Physical Description

Lucevians are anthropomorphic lepidopterans. They have large and long antennae with bases that go above their eyes like eyebrows. They have two sets of arms and one set of legs. Two huge scaly wings are attached to their back. They're usually seen in free-flowing robes as they're the most easily available and nonrestrictive clothing they have.

While their wide eyes do allow them to have a vast field of vision, they are terrible at seeing far distances. Anything far away looks cloudy or foggy. For some it is so bad that they may have trouble seeing beyond what is front of them.

The antennae are covered in fur and usually grow to an average of one feet in length. In the past, males had larger antennae than females. Today though, both genders have antennae that are equal in length.

Their arms end in three claws with one of them being on a thumb. These claws are made of solid keratin.

They have large scaly insect wings that grow up to an average wingspan of four feet. Many creatures born with these type of wings are colorful and distinctive, however all lucevians are born with dual-colored wings that have dull hues in comparison to these other creatures. The distinctive patterns on their wings are actually made by themselves rather than created by birth.

Their legs end in small tarsal claws that help them grip the ground when they stand.

Personality

Lucevians have the ability to enter people's dreams with their paramount psychic abilities thanks to their antennae. As a result, a large part of their culture reflects around dreams. It is not uncommon for their villages to share an entire "dreamscape" where the civilians are free to create a world of their choosing. Unsurprisingly, many, if not all, lucevians are able to dream lucidly. Due to the fact that many of them go through their fantasies on a daily basis, many lucevians grow up disconnected from the real world. They are often eccentric and have a hard time distinguishing fantasy from reality.

Their villages often reflect how their dreamscapes look like such as their vibrant colors. In reality though, most of the villages are painted in garish colors compared to those in their dreams. Nevertheless, most lucevians enjoy the effort of making a part of their dreamscape part of their reality.

There is one notable exception to this though. There are lucevians who choose to cut off their antennae. While this means they can no longer freely enter other people's dreams, this allows them to shape their psychic powers in other skills such as telekinesis and pyrokinesis. It isn't impossible to train these other skills with antennae, but it is very difficult as the antennae forces them to focus on skills related to dreams. It is very rare for a lucevian to be born without antennae.

Depending on how young they were when they lost their antennae and how long has been since then, these lucevians may act in a few different ways. For those who are older and less experienced from being outside the dreamscape, they will be needy for social interaction, and some may even go into a deep depression. Otherwise, they will act as most lucevians usually do. For those who lost their antennae younger, these lucevians would grow up to be a lot more calmer, and may be unable to see things in the same point of view as the rest of their species. Since a huge part of the social culture for lucevians happens in the dreamscape as well as their fantasies being a part in a lot of discussions, they would grow up being a lot less open to others.

Despite their culture being centered around dreams, lucevians do not shun those who have no antennae regardless if it was willingly or not. Some may see those who purposefully cut their antennae off in order to train their other skills as a brave act, losing their access to an afterlife. They consider this as a huge sacrifice. Anyone who takes a lucevian's antennae off without their consent has done an unforgivable act.

Speaking of forgiveness, lucevians are known to have strong temperament. It is hard to break them out of their eccentric attitudes. Even the less whimsical lucevians who have no antennae are difficult to frustrate thanks to the influences of their culture. However, on the chance that someone has made a lucevian angry, said lucevian would not forget it. It is rare for a lucevian to not hold a grudge against someone who has wronged them in some way. Even worse is if someone has done something despicable to a lucevian. For their behavior, the lucevian will give the perpetrator frightening nightmares.

When a lucevian is a baby they are untamed balls of psychic energy, lashing out helplessly due to being blind and deaf to the world. Their parents spend years bonding with their child in their own dream, until they pupate and mature. The entire time this is occurring, though, they will be constantly searching for something to eat, requiring them to remain far from villages for the large amounts of food they ingest.

Even though there are a lot of benefits to their lucid dreaming and dream-controlling psychic powers, there is a huge cost. lucevians are more vulnerable to the aftermath of trauma. Trauma will creep up in their dreams more often than many other intelligent and sentient species. It can reach a point where the trauma will intertwine itself within their dreams, leaving to what they shape being corrupted by it. As a result, lucevians who go through traumatic events often need lots of support.

History

The lucevians were not always their own separate species. At one point in history, they were didaskalois, but their religion had them banished by the didaskalois over 20,000 years ago. Their faith was not dangerous, but the didaskalois of the time were extremely religious and unwilling to accept them.

Their religion has been around since the beginning of didaskaloi civilization. Like many parts of their culture, it is based around dreams. Lucevians see dreams as a part of the afterlife. Due to this, lucevians leave their minds within the dreamscape when they die. In fact, the minds of their ancestors rest deep within the dreamscape. They hold ancient wisdom, but most of them prefer solitude.

The didaskaloi religion at the time considered dreams to be the vehicle from which a dark being in their legends spoke through. It is due to this that the didaskaloi considered those who followed the lucevians to be messengers of evil. To the didaskaloi population, this group deserved their fate of being isolated in the deepest corners of their planet.

Over time the lucevians diverted genetically from the didaskaloi, becoming their own species. Then one day a savior from the sky arrived. A ship of peaceful travelers appeared, and most of the lucevian population boarded. The lucevians who stayed eventually died out as the didaskalois caused them to be forced deeper and deeper into the planet until they had nothing left.

The lucevians did not trust the universe at first, and when they learned of lawless planets, those that were rarely touched by the hands of other species, they were in love. They searched far and wide for their own world to live on, one where they would be left alone, and they found it. A beautiful planet called Zerxon.

It would be hard starting from the ground up, but the lucevians were willing to risk it all for the freedom to practice their religion without being called messengers of evil.

