Skeleton Ghost

Nothing and Everything

Monsterkind is a strange race. It's peoples come in a variety of forms. Their bodies are of magic, formed by their enigmatic, gleaming Souls.
Perhaps the most important thing about monsters is that they are connected to humans. That is common knowledge.

What isn't is how they are connected. Many great minds have tried guessing whatever this bond may be. There are other races that are notably far closer to humankind than monsters. Even races that best fit somewhere between monsters and humans.

Of these races, it is known that they are magical breeds of human ancestry. Their lineage is clear, for traits of the strange people are always prevalent. Mers often appear like a smooth amalgamation of human and a fish. Other mer subspecies still maintain humanoid halves, if not distinctly identical.

Dwarves are close enough to pass for miniature- if not often muscular and hairy- copies of humans. The same went for elves but on the opposite end of the spectrum, with the addition of pointed ears.

Lamias were land mers of often cold-blooded serpentine traits rather than fish, much less avidly social than their seaborne counterparts.

Even arachnotaurs had more in common with humans, solely due to having upper human bodies instead of spider heads like titantula, though even that species had mouths, unlike their much, much smaller and less magical relatives that relied on liquid diets.

So why would the wide and varied race of many, many subsets be the one considered closest to humans with no apparent reason why?

It was simple, really. The truth was a secret hoarded by the most ancient of races, collectively known as the Old Ones.
Even then, most of them knew little of the secret, whereas a majority of the truth lay hidden in their few history keepers and most ancient people.
Monsters were descended from humans.

How was this possible? Humans were the only race that didn't have their own inherent magic. They couldn't express themselves as other races could. They relied on more mundane forms of expression, in art, which inundated all human cultures.

Why would anyone think monsters could be related to a race so vastly different?
It takes a deeper knowledge on the ancient past and natural manaphysics to understand why.

Of course, being forced outside of time and space itself has its perks in uncovering the truth as well.

Magic is automatically drawn to sentience. In fact, a good portion of the most erratic, powerful and incomprehensible mana types were sapient themselves. Magic itself could almost qualify as a form of life.

But if it is sentient and alters reality as it does, then why? How? Where does it even come from?
Only it can say.
And if there is any indication to be seen based on the past, then it is either unwilling to or simply unable to communicate.
He rather believed it couldn't.

But nonetheless, magic is automatically drawn to sapience outside of itself. And in this attraction, it is known to alter sentient beings more drastically than simple creatures, even going so far as to connect them to one another via it's lesser variants- or rather, lesser parts.

His experience has taught that all forms of magic may very likely not be separate, similar things but in fact, different parts of the same thing.
One truly enormous, interconnected thing that operates on its own rules outside of physics and toys with life like idle playthings.