❄️ THE PEOPLES & BESTIARY ❄️

Of Isvael

Not everything beneath the snow was born of winter.

And not everything with teeth is a monster.

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✦ BENEATH THE SNOW

Isvael is home to more than one kind of Fae.

Some carry winter beneath translucent skin. Others look as though stone learned how to breathe. Leaves unfurl from Sylvari bodies, feathers cloak the Tirrik, and somewhere in a warm kitchen a Brownie is almost certainly doing three things at once while remembering exactly who still owes them a favor.

Beyond the cities, stranger footprints cross the snow.

Great Orrek move between bare trees until antler and branch become impossible to distinguish. Morrow carry riders across frozen roads with smoke drifting from their bodies. Tiny Nippets collect treasures that never belonged to them, while enormous Mourn watch the forests through black eyes and frighten generations of visiting mortals merely by opening their mouths.

Yet Isvael has wolves, foxes, ravens, owls and snow hares too.

Not everything in the Otherworld is magical.

Sometimes the impossible-looking creature is simply an animal.

And sometimes the ordinary-looking one deserves a little more caution.

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✦ THE PEOPLES OF ISVAEL ✦

The word Fae does not describe a single body, culture or way of life.

Isvael's peoples differ enormously from one another. Some are bound closely to frost, stone or growing things. Others bear fur or feathers. Some are tall enough to look over a human's head; others would barely reach their waist.

And while Ilyrath gathers many of them beneath one roof, the royal palace should never be mistaken for all of Isvael.

Amlaniir likes beautiful things.

His household reflects that preference.

The realm beyond his doors is considerably less interested in arranging itself for the Ice King's aesthetic pleasure.

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✦ THAERTHI ✦

Stone- & Mineral-Bound Fae

Thaerthi look as though stone learned how to breathe.

Their living skin may resemble pale veined marble, polished onyx, jade, rose quartz or other mineral forms, carrying natural inclusions, veining and subtle translucence through bodies that remain flexible and expressive.

Large black eyes shine like polished obsidian beneath sharply faceted ears, while a smile reveals rows of fine pointed teeth.

No two need resemble the same stone.

❖ STONE BENEATH THEIR HANDS

Stone answers differently beneath Thaerthi touch.

Gifted and trained craftspeople can sense stresses, irregularities and hidden fractures within it, finding weaknesses buried beneath flawless surfaces long before another eye would notice them.

Their people are therefore renowned among Isvael's stonemasons, sculptors, builders and architectural specialists.

Not every Thaerthi chooses such a life.

But where old stone needs someone who understands what it is trying very quietly to say, a Thaerthi is rarely a poor person to ask.

Those encountered within Ilyrath are particularly refined examples of their people.

The palace reflects Amlaniir's taste, not the full diversity of the Thaerthi beyond its walls.

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✦ SYLVARI ✦

The Plant-Bound Fae

Sylvari is the shared name for three related plant-bound Fae peoples:

Veliri. Lethari. Oryneth.

They are separate peoples, not different ages of the same creature.

All three carry growing things upon their bodies and possess an intimate connection to living plants. Leaves, flowers, bark, vines, moss and other botanical structures may form natural parts of their appearance.

All possess pointed teeth.

And despite looking as though winter ought to find them terribly poetic, Sylvari generally want very little to do with it.

❖ GROWING THINGS

Sylvari can encourage and shape plant growth with astonishing speed.

Under skilled care, seeds may become harvestable plants within days. Vines can be guided, young growth coaxed into form and gardens cultivated with a precision impossible through mortal horticulture alone.

Their magic is not separate from gardening.

It lives within the work itself.

For that reason, Sylvari communities flourish in warm cultivated places such as Thalora, while many of those working within Ilyrath are closely associated with the Palace Garden.

When they venture into Isvael's winter, they dress accordingly.

Even magical flowers dislike freezing.

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✦ VELIRI ✦

The Little Garden Mischief-Makers

Veliri are the smallest of the Sylvari.

Their bodies may be slender and vine-like or soft and round, with skin in greens, earthy shades, rose or lilac. Fine leaf-veins may cross their faces and limbs while moss, grass, leaves or flowers grow naturally from their bodies.

Their botanical ears are particularly expressive.

So are their smiles.

Unfortunately, those smiles contain a remarkable number of little pointed teeth.

Veliri are clever, curious and frequently mischievous. Their small size makes them excellent among blossoms, young shoots and delicate plants—

and equally excellent at disappearing into foliage immediately after doing something they absolutely know they should not have done.

Suspicious giggling from a flowerbed should therefore be investigated with caution.

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✦ LETHARI ✦

The Quiet Gardeners

Lethari stand closer to human height, though there is little truly human about their proportions.

