NIghtlands: Four Races Lifecycle Thoughts

[mimi_sardinia]

I had a thought on the four Great Races - Quendár, Unicorns, Phoenixes and Dragons - and their lives. Why can't all four of them be immortal and share the Netherworld?

Well first I have already settled myself on the Dragons have a set lifespan, with the Great Dragons having 5000 year average (they could actually have from 3500 up to 7000). I don't want to retcon that, and Phoenixes have their burning cycle too, so I thought it through a bit.

So I have already defined Quendár - they reach physical adulthood at 50 and after that can live forever, but can be killed by extreme physical damage or will themselves to death due to psychological trauma. However their souls go to an Arcane Realm known as the the Netherworld, and a priest (a Quendár skillset) can contact them and help them return to their repaired body to resurrect them, or link them with a pair of prospective parents to be reincarnated.

Now with that as a reference...

Unicorns are very similar to Quendár in that they can live forever barring extreme physical damage. Unicorns are very empathically sensitive which is what gave rise to legends of only virgins being able to touch them, so they tend to be even more psychologically sensitive than Quendár who are able to be warriors. Unicorns can defend their territory, but find war distressing. Unicorns do not resurrect, they only reincarnate. They do not have an equivalent to Quendár priests, but are less inclined to stay in the Netherworld than the Quendár are, usually reincarnating between one to five years after their death, with a maximum of ten years if there are no bonded pairs seeking to foal. Refusing to reincarnate is extremely uncommon, meaning New Souls are also uncommon.
Edit 25/4/18: Having added Ki-rin as a kindred race to unicorns, the same applies to them as their northern kin, though they are more psychologically hardy and more willing to fight, which means more likely to go into battle and be killed. This may also translate to a higher turnover of reincarnation./Edit.

Phoenixes have periodic renewals by fire, where when their body gets worn down by age or injured, they will self-immolate and regenerate their body to an uninjured, healthy young version of themselves. They truly die only very rarely and when they do they rest in the Netherworld until a bonded pair lay an egg. They also very rarely decide to never return to life, but a rare phoenix will choose to not return and a New Soul will be born. The rate of New Souls is more often than Unicorns but less than Quendár.

Dragons have set average lifespans, varying depending on their size as the smaller dragons have shorter lifespans than the larger. Dragons however do share the Netherworld with the other races and reincarnate. Dragon breeding rates are substantially faster than the other three races, but their society is also a lot rougher and more wild, so they have a lot more likelihood of dying at a young age as well. Dragons do not have a resurrection or regeneration method.


I imagine the four races drift into different parts of the Netherworld, not mixing all that much while dead. High level Quendár priests may be able to sense the other races while reaching into the Netherworld to contact dead people, but usually respect their right to rest and leave them be.


I also have not thrown out the idea of eldritch entities native to the Netherworld, but I also think for the most part both dead souls and priests don't interact with them, as such interactions have caused problems in the past as such creatures finding a way into the living world is a serious problem. I imagine the Netherworld creatures have something of their own ecology that they live in and dead souls are more like part of the landscape to them.