They are shapeshifters.
Watchers sworn to neutrality, sworn only to observe and record and
study. Interference is taboo; those who
meddle in history is punished harshly. It
is only amongst themselves that they can do anything but invisibly watch. But not every vir’zarie is happy with the
way things are…
Vae’zolaesi
Not every vir’zarie is happy with the vae-esiam. These are the vae’zolaesi, the breakers-of-oath. They are outcasts and worse than outcasts. To the vir’zariesi, the vae’zolaesi are filth, unmentionables, and untouchables. They are never mentioned in the vir-vaulesi, the World Writings. If they have an important part in history that must be recorded, it is never said that they are vae’zolaes. The vir’zariesi cannot kill them, for that would be meddling in history. On the rare occasions that a vir’zarie does lose their control and kill a vae’zolae, it is usually overlooked by the rest of the vir’zariesi.
The natural vir’zariesi form is obviously made for recording- and it’s obvious, too, why it’s rarely used. It’s called the vuriti-earu, the first form. The vuriti-earu has six arms, each with a four-fingered hand; a gigantic brain; seven stalk eyes; and four wings. It’s a hideous form, and very few vir’zariesi use it. They are born in the vuriti-earu form if they’re full-blooded vir’zariesi, but the moment they can shapeshift, they usually do. They can take on any form, but most have a favorite form that they usually keep for recognization purposes and convenience. The more imaginative vir’zariesi sometimes take a shape that hasn’t been seen on any world.
Vir’zariesi have amazingly extensive knowledge of all types of magic, but that’s balanced by their low magical power. In shapeshifting, their power, energy, and ability is limited only by their imagination. They have excellent magical ability when it comes to spying, recording, traveling dimensions and worlds, or eavesdropping magic. None surpass the vir’zariesi at subterfuge or telepathy. But when it comes to battle magic, healing magic, and even practical magic, they’re nearly helpless. It’s only because of their great knowledge and limitless photographic memory that they can use magic other than shapeshifting, recording, and telepathy at all. In a one-one-one magic fight, a vir’zariesi (or more likely vae’zolaesi, since fighting counts as interfering) is at a great disadvantage. They can shift into something nearly impervious to magic, but they still won’t be able to do much attacking magically. However, they can usually hold their own.
A vir’zarie can shift into anything. The shifting ability manifests at about one year of age- which makes the youngling a handful for the parent! It’s the vir’zariesi version of the “terrible twos.” The youngling usually “settles,” or finds their favorite form (vuriti-salea, literally “best form”) at three, though the settling age varies. Shapeshifting for a vir’zarie takes virtually no energy, although ‘shifting several times in rapid succession can bring on a splitting headache.
In the vuriti-earu, the vir’zariesi are unable to reproduce. They have no reproductive organisms. However, they are not really genderless. They either have a lot of creativity and some logic or a lot of logic and some creativity- right-brain or left-brain thinking, if you will. The thinking style can be seen at birth by a gentle telepathic probing. Creative thinkers, when they shapeshift, can only take female form. Logical thinkers can only take male form. This is only true for pureblooded vir’zariesi. The thinking-style doesn’t hold true with mixed species.
Vir’zariesi can have children at fifty, though most wait until sixty or seventy years of age to do so. Vir’zariesi only mate with other vir’zariesi, and of course have to shapeshift to do so. They are not very virile, and tend to have only one or two children at a time. It’s rare for a vir’zarie to birth more than once every three years. They cannot change form during the pregnancy, which usually lasts the standard time for whatever form they take in the impregnation. Vir’zariesi cannot hatch out of eggs, as the vuriti-earu is not equipped for breaking a shell.
At one year of age, the vir’zarie youngling is able to shapeshift. Once they settle into their vuriti-salea, usually at three years of age, they are weaned and are sent to the vir-ainu, the training world, to be taught much of the vir’zariesi store of knowledge. Vir-ainu has a very fast time as compared to most other worlds, and the properties of the dimension makes whoever is in it age at Vir-ainu’s rate rather than at the rate of Vir-arie, the vir’zariesi homeworld. A complex spell can alter that for an individual, which is what the teachers do, but living out their childhood on Vir-ainu means that the younglings don’t miss much on the outside worlds.
At fifty years of age, the youngling is considered an adult. Most mate at sixty or seventy for the first time. Long-term mate-pairs are rare- there are too few vir’zariesi and they aren’t virile enough to reproduce with only one mate. Besides that, most vir’zariesi take on one particular area or culture to study and record for, and there usually isn’t another vir’zarie for quite a distance.
At eighty, the vir’zarie has most likely chosen a culture to study and record for. By 100, they’ve probably had ten mates and less than ten children, if any children. At 600, Vir-arie years of age (which can be several thousand or more in a faster dimension), the vir-zarie is getting up on years. Most will return to Vir-arie at this time and take a less hectic job. Many also do a lot of mating and child bearing while on their home dimension. Once they hit 800, they become infertile. At this time, many vir’zariesi go to Vir-ainu to teach and to train younglings. At 900-1000 years, the vir’zarie dies of old age.
As said before, a vir’zarie goes to Vir-ainu as soon as they settle into their urita-salea. Vir-ainu is a realm that holds all the biomes, though mostly forest. Training takes place over the entire world. The vir’zarie youngling is taught in various magics; psionics; and is given at least a semi-brief overview of just about every culture in existence. As one might imagine, this takes a lot of time – just around fifty years.
