Dune Elves

in: Races

## Introduction

The Rahavandha, commonly called 'Dune Elves', are an offshoot of the Wood Elves that separated themselves from their cousins in millennia past.  Legend has it they were originally thought to be a series of exiled

families or perhaps a cult of heretics portraying Aurin as the rightful leader of the elvish pantheon. The actual reason for their separation from the Wood Elves has been lost to time from public understanding. They keep no written records, instead relying on an oral tradition, as they do not possess more than they can carry, being an intensely nomadic people. These dark, swarthy Elves come and go with the sandstorms. The Dune Elves create these seemingly random sand storms through their usage of wind magic to conceal their passage. The only evidence ever left behind are abandoned encampments that become swallowed by the sands. The Dune Elves often return to their only semi-permanent settlements deep in the forbidding deserts of Jazira where they might live for years. These settlements are scored with the savage sands when abandoned to appear as ruins until the Elves are ready to return to them.

The Dune Elves have been forgotten to all but time until recent encounters with their neighbors, the Jazirans, revealed their existence. There have always been rumors and stories among the humans speaking of 'magic wielding demons' in the desert. The cause for their re-emergence as a known entity is not well understood. While finding what they call 'The Wandering City' has eluded the Jazirans and adventurers that explore the deserts, the Dune Elves have a saying that "A true Rahavandha can always find their home". Indeed, the Rahavandha that are emerging from the sands are small in number, either individuals or small bands of under a dozen. A simple bracelet brimming with magic is the one unifying factor among the recent arrivals. The bracelet magically compels the wearer to be unable to tell an outsider the location of the Wandering City. It is rumored to be some unique form of the collar of binding, one they take up willingly as they depart their people.

## Quick Notes

* **Alternative Names:** Ignavid (Dark Elves), Rahavanda (Dune Elf), Cefndryd Tywod (High Elves), Hiekka Serkut (Snow Elves), Wasaliti (Wood Elves)
* **Naming Convention:** Persian
* **Appearance:** Thin, athletic bodies with dusky or brown skin.  Black or dark brown hair (Textures vary from silky to coarse). Brown, hazel, green, blue, and violet eyes.
* **Lifespan:** ~1000 years
* **Height:** 170cm-190cm
* **Regions Found:** Deserts, Primarily the Jaziran deserts
* **Common Character Roles:** Infiltrator, hunter, priest, camp guard
* **Values:** minimalism, collectivism, isolationism, territorialism
* **Culture:** Secrecy is everything to Dune Elves. They do everything they can to keep others from finding where they live, often portraying themselves as Jazirans or wearing armor to invoke the idea of demons to scare people away from their territory. They are a highly collectivist society.  The tribe is more important than anything else.
* **Religion(s):** Elvish Pantheon, but particularly favor Aurin, Ilmaddara, Nadia, and Yaria
* **Common Allies:** None
* **Common Enemies:**  Dark Elves, Wood Elves
* **Views on Magic:** Venerates the use of their own spheres, ambivalent to magic not of their own spheres.
* **Abilities:** Can turn off elvish eye glow at will.
* **Weaknesses:** Cannot use Cryomancy or Nature magic

## History & Culture

The Rahavandha Elves were initially a part of the group of Wood Elves that had parted from the High Elves during the schism. They broke off from the Wood Elves shortly after over philosophy and religious zeal. The Wood Elves were vehemently opposed to any magic beyond nature magic, whereas the Rahavandha were often practitioners of wind, fire, and dark magic.

Their schism with the Wood Elves was not a peaceful one. Words turned to shouting and then to violence. Driven out of their forest homes among the Wood Elves, they moved south into the plains. Searching out a new home was no easy feat. Their numbers were too few to compete with the Simiku for their lands, so they fled further south in an effort to put some distance between themselves and the Wood Elves. The fledgling community of Jazirans had yet to truly establish their civilization in the southern wastes, so the Dune Elves sought a home in their lands. Not keen on a long-term war with the slaving human nomads they now shared the desert with, the elves adopted a stance of isolationism and preyed on the mortal fear of the unknown.  They made themselves out to be demons in the eyes of the Jazirans, mercilessly killing interlopers that stumbled upon their caravans and raiding for what they needed in times of scarcity. Their usage of undead and dark magic only increased as they made their raids all the more terrifying. Using hit-and-run tactics, they would vanish into the desert, dissuading the locals from venturing too far into the shifting sands to look for them.

