Unicorn

Most of the anatomy of a unicorn was the same as a regular domesticated horse (equus ferus caballus), including body shape and skeletal structure. However, their defining feature was their horn, located on the front of the skull, just below the cranium. As a horn, it consisted of a thick covering of keratin surrounding a bone, and there were nerves connecting it to the brain, which enabled the use of magic from it. Because of the added weight of the horn, a unicorn also had a slightly thicker cervical vertebra to support it.

The biological traits of a unicorn were largely identical to a horse's, except for their longer lifespan and colouration in later life.

Unicorns reproduced in the same way as horses. However, cross-breeding between unicorns and horses was not known to have ever been successful. This is believed to be because the mix of magical and non-magical capabilities causes prenatal defects.

Unicorns had the same stages of development as a horse, but at a much slower rate, due to the extended lifespan. A unicorn was considered a foal until the age of 5, and they reached adulthood at the age of 15. They were able to use magic right from birth, but generally did not learn to control it until adulthood.

Unicorns could live in any area that horses may live, including forests, plains and steppes. However they preferred large forests, due to the higher latent magic present.

Like horses, unicorns were herbivores, and generally lived on grazing. Their diet consisted of mostly grasses found in open patches in or just outside the forest in which they resided, though they often ate plant material found in the forest as well.

Unicorns had the same social structure to horses, with a clear linear social hierarchy led by a single dominant individual. However, unlike horses, unicorns did not always exert dominance through physical clashes, but occasionally fought instead with magic, or used displays of magic instead of fighting.

Humans attempted many times throughout the centuries to domesticate unicorns like they did horses. However, throughout most of history this proved impossible. Domestication by force was especially impossible, as the unicorn's powerful magic let them fight back against humans who threatened them, resist capture, and escape if they were captured. Domestication by companionship also failed, as while a human would be able to form a bond with a unicorn, they could never confine it in a stable or saddle it with anything. By the time strong enough equipment came along, domestication of unicorns had been outlawed by the Enneagram Alliance.

Before going extinct, unicorns could be found all over the world, wherever magical humans had spread them, though they survived better in Eurasia, North America, and continental Australasia. Herds of unicorns were quite rare and spaced apart, interacting very little.

The intelligence of a unicorn was on par with a horse; able to understand friend and foe, form bonds with other species like humans, and able to do simple tasks.

Unicorns had the same sensory capabilities as a regular horse, plus, with their large latent magic, they could also sense active magic, passive magic, or the presence of other magical beings.

The ancient common ancestor of both the unicorn and the horse lived in North America approximately 3 million years ago, and for a long time, unicorns did not exist. Sometime between then and when ancient horses first migrated out of North America into Eastern Asia 10,000 years ago, unicorns evolved as a subspecies, though the exact time period when this happened is not known. However, when ancient horses left North America, unicorns did as well, migrating alongside them into Eurasia. Afterwards, early horses became extinct in North America, and it is thought that early unicorns did as well. Early unicorns were presumably not as populous as early horses, just as it is today, due to few skeletons being found. It can be assumed that early unicorns were hunted for food, like early horses were, though it can also be assumed that unicorns defended themselves with magic, and humans quickly learned not to provoke them.   Eventually, as horses became domesticated in the Eastern Eurasian Steppes, and this practice spread across Europe and Asia, unicorns came to be regarded as mythical. While failed domestication attempts almost certainly occurred, unicorns, through their rarity and magical abilities, became a legendary animal of many stories. Magic users, knowing of their real existence, idolised them as symbols of magic and nature, and most protected them from harm and discovery, though some hunted them for their horns. As magic users came together in small groups around the 11th century, they systematically put protections on unicorn populations, and they were regarded as a symbol of magic more and more. Magic users also intentionally spread unicorns over the whole world, difficult though it was, when they migrated, so that by the middle ages, unicorns could be found across the world, though mostly in Eurasia and North America. When The Enneagram Alliance was formed, they chose the unicorn as their symbolic animal because of its widespread popularity and legendary status, putting it on their emblem. In this time, unicorns remained a protected species, and the Alliance did what they could to keep them free and undiscovered as part of the masquerade. Interacting with unicorns was allowed, but hunting or domesticating them was banned, and only occasionally were unicorns used in important magic rituals or celebrations.   When ORCHESTRA was formed, unicorns' special symbolism would be their undoing. Unicorns were among the organisation's initial targets, primarily because they were so revered, and killing them would send a harsh message to the magical world. Unicorns were an easy target, as their high latency of magic meant they were easy to detect and track. While unicorns could defend themselves with magic, they did not use any magic that could stop bullets, and their initially docile nature meant they could be snuck up on and killed quickly. However, these actions drew the attention of magic users, as intended, and soon ORCHESTRA was drawn away into conflicts with magic users, and eventually the Enneagram Alliance in the Unseen War. At the end of the Unseen War, ORCHESTRA had much more influence, and as a demonstration of their victory and power they systematically hunted down the remaining unicorns over a period of a few years, culminating in the last unicorn being killed in 1992, and the species being made extinct.