-Supernatural Sentient: Karitzu, or "the Knowers"-
Of every Karitzuian you meet - including the supernatural ones - the Karitzu (or Knowers, as they are most commonly referred to) are possibly the weirdest and most abnormal. Aside from looking weird and having a peculiar biology and history, the individual behaviors are often strange, unpredictable, and - occasionally as if needing to justify the name - profound. While the "pure" Knower Naritarasu had very particular mannerisms that many religious groups akin to angels or enlightened prophets, going further down the line proves that these beings are just as mortal as we are... sometimes. The sheer amount of unsolved mysterious about what exactly a Karitzu is or where they came from, including the numerous accounts of miracles being performed by them (small note, they're not all goody-two-shoes) classifies them as a supernatural species despite have flesh-and-bone bodies and mortal needs, just like every other living creature. Due to there only being one known lineage of Knowers and the species being monogender, a Knower is always a girl, typically with no siblings that are also Knowers, and as such are typically referred to in a singular case as there simply are no other Knowers to justify the plural case.
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Image: A Karitzu in the midst of using an ability.
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Appearance
A Knower isn't hard to miss, and both luckily and unluckily you'll only have to ever worry about one, depending on the timeline. Knowers are declared "infinitely endangered", meaning that no Knower has ever been spotted for except for one, sole lineage, known and revered throughout the Galaxy. It's a bizarre situation, but it'll be explained below in the history. Instead, you can listen to hundreds of alien accounts of meeting the Knower, and always having a lasting first impression.
The best way to pithily describe a Knower is a "mushroom angel", which really isn't accurate at all but looks similar from a distance. Up close the more alien features are revealed. She stands about a foot taller than the average human in all cases and is completely feathered, with the finer feathers coming so close together they have a fur-like texture, and she has a very distinct head shape. She has the common Karitzuian body type of a winged bipedal humanoid, with two feathered wings placed between the shoulder blades. Her hands are not unlike a humans, although still feathered and sporting small, curved black claws, enough for self defense but not enough to interfere with movement. It has been debated at first whether she was plantigrade or digitigrade, but it was revealed to be a sort of mix, with the lower portions of her legs acting as one, stiffer unit; it's unknown biologically why she's like this. Her feet are similar to cat paws, so balancing on them takes finesse; she does have a decent-sized poofy tail that helps with this. The head shape attributes to the "mushroom look", with a softly-triangular face topped by a large, fanned-out scalp, nut unlike the cap of a mushroom or a Chinese sedge hat. Two pointed ears site directly on top, expressively large and triangular in shape with narrower bases. Her face is remarkably human in the placement of senses, although her nose is hidden slits on her face and her face isn't sculpted as much as a human's. Her eyes are more rectangular in shape like an Ice Spirit's and are entirely dark in color with lighter brown iris rings, her lips practically nonexistent but her smile will stick with you as a row of thin, black, needle-like teeth.
While some of these visual oddities are normal to some Karitzuians, sometimes it's hard to tell whether or not the Knower is more feminine or masculine despite no male Knower ever being discovered, and this is simply because her proportions confuse the eye; she has the stiff, erect stature of confidence, the slightly-broader shoulders, and large wings typical of Karitzuian males, but has the hour-glass-shaped body, finger lengths, and smaller extremities more definitive of a female. Since she is clearly female this is yet another thing that biologists can't understand why it is, particularly because she has no definitive biological history to begin with.
Speaking of, coloration is no exception. She is always a completely solid color, typically an antique white, beige, or ivory color; however, it has been tested and proven multiple times that her coloration can change depending on her psychological state while molting. Molting only occurs once every several years, so damages can remain for a long time; colors don't vary much but records show that the longest-living Knower, Zhera, had radical color changes that synced up with her unstable mental condition, turning a more black color when she grew dangerous and growing lighter in color when calm and philanthropic. Scientists theorize that somehow a less organized mind is making her body produce more melanin, so when new feathers budge out they end up a darker color than the old ones. Religious zealots say it is her way of manifesting her spirit's "alignment" or the amount of sins she committed, allowing her followers to dictate when she's no longer fit to rule. Regardless of why her melanin levels change so frequently and coincidentally, she is always a warm orange-to-yellow tone, turning a definite ivory-cream color when "neutral". Her eyes, bones, muscles, claws, and other features do not change color, with the exception of her eyes flashing when a miracle is performed; something that doesn't happen often.
The best way to pithily describe a Knower is a "mushroom angel", which really isn't accurate at all but looks similar from a distance. Up close the more alien features are revealed. She stands about a foot taller than the average human in all cases and is completely feathered, with the finer feathers coming so close together they have a fur-like texture, and she has a very distinct head shape. She has the common Karitzuian body type of a winged bipedal humanoid, with two feathered wings placed between the shoulder blades. Her hands are not unlike a humans, although still feathered and sporting small, curved black claws, enough for self defense but not enough to interfere with movement. It has been debated at first whether she was plantigrade or digitigrade, but it was revealed to be a sort of mix, with the lower portions of her legs acting as one, stiffer unit; it's unknown biologically why she's like this. Her feet are similar to cat paws, so balancing on them takes finesse; she does have a decent-sized poofy tail that helps with this. The head shape attributes to the "mushroom look", with a softly-triangular face topped by a large, fanned-out scalp, nut unlike the cap of a mushroom or a Chinese sedge hat. Two pointed ears site directly on top, expressively large and triangular in shape with narrower bases. Her face is remarkably human in the placement of senses, although her nose is hidden slits on her face and her face isn't sculpted as much as a human's. Her eyes are more rectangular in shape like an Ice Spirit's and are entirely dark in color with lighter brown iris rings, her lips practically nonexistent but her smile will stick with you as a row of thin, black, needle-like teeth.
