Foxen
The foxen people are closely related to the felinic, mustenel, and wolven races. Despite this, they are not considered one of the Eala races; many argue they should be, due to their wolven ancestors, but they are excluded due to their absence from the Eala’s origin tale.
The foxen people are believed to have been created by the death of the wolven shape-shifter Klict, and they share close ties with the harpy people.
They are best known for their resistance to alcohol, unhealthy diets, and open communities. Several Sentients have described the foxen lifestyle as a “constant party,” though most foxens would disagree; arguing that they work hard and simply enjoy their relaxation hours more vigorously than others.
Physical Traits
Av. Height: 3’6”
The foxen people are the shortest of the Sentient races and have a very stocky build. They have fluffy tails and sensitive ears, but unlike the Eala races, they rarely have large amounts of body fur.
Foxen people are naturally very short, the shortest of the Sentient races, with their record-holding natural height being only 5’5″ by Ka’harja Nigelle; who was believed to have had magical influences contribute to his unusual height.
They are generally heavy-set because of their diets, often being compared to the wolven people they came from. However, it is not uncommon to find thinner foxen people; travellers, doctors, and soldiers are often known to be thinner than average because of their lifestyles.
Though they are compared to the wolven people, they have less body hair than any of the Eala races. This is not to say they don’t share any similarities: like the Eala races, they have animal-like tails and ears.
Their ears are very fox-like, rounded and fluffy, and their bushy tails tend to have coarse fur, though many will soften them with special salves and shampoos.
Foxen people have dark skin that scars easily but rarely gets infected. “Tan” is considered pale by foxen standards, and pale skin in only common in a few pure-foxen families.
Their hair is generally darker as well, with the most common colours being brown and black. However, there are foxen people with lighter hair colours, such as the blonde-haired people from Khya, and the red and pink hair from Tyali.
There is also the white tail tip, which originated from the multi-tailed foxens in Ong; though now most foxen towns have at least one family with a white-tipped tail.
Foxen eyes are usually bright, vivid colours such as purple, pink, or yellow.
Foxen teeth are naturally slightly yellowed. Healthy foxen teeth stain easily; this combined with their diets means that their teeth are rarely white. In fact, bright whiteness is often considered a sign of bad dental health.
They have sharp premolars that are almost like second canines; it’s believed they got these over time from the felinics, though there’s no proof of this.
Sex and Gender
There is not a lot of visual differences between foxen men and women; most of their distinctions tend to be social and not biological. This is often attributed to the acceptance of transgender and gender-nonconforming people within the culture; many foxen people use potions and hormones as a form of body modification, even if they are cisgender.
Socially, women are encouraged to be more strong-willed than men, who are stereotyped as more timid and submissive. Women are seen as great potential leaders while men are expected to take on domestic duties.
Rarely, foxen women will be able to call the foxen deity, Maiden Klict, during life-or-death situations and will turn into a dragon in order to defend themselves. It is considered an honour to be given this power, with less than 1 in 100 women being able to dragon-shift. This gift doesn’t appear to be restricted by biological sex, but by the foxen’s personal identity; many transgender women have been able to call upon Klict, while trans men seem unable. A lot of other Sentients argue this is because dragon-shifting is a based on psychological influences, but foxens strongly believe this is due to their goddess’ will to protect all of her daughters, regardless of how others see them.
Racial Variations
Multi-Tailed Foxens
The multi-tailed foxen people are a group of foxen people who originated from Ong. They are a small and often frail people who have trouble gaining weight and are prone to sickness because of their high metabolisms.
The most notable feature of the multi-tailed foxen are the 9 tails coming out from the base of their spine. Their tails can reach as long as anywhere between their knees and their ankles. It is not known why these tails developed, but there are many theories involving the kayka race.
They can have tufts of fur over their bodies, more than other foxen people. These tufts are most common on the chest, back, arms, and around the hips. Not all multi-tailed foxens have extra body hair, but most do. Their hair, like other foxens people, can be any colour, though if it is not brown or black it is usually faded or pastel.
Common Disabilities and Health Issues
Diabetes
Foxen people are very prone to diabetes. Especially those that grow up in foxen countries and then move internationally as the change in diet can trigger the disorder.
It is also common in foxen people who live in wolven countries, as the excessive sugar increases the chances of the disorder becoming prominent.
Sharp-Tooth
Sometimes, foxen people will be born with all of their teeth being sharp like their canines. This can be an issue when trying to eat, but otherwise it doesn’t cause any issues. Some people love the aesthetics of these teeth, while others opt to have surgery to correct them.
Malformed Ear Cartilage
Like their wolven ancestors, sometimes foxens will be born with a disorder that prevents the cartilage in their ears from forming properly, and their ears will fold over and appear “floppy.”
However, unlike the wolven people, this deformity does not cause any other physical issues. It is, in fact, considered cute; especially on masculine-presenting people.
Relationships and Life Stages
One-Night Stands, Private Engagements, and Public Love-Hate
There are three popular kinds of foxen relationships: casual one night stands that are bragged about in bars, intent to marry that is kept private between the couple and their closest friends, and pretending they hate each other for the thrill of dating in secret.
