Familiars and Pactbound

Familiars are feral monsters that an exalted or awakened feed with their own mana and/or prana. Ferals can and will reject a person’s mana if they don’t trust them. Dunjimon (with the exception of bosses and mini bosses) aren’t intelligent enough to reject mana, so they’re the easiest creatures to turn into familiars. They'll become indistinguishable from regular monsters once they become a familiar. After a certain amount of mana and/or prana has been infused into a familiar it will become fully sapient and gain the ability to take a humanoid form and speak (it's considered an awakened creature at this point). A familiar's master can give it commands that will be understood regardless of any language barriers.

Pactbound

Pactbound are awakened or exalted that chose to become familiars. Most pactbound are former familiars that decided to stay with their master after gaining sapience. Creatures that were born sapient agreeing to become a pactbound is rare, but not unheard of. As their name suggests, pactbound form a magical contract (better known as a pact) with their master. Pacts have clearly defined rules that when broken cause a listed consequence to happen. For example a contract could say that the master cannon willingly consume ice cream under penalty of their legs breaking. Should that master willingly eat ice cream their legs will break and. Only divine intervention can prevent the consequences of violating a pact. Pacts can be altered at any time with the consent of the master and familiar. Either party can terminate the contract at any time without consequence.