Prides of the Feralian
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The Prides of the Feralian
Within the Kingdom area of the Caerlyn Forest there is a much older district known by the Feralian elves simply as Caerlyn. This is the home location of some of the continent’s Feralian elves.
Since the Days of Fire, many of the tribes that roamed between the Kingdom and the Republic have since made their home here, travelling around the Kingdom and the Northern Lands, coming back once a year to the ancestral woods they all call home.
Each pride has a trait associated with it that as Morath Feralian wrote is 'deemed most favourable to the continuation of the elven race'
Harafar(top)
Trait: Weapon Prowess
Believed to be the one of the most numerous of the Caerlyn Feralian Prides; they are certainly the most seen to the outside world.
Possessed of a fierce martial outlook, they believe the elven race will only rise again when elves have proven their worth. In their eyes the only way to prove worth is through unstinting competition so that only the very strongest survive.
Raised from birth to strive for unreachable perfection Harafar elves seek to master their discipline with uttermost devotion to form into perfection. Young elves are pushed to the limit in gruelling challenges, contests, and tournaments against each other and the wilds to an unattainable standard. Those that survive the final tests are deemed chosen by The Divine Assembly to prove their races right for re-ascension.
A common saying amongst the Harafar Pride is that each perfect moment ‘creates the clarion call’; a work of beauty to the gods, a call that the elder race is ready to inherit its mantle once again. As such, each and every Harafar elf strives for utmost perfection in every action of their life, from the perfect sword stroke to the tightest stitch in a fabric weave.
This constant striving for perfection leads to a dim view of the other prides but the Harafar Altars’ recognise that each Pride has its place in the re-ascension of the elder race, even if they are just another foe if necessary.
The most overt and widely seen of the Prides to the outside world, the Harafar are viewed with outright suspicion amongst many human settlements for their warlike and dismissive attitude and their aloof nature. Their crafted goods, however, are highly sought after across the kingdoms, commanding exceptional prices.
Members of Pride Harafar travel widely across the kingdoms seeking out tournaments, battles, or challenges and are often found acting as bodyguards, soldiers in nobles armies, mages, artists or traders so that they can continue their strive for perfection beyond the shrouded borders of Caerlyn.
Held as the highest test, violence and war is second nature to the tribe as the Harafar firmly believe that the elder race will not ascend whilst hiding in the shadows, it will forge its name by bold action and fury. Hot tempered, cold, aloof, this pride seeks to test itself on the altar of battle at the forefront of fighting, by blade, arrow or spell. Each strives for perfection in their own way, their own personal slice of the perfection of heaven.
Unusually for elves, these feralians will seek to understand and master any weapon or armour to reach a higher state of martial perfection. As such unlike many of their fellow elves, Feralian or Ethrin, they are often to be seen clad in steel or wielding mace or pike as much as they are wielding bows or knives.
In battle the Harafar strike like falling stars, each a burning brightness of dazzling skill that seeks out the most terrible foes in battle. However whilst the Harafar understand honour and unified battle tactics, they care little for it against their own pursuit of perfection. Cold and aloof they fight as isolated individuals even amongst their own forces, each seeking an own higher plan of beauty.
Braethnor(top)
Trait: Survivalist
Perhaps one of the more elusive of the Caerlyn Prides, the Braethnor are rarely seen beyond the darkened tracks of the forest.
Masters of camouflage, the hunt, and the silent step, they watch the roads and borders of the forests, taking great care to be seen. When they are seen, the Braethnor have been widely viewed as wild or ‘barbaric’ to those of a more learned education, or as one of the lost tribes of the elves to be pitied as little more than savages.
The Braethnor themselves are silent to those that dare ask, and care little for their reputation to the outside world.
Morath wrote of the survival of the elven race through propagation of the strongest traits. Garbed in the manner of the forest the Braethnor stick to these teachings as a mantra and believing that those that can survive the hostilities of the wild are those worthy of Feralian’s vision.
To the Altar’s of the Braethnor, the elven race will only ascend when they have purged itself of those elements that destroyed it. The elven race of old fell because the elves believed that they were perfect, and the collapse that followed was an inevitable consequence.
Rejecting the trappings of civilisation in the present, the Braethnor strive to prepare their race for the return of their glory by the purity of their natural being. Elves were made to be free, tethered only to their emotions, and the will of the gods. Far from a life of quiet retreat or contemplation like a convent of The Theocracy, the devout uphold their faith through living and revel in the emotions of life and the thrill of the hunt. The joy of life, and the simple pleasures of earth, air, magic and blood are viewed as the greatest gifts of the Braethnor tribe, who revel in freedom.
The gods saw fit to destroy the older order, and it is at Shar Renlah that the race will be reborn, so the Braethnor are ferocious against any who trespass. As an extension of the dance of life and death, hunting is a chance for them to revel in the joy of life and many keep trophies of their favourite kills.
