Vaniwisp History

Disclaimer this lore is slightly darker than our usual fare so please read with that in mind. It should still follow the pg-16 rule we just want to give you a heads up.

Enter the Bloompuff God of Vanity, a Bloompuff that by all accounts probably shouldn’t exist, let alone be a god. It's only fair, it seems, to have a god for everything - even if that is Vanity itself. From the time he was a tiny fluffy baby it was clear that the then-untitled god was a little off, a bit distant, unlike many of the sweeter gods. As he aged, it became even more obvious that the child was very much in love and obsessed with himself and his looks. This kept him busy for a while, his own reflection quite literally able to keep him occupied for hours, but as he grew older there was a small nagging sensation in his chest that grew within him. His reflection no longer kept him company or satisfied him. He was beautiful, yes, gorgeous - perfect in every way not a lock out of place, but something was missing. Or maybe, quite possibly, someone?

So the frivolous and self-centered god began to search for someone he deemed as beautiful as himself. Some of the other gods laughed at this, joking that the only mate perfect for him was a mirror. This should have bothered him but it didn’t seem to. He just deemed them jealous; anyone who didn’t like him had to be jealous of his perfection. At least in his twisted mind this logic was sound.

First he tried to woo the Goddess of Love, Lalasa. She was perfect, strong and beautiful, definitely a worthy lover for one such as himself but she shot him down at every turn. Not at all interested in her feelings on the matter, Vanity would not take a hint; he wanted her, had to have her and her perfection, tame her even - make her into a perfect trophy wife. It was not to be however, and just as Vanity was unrelenting with his advances, Lalasa was firm in her rejections. Eventually he had enough of her rejections and in an angry outburst he more or less said that she was nothing but a prize to him. In retaliation she banished him from her quarters and put up a ward that wouldn’t allow him admittance ever again. This didn’t stop him from approaching her outside her quarters but it was enough for him to finally get the hint. He was sad for a while, perhaps suffering disappointment for the first time in his life, but after an hour or two he started thinking of his next target. It was Lalasa’s loss after all; she wasn’t worth anymore of his time now, and there were plenty of other fish in the sea.

He then went to Vanir, quite possibly his only friend, for guidance, and of course with Vanir also being very narcissistic he wasn’t too interested. He eventually gave pause and said “If you can’t find the perfect someone, why not just make them? Masayoshi can create life, why can’t we?” he shrugged. Vanity had never thought of such a thing; it was quite the revelation. But the more he thought about it, he decided it would take too much effort so shrugged it off himself. He couldn’t break a sweat or possibly harm himself trying to make something that might not even work. But he still felt that longing - that terrible, aching yearning and it was beginning to eat at him. He didn’t like the sentiment - it felt wrong, like an imperfection to him and he couldn’t have that. Really, why had he never thought of this before? Gods create, it's what they do, so why shouldn’t he? Why hadn’t he?

At first he wasn’t sure what to do, he just stared about his room waving his hands gracefully, his magic threading through his fingers like smoke. He smiled to himself; this was rather fun, and it looked pretty. He wanted something elusive he thought, something of unsurpassed beauty, more beautiful than Herra or Lalasa, or any god in the Sanctuary. This could also incur either Goddess’ wrath, but he didn’t care. He smirked as his magic clung to his fingers, seeming to corrupt the skin there with a soft purple as his thoughts turned darker, but it wasn’t something he noticed. He closed his eyes and thought of his favorite things and what his perfect partner would be like. He wanted something unique - he wanted her to be showy and elegant, decorated with the finest gems. Perfection itself in his own eyes, but unfortunately that perfection wasn’t pure and it found itself mixed with corruption. Magic, both his own and that of corruption, swirled around him as he began to create his perfect bride like he had imagined, but a maiden fair became something very different at the hands of this selfish magic.

The All-Mother oversaw his misdeed, watching as she often did in secret, watching as Vanity wanted to create something only for himself. Vanity - a child of the All-Mother, born of a mirror shattered long ago - was one she wished had never come to be. He was bad to his core and there was no hope for him now; his disease would only spread and poison others. She would punish him, curse him, and anything he would create would be tainted, so hopefully he would learn his lesson after the first.

This punishment did not immediately bear fruit, as even though the woman before him was different than what he expected she was his, with fair skin, luminous hair, and eyes like pooled opals. The patterns on her skin shifted with her movements, tantalizing and unlike any other beauty he had seen besides the prismatic grass in Onagra. She looked at him with love filling her eyes, and he felt a rise in his chest for but a moment before it became nothing but that hollow feeling again. She brought him no true joy, but her beauty brought him pride and that was enough for him. He was tired of being alone and she was wholly his and no one could change that.

