"What is a Gembound?"
A gembound is a manifestation of a living specimen with a stone integrated somewhere onto their physical form. The Stone is in fact the source of the specimen's power, life and emotions. The body itself is simply a vessel for the stone to inhabit, in order to have consciousness and the ability to interact with its environment. The life force of a stone is called Magicka.

"How is a Gembound made?
There are three ways a Stone can become a Gembound. In every case, the Stone in imbued with Magicka by an outside force. That Stone then cements itself to the ground and expands its shape into a larger casing. This stone casing is called a Chrysalis, and it is hollow. Inside, the original stone begins to form a body around itself. It takes one full Cycle (month) for the new body to form inside. The body, attached to its Stone, becomes a new Gembound. It then hatches at an early stage of adolescence, rather than a helpless newborn- ie, when a lion cub would be weaned and independent, but not quite self-sufficient yet, or at an early fledgling stage for birds.

This process can be triggered in one of three ways;

1. First Generation
A non-magickal Stone is imbued with a random burst of Magicka from the cave itself. This is a random event and results in a First Generation Gembound, a specimen pure in its chosen host species. There can be no First Generation Hybrids, as this new Gembound takes its form from a pre-determined database of Species DNA. How this is decided is unknown. First Generation Gembound also inherit no unnatural Mutations at first hatch, but can later mutate under specific circumstances. We'll describe this sort of instance later on in the Guide.

2. Reproduction
A pair of Gembound can create a new Gembound using a combined effort of Magicka and Stone. The Stone Giver can use a powerful spell to cleave a portion off of their own Stone. This is generally quite painful, or at least uncomfortable for the Stone Giver, as it removes a physical portion of their actual being. At the same time, the Life Giver can use another powerful spell to pour Magicka into the cleaved stone shard. The Cleaved Shard will then become imbued with the other parent's magickal imprint, and combine the two parents' forms into a Hybrid offspring of the two. These hybrids can often be more dependent on their Givers, most often true in obscure hybrids between two completed unrelated species. This is not always the case, but appears to be a common outcome.

3. Revival
When a Gembound dies, it drops it's Stone from it's mortally wounded physical form. The Stone then lies dormant, preserving a very small amount of Magicka in order to retain the possible physical attributes previously had by the deceased. Another Gembound may come across this Dormant Stone and Revive it. The process is much the same as a Life Giver's task. The Reviver imbues their own Magicka into the Dormant Stone and in doing so, starts the life cycle over again, brand new. This combines the previous species with the Reviver's species. This process has a very slight chance of the Revived Hybrid retaining some sense of its previous life- be it personality traits or even trace hints of memories (typical in Arcane users primarily).

The Stages of a Gembound

Gembounds go through many stages during their early cycles. Here, we'll cover each stage, from conception to full growth, and explain the differences between each species base as it grows.

STAGE 1 - The Stone
All gembounds begin their existence as a benign stone. This can be any precious stone or gem, and can come in a wide variety of shapes, colors and sizes. At some point in time, by one of the methods detailed above, this Stone is imbued with magicka and then progresses to the next stage of development.

STAGE 2 - The Neonate
Once a Stone is imbued with magicka, it cements itself to the ground and begins to grow in size. In this stage, the stone splits into two- the outer shell, or Chrysalis, and the fragment inside that will begin forming a body around itself to survive. This new body is called the Neonate. Protected by its Chrysalis, the Neonate will take one full Cycle to form a viable body.

For Mammals, the Neonate will progress to a weaned stage of development before hatching. This way, there is no dependency on others to survive. The newborn Gembound will emerge self-sufficient.

For Reptiles, most tend to hatch at the same developmental stages as real world reptiles might- like miniature adults, these newborns have an easier start at life, due to their advanced development. This fact, however, does not carry over much into actual roleplay, simply due to their small size and a mammal's naturally further stage at emergence.

For Avians, newly hatched chicks are at an early fledgling stage. Some may be able to fly, such as smaller species like song birds or finches, but most, like hawks and eagles, need a little extra time out of their Chrysalis after hatching to gain their final flight feathers.

Hybrids are a trickier business. Some a less developed than others. Some are more so. Most emerge as close to their parent species' developmental rule as possible. Example; a Mammal/Bird cross, such as the hybrid Remedy, whose parents were a tiny bird and large cat, end up hatching at an earlier stage for one half than the other. Remedy in particular hatched unable to fly, with no adult plumage, like an earlier-stage chick, but was developed enough to eat soft meat and bugs at hatching, unlike her twin of the same age and set, who could eat prime meat from the start with little trouble.

STAGE 3 - Newborn
A Newly Hatched gembound is always capable of sustaining itself, at least as far as its physical development is concerned. For the first Cycle after hatching, the new Gembound goes through extreme bodily changes. It quickly sprouts from infant to teenager in just one thirty-day span. Often times, upon hatching, a new gembound will speed its own development if it can, by consuming the remains of its Chrysalis. This particular behavior is most commonly seen in First Generation Gembound. Generational Gembound, with parents, often don't need to worry about that extra boost. Some Parents will even eat their offsprings' Chrysalis afterwards, or dispose of it some other way, in order to reduce waste and evidence of the birth. This behavior also prevents any more Gembound from developing in the left-over gemstone, due to residual magicka left behind, or the intereference of an outside source. If the remains are left alone, however, a new Gembound can indeed form from the same source as the previous Gembound. This is more commonly seen in First Generation Gembound, as Second Generation and so on need magicka specifically from their parent in order to form- and more often than not, this does not produce enough Magicka in the Chrysalis to form another body after the first.