Austere and erudite, the caladaran are renowned throughout Avendar for their wisdom. Tall, gentle creatures that are plant rather than animal, they tend to live either in forests or among the mountains, where they are known for their simple and contemplative lifestyles.
Biology
Caladaran are sapient humanoid plants with tall, thin bodies and bark-like skin. It is not unusual for caladaran to resemble specific species of tree; their hair often has a mossy or grass-like texture in any vegetal colour found in nature, and their skin is likewise rough but supple with deep ridges, following the general texture and colour range of tree bark. Their colouring may also change multiple times in their lifetime in response to stress or significant changes in climate, though this effect is unpredictable and not under the caladaran's control. Caladaran have three sexes, but little to no visible dimorphism between them. Although they have the longest lifespans of any sapient species, they do not appear to visibly age once reaching maturity.
The caladaran skeletal system is composed of a robust system of cellulose and fibrous tissue similar to cartilage, granting them both strength and flexibility. Their blood is thick, sap-like, dark red, and somewhat poisonous. Their skin is bark-like while retaining the suppleness of flesh, bearing a uniformly rough texture atop its signature ridges and furrows. Small bladders containing photosensitive fluids fill these ridges which both provide structure and drastically reduce the need to ingest food. Caladaran are carnivores, but being plants, they do not have the traditional features of an animalian digestive system such as teeth or an intestine; instead, a hard ridge of material in their mouth allows them to grip and tear large pieces of food, which is then swallowed whole. Digestion is a slow but efficient process as befits their sluggish metabolisms, and a single meal often takes several days to digest. Waste is excreted through the skin like sweat.
While they are related to trees, they do not possess true leaves or branches. They do fruit, however, which is related to their reproduction.
Culture
For the caladaran, philosophy and debate are the highest forms of art. They prefer peaceful settings where conversations can go on uninterrupted, and surroundings which provoke insight and introspection. Caladaran rarely lie, seeing little point in deception, including self-deception. Masters of introspection, they are well aware of their own feelings. They are generally open with their opinions and will offer them freely. If anything, caladaran are prone to both oversharing and asking prying or personal questions, much to the consternation of more taciturn cultures. The caladaran do not hide their feelings, even when those feelings are uncomfortable. A brutal truth is still a truth.
The caladaran reject most notions of class and do not possess an innate sense of gender, though long contact with the relatively gender-obsessed aelin and humanity has lead to many caladaran simply picking the gender they like better for use in mixed company.
Towns and Monasteries
The town of Jandiska is a place for open debate. Radical discussion is tolerated and even encouraged; however, disruptive action is not. Two monasteries were founded by caladaran: Chanisal, a place of worship dedicated to Alajial and built in the Nendor Forest south of Var Bandor; and Hakurah, dedicated to Jalassa and built in the northern mountains before the Ryarl Plains.
Religion
The differences between Chadraln, Jalassa and Alajial mirror the lineage's own: Chadraln's appetite for every possibility, Jalassa's discipline, and Alajial's concern for easing suffering in the present. The dialogue between Chadralnite intellectuals, Jalassan warrior-philosophers and Alajian contemplatives has shaped much of caladaran thought.
Of the Overgods, Iandir holds the most important place. Chadraln's revelation of the Overgods drew the order-minded caladaran to the study of Iandir and the magics of Earth, and it was the caladaran who brought knowledge of the Crown of Law to the humans of the early Republic.
History
The caladaran arose in the ancient glades of the Rirro Jagka in the age after the Sundering. Chadraln saw in them the sages of the world to come, and Jalassa nurtured their taste for order, teaching the young lineage to master passion through reason; this was the beginning of the caladaran monastic tradition. Against Jalassa's wishes, Chadraln revealed the Overgods to them and taught them the magics of Earth, and from then on the caladaran were divided between introspection and study.
At Chadraln's urging, many caladaran left the Rirro Jagka to seek out the other lineages. Those who remained came under growing pressure as the alatharya turned hostile and srryn fleeing the close of the War of Fire pushed into the glades, until Jalassa led Her monks west, guiding them to the discovery of psionics on the way. The caladaran reached the humans of the Dantaron valley on the cusp of the Republic's founding. They brought with them the alphabet still used in Earendam and the worship of Iandir, whose law became foundational to Republican political philosophy, and in return discovered their own talent for water and fire magic. Caladaran scholars carried earth magic on to the aelin and the Harrudim, and as the first to formalize magical theory, they gave the world its measure of mana.
Not every caladaran welcomed this mingling of cultures. As Chadralnites drifted from the old monastic ways and Jalassans came to accept war as a path to enlightenment, a conservative faction returned to the Rirro Jagka to preserve the old ways. They suffered there; alatharya and srryn raids killed their elders and burned their settlements and records. According to legend, Chadraln and Jalassa answered by bringing Alajial into being, and wherever Her lilies sprang from the barren glades, peace followed. In time Her monks set out into the wider world again.
The War of Night tested each tradition differently. Chadralnite scholars took readily to the study of the Void, and although they refused to side with the shuddeni, the association stigmatized their faith outside caladaran circles until their later work in spirit and air magic restored its standing. Jalassan meditation fell out of favour, overshadowed by the war. Alajian monks tended the wounded beside the healers of the Tower of Salyra and won renown across the Republic, and after the war they were among the first to explore spirit magic. The founding of a unified spirit school brought the three traditions into serious dialogue for the first time, and in the relative peace of the modern era, Jalassan worship has revived among aristocrats and ascetics alike.