Aylier (Ai-LE-er)
Summary
An isolationist people more by nature than habit, the aylier are an ice-aspected species that dwell in below-freezing temperatures. As such, they're almost only found within the desolate reaches of mountain ranges, or the northern and southern poles of Veltrona. Of all lands, they're encountered the most on Fauverngarz, but the bulk of their number lives on Eylia and Varnkof. Their history is an obfuscated and contradictory thing, all the more troubled when scrutinized by dragon historians. The aylier, despite having long since culturally diverged on their respective continents, share a common origin belief. Long ago, when Veltrona was frozen over entirely, they were the queens of the entire world. Their unified nation stretched through all horizons, but it was not to be an eternal rule. Great rings bore molten heat to the skies, thawing the world and forcing them to retreat. Upon the last frozen lands did they make their stand in their bastions. The rings, however, simply left, and so Veltrona would remain a hotter world, countless scores of aylier dead, and their nation in ruins. The survivors tamed the desolate wildernesses they were forced into, eeking out miserable existences. From there on, the exact history varies depending on which continent one looks at. This underlying theme has ever puzzled dragons and other immortals. The only 'ice age' that dragons have in record did occur as they lived on Veltrona. However, there were no records of the aylier having ever existed in that time. Not even ice dragons, who once ruled vast empires of their own, could recall meeting such a people. The downfall of that age of ice came about because many peoples begged the great volcano dragons to overthrow the ice, not the great rings. It proved terribly confusing, but the aylier remain steadfast in their beliefs. Ultimately, without any conclusive evidence, and for such a distant point in the past, no one can really say what the truth is. Of the three continents they call home, Fauverngarz and Eylia share the most common history. Those in Varnkof are, at best, distant cousins usually thought long-lost, and vice-versa. It is only in very recent centuries have these distant lands reconnected, although tenuously so. Often regarded the dominant powers of their territories, the aylier have little in the way of competition. Scarcity of resources, and the dangers of open conflict, force them into more cooperative avenues. Notions of honor, social responsibility, and familial piety are all paramount in their many cultures. Their collectivist ideals lay the foundations of mutual survival and prosperity, but only to a certain extent. Once survival is assured, rituals of many kinds ensue to determine who is able to acquire the 'excess' plenitudes. It is through those rituals that their societies have arisen, creating hierarchies of the most successful families or clans. These traditional ways have, in the last millennium, become hotly contested. Improved technologies and magical arts has led to rapid gains in resources, crafts, and quality of life. Visible schisms have arisen between the newer and older generations, and the aylier are facing their greatest upheavals in memory. What will result is hard to say, but their situation hasn't gone unnoticed. Foreign powers, particularly those bordering them, are keen to play a hand for their own interests as well.Basic Information
Anatomy
A humanoid species, with two legs, arms, a head, and torso. In many respects, they're physically similar to humans much more directly most than other monsterkinds. However, they're also physically transformative to a degree, depending on ambient temperature. In their ideal environments, the edges of their skin appears translucent and crystalline, giving them an eerie, ethereal quality. Some, derogatory or not, refer to this appearance as 'ghost-like'. In hotter temperatures, their bodies solidify, appearing as differently-colored humans, and they may or may not have plates of solid ice adorning their skin.
Regardless of what state they're in exactly, their physical performance is not different at all. It is purely a mechanism of temperature control for their own survival.
The only hair on their bodies is their head's hair, as well as their eyebrows and beards. For the aylier, their 'hair' is both smooth and glossy, and quite tough so it's not easily destroyed. This aspect of their hair is maintained through either of their forms. In the below freezing, when the aylier begin shedding excess ice mana, this frost begins gathering on their hair.
This excess frost then forms a jellyfish-like umbrella, or bell, around the hair and their head. Its exact appearance varies significantly, and is usually an indication of one's familial lineage (as blood relatives appear 'similar', to an extent). The bell itself is as sturdy as their actual hair, making it capable of taking surprising punishment. It will melt quickly in higher temperatures as the aylier needs to conserve their frigid regulation, though.
Like how the rachtoh naturally produce silk and must expel it regularly, the aylier accumulate frost. This is as instinctual as deliberate for them, and once their head's bell is formed, further excess frost can be shed from their bodies. The simplest form this takes is an icy mist of glittering snow, but more sophisticated aylier can create loose articles of clothing. Depending on the culture, certain kinds of decorations, or artistic frost formations, can be considered 'proper wear'.
Hence, aylier and frost have an intimate relationship, and one few other species understand the depths of.
Their ears are round and taper into a tip on the topside, being slightly larger than a comparable human's. As a whole, aylier faces and bodies can be described as 'strong', carrying prominent but sturdy features, and exhibiting physical prowess. It compliments their alien beauty, and all aylier are nominally quite attractive by most species' standards. The duality of their beauty and physical fierceness, as well as their frosty physique, makes them quite mysterious seeming.
Their body and hair color ranges are nominally in the blues, whites, and grays, with the most extremes becoming charcoal black or snowy white. Their sensitive and internal flesh errs toward a dark, sea green color on the blue spectrum. Their eyes' sclera is a dark red, reminiscent of ruby gemstones though without the crystal-like clarity. The pupils are a highly contrasting, brighter color, with common intermixes of blue, yellow, and some hues of orange.
