Family: Alraune
Type: Plant
Habitat: Forests, jungles, swamps
Disposition: Gregarious, single-minded, lustful
Diet: Sunlight, water, and nutrients from the soil; spirit energy
The golthiar (GOAL-thee-arr) is a rare kind of mobile alraune. Their skin is soft and pliable like grass while their hair is leafy. Golthiar average about two meters tall with willowy builds, but they're not hothouse flowers. The golthiar are soldiers, and they take their duties seriously.
As plants golthiar don't -- indeed, can't -- eat solid food. Instead they root themselves in the ground while they sleep in order to derive nutrients from the soil. They require plenty of water (more than humans need) and at least two hours of sunlight each day to remain healthy. They are also vulnerable to cold. Like ordinary plants they breathe carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen. Most golthiar adore kissing, and thanks to the ability of a golthiar and a non-plant humanoid to supply each other with the gases they breathe they can go a long time without coming up for air. Their skin is resilient enough to act as light armor, and their strength is roughly equal to that of lizardmen. Golthiar vision extends into the ultraviolet; they have excellent low-light vision and can discern far more colors than humans can. Their sense of smell is superior to that of the werewolf family. While surprisingly fast and agile for plants golthiar capability in this area is inferior to that of an athletic human.
Golthiar have the unusual ability to perform reverse photosynthesis. They can communicate via light pulses, sometimes in frequencies that humans and most other mamono can't see. They can also project blinding flashes or even searing beams of light (but not true lasers) as a means of offense, but overusing this ability rapidly depletes their reserves. An experienced golthiar can emit rangefinding pulses that allow her to judge distance and windage with great accuracy. This ability makes them some of the best archers in the world.
Golthiars' instinctive grasp of small unit tactics makes a sibling squad -- called a grove -- a frighteningly effective team. Many groves support themselves with mercenary work, but they sometimes turn to banditry. Nor are the two mutually exclusive. Golthiar often patrol the wilderness seeking lost humans, and any human found by such a patrol might be drafted into marriage. Golthiar have no problem sharing with their squad mates, but any other mamono will have to earn the grove's trust or she'll have a fight on her hands.
Golthiar reproduce by bearing fruits that, after nine months, fall off and bloom into tiny copies of their mothers. The rare golthiar futanari have both pistils and stamens and are equally able to be "pollinated" by human men or "pollinate" human women. A futa golthiar's human wife drops a seedpod instead of giving live birth, and the babies burst from the seeds up to an hour later. Either way a typical birth yields four to six sprouts. If multiple members of a grove bear fruit at the same time the newborn groves may join together into a larger group called a copse. Having such numbers creates a fighting force that even adult mamono would be wise to avoid, and when fully grown a copse of golthiar is truly a force to be reckoned with.
Name That Mamono: Licaria (lie-CARE-ee-uh)
At 190 cm (6’ 2”) Licaria is an intimidating specimen, and she doesn’t hesitate to take advantage of that fact. She hasn’t lost her grove, exactly. She knows where they are, she just can't get to them. She insists that she and her sisters are innocent of the crimes that landed them in prison in that dwarf city. Carrie and her grove aren't bandits, they just “borrow” things from time to time. As for the escape attempt, it was sheer luck that Licaria made it out when her three sisters were recaptured. Her mission now is to spring her grove from jail and get them all far away from that city. She could really use some help, though... and she wouldn’t mind if that help is cute.
HESPERID
Family: Spirit
Type: Elemental
Habitat: Wherever humans live
Disposition: Compassionate, virtuous, pure, incorruptible
Diet: Gold, spirit energy
A hesperid (HESS-per-id) is an exceptionally rare and high-tier mamono species that is often treated as nobility or even royalty. While hesperides (hess-PEAR-eh-deez) are named after the golden rays of a sunset, they are in fact gold elementals. Sometimes confusion arises as to the difference between a creeping coin and a hesperid, for the former are also associated with gold. However the “gold” creeping coins use is mamono realm gold, a magical material that only looks like gold. This is why creeping coins are sometimes referred to as “fake treasures.” Hesperides, on the other hand, are the real deal and are made of actual pure gold. Being elementals means they are distantly related to all other elementals. Not surprisingly, of the four core elemental species the gnomes are their closest relatives. Like the other elementals hesperides can form a covenant with a man too, though theirs is quite different from the usual elemental bonds.
Even by mamono standards hesperides are exceptionally good looking. While their skin color can vary they always have golden eyes and light-blonde hair and pliable, well-endowed curves. Aside from having elfin ears and wearing golden crowns hesperides have humanoid bodies of flesh and blood from the knees up. However, they lack lower legs and instead have pools of liquid gold swirling around their legs which they can shape, move, and harden at will. Most often they form golden lower legs for the purpose of mobility and a more humanoid appearance. Since gold is a malleable metal so too can hesperides make small adjustments to their bodies.
The amount of pure gold present in an adult hesperid -- which she needs to survive -- is absolutely staggering and easily exceeds 250 kilograms (550 pounds). This is a main cause as to why hesperides are so rare. A hesperid would have to absorb that much additional gold before birthing a daughter, for if she does not she would sacrifice herself to give her daughter the gold she needs to survive.
Being made of so much pure gold puts hesperides at risk of being hunted for their gold, but they have many tools to dissuade would-be hunters. They cannot cast magic themselves, but they can reflect any and all magic cast at them back at the caster. Furthermore, they can dazzle and disorient anyone that gets close to them with ill intent. They can manipulate their gold into thick armor and/or shields. And lastly, their most powerful defense is their supernatural ability to inspire compassion in others and their likability. This goes so far that most would rather be their friends than rich.
As the purest and noblest of metals hesperides tend to have pure and virtuous personalities. They will not stand for injustice and they cannot be corrupted. This is not to say that hesperides have flawless personalities, but in the grand scheme of things their flaws are minor and mostly harmless. Hesperides often find themselves in positions of influence if not outright leadership, though they acquire such positions through earning people’s trust and/or respect rather than through force, intimidation, or deceit.
Gold is one of the least reactive substances and similarly hesperides are not really “reactive” either. This means that they can only truly connect with a human man who is compassionate and holds himself to high moral standards. Therefore hesperides go through lengthy dating processes to determine if the man they fancy is indeed compatible before they commit themselves. When they are intimate with a compatible man for the first time they will enter a covenant with him where they extend their ability to reflect magic to him. Furthermore a hesperid can use her malleability to make her sheath perfectly match his shaft.
Name That Mamono: Aurelia
Aurelia hails from Umbra, the capital of what is now Ahmose’s domain. She is the first hesperid known to have been born to an echidna. From the moment she was conceived to the day she was born, her (thankfully well-off) mother developed an inexplicable compulsion to eat golden objects. Despite costing her mother a literal fortune Aurelia was a welcome child and was raised with all the love and care in the world. At a young age Aurelia developed a love for playing the harp. When the civil war broke out she fled to the coast. There she dedicated herself and her considerable wealth to feed, clothe, and provide health care to the haggard refugees of the war. While her actions saved hundreds from misery and starvation it has left her impoverished… but at least she still has her harp.
tygertygerAug 1, 2022 6:00 AM
"When you have bought your own load of hooey, you know exactly what it is worth." -- Bruce Sterling