Serious relationships between foxens tend to advance very quickly; it usually only takes a few months after getting together before a couple have bonded enough to get engaged. They tend to keep these engagements private, however, until a few weeks before the marriage, as the fuss made over serious relationships makes many couples uncomfortable.
As one night stands are common, there is no socialised shame surrounding sleeping with those you are not dating. This has lead to many relationships where people may know their sexual partners by face alone, meeting up for casual intercourse but not learning their names.
Because of how normalised sexual relationships are in foxen societies, many foxens find the idea of secret relationships thrilling, and so will create elaborate farces with their partner; claiming they hate each other is the most common lie told by thrill-seeking foxen couples. They teeter as close as possible to getting caught —such as having sex in public places or in the guest room of a friend’s house while the friend is asleep— while trying to make sure they aren’t discovered.
Life-Stages
Foxen gestation lasts roughly 10 months, with premature births being extremely rare. These births, however, usually end with the death of the child.
Foxens usually only have one baby at a time with multiple births being very uncommon. This one baby tends to be rather large. However, despite the size of the child foxen women have commented on the “ease” of labour, which tends to only last a few hours at most.
Foxen children are usually born without hair on their head, ears, or tail. Because of this foxen infants have very bad hearing which improves as they get older. Their hearing is usually fully developed by 2 eclipses, which means they don’t start learning to speak until they’re about 2 and a half. Despite their slowed speech development, foxen children are considered extremely intelligent.
Foxen children are usually weaned off milk within their first year and a half, with it often being replaced by a weak alcohol and meat broth known as “karkagoua” stew. The alcohol appears has no negative effects on the child’s development; they will develop the same as foxen children raised without it.
Lifespan Facts
• The average foxen lifespan is around 70 eclipses, though some foxes have lived healthily into their early 100s.
• Some foxen women go into heat; a trait inherited from the wolvens. These women are known as “verkasac” women and are believed to be closer to the foxen goddess Klict.
• Foxen women often drink while pregnant, and are one of the only Sentients whose unborn babies seem unaffected by the consumption of alcohol.
• Less than 3% of foxen pregnancies end in miscarriage.
Culture
Foxens prefer to live in more crowded areas, with their “small towns” often being mistaken for cities. They are rather social people, and most will happily knock on a neighbours door at all hours of the day (or night!) for a chat.
Their lifestyle is a mix of hard work and energetic celebration. They take their jobs seriously, but as soon as they have their leisure time they will let themselves go completely.
Food and Drink
Foxen food tends to be greasy and burnt as they prefer the taste of their food to be overpowering, especially with sour or bitter tastes. They can’t stand mild flavours. Because of this they love to batter everything and deep fry it in lard; they consider it a quick, easy way to make snacks taste good.
Foxen favourites include deep fried spiders and lizard feet, much to the dismay of many other Sentients (and the joy of others). They also tend to eat the bones of any meat they cook and have a large variety of meals that contain bones as a main ingredient.
Foxen towns don’t have many restaurants; most places you are able to eat in at are buffet-style indoor barbecues. The entry costs are considered very pricey, so they are mostly used for large social functions. Otherwise, food is mostly sold in paper boxes at roadside stalls. Lunch boxes are popular accessories because of this, as foxens like to minimise their waste with reusable carry cases.
They also love their alcohol, and it is an important part of their culture. Children are allowed to drink, as it has no ill effects on their development, though most other Sentients heavily criticise them for it.
Because they start drinking powerful alcohol as children, foxen people tend to be unaffected by foreign alcohol, as it is much milder. Those who grow up without alcohol, usually foxen children raised in other countries, do not have this tolerance and can get drunk very easily.
Sex
Foxen culture is a very sex-positive. They see no shame in things such as nudity, multiple partners, homosexuality, or sex work.
Brothels are popular in foxen culture, with at least one brothel in every town. Besides being somewhere to find prostitutes foxen brothels provide a variety of other services.
Non-sexual companionship is offered, as well as food and dining environments that allow openly sexual behaviours such as casual nudity and explicit physical contact. They offer rooms for overnight rent and sell sex toys, equipment, and books to their patrons. They also provide doctors, massage therapy, and relationship counselling.
One of the most popular services they offer are their sex ed classes; teachers volunteer their work for free in classroom environments, or will teach one-on-one for a small fee.
Most brothels are considered very high-end businesses and run with very strict standards for both their workers and their customers. Other Sentients are often surprised by the way foxen brothels preform, expecting them to simply be a place to hire prostitutes or dancers instead of a safe, open environment for sexual expression. This misconception often ends with the foreigner being asked to leave.
Foxens believe in the need to safely express sexuality, and because of this have some of the strictest laws and punishments for sex crimes. Rape and pedophilia are the only crimes in the Foxen Empire punishable by death, and sexual assault can have prison sentences of over 10 years.
Luckily these punishments aren’t often needed, as the open culture and education surrounding sex has led most foxen people to abhor sex crimes with a passion.
Language
The foxen language is made of lots of click-like pronunciations. They use a lot of Ks and Cs alongside vowels. It can sound almost like animal barking to people not accustomed to hearing it.
