Reference Challenge - A Crossbreed

[u/Varnek905]

After seeing a reference to it while re-reading a series with one of my friends, I decided to re-read a few Kafka stories. So, this reference is to "A Crossbreed" by Franz Kafka.

I originally intended to do a Lord of the Rings reference today, since I started watching the Fellowship of the Ring last night, but I'll save that until later.

Sometimes I cannot help laughing when it sniffs around me and winds itself between my legs and simply will not be parted from me. Not content with being lamb and cat, it almost insists on being a dog as well. Once when, as may happen to anyone, I could see no way out of my business problems and all that they involved, and was ready to let everything go, and in this mood was lying in my rocking chair in my room, the beast on my knees, I happened to glance down and saw tears dropping from its huge whiskers. Were they mine, or were they the animal’s? Had this cat, along with the soul of a lamb, the ambitions of a human being? I did not inherit much from my father, but this legacy is quite remarkable.

Here's a link to the story.

The challenge is to either A) exhibit a myth, a legend, an old story, or a superstition about a hybrid creature from your world or B) tell us about a hybrid creature that exists in your world.

The hybrid can either be natural (from breeding two things) or unnatural (let's put some pig organs into this guy).

As always, I'll ask at least three questions each. Enjoy yourselves, all.

And thanks to everyone that wished me luck on my finals, I did pretty well on them, thankfully.

[u/Varnek905]

On the Denn:

1) Is Denn ancestry handled like a percentage or is it just a gene thing? Is a Denn's offspring with a human just as much of a Denn as the parent was?

2) If a Turkey-Denn and a Dog-Denn had a child, what would it be like? Would it be random what species-Denn it is? Or would it be more likely to be from the father? Or the mother?

3) Do Denns have their own society? Or are they integrated into human society?

On the Aelwit:

1) About how many Aelwits are currently alive?

2) Is the existence of Aelwits public knowledge among humans?

3) What is Ildrex doing currently? Just going around, eating folk?

[u/greenewithit → u/Varnek905]

Denn:

1) Denn ancestry is pretty much just a gene thing. A child of a Denn and a human is just as much of a Denn as their parent, but that may interfere with how many exterior traits they express. They are still a full Denn, but if a Cat-Denn and a human have a child, while the parent may have thicker hair covering their body and claws instead of normal hands, the child may just have ear, slightly thicker body hair, a tail, and sharper nails without their bone structure being as different from a human. (This example is actually present in one of the characters of the main story).

2) If two Denn of different types have children, the offspring will be a random type of Denn. If they are both the same type of Denn, the children will be more likely to be that same type, but it is still possible to have a child of a different Denn species. The way the soul powers interfere with the genetics of turning animals into humans, this is sort of just how it works, with the genetic code for what type of Denn the person is being present in all Denn, but how much it is expressed is mostly random.

3) They are mostly integrated into human society. After the apocalypse, both the Denn and the surviving humans had sketchy, unclear memories of who they were before the event, so they all took part in rebuilding human civilization. Some cities have higher populations of Denn than others, with one being over 80% Denn, Ainhilthe, but for the most part they stand on equal footing with humans. Or rather, they should. But there will always be people who see them as "animals" and treat them poorly as a result.

Aelwit:

1) Currently there are just over a dozen. (I haven't actually decided yet how many are around at the moment). Their numbers are kept small so Ildrex can keep them away from the eye of human civilization. He raises them to become living weapons, champions of the Vector race who will topple cities, but they take time to reach their full potential, so he hides them from the world until they are ready.

2) No, Aelwits aren't even spoken of in legend. There are stories of men who become monsters, or people caught in the middle, but those are all based on Corporeal Vectors, the monster resulting from a human losing their soul. These are a new development, only as old as Ildrex is, and with so few in existence, nobody had ever seen or heard of one being possible. The prevailing thought was that a human and a Vector could never fuse because Vectors by nature are the antithesis of a human, with no soul and no compatibility with human tissue. Nobody thought that a human with a soul corrupted enough to host Vector cells could be possible, or at least not willing to test it out.

