World Lore

     Born of the stars a millenia ago was a Celestial Dryad named Gaia, and her twin sister, Eris. Like the rest of their species, they were beings of energy and possessed no blood. Their mother was a kind being, who preferred to expand their species over harvesting the stars. They had no father, as their kind reproduced asexually, but they didn’t mind, as their mother was wise and taught them the ways and mysteries of the universe, and was enough for them. They were taught how to exist in both the physical and non-physical planes, how they were created, how to create more of their kind, and how to survive. They learned that a large amount of energy from stars are required to reproduce more of their kind, and that this energy can be harvested gradually, or by converting it. They learned that their mother, who saw the two suns and their orbits were so close together, saw a chance to create her children, and from their unique birth they formed this special bond.

     They set out, once old enough, to make their mark in the universe, to find their purpose, and support each other. During their travels, they met another Celestial Dryad, who taught them that by settling on a planet near a star, they could slowly harvest the energy from it, instead of aimlessly wandering. The two liked that idea, and continued to travel until they came upon a chance of a lifetime. Orbiting around a star was many planets, two of which were the perfect distance that the two could settle together and live. Upon settling on their planets, the planets bloomed with nature and teemed with life, displaying the vitality the two possessed. However, even if they were powerful, they were very young, and they made many mistakes.

     As time went on, Eris sadly passed, having not enough plantlife and wildlife balanced to keep her having enough energy. Gaia mourned her Sister’s passing, unable to do much than to harvest the last of her energy into the core of her planet. Because of this, Gaia became cautious to not repeat the same mistakes, and though she was tied to the core of the earth, she needed something to help her manage the planet and help cycle energy. She spent extra energy to add more plantlife, to create more animals, to restart and attempt to not make the same mistakes that had led to her sister’s demise. Time seems mostly irrelevant to Gaia or her kind, so she needed something to act as her eyes on the land and sea, to keep track of things, to help keep the world safe.

     Having already created animals, it was not enough. Gaia needed more, and created the first few humanoids, deciding to base them on her own species. She favored the humans themselves, as they were the weaker race, and wanted to help support them. She began to use humans as her sight, as she was unable to leave the core, and was able to see through them, see their actions, see the world, and exist in a broader sense than simply feeling through the plant life around. With this, she felt all was well, and that she had done right.

     However she’d given the humans too much freedom, and favoring them caused them to become prideful and feel superior to the other races. Over generations, humans began to change and slowly began to drift away from Gaia and her magic, and magical creatures were forced to go into hiding, escaping the humans and their technological advancements. Humans had no need to go to the Core to recharge, nor were they dependant on Gaia, which was a big mistake. though all humans had the ability for magic in them, this ability was eventually lost over time as they broke away from Gaia, the magical races, and leaned more towards science and technology. This shift in belief led them to begin systematically destroying the Earth with industrialization and widespread ideologies of hatred. Gaia quickly realized she had made a huge mistake, and was saddened at how her world was turning out. However, she did nothing, and let the world be, believing that things would turn out alright, and that humans would eventually turn to her.

     Instead, humans began worshipping idols, gods, creating more advancements and continuing to destroy the world. The magical creatures, hiding in an area known as the “underground”, begged Gaia to do something, as they felt the magics disappearing from the world. Gaia, however, continued to hold onto hope. She loved the humans just like every other race she had created, and wanted them to prosper and grow, but as Gaia’s energy began to diminish, she knew that without action on her part, it would mean death for herself and for Earth.

     Gaia eventually became desperate, as she was struggling to maintain the world. Natural disasters were a common occurrence, and the world was starting to tear itself apart. She knew the only way to save the world was to diminish the human population, to collect the energies hanging in the air, and recycle them back into the world. With this in mind, she gathered the remaining energy she had and created the first Kijikaiaku, a creature in her eyes with the ferocity of a dragon, the cunning of a fox, and the bravery of a lion, and named them Kokoro.

     Kokoro was a being of energy, much like herself. As it took much more energy to create something that existed on the physical plane, she kept the design simple to what she needed, and no more. As Kokoro was made of energy, they did not have the needs a physical being would have. They didn’t need to sleep, they didn’t need to breath, they didn’t need to eat. They had no gender and couldn’t breed. They had a pair of lungs to speak, a throat to swallow the energy, and a sack to store it. Without returning to the Core to deposit the energy, they would perish. Kokoro lived to obey her and help the world flourish, that was their purpose, and that was their pride. They loved their mother and the world from the moment they were created, and wanted nothing but to help her survive.

     Creating them for the sole purpose of fixing the human’s mistakes, Gaia was somewhat detached from Kokoro, but still loves them as her child. For the purpose they were created, Gaia made sure they were very apathetic, separating their energy from the rest of the world so they wouldn’t be influenced by others or the suffering the humans were about to face. Gaia still loved the humans, and knew her emotions would cause her death, and thus had to make sure Kokoro would not be swayed like she could be.