In the beginning, the males were the dream-weavers. The women started with smaller antennae than the males, which lead to them being more down-to-earth and serious. It is likely that the women ensured the survival of their species for many decades.

As the planet Zerxon became safer for lucevians, an evolutionary change resulted in the females having antennae just as long as the men. Soon, the females were also dream-weavers and became as whimsical as the males. It is possible the lucevians would have never ended up rejoining the universe if another species didn't intervene.

At one point, a carcili ended up wandering into the giant dreamscape of the lucevians' planet. They became livid that they weren't able to dream in someone's body. They were in the biggest dream they've ever seen, yet all they could find were moths that they were unable to possess. The carcili complained to the notails who responded by conducting a scouting operation. Eventually, they discover the planet, and the lucevians, a species that was thought to be only an urban legend. The notails knew they had to make further contact when they discovered the lucevians were an intelligent species with superb psychic abilities.

It wasn't hard to convince them to join the universe. The notails had promised the lucevians they would never be discriminated for their religion ever again as long as they followed the notails. The notails were willing to protect them as long as they gained access to their powers.

The lucevians were informed how they could integrate into the universe. They were delighted with the idea of sharing their dreamscape and helping others who have trouble sleeping. The notails ended up becoming the first sentient species that the lucevians shared their dreams with. It did not take long for the two species to become allies after that. In a few years, lucevians who are very skilled in dream manipulation were seen selling their abilities as a service for other people.

They enter other people's dreams and shape them into whatever the client wishes, from relaxation to revenge fantasies. In extreme cases, when there is someone who has done something to the extent that death is not a strong enough punishment for, there are lucevians who become endless nightmares for the accused. They rip the criminal from their body, and the lucevian becomes that persons own eternal punishment. On a less horrifying note, some lucevians become "dream telemarketers" that plant ads in the middle of people's dreams; they aren't very popular.

As for Zerxon, the lucevian are very open to guests now. They are eager to show their great wonders to visitors by allowing them into the dreamscape. Sleeping and dreaming may be common things for the intelligent, but many tourists still say that the experience of being in the lucevians' dreamscape is unique and surreal. As the lucevians gain popularity, the didaskaloi attempted to regain contact with them.

The didaskaloi species had lighted upon their harsh religious rules, no longer showing any animosity towards the lucevians. Many of the lucevians were unsure about interacting with the didaskalois, but others were happy to hear about their homelands spoke about in legends. Still, the lucevians decided to not return, telling the didaskaloi that to apologize for what they had done to the lucevians they must go to the ends of their planet, and find a dreamscape left by the ancient lucevians still alive.

A task nearly impossible, but seeking forgiveness for their past actions the didaskaloi have teams dedicated to seeking a dream where they and lucevians can live peacefully together.

Subspecies

Dream Eater: Despite how friendly the lucevians are, there is a type of lucevian that isn't so benevolent. They are known as dream eaters. These lucevians naturally feed on other people's dreams. When a dream is eaten, whatever memory, skill, or experience is related to that dream is taken along with it. They cannot control dreams nor enter them. While the weavers pity them for this, they mostly detest them for their dream-eating is not required for their survival. Due to them being able to take small parts of someone's mind, the weavers also consider them dangerous. Nevertheless, their feeding is hardly noticed on Zerxon unless they go after an individual.

Dream eaters have a couple of features that are different compared to weavers. They have a large mouth with a lot of fluff on it. They also have four antennae and are almost as thin as needles.

The Silent: Among the lucevians, there is a sub-species that has a unique trait. The silent have no mouth and live entirely off of the fat they accumulated when they were larva. It is easy to tell when a larva is the silent due to their sheer size when they are born. Despite appearing to have a lot of fat already, they will eat a tremendous amount of food in this state. When they go through pupation, they will lose their mouth during metamorphosis. They emerge as huge and chubby moths.

As stated earlier, the silent live off their fat. Even though they are slowly starving to death and have a shorter lifespan than typical lucevians, they still live up to an average of a hundred years. Their powers are also weaker compared to lucevians. Nevertheless, they have enough power to weave dreams and join the dreamscape. Only some of them have the power of telepathy, so others have to communicate through different means.

Just as the dream eaters perverse the dream aspect, the silent perverse the mortal vices aspect. Despite having no mouth, the silent often dream about food. This is because they are trying to avoid hunger through sleep. As a result, most of them are very spiritual and have peaceful personalities. However, there are a rare few that can't stand the thought of starving to death even if it is slow. These folks end up getting surgery to get a mouth, but it often, if not always, results in something grotesque. Since the silent often dream about food in the first place, many of them that go through the surgery end up falling into gluttony.

Special

Dream Weaver: A lucevian have a natural psychic talent to build the dreams around themselves based on their own creativity. Even more astounding is that, while a normal dream realm may vanish upon waking, a lucevian's realm can be stored while they are awake. This ability is only possible when they have their antennae. Should they be removed, they will be unable to dream lucidly.

A lucevian using this power, or any other psychic ability, has markings appear on their wings. This allows them to see the world, since their physical eyesight is poor.

Trivia

• Most contractors find that lucevians have nothing they could ever want, so they often avoid them.

• When a lucevian dies with their antennae intact they are able to spirit their mind into the dream of another. They may choose someone at random, but more than often they will choose someone close to them, and may even decide they wish their afterlife to be in the dreams of one they love.

• When lucevians first met the aftiks they assumed they were a fauna due to their appearance being similar to that of a popular pet on their homeplanet called the scarvies.

• Most lucevians do not live their full lifespan due to spending so much time within a dream. The only lucevian who is noted to last their full lifespan is the elder, which are noted to have lived to be over 500 years old.

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