Gaia – The world itself. Gaia is the existence of the world, represented by all of the life that exists in it and that thrives. Gaia is a collective term of existence that reflects the amalgamation of everything that forms the world. It would not be overboard to call it "God". Gaia is capable to react to something that it effectively recognizes as a threat, a reaction that can vary from a small action of "coincidence" or "fate"; to cataclysmic events, like the sinking of a whole continent.
Animus – The part of Gaia that is formed by the "collective unconsciousness of mammals". It is the part of the world that is responsible for the existence of mammals, their collectiveness as people and their collective will to survive. It is the concept responsible for recording names in the Throne of Heroes, as well as for making contracts with certain mammals so they will become Counter Guardians.
Heroic Spirits – Mammals who, during their lives, achieved great deals of fame and reputation, allowing them to have their existence recorded in legends and history, becoming an important part of the history of mammals. Those mammals were, without doubt, the most powerful souls that ever existed, and so, as they died and entered in the afterlife, they had their names recorded in the Throne of Heroes. As a result, they were remove from the cycle of reincarnation, and the World if able to summon any of them to the earth so they can act as protectors of the future by fighting threats to mammals and to the World itself. These summoning are quite sparse and rare, but when they happen, it the heroes usually are linked to a mortal mammal, who manages them.
Counter Guardians – Heroic Spirits gain their position from their fame, while these individuals are some that made direct pacts with the World, and so, upon their deaths, they were permanently remove from the cycle of reincarnation and from all afterlives, being stored beyond the boundaries of Existence to be summon in moments of need. Heroic Spirits are entities that protect the future of the world from supernatural evils. Counter Guardians, on their end, are existences whose purpose is to act as a balancing mechanism from Animus, with the purpose of preventing mammals from wiping themselves out. Their function is eliminating mammals that will represent a threat to the future of mammals as whole, sacrificing few for the shake of many more.
The Afterlife – Souls are born, they live, and then they die. Upon their deaths, the souls detach from their physical bodies and they move on for another area. Due to the balance between the souls that depart from the Earth and the ones that return to out to be reincarnate, there is a period between their departure and their return, a period in which the souls spend on a specific place of their afterlife. Souls go to different places depending on their personalities and on their particular beliefs, in a way that there is a particular afterlife that is dedicated to certain kinds of souls. Putting it bluntly, almost all afterlives are real; Heaven, Limbo, Purgatory, Shangri-La, Valhalla, Elysium, and of course Hell…
Souls that depart remain on each one of these areas until the time comes for them to be reincarnate, when they leave these afterlives and are direct to the Root, which will renew their existence and send them back to the Earth to be reincarnate in a new form. Of course, the existences that were elevated to the position of Heroes and had their names written in the Throne of Heroes are considered to have reached illumination, and so, they are forever removed from the cycle of reincarnation, so they might always be present to answer the call. Due to this, a Heroic Spirit is destined to remain in its specific afterlife for all eternity…
Counter Guardians are removed not only from the reincarnation cycle, but from all afterlives, being stored in specific places that become their personal afterlife for eternity.
The Throne of Heroes – The Throne of Heroes is not actually a throne, at least not in the proper sense, and neither it is something physical. The best way to define it would be to compare it with some short of archive, a list, where are written and engraved the names of figures that entered to the myths and legends and which became important names in the history. In many ways, it is say that it is a record of the most important names and figures of the history of mammals. The purpose of the Throne of Heroes, however, is to engrave and to memorize the names of the ones who managed to write stories for themselves that were so great and so significant that they became an essential part of the mammal history, even if their names would eventually be remembered only as legends. These souls that became so significant in their lives were without any doubt the most powerful souls that ever lived, and truly deserving of the title of "hero", and so, they have their names recorded into the Throne, marking them as heroes who surpassed all other souls, and who no longer have the need to be reincarnated. Some consider that the Throne of Heroes is actually a special kind of mechanism that ensures that those who became heroes will no longer be reborn, so they are always viable to be summon by the World in answer to threats.
The Reverse Side of the World – This is the name given to some kind of "overlapping plane of existence", which is created by the Animus, and the "imaginary of mammals", being a place to which mystery has "leaked" with the end of the Age of Gods, a place formed by the thoughts of mammals that make the mystery of the old times still exist in this place, once the world became a place where it would no longer dwell. As a result of the very nature of this world, it is a place to which the great mystery, which no longer have place in the Age of Mammals, naturally gravitates, as much as the water of a river flowing in direction to a sea and out of the dry land. This is like a whole world outside of the World, as if the world in which mammals live was literally one side of the coin, and this world was right on the opposite side. This is a world that still overflows with Mystery, and all of the things that once existed in the Age of Gods still exist in this place, that can easily be described as a "pure manifestation of the collective fantasy of all mammals of the world". It is a place with flying mountains, dragons flying across the sky, a constant aurora, day and night, and many places that would be impossible to exist in the world, and that could only exist in this place ruled by the laws of Mystery.
Ghosts – Death means the end of life, and this occurs when both heart and brain stop working. The heart is the main location of the soul, however, it is the brain that anchors the soul to the body, so much that, even if the heart is removed, the soul won't leave the body until the moment that the brain completely stops working. True death only happens in the moment of cerebral death. When this happens, she soul is detached from the body and it can "float" or even "drop" to its next stop in the cycle of reincarnation, however, that doesn't always occur. There are some occasions in which, even with the death of both heart and brain, the soul can persist into the world, not as a physical being, but as a spiritual body. These are the called ghosts. Ghosts are the souls that refused to leave the world because they found something else to serve as an anchor to their presence in this world, an "earthly attachment", which allows them to remain in this world. Some ghosts attain themselves to some kind of business that they left unfinished in this world, for example, some kind of talk that they needed to have with their loved ones to solve things, or some last personal quest that they need to see fulfilled before they are ready to depart. Ghosts can also attach themselves to places, or even to mammals, and in some cases they can even attach to emotions, like their love, their hate, or their grief, and upon this, they are able to form an anchor for their souls to the world of the living. Upon their permanence in this world, ghosts are said to continue to exist as if they were their own dream upon this world. In most cases, ghosts remain in this world until they let go of their last attachments, in which case they are finally able to move on. There are cases in which the ghosts can remain in this world to the point of going insane or being completely consumed by their negative emotions, in which point they will turn into wraiths.
