Appearance and Origin
Appearance:
All Ice Maidens have a mane of silken strands of the colour of ice, with eyes of a piercing blue. Such looks are linked to their origins (see below). Otherwise, they are identical to elvan maidens in build and the grace they exhibit.
Origin:
Ice Maidens are immortal creatures that came into being when Snow Sprites are infused into the body of fresh dead eleven maidens. The Snow Sprites are spiritual creatures and have low magical power- having only minor spells in relation to the element of snow. As a race, they have practically no influence on the development of their world and most Snow Sprites are inquisitive beings content simply to wander the world and observe the other races at their daily lives. A handful, however, eventually became discontent with such a way of life, seeing it as one of futility. These banded together to search out a material form to switch into, with a way of life that is more meaningful. After much search and some unsuccessful experimentation, these creatures finally decided on the form of eleven maidens. (to expand on why they choose the eleven form, why they are drawn to it over others)
Unknowenst to them,
History:
The history of the Ice Maidens is roughly separated into four ages, as they themselves tell of it: The Age of Discovery, The Age of Enlightenment, The Age of Isolation and The Age of Trade. It is in fact not until the Age of Trade that the Ice Maidens became the name that outside races use in reference to this unique race of beings, the name being translated from the Shou* term Bing Jie. It is not known what they call themselves as a race in the eras before nor can we trace what the elves refer to them by in the Age of Enlightenment. Consequently, the term Ice Maiden will be applied to this special race all throughout.
*Shou is the official language of the Dragon Empire
The Age of Discovery
The changed Snow Sprites settled on the Svetla Glaciers.
This is the period during these new beings are experimenting with and adapting to having a physical body. While theyve observed different races often enough, its an entirely different issue when it comes to actually working with a physical body. Some decided to take a peek at the elves.
The Age of Enlightenment
The Ice Maidens not only look identical to the originals except for the colouring of hair and eyes, they also act in identical ways (in posturing and little actions of habit eg. if the original plays with her hair when nervous, the copy also does so now etc.) After the families found out about their existence, they are invited to live the families, who still see them as their loved ones. In fact, for a while they lived amongst the elves. However, the differences between them and the originals soon became apparent. They are incapable of reproduction, being immortal. Moreover, their mindsets are very alien- they have no concepts of love as well as that of life and death. The husbands who expected the return of a Bonded partner soon become disenchanted with the fact that their wives are now very distant. Over time, the elves become increasingly disturbed by the presence of the Ice Maidens as they cannot share the communal joy at the birth of a new life nor mourn to the passing of a life. The families, in particular, become torn between the desire to keep the Ice Maidens, which are such acute replicas of their loved ones, with them and the pain of interacting with these alien beings on a daily basis.
Most departed from the elves in sorrow but a few, with the support of their adopted families, did learn to love over time and gradually become more akin to the original in mindset. With such changes, these maidens now are able to bear children. They stayed with the elves and interbred with them, creating offsprings that have the same distinguished traits as themselves. These maidens and their children become known as The ones of Snow while the departed ones become known as the Ice Maidens.
The Age of Isolation
The Ice Maidens went back to the Svetla Glaciers. They are a peaceful race living in seclusion from the common races but remained in contact with fellow Snow Sprites and in this way accumulated a large amount of knowledge on various things across the world.
The Age of Trade
This period coincides with the Lu Dynasty as reckoned in the Dragon Empire. This is an age where the Ice Maidens first come into sustained contact with the human race at large.
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? Responses (9)
Short but interesting. Who would put a snow sprite into a freshly dead elven maiden though?
What I had in mind is that these Snow Sprites, being spiritual beings, will use the dead bodies as hosts (much like possession of bodies by typical ghosts). But I thought the word possess has the connotation that these bodies are forcefully taken over so I somehow used the word infuse which I see now gave you the impression that someone helps to put the snow sprites into the dead bodies. Maybe I should change the sentence? But I don't know how to phrase it better? Alternatively, I could update the history and say that a mage, taking pities on the Snow Sprites, helped them with the transformation. Other ppl's thoughts on this?
Ah, now I know, they possess them after they died. How do the familes of the dead elven maidens feel about this, or do they not know?
You could say that Elves, being so special and all, rarely die of certain deaths. But when it happens, it is such an unnatural event, that it disturbs the forces of nature and some curious spirit may take action at that moment... and prevent waste of a perfectly functional body.
The Ice Maidens could arise, when Elven maidens die of freezing, or of any unnatural death in winter. (There could be also different types of past-Elven beings.)
Re: Cheka Man's comment:
To be honest, I haven't thought about this part as the Ice Maidens came to me due to my other post Icesilk, for which I was going to write up a long entry on how the Ice Maidens are discovered and how trade opens up on this commodity etc. And then it occurs to me that I need to explain the Ice Maidens so I put up this current post to not clutter up the other post. My initial thoughts are that I will not be fleshing this idea out, hence the link to the Minor Race Codex which I understand to be for such ideas.
Anyway, to answer your question, I think one of the half-formed snippets I have in my mind on the Ice Maidens is that they have basically procured any bodies of elvan females (buried else the families would surely know) that they chance upon and walked off with them. So I would say currently, the familes do not know. Your question, though, gave me another half-formed snippet on the Ice Maidens- that later the families will find out but I don't know their reactions yet.
Re: Manfred:
What you wrote is certainly an interesting idea that goes well with the Ice Maidens. Thanks for suggesting it. However, as I've mentioned before, I don't know whether I will be expanding on this entry. Currently, I've already got quite a few posts in the In Work section (both hidden and public) and sometimes when I try to progress on one, it turns out that I'm not in the mood for it and I will write something else. Eg. I was really trying to expand on my Icesilk post when I started thinking abt the Ice Maidens and out this post pops. So we wil wait and see whether one day my mind tells me to come back to this.
Some families might invite the Ice Maidens home, either thinking that they really are their daughters, or just wanting to have their daughter's living bodies with them.
A good thought, I will incorporate it into my entry if I come back to this one day. A minor point that I would like to clear up, though, is that the families might not recognise their daughters first becasue the Ice Maidens' looks (white hair and blue eyes) are a result of the body being inhibited by the Snow Sprites. The originals have hair and eyes of other colours. But facial features and body build will be identical to the originals so that when the families actually look upon the Ice Maidens, they won't see their daughters exactly but rather a modified version. So the latter part of your statement will apply, I guess.
All right, since you and Manfred have made the effort to help me flesh out this idea, I think I will move it to the In Work section and come back to it so your efforts won't go to waste.
Updated: Moved to In work section and will be expanded so that Cheka Man and Manfred's efforts don't go to waste. Thanks guys!
Updated: Again, thanks to a chat session with Cheka Man, had another part of the Ice Maidens figured out. Also have the full history of them worked out now, pending final write up.
New Update: Changed into Scroll format for easier reading and also to facilitate more easy editing and addition later
