Twenty Years Later- Yutaka's Youkai Biology

Chapter 3: Fairies, Fae, and the Fair Folk- Phylum Loremia

Phylum Loremia is a large, highly diverse phylum once placed as a subphylum to the now known to be paraphyletic Suprahominidae (Hadekawa, 2011). It is thought to have a plant-like common ancestor, and all members within the group, despite their high diversity and disparity (Briggs, 1976; Hadekawa, 2002) have one thing in common: their extremely high environmental plasticity, to the point of being outright reliant or associated with the surrounding environment (Hadekawa, 2002). This is a notable contrast to humans, which are well-known to shape their environment to their own needs (Vitousek et al, 1997), though there are some loremians that are known to bring their associated environment with them (Hieda, 2006; Martin, 1996; Shameimaru, 2005.

Loremians have been known by many names throughout history due to their variable nature, including fairies, fae, the fair folk, and many Others (Briggs, 1976; Martin, 1996). Despite being separated into classes, it should be noted that almost all loremians are able to breed with each other. The most notable groups only shall be covered in this chapter.

The first notable group, and likely the most ancient of all, is Class Pulchraciformes, known to the layman as 'the Fair Folk' (Briggs, 1976), 'the Children of the Forest' (Martin, 1996), or simply non-denominational fairies (Hieda, 2006; Shameimaru, 2005). Tenebrum rationalis was once considered part of this class, before being revealed to share closer common ancestry to Tenebrum stultus as part of a mostly dead lineage (Hadekawa, 2011; Noir, 1989), however, the current state of Class Pulchraciformes is very much thriving, albeit in the shadows (Grimm, J. & Grimm, W., 1812; Tatar, 1987). They operate in areas where the environment is still not influenced by human activity (Martin, 1996; Oberon, 1965) and operate beyond the International Association for the Protection and Relocation of Supernatural Humanoids due to their refusal to abide by the restrictions inherent in being part of the association (IAPRSH, 1793). Initially, human domination of the Outside World has proven to be a threat to certain members of Pulchraciformes (Martin, 1996; Oberon, 1965), however, any which have not yet gone close to extinction (Martin, 1996) have changed their way of living and are thriving, albeit due to pragmatic measures on their part (Oberon, 1999). They are characterised by their high intelligence and reclusive nature (Briggs, K.M; Martin, 1996), as well as their highly sophisticated cities made from the very environment they require to survive. Some members of this class (Genus Faerus) are able to perpetually reconstitute their body form (Hieda, 2006), namely ones simply named as fairies. With this ability to reconstitute their body form infinitely comes a markedly reduced amount of brain convolution due to it being easier to reform (Hadekawa, 2019), resulting in a more simple-minded creature (Hieda, 2006). Most members of this group are entirely humanoid with wings (Briggs, 1976; Hieda, 2006; Shameimaru, 2005), however, members known as the Children of the Forest (Genus Filiosaltus) have only four phalanges per appendage and slitted eyes akin to felids (Martin, 1996).

The second notable group is Class Glaciovitiformes, the ice fairies (Hieda, 2006). The dominant part of this class, the White Walkers or Others (Genus Albulantes), are only vaguely humanoid (Martin, 1996), and are adept at controlling the environment, but only by bringing it towards the extreme temperature in which their bodies' enzymes favour (Martin, 1996; Siddiqui & Cavvicchioli, 2006). This rudimentary ability to control the environment compared to humans (Oberon, 1965) is complimented by their ability to animate corpses of humans and other animals (Godwin, 1876; Martin, 1996). These are a highly sophisticated, highly dangerous group that are fortunately restricted to the northern-most areas of earth (Martin, 1996), such as the North Pole, though reports have indicated they may be invading northern parts of Greenland and Canada (IAPRSH, 2021). A small part of the group (Genus Glacifaerus) has exhibited extreme convergent evolution, adapting itself, like many other youkai, to resemble humans (Hadekawa, 2014), as well as reducing its brain capacity to enable regeneration in a similar manner to Genus Faerus of Class Pulchraciformes (Hadekawa, 2019). This once resulted in the Genera Glacifaerus and Faerus being considered as being within the same family (the now non-existent Faericidae) until major reforms were made to Loremian phylogeny to take into account paraphyly (Hadekawa, 2011). Individuals of Glacifaerus are strictly found within Gensokyo, the most notable member of Glacifaerus plennus being known as 'Cirno', an exceptionally strong individual (Cirno, 2009; Hieda, 2006) for her species, likely resulting in a reclusive behaviour in her fellow Glacifaerus plennus members.

