Elvendritch

"The other Kinde pray to your Gods - The Elvendritch slaughtered ours. We reclaimed our world. And even in death, our Gods fear us - Because we join the Warriors in the Forever War."

Hailing from a culture known for it's cutthroat politics and militaristic nature, the Elvendritch are a humanoid Kinde, originating from the Void Island Iroshara, located in the Rogue Void Archipelago, Kevarsko, within the Cosmic Void of the Voidsea. It is the Elvendritch which sit at the centre of the Twilight Imperium, ordering it's many expansionist conquests and subjugated Kinde.

The Elvendritch are considered to be a particularly vicious Kinde found within the Sky River and it's neighbouring Gyres. They are known to be warriors, both in the Realmlands and the Voidsea.

Despite this, due the fact their home system is many thousands of light years away from the Sky River, they are in fact, relative newcomers to the Voidsea, only making their name known in the last several thousand years. It has been noted that before this, they have sent several waves of Voidcraft towards the Sky River over the centuries, seeking to establish colonies there, and create a foothold there. Many of these ended up evolving into entirely new Kinde, which the Elvendritch had to re-intergrade into their empire.

The sheer speed of their expansion has seen the Imperium rise to the status of a major power, though one that is heavily distrusted and disliked by most that surround it. They have found themselves in constant conflict with the Kin of the Cosmic Union in particular, and have fought one of the longest continuous wars within the Eternal War with them. In many ways however, the Elvendritch consider this, and all war, to be an inherently defensive conflict, in no small part to their history of subjugation by the ancient Kinde known as the Gods.

The emergence of Taekni had a huge impact on the Elvendritch - Not only did they come to see it as a vital new weapon granted to them by their Fallen Warriors, but it also opened up opportunities for them - The Node of Iroshara opened up the Realmlands to them, allowing them to reach the Sky River with far greater ease, where they began to establish the Twilight Imperium.

Description

Upon first impressions, the Elvendritch share many similarities to that of the Kin - Bipedal, skin-covered bodies in a variety of colours, two eyes, ears, arms, hands, legs, feet, and a mouth and nose. They also have hair which comes in a variety of colours.

Further inspection reveals the differences between them though - for example, the most common hair colour found within the Elvendritch is white, though black, blue, and and grey are also found. A rare trait of Elvendritch hair is that it can also come in gradients - The roots of the hair being one colour, while changing to another at the end of the strands.

Where Kin ears are rounded, Elvendritch Ears are pointed. Elvendritch also possess black eyeballs, the only colour on them being the colour of their irises. This trait comes from the snowy climate of Iroshara - Light reflects off of snow and ice, and their black eyeballs help them to absorb the light without being blinded by it. This makes it difficult to blind an Elvendritch with light.

Elvendritch skin tones are normally on a gradient between blue, stark white, and brown, though like the Kin, many new kinds of skin tone are found throughout the Kinde broadly. These skin tones allowed them to either blend into their environment, or project them from the rays of sun.

Adaptability

The Elvendritch are a Kinde which are particularly adaptable - When placed into new environments, the Elvendritch will evolve to better suit them, thus creating new sub-Kinde in the process.

While most Kinde are adaptable in this way, the Elvendritch are particularly prone to it, and undergo evolution in a far more rapid manner than many other Kinde. In this way, the Elvendritch are similar to the Kin.

This is shown to be the case due to the Exodus - An even wherein many Elvendritch travelled via the Voidsea to the Sky River, seeking new homes and colonial opportunities. When their descendants were rediscovered by the now expanding Twilight Imperium, they had evolved into the Takosi and the W'Kerren Kinde - Only a handful of generations separated them from the Elvendritch, yet they had evolved to the point that it was hard to consider them the same Kinde anymore.

This feature of their evolution has lead to many Elvendritch coming to believe that the Kin are little more than another evolutionary offshoot of themselves - and thus, should be brought back into the fold of the Imperium. Though this is not born out in any actual genealogical evidence, it remains a common talking point within the Irosharan Core.

The Glow

A quirk of Elvendritch evolution is that of 'The Glow' - It refers to the Elvendritch ability to make their eyes emit a small amount of light, while also giving them better vision in the dark. This evolutionary ability appeared to develop due to the main habitable zones of Iroshara being in perpetual twilight and darkness.

They have found ways to utilize this ability in combat - The Glow is often indistinguishable to the light-up of the eyes that Taekni causes. Many Elvendritch utilize the Glow in order to trick their enemies into thinking they are preparing to cast a spell, which can either allow them to get an opening, or back away to a more defendable position.

Blood

One significant biological feature to the Elvendritch is the colour of their blood. Their blood comes in a variety of different colours.

The most prominent colour of Elvendritch blood is green, followed by red, blue, pink, black, then yellow. Blood colour is a recessive hereditary trait, passed down by both parents. If the pairing has two different blood colours, the dominant colour will usually win out - the exception being yellow and black, which are dominant features. These are also considered colours of the Gods - Which in Elvendritch culture, are marks of distain.

Culture

The Elvendritch are a Spiritual Kinde, but they are not religious - While many do have a belief in a spiritual world, it is not in service to a higher power, but rather to wage war against it.

Elvendritch believe that their warriors are destined to join alongside their original heroes in an eternal battle against their Gods.