Pronunciation of Name: ill-ZANE, ill-ZANE-ai.
Origin: The ilzánai have long lived in the territory that became the Kingdom of Ilantra (bounded on the West by the Breathing Lands and the north by the Rashar Mountains). They once ranged far more extensively over the Corlirin Plains to the east and south than they do now. They have interbred with the royal family of Ilantra since time out of mind.
Appearance: An ilzán stands about six feet tall, slender but not gaunt. Their skin is smooth and coppery, tending towards red or brown in some. They tend to have staring white hair; its color, like that of the full moon, is startling, though it can be covered with dye. The dye melts when touched by moonlight, however, and most ilzánai hardly see the need for it among their own kind. Their eyes are large, liquid, and dominate their faces like a deer's. These eyes tend to have a background color, marked with flecks of another shade; gold-flecked lavender, gold-flecked blue, and gold-flecked green are all common, though the flecks can be other colors.
Most ilzánai have sharper teeth than humans, revealing their origin as predators, though they can and do enjoy plant food. They have flexible tongues and can easily speak most human languages as well as their own, though an ilzán who is new to the tongue may slur her words. Their faces are more angular than those of most Ilantran humans, but not nearly as angular as those of, say, elves or the mizanai. Their walk is quick and graceful, resembling most of all the swinging walk of cheetahs at rest; their legs tend to be longer than those of humans. They cannot run appreciably faster, however.
Magic: Above all, the ilzánai are the disease-fey, and they both heal sickness and suffer from it. Most first sicken a few weeks after birth, though they recover quickly. Ilzánai are receptive to a wide variety of diseases, far more than most fey. The coda to this is that after this they recognize the virus, bacterium, parasite, or other agent that causes the disease, and in essence live in harmony with it, controlling their immune systems so that the disease cannot find a way past. An ilzán who has experienced a particular disease can recognize it in someone else, such as a human, and heal it by tuning that person's own immune system. This they usually do through song.
Life Cycle. Ilzánai age more slowly than any other fey race save perhaps the elves. Their physical development matches that of human children until about the age of thirteen; rather than undergoing puberty right away, ilzán children remain children as far as sex is concerned, not maturing physically until they have seen a hundred summers. They are then capable of mating and willing to do so, though few can bear or sire children yet; they must wait until about another fifty years have passed to do so. Ilzánai usually live a few millennia, dying near the age of 2000, and usually have only a few children in their lifetimes. They bond for life and do not take other partners- the best term for it, since they do not practice marriage- if the first one dies or leaves them.
Interbreeding With Humans. Ilzánai are capable of interbreeding with humans, and have often done so with the Ilantran royal family, who show the greatest committment to the land they both share. However, an ilzán looks for a particular combination of qualities in a human partner, without which no ilzán will willingly lie with a human. (Those who might either try to rape ilzán women or manipulate ilzán men unwillingly into sex often find they have new and interesting venereal diseases to cope with). The human must be committed to the land of Ilantra; general care for nature does not impress the ilzánai, who love only the land between the Breathing Lands and the mountains deeply. As well, he or she must have the kind of faithful spirit that the ilzánai prize in their own fey mates, not straying or planning to remarry if the ilzán dies, and he or she must not be too sickly. Half-ilzán children are experts at detecting disease and can often heal it by laying their hands on the afflicted, but they are also far more likely to catch deadly diseases and be incapacitated or even killed by them. A double dose of sickly heritage, one from each side of the family, would probably be enough to kill the child in the womb.
Half-ilzán children, and even those children who are mostly human, with only the tiniest touch of disease-fey blood, are striking. They tend to have pale hair- very rarely the staring white of the fullblooded ilzánai- and eyes of colors not normally found in humans, such as violet or gold. Their skin will sometimes show a coppery tinge. They have the healing ability mentioned above, but few of the other gifts of their parents; they do not recover from disease as easily, nor do they live as long. If they survive the sicknesses that come stalking them, they will remain seemingly unaging for a few centuries, then decline and die quite suddenly.