Each trophy of skinned flesh or broken bone is upheld as a totem of the dance of life and death, and often used in everyday life so that deceased still play a part in the dance that heralds the elder races return. Totems are a vital part of the Braethnor way of life, and so the paths and forests are littered with bones, skinned hides and whistling dream catchers. Since the night of blood, Braethnor no longer take faces of their victims, leaving that particular custom behind for their disgusting cousins the Haiesti, who have made an open mockery of one of their most honoured traditions.
To the outside world however the Braethnor are barbaric, and the eerie whistling eaves hung with skinned flesh and clattering bones is the stuff of nightmares.
Theme is forest type garb, trophies, animal fetishes, filing teeth. Predator.
Silyias(top)
Trait: Magic
Even in the bleakest of shadows, or the longest of nights one can learn to make fire to banish the dark is perhaps the most famous Feralian phrase known throughout the lands of men, attributed to Litheria the famous Silyias seer.
Since time immemorial the elves of Silyias have watched the heavens, sifted the portents and listened to the whispers of the winds in their never ending thirst for knowledge.
Perhaps some of the most gifted mages, seers, mystics and sorcerers in the known world, the Silyias are driven by an all consuming hunger of learning, which borders on the fanatical.
Clad in shimmering robes of bold colours decorated with archaic runes, the Silyias strike a stark contrast to the dappled colours of their forest home, and are equally bold in their differing views to that of their fellow tribes.
To the outside world however little is truly known of the tribe, as the elves of Silyias are masters of shadow in their pursuit of knowledge often infiltrating other Feralian Prides to learn of their unique ways and practices.
Unlike other tribes, the views of Silyias are pragmatic in the extreme teaching of Morath’s vision to rebuild the elven civilisation from the ashes. In pursuit of this aim the elven race must learn from its mistakes, uncover the secrets of the past and build on the foundations of the newer races to build a new Eden.
The Silyias have watched the world turn and the stars burn across the heavens and the time is now for the elven race to re-ascend, built not by the mythical return of a prophet but by elves own hands.
In pursuit of knowledge the elves of Silyias have for generations left Caerlyn in the pursuit of knowledge and to convert Ethrin to their view whilst keeping their true intentions hidden to the wider world.
Hiding in plain sight, a few Silyias elves have infiltrated into the Ethrin population in order to gain access to libraries, reliquaries or scholars houses to learn and or loot knowledge for the ‘good’ of the elven race. Unsurprisingly, this preaching and looting of ancient books and artefacts is met with hostility by humanity, and was so even before the night of blood.
Whilst Silyias elves were once sometimes tolerated in positions of learning by lenient humans as learned Ethrin scholars, seers, or elves of the faith, since the night of blood the Silyias, as with all elves, have been viewed with disdain and violence. Indeed, such was the damage inflicted on that horrifying night by elven hands many Silyias elves were put to death in a frenzy of human hatred.
Since that fateful night the Silyias have remained in the shadows, quietly continuing their quest for knowledge and elven allies, harbouring a distrust and outright hatred for humanity. Already masters of infiltration and stealth in the pursuit of knowledge it is widely rumoured that those most angered at humanity have turned their hand to darker arts.
Secretive, particular active with mages, ritualists, and assassins.
Minyalwe(top)
Trait: Manipulation
At the very heart of the forest lives a secretive body of feralians elves. They never venture out of the forest, and will only trade with those that come to them. It is to them that the heart of the forest has been entrusted by Morath Feralian.
It is said that they have a village, but few come back from this place to speak the truth of the matter.
All agree, though, that the altar of this tribe is wise beyond their years, and has a connection with the world that few that venture out of the heart ever experience.
It is rumoured that those in the tribe call their leader the Alaltar, and it is through that leadership that Morath Feralian’s scriptures are followed, but it is also rumoured that they are a collection of mad elves driven insane by the close proximity of the sacred earth.
Despite all the rumours and conjection there is one thing which is true; every year the leader of this tribe comes to Shar Renlah to hold the service of the sacred earth. Since the Days of Fire this has been the honour of an elderly Feralian whose official name is Taraya Kaehl, Bearer of the Staff of Death, Guardian of the Sacred Earth, and Priestess of the Mother.
The Theocracy stringently denies the presence of a priestess of the mother within any elven society, and there is a large price on the head of this elf.
Iaxe(top)
Trait: Healing
One of the few Feralian tribes widely accepted outside of Caerlyn, the Iaxe are renowned healers throughout the kingdom. It is at present unknown if they are separate pride or part of another.
Catka(top)
Trait: Lore Keepers
Actively isolationist and hostile tribe, Catka elves are little seen and are only alluded to by other feralians under extreme torture.
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© Jason Axelrod from 8WAYRUN.COM