This ruthless nature of theirs is more pragmatism than wanton cruelty—a bid to keep their people secret. Nothing is more critical to the Rahavandha than the safety of their people, and no act is too grim or profane to ensure that others do not come looking for them. Those outsiders that do stumble upon their encampments are killed almost without exception. Those few left alive are cursed, twisted with vile magic, or maimed and left to die in the unforgiving desert, a warning to others who would seek them out, should they even make it home.

## Society

Intensely nomadic and egalitarian, these Elves keep no records, instead tracing their lineages through the weaving of patterns and vibrant colors in their clothing and ornate jewelry. The Rahavandha wear flowing silks, often of sheer material. They value horsemanship and camelry as special skills. Typical of global Elvish society, magic is common. However, among the Rahavandha, wind, fire, and dark magics are fully integrated into their culture. They hold skill in magic in high regard but do not stratify their society based on ability. Moreso, all members of the tribe are, from the time they are an adult, considered equal. All food, homes, dunerunners, and resources are shared as needed among the tribe.

Food is scarce, so keeping pets and livestock is unheard of beyond the beasts of burden and mounts needed to move the camp from place to place. Slavery is entirely forbidden for security reasons.

All members of a tribe, without exception, are required to train in the combat arts. An elf who cannot fight is an elf that cannot hunt. An elf that cannot hunt cannot contribute. In particularly bad times, ritual cannibalism, where the weakest or infirm of the tribe offer themselves so that the rest may survive, is not unheard of. These sacrificial Elves are honored, and their bones are kept and brought with the tribe from place to place to be reanimated as skeletal warriors if the tribe should need them once again.

Most of Rahavandha society lives in a vast caravan called 'The Wandering City', but there are many smaller tribes that, while nominally part of the same collective, travel separately and inhabit different regions of the desert.

## Government

Rahavandha Elves have a relatively simple form of government.  They rule by seniority, with a council of elders, usually the eldest member of a given clan, voting on a course of action. The eldest of the elders, known simply as Great Father (or Great Mother, as the case may be) counts for two votes in any given vote. There are two other seats on a tribal council besides the elders themselves. These seats do not vote and are strictly advisory:

* The Child of Yaria - leads and represents the hunter-gatherers of the tribe, responsible for feeding all.
* The Child of Nadia - a mystic who represents the clergy and sentries of the tribe, responsible for keeping the tribe hidden from outsiders.
* Sand Moot:  Not a formal government, but a council of tribal elders that gets together every 20 years to share news and discuss any threats or news among the Rahavandha diaspora. (see culture section)

## Culture

Despite the harsh life of the desert, Rahavandha Elves have a rich cultural tradition. They are often skilled in arts and crafts and value musical instruments as prized personal property. These tools are customized in some way according to the personality of their owner and are viewed as an extension of themselves. Even tools as rudimentary as hunting knives may be embellished with gold or silver and inlaid jewels. Singing, dancing, and music are arts that Rahavandha hold in the highest regard. Belongings are things that one can only have so much of because one must be able to budget the weight for traveling.

Their time in the desert has given rise to a few unheard-of practices in the rest of the world. The Elves use wind magic extensively to wring water from the air's moisture, allowing them to live deep in the sands, far away from any water source that Jazira may use.  The Rahavandha also use a unique sort of land ship called a Dunerunner, using wind magic and skids to 'sail the dune sea' of Jazira. These Dunerunners are of varying sizes, requiring one or more wind mages to function and leaving small tracks that are quickly lost in the shifting sands.

The Rahavandha are secretive people, at least in theory. In keeping with their culture of privacy from without, there is also privacy within. Highly hedonistic, they tend to be promiscuous and love freely among their own people, but they are discrete. Public displays of carnality are uncommon, though partaking of narcotics and alcohol is a social norm. Paradoxically, group gatherings for celebrative and religious purposes often maintain a veil of faux-anonymity between members by wearing masks, allowing for debauchery while symbolically maintaining a degree of decency in keeping with social norms.

The various tribes of the Rahavandha make a point to converge with the Wandering City at a predetermined location every twenty years in an event called the Sand Moot. They do this to share news, exchange goods, meet new wives and husbands, and discuss broader issues like territorial encroachment and intelligence gathering. It is traditional that if an elf of a given tribe wishes to leave their tribe, the Sand Moot is the only acceptable time to do so. Any member of any tribe may switch tribes and join another, so long as the receiving tribe has a member of their own to trade in their place. This transferring of people is a common practice and keeps the bloodlines fresh, and tribal relations serene. This practice is seen as a convenient means of satisfying the wanderlust of the Dune Elves while keeping societal cohesion. Tribes that have been decimated for one reason or another may ask for migrants to maintain their population or may be absorbed into the Wandering City itself. At the Sand Moot, a group of young Elves may announce the formation of their own tribe, and have it recognized by the Rahavandha community writ large.

