Thalzar
| Thalzar | |
|---|---|
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| Race | |
| Pronunciation | Thal-zahr |
| Population | 80 Million |
| Naming Customs | Any Irl Customs |
| Traits | |
| Magic Potential | Yes |
| Min/Max Age | Immortal, An Average of 350 |
| Min/Max Height | 5'4 - 6'4 |
| Average Weight | 180lbs |
| Eye Colors | Black, Blue, Green, Orange |
| Hair Colors | White, Dyed Black is Common |
| Skin Tones | Dark Grays to Deep Purples |
| Half-Breed | Humans and Elven Races |
| Artist Credit | LekkuLovers |
The Elves have enriched Pannotia since the dawn of history, and between the lines you would find the Thalzar protecting them. These ashen elves are known worldwide for their martial prowess and interest in the darker arts, both works that they’ve displayed to the shock and awe of Pannotia for eons. Their civilization is harsh, unyielding and unbreakable. They are elves of exceptional discipline and a brilliant military rationale that have made them into the finest warriors in the whole wide world. Their stories have inspired many and brought fear to the enemies of elven rulers since the Great Equilibrium. Modern innovations have stifled the might of Thalzar armies, unable to keep up with rifles and airship raids, but Pannotia should be careful with forgetting this race’s unbreakable spirit.
Physical Appearance and Biology
Thalzar are darker skinned than their other elven cousins, sporting shades of dark grays to deep purples. Their eyes have an unsettling whiteness filling their irises that sticks out from their darker skin, but variations of faint colors such as pink and yellow are known to occur as well. Their hair is naturally white, though the vast majority of Thalzar will have their locks dyed to darker colors throughout their lives or during military campaigns so to blend better into the night. Max Playable age is 200 years, Characters above 200 years require a Spec Perm.
They are significantly stronger than their Venyra and Nephi cousins, naturally having a muscle mass so dense that it can protect their internal organs from minor blunt impacts. They are capable of reaching and maintaining an athletic physique with minimal effort, a body type even the lowliest in their communities will possess whilst laborers and soldiers build up to strength that bests the average human and sits just barely under the average Eiruk. They stand between 5’5” to 6’4” tall, an apt size range for soldiering that makes them such a threat inside elven borders and beyond.
Mentality and Creed
The Thalzar mindset is a unique view on life, stating that you must push yourself to your limits. Nothing is as beautiful as to tire yourself out, to toil and sweat to reach your goal, to rise above your flaws and weaknesses, to break past your physical and mental shackles. To them, defeat can be just as admirable of an accomplishment as victory if you truly did your best. This all has been described by scholars as a remarkably special relationship with the self. And it is just the right wording for it. Thalzar take great pride in their bodies and skills, as these are the only things in the world that are truly their own. It is a sign of self-respect and respect to all your ancestors that you take good care of your body and strive to challenge yourself.
Everything is earned in Thalzar society, with the easy road being not only frowned upon but often being grounds for exile. The average Thalzar is a hard worker who will fight, sweat, and break themselves to finish what they must. The act of striving is pleasurable to them, seen as a virtue that sets them aside from the other elves. They will only be found seeking relaxation when their chests are heaving up and down tiredly, and their legs tremble under the exhaustion. That is when the time is right for debauchery, and oh how they will indulge. Thalzar philosophy states that wine always tastes best when you’ve won it, and this is exactly how it is for their other delights.
History
Often you’ll see history beginning at the Great Equilibrium, the time beyond that era being nothing but centuries of myths and theories. That is not the case with the Thalzar. The compulsively boastful have records stretching deep into the foggy past that helps establish a clear picture of what life was like for the Thalzar and those they came into contact with.
Early History
The ancient Thalzar lived in several petty kingdoms spread across Ellawren which would frequently engage in skirmishes or smaller wars between one another. It is commonly understood that these were mainly honor wars, often only lasting a few weeks or months at a time, fought over disputes over single homesteads or less. The mettle of young Thalzar warriors was tested consistently, weeding out the weak and leaving only the best sword arms and minds at the victory celebrations. The belligerent relations fostered between the myriad of states saw the sharp incline of military developments among the Thalzar. An arms race of both metal, doctrine and logistics. Every defeat was a lesson to learn from, and every victory confirmed valuable theories.
Many heroes and legends were forged in these Pre-Equilibrium years, but the one to stand tall above them all was Archon Abithfel, son of Hanaen. This King saw how the hundreds of fiefdoms had gotten themselves stuck into stalemates, progress having grinded to a halt as no new developments had been made for some time. It was the perfect opportunity for an ambitious leader to forge a new story the world had never heard.
Abithfel mustered his forces and summoned his wise ones to prepare for a long military and diplomatic campaign to unify the scattered Thalzar realms under his banner. Twelve years were spent waging romanticized wars and negotiating pledges of fealties across the Thalzar world. The stories are rather divided on how this period of history played out, with many emotions playing into the memories of those times, but the one thing that is absolutely certain is that Abithfel’s forces saw great success. His story saw the unification and creation of the first elven empire Pannotia has ever come to know, predating Haleth’s union by a hundred and forty years.