Their limbs tend to be long and fine, their fingers narrow and dexterous. Green, olive, brown and muted floral shades may move across skin marked by delicate veins or patches of smooth bark-like texture.

Fibrous hair mingles naturally with leaves and flexible vines.

Lethari are often most comfortable where things grow slowly enough to reward patience.

They prune, transplant, cultivate and tend.

Silence does not trouble them.

A Lethari may spend half a conversation quietly working beside someone and consider the conversation perfectly successful.

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✦ ORYNETH ✦

The Great Gardeners

Oryneth tower over most of Isvael's peoples.

Their bodies appear grown rather than built: long limbs, broad root-like feet, bark-textured skin and softer areas reminiscent of moss or foliage.

Branches bearing leaves or occasional blossoms may rise elegantly from their heads and shoulders.

Yet their enormous hands remain capable of astonishingly delicate work.

Oryneth are often associated with mature trees, larger plants and gardens meant to outlive the hands that first planted them.

They are not elder forms of smaller Sylvari.

An Oryneth was never a Veliri waiting to grow up.

They simply have the unfortunate advantage of being able to reach shelves everyone else requires a ladder for.

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✦ RHOVARI ✦

The Fur-Clad Fae

Rhovari look as though winter decided that subtlety was unnecessary.

Large, broad and covered in dense fur, they possess immense physical strength and a natural resistance to Isvael's cold.

Their faces remain humanoid, with human-like noses and mouths rather than animal muzzles, though pronounced canines and pointed teeth lend them a distinctly predatory edge.

Rhovari living in warmer lands may shear their coats.

Those serving within Ilyrath keep theirs meticulously groomed.

Amlaniir has standards.

Apparently even military fur must meet them.

❖ GUARDIANS — AND GOSSIPS

Rhovari are strongly associated with military service and guard work throughout Isvael.

Their size, endurance and strength make them formidable protectors.

But there is another talent for which palace Rhovari have developed a quieter reputation.

They notice things.

Who crossed a corridor after midnight.

Who left whose chamber.

Who stormed away furious.

Who claims there is absolutely nothing happening despite half the western gallery having witnessed otherwise.

Two Rhovari may be whispering together one moment and become flawless statues of professional dignity the instant someone approaches.

Nothing happened.

Obviously.

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✦ TIRRIK ✦

The Feathered Fae

Tirrik are small feathered Fae with dark plumage ranging from charcoal to deep black, sometimes marked with cream, pale grey or subtle blue-green iridescence.

They possess true faces with eyes, noses, lips and small pointed teeth.

They do not have beaks.

Their legs and feet are distinctly avian, and a narrow feathered tail completes a body that seems perfectly comfortable halfway between Fae and bird.

❖ HANDS OR WINGS

A Tirrik's arms become their wings.

When working, they possess narrow feathered arms and functional hands.

When they take flight, those same limbs lengthen and transform as flight feathers unfold.

This makes Tirrik particularly useful in places built inconveniently high above everyone else's head.

Ilyrath contains a great many such places.

Tirrik are famously meticulous and have little sympathy for dirt, crooked furnishings or people who create unnecessary work.

They are commonly found maintaining the palace, carrying messages and reaching ledges that nobody sensible intended to clean by hand.

One should never confuse their small stature with childhood.

A Tirrik is an adult Fae.

And quite capable of judging the state of your boots.

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✦ ISELARI ✦

The Ice Fae

The Iselari look as though winter made something delicate and then forgot to make it fragile.

They are extraordinarily slender, with long limbs, narrow frames and translucent skin through which veins and even the movement of the heart beneath the ribs may remain visible.

Their eyes range from pale blue to white.

To mortal eyes they can appear impossibly delicate.

They are not.

❖ CLOTH AGAINST WINTER

Iselari are among Isvael's most celebrated textile artists.

Their weavers, tailors, embroiderers and designers create fabrics capable of surviving the realm's bitter cold without becoming stiff or brittle.

Their work may be practical or exquisite, heavy enough for winter or delicate enough to drift with movement.

Some of Ilyrath's finest garments, curtains and ceremonial textiles pass through Iselari hands.

Beauty, after all, rarely escapes the Ice King's attention.

Nor, unfortunately, does a badly cut sleeve escape an Iselari's.

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✦ BROWNIES ✦

The Little Folk

Brownies are small enough to be underestimated and sensible enough to let people regret doing so.

Compact, broad-handed and unmistakably adult, they possess warm earth-toned skin, large expressive ears and eyes ranging from amber and hazel to moss-green and near-black.

They are among Isvael's great practical generalists.

Brownies cook, mend, garden, carry, repair, organize, assist and somehow seem to know where the thing everyone else has spent half the morning searching for was put.

❖ A FAVOR FOR A FAVOR

Help is not servitude.

