The Quinn are an ancient people native to the waters of Eyom. While they prefer to live their lives beneath the surface of freshwater (rivers, lakes, and seas all see some Quinn settlement), the Quinn are capable of living on land. Unlike most amphibious peoples, the Quinn are equally adept on land and in the sea. Unlike all peoples, the Quinn were contemporaries of the Z̚oman, and possibly even predate their civilization.

Unfortunately for archeologists, the modern Quinn are survivors of multiple apocalyptic events and can share little of Zo's ancient past. They did not always live in fresh waters, but rather are native to the sea. Their ancient cities are now dens for the terrible beasts Irus unleashed during his war against the gods. Before this, the Z̚oman themselves hunted the Quinn, seeking their flesh and blood for their science. Both events drove the Quinn ever deeper. First beneath the seas, then breatheth the ground.

The modern Quinn live in a few dozen small nations built within aquifers connected by lava tubes and quarried tunnels. These hidden fortresses are impossible for vertebrates to access without the Quinn themselves opening hidden doorways used for cargo. If any decided the Quinn have seen their cities, they have never returned to tell the tale.

Given these conditions, one would reasonably assume the Quinn are hostile to all outsiders. The truth is much the opposite. While the Quinn remained in solitude and isolation until a group of Dwarves mined into one of their many subterranean aquatic highways in the year 1208. The Quinn were delighted to learn the "Plague Bringers" were extinct, and had no ill will towards any of Eyom's modern peoples.

In the modern age, most Quinn nations have some relationship with the land-based nations above their territory. Many nations allow Quinn to live on the surface if they choose too, without any papers or bureaucratic work necessary. This arrangement is due to an important service the Quinn provide for those who live above them. Water purification.

The Quinn are more than happy to tap into an urban center's sewers to manage the waste and transport the purified water back to the center's source. This is due entirely to the Z̚oman, whose industrial processes drove the ancient Quinn to the seas by contaminating groundwater so greatly it brought deadly plague to the first Quinn nations.

Most of Eyom's nations see accepting mutual overlapping territorial claims between themselves and the Quinn as more than worth the price of sustainable drinking water, and not angering shapeshifting cephalopods with access to ancient magics.

Personality

Quinn are often thought of as "alien". This is an understandable position given their aquatic origins, drastically alien biology, and general wants and needs. It's not a wrong position, nor a problematic one either. The sole issue with this belief is that it makes the Quinn harder to understand than they truly are.

The Quinn do have their major differences in general thought from non-Thaumoic species. the major ones are as follows:

1. The Quinn do not stereotype nor make assumptions about groups based on the actions of individuals in those groups. They instead possess the capacity to use the actions of the group as a whole to form their judgments. This makes diplomacy with them easy if they are open to interacting with your group, as they are always willing to listen to an individual who promises they will attempt to change the current status quo through negotiation.
2. The Quinn's social norms do not clash with one another. Individuals who are a part of a group will not judge those outside of their group for failing to live up to their group's standards.
3. The Quinn delight in imperial understandings of the world. They will seek answers which make sense given weighing, measuring, and testing. While all peoples do this, the Quinn are unique in they are entirely satisfied with the answers "We don't know.", "We don't know how to find out.", and "It may not be possible to know."
4. The Quinn are not merely confused by acts of faith, but are genuinely incapable of the thinking required to exercise faith at all. Quinn works entirely on trust based not in emotion but statistics, for which they make use of their intuitive grasp of mathematics, statistical analysis, and probability. A Quinn will be trusting of you based entirely on what they know of who you associate with and your past actions within the relevant field. Quinn who distrust people, only distrust them within areas they have proven to be lacking or failing.
5. The Quinn do not have a concept of sex or romance due to their biology. The concepts are entirely alien to them, but not incomprehensible. Quinn slowly come to understand the concept as they are exposed to it. While they will never feel a genuine need for romantic relationships, they often seek them out as novel experiences. Much like how other peoples play games or sports.
6. Most adult Quinn prefer gender neutral pronouns such as it or they and will be offended if gendered pronouns are used for them. All known Quinn children are the reverse, insisting on being addressed as female. This is due to their biology.

