#nessus setting

Full map of Enis

 Ajisia had never fit in, he’d come to accept that. He was a half-breed, something the primal elves seemed to think was the end of the world. It surely didn’t help that his mother was a beastfolk, an ancient shape-shifting race with a well placed distrust of elves. The primal elves hated the bestfolk. Sia never had to really question why.

The beastfolk were noble people who looked after their own. Even the lowest ranked member of their society always had a roof over his head, clothes on his back, and food in his stomach. No matter the queen, that was a fact of life in their kingdom. With that said, the beastfolk would only ever have a queen. Most placed them alongside the drow for having a matriarchal society, but in truth they despised the drow’s way of life. The most notable outward trait of the beastfolk is that each has the trait of a beast, be it animal or monster, that they can transform into. Sometimes they’re things such as dragons or other such beings.

The primal elves on the other hand, are known to be evil. An excerpt about the races goes as such, ‘The primal elves have never left the side of the elven god Corellon Larethian. As such, they still maintain the shape-shifting of the first elves, having never fully given up their shape-shifting. They live in many planes, giving them traits from areas other than the feywild. They’re true form has traits of an animal(normally correlating with the plane they have a connection to), such as having the paws, tail, and fur of a loin; their ears stay the same. Their hair is lighter(typically more white) the closer to good they are and darker(typically more black) the closer to evil. Their eyes are more normal the closer to lawful and more beast-like the closer to chaotic they are. Unlike most elves, they have a wide variety of skin colors.’

No one really knew how the genetics of these two races would mix, since they normally wouldn’t be anywhere near one another. On the wondering island of Fú dǎo, however, anything was possible. Including have kingdoms of races the hatred one another so close. Sia’s mother had been a traveler who met the head of the Onishi house. His father, Daichi, had truly loved his mother. He was already married, and had children. He even had mistresses. Yet, Mizuki was the love of his life. After the birth of Sia and death of Mizuki, he’d done everything to keep the boy safe.

Sia was the next in line. He was the obvious choice to most, but the rest of the Onishi family disagreed. Sia hand grew into a gentle man. His long pure white hair, Light greyish-purple eyes, charming smile, and caring ways were more than enough to make most fall in love with the boy. The kingdom had given him the nickname of the Almighty Phoenix, ironically. He kept many secrets, though. As far as anyone he was a celestial bird. A connection to the realm of angels and gods was enough to turn heads in Fú dǎo. In truth, he was connected to all of the realms by his primal elf blood. His beastfolk traits turned out just as unusual. He was a phoenix, which has the power of rebirth as being killed. He’d learned to hide it all too well.

When Daichi had died and Sia took his place, things didn’t exactly go as planned. Hisoka, His elder brother, and Amaya, his step-mother, had so strongly disagreed with the idea of the young child being next in line that they’d decide to get rid of him. Without Daichi around they knew it’d be easy. Sia wasn’t a fighter, he carried a weapon and had magic but he couldn’t put up a real fight. He wielded a pair of wooden bokken tied together, which he’d named Kokoro to tamashī(Heart and Soul), and had practice with healing and defensive spells.

Hisoka had attacked him without hesitation and Sia sincerely didn’t stand a chance. He played defense, he tried to talk his brother down. Hell, he begged, pleaded for him to see that what he was doing was wrong.

But in the end, he lay on the ground. Bloody, broken, betrayed. He knew he was a goner. His eyes blurred from the pain and tears. Hisoka loomed over him with a smirk.

“My oh my,” Hisoka purred. "How absolutely splendid it is to see the 'almighty phoenix' reduced to a whimpering, bloody mess.” He was mocking him, Sia knew that.

Sia smiled up at Hisoka. “So long as you’re happy with yourself, Onii-san,” his words were slow, drawn out.

Hisoka scoffed. “You’re no brother of mine.” He started to walk back toward his home. “And you never were.”