The brinnai- (BREEN-nay), meaning "places of the storm" in Primal- or lightning Elwens have been described as among the most stubborn of their kind. Most of the time this stubbornness does not show, since they are quiet and keep to themselves in their own cities. But, when pressed, or when their existence is threatened, they will not stop fighting as long as one of them is still alive.
Come among them, if you will- the lightning Elwens, the Children of the Storm.
PHYSICAL MAKEUP
A brinna generally is more slender than other Elwens, with limbs that are smooth, showing little trace of muscle. Most stand between 5'4" and 6'1", though shorter and taller than this are both known. Generally, shorter brinnai are more common than taller, and women tend to be slightly shorter than men.
A brinna's skin is a complicated color somewhere between blue and blue-gray, the color of the more brilliant bolts they can wield. Occasionally a lightning Elwen may be born with the pattern of lightning etched on his skin, or with a brilliant yellow or white skin; it almost always depends on what color the lightning was in the storm the night of their birth. The birth of a brinna always calls a storm. On nights when more than one child is born, a storm can result that is powerful enough to act with the force of a hurricane. The brinnai themselves say this is a means of protection for the laboring mothers, who may be alone or otherwise unable to defend themselves as they birth the child, and tell stories of lightning burning alive those who try to hurt lightning Elwen mothers. Some magical scholars propose a connection of the storm with the child rather than the mother, but there is little evidence to support their theories.
Every brinna has a powerful electrical aura which snaps around them at all times. It is less noticeable when they are calm or asleep, and very noticeable when they are curious, excited, or extremely angry. Indeed, standing too close to an enraged lightning Elwen is problematic, as their auras can sometimes kill without the need for physical touch. Most of the time, however, it is only sufficient to perhaps make hair stand on end.
Brinnai have a wide range of both hair and eye colors, though bright hues are more common than either dark or pale. Brinnai value white hair and dark eyes, especially in those of their kind with pale skin. Their eyes are larger than those of most other Elwens, making the impact of dark eyes against white skin extremely effective. Generally, the only colors that are rare among them are those of gems, and lightning Elwens with sapphire hair or eyes in particular are likely to be of mixed blood.
Brinnai have silver blood and can briefly sprint like cheetahs when the need is on them (as can almost all Elwens). They live ten thousand years unless slain by violence or accident. Disease is almost unknown among them save in the case of magical plagues that tend to cut across species lines. Violence is less common now than it once was; there was a time not so long ago when the entire brinna race almost died (see below).
EMOTIONAL MAKEUP
Lightning Elwens tend to be business-like in public (that is, with members of other races than their own, or with acquaintances). They are great sailors (see below), and transport a great variety of cargo on every body of water, including the treacherous and dangerous oceans. Thus they tend to maintain neutrality in political conflicts and continue trading with both sides in times of war. They see it as the only practical move, since they probably aren't involved in the conflict. The sole exception to this is if one side or the other hurts a brinna. Then lightning Elwens are not only likely to stop trading with that side, but call extremely destructive storms down on that side's land and people.
They do such things because they are, admittedly, paranoid. Because of their recent near-destruction at the hands of the humans, brinnai are more than a little suspicious of anyone who offers them harm. They will not simply act on likely-false claims, but if they decide they have sufficient proof, they will strike without mercy. They prefer justice to mercy.
This is among outsiders, however, whom most lightning Elwens have determined they cannot trust. Among their own kind or close friends from other peoples, lightning Elwens tend to be not only relaxed but playful. Whether the play is teasing or good-natured tends to be based on an individual brinna's perception of the person, and their aura's reaction. Some brinnai cannot stand to be around each other, as if their charges repelled each other. Likewise, some brinnai cannot stand some outsiders, apparently because outsiders have something in their souls that resembles eletrical charge. However, this depends very much on the individual. An Elwen of another race trying to make friends with three brinnai may find himself rebuffed by one, tolerated by the second, and welcomed like a long-lost brother by the third- or possibly violently hatred by all three.
Because of this, loyalties among brinnai themselves tend to be deep and long-lasting, but self-chosen. A Child of the Storm is extremely unlikely to help someone else simply because that person is, say, a cousin, or a friend of a friend. They will help only those they like and value.
It should also be noted that a lightning Elwen never forgives the betrayal of a friendship, but, on the other hand, is extremely unlikely to simply kill a false friend. Instead, he or she will come up with a clever, subtle, cruel psychological revenge, most likely playing on the traitor's personal weaknesses. The amount of insight that lightning Elwens can display into the character of others on such occasions is amazing and terrifying.
As mentioned already, brinnai are also stubborn fighters, who can be equally as terrifying in war as they can when concentrating on a personal enemy. It is believed that they were driven from their original home long Ages past, and that the memory of this loss stings and haunts them still. So the lightning Elwens will defend what they think worth defending with such ferocity that many enemies have been known to give up the idea of war with them rather than try going through them. As a consequence of this, lightning Elwen prisoners of war are almost unknown, and they will usually kill themselves rather than surrender.
MAGICAL MAKEUP
Brinnai have more powerful and terrifying magic than most other Elwens do. Its main disadvantage is that it is almost impossible to use subtly. On the other hand, most Children of the Storm are not interested in subtlety, so this downside to their magic does not discourage them much.
