Zäkhisny

A mountain-born race hailing from the Riihian mountains, the Zäkhisny are known for their highly detailed spark vision and notable talent with artifice.

Schausen

The Schausen (lit. “Black eyes”) are an ancient race that inhabit the Strahlerz Mountains in southern Riihiya. Their skin is pitch black, while also being rich in guanine, lending it an odd iridescent shimmer. This guanine layer reflects sparks away from the body, as opting for absorption in such a saturated environment would be catastrophic.

In complete contrast, their hair is bleached white by the intense amounts of spark in their surroundings, leaving only rainbow-white guanine behind. One would think this counterproductive in a dark environment, but the chaotic and reflective nature of specially-structured guanine with spark actually creates a sort of scrambling effect, obscuring their form. Out of politeness, many Schausen tie up or cover their hair unless in the wild.

The main survival adaptation of the schausen is their incredible intuitive senses, especially their intuitive hearing. With unique bat-like ears coated in guanine and capable of intricately folding, they can detect the exact directions of intuitive sounds and even hear the “voices” of gimyndine.

Also due to the extreme amounts of spark found in the radiant caverns, they have lost the ability for conventional sight, and instead possess highly sensitive intuitive sight. Since it doesn’t have to share space with conventional color vision, the Schausen’s system is much more sensitive and precise enough to even function nearly identically to color vision. Due to the penetrating nature of sparks, their irises function in such a way that a gradated guanine pattern is pulled closer to the center for focusing, as opposed to manipulating a physical hole. Their sclera, meanwhile, are pitch black, to shield the inside of the eye.

Marmjogür

The marmjogür (lit. “marble hunters”) are a species that inhabit the stellar plains in northern Riihiya, and bear resemblance to the schausen. They possess white, glimmering skin further supplemented in guanine by the consumption of a peculiar common grass on the stellar plains, glowleaf. Their hair, in contrast to the schausen, is naturally white, and contains an even higher amount of guanine. Their sclera remain black, here serving to sharpen their vision against the glare of the sun on the all-white plains.

The marmjogür's most important adaptation is their ability to generate spontaneous heat on demand, useful for melting snow to harvest plants or hunt for subterranean prey. This is accomplished through a somewhat chemical process consisting of two parts. Firstly, marmjogür secrete a special kind of oil instead of sweat. When this oil is mixed with their saliva, it reacts and combines into a compound extremely dense with uroporphyrin rings that heat rapidly when exposed to sparks.