Wraiths – Wraiths are existences that are very similar to ghosts, but they are fundamentally different, once they are what could be called "evil spirits". Ghosts are entities that can attach themselves to nearly all kinds of things in order to remain in this world, however, the wraiths are entities that remain in this world through their own negative feelings. Rage. Hate. Resentment. Suffering. Anguish. Grief. These feelings fuel a wraith and ensure that it will remain in this world forever. Not only that, but the accumulation of the negativity coming from these feelings cause the wraiths to become vicious, leading them to lash out at the living. So, while ghosts can be harmless, and even helpful to others, wraiths are invariably violent and will harm mammals. Due to their danger, wraiths are to be dealt with the best possible ways, which includes fighting them and eliminating these creatures before they can harm innocents. Upon being defeated and even destroyed, the soul can finally free itself from suffering and move forward, even if by force. It is also said to be possible to cause a wraith to reverse or even shift from its current state to a normal ghost, and even to cause it to "pass on" to the afterlife without any need to violence, however, these happenings are very rare and sparse.
Phantoms – Phantoms are not the same things as ghosts, even though a ghost can sometimes also be a phantom. Phantoms are existences that are threading the same line of the souls that became Heroic Spirits, for they are existences that achieved some fame in their lives, and this fame now manifests in their own powers and abilities. However, one cannot say that a Phantom is a Heroic Spirit, for they never were able to achieve the prestige that would be needed to be considered one, for they never reached a worldwide fame, and neither performed feats that made them be important parts of mammal history, as a result, their legends aren't great or even consistent enough for them to become Heroic Spirits. They are not legendary entities or historical facts, at most, they are urban legends. If Heroic Spirits are existences whose names were carved in the Throne of Heroes forever, phantoms had their names written in the Throne with chalk, and just as their legends weaken and disappear with time, they are fated to have their fame vanish, and so, they eventually return to the cycle of reincarnation, having been forgotten. Due to this, despite a phantom being a powerful entity, enough to kill most mortals with little effort, even the strongest phantom is no match against even the weakest of Heroic Spirits. There are rumors that it would be possible to a phantom to somehow acquire fame and substance to their legend, making them "ascend" from mere urban legends to true myths, and causing them to actually become Heroic Spirits, however, it has never happened before, and up until now, this "ascension" is nothing but a theory…
Zombies – Zombies are the result when a body which's soul already departed is animated, usually through the use of necromancy. Without the soul, it is necessary to imbue magical energy into a corpse to cause it to move, resulting into the body being made into something that move propelled by a "battery" of magical energy. The soul left the body, and it is brain dead, so the corpse is unable to think or to reason, and as a result, it can only move in according to the commands of the energy that animates it. In many ways, a zombie is much like a robot, one which a necromancer can control and use as if it was a puppet. Due to their nature as being dead, zombies are immune to many maledictions that would affect the living, including poisons and electricity, and they can continue to move in despite of any wound that they would suffer, even the ones that would be lethal, and they don't feel pain or emotions of any kind. However, it is able to "kill" zombies by causing heavy damage either to their hearts or to their brains, or separating one from the other (by beheading, for instance). When killed, the zombies quickly decompose, reducing themselves to dust.
Revenants – Zombie are entities that completely lack free will and only move in command with the magic that animates them, however, revenants are much more complex existences. A revenant is born when, after the death of the body, this is animated again, however, in this case, the soul either has refused to let the body or was somewhat summon back to it. The result is that the very soul remains in the corpse, and causes it to animate and move. The body is dead, the heart doesn't beat, the blood doesn't flow, and the body will only breathe due to a natural instincts of the soul that inhabits it, but there is no need for breathing. Unlike zombies, revenants retain all their memories, intelligence and personality from when they were alive, once their souls are present into the dead body. As a dead body, it has the same limitations of the zombies, being able to continue to move even in face of the severest of damage, and it will never stop, and since it is the very soul that causes the body to move, they can even ignore damage to the brain and to the heart, continue to move as long as their souls remain in the body. Revenants are rare existences, and while they can be created by the most complex magic, they can also appear naturally when the soul refuses to leave the body, managing to anchor itself to it through will and through some kind of emotion that it uses as a hook to remain in the body even after both heart and brain die. In most cases, it is a feeling of anger that causes it to remain in the body, and this is the feeling that drives most revenants, causing them to hunt down their enemies in a quest for vengeance, once the legends of revenants coming out of their graves to pursue the living. Revenants will remain in this world so long as the hook that ties their souls to their bodies exist, with their souls departing as soon as the hook is gone.
Ghouls – Zombies are corpses that were animated through magic and that are devoid of all free will and rational thought. Revenants are corpses that moved by the will of their soul. Ghouls are something in between these two areas. Ghouls appear through many methods, like when a mammal drinks the blood of a dead apostle but is far too weak to become a proper dead apostle, or they can be created by dark magic, or they can even appear naturally from rare occasions when the body dies and the soul departs but the body refuses to accept the death. As entities, ghouls are like revenants, once they are not under the control of a magic force that animates them, however, they lack a soul, which already departed to the afterlife, and so they have no will and no rational mind, having been reduced to their most basic instincts, the equivalent to a beast, much like mammals who have become savage. Due to their very nature, the body of a ghoul decomposes at an accelerated rate, and to stop this process, the ghouls need to eat mammal flesh. In scientific terms, one can say that the DNA of a ghoul is constantly eroding away, resulting in their bodies decaying until they become dust, and to stop this process, they need to ingest mammal DNA. This condition applies to all mammals that became ghoul, be them predator or prey, and as a result, even the prey who become ghouls acquire predatory characteristics, like the sharp teeth needed to tear skin and flesh and the claws and muscles needed to hunt.
