Racial Deep Dive: Elementalists

This is my race deep dive on surturs. I need to expand it before I can make my YouTube video on them, which maybe I'll make in the next few days, since I changed surturs to actually be all four elements in one (sorta) race. The text below is meant to be a new, expanded and revised race deep dive that can be used as a de facto script for my YouTube video on them, to go along with my pre-existing videos on grislings and kemlings. 

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Before the collapse of the kemling empire of Baal Hamazi, they stretched considerably farther to the east than the region does now; their farthest eastward outpost was Chersky Island in the Darkling Sea, which still bears foreboding ruins of ancient kemling fortresses. But their presence east of the Rudmont Escarpment was never heavy nor did they really control that territory as much as they would have liked. When a new population of demihumans and their own associated human ethnicity approached from the North (the northlings, obviously) they came into conflict with the retreating and already weakened Baal Hamazi empire. Some of these wars were so apocalyptic that they are ultimately the source of the Boneyard; the bleached bones of soldiers who fought there linger still on the sands and among the sagebrush and juniper scrubland, but in reality, few if any people ever lived in the Boneyard, which was called the Indash Desert at the time. As the Indash Sea withdrew, becoming smaller and saltier and more xeric, boats, fleets, and even entire towns were left high and dry, now abandoned and ghostly echoes of Kurushat and Baal Hamazi's prior expansions into the region. Climate change is only part of what happened to Kurushat, however. As the Empire grew more powerful and more peaceful, its vigor slowly drained, and the concerns of faraway southern colonies surrounded by hostile nations, barbarians and harsh climate seemed much less important to the indolent jeds and jeddak of Kurushat. Ultimately, cities like Vuukrat and Simashki came under the control of Lower Kurushat for a time, and even now they have a syncretic relationship where populations of kemlings, drylanders, northlings and elementalists all live together—but their relationship to greater Kurushat is non-existant, and the jeds and jeddaks of the north barely even remember that they once (in theory) ruled here.

Lower Kurushat is a southern extension of lands to the north and west of the mapped out section of the Three Realms; the Empire of Kurushat. Originally founded on a volcanic island (reminiscent of real-life Iceland or Spitzbergen), it was settled by a couple of different northern peoples in small numbers who raised sheep and cattle on the green grass amid the dark volcanic rock, blasted by winds from the sea, and having little in the way of trees because of the subarctic climate, except in some sheltered valleys and gorges. Glaciers top the inactive volcanos and ice floes occasionally pass by near the harbors, but in this land of water and ice, there is also a strong element of fire because of the numerous active volcanos that are building the islands even now. It's not clear exactly how the first elementalists came out of this environment. Some legends say that they, or at least their more elemental ancestors, simply walked out of the volcanos themselves, which are gates to the fiery Otherworldly realm of Muspelheim, and that the original Surtur himself, the fire jotunn, is their ancestor. Others suggest that they were normal people cursed or transformed by the malign intent of one of the ancient Heresiarchs, perhaps Esmeraude, She Who Ushers In the Apocalypse, who is known to have an affinity and fascination with fire. Whichever is the truth, the elementalists arrived on the mainland, conquering and colonizing; settling and trading. While most legends are agreed that surturs were the original elementalists, it soon became clear that other elements besides fire resided in the bloodlines of the elementalists; water, air and earth, and the tritons, sylphs and dvergs were associated with the surturs as well. Nobody is born a surtur; or any other type of elementalist; they are born as humans of the northling race, but as they enter puberty, some of them undergo a transition into elementalists. Which element manifests also doesn't seem to be linked to bloodline, so any of the elementalist races can be born of any parents, even ones that are simply northling humans. Roughly 15-20% of the population of Kurushat is elementalist, which holds true for the Kurushans present in Lower Kurushat as well.

The northlings, which all elementalists experience as children at least, and most of them grow up in families of northlings, are a race with brown skin, brown hair, epicanthic folds on their eyes, which are usually gray or palest blue. But I'll cover human ethnicities another day and discuss them in more detail then.

The Kurushans weren't genocidal when they came to the mainland, so many of the people who were already there are integrated into their northern Empire, but given the harsher boreal climate, the population was always relatively light anyway. Most of the itinerant hunter-gatherers who lived there saw their standard of living increase tremendously upon the arrival of the elementalists, who had a fair bit of noblesse oblige for those who welcomed them—although tremendous belligerence to those who did not. 

