The Tennins

Beings that populate the cosmos. They have the powers of the universe; aether, light, dark, water, air, fire and earth. They have existed forever and continue to exist forever. In SHADE, all humankind is descended from a colony of Tennins, although, after thousands of years, their powers are either very diluted or nonexistent.

Notable Tennins:

Katarael: the soul of a water tennin. She doesn't have a body, but piggy-backs with Katt. Without some kind of physical anchor she will eventually fade away. She is intuitive and warns Katt by sending her impressions- when something bad is happening or about to happen.

She is harbored inside the charm that Katt carries around with her, but is able to leave the charm if needs be. She is a peaceful and benevolent spirit, and has been with Katt's family for generations. Katarael does not like fighting, and tries to protect Katt, and steer her away from danger or confrontation as much as possible.

Katt can control the element of water because of Katarael's presence. Although Katt is independent of Katarael, and visa versa, they are also so closely knit that Katt will sometimes be referred to as Katarael. People subconsciously recognize Katarael's presence in Katt and, without realizing they're doing so, will sometimes refer to Katt as Katarael. (* See: Katarael; Nature of)

It is unknown as to why Katarael does not have a body of her own. Either she was never born, or was killed, or lost her body under strange circumstances.

Katarael lay on her back, holding the crystal up to the starlight. She gazed at the stars in the dark sky through the rocks' translucence. 

She had to come to terms with the fact that this might be the very last time she ever saw the stars. Letting out a resigned laugh, she wrapped the rock in her fist and held it to her chest as water trickled down her cheeks and she evaporated into nothing. 

Katarael's death

Katt has very little awareness of Katarael. She doesn't understand what Katarael is or how she exists. She knows that without her charm she has no control over water, and she has a vague suspicion that her charm has some kind of sentient energy. She also knows that when she received the charm from her grandmother, her name was changed to Katarael, and she has been called that ever since.

Katarael and Katt are so similar that it is a possibility that they may be the same person. Katarael could be Katt from a parallel dimension, with more accrued power than Katt has, thus making Katarael a ghost of Katt's own potential.

Katt's powers change and morph as she gets older. At one point, Katt's charm bursts in an attempt to spontaneously warp an entire boat full of people to a different dimension. When Katt awakens, she is separated from her friends, fatally dehydrated, and her powers are seemingly gone forever. But as Katt ages, her powers start to manifest in different ways such as when it starts coming out in her synesthesia.

She could tell everything about you by just watching you breathe. She can read the moisture in your eyes, or on the palms of your hands. She could tell everything about you at just a glance, by the vapor you expel, that floats around you, that sits on your skin with a rainbowy quality, like oil on top of a puddle. Human beings are very wet creatures, and can you can learn a lot from the colors of water. 



Envariel: The soul of a fire Tennin (Shiner).  Envariel resides inside Coy. Envariel and Coy are like minded in personality, which is why Envariel chose Coy to piggy-back with. Envariel and Katarael know each other and can recognize the other, which would explain why Katt and Coy were drawn to one another and became friends.