Nymphs

Introduction
From the many tribes of elves that crossed over into Solthris, some groups would come to colonize the continent of Frelherth. These groups, and their descendants to come, wandered the lands for centuries as nomadic tribes, and eventually settled down in the marshy forestlands on the south-western coast, on what would become known as the Skodásian Peninsula. Over the number of a few generations the wood elves formed close relationships with the local wildlife, most notably with the towering, magical ents, which would greatly come to influence their culture and even biology.

Ages passed, and the world matured and was shaped into what it is today, and the once fair wood elves had become something different from their previous kin around Solthris. Their cultural bond with ents and closeness to the mysteriously magic woodlands had over the years turned their skin into something resembling the bark of trees, the hair on their heads turned mossy and damp, and their eyes had started radiating with bright energies. Their life cycles and biology would come to change fundamentally as well, as they no longer reproduced through traditional mammal sexual intercourse, but by a process of seeding and pollenation. They would also no longer die of old age, but continue to age as long as they stay healthy. The now tree-like humanoid mini-ents called themselves nymphs.

Appearance
Nymphs are a bi-pedal humanoid race. An adult nymph can be anywhere between 6ft and 8ft tall. Nymphs have bright, glowing eyes. The skin of the nymph is hard and rough, like the bark of a tree, and they come in a multitude of colours ranging from dark reddish browns to pale greyish greens. The nymph's hair is frizzy and tangled, and damp like moss, and its colour can range between all manner of shades of green, yellow, red, brown, and violet, depending on the individual nymph's health and diet, or environmental and climate reasons (brighter colours signify good health, dull colours poor health, an excess of browns can be due to extremely old age, spending too long time without water, or being exposed to the cold for too long a period, and so on).

Society
The tribes of Alsáda, the isolated tribal communities deep within the rainforests on the Skodásian Peninsula, are generally led by councils of elders or an especially magically gifted chieftain (especially gifted since all nymphs are inheritly magically adept). The Alsánistic tribes are extremely territorial and hostile to unannounced visitors, with the sole exception to that rule being Xylon, a city-state situated on an island along the rainforest's coast that is ruled by an entrepreneurial, outgoing trade chieftess (without whom the rest of the world's civilizations would probably be completely oblivious to the Alsánistic culture of nymphs).

In nymph society the females hold very high status, and are often the most educated and magically gifted. They are the ones who become rune scribes and spellweavers, and the ones serving as spiritual leaders of their tribes. The male nymphs, stronger and larger, but lower in status, generally grow up to be peasants, hunters, or warriors.

Castes and Hierarchies within the Tribes of Alsáda
The nymph's tribal society is based on a hierarchy of different castes, with different roles. It's not feudalism at all, I swear.

The Hycetes, the ruling caste. Hycetes are positions given to individual nymphs through votes (only female nymphs are eligible to vote, but males may be voted for as candidates). Each and every tribe can be governed differently, some are ruled by a singular Hycetis, and some by councils of Hycetes. Generally each mandate period lasts a hundred years.

The Pnévtes, the priest caste. Pnévtes are the spiritual guides in nymph society, the highly-trained rune scribes and magicians. Being regarded as wise and knowledgable, most Hycetes elected throughout history have been of the Pnévtes caste originally. The Pnévtes are primarily made up of female nymphs. There are many different types of nymph priests and magicians, among them the Theramákes (healer priests, pain-easing, wound-mending, etc), and the Fésipes (faerie druid, communicating with the inspectoid faeries, fey creatues, ents, etc.).

The Pálites, the warrior caste. Pálites make up the fighting forces of nymph tribes. Male Pálites, the Tsekes, are the infantry forces of the nymphs, and specialize in fighting with axe or spear. A female Pálitis, a Simanis, is most often trained in offensive and defensive magics, and are more akin to the Pnévtes caste in the societal hierarchy, and they make up small units of magically-trained combatants.

