Origin and Survival
The atraxi are a long-lived humanoid race from the Atraxis system. Their homeworld, Atraxis Prime Alpha, falls when the Spiral Mandate destroys the living civilization there with technology that the refugees experience as void-like blackness consuming their dying sun and world. Jorhan leads the refugees through a gate into Xalmyrra, where fewer than two hundred survive the fall into the Aethrendar Sea.
The survivors bring knowledge of gates, temporal magic, essence towers, and the atraxii language into ancient Xalmyrra. Their language spreads through trade and settlement until it becomes Xalmyrran. Their struggle to survive in an essence-rich world leads toward Xol'Zahir, Atraxis Prime, and the Xalmyrran cycles.
Description
Atraxi are tall, pale, dense, heavy, sturdy humanoids with distinctive traits recognizable to those familiar with the race. Their bodies hold large essence reserves, and prolonged exposure to Xalmyrra's essence can make atraxi dramatically stronger.
Pure-blooded atraxi suffer from an essence condition that makes their bodies absorb too much essence until they collapse inward or begin dissolving. Essence towers and Jorhan's reservoir in Atraxis Prime can hold the condition back. The pure-blooded remnant continues to die out. Half-human atraxi are spared the same exile; Aldred classifies them as human and allows them to stay when he orders the pure-blooded atraxi away from Xalmyrra.
Civilization and Technology
The original atraxi civilization governed separate worlds, each operating independently. Before and during the fall of their system, the atraxi sent expeditions in search of livable worlds and maintained gates that opened paths through the void. Their gate schematics are part of a bootstrap loop: Amos and Thalena later send schematic fragments back to ancient Atraxis Prime Alpha, where the atraxi receive, decode, modify, and use them to build the gates they later use during the flight from Atraxis.
In Xalmyrra, atraxi scientists such as Amos and Jareth use their knowledge to build or modify essence towers, gate activators, spell containers, and eventually build inside the void itself. They share enough knowledge to gain sanctuary from Xalmyrran rulers. They guard gate technology and void travel.
Most atraxi initially settle in Irrathis, with groups also moving to Valcirae and Varentis. Atraxi construction reaches Zeydrith, where it contributes to parks and much of the Luminary Halls. At least one expedition branch survives in the Malverand Intergalactic Empire, where atraxi survivors or descendants keep more gate knowledge hidden while sharing other technology with Malverand.
Abilities & Weaknesses
Atraxi abilities vary by individual. People across atraxi, half-atraxi, and altered atraxi lineages use air, fire, divine, and temporal magic. Jorhan reshapes Xalmyrra through the spiral shard and the cycles, Amos preserves gate knowledge, and Belanor and Jareth take part in later gate and cycle-breaking events. Jorhan's spiral-shard power sustains Atraxis Prime and the cycles.
As a people, they preserve technical knowledge about gates, void navigation, essence towers, gate activators, and spell containers. Their stronger bodies improve atraxi survival in the void.
Their greatest weakness is the pure-blooded atraxi condition. Affected atraxi need essence towers or Jorhan's reservoir to keep their bodies stable. Jareth and Eshmir regard service to Jorhan as necessary for atraxi survival because he protects Atraxis Prime and personally supplies the reservoir that keeps affected atraxi alive.
Atraxi groups include pure-blooded refugees, half-human descendants, expedition branches and their descendants, and altered atraxi people. Belanor and Jareth are biologically unusual members of those atraxi lineages: both begin as atraxi bodies recovered from the Vireen gate site, revived by Eira with Malverand hearts, and sent through the void toward the atraxi gates before later entering Atraxis Prime Alpha's history.
History & Lore
The atraxi arrive in Xalmyrra after Atraxis Prime Alpha falls. Xoltan formally welcomes them in Teryndal, and Aldred gives them housing and survival resources in exchange for their skills. As the decades pass, the atraxi grow stronger, build essence towers, add parks and halls to Zeydrith, and spread across Xalmyrra. During the same decades, corruption and essence overuse worsen around them.
Aldred eventually orders the pure-blooded atraxi to leave Xalmyrra after their essence use contributes to corrupted land, darkness creatures, and a village whose dead become ebon wraiths. Their relocation to the western island later known as Xolterra fails when Jorhan takes a spiral shard, unleashes lethal essence, and returns determined to keep his people alive at any cost. Aldred dies fighting him, and Jorhan uses the shards to reshape Xalmyrra, sustain Atraxis Prime, and bind the region inside storms, darkness, and repeating cycles.
Atraxis Prime later falls during Jorhan's absence. Brynor reaches the ruined city after the essence tower has been destroyed and Thirun is dying; Jareth accompanies the attackers. Amos escapes through the gates before the final battle between Jorhan and Arcanis and eventually reaches Atraxis Prime Omega, where atraxi survivors or descendants have safeguarded a gate within the Malverand sphere.
Atraxi and altered atraxi people include Jorhan, Eshmir, Amos, Jareth, Belanor, Kheran, Thirun, Dhalith, and Aziran.