Mek’Vatir
Pronunciation: mehk-VUH-teer
Physique: Androgynous
Average Height: 1cm
Average Weight: 3mg (Cerolia) | (Earth) 4mg
Population Level: Extremely High
Locomotion: Plantigrade
Natural Advantages:
Resistant to Heat
Resistant to Cold
Low oxygen requirement
Low food requirement
Low sleep requirement
No Æther requirement
The Mek’Vatir are both the most important and least respected creatures on Cerolia. This is because their souls are generally harvested by the other races to sustain their own lives. Cerolians require, at minimum, 2 spirits per day to survive (with some attunements and races requiring more). Without this supply of energy, the people of Cerolia would quickly fall to Æther Sickness.
Use of the Mek’Vatir in everyday life is normal throughout all cultures and societies of Cerolia. Their resistance to heat allows them to be cooked into foods and survive long enough for those consuming them to collect their souls. Their low food and oxygen requirement allows them to be sealed into candies or carried around in pouches. They have a difficult time losing consciousness as well, which allows them to stay awake and aware in situations far beyond what most creatures could endure (such as being frozen alive or sealed away). Along with an immunity to ionizing radiation, the Mek’Vatir are very well suited to be brought along into a host of inhospitable environments with their captors. No nation’s law restricts the way their citizenry can utilize them. In general, they are provided at no cost to the people of Cerolia since their use is a requirement for life.
The Mek’Vatir reproduce through death. Throughout their lives, they collect DNA from others through touch, which fertilizes spores in their abdomen. Upon their death, so long as these spores are not chemically altered or in an exceptionally inhospitable environment, they grow into newborn Mek’Vatir. This process generally takes less than 24 hours.
As a form of population control, as well as a way to ensure everyone has their two at minimum, there are some habits that are seen in all cultures throughout the world. Aside from food staples, it is almost ubiquitous to drop one in each shoe at the start of a day. This allows the Mek to perish close enough to a ‘Pure Gathering Point’, and the heat/pressure tends to be too inhospitable for more Mek to spawn. Their small size also makes it difficult for the wearer to feel them, and they simply seem to disappear. Individuals who have a Terra Botanical attunement can leave their ‘mark’ on the Mek’Vatir as well, allowing the Mek to assist in the keeping of flora.