Brownie culture places great importance upon reciprocity.

A favor deserves a favor.

Work deserves payment.

An agreement deserves to be kept.

What counts as worthwhile payment depends upon the Brownie.

Sometimes coin will do.

Sometimes fresh bread is better.

A Brownie treated fairly may become one of the most useful people to have nearby.

A Brownie who has been cheated may become considerably more creative.

Milk has been known to sour.

Objects have been known to break.

Small household disasters have been known to occur with remarkable frequency.

Whether these events are related is, naturally, a matter between the Brownie and whoever was foolish enough not to pay them.

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✦ THE BESTIARY OF ISVAEL ✦

The Otherworld has never seen much reason to make its animals easily understandable to mortals.

Some resemble creatures known in the human world until one looks too closely.

Others appear impossible from the beginning.

And some are exactly what they seem.

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✦ BEASTS OF HEARTH & ROAD ✦

Domesticated Fauna

Isvael's people have spent generations learning which creatures will pull a cart, which will carry a rider, which will provide food—

and which will climb onto the roof for reasons known only to themselves.

Four domesticated species are especially common throughout the realm.

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✦ BRUMAK ✦

The Great Draft Beasts

Brumak are enormous shaggy herd animals bred for strength rather than speed.

Their broad bodies, powerful shoulders and sturdy legs are protected beneath dense underwool and long coarse outer hair. Heavy horns curve from the head, while divided feet give them excellent traction across snow and ice.

Brumak pull freight, timber, food, construction materials, carts and fishing equipment.

When waterways freeze solid enough to become winter roads, they pull loads across the ice.

They are calm.

Patient.

Difficult to frighten.

And capable of becoming magnificently immovable when they decide that whatever everyone else had planned is no longer of interest to them.

Experienced handlers tend to negotiate.

The Brumak usually knows this.

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✦ MIREL ✦

Milk, Fiber & Questionable Decisions

Mirel are compact herd animals with narrow faces, long mobile ears, slender legs and thick winter coats.

Their milk is used throughout Isvael for cheese, butter, cultured foods, sauces and baking.

Beneath their winter coat grows an exceptionally fine underwool prized for warm textiles. In skilled Iselari hands, humble Mirel fiber can become fabric delicate enough for royal clothing.

Mirel are also remarkable climbers.

Rocks are climbed.

Walls are climbed.

Crates are climbed.

Barrels are climbed.

Low roofs are climbed.

Objects whose owners were absolutely certain no sensible animal would attempt to climb them are, inevitably, climbed.

There is no magic involved.

The Mirel simply disagreed.

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✦ PIKKA ✦

Little Thieves of the Farmyard

Pikka are small, round ground birds whose dense feathers extend down their legs to protect them from frozen earth.

Their eggs naturally occur in beautiful muted shades of sage, grey-green and soft blue-grey, often marked with darker speckles.

They do not glow.

They contain no prophecy.

They are eggs.

Pikka prefer running to flying and can move with surprising speed when motivated.

They are particularly motivated by food.

An unattended basket, open kitchen or market stall may therefore become the scene of a very small crime.

The Pikka will feel no remorse.

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✦ MORROW ✦

The Smoke-Bodied Riders

From a distance, a Morrow may remind a mortal of a horse.

The resemblance rarely survives closer inspection.

Their bodies are narrower, their legs longer, their necks more flexible and their heads touched with a faint cervine elegance. Instead of ordinary hooves, each foot ends in a narrow divided structure of dark horn suited to snow, stone and ice.

But it is their bodies that make mortals stare.

Morrow appear to exist somewhere between flesh and drifting smoke.

Their torsos remain comparatively solid while the edges of their legs, bellies, spines, ears, manes and tails soften into translucent haze. The landscape may sometimes be glimpsed faintly through them.

Yet a Morrow is warm, living flesh beneath the hand.

Touch makes the contacted area appear momentarily denser before the smoke-like translucence slowly returns.

They are among Isvael's swiftest means of travel and carry couriers, travelers, patrols and riders across the realm.

They may look like ghosts.

They are very much not.

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✦ CREATURES OF THE WILD ✦

Beyond roads, farms and warm windows lies the Isvael that belongs to tooth, claw, feather and hoof.

Some of its creatures would be familiar in any mortal forest.

Others belong only beneath an Otherworld sky.

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✦ ORREK ✦

The Antlered Herds

Orrek move through Isvael's forests like pieces of the landscape that decided to walk away.

Tall and elegant, they possess long legs, elongated faces and large ears. Their dense coats carry muted winter shades of ivory, grey, silver-brown and taupe.

Both males and females bear antlers.

Rather than forming neat crowns, their antlers branch irregularly like the limbs of leafless winter trees.

