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Mysterious, seclusive, elusive with hints of mysticism and an individualistic pride that sets them even further apart from the other Nelfin species than the already pre-existing Nelfin racial divisions. The Isldar from the frozen wastes of Ellador are all these things and more, protecting their homelands from unwanted intruders since the days of the Allorn Empire, but also venturing in the world to tend to the lost souls left behind by millennia of tragedy, or to enforce the cold hand of the inevitable. Isldar are a barely understood subrace of Nelfin who once formed out of the Dragon worshiping Drogon Cult, leaving the Allorn Empire for seclusion in Ellador’s mountains. Through intrigue, the Isldar were brought from the brink of doom, from where an Ordial Entity took the place of the Dragons who perished to shepherd the Race for nearly 300 years. In recent years, the Isldar have devolved into an explosive civil war following the return of Dragons, oppositions between the Dragon loyal and those who would see their Ordial savior their true god growing to a boiling point. Eventually Isldar society split in two, and an uneasy truce settled between them favoring separation over mutual assured destruction. To this day, Isldar society remains one bitterly divided, two sides of the same coin presenting the Race as unique when compared to all other Races due to their intense societal divisions.
| Isldar | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Race | |
| Pronunciation | Ysel-dar |
| Classification | Nelfin |
| Subraces | None |
| Common Nicknames |
|
| Languages | Sulvaley |
| Naming Customs | Fantasy Elven (but not Tolkien Elven) |
| Racial Traits | |
| Distinctions | Snow Elves who guard the cycle of life and death and the memory of Dragons |
| Maximum Age | 500 years |
| Height | Tall |
| Eye Colors | Any shade of purple if Life Isldar, any shade of green if Death Isldar |
| Hair Colors | Black or White, regardless of which cult they belong to |
| Skin Tones |  |
Core Identity
The Isldar are, at their core, a race of ice-themed Elves with a great deal of secrecy, misdirection, deception, and a healthy dose of personal distance. Out of all the Nelfin Races, the Isldar are the least likely to make friends, and even if they do, to keep a moderate distance and to avoid any overly stimulating social activities. Isldar are dogmatic, refusing to see the world in any other way than they were taught or discovered to be, and inflexible in their approach to matters. Isldar keep their feelings pent up inside, and let others see very little of their heart and mind, so as to protect themselves from a world that has not always looked kindly on them. From the days of the Allorn Empire, their Dragon cult being hunted down to extinction, from the Dwarves who were encouraged by the Allorn to wage war on them, to the Dorkarthi Vampires who wish to purge them from Ellador, and the Velheim Ailor who come in droves seeking the fortunes and wealth that the Isldar hoard in their icy homeland. And yet, Isldar are also intensely moved by the preservation of life and their obsession with death, this being the very breaking point that has divided their society in half.
Life versus Death
Isldar society is divided by its two main political bodies, the Bene Rexit which is the Ordial mortuary cult that obsesses over death, and the Bene Vixit which is the Primal life cult that obsesses over life preservation. Isldar society itself is divided between these cults due to their shared history. Once the Isldar were united as Dregodar, the Draconic Nelfin, however events spiraled out of control, culminating in the Scouring of Ellador, where their Dragon patron Asaph died, and the Undead Dragon Frisit was born. Unbeknownst to the Isldar, Frisit was actually an Ordial entity pretending to be a Dragon, and guided Isldar society for hundreds of years. Recent discoveries pushed this to the foreground, with Asaph re-establishing her dominion of life, while the Ordial entity known as Frisit has once more reached out after being banished when Asaph was resurrected, claiming to have been the true lord of the Isldar all along. There is no strict morality between the Bene Rexit and Bene Vixit. Death and Life cannot be neatly categorized as good and evil, because the Death cult does good things for bad reasons, and the Life cult does bad things for good reasons. Morality is always an individual perception and application, not a racial attribute.
Silent Observation
Just because Isldar society is split between a death cult and a life cult however, does not mean that the life cult goes around the world and cures the sick, and the death cult moves about hurrying along anyone’s demise. The Isldar in fact are very observant, producing so called observation towers high up in the mountains from which they spy on the other Races below, gathering information and making analyses. Isldar are intensely analytical, preferring to have studied a situation from every angle before making any move. This is also why the life cult is not necessarily involved with saving people, but making the end more comfortable and allowing the end to be peaceful. The death cult on the other hand invokes the beauty of death and the finality of things, while also encouraging raging against the dying of the light, Undeadism, and the resurrection of Phantasms.
