Daeodren

Within the Choralis Savannah lives a people who above all, wish to be left alone. A race nearly as old as the Elves, who dwell in monumental holes dug into the very earth itself. A race that rejects faith, magic, and some even say sleep itself to persist and continue on, forever. ~Rumors about the Daeodren from a tavern in Fanos

The daeodren are a short statured, but strong willed people whose home is found in the wide stretches of the Choralis Savannah in the lower part of the continent.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Daeodren are bulky bipedal humanoids. They all reach a uniform height at adulthood, and are nearly as wide as they are tall. Their arms and legs are shorter but much more thickly muscled than that of Men. Their arms end in hands with five digits, four fingers and an aposable thumb. Their legs end in flat oval feet, nearly as thick as their legs as to appear to barely have any ankle at all.

Genetics and Reproduction

Daeodren bare children like men do. Female daeroden become pregnant through sex and carry the child in their wombs for eighteen months, giving birth to living young. Daeodren typically have one child per pregnancy, but twins are somewhat common due to their belief in Twin Souls. Male and female daeodren become sexually mature at age one hundred, in some cases not even feeling sexual drives or urges at all. Females can only become pregnant once every ten years, and only for a very short period of time, meaning that the age difference between children of the same mother can sometimes be an entire century apart.
Daeodren are mostly male, with a ratio of two to one between the sexes.

Growth Rate & Stages

Daeodren come into sentience faster than Men, being able to speak at around six months, and walk at eight. They are considered as children from this point until the age of fourty. At age fourty, they will be fully grown but will not be considered an adult until they either reach the age of one hundred and thirty years, being referred to instead as a 'Nadi Tufiil', translating roughly as 'Mature but not Grown'. (See : Nadi Tufiil)

Additional Information

Social Structure

Daeodren social structure is tiered in the following way from heighest to lowest:

• Educators, Mechanicsts, and Philosophers
• Mothers, Farmers, Miners and Archivists
• Fathers, Soldiers, Laborers, and Artisans
• Merchants, Nadi Tufiil and Children, and Farrost (those who live outside of nestals)
  

Due to the ratio of gender differences, daeodren are highly matriarchal with most positions of power being held by women. While males are allowed to hold these positions as well, and in many cases do, it is believed that females are prefered, as being put in such positions affords them greater protection, which in turn helps ensure they will live long enough to produce at least one child and allow the daeodren to continue as a species. The daeodren themselves do not comment on this observation to those outside of their culture.

Daeodren live in dug chasm like settlements called Nestal Cities, (often just shortened to Nestal). While each nestal acts indepentant from one another, they are all unitied as a single nation, with the representative of each nestal having an equal voice in decisions that affect the daeodren who live in the savannah as a whole.

Uses, Products & Exploitation

Some people believe that the blood of a Daeodren contains mystical properties that can hold demons at bay and drive away any magics hold on you. While this occationally causes some unsavory people to hunt down and kill daeodren for their blood, other enterpising daeodren take up selling vials of their blood in cities as charms to ward away evil.

Facial characteristics

Daeodren have hooked wide prominent noses. Most have a fairly protruding bridge, which trails down into flaired and flattened nostrils. They have two eyes, usually seeming slightly small comared to the size of their nose and mouth, and typically deep set in their sockets beneath thick growing brows. Full lipped wide set mouths and broad chins as well as wide foreheads cap either end of their faces, with small round ears set to either side of their heads. 
Males are capable of growing beards of extremely thick curling hair, usually worn in braided ringlets and adorned with strips of precious metals. Beards hold a special signifigance as only a male who has sired a child is allowed to wear one. They take extremely good care of their beards, often washing and oiling it at the end of every day while in their sleep like trance. Females cannot grow beards naturally, but those who have born children wear a kind of faux beard called a Cresnet made of shorn braids and ringlets from the father(s) of their children. These can vary anywhere from a small collection worn like a gaotee or chinstrap, to a thick collection worn like a veil beneath the nose and obscuring the mouth and chin entirely.
Most daeodren have brown to black eyes, with the exception of those born as twins, who almost unanimously have bright piercing blue or green eyes. 
All daeodren have black curly hair on their heads (with the execption of Twin Souls), either worn in a thick tangle of curls, braided into ringlets like the beards found on males, or shorn clear to the scalp. Those that live among other races are know to adopt differing hairstyles to match those of the peoples around them, to varying levels of success.