Dead Apostles – The name of dead apostle is one that is very common for the world of mystery, but it is not as popular as the name that is given to them by the mundane: vampires. Dead apostles are born when a mammal is given the blood of a true ancestor or of another dead apostle, when this happens, the mammal will either turn into a ghoul (if too weak), or become a dead apostle themselves (if strong enough). Dead apostles suffer from a condition that causes their DNA to erode, resulting in their bodies decomposing until they become dust. In order to halt and to control this process, they need to feed periodically in mammal DNA, which they obtain by drinking the blood of mammals. Due to their transformation, dead apostles now dwell in the world of mystery, and as a result, they are superior to regular mammals in many ways, which include having superior speed, reflexes, and strength. Not only that, but they also gain several abilities, which include the "curse of restoration", which activates when the vampire suffers damage, and seems like regeneration but actually is a selectively reversion of time, causing the vampire to revert damages and recover from them, even if they were lethal, however, even this has limitations, as the right amount of damage can overpass this "defense". As a dead apostle ages, they dwell more and more time in mystery, and it causes their powers to grow accordingly, resulting in them become stronger, faster, smarter, and also making them acquire all kinds of supernatural powers, like the ability to walk in walls and hypnotic powers. As times goes on, however, the erosion of their DNA gets worse, and so they need to consume more and more DNA at each meal in order to prevent their bodies from eroding away, the oldest and most powerful of the dead apostles need to take meals that are equivalent to the blood of two hundred elephants at each meal. Dead apostles are powerful entities, but they also have weaknesses, with the most famous of them being the light of the sun, which accelerates the erosion rate of their DNA and can easily reduce them to dust if exposed enough.
True Ancestors – The true ancestors are a form of defense mechanism developed by the World itself in answer to the advent of the sentient in mammals, which made them develop in ways that not only they were a bigger threat to each other, but their very actions started to prove a danger to the natural balance and, consequently, to the World itself. These entities have the form of mammals, however, this is limited only to their appearance, for in their nature they are far superior to any mammal that could possibly live in this world in all aspects, physically, mentally, spiritually. It would be proper to call these creatures "greater fairies", with them being a force of nature, with the purpose of balancing the population of mammals so they would not interfere with the destiny of the world and would not eventually lead to its destruction. As spirits of the very nature, these creatures are able to survive only from the magical energy that flows in the environment around them, not needing food, water or sleep of any kind. However, since they were created as a self-defense mechanism against mammals, they do prey on them, not out of any need, but out of their own psychological impulse that lead them to feed on the blood of these creatures. With time, mammals learned to form a balance with the natural order, and so, the true ancestors were needed less and less, to the point where their population started to decline considerably, and eventually they disappeared. Some say that they went extinct, but others say that they, along with other creatures of mystery, migrated to the Reverse Side of the World. The point is, they vanished from the world, but their legacy lives on in the form of the dead apostles. The original dead apostles was a group of mammals that were captured by them and turned into immortal creatures, so they could serve as "emergency ration" for the true ancestors, but these mammals escaped, and they started to live as creatures that needed to feed on blood of mammals, not by compulsion, but for their own survival.
Lycanthropes – This is a name that is used to designate mammals who change and become closer to what they were on the time of the old ages, when mammals were much more primitive and much stronger than they are on the present days. In this case, we are not just talking about mammals who were reduced to a savage state and started to walk on four legs and snarl, we are talking about mammals who physically change and to become bigger and more beast-like, turning into creatures of great strength that were said to be the true ancestors of mammals before they became sentient and turned into the ones that they are now. The name "lycanthrope" came from the great king Lycaon, the legendary king who was punished by Zeus into being turned into a beast that barely resembled the wolf that he once was, the one who is considered "the first lycanthrope". Lycanthropes are considered beings of great physical power, being creatures that are capable of "regressing" to a state in which they were still creatures much more in tune with mysteries than now, acquiring senses and strength that it should not be possible for normal mammals to have, independent of the species, and they are usually regarded as creatures of great power with little control over their actions. There are some ways in which a mammal can become a lycanthrope, with the most common being magic that allows the body to change, and it can also be the result of some kind of curse. Lycanthropes are deeply connected with the moon, with it affecting their behavior in several ways, from causing them to become "friskier" to causing them to go on frenzy.
Phantasmal Species – The term "phantasmal species" is not truly a particular species, but rather a collective term that is used to describe all of the creatures that once roamed free in the world during the Age of Gods, and that now are regarded only as creatures of myth. This includes all sorts of magical beasts and other creatures that today are considered things of the imaginary, like sea monsters and even the legendary dragons. These creatures could roam freely in the world in the past, when the mystery was overflowing in the world, resulting in different laws of reality than the ones that exist today. However, with the end of the Age of Gods, the mystery started to wane, and the result of this was that these creatures could less and less move around in this world, as their very nature as beings of mystery was no longer fitting the new reality that this world was becoming. The result was that these creatures started to die and to diminish in number, until the moment when they finally were forced to flee from this world into what we know as "the reverse side of the World", where they could continue to exist as if the memory was still abundant. Some of the creatures of the phantasmal kind remained in the world, but they are few and they are all hidden, to the point of seeing one with your own eyes is considered a tall-tale, even among mages. There are occasions in which it is possible to summon creatures of the phantasmal kind, but it is consider one of the most elevated of the High-Thaumaturgy. One that only the most powerful mages are able to produce. That is because these creatures belong to a time of mystery, and summoning them involves creating enough mystery to make their existence possible, and this is a very hard trick, even if it only lasts for a few minutes.
