Mavole

(Unapproved | Not canon)

Mavoles are frail but magically skilled, doll-like humanoids with skin that breaks like glass when damaged. They were created by the Fallen Angel Astaroth, a vile warrior of the First Divine War who tried to usurp Eternia. As part of her punishment, Kraus himself erased her name from Eternia and now she has only a vague, graven image as a Nameless and Faceless deity revered solely by her Mavoles.

Mavoles don't have a mana circuit but can instead manipulate mana directly, without need of one. Each Mavole has a sphere of influence around themselves inside of which they can greatly influence mana or even existing magic. Unlike races which must use a mana circuit or a substitute to cast magic, Mavoles create magic directly from their imagination and willpower, and all Mavoles are innate mages. They produce a bizarre mana variant known as Akasha, which doesn't pass unto the stars once it is expended and only very slowly breaks-down to reenter the Lifestream.

Doubtlessly, Mavoles are born sorcerers of considerable power. But they can never purify spent Akasha, and their souls 'corrode' over time, becoming inert and increasingly unable to generate new Akasha. Mavolians don't age conventionally... but petrify in a long, assuredly painful process. Lesser Mavolians turn into stone, while powerful Mavolians slowly petrify into crystalline amalgamates of glowing shards.

Racial Mechanics

 * A Mavole's lifespan in years is equal to their Magic Capacity stat, but they receive normal human age nerfs starting at age 50.
 * All Mavoles are hardcapped at 125 Vitality. Their base vitality can never be above this value, even if raised via rpp-trades or event buffs.
 * Mavoles are unable to purchase Nature / Cosmic / Melee spells, not even Swift. They're severed from the Lifestream and cause natural life to die in their presence, and they lack a mana circuit to power physical enhancement with.
 * Mavoles have neutral spell-costs, but also enjoy a -1 discount for Holy / Darkness / Crystal magic.
 * A Mavole must first buy the v2 aura of either Holy or Darkness magic before they can use their RPP to buy any other magic.

Racial Spells

 * Invoke Akasha: Toggle-buff. Locks the %DR of a Mavole to 0% for as long as it is active. The user's %DR cannot be lowered or raised as long as Invoke Akasha is on. While active, Invoke Akasha drains 100 HP per second from the user as pure damage, but also reduces all their cooldowns by 30% while it is active. (10 RPP)
 * Akashic Evocation: Temporary buff. Grants the caster +150 Mana and causes the next spell cast to be GCDE, even if it normally isn't. (10 RPP, GCD Exempt, 10 second cooldown)

Lifespan
A Mavole's lifespan is determined by two things: how much power their creator Angel invested in their soul at its birth, and how quickly they expend Akasha. Mavoles who abstain from using their Akashic magic often enjoy longer lives... but command less power, and ultimately die as petrified statues that are torn-down and used to make fortifications and tools. Powerful but short-lived Mavoles petrify as beautiful crystals, which might be enshrined or entombed by their kin to honor their achievements.

Effectively, a Mavole's lifespan in years is equal to their 'Magic Capacity. 'Most Mavoles have a lifespan slightly shorter than a human's, but some exceptionally rare Mavoles may live for much longer. A Mavole does decide how long they will live when they decide how quickly to expend their magical reserves. However, Mavoles do grow weaker with age just as humans do, becoming more frail than they already are. Even a long-lived Mavole is not necessarily a healthy mage, but instead exists as partially-paralyzed and afflicted by persistent phantom pains.

Around the age of 40-50, depending on how fast a Mavole is aging, they will begin to petrify as either stone or crystal. Only mediocre or lesser Mavoles become stone, while powerful Mavole mages crystallize with age. This process is not harmonious and is greatly painful to a Mavole, but removing petrified tissue only worsens the damage and so most exist as miserable wretches skewered by glowing crystal-shards and walking on half petrified limbs which only barely obey them.