His reign was a short era of unprecedented internal stability and peace. The political and military power of Abithfel’s family and their loyalists allowed them to sow the seeds for what would grow into the customs and values of Thalzar, even scribing certain traditions into a sort of eternal law through the Archon’s many sagas. These same sagas would claim that Abithfel met his end fighting a ‘mountain beast’ which would steal the sun, but more reasonable accounts from his personal wise one’s stories imply that he broke his neck either falling off his horse or tripping over a low table. Thalzar traditionalists consider the second explanation a Venyra attempt at rewriting history for Haleth’s legitimacy and is a controversial split among opinionated elves.
Succession saw Abithfel’s empire crumble into four parts between his sons Yerdanac, Urthos, and Canildor, and his daughter Ahkarra. Tradition dictates that unless the former Archon was slain by a challenger then only his or her own blood may rule next. However, tradition also states that only the strongest is fit to rule, thus it was up to his children to decide amongst themselves. Abithfel’s empire was too great for any sibling to give up, and thus a brutal series of wars were waged with Urthos Secondborn gaining the allegiance of his only surviving sibling, Ahkarra, seventeen years later. The empire Urthos regained was bloodied and exhausted, spending decades to even come close to what his father had built.
Urthos’ reign was in some ways more refined than his father’s. Governorships were established and delegated to powerful warlords and his own eleven children, easing the burden of rulership so that Urthos’ mind could’ve been spent on better things. A wasted opportunity, unfortunately, as this extra time was spent practicing his personal combat skill and throwing lavish parties. He was an Archon best suited for war, his stories all carved from his brilliance on the field, his greatest peacetime accomplishment being that of letting others do his job for him. But, somehow, this all worked out quite fine with the vassals, as they could focus on rebuilding with the full knowledge that their Archon would handle any military matters for them.
The Interlopers would make themselves known into the later years of Urthos’ reign, much to his excitement. A war of this size hadn’t been seen in the continent since his ascension. His empire rallied at once at the beckoning of Archon Haleth, eager to show the world Thalzar kind’s might. The Thalzar sent the interlopers running wherever they found them in the early years with overwhelming military might. They had made good progress in the war as opposed to the other factions, sowing doubt in the minds of Venyra about the Thalzar’s true allegiances. Their theories are too many to mention, and too broad of a subject to approach. These suspicious mutterings from their allies gave rise to dissent in Urthos’ ranks, high ranking commanders and generals refusing to fight alongside Venyra unless they are certain who their enemies are. This distrust nearly broke the coalition from within as their numbers were spread thin by the elven pettiness, Thalzar chasing their own battles whilst Venyra and the Dwarven kings sought support elsewhere.
After seizing victory in an unnamed battle in the third phase of the Great Equilibrium, Urthos would celebrate in his camp with all his deserved pleasures. The wine flowed, and the Archon had his fill of vigorous fornication with his companions to the music of his own sagas. It was a wonderful night to be Urthos, and he would end it drowning in a barrel of wine, to be found by his honor guard the morning after. Weighed down by his armor he spent his last moments in Pannotia struggling to lift himself up. For the sake of his memory the wise ones will say that he willingly passed away in the wine in drunken delirium. Nine children were left to inherit their father’s realm. Nine equally celebrated men and women with great accomplishments of their own to boast of, yet no clear heir was decided between them. Archon Haleth of the Venyra and the Dwarven kings were furious.
A succession crisis tore the Thalzar war effort into pieces, granting the interlopers several tactical victories after having nearly been destroyed. Emissaries from the dwarves and Venyra reached each successor with great haste, just barely managing to scrape together acceptable terms for a temporary compromise that saw the eldest of Urthos’ warlords take the reins of the Thalzar war efforts until the interlopers were defeated. The scales were tipped back into the coalition’s favor over the next four months ‘till the Battle of Brimsworth Bastion changed their world. Some of the best of their race saw their skill meet their match in glorious battle, tens of thousands dying knowing they did their best. The finest end a Thalzar could meet. Thousands of stories would never be recovered from those fields, thousands of warriors would never return home to fight on in the succession wars. It was a tragedy and the most beautiful moment in their history, an event young Thalzar would hear about and be inspired to train so they could find a battle like it in their lifetime.
Post Great Equilibrium
The Great Equilibrium ended with a weakened elf-kind, the Thalzar not having enough time or soldiers to wage their expensive and bloody wars of succession. The disparate states of Urthos’ descendants were each invited into the Great Archon Haleth’s union, with six out of nine finding agreeable terms. The other three left their lands behind in search for better opportunities for themselves. One of the groups left to become The Wanderers, the largest group of Thalzar unaffiliated with the elven union. The Wanderers know no leaders, merely treading their own paths and finding a worthwhile existence where they can. The second broke into roving warbands working as mercenaries for whoever can afford them. Thalzar mercenaries are highly sought after throughout Pannotia, back then and now, having built themselves a terrifying reputation as the greatest hand-to-hand fighters the world’s ever seen. And the third. The third group has slowly but surely vanished over the following decades, with none of their stories remaining in circulation.
