Races of the Realms
Humans
Humans are generally incapable of magic, they are the vast majority of the realm's inhabitants.
Since the March of the Machines, the humans have taken to Modifications, which the Drix have seemed to be capable of helping with.
Many of the more adventurous and 'rowdy' humans scavenge crystals from their local hives, through various means. Raids, invasions, subterfuge, even the occasional trade from the hives with egos.
For quite some time, humans, under the advising of the Dauthi, have employed or encountered particular varieties of undead.
Humans of course have taken to domesticating and cultivating worm-like creatures for sustenance. Some of these worms have developed the ability to alter the genetics of the host, sometimes in clearly magical ways, granting them different abilities should they be swallowed whole, feeding on the nutrition that has been processed by the host's body. The process of taking one of these worms in is typically described as 'unpleasant', 'disgusting', or 'slimy', and though nominally called 'licids', they function in a more permanent bonding basis than their Rathi counterparts. Most realms prefer to eat the other forms of life, but acknowledge the nutrition/caloric density, the stability, the historical necessity, and even the hydrating benefits of the licids.
On a select few realms, being bombarded with mana day in and day out can warp the human form, though they are still eerily human, they are undeniably changed, or altered (think souls games and how you interact with 'humans' but there is something clearly wrong). This does not occur to every human of the realm, but does occur to a significant number.
Aetherborn of afflicted realms take it upon themselves to put these souls to rest.
Dauthi
The Dauthi are a race of beings taken from the Multiverse, known for their ability to travel through the second and third dimension, skulkers of the space between space, beings capable of traveling through shadows themselves. These Dauthi are somewhat different, they possess glowing claws and shadowy cloaks made of their own flesh. They possess an ability unique to the realms, that they can travel through minds as they can dimensions. Their recollection of events can be quite…eclectic, taking pieces from multiple witnesses, as everyone views the same events slightly different to one another.
A select few of these Dauthi are capable of possessing Human hosts, enabling them to properly interact with the physical world. These are often seen as heralds of misfortune, and their minds are often used as meeting spaces for the Dauthi outside of the firmaments of their home realms.
Most Humans who witness the growing shadow of a Dauthi feel…cold, unsettled, disturbed. A sense that they are being watched far after they have seen it, a sense of unease similar to that of the uncanny valley when they recollect such shadows. For an unfortunate number, these recollections are due to the Dauthi having been present in their minds rather than having been truly witnessed.
Illustrated by Sidharth Chaturvedi
Illustrated by Mitchell Malloy
Drix
Drix are a race of beings taken from the Exoverse, known for they ability to travel via weftwalking, a form of ftl travel innate to them. These Drix also seem to possess the ability to travel through time, not just space, and they possess memories of alternate timelines. Recalling when the hives were less capable, smaller, the beginning of the realms, even the phyrexian invasion before it occurred. They are an odd lot.
The Drix of the realms are quite different in appearance to those of the Exoverse. For they possess metallic knife-like ears, three of them layered upon one another on the sides of their heads, capable of articulating to display emotions. Their typical blue glow from their eyes appears as cutouts of the universe, starfields that do not move with them, while they grow hair that is a cutout of the realms, revealing the cosmos just outside, though without the tree or other realms.
They are considered alien and beautiful at the same time by most humans who gaze upon them. Though, after breaking such a gaze, they often are disturbed by their recollections rather than fond of them. The appearance being recognized as 'wrong' in their minds, off putting rather than alluring.
Illustrated by Valera Lutfullina
Illustrated by Chris Rallis
Both the Drix and the Dauthi have been tasked by the Makers to safeguard the realms from Eldrazi and Planeswalker influence, often through rather violent means. A task they are very competent at doing and more than willing to adhere to, but since the opening of the omenpaths, a small group of both have taken to more diplomatic solutions. Hoping to effect the outside realities and spread the idea of leaving them alone willingly.
Both populations exist upon every realm, much like humanity, though their numbers are seemingly far smaller, only handfuls of either are seen at a time by most, and seeing such numbers of either is considered to be a bad thing generally.
Illustrated by Rovina Cai
Illustrated by Robin Olausson
Aetherborn
Aetherborn are reborn, reinforced, and expanded with every crash. That is to say that new aetherborn are born while aetherborn that once lived are reborn with a longer timer.
These aetherborn differ from those on Avishkar, as they have horn-like structures and 'aetherwisp' hair. Their cracks that form are colored by their identity. Finally, their bodies seem to be made of stone rather than chalk.
The aetherborn are in one of four flavors;
The Ancients, who have the powers of mythical titans who forged the realms.
The Eternals, aetherborn who will supposedly not ressurect after they die, instead choosing to consume the lifeforce of others in order to extend their own existence.
The Gifted, aetherborn who possess magical abilities based on their realm of origin (First Strike, Flying, Deathtouch, Trample, and/or Hexproof)
The Mundane, aetherborn who are most similar to those of Avishkar, in that they possess no abilities beyond their emotional sense, knowing when they will die, and not needing to eat, sleep, or breath.