The final notable class in Phylum Loremia is Class Luxonutriciformes, or the light fairies. Due to their consistency in form, that is, winged humanoids (Hieda, 2017), it can be assumed that natural selection was relatively ineffective in this group, and this group was likely the first to evolve the 'simplified brain, infinite regeneration' genotype now convergently evolved in Genera Glacifaerus and Faerus (Hadekawa, 2019). The group's early evolution of such a trait has resulted in them being nigh-invincible, albeit unsophisticated (Hieda, 2006), hence likely resulting in their low disparity of form, as an environment unable to kill an organism is unable to select the fittest to survive (Darwin, 1859). The light fairies are known to be able to harness power from various cosmological bodies, namely the radiation from said cosmological bodies (Hadekawa, 2022; Hieda, 2017). There are three dominant species of light fairy, all within Genus Fililucis, each associated with the three main types of cosmological body visible from earth: our most proximal star, the sun (Fililucis solus), the multitude of distant stars (Fililucis estrellus), and reflected light from non-luminous cosmological objects (Fililucis luna), such as planets and the moon (Hadekawa, 2022; Hieda, 2017). An investigation (Hadekawa, 2022) showed that F. solus could use many wavelengths of light, but only at high intensities, while F. estrellus could use an equally diverse range of light, but has special low-energy photosynthetic enzymes that denature under high-intensity light (Siddiqui & Cavvicchioli, 2006), while F. luna required more specific wavelengths of light, but was more tolerant of changes in intensity than both solus and estrellus. Class Luxonutriciformes is by far the most dominant and successful of Phylum Loremia, although its relatively large population is largely restricted to Gensokyo (Yakumo, 1884).

Overall, Phylum Loremia is a group with high disparity, diversity, and in general is an interesting group to study in depth, as every genus is a fascinating new study, and it is even ethically viable to run tests of the regenerative species, due to their harm never being permanent (Hadekawa, 2019; Hadekawa, 2022; Hieda, 2006). While some of the species are genuinely dangerous and ruthless (IAPRSH, 2021; Martin, 1996; Oberon; 1965, Oberon, 1999), the Gensokyan populations of Loremians are mostly harmless and a beauty to behold, especially in spring.

References

Briggs, K. M. (1976), An Encyclopedia of Fairies, New York, Pantheon Books.

Cirno (2009), Why I'm the strongest, self-published.

Darwin, C. (1859), On the Origin of Species, N2KT.

Godwin, W. (1876), Lives of the Necromancers, self-published.

Grimm, J. & Grimm, W. (1812), Kinder- und Hausmärchen, self-published.

Hadekawa, Y. (2002), Disparity in subphylum Loremia due to extreme environmental plasticity?, self-published.

Hadekawa, Y. (2011), Paraphyly in Phylum Suprahominidae?, Momiji Publications Ltd.

Hadekawa, Y. (2014), Humanoid form in animal youkai driven by form of prey?, Momiji Publications Ltd.

Hadekawa, Y. (2019), Reduction in brain complexity in Phylum Loremia; an adaptation to enable regeneration, Momiji Publications Ltd.

Hadekawa, Y. (2022), How radiation intensity and wavelength affect members of Class Luxonutriciformes, Momiji Publications Ltd.

Hieda, A. (2006), Perfect Memento in Strict Sense, Ichijinsha Publications.

Hieda, A. (2017), Another Perfect Memento: A revised documentation of dangerous youkai, self-published.

International Association for the Protection and Relocation of Supernatural Humanoids, Founder's Meeting (1793).

International Association for the Protection and Relocation of Supernatural Humanoid, Annual Report, (2021).

Martin, G. R. R. (1996), A Song of Ice and Fire series, Voyager Books.

Noir, B. (1989), Why we of the darkness own the triangle, Darkness Monthly.

Oberon (1965)., The threat the industrial revolution has placed on the Fair Folk, self-published.

Oberon (1999), An explanation of Puck's execution: loose lips attract ships, self-published.

Shameimaru, A. (2005), Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red, Ichijinsha Publications.

Siddiqui, K. S., & Cavicchioli, R. (2006), Cold-adapted enzymes, Annual Review of Biochemistry 75, 403-433.

Tatar, Maria (1987), The Hard Facts of the Grimms' Fairy Tales, Princeton University Press.

Vitousek, P. M., Mooney, H. A., Lubchenco, J., & Melillo, J. M. (1997). Human domination of Earth's ecosystems. Science 277, 494-499.

Yakumo, Y. (1884), The Gensokyan Charter, Yakumo Publications.