Vasriel

From Codex Vocrotha

Physical Description

The Vasriel were the parent race of both the Solindriel and the Tenebriel; like their progeny, they were tall and lithe, with large, expressive faces, vestigial gills, and a fine downy hair covering their skin from head to toe. Their skin and hair colorations encompassed all of the permutations available throughout both Solindriel and Tenebriel races today. Reportedly, they were slightly taller than either Solindriel or Tenebriel are today, but this is an uncertain and unverifiable claim, as the last true Vasriel died many hundreds of years ago.

Sociopolitical Outlooks

As a race, the Vasriel no longer exist; their direct descendants split acrimoniously from each other during events that transpired while they were in exile in the Country of Adaril, and while initially there was no difference between the two in appearance, over time certain traits bred more true in one population than the other, such that several hundred years later there were enough distinguishing features between the two to note the differences with a trained eye.

As a people, the Vasriel were primarily interested in peace; war took them away from their favorite activities, the pursuit of knowledge and beauty, and so while they were strong, knowledgeable warriors, they always fought not with an eye towards supremacy, but with an interest in establishing the most stable possible world for themselves. Thus they allied with the Kâlindur to help bring their Golden Reign to fruition, seeing the strength of the Kâlind magic and their desire for order above all else.

It was this single-minded desire for peace that led them to flee when their seers began to predict the coming of the Nightmare Imperium. The Kâlind, strong but stubborn, would not heed the counsel of the Vasriel, and so they made plans for their own preservation, leaving the Golden Reign behind and heading for the Adaric Archipelagos, a land they hoped would be a perfect exile.

The events that transpired there are better detailed in those sections; suffice to say that what was originally an ideological disagreement soon became a violent rift between brother and brother; their extended separation was the end of the Vasriel as a single race, and never again would they identify themselves as the Great Children, either to themselves or to others.

Allies & Enemies

The Vasriel were always the close friends of the Zephriel; the two races treated each other more like long lost kin than different peoples; only after the sundering of the Vasriel did the Zephriel begin to take a more parental role in the relationship. The Kâlindur were their most staunch allies, strong in battle, mighty in their Rune Magic. By default, friends of the Kâlindur were also friends of the Kâlindival; the Vasriel were always more willing to give the diminutive people serious consideration than their gruff cousins, so many disputes between the two were arbitrated with a Vasriel facilitator.

Humans and Drakkhozhn fell largely in the same category: impressive sentient beings who cannot be trusted as a race, only as individuals. The Ur failed to be impressive, but although they were certainly not to be trusted, neither were they as deceitful as the Humans, nor as power hungry as the Drakkhozhn.

Their views on the Dolgothros were simple: the creatures were of no redeeming quality and posed great risk to the harmony of their surroundings, so they were not to be tolerated. Although the Lyđuđræ were tolerated (and in fact often of interest), their ongoing feuds with the Kâlindur kept them away much of the time, and so their interactions were regrettably limited.