The Xorikes, the working caste. Xorikes are the farmers, the builders, and the hunters in nymph society. They are the most numerous, primarily male, and rank the lowest on the hierarchical ladder. Filthy peasants. /spit

Technologies
The tribes of Alsáda have little to no advanced technologies. They know very basic engineering and physics, just to the point where they can construct basic wooden and stone tools, primitive weaponry, as well as simple naval vessels capable of traversing lakes, rivers, and smaller seas.

The most developed technology of the nymphs would be their agriculture. Nymphs, due to their inherent, magical bond with nature and the wilds, are extremely well-suited for cultivating land and growing crops, a skill widely used by the tribes to produce all manner of products; food, spices, alchemical components, dyes, and so on. Many of these products end up in the city-state of Xylon, and are traded off to merchants from Merulos, the elven kingdoms, and more. The Alsánistic nymphs also have a well enough developed written language (Alsiniká) and calendar system to keep historical and cultural records, a practice dating back at least a thousand years.

Architecture
Nymph architecture is very primitive and simple. Most living areas are nothing but simple dug-out mounds. Larger gathering places and religious buildings are constructed from wood and vines, with mud and sap insulating the walls. Coastal tribes, the ones who have the most interaction with the outside world, have been known to build bunker-like mounds with rocks and boulders as reinforcement, carved with magic runes.

Religion, Magic, and Traditions
The religion of the Alsánistic nymphs, a brand of runic druidism called Ypneism, focuses on worshipping the local wildlife, the ents, faeries, feys, wisps, and the like. From the very essence of their forestlands the nymphs are granted their magical powers, which include wound-mending, control over vegetation, and communicating with flora and fauna. Nymphs often utilize their magic powers through runes. With runic magic the nymphs can empower weapons, create magical wards and barriers, lay traps, and much more. Another aspect to their druidic religion is alchemy. With alchemy the druidic priests and spellweavers brew enhancing potions, volatile solutions and gasses, and imbue objects and people with magical powers.

Art and Culture
Much of the nymph's culture is rooted (pun might very well be intended) in the rainforests and marshlands they inhabit, life, death, and rebirth, nature, and animals. Their visual art, their carvings and paintings, often depict lifecycles or processes of decay. The lifecycle of a nut, to a sapling, to a tree, and the decay of its fallen leaves. Depictions of faeries, tiny insectoid magic creatures, along with the towering ents, are also a very prominent feature in their art. Nymphs also create music, using various pipe and string instruments to produce tunes, and wood and stone for percussion. Nymph music, much like their visual art, tries to capture the essences of life and nature. A common theme among nymph symphonies is to create pieces of utter chaos, followed by calm, atmospheric intervals, trying to communicate to the listener the brewing and unleashing of a storm, the tos and fros of the wind, and the waves crashing onto the shore and receding back.

The City-state of Xylon
Xylon has been referenced in texts and scripture since the dawn of Alsánistic written history. The city is located on an island south-west off the coast of the Skodásian Peninsula, and is thought to have been originally built as a large defensive structure by the tribes inhabiting the area.

The city has an ancient, great central square built from stone, with four stone monuments towering at each corner. At the base of each monument is a doorway, each leading down into a separate underground bunker, that in modern times serves as an immense storage space for the many tradesmen selling goods in the square above. At the eastern edge, between two of the monuments, stands a large, oblong stone fortification. This large building holds the throne and residence of Xylon's Hycetis. Beyond the square, to the north and the south, the rest of the city spreads out. Simple wooden and leather huts, and shallow dirt mounds line the erratic streets and alleyways. The only paved, straight road is the one leading west out from the square, towards the docks and the ancient stone tower serving as a lighthouse. Along the road stand sturdier huts and longhouses, the residences of the city's upper class. Surrounding the city-center is a circular defensive mound with a wooden wall built on top.

Beyond the city-center farms and plantations litter the hills and meadows, as well as fishing villages along the coast. These communities and settlements help provide Xylon with a steady flow of fresh food, as well as producing goods with which to trade.

