Inari

Introduction

Tricksters who stole Seeming from the Boggarts, Inari survive by eating specific body parts belonging to the 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. Inari receive a Free Racial Merit for their Seeming Variant.

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 body parts from the living races to survive. 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:

Chromatic Seeming

Inari are born with a Variant of the Glamour of Seeming which grows slowly until the Inari is ready to Incite it sometime between the age of thirteen and twenty. When doing so, their Seeming will be a Variant matching their most profound Metaphor at that time; most often, this is Saol, and rarely a "prodigy" will be born with Aether.

• The Variant Seeming of an Inari may be implanted into another race by a Maltrician to the base of the spine and then Incited. Aether Seeming is coveted by Rakshasa, and so these Inari are ruthlessly hunted by the cats who might be seen sporting Inari tails of their own.

Predation

Inari must consume Metaphor matching their Seeming from a being with a soul by eating a specific body part once a month to survive. The compulsion to eat is magically profound, leading to salivation and hunger pangs when thinking about the act of predation, causing them to lose their minds and hunt obsessively until they sate themselves should they go on longer than a month. Mastery in Meditation may push this compulsion back to three months, though their Spell Reserves will replenish at half their usual rate while in a state of starvation.

• Saol: The Liver
• Aeris or Geomena: The entire flayed Skin.
• Imber, Miasmata, Somnium, or Aether: the Brain.
• Fabula, Luxium, Anathema, or Ardor: the Eyes.
  • Inari will not suffer substitutions; they can taste the truth of these materials, nor will falsehoods sate their being.

Inari's Ball

Inari are born with a small, white, and bouncy ball in their mouths that feels rubbery. An Inari will always know roughly where to find this ball, but cannot bring themselves to directly bring harm upon any who possess it. Over time their emotions will begin to soften towards this individual, and they will not feel a compulsion to eat the body parts of whomever holds it - they use this to their advantage if they worry they cannot control themselves. Often Inari will play games with children and their own kin using these 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 when begging fails, or covertly 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 a result of their Chromatic Seeming. When achieving expert in a form of Personal Arcana, an Inari will grow an additional tail, up to eight tails in total. The ninth tail is grown when Ascending in a Personal Arcana

• 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 of a Metaphor matching their Seeming, 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 Syphon of a Metaphor matching their Seeming. They may now speak their thoughts into the minds of others by locking eyes with them.
• Nine Tails: With nine tails, Inari have an edge with Metaphor matching their Seeming; they spend 3/4 the amount of Spell Reserves when casting Arcana with that Metaphor.

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 Metaphor present within the bodies of other beings.

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 Planes in search of populations which could sate them.

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; those who routinely fail their hunts risk being eaten, as incompetence leads to intolerable risk.

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 Arcana - their thirst for it can be equated to a moth to flame, and so very few of them survive to their ninth tail.

Language

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

Biology

Inari are semi-humanoid.

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 their curse of hunger drives them to feast.

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

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. Most but not all are willing to use their Seeming to change their sex for fun or simply to manipulate the opposite gender.

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 bare a resemblance to its non-Inari parent until one day it suddenly shifts back into its true form the day it Incites its Seeming sometime between the thirteenth and twentieth year of life.

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 inversely feel as though their mortal friends are taking little naps throughout their time of waking. 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 the 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. Within Jian, exclusive communities of powerful Inari live openly in cults alongside humans who rely upon them as living, minor gods worth praying to for protection and the fulfillment of vice. Some might even find comfort among the Blighted of Alítheia.

Related Articles

• Ælphyne
• Seeming
• Faefolk

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