Naturally, differences imply similarities. The Quinn have plenty of things in common with the other peoples of the world:

1. The Quinn have a strong sense of family and community, forming large settlements for mutual defense, comfort, and convenience.
2. The Quinn fear death and will do everything in their power to avoid it.
3. The Quinn love their children and will do anything to protect them.
4. The Quinn form complex social hierarchies such as nation states inorder to manage their civilization.
5. The Quinn form friendships both faint and bright. Many Quinn will do anything for their friends.

Due to these differences, the Quinn act in radically different ways from most people in their day to day lives. However, they are still quite similar. A Quinn visiting a market to buy yarn is likely to wish for it inorder to pursue her hobby of knitting. A Quinn running a smithy is doing so inorder to afford some of life's luxuries. A Quinn warrior is fighting for her city's safety.

Quinn are highly social, more so than most other species. They can be conversed with easily, and enjoy making conversation with anyone about nearly anything. It's very easy to befriend a Quinn simply through repeated interactions. You are very unlikely to upset or anger a Quinn without placing their safety in jeopardy, and even then most Quinn will attempt to resolve a problem with words as soon as it arises rather than let the issue smolder or resort to violence.

That said, when a Quinn does resort to violence, they have never been observed to allow whatever caused the problem to continue to exist. They appear to universally see violence as not only the last resort, but the final resort.

Physical Description

Quinn are a species of cephalopods that greatly resemble the blue-ringed octopus when they are not making use of their shape, texture, and color changing abilities. Except they are roughly the size of an adult human woman. Their shapechanging abilities are so well developed that a Quinn can take the form of any organism within 40% of its natural volume by contorting itself into that shape, altering its colors accordingly, then retexturing its surface to best mimic the creature it has chosen to imitate.

While a Quinn cannot imitate extremely fine features such as fur or hair through this method (though they can create basic textures and shathathich resemble hairdos or the major features of a pelt as a whole, they cannot make individual hairs or strands of fur) they are capable of creating structures that allow them to perform such actions as form what appears to be a full human mouth with teeth and tongue in such detail a dentist couldn't tell the difference at a glance save for the Quinn's beak resting where the throat would normally be.

The Quinn use their shape changing abilities not only for aesthetics but for utility. Their natural forms are very adept at moving through the sea but terrible at moving on the land. Quinn traditionally take the form of land animals when on the surface, with a general preference for humanoid forms (most commonly a form that resembles an elf, albeit with blueish skin. This appears to be a defense reflex that developed in the ancient world as Quinn will unconsciously take this form if threatened while caught off guard in order to negotiate.

They also make use of humanoid forms for construction purposes below the water, as meshing their tentacles together to make other limbs helps improve their dexterity and strength (especially above water).

Quinn eyes are notably human in appearance, though their pupils can elongate into horizontal slits as well as dilate. The elongation greatly widens their field of view and depth perception. Their body features are very morphable and maulable, as well as somewhat mobile, allowing them to move their eyes, beak, and siphons to new locations in order to match the locations of the equivalent organs in creatures they imitate.

Quinn are a very sexually dimorphic species with males and females. Howeaver, as they utilize sexual symbiosis, their males are not only extremely different in apperance, but also in anatomy and intelect. Quinn males are simple parasitic animals (which resemble eels) that permanently attach themselves to a Quinn female by devouring one of her tentacles and replacing it.

The male will then begin a metamorphosis which physically transforms it into a tentacle matching those of a female Quinn, albeit remaining approximately 20% longer, and notably wider than her other tentacles. Once this metamorphosis is complete, the Quinn will occasionally be compelled to reproduce on its own via self-incrimination. This union is painful until the fusion is compleated, and irreversible.

Quinn do not think of themselves as individuals after this fusion, rather, they think of themselves as a gestalt entity; Thus, their objection to gendered pronouns being used for them. Indeed, post-fusion, a Quinn's personality can change noticeably. Many feminine Quinn become more masculine and many masculine Quinn become more feminine after the process. Others remain unchanged. One should note that not all Quinn feel this way, but a majority do.

Quinn reproduction is important to their general appearance not only in that it explains the odd size of one of their tentacles but also the small scar all Quinn have just behind their right eye. This scar cannot be color changed or textured to the same degree as surrounding tissue and is always noticeable if one looks for it. The Scar results from the intentional and systemic removal of a small gland near the Quinn's optic nerve.

