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Isldar
Yseldaar (in Altalar)
Motto: "Truth Abides no Weakness."
Nation State	Life and Death Isldar States
Ruler	Tower Councils
Other Present	Varied
Languages	Altalar
Religion	Varied
First Recorded	100 BC
Demonym(s)	Isldar

Silent watchers of the frozen mountain peaks, the Isldar are a Race of Snow-Elves who dwell in the distant continent of Ellador and guard its endless, icy valleys. With humble origins as a minor religious cult in the Allorn Empire of old, the struggle of their history drove the Isldar to eventually become their own people and their own nation. Seen as mysterious, reclusive, and barely understood by the outside world, the Isldar are often travelers from their home in one of Aloria’s few remaining unexplored corners. In recent years their society has been cruelly divided by a religious schism that has boiled into war, and with the road to peace impossible to see, the Life and Death Isldar - now bitter enemies - both pray that they will one day triumph. Though they appear in many of the world’s courts as precious advisors and historians, home and family are always close to an Isldar’s heart, for the roads of all their choices eventually lead back to the glimmering spires of Ellador.

Design

Priest Isldar used to turn themselves icy pale blue with Magic to show their dedication. The practice has largely died out, but some still do it.

The Isldar are patient and prudent Snow Elves, taught from birth to keep their feelings and intentions closely guarded. The Isldar are incredibly religious, with a schism down the middle based on if the Isldar worships Dragons (and is considered a Life Isldar) or worships the ice Goddess called the Glacial (and is considered a Death Isldar). They have a deep, sincere, and poetic culture which struggles with any sort of crudeness or sarcasm. The Isldar are just as famous for their beautiful poetry, as for their inability to laugh at jokes or smile. Physically, Isldar can have any body shape, but tend towards sharp, narrow facial features and angular frames, often lacking the broadness more common in Human descent. They tend to be tall, with an average height around six foot. Isldar usually style themselves in a traditional Elven way, with robes and long hair.

• Eye Colors: Isldar eyes must be purple if Life Isldar, green if Death Isldar, and blue if Neutral Isldar. Their sclera can be either white or black.
• Hair Colors: Isldar have very desaturated natural hair colors. Any white, black, or gray tone, or a pale tone like platinum or strawberry blonde, occurs naturally.
• Appearance: Isldar are mostly pale, but sometimes have a northern tan (see real life Inuit or Tibetans for examples). They can have any Caucasian or Asian features.
• Patron Traits: Life Isldar can have Dragonscale patches on their bodies, and Death Isldar can have black metal Dragonscale-like patches on their bodies.

Isldar in Regalia

A century ago, Isldar were so rare that they were frequently confused for the more numerous Elven races. Nowadays, however, the schism and civil war in Ellador has led to a massive departure of Isldar from their homeland. Though there are more in some places than others, there are now enough Isldar abroad that most people have heard of them and their culture, with little pockets scattered around the known world. Here are some concepts for player use:

• The Life and Death Isldar are currently under a truce. Some members of both factions have taken advantage of this to come to Regalia to lobby for the homeland.
• The Life Isldar have a refugee colony in Anglia under the high priestess of the Dragon Regulus, who frequently sends her people to Regalia.
• The Death Isldar understand that there is no better place to cause death than Regalia, the center of the world. It is an excellent place for their work.
• Isldar are famous musicians, poets and court performers. Irrespective of their side in the war, some of them come to Regalia just to perform.

Heritage Traits

Heritage Traits are free Packs and Mechanics. Free Packs never raise Proficiency Points, just giving the Pack, and obey lock-outs (if something would prevent you from buying the normal version of the Pack, you can't have the free Pack, either). A Character born from two parents with different Traits get the free Packs of one parent, but can mix and match from both parents' Mechanics. Isldar get their two general Mechanics, plus three more depending on what subtype of Isldar they are: Life, Death, or Neutral.

Free Packs

• Isldar can choose one Athletic or Magic Pack for free.
• Isldar can choose one pack from Roguery Point Buy for free.

Mechanics

All Isldar Mechanics

• Isldar are immune to harm from frost or cold sources (unless they are Magical), and do not suffer decreased visibility or choking hazard in a blizzard/snow-storm.
• Isldar can see things from incredibly far away if they focus, able to spot an eagle landing a kilometer away or a coin being flipped across a town. Ask DM for Event use.

