Venyra
| Venyra | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Race | |
| Pronunciation | Veh-near-ah |
| Population | 243 million |
| Naming Customs | Any Irl Customs |
| Traits | |
| Magic Potential | Yes |
| Min/Max Age | Immortal (Max playable age: 200) |
| Min/Max Height | 5'10 - 7'2 |
| Average Weight | 145lbs |
| Eye Colors | Black, Blue, Green, Orange, Silver, Gold |
| Hair Colors | Shades of Blonde to Browns |
| Skin Tones | Hues of Cream to Brown, pastels are common |
| Half-Breed | Humans, Elven races, and Ferox |
| Artist Credit | BunnyGardenParty |
The Venyra are the primary inhabitants of the vast continent of Ellawren, and consider themselves the spokespeople for Elven Society. Decisively the most commonly seen, and well traveled of all of the Elven subraces, the Venyra have established themselves as the figureheads of the Elven civilization through feats of arcane marvel, exemplary cultural expansion and most notably, their shrewd political endeavors. Possibly the oldest known race in all of Pannotia, the Venyra have dominated the world's arcane exploits for what is presumed to be thousands of years. They are charged with the control and administration of a vast nation of Elven Kingdoms, that all link and join at Ellawren’s center, their capital of Wren. Like their cousins, the Nephi and the Thalzar, the Venyra are born with a unique ability to wield magic from birth, making them one of very few races with an inherent ability to tap into the arcane and their inner potentia. Despite their inherent connection to the magical plane, the Venyra however aren't as interested in purely using magic, and see it as their custodial duty to temper Pannotia and its inhabitants by acting as its guardian, often imposing themselves in the geopolitical sphere against the Eiruks and Humans who wish to use it for their own technological advancement, despite lacking in the care and oversight that those inexperienced in the arcane arts, unlike the Venyra, possess.
Physical Appearance and Biology
The Venyra are often considered to be the traditional, metaphorical figureheads of the Elven race, being the most numerous and the most traveled out of the three major Elven variants. Being fair in every visual aspect, the Venyra tend to have light skin varying from hues of cream to brown, but also can be born in many different pastel colours if conceived during the Dance of the Aurora. Their skin, no matter the hue tends to adopt an almost mystic glimmer, appearing as if coated in a thin layer of porcelain dust. Venyra are more often than not born with the dominant hair colour of their parents, which tends to be platinum blonde or a brown of some kind, though some Venyra parents change this colour at birth with a permanent arcane enchantment for aesthetic reasons. Their eye colour however tends to be predominantly silver, though it's been noted in recent years that Venyra children have become more common sporting irises of blues, browns, greens and even gold. Atomically, the Venyra are almost identical to humans, save for their pointed ears and domineering height ranging from 5’10 to 7'2. With this lengthy appearance comes lean, somewhat toned bodies; very rarely being muscular as the Venyra, unlike their Thalzar cousins, prefer elegance over a brawny stature. They are bipedal, standing on two legs, possessing two arms.
Mentality and Creed
The Venyra are rarely concerned with the machinations of the other races, seeing above the cultures outside of their homeland to instead hyper analyze the geopolitics of the civilisations that are flourishing Pannotia wide. This is not to be mistaken as paranoia, however. Instead, the Venyra are playing a shrewd game of chess with the intent of not directly seizing control of world affairs, but guiding them to a more prosperous and better future. They do care for the inhabitants of Pannotia and are by no means evil, in fact, the Venyra, even those low on the pecking order hold a great deal of guilt over not preventing the events of the Great Equilibrium and the effect it has had on a global scale. This guilt has forged the race into carers and custodians who aim to better the world with the vision bestowed upon them by their Kings and deities. They worship their Pantheon of Gods, the Renganii, with great zeal, following in their chosen God’s footsteps as best as they possibly can whilst also paying heed to the Seven Tenets of Propriety: a sort of code of living, with each Elven God plastering one main tenet for all Venyra to follow.
History
Very little is known about the Venyra before the occurrence of the Great Equilibrium, save for a handful of old wives tales and stories from the Venyra themselves, which most Galudonian Scholars believe to be highly romanticized. Stories go that before the large-scale battles between the combined Elven forces, the Dwarves and the Interlopers, Venyra society was tranquil, elegant and above all else, ruled by pure order. Ruled by the Great Archon Haleth, Ellawren was brought under a strict and iron legal code to ensure the easy running of everyday life and business among all Elven Kingdoms. Nature was respected, pursuits into technology encouraged; though most of these enigmatic stories end with woe and tragedy, with Venyra often blaming the mysterious downfall of their former glory and onset of the Great Equilibrium to either Thalzar interlopers, or potential saboteurs within their own society. Very few either know the exact details or are willing to share them with the world.