This gland creates hormones that cause the Quinn to mature and age and stimulate gamete production. Quinn reproductive organs mature due to the hormonal influence of the optic gland but result in the deactivation of their digestive glands. Unable to feed, the Quinn will die of starvation shortly after reproducing for the first time at approximately 8 years old. Ancient Quinn discovered injuries to the eye could sometimes result in the cessation of broodiness, the resumption of feeding, increased growth, and greatly extended lifespans. This led to the modern Quinn practice of extracting the gland after reproducing and allows the Quinn to live for nearly 80 years before succumbing to the ravages of age.

A Quinn suffering from the ravages of aging is neither graceful, nor pleasant, and occurs in a matter of weeks rather than years. During the final weeks of its life, a Quinn's digestive enzymes break down and can no longer extract nutrients from food, causing the Quinn to quickly weakens. Lesions begin to form and the Quinn literally degenerates. Most Quinn chooses to commit suicide when the first lesions begin to develop.

Relations

The Quinn have excellent relations with all of Eyom's nations and peoples. This included the Wood Elves, whom they notably hate substantially less than typical for Wood Elves. The reasoning comes down to preserved knowledge regarding the origins of Elves in general. Essentially, the Quinn pitty Wood Elves and believe they are incapable of free will due to a lack of free will is a major defect in Z̚oman biomancy. Their historians recount this defect appeared in every batch of lifeforms the Z̚oman created, with the average percentage being within a 3% margin of error for the number of true Wood Elves in Eyom (2000).

Thus, the Quinn do their best to be understanding and kind towards the Wood Elves, all the while doing their best to influence them to obey them rather than Irus. There has been limited success in this area, with the Quinn being the founders of many slave escape routes and programs within Wood Elven territory. The Quinn are able to get away this due to the extremely poor soil conditions in the Wood Elven heartlands, which make survival much more difficult in key strategic locations without their help.

Due to the artistic level of diplomacy and persuasion of the Quinn diplomats, Eyom's people have come to understand that these acts are how the Quinn have chosen to fight Irus and are not taken in support of his Convent but are rather directed towards people they truly believe to be puppets of the strongest will within proximity to them.

Many groups disagree with the Quinn’s methods, insisting that they should abandon their efforts and allow the areas to become uninhabitable. These groups rarely win debates against Quinn diplomats once the Quinn asks if the other party would be willing to house their nation for the duration of the operation and cleanup phases as the water becoming toxic affects not only the Wood Elves, but themselves as well.

The Quinn have poor relations with the Kami, as not only do they not worship them, they refuse to allow their libraries to be analyzed, archived, or even viewed by outsiders. Given their knowledge of ancient magics, it’s possible they know something of the means behind the creation of synthetic gods. As this knowledge is banned, the Kami have a vested interest in searching all libraries for it, as well as key information that leads to the discovery, in order to destroy it. The Quinn object to this practice so strongly it is rumored they regularly kill spiritual agents which attempt to breach their libraries.

Settlements

Quinn settlements are impossible for surface dwellers to visit without permission and water breathing equipment. Additionally, the Quinn have not permitted any visitation to date, citing security concerns. While surface dwellers can simply run for the hills if attacked, the Quinn are much more easily cut off from escape given their inhabitation of aquifers and cave systems.

Quinn who live on the surface prefer to sleep in large jars filled with water in a position that can be most accurately called a wad. Quinn with a land-based romantic partner will do their best to sleep with them using a humanoid form but will always unravel a little while sleeping. This results in their partner waking up literally covered in their partner.

Alignment

Quinn cannot be mapped by conventional ethical and moral philosophical understandings. Their differences make this a true challenge, as if we were to track ourselves on their scales, we would all be agents of chaos.

The conventional wisdom amongst Eyom's peoples is that Quinn will do their best to help those around them, and prefer there be an order to things. Yet while their definition of help aligns with ours, their idea of order can be jarringly different to any conventional concepts one may know of.

Adventurers

Quinn found on the surface are almost exclusively adventurers. They see living for a few years in a surficer town as a thrilling adventure, almost as much as many young people see slaying an evil dragon as an adventure. It is difficult to talk them into the more classic concept of adventure as Quinn are simply not built for such things in terms of their preferences for living life.

However, a notable percentage of Quinn discover what surficers find "adventurous" and become hooked for life.