Toxelugh

The people we know, cradled by God...

The toxelugh [ˈto͡ʊː.kse.ˌluː] are one of the most widespread animal species in the Evervoid, as well as the only known species within the dimension to gain sapience. They are lithe, nimble and crafty, with a penchant for travel and very fine environment manipulation skills.

Notably, the toxelugh exist alongside animalistic and feral counterparts to themselves. While still the same species, these feral toxelugh are distinguished in their native tongue.

Origin

The origin of the toxelugh species is unknown. They seem to exist quite widely throughout the milder of the Evervoid's many biomes, and such spread across an infinite dimension could mean several things in regard to their origin. Perhaps they started elsewhere before performing a mass incursion of the Evervoid in ancient times. Perhaps they manifested at the dawn of time as part of the Evervoid's structural properties. Perhaps they don't appear beyond what the toxelugh of the Great Beast Archipelago have explored at all.

Physiology

Toxelugh are relatively uniform in appearance. Variations in height and resting weight and build are about the most extreme differences inherent to individual members of the species. Fur color varies, though not by very much, and the patterning of spots is usually predictable. Facial features like jaw prominence, head shape, or the most comfortable alignment of the ears are somewhat hard to tell at first glance.

Body modifications such as jewelry, piercings, patterns of dyed fur, or even specially designed patterns of facial scars are all common, and help toxelugh to visually identify each other. As visuals became a more common way of telling people apart with the rise of the Ae Lugh, their more common scars may have entered the cultural zeitgeist.

General

Toxelugh are bipedal, though they are able to endure short bursts of quadrupedal sprinting when necessary due to their flexible spinal structure. Flexible may well describe most of their physiology, given their range of joint motion and consistent production of stem cells throughout most of their lives.

Their four ears follow the pattern of much Evervoid-native life that is redundant duplication of existing structures. However, the positioning of their sets of ears gives them greater ability to tell direction of sound, both horizontally and vertically.

Toxelugh have incredible regenerative capacity, able to heal from most devastating injuries to the point that one may forget they ever received it. They are able to fully regrow limbs, and multiple cases of medical attention after a lower torso-bisecting have, in recent times, resulted in full recovery. Injuries that require this advanced regeneration leave bright scars of furless exposed skin. Scar tissue tends to fade away and heal only if willed to do so, though that is incredibly unpopular unless the scars in question were for fashion or ceremonial purposes.

Sustenance

Toxelugh are omnivorous creatures, and indeed their culinary culture is varied. Aquatic and terrestrial plants and animals make up most of their diets, supplemented with spices and mineral salts for flavor. Toxelugh have rather strong guts, able to digest a variety of matter from tough meats to succulent fruits to fibrous leaves. Chemicals that would be poison to other species have few adverse effects on them and are often incorporated for unique types of flavor or spice.

Popular dishes are often carefully balanced meals to appeal to the widest possible audience, though much more niche gems can be found if certain concessions are willing to be made. The balance of meals is necessary because of one of the unique ways diet affects the body of a toxelugh.

Reproduction

The reproductive system of the toxelugh is one that follows their archetype of flexibility quite handily. The toxelugh are a syngonic dichogamous species, which means they have one set of gamete-producing organs that can produce either type, and they can change which one they produce throughout the course of their life. Primary and secondary sexual characteristics are all fluid bi-directionally, able to be changed back and forth indefinitely throughout a toxelugh's life cycle with only one known exception.

These changes are triggered by changes in diet. Different foods have different compounds within them that the toxelugh body uses to inform its hormonal balance, and the body is incredibly efficient at restructuring itself. This may be due to the natural regenerative capacity of the toxelugh giving their bodies ample ability to adapt. Foods are categorized numerically by the direction of sexual alteration and the strength thereof.

The genitalia are the most obvious and immediate change, usually only taking a handful of hours after a hormonal shift to change and adjust. One must take into account the balance of foods, and since most toxelugh don't care too strongly about their own genitals, the majority end up in a spectrum of ambiguity between the extremes. It's simply that convenient to ignore diet.

