The Cirque Condensed: Inhabitants

The major^[1] Sophonts of the Cirque are as follows: Elph, Pharmia, Human, and Shimmera.

Elph

Elu-afaei, also known as 'Elphs', are pointy eared humanoids that are fairly common in the Cirque.

There are many different sub-groups, called courts, of Elphs, as they are originally a nomadic and reclusive species who generally maintain a decentralized culture. Some courts maintain a friendly relationship with other Sophonts while other courts prefer to remain low-contact.

Culture

• nomadic
  • Elphs historically are a nomadic people and still show nomadic tendencies in the modern day. Entire cities only fully occupied during specific seasons, with a few hold-outs that rotate care-taking duties each cycle (a specific group does this, though there are individuals who for various reasons do not migrate with the others as well).
  • Most intra-species conflict comes from territory disputes from other Elphen nations 'wrongfully' occupying or destroying cities, that and religious disputes between gods and their followers.
• bio-engineers
  • Elphs are notorious bio-engineers, while the Pyrefei selectively breed and use natural means to establish new species, Elphs use magical means to alter and establish new species.
• animists
  • Originally animists like the Faeng, overtime as their understanding of the ambient/natural magics of Ameneyates and their own inner magic gave rise to powerful beings within the various Elphen cultures. There was an overall gradual shift to animism to deity worship, though there are still a fair amount of Elphen cultures that to this day that remain pure animists.

Factions

Elu'hyr

The Elu'hyr are a faction of Elphen bio-engineers and their patron gods who managed to develop what they call a 'perfect' organism by the way of discovering a sequence of biological and metaphysical genes that theoretically could be introduced into any sophont.

The Elu'hyr approached the other sophonts of Ameneyates with their intentions, they where to bring their gift to them and all were to accept their gift. The Faeng where the first to reject the Elu'hyr, after just having won their independence from the Aurai the Faeng would never allow themselves or the rest of Ameneyates to lose their free-will. The Faeng challenged the Elu'hyr and quickly found themselves under siege yet again.

Ameneyatii

The Elu'amenyatii, also known as the Ameneyatii, are said to be the oldest Elphen court and maintain a close relationship with the Faeng Shimmera.

Languages

Pharmia

Pharmia are biomechanical beings that are native to the Vaast and subsequently Vossilor. They are vaguely humanoid in form and tower over the other Sophonts of the Cirque. They are an eccentric and philosophical people, they are incredibly hospitable towards other Sophonts granted that kindness is reciprocated.

Culture

Factions

Anathema

The Anathema is the preferred name of the decentralized Pvailian civilization in Vossilor and is the largest one.

By the virtue of being decentralized, not all Pharmia in Vossilor associate themselves with the Anathema, with the most well known example being the Moiz Voss.

Ors Furies

Ors Furies (the Furies) of Vossilor are a notorious group of independent Banshees in Anathema's academic sphere.

Moiz Voss

The Moiz Voss (The Daughters of Mother Voss) believe themselves to be the direct descendants of Voss, the fabled Mother of all Pharmia. They believe all Pharmia should strive to uphold and share their perception of reality. While it is a major taboo to forcefully impose one's perception of reality onto another Pharmia, Moiz Voss has shown themselves to more than willing to break this taboo when the opportunity shows itself leading them to have a negative reputation in the Anathema to say the least.

Language: Pvailian

Humans

Culture

Factions

Languages

Shimmera

Shimmera are dualistic entities from Ameneyates. They are non-physical entities that form physical bodies in order to interact with the world around them. They take on the appearance of vague animal humanoids, similar to what humans call "furries". They are an technologically and magically advanced species, being the first large civilization on Ameneyates. They are rumored to have existed even before the formation of Ameneyates itself, in the previous world.

Culture

Factions

The Aurai

The Aurai were the once dominant caste of the Shimmerain civilization. Their power given to them by their birthright^[2]: the knowledge and secrets of the ones who came before.

Whether or not it was their ancestor’s intention, the Aurai used the power left by them to subjugate the other Paqus (Packs; shimmerain term for ethnic groups) to serve them and their interests. The first Aurai created a caste system to organize the Paqus into different castes and seated themselves at the top.

Shimmera still living under the Aurai's rule referred to as Banded or the lesser Paqus.

The Faeng

The Faeng, once the Paqus who made up the lowest caste under the Aura's dominion over the Shimmerain civilization now a thriving independent group who now call the Frontier their home.

The seven noble Paqus, the passengers of the First Chariot, are as follows:

• Pyrefei
  • "fire under earth"
• Mosulon
  • "spirit worker", the Paqu tasked with handling death rites and the maintenance and construction of the Faeng automatons, long range radio transmitters, and other technological infrastructure.
• Gyregan
  • the nomadic Paqu. Typically Shimmera from this Paqu are actually formed or adopted into two Paqus, one which typically implies their duty in the Gyregan Paqu though more generally it signifies the Shimmera's 'ancestry'.
• Minua
• Imaiga
• Ektraa
  • "of the earth", related to the Pyrefei by bond. They are farmers, builders, and artisans (architecture, ceramics, sculptures, tile work, textiles, etc).

Paqus that later migrated to the frontier include:

• Teerah'gahn
  • a Telhgan band that defected and escaped to the frontier.
• No-ehraei

Language: Shimmerain

Shimmerian is a language primarily meant to be heard audibly or spoken without speaking, which is a form of telepathic communication between speaker and listener(s). Shimmerain does have a written form that uses literal transliterations which loses some of the language's nuance.

There are two known dialects used by the Faeng and Aurai respectively. The Faeng Dialect is described as being more relaxed in tone than the Aurai Dialect. Words will generally hold the same meaning between the two dialect since the Faeng dialect stems from the Aurai's. The main difference between the two is how words are spelt.

Faeng dialect is based on three or an odd number amount of vowels as an extension of their spiritual beliefs. Three vowel words are important; verbs and nouns. Conjunctions and most adjectives are single vowel words. Aurai words have an even amount of vowels. While the Faeng dialect uses some Aurai words, some Faeng Shimmera will opt to add extra vowels to Aurai words to make them have an odd amount of vowels.

Shimmerain words are generally pronounced the way they are written due to being literal transliterations, however, some culturally important words and names are stylized like "P@th" (patth or path) for example^[3].