Lamia
Lamias, also known as Witches, are a sapient species native to the Gallana Amon. They are an androgynos race said to have been created by Lomot - the goddess of waking dreams. Often referred to as 'witches'
Xusfia and Nu Ze appeared in the years leading to the Great Exile of the Witches in 333. As the lamia refugees walked the beaches of the southern coast, they were accompanied by Nu Ze's scornful voice.
His words laid waste to the hearts of the witches, causing their sorrow to blemish the sands they stepped on. The coast absorbed so much of their suffering that it had turned completely black and eroded, earning its more modern name as the Ghastly Coast.
During the exile, the lamias had no choice but to walk the long walled-off stretch of shore connecting their home and human kingdom. Though, when it eventually became the Ghastly Coast, this feat was considered a death sentence. Many of those who attempted it never arrived at the fertile land they were promised. Those who did had no better alternative than serving human masters in exchange for food and shelter. When the Bridge of the Savior was built, it gave the lamia a much safer route into the human kingdom.
Of the few lamias that remained from before the exile, even fewer were ever willing to divulge any information about their past culture, religion, or language.
As the lamias were not allowed to own property or engage in business transactions, many became street performers as well. Using their Tenuma trances as a medium for dream magic, they quickly captivated the public's heart.
Zalem and his supporters worked relentlessly to distribute of posters, pamphlets, and other media with xenophobic sentiments. They focus mainly on the lamias with extensive detail on the dangers of 'mating with witches'.
Posters with charts explained how every offspring that was 'contaminated' by lamia blood would turn into a zolbi and unleash terror around them. There were numerous cases of violence towards pregnant lamias during the time of the propaganda, often traumatizing the mothers and creating zolbis as a result.
446 - Lyxia the Grin Witch: After a long period of imprisonment and arduous torture at the hands of King Albis IV, the witch revealed only three truths: The lamias are the children of Lomot. Xivi is the language of dreams. Something precious was lost during the exile, something that can never be reclaimed.
452 - For three nights during the spring of 452, lamia houses and Waken Forests all across the Album were broken into, destroyed, and burned by Heofonists. On the last night, the rioters appeared on the streets of Mavar with Zalem at the helm. In front of a massive audience, eight lamia community leaders were taken to the city center and murdered by his Spear of Hope in full public display.
After those attacks, Mavar's city guards took drastic measures. Anyone they found in connection with the movement was tried and solemnly executed. A couple of years later, a secretive group of lamias called Marevet introduced itself to Album. Their motives were protecting their population and avenging their fallen. Heofonists were killed in targeted assassinations and left with thank you notes signed in Xivi.
458 - Zalem met his fate in 458 when he was flushed out of his hideout and taken by Marevet.
Though physical birth is commonly marked and celebrated by humans as their birthday, lamias identify the 'beginning of life' much earlier. When the baby is first conceived, it is little more than a probability for the lamias, perhaps because most of their early pregnancies end in miscarriage. Only during the last period of pregnancy, when the fetus developed enough to dream, is when it enters Tenuma Ami.
Lamia Birth could roughly be described as a transcendence of material boundaries into the metaphysical plain of Lomot. The exact starting point of Tenuma Ami varies between mothers but is always preceded by a premonition of the lamia in question. They receive a telepathic signal from the womb, and the birth itself happens a few days later.
During this time, the baby would phase in and out of physical existence, taking the mother with it to Lomot's plain. It typically lasts around six months, but the passage of time in the dream realm is much less accurate and quite difficult to measure. It is the pivotal window for the mother to get to know her child. After she would teach speech, they would converse between themselves. The mother is expected to do her best to prepare her newborn for the outside world, all the while instructing it on how to maneuver the Tenuma better.
Failed Birth
Death - Tenuma Amon
Tenuma Amon refers to the final stage of life for a lamia - a permanent departure from the physical world. It is the ultimate state, in which one reaches the pinnacle of Tenuma and opens the path to the eternal realm of Lomot. There, they would join their friends, the Amonim, and rest in the infinite grace of the goddess. Their physical body would gradually crystalize until all motor functions shut down and it is completely encased in a luminous substance and abandoned.
Death - Human
Lamias who live in Album and neglected their Tenuma would experience a life cycle closer to a human's. They would die without reaching Lomot's plain and won't join the Amonim.
If one achieves Tenuma Amon, they would finally be free from it as they join the Amonim.
For how rare birth in their culture is, it is celebrated by all members of the tribe for the entire length of the child's dream. Although they don't share the same enthusiasm as humans do for decorations, music, or intoxication, they do claim to have "mad fun in the dream world".
Throughout the ethereal festivities, each adult lamia would greet the child in turn and bestow upon it one piece of wisdom they deem appropriate. Following them, the young ones would also see the child and share a moment of their choosing.