If a toxelugh were to select mostly masculinizing foods, their body frame would adjust for strength in the upper body and arms, and their metabolism would roughly adjust to be better for lifting-type and quick-burst exertions. Fat would start to collect closer to the abdominal region. Metabolic changes happen over roughly ten days, and fat and muscle distribution changes take the better part of a month. After about a month, these features are stable.

For feminizing foods, the body frame adjusts to concentrate more muscle mass in the legs and lower body, and their metabolism changes to be more suited for long endurance-type exertions. Fat collects in muscular regions around the legs to pad it, as well as in the torso for the development of breast tissue. After about a month, these features are developed and quite stable.

These two phenotypic clusters can be broadly referred to as "male" and "female", though they do not actually represent the ends of the toxelugh sex spectrum. The dedicated effort required to reach either end of that requires the better half of a year and are mostly done as a show of vanity by those who can afford to be so picky about their food.

At the far masculine end of the spectrum, several months of only masculinizing foods cause a slow increase in body temperature, plateauing at about 4°C hotter than the species average. Normally, the gonads are contained within the abdomen, but this is too high of a temperature for them to be safe internally. Between five and seven months of this temperature increase, a pouch of tissue forms beneath the penis for these to descend into. At the seventh month, the gonads relocate into the pouch until feminizing foods are reintroduced into the diet. The pouch takes between fifteen and twenty days to disappear when the diet is changed, though body temperature drops after only four.

At the far feminine side of the sex spectrum, body temperature lowers to about 2°C cooler than the species average. The front of the pelvis slowly splits open at its joint over the course of several months, while local muscles and ligaments strengthen and cartilagenize to support the role of the bone. At about eight months, the hips are noticeably broader than average and the legs stronger. Abdominal muscle is also reinforced during this process. It takes around twenty-four days for the pelvis to reset when masculinizing foods are reintroduced into the diet, which has the side effect of being quite painful. It's described as a sort of sore pain equivalent to post-workout strain.

The exception to the fluidity of the toxelugh's sex spectrum, besides atypical genetic factors that may affect their hormone processing and expression, is pregnancy. As a viviparous species, the toxelugh need to be able to actually support a pregnancy for the entire gestation term. This gestation takes roughly one year, give or take about eight days. While pregnant, the body of a toxelugh stops responding to food entirely and is locked into progress towards the furthest-female end of the spectrum. Post-partum, a period of overcorrection occurs and the new parent undergoes a swift masculinization that lasts about a month.

Toxelugh not differentiated enough to either side of the spectrum do not actually produce or release any gametes. The body's energy and efforts in that system are not spared in some parts of that middle ground. Before civilization, toxelugh did not have ready access to so many foods within the hours-long period of initial changes, and so this ambiguous zone of genitalia usually didn't occur for longer than an hour or two. Thus, the luxuries of society made the spectrum much more uniform and less bimodal. Those close to the center of the spectrum are technically infertile until they swing one way or the other.

As for atypical sex characteristics, some toxelugh process and express hormone levels differently, and this affects their appearance quite strongly. The most common sex variation is an immunity or resistance to one of the two main sex hormones, essentially locking them into one end of the spectrum without ability to change it. A less common version is a bodily resistance to change in hormone levels, keeping their body firmly in the sexual state it was born in, with varying consequences for not matching that to their diet. Some toxelugh bodies respond quicker or slower to hormonal changes, meaning breasts can develop or be broken down at different times for some. The same goes for muscle and fat distribution and even some changes in when genitalia change. While usually difficult to pick out from a crowd and sometimes slight enough that the individual themselves doesn't notice, these variations are present in about 5-8% of the species as most of them do not affect reproduction negatively.

Psyche

Besides their other senses, toxelugh have a sense they call "psyche". It is a sort of telepathic connection, able to form temporary linkages to other minds around them or sense the presence of life around themselves. In vegetation-dense regions, a trained sense of psyche can essentially give toxelugh a full spatial awareness of their entire environment. Psychic links convey information separately from sight or sound, though those senses can be translated through it as well. This is useful in loud and/or dark areas, allowing the toxelugh to communicate even when other methods of information transfer are blocked.