All lightning Elwens are born with the following magic:
Calling lightning. This is the most basic gift of a lightning Elwen, one that even children can use as easily as they breathe. Children cannot of course usually call fatal bolts, but their strength increases with age and training. As a side effect of this gift, the electrical aura around a brinna often intensifies in the moments when he or she is preparing to cast a lightning bolt. This does not, however, often give enemies enough time to get out of the way.
Calling storms. This takes at least two brinnai working in concert, and calls not only a lightning storm, but one with thunder and heavy rain. Depending on the cause for which the storm has been called, it can range from a minor shower to a devastating force capable of wiping out cities. At least once in the past, it is believed that the Children of the Storm called enough force to destroy an entire nation.
Lightning-leaping. Most brinnai are capable of traveling as lightning, changing their physical forms into electrical energy. However, this ability is limited: they can only travel with their clothes or other things they can carry on their bodies, and they generally need an atmosphere already charged with an approaching storm to do so.
Piloting lightning-ships. The brinnai are the most proficient sailors in Arcadia precisely because of this ability. No matter what the conditions of the water or the wind, brinna slipboats can still move. Several lightning Elwens together call upon lightning, which reacts with sails of dragonskin to propel the ship forward. The ship can be steered by the captain's mind alone, or by the mingled minds of the crew.
Spying. Most brinnai can call tiny bits of ball lightning and see through them as if they were scrying crystals. Assuming the ball lightning can remain unnoticed, it makes an ideal spy to send behind enemy lines and even into private homes.
Some brinnai are born with the following abilities:
Flashsong. About one in one thousand brinnai has the ability to solidify lightning with a song. The frozen bolts are used to pave sacred places and make ornaments, as well as, sometimes, to construct elaborate death-traps, since the flashsinger can release the bolts at any time. More than one army has found itself suddenly caught in the middle of a city made of released lightning.
Capturing light. Among the most highly prized of brinna trade-goods are lightning globes, specially constructed glass spheres filled with lightning that has been persuaded to behave itself even when separated from a brinna. Lightning globes are hung as lights most often in caves or other places where no natural light reaches; only the very rich can afford to have them simply illumining houses. The globes turn themselves on when a sentient being approaches, and can last as long as a thousand years. About one in twenty thousand brinnai has the affinity with lightning that persuades it to be quiet and give off light instead of running away, and so these globes are expensive because of their rarity as well as their usefulness.
ORIGINS AND MODERN SETTLEMENTS
The lightning Elwens kept no written records of their early history for almost thirty millennia, and none of the other races were born near them, so what remains is myth and legend. Most brinnai say they were born in the far north of Caladariz, the province where the most important contigent of lightning Elwens still dwells, and moved south because of whatever tragedy it was that made them so determined never to retreat again. The only specialized myth they have of their origins states that the stars wove lightning with starlight to make them, giving them kinship with both kinds of heavensfire.
The lightning Elwens had few enemies, given their strength, until relatively modern times. Humans seemed harmless, and they were desperate to acquire magic, which, they knew, could be given to someone who could survive a direct strike of lightning from a magestorm. They wanted to learn about a way of acquiring magic that was not so likely to be fatal. The brinnai were willing to teach them- but when it turned out they could not teach them, the humans turned violent. Because the lightning Elwen teachers had gone willingly to the humans, the round-eyes were able to butcher many of them before their kin learned what was happening. Then the humans fell on the lightning Elwen cities in Caladariz, and quickly reduced the race to a few thousand individuals.
The Children of the Storm have recovered since then, but because of the near-genocide, they hate humans. They were the ones who recommended the generations-long occupation of human cities after the War of Acceptance, and the absolute scattering of humans to different cities after the Sublimation. They often volunteer to be guardians on the human cities that still exist.
Many Children of the Storm still live around the Lightning Lakes, four lakes in central Caladariz linked by ancient canals. However, other brinnai, vowing their race should never be so vulnerable to humans again, have scattered into hidden cities from which only the traders often emerge. Because of this, estimates of how important a certain lightning Elwen settlement is are now near to impossible to make.
LANGUAGE
The lightning Elwen tongue was once called Syldana, and was considered nearly unique in its phonology. Its modern descendant, Sinha, retains a good deal of this uniqueness, especially in the so-called "long sounds," which can be either consonants or vowels and are held for a beat longer than normal. The effect can seem to be slurring or trilling to someone unfamiliar with the language, but it is true lengthening, nearly inimitable by non-native speakers.
That said, there are often considered to be at least two dialects of Sinha, one less "pure" than the other:
Sinha M'iada. This is the dialect spoken around and on the Lightning Lakes. It is considerably more conservative than its southern cousin, and those who can speak Sinha only casually may have trouble understanding the archaic words that speakers of this dialect often use. Sinha M'iada speakers prefer to create new words for new concepts, rather than borrowing ones from Tema or any other tongue.
Gialta. This is the "southern" dialect of Sinha, though it may be spread among the hidden northern cities as well. It has been much influenced by Primal and Tema, though not to the extent of losing its unique phonology. It does borrow words freely, and in some cases is simplified into a trading pidgin between enemies who trade with each other through the brinnai and do not want to learn each other's languages.
More to come.
