Inari

Introduction

Tricksters who stole Seeming from the Boggarts, Inari survive by eating the livers of other races. They are a troubled people who rarely reveal themselves to outsiders, feared the world over yet present and undetected within every city on Antarok. You receive a Free Racial Merit for the Seeming of an Inari while playing as one.

Fast Facts

• Population: 20,000+
• Lifespan: Indefinite
• Height: Between 3 ft and 5 ft.
• Weight: Between 40 lbs and 80 lbs.
• Racial Merit: Inari have a Free Racial Merit for the Glamour of Seeming

Note: Inari must eat livers from the living races which contain Saol to survive. You must spend a Minor Merit to Incite its Glamour; an Inari without Seeming is unlikely to survive for long. Inari are universally hated and executed on discovery by nearly every culture in the world, except for those that treat a class of people like livestock. 

Racial Abilities:

Seeming

Inari are born with the Glamour of Seeming which grows slowly until the Inari is ready to Incite it sometime between the age of thirteen and twenty. To Incite it, you must expend a Minor Merit.

Liver Predation

Inari must eat a liver once every month to survive. The compulsion to eat a liver is magically profound, leading to salivation and hunger pangs when thinking about the act of predation.

Inari's Ball

Inari are born with a small, white, and bouncy ball in their mouths that feels rubbery, but glows like Alkahest. An Inari will always know roughly where to find this ball, but cannot bring themselves to directly harm any who hold on to it. Over time their emotions will begin to soften towards this individual, and they will not feel a compulsion to eat the liver of whomever holds it - they use this to their advantage if they worry they cannot control themselves. Often Inari will play with children and their own kin using these natural toys they are born with. They always keep this ball nearby, usually on their person, buried, or stashed in some bushes, and they will always know where it is.

An Inari will pay to have someone killed if they do not give them back this ball, or ruin their life in other ways until they do.

Nine-Tail Path

Inari possess a remnant of Beast Magic within themselves that can now be thought of as closer to a variant of Seeming. When achieving expert or Ascending in a form of Personal Arcana, or else reaching 100 XP in a Minor Merited Gramarye, an Inari will grow an additional tail, up to nine tails in total.

• Three Tails: The tails of a three-tail become prehensile and as tough as a limb, capable of picking things up or performing acrobatic feats.
• Five Tails: By five tails, an Inari may learn Apparation, threading Tendrils through their tails to change their Frequency while still retaining mobility, retracting or extending them up to the maximum length of the Tendril.
• Seven Tails: By seven tails, an Inari may learn to Syphon.
• Nine Tails: With nine tails, an Inari can now speak their thoughts into the minds of others by locking eyes with them.

History

While quite old, the Inari are young compared to the other Fae. Their tale began just four thousand years ago. Those who survive to this day have memories stretching back to at least this far, so while their history might be lost to the other races, they themselves know well their own story.

Origin

The Inari were once a primitive race of intelligent vulpine people, not unlike they are today. However, they only had Beast Magic, and their tribe longed to have Glamour that might rival the Fae. Capturing throngs of Boggarts, Inari Maltricians implanted their males with Seeming, and this interaction overwrote their Beast Magic, causing them to hunger for the Saol present within the liver of another being.

This caused the Inari to eat those without Seeming over time, and within a few generations, nearly all Inari had been born with Seeming. They could not survive by staying in their tribal communities, and so they scattered across the globe in search of sustenance.

Society

Culture

Inari lost much of what they once were, becoming largely nomadic. They have small, focused communities - usually family units of not more than twelve - and what social rituals they do have revolve around 'undressing' from their Seeming to socialize, talking fondly of who they will eat or have eaten. They also warn and mentor each other, teaching the weakest of their kind how to hunt or lure their prey for the kill.

Magic

Innately gifted with Seeming and fully aware that pursuing Arcana will yield them another tail, the Inari are universally magical. Seducing magi for their secrets, Inari have an easier time than most at collecting magic - their thirst for Arcana can be equated to a moth to flame, and so very few of them survive to their tenth tail.

Language

Inari learn to speak the language of the people they prey upon. If they prefer to hunt human liver in Dullahan, then they will speak Common.

Biology

Inari are small, bipedal, semi-humanoid foxes that stand upright on two legs. They are between three and five feet tall, rarely growing taller than this on their own without magic. They have poseable thumbs on their paws, but how they appear to another varies, as every Inari possesses Seeming; most of them use it to functionally be the race they live alongside, while others prefer to frolic in the forest as a wild thing emulating natural ways until they hunger again for mortal liver.

Aging & Reproduction

Inari are entirely immortal and youthful. By their eighteenth year, they appear as they will for the rest of their lives. However, they may appear as any age thanks to their Seeming.

Sex & Gender

Inari are often male, female, or intersex. This is an equal distribution, meaning one third of Inari eventually become intersex in some way. This is due to being able to change their gender with Seeming, leading to a disassociation with their own gender.

With few differences between the sexes, Inari tend to be rather androgynous. Males can have lilting, effeminate voices while females might have brux, growled tones - it all depends on the individual.

Inari go into estrus for a few weeks once each year in June or July. During this time, a female can reproduce with any other living race with a soul. The offspring will always be an Inari, even if the other parent is a Dryad or Gnoll. Similarly, male Inari will leave other races to bare Inari children; however, the child will resemble its mother until one day it suddenly shifts back into its true form sometime between the thirteenth and twentieth year of life. They will not be able to Incite their Seeming during this time, as the organ has not formed by this point.

Psychology

Dodecagonic Days

Like most Fae, the Inari are rarely in a rush to do anything at all, and when they sleep it can feel to mortals as if the they are sleeping for days at a time; the Inari by consequence see their mortal friends taking little naps throughout the day. This warped sense of time means that they tend to get stuck on a subject for far longer than a mortal might - even the most shy of Fae have a habit of droning on about inconsequential things without end, as this is a normal aspect of their society.

Sensitivity

Most Inari do not like their tails touched, as they are sensitive due to nervous fibers of Seeming present within them. They will often keep their tails carefully out of reach, as having one stepped on or slammed in a door is often compared to the pain of childbirth, passing a kidney stone, or having one's gonads pinched.

Sexuality

Attraction is not usually experienced by Inari in the common sense - they experience adult pleasure less through physical stimulation, and more through a deviant reverence of emotional highs. While they still derive satisfaction from a true union this is usually an expression of control rather than infatuation, and very few of them would prefer mutualism or sexual stimulation when compared to the aggrandizement of themselves; gender rarely has any say on compatibility. If labels must be given, they can be thought of as autosexual or grey-asexual, only rarely demisexual.

Normal attraction is still possible for Inari, but rare; you are welcome to be one of those rare few. Those who do tend to conflate desire with hunger, and many of them begin to hate themselves for eating their love interests.

An Inari who is transformed with Seeming will be overstimulated by any form of sensation, so most prefer to Unmask before experimenting - understandably, few would find them attractive. They often grow irritable in situations where they crave someone's attention yet cannot risk Unmasking due to how they feel the other person might feel about their true selves.

Notable Settlements

None

Inari roam freely across Ælphyne and all of Antarok, blending in with the living. Their nature necessitates small numbers; they rarely expand beyond singular family units that might operate within a town to cover their tracks. The ones sponsored by the Æld'Norai of Ælheim may be permitted refuge if they can prove themselves worthwhile. Some might even find comfort among the Blighted of Alítheia.

Related Articles

• Ælphyne
• Seeming
• Faefolk

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