A psychic link can only be formed if both parties allow it, though a particularly probing individual may be able to glean something from brute force. A sort of psychic "feeler" can be bounced off of toxelugh to get a sense of their unique "aura", which would be the psyche equivalent to a scent. This aura-sensing is only noticeable by the perceived with effort, but it is widely used as the main method of differentiating people at a distance by most toxelugh.

Psyche can be trained in application, allowing for more potent resistance against intrusive links and the ability to be more imposing in their own. Mental attacks and dream-invasion are possible at the pinnacle of these abilities, though the development of that strong of a sense of psyche is extremely rare. The dedication required could be much better spent on other endeavors, and the hunger for that kind of power is culturally frowned upon. Who would want to be friends with someone who longs to overpower the minds of others?

Familiarity with someone through more consistently formed psychic links can strengthen the bonds between two toxelugh, allowing them to reach for each other's mind at a greater and greater distance. It is said that close family members and battle-forged friendships can be reached from one end of the Great Beast Archipelago to the other. Complete strangers, the benchmark for psychic strength, can usually only form links from about seven to eight meters away or in direct line of sight.

Psyche is used in everyday life, but it also plays a foundational role in the religion of the toxelugh of Khyth Vaaxa, Ket Maragh. Religious practices are augmented with psychic senses, and the upper echelons of the faith claim to speak directly to their god with psyche. Prayer is done with the communicative aspect of it, sent out into the world in hopes of reaching the Great Beast.

Attunement

Psyche can be used to "trade in" its baseline abilities for potentially much stronger power. This process, known as Attunement, is one of the main ritual practices held as sacred by the toxelugh. Attunement is done by forming a psychic link to one of the primordial emanations that make up the universe rather than another mind. Because of the historical development of them, the toxelugh can only Attune to one of the Nine Lights, a set of nine of these emanations that correspond to especially present elements within the Evervoid.

Attunement occupies the entire bandwidth of a toxelugh's sense of psyche, essentially blinding them to it. On top of this, it is a permanent link. The Nine Lights do not let go of the toxelugh they grasp. This loss of psyche has serious impacts on social recognition and communication, though the abilities gained in return have immense potential.

Attuned toxelugh have are visually different from unattuned ones in the color of their eyes and blood. While the baseline for both of these is a muted off-white, an Attunement makes the blood of a toxelugh take on a vibrant hue and properties of the Light it is attuned to. This is the source of many of the passive abilities Attunements provide and the reason that Attuned toxelugh blood can infuse nascenium metal with elemental properties.

Instead of transmitting information through the link of psyche, an Attunement link allows the essence of the element to be channeled through the toxelugh's mind and body and outward into reality. This can be transmitted outward into existing matter or properties of that Attunement to manipulate it, or can be used to create entirely new matter (though this is more intensive in general, and much more strenuous for some attunements than others). The power from one of the Nine Lights is infinite, though the body and mind of the Attuned toxelugh used as a conduit is not. Active use of power from an Attunement drains the stamina of a toxelugh and physically wears down on their body. Much of the physical training the Ae Lugh mandate is to help reduce the strain from using Attunement abilities, and further training of the sense of psyche helps the power flow less painfully.

Attuned toxelugh often beget more Attuned toxelugh, and as about 20% of the population is Attuned, it isn't entirely uncommon for one to be born and live life with no sense of "normal" psyche. These children very often grow up raised by warriors of the Ae Lugh, and follow in their footsteps as soldiers that protect the Great Beast Archipelago.

Sapience

Toxelugh are uniquely sapient on the Great Beast Archipelago and nowhere else. This is quite strange, though its patterns really reveal more about the Great Beast Lugha and the nature of the Evervoid's ecology more than anything about the toxelugh themselves. Dakrshine flora, one of the most common types of plants in the Evervoid, does not grow in any form on the Great Beast Archipelago due to the bones and infused corpse-matter of the Great Beast in the islands. Her body and remains are purely toxic to Darkshine, and in the absence of those plants the toxelugh have become sapient.

