Ice Elemental
A.K.A Ice
The Ice are hardly ones to give a warm welcome to outsiders. Their culture varies between thinking they are better than everyone else, to thinking they are better than everyone else. The latter has more murder involved.Cold and beautiful, the Ice are well related to the cold solid they are named after. And they'll feel just as sorry for you when you freeze to death as the blizzard does. Every judgment they make is based on things skin deep, and the Ice don't care to dig deeper. A realm of isolation and bitter cold is where they feel the most at home. Snow may be soft and icicles might be fragile, but believing that it can't kill you is a grave mistake.
Anatomy
Life Stages
Like all Elementals, the Ice grow up twice as fast as humans, and remain in their prime for the rest of their life. Ice will insist that they can tell how old another is by looking into their eyes, but a human would find it impossible to tell a 10-year-old and a 60-year-old Ice apart. Ice are considered adults by 10 years of age, which is equivalent to 20 years old in humans. Pregnancy in Ice like all Elementals lasts for 6 months before birth. Ice name their life states as shown below:Infant (0-6 months old) – Toddler (6 months - 18 months old) - snowflake (1.5 years old - 5 years old) – shard (5 years old - 7 years old) – Icicle (7 years old - 10 years old) – Adult (10 years old - 80 years old)
Physique
The Ice have a human variety of physique.Temperature
While perhaps this isn't something notable for most species, the Ice are just as cold as their name would imply. And not just their personalities. The normal body temperature for an Ice is 28 °C, a temperature that in humans is lethal hypothermia. As they produce little of their own heat, they feel very hypothermic to the touch. The Ice completely lack sweat glands, and high amounts of heat will literally cause them to melt. Their internal body temperature can drop, with no issue to their functioning, due to the Ice magic that exists throughout ever fibre of their being.The Ice do not feel temperature as a human would. They find the cold soothing and comfortable, like finally being in the air conditioning after a boiling hot day. They never actually feel cold. But temperatures around even normal room temperature (21 °C) start to feel like it's cooking them.
Skin
Probably the most noticeable thing about the Ice that declares them not human is their skin. Mainly the fact that it is snow-white and sparkles in the sunlight. Please note that this is not white in the sense of human terminology, in which they think that peachy skin is "white". If an Ice as to take off all their clothes and jump into a snow drift, you wouldn't be able to make out an Ice leg from the actual snow. It acts as a near perfect camouflage in their preferred home, which is frozen and snowy terrain.This Icy colouring is only skin deep however, and Ice are indeed pink on the inside, like everyone else. Their lips have a light shade of pink to them as well.
Sex differences
The differences between male and female Ice are fairly common for any human. Ice have higher muscle development, as well as growing terminal hairs on their face. Both female and male Ice are capable of growing terminal hairs on their scalps and their pubic region, and have eyelashes and eyebrows. The female Ice have longer lashes than male Ice. Ice hair grows the slowest of the Elementals, and as such they are capable of having fairly short hairstyles.Eyes and Vision
Ice eyes glimmer like crystals. They are specialized to not be damaged by UV light, as for most living in the snowy terrain of the Ice would run into snow blindness. This is achieved by using a pigment in the eye that reduces its effect.Active Period/Circadian rhythm
The Ice are diurnal like humans. Blue-rich light causes Ice to be awake and alert, while red-rich light causes them to feel tired and prepare for sleep.Diet
As the Ice are capable of digesting both plant and animal material, they are defined as omnivores. However, given the barren nature of where they live, they have a preference for meat. The Ice are immune to most diseases and parasites. They prefer prey that is smaller than them, and most Ice would prefer the taste of seabirds, polar birds, fish, and small rodents compared to larger animals like cows or deer. Given their robust digestive system, they are capable of eating things raw, and prefer not to have to cook anything. However, the Ice often insist on preparing the food to give it a better presentation, even if it is to be eaten raw.Special physical characteristics
The Ice have an innate knowledge of throwing weapons, usually throwing knives, shuriken, and various darts. Using their magic, an Ice is capable of either choosing to walk on snow as if it was solid, or to "swim" in it without disturbing the snow drift. They are generally considered graceful and well coordinated as a single person, but struggle to achieve the same when in a large group. They are experts at skating, and most Ice shoes can quickly turn into skates on command.Magic
Uses
Ice magic can be used to create Ice formations, to summon and control snow-storms and the wind. Using Ice magic on a created ice or snow statue can bring it to "life" giving an Ice control over this creation. It behaves like a remote control toy, but takes on the characteristics the user believes it to have, such as a snow bunny hoping to where it is told to go. This is simply a mimicry of life and stops the second it is no longer being controlled. Ice magic is also what Ice armour is formed out of, giving their armour a distinct white colour. This armour can be summoned at will and does very well against Gold weapons. It is weak at the joints. For passive effects, it allows the Ice to choose how snow will act towards them, either as a firm surface, a liquid, or how it behaves to anyone else. Over time, enough Ice living in an environment will cause it to turn into a freezing wasteland and tundra. Where the Ice live, every river is frozen, and the waterfalls that once flowed are frozen in time.When used on humans, it causes them to be apathetic about everything around them. A human under the effect of Ice magic will sit and paint their nails as their family is slaughtered in front of them. They only care about themselves and become consumed by their vanity, while believing they themselves are invincible.
