Felidar or Dark Elves
Overview
Moving on to the next race that inhabits the Continent of Lendil, we have the Dark Elves otherwise known as the Felidar. To understand the Felidar one must also understand their racial cousins, the Wood Elves or Besidar and the High Elves or Almidar. For you see, in the beginning Lendil was home to only one race of Elves. At that time they were known as Solus Elves and were one nation, one Empire, that spanned from the Strait of Girup in the North to the Sea of Lendod in the South. In these ancient times the Humans and other races had not yet discovered or come to Lendil. There is no record from this time that has been written down, only the oral histories passed from each of the elven races to those who will listen. During this age there emerged three eventual schools of thought about the purpose of the Elven people. All elves are extremely long lived, their lifespans having been measured out to nearly 1,000 years of age. Some live slightly shorter or longer, but on the average they will reach a millennium should they not die to some outside factors. Often because of this long lifespan, they don’t change very quickly, so all of their history is thousands upon thousands of years with very little changes.
The Conquerors of Night were a faction of the Solus that believed that it was their sacred duty appointed to them by the Aimur that they should go into the deep places of the world and conquer the horrors that lay below. They rallied those who would join them in their crusade and went off into the deep places of Lendil. Down they went, deeper and deeper with every day that passed and eventually, over generations of time, their skin started to darken, their eyes started to dull in color, their eyesight became used to the darkness below. This gave rise to what we now know are the modern day Felidar. They were the first inhabitants of the cave systems in what is modern day Kardune. These lands were held by the Felidar for multiple millennia until one fateful day when one of the cities of the Felidar was suddenly silenced. Not having heard from the city of Agadeem for some time, an expedition was sent to check on its inhabitants and it was found that not a trace of them remained. The city was in the same working order it had been before this disappearance but every soul within the city had seemingly ceased to exist. Around this same time, the Dwarves and Gent arrived on the northern shores of Lendil. The Dwarves and Gent wanted a home, and the Felidar were, for the first time, in fear for their very lives. They seeded their cities out of fear for what had taken the souls of Agadeem possibly coming for them next. After which, they crossed the Bay of Bards and reached their original ancestral homeland of Koilos.
Societal History and Governance
The Felidar are a distinct race from their cousins in an evolutionary way as they are seemingly the only people in Alandris to have ever gone down the path of forced magical evolution. They learned early on that a separation of the sexes between male and female would cause societal and governmental issues. These issues would then balloon out of control and create fissures within their society that would quickly cause a collapse. This was originally just a theory at the highest level of their academics, until in the year 6748 BF. Prior to the events of that year the Felidar, a mainly matriarchal society, had slowly started to fracture due to a faction of males within their society who wanted greater rights to marriage and children. They had been pushing slowly over time for this and it would have all been sorted quietly through societal pressure and legislation if it weren’t for the events of The Night of Tears.
During the night, deep in the reaches of their capital city, the separatist faction of males snuck into the royal chamber of the Queen of their people. Once they entered, they proceeded to slaughter her entire family, from her newborn child to her eldest son in their bed. When this was done they proceeded to hang the Queen from the front of her palace, for all of her people to see. In response to this madness, the Great Noble Houses of the Felidar unanimously decided to eliminate the differences between their people. They felt that due to these differences there would never be a full understanding of one another's feelings. To deal with this, they called upon their greatest mages and scientists and in the year 6747 BF they unified their people forever. From this point forward, every Felidar ever born would be a hermaphrodite. Each of them having the most positive pieces, as per their judgement, of either sex. They would appear feminine, as this was seen as a sign of beauty, but they would wield both genitals with full function. This change in their genes through magic was so egregious that it guaranteed from now on, anyone who mates with a Felidar will always create another Felidar. Their genes overwrite any whom they mate with however, for the Felidar this was a form of ascendance and something that, to this very day, they are proud to bear.
For Players of Felidar
The Felidar are an interesting people and are often drawn to adventure within the world for a variety of reasons. From the penitent exiles who wish for nothing more than to be better than their brand, to the daughters of Noble Houses who are entering the world for the first time to try and come back as heroes, the Felidar mindset is just as varied as its cultural history. Though they are often judged as thieves and miscreants by the world for their appearance and odd manners they are formidable warriors and are not to be discounted in battle.
Felidar Racial Trait: Felidar are masters of the night and are often hired as some of the most capable assassins, scouts and rangers. This means that during the day, they fall short in their ability to hide, thus any Agility rolls for Stealth done during the day will be done with Disadvantage, any done at night are done with Advantage. Due to this, any player who starts their character as a Felidar will gain the ability to use Single Edged Sword Skills with Knife Melee Weapons.
Languages Known: Common, Elven and 1 of player choice.
- Gaze of Righteous Indignation by Argyle Marx, 1281 AF
