The eriadi- ayr-ee-AY-dee, with the Primal name meaning "dreamers"- are unique among the races of Elwenkind. They made their peace with the xanmarai, who could have been their mortal enemies, Ages ago, and as a result they live lives that are not rich in the battle-arts as the lives of most other Elwens are, but rich in magic. As well, they are not born like other races, but Awaken, and thus they may be said to be other than mortal.
Come among them, if you will- the dream Elwens, the Children of the Covenant.
PHYSICAL MAKEUP
Eriadi have a strange skin color that has only ever been satisfactorily described as a combination of other hues, rather than a hue in and of itself. Their skin is usually very pale, almost the color of snow, but with strange hints of purple, blue, and sometimes green or gold moving in the depths, like fish seen underwater. These colors are more likely to agitate when the eriad is upset or angry. Otherwise, they usually remain in the "depths," as it were, and those looking at a dream Elwen in dim light or from a distance may not be sure that they see them all.
With the possible exception of land Elwens, eriadi have the widest possible variation of hair and eye colors among Elwenkind. Bright tends to predominate among eyes, so that, say, golden eyes are more common than black, but combinations of hues, as in aqua or black-flecked silver, are even more common. Their hair seems to follow its own patterns, and dark-haired eriadi live and work side by side with those whose hair is so pale as to seem white. Hair is usually worn to the shoulders for both males and females, though sometimes longer in the case of those dream Elwens who especially want to attract mates.
The Children of the Covenant are typically fairly small and slender in height, another way in which they resemble the nightmare Elwens. 5'0" to 6'0" is the typical range in height, and 90 to 160 pounds in weight. As a result, tall eriadi tend to look gaunt, and may actually have visible ribs or other bones even when they try to gain weight. Eriadi do not as a rule close in contests of physical strength even when forced to fight; they much prefer to rely on their magic (see below).
Eriadi have silver blood, and live ten thousand years unless troubled by accident, rare violence, or one of the few diseases (such as magical plagues) that can fell them. Unlike most other Elwens, they cannot run very fast for long periods; they can only sprint at cheetah-speed for about as long as a cheetah, and they pay very heavily for it later. On the other hand, they rarely need to do this (see below).
EMOTIONAL MAKEUP
Eriadi are more remote from the world than most other Elwen races. This is partially because of their nature as children half of Arcadia and half of the astral or dream realms. They see little of interest in Arcadia, little that is new. "Wars repeat themselves, other Elwens are born and wearily live and die, but the dream world is always new," might sum up their attitude best.
As such, eriadi tend to be less emotional than other Elwen breeds, though they have the same strength of emotions, and they tend more towards outbursts of compassion or grief than rage. They also marry or mate for their own pleasure and not to have children, which means that such alliances are rarer than among other Elwens, and entirely a matter of individual choice, like friendships. When they do get involved in the struggles of the outside world, it takes the form of swift intervention to help a particular friend or a Covenant ally, and is followed by almost as quick a withdrawal.
The Dream Covenant is the main reason for eriadi staying in Arcadia at all. This agreement decrees peace between the dream and nightmare Elwens, and insures they will come to each other's aid if threatened. This is, for example, the only reason that dream Elwens participated in the Carar. The humans had attacked xanmara settlements. This was wrong, in the eriad view. They helped, and then withdrew.
Eriadi also tend to be much more interested in worlds beyond the physical world of Arcadia- whether these worlds are mental, emotional, spiritual, or otherwise- and to value wisdom and learning. Few eriadi understand the need that some other races have for certainty or pat answers. Eriadi are always looking for new answers, out of genuine disinterest and simple delight in the matters they are studying as they stand, and so while they have achieved great things, they have also achieved many things that are of little interest to any but themselves. This does not matter to them, however. So long as one individual cares about something, it has all the merit it needs.
Eriadi prefer peace, solitude, and utter freedom. They do not usually understand laws forbidding trespass or forbidding someone from speaking his or her mind on a certain subject. As well, laws that govern dueling codes and other violent matters are largely foreign to them.
MAGICAL MAKEUP
For most Elwen races, living without some kind of protection in organized cities, no matter what their interests, would be unthinkable. Eriadi, however, are defended by some of the most powerful magic in Arcadia, and they can easily pursue their preferred lives if they so choose.
Common to all eriadi are:
Awakening. Dream Elwens are not born; at certain times, which may slightly increase if many eriadi have died from war or disease, they Awaken. No one understands the timing of this, not even the dream Elwens themselves. An individual appears, or is created by the stars, or is revealed, asleep in a certain place, and then opens his or her eyes. At first, eriadi have the minds and bodies of children, but they learn rapidly and grow quickly. Dream Elwens are fully adult by the time they are fifteen, in most cases, and they are among the very few Elwen races who do not have Wanderfrees.
Dream-causing. Eriadi have the ability to put any intelligent creature alive into a period of dreams, which last as long and are as pleasant as the eriad wills. They rarely dictate the course of the dreams, however, preferring to leave that up to the dreamer's mind.