Life Isldar Only Mechanics

• Life Isldar can perform the Life Song on a recently deceased person of any heritage or culture, ensuring they pass into the afterlife (with OOC consent).
• Life Isldar can use Farsight to receive vague visions of things happening and existing in faraway lands. (this may require communication with Event DM's or Tickets).
• Life Isldar can see the Soul Rivers of Aloria where the dead pass through, and are able to tap into it, to feel random memories, emotions, or feelings from long ago.

Death Isldar Only Mechanics

• Death Isldar can perform the Death Song on a recently deceased person of any heritage or culture, forcibly turning them into an Undead (with OOC Consent).
• Death Isldar can steal non-Player Spirits from other Characters, and force them to be servants. They can only be taken back if the Death Isldar is KO'd.
• Death Isldar can Transform into the Bone Horror Shift, a hulking monster made of bones and rotting flesh, which counts as a Disguise but is obviously a Death Isldar.

Neutral Isldar Only Mechanics

• A Neutral Isldar can choose any three mechanics from the Teledden or Fin'ullen they want.

Life and Death

The Isldar descend from a cult of Dragon Worshipers, forced to flee from the Elven Empire they lived in for religious heresy. After a Magical event bathed their new homeland of Ellador in frost and killed the armies sent to hunt them down, they settled down in isolation, not knowing that their Dragon patron had been replaced by a Death God living in her body. Recently, other Dragons returned and exposed the Death God for what they were, sending Isldar society into a spiral and pitting the city people (who stayed loyal to the Death God who had saved them, even if they had lied) against the rural tower people (who took up the cause of Dragons again and started a rebellion), creating the division between Death and Life Isldar. The Life Isldar would have lost and been driven off or killed if not for the Regalian Empire's intervention, which was enough to bring the two sides to a truce and allow them to focus on fighting off the dark Vampire kingdom of Dorkarth, which borders both of them.

At the moment of the Death God's exposure, every Isldar was forced to choose between staying loyal to the Death God, the Glacial, or returning to Dragons. A Death Isldar cannot change into a Life Isldar and vice versa, unless they kneel before the patron God of the opposing side (the Glacial or any Dragon, respectively), and admit that they were wrong (spend a God-summoning token for an offscreen conversion). However, if any Isldar converts away from their patron religion or declares that they will have no part in the war, they become a Neutral Isldar instead, and re-gain some of the biology of their Elven ancestors before they became Isldar. A Neutral Isldar cannot go back to either side. It is considered treason for a Life Isldar to associate with a Death Isldar, or a Death Isldar to associate with a Life Isldar, even though they are under a state of truce. Neutral Isldar can be received by both sides, but are sneered down on for supposed cowardice by fanatics, or those who have lost a lot in the war.

Though they share a culture page, Life and Death Isldar are bitter enemies with very different beliefs. The sections below will make it clear what lore refers to what group.

Language and Naming

The Isldar speak the Elven common language Altalar, but have an incredibly strong dialect called Sulvaley. Sort of like a midpoint between Altalar and the Suvial language Agasi, it has much harsher sounds and different word choice in places that makes it very difficult for most other Elves to understand. Altalar borrows some sounds from real-world Spanish, but the strong accent of the Isldar gives them an almost Arabic feeling when they talk.

• Example Male Isldar Names: Asrel, Henqaan, Nayaal, Novyaan, Anshaar, Ravlan, Marcaror, Sonraal, Narvael, Alrifar.
• Example Female Isldar Names: Samala, Isavaila, Saaliya, Silyana, Fismeya, Savraela, Veana, Naerassa, Eyfa.
• Example Unisex Isldar Names: Sil, Aleyras, Asir, Esmeya, Asamey, Manyaar, Qiaan, Feynral, Savaa, Qirnar.

Like other Elves, Isldar usually have quite a few names. First, middle, last, and sometimes their more important parent's name prefixed by "ul-" to show who they are descended from. Clan names are important to the Isldar, as different Isldar houses were always famous for different crafts and skills. Now that their society has been divided by a civil war, some Clans have been destroyed by the division, but the stable and large ones have stayed together and chosen their path almost unanimously. An Isldar named Novyaan A'sil Lorqaar, the son of Anshaar and from a clan called Meyraal, would be called Novyaan A'sil Lorqaar ul-Anshaar Meyraal. Ticket in the Roleplay Discord if you would like help with naming.

