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STUFFINS
MAGICAL ALIGNMENT: Light and virtue following.
LIFESPAN: As stuffins (or dollfolk) are practically invulnerable (unable to be affected by illness, aging and the vast majority of injuries), they have no definitive lifespan. Originating in the 1800s, it is entirely possible for a modern-day stuffin to have been alive since then.
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There are only two ways in which a stuffin may lose their life:
- Total destruction of the body, including the outer casing. They are a little less durable than their dark-mana counterparts, armourans, as stuffins typically 'wear' flammable materials.
- If someone 'impure'* touches the inner core of a stuffin, they will almost immediately disintegrate.
*Referring to someone with dark mana and strong ties to their sin, or someone damned to The Underworld.
APPEARANCE: From an outside perspective, most stuffins resemble humanoid dolls or stuffed animals, fully made up of textiles.
This is because their outer casing is nothing more than overworld fabric, cotton, yarn or even felt. Whether it is sewn to fit the individual, or passed down from a deceased relative, their outer casing is absolutely paramount to their survival.
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Some are sewn with scrap materials, like a mismatched quilt, and others carefully designed from fresh fabric. Either way, all stuffins feature 'eye-holes', usually concealed by buttons or glass.
Less common but notable adornments may include additional buttons, bows, zippers, embroidery and sometimes even sewn-on undergarments.
Although technically speaking, it is only a part of their outer shell, most dollfolk have customisable hair sewn onto their scalps. It is typically made from yarn, though felt strips, ribbons, or even nylon doll hair are fairly common substitutes. It can be dyed, cut or replaced whenever.
Without their dolllike exterior, these beings have a transcendent allure, a glimmering, translucent form like molten sea glass. Pastel, warm or even neon colourations are usual, such as cyan or baby pink, monochrome but remarkably beautiful. Rarely, they may display two or more colours, melded together. Their stark-white pupils stand out like pearls embedded in the sand.
ABILITIES: Unlike their dark-mana counterparts, stuffins often harness some kind of lesser magic, whether it be healing, an emotional aura or the generation of small objects.
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OVERALL BIOLOGY: Strangely enough, these enchanted forms do not have any internal organs, not even those necessary for breathing. Nutrition and rest are of no concern to dollfolk - they even forego having a skeleton, relying solely on their devotion to their pantheon* to sustain their physicality.
In an attempt to blend in with a modern day society, the majority of these beings have adapted a 'faux stomach', allowing them to temporarily taste, ingest and enjoy food, though this practice is considered wasteful. They may even utilise bodily pockets or zippers for storage. Most have also adapted a rudimentary nervous system, allowing them to feel and process pain.
​Although their arcane structure waives the need for sleep, most choose to spend their evenings in a form of deep meditation. For hours at a time, they submerge themselves in worship, calling out to any and all chosen deities, even on occasion Gaia herself. This process helps to repair any minor damage to their core, though it does nothing to 'heal' their outer casings. This must be done the old fashioned way, with a piece of scrap fabric, a steady hand and a needle and thread.
*The virtue which they follow.
REPRODUCTION: The manner in which a stuffin creates offspring is rather... unconventional. They have no reproductive system, and no real genetic code. Alternatively, in order to carry on their legacies, these beings may remove a small part of themselves, nurturing it into an entirely new being. Imperfect copies of their parents, these offspring may vary slightly in eventual height, colour and personality. The creation of new dollfolk is almost instantaneous.
CULTURE: Despite being a carefully crafted creation of nymphs, a stuffin's devotion is not restricted to praising deities associated with nature. There is an extreme cultural diversity within dollfolk communities, and attempting to sum up their rituals and traditions would be futile. Every stuffin worships something equally unique and peculiar. Although there are no 'rules' or naming traditions within dollfolk legacies, many choose to go by short and 'cutesy' nicknames, sometimes entirely differing from their real 'legal' names.
ORIGIN: Stuffins exist within The Overworld purely as a blessed variant of armourans, and do not naturally occur elsewhere. Like many other manafolk species, their creation can be attributed to nymphs, an attempt to restore balance by giving armourans a cuddly counterpart.
Raising a stuffin is a task in itself, and a material heavy one at that. Each carefully crafted plushy skin is outgrown within a year or two, and some parents choose to retain outgrown fabric in order to later reuse it. Talk about hand-me-downs. As a young spark cannot survive the bumps and scrapes of childhood without cushioning, the necessary fabric and stuffing to create a casing is accessible for free via a government scheme.
CHILDHOOD AND DEVELOPMENT:
Often referred to as 'sparks', a young stuffin is mostly indistinguishable to a young armouran. Smooth, brightly coloured and incredibly vulnerable, these infants are provided with an outer casing as soon as they are able to hold their own heads up. They develop at a similar rate to humans, if not slightly slower, with some taking upwards of five years to even develop fingers, let alone learn to use them.
HYBRIDISATION: For the aforementioned reasons, a stuffin cannot hybridise with another species in the traditional sense. They may, however, intentionally meld a 'newborn' in order to have certain characteristics, such as animal ears, in order to resemble a parent of another species, which is extremely common. As these young grow, their future casing may be designed accordingly.
