This is a season of thanking people for the gifts they give you , and I can think of few gifts greater than the patronage of all those dear souls who use my Patreon to help me get a writing career started. I'd especially like to thank Dave, Diana, Ferny, and Keeper. In the spirit of the season, I am asking Santa to give me more patrons for Christmas; will you help him fulfill my Yule wish?
Two million years ago, angels visited Mars, negotiating with the red-dirt elementals of that planet for some of their number willing to be changed and transmuted. Bringing these sacrifices across the airless void to Earth, as ordered by the Causa Causans, they used heavenly magics to graft these elementals into three Australopithecus africanus. This, and other modifications they made to these pre-humans, changed them, creating the first examples of the Homo genus. This was the creation of humanity, in the persons who would come to be called אָדָם, חַוָּה, and לִילִית.
This happened shortly after the Τιτανομαχία, and Ζεύς was just then settling himself upon his father's throne in high Ὄλυμπος, assigning to the θεοί their several privileged dominions and apportioning to them their proper tasks. He eyed יהוה, though, jealous of his power, and so of this new genus of wretched mortals he took no notice, desiring to bring the whole race to an end and create a new one in its place under his control. There was a Τιτάν among his court, one who had fought on his side in the Τιτανομαχία, who went by the name of Προμηθεύς or Foresight who desired that humanity not descend, blasted utterly, to the house of newly crowned ᾍδης.
Προμηθεύς snuck through the halls of Ὄλυμπος, stealing wisdom from the desk of Ἀθηνᾶ and fire from Ἥφαιστος's forge and the best share of the sacrificial meat from Ζεύς himself. Hiding the fire within a hollow fennel-stalk so that Ζεύς who delights in thunder could not see it, Προμηθεύς brought these gifts to אֶרֶץ־נוֹד whence the first humans had been banished after קין murdered his brother הֶבֶל and gave them to these desperate people. Pausing there with them for a little while, Προμηθεύς taught them many ways by which they might read the future and discern which among dreams are destined to come true, and signs from chance meetings as well. The flight of crook-taloned birds he distinguished clearly for these first humans: which by nature are auspicious, which sinister, and their various modes of life, their mutual feuds and loves, and their consortings. He initiated them into the occult art of interpreting the smoothness of birdly entrails and also the speckled symmetry of the liver-lobe; he instructed them as to what color the gall must have to please the θεοί, and how to wrap the thigh-bones in fat, and how to burn the long chine. Also he cleared their vision to discern signs from the flames he had now gifted to them. And then, seeing the morbid addiction the mortals cultivated to foreseeing their own doom, he caused blind hopes to dwell within their breasts.
There were traitors among the early humans, however, who used the very skills they learned from Προμηθεύς to report his theft to Ζεύς, who in a rage rewarded them with a drug to ward off old age. So they ingested it, and placed the remainder upon an ass. The ass proceeded with the load on its back; and it was summer time, and the ass came thirsting to a spring in its need for a drink. Now the snake which was guarding the spring tried to prevent it and force it back, and the ass in torment gave it as the price of the loving-cup the drug it happened to be carrying. And so there was an exchange of gifts: the ass got his drink and the snake sloughed his old age, receiving in addition, so the story goes, the ass's thirst. Father Time has been known to opine when in his cups that Προμηθεύς himself is the cause of man's misery, for instead of fire which is the beginning of all evil he ought rather to have stolen sweet νέκταρ, which rejoices the heart of the θεοί, and given that to humans.
It was the traitorous early humans who were the ancestors of the elfs, known as Homo nobilis, with all of its many subspecies. Homo nobilis migrated north, settling ultimately in the lands now called Germany, Scandinavia, the British Isles, and Iceland. In the process, they interbred with fairies they met along the way, and dealt with angels and demons alike. Their greatest allies, however, were the ᛅᛋᛁᛦ and ᚠᛅᚾᛁᚱ, who lived as well in the regions the elfs came to inhabit and who also warred with the giants of that land. The elfs formed their hidden communities in the woods and valleys of those regions. The ᚠᛅᚾᛦ-turned-ᚬᛋᛋ named ᚠᚱᛅᚢᛦ proved himself their especial patron.
