Demians

Demians are a human-descended people born from one of the ugliest chapters in An'kor's history.

For generations, humans kept animals as property, companions, labor, entertainment, and status symbols. Some were loved. Some were abused. Some were forced to fight and die for amusement. And some humans sexually abused the animals in their care.

The children born from those acts were the first Demians.

Their existence was treated as proof of the acts that created them. The people responsible could hide, lie, move on, or die. Their children could not. The shape of a Demian's body carried the evidence for everyone to see.

They were blamed for their own birth.

Origins

The earliest Demians inherited traits from both human and animal ancestry. No single animal lineage defines them. Some bloodlines carry traits associated with wolves, felines, goats, boars, rodents, birds, reptiles, or countless other creatures. Over generations, Demians formed families of their own and these mixed traits became heritable.

This means there is no single Demian appearance.

Some are almost human at first glance, distinguished only by unusual eyes, ears, teeth, patches of fur, altered hands, a tail, or other small traits. Others possess much more obvious animal anatomy: muzzles, claws, hooves, feathers, scales, digitigrade legs, heavy musculature, horns, or bodies whose proportions sit uncomfortably between human and beast.

Not every combination is graceful.

Some Demians are born with bodies that function perfectly. Others inherit conflicting traits that make ordinary life difficult or painful. A body built from two different biological legacies does not always fit together cleanly.

Whatever their form, Demians are people. That simple fact has historically been one of the hardest things for the rest of An'kor to accept.

Outcasts

The first Demians had no place in either of their parents' worlds.

Humans often regarded them with disgust, seeing them as unnatural reminders of acts they preferred not to acknowledge. Animals, of course, offered no society into which a half-human child could simply disappear.

Many Demians were abandoned, driven away, hidden by ashamed families, sold, beaten, or killed. Those who survived gathered where unwanted people tend to gather: forgotten districts, alleys, slums, ruins, and places respectable society had stopped caring about.

Their numbers grew.

So did the hatred directed at them.

Even generations removed from the acts that created the first Demians, descendants continue to inherit the shame An'kor attached to their blood. A Demian may be judged before speaking a word, denied work or shelter, treated as filthy or dangerous, or reduced to whatever animal traits happen to be visible on their body.

In some places the prejudice is casual. In others it is law.

Demian Life

There is no single Demian personality, profession, or way of life.

Their shared history has produced communities, families, customs, and loyalties, but being rejected by the same societies does not make every Demian think alike. Some desperately seek acceptance among other peoples. Some are openly bitter toward them. Some hide animal features when they can. Others display them proudly.

Many Demians grow up learning that respect is something they may have to force from people who would never think twice about giving it to someone else.

Others simply want to be left alone.

Their animal ancestry can influence physical ability. A Demian descended from a powerful predator may possess unusual strength, senses, teeth, or claws. Another bloodline may be adapted for climbing, running, cold weather, darkness, or some other natural advantage. These traits are tendencies rather than rules, and no Demian is defined entirely by the creature visible in their blood.

The Vision of Xanaras

For all the contempt directed toward them, it was a Demian who warned An'kor that the end was coming.

Seventeen years ago, a Demian child received a vision of Xanaras, the Infinite World Feeder. The warning was taken seriously enough that Demian messengers traveled to nations that had spent thousands of years killing one another and begged them to stop long enough to prepare for extinction.

Eventually, they listened.

When the peoples of An'kor built the Core beneath Corian, the Demians contributed something no machine or laboratory could provide. They called upon the power of nature itself, binding the living world into the combined work of magic, technology, science, engineering, and military force that became An'kor's shield.

A people long described as violations of nature became one of the peoples who asked nature to save everyone.

The irony has not been lost on them.

A Place in An'kor

Xanaras changed many things. It did not erase old hatred.

Demians fought, worked, suffered, and died beside the same peoples who had spent generations treating them as lesser beings. Their warning helped give An'kor time to prepare, and their contribution helped make the Core possible.

For some, that earned respect.

For others, nothing could.

Most Demians do not ask to be forgiven for what their ancestors were accused of being. They had nothing to do with it.

They want what they have wanted for generations: a place in the world that does not require them to apologize for having been born.