Svelden

**Svelden** (ʃfεldən, Sh-FEL-dun, mispronounced S-VEL-dun), also known as **Snow Elves** or **Chameleon Elves**, are the first known offshoot of Pure **Elves** and are originally native to the Northern Continent. During their time, they were exceptionally capable warriors, but were defeated during the war and slowly merged with the **Domaen**, their history forgotten by all but a few of their families.

## History

Early on after Elves and men were reintroduced to the world, a tribe of elves in the northern continent claimed a mountain chain among the frozen wastes of the northern continent as their home. The hellish landscape forced them to rapidly adapt to their climate; any who were not strong enough to survive were doomed to die. As a result, those that did live were tall, strong and exceptionately agile. Traits that could serve in the snow grew very common, making Svelden often look alike. They were lead by the Mac'tíre an Gheimhridh clan, commonly known as the Wolves of Winter, a clan known for having a number of exceptional mages and fighters.

In time, the Svelden made great cities on, around and inside mountains, guarding a number of passes through the mountains. A few centuries later, after elf and man had been warring for decades, they travelled south to aid their brethren. Their arrival tipped the scales in no few battles. However, their relatively small numbers meant that they could not hope to defeat all humans, and after their king was killed and their prince captured, the rest soon followed. Only a small group managed to escape and return to their homeland. However, their mission was not to remain, but to return the sword of the royal clan to the tomb of kings along with the body of their defunct ruler. After this was done, they willingly returned to Galea and integrated themselves into the elven population.

Descendants of the snow elves are almost omnipresent after the nearly two thousand years since their defeat; however, none remain aware of their heritage, and any few that live in cold enough weather for their natural traits to show -As the traits of the Snow Elves are dominant and remain in all their descendants- are often mistaken for albinos. The rest are believed to be Domaën to the exact same extent as most other elves, although some few live among the Aëduan. The only way to even know if one is a snow elf descendant is if they are born with white skin and pale eyes which then rapidly change over the next few days.

## Defining Characteristics

Svelden were and remain very different in comparison to their fellows, as their traits had a notably lesser variety range. Tall and slim, their skin was always without fail completely snow white, and their eyes, while having a wide variety of colors, were always pale, as though seeing a patch of opaque, colored ice. Their hair was either white, silver, or somewhere in between, and their ears considerably longer than other elves'.

Their traits were always fine and often angular, with slim eyebrows, sharp noses and prominent cheekbones. They possessed an icy grace to them similar to that of a cat, ingrained by their pitiless surroundings and the harsh conditions they lived in. Additionally, they were essentially immune to natural cold (and resistant to magical cold as well), and warriors virtually unparalleled as molded by their homeland. They were strong, agile, and nearly silent, their eyesight was incredibly sharp and their hearing powerful, and they had an uncanny ability to guess at what could surround them, hidden in the ice and snow. However, their noses were rather poor.

Unlike Pure Elves, Svelden had relatively higher ratio of mages within their population, nearing 40%, as the ability to use magic even to a small extent could greatly ease the lives of the individuals. Similarly, these mages tended to be stronger than those observed within Pure Elf populations, and they were incredibly precise in their use of it and demonstrated finesse in use of the craft unparalleled by any other large group, throughout their time.

### Magic

The magical ability of the Svelden and constant research ended with them discovering how to link spells to the essence of a bloodline, allowing them to be carried down endlessly.

They only ever applied this technique -as it was incredibly difficult to complete without great power- to two spells, both almost if not completely unknown to the outside world. The first was a magical protection, named the **Astral Shield**, that would apply itself over time as Snow elves remained in warmer climates. As they were essentially albinos, they were more prone to sunburns than other elves, and this protection rendered that threat essentially nil. While it was always active, the spell had a side effect in which it would cause the body to begin to form pigmentation not natural to Snow Elves after a certain amount of time spent in warmer weather. While not sufficient to darken skin anything past a solid tan, it could cause hair to darken considerably and eyes to change color, often turning them dark green, blue, gray, or brown. The color the eyes changed to had no known correlation to the natural color, nor -if the increase in pigmentation were to happen multiple times in a lifetime- to any previous iterations. This pigmentation would disperse incredibly rapidly as soon as the Svelden was returned to a colder environment, often in a matter of mere hours or days.

The other magical piece, known as the Winter Library, was tied directly to the bloodline of the House of the Wolves of Winter. It permitted any descendants possessing even a small connection to the line to use magic at an incredibly rapid rate, allowing them to cast spells and a large majority of incantations instantly. Its name, however, came from the fact that it also bound the souls of the Wolves of Winter who died to something of a great magical library existing outside of the mortal realm. This realm could then be accessed by one of their descendants using the key: The House's sword, Kaldtand (From the words *Kald*, or cold, and *hugtand*, or fang). The phantoms of the dead could then instruct the descendant on the use of all the magics they'd ever learned, essentially allowing for an ever growing sphere of knowledge as time went on. This spell had two most notable side effects. The user's eyes glowed white and their body was covered with glowing, rune-like glyphs when they used magic, and extreme bursts of emotion would cause them to be taken over by base instincts and let out bursts of magic to defend themselves with little regard for friend or foe. This led to the Wolves training themselves to always be in control of their emotions, leading to a nearly permanent cool demeanor.