ELMAERS

Salorras species: elmaers — the elves’ own lab-clones, pure elven stock shaped lesser than their makers: short-lived, with only a partial share of the elven gift, but uncannily versatile. An Advanced Fantasy “lesser elf” — the elmaer carries no human blood; the versatility is engineered, not inherited.

Origin: Khalendianil — a making of the isil elves through entropic magic at the close of the Era of Myths Stature: 1.55–1.80 m, elegant and lightly muscled — faintly pointed ears, unable to grow fat Lifespan: Adult at twenty-two; venerable past two hundred Nations: Ylna’Anor (Asmeda) · Unverkettet (Neluvia) · large communities in Braora Faith: No fixed doctrine — many honor Eone, others worship freely Languages: Native — Colloquial or Elven, by region; local — Elmaerian (Unverkettet), Merylia (Neluvia)

The elmaers are a people of purely elven descent — clones shaped by the very hands of the elves, yet never in their full form. Their kind appeared at the close of the Era of Myths, when the isil elves wrought them through entropic magic, in their own image and likeness. Later, in the Era of the First Moon, history records the elmaers’ role as expendable soldiers against the orilyni — the alien invaders of Salorras of that age. For centuries their place in the world was met with cruelty, for they were never recognized as a “true” seed of Salorras, but as experiments searching for their identity. Though they carry some of the gift of true elves, the greatest difference from their “fathers” lies in longevity: elmaers live about one-fifth the lifespan of elves. Most people in Salorras have never seen a real elf, so the elmaers are called “elves” by many — not far from the truth, since elmaer translates from the elven tongue as “our offspring.” Today they have made their place clear in the eyes of the world; it took thousands of years for the other peoples to grant them that, but the elmaers have built their own culture, customs, and traditions, and live on lands they claimed and won with their blood.

Character

Heirs of the elven kind but raised closer to human societies, elmaers won the grace and calm of the one and the warmth and ambition of the other. They are known for their inventiveness, their minds working out solutions in an “artistic” way; airy and delicate creatures, yet never without the spark and impulsiveness when it is needed. Other peoples’ opinions of elmaer character diverge by region: where they have lived for many generations they took on the temperament of the wider population, chiefly humans, while in purely elmaer regions they adopted a way of thinking close to their elven “fathers.”

Appearance

Elmaers strongly resemble their forebears. Their facial features are nearly identical to those of elves, save for ears that are slightly smaller; their soft skin varies among light shades, their hair most often blond or soft brown, their eyes green or blue. They come of age after their 22nd year, and their lifespan does not exceed 200. Their build recalls the elegant elven silhouette, though somewhat more muscular; males usually stand 1.60–1.80 m and weigh no more than 70 kg, females 1.55–1.75 m at about 50 kg. It is nearly impossible to see an overweight elmaer, for the metabolism and physiology they inherited from the elves prevents it. Elmaers tend to mind their appearance — said to be a way, born of the racism they suffered, to fit more easily into a “foreign” society; they always groom themselves and dress fittingly for the occasion.

Neighbors and Rivals

Elmaer relations with the world differ by region. On the elder continent of Khalendianil, elmaers are still reckoned bastards by the elves and pass indifferently before the eyes of the dwarves; the humans of the Old Kingdoms are more open to coexistence. In the New Kingdoms of the humans on Asmeda — and especially in the state of Braora — elmaers have existed since the state’s founding and are an inseparable part of society; the cosmopolitan capital Skylorn is in any case a child of immigrants of many peoples, and Braora has always had brotherly ties with the elmaer state of Ylna’Anor. On the wild continent of Neluvia, relations with the native eyafen and eyalen ria, and with the dwarven colonists, were baptized in fear when the sidelined elmaers built there the dictatorship of Unverkettet; trust there is scant and mutual, hardened by the elmaers’ own nationalist spirit. The pyrekin, wherever they hail from, hold most elmaers in sympathy, admiring how they won their independence as a people and wrote their own history — indeed, in the pyrekin state of Faeldar, coexistence with elmaers has run harmoniously for centuries.

Faith

Religion varies greatly among elmaers. As nomads and migrants who for years sought their place and ended up scattered across the world, they have served many deities. Elmaers who feel themselves true descendants of the elves more often believe in the Father of Elves, Eone; otherwise they may believe in any deity. In general — even in the purely elmaer region of Unverkettet — there is no teaching that steers the young toward any particular god.

Conscience

As creatures, elmaers tend toward liberalism, justice, and mercy, owing to their elven blood. Even so, theirs is a people of many moral faces, depending on where and how they are raised — seen most clearly in the militarist regime of Unverkettet, where elmaers are raised by the principles the law commands, yet can grow ruthless toward those not of their kind.

Elmaer Domains

For many thousands of years the elmaers were a people without home or identity, all but outcast from whatever society they tried to join while they remained on the elder continent of Khalendianil, always seeking a new beginning. It came with the centuries, and now only a few of their communities remain in their birthplace. Many migrated to Asmeda with the second migratory wave of 506 IE, where most followed the “path” of the north; given the chance, they claimed a great tract of land and later founded the first purely elmaer state, Ylna’Anor. Many elmaers live in large communities in Braora, and fewer in the Free Cities of South. Others fled to the exotic continent of Neluvia, where they built their own empire, that of Unverkettet — a land they so toiled to call “home” and defend in a daily battle against the goblinoids of the Beastlands who spill out to plunder the cities of the south.

