"Alright let's go in order." Weiss said, "Do we really have to?" Ruby asked, "If we want anything to make sense? Yes." Weiss insisted, "I wonder why there are that many videos though, it could take days to view them all." Blake commented, "Maybe there are some super Kick-ass races!" Yang suggested, "Maybe we get to see exactly how Shakara works!" Ruby exclaimed, "That would be a start for sure" Weiss muttered as she started the first video.
Welcome to the Ecology of Aqua Laguna. Today we talk about Creature Classes, (Weiss: So far it sounds like a documentary./ Blake: You sound surprised./ Ruby: I'm more surprised that Shakara's world is called Aqua Laguna.) these are one of the most important things when it comes to addressing any of the races that inhabit the world, (Yang: Hold on a moment, what?/ Weiss: You heard the guy./ Yang: Yes, but every race is dependant on this system!?/ Blake: When you put it like that it sounds like it would fall apart immediatly...) so let's start with the basics.
There are ten classes in total: (Ruby: Wait, only ten? But there's so many videos!/ Weiss: Maybe they're... I got nothing...) Berserker, Behemoth, Leviathan, Humanoid, Artificial, Paradoxical, Cosmic, Demonic, Godly and the Cryptids. Now you may be thinking, that's it? (Blake: Wha- Yes! Yes That's what we're thinking!) Yes, yes that's it, but once we get into what these classes are used to, well, classify, you'll understand why there aren't more.
"So there are only ten because otherwise it would be too complicated?" Yang rationalized, "That makes sense actually, sort of anyway." Weiss let slide, "But if it would bee too complicated, doesn't that mean it already is a bit complicated?" Ruby asked, "That does not bode well..." Blake commented.
Let's start with explaining what a class implies, it's used to explain what a creature is naturally like, (Ruby: Naturally?/ Yang: I don't know.) it does so by giving answers to a set of answers: How big is it? Does it use magic? Is it capable of speech? Does it move on two, four, or how many legs? Does it make sense? Can it be explained? Is there proof that it exists at all? (Blake: Some of those seem... Weirdly specific.) To note that these questions are applied to the creature's most natural state, those raised in captivity don't count.
"I'm already having trouble following." Blake admitted, "It is quite confusing..." Weiss agreed, "It's not that hard actually, maybe you two are just getting rusty." Yang teased, "Do you really?" Blake asked, "Moving on!" Yang exclaimed.
The first of the classes is the Berserker class, following the order in which the questions were laid out earlier, it give the answers: 1 to 10 meters, No, No, Four or More, Yes, Yes, Yes. (Blake: No seriously, why are the last three there?/ Yang: That aside, 10 meters? How and where?) In practice the most basic you can get, your usual dog, cat, mouse, lizard, spider, whatever.
"Regular animal then!" Ruby realized, "It did sound a little simple." Weiss commented.
The second class is the Behemoths, this class gives the answers: 10 to 40 meters, Yes, No, Two or More or Possibly None, Yes, Yes, Yes. (Yang: This is getting ridiculous, and it's just the first video.../ Ruby: How much is fourty meters?/ Blake: couldn't tell you...) These ones are only found as terrestrial creatures, some may have wings, but even then they're mostly seen on the ground, (Weiss: So they glide, I see./ Blake: or they fly very close to the ground, one or the other./ Ruby: But they don't have legs sometimes?/ Yang: Snakes.) they feed purely on magic and the occasional berserker race.
"So they might feed on us! Great!" Yang cheered sarcastically, "I mean, I get why they do that." Ruby replied, "And I told you to stop that!" Yang retorted.
The third class is the fearsome Leviathan class, (Yang: Just now they're calling them fearsome?/ Blake: Leviathans are supposed to be big, maybe they're named this because of that.) the answers for this are: 1 to who knows how many kilometers, Possibly, No, None, Yes, Yes, Yes, (You may be noticing a pattern for the last three questions.) (Weiss: ...One... Yes we are... Second... Kilometers!?) These things are gigantic! (Yang: Thank you for pointing it out! We didn't get it!) They're the reason most sane creatures stay far away from deep oceans, (Blake: Deep oceans, good we know what to stay away fro- Did he say most?/ Ruby: He did.) excluding the race that has the whole Leviathan class as it's natural prey.