     Kokoro set out from the Core to see the Earth, and they along with Gaia were horrified by what the humans had done. Mass technologies had led to rampant production and humans fueled that production by stripping the Earth of trees, minerals and metals, oceanic resources, and fossil fuels that plagued the skies with a constant fog of poisonous gasses. Immediately Kokoro began to attack humans and their technologies, targeting those who were alone and harvesting the energy from those who died to bring back to Gaia. His attacks largely went unnoticed by humans, as he needed to go back to the core to recharge and to bring back energy from his and others’ killings to help recharge Gaia from her weakened state. 

     As Gaia gathered energy, instead of strengthening herself she, with Kokoro’s help, started to summon the first batch of Kiji. Thus labeled War Alphas, this first generation, like Kokoro, was very apathetic and sought only to save the planet. At this point humans began to notice the odd deaths and disappearances, though no one could verify what was causing this, and they blamed it on each other, a cult or terrorist organization of some kind, or something man made. As the deaths continued, however, humanity was starting to panic. They started attempting to resist the killings the best they could, but it was no use, they couldn’t fight what they didn’t know.

     Once more Kijis were made, and the killings were becoming a lot more noticeable with witness reports, humanity began to finally understand what was happening in a sense. At first countries blamed each other, but with technical advances humans began to see what was causing all this havoc due through specialized goggles that were able to see the energy of the Kijikaiaku. They were unable to see the forms, per say, but they were able to see vague forms of energy signatures. They quickly realized that these energy forms couldn’t go through walls, but they were able to squeeze through cracks. Guns did practically nothing to them, and EMP bombs not only took out the human’s technology, but only momentarily stunned the creatures. Large cities became the last holdouts of humanity as the Kijis gained more and more ground, taking out more humans. There seemed to be no end, as with every death the Kijis became stronger and gained more of them.

     Eventually the Kijikaiaku started to question their own doings, some equalling it to brutality. They understood they needed to do it to help the planet, but didn’t want to resort to the killing. They were starting to gain empathy. Who knew if it was because of Gaia’s feelings, or just the world influencing them, but for a while they continued, convinced this would end soon. This worked for some time, but eventually the Kijikaiaku started returning to the core to recharge with no energy collected, and Gaia had to banish those who came back with nothing, locking them out from the core. She hoped this banishment would change their ways, encouraging them to continue collecting energy, but most remained outside of the core until their eventual deaths, as not recharging in the Core was akin to holding one’s breath. They turned into balls of lifeless energy, which was collected by fellow Kiji. The energy collected was saved to summon new Kiji after the war, who were called Post Thinners, the next generation of Kijikaiaku, who had some empathy and were more aware of the world than their predecessors.

     Gaia was distraught over these deaths, as all the Kiji dying were essentially her children, and she felt a certain love for them that caused her pain that we wouldn’t understand. Through this, the humans knew not of Gaia or what the Kiji were fighting for, and simply continued to fight back.

     As the war continued, religious people started taking command of humanity, akining this slaughter to that of God’s wrath, or a sign from the heavens. Some people likened Kiji to aliens, or demons, and others to angels. Some humans even sided with the Kiji and helped them in their battle. It took a while, but humanity eventually developed weapons capable of harming the Kijikaiaku. Few Kijikaiku died, however, as these weapons were not very effective and they needed specialized goggles in order to see the signatures, else all they saw was what could be described as akin to heat waves. By the time the war was almost over, humanity was nearly on the brink of extinction, and this modern day advanced civilization, had fallen...​

     With few humans left, most in hiding, the War Alphas started to become more peaceful, focusing on simply helping replenish the earth. Post Thinners passively went around helping those left in the world to help the environment and those animals and humans who were left as much as they were able. The human cities were all now ruins, with little hope left for humanity.

     Gaia and the Kijikaiaku destroyed most of the technology and power generating facilities during their war on the humans, disabling the human’s from getting back that power they once had. And for a while, all was well, things started to stabilize.

     The Next Gen of Kijis was created, these Kijis were full of energy and empathy, and loved the world. They were a lot kinder to the world, and, though the world couldn’t see them, they could see it. They continued to be Gaia’s eyes and ears, and wandered the world protecting it and those in it.

     After a long while, magical creatures began to populate the Earth proper, as their fear of the humans and their destructive powers were gone. Kiji had never seen these creatures before, and were very surprised and curious about them. As time went on, humans interbred with other new races such as elves, dwarves, and other humanoids capable of human style reproduction, causing the number of purebred humans to be very low. The world had seemed to go back in time, turning to look like a more medieval setting, with the Kijis keeping technology and its destruction out of human grasp.

     Kiji continued to be summoned and expanded to the point they were able to surround the world and protect it as their guardians, becoming more unique and individual as time went on. Kokoro now remains in the core and acts as a liaison between Gaia and the other Kijikaiaku, as they are no longer needed above the world. Magic was brought back to the world, allowing some people to practice and specialize themselves with the elements or spirits. Though this number is few, and besides them most of those around cannot see the invisible Kiji, the energy beings enjoy it and find other ways to let themselves be known, and have fun living on this planet Gaia has provided them…

     At least until something else appears...