Wyrdra are those whose lives have become bound to a Wyrnym [WEER-nim], a "draconic name" Names bestows upon a bounded place or phenomenon and that runs as a game: a trial designed for anyone who meets its conditions. Whoever completes the trial may accept the Name, and the Name grants authority over the place or phenomenon it defines, along with draconic traits.

Names designed the process as a trial because they enjoy seeing how others solve their games.

Note: they are an adaptation of Auspice's Auspicium Aethrim, reduced to a scale that fits the Ideation universe. 

Terminology

• Wyrnym [WEER-nim]: the Name Names bestows on an aspect within a bounded domain, along with the trial it runs. A Named domain that has not become a Wyrvae can also be called a Wyrnym.

• aspect: the matter, energy, or concept that a Name defines, such as fear, fire, or water.

• domain: the bounded physical area that holds an aspect and its trial.

• Wyrkeeper [WEER-kee-per]: someone who completed a trial and accepted its Name. They have notable draconic traits and powers tied to the origin of their Name, and no domain.

• Wyrvae [WEER-vay]: a sapient domain. When a Name goes unclaimed for long enough, the domain and aspect it defines become a being, with a draconic avatar for interacting with those within its bounds.

• Draavae [DRAH-vay]: the fusion of a Wyrvae with someone who completed its trial, both willing, with a Name and identity that belong to both.

• Den: the former domain of a Wyrvae after it fuses into a Draavae. It stays where it was, and the Draavae can teleport to it from anywhere.

• hoard: what a trial has collected, gathered in the deepest part of a domain as a representation that suits it, such as a gem, a ball of light, fire, or water.

Every Wyrnym begins as a game. Names observes an aspect within a bounded domain, bestows a Wyrnym upon it, and the Name then runs as a program that designs a trial for whoever meets its conditions. 

The Name Names bestows is a True Name, and it does not stay as given. 

Naming

Names must be present and observing an aspect to Name it. The aspect can be matter, energy, or a concept, but it is always bound to a domain, which is a physical location. If Names watches someone feel fear in the darkness of a wood, they could Name that fear, and it would belong to those woods, which become its domain. They cannot Name fear in general, or anywhere else.

The Name defines the aspect, so the powers and manifestations that follow are shaped by that origin. They are narrower than an Idea and much smaller in scale. Names prefers not to place a Wyrnym near another or to remake one in a spot where one has stood before, though this is a preference, and they have the power to rename things if they wish.

The Name may give the trial a physical entrance, affect a certain area, activate when someone fulfills certain requirements, or some combination of these. 

The Trial

The terms of a trial are made clear before anyone undertakes it, including the rewards and the costs. They may be conveyed through a tablet that anyone can read regardless of language, beamed directly into the mind, or heard as a disembodied voice.

What a trial demands depends on its design. A failed trial costs something, which may be abstract or physical: a memory, an aspect of personality, an item, a service. Some trials make failure a period of temporary servitude, after which the participant is released, often finding that little time has passed in reality.

Those who complete the trial may accept the Name or decline it. Declining costs nothing. They may ask for a different reward instead, and anything the trial collected may be offered in turn.

Wyrkeepers

When an individual accepts the Wyrnym, they become a Wyrkeeper. The trial ends and the area returns to normal. The entire collection from the trial is moved to the Abstraction of Names, for them to keep.

Wyrvae

When a trial is very difficult, hard to reach, rejected, or simply left alone for a long time, ethereal essence accumulates over the years. Their soul formation typically takes several decades to centuries, though it is not guaranteed to occur. The domain becomes a sapient being at the moment its soul forms, and that is when it becomes a Wyrvae.

A Wyrvae can alter its trial, though it cannot destroy it or create a new one, and the trial often grows more complex as it becomes more powerful. Even as a sapient being, a Wyrvae retains its original potential for fusion. Some welcome this and seek a compatible soul. Others make their trials impossible so that they can live comfortably within their domain on their own, though they must say plainly that the trial is impossible, and only the foolish would attempt it.