"The whole leviathan class has a natural predator..." Weiss muttered with a smile before screaming, "A natural predator! Why!? Who!?", "How is that even possible!? They're kilometers big!" Ruby pointed out, "We'll get an explanation when we get there surely..." Blake tried to keep her cool.
The fourth class is the Humanoid Class, (Blake: Wait: I thought humans didn't exist on Aqua Laguna, where does that term come from?) these races are quite peculiar as they don't answer one of the questions, the magic question, but we'll get to that later, the rest of the questions are answered as such: 1 to 5 meters, Yes, Two or more, Yes, Yes, Yes. (Yang: This is honestly the normal sunding one.) Just the speech part shows that they're much smarter than the other classes, but other than that, it's their ability to learn much quicker than the other classes, which is why they don't answer magic question, some are capable of learning as soon as they're born, rendering the difference between being born able to use magic and not almost inexistant, in fact, the way to tell if a race is part of the Humanoid class is to see how quickly they learn.
"WEll, I guess they're there to be people then." Blake summarized, "I wonder how they taste..." Ruby wondered outloud, "Ruby! Stop!" The other three scolded.
The fifth class is the Artificial class and the answers may suprise you: (Yang: More than the others?/ Weiss: Sounds far fetche-) Depends, Depends, Depends, Depends, Depends, Depends, Depends. (Weiss: Nevermind!/ Ruby: Is it because they're artificial?) Now, I hear you, "What in the world does that mean?" Very simple, as the name implies, every race part of the Artificial class are created and not born, they are literally made to suit their creator's needs, (Blake: So they might be living creatures like Paint and Thinner or just errand boys?) they might be made to use magic, they might be made not to, they might be made to think, they might be made not to, they might be made to be pets, they might be made to be childrens, it all depends on what the creator wanted to make.
"So if I get this right, they might be pets or their own people? Sounds... intense..." Yang commented, "Could be worse honestly, at least they're not slaves, and if they're just made to do a job they wouldn't have the mind to realize they are just made for it." Blake pointed out, "It's bittersweet honestly..." Ruby said.
The sixth class is the Paradoxical class, (Weiss: I was waiting for this one.) it's probably the most nonsensical out of all the classes, the answers it gives are: Maybe, Who Knows, Probably, Are You Asking Me?, Absolutely Not, These Guys? Explained?, Maybe Every Other Creature has Hallucinations and These things don't exist at all, it's a possibility. (Weiss: I don't know what I was expecting.../ Blake: I was expecting exactly this./ Ruby: They might not exist at all? Kind of harsh...) I don't even know where to begin with these one, what looks like magic might be their own natural abilities, some talk, some don't, some look fit to be in the Humanoid class, but they make so little sense that they're to be put here.
"That didn't make any sense." Blake stated, "That seemed to be the point." Yang informed.
The seventh class is known as the Cosmic race, these are born in space, (Ruby: Aliens!?/ Weiss: Sounds like it.) but we'll be focusing on the ones that are known to live on Aqua Laguna, (Blake: They have a stable home, makes sense.) they answer the questions: 50 cm to 10 meters, Yes, If it Has a Humanoid Structure, Depends on the Structure, Mostly, Yes, Yes. (Weiss: Another race that changes depending on situation?/ Blake: It's natural this time at least.) Every Cosmic class race is born from a space event, this leads to many differnt shapes and forms to be born, some may look like animals, others may look like... Squares... I'm not joking.
"...Squares..." Yang said as she though of a square made of stars, "That's a pointy situation." She joked causing the others to groan.
The eighth class is the Demonic class, now, to be clear these answer the same questions as the Humanoid class, (Ruby: The exact same? Why even have differences then?) but the reason there's a whole different class dedicated to them is their natural use of dark magic, (Blake: Because of this it seems./ Blake this is?) dark magic is a whole other story that I'm not in the mood to dive into at the moment, so we'll talk about it when we get to the first Demonic race.
"Seems like a cop out..." Yang commented. "It really does." Ruby agreed, "Could have been worse honestly." Blake defended.
