Avenis (Sporty's NaNo)

[Layla "Nimbus" Karimi]

So I've decided to try NaNo for the first time this year Being the ridiculously slow writer I am, I'm not really expecting to reach anything near 50,000 words in a month... But at the same time, I think the event will be an excellent motivator to buckle down and write this novel. It spawned randomly around a month ago, from an older idea I had for a silly self-indulgent superhero character. Some major tweaking to the character (who is no longer self-indulgent nor a superhero) and a bit of world- and plot-building have since resulted in an urban fantasy about mythical creatures, giddy magi-scientists, the occasional crazy evil organization and a poor girl who just got dunked in waaay over her head 8D

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Breanna Dobson's life just got a lot more complicated. It was bad enough when a night of personal study was interrupted by her apartment catching on fire, but the fact that one of her rescuers looks like something out of a creature flick is the first sign that fire is about to be the least of her worries. Because when she wakes up, she finds feathers in her hair, wings where her arms should be... and not a burn on her body.

Breanna has just become an avenis -- the first and only member of a species that the laws of magic believed could not exist. And to think that until today, she didn't even know magic existed. Learning to navigate a hidden world of strange spells and fantastic beasts isn't easy, especially when you have fewer digits to do it with.

But even lessons in magical culture and her newfound chimeric abilities aren't all Breanna will have to contend with. Because there are a lot of people out there with an interest in impossible creatures -- and not all of them have the best intentions.

So yeah! I've got multiple preplanning documents going while I continue to flesh out the characters, world and plot in preparation for NaNo, so I'll most likely be popping back here from time to time over the month to post things like character blurbs and a list of magical creatures that exist/may appear in Avenis' world.

[Layla "Nimbus" Karimi]

Main Characters

The following are the four most central characters of Avenis -- Breanna is, of course, the main protagonist, while the other three are the major supporting characters or deuteragonists or whatever you want to call them. I've actually had some basic information for them typed up for a little while now, but it wasn't until the past few days that I managed to flesh the information out enough and put it into a neat enough format that I was comfortable with sharing them. As you can see by some of the notes here, a few character traits and such are still a little up in the air, as are a number of place and organization names. Heck, these are the only character names that I have so far.

Oh, and just as a fair warning: Herein are a few spoilers regarding character backstories and whatnot, especially in relation to Elena.

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Name: Breanna Dobson
Age: Early to mid 20’s
Appearance: A little taller than average and slender, with long dark brown hair and hazel eyes. She has a narrow face with somewhat sharp features. She gains new features when she becomes an avenis; this is covered under “other.”
Bio: A college student majoring in [idk yet, leaning toward history], Breanna had no knowledge of the “world” of magic until a particular incident transformed her into an avenis, a type of chimera. While curious and inquisitive, she tends to be fairly quiet and serious (and generally seems shy) around new people. Once she becomes comfortable with someone, however, she becomes much more talkative and even a little witty/snarky at times. Breanna doesn’t really want to be part of a big secretive organization and mess with the plans of dangerous extremists and all, but she ultimately accepts that her status as the first of a new species previously believed impossible means that she’ll at least have to make a few adjustments to her life. Breanna is an only child, and lives a fair distance from her family during the school year due to attending university out-of-state.
Other: The first (and so far – perhaps forever – only) member of the avenis species, a human/phoenix chimera. This is notable because the avenis is the first successful magical hybridization involving more than one “magical” species, and especially so because the phoenix itself is extinct. As an avenis, Breanna now has broad wings in place of arms (though each wing has a pair of dexterous fingers at the “thumb” joint, allowing her to still handle objects) as well as a keelbone to allow for large wing muscles and long “crown” feathers mixed into her hair. The feathers on her wings and scalp are mainly in deep orange and red colors. She also now has the natural healing and fireproofing abilities of the phoenix.

Name: Jacob Moorwood
Age: Mid to late 20’s
Appearance: Average height and slender build, with very dark brown, short-cropped hair and stormy blue eyes. Somewhat sharp features, though a little softer than Breanna’s.
Bio: A human mage of considerable skill and experience, Jacob practically grew up in The Fringe (aka the branch of [main magical organization] in the local area). He’s something of a combined diplomat, mediator and policeman for the [main magical organization], and will defend people both magical and mundane, as well as his organization’s actions and values, with everything that he has. Determined, protective and stoic, Jacob often comes across as cold and even harsh to those who don’t know him. There aren’t very many people whom he considers friends, but those that he has can more easily see his friendlier nature. Jacob is an only child. Jacob and Dex are cousins.
Other: Jacob’s greatest magical skill is, perhaps ironically, in the spells that influence other living beings. He is both an adept healer and skilled in administering the memory charms that preserve the “masquerade” when mundane people stumble upon the magical “world.” This latter ability is likely part of what distances him from those he isn’t already close to, as not everyone is really comfortable with the idea of tampering with someone’s memories. Jacob’s personal attitude toward the charm is that of a sometimes necessary spell that, though potentially dangerous, is harmless if used responsibly.

