Starborn : Version #276

Starborn are naturally social, curious, playful, and often mischievous. They gravitate toward one another, enjoy physical closeness, carry one another, and enjoy being carried. They have no concept of personal space and no taboo around touch. They have no cultural expectation that playfulness must be abandoned with age, and no stigma attached to remaining playful. Older starborn tend to become calmer and more collected over time, but they do not lose their curiosity or enjoyment of games.

A newly formed starborn will instinctively seek out a starborn with more marks. A starborn with more marks is older and more experienced and can serve as a guide. An ember or spark is much more likely to survive if they find an experienced renascent or ascendant to guide them.

Starfire Shrines are important gathering places, sources of light, and destinations for returning starborn. Major shrines have access to the stars, while smaller shrines provide safe places along journeys. A dead shrine can be reignited with winged light, though this requires a starborn to give up one of theirs. Often, older starborn with plenty of winged light will do this. Some resemble large bonfires. The portal network is something that still survives from the seyren civilization that once thrived in the Realms. Aviary Village has one of the greater shrines, and is a safe area starborn often stop to rest. Many spirits who are tethered to the Realms remain at the village where they interact with the starborn who visit. It contains a portal nexus. The most powerful Starfire shrine known is simply referred to as “Home”.  Most older starborn return here when they complete the cycle. Home is said to be where the very first seyren ascended to start their kingdom in the clouds.

While starborn don’t really have a concept of property, they do often claim little nooks and crannies in seyren ruins as a nest, a place they gather anything interesting they find, where they go to rest and recover. Most bring starfire lanterns there to make it somewhere they can recharge their light and heal if injured. They tend to nest around central shrines, in places where many other starborn gather.

They are not equipped with the anatomy necessary for spoken language, although they produce distinctive calls, chirps, squeaks, squawks, and other vocal expressions, all sounding musical and resonant. Calls work together with post. They lack a spoken language made up of words, so they don't actually have names. They recognize eachother through their energy signature and can call directly to someone they know.

Starborn can acquire knowledge of language through memory sharing. They can understand spoken language and learn to read and write very quickly without becoming capable of speech. 

Memory sharing is fundamental to their nature. They share memories with one another and encounter the memories of spirits. Those experiences can affect their appearance, and they can learn to reproduce structures observed in a memory. A copied feature does not necessarily come with an understanding of its purpose or all its functions. Memories contribute both to knowledge, and to physical changes.

The seyren were mortal flesh-and-blood beings with cores of light. They had faces beneath their masks, and wearing masks carried substantial cultural importance. They did not fly or gather scattered light as starborn do. Starborn bodies loosely follow the seyren template. Seyren are extinct, but their spirits and memories remain, and encounters with spirits can grant a starborn permanent strength.

They have a warm, clay-like surface and are much sturdier than their delicate appearance suggests. They lack conventional biological organs and do not need food or air. They have no biological reproductive system. Their bodies are extremely light, approximately comparable in weight to a cat. A strong wind may require them to brace against it, while a harsh gust can knock one right off their feet. 

Starborn average around 3 feet tall, and they usually form around this size though this can vary. Their broader size range is approximately one and a half to three and a half feet, with the smallest chibi forms around one foot five inches. Older individuals can learn to control their vessel size, and temporary size-changing items also exist. No embers are chibi-sized: a chibi is an older starborn using an acquired ability or item. Size therefore does not reliably indicate age, experience, or power.

They are small and slender, and can sometimes be mistaken as a child at a glance. Closer look, though, reveals a small non-human creature.

The tail is used for expression and is neither prehensile nor a counterweight. It cannot grip objects or support the body. Its movements communicate interest, satisfaction, mischief, distress, and other emotional states alongside ear position and posture. 

Their mask is basically their face.   Starborn have no face beneath the mask and no mouth. They can mimic eating by placing condensed light against their mask where a mouth would be. They simply absorb the light, and the "food" disappears.

Flight comes from the cape acting as wings. The first mark grants one powered flap and enables gliding. Marks on the back of their cape represents their available capacity, and further Winged Light increases that capacity. Flight energy recharges over time, and starborn can recharge one another through their calls or close proximity. Fifteen-marked individuals are extremely rare. They can bring out their inner flame to allow unlimited flight for their companion if they are being carried.