The post-GE times for the Thalzar are somewhat repetitive. Those who remained in Ellawren lived out their lives taking on all the challenges the Venyra didn’t want to touch, and fought nearly ceremonial skirmishes between themselves whenever succession called for it in one of the fiefdoms. Though they had established a clearer law on the matter by then, the Thalzar preferred to keep to tradition by at least letting some blood shed for the new rulers. Life was certainly a lot easier for the stalwart armies of Ellawren, putting down rebellions with overwhelming force and gaining access to magical artifacts from Venyra mages. The ‘Outsider’ Thalzar saw their siblings as fat and weak, having never properly fought for themselves like they do every single day.
‘Outsiders’ traversed a Pannotia that either feared them or didn’t want them. Venyra suspicions around their allegiances during the Great Equilibrium were still whispered among both elves, humans and ferox, with only the dwarves truly being anything close to a friend of the self-exiled Thalzar. They readily found themselves work with the stout mountain-dwellers, sating the ever-increasing need for slave labour and frontier protection for coin that was next to nothing to the ruling elites of the dwarven states. Though as the dwarves developed their own military might they saw their opportunities growing slim and their usefulness soon being seen more as a threat to the elites.
By modern times the ‘Outsiders’ have mostly left the dwarven states after the disastrous events of the Eiruk liberation campaign. Their efforts were met in defeat against the freed Eiruks and their supporters, shattering the thousand year image of the fearsome Thalzar warrior. Shame riddled the Outsiders as they left the dwarven borders for either their long abandoned homeland, or the greener pastures of the blossoming human cities. A minority remained with the dwarves, embedding themselves into their armies as elite regiments to resuscitate their reputation.
Religion
Thalzar, simply, do not follow any real religion. The concept of praying for betterment and comfort was cast aside early in their history when tribes became over-reliant on seeking the love of the gods. Life in Pannotia was too unforgiving for Thalzar to make it through ‘till today on unheard prayers alone. The Gods have given them their bodies and the minds to know how to use them, they’d be fools to leave the gifts unattended. This philosophy is what guided them to an atheistic tomorrow and created their unbreakable culture.
Some remnants of religion can be found in the divination of their sages, though this is only used for guidance and reassurance if anything. No help is expected nor wanted from the old gods when they seek the wisdom of the sages. The sages of Thalzar society claim to hear the praise of their descendants and the heartbeats of unborn younglings protected by the efforts of individuals, and so they possess an important role among the Thalzar.
Culture
Clothing
Thalzar dress to suggest, and they dress for action. A sensual practicality that encompasses their sense of fashion that is dominated by the ability to switch from relaxation to battle-ready at a moment’s notice. Clothing allowing for swift movement is paramount, with bolder (and younger) members of their society choosing to wear as little as possible to both invite danger and to display their scars and tattooed deeds.
Important figures will don ceremonial armor in their everyday life, a strong display of their merits and statement that they never seek rest from their duty to their fellow Thalzar. In a sign of respect the lower ranking Thalzar will always remove one piece of armor when a higher ranking one enters their presence. This signifies their trust in the leader’s skills and strength, that within their presence they will not need the protection of steel.
Cuisine
These elves have a high calorie intake. Their days are spent with hard work and they have a lot of body to maintain. In truth they will eat just about anything to make it, but they have a strong desire for meat. Thalzar encampments are a heavy strain on the local supplies wherever they settle in, with Venyra leaders joking amongst themselves that the Thalzar are so deadly in battle because they starve out the enemy days before ever locking eyes with them.
Due to necessity the Thalzar have become master butchers and preservers, capable of getting use out of every piece of an animal and knowing how to store it for weeks, possibly years in advance. Their cured meats are prized in marketplaces for their long shelf-lives, a technological feat of theirs that was only very recently matched by humanity’s mastery of canning.
Arts
Thalzar art revolves around marking the accomplishments of their fellow Thalzar and their own. The most common form of Thalzar art is tattoos, a rich and ancient tradition that starts to spread across a Thalzar’s skin from whatever age they were brave enough to sit through their first one. Often the larger a tattoo is, the more meaningful it is. Each is a story that the individual finds worthy to remember and want to carry with them their whole life. When they finally meet their end their tattoos are carefully replicated into scrolls or books so that their family can take the stories with them into future generations.
Some stories in life are too great for ink to tell, and so they are carved into stone. Pillars, statues, walls, whatever have you. Thalzar architecture is effectively scarred with their people’s stories throughout the centuries, marking defeats as proudly as their victories. Often the stories told by the carvings will be recorded onto paper in a written language known only to the Thalzar’s “wise ones”, those who have chosen a path of philosophy, knowledge and deeper discovery. These stories are shared in amphitheaters throughout the week to keep the memories alive and act as motivation to all within earshot. It isn’t uncommon for the more popular stories to be shortened into songs enjoyed by all elves, as they often become embellished with each retelling.
Trivia
- Struggling outsider Thalzar are sometimes offered to sell their family stories to human playwrights, seeing their contents rewritten to better suit the new audiences.
- Since the Great Equilibrium there have been two Thalzar Great Archons in Ellawren.
- Vaenazor, a direct descendant of Urthos Secondborn, is currently a popular model for Ironhurst fashion.
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