Name: Elena Porter
Age: Mid 20’s
Appearance: Average height and slightly stocky build, with shoulder-length dirty blonde hair and green eyes. Pale skin, with a round face and soft features. Either missing her right arm or has a scarred and useless left eye – I haven’t decided for sure which yet, though I’m leaning toward the former. She also has a “beast” form, which is described under “other.”
Bio: Elena is a first-generation (transformed rather than born) lycanthrope/werewolf. She was bitten as a teenager by a rogue werewolf who was believed to have been suffering a loss of self-awareness during his first moon-forced transformation. She was living in a low-magic community at the time, and the results of the encounter were devastating: the “rogue” was taken for a rabid wild wolf and put down; Elena was badly injured, to the point where one arm was damaged beyond repair and had to be amputated (or one eye was damaged beyond repair, if I decide to go that route); and her own first transformation took her unaware and caused her to lose her own self-awareness, leading to her lashing out and attacking her younger brother. Fortunately, her brother wasn’t too badly injured (though the attack turned him as well), and the magical community figured out what was happening and took the siblings and their family in shortly after. Elena has since learned to cope with both her new species and her handicap, and even makes good use of her beast form when she needs to. She now works in the local fire department* of [university town], and sometimes helps out [main magical organization] on the side. Though not much of a joker herself, Elena is friendly with a good sense of humor and gets along quite well with Dex. She is also sensible, very determined, and protective of those close to her.
Other: Werewolves in this continuity are mostly wolflike in their beast form, but built with broader shoulders, speech capability and the ability to walk on two legs as well as four. Elena’s beast “blood” is that of a grey wolf, and she has relatively light fur for the species and a general build carried over from her human form. (If one-armed) In this form she typically walks on two legs to both easily carry objects and move unhampered by the missing limb – unless she is running, which she finds both faster and easier to do on all threes, so to speak. Though she has mostly moved past the trauma surrounding her turn, she still tends to become sullen and draw away from other people on nights of the full moon.
*Elena’s career choice is the main reason I am hesitating on the “one-armed” characteristic. Preliminary research seems to suggest that having only one working arm is too much of a liability for such a risky and physically demanding job as firefighting, although one firefighter was able to go as far as giving direct training in controlled environments after such an amputation… Regardless, a firefighter with one working eye seems to be a much more plausible scenario (that has happened in real life), so I may fall back on this if the missing arm stretches plausibility too thin.

Name: Dexter (Dex) Grey
Age: Mid 20’s
Appearance: Average height and build, with dark brown medium-length hair and light brown eyes. Somewhat sharp features.
Bio: Dex is a mundane human born into a family that contains several mages, including his cousin Jacob. Though some people in his situation tend to become self-conscious and may even adopt a chimeric species or attempt to find ways to use magic, he is quite the opposite: proud of what he is and happy to show just why it is that mundane humans are able to keep up with their more magic-inclined brethren. This doesn’t mean he isn’t also happy to use magitek or the occasional potion when the situation warrants it, though – after all, inventions were made to be used by whoever has use for them. Confident, a little cocky and a shameless flirt (though only for fun – he takes real romance more seriously), Dex is pretty easygoing and quick to make friends. He works in the local police department (or maybe something similar – I’m not 100% sure yet) and is very good at what he does despite his playful attitude.
Other: N/A

[Layla "Nimbus" Karimi]

Bestiary

Okay, so one of the things you guys've probably guessed about this story is that it's going to be dealing a lot with mythical creatures. Since there are a lot of interpretations that can be made for various mythical species, I decided to make an index of all the beasties I'd like to potentially use. It isn't really complete -- there are a couple species listed that I'd like to study a bit more before settling on how they will work in this story, and in any case I plan to add new species as I write and the opportunity to add more comes up. The actual bestiary document explains the traits, both mundane and magical, of the species listed, buuut for spoiler and other such purposes I think I'm just gonna list the species here for now~


Anyway, these first two parts deal with species that evolved naturally in the world of Avenis. The first part lists the small handful of creatures that have human-level intelligence and communication, while the second consists of other animals that have some sort of magical ability:

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Natural Species -- Sapient
Dragon (Including European, Asian, and other lesser-known varieties)
Human (duh)
Thunderbird

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Natural Species -- Non-Sapient
Hydra
Phoenix
Unicorn (and "related" species ex. Qilin)
Water Horse

Now, these latter species are part of a process that's a pretty crucial aspect of Avenis. They are collectively known as chimerae, or "magical hybrids" if you will. You know how a lot of mythical creatures are basically mashups of real-life animals? Well, in this continuity, those kinds of animals are originally created by mages who use special potions to splice the "essence" (later known as DNA, although the process itself also involves physically transforming the original animal) of one creature into another. Think werewolf infection, but with the guy who became the first werewolf drinking a potion that contained wolf DNA and a bunch of magical catalyst stuff.

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Chimerae -- Sapient
Avenis (Human/phoenix)
Centaur (Human/horse)
Harpy (Human/some sort of bird)
Merfolk (Merperson?) (Human/fish/possibly aquatic mammal)
Naga (Human/snake)
Rakshasa (Human/tiger)
Sea Serpent (Dragon/fish)
Tengu (Human/bird -- possibly only crows)
Theriantrhope/Werebeast (Human/some variety of "beast")

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Chimerae -- Non-Sapient
Chimera (Lion/goat/snake)
Gryphon (Lion/eagle)
Hippogriff (Horse/eagle/possibly a bit of lion)

Not a bad start, I hope! If there are any species that you think could work in one of these lists, feel free to suggest it! (No, really, I mean it. I'm trying to get species from all over the world, but I'm more familiar with European mythical creatures and the stupidly large number of human/animal hybrids out there than anything else >.> <.<) Just remember, if you do, that I'm looking for animals with abilities that can be considered magical like rapid-healing or maybe shapeshifting (if they're naturally occurring), and that I've decided not to bother with non-human humanoids like faeries and orcs and whatnot.