The Guarians

Spirituality

Not alive in a conventional sense, the guarians are a collective of what could be referred to as corporeal spirits. They are not simply ghosts who float around and pass through walls, and are still bound to most of the laws of physics. Despite this, the guarians actually still have a number of strange traits not commonly found among the living and are capable of some fascinating feats while you aren't looking.

Facial Features

One of the most notable and immediately apparent features of their guarians is their typical lack of facial features. While total facelessness is relatively commonrelatively common, a few facial features still naturally occur. Ears are actually quite common and can be found on many guariansmany guarians. Mouths are far rarer, but can still be found on rare occasionrare occasion. Not a single guarian with eyes has been seen to date (not counting those who have had their eyes drawn on after the factdrawn on after the fact).

Materialization

Acting with mysteriously perfect timing and awareness, the guarians typically only appear when convenient. When choosing to make an appearance, the guarians appear somewhere completely out of view instantaneously and silently, and the same is true when they decide to take their leave. It was previously thought that the guarians strictly prefered appearing when their companion is alone, but over time, more guarians have been discovered which contradict this notion. While most seem to prefer solitude, a growing number of guariansgrowing number of guarians can be found in broad daylight. Despite this, there seems to be some unknown mechanism preventing them from being acknowledged by the collective conscience. More investigation is required.

The frequency with which the guarians decide to make their visits is mostly dependent on the guarian themselves. For some guarians, visits may be so rare that they're practically worth celebrating and are typically very memorable experiencesmemorable experiences. In other cases, a guarian may appear with such frequency that you eventually form a rhythm with them, their presence so assured that you could sit back knowing they've already appeared behind youthey've already appeared behind you.

Material Shifting

The guarians are rather unconventional in that they are not each defined by a static form, but rather, a vague concept of who they are and what they're meant to be, something that could be molded by those who behold them. As the guarians are not conventionally living beings, they are not bound to conventionally living bodies and are free to experiment with alternate states of being altogether.

A guarian can freely change its composition whenever it so chooses, only shifting when not seen. Given they're unalive nature, there appears to be no restrictions on what form they take. While plenty of fluffy, feathery guarians have been seen, many often take typically inanimate forms such as inflatable or plush forms while still remaining fully animate. Many more materials have been seen beyond this such as rubber, mud, water, plastic, clay, and even obsidian. While some guarians tend to prefer themselves as a specific materialas a specific material, other guarians have a tendency of being a little more creativea little more creative

Size Shifting

As with the material shifting, each guarian is more of a vague concept of what they should be rather than something unchanging, and because of this, they are the ones who define their size, rather than their size defining who they are. As with all guarian abilities, the change takes place silently and instantaneously, but only when not perceived. The bounds for these changes in size are not clearly known.

Some guarians tend to enjoy a more stable sizestable size, usually maintaining their preferred height in both indoor and outdoor situations. Other guarians tend to play around with their size more, enjoying larger formslarger forms when outdoors while certain other guarians take this to extreme lengthsextreme lengths.

Companionship

The guarians are unique in that their existence does not seem to be self-contained. That is to say, a guarian has never been witnessed existing in solitude. Every observance of the guarians appears to have been, eventually, in the presence of another, for it appears the mere act of being perceived is how the guarians exist in the first place.

This reliance upon being in the company of someone more real is not well understood, and their motives for behaving this way are completely unknown, but given the nature of these encounters, it appears as though their intent is purely just altruistic benevolence. The guarians seem to build a complex relationships, actively shaping themselves in strange ways in order to resonate with those they befriend

Understanding

Given their spiritual nature, their fantastical abilities and their completely inexplicable existence, one has to wonder what goes on within the mind of a guarian. Contrary to what one might think, it turns out that the answer is: probably not much. Unsurprisingly, as they typically lack mouths, the guarians are not able to speak, but many of them do seem proficient at expressing themselves via body language. Some guarians do seem curious by nature, but overall it appears that they're generally uninterested in more complicated concepts.