Dragon Kind – This is a group of creatures that are considered to be part of the collective known as "phantasmal species", however, at the same time, they are into a very category of their own, once the dragons are the most powerful of all of the creatures that originated from mystery, earning the title of "king of monsters". Creatures of the dragon kind are the most powerful of all of the beings of the old mysteries, and all of the legends depict dragons as the most powerful and magnificent of beasts, from the terrible dragons who burn down villages and devours mammals, to the wise dragons of the eastern culture that served as protectors and as guides for the people and heroes. Dragons are beings of so deep mystery and so massive power that now that the mystery has reduced so much, there is just no way that the existence of these creatures combine with this world, so much that any attempt of summoning them would often result in failure and in the death of the ones involved in the rituals. Dragons are creature of power beyond anything that could possible materialize in the modern world, save for Heroic Spirits, and even those would have problems to face and defeat a dragon. In addition, due to their massive power, dragons are gluttons, as many often say that dragons are "creatures that devour mammals only by existing".
Daemons – Daemons are existences that were brought to the world by the negative emotions and ideals of mammals, accumulated and materialized in the form of entities that are the pure manifestation of these emotions and ideas. Daemons appear when the negativity generated by the emotions and ideas of mammals accumulate so much that it starts to think and to react on its own, until it turns into something that is capable of moving and attacking other creatures on its own accord. As they are a materialization of the negativity of mammals, they tend to have the wickedest of intentions, which usually involve hunting and killing mammals, even because they need to feed on the psychic/spiritual energy of living mammals in order to survive, and they usually do that by inducing negative emotions in mammals, like fear, pain and despair. These creatures have shapes that are influenced by the emotions and ideas that gave birth to them, and usually most of them are monstrous and demoniac in appearance, and it causes many to describe them as demons, even though they are different existences. It would not be far-fetched to say that daemons are the result of the nightmares of mammals materialized in the world. Daemons are ideas, concepts, and as so, they are immune to most forms of weapons and damages that does not come from magic or from conceptual weapons, since the only thing that can kill an idea is another idea.
Demons – Demons are existences that are said to be similar to daemons, but they are on a much higher level. These creatures were born from the negativity that exists in World, focused and condensed until it could take a real form and manifest as something that was capable of thought and even of reason. If daemons are the nightmares of mammals, then the true demons are nightmares of the World itself. Due to their nature as something that originated from the very World, demons are far above the daemons, born from the negativity of mammals, and they are also above mammals themselves. Daemons can be killed by mammals (with a lot of difficulty), however, demons are too powerful, and if facing a demon, there are very few things that a mammal can actually do more than be a little fly buzzing in front of their faces. Demons have interests in mortals that change in accordance to their own ideas and conveniences, resulting in some seeing them as useless creatures, some seeing them as useful tools, others seeing them as fun playthings. Due to their great power and the great mystery associated to them, unlike daemons, the demons cannot properly materialize in the world, unless they have a good source of magic energy to supply them, and the most common way for them to interact in earth is by possessing a mortal. In cases in which a demon is able to materialize in the world, they manifest as entities of so much power that they might represent a threat to the very World, and this, of course, will cause the Gaia and Animus to react by summoning Heroic Spirits to fight this threat. Mammals cannot defeat demons, no matter how hard they try, but heroes have a great capacity to defeat them, as long as there is a mammal supplying them and guiding their actions. You can say that it is kind of like "rock, paper, scissors": demons devour mammals, heroes kill demons, mammals manage heroes.
Angels – Demons are entities born from the negativity of the world, angels, on their end, are the opposite spectrum, the materialization and condensation of the positive aspects of the World. If demons are Gaia's nightmare, angels are it's dreams. Angels as the manifestation of the positive ideals of the world, and they are entities of great power that are often associated with miracles and with the divine. They sometimes act as part of the defense mechanisms of the World, with example of this being the times when mammals were said to have received visits of angels giving them revelations, they are even powerful enough to clash with demons on equal terms. However, due to their nature as manifestations of the pure positivity of the World, angels are fickle entities that have their own conveniences and their own agendas, in a way that most of them are far too unreliable to act as defenders of the future, that is why Gaia mostly resorts to Heroic Spirits, once they were mammals who fought for their ideals in life, and so they are much more reliable to defend the world. Angels are entities of such positivity that they are above mammals in many ways, and they think in ways that even the most enlightened mammals can't even begin to understand, resulting into them being virtuous, but at the same time utterly unpredictable, and as inclined to save a mammal from the edges of despair as they are of throwing them there themselves. Due to their nature, angels cannot properly materialize in this world unless they have a great amount of magic energy to supply them, but they can insert themselves and their power in the body of a mammal, in order to interact with the world in limited ways through their vessel. Note that being the vessel of an angel is completely different than being possessed by a demon…
Elementals – Also referred to as "nature spirits", the elementals are living manifestations of the aspects of the world that have gained substance and were able to create physical forms, they are manifestations of the very elements of nature in shapes that are familiar to mammals. There are all kinds of elementals, like sirens, fairies, gnomes, all of them resemble mammals, but all of them are aspects of the nature that are so powerful that they manifest in physical form. As manifestations of nature, these creatures are made out mostly of instinct, and they are said to be as unpredictable and indomitable as nature itself, but still, it is possible to, sometimes, reach some kind of mutual understanding with these creatures, especially if the one trying to make contact is considered to have a high connection with nature. It is possible to use the modern magecraft to summon elementals, even though the ones that are summon this magic are the very elements of nature condensed and given a consciousness, albeit temporarily, and they are considerably less powerful than the elementals that dwelled in the world during the Age of Gods, entities of nature that were so powerful that they were very close to the gods themselves.
The Great Age of Gods – A period of time of millenniums ago, when the world was still ruled by the laws of mystery and when the True Magic was still strong in the world.
Great Age of Mammals – The present era, in which mystery has become very thin, and in which the laws of physics now rule the world.