When Anhedonia's agent in the solar system (the Sun's Charcoalled Eye) sent its servant the Lord of Gifts out among the planets twenty millennia ago (about the same time that Afro-Asiatic was first spoken as a single language), the Lord of Gifts came first to Earth , and to the elfs. It convinced the greatest craftsman among them, one Celebrinðull by name, to travel with it to Mars, where he worked with a marmar by the name of Ngarvimar to create a series of powerfully enchanted crowns. Five such crowns went to several Earthly civilizations and seven to those of Mars, while the inhabitants of the asteroid belt gained nine, the Jovian moons eleven, and the strange gaseous beings of Saturn a witchly thirteen crowns. A Venusian spy stole the procedure and forged three crowns for that shrouded world to hold, before the Lord of Gifts absconded to Mercury, cannibalizing an entire city of its robotic citizens to build a single technomagical crown that could control the others.
As various elfin nations came to accept the virtuous ways of chivalry in the centuries after King Arthur ap Uther ap Constantin ap Maximianus, they began to form themselves under the reign of various female monarchs. Two of Earth's crowns had been lost by that time ~ the Crown of Brambles and the Fish-Heart Crown ~ and two had passed into the hands of the humans (the Ouroboros Crown and the Feathered Crown), leaving only a single crown left to the elfs. Whosoever wears this Lichen Crown is recognized by all their many civilizations as the Fairy Queen who would rule over all the elfin lands. Since 1597, the Lichen Crown has been worn by Fairy Queen Mab, ncknamed "the fairies' midwife". She has yet to take an Erlking, the traditional consort of a Fairy Queen, but rumors fly that she might finally be turning her mind to conjugal matters.
A millennium after Arthur, a custom arose among the elfs of replacing the babies of Homo sapiens with their own infants in an attempt to exert influence upon their more numerous distant cousins or just to give their children a better life.
There are many types of elf, with wildly varying abilities, but scholars have noted certain commonalities (none of them universal). A few can magically mat and tangle hair into what are called elf-locks; others display prophetic powers. Most subspecies have demonstrated a great inborn ease with the workings of magic (particularly sīden, sīdsa, ᛋᛅᛁᚦᛦ, and alchemy); quite a few tend to also possess a seductive beauty, and many of those have a threatening sexual appetite to match their soothing appearance, often trying to lure or abduct humans to join their settlements. Some scholars more invested in social justice are of the opinion that this aggression and the habit of abducting more mainstream types of human likely developed as a strategy to meet the needs of a marginalized people. Others point out the long elfin association with the consent-challenged demons known as incubi and succubi or to the similarly rapacious maere. Quite a few elfin populations have demonstrated the ability to turn themselves invisible, and the power to cause or manipulate nightmares is not unknown among them.
Lacking a culture of herding livestock, many elfin communities developed a strong desire for dairy products, and especially butter. Soon the human world came to understand that their acquisitory nature could be appeased and abjured by offering treats of butter in the stones the elfs used to mill their grains. The humans also developed the spell known as ellakors (elf-cross), consisting in its temporary usage of painting a pentagram onto surfaces or carving an ordinary cross onto an oblong or circular plate forged over three evenings from nine sources of inherited silver and then placed on a church altar for three consecutive Sundays. This innovation also led humans to develop rune-charms by which elfs could be summoned and controlled.
One of the most troubling abilities frequently shown by the various subspecies of elf is the ability of many to cause illness, particularly sharp internal pains, mental disorders, and epilepsy; a few have been able to grant others the ability to cure both these diseases and other afflictions as well. The most common, though also most harmless, are various irritating skin rashes, collectively called älvablåst (elven puff), which can be cured by a forceful counter-blow (such as by a pair of bellows). Even those subspecies for whom these pathogenic abilities are not inherent have developed methods to recreate it. This has proven to be a particular problem for the nisser, as other elfs began to hunt them for their teeth in the late tenth century; these teeth (and their venom-glands) proved useful in making arrowheads for elf-shot, magical arrows that cause illness and madness in people struck by them.
