Chapter 32: Land of Beasts

  I honestly hadn’t had any particur pns for what kind of species to make in Downside back when I divided the world in two. It was only after I’d seen some of the more interesting creatures that had evolved there that inspiration struck.

  While working on my system documents, I’d spent a little time refining the idea. Unlike my more formal system notes, though, I didn’t have extensive pages to work with this time, so I was going to have to wing it a little. Still, I was starting to adopt a philosophy when it came to living things: I shouldn’t interfere too much. I should lean into what already seemed to be working.

  Fortunately, that was exactly what I pnned to do here.

  I’d noted the species back when I first surveyed the results of my lengthy “evolution period,” and they’d held my interest ever since. I already had a pn for what to do with them.

  The dominant species of Downside – occupying most of the ndmasses they could reach – was a very peculiar creature that had evolved the ability to absorb monster cores and take on some of the features and abilities of whatever creature they had consumed. I wanted to take that creature and move it to the next step. I would have to be careful, of course, because such an ability could easily be dangerous not only to others but to the species itself. Still, the potential was too great to ignore.

  The original species had been somewhat flimsy at birth, and I kept that trait, though I made them more bipedal and gave them better manual dexterity. I didn’t improve their health or durability much. They looked like hairless monkeys without tails… though that’s a description some might also give to humans. In their case, they were more scrawny, with rge heads and eyes like the cssical grey-skinned aliens from old Earth television shows.

  Around adolescence, these children would start to bulk up quickly, becoming more capable. This transformation allowed them to hunt and kill other creatures. The primitive version of the species had relied on pack tactics; I expected the more intelligent iteration would eventually use traps and simple weapons once their culture developed.

  I refined their absorption ability and then limited it as well. Once they reached a certain stage of adolescence, it would become safe for them to consume a core… either one of the stunted cores of normal animals or an actual monster core. Either could work, if properly processed. Consuming a core would grant them many of the physical traits of the creature it came from, making them stronger, faster, or otherwise enhanced.

  There was a cost, though. They couldn’t simply consume more cores, and properly absorbing even one would take far longer than it had for their original ancestor species. In return, the transformation would be far more dramatic. It was a careful bance: each choice carried its own risks and rewards. Attempting to consume a second core would almost always fail – or, if they were unlucky, kill them outright unless they took exceptional precautions.

  I wasn’t certain they’d retain this feature over generations, but I wanted to give individuals a chance to change which core they aligned with ter in life. Still, I didn’t want the process to be easy.

  I set it up so that consuming one of the stunted animal cores would alter their features but grant no real abilities. Those individuals would advance in their csses much like elves did. Those who chose to absorb monster cores, however, would not only gain physical features but also manifest genuine monster abilities over time.

  That growth would be integrated into their css system. While it sounded powerful, each of these abilities would take the pce of one of their normal css abilities. It was a tradeoff, since a poorly-chosen css and monster combination would be less powerful than the naturally-complimentary css abilities.

  I even went so far as to give them the capability to fully absorb a core and, in doing so, gain a css simir to that of the monster it came from. While monsters didn’t possess csses in the traditional sense, they did have levels, so the system would adapt those traits into a form of css that mirrored the monster’s nature.

  I didn’t want this to be a common occurrence, so I made it something only a rare few could accomplish, and a difficult process to manage safely. The downside – no retion to the name of the region, though I probably should have chosen a better one – was that taking on an actual monster css would also transfer some of the monster’s instincts. That, of course, could be dangerous for the rest of the species.

  I set them up with the typical foundation I gave intelligent beings: mana cores, mana control structures, and access to the css system. Naturally, I adjusted their mana conduits to differ slightly from those of the elves. Much as dwarves specialized in Cruxis mana, this species would have an affinity for both Flux and Vital mana. I wasn’t sure how that combination would py out, but it allowed for the existence of spellcasters among them… and that was the point I wanted to explore.

  I considered adding other species to Downside but decided this one alone would already be quite the handful. Instead, I added a small genetic chance that two individuals with the same core alignment might breed true. In such cases, their offspring would lose the ability to absorb monster cores – at least for the most part – but their bloodline would stabilize into what could one day become a new species.

  Of course, in practice, I knew starting a new species from only two individuals wasn’t exactly viable. For a moment, I almost canceled the whole idea. But then I reminded myself that the entire point of this was to make things interesting… to create struggle, unpredictability, and growth. Why eliminate an option that could lead to something fascinating ter on?

  Once again, I let the base species handle most of the details. In the end, I wasn’t sure what I’d end up with… but that was part of the fun. I could let them develop for a while and, in the meantime, go back to Upside to see how my elves were doing. It had been a few centuries since I’d pced them there, and I was curious what sort of culture they had created.

  Before I did that, though, I wanted to check on the rest of Downside.

  I spent a while sweeping across the ndscape, marveling at how much more wild it was. The node alignments of the various mana essences didn’t seem as stable as those on Upside. Even though Upside had its share of rugged terrain, Downside’s geography was extreme… va fields, dense choking jungles, and regions where mana itself was unstable.

  I was fine with that, honestly. It was chaotic, but it made for fascinating observation.

  I jotted a few notes into another notebook I’d purchased with Sanctuary Points, then did a quick check on my so-called dinosaur isnds. Unfortunately, quite a few species there had gone extinct. I supposed that made sense – dinosaurs hadn’t exactly been the victors of evolution in my original world either – but it was still disappointing.

  For a moment, I wondered if my former self had been a child or something, given how fond I was of dinosaurs. But no… I seemed to have too much knowledge for that. More likely, my old self had simply been really into dinosaurs. I was fine with that. I didn’t exactly miss the memories I couldn’t retrieve, but discovering little fragments of who I had once been… that was interesting in its own right.

  For now, I decided I was satisfied with how Downside was turning out. I saw a few regions where I could eventually add some more interesting creatures that hadn’t yet evolved. Some kind of fire people might be fun…

  After working on these less traditional species, I was starting to itch to try something truly strange – perhaps real rock people or something equally bizarre. Still, I’d noticed that creating entirely new forms of life drained my Reality Points much faster, and I really needed to stabilize my income before chasing any more wild tangents. This project was already ambitious enough. Fortunately, using an existing species as the baseline had made the process far cheaper than it might have been otherwise.

  What I really wanted was to get cultures established on both sides – Upside and Downside – so they could develop independently before eventually wandering into each other’s territories.

  I’d gotten lucky there, honestly. My original intention had been to divide the two halves completely, but I’d failed to account for certain things like magical scrying. Thankfully, my quick patch job on the yer that made the night deeper also solved the problem. The same Umbral mana that prevented sunlight from leaking between the hemispheres now acted as an impenetrable barrier, one that even Lumen-based magic couldn’t pierce. Neither side would be able to glimpse what y beyond the barrier walls without physically going there.

  That was probably enough to get Downside going, now. I could finally figure out what was going on with Upside’s low generation value.

  And maybe look into building a god.

  ThePudding