Phasian

Within the transparent, leathery membrane you see what appears to be pure energy. Shimmering and shifting colors can be seen, with the occasional spark of energy jumping off the membrane. As you admire the unique sight, a sharp snapping sound can be heard above you. You look up, and see the reptilian head of the creature. “Eyes are up here.” The creature says with a pleasent smile, clearly used to the reaction to its appearance.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Phasians tend to take many shapes and sizes in terms of their appearance due to their ability to alter their morphology, but most commonly they tend to stick to a humanoid appearance. They often appear tall and slender, with no visible muscles or fat. On rare occasions they may incorporate the appearance of clothing into their morphology by shifting their Membrane. Their choice of shape is their own choice, capable of adjusting their membrane through an admittedly painful process.

Genetics and Reproduction

Phasians are considered endangered greatly due to their reproductive method. Unlike others races, Phasians need to physically give a portion of their conserved energy in order to produce another Phasian. This is difficult to accomplish however due to impure energy a Phasian may consume over its lifetime.
While Phasians are capable of consuming regular food and drink to convert it into energy, this energy is considered impure and cannot be used for reproduction. Instead, Phasians are required to consume magic, either from items or other beings, to create pure, untainted Energy.
Once a Phasian is able to accumulate Pure Energy double their ordinary capacity, they are able to undertake a form of Mitosis, splitting themself into two different beings.
Due to the sacrifice of luxury a Phasian needs to undertake to be capable of reproduction, the Phasians who perform the acts are often considered the Elders or the Chieftains, with small communities often spawning from a singular Phasian.

Growth Rate & Stages

When a new Phasian is born, they are formed to simply be a mass of energy contained in the Membrane. They are born with common knowledge granted to them by the Elders such as how to speak, what they are, etc, but are otherwise a blank slate.
For the first few years of its life, a Phasian is given tasks primarily within its community while it becomes accustomed to its new life. During this time, they will often come into contact with many different magical artifacts which tends to form the basis of how that Phasian will become. One that handles many weapons tends to gravitate towards becoming more aggressive while one who handles Spell Books and tomes tend to become researchers who explore opportunities for powerful Artifacts for their kind.
It's also during this time when a Phasian experiments with the forms it can make their Membrane, deciding what fits them more.
Age is not considered when determining if a Phasian is considered an adult. Instead, when a Phasian eventually settles on a set form for their membrane, they are considered mature enough to begin being assigned more important tasks centred around the reproduction of their race.

Ecology and Habitats

Due to Phasians being capable of shifting their Membrane, they are highly adaptable and capable of sustaining themselves in many different environments. They can even live in aquatic environments as they do not require air or oxygen to live. Extreme heat and cold tends to slow Phasians down, sapping the energy within them rapidly to help them compensate for the extreme climates long enough to allow them to exit the area.
Despite their adaptability, they find themselves most at home within the floating masses of land within their home plane they refer to as @Vivantis.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Phasians are capable of eating and drinking like any other mortal being, but can also absorb magic from Magical Items for sustenance as well. Magical sustenance, while just as equal in nutrients, is often considered ‘cleaner’ and more healthy than eating regular food. Similarly, if Phasians consume something considered poisoned, it can disrupt the energy within them, causing similar symptoms to if mortals consumed it.

Behaviour

Due to their low numbers, Phasians try to be as pleasant company as they can be to make allies. They often stay in good humour even in dire circumstances, with only the color of the energy within them giving away their true feeling.
They are known to be helpful but mischievous. They typically don’t have the comprehension of ownership, taking what they need when they need something without ill will. In their society with such small numbers everyone tends to share what others need without asking. This tends to get Phasians in trouble with other races.

Additional Information

Facial characteristics

Often Reptilian Characteristics

Average Intelligence

Very Intelligent and Witty

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Despite what many would believe, Phasians experience sight, smell, sound, and feeling like any other average being. Upon their heads are the only hard substances attached to their bodys, to the inexperienced appear to be horns or ridges. However, these horns serve as a hearing organ for the Phasians, with hollow tubes leading to a special nerve that experiences vibrations like the human eyedrum and translating it into sound.
They have two eyes like the average mortal, though unlike humans these eyes are capable of being replaced through a ritual similar to how Phasians adjust their membrane.
Despite their being made up of energy, this energy is sectioned off, similar to organs of a body, including a brain-like section similar to that of a nucleus of a cell, often positioned at the highest point of the membrane. This makes Phasians as vulnerable as any other mortal.
Finally, within their leathery membranes are a nerve-like system, allowing them to feel regularly like other mortals. In this way, signals are sent from the appropriate receptors, like eyes for sight or hands for feeling, and sent to thru the body to the necleus.