A favorite defense among many elfin settlements is to use dancing magics to enchant meadows such that anyone who urinates in the meadow will contract a venereal disease. Such meadows can often be found by looking for rings of mushrooms that grow within them.
Throughout their history, elfs have preferred to show off their pointed ears by covering their heads with stocking caps of green or red. Their noses extend about two or three times as far from their face as any (proportionally sized) human's would, and they have shrunk in stature since diverging from the mainstream line of human evolution, standing anywhere from 25% to 75% as tall as Homo sapiens, depending on subspecies.
Denmark once was ruled, quite briefly, by a half-elfin queen skilled in ᛋᛅᛁᚦᛦ, by the name of ᛋᚴᚢᛚᛏ. Many years later, an elf devilled Martin Luther's mother. As can be deciphered by his name, the famous dwarf superhero Alberich, was half-elfin. There are many elfs, of many different types, in the super-city of Rosalind. They even have a neighborhood to themselves, in which they are the predominant population, known as Neo-ᛅᛚᚠᚼᛅᛁᛘᛦ.
In recent years, a group of Icelandic elfs ~ branded terrorists and supervillains by the government and many companies ~ have banded together to disrupt house- and road-building efforts, sanctioning against development and urbanization and protecting to the point of enforcing pastoral values and traditional rural culture. They are quite opposed to most technology developed after the 18th century (or earlier).
Elfin subspecies
ᛚᚢᚬᛋᛅᛚᚠᛅᚱ (Homo nobilis lucina): Elfs who interbred with angels
ᛏᚬᚴᚴᛅᛚᚠᛅᚱ (Homo nobilis tartari) : Elfs who interbred with demons
᚛ᚐᚔᚂᚔᚂᚂ᚜ (Homo nobilis fata): Elfs who interbred with fairies
ælfscȳne (Homo nobilis immanens): Elfs who interbred with νύμφαι
alpe (Homo nobilis silvanus): Elfs who interbred with fauni
hobgoblins (Homo nobilis malanima): Prank-playing elfs of Britain
brownies (Homo nobilis lar): Ancestor-worshipping Scottish elfs in touch with their Roman origins
hobs (Homo nobilis caeca): Eyeless elfs who burn in the light and enjoy helping farmers and storeclerks
älvor (Homo nobilis gracilis): Stunningly beautiful Amazonian elfs who live in Swedish forests, ruled by a king
ellyllon (Homo nobilis eponae): Horse-riding elfs of Wales
donas de fuera (Homo nobilis cardeae) : Sicilian elfs who seek apotheosis
ᚢᚢᛚᛅᛘᚬᚾᛏᛅᚾ
Homo nobilis nativitatis
Statted out at the end of this post is the ᚢᚢᛚᛅᛘᚬᚾᛏᛅᚾ, a variation of the ᚾᛁᛋᛋᛅᛦ. ᚾᛁᛋᛋᛅᛦ are short, four-fingered, pointy-eared, and white-haired. often growing out a beard. They enjoy wearing a conical or knit cap in gray, red or some other bright colour. Their eyes reflect light in the dark, like those of a cat.
ᚾᛁᛋᛋᛅᛦ often live in the houses and barns of human farmsteads, secretly acting as their guardian, protecting the family and animals, and aiding the chores and farm work. However, they are known to be short tempered, especially when offended. Once insulted, ᚾᛁᛋᛋᛅᛦ will usually play tricks, steal items and even maim or kill animals (very rarely will they harm humans or humanlike beings).Observance of traditions is very important to the ᚾᛁᛋᛋᛅᛦ as they do not like changes in the way things are done; scientists believe this is closer to a processing difference (akin to the experience of many Autistic humans) than to any conservatism in their culture. They are also easily offended by rudeness; swearing, urinating in inappropriate areas, or not treating animals well have all been known to drive ᚾᛁᛋᛋᛅᛦ to violence. One piece of evidence in favor the neurological explanation for this behavior is that shouting a warning to the ᚾᛁᛋᛋᛅ below when someone spills something on the floor in the house tends to prevent any anger on the part of the elf.
