Vohntrai

(Header image by Lesseras)

What is a Vohntrai?

The Vohntrai are a species of wingless bipedal dragon that primarily dwell upon the surface of Theoma, though they are typically wanderers who therefore can be found everywhere in Theoma. Stereotypically, they are tall and thin, which is indeed their most common build; however, it is an over-extended stereotype as there do exist short, fat, and/or heavily muscled Vohntrai additionally. Unlike most species of dragon, Vohntrai have only a specific arrangement of horns yielding two straight back horns per Vohntrai, although there is enough use of cosmetic alteration on Theoma that some Vohntrai have chosen to alter their horns to look more distinctive.

Vohntrai are not naturally capable of reproduction. Even by the restrained standards of Theoma, they are infertile, and Sacred Necromancy can do nothing to help. The specific intervention of a land god is always necessary in order for Vohntrai eggs to be laid and brought to hatching. The global population of Vohntrai thus never decreases, but it also very barely increases. The land gods insist that this method is necessary "in order to prevent that the future shall be nothing but Vohntrai," as the self-resurrecting Vohntrai simply do not ever die for good.

What is the magical gift of the Vohntrai?

The simplest description of the magical gift of the Vohntrai is that they are truly, truly immortal, in body and mind. They are highly regenerative, and can withstand terrifying wounds while healing normally from them. Should they truly get killed, they reform five years later in a safe place. Yet the gift extends to such a degree that it is something of a curse, too...

Vohntrai physiology is greatly mysterious courtesy of their complex magical gift. They are sometimes known as "nomads" or "ghosts", being a nearly ethnic distinction between the gradually more transparent Vohntrai who tend to live for centuries in one place ("ghosts"), vs the stolidly physical Vohntrai who are constantly moving between theomes ("nomads"). The degree to which this is a gift or a curse is subject to much dispute. Why the process of turning transparent is a method of making the Vohntrai more truly immortal has been the subject of tremendous debate, however the general consensus is that the gain to true immortality is yielded by the month of invisibility that is the prize of the ghost Vohntrai: over a four hundred year span, Vohntrai who remain within a particular theome will eventually become truly invisible. One month after becoming totally invisible, Vohntrai will spontaneously die without pain or obvious cause, and then they will be reborn five years later in a safe place in a nearby different theome. This yields a month of perfect invisibility for every four hundred years spent dwelling in a particular theome.

Likewise, their psychology has unusual features. Firstly, they are resilient in many ordinary ways, and Vohntrai do not readily suffer or retain traumas, yet as they are not immune to trauma they have a further gift: finite memory. Vohntrai can remember only four hundred years into their history, an amount that rarely overwhelms them and eventually claims in totality anything that a Vohntrai cannot live with. This gift of forgetting all save their most recent four centuries keeps the Vohntrai relatively young forever in a world where other species sometimes struggle with the consequences of remembering thousands of years.

There is one aspect to their bolstered immortality which is also arguably a curse: they cannot become necromancers. Vohntrai cannot work necromantic magic, which requires inflicting specific damages to the geomantic interface within themselves; their geomantic interface resists that damage, then heals it very rapidly. Their advantages of resilience in mind and body makes them better anti-necromancers should they be moved to such profession.

Finally, there is one more source of tremendous debate about the quality of the gift bestowed upon the Vohntrai: They resist geomantic influence considerably less than people of other species. They are 'puppets of Fate' in some theomes due to their inability to channel necromantic power even in the petty normal ways that give people their own willpower to defy the land gods. They have their own will in most theomes only because most land gods are not inclined to overpower them most of the time, and so necromancer-sympathizing Vohntrai are drawn very strongly to the Missing theomes where they are always their own persons. Yet this too makes Vohntrai more immortal, as land gods respect their immortality quite greatly, and will generally use Fate to protect them, or at worst (for hostile land gods) to send the Vohntrai out of the theome forthwith.

Where do Vohntrai prefer to establish their settlements?

There is no such thing as a Vohntrai settlement, unless you count nomad meeting places used by the most dedicated Vohntrai nomads. Vohntrai are a dispersed universal minority with a kind of diaspora culture that has risen up on the strength of their unusual minds.