Hanyou

Hanyou is a term used to refer to those of mixed youkai and human ancestry. Common examples might be the child of a kitsune and a human, or a person with minor appearance shifts caused by a distant oni forbearer. The term is primarily used to refer to lineage; individuals powerfully affected by youkai magic are sometimes referred to as hanyou although this is a misnomer. Hanyou are often considered inaccurately to be demihuman; they are not a true breeding species. The most common hanyou are traditionally the conceived children between a full youkai and a human.

Hanyou are not native to Yuriba, largely due to the simple fact that humans are not native to the island. However, if one of the native kitsune bred with an immigrant human their descendants (so long as they still displayed signs of the kitsune memetype) would be considered native hanyou.

Appearance and Abilities

Because of the variety of different types of youkai it is difficult to make sweeping statements about the physical appearance of hanyou save that they usually take after their youkai ancestor to some degree. Common examples are animal-like ears, fangs, and unusual pigmentation to the skin, eyes, or hair. However, these are hardly universal and more extreme physical shifts may be noticed as well.

Most youkai display powers or abilities beyond those of a normal human; such abilities are often inherited in a diluted form by their children. Consequentially, most hanyou would actually be classified as a form of metahuman. Their memetype, however, is usually of the dominant humanoid female type and they can therefore reproduce easily with other subspecies within the memetype.

Some youkai memetypes are more dominant than others and individuals closely descended from these lines may be nearly indistinguishable visually from their ancestor's kind. Generally, the further away from any youkai ancestry and the greater percentage of human ancestry in a hanyou individual, the less they deviate from human norm in both appearance and ability.