Alatharya

Overview
STR	25
INT	16
WIS	17
DEX	18
CON	25
CHR	21
Resists	Blunt
Vulnerable	Holy
Special	Giant, +1 Scan distance

The oldest sapient species, the alatharya have dramatically declined after their millennia of empire and domination. In the wake of challenging the supremacy of the Overgods, the alatharya were cast down in their hubris by the heavens in a cataclysm known as the Sundering.

Biology

The alatharya are enormous humanoid mammals with silver or bluish-silver skin and white hair, averaging nine feet tall with a broad, muscular frame. The alatharya mature quickly both physically and mentally, often reaching six feet by age ten and being considered adults by age fifteen.

Both the marrow and blood of the alatharya contains telianthin, the source of their metallic complexions, their superior stamina, and their unusually dense bones. Their eyeballs are elongated like a hawk's rather than spherical, granting them extraordinarily keen eyesight and allowing them to see farther than most. Alatharya may have any eye colour, though they tend to paler shades.

The alatharya are incapable of aligning with a resonance or using magic.

Culture

There are no alatharyan cities or states, though small and isolated alatharya-dominated communities exist. Their size and strength make them desirable labour in human cities, though stereotypes of the alatharya being slow or unintelligent bar them from many positions of power or prominence. In more extremely aligned cultures such as Kor Thrandir or the ch'taren Havens, alatharya tend to be mistrusted due to their lack of resonance and the perception of them as stupid or easily manipulated. They are common slaves for the shuddeni, whose priests have uses for their flesh and blood.

Alatharya communities tend to egalitarian arrangements and communal ownership and stewardship of shared property. This is true whether the community is a permanent settlement or one of the nomadic clans of the Rirro Jagka.

Religion

Enirra is the sole deity associated with the alatharya. After the Sundering, the alatharya were largely abandoned by the gods, but Enirra emerged to shelter the broken alatharya and preserve them from extinction. Many common alatharyan values and mores have their roots in Enirran philosophy as a result, even among atheist communities.

In modern times, Enirran enclaves tend to be more secretive, particularly in the wake of targeted persecution from devotees of Rveyelhi. They are especially concentrated in mixed population centers where the alatharya are an underclass, and have a reputation for finding ways to become involved in anti-authoritarian and insurrectionist activities.

Though the hubris of the alatharya remains legend, modern deities do not shun them and even sigil prominent followers, the same as any other people.

History

Little is known of the time before the Sundering, save that it was a time of marvels. The Sundering radically changed the face of the land and destroyed the legendary power and world-spanning empire of the alatharya. Afterward, the shattered race was stripped by the gods of their peerless mental capabilities, capacity to use magic, and ability to align themselves with resonance. Their peerless mental abilities became diminished, but their large and sturdy physique remained intact; this boon, along with Enirra's intervention, allowed them to survive in the chaotic centuries following the Sundering.