Spoiler: The Ivoxovi
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“iVoXoVi”- Meaning: Death to Life, Life to Death
The Ivoxovi
Nicknames: Ivox, Stripefolk (derogatory), White Tigers
Description: They have white skin with black stripes, same with their two tails and hair and cat ears. Their eyes often yellow, brown or green, aside from that they are human-like in appearance. These are their default forms when not using their magic.
Name Scheme: Ivoxovi typically have palindromes for names for the sake of symmetry and balance. Those Ivox who don't are being rebellious and thus being intentionally asymmetrical, or were raised by non-Ivox.
Culture:
The Ivoxovi are people that got the short end of the stick with the rise of technology. They once had a strange alien culture that is to this day seen in many different lights, with some seeing it as beautiful and in tune with nature, some seeing it as sophisticated and civilized in its own way for its time, while others see it as barbaric, monstrous and backwards and glad its gone. Modern Ivoxovi only practice remnants of it after magitech wielding cultures came in and basically wiped out much of what they once were, seeing them as some form of monster that adventurers fought many times before.
What is known of the Ivoxovi of old is that they believed in balance. Balance in everything, with everything, much like the concept of yin and yang- that everything is just different aspects of the same force of existence, that all is one and that if you unbalance one aspect of existence, you negatively affect the rest of it. Thus in all their architecture and surviving works and stories, there is a strong theme of symmetry, cycles, pendulums, circles, and so on. A lot of their stories have the climax in the middle rather than the end, and many of their words and phrases are symmetrical and speak of a transition from one state to another then back to the first state, and all their symmetrical words have a positive meaning to it.
However, there was a darker aspect to their beliefs. They believed that there was many spirits of the world that tend to it that one should respect, but they also believed in a demon. A great demon referred to either as The Devourer or the Asymmetry, that this demon was incredibly powerful and would devour all things if not held back, and that the only way to hold the demon back was with sacrifices of sapient life, often sacrificing their worst criminals, war prisoners, captured foreigners and other outcasts and undesirables to make sure The Devourer was kept at bay then burying the corpses in farm fields to enrich the soil with nutrients of the dead. At first people thought they referred to Bubon, but the Ivoxovi denied this, seeing Lord Bubon only as something vital to the balance and something to be endured, not defeated.
The Ivoxovi even intentionally started wars seemingly for no reason other than to cause massive slaughters then suddenly stop and accept peace demands and whatever punishment the other culture wanted, then hold mass funerals for those they killed hoping that the departed will reincarnate into better lives. While they felt loss, they didn't see their actions as wrong, only apart of a greater cycle of death, reincarnation and life. Yet their normal every day society was as respectful, orderly, civilized, valued education and hygiene, and many of them lived in cities of stone ziggurats and aztec-style pyramids. They had celebrations on the summer and winter equinoxes, meals with balanced diets of meat and vegetables.
The Ivoxovi today are still around in sustainable numbers, but many of them have discarded the old practices that others see as barbaric, focus on the balance aspect of their religion for their personal lives and engage with technology and global culture out of necessity and because its all they've ever known. The priests who still maintain it guard their secrets and sacred places with vigilance to keep from tourists and the curious from ruining them. Environmentalism is strong in their culture however and many of the modern Ivoxovi champion efforts to recycle, clean up pollution and save animals in response to industry, yet at the same time most of them see no problem in taking jobs to kill people and make great snipers, warriors, soldiers, assassins and so on, and its not an uncommon sight to see an Ivoxovi criminal kill people without batting an eye then donate to an environmentalist charity or pick up a piece of litter on the same day. Yet will kill fast-producing animals common around the globe without hesitation. In intellectual pursuits, many of them focus on developing space travel, making weapons, and figuring out how to best conserve the environment with the most efficiency.
Weapons of the Ivoxovi:
Ivoxovi often design weapons for dual-wielding in mind, they are often colored in white and black so as to embody principles of duality and balance in battle.
Akeseka:
A double-sword of the Ivoxovi, modern versions enhanced with magitech allows one to use Ivoxovi magic to blast blade beams with slashes of the blade or press a button to make a magic shield that lasts until they attack.
Kalinilak:
Dual shield-pistols that are modern Ivoxovi work, this weapon is meant to be wielded in pairs so that one can use a shield with one hand while firing with the other.
Modern Ivoxovi Magic:
The magic of the Ivox is strange and unlike human magic, in the old days Ivox summoned animal spirits and bound them to their form to enhance it with increased combat ability and gain magical powers from it, such as elemental powers based on what the animal has affinity with. For example, if you bind a tiger spirit, you become a tiger humanoid like a therianthrope. However the old magic only allowed you to bind one animal spirit to you. These days, Ivox use a Multi-Binder to bind more than one spirit to them to shapeshift into one than one hybrid form. Multi-Binders can be worn on the wrist, belt or implanted in the belly button.
However they can't choose what they shapeshift into, the forms are set up so that they are apart of an elemental cycle, and you can only shapeshift clockwise along said cycle. You cannot skip forms, you can only shift from one then to the other and cycle through until you get to the one you want.
For example:
Fire to Earth to Water to Air back to Fire. One can shift from Fire to Earth but not Fire to Water or Air.
The animal has to fit the element in question, and certain animals simply can't fit certain elements. This is through common sense and often depends on the animal in question relative to the other animals they have. The elemental cycle in specifics is dependent on the individual Ivox using for what makes for them, and different Ivox can have completely different elemental cycle logic.
All animal forms have increased strength, speed and defense, with an elemental affinity that empowers their attacks further and grants them unique properties depending on the element and animal.
Examples:
Fire:
Gain charismatic awe and fire attacks
Air:
Gain flight and electric attacks
Water:
gain water-breathing and ice attacks
Earth:
gain earth melding and poison attacks
Shadow:
gain shadow meld and dark attacks
Plant:
gain plant attacks and healing over time