01. Races/Species

Here are the dominant races and species in Anselm.
Note: you are free to make your own.

1. Human
2. Eternal (Angels, Demons)
3. Fae
4. Undead (Vampires, Reanimated, etc.)
5. Therianthrope (Werewolves, etc.)
6. Homunculus

Life Span:
70 years; can be extended with magick and/or alchemy

Physical Characteristics:
Coloring is highly variable, from hair and eyes, to skin. Hair colors and eye colors are limited to natural colors.

Male:
Average height varies from 5'7" (168cm) to 6' (183cm). Builds are quite variable, but men usually have solid, muscular bodies built for working the land unless they were brought up in high status, in which cases, they tend to be much more frail.

Female:
Average height tends to be 5'1" (155cm) to 5'6" ( 168cm). Builds are usually quite solid and curvy for the working class, and wispy for those of higher birth.

Social Characteristics:
Gregarious to the extreme, rely on each other for both work and entertainment. Most lack kindness because of the harsh realities of life in Anselm, and derive some pleasure from watching their fellow humans suffer, it would seem.

Abilities:
Nothing special, unless they take up magick.

Weaknesses:
All things humans are weak to, like fire and being stabbed.

Needs:
Food, water, and shelter.

Additional:
The majority; makes up most of the population.

Subtypes:
Angels, Demons. Both of which can be split into even further subtypes, such as seraphim and succubi.

Life Span:
Millennia, possibly forever.

Physical Characteristics:
Coloring is highly variable, from hair and eyes, to skin, not to mention physical form, which is not always humanoid, gendered, or even solid. Humanoid Eternals can have various hair and eye colors, just about any color possible, though they often hide it to blend in with humans.

Male:
Humanoid male Eternals are quite taller than the average human, ranging usually from 6' (183cm) to 6'8" (203cm). Their builds are highly variable.

Female:
Female Eternals range anywhere from 5'6" (168cm) to 6' (183cm) on average. Their builds are highly variable.

Social Characteristics:
They vary greatly, dependent on angel or demon status. Angels are generally peace-loving and friendly unless called into war, where they are practically unrivaled. They stick together under one cause and do not interfere in the lives of humans for the most part (merely around to feed off their energies). Demons desire conflict, especially with humans, though they tend to be solitary, otherwise they will bicker and kill each other incessantly. They're quite competitive when it comes to human prey.

Abilities:
Strong and varied abilities. Angels are quite adept in physical strength and action, while demons are more adept in magickal strength.

Weaknesses:
Stronger than normal humans, Eternals are not susceptible to very much. Both require quite a heavy amount of magick to get rid of. They cannot be killed by normal means. Angels are weak to dark magick, while demons are weak to light magick and cats for some unknown reason.

Needs:
Angels thrive on the positive energies in life (joy, excitement, birth, etc.) while demons thrive on negative energies (lust, greed, sorrow, death, etc.). This is the pure source of their life, and without it, they will wither and die.

Additional:
Angels bleed an opalescent white, if they have any form at all, and demons bleed black, cold blood.

Life Span:
Centuries.

Physical Characteristics:
Tend to be quite beautiful in a somewhat offsetting way, usually because of facial features and striking eyes, not to mention sharp teeth.
Coloring is highly variable, though they either fall into fair or dark categories. Fair usually have silvery hair, pale skin, and pale blue or violet eyes, while dark types have dark hair (of any shade, though most often black and blue), dark or pale skin, and dark or light eyes.

Male:
Male Fae are rather average in height, averaging around 5'6" (168cm). They are always of slender, willowy build and rather feminine in appearance, with deceptively delicate bone structures.

Female:
Female Fae, on the other hand, are quite short, usually about 5'2" (157cm). They too are slender, very slight and fairylike, with large eyes, small mouths, and delicately upturned noses. Their figures are a little on the boyish side, though some are blessed with curvy figures.

Social Characteristics:
They keep to their own species, in hidden depths of the forest, and are nocturnal. They despise humankind and enjoy making them suffer, even in little ways. They are definitely not nice creatures.

Abilities:
Have an uncanny teleportation ability, as well as some level of telepathy, because they can usually predict a person's movements. They are quick and very graceful, superhumanly so, and their movements have been compared to slithering lizards. They like to crawl on all fours in flexible positions, sometimes just to scare humans. They are also just as graceful in the water or in the trees.

Weaknesses:
Sunlight is a Fae's bane, as well as any light spell, bright light, garlic, and hydrangeas.

Needs:
Fae feed on humans, especially babies and small children.

Additional:
They bleed blue blood and speak in something that sounds like a whisper, but is very audible. Most do not speak the common tongue, however.

Subtypes:
Vampires, Reanimated Corpses

Life Span:
Centuries.

Physical Characteristics:
The same as humans, with key differences that set them off as being undead. First, their skin is pale and shows no trace of veins, as they have no blood coursing through them unless they feed on it. Their eyes tend to be an amber or red hue, or somewhere in between, a sign of the dark magick keeping them alive.

Social Characteristics:
Usually solitary, because most people are obviously in fear of the dead coming back to life, especially in the case of vampires, who need to feed on humans to survive.