While the guarians seem to be very simple minded, a very notable exception to this is their profound understanding of emotion. Despite their non-communicative nature, the guarians seem to have near perfect knowledge of how you're actually feeling. While it could very well be intuition, it seems as though that guarians are actually able to sense ones emotions in ways that we cannot perceive. Because of this, even though the guarians themselves are not able to speak, they're still able to understand us regardless by the emotions we feel when we express ourselves. Through this understanding, the guarians have even demonstrated responding to simple questions via body language

Perception

Despite lacking eyes, the guarians seem to still be able to see. It is unknown by what mechanism they are able to perceive the world around them, but whatever it may be, it allows them to see the world completely different from how we see it. Rather than taking light in, the guarians seem to be capable of perceiving a small area around them. The range of this effect is limited and varies between guarian to guarian. Furthermore, this form of perception seems to require a small amount of energy to take effect and can be "turned off" when a guarian chooses to rest. Based on these factors, some guarians have unfortunately low perceptionunfortunately low perception while other guarians have incredibly high perceptionincredibly high perception, far beyond what we're capable of.

Interestingly enough, this strange sense of perception isn't actually their only way of seeing. This understanding a guarian has of one's emotions appears to go beyond simple knowledge or senses, as the guarians seem to be capable of benefiting from the senses of their companions as well. In addition to their own perception, the guarians seem to incorporate the perception of those around them as well. Unlike their own perception, this sharing of vision actually seems to cost no energy on their part and is an intrinsic way of seeing the world around them. Because of this, guarians tend to be much more confident in their steps whenever they're close to their companion. Conversely, this reliance on other's vision results in scenarios where a guarian might not be aware of what's between themselves and their companion, which is the leading cause for the guarian's tendency to bump into walls.

Self Image

Through the guarians' ability to see within us, understanding our emotions and sensing our own senses, it's almost as if the guarians bind themselves to one in a way that we cannot see or understand ourselves. Through these shared senses and emotions, it's unclear how deeply the guarians can see into our minds, but it is clear that they possess some level of knowing, as accounts of specific guarians have differed from one person to the next. Through these varied encounters, the guarians are evidently not static beings and appear to craft themselves in the image of those that they're bound to, not only in make, but subtly in behavior as well.

Given the emotions and the inner workings of those of who a guarian is bound to, the guarians actually shift themselves to suit themselves to their companions. Through the material shifting and size shifting, the guarians can rebuild themselves as they see fit with what seems to be little effort, but what's more interesting is the fact that the guarians seem not only to shift themselves, but their actual preferences as well. Where one guarian may prefer themselves as a specific material for one person, they may suddenly enjoy great change when interacting with another. Where another guarian may size themselves to fit indoors, they may suddenly enjoy towering over the clouds depending on who they're with. Furthermore, this level of variance actually varies between guarians as well, but regardless of to what degree, the bottom line is that accounts of individual guarians may differ heavily from one person to another.

Adornments

Regarding the guarian's odd spiritual nature, one of their most intriguing traits is their receptiveness to being personalized. Given their simplicity, the guarians actually seem to enjoy acting as a canvas for others (some of whom really enjoy itreally enjoy it), and are very open to being drawn upon, painted, dyed, or even adorned with various accessories. Thus far, there appears not to be any limit to what sort of accessories one could adorn their guarian with; necklaces, bracelets, even ribbons and bows.

Once applied to a guarian, these adornments practically become a part of their very being, resulting in some surprising properties.

• Applied adornments (if applied properly and securely) become permanently affixed. Markings, paints and dyes never fade away or degrade over time regardless of the elements they're subjected to. Adornments remain in exactly the condition they were in when they were applied. Bows remain tied and loose adornments stay perfectly perched upon where they were placed.
• While permanent, they are not irreversible. Adornments permanently remain until the moment you wish to remove them, which can be done by totally ordinary means. When removed, these adornments return to their ordinary state and are ordinarily effected by reality once more
• Applied adornments shift with the guarian wearing them. When shifting size, their accessories actually change size with them, shrinking or growing to fit a guarian regardless of their size. Markings also change scale with their guarian, appearing exactly as it did the moment you applied it. Furthermore, when a guarian shifts materials, markings and accessories often remain unchanged, but in certain circumstances, these adornments also shift with the guarian, taking on the material they themselves have become, or sometimes even taking on new forms entirely to suit the change (dyes shifting to paints or vice versa).

That Which We Do Not Know

What makes the guarians truly fascinating is not just everything that's been documented about them, but rather, everything that is not documented about them as well. For everything we know about them, various counter examples of nearly every trait have been witnessed as well. Some guarians seem to be capable of a great many things that we do not fully understand, possessing intelligence far beyond what a guarian should, appearing in plain site instead of only when you're alone, powers and abilities that we've never even seen. The information given here is not exhaustive, and likely never will be. As long as there are more guarians are encountered, we will never know all there is to know, and no one trait will ever be guaranteed.