#laenai

[laenai]

[renarinkholin]

two sentient minds can't meld well? so that means that there's Laenai animals that shifters shouldn't try to bond with, right? there's plenty of sentient and sapient animals irl, so if they have like, whales or [corvids?] or apes or something there trying to bond with those animals would be bad news?

Shifters, compared with other Laenai creatures, do have a kind of mental dominance naturally. It isn’t just that they’re more intelligent, but it’s almost a little bit like blood types. Shifters are, mentally, kind of like universal recipients, while nonshifter creatures are a little more universal donors. 

Shifter minds are just programmed to handle the kind of mental requirements that controlling memories and thoughts that didn’t originally belong to you need. Likewise, Laenai creatures also have a kind of “programming” that makes it easy to slip away from autonomy if they feel connected to a shifter through the bonding process.

This is also why shifters who have gone feral—and have lost a lot of the mental architecture they used to have—easily become familiars. Accepting a shifter’s bond triggers a kind of submissive state in the other minds, as they try to defer to the shifter’s control. If that controlling presence is gone, they will almost never refuse a familiar contract, no matter what kinds of clauses are in it.

The relations between Mondial and Laenai are... pretty messed up, honestly. And a lot of that has to do with the fact that summoning contracts and shifter bonds have a lot of similarities that are exploitable if you know what you’re doing, and also the fact that feral shifters are extremely exploitable as familiars because the poor things really don’t know how to say ‘no,’ especially when given a choice as complex as accepting a familiar contract. 

[renarinkholin]

re: shapeshifters: you made the comparison to gem fusion, so I'm wondering. you said that shapeshifters are basically human, but does that mean that their malleability is also a trait of other animals on their planet? if not, how do they do the fuse-y thingy with other animals? can shifters bond with other *people* in this way? if not, can they bond with other shifters? are shifters bodies made out of a different material that allows them to shift, or is it a magic-y, soul-y thing?

Alright, alright, you wanna chase? Let’s chase. Be warned this is gonna get into really weird and possibly spoilery levels of worldbuilding.

1. Yes, the ability to combine with other creatures is a Laenai specific trait. Rynd would not be able to pick up a new shift from a Mondian animal or a Kannard animal.

2. negated because question 1 was a yes

3. A shifter might be able to “hack” another person into a shift but it would be a horrible idea all around and also the person in question would probably need to be a familiar because non-Laenai people do not have melding capabilities. Also, two sentient minds don’t really meld at all very well, and so rather than the two souls joining you’d end up more with two fully realized individuals trapped together and vying for control, likely causing themselves an extreme amount of pain as they both struggled to agree on form. 

4. Two shifters trying to meld would run into the same “two sentient minds in one body” issue as before, but they at least wouldn’t have the body meld problem, so, that’s a step closer?

5. Shifters’ bodies are... not shaile (unless they’re a familiar), but have a remarkable similarity to shaile, actually. Not quite as changeable as pure Mondian shaile would be (which could mimic just about any living form) but their bodies’ ability to stretch and adapt is reminiscent of the way a familiars’ form works.

Worldbuilding spoilers: the soul in this universe is extremely and intrinsically tied to memories. Familiars’ bodies look the way their soul remembers their body is supposed to be, and familiars do something similar. When Rynd shifts to give herself wings she’s basically allowing herself access to the part of her avian mind that remembers what it feels like to have wings.

Fun note: Rynd actually only has one of each aspect of her form. For example, though she can give herself wings and place them where she wishes on her body, she only has one set of wings, because she only has one avian form. Sure, she could put them on her head to mock Vanaline if she wanted, but she couldn’t give herself three pairs of wings to complete the look.

Also, if a part of one of her forms’ bodies is injured, that injury heals at a normal rate. Rynd can spare herself some of the pain by shifting away from a form that has that part in it, like moving to a wingless form if one of her wings was injured, but if she tried to swap back, her wing would still be injured when she brought it out again unless it had had time to heal.