Darkshine plants, particularly the Darkshine trees of the Humming Wilds that surround the Great Beast Archipelago, have the effect of rendering toxelugh completely feral and animalistic, permanently. What exactly Darkshine does to toxelugh to strip them of their sapience is unknown. It isn't any form of visible radiation, nor is it blocked by way of sound barrier or transmitted through particles. What is known is how long it takes before effects become irreversible and what symptoms leading up to it are present. More information on Darkshine flora can be found here.

Toxelugh attribute their sapience to the blessing of the Great Beast, and in a way they are right. The poisoned ground has kept Darkshine plants from growing on the Archipelago for millennia, and as a result they have had ample time to regain their natural state of sapience.The toxelugh of Khyth Vaaxa incorporate this into their religious beliefs and say that the Great Beast's remains literally infused their minds with Her own awareness, allowing them to grow and prosper before returning, with interest, to Her upon death. Losing their minds in the Humming Wilds without dying is seen as a great tragedy beyond death, for part of the Great Beast's mind becomes forever lost to Her oldest foe.

Sociality

Behavior

Toxelugh are not social animals, at least in their wild versions out in the Darkshine-suffused Humming Wilds. They are curious and communicative, though, if a bit aggressive in their pursuits. Civilized toxelugh work around this in their communities, putting much effort forth every day to connect with others in spite of their generally solitary nature. While collaboration is buried in their instincts somewhere, it takes discipline to make that a part of their daily habits. Child rearing tends to be focused more on making sure that toxelugh young can socialize and contribute to society against their dispersing instincts more than anything else.

The tension from living in a cramped civilization is relieved through the curious nature of the toxelugh. Skills, history, forms of art or stories others have told are all indulgences that scratch a particular itch to explore and improve themselves. Self-actualization has by necessity become the sublimated version of the need for free-roaming territory. It's very rare to find a toxelugh that doesn't have some kind of goal or pursuit in mind, save for if they just accomplished a long-term task. Having that next step in a plan or subject to learn is psychologically very important for toxelugh, and "aimlessness slumps" form the basis for the most common on-road to depressive periods for them.

In regards to families and courtship, toxelugh carry rather weak instinctual bonds. The idea of recognition connects to safety, which is useful enough for building social circles, but long-term maintenance of relationships tends to be difficult for those not raised with social conventions. Tradition, one of the most important values of the toxelugh of Khyth Vaaxa, makes up for these deficiencies. Culture that was engineered by lone philosophers millennia ago remains a binding agent for the tens of thousands of toxelugh living together today. The tradition of a circle of friends, of a pair-bonded family, of not just self-improvement but the pride in sharing that. Those values keep civilization from drastically changing, though some small rebellions have tried to challenge this in the past. They all failed, of course, because it's not really feasible to organize against the concept of social organization.

Gender

Gender is a complicated affair for the toxelugh. While it does have weak correlations to a preferred place on the sex spectrum, the social factors around it are much more individualized and personal. Finding multiple toxelugh of the same exact gender is a difficult task, though the broader terms used for gender-mapping regions are close enough that many consider them to be close enough to the same.

Early language developments created dozens of derivative third-person pronouns from the names of the members of their populations. Though a few sets have survived into the modern era as standards, there are many sets floating around. These do not usually correlate to trends in appearance, and so a general neutral one is applied to strangers. First greetings almost always include exchanges of names, each person's preference for pronouns, and a rough location of their gender-mapped region or coordinates.

Toxelugh gender can be mapped to a sphere, as is the current conception of it. The main axis of expression that informs much of gendered thought is that of masculinity and femininity. At the poles of the sphere are regions of polar masculine and polar feminine genders. As one's gender gets closer to the "equator" of the mapping, their primary expression would be more neutral, a mix of the two, or influenced by something else entirely. The three generally accepted "latitudes" of gender are bands of polar, median, and neutral genders. "Low masc" and "Low fem" genders are uncommon, as any sort of connection is likely to be labelled as median, hence why the mapping has them as thin belts.

