The Magic of Magicbuilding: Magical Bleeding, Part Three

Welcome to the Magic of Magicbuilding, our little spinoff feature that focuses specifically on building a magical system for a fantasy setting.  This week, we're figuring out how creatures from other creatures should work.  Ultimately, it will depend on the dimension, but it will certainly be different from how normal creatures work.

Manifestation of the Fittest

What we know definitively about creatures from other dimensions so far can be summarized as follows:

1. The creatures are from one of three dimensions.
2. The creatures, like monsters, are more made of magical energy than not.
3. The creatures, unlike monsters, are not a mixture of energy, nor do they seem to have anything to do with magical energy from dimensions other than their own.
4. The creatures use their own dimension's energy like natives, which is appropriate.
5. The creatures have to fit through an incredibly small wormhole to make it to our setting.  As such, they are either extraordinarily small or can at least briefly make themselves small.

Expanding on this list a bit, we can say that the creatures of other dimensions evolved, just as creatures in our world did.  Evolution would work differently in those other dimensions, however.  At least part of what would determine the success or failure of a given species would be how well that species fits with the dominant energy of the dimension.  For example, a creature that couldn't utilize the mental and emotional energy of the First World would be at a disadvantage compared to creatures that could.

If we follow this to its logical conclusion, creatures of each dimension are going to revolve around their respective magical energy, either embracing, rejecting, or feeding off of it.  This could happen in any number of ways, but we don't need to concern ourselves with all of them- only a tiny percentage of the creatures from the other dimension will ever manifest in ours.

Beyond this, possibly the single greatest factor in determining how creatures from other dimensions will work is to acknowledge that every one of them will carry an inherent feeling of otherness that will instantly manifest itself.  This isn't necessarily an evolutionary feature of theirs so much as it is a normal evolutionary feature in general.  We evolve to subtly and not so subtly favor our own species over others, you see.  It's a failsafe that guarantees that, as a general rule, we prioritize our species when it comes to resource allocation.  You're much less likely to hand the last of the food to the creature that feels off than to your cousin.

This otherness doesn't have to manifest physically, but we don't have any reason to hide it.  For that reason, we're going to give each dimensional creature physical features that instantly identify which dimension they belong to.

The Fae:  Manipulative Emovores

Creatures of the First World revolve around emotions and mental states.  It makes sense that such creatures would not just naturally manipulate such things but also literally feed on them.  This also explains their ability to shapeshift as a natural physical extension of such traits.

The fae, thus, are creatures who create emotional states in others that they can then feed off of.  The Seelie Fae, tiny creatures and plants that migrated over without having to change form, soak in passive emotions.  As they spread through an environment, they alter it so that it will evoke emotions simply by passing through the area.  The easiest emotions to evoke are serenity (a feeling that all is well and safe, easily generated through sedatives and euphorics) and dread (a feeling that all is not well and an unknown danger is present, equally easily generated).  Areas dominated by fae energy are thus areas of bucolic peace or dark, haunted realms.

The Unseelie Fae engage in emotional manipulation on a much more active level.  They are connoisseurs, each having developed a taste for a specific emotion and subsequently adopting forms that best evoke that emotion.  Seductive fae feed on lust; horrifying fae feed on fear; angelic fae feed on awe and worship.

Physical Identifier.  Fae plants do not use sunlight to grow, so a telltale sign that you have entered a fae environment is plant growth despite a conspicuous lack of lighting.  Fae creatures, for whatever reason, always have six limbs.  Those who try to resemble humanoids will most often look like an intelligent species from our world, but with a pair of wings that don't match the rest of their body plan- insectoid, bat, and feathered wings are common.  Some fae are better than others at replicating certain forms, so looking for an unusual number of teeth or fingers is also suggested.

The Undead:  Alternative Lifestyles

The Other World doesn't obey the normal rules we associate with things like "life" and "death."  Creatures in a world where life is a choice and death is a state of mind don't engage in petty acts like killing and giving birth.  Maintenance of living bodies is optional.  All that is really needed is energy- energy to keep moving, keep thinking, keep being.

The creatures that sneak through portals to the Other World seek out warmth and light, not out of malevolence, but simple desire.  They absorb what they can and use it for their own needs, using what lies within reach and acting as they must.  Bodies are vessels, means of locomotion, not necessity.  Regardless of the form they adopt, the true undead are the formless parasites animating the body, impossible to kill but easy to exhaust.

The areas contaminated by the Other World will have their energy drained by the undead.  Even light itself seems to dim in the area.  Within, hungry undead take over a form and spend precious energy forcing it to move, seeking still more in a desperate gamble.  Most undead mindlessly pursue energy, since even thinking takes more energy than they are willing to spend.  The most powerful undead control multiple bodies, each sending energy back to the core creature.  Clever undead will make an effort to convince other beings to hand over energy willingly, and to that end will spend some precious energy of their own to adopt a more pleasant form... but many undead will skip the niceties and go straight to feeding.

Physical Identifier.  Undead are easy to identify.  Simply look for something that is very clearly dead but moving anyway.  Corpses are a classic option, but statues are also an option, and even loose collections of dirt will work in a pinch.  While the undead can absorb energy, including life energy, and they can grant objects life if they so choose, they cannot control life forms; they have no abilities to alter or control minds, just energy.

One more thing: remember that the undead are not their bodies.  They are what control the bodies.  

Deep Ones:  Volatile Chaos

The creatures that seep from the Many Voids are both difficult and easy to describe.  They are masters of shifting forms, and technically all of them are shapeshifters, though the most common forms they take are similar.  The "Deep Ones" (as in, from deep within the Many Voids) favor eyes, mouths, and tentacles.  All else tends to be optional, formed as needed.

The environment near a portal to the Many Voids is similarly in a state of ready and constant change.  As far as can be determined, however, the creatures of the Many Voids don't do this out of a desire for more resources.  Their reasons are inscrutable, but not dictated by evil, good, necessity, or desire.  They simply do, and it is madness to ask why.

Physical Identifier.  The mutations of the life around the portals are seemingly random.  The changes of the Deep Ones, however, are intentional.  Should you encounter a shapeless blob with innumerable pseudopods and multiple eyes, ask it a question.  If it forms a mouth to reply, you're talking to a Deep One.

Conclusion

We have thus far discussed the nature of extra-dimensional energy, and recently, we've been focusing on the side effects of that energy bleeding into our setting.  Something that should also be considered is the unique nature of our world's energy.  Thus far, only our world seems to avoid domination by a singular form of energy.  Now, this is mostly for ease of development, since otherwise we would need to reconsider physics, but what if our setting was intentionally built in such a fashion?

Consider:  in the setting we have so far, our world is massive and hollow.  The "sun" is a moon-sized Lantern.  The basic building blocks are immediately recognizable as artificially formed.  We need not speculate on who crafted this world or why; we can simply note that its creation was intentional.  From there, we can presume that access to the other dimensions, and even their bleed-through into our dimension, is also intentional.

It isn't much of a stretch to conclude that there would thus be a system in place that would mitigate the magical bleed and its effect on the world, keeping it in balance.  This system would draw on the energy of the setting- perhaps energy that is presently unknown but must exist, such as the energy that makes the Lantern shine.  The same energy that exists in minimal but noticeable quantities in creatures and people, and which allows them to draw upon dimensional energies in the first place.

With that in mind, we can picture that our world has some kind of natural defense that reacts to the presence of extra-dimensional creatures.  Considering that we were already talking about how creatures in our world could instantly "feel" the other-ness of such creatures, this isn't that much of a stretch.

And as it happens, we have some ideas for how those defenses might work... but we'll leave that for next week.