The Lion King
Aelvar scout, brandishing twin-daggers | A member of the Royal Guard, chosen by the Lady herself | An Everwatcher, serving as the first line of defence
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To add another sentient species to the planet Midvinter to contrast the already established races there, available for anyone to roleplay.
- Image Credit: Concept art for the movie The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, by artist Nick Keller: http://nickkellerart.com/
- Canon: N/A
- Links: N/A
- Name: Aelvar
- Designation: Sentient
- Homeworld: Midvinter
- Language: Aelvi [Elvish]; Runian [Valkyri and Beorni native language]; Galactic Basic
- Average Lifespan: 1,000 GSY
- Estimated Population: Rare
- Description: A greatly secluded people, the Aelvar are a nimble and slender folk who in an bygone era decided it was better to remain shrouded in mystery rather than expose themselves to the outside world and its peoples. During their long lives they learn to master the bow and sword alike, and are taught that cunning and patience are superior to the brute strength their Valkyri neighbors so often resort to. They are masters at laying ambushes and silently stalk their prey, and in a straight-up fight the Aelvar employ great speed and agility to outmaneuver their opponent, withering them down with quick stabs and slashes coupled with decisive deathblows.
- Breathes: Oxygen
- Average height of adults: 1,8 metres [males]; 1,7 metres [females]
- Average length of adults: N/A
- Skin color: Dark to pale
- Hair color: Black to white
- Distinctions: While their physique is far more aking to that of a regular human rather than their hulking mountain-of-muscles neighbors, their most noticable feature is undoubtedly their pointy ears - no larger than a humans, yet with a pointed tip as if sharpened. Contrary to popular belief, the males are fully capable of growing facial hair while the women tend to sport significantly longer hair, sometimes reaching well past their waist, with both genders often times adorning their hair with impressive braids or other such beautifications.
Aelvar live incredibly long lifetimes, yet their young develop at around the same pace as Valkyri children do until they reach adulthood, at which point they remain strong and healthy for centuries before the first signs of age show themselves in the form of graying hair, wrinkles, etc. Another unique trait of theirs is the wide array of colour their eyes may assume, as children are born with every colour imaginable without necessarily sharing their parents' eyes; e.g. a child may be born with bright pink eyes while their parents have green and red eyes respectively.
- Races: N/A
- Strengths:
Force-sensitive: All Aelvar are born sensitive to the Force due to their proximity to the Force nexus, and all are instructed by their elders on the most basic forms of telepathy and telekinesis before they come of age.
Keen Senses: Aelvar possess greatly enhanced eyesight and hearing to that of a human, and coupled with their connection to the Force they are able to pick the smallest details.
Dexterious: While somewhat lacking in the brute strength department, Aelvar are exceedingly quick and nimble beings, able to confound and outmaneuver their enemies.
Ancient Knowledge: Considering their millennium-long lifespan, an Aelvar soldier is given ample time to become masters at swordplay and archery alike, as well as martial arts, military strategy and tactics.
Children of Midvinter: Just as any living creature able to thrive on Midvinter's largely frozen soil, they have an extremely high tolerance to cold, easily rivalling that of Valkyri.
- Weaknesses:
Fiercely Territorial: The Aelvar dedicate their lives to the preservation of the Frostvatn and the forest of Averlorn, and will stop at nothing to hunt down any trespasser. This means they can be very slow to trust outsiders.
Delicate: While just as athletic as an ordinary human, Aelvar are in no way exceptional when it comes to physical strength, instead relying on cunning tactics and superior agility. They are also nowhere near as resilient to trauma or injury as the Valkyri.
Minority: Because they limit themselves to inhabiting but a small part of Midvinter and it is customary to only mate once in their entire lifetime, their numbers are comparably few with some 100,000 members in total.
Sensory Overload: Due to their superior eyesight and hearing, sudden bright lights or loud noises can temporarily impair these senses to a degree where they become significantly worse than that of a regular human.
Slow Healers: Coupled with their comparably low tolerance to pain comes the added racial trait of them being slower at mending any sustained wounds than most humanoids. Whereas the human body may heal a broken bone in a month, the Aelvar need at least two in order to achieve the same level of mending - forcing them to rely heavily on their magical healers to speed up the process.
- Diet: Omnivores [meat, vegetables, fruits, fish]
- Communication: Verbal and written communication
- Technology level: Much like the rest of Midvinter, the Aelvar are not a technologically advanced people compared to the majority of the galaxy. Their arms and armour are simplistic in comparison, albeit masterfully crafted and more elegant than Valkyri designs, nor do they possess electricity or anything more advanced.
- Religion/Beliefs: Frostvatn - the Frozen Lake that sits at the centre of their woodland realm - is the source of their ancient magic, as well as worship. There are no prayers in the Lake's name nor any shrines to represent it, nor are there religious leaders of any kind. Instead the Aelvar believe that it is everyday actions - life itself - that serve as worship, for this magic exists in all living beings everywhere. Hence their great respect for nature and its denizens, and getting caught hunting for sport is counted as a most grievous offence. To a Jedi, the philosophy that the Force is in everything and everyone is known as "The Living Force".
