Clans of Ell'fyca

The clans of Ell'fyca are an ancient coalition of seven the seven Wood-Malen clans. They are one of the most powerful and influential entities on the political map and have had their hands in many different historical events. They are very particular and strange people. And with that, their society isn't for everyone.

The Malen of Ell'fyca fight over positions. A battle is a good way to determine who should be chieftain or warchief. Not everyone wants those positions; however, so most Malen who aren't any good at their job will be kicked from their position by someone who previously didn't have an interest in the position.

Warriors of the first tree

Long ago, when the light of the first empire had yet to shine, the ancestors of all living Malen decided they wanted to live in Mithra. At a certain point, a group of them found the Niinks. A tree so big, you couldn't see the top. A tree so large, the top had different leaves from the bottom. A tree so incredibly humongous, it left a crack in the hearts of all who saw it. Clashes between clans, usually about Niinks, would plague the Wood-Malen for a long time. But for an even longer time, they have been united.

The people of the Clans are warriors. A common saying is that "A Wood-Malen is born with the fire of Kaan in his eyes." All Malen and anyone else, for that matter, in the clans are trained from birth to be warriors. It's only after this that they take on other jobs. Even the weakest bookworm who works as a librarian, has been trained enough to take on opponents from all over the world.
These Malen have such a unique society, one that could never work with Humans. They are so much more likeminded than Humans or even other Malen. It is a well known fact that Malen societies wouldn't work for humans because of the Dahmen's natural devianty. They all have different opinions on everything, which makes them more recoursefull sometimes, but also makes them so much less efficient in everything they do. A dictator would surely rise in a society like the clans if Humans were in control.
People always want to find easy distinctions between groups of people, even though the lines are mostly blurred. For example, High- and Wood-Malen both live to learn. They strive to learn new

things and become a better, more knowledgeable person. But what I always found the difference between us High-Malen and the Ell'fycians is that we try to perfect something. For example, we have blademasters who train their whole lives to become perfect swordsmen, while the Wood-Malen do their best to learn as many things as possible. They train in every martial-art they can find and learn as many languages as they can. It is, of course, more nuanced, but something someone once said always stuck with me. Wood-Malen society is always both more and less nuanced. I think it's a perfect description. They are all warriors but are also all have different jobs. They have slaves but treat them better than most humans treat their servants. Wood-Malen society is so weird yet familiar and that is one of the things I like so much about it.

The seven

The "United clans" are divided into seven clans. Northir, Dag'nii, Osciria, Zefomir, Calareth, Mu'iq and Alta'ara. These clans are united under the banner of the Clans of Ell'fyca. Although Wood-Malen are not one to follow a lot of protocol, they do have hierarchy in their society. Each Tribe is ruled by a Chieftain. The different chieftains report to their clan's Warchief. Warchiefs have their own circle, a ring of friends and high ranking officers, which they use for special missions, commanding jobs and to fill in for them when they are out on a mission. Each Clan also has a council on which the highest-ranking and most important chieftains sit. They council about matters regarding the clan. Each clan can be seen as its own country. The only difference is that they are united under a single banner. They share most laws but differ vastly in culture and power. They operate independently but will unite when the warlord says so or when they are under a serious threat. But most importantly, they behave like a single entity. They help each other and make alliances through the clans rather than through their own clan.

Founding Date

± 1E

Capital

Niinks

Alternative Names

The Clans

Leader

Dekil Or Tarmaruf

Leader Title

Warlord

Government System

Tribalism

Power Structure

Feudal state

Location

Woods of Ell'fyka

Neighboring Nations

• Kha'iirn tribes
• The free cities

Warlord

The Warlord is an honorary title not wanted by most Warchiefs and chieftains. Although many young Wood-Malen strive to become Warlord, most blooded know that it is a tiresome job with very little action. Warchiefs still lead missions and usually just do what they want, but the Warlord has to keep the clans together.

Niinks

The oldest tree in the world. This isn’t confirmed since we haven’t seen every tree in the world, but Niinks is surely way too big for any normal tree to even come close. Sometimes called the wooden mountain or the tree of a million souls, this tree is both a city and a staple of strength for the Wood-Malen people. Hundreds of little settlements are nestled in its branches. The tree is also for large parts hollow. These caverns are used for just about anything you can think of. The largest halls being used for as squares or clan halls. The rich live on the top, while the poor live down in the relative heat. I say relative since the tree itself gives off a coolness that can be felt for kilometers around. Every clan has its own estate here, using it quite often as their warchief’s living estate.

The clans are one of the few bastions of open slavery in Mithra. Different is though, that slaves in of Ell’fyca have a much better life than they would have anywhere else. There is great respect for both servants and slaves in the clan, for they do the work no one else wants to do. Slaves owners are bound to strict rules, slaves can only serve for five years, have to have good living conditions, etc. However, the real upside is that they get citizenship after their five years of servitude.

There is a long line of archery tradition in the clans, what makes it different from other archery cultures like the High-Malen is the fact that instead of slow precision shots, the archers of the clans are mostly trained in dexterity and fast shooting. The average clan archer might not be as precise as a High-Malen sharpshooter, but a sharpshooter could never outshoot a Wood-Malen.

Beginning of history

The origin of the clans is a long one. Long ago, before the first era started, groups of Ancient-Malen migrated to south of Mithra. Over time these formed clans and fought against each other. At a certain point, a group of them migrated to the desert to become the Sun-Malen. But those are not important now. The culture evolved and when the first era started, the Clans were having a go at each other already. This kept on until around the early millennia of the first era. When the Empire of the Sun started expanding and uniting the Malen under its banner, the Wood-Malen felt like they could do that too. So they united and chose their first Warlord by moot.

Over time the clans grew a slight bit, but never too much. The Kha'iirn still lived in small tribes at their borders, and the desert was something they could never want to conquer. Now even though the Wood-Malen like their fighting, they aren't the conquering types. Like all Malen, they like their stability. They'll just huddle up in their stable nation and grow stronger. This is exactly what happened with the Wood-Malen, even though they already had a strong army, they grew stronger and stronger making it quite impossible to invade the Woods of Ell'fyka now. It is a reoccurring theme with us Malen that our nations do extremely well when we have a stable nation, but when things

Aven ma Ne'iq was a Malen that did a lot of work trying to get the clans to work together. He isn't known as 'the great uniter' or 'our great leader', Wood-Malen usually despise that sort of thing. But everyone learns about him when they are younger, and his tomb is a place for pilgrimage and prayer.

start to go wrong, coming back from that is much harder. Humans are much better at that. Just look at the Snow-Malen and how it took them hundreds of years to crawl back from the demise of the first Dominion.

Now when the humans came to Mithra, and when they started forming their own nations and states, the clans decided it best not to mess with them too much. They had always lived in peace with the Empire of the sun or the Hearth-Malen, and hoped it would stay that way. But when the Empire of Dah started expanding, and kept expanding a little too fast, something had to be done. There are some different sources on the matter but most accept that it was the Wood-Malen that first stepped to the other southern nations to work together. And as the Stellians, High-Malen, Kha'iirn, The free citie Mercs, and the Wood-Malen fought side by side, the empire's expansion was halted.

It would be sometime later, in the late third era, when the Wood-Malen of the clans would do something significant in Mithran history again. Together with their Dominion and Limian allies, they set up the first steps to the League of Doth, a grand building where politics and politicians of all nations could come together to converse on the troubles of the world. Most humans stopped attending the league shortly after the fourth era started, and so the league became nothing more than the malen and other races trying to keep humans under control. But soon they would need it again.