Born Immortality
"I... um... my name is... Sam. A friend brought me here after we were attacked by some starved ghouls. She took me hunting and when we got back I started feeling this... new thing... Am I cursed?" "No, being Born is not a curse. It's a blessing, one of the best a mortal being can receive." “But.. I will outlive my friends, my family, everyone I will ever meet will die before I do! If they are not killed I will have to watch them waste away as their bodies give up!” "Not if you know who to befriend. The Drow and Draco live until killed by blade or disease, and this sense we possess can locate others of our kind." “So I can find other immortals with this feeling... are there many others? Do you know them?”
Causes
The cause of Born Immortality is linked to the strength of one's soul. In general, most mortal beings have roughly the same amount of energy in their soul as others of the same type. This leads to predictable lifespans and eventually, one's death.
Born immortals, however, have souls with such a strength that it can be felt as a physical sensation, and can far more easily sense the divinity of other beings. The origins of these large souls is thought to date back to the world's Dark History, before even Humans or Drow inhabited the world. Pieces of the souls of Immortals killed by a domineering god, or pieces of the god itself following its death at the end of Clarity.
Symptoms
The strength of a Born Immortal's soul manifests itself as a cessation of one's aging processes once the body has grown and matured, and natural deference by mortal and mythical beings, including Werebeasts, Humans, Elves, Lamia, Drow, Dryads, Dragonkin, Draco, and more. This often results in Born Immortals residing in positions of authority, and contributes to the prevalence of monarchies and dictatorships in the modern day.
Born Immortal Gifts
"Gifts", as referred to by both the Immortals of the planar world and many people who are confirmed to be Born Immortals, are the abilities granted to individuals by their status as a Born Immortal aside from respect and eternal youth. Some individuals lack a gift as a result of an incompatibility between the soul and the body, which can be corrected via various means, such as transfiguration (usually from male to female), or becoming a vampire or ghoul. Schools of magic such as the New Dendarin Military Academy and the University of Zeliph have attempted to catalogue the various abilities, which are listed below.Necromancy
Necromancy is the capability to reverse death or control the dead. The oldest known born immortal, under the alias "Lesaia", is a naturally gifted necromancer, having risen a recently deceased cat from the dead at the age of nine. While she was not skilled enough at the time to slow its decay, her second project animal was far more long lived, some believing that her current cat is nearly as old as she is.Teleportation
Teleportation is the ability to move from one place to another at will. Valinora Reyani'isil Soziaej is capable of teleportation to anywhere she has been in the past or can currently see, utilizing her ability to create supremely accurate maps of the Planar World and others, many of which are still used today.Fear
Fear is the ability to cause someone or something to fear the immortal utilizing the ability. Zayna of Sozia utilized this ability to great effect as regent of Sozia and Exia following her husband's assassination, preventing either from deposing her in favor of her juvenile daughters until they came of age for fear of her wrath. Joffrey Solum is capable of producing an amplified version of his own voice that induces fear in those who hear it.Telepathy/Empathy
Telepathy and empathy are the abilities to communicate between individuals using thoughts alone. While telepathy works via the transmission of information, empathy serves to sense and communicate emotions. An example of this ability is that of Kariya of Denidaria, who possesses innate proficiency in both telepathy and empathy, and is able to fluently and silently communicate with large numbers of people simultaneously. While these can be trained, Kariya developed both spontaneously with proficiency to rival lifelong practitioners when her Sineju Muej began at the age of 11. Dina Selen, the head counselor of the New Dendarin Military Academy, was a telepath and empath with similar capabilities to Kariya of Denidaria, but her quirk in this was not the ability to link numbers of people together through her as it was in Kariya, but instead to dive deep into the memories of others to such an extent that the holder of the memory relives it along with her. She uses this in a therapeutic sense to allow people to work through traumatic histories in a healthy way. Selene Deroya also possesses limited telepathy, and full empathy.Antitelepathy
Antitelepaths are capable of shutting down their minds so that they may not be affected by external stimuli, including attempts made by telepaths to psychically torture them or read their minds, or to prevent psychological trauma. The latter is usually an automatic response to traumatic events. Known antitelepaths include Sara Valchen and Emily Reede.Allegiance Manipulation
While a strange title, allegiance manipulators are capable of influencing the will of people near the user, preventing onlookers from doing harm to the user and their allies. Selene Deroya possesses this ability, utilizing it to prevent her own, her sister's, and her niece's assassinations on multiple occasions, and securing an ally in Exia by manipulating her king. She has since vowed not to use it on the Exian royal family since as Amalxa, the queen of Exia and Selene's bondmate, has found it to be both dishonest and unnecessary.Shapeshifting
A common ability that allows the changing of one's physical form in various ways. Samath-Raghul, born immortal and ex-ghoul coven leader, possesses both born immortal shapeshifting abilities and those granted to him by his ghoulism, combining to make a very potent form of shapeshifting without limits to the shape, size, or length of time that it can be maintained. Lady Drake, a demon matriarch and born immortal, possesses a limited form of shapeshifting that applies only to her primary sex organs in addition to her primary capabilities. One of Lady Drake's purebred daughters, Paiala, Maid of House Drake. also possesses limited shapeshifting that allows her to conceal the majority of her demonic traits, including the presence of her horns, markings, dark sclera, and pointed teeth. Whether she has other gifts is not known. This, combined with her generally pleasant demeanor, yellow eyes, blonde hair, and her height of 180 centimeters, or 5' 11", allows her to pass as a drow in the planar world when not with real drow.Mark of Ownership
Lady Drake is the only known individual to possess the ability to "mark" individuals as her own. These marks appear on the bodies of individuals who Lady Drake has copulated with or injured, the list of such individuals displays significant overlap. These marks slowly make the bearer more willing to accept suggestions or orders from Lady Drake and allow her to sense the position of marked individuals.Durability