While some of these visual oddities are normal to some Karitzuians, sometimes it's hard to tell whether or not the Knower is more feminine or masculine despite no male Knower ever being discovered, and this is simply because her proportions confuse the eye; she has the stiff, erect stature of confidence, the slightly-broader shoulders, and large wings typical of Karitzuian males, but has the hour-glass-shaped body, finger lengths, and smaller extremities more definitive of a female. Since she is clearly female this is yet another thing that biologists can't understand why it is, particularly because she has no definitive biological history to begin with.
Speaking of, coloration is no exception. She is always a completely solid color, typically an antique white, beige, or ivory color; however, it has been tested and proven multiple times that her coloration can change depending on her psychological state while molting. Molting only occurs once every several years, so damages can remain for a long time; colors don't vary much but records show that the longest-living Knower, Zhera, had radical color changes that synced up with her unstable mental condition, turning a more black color when she grew dangerous and growing lighter in color when calm and philanthropic. Scientists theorize that somehow a less organized mind is making her body produce more melanin, so when new feathers budge out they end up a darker color than the old ones. Religious zealots say it is her way of manifesting her spirit's "alignment" or the amount of sins she committed, allowing her followers to dictate when she's no longer fit to rule. Regardless of why her melanin levels change so frequently and coincidentally, she is always a warm orange-to-yellow tone, turning a definite ivory-cream color when "neutral". Her eyes, bones, muscles, claws, and other features do not change color, with the exception of her eyes flashing when a miracle is performed; something that doesn't happen often.
Powers:
Whatever the Knower is, it's definitely not completely mortal. She may need to eat, heal, sleep, and take breaks from working just like any other mortal, and she still makes mistakes and conclusions like one, but she has numerous unusual abilities that seem to be completely random, and they aren't used often enough to warrant study into the topic. As such, many of these abilities have been dubbed "miracles", especially concerning the sheer amount of power in them.
Karitzuian scientists have concluded so far that all of her "miracles" stem from her mind, making them psychic to an extent. There are only two things so far that have been deducted from watching her brain activity: the first has to do with her memory, and the second how her brain pools its activity in order to become more adept at the task at hand.
Her memory isn't an ability more than it is an interesting biological trait; it's genetic. This means that she not only has her memories, but also the memories of her foremothers, passed down up to the point when Naritarasu first appeared on the Akrai home world. However, these memories take effort to recollect, as obviously the newer/more important memories in her own life are recalled a lot easier than what her mother did on a particular day; it's not impossible though, and there are records of Zhera recalling as far back as the pain of her grandmother's death. The genetic memory is useful mostly in terms of personal use, but can also be utilized by others to learn bits of Karitzuian history.
Secondly, her cognitive functions. Zhera in particular has been observed by Kyra - the Clan leader she works most often with - during times of peace, and the Shonokalatian noticed a lot of peculiar things about her behavior. Prodding the aging leader about how her mind works revealed an interesting fact; she's capable of storing a lot of knowledge about almost anything, but can only focus on specific things at a time in order to be productive with the information at all. She calls it "switching gears". When Zhera isn't thinking about anything in particular, or at least thinking shallowly, she comes across as ditzy but also a lot more carefree; conversely, she can pool her brainpower into certain topics, basically turning her into genius on that particular topic but being tongue-tied should another topic jump up. The process of switching topics, or "gears", can take as long as a minute to an hour depending on the mental exhaustion caused by focusing on one topic for too long, and being perfectly honest here, it may never happen depending on how interesting the topic even is to her. This is a trait that was seen in the other Knowers as well, proving that it wasn't just a personality quirk.
Those two things aside, all miracles performed by Knowers have an unexplained source. The effects can be measured, her brain activity monitored, the miracle viewed and interpreted by all kinds of instruments, but still how she manages to do it is beyond anyone. While Knowers seem to have an unlimited arsenal of how they can affect their environment - everything from healing, to kinesis, to disablement, to construction, to dream-walking, and even manipulating someone's soul! - any type of miracle is extremely stressful on their minds. A test on Naritarasu during her early years among Karitzuians showed that her brain activity goes haywire when performing any miracle, and her body temperature rockets up to dangerous levels; more often than not, she would become feeble and weak, short of breath, feverish, drained of blood, faint, and sometimes even fall unconscious for weeks at a time. So far no Knower has ever ended up fatally wounded or dead from the consequences of performing a miracle, although it has been noted that when Zhera overstresses herself in performing lots of - or particularly powerful - miracles, it takes a toll on her mental and spiritual stability; with such consequences for performing miracles it makes sense that the Knowers don't use them often.