Akashic Magic
Mavoles do not cast from a mana circuit and so do not use conventional casting techniques. Instead, Mavolian casting is referred to as 'Akashic Magic'. To use it, a Mavolian expels Akasha from their own soul and shapes it into a desired form of magic. This can be done at will and doesn't require the 'push' of regular casting technique; Mavoles accidentally cast magic often, for it comes from day-dreams and impulses quite effortlessly, generated just as easily by conscious thought or subconscious will.

All Akashic magic involves wild conjurings: intending to casting a fireball might instead shape a golden bow of phoenix-flames in its caster's hands, able to launch fiery arrows. Spells become tools which can be used multiple times, until they have begun to decay and decline- a downside which hampers all Akashic casting.

Akashic magic differs greatly from Eternian magic in that its effects are longer-lasting and persistent. In attempting to manipulate time, a Mavole might well end up conjuring an entire clock through which they manually slow or hasten time's flow for a long time, rather than a single casting. Flames conjured by Mavolian pyromancers might reappear after being extinguished and continue to seek-out whatever they were sent to burn. Akashic magic is complicated, self-perpetuating and adaptive, often giving it unintended effects and rendering it difficult to control...

Something created or enchanted with Akasha doesn't cease to work after it's out of mana, or when the spell is finished, but all Akashic magic will 'corrode' with time... it becomes more difficult to control the spell's form once it has been cast, and eventually, any tools or manifestations of that magic will also visibly rust and crumble, eventually becoming useless and utterly inert.

Non-Mavoles can't cast Akashic magic without a connection to their creator Angel, but even if they did have the necessary ties with Astaroth, human species attempting to cast from Akasha would rapidly corrode their mana circuitry and lose the ability to generate new mana. Corruption of the soul itself would ensue and damage the user's connection with the Lifestream.

Biology
Mavoles have hard, but brittle bodies that break easily. All of them are physically weak, with only a common human's meager might - no matter how magically powerful they may become. Mavoles don't have a mana circuit and this renders them physically fragile in many regards. Even simple labor risks shattering their skin, a common but surprisingly severe injury that most all Mavoles hate to suffer. Ordinary humans are hardy brutes compared to these brittle-skinned creatures and so Mavoles greatly desire human slaves to use as laborers.

A Mavole is indicated by their elongated, pointy ears. They lack curvature and instead extend back along the contours of a Mavole's skull. Their eerie, hollow beauty and glossy skin adds to their distinguishing features to make discerning a Mavole at a glance rather easy.

Mavoles bleed plain red blood, but it evaporates rapidly when exposed to normal air-pressure, quickly vaporizing as a red mist. Blood transfusion is nearly impossible and so death by bloodloss is a serious risk to injured Mavoles. A Mavole cannot receive blood from non-Mavoles either.

Like humans, Mavoles require food and water, but must also consume glass. Most instances of carbon in their bodies are replaced with silicon, which they are able to digest and assimilate. Their internal organs are also varied and all Mavoles have strange coiled liver-like masses in their abdomens that produce crystal growths used elsewhere in their bodies. Mavolians have brittle, transparent skeletons that rapidly grow into geode-like crystal masses once they enter their death process.

Physiology
Mavoles appear frail, eerily perfect and outwardly beautiful. Their hair is always silken and pristine, their features in complete symmetrical balance, and their bodies are always gracefully tall with a beautiful slightness about every Mavole. But most Mavoles look very similar because of this, and so dress in strange and elaborate fashion as so to distinguish themselves as individuals. Their heights range from 5'10" to 6'2", with little variance at all. Most have a very similar, idealized build and unblemished features.

Eye and hair-color varies widely among Mavoles, but all of them are fair-skinned though actual complexion varies. Visually, the difference between males and females of their species isn't much: all of them are rather effeminate and slender, and few Mavoles are broad-shouldered or buxom-figured. Instead, they tend to be lithe and fair-featured with so few flaws that they all look similar, like dolls made in a factory.