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Post by Lady Arcaena on Sept 6, 2016 9:41:57 GMT -5
Sylvanahr
Appearance:
The Sylvanahr are tall and willowy in appearance with the average height reaching around 6’6’’, they tower over most species. Being of the ice and snow their skin is either pale white, pink, purple, or blue with eyes varying pale hues of grey, violet, or white though their hair color remains the same as before they died. Their features are very elven in structure with high pointed ears, high cheekbones, and long graceful proportions. Their skin and faces are marked with designs that vary between individuals either in a bright icy blue or a light lilac color. Antlers grow from the crown of their heads denoting their position within the pack, the more points on the rack the higher the rank though none can have more than 12 as the Alpha has 12.
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Post by Lady Arcaena on Sept 6, 2016 9:46:12 GMT -5
Traits:
Cold Blooded: Sylvanahr are creatures of the cold, feeling more at home in the frozen climes of the Permafrost. In warmer temperatures they can create a sphere of cold around themselves, keeping their core temperatures down below freezing.
Mates: Sylvanahr mate for life and most often will only have one mate for their entire existence. It is rare that if one mate should die that the surviving Sylvan will find another whom they will mate with as well. As such a Sylvan can and will wait for centuries for their perfect mate, willing to sacrifice time itself for that perfect match. Couple who believe they are a mated pair will venture out during the Northern Lights, a celestial event that happens once a year known as the Vannas. The couple will kneel hand in hand in the snow, reciting the ancient writs of the Permafrost and should their souls resonate as one the Vannas will bless the couple with the markings of a mated pair. Should the pair be rejected they are welcome to try again however most do not as a rejection from the Vannas is seen as evidence that the couple are not one at their core.
Strength in the Pack: Sylvanahr are guided by honor and loyalty to one another and to their Alpha, the Lady Arcaena. Though they can and do travel alone as a group they are formidable and only a call away from help. There is a mind link that exists among the Sylvanahr making it possible for them to communicate through telepathy, able to hold conversations between groups without verbally saying a word. Most Sylvanahr are more comfortable with mind speech as it lets them pass through the world with the upmost silence and stealth. {This does not extend to other species}
Immortality: Sylvanahr are immortal drawing their extended life from the Permafrost itself though they can be killed. It takes an excessive amount of physical damage to both them and their familiar. Removing of their hearts and incinerating the organ will cause immediate death though getting to it through the hardened layers of ice bones is extremely difficult.
Familiars: The process of becoming a Sylvanahr requires the previous body to die allowing for a creature of the North to choose to fuse their spirit with the host. This fusion creates a bond between the creature and the Sylvanahr that is lifelong and unbreakable. The two share a mind link that allows them to talk to one another and share information. A familiar can only travel about a mile from their warrior and can always sense where the other is. Familiar's have a personality and mind all their own, able to communitcate via telepathy at will with anyone they choose though there remains an open link between them and their chosen. {Note: Familiars CANNOT be anything dragon-like due to there already being a dragon species on site. If you need help finding a creature for a familiar please contact Lady Arcaena}
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Post by Lady Arcaena on Sept 6, 2016 9:51:31 GMT -5
Powers:
Cryokinesis: Being born of the ice and snow have given the Sylvanahr power over the element able to manipulate and manifest ice, snow, and water. From crystalline ice constructs to inhibiting snowfalls and blizzards to affecting the flows of the rivers themselves.
Shadowmelding: Sylvanahr are creatures of nature and denizens of the dark thus they can meld with the shadows to become shadows themselves rendering them invisible. As long as no one walks into them they can remain invisible even in the brightest of daylight.
Chi Manipulation: Sharing the spirit of their familiar’s the Sylvanahr are completely at home with themselves and at peace with who they are. This inner peace allows them to tap fully into their chi, able to manipulate it to either give or receive Chi from others.
~ Healing: The giving of Chi can heal wounds of mind, body, and spirit though the Sylvanahr must be careful to not over extend what they are able to give.
