Realm of Mynros
Mynros is a realm deeply interwoven with magic, one that once held grand civilizations and sprawling lands, but now is a world of oceans traveled by the last creatures to call it home. These last living creatures are the turtonic, behemoth reptiles that travel the shallow oceans carrying the last remnants of landmasses on their backs. Turtonics hold great stores of magic power; which they use to terraform the world to their purposes, create creatures to reintroduce life to their desolate world and hold back the effects of parasitic mushrooms that feed on both their bodies and magic alike.
Among the creations of the turtonic are mhoats, creatures formed of magic that has taken a physical form, this physical state of magic is called aethic. They live upon the turtonics and aid these creatures by culling the mushrooms that sprout freely on these creatures they call home.
Geography
Mynros is a world of water, the deeper oceans lined by shallow waters. These shallow waters act as pathways for the few remaining landmasses that sail slowly across the face of the world. These islands are held on the backs of massive reptilian creatures called turtonics.
The deeper oceans are dotted with small bits of land, usually uninhabited and infested with the magic fungus that overtakes whatever lands it roots. On these small lands or just cresting the ocean’s surface are ancient ruins from a time before mhoats roamed the world. The only large landmasses remaining in the world is at the poles where thick mushroom forests dominate the land, and where the highest concentration of magic exists. These forests are warped and strange, the turtonics avoiding the oceans surrounding the poles and stories of those forests leading to myths and superstitions among mhoats.
Turtonic Islands
TBA
Magic
Magic on Mynros is a physical entity, the world so enmeshed with magic that it actively alters the formation of the world outside of the influences from the creatures living upon it. With magic so deeply tied to the world, it is no surprise that the creatures living there should also be embodiments of magic.
The world itself is so heavily cloaked in magic that it warps and alters the surrounding space, functioning similarly to high gravity leaves an actual effect on the flow of time and the sense of distance around and on the surface. There is a natural cycle to the magic, how it cycles through the world like a magnetic field of sorts, and the more that accumulates over time the wilder the magic becomes. This cycle allows for the accumulation of magic and is the cause of magic warping and altering the world as it follows natural pathways. When the world is warped too strongly reality will tear and portals come into existence, sometimes these are to other parts of the world but very rarely they can be to other places entirely.
In relation to portals, many of the largest islands have portal hubs both natural and manufactured that create simple pathways to the different islands across the realm. These hubs are relatively new, mhoats understanding of magic growing over time to allow for the development of their own portals. Now, these hubs allow for mhoats to be interconnected, transporting mhoats and items reliably between islands outside of the annual gathering of islands.
Beyond magic altering the world, each environment can present its own natural magic or there can be pockets of wild magic that influence how the magic within those areas displays. A frozen land may have low levels of magic, the cold actively dampening magic in all its forms. Meanwhile, a warm environment may have high levels of magic and it may flow more easily or with more intensity when used actively. Beyond these passive effects on magic overall, there can be pockets of magic so dense they allow large bodies to float freely in the air, this is usually seen as floating islands or other such large structures. How magic affects the surrounding world depends entirely upon the surrounding environment, often being an extension of what already exists naturally.
Lore
Long before mhoats, Mynros was a world somewhat familiar to a fantasy Earth. Humans, elves, and dwarves inhabited the land alongside familiar animals and creatures of myth. The civilizations of these past inhabitants were grand in scale, their command and control of magic to be admired; yet, the only creature to survive from these times was the turtonic.
The fall of this past world came on suddenly with the explosive growth of parasitic fungus, ones that feed on magic and any living creature it can find. As the fungus spread it consumed more and more magic, the energy this provided allowing for more extensive mutations which made it better conform to the many different places it spread. As the fungus absorbed the naturally forming magic of the world it also released this magic out into the world, altering the intensity of magic on the surface. Where there was a stable flow of magic it now began to flow uncontrolled, becoming wild enough to alter the world where it was most concentrated.
Turtonic’s ability to store magic played a key part in their survival, this ability to stockpile allowed them to outlast the other creatures and to counteract some of the effects of the parasitic fungus. Paired with the increased availability of magic in their environment, the turtonic were able to terraform the world, breaking apart continents, shifting the placement of material of the world to create shallow oceans. Part of this was to limit the growing surface for the mushrooms but it also allowed the turtonics more space to roam. Alongside this transformation of the world, they began to create the first creatures of magic, primarily aquatic fish-like creatures as a source of food.
Several centuries passed after the fall of the turtonic’s world, the parasitic mushrooms slowly taking their toll on the wanderers. Their desire for a solution to the parasites led to the creation of the first mhoats. Yel who was gifted with the magic to distort time and Myn with the magic to alter space. The combination of their power allows for them to create more of their own kind, becoming deities to the first mhoats they brought into being.
These deities lived alongside the first mhoats, helping them establish settlements across several turtle islands and sharing their purpose to aid turtonics. As they created more mhoats and more settlements were established, mhoats began to reproduce naturally on their own and form permanent social structures. With less reason to create new mhoats, Yel and Myn chose to draw away from their kind to a turtle island that is rarely seen.
