Homebrew Ae'esh Species Details

“Cruel. Cold. Harsh. This describes the land in which the Ae'esh thrive, and their demeanour. Being open, being compassionate or friendly are not heard of, only how to fight, how to survive... Cold lands beget a cold people."

— Zar, Famed Ae'esh Explorer

Ae'esh are a cold people, forged in the frozen Hells thanks to a cruel deal made millennia ago by a now long forgotten king they have long abandoned their original elven roots and become something different. Known for their martial prowess and survivalist attitudes they excel in harsh environments, particularly cold ones such as mountains or frozen land being able to find food in the most unlikely places and willing to push themselves to extremes to survive. Despite this, some Ae'esh can be known to be friendly, loving, or anything in-between.

Stocky and Graceful

Ae'esh have been long changed and are of a stockier build than the average elf, being muscular and broad they are often seen like soldiers or hunters. Despite their size they are often remarkably agile and light, whether it is from their elven blood or hellish magic is unknown but despite often weighing only 100 to 145 pounds they can perform great feats still and move swiftly. Males and females are about the same height, and males are only marginally heavier than females.

Ae'esh often are of pale complexion, with skin tones more often being pure white, but can be shades of either grey or light blue as well. They have the same hair colours as humans, but black and white are the most common colours, with facial hair being a rare sight, along with body hair. Their eyes are often pure black, but can also be red, blue, or grey

An Endless Battle

The Ae'esh have a long life-span of around 600 years, they often spend the first century in a form of training though to prepare for the harshness of life. Due to the longevity of their people they often have small families and reproduce slowly, usually rearing only 1-2 kids in their lifetimes that they will spend much time raising and training (an Ae'esh is only considered a young adult by the time they are 100). They rarely form friendships with others, and usually choose a marriage based on physical traits such as strength, agility, or their fortitude.

Like a glacier the Ae'esh are often seen as an unstoppable force when they pick a direction to go in. They will often resolve conflict simply and shortly by a show of force, and often revel in fighting and warfare. The use of peaceful methods to resolve conflict are seen as weak at best, and often almost heretical at worst.

Wild Living

The Ae'esh can often be found living in mountains, frozen plains, and tundra. They struggle to handle high temperatures and will wear little in the cold as they have adapted to living in it so well. The average Ae'esh will excel in hunting and can seemingly find game when there is none, along with knowing how to survive with very little and make that little they do have go a long way. They prefer to live either with other Ae'esh or alone and avoid other races as often as they can.

Ae'esh are rarely seen outside their homelands, and those that are seen are often mercenaries, bandits, or soldiers. When outside their homelands they often pack light and try their best to make do with what they can find in the wilds.

Exploration and Adventure

Despite the dislike Ae'esh hold for other lands and people, they do enjoy exploration and adventuring into the wilds where they can spend time hunting or training. Many a young Ae'esh will venture out of their lands to search for train in new lands and push themselves to new limits whenever possible.

Cold and Cruel, Distant and Trustworthy

Despite their often cold and cruel demeanour the Ae'esh make for good companions when possible, they value loyalty and trust highly and if they stay around someone it often means they would kill and die for that person.

Dwarves. “Dwarves, a race of workers and revellers. If they spent less time in bars they may make for great warriors, and many often do.”

Halflings. “Halflings are often weak, able to be pushed around by others quite readily. It is a surprise they have survived this long, so perhaps they may have more to them than meets the eye”

Humans. “Ambitious and mysterious humans are hard to know the want and wills of, having made great warriors and great poet alike. They often push themselves for great goals and ideals, only to never see them realised in their short lives, pity.”

Ae'esh Names

Ae'esh are often seen as children until their 100th birthday, upon which they will often go out to make their own and learn to survive the best they can.

Upon leaving many Ae'esh will leave behind whatever names they may have been called in the past, as now they see themselves as a new person and so will pick a new name to reflect that. They often name themselves from a process they call 'channelling' where they spend time in the wilds to meditate and will pick a name from whatever comes to mind from this. Often the names are odd and seemingly random, but to them they usually have deep and profound meaning. As children on the other hand they will often be named either after places or objects, in their native tongue of course. Many who do not speak the Ae'esh language prefer to call them by translations of their family names as they are often from their profession or place of living, although those that speak elvish languages can often pronounce Ae'esh names with ease, even if they may still sound odd to them.

Child Names: Bohg, Foz, Hkan, Intara, Kih, Ji, Nact, Pol, Ripo, Tu, Tor, Tataran, Watne, Wefim

Male Adult Names: Adan, Avor, Aktriz, Bruch, Bon, Kal, Konz, Korl, Jun, Mak, Mor, Yuril, Zar

Female Adult Names: Abi, Adea, Dani, Datch, Kaki, Nosch, Orsha, Yunin, Xiela

Family Names (Common Translations): Akmon (Fletcher), Djamoke (Northern Person), Dulaoke (Royalty), Fetmuxoke (Temple Worker), Torxeth (Mountain Liver), Watnemon (clock maker)

Subrace

The Ae'esh have only one subrace, known as Lar'ek (Old Bloods), rarely seen they are often closer in appearance to normal elves, as they are often slender and taller than the average Ae'esh. They are still often of the same complexion, hair, and eye colours as other Ae'esh but lack the strength others do and instead are often more agile and have a natural affinity with magic. The Lar'ek Ae'esh are often disliked in Ae'esh society though due to their lack of martial prowess, this hasn't stopped the few of their type to rise to high positions and do great things.

Ae'esh Traits

Your Ae'esh has a great many traits at their disposal, thanks to centuries of training.

Blood of the Frozen Hells

Due to either magics from the frozen plane of hell or something else, the Ae'esh and Lar'ek have a natural resistance to the cold, albeit at a cost of their weakness to heat.

Resistant to Cold, but weak to fire

Ability Score Increase

Your Strength or Constitution score increases by 2.

Age

The Ae'esh are long lived, living upwards of 600 years and often going out on their own as 'young adults' at 100 years of age

Size

Ae'esh range from under 5 to over 6 feet tall and have stockier builds. Your size is Medium.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Darkvision

Accustomed to twilit forests and the night sky, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Trance

Ae'esh, like elves, don’t need to sleep. Instead, they meditate deeply, remaining semiconscious, for 4 hours a day. (The Common word for such meditation is “trance.”) While meditating, you can dream after a fashion; such dreams are actually mental exercises that have become reflexive through years of practice. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and Ae'esh Elvish, it is blocker than written elvish and the spoken language is much 'harsher' than normal elvish but is mutually intelligible much like an accent between to people