Cerevate

A being composed of aspects from different reins. The only surviving examples of this are cognita primus - the 'First', humankind, and a few surviving Renlai. There are countless relics of other civilizations in the Milky Way developing cerevates, namely of the Renlai and Soronen. The intervention of the First against these various civilizations is as blatant as it is extensive.

The source of their abilities is a kind of interdimensional link, a cross between a skearn and a klein tap constantly flowing through them. As they are a locus for vast power across dimensions, each of them have 'wings' of seemingly infinite expanse under at least one method of observation. The reason why angel wings are partially visible is because all sapient beings have a soul, and thus perceive more of such a cerevate.

The Renlai call their cerevates bentun. Among the First, they are called Adepts.

Amongst all cerevate races, humans are unique. Rather than expressing a single, generic type of ability, humans express three separate, focused strains of ability - known as angels, striatvari, and pyrrhans.

Likewise, amongst the symbionts that form such beings, those that make the fallen are also unique, as they do not limit themselves to members of those races already chosen.

Merging and Awakening

When a cerevate is 'born', her body melds with the surrounding hyperstructure of the multiverse. This goes by many terms - second birth, merging, melding, being Chosen, and so on. Regardless, the result is an entity of incredible power. When differentiating between the sort of merging that occurs, especially when dealing with humans, the specific type is called a meld.

After a time - or some special event, a cerevate can 'awaken'. This is often described as a culmination of understanding - combining several basic effects to realize the whole. Almost all such beings among the surviving first and renlai have long since awakened. Some are excessively slow, however, while others among these mighty races still undergo mergings despite the advent of humankind. Occasionally, these are termed initiates or neophytes.

Awakened angels are called seraphim. Awakened striatvari are termed aetveari. Finally, awakened pyrrhans are called prometheans. Adepts grow into Elders, and Awakened renlai are termed Uanshin.

Human cerevates tend to awaken at far younger ages than their primus or renlai counterparts, by orders of magnitude, though except in a few rare cases this process still takes many thousands of years.

Past awakening is called ascension, and according to the first, has only been attempted once.