The prelude of the Great Equilibrium saw the Venyra experience both the most impressive display of unity that Pannotia has ever politically experienced and also the largest and most notorious fracturing of any race’s civilisation. After war was declared with the Interlopers, who most Venyra will claim today coveted dark magics in order to rule Pannotia through chaos and bloodshed, the Venyra, Thalzar and Nephi united alongside the Dwarven Empire in order to put down this large, diverse nation of rebels and fiends; a common foe. The intricacies of this unlikely alliance between the Venyra and Thalzar, especially, is lost on historians. However, what is known is that a power struggle emerged in the final year of skirmishes with the Interlopers, when the Venyra publicly denounced the Thalzar for their races over representation on the Interloper high command circle, blaming them for their cruel ways, fixation on war and their turbulent leadership, which caused the alliance to break down at the final battle of the united forces against the Interlopers at the Battle of the Brimworth Bastion in the primitive Human controlled region of West Aesox. Scholars are aware that the Interlopers were indeed defeated, though the United armies of the Venyra, Thalzar, Dwarves and Nephi suffered gargantuan losses.
Post Great-Equilibrium
The next few decades following the events of the Great Equilibrium are universally uncertain. The Venyra legends claim that a great devastation rocked the lands of Ellawren and abroad, making living difficult for many not already housed within the lavish, guarded Venyra fortress cities. Wrenn itself was locked down for the Archon’s protection, leading some already belligerent Venyra at the lower scale of the class struggle to pass blame upon the Archon and his family for devastation brought about by his decision to unify an army against the interlopers in the first place. Songs and stories of beasts roaming the lands, monsters attacking at night along with droughts and famines are commonplace amongst Venyra societies as an ode to these times, all with a common theme of isolating the Thalzar as a root cause. Regardless of their disdain toward their cousin race, it was clear that the Venyra themselves had suffered greatly from their losses and, according to them, their partial involvement, in the events leading up to and during the Great Equilibrium, resulting in the once proud race recusing themselves from the world political stage.
Despite the ambiguity surrounding these events, scholars both from within Wrenn and abroad have uncovered numerous documents that clearly illustrate the developments that followed. The rise of Great Archon Aeardaer, the firstborn son of the previous Great Archon Haleth, set about radical political reforms from within Wrenn to begin fixing the broken relationship the Venyra had with the Nephi and Thalzar, though was more focused on the former rather than the latter. Thus, in 39PE. the previously held government system of control was broken open and instead of a centralized monarchy over all of Ellawren, he abdicated full authority over all Elves in favor of handing sovereignty to both other Elven races and instead leading his own people, but not without first establishing the Cerulean Conclave, a senate comprised of the Archons of all Elven Kingdoms, including the Nephi and Thalzar, to govern Ellawren at an upper level by majority vote and administered by a single Archon Prime, a Chancellor in its own right, who holds a veto vote over affairs that they may deem harmful to Elven society. In theory, this would give both the Nephi and the Thalzar opportunity to effectively hold dominion over all of Ellawren if elected, though in practicality this never came to pass. The reasons for this were twofold. Firstly, the number of Venyra Archons greatly outnumbered those of the other two Elven races combined and secondly, the Nephi had agreed to unite as allies once more with the Venyra provided that arrangements were made so that, inter alia, they were defended by the Venyra forces. More importantly, the agreement listed that every Venyra first born son of the Great Archon line would marry a Prince or Princess of their nation, unifying their two races on the world stage. This however meant that more often than not, the traditional and more secular Nephi would simply vote with and leave global politics to the Venyra who were more experienced and interested in world affairs than they were, so it became commonplace for the current Great Archon of the Venyra to also hold office as the Archon Prime.
With this government structure in place, and the Nephi now friendly toward the Venyra once more, Ellawren could begin to heal. The Cerulean Conclave openly supported the idea of magic usage and tutoring, with all elves, not just the elite, having access to state of the art academies to hone their natural abilities. This was deemed an absolute necessity due to the Dwarven Empire’s expansion efforts to islands north of Ellawren, especially given all communication between the Elves and Dwarves had run silent since the conclusion of the battles against the Interlopers; even though the Dwarves had yet to show any sign of aggression toward the Elven peoples. Very little occurred for the next two to three hundred years. The Government structure remained stable and workable, the Thalzar continued to dispute their involvement with the Great Equilibrium, and though this more often than not fell on deaf ears, many Venyra began to doubt if it were truly all the Thalzar’s doing, planting the seed of doubt that perhaps they were the ones who ought to have kept a more watchful eye on the Thalzar to begin with. This doubt and guilt fermented solidly into a maternal philosophy over the years, with the primary idea that perhaps the Venyra had to take more account of all other races in order to prevent such disasters from happening again. Elderly Arcane Masters would travel the Elven Kingdoms, assisting the downtrodden and Archons alike, ensuring that there was always a Venyra nearby to give wise counsel in all matters, not just the Arcane. These many expeditions gave rise to the discovery of cymrinite on Ellawren, as well as continents abroad and study into this material commenced immediately after directive from the Archon Prime.
The next eight hundred years, at 1208PE, were spent almost exclusively on internal expansion and technological research. Some minor skirmishes did break out between the Venyra and Thalzar as a result of territorial disputes but these were resolved relatively quickly at the Cerulean Conclave with the Venyra begrudgingly relinquishing minor lands for farming to the Thalzar in exchange for mutual cooperation in technological advancement. The most notably breakthrough that birthed from this partnership was the discovery that cymrinite could be used to enhance one’s arcane abilities by using the potentia charged cymrinite crystals as a makeshift battery, resulting in the mass production of staffs, wands, warding pendants and all other forms of jewelry and accessories that would help channel this energy. At this point, this discovery was kept secret from the rest of the world, especially from the Human, Eirukand Dwarven civilisations that were on the rise, with the latter now controlling the territories to the North and East of Ellawren and the North of Aesox, Galudon and Ortem.
