Faeborne

The Faeborne (or Faeborn) are descendants of Nemea, goddess of the forests, the hunt, wild beasts, grief and illusions. They are one of the older races of Meranthe, residing in the city of Delphina as nobles, scholars and architects.

History

Born in the early days of Meranthe, the Faeborne originally were created to guard the forests that surrounded Mount Pavonis. Once Nemea departed with the final primordials they were free to travel and build civilizations as they so chose. Many chose to stay in the forests for decades or even centuries; to this day there are ancient guardian families that stay within those enchanted woods, holy ground for all Faeborne, living in tandem with fairies and other mystical creatures.

Eventually, the age of city states and warring lords stabilized with the creation of Delphina, largely in part due to the advanced magical understanding of the Faeborne. Nowadays the Faeborne rule in the city of Delphina. While humans and nephilim can head noble houses, only a Faeborne can be chosen as reigning monarch.

Physiology

Faeborne are typically slightly taller than humans, with a wide range of skin shades. They tend to have elegant, pointed faces and sharp eyes in vibrant, beautiful colours. Many faeborne have pointed ears and all have a small set of antlers, the shape of which varies, as a result of their lineage from the goddess of the hunt.

They have heightened perception of all senses, making them apt scouts, guardians and adventurers, rarely startled by traps. This extends to their emotions. Faeborne are known to be deeply emotional but also much more easily able to compose themselves than humans, lending to a surreal, distant air about them, almost mystical in nature.

Faeborne are able to tap into their Nemean lineage to bring forth fae magic, with the most powerful demonstrating a brilliant set of butterfly wings reminiscent of Nemea herself.

Culture

Note: This is culture regarding Faeborne, not Delphina as an entirety, unless otherwise specified.

Artificing

One of the main reasons Delphina stands proudly as the most advanced nation in Meranthe is the mastery of Faeborne artificing. They have a natural attunement to the world and over time used this knowledge to create unique, deep-seated runes in the language of the earth itself. They pioneered methods of capturing solar, wind and thermal energies of volcanoes. Arguably the most iconic form of technology developed by Faeborne is the runeoak: Tall trees that crystals of mana grew freely of, with their roots aglow and functioning as a complex system of wires that linked one runeoak to another. Across Delphina and every town nearby, these runeoaks have established a reliable grid that could power each home and more. Defensive tools such as magical shields that could protect castles from attack were developed using this network.

Heritage

• Faeborne first names tend to be elegant and flowing, often following the names of their predecessors. Faeborne will never be named after traditional words, and tend to avoid using nicknames unless close.

• Many Faeborne take up artificing, runecrafting, hunting or scholarly pursuits. All Faeborne have a strong education- there is no such thing as an urchin Faeborne in Delphina. Such a child would be immediately placed into the care of the monarchy and assigned education, a place to live, even a family.