Orangey orangey orange.
I consider that a challenge
To my dominance.
But, I'll deal with it later.
I may not look it, to a human, but I am among the oldest of my kind. I am also among the unluckiest. It seems that I never learn. I have been captured twice, once only for a single man's lifetime, but the second time I spent the better prat of four men and a century on dry land. It was a terrible state of being, but not so terrible that I was able to resist it for all time.
My people are just as the humans are, though in the opposite direction: we need land. Not as often or as much as water, but it is a part of us nonetheless.
We have always thought of ourselves as the slower, but nonetheless the better, of the two races of Earth. Perhaps, if our lives were as short as a human's, we too would move as quickly as them. We might swallow knowledge and resource with the same unbridled fervor. But, where they have lifetimes of so few years, and four generations may fit in the span of a single century, we are different.
To live until death from the sheer exhaustion of our bodies is not something many have achieved. Almost all are killed after a few centuries by some predator or another. Often by a human. I am a rarity. Born in what humans seem to call the twelfth century, I have lived long enough to see that their folly will kill us all. I have only a few decades left in my bones, but our world has less than that.
My people are not seers, we do not soothsay what the future will hold. But, for all our slowness, we do not have much in the way of ignorance. These humans will have us killed, and only the few who take the flights into the sky will survive. I have not decided yet whether I will be one of those few.
How am I to know if there is another world with wide, frigid seas to travel? How can I dare leave behind my home?
But, I do not wish to become another pup captured and slaughtered at human hands. I will live my few decades in peace. And, if I must, I will live them looking frail and human.
They will not let me bring my skin.
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Beneath me, lies and entire world. A place I had not had time to explore fully, even in all my years beneath its waves and on its ground. I can see my family's home, and I wonder if they wail for me, the way they would if I had been captured.
I will regret this, more than any other choice I have made in my life. To die alone, with not even my body for company. But, at least a few of us should survive. The others disagree, but their pelts are coal and grey. Even if my white is blotted with inkstain patterns, I have more of the nobles in me than they do. I am the last alive from the first family, after all.
It is my choice, and my decree. The Earth is our home, and her seas are our bed, but if the humans, so fast and stupid, are allowed to survive what is coming, so are we. It is only the resolve that my people should live which keeps me from curling into a ball of tears and sobs.
Already, I am imprisoned.
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"Oy! This one's not a human!"
"Don't be stupid, they're all humans. Extremeist bastards wouldn't let anyone else on the planet."
"Well, if he's a human, they why aren't the feathers taking, hmm?"
"Maybe he's some kind of mutant. Does it matter?"
"Yeah, it does. They told us to mark all of them. Every single one, with gaudy feathers showing off their stupidity."
"I still don't understand why we can't just kill them all and be done with it."
"Whatever. Just lock him up and toss him to the geneticists. They'll deal with it."
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UDB
Selkie
Possibly the only living remnants of Old Earth aside from Humans, Selkie are believed to be a form of Kobold with a particularly unusual trait. Removing their animal forms consists of something akin to getting undressed for these beings, who take after aquatic mammalian Old Earth creatures known as seals.
Unfortunately, no concrete information is fortchcoming on these beings, as the only known specimen is currently being held by the Gyokkail/Hier-Kobold micro-empire for study, and is considered spoils of war as a result of the capture of Second Cities.
However, a brief interview between the specimen and Rani geneticists and psychologists has revealed several important facts.
A "Selkie" is genetically compatible with, and may interbreed with, several races of standard humanoid. To date, no Kobold compatabilities have been found.
A Selkie requires their Sealskin to become a Kobold formed animal being. As seals became extinct with the passing of Old Earth, it is assumed that Selkies can no longer attain such a form, and as a result, have no assigned Kobold title.
The Selkie claimed that his mother originated on Old Earth, and a region called Ayre Lands. No correct spelling has yet been determined for this region. The claims, if believed, would suggest that Selkies are a very long lived race, as no more than one generation would have passed in the last two thousand years.
If similar myths handed down to the Selkie from his mother are to be believed, Selkie are an amphibious race with a preference for water. Some human historians know of similiar myths from Old Earth, and have suggested that the Silky in these myths is the same as the Selkie. This is supported by similarities in pronunciation when spoken in several Old Earth languages, though the terms are pronounced very differently when spoken in Standard.
More information will be added as it becomes available.