Wanderers and Seekers

Elmaers are drawn with perfect ease to the adventurer’s life. Thanks to the harsh evolution of their kind, the art of survival is innate in them; they are keen students of life and their talents unfold very fast, which — together with their sharp senses — makes them remarkably adaptable in most circumstances. Plunging into adventurous places can become second nature, especially when the hunt for some treasure is involved, so one may meet them even in the most remote latitudes of Salorras, never missing a chance to prove their worth where others would turn back. Clients across the world in need of a specialized mercenary adventurer stand a high chance of finding what they need in the daring spirit of an elmaer.

Language

Elmaers usually speak Colloquial or a local tongue, by the region they grew up in. Elmaers of Ylna’Anor prefer Elven, while those of Unverkettet have their own unique dialect, Elmaerian, and often also know Merylia — the Colloquial of the continent of Neluvia. They may, of course, know any other tongue, for their people is many-sided and gifted.

Elmaer Starborns

The only known elmaer recorded as a starborn in history is Aelnesia Arron’Thar — a great personage and eminent bard, whose life was taken by the Self-Slaying God Nerkan Thak’Ar in the year 945 IE.

Names

Elmaer names come most often from the cultures of either human or elven peoples; only the elmaers of Unverkettet use names truly their own.

Male names (elmaerian): Andol, Draknir, Dkardran, Greidnek, Krirdil, Moghas, Rermor, Sythmas. Male names (elven): Aerlathan, Caylor, Entrydil, Feyrith, Haemir, Kelvhan, Nuvian, Saevel, Taegen, Virion. Male names (human): Alfred, Amos, Brisco, Eugene, Lewis, Morris, Nicodemus, Seymour, Aeganor, Daeryon, Kendos, Talenar, Aburan, Jazair, Khalam, Ikarian, Rudollion, Vetharis. Female names (elmaerian): Chashega, Hesedna, Likhigna, Mezhedni, Nassari, Shakhandi, Zhigali. Female names (elven): Arryne, Ena, Fayla, Isilynor, Kaelitha, Lithonriel, Merethyl, Nuovis, Sylmare, Vealatha. Female names (human): Belle, Cornelia, Esther, Genevieve, Olivia, Penelope, Aelyra, Daenys, Lesserah, Vhaenyra, Jeryla, Nasratah, Casiopida, Koranthea, Theisys.

Elmaer Racial Traits

Elmaers carry some of the gifts of the people who made them — though never in their full form. Theirs is an unfinished kind: they bear many of the traits of elves, yet some are atrophied, fallen short of the fullness of true elves. That very incompleteness, however, is the root of their gift — where the elf is fixed in its ancient perfection, the elmaer is made to adapt.

Requirements: None Ability adjustments: None Class access: Any Path or Paragon, with no restriction of level — the engineered versatility of the kind.

• Elven Lineage Senses: From their elven making, elmaers have infravision to a range of 60 feet, seeing by the faint glow of a moon, a lamp, or a distant constellation where a human would grope blind.
• Keen but Lesser Senses: An elmaer’s eyes and ears catch signs most peoples pass over — a whisper behind a curtain, the haste in a footprint, an asymmetry in a wall that betrays a hidden passage — and the referee should favor them at such notice. But they never reach the depth of true elves: an elmaer does not sense a secret door merely by passing near it, and lacks the elf’s protection against sleep and mind-bending magic.
• Elven Kinship: However the elmaers doubt their own identity, the world of magic makes no such distinction. For every effect that turns on race, an elmaer counts as an elf: ancient relics made for elven hands answer to them, and the curses and blessings that seek out the elven kind find them just the same.
• Cultivated Aptitude: Each elmaer cultivates one innate knack, a second lesson taken from the blood rather than from teachers. At creation, choose one field — balance and tumbling, noticing and searching, negotiation and reading others, sleight of hand, handling and calming beasts, or mystic awareness. In that field the elmaer acts with a decided edge: where an untrained person would have a 1-in-6 chance (or none at all), the elmaer has 2-in-6, or a +2 bonus on any roll the referee calls for. This is the trait that makes one elmaer a wondrous balancer, another a famous liar, another a brilliant student of every ancient art.
• Versatile Mastery: The unfinished nature that long denied elmaers an identity now grants them exceptional adaptability. They learn whatever they take up faster than most mortals and match a human’s breadth without ever reaching a true elf’s depth. An elmaer may follow any Path or Paragon to its height, begins play knowing one additional language, and — as their engineered blood ripens late — upon reaching 9th level raises one ability score of the player’s choice by 1 (to a maximum of 18). (The late ability ripening is a homebrew touch marking the elmaer’s signature versatility, in place of the elder peoples’ fixed gifts.)

Because of this same many-sided learning, an elmaer combines callings with rare ease: an elmaer forest-scout may at once probe the secrets of magic, and an elmaer student of ancient writ may also keep a blade keen — a facility that, in the other peoples, seems scarcely thinkable.