Occult Opposition
One aspect that does unite the Isldar is their disgust with the Occult, specifically the Void and Exist tainted such as Vampires, Cahal, Crimson Witches, and more. The Bene Vixit Isldar have a very Dragon-inspired view of this, seeing all forms of Magic as an infection of the natural world and needing to be sent back to the dimension they came from. The Bene Rexit have a similar view, seeing Aloria has already been infected, and fighting this infection from also invading the Bintaar realm. While there is enough opposition between these two halves of Isldar society to invoke civil war and genocide on one another, this single aspect is one that most Isldar can hold hands over, and one of the few things in the world that might cause a Death and Life Isldar to work together towards a common goal, setting their internal squabbles aside. However, the Isldar, especially the Death Isldar, have a long history of Mages - primarily Exist Mages. Frisit encouraged their existence while she ruled the Isldar, and despite their general dislike of the Occult, they acknowledge that Mages have historically been an important part of their society and continue to exist today.
Qfizat Hadre
The practice of Qfizat Hadre to the Isldar is the idea of being “everywhere all at once”. The Isldar, due to their analytical and pensive nature, make excellent advisors and analysts. While the majority of Isldar live in Ellador, many of them spread out across the world, attempting to secure positions close to power in the ruling classes. It is not uncommon to find both a Bene Rexit and Bene Vixit Isldar advisor in the courts of all major Kingdoms and Empires, acting as advisors on all matters Draconic and Ordial insofar those realms are aware of the inherent dangers of the Undead and the mysterious machinations of the Dragons. The Bene Rexit and Vixit use a mixture of manipulation, orchestration, deception and seduction in younger years to secure a right hand position. They differ from Slizzar however in that they take no pleasure in steering events. Rather, they serve their function to the legitimate best of their abilities, but also use the situation to gather information to report back to their priestly organizations, resulting in the Bene Rexit and Bene Vexit being some of the most well informed organizations in the world. This fact is well known among many of the ruling classes of Aloria, but is considered an acceptable price for the wealth of advice and support that having an Isldar advisor gives in exchange, and how one is always at a disadvantage if blacklisted by the Bene Rexit and Bene Vixit from getting advisors.
Isldar in Regalia
Isldar are fairly common in Regalia in comparison to the rest of the world, mostly because Regalia is an excellent nexus of information. Both the Bene Rexit and Bene Vixit have multiple advisors attached to the Imperial Court of the Emperor, while several members of these organizations are also dispersed into the lower courts of the Dukes, Duchess and Duchets of the Empire. Isldar enjoy a fairly positive relation to the Regalian Empire, with recent attempts from the Regalian Empire to assist the Life Cult in their resistance against the Death Cult. As such, it could be speculated that the Regalian Empire has a more favorable view of the Life Cult, but Death Cult Isldar are still welcome, and present in advisory circles of the ruling classes. Regular Isldar have also come to Regalia as adventurers, craftsmen, or just refugees trying to get away from the occasional violence between the Cults in Ellador. Regalia remains a great gathering point for an exciting life, and sometimes Isldar just wants to escape the boring monotony of the frozen wastes.
Design
Physical Characteristics
In many ways, Isldar are nearly identical to Teledden, being more slender than tall than Ailor, with a much paler skin and with long pointy ears, ears that are often longer and sharper than most Nelfin Race ears. Isldar have pointy facial features giving them a strict or haughty appearance. Both Death and Life Isldar can have black or white hair colors (though in Regalia, they often dye it other colors). Isldar are capable of becoming more muscular like the Fin’ullen, but have to work harder to get there. Isldar can also grow facial hair and body hair, but usually shave this off for cultural reasons, except when they have adapted to the social environment of other societies, like Regalia. Isldar are usually on the tall side, and have a couple of flexible transformations that can alter their appearance further. The only real way to tell the Bene Rexit and Bene Vixit apart, and by extension the Death and Life Isldar, is that the Life Isldar have any shade of purple irises with blue specks in them (and possibly blue or gray or black sclera), and the Death Isldar have any shade of green irises with light blue specks in them (and possible blue or gray or black sclera). Isldar always have pink to pale pink skin (with some colorations due to Specials), and are capable of being asian-coded in their appearance.
Summary of Racial Abilities
Racial Abilities are generally a set of unique powers and effects that all peoples of that Race all innately have, while Specials are more passive, aesthetic focused capabilities. Specials are defined per-page, while Abilities can be searched on the Ability List page to determine their generic function. Isldar have mostly Specials and Abilities aimed around the Life and Death themes, as well as Ice and Draconic aesthetics from their history as a Dragon Cult. Half Isldar have access to the Isldar Abilities, and all Specials except Soul Attuned, and Scouring of Ellador.
