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The Anor’suvei - The Snow Elves

Long ago, ere the first man beached his wooden long-boat on the shores of Kaledan, a great happening arose in the North. Suvei Malthorion, youngest prince of the King of the Wood Elves, had fallen in love with a mysterious spirit. This spirit allegedly hailed from the northern icy wastes where none dared pass then, and around her a harsh cold would swirl. But young Suvei could not contain his love for this spirit, and when their love was found out, he was bidden to go out from his father’s presence and never return. Seeing no place to go but his wife’s homeland, Prince Suvei prepared himself for a lifetime in the ice. It is said that the children of the fallen Prince and of the icy spirit are now what we call the anor’suvei - the children of Suvei, the snow elves.

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

The snow elves are markedly different, both in countenance and bearing, from their wood-elven kin. Their hair and skin are a natural frosty white, a possible result of evolution for camouflage in the wastes of Haithorost. Their eyes are a piercing icy blue, or in some rare cases almost completely gray. The latter are often seen to be blessed by the Goddess. Snow elves also have an inhuman - indeed, almost magical - tolerance for the cold. To put it in perspective, a snow elf would probably feel rather comfortable in a two-piece bathing in the waters of Antarctica. This is why many snow elves tend to dress rather sparingly when in warmer climates. Snow elves are also rather carnivorous in their diet, favoring polar bear, whale, seal, and occasionally, khakoric snake, able to forgo lifetimes of not touching a single vegetable.

CULTURE

The top priority of a snow elf was, is, and will always be sheer survival. Surviving subzero temperatures and carnivorous polar wildlife leaves little time for the niceties of books, poetry, or music their siblings in the south enjoy. Besides delegating the portions of a hunt after a long day and yelling warnings of hungry polar bears behind unsuspecting travelers, snow elves rarely speak - let alone write. A snow elf seldom thinks beyond his next meal, his next place to sleep, and whether he will awake alive the next morning. For some, this way of life may be uncultured,uncivilized, and devoid of any deeper meaning, but for the snow elf, it is merely practical. 

Snow elves are divided into tribes that wander Haithorost on caravans of sledges following the migratory patterns of great whales or polar bears. However, these tribes are not always bound by family - in fact, they rarely are. The governing rule of snow elven society is simple - you are a liability unless proven otherwise. For snow elves, whether you can contribute to the continued existence of the tribe or not is far more important than familial blood, gender, or age. This is why snow elves struggle to grasp with the idea of family and the conventional notion of friendship. An ailing old grandfather and a weak young child are both reduced to the same thing in the eyes of a snow elf - a hindrance to be discarded. Because of this, snow elves tend to not be bound by blood, but whether they can keep each other alive. This belief may seem cold and heartless to the outsider, but without it, the anor'suvei would not be around today. There is also a flip side to this dogma - if you happen to save a snow elf's life, the resulting bond will run deeper than any family member. Snow elves are not heartless - they just happen to value tangible safety more than ideals and concepts.

One of the more unique traits of snow elven culture is ‘mavokal’ - literally ‘to cast out’ in Elvish. There are three types of mavokal. The first type - ‘sohleri’ - occurs when a snow elf is deemed incompetent by a tribe. Sohleri snow elves are simply cast out into the icy wastes with a few supplies to fend for themselves and hopefully find another wandering tribe. However, when these exiled elves manage to find another tribe in the frost, they are often given a hero’s welcome for having proven their worth and having earned their second chance. The second type of ritual is ‘dai’haga’ - often administered to youths coming of age. The dai’haga means being separated from the tribe at least a month to survive on their own. After that month, they are also expected to find their own tribe. The dai'haga aims to stress the importance of society and what it is like to be 'useless'. The last mavokal is the most shameful one - the ‘yurai’. One who counts himself among the yurai has probably caused several deaths with his blunder. The unfortunate snow elf in question has a cross carved into his scalp and is given either a bottle of khakoric snake venom or a knife to take his own life in the wastes, before the cold gets him first. A yurai will never be accepted by another tribe or any snow elf worth his salt. Indeed, a yurai will probably never speak again to another living thing out of sheer shame.

The snow elves, for all their practicality, can be very superstitious. For what else could keep you alive in the wastes than divine intervention? The snow elves pray to Haithora - the bride of Suvei Malthorion - for warmth, a good physical sense of direction, and luck, most commonly before and after hunts. However, her priesthood is nigh nonexistent, and the training of youngsters in the arcane arts is seen as a waste of time when a trusty harpoon could do the same job as a fireball.

The snow elves rarely have dealings with outsiders or foreigners. A snow elf outside the wastes is most probably a yurai, or adopted. Most races regard them with wariness, but for all the hospitality and understanding of the wood elves, they are one of the only races in Kaledan who truly hate the anor’suvei. It is not uncommon to see the kindest of wood elves physically and verbally lashing out at snow elves in social interactions. In the eyes of the anor’mulia, the children of Suvei were, are, and will always be traitors to the elven race. This is why snow elves rarely venture south, for fear of dying of the heat, or being lynched by their wood-elven brothers.
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Also, I would prefer a more mysterious feel to the magic system - very little practitioners exist, the ones that do are well into old age, and are left alone at best, and ostracized at worst. Right now, the magic system feels like a science - a systematic study. I personally think it would be better if it were respected as an esoteric art, an expression of the self. Magic would seem more 'random' and in the heat of the moment to the untrained eye, rather than a clear application of a spell.

I'd also like a more conflicting feel to the religious system - divine magic may exist, but no one is entirely sure where it's coming from, or how to gain it in the first place. People war over whose god exists, not whose god is better.