just as much knowledge of chemistry as a physicist needs of mathematics.
  
  Like most fields of science, magic has laws. The only one you will likely need to know for this rp is that magical energy follows the law of conservation of energy. Magical energy cannot be created or destroyed, only converted into a different form. This is why most spells and other magical processes must be powered by components (such as jackelope horns, amethysts, phoenix feathers, etc). Some animals and items (such as gemstones and jackelopes) naturally gather these magical energies, making them optimal sources for magical energy. Spells that take larger amounts of energy require either more components or more focused/pure components (meaning they have more magical energy).
  
  Harnessing magical energy is difficult, often requiring complex runes, rituals, and other processes to be completed properly. The education on these subjects, combined with the cost of components, makes the study of magic very difficult and expensive. It is for this reason that most accomplished mages are wealthy. The common person may know how to cast a few spells, but most are simple, small, and only help with housework or cure a mild ailment.
  

 

[ScatheAriiasqDrayceon]

Tafa'Alan is a collection of high-altitude mountains. It greatly resembles a caldera and used to be connected to the abyssal ocean. It now has a large lake fed by salt-water springs, and they boast a large collection of aquatic and semi-aquatic animals, one of the only places to be able to claim so.

Because of the high cliffs and little flat ground, Tafa'Alan's buildings are mostly dug into the mountains or supported by them at a slant. Generally, the higher one's home is, the more known they are among the citizens, barring those in the Temple that looks over the entire city. The sides of the mountains are connected with several different kinds of bridges and paths, for the—not insubstantial—flightless population.

Tafa'Alan mostly keeps to itself, as the altitude of their mountains and the topography of the surrounding land makes flying around it hard. As such, there has been very little cultural drift. They have kept their original language Valiaek almost entirely intact since 4000 years before the Flight when it was first recorded, as well as their traditional farming and fishing practices.

Due to its isolation, Tafa'Alan has very little in the ways of the more modern technology, however, their medicine is far ahead of the neighboring grounded cities and even some floating ones. Many say its due to their population of accomplished alchemists, but others cite their farming land for medicinal herbs and easy access to materials such as obsidian. Either way, Tafa'Alan has fairly advanced medicine.

Tafa'Alan's political structure is very open. They have a primary council made up of the Overseers of the Temple of Storm (see; paragraph 6) and the mastercraftsmen of the city, and for three days every month, they gather to hear the concerns or complaints of the citizens and discuss.

The Temple of Storm is the largest building in Tafa'Alan, as it gets the most foot traffic and houses the most people at a time. The Temple of Storm is well-described in Edip's travel guide.

One of the many draws of Tafa'Alan is its rich culture. Being a very isolated, traditional grounded city, it's almost like a window to the past in the way town life works. People still barter with plain goods instead of commodity money, fishing and hunting is still done mostly by hand, and most of all, the temple to their patron god remains well-kept, even hundreds of years after the figure's "death".

The temple has many staff, though they're split into six groups identified by the colored belts tied around their waists.

Belts that are left white are the temple Overseers. They make sure everyone is compensated fairly and comfortable in their quarters for the duration of the individual's employment. They also often handle trading with skyships.

Those with grey belts are the teachers. They keep the scripts of the patron god alive by teaching them to youngsters fledged and willing to learn.

The populous of black belts are both the temple and city guards. They are adults who've been taught by the Grey staff, and they keep the peace within the city as well as they can.

Purple belts are the ones responsible for keeping the temple tidy. They are directly responsible for contracting builders to help keep up with the temple, and they are given a budget by the temple Overseers.

Those with dark green belts care for the children and elderly left at the temple's step, as it would hardly be within the teachings to leave someone who cannot take care of themself alone.

The last are those with dark blue belts. They are the apprentices of the temple, and can fill many of the roles above

The temple was originally constructed before the mantas had been tamed. Many sources from the era state that it "rose out of the abyss" or "appeared overnight". Either way, its appearance was sudden.