However, there is one miracle of sorts that the Knower cannot control, and it is both detrimental and useful. Somehow, for whatever reason, a Knower with no progeny cannot die, and a Knower with parents will never age past a certain point. This only enforces the one-lineage trait of Knowers, which makes it look extremely deliberate. While the "immortality" is nice at first glance, in truth it simply seems to agitate the Knowers. Naritarasu died once on accident, but promptly came back, and while Korimala never died and resurrected once, Zhera has died a whopping 17 times! Those deaths definitely left scars behind. Additionally, Zhera's children remained just underage for reproduction until she finally died, in which case they aged up until their 30s (in human years), then stopped. So far no Knower has simply died and not come back before she had children, nor any progeny die while one of her parents are alive, though in the latter case it's presumed that resurrection occurs as normal. The manner of death also doesn't seem to affect the resurrection process; Naritarasu died temporarily from a bad science experiment, and Zhera has been chopped up, hanged, burned, starved, and slain several times in battle, including decapitation (poor gal); no matter how grim, crude, or methodical the process though, she still comes back, so clearly it seems the method is not a factor in how "dead" a Knower can be; however, only Naritarasu came back in under a day. In most cases death is a major inconvenience, and a Knower can be "out of commission" for years at a time. The longest recorded death time was when Zhera was methodically taken apart and distributed like she was a venomous snake, resulting in over 6 years of death, causing her resurrected body to have multiple, permanent lines dividing her up that agitated her in their healing state for at least three months or longer.
Karitzuian scientists have concluded so far that all of her "miracles" stem from her mind, making them psychic to an extent. There are only two things so far that have been deducted from watching her brain activity: the first has to do with her memory, and the second how her brain pools its activity in order to become more adept at the task at hand.
Her memory isn't an ability more than it is an interesting biological trait; it's genetic. This means that she not only has her memories, but also the memories of her foremothers, passed down up to the point when Naritarasu first appeared on the Akrai home world. However, these memories take effort to recollect, as obviously the newer/more important memories in her own life are recalled a lot easier than what her mother did on a particular day; it's not impossible though, and there are records of Zhera recalling as far back as the pain of her grandmother's death. The genetic memory is useful mostly in terms of personal use, but can also be utilized by others to learn bits of Karitzuian history.
Secondly, her cognitive functions. Zhera in particular has been observed by Kyra - the Clan leader she works most often with - during times of peace, and the Shonokalatian noticed a lot of peculiar things about her behavior. Prodding the aging leader about how her mind works revealed an interesting fact; she's capable of storing a lot of knowledge about almost anything, but can only focus on specific things at a time in order to be productive with the information at all. She calls it "switching gears". When Zhera isn't thinking about anything in particular, or at least thinking shallowly, she comes across as ditzy but also a lot more carefree; conversely, she can pool her brainpower into certain topics, basically turning her into genius on that particular topic but being tongue-tied should another topic jump up. The process of switching topics, or "gears", can take as long as a minute to an hour depending on the mental exhaustion caused by focusing on one topic for too long, and being perfectly honest here, it may never happen depending on how interesting the topic even is to her. This is a trait that was seen in the other Knowers as well, proving that it wasn't just a personality quirk.
Those two things aside, all miracles performed by Knowers have an unexplained source. The effects can be measured, her brain activity monitored, the miracle viewed and interpreted by all kinds of instruments, but still how she manages to do it is beyond anyone. While Knowers seem to have an unlimited arsenal of how they can affect their environment - everything from healing, to kinesis, to disablement, to construction, to dream-walking, and even manipulating someone's soul! - any type of miracle is extremely stressful on their minds. A test on Naritarasu during her early years among Karitzuians showed that her brain activity goes haywire when performing any miracle, and her body temperature rockets up to dangerous levels; more often than not, she would become feeble and weak, short of breath, feverish, drained of blood, faint, and sometimes even fall unconscious for weeks at a time. So far no Knower has ever ended up fatally wounded or dead from the consequences of performing a miracle, although it has been noted that when Zhera overstresses herself in performing lots of - or particularly powerful - miracles, it takes a toll on her mental and spiritual stability; with such consequences for performing miracles it makes sense that the Knowers don't use them often.
However, there is one miracle of sorts that the Knower cannot control, and it is both detrimental and useful. Somehow, for whatever reason, a Knower with no progeny cannot die, and a Knower with parents will never age past a certain point. This only enforces the one-lineage trait of Knowers, which makes it look extremely deliberate. While the "immortality" is nice at first glance, in truth it simply seems to agitate the Knowers. Naritarasu died once on accident, but promptly came back, and while Korimala never died and resurrected once, Zhera has died a whopping 17 times! Those deaths definitely left scars behind. Additionally, Zhera's children remained just underage for reproduction until she finally died, in which case they aged up until their 30s (in human years), then stopped. So far no Knower has simply died and not come back before she had children, nor any progeny die while one of her parents are alive, though in the latter case it's presumed that resurrection occurs as normal. The manner of death also doesn't seem to affect the resurrection process; Naritarasu died temporarily from a bad science experiment, and Zhera has been chopped up, hanged, burned, starved, and slain several times in battle, including decapitation (poor gal); no matter how grim, crude, or methodical the process though, she still comes back, so clearly it seems the method is not a factor in how "dead" a Knower can be; however, only Naritarasu came back in under a day. In most cases death is a major inconvenience, and a Knower can be "out of commission" for years at a time. The longest recorded death time was when Zhera was methodically taken apart and distributed like she was a venomous snake, resulting in over 6 years of death, causing her resurrected body to have multiple, permanent lines dividing her up that agitated her in their healing state for at least three months or longer.