With livable land created by Myn and the knowledge of how to speak with their island homes taught by Yel, mhoats began to see their world transformed. Smaller creatures began to fill the world, each with a purpose to maintain the islands for the mhoats living there. Mhoats began to keep some of these pets, helping them spread into new locations and assist mhoats in creating livable land at a slower pace than their deities' magic allowed.
Time passed, societies built up and ceremonies formed around the deities. This left mhoats with a disconnect from their origins and gave time for knowledge to shift. Where Yel and Myn were viewed as benevolent equals, their lack of influence and the way their powers showed in the world changed how they were perceived. Yel’s power became associated with order, those with that power often acting as healers and seers; meanwhile, Myn’s power became associated with chaos as the nature of this magic warps the world and is difficult to control. The disconnect from their deities created this sense of Yel as a peaceful presence, healing, and fortune where Myn was seen as a chaotic force, often associated with death and ill omens.
During this time of development a subspecies of mhoat surfaces, aquatics. To the mhoats living on land, they were a mystery, elusive, and rarely seen when they first took to the oceans. Their role to curb the formation of coral-like fungus under the waves, a place their land-based counterparts struggle to reach. The origin of aquatics has much to do with Myn, a personal project of theirs when they grew disenchanted with how their creations viewed them. This new subspecies has more direct contact with their deities, their knowledge more filled out than their fellow land mhoats.
Modern mhoats are industrious, using magic freely to make items and aid in their roles on the islands. Much of what they create appear handmade and any technology is powered by magic, often created by skilled craftsmen or pieced together by a determined individual. Books and written accounts are often stored in archives, paper is created by small shops or by individual mhoats rather than being widely available. Very little the mhoats create is done at a large scale, the quality and artistry valued over how easily available something is. Even magic is either taught in circles, places of magic research, or learned from others when an individual has a need for particular magic skills.
Mhoat bioluminescence
Mhoat's constantly give off a subtle glow that is more apparent in low light. This light is passively produced as a mhoat's body works through it's natural processes; the heart pumping blood, the lungs taking in and converting oxygen, or even a mhoat processing the food it consumes are all processes that produce this light. The reason these processes produce light is due to the mhoat ability to create silk, using its internal magic to burn off impurities that would otherwise weaken or alter the quality of the silk being produced.
Beyond the production of silk, diet can also contribute and cause a mhoat's bioluminescence to increase in intensity. When an item a mhoat consumed contains magic, it can increase the light a mhoat produces. In some cases, the magic an item contains is enough to alter a mhoat's form but with items that carry low levels of magic it will be burnt off in the process to increase the quality of a mhoat's silk production. This is because mhoat's do not absorb outside magic, so unless it meets a certain threshold it will only be worked out of a mhoat's body versus altering the mhoat.
Silk Info
Mhoats naturally produce a protective layer on the parts of their body that lack shell. This protective layer is formed from fine layers of silk that build up slowly over time. It begins as a liquid that slowly dries out into thin sheets of silk that a mhoat can pull from their body at any time to be used for a variety of things.
Depending upon the state the silk starts (liquid or dried), a mhoat can make a variety of useful things and with further processing can make even more. The liquid form is perfect for use as a glue, elastic binding, adhesive bandaging, etc. while the dried form can be worked into thread for fabrics, used to wrap and preserve items long term, and other such uses. When processed further the silk can be made into paints, paper, construction materials, and many other things.
Liquid is the default state of silk and can be produced very quickly and continuously as a mhoat needs so long as the mhoat in question is well fed and healthy. Dried silk takes longer to produce and as a result is a bit more difficult for a mhoat to produce in significant quantities, but is still commonly available especially among mhoats who work with silk fabrics.
Beyond its uses, a mhoat's silk naturally takes on the color of the mhoat's goo. This color isn't always obvious but when layered or gathered in a mass it begins to show its color. If a mhoat desires a different color or a unique quality to develop in fresh layers of silk they would need to eat foods of that color or quality to produce that type of silk. Examples of this is a mhoat eating green foods to create a green silk or eating gold to produce a silk with the shimmery quality and color of gold.
Aethic
A mhoat's entire body is formed of a malleable goo-like substance that is called aethicc. Areas covered in plating naturally confine this malleable goo into a solid form, but the uncovered areas of a mhoat's body are able to transform with some level of freedom so long as those areas remain usable to the mhoat. A mhoat's arms have the most freedom in transforming, the limbs mimicking various tools and types of arms and legs depending on the mhoat's current form being feral or anthro. Some common transformations mhoats are seen using are a sickle for cutting crops or chopping down mushrooms, a hammer for building, something vaguely fin-like to improve swimming, and many other possibilities exist beyond these. Alongside this arm transformation, a mhoat is able to sprout a secondary set of arms that form beneath the primary set and these can also transform similarly to the main arms. Beyond this a mhoat is able to do some basic transformation on the hooves to allow variations such as paws, hands, and other types of feet, as well as, to extend the length of their tongue (though this is arguably a sillier thing to use these abilities on).
The aethic itself has some variation in look and feel, usually dependent upon the texture a mhoat displays. The most basic appearance a mhoat's aethicc can have is either shiny and smooth or matte and velvety/soft. Beyond this, mhoats have been known to form fluffy aethicc with a soft fur feeling, aethicc with a cracked appearance that feels dusty or the top crumbles when pressure is applied, and other such goo textures.