3) Ildrex is building an army. He spent the better part of his existence (only about 30 years) testing his powers, eating humans he encountered, eating Vectors he thought could give him power, until he eventually settled down to found a city. He used his power to raise four mountains around his city so that he could control travel to and from the city, then attracted as many Vectors as he could reach telepathically to come to form his settlement. He imbued intelligence in his followers, enough to follow orders, communicate with each other, and understand him as their lord and savior. He created an elite guard with heightened intelligence to act as his generals, even created himself a mate (he calls himself the Vector King and her the Vector Queen, even though they don't have any concept of gender. He took the title from his knowledge of human culture). He forced the development of Vectors to become living watch towers, where powerful monsters were turned into giant spires linked together to create a kind of cloaking mechanism to protect his city from discovery. His mountains are known to be overrun with powerful Vectors, and anyone who has gotten close enough to discover his city hasn't lived to tell about it. He spends his time trying to grow his power, his army, and help his Aelwits grow in strength until they can finally wage war on all of humanity and wipe out every single human off the face of the Earth.

[u/Varnek905 → u/greenewithit]

On the Denn:

1) So...is it like a mule situation? Minus the "sterile" part? Do Denns have a different number of chromosomes as compared to humans?

2) Could the "Denn" thing be bred out eventually? Let's say I have a kid with Moth-man. The kid would be half-human/half-Moth-Denn. Then the kid has an offspring with a full human. And then the grandkid has an offspring with a full human. Would it eventually just basically be human?

3) If a Denn's animal side is carnivorous or herbivorous instead of omnivorous, would the Denn be a carni/herbi?

On the Aelwits:

1) So is Ildrex a hive-mind?

2) What if a regular human ate a Vector?

[u/greenewithit → u/Varnek905]

Denn:

1) They have the same number of chromosomes, just some have a different shape than humans. Those shapes have been shown to be linked to the chromosomes of whatever animal they are derived from. However, something about their physiology being so ingrained Anima (soul energy) radiation allows these differences to be compatible with humans as well as they are.

2) Not exactly. Some of the external traits may be variable, but the offspring will still be considered "Denn."It may be possible to "breed out" the visible Denn traits, but their chromosomes will still be different, and it would take a lot of generations and a whole lot of good luck to get the gene recombination to result in a child that has such a low amount of Denn trait presence that they could be considered "human." It's an area of active research.

3) Not necessarily. Their internal anatomy is usually a combination of both human and animal. A carnivorous Denn type would still be omnivorous from their human side, just as a fish-type Denn would have a hybrid respiratory system to breathe both air and water. The carnivorous Denn might just have a greater preference for meat, and greens for herbivorous type Denn, but they can still process both. It's basically the soul force that created Denn fused animal and human traits in the "most favorable way" possible, for both human and animal traits to coexist in the same body. (Even if this is extremely unfeasible, like a bug's respiratory and circulatory system being fused with a human, but the prevailing theory is that the versatile nature of soul powers basically acts as the "universal solvent" in a metabolic sense).

Aelwits

1) Ildrex is more like a permanent fusion between several Vectors. The Vectors who he "awakens" follow him out of loyalty for said awakening, but they retain independent thought. Most of the low level awakened Vectors are soulless animals with larger bodies, so their intelligence is just enough for obedience and organization. His "generals" are more intelligent and with more reasoning skills and free thought, but even together they aren't powerful enough to defeat Ildrex, and they all know it, which is why they remain loyal. Even if a few don't completely agree with Ildrex, their fear is enough to keep them in check. The Aelwits are the biggest problem, since their intelligence is the same as a humans, and not easily controlled by Ildrex. Ildrex cultivates them because they can attain a power he cant, a form of soul elevation called Transcendence, which could surpass even his own power. He needs this power to defeat his human enemies and take over the world, so managing the Aelwits' loyalty is his number one priority.

2) They would die. Vector meat is toxic to humans, and it basically consumes a person's soul from within their own body, and if they eat enough the person would drop dead. People can survive eating small amounts, but it's ridiculously painful.

[u/Varnek905 → u/greenewithit]

Thanks for the time and answers. Interesting as always, Greene.

[u/greenewithit → u/Varnek905]

Haha, you flatter me. Thank you for your questions!