The Emifolks origin
The Emifolks are a group of ancestries that has always been pushed aside and neglected if not outright despised. To most, they are an annoying crease in the tapestry of the world, a piece that doesn’t fit quite right in the mosaic of the Creation. The Emifolk harbor strange beliefs and savage customs, going against the grain of civilization.
One of the main reasons for the bad disposition against the Herpies, Centaurs, Satyrs, and Merfolk is that it is unclear where they come from.
There are scanty mentions of “half people” and “animal human” in the Scriptures but, while an unusual choice of words, they can all reference Halflings and Beast People. The four ancestries are mentioned explicitly for the first time in the minutes of the Accord’s gathering. Divinities are described as baffled by the apparitions of this race of people unsure of what to do with them.
There are three theories regarding the origin of the Emifolk.
The first says they were the chosen people of the abstract divinities of ideas. These gods monitored the astral planes and the thoughts of every creature but were barred from meddling with free will. The passive nature of their duty frustrated these divinities to the point they attempted a revolt, that was eventually squashed. They were imprisoned in the cubes of Hades and all records of them were erased from everywhere besides the minds of the Devils, their jailers. Some say that even the memories were redacted, and when the devils (as all the other divine beings) wrote down the history of the world they just didn’t remember many things about them, like the existence of the Emifolk.
To sustain this theory there are many of the current practices of the Emifolks, they have a curious interest in dreams and a taste for psychoactive substances, hallucinogenic especially: they believe an altered state of consciousness connects them with “somewhere else”. But everybody knows there are no other dimensions.
Another theory is that the Emifolks were born out of the mutagenic forces of the Collapse. This hypothesis is quite modern, sparked by the study of magical and spell-casting animals: if the energy of the fraying other worlds “created” many new animals, why not other humanoids?
There are some facts corroborating this idea, one most of all: the Emifolk Alliance’s land consists mainly of the Armageddon Peninsula, called so due to the massive battle that took place there during the Cosmic War. There is a clear connection between discharges of magical energies, especially of divine nature, and the mutations and other strange creatures that live on the peninsula testify that life was warped here.
The third theory is that they were part of the first moment of creation, similar to Fairies and Nightmare. All of them were “prototypes” of humanity, the Fairies and Nightmares with something divine, the Emifolks with something animalistic. These are all beings that feel “off”, even to the Divinites, and for that reason were cast off: the Fairies and Nightmares banished to the moons, the Emifolk stranded in the hostile former battleground.
One thing makes this hypothesis credible: it is one more close to what the Emifolk think of themselves.
Emifolks have a strange view of cosmology and a bizarre interpretation of history. First of all, they think the Demiruge created first of all a companion for himself, and that is the Creation. But Creation is forever asleep, dreaming. The Demiurge went away to find a way to wake her up, leaving the humans and Divinities to care for her. When the Demiruge returns and sees the mess the supposed caretakers did, he will punish them! But he will not punish the Emifolk because they were not created by him, they were part of Creation, and they were the ones who should be looked after and protected. Even more bafflingly the Emifolk Shaman insists that the Mana Field always existed and is, in fact, the Dream of the Creation.
These metaphysical views differ substantially from all other religions, adding to their reputation as delusional fools and ignorant savages.