It's unclear who or what used to live in the temple, but it's not too far-fetched to say that someone did, as there are multiple accounts of people going in and returning young and healthy.

The temple might be one of the earliest alchemy labs, many theorize. Others, however, believe it had to have come from the god Tyrn—the god of healing.

Some believe that the temple was simply built by a normal man, and it was simply hidden from the settlement at the time, though this theory is currently unsupported.

In any case, Tafa'Alan's temple is a must-see on any vacation.

 

[BittyBobcat]

GLOSSARY​

Everything's alphebetized, whenever the word "the" is used, it doesn't actually count toward where the word goes (like how people alphebetize books when they're doing it by title). This will probably end up containing a lot of short blurbs of stuff that gets entire posts worth of information about them as well as in-universe slang terms. If you want me to add stuff, screech at me.

• The Abyss - Referring to the area below the lowest clouds which, when entered, no known person has ever returned from. May also refer to that cloud cover itself
• Angel wing(ed) - Alluding to to angel-winging in birds. Often used as an insult to someone who eats a lot of unhealthy foods
• Drifter - A resident of a floating kingdom, usually derogatory
• Dweller - A resident of a grounded kingdom, usually derogatory
• The Flight - A historical event in which the first flighted city took off. The current year is based on how many years it has been since the Flight similarly to how we use B.C. and B.C.E. (or B.C. and A.D.). The current year is 122 A.F.
• Glamour - A magical object capable of casting an illusion over the wearer that changes some specific aspect of their appearance
• Flock - A synonym for family, usually includes close family friends, primarily used among cultures with avian wings
• Lacking feathers - Referring to a person who is lonely or without family, an allusion to the phrase “birds of a feather”, usually used among avian cultures
• Skies - While it can be used in the literal way (to refer to multiple skies), it's more commonly used as a somewhat acceptable swear (on a scale from heck to fuck, it's a crap). Ex: "Skies damn it" can be used to express frustration, and "Skies above!" can be used to express disbelief
• Sky-struck - A term sometimes used to refer to a harmless love, originating from grounded kingdoms, where some young are born in caves. Often, they become entranced with the sky when seeing it for the first time
• Storm - A group of dragons
• Trade sign - A form of sign language developed and used primarily by merchants. It doesn't quite have enough words to count as a proper language because it's geared mostly toward negotiation, but it helps when there's a language barrier because most people who regularly interact with foreigners know it to some degree
• Underwing - Similar to lowkey, referring to something that is covert or meant to not have attention brought to it. Ex: "Keep it underwing" could be said to tell someone to not draw attention to themself or whatever it was being used to refer to
• Wind under wing - Similar to "water under the bridge", a phrase meant to indicate that something past is unimportant

 

[BittyBobcat]

Glamours​

A glamour is an object that has been enchanted to change the wearer's appearance in a specific way (ex: wing color change). It's usually put into jewelry (necklaces, rings, bracelets, etc) due to the materials necessary for it, but it's theoretically possible to put the enchantment on anything so long as it contains the correct materials. Glamours are rarely found among the common population because very specific materials are needed to make them (for example, changing a person's wings to the vibrant colors of a phoenix may require a phoenix feather, or changing eye color may require a gemstone of the color wanted) and their purposes are almost entirely cosmetic. Nobles and other high-up people often use glamours as a sign of their wealth and/or simply to look the way they like. However, because being able to instantly change your appearance is useful in other contexts, glamours also often circulate among shadier markets. For obvious reasons, glamours are very useful in disguises, but they aren't perfect.

All glamours have these limitations:

• If the glamour item gets removed, the enchantment drops instantly.
• Some places may ban glamours and/or have glamour detecting strategies (such as items that detect high amounts of magical energy, identification systems that do not depend on appearance, etc)
• Glamours do not in any way affect their users physically. (ex: a glamour may make someone look bigger but someone trying to touch one of the larger bits will likely result in them slipping through the glamour, and a glamour that makes someone look smaller will not stop people from bumping into parts on a person that are larger than the illusion)
• Glamours only work on living creatures