SUPERLUMINA

• [NITH]
• [PHENE]
• [CARMEN]
• [MERIS]
• [AZAR]
• [VETA]
• [NESIS]
• [TEMSHAY]

> nith has an aloof demeanour though they are easily made bashful or distraught, and experience anxiety often —which leads to them binge eating.

> their favourite foods are root vegetables.

> they dislike their space uniform because of how form-fitting it is.

> nith’s home planet orbits a sun millions of years in the past, that would lie within the constellation monoceros if viewed from earth today. this sun was to be engulfed by a black hole.

> growing up, like all lhylae’een they were extremely attached and deeply bonded to their twin. phene died not long after the pair reached adulthood and this event left nith with both emptiness and an obsessive commitment with finding their twin’s “unicorn” —an ancestral spirit that inhabited phene and had endowed them with unique gifts since birth, and which their soul merged with upon death before it escaped into the cosmos.

> nith pilots the morrow delta, a ship that utilises a unique form of energy which only lhylae’een and their ancestors ever came to harness. it enables them to travel through time by picking up trace vibrations of the same energy across the universe.

> nith is a fast runner but has little to no stamina and gets exhausted quickly.

> nith’s scar comes from the time they attempted to free phene of their unicorn —by forcing it into their own body instead via resonance. this did not work however, and proved to be a dangerous experiment which could have fatally injured them both.

> like all lhylae’een, they emit a goat-like screech when shocked. this amuses carmen greatly.

> they think humans are scary.

> phene is one of the exceedingly rare lhylae’een who hosts the spirit of a powerful ancestral being within their body —these beings are nicknamed “unicorns” in the story (this term is coined by carmen).

> their unicorn granted them gifts which developed as they aged. among these were astrotravelling, telepathy, visions of the future, memory of past lives, and limited photokinesis. part of the unicorn manifests itself as a glowing horn which protrudes from their forehead and can be retracted at phene’s will.

> they are slightly taller than nith, have greener skin and broader ears.

> as a child they were intelligent, though shy and withdrawn. phene wouldn’t go anywhere without nith.

> phene gave their life by forcefully expelling the unicorn from their body and sending it into the cosmos —which they knew would draw out their own spirit with it. their planet had been suffering a series of disasters that threatened future mass extinction, after being bombarded by wavelengths from the nearby black hole. entangled in these wavelengths, there had been an enigmatic message from a distance source —and phene was the only one able to hear it. they began to have violent and prophetic dreams and became convinced that to help save their planet, they had to find the source of the message (which was Earth).

> phene’s unicorn goes on to resonate with carmen, a human from earth in the year 2007.

> before their death phene had told nith “i will know you again”.

> carmen is mixed race, being both european and southeast asian. she was born and grew up in england.

> she very often goes by “car” and is an easygoing, curious and intelligent person. however she is also forgetful and occasionally flirtatious —though does this out of humour.

> carmen is genderqueer and neutral towards pronouns; unbothered by what others may perceive or refer to her as.
it isn’t rare that somebody assumes carmen is a young man when seeing her in certain attire.

> phene’s “unicorn” energy possesses carmen’s body after travelling great distances through time and space.

> she gains all the unique abilities that phene had, with a few additions that develop later. these include running on water, summoning other ancestral spirits, weaponising her “horn” into a sword by extracting it from her forehead, and the ability to shapeshift into what resembles a fusion of herself and phene —a powerful form and manifestation of “true resonance”.

> carmen works in a small corner shop that sells mostly magazines, donuts and slushies.

> she has a crush on a young woman named geneva, the older sister of one of the teens who frequently visit the shop.

> phene’s soul sometimes appears in carmen’s dreams and can speak to her. additionally, carmen has the occasional dream that foretells possible future events.

> at first nith doesn’t like carmen, and is afraid of humans in general. when it’s discovered that phene’s unicorn lives inside her, nith at first is ecstatic and begins to talk to carmen as if she were phene —much to carmen’s frustration. this eventually stops, though follows a breakdown of nith as they finally come to terms with the fact their twin will never fully be with them again in the same way. carmen is successful in comforting nith and the two get closer as friends.

