Steam and the Steam logo are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Valve Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.
Introduction
When planning to add the Ani (again, both the singular and plural form is "Ani") to Creatures of Sonaria as a last-ditch effort to save one of the many parts of my dead project, I knew that their lore would not translate over without changes. Naturally, a large amount of people have interest in this lore, so this page aims to go over the sort of general purpose they served. More importantly, it has information for those looking to make characters of this species.
IMPORTANT: This lore is not affiliated with Sonaria. This is my lore. While some parts of this make assertions about their role in Sonaria, ultimately what the developers there say is what is (for all intents and purposes) truthful. I do not have control over Sonaria's copy of this species. Basically, if something they say on Sonaria's official sources differs from something here, and it's about Sonaria's version of the Ani, you need to believe the Sonaria source, not this page.
Making OCs
Originally, the Ani were going to be a private species as they were an NPC in my game. They were not only unfathomably rare to see, but would have been more likely to show up in literature instead of in person in the game. With their release to Sonaria and becoming part of the general public, this outlook has changed to favor creative freedom. This subsection outlines the rules for designing a character using this species.
To balance between uniformity and creativity, there are two types of Ani OCs that can be created. The first type, referred to as "Pure Ani", is for people who aim to try to respect their original lore. This type limits their visual appearance to a very strict requirement (see the text below) and also limits their personalities. These OCs will never engage in any sort of combat or conflict, have very innocent personalities, and tend to be incredibly charismatic and intelligent. They do not have any desires to use their capabilities for any sort of harm. In contrast, the second type, referred to as "Divergent Ani", offers full creative freedom. Effectively, using this type means you're politely borrowing the appearance of the species, and that's it. Everything else is up to you and completely free to design to your own specifications.
If you wish to create a character, you can do so completely on your own accord without asking me. The only requirement is that you do everything in your power to ensure you are correctly relaying what your character is to other people. If it isn't pure, don't go around telling people it is. Tell them that your character is derived from the real thing rather than officially supported. If you are unsure of whether or not your character is pure, you can always ask me.
Original Purpose
In my lore, the original purpose of the Ani was to serve almost as the eyes and ears of a greater entity loosely referred to as "The Gilded One" (who will be referred to as their "leader figure" or "leader" from here onward). The alignment of this leader leans strongly towards good, and they are partly holy, the home realm of the Ani being a bridge between reality and the perfection of the afterlife. Their job is to keep the game's antagonistic force at bay and to monitor its behaviors and patterns. When they find a world of particular interest - said interests not necessarily being obvious or meaningful to anyone other than themselves - the Ani are sent to reside on the world for any arbitrary amount of time. Since the Ani are comparable to agents in this regard, they receive a set of instructions and resources necessary to survive there, and may even have their bodies and minds tweaked to best suit the world.
Appearance and Personality
Despite their seemingly serious purpose, their personalities are very gentle and energetic, and they never have feelings of malice or hatred. This has to do with their pure origins. They are incredibly altruistic and will give to others for no obvious benefit to themselves. Their visual appearance does not reflect their gentle nature however, and from appearance alone they look almost tribal or even barbaric. If you have played Ori, then the behavior of Spirits is just about on the money.
Between males and females, the only difference is on their heads. Males have a fireball cradled between their antlers, and females have a stream of light running over the top of their heads. Their body colors do not deviate, and all of them are white and gold. The only deviations between them are in eye undertone (their eyes are black, but may reflect colors like gray, green, brown, or blue very faintly if a light is shined at them) and body proportions, some are taller and stronger than others. Their height is defined at around 2'6" (75cm) - note that this is NOT their height in Sonaria! (If you wonder, this would make them about half the height of Jeff, and the game's physics engine would not be happy with a creature that small. In Sonaria they are somewhere within the 7ft-12ft range in comparison (this may not be the actual size of the units in the game. Please do not use this as an official size comparison. It's not official.)) - and tends to deviate about plus or minus 8 inches (20cm).
Extra Stuff
The Ani were always intended to be a derivation of Spirits from the Ori franchise (which should come as no surprise to anyone who knows even a little about me). The mechanics of how Ani live and function on a fundamental level were not defined for their original lore (it didn't need to be), but for those looking for something to build off of, I've decided to unify it with my existing Ori fanon, namely its mechanics on Light.