For longitudinal coordinate, the "prime meridian" at 0 degrees marks the individual in question as genderless. Further to the "East" and "West" indicates a stronger experience of gender, with 180 degrees on either side being conceptualized as a full experience of gender that dictates one's life greatly. The "Vacuous Belt" is somewhat equivalent to the latitudinal neutral region of genders, though it is characterized by very little to no experience of gender. It is used mostly by those who wish to categorize themselves by expression but have no internal gendered experience. The regions labeled "Semi" are for a low or light experience of gender, with median and elemental being successive terms for stronger and stronger gender identities.

The two hemispheres, as one may have noticed, are labelled "Carnal" and "Ethereal". This is in reference to the dichotomous understanding of gender that toxelugh have. Ethereal genders are marked by an experience and connection to one's gender primarily as a spiritual or psychological phenomenon, whilst carnal genders experience it primarily as an aspect of their physical body. Most toxelugh have both of these experiences, but the stronger "component" of one's gender identity determines the hemisphere they mark their "Gender Coordinate" in. Gender is generally decoupled from sex characteristics, but carnal genders tend to correlate more strongly in that regard. Indecisive toxelugh may simply add their coordinates to both hemispheres, though this is a slight social faux pas.

As a final bit of complication, toxelugh often attach "lunar genders" as auxiliary alignments that they feel represent an aspect of themselves. They can be many different concepts, but they are usually related to aspects of the world or ideals that are untouched by the elements of the Nine Lights. Chaos, peace, hope, growth, connection, and many more can be examples of lunar genders. These do not replace their identity's coordinates, but rather inform more about them than the one map.

Names

Toxelugh names originated back in the beginnings of civilization when language was properly developing. Though it has changed many times, the current paradigm for naming children comes from religious practice put in place by the religion Ket Maragh, which controls their civilization spiritually. These naming conventions have not changed for close to a thousand years, though more complex family names have been formulated over time.

Toxelugh tend to be named after tools or weapons, owing to the belief that they are extensions of the Great Beast and serve as Her means of interacting with the world. Names such as "Sword", "Spear", "Tongs" and "Vise" would all be considered fairly normal. Less commonly, a toxelugh may be named after an action taken by these tools or weapons. These names are thought of as a bit more prestigious. Names such as "Jab", "Pierce", and "Slash" would all be considered this category of name. Some names can be interpreted as both, such as "Hammer" and "Sling".

Notably, some Nature-Attuned toxelugh use plants or animals as names, since they use those as tools and weapons. It's rare but not unheard of for names like "Thorn" to pop up across the isles.

Family names tend to be compound nouns or simple two-word titles gained from ancestors, either as a result of their career or a deed they aspired to achieve. Families such as the Ironspark family had been smiths for generations, More unconventional family names can sometimes pop up when a toxelugh reaches maturity, should they decide to strike out on their own and disassociate from their family. This is where most "trendy" family names tend to come from, such as Goldriver and Gildedsun.

The occupation of the Stardawn saw many divergences from traditional toxelugh culture, with names being one of them. Family names and given names both became quite strange, divorced from the conventions. Names like "Alycia" and "Féðir" may give away that a toxelugh had family connections to that dimension.

Religiosity

Toxelugh are, at least on the Great Beast Archipelago, limited by space and a finite number of subjects to learn and things that need doing. They face near-constant threats from the drifting islands beyond the Archipelago, and the order of their society is maintained in counter to some of their deepest instincts. Though life is peaceful, each and every toxelugh learns to deal with a background radiation of stress for perpetuity. Many of them turn to religion for relief in this regard. This, combined with the long-lasting connections between the church of Ket Maragh and the government of Khyth Vaaxa, have given the toxelugh a great affinity for religion. It is incorporated into most major aspects of their society.

