GRIFIX LORE UPDATE #17 - Gender Flow, Gemweaving, Entertainment Houses, ETC.
Posted 5 months ago :: Last edited 5 months ago by MysteriousShineWelcome to yet another lore update! And time to answer a REALLY old question about grifix in this one >:)
So let's begin!!
Genderflow
It is time to adress a very old question regarding grifix: biological gender.
As it is well known, grifix do not reproduce sexually. They reproduce through magic. So it was asked pretty early in the species' creation... what defies their gender? What organs do they have and so on...
Well for once I am here to explain... at least part of it.
Well, to begin with, grifix biological gender is mostly defied by their body characteristics: size, shape, bones... as well as hormones and such stuff.
Sexual organs are... not exactly present for grifix, at least not in the way they are for other animals. About this subject I won't talk much, I don't really have an answer for it, nor do I plan to find one. All I know is that males and females are almost identical in terms of sexual organs.
Do grifix have milk to feed their young? This is a subject for some other time. I don't have an answer for it yet.
So let's get to the actual subject of today... The biological gender, and the effect of grifix magic on it.
It is well known that the grifix magic acts on the belief of the grifix, and if one thing is believed strongly enough it can manifest it.
And so... the belief of a grifix can even impact their bilogical gender. In other words, they can naturally transition from one gender to another by their will alone.
Basically if a grifix feels very much like another gender, their magic will alter their hormone production, which will then cause a transition, similar to humans, except it happens naturally. The magic will also alter other kind of stuff that can't be changed by hormones, but still, it has it's limits.
When transitioning, the grifix will change their facial features, musculature, voice. Their bone structure can not, however, be changed if the grifix is fully grown, but it will be impacted if they are a child, growing up.
Transitioning lasts a few months for adults. The older the grifix is, the longer it takes. On a baby it can fully happen in a week or even faster. That is because the body is easier to alter, but also because their perception of self is much more frail, and easier to change.
As children, grifix can transition many times without even being aware of it. Babies especially transition a lot of times, as they have no perception of gender or self. And in most cases it is impossible to see by other grifix, since baby grifix have almost no gender differences. So the parents are usually never aware of it. The healers can tell tho - from the baby's magic and other stuff. But it's normal so they usually ignore. It is more weird if it doesn't happen at all.
Usually, by 3 years old, the gender of the grifix is more or less settled, but depending on the family enviroment, how many gender norms and stuff are imposed on them, they could still transition, and quite often. At this age it can take about a month to fully transition.
By 6, grifix usually stop transitioning. It is the time of their life when they have a set identity for the first time, and they usually simply don't focus on gender. Before, the gender change was triggered unconsciously. But from now on, it is much harder for that to happen, since they become much more aware of who they are.
By the early teen years, a lot of grifix rebel on their old identity. It is usually the last period of their life when they might transition. A lot of them decide to do it just to rebel against everyone, but truth is, if the grifix doesn't fully believe in it in their own subconscious mind, it won't happen, so most grifix fail to do it, cause they don't truly want it.
From 15 years old up, grifix rarely transition. Their growth is almost done, so even if they were to transition, their bone structure would remain the same. Transitioning takes from 6 months up to a few years.
From 50 years old up, it is almost unheard of of a grifix transitioning. It is unknown how long it would take.
Most grifix stop transitioning from 3 years old. It is not that common for them to transition when older than that, but still a good number of them do. Few find an identity in this. After all, it is natural.
Those who start finding an identity in their transitioning are usually those who transitioned after 15 years old.
In other words, a grifix wouldn't identify as "trans" if they transitioned before 15. But being "trans" is not a thing for grifix, they don't use that word.
Facts:
✦ a grifix can be biologically androgynous
✦ other grifix's belief can help transitioning. If a grifix manages to convince the others that they are of a different gender, their magic will also help boost the transition. Because of this, babies spend most of their time in the gender the parents believe they are.
✦ sphirix can never change their gender after they set their shape. Before the sphrix shape ceremony, they can change their gender on will.
✦ most sphirix have the oposite gender from that of their grifix.
With this said, I have also made a page exclusive for Magic Manifestations, since the list of them was becoming quite long, so I thought they'd be worthy of it:
MAGIC MANIFESTATIONS
So let us now move on to the next subject... a little bit of culture drop for the Forbidden Colony!