Shroud essence can be extracted from a sleeping Gallawood tree during a severed moon, but the practice involves a certain amount of skill and mostly patience.
Many independent farmers attempt to grow loffia illegally in hopes of evading taxation. When their loffia plants on their hidden farms blossom and exhibit divine appearances, they are fed with shroud. Since shroud protects from the gods' influence, it masks the bright transformation of the flowering. It is sold by a few powerful lamias who import it from Gallana Amon. Gallawood Kush A particular strain cultivated with high quantities of shroud from Gallana Amon. Induces lucid dreams and even Tenuma trances for adapted humans.
Legend Of The Faces Of Lomot When Lilu met Lomot in the greatest depths of Gallana Amon, the goddess presented her with the Pact of Faces. Lilu's face was torn away and devoured by Lomot, and in exchange, her people became the lamia - 'children of the waking dream'. The endless war came to an end - like many other endless things - yet Lliu's people did not. Protected from Mavet's snow and Leva's severed moon, lamias would live immortal until they reached the Amonim.
The first one to achieve the perfect dream was none other than Lilu herself. She carried the truth with her into the sacred grove of Gallana Amon and opened the path to Lomot's embrace. Her eight daughters observed her transcendence, stricken with grief and joy as they watched their mother's body crystalize and her soul illuminate.
Lilu's crystal form became her tombstone, and all her daughters stepped back in reverence - all but one. The youngest of them approached her mother's sleeping corpse and carved out its face with a knife she crafted from shroud. The young lamia held up her mother's face and wore it as her own in front of all of her sisters. Cries and screams echoed through the deep forest, only to be lulled a moment later. The young one exited the grove alone with the gosfet over her face, Lilu's spirit dwelling within.
History
Life in Gallana Amon
~ WIP ~Great Exile of the Witches
333 - Lylamloxuv (Xivi: 'never more'), also known as the Great Exile of the Witches is the dispersion of lamias out of their ancestral homeland (Gallana Amon) and their subsequent settlement within the borders of Album.Xusfia and Nu Ze appeared in the years leading to the Great Exile of the Witches in 333. As the lamia refugees walked the beaches of the southern coast, they were accompanied by Nu Ze's scornful voice.
His words laid waste to the hearts of the witches, causing their sorrow to blemish the sands they stepped on. The coast absorbed so much of their suffering that it had turned completely black and eroded, earning its more modern name as the Ghastly Coast.
During the exile, the lamias had no choice but to walk the long walled-off stretch of shore connecting their home and human kingdom. Though, when it eventually became the Ghastly Coast, this feat was considered a death sentence. Many of those who attempted it never arrived at the fertile land they were promised. Those who did had no better alternative than serving human masters in exchange for food and shelter. When the Bridge of the Savior was built, it gave the lamia a much safer route into the human kingdom.
Of the few lamias that remained from before the exile, even fewer were ever willing to divulge any information about their past culture, religion, or language.
Refugee Crisis
3XX - Mavar - being the closest to Gallana Amon - was the first of the Nine Walled Cities to receive the lamia refugees upon their exile. The streets of Mavar suddenly filled with this new and mysterious race of masked witches.As the lamias were not allowed to own property or engage in business transactions, many became street performers as well. Using their Tenuma trances as a medium for dream magic, they quickly captivated the public's heart.
Persecution - Witch's Act
442 - Zalem reached the title of second in command. His plans regarding the 'lamia problems' were enacted soon after. All 'witches' were made second-class citizens of Mavar, and stricter rules were put in place. Lamias were banned from several establishments in the city itself, and 'anti-lamia' content was spread on the streets to persuade the public of the cause.Zalem and his supporters worked relentlessly to distribute of posters, pamphlets, and other media with xenophobic sentiments. They focus mainly on the lamias with extensive detail on the dangers of 'mating with witches'.
Posters with charts explained how every offspring that was 'contaminated' by lamia blood would turn into a zolbi and unleash terror around them. There were numerous cases of violence towards pregnant lamias during the time of the propaganda, often traumatizing the mothers and creating zolbis as a result.
446 - Lyxia the Grin Witch: After a long period of imprisonment and arduous torture at the hands of King Albis IV, the witch revealed only three truths: The lamias are the children of Lomot. Xivi is the language of dreams. Something precious was lost during the exile, something that can never be reclaimed.
452 - For three nights during the spring of 452, lamia houses and Waken Forests all across the Album were broken into, destroyed, and burned by Heofonists. On the last night, the rioters appeared on the streets of Mavar with Zalem at the helm. In front of a massive audience, eight lamia community leaders were taken to the city center and murdered by his Spear of Hope in full public display.
