Aldash

The Aldash are a strange species, with an humanoid torso on top of the body of an enormous feline. They inhabit the Tribal Lands of Aldashir in the desert known as Idriya, on Jeybrak. The Aldash were originally weaker and less intelligent creatures from the northern jungles of Jebrak, but the Goblins of the Old Empire enslaved them moving most of them to the south to support with construction projects. The goblins systematicly enforced a eugenics programs to make them bigger, stronger and smarter than their primal kin, losing much of their speed. Most of them were freed during the Cataclysm of Rorolark and dwell in nomadic tribes on the south of the Jebrakian desert.
==Biology==
Among all the strange creatures of Solcu, the Aldash stand apart, for they are truly beyond common think on a biological level. Firstly, they have a humanoid torso, with two humans like arms, but the lower half of their body looks like the body of a enormous feline, just like their head. Their whole body is covered in fur, whose patterns varies greatly from individual to another. But the Aldash are mainly known for their size and their six eyes.
Indeed, the Aldash are incredibly huge: the females, from head to paws, are on average 4,5 meters high (14,8 feet) for 6 meters long (19,7 feet) from head to the end of their tail, and their weigh, once adult, is roughly of 2,5 tons. The males are significantly smaller, being only 2 meters high (6,6 feet) and 3,5 meters long (11,5 feet). This disparity come from the eugenic program from the Old Goblin Empire, when their Goblin masters, believing that the females Aldash would be a lot less rebellious than the males kept to increase their size and strength, while the males served as messengers and apprentice of a sort. It should be noted that both males and females have nipples on their humanoid torso, but that the females hold huge and heavy breasts, containing mostly fat as a source of energy and reserve during travels in the Desert, and not only as milking factory for the cubs.
Finally, the last distinctive feature of the Aldash, who come directly from their free ancestors in the jungles of Jebrak, is their six eyes (which could mean that they are somehow linked to the Kiaris): the six eyes work by pairs, the middle one being almost identical to those of other sapient beings even if it allow the Aldash to see better in the dark than other creatures, the upper one allow them to perceive fluctuation in electromagnetic flux, thus allowing the Aldash to "foresee" the next actions of their prey, enemies or the reaction of some mechanical device, thus making them very good at hunting, fighting and crafting; the last pair of eyes is able to see magic, which allow the Aldash to use it in a crude but really effective way (it must be noted than the males seem to have better "magical eyes" than the females, maybe as an effect og the goblin eugenic program).
The fur of the Aldash range from light yellow (almost white) to black, with different patterns, which can be found in any tribes, since they were often created by like-minded individuals in the wake of the Cataclysm. However, the young Aldash, born in the last fifty years are showing distinct patterns, distinguishing each tribe a little more from the others, even if those differences aren't already importants.
==Society==
The Aldash are a free people since no more than one hundred years, after millennium of slavery at the hands of the Goblins. Therefore, the Aldash society is still in a tribal form, where a powerful leader (more often female than male) know as the Matriarch or Patriarch lead her or his followers. The size of the Tribes vary a lot, some of them being made of only thirty Aldash (such as the Ramali Tribe) while other numbers are more than ten thousand (the incredibly huge Alsunnil Tribe being this incredible gathering of Aldash, as was the late forces of Aldash known by the Goblins as the Aldash Blockade).
During the first five decades of their new freedom, the Aldash tribes wandered separately in what they called the Idriya Desert. However, after those first fifty years, Matriarch Alsunnia sought to unite her species as mean to prevent future slavery when she was the Goblins were beginning to rebuild a new Empire. While she met some resistance, the stubborn isolationism from the Aldash Blockade led to its destruction and as of today, Alsunnia managed to unite all the Aldash (200.000) under her rule as Great matriarch.
Despite this feat of strength, Alsunnia know very well that she must allow a lot of independence to each Matriarch or Patriarch if she wish to keep all the Aldash united against enemies.
===The Tribe's inner hierarchy===
Under construction.
