FrivYeti/WyldspanBreeds
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The Breeds
When Gaia's protection spread across Creation, entire worlds were cut adrift from one another. In most of these cases, the protected areas were covered by Manses, or were outside the exact borders of a demesne. However, in many worlds, there were no manses, and the worlds changed their inhabitants rather than expending all of their energy fighting off the Wyld. In the first five years after the Third Age began, the power of these demesnes spread through their worlds, completely changing the people who dwelled there. On the weakest such worlds (the majority even of them), the changes were minor, and did not breed true into descendants; the result was merely a generation of strangely mutated humans, soon forgotten by all but the scholars who research such things. However, in a few worlds, the mutations settled into the population. By the time the demesnes had stabilized, the power that onced changed their landscapes now supporting it, they were done, and the new people could have children only with only members of their altered races. The result was the Breeds.
About ten percent of the population of Creation are members of the Breeds, and every Breed has their own homeworld. Although there are over 600 million total Breeds, each race considers themselves distinct from the others - and indeed, they cannot breed with other Breeds, only with their own. The most numerous of the Breeds number over five million, while the smallest number no more than ten or twenty thousand. Most of the Breeds hail from only one or two worlds, even those which are numerous, as all can trace their descent back to a single world. There may be as many as a thousand or more total Breeds in Creation, each looking slightly different. And although their souls are human, they are considered to be alien beings by most denizens of the Span.
Politics Of The Breeds
Each Breed has its own organization and political structure, but many are member-nations either of the Scarlet Imperium or the New Realm, both of which accept them as member-citizens. Many others form leagues of their own or remain independant, exactly as human nations do. In most areas of the Span, Breeds are stigmatized and discriminated against; the Scarlet Imperium frowns on such practices while they continue quietly under the surface, and the New Realm opposes such discrimination - often at the point of a sword.
Constructing The Breeds
The Breeds are stable mutations, able to reproduce only with members of their own species. When creating them, create them as humans, and apply a set number of positive and negative mutations. In addition, cosmetic mutations may be applied (a Breed might have tiger-shaded skin, for example). Breeds must have at least 2 points of positive mutations and 1 point of negative mutations, and may have up to 6 points of positive mutations and 4 points of negative ones. However, they may not have more than two cosmetic mutations, and they may not have more negative mutation points than positive ones. Finally, Breeds may only purchase 1-pt and 2-pt mutations, either positive or negative.
Breeds who Exalt are mostly the same as their human counterparts, and do not suffer the penalties of the Wyld-tainted; their changes have fully integrated with their patterns. Breeds may Exalt as Celestial or Terrestrial Exalts, although they cannot become Alchemicals for obvious reasons. Breeds who are shaped to become Ot lose their mutations. Any Breed character with more positive mutations than negative ones must pay bonus points equal to the difference.