Animunculus – Plural, animunculi. These are creatures generated through magecraft. Artificial mammals generated by alchemical processes and which usually are created within certain specifications for the needs of their creators. In the past, these creatures were seen not as mammals, and treated only as disposable resources, however, in the recent past (around three hundred years ago) a clan of wolves developed a new set of laws, including the law that specifies that anything that has a mind and soul of its own, and is capable of thought and feeling, is a life. If you create a life, you are entirely responsible for it. It ruled better the creation of future animunculi, but didn't elevated them to the same ranking as mammals…
The Holy Grail War – It is a High-Thaumaturgy ritual that was designed in the 18th century, and which allows the ones who use it to be able to tap into the natural process that is related to the Holy Grail and the natural protection of the World of Heroic Spirits. This ritual was created by the combined efforts of the Bellwethers, the Wildes, and the Höhle, three of the oldest, richest, most powerful and influent mage families of the whole world. To the ritual, are needed seven mages that will be the Masters of the summoned Servants, and also a great amount of magic circuits that were naturally formed within the land, and which would serve to channel the mana necessary for something of this magnitude. The first component is due to the summon of the seven Servants that will serve to fill the Grail with their magic and complete the final of the ritual. The second component is a lot trickier, in fact, the whole ritual only became possible after this second component, a massive amount of natural magic circuits right into the land, was discovered into the new world (their America, where the city of Zootopia would later be founded). Due to the nature of the ritual, one Servant of each one of the seven basic classes is summoned, even though it is possible to alter parts of the ritual to obtain certain interesting burling of the rules…
The Holy Grail – This is not the same Holy Grail mentioned in the sacred books and that was said to have served as the recipient of the blood of the messiah. This is a much more ancient existence, and consist into a spiritual body that has the function of receiving the magical energy of the Servants who were killed during their summoning to the world. The basic function of it is to serve as a reservoir of energy that will allow a Servant to draw extra energies to fight any threats, however, it can be accessed to serve to other purposes, especially in relation to the Holy Grail War Ritual. It was theorized that the combined energy of seven Servants would generate a limitless amount of magic energy, which would allow to open a direct gateway to the Root, what would allow it to be touched. However, as the goal was reached, the mages discovered that due to the nature of the Grail as a spiritual body, it could only be activated by another spiritual body, in other words: only a Servant could touch and activate the Grail. In the future, they perceived that the energy of six Servants was not enough to reach for the Root, but was enough to change reality and allow for a wish to be realized. So, with the Servant working as a medium, both Master and Servant can each have one wish granted…
The Three Founding Clans – The three clans of mages that gathered their force and knowledge to create the Holy Grail War ritual, back in the 17th century. The Bellwethers, the Wildes, and the Höhle. As their status as the creators of the ritual itself, each one of the three families has a spot secured in the War. As a result, from all of the Holy Grail Wars from the first one until today, at least one member of each one of these families was a Master.
The Bellwethers – A family of sheep, one of the oldest and most important mage families of the world and surely the most powerful and oldest of all sheep mage families. This family is famous for their great advances in the area of alchemy, in particular in their research and advents in the development of animunculi and other derived creatures, including fabricated familiars of all kinds. Rumors say that they have the necessary resources and skill to create a whole army of animunculi and of alchemically enhanced familiars that resemble genetic experiences came out of sci-fi horror movies, and that it would allow them to take a whole country if they wanted. Despite their great success in the area of animunculi, they are also skilled in the creation of potions and elixirs of all kinds, and there are even rumors that the Bellwether clan would be developing an elixir that would slow down or even stop the aging process, allowing its members to live far more than any normal mammal should be able to. Due to the set of laws recently installed by a wolf clan a few centuries ago, their advances were halted in many ways, and this is something that the Bellwether clan took personally, and they sometimes tend to ignore these laws for the shake of their own conveniences. Another area in which they are particularly skilled is in the use of hypnotic spells, having developed many spells that are still used today, including spells that alter memories and subjugate the wills of other mammals. Their knowledge in alchemy was crucial for the handling and refining of the magic circuits of the land that made the Holy Grail War ritual possible.
Another thing that the Bellwethers are famous for is for the great prejudice that they nurture towards predators, a legacy that came from the founder of their clan, the noble knight Mordred, the Bellwether…
On more recent things, the name Bellwether is known for the attempt of a younger member of this family to enter politics and devising a plot against the predators of Zootopia…
The Wildes – One of the most powerful and influent families of mages of the world, and the oldest and most powerful of all fox clans in the world of mages. This clan is know for their great knowledge of the Kabbalah system of magic, which is one of the oldest and most efficient systems that exist, being even considered a reminiscence of Age of Gods, and some even connect its very origin to the ancestors of the Wilde clan. The knowledge of the kabbalah allows them to have a great power on elemental and summoning magic. Their elemental magic is famous all across the world, and they are also said to be amazing at using the kabbalah knowledge to be able to fabricate Mystic Codes superior to the ones created by any other clan, as well as for their creation of golems. They are also famous for their special summoning magic, which is associated to their own elemental magic, allowing them to summon minor elementals to act as their servants and familiars. Some say that the Wildes even have the capacity to summon a whole army of elemental spirits, along with the potential to create an army of golems, and they could potentially use it to take over a whole country. Their knowledge in the kabbalah system and their elemental magic was essential for them to deal with the energies necessary to the realization of the Holy Grail War ritual.