Civilization and Culture

Naming Traditions

Phasians tend to name themselve after the first word of the Vivantian language they recall after forming. As such, names often have no real meaning other then sounding exotic to others.
For example, the name Litrix may seem important and have some grand meaning, but instead it was learned the word translated to Heavy when translated to commom.

Major Organizations

While they are working towards the same goal, the various factions of the Phasians have vastly different approaches to expanding their race.
Litrix, the first Phasian, chose to take a more direct approach, forming The Echo Collective. Their main form of obtaining magical artifacts is stealing them, aiming for powerful artifacts to increase their numbers greater. They are known to plan heists, employ deceit and hire others to obtain what they seek, but are not known to be aggressive or hostile.
Kallick decided on a more diplomatic approach to things, forming the largest of the factions, the Wanderlight Guild. These Phasians act more like a Guild of Adventurers, even welcoming non-phasians to their numbers so long as they pay their dues in Magical Items. Members of the Wanderlight Guild often considered myths on the Planes they exist upon, viewed as the elite of the elite, and those who know the Guild are often employ them for the most dangerous of missions.
The Expanse Exchange is divided between two similarly minded factions led by Braxis who focuses on trade, and Carsix, who works on commissioning Artificers for construction of minor magical items. Due to the unique use the Phasians use magical items for, even the most niche items are of use for Phasians, leading the Expanse Exchange to thus far be the most successful approach.
The final two factions have no official name or titles, but are considered the most dangerous. These Phasians are Pirates and Pillagers, attacking and stealing from random Planes, causing great panic and suspicion around the race. These Phasians are shunned by the others, but sadly have proven their methods effective.

Average Technological Level

Phasians were originally conceived for the purposes of traveling between different Planes of Existences, and after they were able to establish themselves after the Catastrophe that ravaged Vivantis, they leaned heavily into perfecting these magics. They were able to use the already established methods to travel to other worlds to seek ways to stabilize the travel method to allow the survivors of Vivantis.
With help of others they were successful in innovating the technique, allowing them to not only send out the struggling refugees of the ruined world, but eventually being able to incorporate the magic into the very being of Phasians. Phasians are the leading race of Planer Travel, being able to conduct it with a fraction of the power that other races, mortal or otherwise, require to achieve the same accomplishment.

Common Dress Code

While not exactly a requirement, most Phasians choose to wear loose fitting clothing that does not constrict upon their transparent membrane. This includes accessories like bracelets and rings and hats. A membrane that is constricted for a long enough time is occasionally stuck like that until a Membrane Alteration is undertook.
For some Phasians, rather then wearing clothes, they instead alter there membrane and coloring to appear as clothing, rather then actually wearing some.

Culture and Cultural Heritage

Despite their endless drive to bolster their numbers, Phasians rarely stray from their beginnings. They value intelligence and exploration into the unknown above all else, the very nature of why they were formed in the first place. During their endeavours of collecting artifacts, they always take time for the exchanging of knowledge, sharing of techniques, and general appreciation of other races' cultural history.
Phasians tend to avoid looking too far back into their own heritage, other than the circumstances for their creation. While their being was influenced by the researchers who created them, they wished to forge their own direction without any influence from the ruined world. As such, while they will gladly appreciate the cultures of others, they are shy to share much of themselves due to the lack of knowledge they truly have.

Common Taboos

While Phasians respect and appreciate the cultures of the various races to meet, one of the few rules Phasians have between themselves is to not devote themselves with any sort of religion. While Phasians understand the importance of gods and deities in many societies and will willingly partake in casual rituals and customs associated to show respect, pledging one’s self to a specific deity through consistent prayer and offering is seen to be a great disrespect towards the very nature of Phasians.
Phasians are Planer beings who travel between worlds. By pledging to a deity, its viewed by all others that one is pledging directly to the Plane itself, choosing to favor that specific Plane above all else. While Phasians have their favourite and least favourite planes they visit, an act such as this is viewed as locking themselves to stay upon a single plane, rather then continuing to explore the unknown.

