Asthedrir
Youth passes quickly for this race of elves, though middle age lingers for millennia. They have no love for the forests or other natural places, preferring their carefully crafted and tended walled cities.
Youth passes quickly for this race of elves, though middle age lingers for millennia. They have no love for the forests or other natural places, preferring their carefully crafted and tended walled cities.
Asthedrir are tall and thin, and seem to become more so with age, eventually taking on a gaunt and nearly corpse-like appearance. They have milk-white skin and both sexes have little hair. Even this tends to disappear once they hit middle age.
Asthedrir have six fingered hands,with effectively two index fingers, along with six toes on each foot.
They are a cold race, dispassionate and unempathetic. They are not malicious, but will not hesitate to crush those in their way. They are xenophobic and non-Asthedrir are not allowed within their strongholds unless heavily escorted.
Their passions are secrets and discovery, and they have a weakness for stimulants. They react poorly to alcohol.
Military
Asthedrir do not field large armies, and instead rely on powerful strongholds. For actions beyond spell and ballista range of their enclaves, they typically employ non-elvish mercenaries.
Asthedrir are not physically imposing, and warriors tend wear light plate armor made from their fine Elanti steel. Golems play a big part in their military and their strongholds will always have a good number.
Technology
The Asthedrir are excellent inventors, have good knowledge of machinery and metallurgy. This is tempered with caution, so they have yet to develop firearms, steam or internal combustion engines. Electricity would be more their style, if they were to develop it. They make use of many spring, wind and water powered devices and are especially good with locks and siege weapons.
Religion
Asthedrir are strongly secular in nature, having never forgiven their deities for allowing the destruction of their home realm. While they acknowledge the power and existence of the divine, they do not worship them. They trust in their knowledge of science and magic with the line between them blurred.
Style
Practicality is favored over style for these people but where possible, aesthetics are an excellent avenue to highlight skill and craftsmanship. Lacking the ties to nature of other elven peoples, their art and embellishment tends towards geometric or anatomical motifs.
Government
The Asthedir have direct democracies for governments, though typically only the eldest member of a particular family gets the vote, so they are technically a Gerontocracy.
Calendar
Asthedrir do not use years like humans, they use a 12-year long cycle called an 'Asja'. They will give the age of things using asja, which could possibly lead to confusion. Similarly, a Asthedririn millennia is 12000 years.
Noteworthy Individuals:
Kelvecha Etrederin
Kelvecha is the administrator of the Asthedrir quarter in Stoneholt. He is also one of the cruelest of his race, a race whose empathy is not well regarded. He deals with criminals with the simple expedient of banishing them to the Sewers. If one's crimes are severe enough to get his attention, this sentence is certain.
He is also a hopeless addict to Snowfungii, a powerful hallucinogenic also found in the Sewers. This substance is one of the few things he can be bribed with.
He has an Awakened and magically dominated gorrilla as a bodyguard and man-servant.
Hetren Ferterin
Asthedriri bounty hunter. One of the few of his people with wanderlust. He is somewhat tall for his races, fitting in as slight human. He has many useful contacts, but considers all other beings as little more than resources or obstacles. He may act ‘moral' simply to avoid negative consequences, and carefully weighs any situation. He eschews addictions as those would impact his well-groomed competence.
He is a very good shot with the crossbow and has an Asthedrir-built one that can fire 3 times before requiring significant time to reload.
Geleth Golldin
Geleth is a rarity among the Asthedrir - he is outgoing and friendly. He is somewhat vain and tends to wear in-style hats or even wigs to cover his bald head. A travelling merchant, he has been everywhere and has served to give a mistaken impression of his race for centuries - at least on those areas where the Asthedrir are virtually unknown.
He travels with an assortment of odd characters - he hires bodyguards from pretty much anywhere to accompany him on his travels. So long as he can communicate with them, and not cause communities to refuse him entry, virtual any being can be hired.
Most of this is a ruse, he is a spy gathering general information about the world for his people. His use of odd bodyguards is an attempt to distract attention from himself. He is quite skilled in magic, though he is loath to reveal it.
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? Responses (10)

Cult of done, since I could easily keep bashing at this for quite some. Blowing the dust off my World of Neyathis stuff.
These guys could easily be villains, bystanders or quest givers.

They remind me of Melniboneans naturally. I'd like to know more about this Snowfungi in the sewers.

I like these guys, like Muro said, Melnibonean vibe is good

Interesting elves.

Maybe cos I watched out for it based on Muro's mention, I caught a Melnibonean vibe too. The noteworthy individuals section stood out for me and I like it for showcasing the differences between individuals.

Actually, I'd argument that the Asthedrir are quite dissimilar from the Melniboneans - they are pragmatic, secular, and do not give in to hedonism easily (except for some noteworthy exceptions).
What I catch is a Clint Eastwood vibe - 'Get off my lawn, goddamn humans.'
They are realists. In all but the most naive of fantasy settings, reality has some severe flaws. They are too smart to delude themselves - they take flaws at face value. Which explains their grumpy attitude. I don;t think them angry - rather, they are cold, critical, scathing and abrasive (except towards the rare few who actually deserve respect).
Stimulants, research and work are ways to feel alive, and drive away existentialism.
The above would also explain their cold and uncaring attitude. Let's face it, in the grand scope, a vast majority of humans are replaceable and interchangeable, and the individual matters to those few close to him. So why should the Elves care?
They do not have religion - I can imagine an Asthendir soul being a conscientious objector to the afterlife, refusing to pass the pearly gates (or to whatever form of afterlife).
One trait I would give them is immense willpower, and a lack of need for pink glasses. They can take reality without becoming depressed.
^ The above is head canon now.

Perfect! Says it much better than I can :)

This has an old school feel to it, made me think of cheaply bound books, loose leave paper, pencil shaving and lightless basements alight with the rattling of dice. I appreciate the straight forward tone you kept consitent through out and in a campaign or story these unfriendly folk with strong vices and a penchant for hiring mercs are perfect encounter and plot device fodder.

These folks were once half-assed committed to loose leaf in the late 80's. I'm glad you picked up on that :)