Kurushat is largely a coastal empire, and the climate is similar to that of the Alaskan southern coast, or Scandinavia, but once you get inland, you have either tundra and mammoth steppe, or boreal forest (taiga) and wild mountains. Free northerners still live inland from Kurushat, and many have friendly trading relationships with the empire, although raiding, as is common in barbaric societies, is not unknown. Kurushat, at its peak a few generations ago, stretched down deep into the northern Three Realms, although the settlement of Kurushan citizens of any type, elementalist or human, was always relatively light. The territory around Dagan Bay and the Kindattu Mountain corridor was their foothold, and some cities that still stand, such as Sinjagat or Volek Szemenok on Palar Lake were founded by Kurushans. Both the Hamazin and Kurushans look at Glittering Simashki and claim to be responsible for it, and both races still make up notable pluralities in the population. 

Today, the sections of colonial Kurushat that still remain on the map are independent city-states, abandoned by the Empire like post-Roman Britain. Some of the elementalists and northling humans who came during the expansion period remain—or rather, their posterity does. Although never the majority in any of their cities, the Kurushan culture, mostly driven by the elementalists themselves who were the carriers of it, are important components in the cities named above, as well as the surrounding areas, but all of them have also become syncretized and hybridized by exposure to the peoples who were already here, or who have arrived since (such as the area near Bucknerfeld, where Hillman have come right to the edges of the salt flats that ring the Indash Salt Sea.

The Kurushans of Lower Kurushat, as they still sometimes call the region, are not an overly proud people, seeing the retreat of their empire and the abandonment of their settlements with a mixture of peevishness, but also opportunity to chart their own course in a new land without the oversight of tyrannical jeds and other hetmen. Most have abandoned any notion of attempting to recreate or maintain Kurushan culture, becoming rather fond of the more cosmopolitan syncretic cultures that they live in. 

From a meta perspective, it's easy to see the elementalists as a kind of northern race, with some similarities to the Vikings, some to more eastern northern peoples such as the Slavs, Finns, or other Siberian peoples, but also a prominent nod toward the red men of Barsoom, which informs many of their names and titles, as well as their fiery yet usually honorable personalities. At least their culture which demands such, even if individuals may not be as honorable as their culture expects of them. Their supernatural origin, and their ancient clashes with the kemlings make them different than any human culture, real or imagined, however, and those who remain south of the boreal forest barrier that separates Lower Kurushat from Kurushat proper are more likely to be traders, adventurers, mercenaries, occasionally bandits, and a somewhat arrogant overcaste; confident in their superiority, yet mostly imbued with a noblesse oblige to the peoples who live in their cosmopolitan communities. Many of them still act as if the Imperial weight of Kurushat gives them authority, but the reality is that all of the Lower Kurushat area is now essentially independent city-states who must rule themselves with very little if any contact with Kurushat to the north anymore, which is why the various other peoples who live there have risen in prominence socially as the Kurushat Imperial structure retreated to the north. In some, this disconnection with their homeland drives a sense of melancholy, as they believe that they will inevitably give way to entropy and the greater numbers of their neighbors, to eventually be diluted beyond recognition and emerge as some new society altogether with little of old Kurushat to show for their efforts.

In terms of terminology, Kurushans and elementalists are often used interchangeably, but technically a surtur, triton, dverg or sylph is a member of that specific fantasy race, regardless of cultural or political affiliation, whereas Kurushans are members of the culture of Kurushat, regardless of race. However, in practical terms, that distinction often doesn't mean too much. 

Surturs are notable for their bright (sometimes unnaturally so) reddish or blond hair, brick red skin that sometimes tends towards sooty in the darkest of them, and red, orange or golden eyes. As the mechanics of the race suggest, the fire strike ability represents their connection to Muspelheim and their ability to call on the fiery elemental heritage that makes them different than humans.

Tritons are also tall, but with a teal colored skin, and bluish or greenish eyes and hair. Many of them have relocated; although they are climate tolerant of the cold waters (and air) of their origin, the Corsair Coast farther to the south now has a large (relatively speaking) population of triton expats who really enjoy the more subtropical waters of the coast and even the humid jungles and swamps farther inland more than the drier areas of the north. In spite of the fact that they can live underwater as easily as above it, most of them do not, because it would limit them to interactions with only other tritons. Many are fairly social and gregarious.

