Chapter II - The Aelin
-1-
The aelin are a race of avian bipeds, gifted with the power of flight. One of Avendar's oldest sapient races, it is known the aelin were the first race to come into its own following the Sundering and the fall of the alatharya.
From the beginning, the aelin were a civilized people, seeking order and creation to oppose the madness of the years following the Sundering. Their civilization reflected both this desire for order, along with the predilictions of their avian nature. They built great cities, wrought out of the sides of the great mountains they called home. Freed from thechaos of the magical storms that marked the Sundering's aftermath, they were able to lead a propserous existence, finding pause for contemplationand thought.
The aelin were also a rather insular people, shunning the lowlands and vallies, whose primitive inhabitants they felt would taint the purity of the aelin people. This policy would prove in the end detrimental, however, when the aelin became embroiled with what is now known as the War of Fire, the first great conflict of Avendar following the Sundering.
-2-
Virtually ignored by the aelin, other races had sprung up in Avendar's lowlands. Among them, the reptilian srryn and the wingless humans allied together to take the riches of the aelin culture. With these two opposed races, the aelin faced their greatest threat - foes armed with the magics of fire. Easily mastered and bringing instant returns, the humans rapidly trained scholars and military leaders in the ways of the magic.
The aelin marshalled the resources of their people -- the accumulated wisdom of their own civilization, coupled with what artifacts and relics they had recovered from the ruins of the ancient alatharya. The war that ensued was long and devestating to the surface of Avendar, resulting in a conflict second only to the Sundering in its catastrophic effects.
It was not until a renegade group of humans, along with allies among the aelin, brought about the return of the god Jolinn and the magics of the seas, that the war turned in favor of the aelin. With all these things, and the aid of the mighty Titans, the aelin and what humans allied with them were able to drive back the srryn to their swamps, ending the war in a series of swift and final battles.
-3-
After the war, some predicted a period of aelin ascendancy. And, for a time it was so, as the aelin cities were still the only true centers for thought and civilization in Avendar. The humans, though, with their prolific reproduction and more open culture, began to dominate the political landscape of Avendar.
The aelin were content to withdraw into their high cities, and become a distant ally to the humans, shaping their ideas, but seldom intervening in any large scale in human affairs.
Exceptions exist, of course -- the chief one being the aelin's interventionin driving back the shuddeni menace in the War of Night. Today, while some aelin do consent to dwell away from their homes in the mountains and the clouds, most live far from the center of human civilization, across the Sea of Lidraeu, content to dwell near their capitol, Ilodaiya.
Aelin are generally lean, with a height generally ranging within the human norm. Their features and bodies are both delicate, and aelin will typically take great stock in what bloodlines or houses they are affiliated with. Their most striking feature, of course, are their wings, which are feathered in the manner of avian kind. What aelins do dwell among humans typically occupy positions of authority, or at least influence and wealth.