===The sexual dimorphism in everyday life===
Under construction.
==Religion==
The Schismatic, as it is called by the Aldash, is a religion based on Magma, Lava and Fire, which was born shortly after the Cataclysm of Rorolark (called by the adepts of the faith the Burning Rebirth); this Fiery Trinity is at the core of every believer, and they revere it as a vast power without a clear conscience but which nonetheless stir and act to set the world back to its correct path. There is three Branch in the Schismatic, all of which put a greater emphasis on one of the three part of the Trinity, but it doesn't preclude the believers to work as one, for their faith claim that the Fiery Trinity is but a representation of a sort of wild and untamable power.
The Magma Branch was prominent in the Aldash Blockade, and it claimed that Jebrak has to be purged from the Goblins if the Aldash ever hope to be free; when the Blockade was broken, they lost most of their holy grounds and territories in the Khaltha Waste; nonetheless, Magma worshippers are still present in the Aldash society and their seared priests are a terrifying presence when they appear.
The Lava Branch is the main Branch in all the others tribes (especially those under Alsunnia control), which claim that the Republic has to be fought has long has it pretend to impose the Ramaldian Sphere on anyone. It is the most prominent Branch of the Schismatic religion and it involve a great emphasis on unity, perseverance and inventive ways to resolve problems. While Alsunnia is truly the leader of the Aldash, she had begun in recent year to develop the Schismatic and especially the Lava Branch as a mean to strengthen the Free Tribes organization and abilities to survive as an independent nation.
The Fire Branch is more common in the smaller and independents tribes who wander far from the other Aldash. They believe that Fire exist in every thing and that it is their duty to search a mythical Source of Fire, and that when they'll find it the Schismatic will become the faith of all on Jebrak and beyond. In that regard, they are very close to the Ramaldian Sphere core belief, even though they claim that the Goblins divinities are but sparks (at best) and corrupted form of Sacred Fire.
==Magic==
Among the Aldash, it is most common to the males to become mages, more often called Landwarders, because of their lack of strength, endurance and ferocity compared to the Aldash females. However, contrary to the more traditional arts of warfare where the females used the goblins knowledge against themselves, the Aldash had to create their own way of using magic from nothing but bits of knowledge.
Yet, they quickly proved that they were one of the most gifted species when it come to using magic, since their eyes allow them to see the flux of it with great ease. Still, even today, one hundred year after the Cataclysm, the Aldash magic is extremely blunt, revolving mainly around the use of destruction or crude healing spells to defeat their enemies. Nonetheless, their way of using magic is very particular for two reasons: they are able to summon and enslave Elementals and some of them have proven to be technomages.
The enslavement of Elementals is maybe the most common feature of the Aldash magic for even if they can use spells of their own, the males prefer to bind the spirituals representations of the Idriya to their will. Such feat suppose an ordeal where the magician summon the elemental, shaping its form, giving it a name and then force it to surrender to his will. While lone Landwarders can only summon Formless Elementals, two of them can summon a Minor Elemental and ten of them a Great Elemental. The Aldash Blockade was known for its ten Great Elementals enslaved by its Conclaves of Landwarders.
Usually, the Aldash bind to their service Earth, Sun, Fire and Wind elementals, but a lone Landwarders can always summon a Water elemental, even if it is seen as a great crime to do so without valid reasons, such as saving Aldash lives. Once an Elemental has been enslaved, he will serve his master until the death of the Aldash.
The Technomage couldn't be more different than the Landwarders, for they do not need to bind anyone to their will to do their spells, which all come from within them. A technomage must possess both the ability to channel magical power but also technical knowledge to melt both into a technomagic relic or spells. It is not a spectacular way of use magic in itself, but the creations of the technomage, however crude they could be compared to the ancient relics found in the long-lost ruins of the Idriya Desert, are deadly weapons and incredible artefacts.
==Relationship with other species==
Under Construction
Category: Races
Category: Bestiary
Category: Organisms
Category: Animals
Category: Antauri