A message from kfae

Within universe, how do creatures like Agents and magiphages get their names? Will an Agent change their name if they feel it no longer suits them?

Magiphages make theirs up, and sometimes do so while in the process of coming into existence, permanently imprinting the name into the spell in their bodies, making it an unchangeable reality for them. Some magiphage’s names are combinations of past generation’s names, they inherit them like it’s an eye color or some such, it was written in the spell material so it ended up in the mix.

Agents come up with thought-names for themselves, made up of sounds, sights, sensory experiences and feelings (basically anything that can be thought of or remembered). Other Agents shape an Agent’s name with their input as well.

Names change with the Agent, though they tend to build rather than change completely. A young Agent’s name might be just a few notes of bird song or the image of a single flower, and slowly it accrues into a complex scene, a bird perched on a dead tree singing that song in bright sunlight, that flower blooming out of snow.

Verbal Agents may try to translate this name into a name that can be spoken outloud or may come up with something totally unrelated. Non-verbal Agents often acquire names in unusual ways, and some guide the name they are given by responding to names they actually like being called and totally ignoring those calling them names they don’t like. But others just do not care, and their spoken names are about as related to them as the names we give wild animals.

Parker’s name is an example of a translation. His “real” name is something like a memory of being in a place full of trees and manicured-looking green lawns.

Smudge’s name is an example of just making something up - her thought-name is totally unrelated, she just likes the way “Smudge” sounds.

The Autumn Man’s name is an example of guiding others into a name. Since he is non-verbal, he can’t communicate what his name is or choose a translation. Humans just called him whatever they wanted to call him, and were usually just being obvious (The orange man, the man with one eye) - when someone finally called him The Autumn Man he was so surprised that someone got close to his name that he perked up and looked them right in the eye. That caused the name to catch on.

A message from oscyllarus

Oh wow I'm asking a lot of stuff. Anyway, your answer about human remains is now making me curious about how a magiphage's lifecycle works. Do their remains decay? Do they just poof into non-existence? How long do they live? Is there always a steady population? (aka I'm really curious how all that works)

(I love answering questions) When a magiphage dies, their body decays in a way that appears very similar to natural decay, except magical decay can often look like burning, as the magic can pop, crackle and glow from lack of mental control.

Magical creatures are full of magical instructions, spells, that build their bodies, as well as plain magical energy fuel and the actual stuff of their bodies. The body stuff and plain energy burns away or is eaten by fairies and other magiphages (they won’t hunt each other down out of courtesy for their own kind, but once it’s dead, food is food).

The spell stuff though, that dissipates into the surrounding magic atmosphere. It breaks apart in the process and mingles with all the other information that’s been left by other dead magiphages, and regularly an errant magic breeze will pick up these pieces and the pieces bond together, stacking one piece on top of another in a chain reaction. If the chain contains all the parts needed for a new critter with minimal omissions, the magic that started the process gets used to create them, and tada, a new magiphage is born.

The population is not always steady, often all the magiphages die and no new ones are born for a few years. Luckily the entire local population dying is not a big deal for continuation of the species, it’s like all the annual plants dying in the fall - doesn’t mean new ones aren’t going to spring up from the seeds left behind.

Magiphages life spans vary wildly. It depends on the strength of their spell build and how capable they were at surviving. Magiphages tend to slowly increase their lifespans in a given area over time. So areas prone to having them that are fairly new will see poorly adapted individuals living about five years, while old established hot spots and springs have individuals living up to a 100 years. The average in general is about 40 years.

The age of the place they came from matters because magiphage evolution is a tad lamarckian. They develop or lose traits in their lifetime in order to function better, and traits that limit their lifespans get lost over time as the spells are refined over multiple lifetimes.