Abilities:
Vampires: Enhanced senses, though that also includes a heightened sense of pain. Regenerative powers.
Reanimated: No senses whatsoever, besides a dulled sense of vision and hearing. Feel no pain. Are a lot harder to kill than vampires because they're basically fully dead.

Weaknesses:
Though sunlight will not kill vampires, their intense vision sense and highly sensitive skin makes it painful, so they avoid it. Vampires are rather easy to kill, much like a regular human, though because of their regenerative power (which requires blood to work) they can take quite a few hits besides a chopped off head or a shot to the heart. They cannot drink the blood of Angels nor of the Fae, which might as well be poison.

Reanimated corpses cannot regenerate or heal, but they will keep going regardless of being beheaded or the like, not until they're destroyed with the same destructive dark magick that is needed to make them.

Needs:
Vampires need human blood to survive (Angel blood or Fae blood will kill them), and not much else. They do not need to kill a person and suck them completely dry for their fill, though if they're extremely starved, they might. Reanimated corpses need nothing but to be animated with dark magick.

Additional:
Vampires remember their lives, while reanimated corpses do not have any memory of previous life.

A note on vampires and becoming a vampire: the only way to become a vampire is by being on the verge of death and taking in a vampire's contaminated blood (essentially the blood of his previous victims, contaminated by his cursed body). No one knows how vampires came into existence in the first place. One cannot be born a vampire, as they lack the ability to reproduce like normal, living humans.

Subtypes:
Lycanthropes (werewolves), Ailuranthropes (cat beings), and the like.

Life Span:
90-100 years

Physical Characteristics:
Very variable, depending on animal type.

Partial shapeshifters look mostly human, with some animal features, like animal ears, tails, claws, and perhaps gills and webbed features in aquatic types.

Form shapeshifters can change into actual animals, with perhaps a few variant features that identify them as something non-animal, such as distinctive eyes.

Full shapeshifters go the extra mile, standing upright and looking entirely non-human nonetheless, like full fur coats, animal-shaped heads, paws, scales, fins/flippers, wings, beaks, and the like.

Some particularly powerful shapeshifters can take advantage of all three types, while some can only do one.

Social Characteristics:
Therianthropes are just like normal humans, gregarious and social for the most part. While some who cannot control their transformations may be more fearful of regular humans, most who can control them (the majority of shapeshifters) live normal lives.

Abilities:
Heightened senses, strength, or speed, depending on species change—quite varied.

Weaknesses:
Normal weaknesses of a human, and in uncontrolled/forced transformations, some are confined to animal shape when they don't want to be, nor can some of them even realize what they're doing in the opposite form (not common, but it happens). Most are aware, however. The Church of the Winged Covenant believes therianthropes to be works of Lucifaen and they are often put to death if found out. Many superstitions surround a lot of more common animal-types, like werewolves.

Needs:
Depends mostly on type, and for most, no special needs whatsoever. However, for aquatic shapeshifters, obviously a place for a dive and proper hydration is necessary, so most like to live near the sea.

Additional:
• Unlike vampires, therianthropes can breed like normal humans and make a variety of strange creature types if they've made babies with another animal-type shapeshifter.
• Cannot make viable offspring with humans... or other species but their own, for that matter.

Life Span:
Centuries

Physical Characteristics:
Average height is quite a bit shorter than normal humans, greatly varying from 3'5" (104cm) to 5'5" (165cm) on average. They resemble living dolls because that is pretty much what they are, bound with alchemy and magick to form a living, feeling creature. Therefore, their physical characteristics mostly depend on what their alchemist creator had in mind, usually molding them to the shape of children because of the height restrictions. Coloring is highly variable as a result of their customization.

Social Characteristics:
Homunculi (commonly referred to as 'dolls') tend to keep to their alchemist masters, fearful and distrustful of most other people, or even other dolls. It's not unusual for a doll to crave contact but usually they stay close to home for such a need.

Abilities:
They can withstand all sorts of abuse because they do not bleed or have the same sort of body makeup as a human's, though they still feel pain. As they do not breathe, they cannot drown. They cannot perform magick, though it runs through them and keeps them alive.

Weaknesses:
Dolls are generally not susceptible to anything but fire, and will 'die' if burned. They feel and think, but not quite the same way as a human does, and their feelings can either be extremely dulled or amplified depending on the feeling or situation.

Needs:
They also have a heavy craving for human contact, much like babies for their mothers, and hate being neglected. They don't need food to survive though sometimes they eat anyway just because they enjoy the taste.

Water is essential to keep most modern, organic-type homunculi working properly, though older, clockwork-type models have no need for it.

Additional:
They do not bleed, and their eyes are rather soulless, no matter how pretty they're made. Their emotions usually seem fake if they're doing anything other than a neutral expression.

How they are made is an alchemical secret, and varies from alchemist to alchemist. Some are mostly organic and magickal, while others are not much more than enchanted clockwork.

Dolls are often sold like slaves in special shops, and are often placed in subservient positions, or assisting jobs. The Church condemns their use (and even existence) at all.