Aren't the Blossoms Lovely?

the world

Monasteries & Vengeful Souls

ryondokos

A fantasy race of my creation. Literal meaning is "One from the Stars" or "Starborn", as the Ryondokos are literally stars come from the sky to the Material Plane. The God of Stars and Song, Eris the Starweaver, grants a star life whenever he wants something done within the mortal realm. Before being chosen, the star is nothing more than a ball of gas in space. After, however, they are given a soul and a fated Purpose. Once this Purpose is fulfilled, they must leave the Material Plane, but are allowed to keep their soul as a reward for their hard work and may travel throughout any of the other realms of the world as they please; they are simply forbidden to return to the Material Plane.

The Ryondokos are completely tied to their fates: they cannot and will not die before their Purpose is fulfilled. Any Ryondokos does not know their Purpose until it happens. The typical mindset of any given Ryondokos is to live life normally until their Purpose comes. While the standard outlook on one's Purpose is apathetic acceptance, there are surely many Ryondokos who dread their Purpose and attempt to escape it. The fate of the stars, however, cannot be escaped.

Upon being chosen, the Ryondokos emerge fully grown from a pool within the depths of the mountains that support the Sunkissed Snow Monastery. Once there, they can choose to join the monastery as a disciple or leave to forge their own path.

APPEARANCE Ryondokos are, compared to other humanoid races, abnormally tall. They appear offputtingly stretched out in all of their proportions with long necks, fingers, legs, and faces. While their color palettes can be varied, they always have a gray undertone to their entire appearance. Scattered on their skin are many starshaped blemishes in the vague shape of the constellation from which they hail. The largest mark is typically the position in which they reside. Instead of the typical human ears, they have head wings, as well as a pair of large wings that protrude from under their shoulder blades and droop low to the ground. While the wings are large enough to allow for gliding and additional height with jumps, they are too weak to allow the Ryondokos pure flight.

NOMENCLATURE Ryondokos nearly exclusively go by their Lineage names, as it is very rare for two members of the same constellation to be in the Material Plane at the same time. Their Given names are gifted to them upon their arrival at the Sunkissed Snow Monastery. Their Lineage names are almost exclusively the names of the constellation from which they came, though exceptions have been made for border cases.

The Empire

NOMENCLATURE The Empire that Viscardi hails from is a culture of three names: Given (or birth), Empirical (or family), and Aether (or personal). One's Given name is typically given in honor of a famous historical figure that has traits one's family wishes to bestow upon their children. One's Empirical name is a family or last name and denotes one's historic family line. One's Aether name is a personal name the individual picks for themself at any time after they come of age. The name can be anything, though usually comes from nature. It typically isn't shared with non-loved ones.