Eldarim

Not to be confused with the earth god Eldurim, the name has similar linguistic roots based on the method which these creatures come to be.

While not considered part of the First Races, the Eldarim’s presence on Esfah predates even the monsters and the dragons. These creatures evolved from the primordial soup of raging elements during the uncounted eons that passed when the gods were still young. The Eldarim call each other Shara, but none else do and their society often keeps things from outsiders. They only use “Shara” (little god-in-the-making, in their tongue) when unaccompanied by members of other races. It is an acknowledgement that they believe they possess the potential to reach a sort of demi-god status.

They are typically nomadic in nature. The eldarim look like humans, although perhaps nobler and fairer in many respects, leading some to suspect that their origins are in Tarvanehl rather than in the creator-gods of Esfah. Few know that they walked the face of the land before the other races arrived, and the shara do little to press that knowledge into the world. Most suspect that Father Tarvanehl left them on Esfah as stewards meant to deal with the tears Ghaeial had shed during the early days, gifting them to Ghaeial from afar to console her.

Eldarim generally stand a head taller and nobler than humans and their features seem a touch fairer than dwarves and they are just as hardy as any dwarf or trog—but rolled into one unique package; they are recognized by both their larger figure and their flatter nose, but often confused with humans, who they closely resemble.

They frequently interbreed with other species of the First Races and with humans, creating hybrids. This is necessary for survival as three quarters of all eldarim born are male.

A pure blooded eldarim couple will have a full eldarim child. An eldarim male can interbreed with humans, elves, dwarves, and trogs, and the offspring results in a half-breed. Half breeds are still considered eldarim by the clan which birthed it. Unlike the mud-blood Frehlasuhl, halfbreeds are not looked down upon by their society, though there are a number of families dedicated to keeping their lineage clean by selective breeding and avoiding dilution of the race.

Eldarim females can only parent a child with an eldarim or a half-eldarim; other pregnancies are not viable. An eldarim woman and halfbreed male’s child will produce a full eldarim rather than any hybrid.

The child of a half-breed and another will be either inviable or default to the subrace (an eldarim/morehl male and morehl female will result in a morehl child. An eldarim/morehl and trog is not viable. An eldarim/morehl male and a selumari female will still produce a frehlasuhl.) Eldarim may interbreed with humans freely and a resulting child will be eldarim.

The eldarim have a long history of animal husbandry, especially with the dragonkin, and they were the originators of the sages. In the First Age, many of the shara were "white" referring to the mystical lessons of the chroma which the eldarim taught at their magical universities such as the University of Yentosh. As time progressed, more and more shara took to binding their families and their progeny to different factions of the chromadiscylum and the white shara became the minority.

Because the eldarim can interbreed with many different species, half-breeds are not terribly uncommon. A half-elf, trog, or dwarf might live as such among the people of his or her mother. Otherwise, they might live among the eldarium as one of them. Half-breeds suffer slight degrees of social stigma, but stand taller and are more physically impressive. Aside from that and a slight physical resemblance to the eldarim, the difference are nuanced. Many persons who are half-breeds are unaware of that fact, even, and any children a half-breed has with a full blooded member of the paired non-eldurim race reverts to that race (a half-dwarf and a full dwarf will have full dwarf children as the eldari blood becomes too diluted to pass on the genome.) Eldarim family lines are strong, though the pure-blooded shara are increasingly rare, and there is very little discrimination between the full blooded eldarim and their half blooded kin.

The eldarim predate the timekeeping structure kept since the arrival of the First Races, but came some time after the arrival of the dragons, but prior to the drakufreet or the monsters.