As a result of their sense of psyche, prayer does actually project out some mental energy. Like physical exercise, this is good for their brain activity and mental well-being, releasing notable amounts of their stress. Though it can become addicting, toxelugh are warned against zealotry and the "Call of Lugha" that comes with excessive psychic strain. An addiction to prayer, or rather the relief that it provides, can end up causing a toxelugh to go mad or completely catatonic from either withdrawl or overuse of their psychic connection to what they believe to be their god. In Ket Maragh, this is interpreted as a premature relinquishing of one's mind to Lugha, denying their ultimate purpose of growth and expansion of consciousness before death for the quick pleasure of oneness with the divine. It is a cardinal sin to die in this way.

In a way, though, religion does allow toxelugh to relieve the lingering unease their animalistic instincts leaves them with, at least the part that isn't worked out of them through their daily pursuits of self-actualization. It is a mechanism propped up by the society they worked so hard to build, and though its doctrine controls a significant portion of legal and moral rulings on the isles, it provides an immense benefit to their health on a fundamental level. The religiosity of the toxelugh throughout history has been linked to average lifespan, after all.

History

Emergence of Sapience

The first sapient toxelugh likely emerged about eight to ten thousand years ago, on the resource-poor island that would become the Great Beast Archipelago. As the island drifted away from the Humming Wilds and into a localized void, the lack of Darkshine influence allowed the toxelugh to gain their sapience for the first time in potentially forever. Religious doctrine says that there was a ten thousand year time period between the mythological creation of Darkshine flora and the emergence of sapience on the Great Beast Island.

Sapient toxelugh slowly developed language to describe things around themselves and, more importantly, to tell each other to back off of their territory. They were still bound by the basal parts of their minds back then, only congregating when their instincts demanded it and being quite antisocial the rest of the time.

Creation of Civilization

About 5600 BCE is when the first inklings of organized civilization get their start. Always curious, the toxelugh who started the great experiment of civilizing and creating such ideas as government were collecting on a basis of shared interest. They were attempting to figure out how to increase the food they had available each year, that they might live in relative luxury and peace compared to the animal squalor they had been for hundreds of years. A purely scientific pursuit, one might say. And yet in ordaining who was allowed to touch the food and the delegation of work over the shared territory, the beginnings of the great civilization Khyth Vaaxa descended from sprouted.

This ordinance grew exponentially as food became more common, with the remaining "outsiders" not allowed to take any unless they agreed to a set of binding terms, punishable by relatively mild dismemberment (recall that toxelugh can regenerate their limbs) to the extremes of execution. As centuries passed, the abundance of the Great Beast Island increased and almost all toxelugh were subsumed into the developing collective. Laws around labor and work were established to discourage "basal" behavior from instinct, and courts were established to enforce these laws. The legal system grew and the necessary jobs diversified.

By about 2400 BCE, the religion that preceded Ket Maragh was well established. Though separate from the government, it offered reverence to numerous gods of abundance and celestial objects. Philosophers became a prominent societal class during this time, ushering in something of a weak scientific revolution.

Around the year 2000 BCE, use of psyche was discouraged and even forbidden by certain sects of religious doctrine, and in the ensuing decades the population grew numerous and restless. In 1933 BCE, the island broke out into war. Factions and cults dedicated to individual plots of land or specific deities splintered off from one another and aimed their tools outward as weapons. For the first time in centuries, Khyth Vaaxa turned metal into objects made solely for killing.

The cult-state that survived was dedicated to a goddess of bone, Lugha. As their military might grew and they reunited the island, they changed their doctrine to oppose the pre-war laws, and claimed authority on behalf of the land itself. This religion became Ket Maragh and has been controlling the government from the sidelines since. The Ae Lugh first saw their origins after this period of peace began, dedicated to quashing rebellions and mitigating external threats to the Great Beast Island. It was at this time that the island had drifted closer to the Humming Wilds again, and the dangers of Darkshine flora were becoming known.

