Ignions

Ignions
RESTRICTED -- '''There are only five phoenix and three salamanders in the world. Leave a message on the Character Creation board if you'd like to play one. Barghests are unlimited.'''

Ignions are Lesser Fae creatures who can use fire magic. Types include phoenix, salamanders, and barghests (hellhounds). Some ignions are also considered werecreatures.

Abilities
All ignions can create, use, and control fire. They are born with this ability and don't tire from using it. Practice makes them stronger. They cannot be harmed with fire -- in fact, many require frequent exposure to fire to survive.

Fire magics are notoriously hard to control. Even the most well-schooled ignion can lose control of their powers during times of high emotion or stress. When this happens nearby fires might flare uncontrollably, fire-based spells might backfire or affect everyone nearby, or other accidents with fires might occur. The more powerful the ignion, the greater the chance that an uncontrolled incident will hurt someone.

Most ignions have the usual two or three werecreature forms -- human, animal, and sometimes anthro. They may also dissociate their bodies into a small fireball (about the size of a human fist) or into a little orb of light.

Most ignions are quasi-immortal, with their age paused at "young adult" for centuries. Phoenix have the shortest lifespans, only about 200 years, while barghests and salamanders can live well into their 400s.

Phoenix
Phoenix are large burning birds. They're about the size of a turkey vulture (wingspan six feet, weight 2-5 lbs.). Their feathers glow brightly as if they're perpetually burning, but are pleasantly warm to the touch, not burning hot. Strange, intricate, iridescent patterns show across their feathers whenever they move. Phoenix come in two colours: they can have dark feathers with black feet, talons, and ceres; or their feathers can be pale and their points white. Their eyes are golden, orange, or red.

In human shape, phoenix tend to look predatory. They can have any colour of hair or skin but their eyes stay the same colour as their bird form. Their feather-patterns become faint iridescent tattoos across their entire body. Anthros are somewhere between human and bird.

Phoenix have powerful talons and beaks. They can tear through bone with perfect ease. They also have great innate skill with pyrokinesis and pyrogenesis. Phoenix have piercing, haunting voices which can paralyse most creatures with fear.

Water and ice are terribly harmful to phoenix. They cannot fly in the rain and may sicken if exposed to too much wet. For that reason most phoenix live in warm regions, such as Lefko's Territory, and build elaborate nests deep inside the cliff-caves of the Cails.

They can eat anything hot that fits in their mouths, including both edibles (hot breads, fruits, etc.) and non-edibles (hot metal, stones, etc.). Phoenix tend to be arrogant and aloof, caring little for the problems of others. However, their loyalty is absolute. Once a phoenix accepts a person as their friend, that person is their friend for eternity.

There are only five phoenix in the entire world. When one is injured beyond repair, it retreats to the back of its home lair, builds a massive fire, and climbs inside. Over the course of the next month its body is slowly charred away, revealing a pair of small eggs, one black and one white. Over the next month the two eggs hatch into young phoenix, one dark and one light. By the time the fire is out, one phoenix will have killed and eaten the other, surviving to replace its parent. Phoenix take about ten years to mature, then can live to a maximum of 200 years.

Salamanders
Salamanders are amphibious lizards. In natural form they're quite small, maybe 4 - 8 inches including tail, with blocky heads and stubby bodies and limbs. Their base colour is a dull grey-brown that blends well with their environment, but they can have any pattern of firey glowy patches or stripes overlaid on that colour. When threatened a salamander can puff up its frills, which glow a bright hot-coal orange.

Salamanders have the ability to change their size. They may grow as large as a dragon if they want. However, this requires a lot of energy -- the salamander must "feed" by lying in fire after they return to normal size. In human form salamanders appear entirely human. They rarely have an anthro form, and when they do it's horrifically ugly.

Unlike most ignions, salamanders are most comfortable in cold, wet places where they don't have to worry about controlling their powers. They do not breathe as often as other creatures and can spend hours underwater without needing to surface. Their body temperature is abnormally low. Of course salamanders are also comfortable in the middle of a roaring fire, and in fact they need to lie in a fire at least once a week in order to feed. They don't eat in the conventional sense. Instead they absorb the fire's energy directly through their skin.

If a salamander eats something poisonous, they can breathe poison at concentrations high enough to kill anyone who inhales it. If a salamander eats a hot coal, they can breathe fire.

They are generally good-natured little creatures that avoid attention, preferring to live quiet, secluded lives. However, they are considered true fire elementals and have drawn plenty of attention over the years for that, to the point that only three remain in all the world.

Barghests
Also called hellhounds, black dogs, black shucks, grims, or yeth hounds. Barghests are rare, elusive creatures. They never settle in one place for long. In humanoid form they appear utterly normal except for their burning, fiery irises, and they invariably have black hair. In canine form they look like gigantic shaggy black dogs. They are always strangers wherever they go, and they rarely visit the same place twice or stay for more than an hour.

It's said that barghests are actually pureblooded lythari descendents whose ancestors were terribly tortured during the Dragon War (as part of the dragons' magical experiments). This may or may not be true.

If a person sees a barghest, they must not mention it to anyone for seven days. Otherwise the barghest will be compelled to return and attack them. Black dogs are inordinately powerful and can rip even the strongest adventurer apart with their bare hands, not to mention their razor-sharp claws and teeth and their ability to light people on fire from the inside. Once they start a fight they never stop attacking until it's won. They seem to enter a kind of trance that only breaks once the victim is dead. '''NOTE: If you provoke a fight with a barghest by mentioning it within seven days of a sighting, you are agreeing to let your character die. The only way to beat a barghest is to roll 85+ three times in a row, then write out the best fight the Admins have ever seen.'''

Despite their ability to kill, barghests are completely peaceful by nature. They crave companionship, but because of the ill effects it can have on others, they often force themselves to be alone for long stretches of time, avoiding all contact with others until the loneliness becomes too great. It is extremely difficult to force a barghest to fight. If anyone tries to provoke them to fight they will leave, not be riled.

Barghests are susceptible to being summoned and compelled by powerful magi. Because of their nearly surefire ability to win fights, Master magi often summon them during heavy battles. It's considered very unethical because the barghests themselves hate to fight, but sometimes it's the only way to keep the world together. Barghests live around 400 years.