Creatyrspace
Questions people have asked about the Creatyrs, with the answers and the exact place in the lore they come from. Search in your own words.
Yes. The inflation is visible. As a Creatyr takes in aether, its chest and flanks swell slowly outward, and they settle again as it releases it. The movement is gradual and smooth, matching the continuous way the sacs are regulated, and it is most noticeable when the creature is rising or sinking.
A few things affect them. Thin air gives less lift, strong emotion can unsettle their flight, bright direct light is hard on their eyes, and a dim glow means weaker flight. Strong wind can push them, but they feel a gust building through their wings and tail and drift with it instead of fighting it. Most rain never lands, because the calm aether around them nudges the drops aside, though what does land is felt sharply. There is no bubble of different physics. Their quieting influence on the aether is small and only softens turbulence close to the body.
Touch is possible, since they are semi-corporeal, and it is always the Creatyr who decides. A Creatyr reads the presence of those beside it through the aether, so it knows when its companion cannot see it. It may then offer contact, a wingtip or the soft filaments of its tail, held still and close enough to be found by touch. A person cannot take hold of one by asking or by reaching. There are also ways to perceive them without touch or sight: a low hum felt in the chest, a warmth that feels like being lit from within, and the hush of the calm aether around them.
Yes, they understand the idea of writing, as the way other beings keep memory in marks. They just cannot see flat ink, because their eyes are built for motion and low light, so a page is usually a smooth shape to them. Carved, raised or engraved lettering can be read through the resonator hum and the fine filaments of the tail. Writing made with strong feeling can leave a trace in the aether that they sense as feeling rather than words. A Creatyr written language is also in the making, and it will be shown and made available when it is ready.
Their blood is built on phosphorus, the element whose name means light-bearer. It runs pale and almost clear, and it carries oxygen and aether out to the wings, tail filaments and facial ridges. Every plant uses phosphorus to carry energy, and it glows when it meets oxygen, which suits a being that is both spirit and plant. Unlike burning phosphorus, theirs glows gently and stays cool, and it shows most in the fine veins of the wings.
Yes, faintly. Their blood has a clean smell, like the air just after a thunderstorm. It is so slight that it is only noticed up close, and it has none of the harshness of the burning phosphorus of other worlds.
Very advanced. The Creatyrs build their own technology, called Driftcraft, so they can follow thresholds into worlds with no air, extreme heat, extreme cold or heavy radiation. It includes four kinds of armour. Emberveil, Hoarweave and Starward are sealed full suits that carry their own Lifespring for oxygen and protect against heat, cold and radiation, while Bloomshell is a light, comfortable part suit for places with air. A separate aether-based core worn at the top of the back gives abilities such as healing support or X-ray reconnaissance. There are also three staffs for healing and for building with and without oxygen. The chapter pairs each piece with the real science behind it.
They can live without it. Plant Mode is only possible where there is oxygen, and it lets the spirit take in oxygen and gain its benefits: it burns its stored fuel normally, its blood shines and the full language of light is open to it. Spirit Mode needs no oxygen, because aether sustains it. It is not weak and can live for a very long time, but its glow drops to a faint pulse and it can do very little, which is why many who dwell in Spirit Mode become guides and watchers. The mode is always the Creatyr's own choice, so one can stay in Spirit Mode even in an oxygen-rich place, and neither mode changes how it looks, only how strongly it glows.
Every full helm has vents that can be opened in a place with air, so air reaches the antennae and facial ridges and the pressure sense and hum work as normal. Where the air is safe, a Creatyr can also take its helm off. In a vacuum the vents are closed, but their main sense, aetheric sensitivity, does not need air, and the materials of Driftcraft let aether pass through. Vibrations can also be sent through solid things like the ground, a hull or the suit and read as they return. What they lose in a vacuum is the fine map of the air, so no pressure and no weather.
The Bloomshell leaves the wings bare. Each full suit can cover them with wing mantles, thin layered sheaths that fold and flex with the wing instead of binding it. A mantle can be drawn back in a place with air, so the wing can feel the wind and show its light, and drawn closed where the air is gone or the danger is high. The mantles are translucent, so a covered wing still gives off a soft glow.
