This was one of the texts that Chirene brought me, apparently from her private library. A small scroll that briefly explained the different races of my world some of their differences and the concept of Blood Strength.

Incubus

Succubus

Dragonkin

Elf

Minotaur

Tengu

Dwarf

Ogre

Orc

Gnome

Human

These are the eleven different races which populate the world and form societies. While some dungeon bound or summoned monsters might exhibit intelligent behavior or speech, it is all bound to the function they have within the dungeon or their master. Should their connection to their dungeon or master disappear, they lose their entire reason of being, often losing their seeming intelligence, sometimes even disappearing completely. They are also generally incapable of reproduction.

Therefore, here lies the definition of a person: An intelligent being, whose conscience extends beyond their immediate usefulness. Though that might be a simple definition, I find it to be a useful one.

We use our intelligence and speech for something other than to make ourselves useful, we entertain ourselves and others, we create beautiful and ugly things, and we talk about interesting and uninteresting things.

“Hey.”

“What? Are you finished with it? That was fast.”

Chirene was making a very uncomfortable expression then.

“Is this really necessary? All I am seeing is a lot of boring stuff and some philosophy, didn’t you say I needed to know something practical about the relationship between races and how they differ?”

She rolled her eyes as if somehow disappointed.

“Skip to the tenth paragraph then.”

It’s what I did, since at the time I did not believe in the value of what was said in my own world.

There’s also something else that links all of the different races together: Procreation. A man of one race can make a child with a woman of any race. Some might then ask themselves: Of which race will the child be, or wouldn’t an abomination be born? People need not have such questions unanswered, for the lust of man has led us to answers.

Different races have different Blood Strengths, by which I mean thus: Whenever a man or woman of a race that has stronger blood has a child with someone with weaker blood, the child will always be of the race of stronger blood.

The list provided at the start of this scroll is organized in a descending fashion, by blood strength. Incubae have the strongest blood, while humans have the weakest blood. So, for example, should a dwarf male have an orc wife, his children would all be dwarves. However, if that same dwarf has an affair with an elf female, the resulting bastard would be an elf. In such a way, it is perfectly possible for half-brothers to be of completely different races.

A member of any given race has a set of qualities that are unique to their race, regardless of parents. A succubus will always know charm magic regardless of her father’s race, and while some physical attributes might be inherited, there’s never much deviance from common race attributes. This considered, while a minotaur fathered by a gnome might be slightly smaller than other minotaurs, that would be only true if the gnome in question is smaller than an average gnome.

“What is this exactly?”

I was unsure what to think of what I was reading. Somehow, it deeply disturbed me, how well-informed and detailed it seemed, almost as if it was based on a large enough data.

“I’m unsure about what’s your question.”

She avoided eye-contact. As if she didn’t want to talk about it.

“Who wrote this?”

“Does it matter? It does have some very good information.”

“Who wrote this?”

“You don’t want to know.”

“I don’t fucking care, tell me who wrote this.”

“Why do you care? Information is information? Isn’t that what you always say about the precious world you’re studying? Just shut up and read it!”

“Tell me who wrote this damn thing and I might finish it! Or else I will just burn it!”

A long and awkward silence followed. Come to think of it, this was one of the few times when things got tense between me and Chirene. How nostalgic. It took a while for her to relent, but she finally said it, wearing a horrible expression.

“Teldarion.”

Oh, that made sense, she was one of his concubines, so it wouldn’t be strange for some of his writings to…

“Wait.”

I couldn’t immediately grasp the significance of it, but Chirene helped me along with a spiteful voice, as if she wanted to somehow punish me. So you want to know the significance of this? Let me tell you then…

“He was obsessed with beauty and perfection as you well know. That included finding the most beautiful member of each race for his... collection. Needless to say, he had many slaves of many different races to “experiment” with. He also considered himself something of a scholar. This and many other useful texts came from him. There you have it.”

“I don’t even…”

I was speechless. I thought that whenever a Tyrant was defeated, most things about him or her were destroyed.

“I know what you’re thinking. But a lot of people died and suffered for this to be written. I won’t let it all go to waste just so some people can feel that they’ve buried the horror Teldarion wrought on this world.”

Understanding what she meant. I went through the rest of the text after having mentally recovered.

A common misconception shared by many who are ignorant is that Succubae and Incubae are actually of the same race, however, such a notion does not hold up to the facts.

While both races have many similarities in appearance, such as horns, a tail and bat-like wings, in addition to the fact that one race is composed entirely of females while the other has only males, these are just surface things. A succubus’ child will always be a succubus, unless paired with an incubus, while an incubus will always produce offspring of the same race, with no exceptions. The most compelling evidence, however, is the fact that both have different kinds of exclusive magic, as part of their racial qualities. In fact, mounting evidence points to the fact that Incubae have a individual ability, or at the very least hereditary. Refer to my treatise on them for more clarifying information, although it pains me to say that I do not have that much information with hard proof behind it, owing to the extreme rarity of even finding an incubus to talk to, let alone study.

Life is truly a mysterious and wonderful thing.

I shuddered as I read that last sentence. Could a man that snuffed and played with so much life truly appreciate it? I felt sick reading it, but Chirene was right, it was information that I should know. That is, if I intended to study my world with the level of scrutiny scrutiny that the people of earth had for their own world. It was still just so... wrong.