"Magic" is the word they use to describe the Force, and they draw power from the Frostvatn due to the large concentration of Force energy stored there - the cause of this being that there is a great Force nexus buried deep underneath the ice, unbeknownst to anyone. Yet the Aelvar realised the crucial nature of this power and the horrors it could unleash should they allow it to fall to darkness, and thus ended up devoting their entire culture around it and made themselves its eternal guardians.
- General behavior: The Aelvar live for a very long time, and thus their society remains stagnant for centuries with little to no changes to their way of life. It is customary for them to only mate once in their lifetime, and thus their offspring are immensely precious to their entire society because of it - these minimalistic mating habits also help to prevent over-population, although the custom was never intended as an enforced restriction. Theirs is a tight-knit community, and so all members help caring for their young, for all Aelvar are considered family.
The Lady of the Lake rules over her people with complete authority in this Matriarchy, and is thus restricted to females while all other titles and offices are available to both genders. The Lady's spouse is granted the title of King Consort upon ascending the throne. Similar to Valkyri society, there are no set noble families and only the family of the current Lady is considered nobility. The title is not hereditary and with each succession the heads of all families come together to elect their next Lady of the Lake from amongst the grown women of the realm.
The Aelvar do not interact with the outside world in any shape or form, instead opting to remain hidden from view within their woodland realm. At the centre of their realm lies the Frostvatn - The Frozen Lake - surrounded by dense forest which in turn is shrouded by an unnatural fog wall, intended to disorient trespassers and effectively keep their neighbors from wandering into their precious realm. It didn't take long for rumours to spread across the land concerning the Cursed Woods and their secrets, for all who dare brave these woods are somehow returned to where they had started. In reality, those who step through to the other side are promptly captured and escorted back by the Everwatchers - first line of defence and stalwart protectors of the woods, ever tasked with patrolling its edges for any trespassers - along with the whole event removed from their memory.
When done for the day, Aelvar partake in merriment as much as any fellow sentient humanoid, including singing and dancing, music, art, and even alcoholic beverages - although these come nowhere close to the grandeur and spectacle of Valkyri feasts. A polite and well-spoken people, there exists not a single curse word in their entire dictionary, for due to their relatively few numbers they cannot afford fighting amongst themselves. They also take great pride in their role as guardians of the Frostvatn, as well as the knowledge and wisdom their people has amassed over the millennia, which might come off as arrogance to outsiders.
In the ancient times, by galactic standards countless hundreds of thousands of years ago, the Valkyri of Midvinter first stumbled out of their caves. With the aid of the Beorni - the first-ever sentient beings on the planet - their culture was established with many influences from their bearmen brethren. These numerous and ambitious humanoids would come to claim ownership of the known world, expanding across the vast continent from shore to shore until every corner of the globe not covered in water was settled, even going so far as to drive out their benevolent mentors and exiling them to a remote island. These times would come to be lost to the Valkyri, for they kept no written records of these events.
But the Valkyri were not the only humanoids to rise to dominance, for in the dense forests of Averlorn another sentient lifeform was taking shape. These were the first Aelvar; living among the treetops and learning to fashion crude bows and arrows they hunted their food from above where it was safe, in time constructing humble dwellings in the trees. To this day their architecture reminds one of intricate branches and astonishing leafwork, and once having grown bold enough to settle on ground level their knowledge of building materials had increased, enabling them to fashion great structures from stout Midvinter stone and metals.
They were soon drawn to the mystical powers seemingly emanating from the ever-frozen lake situated at the centre of the forest, and in time their whole society was devoted to the preservation of this sacrosanct body of water, learning from it to erect powerful barriers to stand between their realm and the world outside in the form of an everlasting fog wall - called the Dimholt - intended to keep out any eventual trespassers. The woman who had been the first to discover these magics was named the Lady of the Lake, for her wisdom and devotion to their cause was apparent to all. In time more would learn the mysteries of this Force, either by their own hand or by becoming an apprentice of the Lady. Only the Lady of the Lake knew how to dispel the barriers to the outside, however, and this knowledge would later be passed down to her successor.
So the Aelvar flourished for untold millennia, keeping out of reach and out of sight from their more brutish neighbors, whom to this day has no knowledge of any 'Elvenkind' save for less-than accurate stories passed down from one generation to the next. But the Aelvar have not remained stagnant during all this time, however; the Lady of the Lake has eyes and ears everywhere, with scouts sent to every corner of the world, dwelling in the many forests of Midvinter and observing the Valkyri from afar. They are admittedly curious about their fellow sentients, but not curious enough to make contact as of yet.
Perhaps, with the arrival of beings not of this world, it is time to finally reveal themselves...