History:
So what's this weird history we've been hinting about? Well, to kick it off, the Knower's home world isn't exactly her home world; rather, it's believed to be the Akrai homeworld, the very same that was nearly destroyed by the Zorg after their uprising, extinguishing the species. The reason it is labelled as her homeworld is because the very first Knower, Naritarasu, was found there by a scouting Zephorian vessel. She was the only life sign on the entire planet, and no amount of scouring proved otherwise. She had amnesia about who she was, how she ended up there, or even what anything was called; however, she had an incomprehensible knowledge base, earning her the nickname "The Knower". Her species was dubbed "Karitzu" because of some Akrai ruins that were later investigated close to where she was found, in hopes of answers; instead, the Karitzuians (who weren't known as such at the time) only found more questions. The ruins contained references to the Knower's kind, but not as a species; rather, as an individual. One room within what is believed to be a library or temple, called the Oracle Room, actually has a mural encircling its walls, depicting the future actions of Naritarasu and her children, and what was known of the Akrai language was used to translate some spare words, including "karitzu" - meaning "blood angel", in reference to the figures with Naritarasu's likeness - and "sklata", meaning "bringer". At the time it wasn't known what the murals were showing, and it was thought to be an illustrated history of Naritarasu's people; since time has passed, it has been proven otherwise, begging the first question to rise again: where did she come from?
Naritarasu:
While Naritarasu was prodded at for answers about her and her race, it was quickly discovered that her optimistic, elusive personality held unusual abilities. Most of her actions were harmless, simply guessing what was going on in the heads of others and quickly assessing situations to fix problems. Since she was an only being of a new race, everything she did was jotted down with intense excitement. As she learned more about the galaxy surrounding her though, more abilities began to emerge, some of them not explained yet by science. She did positive things, not always outright healing or helping people, but often influencing situations in strange ways. Scientists called her telekinetic, able to influence and understand her surroundings on another level. The religious called her an angel, or a miracle-worker. Whoever you agree with, she was definitely an oddity that prompted more research, but more research meant being treated more like a subject and less like a person; Naritarasu began finding clever ways to avoid being tested, even going as far to use her powers to block the paths of pursuers so she can escape and find a safe place to be away from questions, scientists, and overzealous fans.
It was a game of cat and mouse for a while, and the Galaxy (or what little of it that was interconnected at the time) began to grow split on who - or what - Naritarasu was and what to do with her. Despite her powers she was no illusionist, and for a while Naritarasu went into hiding, no longer interested in physical contact despite her empathy for lifeforms. Finding and approaching her revealed the ugly side of her nature, manipulating the world around her to try and escape yet again; with the help of a persistent friend though, she was finally brought back into the spotlight, and with a revolutionary new idea to fix the squabbling between the nations: unite under one name, and yet keep your individuality.
It was immediately believed to be yet another prophetic thing she was told to deliver, but in essence it's just wise in the first place; it's hard to fight with someone you call your kin, and petty matters tend to fall short of quarreling. Naritarasu thought just that of her existence: petty. The Karitzuians' appreciation for her though was leaps and bounds ahead, and after many long years of ironing out a uniting document and oath she was promptly elected as the supreme commander of the brand new Karitzuian Galaxy (which, obviously, adopted the name of her species as a form of reverence).
The new Karitzuian leaders that were appointed helped out Naritarasu for a while, especially when dealing with the overeager communities that wanted to meet her, learn about her, and watch her perform new miracles (and especially on them). Naritarasu grew close to the new Zephorian leader Nyra, but grew unusually close to Hirloin, the Ice Spirit Clan leader. Nyra warned Naritarasu countless times about jumping the gun on her feelings, but she ignored her, ending up with Hirloin and eventually, four kids. Doesn't it boggle the mind? The Karitzuians were ecstatic about the potential of new information about the Knower, and of course, were disappointed... again. More questions were brought up as three of the children were True Ice Spirits, and only one was another Knower, and a girl one at that; no info on boys yet. Even more frustrating was yet another question: the girl's DNA didn't match her parents' at all! It actually mutated into an entirely different strand, as if she were from a completely different family. How did that happen?! Despite the scientists leaving the party with scowls and frowns, the rest of the Galaxy rejoiced, and things seemed to be fine for a while.