The past five hundred years, under the leadership of Hycetis Euthelia, the city have grown to become a flourishing hub for the local tribes to come and trade and socialize. There are even foreign ships laying anchor in the bay, bringing goods from faraway lands, and trading them for the nymph's spices, dyes, and alchemical components at the great central square. Xylon's unique position as a central trading hub has earned Euthelia a great deal of wealth and resources. And, while a controversial figure for her outgoing attitude towards foreign races, she has earned a good reputation among most tribes' Hycetes by showing herself charitable and supportive during times of strife. In return many Hycetes has sworn oaths to lend their most capable warriors should the need arise, granting the city-state a formidable military force.

The Xylonian Army - Apart from the city guard, the standing army of Xylon is made up entirely of soldiers and combat druids from nearby tribes, giving the city-state a varied and broad fighting force, utilizing melee and magic combat alike.

The Xyloteíxes - the Xylonian city guard, are five hundred man strong, and consist of formidable infantry soldiers loyal to the Hycete and her tribe.

The Dásoteíxes - To the east, where the thick, humid forests end, and an unending landscape of grassy hills begins to take shape, a group of tribes have formed a coalition. They call themselves the Dásoteíxes, the 'wall of the forest', and are renowned throughout nymph society as the greatest warriors and combat magicians. For nearly three hundred years, alongside the mighty ents, the tribes of the Dásoteíxes have kept the ever-encroaching Locusi swarms from invading the nymph's homelands.

Foreign Relations
Even compared to other isolationistic cultures in Solthris the Alsánistic tribes operate with very limited foreign interactions. Tribes in the nymph's heartlands are largely self-sufficient and have no reason to trade with outsiders, except possibly to acquire rare luxury goods. Only Xylon, a city-state on an island off the coast of the Skodásian Peninsula, conducts regular trade with cultures outside of the forestlands. Traders from Valthar, Xaxalin, Merulos, and beyond can be found in Xylon's busy market square, peddling their goods from all over the world.

At the far eastern borders of their forestland territories, the tribes of Alsáda have been dealing with an Locusi invasion for nearly three centuries, forcing the easternmost tribes to adopt a much more militaristic society than the others. And apart the Locusi the nymphs also face threats from the subterranean Karcinites, a race of native, cancerous anti-pathogens emerging from underneath Alsánistic territories to rid Solthris of the slowly spreading mutation of the forestlands.

K'maztil and the Botanical Plague
Millions of years ago, alerted by faint signs of life and early civilizations, an ancient cosmic consciousness turned its eyes towards the world of Solthris. The consciousness, an incorporeal, eternal deity known as K'maztil, began monitoring the world from a distance, gathering information about its denizens and the gods protecting it. For hundreds of thousands of years K'maztil patiently observed as races and civilizations rose and fell, some because of war and strife, and some by the hands of the primordial beasts or gods of Solthris itself. K'maztil saw that the world and all that inhabited it were fundamentally flawed, and that something had to be done.

Over the many millenia K'maztil had kept an eye on Solthris she had noticed one particular type of player in the game of survival of Solthris that was rarely recognized by the others, yet always seemed to come out on top. No matter what calamity came upon the world, its highly adaptive and flexible vegetation and plantlife always survived and bounced back quicker than any form of life. In addition to that, the thing that came to impress K'maztil the most, was the lack of direction or ambition, the complete lack of consciousness of the plants. In that she saw an opportunity to manipulate and control the flora of Solthris, to have it snuff out the lives of all the other lifeforms with free will that kept tearing the world apart, and reshape the world in the image of herself.

But as eternal and cosmically powerful as K'maztil might have been, she alone could not take on the combined pantheon of an entire world. She would have to device a plan, a way to covertly seed and spread corruption across Solthris. K'maztil wove an intricate spell of mutation, focused the power into a single acorn, and sent it to the world. The acorn grew into a tree, and soon thereafter a lush forest began growing around it. As years passed the region grew warmed and more humid, and a strange mutative magic stirred within the deep woods.