~ Soul-Steal: The darker aspect of Chi Manipulation is the ability of the Sylvanahr to drain Chi from another, taking it into themselves. When used in the extreme the Sylvanahr can effectively remove the soul of the creature they are draining. When a soul is removed from the body it becomes a gem of varying colors about the size of a quarter. These gems can be used to store Chi and as adornments, often worn as jewelery, embedded in the skin or antlers, or given as gifts to lovers and loved ones.
> Stealing a soul is a heavy undertaking that is not decided upon lightly. Most often a Sylvanahr will only perform a soul steal when a creature or individual shows themselves to be dishonorable, evil, or cowardly. They look upon the taking of the soul as their duty, riding Ephilion of bad Kharma and allowing the soul of those they steal to be of better use.
Astral Manipulation: Being so closely tied to Chi and Spirit the Sylvanahr have a close connection with the astral plane, the plane of existence upon which spirits of the dead exist.
~ Communion with the Dead: So in tune with the astral plane are they that the Sylvanahr can sense the spirits of the dead, picking up on their feelings and thoughts as their wandering spirits leave impressions upon the normal plane of Ephilion.
~ Teleportation: Sylvanahr can use the Astral plane to teleport great distances in a few moments across all of Ephilion. Spending any more than a couple hours in the Astral plane can be dangerous as the Spirit will begin to adhere to the Astral realm, eventually displacing from the body causing death on the normal plane.
> Teleportation is a skill that takes a long time to master, thus most Sylvanahr can only take themselves; those who are older and far more powerful have been known to take up to 4 people with them on a teleport. This is also limited to places they have been and seen personally.
Shapeshifting: As a blessing from the Permafrost itself the Sylvanahr are able to come together with their familiar and as one spirit shapeshift into any and all of the creatures of the arctic {again with the exception of a dragon}. Shifting shape is a natural talent and takes next to no chi or concentration however a Sylvanahr can only hold a shift for about 8 hours as their spirit is meant to be in two bodies not one. |
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Post by Lady Arcaena on Sept 6, 2016 9:55:20 GMT -5
Strengths:
Enhanced physical traits: strength, stamina, agility, speed, hearing, smell, taste, sight - all are fives times stronger than a human's
Camouflage: Ice refracts light naturally therefore the Sylvanahr are able to bend that light effectively camouflaging them whenever and wherever they choose.
Sylvanahr are nocturnal. Ice and snow are stronger in the absence of the sun therefore the Sylvan are strongest at night or under heavy cloud cover.
Warriors: Sylvanahr are a proud and fierce race, their elven like agility and speed put to use battling the savage trolls that plague Ephilion. Trolls are mindless beast without compassion or honor who slaughter anything in their path making them a prime enemy for the Sylvanahr. Their fighting prowess is second to none, each individual specializing in the weapon of their choice.
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Post by Lady Arcaena on Sept 6, 2016 9:56:03 GMT -5
Weaknesses:
Sunshine: While they can tolerate the sun, excessive exposure to it or heat in general will eventually weaken a Sylvanahr. The older the individual the longer it takes for their power reserves to be depleted.
Healing through Chi takes immense amount of concentration in which the healer enters into a trance-like state leaving them vulnerable to attack.
Fire: Fire will weaken a Sylvanahr, though the level will depend on the actual heat being emitted from the flames as it takes an intense amount of heat to melt ice.
Separating a Sylvanahr from their familiar causes extreme discomfort for both and over an extended period will lead to insanity. A Sylvanahr cannot survive without their familiar and vise versa as the pair share the same spirit.
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Post by Lady Arcaena on Sept 6, 2016 9:57:38 GMT -5
History:
Thousands of years ago when the Earth was still young magic existed just as abundantly as in any other realm, a steady stream of power that even humans could tap into. Talented individuals often came together in covens to produce spells and enchantments, humans that communed with nature and felt the deep connections between all living things. These covens existed in relative peace, upholding their own laws behind the scenes of the greater populace doing what they could to protect the balance of nature. For generations these wielders of magic existed without much excitement, using magic as if it was an inexhaustible resource that they would forever have access to; that is until a young woman began to suspect that their magic was being siphoned away.