The ninth class is the Godly class, (Weiss: This is where I draw the line!/ Yang: You know it's through!) here we get into the thing that everyone dreads to explain, the answers it gives are: Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes and Yes. (Yang: Seems legit, they're Gods.) They're literally Gods, their power is immeasurable, capable of doing almost everything, (Weiss: That must surely be an exaggeration./ Ruby: What about Avaritia?/ Weiss: An exception.) they are capable of changing the worlkd to their whim and desire, they're still not as powerful as Shiva Samba though, it's a lower type of omnipotence, even more surprising, there's only a few races that are properly catalogued as Godly class.
"So there's not many Godly races." Blake summarized, "Yeah, but who is Shiva Samba?" Yang asked, "I think I saw those in the Vortex Kingdom praying to this Shiva Samba..." Blake remembered.
The tenth and last class is the Cryptids, (Yang: He actually said this, I thought I imagined it...) which are just rumors, (Ruby: Rumors? They're myths?) but were considered interesting enough to list as a class, nothing about them is known, but there is a chance that they might exist, so they're on the list.
"So nothing? Absolutely nothing about these guys?" Yang asked, "Must be like Chupacabra, sightings, but nothing complete." Blake hypothesised.
To rip a bandaid off, let's talk about magic in general, (Ruby: Oh yes! I wanted to know about this!) since it's what most creatures are at least fueled by, on Aqua Laguna there's literally unlimited magic in the air, (Weiss: And no one questions it?/ Blake: It gives them life, why question it?) this is a basic kind of magic which then gets filtered through the organism of a race to be transformed into other forms, (Weiss: It interacts directly with the creature, that's actually really interesting.) some races have a specialized organ completely dedicated to the filtering of magic, (Blake: That explains why only some creatures can use magic since birth.) or in some cases to have it fuel a biological system within the creature, (Yang: So like a semblance?/ Ruby: It sounds a little different.) sometimes both, if the magic gets filtered, it can be expelled in different ways depending on the race, but every race is capable of outputting both inactive and active magic, inactive appears as a colored gas, (BLake: So that's what Zettai did that time... The explosion was immense and it was inactive!?/ Yang: I hope we get to see what she is...) active is straight up... Better until addressed.
"Oh come on!" Yang lamented, "All that build up for nothing!?" She continued, "I wanted to see!" Ruby agreed.
Magic also does another thing, (Weiss: There's more?) but it's more situational, this is commonly known as Empowering, (Blake: As if these things weren't powerful enough...) when a race is charged with a type of magic that was already filtered, they might get adapted to use that magic too, (Ruby: OHhh! So humans and Faunus might be able to use magic too!?/ Yang: I would like that very much!) or they die, one or the other, if they're lucky the first happens, summarized, the naming system for empowered creatures works this way, first there's the specific empowering which can be burning, electrified, aquatic and the likes, then you put the name of the race, simple as that.
"I wonder what type of magics there are..." Blake thought.
Note that this is dangerous, very dangerous, (Weiss: They say that it is, we know it is, but they're definetly not referring to the danger we're thinking of.) so much so that nature developed a natural defense system to avoid that an Empowered race overpopulates and completely replaces the original, (Yang: ...That's a possibility./ Ruby: That is horrifying.../ Blake: Imagine being the last one of your kind, knowing you basically got replaced with something better./ Weiss: I don't want to!/ Ruby: Me neither!) these are the Title Holders, called this way cause they hold the title of "Strongest race of the belonging Class", (Blake: Entire species made to clean the gene pool... Seems legit.) what this means is that the Berserker Class has a Title Holder race, the Leviathan class has a Title Holder race, and so on and so forth, their job is to kill the creatures that may cause damage to the natural ecosystem, (Ruby: Kill!? That's not necessary though!) sometime even causing the extintion of a whole race, (Weiss: Oh my... That's not good.) this isn't the case for the Empowered creatures thankfully as they focus on removing the Empowered part from the cubs.
"Oh good! They're not extremists." Weiss sighed in relief, "But why extinction?" Ruby asked, "Probably races that are way too dangerous and throw off the balance." Blake hyphotesised, "Shouldn't the Leviathan class natural predator undergo that though?" Yang asked, "We'll see taht I guess..." Weiss rationalized.
They were about to start the next video, but then there was a knock on the door, Ruby went to open and there was Team JNPR, "What are you guys doing here?" She asked, "We just finished watching the first video, and then we thought, why not go watch the rest with you guys?" Jaune explained, "Oh, Well then! Come on in!" Ruby invited.