Elder Story: Details of the Races
Details of the Races
There are three major races in the Elder's main domains. These are the Spire (SPY-er,) Weiren (WAY-rin) and Visre (VIZ-ray.) All three are extremely similar due to inter-racial relationships not being seen as an issue in the past couple thousand years for at least the Earth, Fire and Air domains. Water, despite it's go-with-the-flow nature conformed to tradition more than the rest of the elements. (This will be more apparent in the descriptions of Jemilline and her sister Kristine.)
After inter-racial relationships were not a social issue in the three of four domains, individuals have so many bits and pieces of each race that it's hard to tell in some what is a prominent family background by looking. Many of them have even realized that while their ancestors were Spires, they are now considered on par with Visre in ability.
In general, all of these races share some characteristics. They age quickly from year one to fourteen (to put it in perspective, it's approximately 3.5 years to 1 year,) after that they age at a normal pace unless some outside force causes them to do otherwise. They live for at least 500 years (Elders tend to live a little longer because of the support system through the domain and the moons,) before they start their cycle for rebirth. Their souls go into the Domain and help fuel the life in the domain and the moons. The length of time during their death period varies greatly, and there's not really a determining factor on who is reborn when. When a soul is reborn they have no recollection of who they previously were. Elders are exempt from this death and rebirth process. When they die, their soul is infused with a part of their domain for eternal consultation.
Fire - Ancestral Room in the main palace, souls are bound to cups, souls take the form of flames
Earth - Ancestor Grove behind the Elder's home, souls are infused with a seed for a tree, in which they grow to be part of the forest
Air - Ancestor's Canopy in the vicinity of the Elder's home, souls bind to different kinds of birds, voices being whispers on the wind
Water - Ancestral Lake in the courtyard of the palace, souls bind to different kinds of fish
Other quirks that all of the races (except Spires) have in common are that those with abilities have basic manipulation of their element. If strong enough, they have the ability to go to other worlds. Moving between domains and moons takes little effort if given permission by the side you're traveling to.
Pregnancy and child birth have a bit of a different cycle. Those gifted (women specialize in this) from the Earth domain can determine pregnancy in another of their kind (from any domain) within the first two days of conception. Women are typically pregnant for a month to two months before going into labor. After childbearing, their bodies become infertile for the next five years, though it tends to be almost eight to ten if the mother has twins or more at a time.
Weiren
Weiren are traditionally the working class. Holding jobs that are considered blue collar in our society, they do all the legwork for movements that are passed by Elders and society leaders. They are considered the weakest class with a handful of gifted individuals that climbed up social ranks.
Do not mistake this with a "slave" class. These people are in no means slaves or second class citizens. They have equal opportunities with no racial oppression, nor are they bound by social class. They are not viewed as inferior. The Weiren are specialized in skills that the Spire wish they had. Weiren have ways of speaking to the animal/plant/air spirits that do not have form in ways that only the Visre do. Their skills allow them to execute jobs well as skills are not taught but gained mostly through natural born talent and improved upon during life. Weiren hold hands-on working/crafting positions in stone working, carpentry, caretaking, musicianship, gardening, and various others that cater to their domain. Individuals are able to find the area that they fit into and life is generally peaceful. These people are respected as without these people the domain’s society would cease to function and prosper. Ones that find caretaking to be their forte have opportunities to work within the Elder's homes or within the homes of various other Visre and powerful Spires.
PURE BLOOD - Physical characteristics include rounded human-like ears or small pointed ears and even-rounded eyes that are typically hazel, blue/green or brown.
Hair is relatively curly or wavy, with varied thickness. Men's hair varies in curly or straight. Their hair color is usually browns or blacks (in the Water or Air domains it was blonde or blonde mixes instead of black).
Their skin is typically darker than most. In the Fire and Earth domains, their skin can be multiple variations of tan, dark tan and black (often rare, but it does occur.) They often have tribal markings like the Visre do, although it isn't uncommon to see freckles on their skin. (It isn't just in certain areas; they can cover full parts of the body: usually the arms, face, back and chest, but overall it varies).
Their clothes are simple and plain. Often they have only one set of dress clothes for very special occasions. Their body types for females range, but usually are more average build, with noticeable hips and chest, but a good balance of muscle. The men are a little stockier and in some cases a little heavy weight. Weight, however, is not based on consumption, but rather on family and overall lifestyle, as none of these races actually consume any type of food.
Spire
Spires are traditionally the Assistant class. They are the bridge between the Weiren and Visre, and hold more office-type positions (managing the caretakers in the Elder’s home, organizing the businesses and orders for the carpenters and stone masons) as well as managing gatherings of various sizes like weddings, Elder announcements and funerals. Unlike Weiren and Visre, the Spire are not gifted with the element of their home. They tend to over accommodate in other areas because of this and will make regular visits to especially gifted Visre and Weiren to gain blessings from the element they were born into. Spires tend to put on richer clothes and other ornaments and traditionally would try to appear perfect in every sense of the word to hide their inability. In most cases, in the past, it was hard to tell a Visre and Spire apart because of this.
