Made in collaboration with Sir Byron Shields.
Beast Classification
| Aggressiveness | 0/5 | Fawns are generally incapable of retaliation. |
|---|---|---|
| Rarity | 4/5 | Fawns can manifest within the The Middenground in a wide variety of areas, namely the Eterfol Mountains, but finding one is incredibly rare. |
| Intelligence | 2/5 | Fawns are no more intelligent than a non-anomalous young elk, but their foresight makes them incredibly perceptive. |
| Pritoria Index | 2/5 | Fawns are very valuable, but their rarity and evasiveness make them essentially impossible to capture by a lone Wanderer. |
Description
Fawns are creatures that resemble young Cervus canadensis, or elk. However, Fawns have several biological characteristics beyond a baseline animal. While they are seemingly incapable of aging, or age at a rate imperceptible to humans, their most notable feature is that over time, additional pairs of eyes develop along the head and neck of Fawns, with accompanying eyelids and sockets. These eyes are fully functional and are believed to be the source of the Fawn's ability to see into the future.
Biology
Fawns possess advanced foresight, being able to predict or know the future with uncanny accuracy. The limited intelligence of Fawns makes the limits of this foresight difficult to discern, but it is believed that this foresight can see from several hours to up to 2 weeks into the future. It is believed that the number of eyes affects how far Fawns can "see", but how far per eye is unknown.
The eyes of Fawns can be extracted and when eaten, provide the foresight of the Fawn for several hours, depending on how much of the eye was consumed. Given that Fawns can theoretically live forever if well fed and protected, some groups have a Fawn sheltered deep in their fortresses to cultivate for their eyes.
This foresight is derived from a liquid within the eyes of Fawns. When properly removed, there is approx. 60mL worth of this clear fluid that strongly resembles liquid vitreous, the fluid between the lens and retina of the eye.
Despite their unusual features, the behavior of Fawns is not unlike their "baseline" counterparts, since they hunger and thirst like any other animal. However, their foresight allows them to evade predators and find sources of food and water, and as many Wanderers have discovered, make them incredibly difficult to capture.
Eye Consumption
Consuming the eye of a Fawn causes what is best described as a "hypnotic state"- individuals become dissociated and mentally detached from their body. While smaller doses allow you to still move and sense, doses above 30mL render users unable to feel present pain and other stimuli, and consuming more than 60mL at once leaves you practically unconscious during the trance.
In this state, users can recognize, remember, and react to possible future events, best described as "seeing through your eyes in several futures". It is only through training that one can utilize selective attention to focus on one particular future and avoid sensory overload. In combat, this translates to fixating on the futures where your opponent strikes next instead of something entirely irrelevant, such as a future where the attacker suddenly drops dead from a heart attack by chance.
60mL doses are on the edge of death. Any more than 65mL can cause permanent brain damage and rapid neurodegeneration as the brain tries- and fails- to process thousands of possibilities in an instant. But in such a state, with only a few drops of fluid away from becoming comatose, users are entirely disconnected from the body and are capable of foreseeing not only events immediate to them but the circumstances of nations and empires further along the chronological weave. But much like a dream, such visions are remembered in fragments and vague generalizations of what was seen- hence, the prophecies that are now rife throughout the communities that drink deep of fawn-fluids, such as Worm Knight Orders.
Penumbras are, notably, entirely immune to the effects of the fluid. No dosage is lethal, nor does it evoke the prescient effect.
Origin
The origin of Fawns is currently unknown. It appears that they have simply "inserted themselves" into a wide variety of environments from somewhere that is not within the Middenground, and while certain groups have reported them as living within the Middenground for centuries, by all accounts there is no record of Fawns or their eyes earlier than approx. 1000~ years ago.
The earliest records describe them as appearing within the Eterfol Mountains, but they have since spread far from that region.