When an Orrek herd stands motionless among bare woodland, branch and antler may become nearly impossible to separate.

They are wild herd animals and an important part of Isvael's natural life.

They are hunted for meat, hide, fur, bone and naturally shed antlers.

Ordinary Orrek are respected.

They are not sacred.

But every old rule has its exception.

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✦ THE GOLDEN HIND ✦

The Fortune That Cannot Be Sought

Very rarely, gold moves between the winter trees.

The Golden Hind is not another species.

She is an Orrek.

Always female.

Always rare.

Her coat carries a true warm metallic gold, and her antlers shine with the same impossible color.

She does not glow.

She does not speak.

She does not transform into a mysterious woman the moment someone looks away.

She is simply a Golden Hind.

And seeing her unexpectedly is considered one of Isvael's greatest omens.

The old belief promises that something of extraordinary fortune lies somewhere upon the observer's future path.

Love, perhaps.

Survival.

Healing.

Reunion.

Opportunity.

Something long desired—or something whose value has not yet been understood.

The Hind does not reveal which.

Nor does she say when.

And most importantly:

She cannot be sought.

Following rumors does not count.

Tracking her does not count.

Being deliberately brought to her does not count.

The old saying is simple:

One does not find the Golden Hind.

She finds you.

Most hunters would never deliberately harm one.

What would happen if someone did remains the sort of question sensible Isvaeli prefer not to answer through experimentation.

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✦ MOURN ✦

The Great Dark Owls

The first mistake many mortals make upon seeing a Mourn is assuming that anything with a face like that must be supernatural.

The second is staying close enough to investigate.

Mourn are enormous nocturnal birds with dense black, charcoal, soot-grey or very dark brown plumage.

Their huge round eyes appear almost completely black.

Their beaks open unusually far beneath the facial feathers, creating a dark gape so wide that the bird appears to be grinning.

Pale hardened structures within the mouth may resemble teeth in poor light.

They are not teeth.

The Mourn is not smiling.

This rarely makes anyone feel better.

❖ JUST A BIRD

Despite their appearance, Mourn are animals.

Not demons.

Not spirits.

Not undead omens.

Not Fae.

They hunt rodents, birds, hares and other appropriately sized prey, moving through the night on remarkably quiet wings.

Adult humans and adult Fae are not their usual prey.

A frightened, nesting or cornered Mourn is nevertheless an enormous predator equipped with talons and a formidable beak.

If one spreads its wings, opens that horrifying mouth and begins threatening you, Isvaelian wisdom offers a beautifully uncomplicated response:

Leave.

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✦ NIPPETS ✦

The Little Thieves

Nippets are small, clever creatures whose bodies carry hints of martens, stoats and squirrels without truly being any of them.

They are excellent climbers.

They are intensely curious.

And they possess an unfortunate appreciation for small objects that catch the light.

Coins.

Buttons.

Jewelry.

Beads.

Anything shiny enough to deserve closer inspection may also, in the Nippet's opinion, deserve relocation.

The stolen treasure is usually hidden in a nest or cache.

Nippets do not understand money.

They do not understand ownership.

They certainly do not understand why someone is so upset about one missing earring.

Isvaeli people call them little thieves anyway.

Repeated feeding may make a wild Nippet increasingly comfortable around a particular person.

This is not domestication.

It is, however, an excellent way to become personally responsible for whatever disappears next.

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✦ FAMILIAR TRACKS ✦

The Ordinary Wild

Not every footprint in Isvael belongs to something found only in the Otherworld.

Familiar animals share the realm with its stranger inhabitants.

A wolf is not automatically a shapeshifter.

A raven is not necessarily delivering a prophecy.

An owl watching from a branch does not mean someone is about to die.

A snow hare vanishing into a drift has probably not crossed between worlds.

Sometimes an animal is simply an animal.

Although a raven staring at someone while they eat may still be hoping they drop something.

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✦ THE LIVING WILD ✦

Isvael is strange by mortal standards.

Its people may carry flowers in their hair, frost beneath their skin or the likeness of polished stone across living bodies.

Its riding animals trail smoke.

Its smallest thieves collect buttons.

Its largest owls possess faces capable of permanently altering a visitor's opinion of birds.

And somewhere among bare winter branches, a creature of gold may appear once in a lifetime and disappear before anyone quite believes what they saw.

But wonder does not erase nature.

Animals hunt.

Prey runs.

Birds build nests.

Herds move through valleys.

Creatures eat, sleep, raise young, defend themselves and occasionally make themselves everyone else's problem.

The Otherworld is magical.

It is also alive.

And beneath all that snow, Isvael has never stopped moving.

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Some tracks lead home.

Some lead deeper into the woods.

And some are better admired from a respectful distance.