Recently, the Wilde clan has lost some of its prestige due to an event on a Holy Grail War over three decades ago: when a member of the clan who had become a Master, Sophie Wilde, was betrayed and nearly killed by her own Servant. She was sunned away after this, for she was a shame for the clan, but Sophie was actually glad for it, for she had long wanted to cut ties with them. She moved away from the clan and from the world of mages, and had her own son, who recently became the first fox to join the ZPD…
The Höhle – One of the oldest, most powerful and most influent mage clans of the world, and the most powerful who are all bunnies and relatives. This clan is particularly famous for their sinister activities, once their specialization is necromancy. They are famous for their rituals that deal in the art of necromancy, which includes animation corpses to create all kinds of living dead, and using parts of the bodies of dead mammals to fabricate all kinds of objects, including Mystic Codes. There are even legends that they have a whole army of zombies in their power, ready to be controlled by any member of the clan who has the necessary knowledge. They are respected as much as they are feared, and some say that long ago the founder of this clan sold his soul and the ones of every one of his descendants in exchange for the power that they possess now. Their disregard for the lives of other mammals, including their own members, is famous, and is one of the things that make this family of bunnies be able to cause much bigger mammals to be intimidated by their mere presence. They are famous for invading graveyards and stealing corpses from the graves, as well as buying it from hospitals and from morgues. They are also skilled in many other forms of what is considered witchcraft and black magic, like the casting of curses and the spells that deal with life force. Their knowledge of the mysteries that surround death and what comes after were essential for the specific magic that is related to the spiritual aspect that is the Holy Grail War, which summons the souls of the dead to the present.
The clan is famous for starting the training of their members very early, so the ones born to this clan have to be around corpses practically since they are toddlers, and many think that this affects the members of the clan as they grow up. Some come out twisted and sinister as the most famous members of this clan, others turn out relatively normal, some of them even do not handle this and end up leaving the clan behind, one way or another. Among these, a famous one was Helga Höhle, who left the clan an adult and cut any and all ties with them, changing her name and starting to live as a mundane. She even met a mundane who became her husband, and now she lives with him in his farm under the name of Bonnie Hopps, proud mother of over three hundred bunnies, including a certain police officer bunny…
Magical Energy – It is the name given to the form of energy that allows one to actualize the effects of magecraft, serving as a fuel to the effects of magic that are present in the modern day. This energy has received many names in history and in different cultures, including "chi" and prana, but it is all basically the same thing.
Mana – This is the name given to the magic energy that is produced by the World itself. It can be found in the atmosphere, and it naturally flows around the world and in the ley lines, and it is possible to tap on it to use for several purposes. However, once it is used the world takes a while to replenish it, resulting in that area being deprived of mana for a while. This energy works as the life force of the planet itself.
Od – Mana is the magic energy produced by the world, Od is the magic energy of all the living creatures, mammal and otherwise, and which works as their life-force, the life blood of the soul. This is the kind of energy that is produced by one's soul for as long as one live, though the amount that can be stored in the body changes from mammal to mammal, even among ones of the same species. The difference is that is exists in far less quantity than mana, which is everywhere, but still, it can be used to fuel spells as the first option.
True Ether – It is the name given to the true magical energy that flowed freely during the Age of Gods, supposedly coming from the root itself. It is described as one of the elements that was essential to giving birth to the planet. It no longer exists in the modern era.
Magic Circuits – Are a pseudo-nervous system that spreads all across the body of a mammal and qualify it to be a mage. Their most basic function is to convert the Od, the natural energy of the soul, into magic energy, but mammals had found a way to use it to perform mysteries. Magic circuits are like pipelines that carry magic energy across the body, allowing mages to be able to realize exchanges of magic energy with the world itself. These circuits are not actually physical, but they are something that is created by the very soul of a mage, and they spread across the whole body as if they were the nervous system, but conducting magical energy instead of neural impulses, and since they are generated by the very soul, they disappear in the moment when the soul leaves the body. The quantity and quality of the magical circuits influence directly in the amount of magical power of a mage, for example, someone with magic circuits of high quality will be able to conduct energy better than someone with low quality, and someone with a many magic circuits will be able to conduct much more energy than someone with few, basically, both quantity and quality affect the output of magical energy, directly influencing the magic capacity of a mage. The amount of magic circuits that someone possess is something that is fix in them from the moment of their births, as it is the amount of organs they have in their bodies, and it cannot increase or decrease naturally with time, even though there are many ways to affect them. Magical circuits are something unnatural for the mammal body to have, and mundane mammals will have little to none, however, there are cases in which regular mammals acquired magic circuits, and even of mages that acquired circuits that they never had before in their bloodlines. Their activity causes the very circuits to act up, heating up the same way that the circuits of a computer would by channeling electricity, depending on the way they are used, they might start to cause pain or numbness in the mage, and there are reports of mages that used so much magical energy that they actually "burned" part of their magic circuits, effectively destroying them.
Magic circuits are rarely opened from birth, and they usually are opened up for the first time by passing magic energy through them, a process that tends to be quite painful. From that point on, a mage can freely activate magic circuits by using a mental image, one that can vary greatly from one person into another, but it usually tends to be something significant or impacting for the mage. For instance, the face of a loved one, a memory of a particular moment, being stab in the heart, being shoot, forcing one's own hand on fire, the image of an object with sentimental value... There are also cases in which the magic circuits can only be triggered under certain conditions, like self-injury or even sexual excitement.
Due to the nature of magic circuits, they work as something that can be inherited, even though they come from the soul, as a result, the longer and most efficient a bloodline is, the better is the chance of the future generation having circuits of an even greater quality. Because of this, it is still a common occurrence in the oldest and most traditional families of mages to choose marriage based not on love, but based on partners that have better chance of generating offspring with superior magic circuits, to ensure that the family will continue to get stronger.
Magic Crest – The magic crest if the most important treasure of any lineage of mages. It consists into a series of magic circuits that were given a most stable from to be turned into a storage of magical knowledge. At some point of their lives, a mage will add magic circuits to the crest, storing in it most, if not all, of the spells that they learned in life and pass it down to their successor. The more magic circuits a crest possesses, the more stable it becomes, and it easier it is to access the spells stored in it, which increase considerably with each possessor. This way, the magic crest represents the combined knowledge of all of a family of mages, and a mage has the duty of expand and passing down the magic crest to ensure that it will continue to grow and that their clan will become more and more powerful. In order to activate the crest, a mage just needs to pass magic energy through it, very much the way that they would through any other magic circuit, and this way, they are able to access and utilize any spell stored in it, even if they never learned it themselves.