Porridge is a favorite food of ᚾᛁᛋᛋᛅᛦ, always with a pat of butter on the top. An often retold story tells of a farmer who put the butter underneath the porridge before gifting it to the ᚾᛁᛋᛋᛅ who lived on his farm. When the ᚾᛁᛋᛋᛅ found that the butter was missing, he was filled with rage and killed the cow resting in the barn. He thus became hungry and went back to eat his porridge, finding the butter at the bottom of the bowl. Full of grief, he then hurried to search the lands to find another farmer with an identical cow, and replaced the former with the latter.
The magical traditions of the ᚾᛁᛋᛋᛅᛦ tend towards necromancy, often communicating and forming close bonds with the ghost of the first inhabitant of a farm, the one who cleared the field. They often live in burial mounds on the farm
ᚢᚢᛚᛅᛘᚬᚾᛏᛅᚾ are, at their base, ᚾᛁᛋᛋᛅᛦ who have been changed by their proximity and service to Santa Claus over the last century and a half or so. As Santa began to set up his operation, he found a population of ᚾᛁᛋᛋᛅᛦ in Denmark whose homes and the farmsteads which hosted them were being destroyed in order to make space for the rail transport that was spreading across the country like iron cracks. Santa reached out to these disaffected and angry elfs, offering them a new home in the North Pole. Most he talked to reluctantly took him up on the offer.
Very invested in gift-giving, ᚢᚢᛚᛅᛘᚬᚾᛏᛅᚾ spend their time and magic creating ever more toys, cakes, sugarplums, and candycanes for Santa to give to the children of the world. They also operate police and air forces in the North Pole, help Santa outside the Pole when he is captured by the real-world police, serve as Santa's secret-service-like bodyguards, tend the flying reindeer, and one elite group of elves known as Prep & Landing makes houses ready for Santa's deliveries. They tend to emphasize the point in their hats.
Rumors have begun to fly as fast as Santa's sleigh that the ᚢᚢᛚᛅᛘᚬᚾᛏᛅᚾ have begun the process of unionization and might be planning a strike, as Santa has spent the years since 1996 taking out his anger at his wife's divorcing him on his employees.
PC PL 5 / NPC PL 7 / MR 5 / SR 14
AGI 1 DEX 3 FGT -2
Powers
Elf: Innate Immunity 1 (aging); Movement 1 (trackless); Shrinking 5, permanent, innate • 10 points
Eyes in the Dark: Noticeable Senses 2 (darkvision) • 1 points
Giftmaker: Comprehend 2 (objects); permanent Create 2, innate, precise, subtle; Quickness 2 • 13 points
Goatfriend, Companion of Pigs, and Reindeer Groom: Comprehend 2 (animals), limited to cloven-hooved animals; Enhanced Animal Empathy, limited to cloven-hooved animals; Enhanced Presence 2, limited to cloven-hooved animals • 14 points
Holiday Cheer: Independent auditory/olfactory/visual Illusion 1 • 4 points
Nisse's Bite: Array • 9 points
- Physiovenom: Grab-based progressive incurable Weaken Strength 3, variable descriptor (affects Stamina after Strength becomes debilitated) • 8 points
- Cognovenom: Grab-based progressive incurable Affliction 7 (resisted and overcome by Fortitude; entranced, compelled, controlled), limited to causing erratic or insane behavior • 1 point
Secret Helper: Visual Concealment 2 • 4 points
Advantages
Artificer, Favored Environment (arctic), Great Endurance, Improvised Tools, Inventor, Teamwork
Skills
Expertise: Magic 2, Expertise: Toymaking 3, Sleight of Hand 1, Technology 2
Abilities 4 + Powers 56 + Advantages 6 + Skills 4 = 70 points
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