Tall, sinewy beastkin who excel as hunters.
PACK LIFE
APPEARANCE
BEASTKIN
"— tall, sinewy gestalten draped in bristling fur that stood in stark contrast to their unnatural poise. Their bodies and features were not beast-like, but monstrous: Their elongated limbs were powerfully built, and their almost skeletal hands ended in sharp, semi-retractable claws that clicked sharply as they shifted. It was a subtle yet distinct sound that struck the deepest chord of discomfort in Yu." [B1.C15]
The elongated snout, the bared black fangs, the unnatural angles of their joints — the intelligence in their movements makes them worse.
ASSASSINS
As the story progresses, information will be added.
HUNTERS
HUNTING SKILL
Omira rely on speed and cunning. They are hunters through and through. Born with scent markers undetectable to most other races, they can recognise and coordinate with one another even in absolute darkness and across vast stretches of open land. Their exceptional sense of smell is one of many advantages that makes them fearsome hunters and unyielding trackers. If you know one thing about them, then you know that an omira does not lose a trail.
IDENTITY, CULTURE, AND SOCIETY
Hunting is an integral part of their culture. When a ruunar, which is the general term for a child omira, comes of age, they are cast into the wild alone. This is the Trial of the Hunt. They have to endure, to track, and to return bearing a kill worthy of their pack’s respect. Only then are they truly accepted as a member of the pack.
Omira packs are hierarchical, but leadership is not based on age or lineage. Respect is the only currency that matters, and it is earned solely through skill. The strongest and most capable hunter leads; the male or female who demonstrates the most prowess in hunting and handling the pack. And if, at any point, another proves stronger, leadership shifts. With that, omira hierarchy is fluid and highly competitive.
The ones who fail the Trial of the Hunt or lose their pack’s respect in another way are banished to a solitary life outside of the pack.
INTERACTIONS WITH OTHER PEOPLES
Their focus on earned authority shapes how omira see the world beyond their own kind. Omira have no regard for the social structures of other peoples. They recognise them, of course – titles, bloodlines, wealth, bureaucracy – but they do not respect them. To understand how to speak to them, you have to know this: When interacting with other peoples, the omira decide for themselves who among the outsiders is worthy of respect and attention, and ignored all else.
ASSASSINS
While omira packs live, hunt and fight amongst themselves, their exiles seek release for their instincts in other ways. Losing their pack does not mean losing their nature. Exiled omira only ever take up one profession. They become assassins.
Untethered from their old lives, they hone their hunting skills into something even more ruthless. They are both paid and feared for their ability to track prey across vast distances with relentless determination.
KILLERS OF FINA
"Tria had taught him about omira for a reason. Even though none lived in the Barnstream regions, even though none would ever be permitted to settle there or even just to set foot within the villages, she had drilled their hunting practices into him. Because in the lands where omira packs roamed, they hunted fina." [Yu in B1.C15]
INDIVIDUAL OMIRA
A glossary of characters that have been mentioned or appeared.
Tirran
Abilities: Unknown.
Age: Unknown.
First appearance: [B1.C15] Albweiss Mountain Guild guard.
"Unlike the borman’s open hostility, Tirran had been civil, measured, even, though that did not make him any less unnerving." [B1.C15]
Tirran is one of the residentual guards at the Albweiss Mountain Guild, second in command to the Watch-Captain.
SHIFTING APPEARANCE
"It had been horrible to see what Tirran really was. But that was not the worst of it. The worst part was not seeing it anymore, but knowing it was there." [B1.C17]
Tirran’s fur, skin, fangs, and claws are black. His fur is of a deep, smoky black, shot through with streaks of muted gold that caught the orb light when he moved.
Yu's first impression of Tirran says that "Unlike other beastkin, who carried either the weight of raw muscle or the effortless grace of natural hunters, Tirran’s movements felt … eerily calculated. His every movement carried the suggestion of something restrained. There was no good way of describing it, no singular thing Yu could point to. But something told him that Tirran was not simply being himself — he felt … like a lie. He was adjusting, modulating, slowing and dulling himself down, very deliberately reducing his presence as to not scare the utter shit out of everyone simply by being there." [B1.C15]
Yu sees this impression confirmed when the Albweiss Mountain Guild guards confront Samasira in B1.C17]. He observes that "underneath, something older and darker stirred, something infinitely more dangerous."
Leaving the platform, Tirran then changes: "With each step that he moved farther from the orb light and descended deeper into the storm’s darkness, it was like the dark peeled something off him. He dissolved into it, and the guard, the semblance of reason and restraint, was stripped like discarded skin. The creature beneath straightened, and Tirran’s shape changed as it rose. His shoulders rolled back and his head dropped forward, as though his very bones shifted beneath his skin. Tirran did not become terrifying; he simply allowed the horror that already dwelled within to surface and suddenly, he was the most terrifying thing on the mountain, right in their midst."
RESTLESS EYES, RESTRAINE VOICE
"And then, there were his eyes. Not just foreign. Not just beastlike. But utterly, utterly wrong. Lantern-lit citrine, slit-pupilled and sharp. They did not look or study. They held not the gaze of a guard, or even that of a hunter. Behind them was something that measured. Something that dissected. On Tirran, those eyes just looked … wrong. Very wrong. [...] His words were reasonable. His tone, calm. His posture, respectable. His mannerisms, restrained. And yet, while his body moved through all the expected motions, his eyes did something else entirely. They never stopped moving. Never settled. Never focused where they should. They flickered, darted, and snapped from point to point, like they were disconnected from him entirely, driven by something else. It was as if Tirran was a normal person – a guard saying guard things and doing guard things with his more or less normal guard body – while some other presence, some senseless beast, had latched onto him from the inside. And this beast had taken control over his eyes. And it had been wreaking havoc with them ever since." [B1.C15]
They "twisted and turned in their sockets, ever restless like angry insects trapped in a jar, smashing themselves against the glass in never-ending fits". [B1.C17]
To Yu, Tirran's voice only adds to the impression: "Something in the omira’s voice made him falter. That deliberate restraint. That careful, measured weight. The control. The attempt not to be the one thing right here, right next to him, that was something so much worse than a witch." [B1.C16]
ABILITIES
By his own accord, Tirran can smell witches from a fair distance, even through the Albweiss storms.
BACKGROUND
While Yu suspects that Tirran must have been banished from his pack [B1.C15], nothing about Tirran's past has been revealed yet.