Firefae: the species that almost went extinct (fire-fay)

Firefae

It was not very long ago that the firefae flame was almost fully turned to ash due to their exploitation by other elemental fae following the war against them in the 14th Cycle of the Great Tree Imperium. In response to perceived hostilities and encroaching on the borders by the Imperium, who themselves had extended their forest nation to cover three-quarters of Nioshi's landmass, Imperial Trees patrolled their border forests to expel firefae entirely from their land. This land, which had been for millenia shared by all species of life, and which transitioned through time in a natural flux to balance the elemental nature of our realm, was now forced into a state of dryadic protection; no fae would be allowed to remain who did not follow Dryadic law and observe Dryadic cultural rule. The firefae, either through misunderstanding or unable to live with such constraints, continued living the way they had always, following the wax and wane of the natural flux of the realm. To them, they were meant to begin an age of fire. To the trees, they were making an act of aggression against their sovereign reign. What followed was nothing less than a power move, an upheaval of the great balance that the world of Nioshi had held for itself without the interference of the thinking species since time began. Terror and genocide marked the bloody period of the end of the 14th Cycle, and by the time the last brown leaf fell on the Great Oak Chancellor Krkdn and his militant regime, the firefae had been entirely displaced, forced into slavery throughout the Imperium, and subjugated in the minds of all bordering groups.
Were it not for a renaissance of naturalistic governance and a cultural revolution of elemental harmony and flow by the generation that followed that wartime's leadership, Nioshi as a realm may have become permanently unbalanced by the extinction of an entire line of affinity, and be itself in a period of apocalyptic collapse that Earthkind is suffering in the wake of its own lost World War. That we came so close to it is evidence that all life is vulnerable to its own hubris, and that all life affects all other life through the consequences of its actions.

Elemental Nature and Culture

The firefae are the hardest to pin down as a race, not because they are inaccessible (firefae, more than the others, are very sociable and transparent about their culture, lifestyle and traditions) but because they provide so much information about their history and rituals - and only by oral tradition - that there are many contradictions.
First, there is the matter of their basic anatomy. In cultural exchanges, they are seen as bipedal creatures, but among their own kind the number of legs they have can vary from one to eight, even on occasion having nothing close to an elvenoid form at all save for a central torso and face for the purposes of enhanced non-verbal expression. They are born as vague, roly-poly little bairns, licks of flame formed from the sparks in their parents' eyes that merge and form a self-oxygenating body during the firefae mating ritual.
We know this much because most firefae rituals are performed in public, embraced by their close-knit community as they perform the sacraments of Blueburn, the Life-Giving Dance, and the Ash Transition. They welcome outsiders who visit their communities, though observing of these rituals can be extremely dangerous to fae who are weakened by fire as the boisterous and charmed community engaged in sacramental worship to each other are not in a mental state to limit their exuberance for the protection of any non-firefae bystanders.
They follow a naturalistic religion called the Great Flame. The Great Flame is both deity and way of life to the firefae: the concept signifies the firefae themselves as a whole, their capacity to be blessed by being together, and their worship of an ideal of a unifying consciousness. Firefae truly believe in the idea that "the sum is greater than its parts," and work collectively in all functions of their daily life.
This close bond is most readily seen in the firefae's tradition of collectively raising their children. There are no orphans in their culture. All flames are deserving of the heat of fellow family, and raised to believe they are all part of the Great Flame.

Protection of the Firefae in Modern Times

Historically, the firefae almost burned out; for almost four hundred years, through the Imperial Era of Trees and not until the Valley Concordance was signed, firefae were, depending on their location in Nioshi, either hunted down and savagely eradicated, or separated and enslaved, sent to the far reaches of the land with strict rules as to their size, illumination, and food consumption. 
Years of prohibition from practicing their rituals almost eradicated their original culture. The intervention of the East Wind (through the Oracle of the Four Winds) during the negotiations of the Valley in support of the modern scientific view that all elements were necessary for all other elements to survive turned the tide of centuries of disenfranchisement. With the Concordance reached, many earthfae, airfae, and even trees came forward with ashes of former servants who had first flamed when the firefae were free roaming tribes of Nioshi and burned since before their period of slavery (which they call the Quenching). With time and the cooperation of all Affinids, it was possible to recover some memories from the culture that came before the Quenching. 
Today, firefae culture is working to preserve their elemental fae heritage from those ashes and to fill in the gaps that remain. Due to their nature, they have shown their great respectability and honor to other kingdoms by working together to life their truest lives in a way that honors tradition and also respects the mutual sacrifices needed by all lifeforms who must live with the Great Flame, practicing or not.

Firefae: Not Faeries

It is worth noting that it is inappropriate in Nioshan culture to refer to firefae as faeries. This derogatory term was prevalent in an era of Nioshan history when firefae were subjugated by other fae; it was during this dark time that questions arose about their very faehood and many who were threatened by their elemental nature - or felt uncomfortable accepting the foreignness of their culture and a perceived chaos in their communicative style (now understand as an ignorance of their interpretation of language and a too-loose interpretation of their native dialect into our common tongue) - formed a movement to perpetuate the idea that firefae were not fae at all, but a lower class of lifeform.
It has been observed that in human culture, the term faeries exists and may pose a risk to the ignorant human who travels through dolmens to our world. The faeries of the human world are fantastical creatures of imagination, described by humans as little human beings with wings who live in forests. This term is not related to, and should not be applied in the context of, the firefae of Nioshi. They may be referred to as firefae, flames, or simply as fae.
For more on the history of Nioshi, please refer to the Valley of Concordance and the Imperial Era of Trees (14th Cycle) under History in this encyclopedia.