Nyra's previous concerns about Hirloin were proven later though in the form of a tragedy; the responsibilities of leadership were crushing the Ice Spirit, but he was too stubborn and trying to act tough to address it. It later drove him into madness, one day foregoing his responsibilities to "cool off". He ended up with a bounty on his head and the authorities after him later, charging him for murder. A lot of it. Considering he was still the Ice Spirit Clan leader in the documents and Naritarasu's mate, concerns about the security of the Galaxy and her own life escalated quickly. Despite the Galaxy's best efforts though, the two ran into each other eventually as Naritarasu was trying to hide her daughter on her "home world". Only the young Korimala witnessed the whole thing; she recalls: " Mother fought a lot and even conjured a weapon to do it. Father was too strong for her though. I think her vigilance is what kept her alive so long". The weapon being conjured was never proven despite Naritarasu being found with an unfamiliar sword, and both her and her mate had perished in the struggle. Naritarasu would have lived if Hirloin hadn't used the Black Blade, a notorious weapon passed down his bloodline and rumored to curse people. Curses and rumors aside, it was a micro-sawed toothed blade, meaning that any injury inflicted with it wouldn't heal properly. Not even Korimala knew why her mother didn't use her abilities to heal herself, instead choosing to use the time to assure her daughter. All anyone knew is that a tragedy occurred that day, striking out two important leaders in one blow.
Korimala:
Naritarasu's daughter seemed to mature a lot faster without being able to hide under her mother's wing, and with her brothers missing not longer after her father's sanity snapped and her newly-developed trust issues with Ice Spirits as a result of being traumatized, the Ice Spirit Clan leader's place remained vacant for the entirety of her reign, instead allowing the remaining three leaders to take up his tasks. Her morale was in the pits for a long time, and she had severe depression for much of the rest of her childhood, something Naritarasu never exhibited. With the grip of tragedy lessening on the Galaxy Korimala was slowly eased back into a normal life, but it took many more years of recovery for her to truly regain her optimism. It was interestingly noted that her personality varied quite a bit from her mother's, and especially her father's. Her father was stern, stolid, a tad abrasive, and tended to lock his feelings away, never admitting them; her mother was bright, curious, cryptic, and philanthropic. While Korimala retained some of the more positive traits from her mother's side, her personality was a lot more open, expressive, and emotional. The social differences were stark, but in truth it's hard to peg it as being influenced in some way or if it was just "her being her".
After Korimala's recovery the Galaxy ran pretty smoothly under her reign, even though the Ice Spirits still had no representative. The peace was utilized to explore more of the Galaxy, and some of the outside territories as well; while Earth was discovered during her reign, it was put off with a lot of other planets as "potential interests", meaning the Karitzuians would come back to check on it later to see what happened and if anything could be done with the planet to benefit them (guess they didn't expect humans to show up so quickly!). Korimala also signed several documents to create an alliance between the Karitzuians and the Intergalactic Republic, creating the first allies of the Galaxy. During her time observations and voluntary experiments were still being done with her to see what remained to be discovered about the Karitzu, one of the biggest notes being that after "prime maturity" - that is, once she officially became an adult and stopped growing - her body somehow prevented deterioration, as though she had an immense lifespan. At first it was presumed that Knowers were just mortals like the rest of us, but this extremely-slow aging - if you could even call it aging - brought the religious Karitzuians to another supernatural conclusion: that she was immortal, and because she was the only known Knower she wouldn't be allowed to pass away until she wasn't the only one anymore. This would be considered hogwash for a while, until later on in Zhera's reign. It was still grumpily noted by scientists however that, once she became mates with Caltrops, the Shadow Clan leader at the time, her aging picked back up again and followed a pretty normal path of deterioration, including the decline of sanity. Just to frustrate the scientists more, there was again only one Karitzu child, and it was again a girl with a brand new string of DNA that didn't match those of her parents. Unlike her mother, she was an only child and had no siblings at Caltrops's choice.
As if Knowers can't go out with a bang, a new tragedy occurred to bring about Korimala's passing, although her mate lived this time. Her daughter vanished as the scene of the battle - a Karitzuian space-faring vessel - self-destructed, offsetting the trajectory of her escape pod. Since the tragedy took place in Yla Galaxy space it wasn't able to be investigated thoroughly enough to find out what happened; it's only known that there was an attack - suspected to be sabotage on the vessel itself or an assassination from enemies of the Intergalactic Republic - Korimala sent her daughter among the first to escape, something happened with the ship that caused it to start the self-destruct sequence, there were about 20 casualties - including Korimala - and only most of the survivors returned home, with three escape pods missing. One was found misdirected to a planet, the other found several months later drifting through space with a shot battery. The one that contained Korimala's daughter and several other children was simply gone.
Zhera:
For a long time the Karitzuian Galaxy became bitter and withdrawn, lashing out at the sympathies of its Yla allies and blaming them for not allowing investigations or even revenge in foreign territory; the Intergalactic Republic was firm on its rulings. What happened in Yla space is noted and managed by Yla space. Even though it was their own leaders and government at stake the Karitzuians were forced to stand by. As a result much of the Galaxy tried to keep it together by setting a monthly council of the significant national leaders to form, in an attempt to fill the void left by the dissolution of the Clan leaders. Thankfully, no major incidents occurred in the Galaxy during this time, unless you count the constant infringement of unknown races stumbling upon them, gathering every ounce of information they can, and then fleeing in hopes they wouldn't be blown up for trespassing. That sure happens a lot.