Once the vir’zarie becomes an adult at age fifty, they often visit the dimensions they learned about on Vir-ainu – or at least the ones that interest them. Many will swing by Vir-arie occasionally to catch up on events in other worlds, events on their own world, and to mate. By the time they reach eighty years of age, they’ll probably have chosen a world or culture to record. The vir’zarie will spend the next several hundred years of his/her life at that dimension, reporting back to Vir-arie with new records every fifty years ago.
At six hundred, the vir’zarie returns to Vir-arie. There they might take one of many jobs – organizing records; caring for younglings; editing records… that sorta thing; as well as make little ones of their own. *gryn* Once they become 800 years old, most will either stay on at Vir-arie or go to Vir-ainu to teach history, magic, and so on and so forth.
The highest-ranked vir’zariesi are the four Guardians of the Records, the vaulesi’zugeasi. They’re patterned after the first four vir’zariesi, and are always two males and two females. The vaulesi’zugeasi stay on Vir-arie and make any major decisions that need to be made. However, there aren’t always that many major decisions to make. Therefore, the vaulesi’zugeasi are the ones anyone comes to with problems about the vir-vaulesi, the World Records.
The second-highest ranked vir’zariesi resides on Vir-ainu, and is pretty much the “training camp boss.” S/he is called aini-earu, First Trainer, and is rarely called by his/her true name.
For the vae’zolaesi, however, things are slightly different. They send their young to the Vir-arui, the “swift world,” a world with properties almost exactly the same as Vir-ainu. Often, the vae’zolaesi will interbreed with other species. Half-vae’zolaesi have a slightly shorter lifespan, are born in the form of whatever species is not the vae’zolaes half, and usually have stronger magic. The vela-sucaesi, the mixed-bloods, have no need to “setle,” as their urita-earu is generally their urita-salea as well. They do go through a period of experimental shifting at two or three years of age, and have the remarkable shapeshifting ability of the vir’zariesi, as well as the same excellent memory.
The vela-sucaesi and vae’zolaesi all train at
Vir-auri. Many study other cultures,
but not in an aloof way – their method is to become one of that culture. Their records are, consequently, just as
thorough as the vir’zariesi, though tinted by emotional attachments and
opinions. Unfortunately, close contact
with shorter-lived species means that suicides are extremely common among the vae’zolaesi.
The leaders of the Vae’zolaesi are also called the vaulesi’zugeasi, and their trainingmaster on Vir-arui is also called aini-earu.
When history began, many gods from many different races came together. They decided that it was necessary to create a powerful, immortal being that would traverse time and dimensions, compiling information on all. This creature they created was named Historia, but she gave herself the name Bardwolf Spyshifter.
One of the gods realized the usefulness of the Historian, as well as the need for her. This god, named Vua’zarie, Watcher of All, also thought that it was impossible for one being to record everything on all dimensions. So Vua’zarie created a shapeshifting race to record as many histories and cultures as possible. This race was named the Watchers of the World- the vir’zariesi.
The first vir’zariesi that were created numbered four: Vakeu-meyvela, Vulaisa-seyibae, Vilausa-meyariam, and Vinaire-seyarui. Vua’zarie had them take the Watching Oath, the vae-ariam, which goes thus:
“I swear to forever watch and accurately record the events and beliefs of the changing worlds; to only watch and never reveal myself; to only observe and never involve myself in any way with any part of any world other than those that are set aside for the vir’zariesi; and to devote my life to the faithful recording of the changing worlds. This oath I swear that I and all who come after me shall uphold, and all my descendants shall be held to this sacred oath.”
As time went by, the vir’zaliesi grew in number, and were given Vir-arie, the Watching World, as their own. They were also granted by Vua-arie the training world, Vir-ainu.
Then came the Oath Breaking, the vae-olaeu. It was begun by a group of older children, most in their thirties and fourties, led by Ulaisa-mey, named for her extraordinarily sharp sight. Her vuriti-salea was that of a wolf. She was a natural leader, and spread the before-unheard-of idea of breaking the vae-ariam. Why? Ulaisa was shaken by the many atrocities and tragedies in different cultures, and couldn’t understand how the vir’zariesi could just sit back and emotionlessly watch and record. That her own people were so heartless…
Five years before her training ended, she and the ten others who agreed with her left Vir-ainu for Vir-akueli, the Death World, a world of constant war and plague where Darkness held sway over Light and did horrible things to their own kind. It took many, many years- eighty Vir-akueli years, though only three Vir-arie years- but Ulaisa-mey and those with her rallied the lightwolves (for they were all wolves on Vir-akueli) to defeat the darkwolves.
On Vir-arie, the four Guardians of the Records, the vaulesi-zugeasi, the rulers of the vir’zariesi, consulted long over the Vae-olaeu. At last they decided that Ulaisa-mey was now part of history, and should be treated as such. However, she and the other vae’zolaesi were to be named outcasts, and never mentioned in any records as ever having been a part of the vir’zariesi. A new record was begun, unknown to all but the vaulesi-zugeasi and the arie (Watcher) of the vae’zolaesi, to store knowledge of the vae’zolaesi, as the vae-esiam had specified that all history must be recorded. These records are the vaule-osoukasi, the Damned Records.
Despite the penalty of becoming outcasts, many vir’zariesi agreed with the vae’zolaesi ideals and joined them. The vae’zolaesi made their home on a world much like Vir-arie, which they named Vir-aunie- literally, “home world.” They found a world with properties very, very similar to Vir-ainu and made it their training world. This world is called Vir-arui. In time, the vae’zolaesi gained almost as vast a library as the vir’zariesi.