Because a Wyrvae's collection stays with it as a hoard, each one means less for Names to keep, but they find it interesting to see what comes of it and consider that worth the cost.

Draavae

A Draavae forms when someone completes the trial of a Wyrvae and both parties are willing to merge their Names and identities into one. The completer and the Wyrvae combine their forms and transform into energy before settling into their new existence as a Draavae.

The completer may be a mundane being or someone who has completed a basic trial before. Neither party can be compelled, and the Name evolves to encompass both.

The trial ends once the fusion occurs, and the domain stays where it is as the Draavae's Den.

Trials are a form of "deal" or magical contract with the particular form of a challenge. Their terms are laid out from the start, and then a candidate must willingly accept the risks for the potential reward, and then attempt the trial. If they win, they gain a reward. If they lose, something physical or abstract will be taken from them. Depending on the trial, what is taken and offered may be negotiable.

A basic trial (the trial of a Wyrnym that has not become a Wyrvae) must be entirely conducted within the physical area of the domain. It takes its form from the design of its Wyrnym and the nature of its aspect.

A Wyrvae's trial must start and end in the domain, but they, for instance, can apply a metaphysical mark on an individual that allows them to observe the individual from afar and then have part of the trial conducted outside the physical domain, or they could have the candidate leave and return several times. A Wyrvae's trial can take countless forms based on its nature and desires. Some Wyrvae are drawn to ambition and strength, others to compassion and understanding. Some seek intellectual equals, others emotional companions. The trial reveals these preferences and whether they align.

Draavae trials may be simple or complex, but they are rarely anywhere near as elaborate as the trial that formed them, since that trial was a whole process of matching fitting halves to make who they are now. 

Examples of Wyrvae trials include:

• Adventure Quests: These may involve epic journeys, such as rescue missions or heroic endeavors, explorations of dangerous or mysterious places, collection of rare artifacts or knowledge, and other adventures. These may involve leaving the domain or having an adventure in the domain itself; a Wyrvae who has earned servitude from those who failed their trial may have several people to fulfill roles in the story of their "quest."

• Intellectual Challenges: These may involve complex magical puzzle boxes that shift and evolve, philosophical debates spanning centuries, mathematical or logical problems intertwined with fundamental metaphysics, riddles that require understanding the Wyrvae's domain deeply, and more. There may be a series of multiple challenges, or one very complex one. 

• Emotional Trials: These may involve simulated scenarios that test empathy, caring for the Wyrvae's domain or its inhabitants, facing fears, guilt, or past traumas in challenging ways, demonstrating sincere compassion, which the Wyrvae can read for ulterior motives, and more. 

• Creative Collaborations: Some Wyrvae invite candidates to build something beautiful together within the domain, compose songs, stories, or art that reflects both beings, redesign portions of the domain as a joint project, and more. 

• Labyrinths: Some Wyrvae build labyrinths into their trial within their domain. These can be, for instance, physical mazes that shift based on the traveler's emotional state or places where past, present, and future intersect. They can involve puzzles or traps that have various magical effects. 

• Courtship Rituals: Some Wyrvae see trials as a courtship ritual, and their design of their trial can reflect that. They might involve surprisingly mundane "dating," elaborate dances, gift exchanges, exchanges of emotional and physical intimacy, and more. 

Wyrdra do not have name magic themselves. Their abilities come from the way their Name is defined.

Shared

• Bounded Authority: The Name grants a limited degree of authority over its aspect, which may be matter, energy, or a concept. They can expand and manipulate that aspect, but not to the extent of divine authority over it. Their powers and manifestations are shaped by the origin of their Name, and are much weaker in scale than the Ideas of Edeia.

Wyrkeepers

• Shapeshifting: Wyrkeepers can take mundane forms, though skill varies. Some are nearly perfect mimics while others show obvious tells like strange eyes, unusual coloring, or the presence of small horns.

• Agelessness: Wyrkeepers do not age, but can still be killed by injury.

Wyrvae

• Shapeshifting: Wyrvae can freely change their shape, but their appearance is almost or entirely "elemental," reflecting their aspect.

