The Lost Vazdeg (VAHZ-deg)

The Vazdeg were giants, one of the earliest people to emerge into Fahr-Ryasc. Born from their Sea Mother, Ærakh, the Storm Queen. Sorcery, for them, was born into their very being, working magic was as simple as talking, or standing upright. The Vazdeg rose from the Marakhor Sea to settle what would become the Vakran Flats along the northern shore. These early settlements quickly evolved into a powerful realm of sorcery, Vakra.

For the Vazdeg, sorcery became their technology, and the lands of, Vakra became saturated with the energies of magic.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Vazdeg were human in their seeming, though enormous. They had a bilateral body with two arms, two legs, stood upright, though with six digits at each extremity (fingers and toes).

Genetics and Reproduction

Vazdeg reproduced sexually, giving birth to live infants. A combination of their great size and low pregnancy rates never made the Vazdeg particularly numerous as a people, though their population remained stable until their demise. Vazdeg mothers would carry their gestating young for eighteen months before giving birth. Multiple births were nealy unheard of in their rarity, and most Vazdeg parents would have only three children on average during their lives.

Growth Rate & Stages

Vazdeg were long-lived. Most Vazdeg enjoyed lifespans of 250 years. They began as Infants for the first three years of their life. Childhood lasted until 20 years of age. Vazdeg were in their adolescence until age 35. They had a long adulthood, becoming middle-aged at age 150. After 200 years they reached old age and would continue to endure until they became weary of the world, passing from it by relenquishing their magic back into the land.

Ecology and Habitats

The Vazdeg were a costal and lowland people. They used their connection to the elementals and spirits to shape the Vakran flats to their liking.

Biological Cycle

Vazdeg often reached puberty in their early 20s, becoming fully capable of bearing or siring children by their late 20s. Vazdeg women reached menopause after their 175th year, and Vazdeg men lost much of their virility by 160 years.

Behaviour

Vazdeg, being physically larger than most other peoples and with an inherant command of magic, believed themselves superior to everyone, save possibly other Vazdeg. Their hubris was so great, even before Vakra had grown into an empire, they had begun programs to cultivate thrall proples out of the premature tribes of mortals roaming the Vakran Flats.

The Kihgitva as they came to be known were, at first were hybrid offspring of Vazdeg and people from these tribes. As the Vazdeg became more proficient in sorcery they continued to cross what the considered "their" Kihgitva into conjured elementals (who would eventually become Bryndffolk), or fiends from the underworld (who would eventually become Furæfolk).

This hubris of the Vazdeg is one of the main reasons they bring about the catastrophe that destroys Vakra.

Additional Information

Social Structure

Vazdeg form tight and bonded families with the oldest member in the position of authority. This extends into the heirarchies of families in a community, with the oldest families being more prestigous and inhabiting more leadership positions within the community.

Geographic Origin and Distribution

The Vazdeg were concentrated on the Vakran Flats, along the northern coast of the Marakhor Sea. There were no official colonies of Vakra. Those few Vazdeg families who settled outside of Vakra did not endure for long after the Fall.

Average Intelligence

The Vazdeg were of an intellect that matched their physical size. They possessed a genius intelligence on average when compared to other peoples living in Fahr Ryasc.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Vazdeg had senses similar to other mortal people of Fahr Ryasc, though their sight and hearing were better adapted to underwater perceptions due to their marine origins.

Civilization and Culture

History

The Vazdeg emerged from the sea almost 25,000 years before present. Roughly the same time as when Naakha'a fashioned the Hsaahn people in Hming-Xia. They settled the northern coast of the Marikhor Sea, and formed a realm there. They practiced sorcery and venerated Ærakh the Storm Queen as their mother, and performed rituals to Zha'ashoh the Sea King to secure the bounty of the sea.

Their civilization grew into Empire and absorbed the mortal tribes throughout the coastal flats. Vakra made first contact with the spreading Hming-Xia empire. The interaction between the Vazdeg and the Hsaahn exchanged a great deal of knowledge and lore as they skirmished along the edges of the Szalaqar Tablelands and Mahdorin Bay.

By the time the Elder Serpents Yg the Mother and M'nbolo the First-born exiled the youngest of their brood, and the Hsaahn had to govern themselves, Vakra's influence over Hming-Xia filled the vacuum. This became the first Golden Age of Vakra and the Vazdeg. It lasted until Resplendant TzalQTzal returned to Fahr Ryasc, bringing the Lords of the Higher World. The Great Old ones quickly followed and the Vazdeg were opened to afar more powerful magic than they had previously understood.

The Vazdeg, through exploration of Cosmic Law and Chaos, moved past veneration and worship of gods, and moved to creating Pacts with the divine entities they were able to contact. This became both the second Golden Age of Vakra and were the seeds of doom. The Vazdeg were the aristocracy of Vakra and during this age they removed themselves from the labor of mortal concerns, placing that burden on their Kihgitva thralls.

The end of the Vazdeg came with the Fall of Vakra. The rulers believed they could aquire the power of the gods if they turned the whole people of Vakra to the task. During a conjunction 5,000 years before present, Vakra enacted it's ritual and was wiped from history. For two thousand years the whole of northern Fahr Ryasc became a land veiled in an ongoing catastrophe. When the destruction abated, the Vazdeg people had died off, and the Kihgitva changed into the Tralfolk peoples.

EXTINCT

Lifespan

250 Years

Average Height

365 cm (roughly 12 feet)

Average Weight

655 kg (1440 pounds)

Average Physique

The Vazdeg physique were as varied as any people. They were tall, short, fat, thin, athletic and scrawny (well as scrawny as a 12 foot high, thousand pound giant can be, it's all relative y'know). During the golden age of Vakra, most Vashdeg maintained a pinnacle of health, but the deficit of physical labor among the citizen and aristocratic classes in Vakra prevented the majority from developing sculpted physiques.

Body Tint, Colouring and Marking

The Vazdeg have a body color that is opalescent, changing color as light moves over them. Their hair colors are light and pastel. Their body coloring is patterened in patches from one iridescent color to the next.

Geographic Distribution

• The Vakran Flats

Related Ethnicities

• Doomed Vakra