Sylphs are also tall, with icy blue or even grayish skin and blue or white hair, with silver chrome or topaz blue bright eyes. They tend to be taller, even, than the other elementalist variants, and thinner; and their hair is often breezy and wild. They prefer the colder lands, and further in the south, they enjoy spending time in the mountains where the weather is often colder, although that's just a preference not a necessity, and they do fine in warmer and drier climates when they find themselves there. They often come across as the most aloof and insular in personality and outlook of the elementalists.

Finally, dvergs are a little less tall; a bit more robust and stockily built. They often have metallic colored skin; a kind of dull iron or steel or a reddish copper color being the most common, with eyes that sometimes glow like magma. They tend to be the most individualistic of the elementalist races by personality, as well as the least common. It's hard to tell how many there are, however, as they often seek solitude, or otherwise leave their communities to go see more of the world, finding that they prefer life on the road and being in control of their own destinies without societal expectations to hinder their whims.

All four of the elementalists tend to be mildly arrogant, bordering on self-important, but mostly good-natured; their arrogance doesn't tend to make them megalomaniacal or narcissistic; rather they have a strong cultural tendency to see a need to express noblesse oblige. But they do so because there's usually a small hint of condescension towards other races. Of course this is a cultural and maybe even genetic behavioral tendency, not an absolute, and if you're playing an elementalist, you don't have to characterize them as such. And there are certainly plenty of violent bandits, pirates or otherwise non-good-natured arrogant elementalists out there.

A few additional details of Kurushan society. Young warriors often organize themselves into companies or bands; many of them hire themselves out as mercenaries across the Three Realms, which also gives them an opportunity to see more of the area. Reasonably well-trained and capable swordmaidens often serve as a kind of figurehead or inspiration for these bands. In some cases, these are little more than camp whores for the entire company, but in other cases, they are seen as extremely noble and a kind of foreign chivalric tradition of courtly loyalty and love has sprung up around them from the men in their companies. Be careful making assumptions about them; if you assume the former and the position is more like the latter, the entire band will take your assumption as a mortal offense, and you can find yourself facing one duel challenge after another until you're dead.

A pseudo-religious cultural tradition among them are the Larch Grove dancers, talented women and girls who perform this ritual for young men setting out on adventure. Exploration of the wilderness is a passion of many elementalists, and with the mammoth steppe and boreal forest around them, as well as many craggy and dramatic mountain ranges, there are great opportunities for exploratory teams to find excitement. Their adventures are recounted to enthralled audiences when they return home, usually for the winter season. A kind of extreme adventurer tourism has sprung up among the wealthier Kurushans who don't need to work, to strike out and explore the remnants of distant Hyperborea to the east beyond the Wolfwood in the brief spring, summer and fall for that area. Although this is dangerous and many fail in this attempt, those who make it to Hyperborea and return with the tales of their journey almost become celebrities in Kurushat. Some of this still remains in Volek Szemenok, although it happens very infrequently there; one successful expedition a generation being about as good as it gets. That said, the Larch Grove dancers have loosened up the requirements of what counts, and now actively look for opportunities to encourage young men to go on some kind of adventure—any kind of adventure—and to kick it off in style, involving his whole community.

As the culture and organization of old Kurushat becomes more and more irrelevant over time in Lower Kurushat, where there are large numbers of non-Kurushan people surrounding them, the noble titles of old Kurushat are largely irrelevant today. That said, the scions of the old jed's houses still maintain a status not at all unlike nobility in their demesnes, and may insist on using the titles, even if the rest of the cultural expectations that once surrounded the titles no longer matter.

The Burnt Seers are a kind of weird roving cult of soothsayers and hedge magicians that are part of Kurushan society, notable for their spiraling black tattoos and often socially and politically disruptive actions. When one, or a small company of them, roll into town, the local authorities are reluctant for superstitious reasons to outright run them out, but they keep a very close eye on them and curtail their ability to make trouble as best as they can. As the label suggests, most of them are surturs, but any Kurushan, even non-elementalists, might belong to the organization.