> a lhylaera engineer with a deep fascination and respect for the ancestors. the dots beneath their eyes are a symbol of their profession.

> they were close with phene and it was speculated the two would become partners. in the main story, they chase nith across time and space in order to find the now-deceased phene’s unicorn.

> seemingly stoic at first, they’re actually quite meddlesome and finicky.

> they boast both athleticism and intelligence. their “hooves” are worn short due to physical activity, however they take good care of their claws —which are kept long and sharp.

> veta worked on the morrow delta (the ship which nith pilots).

> they also collaborated on the repair of an older ship called the imago, the only other lhylae’een vessel capable of time travel. it had been created using a unicorn forcefully extracted from a lhylaera and was the only vessel to be made this way. though aware of its unethical origin, veta would end up using it in order to track down nith.

> during their journey the imago experiences a major fault and veta becomes trapped in time. realising they need a new medium with which to conduct the ship’s energy, they opt to use themself. though this enables them regained control, veta is left with unstable unicorn abilities and a slowly deteriorating mental state due to imperfect resonance.

> they are able to manifest a beam of light from their forehead like carmen and phene —however in veta’s case it resembles a fluctuating, whiplike cord rather than a “horn”.

> they develop a very bad short-term memory. even sometimes forgetting where their clothes have gone right after taking them off.

> they are opposed to killing, but will do so if they feel there is no other choice. at one point they plot the murder of carmen to prevent her from ever resonating with phene’s unicorn —however, in the end they aren’t able to go through with it.

> they are friends with meris’ twin luma, who is an astronomer and physicist.

> meris is a very friendly, intelligent lhylaera with a mischievous and somewhat flirtatious streak. they can also be quite nosy.

> they have known azar since they were a child, and the two became partners during their young adulthood. they live in a commune on their home planet and grow native root vegetables, which nith loves.

> their twin, luma, is similar in appearance to them with the exception of silvery hair, slightly bluer skin and slimmer physique.

> they love bathing, and can often be found resting in one of the several springs around their commune.

> of nith’s parents they are the clingiest and most defensive —however warm to outsiders very quickly if they are a friend (often switching moods so abruptly it startles others).

> they love cute things, though declare almost everything to be cute. they even think carmen is “cute” when all other lhylae’een are intimidated, scared or confused when seeing her for the first time.

> when together azar and meris like to express their affection for one another very often, not caring if others are present.

> azar is often aloof, like nith, but also very caring and observational. they have been known to unsettle others by staring at them for long periods of time in silence —however meris explains this is just azar’s sense of humour.

> they have known meris since they were a child, and the two became partners during their young adulthood. they live in a commune on their home planet and grow native root vegetables, which nith loves.

> for a lhylaera they are notably tall, standing at approximately five feet and eight inches. they also exceed the height of their own twin.

> they love music and like to sing or hum often.

> as a child they were very “air-headed”.

> azar has freckles, which is also uncommon for lhylaera —meris’ says azar’s freckles are one of the things they like most about them.

> they dislike arguments and hide behind meris if one ensues.

> when together azar and meris like to express their affection for one another very often, not caring if others are present.

> nesis is quiet, though prone to speaking sarcastically.

> they are extremely similar in appearance to veta, the only major difference being nesis’ wavy hair —which is caused by an uncommon mutation in lhylae’een.

> at first reluctant, they eventually agree to join veta on their journey to track down nith. when their twin fuses with the unicorn from the imago, nesis grows increasingly fearful and begins to question veta’s morals. despite this however, nesis always remains by their side.

> during a fight against nith and carmen, nesis joins to defend veta but ends up seriously injured in the process. their upper hydrostats become severed by a clashing of carmen’s horn and veta’s unstable “whip”.

> their hydrostats are later replaced with holographic ones made by veta, which project from metal plates fixed onto nesis’ stumps. nesis recovers from shock, though is left with greatly reduced feeling in their upper hydrostats, and have difficulty fighting due to a loss of balance in their body.