Brief History

Over the course of the Allorn (Elven) Empire’s existence, it imported new ideas from abroad as well as developing its own, creating diversity of opinion and religion in its formerly single-minded population. One of these diversities was Draconism, or the act of showing favor to Dragons, the oldest beings on Aloria. Draconism in the Allorn Empire rallied around the Creation Dragon Aurora, a patron of craftsmen and living things who forged life into the world’s many creatures within her Craters of Creation. It originated when an innocent archaeological society began to dig up Dragon ruins scattered around the Allorn Empire, learning that Elves had worshiped Dragons before the Empire's creation and the arrival of new prophets. Converting one by one, the society soon became the Dragon-worshiping so-called Cult of Dregodar, earning the enmity of the Allorn Empress’ inner court and the over-powerful clerics of the state religion, Estelley.

Persuaded by manipulative advisors and secret Cultists of yet other religions who hated Dragons, an Allorn Empress outlawed the Cult and Dragon Worship around 1000 BC. This ignited a large-scale Dragon worshiper uprising across the Empire. It might have been kept to a local rebellion had the Dregodar not chosen to both aid the Eronidas, Dragon-worshiping Orcs who had invaded the Allorn Empire in its north-west, and rapidly free and then arm all of the Asha slaves they had formerly kept to join their side in the war. These escalations eventually led to the Allorn army being mobilized against the Dregodar, beginning a hopeless war they could not survive. Though the Eronidas won and kept their state, in the end the Dregodar lost and were forced to cross the water to another continent with Aurora in tow, while any Dragon worshipers left in the Allorn Empire had to go into hiding and the Asha they had armed disappeared into the Asha resistance.

They arrived in the lush and vast continent of Ellador, where they would meet the locals, the Dwarves. Though they began on good terms, Allorn ambassadors soon followed the fleeing Cult and manipulated the Dwarves into declaring war on them. A hundred-year series of wars followed in which Allorn Archmages and Dwarven mechanical ingenuity together brought the Cult of Dregodar to its knees. Yet, at the final battle beneath the mountain of Udillin’s Foot, Aurora supposedly cast a great spell in revenge, turning the once green Ellador into a frozen wasteland and slaughtering the Allorn and Dwarven armies where they stood, but transforming her Cult into the Race now known as Isldar. Casting the spell changed her, turning her withered and bloated, Undead in appearance. Unbeknownst to the Isldar, she had fallen to her fear and been replaced by a Death-God called the Glacial, one of their number who had gotten lost in the land of the dead and plotted to usurp it from the inside, who had been the true source of the Magic.

Under the Glacial’s protection, but still believing they served Aurora (though called Frisit in her Undead form), the Isldar took advantage of their newfound immunity to the cold to take control of most of Ellador. Mostly ignoring the Cataclysm which wracked the wider world, the Isldar soon came into conflict with the Vampire state of Dorkarth which came to exist in the north of Ellador, along with parties of Velheim Ailor colonists and Dwarves looking to reclaim lost Holds that had been destroyed by the Glacial’s scheme. Brutal ambushers who could melt into the snows and reappear at any moment, the Isldar acquired a fearful reputation, becoming hated by the rest of Ellador’s people and an obstacle to all their efforts. This would continue until very recently, when two powerful Dragons appeared above the Isldar capital and slew Frisit where she stood, revealing the Glacial’s trickery and reviving the true Aurora, who immediately left the Isldar to return to one of her Craters of Creation instead.

Since then, Ellador has been wracked not just by war between the Isldar and their Dorkarthi, Velheim, and Dwarven enemies, but also between the pro-Dragon Life Cult rebellion and the pro-Glacial Death Cult regime. The Velheim and Dwarves, as well as the Regalian Empire, have grudgingly decided to forgive and side with the Cult of Life, shipping Urlan shock troopers to Ellador to help them fight off the Death Cult. This worked well enough that the Death Cult was forced to accept a truce with the Life Cult, and turn to fight Dorkarth together, for the time being. Both of them would like to re-ignite the war, but cannot do it so long as Dorkarth poses a mortal threat.