#arcstone

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Subject 308 | Codename "Basilisk"

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Excerpt from “The Tragedy: A First Hand Account” by Anonymous, 1895

It was as if the elements themselves had ceased to live. Plants withered. Candles and lanterns snuffed out. Flowing rivers became stagnant marble. The ground shook and the sky cracked open, leaking blackness like a fresh wound. Then, suffocating silence.

When we awoke, the winds were foreign and the tide rose as a stranger.

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The Old Races: Sunborn

Homo caudatus solis, or the Sunborn, are the second most populous Old Race following the Crossing, comprising 20–25% of the global humanoid population. Notable for their distinct appearance, the Sunborn have cultivated a strong sense of kinship and unity among their own kind, marked by a distinct reverence for their ancestral homeland, D’thala. While this culture of unity existed to some extent before the Crossing, it developed primarily from decades of ostracization, particularly from Western human societies.

A Sunborn’s appearance is most easily defined by two features - their crescent-shaped horns and a thick, hairless, prehensile tail.

Their horns, primarily keratinous, sprout in symmetrical pairs above each brow around age 6. Ranging from 4cm to 9cm thick, most horns curve backward around the ears in a distinct crescent shape, with each set of horns unique to the individual. Typically this manifests as differences in size, thickness, pigmentation or length, though more significant variations such as upward, forward, or outward curvatures are frequently observed. Genetic studies suggest that horn shape may be inherited similarly to eye colour in humans, with atypical forms potentially indicating a shared ancestry. 

Unlike Earth animals with similar horns, such as goats or oxen, the horns of a Sunborn are particularly lightweight and small relative to their body mass. Their skulls, too, are not significantly thicker than other humanoid species. This suggests the horns may be vestigial, with precursor species using the horns in self-defence or hunting scenarios. Over time, as their brains grew more complex, their skulls thinned to allocate space, and their horns decreased in volume and density to be more easily supported by the lighter bone structure.

In addition to their horns, Sunborn are characterised by their long, agile tails. Averaging around 1 metre in length in adults, their tails are approximately 20 cm thick at the base and taper to about 5 cm at the tip, ending in a webbed hook. Unlike their horns, a Sunborn’s tail is far from vestigial. Dexterous and muscular, the tail is often regarded as a fifth limb, bearing comparable strength to an arm. When idle, it responds to emotions or environmental stimuli with subtle movements, such as coiling when anxious or whipping with agitation. In active use, the tail is typically used to interact with the surrounding environment—grabbing objects or tools—though more precise tasks are reserved for the hands.

Recovered texts and verbal history state that Sunborn believe their tails to be a gift from the sun itself, a tool for survival in D’thala’s harsh climes. It’s speculated by Thanatopologists that the Sunborn’s precursor race had developed the tail for manipulation and manoeuvrability in forested regions, similar to tailed human ancestors. However, unlike humans, Sunborn kept their tails even as their native region deforested over time. The leading theory is, due to the heat of the D’thalan continent, the tail evolved to function as a heat sink, increasing the surface area of the body and diffusing body heat into the environment more efficiently.

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Urban expansion is a defining part of life in the megacities, with smaller suburbs and towns undergoing "mandatory urban relocation" as the borders of the cities expand.

And yet, some places, mostly cultural heritage sites, remain untouched, surrounded by urbanization on all sides.

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The Old Races: Ophiri

H. sapiens ophirus, formally known as the Ophiri but more generally referred to as Elves, are the most common and predominant Old Race present on Earth. As of 1987, roughly 1 in 3 of the living Homo genus members and roughly half of Old Race members are Ophiri. Their unparalleled proliferation is owed largely to being the only Old Race that can produce viable offspring with humans.

Anthropologists describe human-elven reproduction as similar to prehistoric interbreeding between different members of the Homo genus: distinct species within the same genus producing viable offspring despite the biological differences of the parents. Typically, this would result in a third, hybrid species in the same genus with homogenized primary and secondary characteristics from the two contributing species. This is not the case with humans and elves, where secondary characteristics (such as skin colour, hair, facial features, etc.) are inherited from both parents, the primary characteristics that define the two species (such as H. sapiens ophirus’s pointed ears and taller, thinner builds or the “wisdom teeth” of H. sapiens sapiens) are only inherited from one parent, seemingly chosen at random.

That is to say - a child with an elven parent and a human parent will be either a human or an elf, and hybrid "half elves" have yet to been recorded. Roughly 60% of recorded female offspring of mixed parentage are Ophiri, compared to 50% of males.

Elves were the first and most successful of the Old Races to integrate into human society, with the phrase “human” colloquially, albeit not scientifically, considered synonymous with the two races. Immediately following the Crossing, many elves found employment in factories or mills by "passing" as human, typically disguising their ears with headwear. It was through these incognito individuals the first interspecies children were born, marking the first major stepping stone of societal integration.