The Venyra did reappear on the world stage around 1530PE after Venyra travelers reported to the Archon Prime in Wrenn that Galudonians had begun, albeit through the blackmarket, incorporating cymrinite into artifacts themselves. Seeing this as a potential issue, especially through their belief that the arcane should be wielded with care and oversight, they re-emerged globally by re-opening their trade routes and solidifying alliances abroad, in particular with the Ferox and Nymphs, to start campaigning for a retraction in technological advancement (a mission of the Ferox and Nymphs who were concerned for the environmental impact) and more Elven control over Cymrinite. This culminated in a great amount of tension between the Galudonians, Eiruks and the Elven populace, with both pressing their ideals on how to forge a better future globally. Seeing this as an opportunity to showcase their ideology, Venyra technicians alongside Thalzar mages made a huge breakthrough in 1548PE, after finding a way to, albeit with magic, stabilize cymrinite as an energy source; culminating in the creation of train systems and machinery that is, to this day, rival that of the Galudonian steam technology. This Magitek assisted the Venyra and Thalzar populations into the new era, one they claim is the Age of the Scepter; juxtaposing the Galudonian idealism, the Age of the Smokestack; although unlike Galudon, the Archon Prime has completely barred the sale, distribution or assistance of the entire Elven population from sharing the cymrinite techniques the Elves have mastered until a day whereby all other nations agree to perform such with Elven oversight. Nowadays, Ellawren is perceived as the polar opposite rival to Galudon and their technological ideals, having legalized the free-use of magic, the utilization of cymrinite in all technological fields and having open democracy as opposed to Galudons constitutional monarchy. Despite these philosophical differences, both nations have displayed incredible technological marvels at Technological conventions Pannotia wide, with recent inventions, such as citywide magical shields and small, moveable homesteads powered by cymrinite, of the Elves marveling even the pragmatic Human populations.
Religion
While the other races tend to leave faith up to the individual, the Venyra have a Pantheon of Gods that stems from thousands of years of religious teachings, prophecy and dogma. Their Pantheon, known as the Renganii, is a Pantheon of Seven Gods representing War, Love, Knowledge, Virtue, Justice, Death and Life. Each of these Gods hold their own core tenets, and many Venyra dedicate themselves to one or multiple Gods throughout their lifetime. While dedication to any number of these Gods is at the discretion of the individual Venyra, none are free to disregard the Seven Tenets of Propriety, a religious doctrine with each God’s foremost important teaching: a form of commandments almost, that must be followed by the faithful. While the Pantheon is most certainly the dominant religion amongst the Venyra, it is not all too uncommon for Venyra to adopt other religions from abroad after integrating with foreign societies. The Venyra are actually quite tolerant of traveling soothsayers and religious speakers, allowing them an open forum to discuss their faith and be challenged on it, thus, they are quite open to the idea of religious conversion if another religion proves to be more sound than their own.
Culture
Clothing
When it comes to Venyra fashion, it can only be described as refined, yet sultry. Regal bearing and expensive fabrics, expertly tailored; and despite not being an Empire themselves, the Venyra often don silks of purple, ivory white or deep blues, harmonized by the lavish and expensive jewelry all genders adopt to help accentuate their natural beauty. The males, or those presenting as male, will more often than not utilize lavish ornate black canes, adorned with cymrinite gems or anything as valuable or close to Cymrinite as a status symbol, which match well with their designer suits and formal clothing. Female presenting Venyra do similarly, often wearing suits, riding attire or sumptuous dresses alongside expensive jewelry of Cymrinite or fine diamonds, pearls or gemstones. Across all genders, ceremonial weapons are common: swords, maces, bows and staves alike.
Cuisine
Venyra cuisine is the epitome of excellence, as they tend to go for the finest part of any food they come into contact with. As meticulous as the Venyra are, they as a race tend to research and discover the best way possible to prepare and serve all the food they have at their disposal. Everything is prepared with a sense of gastronomy, using complicated and tedious methods to get the perfect tenderness, temperature and texture for each ingredient of any dish. They eat the same thing as any race at its base, meat, bread, vegetables, cheese and dairy however they go above and beyond, sourcing it. A typical diet of a Venyra would be fresh bread with foamed butter and flash frozen cured meat and for lunch or dinner they may eat sea urchin eggs, rare goose neck clams and foamed kelp cream.
Arts
Venrya architecture uses a great deal of arches, spheres, and height to present an effect of soaring elegance. These elves prefer merging indoor luxuries with the grace of nature’s colors and shapes. Oftentimes there will be gilded ivy leaves for crown moulding, or centerpieces of blown glass fruit instead of fresh flowers. Murals are the preferred form of wall covering, with Venyra competing for the best artists to take in residence for expansive pieces that cover multiple walls.
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