Entry 1.
Alright, here's everything I know so far.
I'll start with the physiology of Arcanians as I understand it, and then get into our history and current leads to uncovering the mystery of what happened to the ancient Arcanians and how they ended up influencing currently existing Arcanians.
Simply put, Arcanians are people made of pure, raw magic given physical form. Currently, two methods of formation are known. Firstly, there are "Naturally Born" Arcanians, who are born as one would expect any member of the parents' species to be born. Neither parent has to have any magical capability for an Arcanian to be born.
The second method is more concerning. In one way or another, Arcanians can manifest directly into the world in half-finished and unstable states. These unfinished Arcanians are typically feral in nature, and can pose a danger if left unfinished for too long. It IS possible for a fully formed Arcanian to help finish these unfinished Arcanians, though it is quite a
strenuous process
and can result in harm to both the fully formed Arcanian acting as the conduit, and any bystanders as well.
On the outside, Arcanians simply look to be largely normal instances of the species they were born as. The only visible distinguishing feature of an Arcanian comes in the form of band, stripe, or ring markings on their fur or skin. These markings extend at least skin deep into an Arcanian.
Internally, however, an Arcanian is raw magic all the way through. The magic itself seems to subconsciously imitate the internal anatomy of the species of each individual Arcanian. It is unknown why this is, whether it is simply inherent to how Arcanians work physiologically, or if it is due to the way most currently existing Arcanians are raised to believe they have standard internal structures. If it is the latter, it would theoretically be possible for an Arcanian to manipulate their understanding of their anatomy to avoid harm or physical limitations, and possibly even disperse their physical form and reform it at will.
Apparently, certain strongly magical objects and artifacts can slightly
influence
the physical appearance of an Arcanian if kept in contact for long enough. These effects tend to fade over time, though it is possible that long enough spans of time in contact with them could take longer to fade, if at all. Similarly, strong enough emotions or events can have even longer lasting effects on an Arcanian's form. These situations tend to impact an Arcanian's form or development indefinitely.
As Arcanians are composed of raw magic, they are theoretically susceptible to any such effects that directly impact the Weave. For example, casting the spell Detect Magic in the vicinity of an Arcanian will cause the caster to be nearly blinded, as the Arcanian's entire body will light up brightly just as a magical object would. It's unproven if Dispel Magic or Anti-Magic Field would have an effect on Arcanians, but it seems likely.
On a more concerning note, it is worryingly possible to use Arcanians as a powerful fuel for casting spells even stronger than the strongest spells ever recorded. Doing so does cause the death of the Arcanian that the magic was pulled out of, so anyone attempting to do this should be considered as attempting murder.
That's all I currently know on Arcanian physiology. From here, I'll cover what I know of Arcanian history and my theories for what happened to our ancient ancestors, as well as more personal experiences/observations about Arcanians I've encountered up until now.
An ancient civilization of Arcanians, people made of magic, existed at one point, many eons ago. It seems that all beings back then were Arcanians, though the term
did not exist
then, as it had no reason to. Someone, known as the 'progenitor', apparently strove for more, and rallied more Arcanians behind their cause. That resulted in all Arcanians becoming
joined together
and losing physical form, becoming part of the Astral Plane. Something wrong occurred after that, though so far it is unknown what and when it even occurred.
Castor and Arcturus were
split
from the collective, becoming incomplete beings that I helped complete later. In their incomplete state, they would have slowly deteriorated into thoughtless beasts if not saved and made complete by a fully formed Arcanian.
Castor and Arcturus told me of something known as the Firstborn, but had very little information about it. They said that their separation from the collective was accidental, and they don't remember what the Firstborn wanted. It's uncertain if these two statements are related - they were spoken together, but no obvious connection was given.
It seems that somehow the collective is able to send pieces of itself back into the Material Plane to be born as modern day Arcanians. I too was apparently born from the collective, but Castor and Arcturus seem to believe that some event helped me form fully, unlike them. I am unsure why, but they seem to believe that I was born fully formed because I'm "meant to be", whatever that means. For whatever reason, there has been an uptick of these naturally born Arcanians - such as myself and Logan - in the world in the last decade, though why the collective seems to be sending more of us is a mystery still (as is if each Arcanian born also had magical circumstances around their births).
The collective of Arcanians does still exist in some state, and Logan has in fact had brief but certain contact with them. A specific mark was given to him on his arm, of a series of circles connected by lines, the way that a constellation would be marked. It was to act as a way to let the collective return to this world and be "born" (likely in the same meaning that Castor and Arcturus use). Logan's body would act like a conduit upon
his death,
in much the same way that I did for Castor and Arcturus, but on a much more massive scale.
Logan and I spent a lot of time discussing all of these things. One thing of major importance; we've come up with a working theory that Arcanians were unwillingly involved in the Collapse. Logan witnessed a recording of raw magic extracted from Arcanians being used to cast an exceedingly powerful spell, and it seems likely that this spell triggered
the Collapse.
This doesn't explain, however, how Castor and Arcturus were split from the collective itself, as by their account, they had been separated from the collective for many years before they were found.
Logan also told of someone named Iris, who was working with those people, ran off with an Arcanian child (named Roe) and is in hiding. She was apparently in charge of figuring out the process behind extracting raw magic from Arcanians, but had a change of heart. Logan seemed hesitant to tell me of her, so I've promised to not seek her out unless dire circumstances occur.
Alright, that's all I know of for now. Writing it out, I kind of didn't realize just how much I've been able to learn since the Collapseā¦ On the one hand, the Collapse was obviously a disastrous event that caused so much suffering. But on the other hand, I doubt I would've discovered any of this information if I were not thrust into this world and forced to become a traveling adventurer instead of being stuck in stuffy libraries all the time. I hate to say it, but the Collapse really has benefitted me, I guess as just a side effect of not being very connected to anything in the world before. Not sure I'll ever admit to that though, especially considering what brought it on.
As for recent events, we're currently traveling West from Ahmit in search of this desert that Logan and
his companions
visited earlier. They specifically encountered Croft in a town there called the Ninth Warren. They didn't give us much to go on to find it, but I'm sure we'll figure something out. Garet's counting on me to, after all.
Several of my companions decided to get their fortunes told by a peculiar Lepian while we were still in Ahmit. It was an interesting sight to watch. His deck seemed to shift its card's images to explicitly tell individual stories of each person, accompanied by a distinct amount of struggle in turning each card over. I was tempted to ask my own fortune be read, but I worried the content of it would be too heavy and possibly harm him - quite literally, after seeing the dent in his table that one of Oliver's cards made upon being flipped over.
I did encounter another
Arcanian
in Ahmit, actually - an Avali, in particular. They didn't have much to talk about, and seemed rather insistent on not really learning anything about Arcanians. I didn't expect this, and I think I came on too strongly. It's good to know now though that not all Arcanians are as interested in our history as I am. I'll have to remember this going forward and be more tactful when I find other Arcanians who aren't already aware of it.
Another thing of noteā¦ These gemstones floating around my tail and horns seem to have grown more numerous; the latter ones are even starting to grow into (from?) my horns themselves. Whatever is happening with that draconic being that I made contact with all those years ago is manifesting further. I know that Cress told me that it doesn't have malicious intentions, but it's hard to believe. Perhaps I'm just biased from the way Baphomet treats me? I have to get to the bottom of this and find out what it really wants of me.
