Characters and Dæmons

[Birdybot]

CHARACTER RULES

I. NO CHARACTER LIMIT So long as you can keep up with them all, there's no limit to the number of characters you can create on Enera. If you can't cope with the number of characters you have, you can give one to another member, make them an NPC, simply stop using them or have them leave/die. II. NO CANONS Sorry, but we don't allow canon characters on Enera. This doesn't just apply to the Pokémon franchise; characters from other things (Harry Potter, Doctor Who, etc) or real life people are also not allowed. III. CANNOT START WITH A POKÉMON Starting with Pokémon gives a character an unfair advantage. They can have owned Pokémon in the past, but should leave them somewhere before starting in Enera. IV. NO PERFECT CHARACTERS Seriously, this is one of my pet hates. I have flaws, you have flaws, we all do. Your character won't be invincible, not everyone will love them, they won't be the smartest person in the world. The amount of times I've seen repetitions of 'they have a really sad background but they're really nice and pretty and smart and athletic also they have special powers' makes me angry. I've done it myself in the past. Not everyone is an orphan and not every orphanage abuses children. Parents tend to like their kids. Just stop. Might make your character more realistic.</rant> V. MORE THAN A PICTURE FOR APPEARANCE This has happened enough to make me feel the need to make a rule about it. The appearance section of the character application must be filled out in words, rather than just a picture. VI. FACECLAIMS NOT MANDATORY You can make a faceclaim for your character if you want, and this can be a real life person or an anime character, whatever you want, but you don't have to. Most people here choose not to use a faceclaim since they're a hassle to find and never truly depict the character in your head. You can still draw pictures of your character yourself!

[Birdybot]

DÆMONS

Enera is set in a world parallel to the Pokémon world, where every human has a counterpart known as their dæmon. This is taken right out of the His Dark Materials trilogy (Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass, and there was a movie of the first book called The Golden Compass), so if you've read them, you know what they are. If not, don't worry, I've written a brief summary of them and how they work on Enera here and you could also check out the Wikipedia page (link). A person's dæmon takes the form of a Pokémon, and as such can understand the speech of Pokémon, making them useful translators. The dæmons of children can shape-shift into any Pokémon aside from legendaries, but at the age of around fifteen their dæmons settle on a fixed form, which represents some aspects of the human's personality. This is often triggered by an important decision or life event, but sometimes just happens at a random point in time. The dæmon will recognize when they have settled. They are almost always the opposite gender to their human. A person's dæmon has a mind of their own, but is often similar to their human. The two share an invisible (but physically real) bond which means they will love each other, and limits the distance they can move apart. They can only usually move about 10m at most. At the limits, they both feel uncomfortable. There is nothing stopping them getting further apart, but it causes physical and mental pain for both parties along with emotional trauma. Touching another person's dæmon is considered the greatest breach of rights, as touching a person's dæmon is a very intimate thing and causes the person touching the dæmon, the dæmon and the person connected to the dæmon to feel weak and the dæmon and human to feel violated. Dæmons can interact freely with one another just as humans can. Dæmons are born at the same time as their humans, are named by their parents' dæmons, struggle to remain awake if their human is asleep and vice versa, and die at the same time as their humans.

[Birdybot]

POKÉMORPHS

LEGENDARIES Pokémorphs cannot have any DNA from legendary Pokémon, they're too powerful. LIMITED ABILITIES I don't want anyone burning down towns or possessing other characters or anything like that. Pokémorphs aren't so common here, and they're not just people with special powers. They've got things wrong with them, and the powers are never too major. For example, a Torchic Pokémorph might be able to make small amounts of heat and little flames, and a Swellow 'morph might be able to fly, but at low altitudes because of air pressure and oxygen levels, and not for very long because of the energy used. Their humanity limits their powers since a human body is very different to that of a Pokémon. They can, however, be creative to make their powers more useful. Designing special tools to best use their abilities, or using powers in a way that has a bigger effect than in normally would (like setting fire to something flammable rather than something that isn't). HUMANS FIRST Pokémorphs are supposed to be rare, so to stop their numbers getting out of hand, you must create a human character before you can create a Pokémorph character. Humans can be just as fun to play! APPEARANCE Pokémorphs look mostly human. They may be genetically engineered to have some features of a Pokémon to enhance them in some way, such as ears, nose and eyes for better senses, a tail for balance, wings and so on. It is far from perfected, so there will always be flaws and mutations, such as patches or fur or scales and physical abnormalities in bone and muscle structure. If the Pokémorph was created in a lab, they will mostly be healthy but look odd if they were created more recently, but when the process was first started around 60 years ago, there were far more complications. THREE KINDS There are three different kinds of Pokémorph in Enera, listed below. NATURAL If a shifter (human who can turn into a Pokémon, acts as secret guardians. More about them as the plot develops) and a human or two shifters have a child, it will be either a human, a shifter, or a Pokémorph. Pokémorphs are more common for shifter-human couples than shifter-shifter couples. Shifters are a complete secret, even to their own family, so your character won't know about them. These 'morphs come about because they would be shifters, but are permanently stuck between human and Pokémon forms. They have been around for a long time, but for some reason are becoming more common for a reason the shifters are unsure about. They can also be born to Pokémorph parents, be they natural 'morphs or otherwise. Their genes are much neater so they are not as susceptible to genetic diseases as lab-made 'morphs, and they often have fewer mutations. They grow up with a normal family and so can live normal lives, save some bullying, so almost always show no signs of emotional trauma, unlike lab-make 'morphs. There is no generally accepted view on their existence since no-one knows about shifters, so there are many theories about spirits and all sorts. Their dæmons occasionally show some traits of the Pokémon they share the DNA of, but can settle as normal and are otherwise unaffected. UNNATURAL These are people born as 'morphs where they should have naturally be born as humans. This can be the result of genetic engineering before birth, but in rare cases can be due to extreme radiation or other random forces. Their genes are not so neatly arranged as natural 'morphs, making them more at risk of diseases from mutation, such as cancer, especially if the cause of their 'morphism was radiation exposure. They are only lab-made about half the time, and if they are they normally go onto live normal lives outside the lab after their birth, occasionally going in for tests and check-ups. The sorts of labs that run experiments are usually licensed, humane ones. Their dæmons may be affected in appearance, but can still settle. FORCED Forced Pokémorphs are the most horrific kind, mostly bearing severe physical and emotional trauma. The process is illegal in Enera, but there are some who still practice it in secret, creating Pokémorphs for an unknown purpose. They will acquire humans, usually children who still have plenty of room to grow, and alter their DNA in a painful process to turn them into a 'morph. Many of the kidnapped are never seen again, many grow ill or die from rejecting the new DNA or less-than-perfect techniques and abilities of these illegal 'scientists'. Some 'morphs they release back onto the streets, others are rescued as the government manage to track down those running the experiments. It is rare for any to escape (seriously, they're going to take care to make them secure, far too many characters are making miraculous escapes). Most forced Pokémorphs around the region now are free thanks to being rescued. Their dæmons are sometimes unable to settle.