Dream-seeing. The Children of the Covenant can gaze into dreamers' minds and see what they are seeing. They also have the ability to affect what happens there, but they rarely do, unless to rescue someone from intense terror.
Light creation. This light is usually azure in color, and ranges from a will-o'-the-wisp glow to an intense radiance as bright as a desert sun. It can blind onlookers if the eriad so desires, and usually encircles some part of their bodies.
Travel. Eriadi, at any time they wish, can step "sideways" (their word for it) into the astral realm or the mental world of dreams. Here, they can travel in ways that only they really understand, looking for landmarks that correspond to certain positions in Arcadia, and then re-enter the purely physical world. This is one reason that most dream Elwens do not need to run fast. They can simply go wherever they desire in a realm where no others can touch them, and which has considerably fewer obstacles than even the flattest piece of ground.
Summoning allies. Creatures from the astral world or the world of dreams will come to the eriad's call. The most common of these are dreamgliders, horse-like creatures with the same tricky coloring as an eriad. They bear dream Elwens on their backs in places where the dream Elwen must for some reason ride in the physical world.
Born in some eriadi are:
Dreamdancing. This magic is not confined to the dream Elwens alone, but they are believed to have originated it, as well as the methods used to train the talent found in other races. The dreamdancer, through the movements of his or her body, makes real the things seen in dreams. Unlike the power of summoning allies, which can only call creatures who already exist and make their homes in the dream or astral realms, this can create creatures, or whatever else the dreamdancer desires, whole. It can also take material from others' dreams and nightmares, and so dreamdancers will sometimes go to battle (as they did in the Carar) and spin their enemies' darkest terrors into life.
Brightburning. Eriadi Awakened with this gift are rare, but they are almost always the ones who go to war or lead charges. Brightburning magic moves dream Elwens who have it closer to the other Elwens as far as the darker emotions go. It also gives them an innate sense of justice. When a dream Elwen with the brightburning gift meets someone who has committed a great wrong in the past for which he or she has gone unpunished, black flames spring up. The eriad then pulls the offender into the dream or astral world and does stars-know-what to administer justice.
ORIGINS AND MODERN SETTLEMENTS
Eriadi themselves say that they are children of the stars, like all other Elwens, but while the other starborn married and had children, eriadi were allowed to continue as the first Elwens had been, with their next generations created asleep and then Awakening. Why this grace should have been granted to them their legends do not say. They don't often care. A few dream Elwens interested in origins say that they may have been born in southern Lillomar, but wandering companies of eriadi were everywhere by the early Age of Dawn, and thus this cannot be substantiated.
The important cities of eriadi tend to be places where dream Elwens congregate by means of a school or university being founded there. Thus, for a long time the most dream Elwens have dwelt in Eriaonriel, Eriaonshoon, and Eriaonwyna, in the north of Fhevu. These cities superficially live like their neighbors, by trade and farming, but since dream Elwens don't consider the physical world that important, these things are done to keep them alive, not to give purpose to their lives. Those few matters in which they must deal with the outside world, or in which two Children of the Covenant might conflict, are usually handled by a Council of Covenant-Masters, eriadi who have been sent to dwell with the nightmare Elwens for a while and learn their ways. Covenant-Masters are accounted wiser than others, and their decisions are usually listened to. In time, almost every dream Elwen will become a Covenant-Master if he or she gets around to it, and so almost every dream Elwen will have a part to play in such politics as they have.
Many dream Elwens wander all over Arcadia, never abiding in one place for long, but the largest settlement other than the three Fhevuan cities is Buino Eriaonollori, the Island of Dreamdancers, in the south of Minamar. Nearly all dreamdancers dwell here at some point in their lives, either as students or teachers, and most children of other races born with the gift come here, unless they can find a wandering eriad who also happens to be a dreamdancer.
LANGUAGES
Eriad languages are usually known as Nagosi, though whether this was their ancient name is unknown. Most dream Elwens alive today speak a descendant of this ancestor language, unless they have Awakened or been raised around members of other races, in which case they will often speak the tongues of those other races. The wandering companies which mostly find newly Awakened eriad children almost all speak some Nagos dialect, continuing the tradition.
The only Nagos languages that have been studied in detail are the ones of Fhevu and the Buino Eriaonollori:
Nagos. This is the term that the eriadi of Fhevu use to refer to their tongue. Since they are fairly settled, the language does not change as rapidly as does its kin among the wandering bands. Nagos is a soft, pleasant language, relying on inflection for grammatical purposes and postpositions for other purposes.
Nagos-kir. This name for the language of the Isle means simply "Southern Nagos," but nevertheless, they are distinct languages. The relationship to the northern Nagos can be clearly traced, but Nagos-kir uses much less inflection, and actually shows signs of becoming an isolating language. Postpositions seem to be in the midst of changing to prepositions.
More to come.
