NPC 009: Alvanei

Here is last month's lady, Alvanei. (Or Alva and Nei) With so much going on, I sometimes forget exactly what I say, though I do recall she was meant to be a mix of an astralmancer and an alchemist. Considering the two, I tried to give her a 'starry sky' look to her hair while also mixing her hair color as most shripe have. Clothes are a harder mix I'd say so they do feel a bit on the generic side, but I tried to add in an alchemy bench for her to work at to help with that. I also decided on her drinking a potion for her tf and going for preg similar to Rue. Still working on the animation, but it should be up soon.

Shripe are a unique race. Once gobbo emnei, they were infested with souls and over time it caused them to transform dramatically to the point that they can no longer survive without a soul. So while they do appear rather similar to gobbos, there are several key differences.

The first of these is that they possess a soul and need one to live. Without it, the body cannot properly operate. (Though shripe survive significantly longer than other races and can continue to live in certain extenuating circumstances due to the way their extra personalities work) For any creature relying on a soul, losing it is a game over. For a shripe with an extra personality though, it is not a death sentence in of itself. Instead though the extra personality will degrade until it loses it's ability to function and will then die. There are methods of preventing this, one being the 'sharing' of a soul with another shripe (typically a loved one). Another being that a daemon or tem'lora invades their body. (Undesirable in most circumstances)

The second difference is that they frequently possess more than one personality. Though oddly enough, these two or more personalities typically work together and aren't always obvious. They are much more like having actual multiple persons in a single mind than extra personalities. Quite frequently they even have similar names or share a combined name between them and only recognize one another internally. (Though if you ask directly about it, they will give you some way to refer to either of them) And these two personalities operate as similar to being two whole individuals working in one body so they also have different knowledge. One may be an alchemist while the other is an astralmancer for example.

Due to this, they frequently have a wealth of knowledge between them even if they are no more intelligent than other species. They are, most definitely, more peaceful than gobbos though.

Finally, some shripe believe that they are born from the stars (literally) owing due to the fact that their existence was caused by a god. This can result in further eccentric behavior especially if one personality is logical while the other is creative.