They're sexually dimorphic, with the shortest females matching the tallest males, creating a distinct height difference in the species. Both sexes feature sturdy trunks and powerful cores, with females distinguished only by their slightly larger hips and enlarged breasts. They're often considered comparable to the karsoru in this regard, but the aylier err toward a certain smooth, eerie litheness rather than overwhelming physicality.
Biological Traits
Frostborn – Naturally ice-aspected, aylier are one with ice mana and its myriad magical arts. It is as normal to them as breathing, being an integral part of their biology and how they live.
Long-lived – With their eldest checking out every millennium or so, the aylier can live exceptionally long lives, but they're not normally immortal.
Temperature Adaptation – Aylier are temperature sensitive to anything above freezing conditions, with 'warm' weather being dangerous to their health. There is also a very real risk to cold temperatures 'too deep' even for them, as the frost builds up too fast. They'll naturally expel frost, or condense and contain it, in order to maintain their ideal temperature ranges. With training, this natural habit can let them endure otherwise dangerous temperatures.
Civilization and Culture
Relationship Ideals
Comfort and compatibility are the most important things to aylier. For all their competitiveness everywhere else, they prefer a very harmonious home situation where possible. Since any partner(s) they have will, invariably, become entangled with their social groups, it can be a perilous thing. It's a balancing act they share quite well with the rachtoh, whose insane sociability often faces the exact same problems. In a way, courting and marriage also entails their respective groups coming closer together. If they conflict beyond recourse, it'll be that much more troublesome for the relationship. However, aylier can insulate their home situation if push comes to shove. The complexities of this can be a headache, but it's possible.
The traditional aylier relationship, and/or family, is a throuple: three adults in a mutual, even-handed involvement. The idealized version of this is the "cook, singer, and warrior" roles, but those are not hard-and-fast rules. Interchanging responsibilities and determining how to share the workload is an important foundation to creating their relationships. Since compatibility itself is also critical, two courting aylier would willfully hold off on a third they cannot both feel welcoming to the courtship/marriage. As a result, couples are also somewhat common, and some do end up as a permanent two-partner situation.
In such cases, rotating friends, family, and close associates may temporarily fill in the position of third, in some ways. It can be considered a great mark of honor and personal esteem to be entrusted to such a position. They sometimes evolve into a proper throuple, but that's an unusual outcome considering everything.
Some of the most desirable traits one can demonstrate is confidence, and ability with their craft. Even if most of their societies are not on the brink of annihilation anymore, being 'handy' is considered important. Disaster can strike at any time, and sudden hardships means one must be able to fully trust another's capabilities. With the likes of the arts and other craftswomanship fields taking off, a rift in aylier courting norms emerged.
Not all aylier upheld their stringent traditions of survivalist skill, but did succeed in other ways. It can make one's dating prospects very polarizing. In another way, it's an observable difference between 'traditionalists' and newer generations.
Culture and Cultural Heritage
Collectivism, insofar as the survival of the family and greater people, is an important hallmark of aylier civilizations. Some compare it to the nebusah, but the aylier are not instinctually inclined to hierarchy as nebusah are. Although they would eventually tame their lands, and usher in all sorts of newfound prosperity, their group-oriented thinking became foundational to their identity. As innovations offered new jobs, lifestyles, and possibilities, they've diversified from their old survivalist ways. The arts and ritualism both became paramount in their emergent cultures.
As a consequence, they can embody some contradictory ideas. They cherish their social groups, but emphasize personal achievement within those groups. Traditions are both important and something to be discarded if it impedes them. Physical skill and magical might are venerable, but only if one does not lose 'who they are' in its pursuit. Artistic and performative talent are worth their weight in ice, and one's weakness could be forgiven if such is their path.
In such lights, there are a lot of familiar ideas in aylier cultures, but their executions of them are markedly different. Some scholars have postulated that, because exile is certain death and prisoners are too expensive to keep, their cultures had to resolve unsolvable conflicts. If they did not, infighting and sabotage would spell the end of their greater people. It justified their contradictions, as it offered an 'out' to problems other peoples had different solutions for.
It can make studying the aylier a real pain, especially as much of their social context cues are not always recorded. Seemingly inane situations can be resolved in ways a book or scroll wouldn't capture properly. If one does brave visiting them in person, they are, thankfully, a welcoming people. They uphold hospitality with utmost seriousness, and observe stringent ideas on how both hosts and guests must behave. As long as one is within these rules, their stay will be quite comfortable.
On the subject of rules, their societies are rife with them, both known and implied. Their importance varies depending on who, what, where, and why, being commonly invoked or not even thought of at all. In this sense, rules exist for order as much as political or cultural jockeying. The aylier are quite fine with forcing someone into a confrontation if they perceive a rule being broken. Even if that is not the case, it's an easy spark to a reliable means of attacking would-be rivals or opponents.
In regards to their cuisine, they actually do make usage of fire to cook their foods. So it goes in old myths, a wanderer shared the secret of fire and how to cook with it. In braving the dangers of heat, they discovered an entire new world of culinary possibilities. Hence, they uniquely have two different trees of cooking: one using fire, one using ice. Given how ice-based foods are usually easier to preserve and last longer, fire-based are treated like delicacies and for important events.
Lifespan
~1,000 years
Average Height
Large: 6ft-8ft / 183cm-244cm
Average Weight
Heavy->Enormous: 190lbs-500lbs / 86kg-226.7kg
Geographic Distribution
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