After those attacks, Mavar's city guards took drastic measures. Anyone they found in connection with the movement was tried and solemnly executed. A couple of years later, a secretive group of lamias called Marevet introduced itself to Album. Their motives were protecting their population and avenging their fallen. Heofonists were killed in targeted assassinations and left with thank you notes signed in Xivi.
458 - Zalem met his fate in 458 when he was flushed out of his hideout and taken by Marevet.
Integration
~ WIP ~Biology
Anatomy
~ WIP ~Genetics
~ WIP ~Life Cycle
Birth Since each adult lamia shares both male and female characteristics, the conception of a lamian baby could occur through more than just the exclusive hetero union present in humans. There have been cases of hetero, homo, or even auto reproduction shown with the species. It is only through labor that the mother lamia loses all male attributes and becomes a Xivishi.Though physical birth is commonly marked and celebrated by humans as their birthday, lamias identify the 'beginning of life' much earlier. When the baby is first conceived, it is little more than a probability for the lamias, perhaps because most of their early pregnancies end in miscarriage. Only during the last period of pregnancy, when the fetus developed enough to dream, is when it enters Tenuma Ami.
Lamia Birth could roughly be described as a transcendence of material boundaries into the metaphysical plain of Lomot. The exact starting point of Tenuma Ami varies between mothers but is always preceded by a premonition of the lamia in question. They receive a telepathic signal from the womb, and the birth itself happens a few days later.
During this time, the baby would phase in and out of physical existence, taking the mother with it to Lomot's plain. It typically lasts around six months, but the passage of time in the dream realm is much less accurate and quite difficult to measure. It is the pivotal window for the mother to get to know her child. After she would teach speech, they would converse between themselves. The mother is expected to do her best to prepare her newborn for the outside world, all the while instructing it on how to maneuver the Tenuma better.
Failed Birth
Lamia Birth is a mighty, supernatural thing, but it is just as fragile and malleable, given the circumstances. It is very much affected by the mother's mental state and could potentially result in horrific incidents. The body of the lamias works to protect and avoid these cases early on, which is why most pregnancies don't carry all the way to the dream stage. The matter is handled with much care by the whole tribe. Still, anomalies do occur - much more frequently since the lamias were introduced to the human race.
Causes of aberrations, to name a few:
Causes of aberrations, to name a few:
- unexpected/unwanted pregnancy
- unstable mental state of the mother
- impregnation due to sexual assault
- trauma during pregnancy
- corruption of the child's Tenuma
Diet
~ WIP ~Variation
~ WIP ~Psychology
Sleep and Dreaming
~ WIP ~Consciousness and Thought
~ WIP ~Motivation and Emotion
~ WIP ~Sexuality and Love
~ WIP ~Culture
Language
Old Xivi Xivijsfatemet, known for short as Xivi, is an ancient South-Imedinatic language native to Gallana Amon. It was the lamias' singular language before the Great Exile of the Witches, but disappeared without a trace soon after they took refuge within the human Kingdom of Album. The language was eventually revived and adpated into Modern Xivi several centuries later. It's convoluted, tricky, and oftentimes impossible to decipher. Furthermore, the words - if you can call them that - do not go in one particular order. Details of the emergence of Xivi as a language are limited at best. Of the few lamias that remained from before the exile, even fewer were ever willing to divulge any information about their past culture, religion, or language. Each of the discovered twenty-one Gaolas - the Xivian ideograms - has three different meanings that only together hold the accurate interpretation of that specific Gaola. There is inherent logic to them. Old Xivi doesn't share the same sound profile as its modern descendant. It is a purely visual language. Xivi as a verbal language didn't exist. During Tenuma trances, lamias would summon the symbols to float around them; an act we know as 'Witch Telepathy'. It is unknown what Old Xivi grammar was like, as no record has ever been written in the language. Old Xivi has only ever been a legend passed down from one lamia to another. The only proof to its existence is Modern Xivi - whose surfacing in the late 700s was just as sudden and mysterious as the former's disappearance. Naming or the lamias, names signify their separation from the Tenuma Amon, and so they are - in most cases - unwanted and distanced from. They are given their first name by their mothers when their Tenuma Ami ends and keep them for as long as they are out of Tenuma. Their names are discarded with every recurring Tenuma, and they choose new ones as they exit the dream plain. Their disdain for monikers can be seen by the non-phonetic and often tricky spelling of the ones they give to their children and themselves.If one achieves Tenuma Amon, they would finally be free from it as they join the Amonim.