Average Intelligence

Daeodren are highly intelligent, spending decades as children being educated in every possible scrap of knowledge their civilization has recorded since their freedom from the Elves.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Daeodren have keen eyesite in darkness. They also possess a unique quality of being magically inert, unable to cast magic of any class and also being naturally resistant to magic itself. As they grow older, they are even able to completely force spellcasters to end ongoing spells around them.

Civilization and Culture

History

The daeodren are the oldest remaining sentience race on Astorias, but even they themselves do not fully recall their origins.
They do know that they are not native to the continent, coming from a land far to the east where they were used as a highly industrious slave race by the Elves, who they reffer to as 'The Sky Masters'. According to their earliest recorded histories:

We, the daeodren, were the brought from a land far to the east, where we had been charged to bring forth the precious ore from earth and stone. We dug deep the earth, tore down the forests, and even chipped away the very mountains to dust and gravel, for that was our charge. For a thousand years we toiled, and when our task was done, The Sky Masters in their supposed wisdom chose to bring us here to continue our sacred labors.

Upon arrival to Astorias, the daeodren were charged to again begin to plunder the world of rescources for the Elves, which they began in the mountains that used to dwell in the west of the Choralis Savannah, until 85 4E, in the beginning of the Fourth Era. It was then that the Elves left the world, ascending to the sky to fight the Gods, with one of their last acts being to grant the complete and total freedom to all daeodren. The daeodren were, at first, unsure as to what to do with their newly given freedom. They had lived for generations under the benevilant, but complete control of The Sky Masters, and were unsure how to begin living as free beings.

Daeodren

ability score increase: Your Strength score increases by +1, and your Intelligence increases by +2

age: Daeodren reach maturity at age 40, are considered an adult at 130, and live to around 400 to 500 years of age.

Size: Medium

speed: 25 ft.

Languages: Common, Daeodren, plus 1 of your choice.

race features:
Darkvision. Accustomed to the darkness of inground cities, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions⁠. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkn⁠ess as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkne⁠ss⁠, only shades of gray.
Trance. Daeodren don’t need to sleep. Instead, they go into a meditative state. While not fully awake or asleep, you are capable of doing simple tasks, such as cleaning equipment, or taking apart and repairing small items. Though you do not repsond when interacted with, you can be stirred to wakefulness should the need arise. After resting⁠ in this way, you gain the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Daeodren. Daeodren is short and choppy, also requiring the use of hand gestures to get the finer point of words across.
Keenly Honed Mind. Daeodren have extremely sharp minds from years spent in tutelage while young. You have advantage on Intelligence (Investigate and History) checks.
Deny Magic. You have advantage on all Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saving throws against magic. At character level 8, you can emit a burst aura forcing all creatures in a 15 ft. radius to make a concentration check on spells once per day.

Lifespan

Four to five hundred years.

Average Height

All daeodren reach a height of exactly five feet tall when fully grown. Being as they reach a height of five feet at adulthood, the only truly main difference is their growth outward, with most being roughly three feet wide from shoulder to shoulder, and a few especially impressive bulky induvials reaching over four feet.

Average Weight

One hundred and eighty to two hundred and fifty pounds.

Average Physique

Daeodren are on average, extremely brawny, with a high muscle and bodyfat content. Their arms, legs, and hands are larger in size than that of Men. Their feet are usually large, but unlike men, they tend to be shaped in a flat oval, with small toes along the front and an akle that is nearly as wide as the leg above it, making it difficult to tella t times where their legs end and their feet begin.

Body Tint, Colouring and Marking

Daeodren have a tanned skin, ranging from olive to dark brown. They typically have body hair across their arms and legs and groin, as well as the chest, back, and neck in males.

Geographic Distribution

• Choralis Savannah