With the Galaxy mulling in its frustration and its contempt, a new Karitzuian presence rose up in the Yla Galaxy, going completely unnoticed because the planet it showed up on wasn't even on the galactic radar... then prophets and oracles of the Karitzuian Galaxy suddenly showed up with a new message: Zhera was coming. But who the heck was Zhera? Some hoped it was Korimala's missing daughter, others believed it was a new order of government; it was a little bit of both but mostly the former. When Zhera showed up she was astonishingly a lot more like her grandfather than her father, mother, or even grandmother! She was abrasive, a little mocking, confident, blunt, sharp-witted, stolid, even disdainful; the Ice Spirit attitude was thick with this one. Despite all of this though, she still held the stark personality of a leader, even if it wasn't a cryptic, magical leader like Naritarasu or the empathetic butterfly that was Korimala. A drill sergeant is quite a change, but the slowly-crumbling Galaxy sure was whipped into a shape quick when she showed up, with new leaders, slight changes to the system, and a brand new relationship with the Yla Galaxy that asserted Karitzuian dominance.
At first things were a little begrudging with Zhera because the Galaxy didn't anticipate such a... vibrant personality.With time though her ferocity became to be admired, even a role model for the Karitzuians, and she enforced a more practical lifestyle by encouraging work and expansion of the military. Zhera is an awful politician, and is a bit brash with rushing headlong into conflict, but she still had that bit of mystery that Knowers had; instead of making you wonder though she tended to annoy you by not elaborating things, but really, that's just her being her.
While she hung out in the Galaxy a bit, Zhera actually spent much of her time exploring Yla and conversing with the nations formed in it (although deliberating avoiding races that didn't agree with her "fight now, talk later" philosophy; you can imagine that the leaders took up some more responsibilities during her time). She was the longest-lived Knower, the first to undergo radical color changes that matched up with her personality swings, the one who initiated the most conflicts (and won most of them), and the first to die; that's right, multiple times! She's had a long, rough life, and it shows on her scarred, patchy body. She also made a point of carrying the Meteor Blade with her, which was the same sword that her grandmother was found dead with; and yes, she does fight with it. A lot. While only more questions seem to pop up about what the heck a Karitzu actually is (and is labeled as a Supernatural specie because of these things), Zhera did reveal some interesting facts. For example, her incredibly-long lifespan proved that aging does seem to stop with Knowers after a certain amount of maturity, and when killed she seems to take several years to somehow resurrect, and never in a logical manner! It was also proven that the Karitzu are monogender, meaning they're only born female and rely on males of other species to reproduce; nice to know, since Zhera was adamant about introducing new reproduction laws in the Galaxy and would otherwise outlaw her ability to have children! Also, of course, it was investigated further the Knower's ability to vary melanin production levels after each molt depending on her psychological condition.
For spoiler reasons, I won't tell you much beyond that except for these things: Zhera did eventually become mates with Samatai, another Fallen Ice Spirit, and had three children, all of whom went missing for a while because of the events that where going on at the time of their birth. Eventually the eldest, Terzei, and the middle child, Nikotu, both showed up, but the third never met her parents before they died. The eldest did take her mother's place as the supreme commander for a while, but quickly retired when the stress became too much; again the Galaxy was left with a missing leader, but pulled through even still as they waited for the remaining child to return and take up the helm: Nausicaa.
Naritarasu:
While Naritarasu was prodded at for answers about her and her race, it was quickly discovered that her optimistic, elusive personality held unusual abilities. Most of her actions were harmless, simply guessing what was going on in the heads of others and quickly assessing situations to fix problems. Since she was an only being of a new race, everything she did was jotted down with intense excitement. As she learned more about the galaxy surrounding her though, more abilities began to emerge, some of them not explained yet by science. She did positive things, not always outright healing or helping people, but often influencing situations in strange ways. Scientists called her telekinetic, able to influence and understand her surroundings on another level. The religious called her an angel, or a miracle-worker. Whoever you agree with, she was definitely an oddity that prompted more research, but more research meant being treated more like a subject and less like a person; Naritarasu began finding clever ways to avoid being tested, even going as far to use her powers to block the paths of pursuers so she can escape and find a safe place to be away from questions, scientists, and overzealous fans.
It was a game of cat and mouse for a while, and the Galaxy (or what little of it that was interconnected at the time) began to grow split on who - or what - Naritarasu was and what to do with her. Despite her powers she was no illusionist, and for a while Naritarasu went into hiding, no longer interested in physical contact despite her empathy for lifeforms. Finding and approaching her revealed the ugly side of her nature, manipulating the world around her to try and escape yet again; with the help of a persistent friend though, she was finally brought back into the spotlight, and with a revolutionary new idea to fix the squabbling between the nations: unite under one name, and yet keep your individuality.