Ainsley West descended from a long line of magic users and was well versed in everything magical by the time she came of age. She felt a very deep connection with nature and often preferred the company of plants and animals to other people. It was perhaps due to that communion that she became aware of the magic within the world waning, an inexplainable draining that worried her. Ainsley brought her concerns to the counsel, hoping to bring together the covens to correct the problem but only received censure and disbelief. It astounded her that no one would take her seriously so she decided to take matters into her own hands, in an effort to prove that she was right.
She cast a spell seeking out the source of the disturbance but was interrupted, the man she loved had followed her along with several members of the council in an attempt to stop her. Their fear of change and the possibility of losing their hold over the covens drove them to betraying her, interrupting the spell. Magic mixed with magic until the two counteracted one another causing a large explosion, killing several members of the council. Even so Ainsley had felt the disturbance, begged her lover and those still surviving to see but they ignored and condemned her. Due to her transgressions what was left of the council banded together casting a spell to banish her to another realm, saving themselves the trouble of having to kill her.
Ainsley was brutally ripped from the Earthen realm and cast into another, everything that she was shattered and put back together as she landed in a drift of snow in the middle of a freezing tundra. Heartbroken and left for dead, Ainsley struggled to survive in the foreign world. Under a vicious snowstorm she desperately clung to life, trudging through the frozen wasteland to try and find shelter stubbornly refusing to give up. Her life and her pride were all she had left as the cold slowly sapped her strength and ebbed her life to nearly nothing. Something peculiar happened however as she trudged through the unknown land, a shadow that dogged her steps watching as she valiantly battled to survive.
Her human body however wasn’t meant to survive in such extreme cold and at long last she fell in the snow, the shivering in her body ceasing as the cold seeped into her very bones penetrating to her very heart until it stuttered and died. Unbeknownst to her Ainsley had landed in a different realm altogether and Ephilion was not done with her. The shadow that had followed her came upon her body, a monstrously huge creature that was the terror of the Permafrost. Lithely proportioned it padded to her one four gigantic paws standing nearly as tall as an elephant and as long as an 18 wheeler with a lupin head and 12 tails that floated with minds of their own. Having seen her bravery and her tenacity the creature deemed her worthy, worthy of the gifts he could bestow and of the powers they could have as one.
There in the heart of the Permafrost the creature curled around her body, splitting it’s own soul to fuse with hers and grant her the gifts it had carried in isolation for many millenia. The arctic winds of the North blew life back into her body, her blood became the frigid waters that flowed from the ice caps, and her very bones turned to solid ice. Her body warped, shifting and adapting to the Permafrost and accommodating to the new powers she was being granted. She came awake to an entirely new world, reborn from the very frozen waste that had been her demise. Her every appearance had changed, her once tanned skin was now pale white, glistening with frost, her dark hair was now snowy white, her skin was marked with icy blue tattoos, and her once amber colored irises had frozen over to a vibrant violet-grey.
The powers she wielded came from the land itself and she found she was no longer alone, for standing at her side was her familiar. It was his voice in her head she first heard in her new life, and his voice that guided her through the changes explaining what she was now. They had both been betrayed and left for dead and with the powers of Ephilion herself they had taken on new life within the frozen wastes of the Permafrost. Together they now shared one spirit and would lead others to their kingdom, shoring it up to become a power unto itself.
Thus the Sylvanahr were born lead by their Alpha, Lady Arcaena and Bane, her familiar. Within a few short centuries their ranks swelled, any who had been cast out, betrayed, or left for dead found their way inexplicably to the Permafrost where they are watched and chosen by a creature of the North. They became a new race of entities, separate from the rest but no less fierce. The Sylvanahr are a race of warriors, hunters of the highest order who value honor and loyalty above all else and will follow their Alpha’s orders without question. |
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