Foxen people usually write with graphite pencils. Their written letters are usually very simple because most foxen people have bad naturally bad handwriting.
The best-known foxen laughter is very short and sharp, and is often described as bark-like. The tone and type of laughter varies greatly from person to person, however, and foxen people can have any type of laugh.
Naming Conventions
Foxen people typically have two names; a given name and a family name. These names tend to be very harsh-sounding and use a lot of K’s, E’s, A’s, and T’s.
The given name of a foxen person is chosen by their parents. These names are generally very simple, between 1-3 syllables, and are often contain some sort of repetition.
In most heterosexual foxen marriages, the woman’s family name will be the one that is kept. In the case of same-sex marriage, hyphenation or combining both names into one is very common.
Common Religions
Emaltoni
Aurn
Animon
Har’py
Clothing
Most foxen clothing can be brought ready-made from tailors, as they usually wear baggy clothes and don’t need exact measurements for themselves.
The clothing tends to be rather simple. Everyday clothes, such as tunics, shirts, and skirts are made from cotton. Despite how simple foxen clothing is, they often have popular logos, phrases, or images sewn into the fabric.
Curse words in plain fonts are popular on women’s clothing; while images of food items are more popular on men’s.
Things such as vests, boots, and gloves are made from leather so that they are sturdier than shirts and pants, and need to be replaced less often.
Sometimes, travellers will use canvas from old sacks to make temporary clothing, though this is mostly done while travelling in the Empire, where towns can be months away from each other.
Their armour is mostly chainmail, though some foxen countries use thick leather armour as their guards’ uniform.
Foxens living in other Sentients’ countries usually end up buying children’s clothes for themselves; especially those that live with wolvens.
Other
Kazani’s Elixirs
The foxens invented a series of sex-changing potions that are used by transgender people. They refer to these potions as “Kazani’s Elixirs” in reference to the creator, Fapasa Kazani, a trans woman who spent her life creating the potions in order to feel closer to the goddess Klict.
It takes about 6 years with a daily hormone changing elixir before a person is able to take a permanent form-changing potion. Brothels will help with the transition by offering therapy (physical and emotional) and access to a cheap but high-quality stock of the potion.
Without the 6 years on the hormone changers, the form-changing potion is only temporary. Foxen people sometimes use the temporary effects of the potion to pull pranks on their partners. Or, more often than deliberately taking it, they will mistake the potion for a bitter-tasting beer and shock themselves with its effects. It can be dangerous to over-indulge on the potions, however, as overuse may leave lingering effects on the user.
Though the potion can be found in abundance in foxen countries, most other countries don’t know about it as it is difficult to export because of its short shelf life.
Misc
The Foxen Empire is the birthplace of the foxen race, with the swamps of Koktoka believed to be the swamps in which the Maiden Klict died. There are only three foxen countries that are not a part of the Empire. Of these kingdoms, Tyali and Ong have very similar cultures to that of the Empire, whilethe kingdom of Khya is a mix of foxen and wolven culture.
Animal-merging was utilised in foxen farming until 7,026 AE, when the cruelty of the magic was brought to the attention of the public and the practice was banned. Now they are stricter about their animal-merging laws than any other Sentients.
If a house hasn’t been lived in for over 10 years it’s considered abandoned and others may claim it. Because of this, foxen people don’t usually pay for houses that aren’t custom built to suit their needs. This refusal to purchase houses means there are a lot of abandoned building in towns, which creates a loop that drives down the monetary worth of housing. Because of this, homelessness in foxen countries is at a minimum.
Foxen people worship Klict, no matter what other religion they come from.
Unlike the deities of other religions, Klict’s name is rarely used as a curse. Even atheists who don’t believe in Klict refuse to use her name with disrespect.
Immortal Queen Distro of Canis La’Can is a half-foxen, half-wolven woman who called Maiden Klict in 10,053 AE. She turned into a dragon in order to save her son’s life, but something went wrong when she was turning back and she got stuck halfway through her transformation back. This gave her a draconic appearance, immeasurable strength, and immortality. She has turned several times since and survived decapitation. Because of this, foxen people believe her to be a demigod. She hates this “insinuation” and says that her condition is a curse.
The Foxen Empire’s original currency was originally made from copper coins, and referred to as gisami (GI). But due to excessive trading with the international currency, most foxen people don’t even know gisami is a legitimate currency anymore. This is not good for their economy, as they now almost completely trade in the international currency.
Foxens tend to gravitate to instruments and music styles deemed “unconventional” by the Eala races. Because of this, their favoured instruments change every few years.
Most foxen people know the month of Sonfe as ‘Keowfe’ in their native language. They also have a tradition of screaming at the sky for the first few hours of Keowfe; nobody remembers how this become commonplace, but most enjoy doing it.
A common foxen tradition deemed odd by other Sentients is the “moving tradition.” When a household moves into a new town or city, it is considered good luck for one of the women of the household to have sex with someone who’s lived in the area for a while. It is not a requirement, but many foxens use this as a chance to scope out the local brothel or to get to know their neighbours.