It was immediately believed to be yet another prophetic thing she was told to deliver, but in essence it's just wise in the first place; it's hard to fight with someone you call your kin, and petty matters tend to fall short of quarreling. Naritarasu thought just that of her existence: petty. The Karitzuians' appreciation for her though was leaps and bounds ahead, and after many long years of ironing out a uniting document and oath she was promptly elected as the supreme commander of the brand new Karitzuian Galaxy (which, obviously, adopted the name of her species as a form of reverence).
The new Karitzuian leaders that were appointed helped out Naritarasu for a while, especially when dealing with the overeager communities that wanted to meet her, learn about her, and watch her perform new miracles (and especially on them). Naritarasu grew close to the new Zephorian leader Nyra, but grew unusually close to Hirloin, the Ice Spirit Clan leader. Nyra warned Naritarasu countless times about jumping the gun on her feelings, but she ignored her, ending up with Hirloin and eventually, four kids. Doesn't it boggle the mind? The Karitzuians were ecstatic about the potential of new information about the Knower, and of course, were disappointed... again. More questions were brought up as three of the children were True Ice Spirits, and only one was another Knower, and a girl one at that; no info on boys yet. Even more frustrating was yet another question: the girl's DNA didn't match her parents' at all! It actually mutated into an entirely different strand, as if she were from a completely different family. How did that happen?! Despite the scientists leaving the party with scowls and frowns, the rest of the Galaxy rejoiced, and things seemed to be fine for a while.
Nyra's previous concerns about Hirloin were proven later though in the form of a tragedy; the responsibilities of leadership were crushing the Ice Spirit, but he was too stubborn and trying to act tough to address it. It later drove him into madness, one day foregoing his responsibilities to "cool off". He ended up with a bounty on his head and the authorities after him later, charging him for murder. A lot of it. Considering he was still the Ice Spirit Clan leader in the documents and Naritarasu's mate, concerns about the security of the Galaxy and her own life escalated quickly. Despite the Galaxy's best efforts though, the two ran into each other eventually as Naritarasu was trying to hide her daughter on her "home world". Only the young Korimala witnessed the whole thing; she recalls: " Mother fought a lot and even conjured a weapon to do it. Father was too strong for her though. I think her vigilance is what kept her alive so long". The weapon being conjured was never proven despite Naritarasu being found with an unfamiliar sword, and both her and her mate had perished in the struggle. Naritarasu would have lived if Hirloin hadn't used the Black Blade, a notorious weapon passed down his bloodline and rumored to curse people. Curses and rumors aside, it was a micro-sawed toothed blade, meaning that any injury inflicted with it wouldn't heal properly. Not even Korimala knew why her mother didn't use her abilities to heal herself, instead choosing to use the time to assure her daughter. All anyone knew is that a tragedy occurred that day, striking out two important leaders in one blow.
Korimala:
Naritarasu's daughter seemed to mature a lot faster without being able to hide under her mother's wing, and with her brothers missing not longer after her father's sanity snapped and her newly-developed trust issues with Ice Spirits as a result of being traumatized, the Ice Spirit Clan leader's place remained vacant for the entirety of her reign, instead allowing the remaining three leaders to take up his tasks. Her morale was in the pits for a long time, and she had severe depression for much of the rest of her childhood, something Naritarasu never exhibited. With the grip of tragedy lessening on the Galaxy Korimala was slowly eased back into a normal life, but it took many more years of recovery for her to truly regain her optimism. It was interestingly noted that her personality varied quite a bit from her mother's, and especially her father's. Her father was stern, stolid, a tad abrasive, and tended to lock his feelings away, never admitting them; her mother was bright, curious, cryptic, and philanthropic. While Korimala retained some of the more positive traits from her mother's side, her personality was a lot more open, expressive, and emotional. The social differences were stark, but in truth it's hard to peg it as being influenced in some way or if it was just "her being her".
After Korimala's recovery the Galaxy ran pretty smoothly under her reign, even though the Ice Spirits still had no representative. The peace was utilized to explore more of the Galaxy, and some of the outside territories as well; while Earth was discovered during her reign, it was put off with a lot of other planets as "potential interests", meaning the Karitzuians would come back to check on it later to see what happened and if anything could be done with the planet to benefit them (guess they didn't expect humans to show up so quickly!). Korimala also signed several documents to create an alliance between the Karitzuians and the Intergalactic Republic, creating the first allies of the Galaxy. During her time observations and voluntary experiments were still being done with her to see what remained to be discovered about the Karitzu, one of the biggest notes being that after "prime maturity" - that is, once she officially became an adult and stopped growing - her body somehow prevented deterioration, as though she had an immense lifespan. At first it was presumed that Knowers were just mortals like the rest of us, but this extremely-slow aging - if you could even call it aging - brought the religious Karitzuians to another supernatural conclusion: that she was immortal, and because she was the only known Knower she wouldn't be allowed to pass away until she wasn't the only one anymore. This would be considered hogwash for a while, until later on in Zhera's reign. It was still grumpily noted by scientists however that, once she became mates with Caltrops, the Shadow Clan leader at the time, her aging picked back up again and followed a pretty normal path of deterioration, including the decline of sanity. Just to frustrate the scientists more, there was again only one Karitzu child, and it was again a girl with a brand new string of DNA that didn't match those of her parents. Unlike her mother, she was an only child and had no siblings at Caltrops's choice.
