Vaarentee

The vaarentee (pronounced vair-en-tee, plural vaarentee) are one of two mother races established since prehistory in steady decline since the elgfreyn reign. Though well known for their ability to adapt to new environments and situations, the vaarentee are relatively slow to reproduce and are uncommon on the Amarantine Coast.

A species married to tradition, they embody everything the doresh are not, including a propensity toward cowardice and self-preservation. Typically living in large, nomadic clans or family groups composed of not only blood relatives, but their mates, slaves and indentured servants with a matriarchal ruling system, the vaarentee are quite quarrelsome among themselves and seem to get along better with outsiders. Clans are generally specialized in one manner of business or another and survive on their trade. This, paired with their disagreeable nature when interacting with members outside of (or even within) their clan, renders the vaarentee race hard-pressed to make any significant leaps or bounds in technology or knowledge though they value both immensely.

Despite their traditional nature, the youngest generations of vaarentee have begun to at least partially reject their lot in life with the prospect of finding one's fortune on the Coast. Driven by a desire to succeed, many individuals and smaller families have gone across the sea, most often assimilating into the kingdom of man in an attempt to gain a foothold.

Anatomy
Standing tallest among all sentient species, the vaarentee may grow anywhere from six to eight feet in height with naturally lanky builds. Skin coloration may range anywhere from pale olive to black with darker skin tones signifying good breeding, fertility, and general sexuality, while hair colors tend toward shades of black with reddish or blueish undertones, though reports of gold and white have been recorded. Eyes tend to be large and expressive with cat-like pupils, running a gambit of colors, giving them great night vision. Similar to their descendents, the elgfreyn, the vaarentee share the pointed ears and fangs, though their lower canines grow indefinitely as tusks, requiring filing or wearing down to avoid posing a potential health risk - an individual with their tusks removed is a sign of dishonor or otherwise fall from grace with these individuals typically being shunned by the rest of the species.

Unlike the elgfreyn, there is much variation in the facial structure of the vaarentee with some families tending toward cat-like, while others have sharp, pointed features. The vaarentee build is very angular, with long, sharp ears and typically boyish builds in both males and females. Physically, the vaarentee are predisposed toward being superior fighters, possessing heightened levels of strength, though their agility and size makes close-range combat often ungainly and impractical, making weapons with a reach (spears, halberds, bows, etc.) a favorite among those few that do pursue battle.

Diet
Omnivorous, the vaarentee survive off of a varied diet of both plant and meat matter, though prefer a high protien diet. Intolerant to grains, flour made of nuts, seeds, or starchy vegetables are common. Vaarentee make special use of spices, though prefer savory or salty food.

Lifecycle
Potentially capable of immortality, the vaarentee breed slowly. Gestation takes forty weeks, producing a single child with no potential for multiples. Due to the naturally narrow structure of the hips, child-birth is difficult and dangerous, though considerably more simple than that of the elgfreyn thanks to lower birth weights and narrower child skull structures.

Similar to elgfreyn, becoming sexually mature ends the physical maturation process sometime shortly before the first century of life with the mind catching up roughly half a century later. Disease and illness have been known to render effects similar to aging on the body of those afflicted.

Unlike the elgfreyn, the vaarentee lack the forgetting mechanism and instead filter through memories naturally by importance, though typically the memories focus around one particular subject or another, though savants are not unknown.

Iskra
With an average level of iskra resistance, the vaarentee are neither particularly cursed nor gifted. Those that use iskra or technology are well respected and welcomed, even lusted after. Most vaarentee living on the coast have come to populate Lystad or Little Masuraq for this reason.

Politics and Law
Both a highly matriarchal and traditional society, the vaarentee are ironically obsessed with the preservation of values, though are known for their lack of a structured law-system. Without any true penalties, everything and anything is a means to an end, with murder potentially even being celebrated.

Marriage
With the strength and worth of a family being decided by size, and bloodlines being traced through maternal relatives, marriage is a highly anxious time for any male. Traditionally, the male becomes the responsibility of the bride's family, meaning that any husband that is considered weak or otherwise non-contributing becomes disposable in the eyes of the family. Death may come swiftly for those whose families lack the resources the bride's family might find attractive, or may be put off until the birth of a child as to garner gifts in the child's name. Thought he bride has very little say in this, she may or may not defend her mate if she becomes aware or suspects that he might be in peril. Successful unions that do not require family support are rare, however may potentially become an independent clan of their own, perpetuating the same underhanded methods as their parents before them.

Panmagdar
Though the vaarentee lack any unified government, they do have a position of relative nobility known as the Panmagdar, a position held by the Elder Clan of Stone now for 1,048 years. Not so much a governing force as it is an influential one, the Panmagdar is iconic as one massive caravan of sorts the grows in the wake of the massive, iskra-driven, walking castle. Made of the many clans and families attempting to gain the favor of the Panmagdar, this caravan stretches for miles, though is unique to the Old Coast, being without equivalent on the Amarantine Coast.

Religion and Spirituality
The vaarentee do not subscribe to the worship any true god, but rather a very, very loose ancestor worship, honoring and preserving the memory of the dead through spoken word, calling upon these spirits periodically to lend their blessing or favor to an individual’s plight.

Within vaarentee culture, a person is described by their qualities or traits which are handled by a set of six muses, drawn and exaggerated from parts of the body and the sun itself. Despite being depicted most often as horrific or unsettling, the muses are viewed fondly and can be found on most day-to-day objects or worked into the pattern of one’s clothing. Though typically seen as standalone entities, the five lesser muses (skin, eyes, mouth, limbs, blood) may be joined into a single body, known as the Lovers. According to the mythology, the Lovers (a singular body despite having a plural name) are joined or acted upon by the sun-muse, though the relationship is vaguely defined and varies given each interpretation.


 * Sun - The muse of passion, heat, sexuality, distance and greed. Depicted as a genderless white figure lacking facial features and holding a bowl. Represented by an open circle.
 * Skin  - The muse of strength, weakness, protection, vastness, emotion and flexibility. Depicted as a genderless black figure lacking facial features. Represented by a filled circle.
 * Eyes - The muse of foresight, intelligence, pursuit, gullibility, understanding, confusion, misrepresentation and beauty. Depicted as a black female figure covered in a multitude of pupiless eyes and a single eye in place of her mouth. Outline may or may not be exact, with some variations including black limbs, horns, tails, or even faces within Eye’s dark aura. Represented by two concentric circles, the outermost filled in.
 * Mouth ­- The muse of anger, speed, cunning, leadership, lies, cruelty and vanity. Depicted as a male figure with black skin opened with numerous mouths, decorated with teeth and tongues while lacking any other identifying features. Represented by two triangles with their innermost points touching and a line cutting horizontally at the middle.
 * Limbs - The muse of control, pleasure, affections, courage, aggression, success and desertion. Depicted as a genderless black figure with four arms and four legs. Represented by eight intersecting lines with the last forth of each turned down.
 * Blood  - The muse of life, death, determination, skill, purpose, stillness, movement, repetition, wealth, value, generosity and guilt. Depicted as a black figure with both male and female attributes and an easy, welcoming smile. Represented by a half-filled hexagon.