Snowfoxes

Hidden far away from human eyes, deep within The Veiled Mountains, the Snowfoxes roam the mountains, a group of Shadowkeepers blessed by Oui'nnas with the ability to heal anyone of their kind and the control over ice and cold. Once a proud species, spread across the entire mountain range, great in number, full of strong warriors and gifted healers, they are now on the brink of extinction, wounded and scared by war and battle, hatred of humans burning within almost each and everyone of them.

Basic Information

Anatomy

They have basically human bodies, with just some things to destinguish them from regular humans, just like all subspecies of Shadowkeepers. In their humanoid forms they posses fox-like ears, a long, white fox tail and defined canine teeth. When they transform into their animalistic form, their bodies turn into that of a big white fox with multiple tails, the total number of which depends of strength of the individuals power.

Biological Traits

Males are usually bigger and physically stronger than females, which becomes especially noticeable in their animalistic form. However, female Snowfoxes are the only ones that are gifted with the ability to heal anyone who carried the blood of a Snowfox in their veins.

Growth Rate & Stages

While Snowfoxes can get ten times as old as humans, they also age about ten times more slowly than them. This means that for example a 80-year-old Snowfox is developmentally as far as an 8-year-old human child.
Just like within the other subspecies of Shadowkeepers, their young only develop the ability to turn into their animalistic, fox-like form once they reach about 150 years of age and are physically mature, while this usually happens earlier for females than for males. This is also the age at which they start developing their ability to control or even create ice and cold, and those who have inherited the gift of healing from their parents start their training as healers.

Ecology and Habitats

Due to their sensitivity to heat, they rarely leave The Veiled Mountains or the cold areas in the far east of Esterya, and their extraordinary resistance to cold makes them the only humanoid species able to live in this cold climate, reducing any competition over resources.
If they spend too much time in climates that are too warm for them, which can even just be a warmer spring day, they quickly overheat and can even die of heat strokes.

Dietary Needs and Habits

While they used to eat things like grain, vegetables, and meat, they now pretty much only eat meat. This is due to the fact that it is almost impossible to have any sort of edible plant grow in the cold climate the live in and meat is for them just easier to come by.

Additional Information

Social Structure

Aside from regular members of a pack or tribe, there are three main roles a Snowfox can have.

Leaders

First, and highest in the hierarchy are the pack leaders. this position can only be taken by the strongest male of the tribe. Unlike for example among the Shojorin, being born as the son of the current leader, does not guarantee that he will become the pack leader as well. When their last leader dies, any other male Snowfox may "apply" for the position, but to get it, he has to defeat other contestants in a standoff. This does not mean that he must kill all of the others, it is enough if his opponents surrender. Despite this rule, it is fairly common that the son of the previous leader takes on his fathers position, as he has often inherited the strong powers his father possesed.

Healers

Next in the hierarchy are the healers. These are exclusively those females that have the talent of healing. Usually a pack or tribe has one main healer, who can have up to three students. The bigger the group, the more healers there tend to be. They have a very close relationship to the leaders, often functioning as advisors, and are respected greatly by the rest of the group.

Hunters/ Warriors

Last in the hierarchy, right above the regular members of the pack or tribe, are hunters and warriors. This is a group of some of the strongest and most agile Snowfoxes, who take it upon them to make sure the tribe has enough food to survive and are also the ones who fought in the battles against the humans. Nowadays they are usually only refereed to as hunters, as large-scale battles have become rare. Those who want to join this group have to proof their skills. Hunting in the snow covered mountains is not an easy task, and hunters have to be able to do this quickly, to catch their prey before it can escape.

Geographic Origin and Distribution

They originated in The Veiled Mountains, where they are now on the brink of extinction. After some packs have left the mountains, they now live in pretty much the entire cold region in the east of Esterya.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Snowfoxes are able to see even in almost complete darkness and their hearing is better than that of regular humans.

Civilization and Culture

Relationship Ideals

Polygyny is the most common form of relationship within the different packs or tribes. One male, usually the leader or the strongest of their warriors, mates with multiple females and committed, exclusive relationships are rare. However, it is also custom for the leader to have one primary mate, with whom he lives together most of the time. These females are usually more respected and sometimes even take on organizational tasks in the tribe.

History

Many centuries ago dozens of packs lived all across The Veiled Mountains, with each up to twenty members. Back in decades when the years were colder and the winters longer, they used to leave the mountains regularly especially during the cold seasons to hunt in the forest and trade with the humans to gather crops and other necessities. Not much grows in the mountains and especially during winter moons, everything gets buried in snow, leaving almost all plant-life to die off, while during summer and spring at least some crop would manage to grow.
This lead to a big problem once the war between Humans and Shadowkeepers had started, in which the Snowfoxes played a big role. They were by far the most aggressive and offensive faction, aside from the Shojorin. Even before the war, their relationship to the humans was tense, but as the battles begun their relationship deteriorated completely and hatred only grew. This was also why the Snowfoxes stopped leaving the mountains on a regular basis, moved their camps deeper into the mountains, and any trade-relationship with the Humans terminated.
This eventually lead to great food-shortages during winter moons, leading many of their members starving or even dying of hunger. Sure, they could still hunt in the mountains and some even took the journey to The Eternal Forest upon them, but it was by far not enough to feed all of them. Hunger and war eventually left their numbers substantially decreased, which caused the majority of packs to leave The Veiled Mountains and travel to the colder regions in the east of Esterya and settle there. Those that stayed in The Veiled Mountains kept on decreasing in numbers, until they eventually joined together into one big tribe that now lives and hunts together.
Their most recent involvement with humans, especially those living in Kuromori, a once rather big town in the Duskvalley, was when they attacked the town 16 years ago during a cold winter's night, because one of their members had had a child with a human woman. They despise Halfbreeds of any kind, were once even the ones hunting them down the most, and they would not allow one of them to survive. In their mostly unsuccessful attempt to kill the child and it's parents, they ended up destroying great parts of the town and killing many of it's inhabitants. The child and the father managed both to survive, though separated, but the mother was killed in the attack. However, the Snowfoxes also lost many on their side. Of the already rather small group of warriors participating in the attack, only a handful returned to their tribe. Not even their leader survived that night.
Since then, they only leave the mountains to gather herbs for medicine that only grow outside of the mountains, and even then they only do so under night's cover.

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

Nowadays, the Snowfoxes tend to live rather isolated from the rest of Esterya. Their prominent role in the war against humans and their attack on Kuromori kept their relationship with humans tense and full of hatred, which it still is today. They are seen by most other groups as aggressive, leaving them further isolated from other groups of Shadowkeepers.

Genetic Ancestor(s)

• Humans
• Shadowkeepers

Origin/Ancestry

Originated from Humans. They represent the sub-species of Shadowkeepers that were given their powers by Oui'nnas, the god of cold and ice.

Lifespan

They can become up to 800 years old, while females ususally get a little older than males.

Average Height

While their males reach an average height of 1.80m, their females tend to stop growing at around 1,70m maximum. In their animalistic form resembling a huge white fox, they can reach a shoulder height of around 1m (females) up to 1.50m (males).

Average Physique

Aside from their fox-like features, members of this species are easily recognizable by their pale skin and white hair. While their males are usually bigger and more muscular than their females, both of them have more muscular bodies than humans, regardless of gender.