✦ GENERAL LORE ✦
Orins are creatures born of magic, living in a reality parallel to our own. Orins sustain themselves through feeding on the dreams of other beings, including (but not limited to,) humans.
This is ultimately a harmless practice, as an Orin feeding on a dream simply means you awake with no memories of the portion of the dream that the Orin has consumed. For an Orin, however, consuming these dreams is as essential as food.
While an Orin is inside a dream, their magic is strongest, allowing them to freely and fully shapeshift. They may also shapeshift outside of dreams, but it is much more rudimentary, as there are aspects they cannot change such as their ears and tail.
The fanned appearance of an Orin’s ears allows them to paint “waves” of color inside of a dreamscape, while their baubles exist to create sounds.
Each Orin’s bauble tends to be filled with their favorite sounds, whether they are soothing like windchimes, or harsh like nails on a chalkboard. It’s much easier to manipulate the direction of a dream when controlling the sounds and colors, after all!
Horns are the source of an Orin's power.
When an Orin consumes a dream, it's stored inside their horns.
Their horns don't have infinite storage, though! If their horn starts getting too cramped with tons of dreams, Orins visit one particular ethereal pool that lingers in a corner of our consciousness. Here, they deposit their dreams for safekeeping.
A consumed dream becomes a part of the Orin, so it has no worries about losing it among the others. Because when it returns for it, the piece of their soul will always find its way back.
When an Orin reaches the end of it’s lifecycle, it gives back that which it took by turning into a pleasant dream for other living creatures to experience.
DESIGN NOTES:
Orins do not have noses of any kind. They may have “fake” nose markings on their snout, but they must not look like “lined” or “3D” noses. While Orins may be able to shapeshift many aspects of their appearance, we’d like them to still retain the general vibes of an Orin!
✦ ORIN SUBTYPES ✦
All Orins specialize in creating something- usually just one or two things at most- throughout their lifetime. They use the dreams stored in their horns as the source of their magic to practice the art of Creation.
Some may find it comes easy to them, while others may toil through many trial and errors until they eventually succeed.
Orins are communal critters, so many will gather together to barter or gift their creations to other Orins! The type of magic they specialize in reflects in the horns they have, primarily discerned by the number.
These create the Orin Subtypes:
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Illusionists (One Horn): Those who specialize in Shapeshifting and Illusion magic.
Technicians (Two Horns): Those who dedicate their lives to master the art of Creation. Usually these creations consists of 'physical' objects.
Guardians (Three Horns): Those who hone their magic to become sturdy and powerful protectors to combat or hunt nightmare. Training to become a Guardian takes equally the amount of dedication Technicians do for their craft, as well as taking on many risks facing the darkness of the heart.
Celestials (Crowns; Floating Horn): Those who are close followers of the Goddess Crea. Their close spiritual attunement allows them to master the creation of Spells and Blessings.
Hollow (Broken Horns): Those who have been corrupted to no return. Hollow Orins can originate from any variant besides Celestial, but are most common among Illusionists. The less horns an Orin has, the more difficult it is to fight off corruption.
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Orins can be born into any Subtype, and may be content dedicating their lives to their origin's Creation path.
But some Orins may feel like they want to explore something more in their lives beyond their origin. Orins who feel this way can explore the roles of other subtypes and adapt one of these as their Creation. Once they master their craft alike their peers, their horns will change to reflect their new subtype.
As Creations are an Orin's life goal to master, an Orin who chooses a different path halfway through another may find it challenging to adapt. But as always, long and hard work will get you to your goals!
Through these trials, some subtypes may cross into one another, creating Hybrids.
DESIGN NOTES:
There will be restrictions on how you can use the trait "Alternate Storage (COSM)". Regular Orins using Alt. Storage require ALL of their horns to remain on their head at all times. If you would like to achieve an object floating above your Orin's head, it needs to be in the form of "Projection (COSM)" in addition to some sort of visible horn(s) on your Orin's forehead. (eg, having a halo projection rung around your Orin's horn.)
✦ CORRUPT & HOLLOW ORINS ✦
While dreams are an essential part of an Orin’s life, Nightmares can be utterly detrimental.
It appears that bad dreams have dire consequences for an Orin’s well being, as they can chip away at an Orin’s magic and life force. The more horns an Orin has, the greater the force they can withstand. An Illusionist or Technician, for example, could be harmed relatively quickly, while a Guardian could potentially fend off a nightmare for much longer.
When an Orin is exposed to too much nightmarish miasma, they fall horribly ill. If this goes unchecked, an Orin may enter a Corrupted state.
A Corrupt Orin is identifiable by a cracked or broken horn.
In this state, they are incredibly volatile, though not always intentionally or inherently aggressive. They’re more akin to a cornered animal, sometimes lashing out due to the pain and panic of their life force slowly leaking.
When an Orin becomes Corrupt, it is possible to perform a Purification Ritual to heal them. This is done when many Orins come together to offer up some of their own magic to heal the afflicted Orin’s injuries. It can be a dangerous or arduous process, so it is most commonly performed by large groups.
Unfortunately, things can take a rather dark turn if an Orin is not Purified swiftly enough. When enough mana seeps out, the Orin can become more aggressive until reaching a point of rampage. The more powerful an Orin is in life, the more destructive this rampage is. This phase is short lived, however, as their once infinite flow of mana becomes finite.
Once their mana has fully seeped out and their horns have cracked open entirely, an Orin enters a Hollowed state. A Hollow Orin is unable to be purified, there is no going back. They exist merely as a shell at this stage.
Many Orin societies don’t know what exactly happens to Hollowed Orins afterwards. In some cultures, there are whisperings of Hollow Orins being an incubation period for something much more sinister…
DESIGN NOTES:
Regular Orin horns may not show cracks or appear broken. Horns are the source of an Orin's power, and cracked horns signify their power leaking out which makes them Corrupted. Corrupted Orins currently may not be made as MYOs.