Spires tend to be much more social as a race than any other race because of their need to make up for their lack of abilities and skills. They tend to be superficial and in some cases viewed as shallow. They realize their place but it doesn’t stop them from wanting more than they have. This causes them to have the need to employ powerful Weiren family lines or try to buy off a business that is particularly profitable from other Spires.
Spires were also the first that proposed inter-racial marriages which took a few hundred years to pass. Inter-racial marriages first passed in the Earth Domain, and were at first restricted to only allow the Weiren and Spires. It wasn’t for another thousand years or so until it allowed the Visre to marry other races. The Fire Domain followed suit not long after the Earth Domain passed the decision, the Air Domain had little to no communication with either and didn’t pass this for a few hundred years afterwards.
After the decision was passed in these domains, mixed-Spires began to have abilities like the Weiren but tended to keep their positions in society. With their new abilities did come some understanding and lowered the materialistic nature of the mixed-Spires who did have abilities. There are still individuals born without abilities. In these cases they usually try to teach themselves skills which lead to lower-medium quality work without the sparkle of the individuals who were born with the skills. Many of these have been known to not give up, but make it a hobby and return to their traditional managerial positions.
PURE BLOOD - Physical characteristics include small-medium sized pointed ears, even eyes with a slight upward slant at the corner with gold or green irises.
They also have red to brown hair, mostly thick and curled.
Their skin is smooth and light tan, usually adorned with freckles on the shoulders, cheeks/nose and knees.
Their bodies are slim with wider hips in females. It is rare to see a bulky male. They are lean, physically powerful people, but do not appear to be so.
They wear clothes of richer fabrics, sometimes a bit more flamboyant to make up for their lack of ability and power. Females usually adorn these clothes with jewelry that hold rich gems and metals, showing a great deal if skill in the creation of them. They will often not hide what family line created the pieces and if their family had anything to do with them.
Visre
Visre are traditionally the noble class. They are the strongest and most in tune with the element to which they belong, and thus the most respected. These abilities gave Visre positions as seers and shamans, like religious leaders. In some cases a particularly skilled Visre would employ Spires to employ Weiren who had the skill that the Visre had.
An example of this is a Visre who was particularly skilled in metal work, creating jewelry and other various decorative pieces that were functional as well (lanterns is one.) That Visre would go and find Spires that were interested in their metal work and wanted to help them in managing a business of sorts. The Spires that the Visre employed would then go and find (usually flaunting the name of the Visre that they were employed under) Weiren with the same skills to work under them. The Visre would work with them, but often disconnected from his/her workers, sometimes coming down to the Weiren’s workplace to serve as a muse or to get an idea across to his/her employees.
Mostly the Visre were highly in tune with the element they were born into. They were humble, and were seen as political leaders as well as the religious figures. The only problem they really faced was their idea of needing to keep a pure blood. Because of their lack of interaction on a physical level with the other races, they were particularly prone to sickness and it was not uncommon to hear of one falling ill and passing because of it. Those who employed Weiren in their homes as caretakers and had normal interaction with them were not as susceptible, however this was rare as many Visre felt they needed alone time to gain guidance from ancestors.
The Visre felt they had something that no other race could when it came to their gifts and status. They weren’t really stuck up, but they had the idea that tradition was that for a reason and there was no need to deviate from it. What they had as a society worked, and deviating would put it at an imbalance. They only changed things if they felt the ancestors wanted it, which had to go through their political ranks which were mostly which families had a closer tie to the Elders before anything was passed. Elders always had final say.
Overall they became leaders - traditionally Elders descended from this race.
PURE BLOOD - Physical characteristics include medium-long pointed ears, upward slanted eyes at the corners. Color has more to do with what element they came from.
Fire - blue, gold, red
Earth - green, gold, brown
Air- Blue, gold, silver
Water - Blue, blue/green, silver
Hair is usually straight, but always thicker, hair color varies as well.
Fire - Black (hues of red or blue), Red, or brown with red hues
Earth - usually brown, dirty blonde (rare,) or blonde (extremely rare)
Air - Blonde, dirty blonde (rare)
Water - Black, dark brown, light Red (common)
Men are usually bulky to a point, but still lean. (Lean, but filled out.) Females are curvy and thin, mostly hourglass figures.
They typically do not have any skin markings, but some will have tribal type markings based on communes with ancestors that they align themselves with. This is common across all domains.
Wear lavish dress robes, based on their ultimate position or occasion.
Their skin is usually lighter than the rest, pale to a light tan. The Fire and Earth domains, however, have darker skin than the Water and Air domains.