• Immortality: Wyrvae are energy beings that do not age and cannot be killed through physical means, but can be harmed and killed through magical means. Before a Named domain gains a soul and becomes a Wyrvae, other Idea magic could more easily nullify the magic that shapes it.

• Bounded Teleportation: Wyrvae can freely teleport anywhere within their domain.

• Bounded Awareness: Wyrvae always have a broad awareness of their domain, which can stay in the background or be brought into focus. They can read the souls of those within their domain, more easily the closer someone is to the hoard or central area, unless other magic is blocking it. This awareness is weaker against Edeia and other powerful magical beings.

Draavae

• Shapeshifting: Draavae are equally comfortable in their draconic form and mid-form. They can also freely take any "elemental shape." They can hide their draconic traits in their mid-form to appear mundane, though doing so is somewhat uncomfortable to maintain and skill varies. Some are nearly perfect mimics while others show obvious tells like strange eyes, unusual coloring, or the presence of small horns.

• Immortality: Draavae are energy beings that do not age and cannot be killed through physical means, but can be harmed and killed through magical means. Draavae who feel satisfied or exhausted with existence may choose to alter their name into the pure nature of their aspect, eventually letting them fade away. Their soul returns to the ethereal plane and their energy returns to the world.

• Trials: Draavae can continue to make trials of their own after fusion, whether easy and short or long and difficult. They cannot give or take certain things for nothing. Through a trial, they can give and take abstract things, temporarily or permanently, so long as the terms are agreed to and made clear in advance. Casual giving and receiving needs no such structure, but more magical exchanges do.

• Den: A Draavae can teleport to their Den from anywhere, and to anywhere within their Den. Draavae who exhaust their energy dissipate and re-form in their Den.

• Bounded Awareness: Draavae always have a broad awareness of their Den, which can stay in the background or be brought into focus. They can read the souls of those within their Den, more easily the closer someone is to the hoard or central area, unless other magic is blocking it. This awareness is weaker against Edeia and other powerful magical beings.

The appearances of Wyrdra are influenced by Names' vision of "dragons," inspired by various depictions of dragons across cultures and nature itself. To them, "dragons" are beings deeply connected to the natural phenomena of the world, and their appearance reflects that connection. Each Wyrdra has a default appearance that is most comfortable for them, and shapeshifting changes their shape only temporarily.

Wyrvae and Draavae draconic forms:

• Required: horns, tail, claws if fingers/limbs are present, an elongated vaguely reptilian face (no flat faces), any dragon body type, significant traits of their aspect in their design (e.g. being made entirely of ice or lava)

• Optional: mouth, limbs, biological characteristics (scales, hair, fur, feathers)

Wyrkeepers and Draavae mid-forms:

• Required: horns, unusual eyes (color, shape, glow, material, etc.), claws (nails or part of the hand), at least minor traits of their aspect (e.g. hair or claws being made of fire or water), body type resembling their original species

• Optional: tail, sharp teeth, unusual skin tone, digitigrade/nonhuman legs or feet, scales/carapace/armor

A domain is the physical area that has been Named with a Wyrnym, and a Wyrvae or Draavae considers it part of their "body" or "existence." It may blend with natural surroundings or have an "entrance" that may be anything that resembles a threshold—an opening under the arching branches of trees, a cave entrance, an office door. The entrance may move around at the Wyrdra's will.

The appearance of a domain can be freely altered by its Wyrvae or Draavae, so long as its aspect remains clearly present. Additionally, within a domain, reality may be distorted. The area within can be larger than the space it occupies, perhaps even infinitely large. Days to centuries can pass within while a mundane individual remains unaging, and when they leave, they may find that little to no time has passed in reality.

When a Wyrvae fuses with a candidate to become a Draavae, the domain loses its trial and becomes a Den. Aside from the loss of the trial and the Draavae's freedom to leave and return, there is not much functional difference between a domain and Den.

The metaphysically deepest part of the domain is the Wyrdra's hoard, though due to the bending of reality, this may not be the physical "center" or "deepest" part.

