MacRieve

EXCERPTED FROM THE LIVING BOOK OF LORE . . .

“ . . . and those sentient creatures that are not human shall be united in one stratum, coexisting with, yet secret from, man’s.”

• Most are immortal and can regenerate from injuries, killed only by mystical fire or beheading.

• Their eyes change with intense emotion, often to a breed-specific color.

“A proud, strapping warrior of the Keltoi People (or Hidden People, later known as Celts) was taken in his prime by a maddened wolf. The warrior rose from the dead, now an immortal, with the spirit of the beast latent within him. He displayed the wolf’s traits: the need for touch, an intense loyalty to its kind, an animal craving for the delights of the flesh. Sometimes the beast rises. . . .”

• Each Lykae possesses the Instinct, an inner guiding force, like a voice whispering in one’s mind.

• Mate for life. Over eternity, they seek their fated one above all things, revering matehood as other species do gods.

• Royal seat is Kinevane in the Scottish Highlands.

“Descendants of demons, reapers of pleasure. Thrice in one’s arms, forever enslaved. Separation begets grave sickness, yet only through death can the envenomed be freed.”

• Female: succubus. Male: incubus.

• Derive nourishment from the sexual enjoyment of others.

• Possess the ability to sexually madden their victims. A succubus uses strew; an incubus stav.

• After a third mating, they form a bond with their conquests, a mystical tie called venom.

“And a time shall come to pass when all immortal beings in the Lore, from the Valkyrie, vampire, Lykae, and demon factions to the witches, shifters, fey, and sirens . . . must fight and destroy each other.”

• A kind of mystical checks-and-balances system for an ever-growing population of immortals.

• Two major alliances: the Pravus Rule and the Vertas League.

• Occurs every five hundred years. Or right now . . .