World Note 13 (Patreon)

The Zoakin: The Youngest Race

Origin: the Zoakin among the sentient species are the most well documented. This is because their creation was propagated by the elvish race. The Zoakin orginated as little more than magically enhanced beasts of burden. Making a horse faster, stronger and smarter allowed them to be more effective. Then the idea of promoting animals into magical assistants was not far behind. At first they were simple minded creatures that had little more intelligence than a young child but many elvish mages began to push this limit. All of a sudden thousands of animals were transformed into more humanoid shapes to perform tasks that their arcane masters couldn’t be bothered to perform. Then the concept began to spread and now nearly all menial work was being performed by the practically sentient race. The issue with this was down to one of elvish laws. Slavery, outside the bounds of a controlled debt system, was illegal. It was argued that because the elves gave the animals intelligence that they were not truly sentient beings. This justification did sway enough elves to keep the practice of Zoamagic to continue but the increasing number of Zoakin’s began to have problems. The Zoakin were able to breed and after the death of a master or release from a position the freed Zoakin began to form a culture within the elvish society. This first group of Zoakin was led by a Canian Wolf named Alpha. Alpha’s early attempts at swaying the elvish opinions away from enslaving the Zoakin were unsuccessful so Alpha did something that had never been done before or since. They kidnapped several members of the Elvish Mages circle, the ruling body of the Elvish society. The exact method has been wiped from history but many speculate that it had to do with magic stolen by Zoakin enslaved by high ranking elvish mages. The kidnapped members were returned and the Zoakin responsible were turned in. However the consequence of this was that many elves became afraid of how closely a rogue group of Zoakin had come to nearly toppling many major figures in their governing body. The argument of purging the Zoakin completely was thrown around and many Zoakin were set free or killed as a result. Many still advocated for continuing enslavement but restricting freed Zoakins within their society. The debate was fierce but by the end enough elves, who had been hesitant to support the enslavement of Zoakin to begin with, elected to free all Zoakin and ban the practice of Zoamagic and fiercely limit the use of artificially increasing the intelligence of any organic matter. After being freed Zoakin were relocated in the countryside of elvish territory, but this quickly became a different issue. The Zoakin in essence became a wandering tribe for several centuries until the god Valor led them to the continent of ako where they became one of the world's apex races.

Notes on subspecies: Zoakin breeding is a complex topic but in essence after becoming more humanoid it was discovered that the species that could create children grew more diverse. Zoakin are only second to metafell in the number of subspecies but the mixing of these breeds is far more flexible than one would think. Examples of Odd-cross breeds are the combination of Felian and Canain species, which often create Canian offspring with Felian features. The ultimate distinction between subspecies is the larger amount of features one possesses and the specific breeding capabilities. But if 2 sub-species can breed they do not often breed sterile offspring like regular animal pairings. In fact the diversity in sub-species breeding often increases fertility and strength. This may have something to do with the magic used to create them as the initial benefit to easy breeding would mean that mages would not have to worry about creating new servants if the process was natural.

The Mytho-Zoakin: Thie species of Zoakin originate from species that started as low intelligence creatures. However certain circles of underground mages did begin to adapt more exotic creatures to create a race of some of the most powerful of the Zoakin. The Mythos-Zoakin. This sub-species is very limited but has the benefit of reproducing with or without a mate. Usually through eggs or rapid external cellular duplication. One example of Mytho-Zoakin are the Drakian which were Titan Dragons bound to humanoid form. Dragons were a powerful barely sentient creature that was highly intelligent but when made into Drakains made them much more powerful. The Drakians keep many of their magical traits from their titan origin and usually have high resistance to external magic. One of the individuals that worked with Alpha was a powerful Drakian known as Lylynm. The place of the Mytho-Zoakin is often times very high in governing bodies on Ako and are seen as desirable mates and allies. Some other example includes: Mind Reapers, Okami and Unicorns.