The races and tribes of Nitor - Part 3 - The tribes · 5:14pm Apr 18th, 2020
The tribes: despite their evolution into the three races, the descendants of the harmonious-ones retain their ancestral species's distinct tribes. As with the harmonious ones, the three sub-tribes of each race are inter-fertile with one another, yet always breed true to one of the tribes. Depending on the parent's ancestry, any child born will be terran, harpy or eldritch, while tribal identity can skip generations if enough mixing occurs. In general, in a mixed tribal pairing, any children born to a terran and eldritch will be eldritches, any children born to harpies and terrans will be terrans, and any children born to eldritches and harpies will be harpies. However, this is not a hard, fast rule.
The terrans: Born to nurture the land and bring forth life, the terrans are the hardiest and most grounded of the three tribes. Strong and solid like the earth they draw their power from, terrans are the physically strongest and hardiest of the tribes, representing the body of the harmonious ones. Befitting those who were charged with the care of the very land they walked upon, terrans were also able to use their magic to draw forth and nurture life, be it plant or animal. This connection to life also makes terrans the greatest healers among the tribes, as their magic and connection to living things gives them the power to encourage and foster the restoration of life to others. (Even shades, the shadow-stalker variant, are capable healers, but often must siphon off life energy from around them to aid in their healing powers).
Tribal features of the terrans:
- Natural strength and hardy physique
- Moderate healing factor (recover from wounds faster and are more resistant to illness)
- Magic encourages growth and health of other living things. Can be used to speed healing or, at higher levels, undo injuries completely. With proper training, terran magic can also be used to manipulate and control stone and soil.
- Minor geokinesis allows them to draw power from the earth to recover their magical reserves faster. Can only do this when the appropriate celestial body is in the sky.
Harpies: Born to tend the sky and the air, harpies are spirited, capricious, and energetic. Fittingly for the tribe that represents the spirit of the harmonious ones, the harpies are the only tribe with the natural ability to fly via a combination of magic and their wings. Harpies are masters of the air, and like the air, are both wild, free, and volatile. These people see the world in three dimensions, and are most at home when they can view a problem from many angles. As caretaker’s of the sky, harpies can use their magic to manipulate the weather, bringing forth life giving rain, clear or generate clouds from the sky, create winds and bring forth storms. In addition to their mastery of the weather, harpies are among the most martially oriented of the tribes, and enjoy competition, particularly displays of agility or combat prowess.
Tribal features of the harpies:
- Good dexterity
- Winged flight augmented by inherent magic
- Cloud walking and shaping, as well as manipulation of air.
- Magic can exert control of the weather. Multiple harpies working together can amplify this effect.
Eldritches: The keepers of raw magic, the eldritches are the most studious of the tribes, and view knowledge, artistry and creation as their domain. While all tribes are capable of magic, the eldritches are its undisputed masters, capable of manipulating the gifts of Harmony and her children to a degree neither of the other tribes can match. The most intellectually bent tribe, eldritches represent the mind of the harmonious ones, and live for magic and mental stimulus. Even the most physically oriented eldritches find a way to practice their magic. Eldritches are innovators, inventors, and creators, who love nothing more than learning or coming up with a clever solution to a problem.
Tribal features of the eldritches:
- All eldtritches are born with a focusing lens for their magic called a soul gem, which is embedded in their skull along the metopic suture just above the supraorbital ridge. When an eldritch is born, the soul gem is small and subdermal, but as they age, it slowly enlarges and emerges from the skin, until it’s fully exposed at the age of five. When using magic, the soul gem emits a soft glow.
- Advanced magic use, with great flexibility and control.
- Slightly raised intelligence and problem solving capacity.
- Ability to sense magic as it manifests. This ability must be trained to fully develop.
Active spell casting. Types of magic vary by race:
- Flame magic: Spell-dances performed by fire-callers are best at manifesting elemental (earth/air/fire/water/quintessence) energy, transmutation, enchanting, elemental summoning, and controlling light.
- Gloaming magic: Spell-songs cast by umbra-keepers are best at divination, manifesting kinetic, temporal and dimensional effects, defensive magic and controlling darkness.
- Shadow-magic: Spell-mantras cast by specters are best at necromancy, manipulating life energy, illusions, mind-manipulation, and controlling shadows.
So which genes are recessive and which are dominant? Does it work like that?
And does racism and prejustice exist between those three? And if it does is it common? Doesn't seem. Tribes seems to work together perfectly. but maybe it's just because it's not what's important right now.
In the show inter-ponies racisism wasn't brought up until the Finale and the Heartwarming Story. It was mostly to other species mainly because they didn't have much contact with other races, and with those they had, well it was mostly dragons, griffons (And maybe changelings) and they are not the nicest folks.
Are bat ponies just Dusk-gliders?
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It doesn't quite work in the typical dominant-recessive way of the real world. Its actually a failsafe put into place by Harmony to keep one tribe from trying to wipe another out. I'll probably explore it a bit more when I delve into the martial traditions (i.e. actually come up with them), but in general, the tribe that is strongest against another tribe will produce offspring of that tribe if they mix. Terrans have an advantage over eldritches, because their powers give them the ability to close in on the eldritch before they can get their magic off. Eldritches do well against harpies because an eldritch's magic can nullify the harpy's biggest strength, their ability to keep a distance with flight. And harpies do best against terrans because terrans have a hard time effectively countering a harpy's aerial advantage and ability to attack from the sky.