Due to its nature as a magic circuit, it cannot be detected when not in use, and it is independent from the mage's own magic circuits, however, it is something that is "transplanted" from one mage into another, and so, it is very much like transplanting an organ. In other words, it demands the receptor being compatible with the donator, otherwise rejection will occur. Usually it means that the one receiving it must be from the same bloodline, even though this is not a rule, and there are some reported cases of the crest being actually transferred to someone of a completely different species (!). However, the compatibility of the receptor increases the chances of rejection, which are high even between close relatives. To avoid such a thing, it is common practice for mages to start transferring their magic crests to their successors little by little, since a young age, for the body to get accustomed to the to the crest and not rejecting it. It is also normal to use a special medicine made up from special herbs and crushed bones during the process the prevent rejection. A magic crest can only be inherited by one person, so it is a tradition to it be passed either to the oldest or the most talented child of each generation of the family.
Mystic Codes – A mystic code is a type of magical artifact that mages carry and use as a weapon, and in some cases, it is even the most powerful weapon in the arsenal of a mage. These objects can usually come in two types:
Amplifiers are mystic codes that have the function of canalizing and amplifying magecraft, being objects that serve for the amplification and storage of magical energy, prepared to strengthen the spells of a mage. They are the most orthodox type of mystic code.
The second kind is the "specialized", and these have a predetermined usage. They are activate by supplying them with magical energy, and they are created to do a specific function, being able to perform this specific mystery in any occasion so long as they receive magical energy. This kind of mystic code is a spell on itself, and most of the Noble Phantasms of Servants are of this kind. Their usage is unique, so they are not generic, however, they can be extremely efficient in what they do.
Magecraft – Also referred to as "thaumaturgy", is what many of the mundane would call simply "magic", however, any mage knows that this is far more complex than this. The true magic was something that existed into the age of gods, and something that has been lost to the world with its end. Instead, magecraft is the "magic science", the kind of art that is made as an imitation of the true magic, the mysteries and miracles that existed in the ancient times, when the true ether flowed free across the world. Thaumaturgy is an art of using the energy of the magic energy in order to alter reality, as if it was a form of science that works through supernatural means, turning one's thoughts into reality. However, it is not true magic, once the connection with the root seems to have been lost, and now all the mages inspire to reach it once more. It is not possible to realize the feats of magic from old days, like making mountains float or causing continents to sink, once the power is just too massive. Also, magic does not allow doing impossible things, like resurrecting the dead and time traveling, even with infinite research, it is like there is a "wall" in there that just can't be crossed, and anything beyond that wall is True Magic.
True Magic – Also referred to as "sorcery" or just as "Magic", it is the true art of magic, the true force of miracles that once ruled the world so long ago. It is easy to differ it from thaumaturgy, once the magic science has several limitations, like only being able to work with the magic energy supplied by the mages themselves, and like being only able to recreate phenomena of nature. True magic is something much more powerful and much deeper, for it involves altering reality itself, bending time and space in ways that even science could not even begin to comprehend, and even resulting in the true resurrection of the dead. It is nowadays used to describe a myriad of effects that are said to be impossible to reproduce by mammals of the modern day, both mundane and mages, once it relied on the connection with the root, the source of all knowledge and power, and which has been lost so long ago. Some families of mages inspire for the True Magic, and have dedicated their whole lives trying to come even close of the miracles that it is capable of.
Origin – The origin is the driving force that defines one's soul and affects their actions all through their lives. An origin is defined and attributed to a soul by the Root itself, and it is considered the very nature of the soul, that which the soul was made. The actions of a mammal are defined form the moment they enter this world by their origin, but this is not something active, being mostly an instinct that pushes mammals into a determined direction, and they many times don't even realize or understand this particular drive to their actions. Most of mammals out there have their origins "dormant" in a way that they are only some kind of "nudging" or "instinct" that pulls them into a certain direction or even gives them a certain talent, but there are ways in which an origin can be "awakened". Once the origin is awakened, it stops being a mere instinct and becomes a true driving force that guides the action of a mammal, even to the point of completely rewriting their personalities, and from that point on it is nearly impossible to stray from them. Therefore, it can be dangerous to awaken one's origin, but it can also be advantageous, for depending on the origin, it can improve the abilities that a mammal already possess, or even give them entirely new kinds of abilities that match their origin, becoming something that can actually offer a lot to a mammal. That is why some mages chose to awake their origins. The ones who do somehow find ways to connect their own magecraft to their origins, allowing them to become amazing specialists in a particular form of magecraft, and this gives them a wide variety of advantages throughout their lives. An origin is something that defines the soul, and some say that it is with the soul even before its birth, as it leaves the root to be once more reborn in the physical plane, so, changing it is not something that one can do at any given moment, but it is not impossible, just extremely hard and rare. In addition, usually a mammal has a single concept as their origin, but in very rare cases, a mammal can have two different concepts as their origins, for instance: Creating and Biding, or Passion and Temperance.
Mage – Also referred to as "magus", plural "magi". The term used for the ones who are capable of practicing thaumaturgy due to the possession of magic circuits, what allows them to perform mysteries through the manipulation of magical energy. Mages normally come from lineages of magic families; however, it is perfectly possible for a mammal to be a mage despite having been born from non-mage father and mother.
There are all kinds of mages around, just as there are all kinds of mammals, with the most varied individuals between each species. Of course, the oldest families of mages still attain to some of their old ways, which mostly revolve around focusing on the increasing of their power and magecraft while distancing themselves from the moralities and ethics that most mammals possess, as well as involving in petty power struggles and political dances with other mage families. In many ways, these noble and old families of mages are not different from the aristocratic and rich mundane families. Of course, after the advent of the New Mage Codex, the laws of mages changed, making them get more in tone with the moralities that most mundane society have, even though some of the oldest families still break or even blatantly ignore the laws. It is not unusual for mages using several kinds of magecraft to increase their own lifespan, with some of the oldest mages alive having been around for a few centuries.