The Ice can use this magic to "encrypt" their words. When it is spoken, it sounds like whistling winds, and the cracking of ice. To those that hear it, it causes their ears to feel wind burned. When Ice magic is used, it takes the form of white ice and snow, and smells of mint.
Strengthened by...
Ice magic is strengthened by pride, vanity, cold temperatures, and apathy.Weakened by...
Fire magic, passion, and heat. When Fire magic is directed at an Ice, it causes them to melt as the flames move around them. This can be done non-lethally, in which the melting occurs at the hands and feet first. Otherwise, the Ice ends up as a puddle on the floor, or as a light vapour.Culture
Society summary
Ice culture is judgmental and filled with those constantly trying to find their neighbours in the wrong. No matter what one does, the Ice only base their assumptions on things skin deep, and do not care to find any deeper explanation for actions. Being beautiful, wearing the right clothes at the right time, knowing the right people, and how one presents themselves are the deciding factor of whether one will succeed or fail in Ice society.To the Ice, showing affections towards another are a sign of being a Fire Elemental, and will get you treated accordingly. Love is something that is more of an annoyance in Ice culture, and they only really put up with the whole promise bonds thing. They do not recognize that more than one promise bond is possible, but they hardly recognize that one is possible, so not that surprising. Any physical parts of a relationship are to be kept to the depth of private, and even a hug between friends in public is considered too much. This dislike of physical relations is a normal thing for the Ice. Though it should be noted that the Ice have a significantly higher amount of Ice who are completely uninterested in sexual relations (asexual in human terms) and uninterested in romantic relations (aromatic in human terms) than compared to the other Elementals. To the Ice, things like love, attraction, and sexual desire only exist to keep their species going and are treated as such. Their society provides many options for those that would like to skip the need for sexual relations to do so.
The Ice society expects its members to choose careers that are sophisticated. Jobs involved with luxury goods, in the arts, and the office are considered good careers. Few Ice would join the military on their own, and they are the only Elemental to have conscription, along with a separate draw for commandants and soldiers. The only correct way to end up in the military in this culture is to get forced into it. Otherwise, you're basically a disgusting Fire.
The Ice view violent crimes as noticeably more deserving of punishment than those that lack it. Crimes that involve blackmail, abuse, harassment, or death-threats are often overlooked as long as no visible violence has taken place. That is unless the violence is committed against a mix. In which the Ice do not care at all. Public executions against mixes (under Queen Glacia's rule at time of writing) take place constantly in the palace square.
The Ice have the most noticeable problem with mixes, and other Elementals in general. They prefer to be isolated, and it is not hard to see that mixes are exactly the worst thing an Ice could imagine. A child born to two different Elementals that had sexual relations. Worst thing in Ice culture. As such, the mixes are usually designated to be the first selected by the conscription lotteries. The Ice pride themselves that Fire-Ice mixes are impossible, as the Fire in the pair will always kill the Ice. And even if done without sexual relations, the child will die due to the conflicts between Fire and Ice magic. There is definitely no way to make it happen, and it definitely isn't done by ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████. ██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████. ██████████████████████████████.
In Ice society, they are still stuck on the idea of females being better than males, as they are "less Fire like in their demeanour" and the Ice look down on men as closer to Fires. As such, most high positions are filled by female Ice.
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