Voij

The Voij, or dark elves, are a ashen-skinned tribe of elves who mainly dwell in Helia, a mountainous region of south-eastern Heide. The Voij nobility live beneath the earth, while commoners and slaves work in terraced fields upon the surface. The Voij are a fractious people, their city-states at constant war with each other. Helia has large deposits of orichalc, or rustmetal, which the Voij are adept at smelting. They use rustmetal not just for arms and armor, but for their golems. Voij also mine ‘glowstones,' crystals that produce constant illumination. Voij cities are decorated with mosaics and sculptures of glowstone. 
The Voij are fierce and warlike, and above all they revere Bhelor, the Burning Goddess. Voij offer their blood to Bhelor to sustain and soothe her, until the New Sun can be found and set in the skies above Anratha. Sacrifice is very important to the Voij, and blood is the greatest gift that any maedi can give. The Voij are deeply pious, and religion is essential to their existence. They revere Ashem, the prophetess who guided a portion of the exiled Azlan out of the Abyss they had been banished to. Those who followed Ashem became the Voij. The dark maedi have eyes that seem to faintly burn, and they claim to all be conduits for the cleansing fires of Bhelor. The ashen skin of the Voij is a sign of their sacrifice, for like Bhelor they too were scoured, consumed in fire, purified, and reborn. 
The harsh, barren realm of Helia has hardened the Voij. They are a grim people, taciturn and not easily given to laughter. Only in battle do they blaze up, fighting with insane energy, reveling in the carnage. Dark elves do not flinch at pain, fighting on even when their guts bulge out, or their limbs hang on sinewy threads. Such feats are attributed to the intervention of Bhelor, but perhaps it is simply a question of will. For just as Bhelor sacrifices, the Voij sacrifice. Their blood is the greatest offering they can give. 
All sacrifice, all blood spilt, all suffering, strengthens the goddess, and ensures she will continue to light Paradise. Each Voij seeks to become like Bhelor, to drive their bodies to the absolute limits of endurance, to suffer as she did, and so become a vessel of her transformative, cleansing fire. Many Voij go shirtless, to better display their scars and wounds. They pierce their bodies with skewers and metal hooks, bleeding in remembrance of Bhelor. 
Most Voij rituals involve pain and blood. The 'Rite of Love' requires a ‘purified’ vessel to throw themselves into the fiery summit of Ur-Sagru, adding their strength to Bhelor. The Rite of Tenderness, the anointing of a priest in Ashem's service, sees an acolyte shackled to an open frame, hooks piercing the skin of his back. As the would-be priest struggles against the hooks, he must couple with a cultic attendant. The priest can move only his hips, each thrust tearing his skin. The ritual ends either at climax, or when the last hook pulls free from the initiate’s back. This coupling of pleasure and pain, or rather, the pleasure found in pain, is typical of the Voij ethos. 
Most rituals involve this. Before the Rite of Love is completed, the devotee is assigned a beautiful male and female slave, and is enjoined to satisfy himself with them often. Similarly, the sin-offering, which involves being scourged by an ash priest until the supplicant bleeds, ends when the priest tenderly licks the wounds and anoints them with sacred myrrh, transforming the supplicant into a holy vessel. Some tell stories of blood-frenzied Voij raping their foes while in the midst of battle, cutting their victim's throat to silence the protests, then continuing to defile their corpse. Though extreme, such incidents reinforce the dark elves' reputation as the ‘Scourge of Bhelor.’ Indeed, one of the Voij’s greatest heroes is Shamadim of the Scourge, his body so marked with sacrifice that he is one great mass of scars and welts. To take on pain, is ally the self with Bhelor, to experience pleasure is to share that pleasure with the goddess. 
But the Voij are not all fanatics. They are also skilled artisans, and they know the secrets of creating golems. The Black Mechanists of the Orebite cult are famed not only for their secrecy, but for the wonders they can forge with orichalc and noxite. Few ever see these wonders, for the Voij dislike outsiders, though the dark maedi themselves can be found far from Helia, hidden beneath the earth in Underworld cities they have reclaimed from the dark.
The Voij that refused to accept the teachings of the Brother Saints, triune disciples of Ashem, were exiled from Helia. These Jaharists believe that the 'True Sister' was Ashem's favored disciple, and the False Brothers betrayed her, framing her for Ashem's death and then turning the Voij against her. Jaharist Voij are scattered in cities throughout Erebus, and are locked in an endless holy war with the orthodox Voij of the Obsidian Path. This ancient conflict is the predominate reason that the Voij have not expanded beyond Helia, and why they hoard their firearms, golems and other mechanical devices. They are needed for the ceaseless war below the earth. Rarely does this war spill beyond the confines of the Underworld, but when it does, great is the destruction wrought in the name of Bhelor, who both factions of Voij believe they serve. 
Category:Races
Category:Maedi