A physical durability that allows its possessor to resist injury, taking much more force than normal to cause damage to the body, in turn resisting death. Ira Dorenisil Zaynaisil Exiaej's gift is durability, with the only lasting injury ever dealt to her being dealt by her father's blade, Purity, forged by the immortal Virda. It was above her divinity, thus bypassing her immortal gifts. This left her with a permanent scar and blind in her left eye.Retroactive Immortality
Retroactive Immortality is yet another extremely rare ability that allows those who possess it to automatically recover from death. It is only known to be present in one naturally born individual. Amelia Kohen, daughter of Lady Drake and Kora Kohen, automatically resurrects upon death. Any and all injuries she sustains heal themselves, including but not limited to beheadings and bisection, dozens of compound fractures, gunshot wounds, and stabbings. Malnutrition and dehydration fail to cause death in the same way, as do diseases. Amelia's life as a guttersnipe left her small, frail, and bitter, which wasn't helped by being half demon. This left her feeling inadequate, often resorting to violence and military threats to prove herself, or shouting her opponents down. Her abilities drew the attention of Sterlina, who took her abilities and combined them with ancient magic and recreations of natural processes to create the A-Undying units, clones of Amelia who maintained her inability to die. In contrast to Amelia, they were trained to utilize the strength and reflexes given to them by their demon heritage and well fed, growing to be dominating figures capable of building and maintaining muscle.Reflection and Amplification
The ability of Amalxa Zaynaisil Dorenisil Exiaej is understood to be unique in the history of gifts. Her ability was not well understood for many decades, but it was eventually found to be an amplifier for the abilities of those around her. The fear aura her mother exudes becomes stronger, Selene Deroya's influence is expanded, and Amelia Kohen is capable of resurrecting herself in mere minutes as opposed to hours.Phasing
Phasing is the ability to move through solid objects at will. This ability is usually limited to man made objects, though with practice, this restriction can be circumvented. One recipient of the gift of phasing is Josephine Hart, which was discovered on accident during boot camp after being drafted into the New Dendarin military.Healing
A relatively common Born Immortal gift, healing is a gift that allows either one's own accelerated healing, or the accelerated healing of others. Renee Alpons possesses this ability in both forms, having it awaken and using it to save not only her own life, but that of Josephine Hart and Kariya of Denidaria after a freak accident occurred that would have killed the three of them had they been left without it.Affected Groups
While anyone has the ability to become Born, the condition is very rare, with only 1:100000 births resulting in a Born Immortal. The odds are skewed in the favor of "Powerful Families", or those with strong souls. Due to the natural tendencies of individuals to defer to those of higher divinity, these are most common in royal or otherwise affluent families.
Of those 1:100000, only 1:50 will be male. The reasoning behind this is thought to be because either A: Women have the capability to produce life and lose part of their soul upon conception, thus having larger souls by default, or B: All known true Immortals choose feminine forms as their base form. Neither has been proven, and it is doubted that they ever will be.
A common sight in Born Immortals is an LGBT identity, being far more likely to be homosexual or transgender, a condition known as somuejnita to the drow. Again, the reason is unknown, but it's thought to be a natural security to keep them from procreating into a state of massive overpopulation.
History
While the first case was not known, legend in the region of the world that was once part of the Dendarin Empire implies that Arthur Dendarin, who founded the Dendarin Empire in the year AC35, was the first Born Immortal. It is not proven, though it was him who gave the condition its current name.
...Set your eyes upon me, people of Dendarin. Look upon my face, tell me I appear to be any older than thirty. As my life has been full, one of one hundred and fifty-one years, I want for only one thing. A woman to share eternity with. I call upon any woman born to be immortal as I have to come forth and sit by my side at the throne of the world...Arthur Dendarin is thought to have been an allegiance manipulator, which allowed the quick expansion of his empire through the southern parts of Maney. His first wife, who was part of an arranged marriage at the age of 15 while Arthur was 17, survived to the age of 54. Arthur at this time was said to look as if he was in his late thirties despite being 56 years old. He survived to the age of 151, still with the appearance of a man in his 30s, before being assassinated by a female drow. The oldest known Born Immortal is a human individual known as Lesaia. She was born around the year AC200, or roughly 165 years after Arthur Dendarin. The greatest known concentrations of Born Immortal individuals is New Dendarin's three Immortal Companies, which number 150 members each, and Zeliph's Aerial Mage Corp, which has roughly 400 members.
Cultural Reception
Born Immortals are often given respect, status, and admiration as though they had wisdom beyond their years, though in some cases they do deserve this respect, such as in the case of Lesaia, who is nearing 1000 years of age as of A New Dendarin.
The very fact that royals tend to be Born more often than other individuals has caused some concern among the populace of some nations, such as Bausable. Adriana Deroya has been the queen of Bausable since AC749, with roughly a 200 year gap following the fall of the original Bausable and the recreation of the nation around AC1000. The population of the nation was growing tired of her. She was a human, what gave her the right to reign for so long?
Princess Selene Deroya always accompanied her sister and niece when out in the world, constantly exuding an aura that spoke to the very soul of any who looked upon her family. It only asked that they not kill them. This seemed to have worked. Most detractors simply moved into southern Bausable, where an independent governor was in charge of the region.
This region fought for three years to be free from the queen's influence, and finally succeeded in AC1189. The first leader of the newly independent Novya Polustranya was Anastasia Izabel Vertannen, another Born Immortal, however this time she was elected and could only serve as Premier for as long as the public supported her.
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