It was good for a time, but soon he found himself growing jealous of MasaYoshi with all her children and creations. He wanted to make more, his fingers itched to feel that magic again. He wanted it so bad he could taste it. The thoughts consumed him; his fingers burned with power, he saw beautiful children in his dreams but when he tried to make them they were nothing like his bride or his visions. Their colors were wrong, their patterns off, their gems not as lustrous - they looked to him more like monsters than the lovely being he had first created. He tried countless times, growing more and more frustrated each time. He made dozens of them and every one of them he rejected. Of course his bride took them in, even as he screamed for them to get out of his sight. He had never felt such a failure. He was flawed and he couldn’t have that getting out. It would ruin everything. As he looked down to his hands in his anguish he noticed the light lavender color maring his skin, twinkling like stars, darkening at the tips and fading lighter and lighter as it spread from there. He ran to his washroom and began scrubbing and scrubbing but the stain would not come off. He growled, irritated - what even was happening? This vile substance had tainted his flawless skin. He ran to his closet and grabbed some delicate gloves to cover the offending marks.

He looked at his bride with irritation, projecting his own flaws and issues outwardly onto the beautiful woman who had only ever been good to him. Over the coming months, she took care of all his ‘children’ in secret. She hid them in a forest and used magic to conceal them, but it became clear that something was wrong with them more than just that of their appearance. They mostly listened to her and obeyed while she was there, but when she left they would cause trouble, destroy things, play tricks on each other and cause absolute chaos. Their auras as they got older became more and more filled with corruption, and eventually they rejected her altogether as well. They became incredibly selfish, self-centered and wanted nothing more than to cause trouble and adorn themselves with more gems and gain more riches whatever the cost. She was heartbroken. She had loved them like her own and she really missed their childhood innocence but it seemed now there was nothing to do to fix it. To even add to that, come to find out at some point they had somehow started reproducing and began to multiply, meanwhile she said nothing. She didn’t know what to do, she was afraid of Vanity’s wrath, and at this point Vanity had several beautiful women in his harem of brides, including a Bunnerfly that she was sure he would discard her for soon.

These creatures started to reproduce at an exponential rate, and it wasn’t long before the forest could no longer house them all and they escaped in droves, causing havoc all over Aermerea. Vanity knew it had to be her fault - that woman, that opalescent nightmare. He was sure she was behind all the changes to his body that he had come to hide with glamour so no one would know the difference. Vanity blamed everything on her and said so to the Trinity and the council. Knowing her time with him had come to an end, she did not protest. His Bunnerfly lover was pregnant and she couldn’t compete with that. MasaYoshi knew however that she was not at fault and took pity on her, dealing down no punishment despite the council’s wishes, but shortly after that the woman vanished without a trace and is still missing to this day. Legend has it she was the first ever Lumenwisp and that she is still alive somewhere.

As for the creatures dubbed ‘affectionately’ by Eliana as Vaniwisps, they were punished harshly, their ability to reproduce taken away from them by the Trinity. It would no longer be possible without a blessing from a goddess. The entire colony was broken apart and spread within different continents and places of Aermerea. Some went to the North in the Lixue Lands, others to the South in the Cirrus Islands or to the East Onagra Mountains where the mines were rich. The worst offenders, the leaders of the pack, were banished back into their forest, unable to leave and unable to be seen by anyone’s eyes. The ones with the most radical and dangerous ideas were punished and sealed in the Underground, the gods not knowing the core of corruption lying close to there. Unluckily for the gods in general, it seemed that Vaniwisps were almost immortal, like the gods themselves. As long as they ate gems and kept themselves filled with magic they could live on and come back from almost anything, even supposedly fatal wounds.

Over the years these scattered Vanis adapted to their land, changing exponentially to match the terrain. Some even found ways to fashion children from gems through a rare process, but not allowing them true children, and with the success rate of this being very low. Where there were once only one kind of Vani there were now several - such as icy snow Vanis, colorful tropical Vanis, mountainous Vanis, dangerous cave Vani’s who would become known as Umbralwisp and eventually even kind and gentle forest Vanis. These forest Vanis became the first of their kind to break the mould of Vanity’s corruption and rise above it. They also were the first to be blessed by Valora, Vanity’s daughter, to be able to have children naturally. Living in the Suppetia forest as family units, they are protectors of Aermerea. Somewhere there is a colony of Lumenwisps in the Heavens myth says.

Meanwhile Vanity could care less what happened to any of them. He had ended up alone yet again, but the progression of his ‘disease’ keeps the tingling of creation at bay.

Written by KizunaYui, edited by AzraelVek & cy-chin