Art
For the first hundred years after the exile, lamias managed to hide the gosfets' supernatural essence from humans. The Albians feared or admired the Damurim solely based on the mysterious nature of their masks. Their shapes were all unique and intriguing, featuring designs that weren't conceived of yet in Album.Tools and Technology
~ WIP ~Society
Kinship
~ WIP ~Traditions
Celebrating Birthdays in Gallana Amon Lamias are essentially immortal beings living in a boundless forest with little to no sunlight, depending on the region. For these reasons and more, they don't tend to follow any structured calendar or mark any annual occasions. They find themselves content with the initial celebration of one's Tenuma Ami.For how rare birth in their culture is, it is celebrated by all members of the tribe for the entire length of the child's dream. Although they don't share the same enthusiasm as humans do for decorations, music, or intoxication, they do claim to have "mad fun in the dream world".
Throughout the ethereal festivities, each adult lamia would greet the child in turn and bestow upon it one piece of wisdom they deem appropriate. Following them, the young ones would also see the child and share a moment of their choosing.
Politics
~ WIP ~Trade and Economy
Shroud Sedet, also known as shroud, is a metaphysical material most commonly used for protection against detection or harm by the gods and their influence. It was created by Lomot - the god of waking dreams - and first given to the lamias of Gallana Amon during the signing of the Hidden Covenant. Its secrets and source were later given away to the humans of Album by the Apostle Xusfia, eventually leading to the Great Exile of the Witches.Shroud essence can be extracted from a sleeping Gallawood tree during a severed moon, but the practice involves a certain amount of skill and mostly patience.
Many independent farmers attempt to grow loffia illegally in hopes of evading taxation. When their loffia plants on their hidden farms blossom and exhibit divine appearances, they are fed with shroud. Since shroud protects from the gods' influence, it masks the bright transformation of the flowering. It is sold by a few powerful lamias who import it from Gallana Amon. Gallawood Kush A particular strain cultivated with high quantities of shroud from Gallana Amon. Induces lucid dreams and even Tenuma trances for adapted humans.
Conflict
Children of Lomot
~ WIP ~Jalomot
Jalomot, also known as Lomot, or Dormant Mother, is the goddess of Waking dreams and the main object of worship of lamias.Legend Of The Faces Of Lomot When Lilu met Lomot in the greatest depths of Gallana Amon, the goddess presented her with the Pact of Faces. Lilu's face was torn away and devoured by Lomot, and in exchange, her people became the lamia - 'children of the waking dream'. The endless war came to an end - like many other endless things - yet Lliu's people did not. Protected from Mavet's snow and Leva's severed moon, lamias would live immortal until they reached the Amonim.
The first one to achieve the perfect dream was none other than Lilu herself. She carried the truth with her into the sacred grove of Gallana Amon and opened the path to Lomot's embrace. Her eight daughters observed her transcendence, stricken with grief and joy as they watched their mother's body crystalize and her soul illuminate.
Lilu's crystal form became her tombstone, and all her daughters stepped back in reverence - all but one. The youngest of them approached her mother's sleeping corpse and carved out its face with a knife she crafted from shroud. The young lamia held up her mother's face and wore it as her own in front of all of her sisters. Cries and screams echoed through the deep forest, only to be lulled a moment later. The young one exited the grove alone with the gosfet over her face, Lilu's spirit dwelling within.
Tenuma
A state in which a lamia connects with the dream realm. Sometimes referred to as 'witchcraft' by unknowledgeable humansTenuma Ami
Read the full article for reference. Tenuma Ami (Xivi: 'one dream'), also known as Lamia Birth, is an event that marks the beginning of a lamia's life. It is the first of several Tenuma trances a lamia experiences in the course of its lifespan, and a crucial stage for a lamia to attain Tenuma Amon.Tenuma Amon
See Death - Tenuma Amon.Gosfet
Read full article for reference. Gosfet (Xivi: 'Merciful Hidden Face'), also known as Witch Veil, or Lamia Mask, is a broad term predominantly referring to a type of magical mask, bestowed by Lomot, crafted by the lamia, and introduced to Album during the Great Exile of the Witches. Gosfets hold great significance for the lamias as divine protection, sacred tombstones, and powerful Tenuma amplifiers. They had been worn by many lamias entering the mortal realm, yet that number has dwindled notably throughout the years. The few masks that remain today are coveted by many art collectors and jealously guarded by witches of Marevet.
Mysterious Lamia by rikia
Scientific Name
Lamia Sapiens
Lifespan
120 years
Average Height
1.9 meters
Average Weight
70 kg
Geographic Distribution
Related Organizations
Related Myths
Table of Contents
HistoryLife in Gallana Amon
Great Exile of the Witches
Refugee Crisis
Witch's Act
Integration
Biology
Anatomy
Genetics
Life Cycle
Diet
Variation
Psychology
Sleep and Dreaming
Consciousness and Thought
Motivation and Emotion
Sexuality and Love
Culture
Language
Art
Tools and Technology
Society
Kinship
Traditions
Politics
Trade and Economy
Conflict
Children of Lomot
Jalomot
Tenuma
Tenuma Ami
Tenuma Amon
Gosfet
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