Yes. The Creatyrs on active duty live aboard very large home ships, of which there are two kinds, Rootholm and Wispholm. They have over twenty Rootholm and fourteen Wispholm. Each home ship carries a fleet of sixteen large ships, thirty-five medium ships and one hundred small ships, and each is shielded and armed, because the Creatyrs take its protection very seriously. The sixteen large ships on each home ship are four Canopies (carriers that hold aircraft), four Stormkeels (battlespace ships for water, air and space) and eight Seedholds (cargo ships). The medium ships are six types of jet for space: Thornwing (fighter), Driftferry (transport), Gloamwing (advanced UAV), Gladehawk (Blackhawk-style utility transport), Briarlance (ground attack) and Echoleaf (electronic warfare). The small ships are Sprig (scout), Burr (fighter) and Seedpod (drop pod). On the ground they have three tanks (Ironbark, Hawthorn, Willowback), four cars (Hollowbark, Fernrunner, Seedwagon, Hearthwagon) and Longbough artillery.
Every home ship carries cloaking, armour, shields and weapons, and the Creatyrs take their defence very seriously. A Rootholm can be seen, but it can cloak when it needs to vanish. A Wispholm is almost never seen. It is built in the image of a Creatyr in Spirit Mode, with a faint glow and a thin presence, and like a Creatyr arriving at a threshold it keeps part of itself in the aether between worlds, so the most an observer sees is a faint glow at the edge of the field. Only a Creatyr, through aetheric sensitivity, can find it reliably. The Gloamveil cloaks the ships themselves, and the Moteveil is a smaller cloak made for UAVs.
Very big. They have at least 34 home ships, over twenty Rootholm and fourteen Wispholm. Each carries 16 large ships, 35 medium ships and 100 small ships. That makes at least 544 large ships (136 Canopies, 136 Stormkeels and 272 Seedholds), 1,190 medium ships and 3,400 small ships, so 5,134 ships in all carried by the home ships. On the ground they have over 105,000 vehicles, roughly 30,000 tanks, 60,000 cars and 15,000 artillery pieces, of which 20,000 are inactive, so at least 85,000 are in active service. There is no count of weapons or ammunition, because they can simply make them when needed. These are minimums, because they have over twenty Rootholm.
The Creatyr Ascendancy counts 174,000 Creatyrs in all. Of these, 102,000 are on active duty in the Ascendancy, aboard its ships and in its bases. The other 72,000 live on the homelands, in cities and homes, and none of them are on active duty.
Creatyrs eat and drink much as other creatures do. Fruits, drinks and many other foods all feed them, and most of it can be eaten raw or cooked, because they do not mind how it is prepared as long as they can eat it. What they eat does not change with their mode, so a Creatyr in Plant Mode and one in Spirit Mode eat the same things. Food fills the energy stored in the lipid-rich tissue of their bones, and aether drawn in by the sacs tops them up and feeds the glow.
Creatyrs are the family of Rikkor kitbash beings. A Creatyr can be anything related to the Rikkor kitbashes: the Rikkorchi, the Rikkorvali, and the other Rikkor kitbashes that join them, including kitbashes that have not been born yet. The Rikkorchi were the first of the Creatyrs, so for now the lore in Chapters 1 to 7 describes the Rikkorchi, and it will grow as the next kitbashes join the family.
Yes, twelve kinds, and all are made for defence first. Every weapon is dual-mode and can fire two kinds of shot. Thornshot is physical, a tungsten bullet that needs no core and pierces nearly anything. Lumenshot is energy, powered by a Lanterncore. The twelve are Thorn (assault rifle), Longthorn (sniper rifle), Scatterseed (shotgun), Nettle (submachine gun), Needle (sidearm), Bramble (battle rifle), Thicket (light machine gun), Splinter (marksman rifle), Ironwood (anti-materiel rifle), Puffball (grenade launcher), Bristle (personal defence weapon) and Spike (heavy revolver). They can make weapons and ammunition whenever they need them, so there is no count of them. Creatyrs do not seek war, but when an enemy threatens them in a dangerous world, they protect themselves.
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