[b]Starting Country:[/b] Normandy [b]Name of Nation:[/b] Not named yet. [b]Race Name:[/b] Mayelin [b]Race Leader:[/b] Miseyala, Princess of Milesyn, [b]Race Leader Physical Description:[/b] Miseyala is an example of how perfection can be shamed. The only child of the former king and queen of Milesyn, the largest hidden city of the Mayelin, she has inherited their beauty. Her red hair glows radiantly and so too do her eyes and her skin. Her eyes are liquid pools of silver that shine like stars. Her body is delicate and looks like god fashioned it himself. [b]Race Leader Significant Traits:[/b] Miseyala is able to craft greater illusions and glamours on her own. She is also like all Mayelin able to play most people like instruments. [b]Race Physical Description:[/b] Mayelin look divine. Their eyes shine with the light of stars, their skin is smooth as silk and pale as fresh milk, they move with an unearthly grace, and their bodies look like they were crafted by god himself. Both male and female Mayelin are best called beautiful. But while they glow with otherworldy light and presence they resonate with shadows too. Behind the radiance of their forms lurks the hungry darkness. It is said they can control darkness and light, shaping both around them. On Gorika their beauty was the stuff of legends and many would quest to find the hidden courts of the Mayelin. Many people who look upon them find them so enthralling that they willingly pledge their lives to defend and serve them. They don’t tend towards the musclebound looks and are instead a delicate race. [b]Use of Magic:[/b] The Mayelin are very magical beings. Even the weakest is equal to a formidable mage from other races. They are the masters of glamours and illusions and weave them unconsciously. How much of their natural beauty is real and how much is illusion has never been discovered for sure. Illusions: Illusions control what the world around the Mayelin looks like and what they look like. *Basic: Basic illusions are almost impossible to see through. They are woven naturally by the Mayelin and are part of who they are. *Minor: Minor illusions can be broken or dispelled with magic. Firm disbelief can also make them fade some times. With minor illusions the Mayelin can make others seem to vanish, or render things invisible. A realistic illusion of fire can trick the mind into believing a person is actually burning. *Greater: Greater illusions are hard to dispell or break. But only a few of the Mayelin can craft a greater illusion on their own. It normally takes a bunch of them. But entire armies or even cities can be hidden if enough of the Mayelin working together to create the illusion. Greater illusions can make things that actually hurt people. A greater illusory dragon’s fire would really burn until it was dispelled or broken. Glamours: *Basic: Basic glamours are instinctive. The supernatural allure of the Mayelin comes from their natural glamours. *Minor: Minor glamours twist the way others feel and interact. They can be subtle and push a person gently in the direction you want or harsh commands that compel obedience. Most Mayelin can only manage to hold their glamours over a few people at any one time. *Greater: Greater glamours are like minor except more powerful and able to hold many more people in thrall at once. [b]Life Span:[/b] No Mayelin has ever died of old age. [b]Reproduction Rate:[/b] Mayelin children mature in about the same time it takes for human children. But they only rarely have children. In a thousand years a Mayelin pair bonding might produce two children. [b]Society:[/b] [b]History:[/b] Can be brief, or long. A rich history may present with additional bonuses (or disadvantages). On Gorika the Mayelin were one of the elder races. To many races they were only a myth, the beautiful beings who ruled over cities hidden away behind mystical veils. They were more graceful than the elves, more enchanting then the sirens, and in secret darker than either. Many brave adventurers would quest after the secret cities of the Mayelin, dreaming of life among them or winning one as a bride. But few of these adventurers ever returned and most that did were changed. They told tales of cities made from spun mist, of endless pleasure and revelry, of the beauty of the Mayelin they found. But they were tales of rejection because in the end all the stories end the same. Some dwelt among the Mayelin for years and others spent mere days but all who return eventually woke as if from a dream to find the paradise they had known gone like the mists that had spawned it. Some stories tell of Mayelin who lived among the other races as secret puppet masters. But almost no one believe those stories. When Gorika began to die even the High Elves were shocked when the mythical Mayelin sought passage through the portals as well. When the Mayelin emerged on Earth they were welcomed as angels instead of demons. They took advantage of this to avoid a slaughter and played with the humans through glamour and illusions to gain ‘control’ of an area. Miselaya has decided that these humans have their uses and power. She is considering offering a union with one of the human kings. A union she would be able to control. [b]Religion:[/b] The Mayelin do not believe in any gods. But they are willing to allow others to worship them or believe them to be partially divine. [b]Significant Racial Traits:[/b] List here anything you feel should be mentioned. For example, if your race cannot swim, or if they require a certain diet to thrive. Emotional Vampires: The Mayelin feed on the emotions of others. It does not matter what the emotion is, rage, joy, sorrow, love, hatred, all of these can feed them. The stronger the emotion the longer it sustains them. Mayelin feed just by being near an emotional being and over time the exposure depletes the ability of the person to feel. This might be the true reason that eventually almost everyone who found their hidden cities eventually awoke to find them gone. The drain is not physically harmful, but it does take time to recover if all the ability to feel is drained away. Moderation is key. Mayelin do eat food too though. Reproduction: The Mayelin can breed with other races. But these offspring are even rarer than pure Mayelin young. [b]Preferred Fighting Methods:[/b] Describe the tactics your peoples employ on the battlefield. Do they rely upon the heavy use of magic? Do they make good use of guerrilla warfare tactics? Are they at their best when amassed into a horde? Do they use finite tactics like flanking, tight formations and other complicated manoeuvres? Give me a feel for how your army would fight. The Mayelin do not like to fight themselves. When they can they will always use others as pawns to fight for them. Since there are so few of them and they reproduce so slowly they cannot afford the losses of war. But while they do not fight with weapons their magic is strong. Making armies lose their way in fog banks, or making soldiers believe their own comrades are enemy combatants, or making their own armies vanish from site, are a couple examples of how they can fight. If they have to fight the Mayelin use illusions and glamours to deceive their foes, vanishing or making illusory doubles, or even commanding an enemy to slit his own throat. [b]Seafaring Capabilities:[/b] The Mayelin were not seafarers but they understand what boats are for and can use them. [b]Other Information:[/b] Anything that has been missed, and you feel needs a mention.