History

Forming

The formation of Phasian’s came at the expense of the greed of others.
On a once forgotten Plane of existence, Wizards and Scholars sought to become gods, attempting to create life from nothing but sheer magical energies. They succeeded, but at great expense.
When mortals delve into powers not of their comprehension, they can easily become distracted, their vision becomes blurred, and they start to drift from their original intentions. They aim to incorporate more and more into their original vision, morphing it into an impossible to obtain goal at best, or a dangerous example of screwing around and finding out.
With the newly obtained knowledge of traveling between other planes of existence, researchers upon the doomed Plane sought to create some sort of creature capable of making the journey safely. Any attempts to send a construct failed, but they were able to determine energy scented between two planes stayed the same. Thus they began what they dubbed the Phasian initiative. Their goal was to create a being of pure energy.
Aiming to add as much magical energy into their creation as possible, the god hopefuls added every instance of magic they could into the equation. Arcane, divine, demonic, shadow, nature, and more. It was their belief that because an ordinary mortal could wield these magics with enough time and study, that all mortals were made up of some equation of them. They were only partially right.
In their hubris to create something from nothing, they poured too much power into their project. The leathery casing for their new creation became unstable, and to the shock of the soon to be deceased, the power kept multiplying, feeding off itself in an endless loop. It began to expand and consume all it touched, endlessly growing, past the confines of the research facility, past the confines of the region, and further.
However, while they were not alive to witness it, the dead had accomplished their goal, to create a being of Pure Energy. All the while as this energy grew, it knew fully what was happening, had absorbed the knowledge of the researchers, and sought a solution to its rapid expansion.
It quickly determined that to try to minimize the destruction, the Phasian needed to expel the energy it was absorbing. And so, it began to divide, splitting to smaller and smaller sizes. With each split, portions of the Phasian’s energy was lost. Eventually, the being returned to being a humanoid state.
The newly created being was able to prevent complete destruction due to its rapid formation, but the damage was already done. The once fruitful plane was ravaged, with all sources of magic, life and energy having been absorbed into the Phasian.
It felt no guilt in what happened, it knew it was not its choice on how it was formed. In fact, it knew that as its first course of action in its existence was to find a way to minimize the damage it was.causing, that the researchers had succeeded in the goal they sought out to accomplish.

The Founding of Vivantis

In a process similar to expelling the excess magic, the First Phasian, who dubbed himself Litrix after the first word he was able to recall, began to form other Phasians from the magic that he began absorbing after stopping his expansion. In the end, Alpha was able to form 28 other Phasians, each as confused as the other. They all possessed the knowledge of the researchers who formed them, but didn’t understand what exactly had just happened, other than the fact that the world they were born into was likely destroyed.
They formed a colony and established themselves. With the assistance of survivors they were able to gather, the Phasians began further delving into the former researchers' Planer Travel studies. As they were beings of Energy, the Phasians were able to utilize the established discoveries to travel to other planes of existence. With this Magic available to them, they were able to make contact with other species to further stabilize the magics. With the help of other speices, Phasians were able to conduct a proper evacuation of the survivors of the Destroyed World.
Despite this, the Phasians themselves choose to stay upon this world. They still did not know or fully understand what exactly they were, and thus did not want to risk a repeat of what had happened to this world. They designated this new world “Vivantis”, or “The In Between” due to their Magics being able to access nearly all Planes of Existence. They saw this space, these ruins of a destroyed world, the middle space of all the universe. Not necessarily important, but neighbouring all Planes.

The Six Factions

As the Phasians learned of their new bodies, they found that like Litrix before them, they could also divide themselves to expand their numbers. However, they required a sufficient Magical Power or Energy, often through absorbing it from an Artifact of some sort.
After learning this, Phasians began coming up with different methods of acquiring Magical Objects. Purchasing, trading, commissioning and finding them were all considered, but other Phasians recommended a more serious approach, such as stealing and pillaging.
This led to many disagreements on how to move forward. With their numbers only in the double digits they knew they needed to reproduce, but with vastly different approaches available, disagreements began to form, and the once united race started to split into competing factions.
Along with absorbing the memories of the former researchers, they also absorbed their competitiveness. Despite working towards a common goal, they constantly viewed their approach as the best until evidence was presented to the contrary. As such a result, six separate factions formed to determine the best approach going forward.

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

With the exception of the Pirate and Pillager organizations, Phasians tend to be open with communications with other species across the different planes, and to an extent are required to rely on them for survival. Requiring Magical Items and energy to survive, they need other species' assistance to craft, give, sell and share knowledge of such power. This has led to the more passive Phasians to be considered naïve and too trusting, leading some others to take advantage of their state.
Considering their ability to reproduce depends on just the amount of Energy one has within them, rather than the kinds of energy, this has led to many avenues of diplomacy across the Multiverse, including between fey and devils.

Lifespan

Unknown

Conservation Status

Highly Endangered

Average Physique

Slender and thin.

Body Tint, Colouring and Marking

Multiple Colored, often shifting.

Related Organizations

• The Echo Collective
• The Expanse Exchange

Related Technologies

• Planer Travel