GEMWEAVING
Now, there are some new Entertainment Houses to introduce! That's a constant for lore updates lately... Well I'm quite glad about that. Never thought they'd get so popular.
KRAKEN'S LURE
A shipwreck in the most unusual of places...
You stare at the unusual sight in front of you. A boat...? On a mountain cliff. Surely you can see the port of the Fishing Guild from here if you fly a bit over the surrounding buildings, but still... how you a ship sink... up a mountain??? And it looks othing like the few, small grifix ships they use fir fishing. It's huge compared to those. And old...
You heard that the boat was probably there from before the Empire. It was in fact, a pony fishing vessel. The freezing cold kept it from rotting for thousands of years before the Empire settled over there, and soon enough, grifix started to use it for various things, and luckily, they took care of the wood and made sure it didn't rot and crumble to pieces.
Now a wooden sign swings above the door: Kraken's Lure. The name starts to make sense as soon as you notice your sphirix shying away, hiding behind your ear. He says that there is a giant octopus covering the boat. And he begs you not to go in there. But the thrill that fills you when your shared emotions make you tremble lures you inside...
Inside it's dark, only a dim green glow fills the room - you imagine it's from the giant octopus sphirix, which you can't see, but it's big enough for it's glow to fill the room. The room is filled with smoke, and all sorts of weird smells - none particularily pleasant. You soon start to feel dizzy, so you sit down on a side chair, waiting for an entertainer to serve you. After this moment, you can't seem to remember a thing...
✦
The Kraken's Lure is an Entertainment House based on the legend of the sirens that lure sailors to their death through their singing. Therefore, the entertainers in this house are called "sirens" and they often dress acccordingly, with ripped pieces of clothing, fishnets, seashells and other such things. Inside they often burn various drugs that help induce high sensations onto the customers - the sirens grew up there. They are imune. They often use singing to induce high sensations as well, but they also have a large collection of sea shanties gathered from old pony books, which customers seem to really enjoy singing to, especially after drinking a bunch of sake.
The Kraaken's Lure is a pretty big entertainment house, despite most being afraid to go in there. Mostly really messed up grifix go in there just to feel something. And do not freit, cause even if someone developed immunity to all the drugs and booze - they have one more attraction that is sure to make anybody feel something.
In the back room of the guild there is a small pool of water. When customers are taken there, the sirens will push their head underwater and hold them there against all of their struggles. Fear, terror, imminent death - all building up until hypoxic euphoria hits, after which they'll be pulled out and tossed like a rag onto the deck.
Few grifix walk out of that place before the morning, they usually all fall asleep sometime during the night, only to wake up in the morning robbed of every valuable thing they might've had on them - and no siren to be seen, just other confused customers. They can only walk home, having no recollection of the night before.
So why would one even return here...? maybe it's just... the Krake's lure.
And the last one for now...
OOGAMA SENTO
Oogama Sento is a medium sized but tall bathhouse located in the nicer looking streets of the entertainment district. It is named after the Oogama yokai and looks like a traditional bathhouse with frog theming. The building consists of three floors and a basement.
When stepping inside you will be greeted by a comforting warmth and a sweet lavender smell. There are many fake plants, small ponds and tiny waterfalls about, though on each floor there is one big pond where you can find the Oogama yokai. You can interact with them, give them coins or food but they will do nothing, though it is believed that gifting them something can bring good luck. A receptionist is in the front which will take your order and lead you to a bath. Most baths are small except for the one large bath that may not be used by anyone, for it is for a 'special guest' if he decides to stop by.
Attire for entertainers is traditional bathhouse clothing and they must have their hair tied up at all times. Mostly females and cubs work here, but sometimes there are males as well. Entertainers must have a polite personality and must please their guests.
The bathhouse is run by an elderly enterainer, she lives in the very top of the building. She is quite kind but is known to be crafty, tricking others into working for her.
The basement is for very loyal grifix. Only two or three work there at a time. It is hard work, water needs to be heated and herbs and scents are mixed their then sent to the baths. It is much warmer here, almost insufferably so. To work here is a true testament that you are worthy to be at the bathhouse.
This house is regulated by Dawn-n-Night
This is everything for today! Have a wonderful day and see you next time! We got plenty more to cover!!
Of course, thank you very much to everyone that contributed to this!
As always please reffer to the official pages for the canon information. All the titles in this post are links to the official pages. This news letter will NOT be updated in case of any changes to the official lore, so it shouldn't be taken as reference in the future.