The tribes are aware of this triangle of vulnerability, and how interdependent they are on one another. Tribalism does exist to a degree, but it's not terribly prevalent. I just haven't had cause to explore that side of either Solaria or Selenia… yet.
As for inter-race relations, that's something that I've yet to explore.
I get the feeling this influenced at least one local version of rock-paper-scissors. Or, looking at your comment, it goes the other way around.
I assume shades can always supplement life energy with earth energy, but still require the former.
I can't help but imagine a folkloric equivalent of the tooth fairy. ("Be sure to keep a coin under your pillow for the soul gem breezie, dear.") Though I have to wonder if the process hurts.
Another fascinating bit of world building.
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More or less.
In all cases, it's more that earth energy acts as a catalyst, kick-starting the process and making it more efficient. For a shade, it allows them to "get better fuel economy" out of the life energy they consume, a bit like putting higher quality gasoline in a vehicle. The analogy goes even further, as "mixing" the life energy (i.e. - having some life energy processed while geokinesing, and some while not) means that while they do get some improved performance, they don't get the optimum. Because shadow-stalkers don't have a patron celestial body, they can only geokines when in standing in thick shadows.
To the first part; Well, now I am too.
Going with the tooth simile, it's a bit like teething, but not nearly as painful. The area around the soul gem progressively becomes more and more numb as the gem matures and enlarges, due to the nerves and capillaries withdrawing from the skin. As the gem begins to erupt, the tissue around the point of emergence selectively senesce and flake off, allowing the gem to freely emerge. The actual emergence process takes about a month, and while not exactly painful, is not a pleasant experience.
So, Maud must be a geokinesis master. Would she be able pull out feasts like Earthbenders from Avatar Aang/Korra? Can she talk with boulders or just with Boulder?
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Somewhat. A terran that trains their magic can create localized tremors, or summon earth spikes and fissures, but they can't levitate stone or rock like an earth bender can. In addition, such things are highly specialized form of martial art, which most civilians don't master. Most terrans use their magic to fuel their healing factor, which allows them to remain physically active and exert themselves longer than either of the other tribe can, or heal living things, be they plants, animals, or the land itself, sense the composition of the earth and how much life it can support, or determine how healthy a place is, and bring in life energy to revitalize it.
Maud, as a civilian, doesn't have the necessary martial training to use these combat applications. That said, she does have a large flame that is of slightly above average purity. She can very easily draw on her magic to enhance her physical strength and stamina, and has an uncanny understanding of rock and stone, to the point that she can 'speak with the very rocks' if she performs the proper spell dance. Where she falters is in her ability to revitalize living things, which is very weak compared to a typical earth-weaver.
Boulder is interesting, in that he's not just a stone, but a fragment of an earth elemental. Maud is unaware of this, and thinks that he's just a particularly chatty rock. One that has a fondness of sandwiches and fruit punch.
Given the penchant for mind-alteration magic, I get the feeling Wallflower would be an excellent Spectre
Also, love the detail with Maud. She’s one of the best characters and needs more love
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Regarding Wallflower, it's a distinct possibility. Canonically, she's an earth pony, but nothing says that she can't have an aptitude for using magic items that work on the mind. After all, one doesn't need to be good at making a tool to have uncanny affinity for using a tool.
I agree about Maud. She's easily up there on my list of favorites.
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Was also surprised when you implied Fluttershy was following Luna, not Sombra, mostly due to Flutterbat and life-draining and all. Do Dusk Gliders have bat wings?
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I honestly haven't decided yet, but I'm edging towards not. That's not to say that thestrals couldn't be another possible offshoot of the harpies. Or something that Luna bestows on her personal elites.
I wonder what vision the different species have of the harmonious ones? Because on one side, they seem to be that image of perfection and harmony, a bit like the people of the golden age in greek mythology. On the other side, they followed all the centaurs, including the 2 bad ones depending on the species, and they could see themselves as a better version of the armonious ones due to their evolution
It's also lead me to ask an other question. We seen that each species worship greatly it's centaur, but what is the place of empress harmony and the concept of harmony itself in the different culturs?
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Its a bit of both. The harmonious ones from the time before the splintered sky are regarded as the honored ancestors of each centaur's followers (I.e. the sun-gazers think of the harmonious ones as their respected ancestors, as do the night-weavers, and shadow-stalkers). The sun-gazers and night-weavers see themselves as the true heirs to the legacy of the harmonious ones (the shadow-stalkers' opinions on the matter are more complicated), and see those who followed the "wrong" centaur as deluded heretics for following the centaurs responsible for the splintering and the loss of harmony.
The descendants of the harmonious ones love and revere Harmony to only a slightly lesser degree than they do the centaur they follow. Harmony is the All Mother, the creator of the world and its protector against the chaos. At the same time, because she's not a strong fixture in their lives as their primary centaur, the races are not as devoted to her as they are to their centaur.
The concept of harmony is seen as an ideal, one that has been destroyed by the splintering. Essentially, the age of harmony was the golden age, one that was destroyed by the selfish actions of the two centaurs that a given culture does not worship (i.e. it's Luna and Sombra's fault harmony was lost from the perspective of the sun-gazers).
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Thank you sincerely for taking the time to answer our questions.