Abilities
| Ability Name | Ability Type | Ability Range | Ability Description | Modifiers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frost Immune | Constant Passive | Self | Grants the user Frost Immune | N/A |
| Armor Summon | Summon Power | Self | Grants the user Armor Summon | Isldar Modifier |
Specials
- Scouring of Ellador: Regardless of whether the Life or Death, Isldar support what happened during the Scouring, every Isldar there and every Isldar born since has had an undeniable connection to Ice and the cold. Every Isldar gains the Magic Point Buy Ice Magic Pack for free, classified as Primal Magic for Life Isldar, and Ordial Magic for Death Isldar. This Pack does not cause them to be Occult of any kind, unless they purchase more Magic Packs, and this free Pack becomes Void or Exist.
- Manifesting Frost: Both Death and Life Isldar can manifest frost onto themselves, which has a number of optional effects. Firstly, a mandatory effect is that their skin becomes blue tinted, whether light blue, only a blue hue, or more vibrant dark blue. Secondly, their skin may develop patches of ice and snow, their hair may become akin to shards of ice, and their body may give off an ambient frozen temperature, with small snow and ice crystals sparkling in the air around them.
- Cleansing Snow: Both Death and Life Isldar can choose to cleanse their skin of any imperfections such as scars, burns, bruises, tattoos, wrinkles, freckles, and more. Additionally, any mutations manifested on them from whatever source may be cleansed by choice at any time, even if they were Void or Exist manifested.
- Ageless: The Isldar are Ageless, meaning they never show aging. When they become adults, Isldar simply appear as if they are young adults forever, unless they choose not to. Any Isldar can choose to change their aged appearance, meaning they can choose to appear however old they want to appear (so long as it is 18+). A 33 year old Isldar might for example choose to appear like a 70 year old Ailor with whitened hair and wrinkles, while a 300 year old Isldar might choose to appear like a 25 year old Ailor with smooth skin and youthful features.
- Frostmancy: Even the simplest and untrained of Isldar have some innate telekinetic ability, and control over the snow and ice. All Isldar can perform varying degrees of Telekinesis, being able to move objects around with their hands from a distance. Unlike other Nelfin Arcane Mastery however, they cannot automate tasks. Isldar use flash-frozen air and ice crystals as an extension of their body, for example by adding a gust of cold air to their arms to extend their reach, allowing them to fetch items, or close doors from a distance. These extended gestures are always visible and cannot be used in combat or to steal items (unless used as aesthetic for some Rogue Packs).
- Soul Attuned: Isldar can see the Soul Rivers of the world, the white glowing streams of essence and energy that flow through the air in various directions, just like the Songaskians can, though unlike them, they can interact with them. Life Isldar can repair damage and infection in the Soul Rivers when they find any in Progressions, and let a Soul properly pass on to prevent it from becoming Undead in roleplay. Death Isldar on the other hand can prevent Soul Essence from properly passing on to ensure a person becomes Undead in roleplay, while they can also disrupt the flow of the Soul Rivers and create a blurry reading of memories in a certain area in Progressions.
- Planar Script: Isldar can manifest Primal (Purple glowing lines and writing) or Ordial (Green glowing lines and writing) in un-readable Primal or Ordial script depending on their Life or Death type. They may cause these lines to glow brighter or dimmer, remove them or add more, or have them react to certain mood or Ability conditions. Death Isldar can only ever use green, while Life Isldar can only ever use purple.
- Tail Manifest: If an Isldar is actively using Summon Armor (scales for Life, black metal for death), the Isldar may also optionally manifest a prehensile tail made of the same materials that they can use to hold and fetch objects. This tail is also semi-permanent so long as they keep up their armor, but will appear if all scales and black metal also disappears. This tail cannot be used in Combat.
- Dragon Speech: Life Isldar only (Death Cult Isldar do not have this Special) are capable of speaking and understanding Dragon Speech or Wyrmtongue either when it is spoken by Dragons, or by others. Dragon Speech is a unique language because it cannot be learned the traditional way, only specific Races and Afflictions have access to it. Additionally, it is also a language that defies being written down or even being recorded, as the sound just becomes gibberish when any type of recording medium is used to try and replay it, even memory Abilities.
- Death Speech: Death Isldar only (Life Cult Isldar do not have this Special) are capable of speaking and understanding Death Speech or Shadetongue either when it is spoken by Ordial Entities, or by others. Death Speech is a unique language because it cannot be learned the traditional way, only specific Races and Afflictions have access to it. Additionally, it is also a language that has no defined alphabet and cannot be properly read, the runes and markings varying between the cultures and Ordial cults that use it, though it is always identifiable as Deathspeech. It also defies being recorded, as the sound just becomes gibberish when any type of recording medium is used to try and replay it, even memory Abilities.
More Lore yet to come
While we are in the middle of our Proficiency update, there was not yet enough time to finish up the Culture of the Isldar, explaining the two halves of Isldar society in Life and Death cults. These will follow some time after the Proficiency update is done. For now, old history and information is still applicable, these changes occur through an IC sequence of events, and having been true in the past does not change.