Inphernals

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Inphernals are a race of humanoids who make up the majority of inhabitants in the Inpherno. They are characterized by horns on their head, and possessing the innate ability to wield a gear from birth.

Biology

Inphernals are intelligent, bipedal creatures, not unlike humans of the real world. All inphernals spawn with their own gear, which generally gives them their namesake. Unlike humans, they are completely hairless, except for those with animal gears, who can possess tails and other such features relating to their respective gear. Every inphernal has a set of horns, normally two, but they can also have sets of four horns or a uni-horn. Inphernals can also have abnormal horn traits in the form of mutations, such as Firebrand, who has a single pronged horn that covers his eye, or Void Star, who has two large horns that cover her eyes and many smaller horns around her head.

Inphernals do not have biological sex or reproductive organs, and instead are born from a Spawnpoint. Normally, inphernals are born at random without parents from a respective spawnpoint, but two inphernals can sacrifice part of their gear's power in order to produce a biological child. All inphernals are born with a gear, which informs their abilities and basic biology. There is no particular rhyme or reason to what gear a inphernal is spawned with, even when spawned by their parents. Only one of a specific gear can exist in the Inpherno at any one time, and once an inphernal dies, their gear becomes available for spawning once again.

Inphernals can possess a variety of different skin tones across the color spectrum, though the most common are various shades of gray. They can also have vitiligo, such as in the case of Sparkles.

Sociology

Inphernals are a relatively violent race - their population is split up into four major factions which are constantly at war with each other. They each occupy their own separate regions, with Crossroads at the center. Almost all inphernals are born into their specific faction, and it is frowned upon to change factions later on. Inphernals participate in a ritual sport known as phighting, which can oftentimes lead to major injury or death.

Due to lacking biological sex, inphernals do not particularly observe gender or pronouns. It is uncommon, though not impossible, for an inphernal to prefer any specific pronouns over one another. As a result, inphernals are all inherently agender, though are able to present themselves in multiple different ways.

The Swords

The Swords, oftentimes referred to just as 'the deities', are a group of powerful inphernals within the Inpherno who are all based on the sword gears from Sword Fight on the Heights IV. They are considered a subtype of standard inphernals, but differ in some key features — namely that the Swords have indefinite lifespans, and bleed ichor, rather than blood. The Swords all possess wings in some form or another, which is a trait unique to them and their descendants.

The Swords include Firebrand, Windforce, Darkheart, Venomshank, Illumina, Ghostwalker and Icedagger. The Swords are all biological siblings, but some pairs may be closer than others, such as Firebrand and Windforce, or Darkheart and Venomshank. Ban Hammer, Valk, Dom and Sword are all blood related to The Swords, and may possess their own unique abilities or physical characteristics as a result.

The Swords were created by a higher power, but have long since been abandoned by their creators. Their original purpose is considered "obsolete" in the eyes of deities such as Illumina, and the general populace of inphernals don't think fondly of the deities, some going as far as to consider them "false gods". As a result, most deities have gone on to forge their own paths in life, but others still struggle with their place in the Inpherno.

During gameplay, The Swords appear during Sword events where they unleash their unique abilities onto the playing field, affecting the tides of a Phight.

Trivia

• Horn mutations are uncommon in standard inphernals.^{[citation needed]}