Gin’s Notes #4 – A few notable Flora and Fauna of fifth Millennia C.E. Earth

It isn’t only humans that evolve. Along with the evolving of mages, animals and plants were being modified through selective breeding (and later on through genetic modification). This isn’t anything new, however. Humans were tinkering with nature for nearly 10000 years and possibly even longer. They would selectively breed in order to get the best out of the next generation: more meat in livestock; more grain in crops; faster, stronger and more loyal hunting beasts and so on.

In similar fashion, the mages are doing the same thing today. The only difference is the efficiency of the process. What would have taken a hundred years of progress, in the past, will only take less than ten nowadays. Such species today would most definitely not have come through nature alone.

A few of the notable species are the Numius fruits, Tinoo bird, Lupim and Xernims. I think I will start with Numius fruits. They are said to be the ‘Wonder Fruits’ as they give you a bit of everything that your body needs. In fact, apart from a few bodily essentials, such as protein, you could just eat this and you can survive until you die of old age. It also tastes incredible! Up till now, there appears to be no significant side effects of continued consumption of the Numius fruit as well.

The Tinoo are a species of bird that is mostly used for message delivery. They excel at speed, consistently achieving 200 kilometres an hour and at full speed, they can reach 300 kilometres an hour. They are very streamlined but are strong for their size so that they can carry letters and other small objects. We have other animals made for communication but the Tinoo as by far the most efficient. One thing I would like to mention is that they are very widespread. They live on all continents and their numbers are vast, more so than mages. This makes communication across borders especially hard to track and destroy. Only about a fiftieth of enemy messages are found. The three MBPs ,(remember, all three countries have one), is desperate in breeding mages that can spot wild from tame Tinoos, and the first to do so will be at a serious advantage in the war. Side Note: Their meat is very tasty.

The Lupim are animals specialised for battle. They are evolved canines. They have fire resistant fur; (it’s amazing how mages evolved so many things to be resistant to fire). Some have fangs that inject a poison into enemies. Others are bred to fight in packs. Others still, are used for detection of stealth bestial type mages. There are other breeds of Lupim as well and they are truly a great asset in battle.

Finally the last species I mentioned were the Xernims. They are basically another word for parasites. One of the basic forms are the plant Xernims. They take nutrients from their hosts through their bloodstream. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes the plant coexists with its host and both parties gain mutual benefits. My mentor, for example, has a Xernim on him. As I later found out, his whole armour is the Xernim itself, which is why he is never seen without his armour. Not only that, he can give ‘instructions’ to the parasite in terms of how to grow. This is how he was able to create his sword and the slots in his armour, in which he can place it in. His Xernim itself has a remarkable growth rate if Alder wanted it to and this helps with the maintenance of his armour, even mid-combat.

Unfortunately wildlife isn’t really my speciality and so I don’t truly know several species. Maybe if I get to know an expert in the field, I can write more on the animal and plants of the world.