hollowworld.uk

(i can't find the original artist to credit sorry)

A nix is born where children mourn;
A nix is born from hearts once warm;
A nix may be born in times of strife;
Or indeed, on any given night.

A nix is a tiny creature, ranging from four to twelve inches in height, born of powerful emotion. Not powerful emotion on the scale of humans: powerful emotion on the scale of gods, royal elementals, titans, and other such entities.

Description
When a nix is born, they appear as animated motes of light. Dancing, bobbing, full of beauty and whimsy. Most nixes stay this way forever, until the power from which they were born fades. Depending on the intensity of the love and the power of the being who bore that love, they might last anywhere from minutes to centuries.

When a nix has been given a name, they transition from an unrealized to a realized form. They are in essence born, their consciousness developing all at once and with great immediacy. They take on a form - usually humanoid, or at least bipedal - of proportions that can be whimsical or can be creepy, but are always at least a little surreal.

Nixes & Ages

Nixes do not age.

Appearance
Nixes are 4-12 inches tall.

Nixes are iconically little anthropomorphic faerie-like things who emit a glowing light, brighter when they’re well fed and energetic, weaker when they’re starving, dying, or sleepy. They only gain the anthropomorphic qualities after being named; before that, they’re just motes of light.

When deciding on the details of their appearance, understand that they are not actually corporeal beings. Their appearance changes based entirely on whimsy, though they should always be identifiable as the nix they were before - they can’t consciously change their appearance for a quick disguise.

Abilities
They learn quickly, especially with language. After listening to a native speaker communicate naturally for only a few hours, they develop a full and complete understanding of the language. They are incapable of teaching language, however. It is because they are composed largely of pure magical essence - essentia - that they have this great affinity for the spoken and written word. As almost nothing else in universe is so closely attuned to the fabric of creation itself, almost nothing else could comprehend their attempts at explaining language.

They aren’t corporeal. In order for something to hurt them, it must be a deliberate act of malice toward them. Someone swiping at them with their hand too aggressively could kill them - but they would be left completely unharmed by a rock slide, because rocks (generally speaking) are incapable of malice. Animals, except for cats large and small which cruelly love to hunt for sport, also lack the emotional intelligence for malice, and so nixes are never at any risk when interacting with even the mightiest unenlightened predators.

A nix is closely attuned to all magic, able to sense its presence if they are within the same room as a magical effect or creature. After examining the source of magic for several seconds, they can also determine its origin, such as what domain a divine magical effect is linked to or what school an arcane magical effect is of. A magical creature - including mages and blessed - who are capable of illusions or wards or the like would be capable of obscuring or hiding this from a nix’s prying eyes.

They can fly, levitate, and move about magically.

They can squeeze through gaps as small as a quarter of an inch.

How is a new nix made?
When a powerful being - an elemental, a figment, a god, whatever - feels love the potential for a nix to be born is there. If that love fades naturally in the course of that being’s life, then a nix is not born. However, it is when that love is lost suddenly or traumatically that a nix comes into creation. How many nixes? It depends on how great the love was and how powerful the being is.

Can a nix fight?
Not really. They have a great mastery over language and some of their other abilities can make them quite tricksy, but in the end the tallest examples of their species are still under a foot and would barely be able to lift a knife, nevermind use it in a skirmish.

Can they learn magic?
Yes, but they can only practice it at great and terrible risk. More than any other sentient playable thing, nixes are almost entirely composed of pure magical essence. A normal human could cast spells all day long and even if they exert themselves they will probably be fine. A nix is literally composed of the same energy used to cast spells, ergo the process of casting spells is destructive to their fundamental being.

How does this work out? It’s unique for every nix, you’re the ultimate arbiter of when your nix is close to obliterating themselves from existence. As a rough guideline, if they cast a spell that is of their level - i.e. an adept casting adept level spells - they should only be able to do that a couple of times before they have destroyed themselves.

How long do they live?
Forever, potentially. If they are able to sustain themselves off of magical energy (siphoning it from artifacts, other inherently magical beings, mages, etc) and never run out, they have no physical body and so never age. A nix who gorges themselves on magical energy can expect not to need to eat again for as long as a year, assuming they aren’t a mage casting spells all over the place.

How does a nix consume magical energy?
Every nix is unique. No two are alike in any way. As long as the nix has a source of magical energy to draw from, whatever the nix believes they must do to consume the magical energy is how they do it.