Being

Characters in DMFA generally fall into two basic classes: Beings or Creatures.

Overview

Beings are the most common class on Furrae. They have an intelligence and lifespan roughly equivalent to a human and tend to be omnivorous regardless of their base species. For example, a feline Being could be a vegetarian and likewise, a rabbit or sheep could quite happily eat meat. This behaviour has given rise to various taboos, for instance it is generally considered wrong for a Being to eat meat from their feral equivalent.

Generally speaking, if someone is non-magical, that makes them a Being. This is not a hard and fast rule - there are a number of spells which Beings can cast, but it is something which they have to study and learn for themselves. A Creature will usually have a natural ability for magic and they will be considerably better at it than their Being counterpart.

Attitudes

This disadvantage with regard to magic means that Beings will generally use either magical devices which a Creature has created, or non-magical tools. Their subsequent reliance on technology (along with their shorter lifespans) is one of the main reasons why many Creatures consider Beings to be an inferior race.

Until relatively recently there has been a great deal of tension between Beings and Creatures, which has given rise to many Beings becoming adventurers or bounty-hunters in order to protect their towns and/or hunt down any Creatures who pose a threat to them.

Trivia

• Delna, age 41, is probably one of the five most respected Beings in Furrae. A gifted adventuring student, she seemed poised to make her name as a warrior until she suddenly gave it all up to become a psychiatrist, offering her services to Being and Creature alike. From this position she was able to convince many Creatures to give up their less savoury habits, and is believed to have neutralised as many threats by this means as she would have been able to as an adventurer. She appears in strips #206 and #235. Delna is a Jackalope.
• As the primary difference between Beings and Creatures is the innate presence of mystical abilities, often including increased longevity and enhanced affinity for casting spells, many Being races are actually based on mythological species. As mentioned before, Delna, the famous Being from the Demonology 101 article on Beings, is a Jackalope, a rabbit with antlers.
• According to strip #853, Unicorns exist in Furrae, where they are regarded as as a race of Being. As Fluffy notes, they are basically horses with horns on their heads; magical ability is something that over half the population of Furrae is capable of, and Unicorns aren't even guaranteed to have magical abilities the way that Demons would.