Difference between revisions of "Dominion Era/Tretallë (Culture)"

Revision as of 18:17, 18 March 2015

Known in IktOrryk as the Istfet, and in the Common Tongue as the Bone Elves, the Tretallë are the sister-race of the High Elves. Both these elfin races hail from the eastern continent, known as IldSond to the races of Man, and the Termalttë to the Tretallë. The true ancestral home of the Tretallë, at least, by the accounts of the High Elfin faith, is at the foot of the Shrouded Peaks. However, going by the history of the Tretallë, their oldest recorded home is Ifatallë Cselvë, the Ivory City, home to the Ivory Throne at the heart of the illustrious Forest of Bones.

Physiology

The Tretallë are close relatives of the High Elves. While the Elledynnë are generally leaner and shorter, the Tretallë are more well-built and taller. In addition, where the High Elves are fair and at times bronzed, the Tretallë are a different matter entirely. They are pale, and their skin-tone ranges from alabaster to ivory, to a very light grey, like ash. Most Tretallë burn easily in direct sunlight, but many of them are desensitized from these effects from childhood, if they are deemed to have a healthy enough interest in conquest to join the army.

They are less adept than their Elfin brethren in sneaking around in the dark, but a High Elf would rather be caught dead than caught doing something so boorish. Their manual dexterity, on the other hand, is quite unmatched in the East.

While generally speaking, their most common features make it more difficult for them to be stealthy in small places, unlike their High Elfin brethren, and the Woodlands and Rogue elves in the West, they are more than capable in larger chambers. They excel at covering large distances on foot and have extraordinary endurance, lending credence to the idea that they were originally from a mountain environment. However, they prefer to use their horses unless absolutely necessary.

The Tretallë are also very capable at navigating many different kinds of terrain. Again, lending credence to the High Elfin story, the Tretallë are amazing at managing mountainous terrain, which the Elledynnë are more or less terrible at.

In addition, males of the race are almost never prone to promiscuity. In fact, they have a muted sex drive. It has long been argued that because the Tretallë have the longest natural life expectancy of the Elfin races, they do not see the need to procreate very often. Needless to say, the females often find themselves bereft of any sexual pleasure if they depend on the men, and instead rely on other women to keep them company, save for when the males are, for lack of a better term, "in heat." Counter-intuitively, however, Tretallë males are not possessed of smaller-in-comparison genitalia than the other Elfin races.

Facial Features

One of the most evident features of the Tretallë, apart from their skin, are their long faces and prominent cheekbones and jaws. The pronouncement of the jaw is more evident in males than in females, while the females generally have longer, more slender faces. Their eyebrows are thin and long, typically tapering to a point. The Tretallë do not have very large foreheads, though there is a pronounced difference between males and females. Regardless of gender, Tretallë often have widows' peaks centred on the middle of their foreheads. Their noses are typically hooked, and their lips are often thin. Like most of their elfin cousins, the Tretallë possess pointed ears. While Male ears are sharper and generally longer than female ones, female ears curve towards the head and in some cases, can even lie flat against the skull.

All in all, the structure of Tretalleri faces make them seem rather cold and always somber, if not angry. They are often described as an angular people, and said to be possessing of an eerie kind of beauty all too often associated with death.

There is very little variation in eye colour with the Tretallë. Generally speaking, Tretalleri eyes come in combinations of different hues and shades, with steel grey being the most common, to gold, green, and finally, most rarely, violet. A child will typically have eyes of a middling colour between his/her parents, but it has happened that a child is born with completely different-coloured eyes. The Tretallë often chalk this up to merely the will of the Nine.

Similarly, Tretalleri hair is not varied. A typical Tretallë will have silvery-white hair, but hair-colour ranges from light grey to platinum.

Finally, the most distinctive features of the Tretalleri face are the two bands of slightly discoloured skin(typically darker, and with the a slight hue that is similar to the individual's eye-colour) that run down the sides of their faces. Male bands generally run down from the temple and stop at the corners of the eye, while female bands generally extend all the way to the jaw. It is not unheard of for males to have female bands and vice-versa. These individuals are the Tretalleri equivalent of transgendered humans, although there is little in the way of discrimination against them in Tretalleri society.

Musculature

Because most males are trained from birth to run and ride horses into battle, the muscle density of Tretalleri males is generally concentrated around the legs, lower back, and core. It is important to note, however, that the Hunter Corps of the Tretalleri army maintain greater upper-body strength in order to hurl spears further, faster, and with more acuity.

Males tend to stand a full head taller than females of their age, but even Tretalleri females are significantly taller than their Elfin brethren. Males have slightly broader shoulders than their hips with a torso that tapers ever so slightly down to their hips.

Females, on the other hand, are generally considered the masters of the siege and thus are not trained as cavalry. They are welcome to join the ranks of riders, of course, but most are content with building the massive machines that the Tretallë are famed and feared for. Because of this, they are generally trained to be capable of lugging around heavy equipment, and thus have greater upper-body strength than males.

Female Tretallë generally have uniform muscle density as lifting often involves the entire body. As a result, they lack the hourglass, effeminate physique of the High Elfin women, nor do they possess petite stature of their Western cousins. They typically have the same shape as the males, albeit, they are slightly more curvaceous.

Psychology

Although they are generally painted as a humourless race, the Tretallë are, in fact, more or less normal as compared to any of the other races. Any visitor to the heartland of the Dominion are pleasantly surprised by the presence of personable individuals.

However, Tretallë outside of the heartland are generally cold and calculating. The stereotype persists because there is reason for it to exist. Tretallë who join the army are, from a young age, trained to be this way because the Tretallë value clear minds above all else during wartime efforts. Because of their reputation as conquerors, the Tretallë outside the heartland are often quelling rebellions and taking over land. As a result, Tretallë in conquered nations are generally still in their wartime mindsets.

As already stated, male Tretallë have a largely diminished sex drive. In truth, however, this is only true for most of the year. Every month in the Tretalleri calendar, males have a period of "heat," where the males feel a sudden spike in the desire to have sex. Most of the time, the females are more than glad to oblige them, but where there are no females to be had, males are more than happy to have a go at each other.

Culture

The Arcane Taboo

For being a race of warmongers and conquerors bent on dominance over much of the known world, the Tretallë are surprisingly opposed to anything arcane. There is no specific document about why there exists a taboo against magic in Tretallë society, but nonetheless it exists. Scholars from other races, many of them under the umbrella of the Dominion, posit that this disdain for magic stems from the Tretallë's loathing of their High Elfin cousins.

To this end, much of Tretallë society is dedicated to finding ways to do things without having to resort to the arcane, not that many of the Tretallë are born with the spark to wield magic to begin with. Particularly powerful Tretallë magi are, counter-intuitively, taken to the Shrouded Peaks, and trained to use their abilities. At least what's left of them. They are trained, solely, in the art of delving for magic in individuals, and manipulating metals, Elledtrillë in particular.