Aegir (race)
- Aegir nation (underwater; the ocean south of the Terran continent)
- Diasporic communities in coastlines of Terra, notably Iberia and Higashi
The Aegir/Ægir (singular and plural) are an Ancient race in the world of Arknights.
Description[edit]
"Aegir" is an umbrella term that encompasses various races based on Terra's ocean with distinctive traits; some might possess more bestial properties (e.g. tentacles and fish fins) while others are completely humanoid. Most Aegir are well-adapted to water, but not all of them could fully live an aquatic life. Breathing underwater is a unique trait of the Aegir race, yet not all of them possess such trait.[1]
Nevertheless, a common feature among the Aegir is their total reliance on water to maintain their skin moisture, which are higher than average land-dwellers. On the other hand, this means that Aegirs are highly susceptible to dehydration. Their respiratory systems are completely reliant on air moisture, and they have to supervise their skin moisture upon contacting wind and sunlight to prevent them from turning dry. If left untreated, they will face symptoms ranging from allergic reactions, chafing, seizures, to even life-threatening situations. As a matter of fact, land-dwelling Aegir have the habit of carrying special moisturizing creams and a small bottle of water. In some extreme cases, when an Aegir must travel through arid regions such as the Sargonian desert, they will carry distillation equipment to capture water during nighttime, a technique learnt from desert inhabitants.[1]
Aegir are a common Terran race that can be found in aquatic environments, from rivers, lakes, to coastlines. Among all land nations, Iberia and Higashi are known to have a significant Aegir population, known as the "Islanders" in the former and the Koumin, "shark men" in Higashinese, in the latter. The Iberian Islanders are descended from technocrats following Breogan in 913 who ushered in the Golden Age of Iberia, but since the Profound Silence of 1038, there is an ongoing persecution against the Islanders due to the infiltration of the Church of the Deep.[2] In contrast, the Higashinese Koumin arrived on land much earlier than the Islanders; in Higashinese legend, they were described as "sailors of the sacred black-jade ship" whose envoys "spoke sweetly" but possessed "scales as hard as shields" whose blades could cut the mountains into half. After centuries of war, these Koumin were subjugated by Emperor Jingi, and they were later incorporated into the Higashinese royal court as members of the Eight Families.[3] In recent years, more and more Aegir are migrating towards inland countries like Columbia and Yan, many of whom serve as hydraulic engineers and river environmentalists.
Origin[edit]
All Aegir have their ancestry traced back to Aegir the nation, a mysterious underwater country lying beneath the Terran ocean. Modern anthropologists pinpoint that modern Aegir spread into the Terran continent in the opposite way. The folk accounts of the Islanders and the legend of Mizuchi-no-Kougen (蛟渊原) in Higashi all demonstrate the Aegir's oceanic origin.[1]
On the other hand, Aegir describes their ancestry differently. They described their ancestors as one of the "descended" Terran races who possessed more animalistic traits such as appendages resembling fins and tentacles and first settled in rivers and lakes.[4] Legend says that their ancestors received revelation to move to the ocean, so, a mass migration occurred among the Aegir tribes as they sailed along the rivers to reach the seas and dive into the ocean. Upon reaching the abyss, they uncovered ruins of the "Predecessors" lying at the seabed. These earliest Aegir began venerating them as a gift from god and utilized them to its finest, which led to the modern Aegiran nation that possesses a completely alien civilization such as high technologies.[5]
Originium is completely absent in the ocean, hence Oripathy is hardly observed among the Aegirans in the seas. On the other hand, blood tests show that Aegirians possess a miniature amount of Originium in their bodies which further prove their land origin.[6] Nevertheless, while they need not fear the danger of Oripathy, Aegirans are more highly susceptible to be assimilated by the Seaborn, a kind of sea monsters from the Terran oceans, as they are the frontline fighting against their invasion. This can be achieved either through genetic modification, succumbing to the monsters' alluring influence on the mind, or being forcefully implanted with Seaborn cells.
Notable[edit]
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Additional information:
- Gladiia, Skadi (the Corrupting Heart), Specter (the Unchained), and Ulpianus are not "true" Aegir, but Aegir-Seaborn hybrids created as part of the Abyssal Hunters project.
- Deepcolor, Mizuki, and Highmore are Aegir-Seaborn hybrids created by the Church of the Deep.
- As bishops of the Church, Aulus, Cicero and Quintus are Aegir-Seaborn hybrids as well, but Quintus had transformed into a giant Sea Terror after failing to assimilate with its cells.
- Mártus, the Church's founder, is known for being the first Aegir-Seaborn hybrid
Other notable[edit]
Trivia[edit]
- The Higashinese legend regarding the Aegir have cultural and mythological references:
- The Koumin riding the "sacred black-jade ship" is based on the Kurofune (
黒 船 ), the "Black Ships" in Edo Japan describing European and American warships with the famous one referring to Perry Expedition. - The Mizuchi-no-Kougen (
蛟 の渊 原 ), the Higashinese legend regarding Aegir the nation, is based on the Dragon Palace, the Ryūgū-jō (竜 宮 城 ), in Japanese mythology, especially in the legend of Urashima Tarō.
- The Koumin riding the "sacred black-jade ship" is based on the Kurofune (
- Of all Aegir characters, Pudding, Purestream, Ulpianus and Skadi (the Corrupting Heart) are the only ones based on mammalians.
- Going from the species they are based on belonging in the Artiodactyla order, they are more closely related to Itra, Forte, Caprinae, Elafia and the operator Tuye than they are to any of the other operators classified as Aegir. Pudding, meanwhile, would be closer to the Anaty operators as she is based on a pinniped.
References[edit]
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