## Racial Relations

Preferring to go unnoticed by intercepting and neutralizing individuals or groups that approach what is, for the moment, their territory, the Rahavandha are nominally hostile to all of their neighbors. Most interactions with the Dune Elves center around a raid as they seek out food and materials as needed. The Rahavandha, where possible, have agents and spies in all regions bordering their caravans, especially the Wandering City. Often disguising themselves as traveling merchants, the Rahavandha have infested Jazira and sometimes masquerade as Jazirans to spy for the Wandering City. They go to great lengths to sow fear of the deep desert in human populations, often falsely reporting monster attacks and reports of missing persons to make the desert seem more dangerous than it is. Despite the long-running campaign to dissuade Jazira from trying to expand into their territory, some humans persist in their attempts. However, Jazira continues to have trouble colonizing deeper into the deserts because 'something' has been destroying outlying homesteads and keeping them on the fringe of the deep desert.  Inside the nebulous Rahavandha territory, virtually no quarter is given to interlopers who find a camp. Those lucky enough to be intercepted beforehand may find themselves cursed, beaten, robbed, drugged, and dumped outside of Rahavandha territory by 'demons'. The exceptions to this rule lie primarily in their dealings with Snow and High Elves.

Rather than being slain or tortured, Snow Elves and High Elves are blindfolded and brought to their camp. They can expect to be interrogated there, but otherwise not treated poorly.  They can expect to be liberated of any foodstuffs on their person and paid a reasonable sum for these goods.  This 'trade' is compulsory.  This ‘guest elf’ will typically be drugged and wake up outside of Rahavandha territory.

Wood Elves are afforded no such niceties. Wood Elves that Rahavandha Elves intercept can expect to be treated to the same hostile hospitality as Dark Elves. They can expect also to wake up drugged outside of Rahavandha territory, but in poor condition, usually after having been stripped of their equipment and beaten. If the same tribe in their territory reencounters them, they will likely be attacked with little prompting.

The Dune Elves are not aggressive outside of Rahavandha territory and outside of the context of raiding. The Rahavandha Elves go to great lengths to conceal what they are but are generally rather curious about foreign cultures. They seek to learn more about the other races for their own sake and acquire news to bring back to the Wandering City.

## Religion

The Rahavandha Elves, much like their cousins the High Elves and Wood Elves, believe that all life is derived from the same pool of essence called 'Ki'. Unique to themselves, they feel there's little relation between their actions in the physical world and their spirit. As long as what they do is to a beneficial end for their people, any act, no matter how heinous, is permitted.  The ends justify the means. Rahavandha Elves rarely meditate unless troubled by the direst of problems, but when they do seek to meditate, they do so sitting in direct sunlight in the desert heat, facing the path of the sun. They may hold a handful of sand and use their fingers to empty it one grain at a time. They pray to the Elven Pantheon for blessings and assistance and try to be self-reliant. As a result, much like their Wood Elf cousins, Rahavandha Elves are far less inhibited and more likely to indulge themselves in the excesses of life without any concern about 'staining' their spirit.

Rahavandha Elf shrines tend to be portable affairs, with a small altar, a bowl for offerings, and a prayer mat or rug. They may be inside a tent, a cave, or open sky, depending upon the deity in question and an elf's beliefs about how they should be worshiped. Offerings tend to consist of jewels buried beneath the altar and left behind when the tribe moves on from the location.

While the Rahavandha Elves worship the entire Elvish pantheon, they tend to particularly favor Aurin, Ilmaddara, Nadia, and Yaria for making the desert forbidding to hostile armies, covering their tracks, keeping their movements at night secret, and providing them with sustenance.

## Racial Traits

* **Albedo Adaptation:** The eyes of Dune Elves are particularly resistant to sunlight and bright effects, they are immune to blinding effects from magic and abilities. Their skin is heat resistant.
* **Sleep Immunity:** Dune Elves are immune to magic that induces sleep or tiredness related to sleepiness.
* **Disease/Poison Susceptibility:** Dune Elves have difficulty fighting off ailments that attack the body.
* **Thin Blood:**  Dune Elves are acclimated to the desert and unaccustomed to low temperatures, they are more susceptible to cold climates, and hydromancy.

Available Magic Spheres: Blood Magic, Dark Magic, Holy Magic, Marked (Witchcraft) Magic, Mental Magic, Pyromancy, Wind Magic

## Attachments & Kit Items

The items listed in the kits below are made with the Season 6 modlist. They have been updated as of **14th December 2023**.

*Expand for Elf Racial Kit*