As if Knowers can't go out with a bang, a new tragedy occurred to bring about Korimala's passing, although her mate lived this time. Her daughter vanished as the scene of the battle - a Karitzuian space-faring vessel - self-destructed, offsetting the trajectory of her escape pod. Since the tragedy took place in Yla Galaxy space it wasn't able to be investigated thoroughly enough to find out what happened; it's only known that there was an attack - suspected to be sabotage on the vessel itself or an assassination from enemies of the Intergalactic Republic - Korimala sent her daughter among the first to escape, something happened with the ship that caused it to start the self-destruct sequence, there were about 20 casualties - including Korimala - and only most of the survivors returned home, with three escape pods missing. One was found misdirected to a planet, the other found several months later drifting through space with a shot battery. The one that contained Korimala's daughter and several other children was simply gone.
Zhera:
For a long time the Karitzuian Galaxy became bitter and withdrawn, lashing out at the sympathies of its Yla allies and blaming them for not allowing investigations or even revenge in foreign territory; the Intergalactic Republic was firm on its rulings. What happened in Yla space is noted and managed by Yla space. Even though it was their own leaders and government at stake the Karitzuians were forced to stand by. As a result much of the Galaxy tried to keep it together by setting a monthly council of the significant national leaders to form, in an attempt to fill the void left by the dissolution of the Clan leaders. Thankfully, no major incidents occurred in the Galaxy during this time, unless you count the constant infringement of unknown races stumbling upon them, gathering every ounce of information they can, and then fleeing in hopes they wouldn't be blown up for trespassing. That sure happens a lot.
With the Galaxy mulling in its frustration and its contempt, a new Karitzuian presence rose up in the Yla Galaxy, going completely unnoticed because the planet it showed up on wasn't even on the galactic radar... then prophets and oracles of the Karitzuian Galaxy suddenly showed up with a new message: Zhera was coming. But who the heck was Zhera? Some hoped it was Korimala's missing daughter, others believed it was a new order of government; it was a little bit of both but mostly the former. When Zhera showed up she was astonishingly a lot more like her grandfather than her father, mother, or even grandmother! She was abrasive, a little mocking, confident, blunt, sharp-witted, stolid, even disdainful; the Ice Spirit attitude was thick with this one. Despite all of this though, she still held the stark personality of a leader, even if it wasn't a cryptic, magical leader like Naritarasu or the empathetic butterfly that was Korimala. A drill sergeant is quite a change, but the slowly-crumbling Galaxy sure was whipped into a shape quick when she showed up, with new leaders, slight changes to the system, and a brand new relationship with the Yla Galaxy that asserted Karitzuian dominance.
At first things were a little begrudging with Zhera because the Galaxy didn't anticipate such a... vibrant personality.With time though her ferocity became to be admired, even a role model for the Karitzuians, and she enforced a more practical lifestyle by encouraging work and expansion of the military. Zhera is an awful politician, and is a bit brash with rushing headlong into conflict, but she still had that bit of mystery that Knowers had; instead of making you wonder though she tended to annoy you by not elaborating things, but really, that's just her being her.
While she hung out in the Galaxy a bit, Zhera actually spent much of her time exploring Yla and conversing with the nations formed in it (although deliberating avoiding races that didn't agree with her "fight now, talk later" philosophy; you can imagine that the leaders took up some more responsibilities during her time). She was the longest-lived Knower, the first to undergo radical color changes that matched up with her personality swings, the one who initiated the most conflicts (and won most of them), and the first to die; that's right, multiple times! She's had a long, rough life, and it shows on her scarred, patchy body. She also made a point of carrying the Meteor Blade with her, which was the same sword that her grandmother was found dead with; and yes, she does fight with it. A lot. While only more questions seem to pop up about what the heck a Karitzu actually is (and is labeled as a Supernatural specie because of these things), Zhera did reveal some interesting facts. For example, her incredibly-long lifespan proved that aging does seem to stop with Knowers after a certain amount of maturity, and when killed she seems to take several years to somehow resurrect, and never in a logical manner! It was also proven that the Karitzu are monogender, meaning they're only born female and rely on males of other species to reproduce; nice to know, since Zhera was adamant about introducing new reproduction laws in the Galaxy and would otherwise outlaw her ability to have children! Also, of course, it was investigated further the Knower's ability to vary melanin production levels after each molt depending on her psychological condition.
For spoiler reasons, I won't tell you much beyond that except for these things: Zhera did eventually become mates with Samatai, another Fallen Ice Spirit, and had three children, all of whom went missing for a while because of the events that where going on at the time of their birth. Eventually the eldest, Terzei, and the middle child, Nikotu, both showed up, but the third never met her parents before they died. The eldest did take her mother's place as the supreme commander for a while, but quickly retired when the stress became too much; again the Galaxy was left with a missing leader, but pulled through even still as they waited for the remaining child to return and take up the helm: Nausicaa.
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