Development of Attunements

In 1 CE, a member of the primitive Ae Lugh by the name of Khythis Allseer prayed in a somewhat heretical way, dedicating it to the greater universe rather than the Mother of the Island. They attained a connection to an Emanation, specifically that which takes the role of Space in the Evervoid. Their eyes glowed a brilliant magenta and, in exchange for the sense of psyche, they were granted some power over it. Their blood took on properties of it and could enchant nascenium metal with a vast array of properties. They became de facto leader of the Ae Lugh, the first Grandmaster amongst the ranks besides the original priest class that lay above them, an archaic sect of Ket Maragh that Orators once aspired to become.

The Attunement, as it was called, spread to several other Ae Lugh members, and many of Khythis' children as well. By 212 CE, the Ae Lugh had redefined itself to be only Attuned toxelugh, a warrior class missing its psyche and connection to God but granted phenomenal power in its stead. Ketem doctrine changed to accommodate this, and all was well and stable. Camps underground and in major towns across the island began to form and stratify, with a central organization collecting on the Great Beast Island's satellite island. This organization would become the Temple of the Moon.

In 220 CE, a set of four toxelugh were born at each of the ends of the island. They were all Attuned, as expected, but their Attunements were not the magenta glow of the First Light, that of Space. These four were the first toxelugh attuned to the Orthogonal Attunements, the Second through Fifth Lights as some call them. Dagger Vanhall to Fire, Chain Aevlau to Air, Sunder Larumer to Water, and Anvil Rakken to Earth. This caused an uproar, but it was generally quelled once the Ketem Oracles came forth and declared it a blessing from Lugha. A diversification of skills and power to shape the world, elemental but not quite fundamental as the First Light. And so it continued. The camps in which the four were born became the site of their respective Attunements' home bases, and by church order they were made to reproduce and spread their power through the Ae Lugh's next generations.

All was well until 370 CE. Where these Orthogonal Attunements mixed, now a similar thing to their genesis began. Hybrids, some called them, had begun to appear. The last four Lights: Smoke, Ice, Nature, Magma. These emanations struck genuine fear into the upper echelons of the church and government. If mixes continued to occur, then chaos would surely take the Attunements and wreak havoc on civilization. They would become too personal, too unrecognizable, too uncontrollable. And so they ordered the Great Beast Island be separated into the Nine, the Archipelago now seen today. The Attunements have, in the nearly 700 years since, stabilized. It appears that no amount of intermixing has been able to create a new Attunement, and the islands themselves have changed from the pure elemental density on them. Toxelugh have, by this point, locked themselves into the Nine Lights.

Modern Life

Modern life for a toxelugh is greater than it ever has been. The vast array of skillsets and nascenium-alloy tools has given the Ae Lugh enough ability to research and explore the Humming Wilds. New foods and resources have been found and brought to the Archipelago, and diets have never been more varied and nutritious. The island that could barely support 6,000 toxelugh previously now has a population tens of times larger. Artistry, philosophy, construction, urban planning, metalwork, and culinary careers have never been more prominent, and just about every skill one can hope to learn has jobs available for it. What stresses from the high population percolate have a number of outlets. Even for those unable to find work, the church provides welfare to prevent dissent from shaking the nation.

The expectation to contribute to society is quite high in this day and age, as there are more job requirements than people to fill them. It certainly doesn't help that the Ae Lugh are so popular culturally. The warrior class can only take so many soldiers before it becomes superfluous and redundant, but the policy is still that all Attuned toxelugh are offered a position. Governmental jobs are dwindling as well, as people are catching on to how much power the Ketem church has over it and opt to join its clergy instead. Shows of luxury are still communal, though a new mercantile age is somewhat on the horizon.

The greatest threats to the toxelugh of the Great Beast Archipelago are still as they were thousands of years ago: the Darkshine floating in from the Humming Wilds, the incompetence of those governing the delicate balance of society, and petty squabbles escalating into unhealthy levels of violence. While that stays the same, so too do affairs of love, lust, and curiosity about the world.