Light is their nourishment. They absorb light motes rather than eating. They are incapable of eating. They can mimic eating by placing condensed light against their mask, but it’s just a mimickry of the action. 

Their reserves affect how much strain they can withstand, including the course of injury and illness. A powerful starborn with more marks has substantially more capacity than a newly awakened spark, although a large reserve does not make them immune to being hurt or becoming sick.

Starborn do not bleed. Instead, damage leaves their clay-like skin scuffed or cracked, and dark crystals can develop around the injury. The skin also becomes stiff and hard, losing its flexibility until it heals. Illness or depletion can make their colors muted or grey, their eyes and inner light dim, and their movements slow, heavy, and unsteady. They may become lethargic, shiver, curl up, lower their ears, and hold their tails close against their bodies. Thin, quiet, plaintive calls communicate their misery and need for comfort. Many times, their mask disappears/demanifests.

Darkness can accumulate within an injured or ill starborn and seep as black fluid over their face, where their mouth would be. Their mask is often demanifested when they are in this state. The fluid is unpleasant, deep, clammy cold. It has been described as viscous and oily or tar-like in appearance, but not sticky, and without an odor. An affected starborn may repeatedly wipe at their face because the seepage is uncomfortable.

If it builds up too much, they may expel this darkness through violent surges of inner light. The process superficially resembles vomiting, but there is no stomach, mouth, or muscular digestive mechanism involved. The light itself forces the darkness out from the position where a mouth would be if they had one. They are loosely based off of the bodies of the seyren who once inhabited their world. When feeling ill, they will react similarly to somebody who is nauseated. They won’t want to move much because they are weak and exhausted. They will often curl, shiver, hunch over, and sometimes let out a miserable little call. Right before it happens, their ears will pin back against the sides of their head, their tail will curl tightly against their side, they’ll press their hands against their chest core, often let out a distressed call because they feel downright awful, followed by a sudden brightening or surging of the energy within them. This forces the darkness out of where a mouth would be if they had one, with their light flashing a bit brighter, then going dim with each surge. It is projected outward and away from the body. It will burn away readily from a light source.

Reserve capacity changes the pattern of these episodes. A spark has very little capacity and has more frequent episodes with less material. An older starborn with more flight power can remain in the earlier shivering and seeping stage considerably longer, and it does not always turn into expulsion if they are strong enough to burn away the darkness with their inner light before it advances too much. If it does happen to an older starborn, it is generally more forceful, but occurs less frequently. Strength can delay obvious deterioration, and an experienced starborn may conceal injuries while prioritizing a vulnerable companion.

After the darkness is expelled and no longer growing, the starborn will generally spend a couple days recovering around a light source.

Mortality is very high among starborn. Many die before they reach 9 marks on their cape. Starborn with twelve or more marks have lower mortality, but remain vulnerable. A major predator is known as a krill, also called dark dragons. They feed on light and will actively hunt starborn for their winged light. Their behavior after feeding is animal-like, in that they will stop hunting and rest for a time. Dark crabs are also a common predator. Most starborn can avoid crab attacks, but weaker, more fragile sparks and embers can be killed, especially since dark crabs travel in groups. Embers are more resilient than sparks, since sparks are new and barely have any light stored up.

Once a starborn has formed a winged light, going through Eden does not take it away entirely, it needs to be reignited upon return. Energy in the world wi restore it, UNLESS they sacrifice it or it is eaten by a krill or other predator. If eaten by a krill or other predator, or lost through severe injury or illness, they must form a new winged light. The amount of winged light restored to them during their rebirth correlates to the number of spirits they have helped to cross over. Those spirits help the starborn who freed them in their next life, and remain in Orbit as the afterlife. A starborn can not remain in Orbit and must eventually go to the rebirth portal, though they can linger for a time.

So there are two kinds of winged light loss. 

One through sacrifice, traumatic injury or illness, and one emptied of its energy when it's returned to the Source.

One emptied can be refilled, one lost must be reformed. Starborn who have returned from Eden will usually spend a while recovering their light, and will generally return to the number they had before going through Eden fairly quickly.

Starborn are sexless beings and do not reproduce.  They entirely lack any sexual anatomy or reproductive drive. They have no concept of courtship or pair bonding.