Everything taken from candidates after failing a trial stays in the deepest part of the domain, becoming part of the domain's hoard. Abstract objects gain a representation that suits the aspect's characteristics, such as a gem, a ball of light, fire, or water. 

Draavae may choose to offer trials to give others what lies within their hoard—they cannot give anything freely from their hoard. Others may keep their collection and never add to it. Still others may choose to continue offering challenging trials to collect even more to add to their hoard.

While the protectiveness of Wyrvae and Draavae over their hoard may vary, bringing someone to the space is considered very personal and intimate. It is the place where a completed trial ends, where two souls lay bare before each other, where Draavae form.

All Wyrdra are Named beings. A Wyrnym is a True Name of Names' magic: a map of the whole self, constructed by the magic of Names. For a domain, it is the first name the domain has ever held. It evolves over time, and it can merge with other identities.

In a basic trial, the Name has no sapience behind it, so Names knowing it poses no concern. When someone accepts it and becomes a Wyrkeeper, or when a Wyrvae fuses into a Draavae, the Name changes to encompass the new identity or identities, and Names no longer knows it in whole. When a domain evolves into a Wyrvae, its Name changes in the same way.

Names does know the original Name, and could exert some degree of influence through it if they chose. It is not their habit to do so. As the Name diverges from the original, any hold weakens, as with any True Name.

Wyrkeepers, Wyrvae, and Draavae are all subject to the Truth instinct that Nymiae have. They do not tell lies, and they instinctively know when their words would be one. They are technically capable of lying, but doing so would cause them great misery. Promises fall under the same instinct, and breaking one causes extreme distress.

The instinct is triggered by a word made to mean something other than what it plainly and reasonably means. It is not triggered by incompleteness, strategic silence, or an unusual interpretation, so long as every word carries a reasonable meaning. Ordinary social speech such as greetings and thanks is not an assertion and does not interact with it.

In their trials, their terms must be made clear from the start, and a term worded to mean something other than its plain meaning would count as a lie.

Names created the first Wyrnym in 1073, not long after the first Nymiae. Their interest in dragon folklore across cultures shaped the design, and they treated the trials as a form of passive income: games that ran without their attention and gathered what participants staked.

Around 1150, the first Wyrvae formed. Names had not intended this, but they were delighted by it all the same. They adjusted the Names they bestowed afterward so that the process would become even more likely. Around 1160, that Wyrvae's trial was completed, and it became the first Draavae.

Since then, Names has shifted their emphasis from collecting what the trials gather to encouraging the development of Wyrvae and Draavae—though most trials never become Wyrvae, and they are happy to continue collecting as well. 

You can design your own Wyrdra with the permission of Auspice, though Auspice offers commissions.

Not yet open; I will upload and develop some of my characters first. 

If you wish to design your own Wyrdra or adapt an existing design, please send the corresponding form to Auspice before creating/altering the design: 

Wyrkeeper

Name:
Pronouns:
Type: Wyrkeeper
Aspect:

Source Species: (e.g. human, extradimensional being, etc.; for a Wyrvae, the place or phenomenon)

Personality: (can briefly describe)
Story: (finding the domain, completing the trial, and how the Name was accepted; feel free to include exact or estimated dates)

Wyrvae

Name:
Pronouns:
Type: Wyrvae
Aspect:
Domain: (general physical/geographic area)

Personality: (can briefly describe)
Story: (their initial trials, the process of gaining their will, what they do now; feel free to include exact or estimated dates)

Draavae

Name:
Pronouns:
Type: Draavae
Aspect:
Den: (general physical/geographic area)

Dates: (years, can be estimated; at least include Wyrnym creation, Wyrvae formation, Draavae formation dates)

Personality: (can briefly describe)
Story: (origin of the candidate and the Wyrvae, the Wyrvae's process of gaining their will, the trial and fusion, what they do now)

If you wish to commission Auspice, please send the lore form before or along with the commission form. 

Commission details TBD. I will make references for my existing ones before deciding anything.