The Ulfar

"Even if the sky should shatter and the world be torn asunder, they shall endure - they of the earth's bones, the gentle ones, the nurturers."

Violence and steel are ugly stains upon the great garden that is the world - at least, according to the ulfar. Styling themselves as Wyral's gardeners, these hulking giants are devoted to all that grows upon the earth. They may gravitate toward either the keeping of wild nature, or of the preservation of structured gardens, but the roots of their culture - and even their bodies - remain. As the most numerous and earth-bound race of ikayal, the ulfar perhaps have the greatest influence on shared societies... but if the branches ever wither again, even this hardy people may find that the barren earth is beyond tending.

Ash To Ashes

"Our roots make us who we are. No matter how far we go, the earth will remember."

— ???

Most formation myths are mostly unfounded, whether they belong to the mighty drakons or the seafaring emikun. The ulfar are unusual in that the tales of their origin are supported by fact. At some point after the upheaval of the skies, an encounter with the remains of an Exalted - or rather, the hallowed ash grove that grew where she fell - permanently altered the physiology of the ulfar's ancestors. Of all the ikayal, the ulfar claim that they are the closest to the lifeblood of the world, due to their deep connection with life and growth. The truth of this belief has yet to be judged.

The most notable feature of the ulfar is their skin, which is bark-like not only in appearance but in texture, and can resemble many kinds of trees. They are almost living, humanoid trees; while their innards are softer than their exterior and resemble the typical humanoid anatomy, it would still take many a blow to fell an ulfar.

That, of course, assumes one is brave enough to raise weapons against one - a rare person, given the ulfar's other characteristics. Not only are they on average far taller and stronger than others, they have antlers that further augment their height and can act as weapons when necessary.

Although the ulfar are naturally tied to the power of the Unyielding Spring , and rely on earth mages almost to a fault, they regard all Wyrpaths as necessary to return to the abundance of old days. Ulfar societies have stood firm in the face of flame and famine, never wavering from their path. Though they might seem generally conservative, they value resilience far more than anything else; it is simply that change must first prove itself "worthy" of being implemented.

Among the Boughs

"We live among life, and thus do we obtain strength and wisdom."

— ulfar elder

When the ulfar live among other races, as has become more and more common in recent times, they will often find compromises that allow them to uphold their nature as gentle giants, without overrunning the others of the settlement. They often congregate around the large trees they nurture, forming small tight-knit communities within the greater settlements. They may even build with materials they would never consider otherwise: hewing stone from the ground and collecting deadwood. Such things are a matter of some contention among the ulfar's elders and leaders...

Purely ulfar-inhabited dwellings, on the other hand, take on the forms that would be expected from Wyral's self-styled gardeners. Earth mage artisans, trained for decades to shape living wood, painstakingly 'grow' every home from the surrounding trees. Once again, they live in groups that extend beyond the nuclear family, which results in trees that have supported generations upon generations of a single family. This should serve to illustrate one aspect of why they are so strongly attached to the natural world - their histories share roots with their very homes.

The trees of the ulfar heartlands, called the Aulaen, were once seedlings taken from that ancient, blessed grove where the ulfar themselves originated. Survivors from a different era, they are layered so heavily with enchantments that some scholars argue they can be considered sentient.

Unlike the treacherous Westerwoods, however, the Aulaen pose no threat to the peaceful. In fact, they seem to have as deep a love for the ulfar as the other way round, and the trees act to protect their inhabitants at every turn. This property has taken a more worrying turn in the years since the Endwar, and it has begun to take its toll on everything involved...

Water and Wrath

"To make that gentlest of races desire war... what rage must we have engendered in them?"

— human scholar of Zefiru

Despite their imposing appearance, the ulfar are by far the least warlike of the sapient peoples. They do not necessarily avoid battles, but will only act in self-defence - at least, this is the principle that their societies abide by. When their fellow ikayal have taken up arms, these warrior-like giants largely remain neutral. Even the deviants among them - mercenaries and assassins who have abandoned their people's ideals, and soldiers who have redefined them - rarely harbour hatred against their targets.

At least, until the expansion of Zefiru.

This human empire initially respected the Aulaen of the northern continent, staying well outside the bounds of the ancient forest. But as tensions grew and Zefiru's rulers grew ever more ambitious, the tyrant Artexanar turned his gaze towards the ancient eaves, and saw only enemies. Those enemies would soon feel the burning strength of his war-lust.

If there is one thing guaranteed to enrage an ulfar, it is a wildfire. Not only is it life-threatening to their own bodies, it consumes the gardens they have so carefully tended. And to unleash consuming fire upon one of the hearts of the ulfar people... it is no wonder that their response was cataclysmic.

Human survivors spoke of giants striding through the fire's shadows, unfelled by arrows and turning back blades, tearing through the soldiers' ranks like paper. They whispered of trees that moved, encircling those who tried to escape the onslaught. Many did not return from beneath the Aulaen's eaves.

Artexanar's successors purposed to ignore the Aulaen - but the Aulaen itself would not ignore them. Nursing its own ashen scars and the bitter fury of its inhabitants, the forest began to creep outwards. The ulfar merely watched as human villages fell under the shadows of the trees, and then vanished. Even fellow ikayal only received stony silence upon asking what happened to those settlements.

And as the forest's resentment grows, it has begun to change.