A starborn starts as a falling star, striking the ground with a loud, resonant, musical ringing, almost bell-like. They initially appear lying down in a curled position. They will lay there for a few moments, before they get up, stumble, and orient themselves. At this stage they are confused and a bit skittish. Curious, but cautious. They have white hair, a golden brown mask, and a simple cream tunic, but no cape. They form their first winged light within a few hours, causing their cape to manifest itself their new cape is golden brown outside and cream within.

Not all falling stars become a starborn. There are many that fail. This can appear in a few ways. One, the star goes out before it hits the ground. Two, the star hits with a resonant ring, but when the light clears, nothing is there. Third, a partially formed starborn can be seen, a silhouette of light, but that fades away leaving nothing behind. All of the unique living light from these failed formations get absorbed back into the world.

Many of them die before they even gain their wings, and many more die when they are still sparks, but those that survive gather enough lost fragments to increase their own power and live longer and hold off the darkness longer. The more wing power a starborn has, the more likely they are to survive.

Starborn have four distinct life stages.

When freshly formed, up until they have a few marks, a starborn is known as a "Spark". Sparks don't know how to modify their vessel yet, though quickly learn how to change how their hair appears. Sparks have the cream tunic, brown cape with the cream underside, and simple mask.  Once they gain a few marks, they become known as embers. A spark is analogous to the "moth" stage in Sky. They are new, inexperienced, don't know their way around, and are in danger unless they can find somebody to guide them. Some manage to survive on their own, if they are clever and lucky.

A young starborn who has not yet gone through rebirth is called an ember. Embers are more experienced than sparks, but are still quite young. Both sparks and embers are known to be very curious, a bit skittish, and afraid to go too far from sources of light. They cling to light, or other starborn. They tend to go towards Eden when they reach 8 or 9 marks. A spark is as close to infancy as a starborn can be, though they do not physically age. They gain experience rather than growing.

Once a starborn has made it through a rebirth cycle, they become known as a renascent.   Renascents usually have at least 9 marks, usually 10 or 11.

Once a starborn reaches their 12th mark, they are called an ascendant. Starborn with twelve marks are always at least 150 years old, though they can be older depending on the individual and if they've lost some along the way. Those who have reached fifteen marks are very rare, but are at least 250 years old. They have no known lifespan, but many perish before reaching that point.  Ascendants serve as guides and help sparks, embers and younger renascents survive their trips through Eden’s rebirth cycle. An ember or renascent who has an ascendant by their side is much more likely to survive. 

All starborn are drawn toward Eden, but only those who reach the summit return through rebirth. Not every journey ends in a return. Experienced starborn can guide and shield  sparks and embers along the way, and an ember who survives a first journey to become a renascent can continue to receive that guidance on later journeys.  Renascents and ascendants can control their descent toward shrines.

Unlike in the game, winged lights and thus the marks on their back are gained naturally over time, though this can be sped up by wandering and absorbing the energy that becomes winged light throughout the world. Each mark takes longer to appear than the mark before. Sparks start lacking a cape or mark. Their first will form naturally on its own within a few hours, or when they absorb enough energy to form a winged light. Whatever comes first.  They can get their first three within a year. Winged lights are not something a starborn gathers in the world, but rather something formed naturally within them over time. Each mark requires a certain number of winged lights to form. And each one requires more than the last. A starborn can lose winged light, and losing enough will cause a mark to disappear, but the older they are, the larger their reserve, and the more they can lose before losing a mark.  While they can't develop more than 15 marks, they can keep forming winged light. While they don't actively gather winged light, they form from energy absorbed during their travels and wanderings. There are some sources of energy that can form a winged light very quickly that are much stronger than others, and many renascents and ascendants know where they are. They will often guide sparks and embers there to help them form their first marks more quickly.

These winged lights can be sacrificed to save another starborn, though it doesn't always work, and can be used to reignite and extinguished shrine. Spirits that a starborn has helped cross over also cause the formation of a winged light.

This is why getting up to twelve marks means a starborn has to be at least 150 years old, and why they are at LEAST 250 if they've gained 15. There are NO starborn older than roughly three hundred fifty years old.  After the extinction of the seyren species, things remained stagnant for roughly two hundred years, and at first, no new sparks survived. There are a few that are still around from that very first generation, but they are extremely rare.