Janniri

The Janniri are a large species group of sentient winged humanoid creatures native to the 'lost' continent of Arkhea. In the days before the rise of the Children of Mena (i.e. humanity), the Janniri developed the first civilizations of the ancient world. Various sub-species of Janniri differ greatly in size, abilities, color, and ethereal abilities. They are broadly divided into various "courts" known by different names, including fairies, pixies, gobelins, gargoyles, and daemons. In later ages, Janniri were considered by most human cultures to be "supernatural" creatures; in the minds of common folk they were seen as personified forces of good and evil interacting with the earthly realm.
Origins: In a manner similar to the origin of Dragons, during The Age of Spirits some of the lesser personal spirits (sometimes referred to a the Jinn) took bodily possession of humanoid Arkhean creatures, mating with other terrestrial creatures and giving birth to the first Janniri.
Physical Form: Like other creatures native to Arkhea, Janniri poesses six appendages (two arms, two legs, and two wings), in addition to often having a prehensile tail (though, in some cases, 'wings' evolved in a modified form as fins or dorsal limbs). Though they share with human beings a similar humanoid physical form with bilateral symmetry, they often bear animalistic features. Some had horns, tails, claws, and hideous visages, while others were graceful and beautiful, flying with gossamer wings. Some have leathery hide similar to that of mammals, others have a scale-like hide similar to reptiles, that can be rubbery soft or hard as stone.
Special Ethereal Abilities: All of the Janniri have sentience, but different degrees of intelligence. Like the dragons, they possess limited ethereomorphic powers (like adaptation, regeneration, and shape-changing) and ethereophasic powers (like invisibility and teleportation). As natural creatures, they have the ability to sexually reproduce and give birth to offspring. Likewise, they can also be killed by physical means, but only by silver or other ethereally enhanced weapons.

Legendary History

The Janniri are often seen as the precurers of and rivals to the Children of Mena. They were the first to establish organized communities on the continent of Arkhea, in what is commonly known as the The Age of Spirits, prior to the rise of human civilization. While secular scholars simply classify the Janniri as one of the first fully sentient species to evolved in the world of Ulea, according to religious legends, the Janniri were originally created by God as purely spiritual creatures, formed from air and fire as servants of God before the creation of humanity. At this time, the Celestial Falls still existed, and these personal spirits had the privilege of ascending to and descending from the heavens.
According to the ancient Elvaen Scrolls, as well as the Holy Tumarc of the Aisheloni, over the course of time, these lesser spirits became enamored by the winged creatures that were native to the continent of Arkhea. Desiring to experience the benefits of the flesh, the spirits often possessed the forms of these creatures, and at that time able to enter and leave according to their pleasure. However, with the The Doomed Ascent, God took the first parents of humanity Ulé and Ména and hid them in time, in the farthest corner of the world, to protect them from the infuence of the fallen spirits. Later, in what is known as The Severance, the janniri were bound by God to the earthly forms they had adopted, fated to live a mortal life cut off from the glory of heaven.
By the time the Janniri first began to venture forth from Arkhea to Epieros (aka. the larger world), they encountered the Children of Mena, who by now had grown, multiplied, and spread across northern hemisphere. The Janniri used their alien ethereal powers to appear and present themselves as "gods" to the primitive human beings. They became rulers and masters among the Children of Ména, using them as slaves and builders. It was at this time that the first of the great Ziggurats were built in the East. These so-called "high places" were where the ancient humans paid homage to their Janniri overlords, who in turn, taught the humans the rudiments of technology. It was the time secular scholars refer to as the Copper Age.
But in those days, rebelling against the will and purpose of God, that the Janniri used their etheromorphic ability to allow them to mate with the ancient humans, and were eventually successful in giving birth to a hybrid race, known as the Oni - Traulls (aka. nephilim, elder traulls, elder jotun). This was the beginning of the Age of the Giants, a time of warfare and bloodshed, especially in eastern lands, where competing armies battled for supremacy. In response to this blasphemy, God destroyed the continent of Arkhea in the Great Cataclysm, flooding the world with an ethereal deluge that devolved the Oni into the beast-like creatures they became, sucumbing to the traullish plague that altered and disfigured their bodies as God's punishment for their sins.
It was only with the coming of the Children of Elva and appearance of the The Ilmatar (Ten Maidens) in the The Age of Advent that humanity was finally set free from its bondage to the remnants of the giants, who were driven to the far north and the isolated islands south, where their traullish anscestors have survived to this day.
Yet not all descendants of the Janniri disappeared from the earth. Those who were repentant were allowed to remain, scattered and few in number. In time they began to multiply once more in various forms, though far weaker than they once had been. It was not until later, in the The Age of Darkness, that more powerful Janniri began to reappear in much greater numbers. Some say it was the work of sorcerors who summoned them from ancient Arkhea.