So @Shutsumon started doing Worldbuilding Wednesday on Mastodon and that got me thinking and so then I started and…

well, here’s last week’s post. I’m going to try to post them a week after I toot (post on Mastodon) them.

Is anyone interested in these? They do not seem to be getting comments. 🎣

The mark of a royal^[1] in Cali is generally considered to be threefold, with a fourth not widely acknowledged but no less real.

First: gray eyes. This is a more reliable marker than the second, as you will almost never find a royal without gray eyes, although the particular shade varies from almost colorless to nearly blue, nearly green, or nearly violet. 

Second: red hair. As mentioned, this is not quite as reliable a marker, because even among the royalty of California, even among the children of Danu, red hair is still a recessive gene. The specific red, like the eye color, varies, in this case from strawberry blond to a dark auburn. Use of this as a marker is also muddled by the fact that red hair dyes are the most popular color – for some reason – in California.

3rd, and most importantly to today’s TIRtalk, is a power. This power^[2] typically include things such as: telekinesis and other -kinesis powers – pyrokinesis, electrokinesis, and so on; emotional control, mind control, elemental controls (including weather control) – which, of course, dovetails with some of those -kinesis powers; illusory effects, invisibility and other visual/light powers; clairsentience, clairvoyance, clairaudience, and so on; and healing – generally considered a subset of body modification.^[3]

Of these, healing is already an oddity, but it is considered by most people to be part of the common set of royal powers, inasmuch as people discuss the royal powers, likely solely because of its sheer use & usefulness. A good healer can replace a limb. A very good one can replace an organ, an eye, part of a brain.

[Sudden urge to put these on a normal distribution.]

Excluding healing, the above listed powers cover 85% (± 5%) of Royals born and raised in California.

What then, are the “odd powers?” What are the 15%? 

I’m glad you asked, or we wouldn’t have much of a talk here today. These powers include one easily-sorted category and several which defy classification and, in some cases, even belief (Yes, even in the world of California, where magic is discussed in talks such as this.). 

The easily-sorted category includes the aforementioned healing and shape shifting: those things which change either your body or someone else’s. Body multiplying is a particularly rare (one known case) version of this category.

In addition to that, some of the “odd” powers found in the remaining 15% of the royal population include: consciousness (soul?) swapping, teleportation, animal speech/control, and mob influence. 

This is very likely traceable back to something which is not spoken of in Californian society, not even in a talk such as this: the origins of the bloodline. 

For that, stay tuned to find out if I have gotten clearance to discuss such matters. 

I am now taking questions!  Be sure to speak clearly into the microphone; this TIR talk is being recorded.

[1] For the purposes of this talk, we will be using “royal” to refer to a specific set of bloodlines, not to a title or a status with in California law.

[2] In California, the “psychic power” as it is most widely known, is called by such a wide variety of names that we cannot begin to list them in this format.

[3] The fourth is longevity – in a range from 10-100% longer than the average of the non-royal population when excluding deaths by accident or violence.