Illustrated by Raymond Swanland
Illustrated by Tony Foti
Sliver
Slivers of the realms are, as a majority, the common beak-faced, sickle armed, two tailed varieties common to the multiverse and exoverse. Though they typically possess metallic flesh, as their origins from the Eternity Columns 'prints' the same sort of Thrum, creating clone after clone.
Multiversal slivers love molten and underground environments while Exoversal slivers love deep space asteroid fields…the kind on the edges of planetary systems and zero-g or micro-g environments. These slivers have a preference for either.
Slivers have three methods of reproduction, one from the multiverse, one from the exoverse, and one unique to this plane.
The first, unique to this [plane/system/space], is autogenesis. The liquid metal pool in the heart of every hive periodically spawns thrum. The number spawned has increased over the course of the crashes, initially having been one at midnight and one at midday. At this point, for all but the hives of Corona, one spawns roughly every hour and forty seven minutes.
The second, the multiversal method, is parthenogenesis. Slivers are capable of laying eggs via asexual reproduction. This can only be done while the individual's cortisol levels are low to non-existent, otherwise known as the individual feeling safe and secure. There are, of course, exceptions or modifications to this if the hiveform is specialized for reproduction in some capacity. Three notable examples being Sliver Queen, The First Sliver, and Hatchery Sliver. The queen can simply do this and hatchery overdrives this process.
The third, the exoversal method, is oviparity. Specifically, utiliazing externally fertilized parasitic ovipositors. Basically, xenomorphing people. Stabbing them with a specific needle that can extend from their beak-like 'faces' and implanting an embryo. It uses the genetics of the host to determine the color alignment and future adaptation (if any), technically the external fertilization is this process of utilizing the host's dna. If you are, at the time of being implanted, classified as a blue black being, then the sliver who emerges would either be colorless or blue black. The host will be unconscious for a day, due to adjacently injected toxins that quells the immune system and causes the host to believe they simply fell asleep rather than having been injected with an embryo, then it will develop over the course of ten days in the host, then spend five days after violently bursting from the host's torso to mature fully into a Thrum or fully adapted Sliver.
Eldrazi
Eldrazi themselves share appearances of the other animals, possessing seemingly soft bodies or rigid bodies, some possessing a strange mixture of the two.
Illustrated by Izzy
Illustrated by Raymond Swanland
Illustrated by Mark Tedin
Animals
All of the animals outside of the sentient races, eldrazi, and slivers, are all soft bodied organisms or arthropods of some variety. The initial biospheres barely survived to see the first crash, and this life are the descendants of the remnants of those biospheres.
Much as mammals survived with a single ancestor on earth, there is a single animal that appears to have survived the mass extinction of the biospheres and does not share ancestry with the soft body and rigid body of the rest of the animals, which has stayed on every realm. Pangolins. Only on a select few realms have truly unique varieties of pangolin, but most have simple small burrowing and tree climbing insectivores that are practically unremarkable.
Vampires
The slivers, when they were transplanted and remade in this [plane/system/space], they possessed a disease. To them, due to their changeling natures, it was relatively benign, and was eliminated from their populations in their totality circa crash 3. However, in humans, it caused rather extreme changes, and as time has gone on, it has diverged and mutated in specific realms. This virus would commonly be known as vampirism elsewhere.
Unless specified, the effects are as follows;
Elongated top mandible canine teeth.
A metabolism that is based on the consumption of exclusively blood (it can be of any animal).
Enhanced strength, speed, and senses (the equivalence of a child being capable of fighting on equal footing with a trained soldier).
Nocturnal preference (rather than diurnal preference).
30% decrease in skin melanin.
50% increase in hair melanin.
Eye color shifts towards red (a blue can become a purple or a green to a brown, black to a very dark red).
Immortality (Generally unless beheaded or their heart is pierced).
Agelessness (after puberty if it has yet to occur).
Significant regeneration (roughly 1000x speed) (Except for wounds inflicted by silver or gold, those wounds heal at a normal human rate. (This can cause death if the wounds are severe enough.)).
Immunity to most diseases and poisons.
Bites on humans have a 1% chance to spread the vampirism to the bitten over the course of thirty-two days.
Angels
When a human dies on a plane, it is possible that they are returned by the realmsoul as an angel. A realmsoul can only expend so much energy each crash to return individuals, and when a crash occurs, all of the prior angels are reborn. Angels are generally reforged into conventionally attractive human forms with wings, though specifics vary by realm, and there are exceptions. The number that can be made each crash is equal to the number of the crash. Generally, they are forged with the ideal of protecting the human population, and the reforging process causes the once human to become detached from their memories, viewing many of them as innate knowledge they were born with rather than a prior life. (Angels are magically strong and tough enough to be equivalent to 4/4s (elephants are 3/3s))