Magician – This is not the "stage magicians" that are so popular among mundanes. A term used by the mage community to define the ones who make use of True Magic, the ones who are capable of using the transcendental force that is able to bring forth the true miracles that even the most powerful of thaumaturgy cannot hope to imitate. Most of the Servants of the Caster-Class classify as this, for they are wizards and sorcerers who lived in the Age of Gods, when the true magic was still abundant.
Mundane – This is a word that has deeply popularized in the community of mages and used to refer to the ones who do not possess magic circuits and are, therefore, not mages. It is considered by many a slang, and a less formal way of saying "non-mage".
The Swirl of the Root – Also referred to as "The Outside of the World", or simply as "The Root". It is something that exists above all other things in the world, a metaphysical location that serves as an archive for everything that was and everything that is, from Gods and the World itself to every mammal that lives or has ever lived. It is said to have been the place from which all souls first originated, and to which all of them will come one day so they can be then sent back to the world to reincarnate. The root is said to be the starting point, the one and true origin of everything, including the origin of True Magic. It is say that, if someone manages to reach the root and touch it, this individual will acquire knowledge and power beyond anything, allowing to completely erase the meaning of "impossible", and this individual will effectively become "God", hence why it is the main goal and aspiration of whole families of mages.
The Mage's Association – The Mage's Association is an international organization formed by the practitioners of magecraft who focus on the management and developing of the magic science, reuniting most mage families, both old and new, and most of the most powerful mages of the world in their rankings. The main goals of the Association is to guarantee the advance of the magecraft, the education and ensuring of the future generations of mages, and ensuring the integrity and protection of the mages. Due to their power and influence, the Association even possess their own military force, compromised by elite mages, and which serves for them to protect themselves from external threats, which includes other associations or organizations, as well as mundanes who know of their existence and who pursue and hunt mages, and even from supernatural evils that prey on mammals. The association also makes active effort to apply the laws of magecraft, so these laws are followed, for that, they use their military force as a police force that watches, acts, and punishes according to the needs, to ensure that the laws are going to be follow and that the ones who break them are properly disciplined.
The New Mage Codex – This is a new set of rules and regulations of mages that was created by a certain clan of wolves who were compromised into inserting morals and ethics in the behavior of mages. This is a whole set of rules that was approved by nearly all other clans, and which institute many laws that are to be obeyed. Before the codex, mages acted as they pleased, making sacrifices, killing witnesses of magic, and doing all kinds of atrocious things, and all of that was allowed, as long as they did not risk exposing magic to the mundanes. Due to this codex, mages had morality inserted to their behavior, and now, these laws have made mammals behave with more ethics in their works. All mages still search for the Root, but they are now much more composed on their behavior, refraining from using things that would be considered monstrous and from committing murders and getting away with it. In many ways, these laws are very similar to the laws of the mundane society, which include punishments for murders and ethical behaviors for magic that are similar to the ones of the science. Still, there are some of the oldest families that don't like those laws, and prefer to break them when it is convenient, in particular, the Bellwethers, who saw those laws as a direct attack to their activities, and made them develop a strong animosity with that wolf clan.
The Holy Church – Also referred to simply as "The Church", is an organization that is deeply associated with the ruling religion of the world of Zootopia, and that was base mostly in the teachings and designations of Caprian of Cartago, said to be the founder of most of their practices and beliefs. They are a religious group that uses their own form of thaumaturgy to carry on different missions, a thaumaturgy that is the ones known as "sacraments", one kind of magecraft created by Caspian of Cartago himself. As a whole, the function of the Church is the protection of mammals from the evils from supernatural origins, fighting them and managing them so they won't pose a threat to the innocents. In many ways, they are the equivalent to the Templar knights of the modern days, fighting in name of God to ensure the future of mammals and to protecting the world from abominable evils. They have all kinds of workers on their ranks, each one with a specialization; with the ones who are the most famous being their exorcists and their executors. Exorcists work to break the influence of supernatural evils over mammals to free them from the grips of a possession or a curse. The executors, on their end, focus on hunting and, when necessary, eliminating the existences that threaten the mammals, like daemons and vampires.
Initially, they are a group that defends all innocent mammals from evils, no matter their religion or origins. However, since it is a religious group, it is not surprise that some among them are overzealous, to the point of fanaticism.
AN 1: Yes, Judy and Nick's mothers both are mages, and so are their children, however, the two women have long cut ties with their respective clans. They chose to never even let their children or close relatives to take knowledge of their nature as mages, for they decided that it was better for their children to be away from all of this. Many consider them as failures in this aspect, for they choose to act as mothers before acting as mages.
AN 2: Dawn Bellwether is a member of an old and powerful mage clan, but she is not in any position of power because of this. It turns out that Dawn was a "fiasco", having been born with so little magic circuits, and of such a poor quality, that she would never be able to do more than the simplest and most basic of spells on her own. Due to this, she feel in great disfavor to the rest of her clan, and she has spent all of her life trying to prove her worth to them. In fact, the Night Howler Conspiracy was not an attack based on personal prejudices over predators, neither a personal crusade, not even a scheme to put herself in a place of political power. This whole plot against the predators of Zootopia was, more than anything, an attempt to impress and gain the favor of her clan.
So, here it is, these are the headcanons for this Fate/Zootopia crossover universe. I tried to list all I could think off that could be significant, some are basically the very same that is described in the Type-Moon wiki, while others are my very own approach of what the universe could be like.
For the things that were not list in here… well, assume that they are the same of the canon Fate/ universe. If I do remember more important things to be headcanon'ed, then I will add them in a future chapter.
So, what do you guys thing?
Read and Review.
No flaming.