Mya

The Mya (pronounced "MY-ah") were a race that existed on Althanas prior to the Wars of the Tap. They were born of the Eternal Tap itself and possessed significant magical abilities. They were in a position of nearly unchecked power at the onset of the Wars of the Tap, and by the end of it were no longer in existence.

Origins, Reproduction, and Physical Characteristics

The Mya originated as streams of the Eternal Tap that coalesced into sentience. They were formed at first randomly, although soon after their first formation they learned how to form new members through their own craft. One Mya could form two more, but the cost of the creation would be the creating Mya's demise. The result was a very slow rate of reproduction; Mya were seldom willing to sacrifice their own existence simply to propagate their race. In addition to this reproduction-by-immolation, the occasional randomly produced Mya did appear. When the Tap came together properly, a new Mya would be born.

Why the Eternal Tap suddenly, after eons of existence, started producing Mya is a mystery that has never been fully solved, though numerous hypotheses have been offered. The most common comes from Galatir Aryontis's seminal essay "On the Sentience of Magic," which pointed out that the historical record attests that Mya first appeared around the same time that recorded history first appears. Galatir Aryontis argues within this work that magical sentience was impossible prior to the production of recordable language, and that this appearance of sentience among physical races served to introduce such a decisive change in metaphysical realities that magic itself began to "strive towards thought without even comprehending its yearning," to quote Galatir's famous preface.

The Mya were generally anthropoid in appearance, though most sources tend to indicate that they could change their physical appearance in radical ways. They were susceptible to death by weapons, as their bodies were physically located despite being metaphysically created, but they could take damage well beyond what the normal physical body is capable of withstanding. They appeared to be immortal, though this is not certain; they were around for nearly 4000 years, and there is no record of death by old age, but it may still be that their life expectancy was merely extremely high. They were susceptible to disease, but not the normal common colds of the physical realm. Instead, the diseases they contracted were always related to miasmas and impurities within the Eternal Tap. This evidence of a link between their existence and the health of the Eternal Tap would have grave repercussions at the conclusion of the Wars of the Tap.

It is thought from extant documents that the number of Mya never reached higher than 2000, which was their number at the height of their power prior to the beginnings of the War of the Tap.

Initial Activity

Mya did many things when they first appeared, mostly related to trying to obtain and exercise power. Some Mya tried to establish themselves as gods. Humans of the time were more prone to their worship than elves, though a number of Mya seemed to consistently refute the idea that they were gods, serving to undercut and diminish the power of Mya who tried to pursue this route to power. Salvar, however, proved especially prone to this sort of Mya-worship. Corone and Fallien both fell into Mya-worship early, but were never fully prey to this superstition thanks to the activity of other Mya.

The majority of Mya worked within the systems they found already established in their attempts to gain political influence. In Corone, most of the Mya who were opposed to Mya-worship became influential advisers to the powerful humans within Corone, although worship of certain Mya continued in the southeastern and central parts of Corone. There was occasional conflict in Corone between the established governments in the north and those of the south.

Abuses

Some Mya exercised their power with cruelty and exploitation. Their race was powerful, but not perfect, and as such their overlords in places turned humans into chattel slaves and otherwise abused the populaces they rose to control. In other places the Mya did not take power through the institutions in place, but rather wrested it by the raw power of their existence.