mimi_sardinia (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mimi_sardinia) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
houseofstrange2017-11-17 01:09 pm
mimi_sardinia) wrote in houseofstrange2017-11-17 01:09 pm
Entry tags:
Nightlands: Moon Elves
I feel a need to think in text about the Isilmaquendár.
First thought to be had is that there is no logic for a race of pale-skinned, light-haired people to be native to an equatorial land like Endánórë.
RL racial homelands show that hotter lands tend to host darker skintones while colder host pale. There is a biological logic to that - the more melanin a person has the less UV radiation they absorb, the colder the country is, the less UV radiation reaches people, so skin that absorbs more UV - pale skin - is needed in cold climates.
So using that logic, the Isilmaquendár (Moon Elves), or Ëarquendár (Sea Elves) as they were before Nightfall, were not "Sea Elves" originally.
Now my aforementioned line of logic dictates that they should be originally from the far north, so much so that are the predecessors of the Ninquë Kessír for being the residents of the Arctic and sub-arctic north.
My chosen names for them at that point would be Helcaquendár, Helceälar, Lossëquendár and Losseälar. Ice Elves, Ice Spirits, Snow Elves, Snow Spirits.
Actually the Isilmaquendár are the only one of the three Quendár races that semi-frequently gets called "Spirits" - with a meaning of being bodiless. I want to now think this is a holdover of their earliest times in the far north, when they were viewed as spirits because they could hide in the Great White North so well people doubted they existed.
Said people who would have met them and subsequently doubted their existence would have had to have been other Quendár, or some of the elder sapient races.
Maybe it was the coming of the Kessír to the Westerlands that pushed the Lossëquendár towards the coast and to become the Ëarquendár. No matter the reason, they migrated towards the coat and took to finding ways to travel on water, likely gained contact with Leviathan, and eventually chose to migrate to and claim Endánórë as their own.
Now here I handwave the RL point above and say the Quendár are able to protect themselves from sun over-exposure, likely by the fact that they are a naturally more magical race and use magic on a cellular level to prevent UV radiation from doing damage. This however became a total moot point after Nightfall, since the sun's UV radiation was no longer reaching them.
After Nightfall they also spread along the Mist Islands, most of which were raised in Nightfall, and turned them into habitable lands.
Some of the Isilmaquendár still live on the mainland, often being the harbourmasters and ship-builders in coastal cities. Those mainlander Isilmaquendár do not acknowledge the Lossëquendár history, but the eldest amongst their people know of it and keep the histories from those times, long before the Sunset War, and even before they took to the coasts and the seas. The Lord Captain was once known as the Ice King in an age so long ago only he and a few other recall. Not even the Three Sisters recall that time, as it was before their star fell to land.
First thought to be had is that there is no logic for a race of pale-skinned, light-haired people to be native to an equatorial land like Endánórë.
RL racial homelands show that hotter lands tend to host darker skintones while colder host pale. There is a biological logic to that - the more melanin a person has the less UV radiation they absorb, the colder the country is, the less UV radiation reaches people, so skin that absorbs more UV - pale skin - is needed in cold climates.
So using that logic, the Isilmaquendár (Moon Elves), or Ëarquendár (Sea Elves) as they were before Nightfall, were not "Sea Elves" originally.
Now my aforementioned line of logic dictates that they should be originally from the far north, so much so that are the predecessors of the Ninquë Kessír for being the residents of the Arctic and sub-arctic north.
My chosen names for them at that point would be Helcaquendár, Helceälar, Lossëquendár and Losseälar. Ice Elves, Ice Spirits, Snow Elves, Snow Spirits.
Actually the Isilmaquendár are the only one of the three Quendár races that semi-frequently gets called "Spirits" - with a meaning of being bodiless. I want to now think this is a holdover of their earliest times in the far north, when they were viewed as spirits because they could hide in the Great White North so well people doubted they existed.
Said people who would have met them and subsequently doubted their existence would have had to have been other Quendár, or some of the elder sapient races.
Maybe it was the coming of the Kessír to the Westerlands that pushed the Lossëquendár towards the coast and to become the Ëarquendár. No matter the reason, they migrated towards the coat and took to finding ways to travel on water, likely gained contact with Leviathan, and eventually chose to migrate to and claim Endánórë as their own.
Now here I handwave the RL point above and say the Quendár are able to protect themselves from sun over-exposure, likely by the fact that they are a naturally more magical race and use magic on a cellular level to prevent UV radiation from doing damage. This however became a total moot point after Nightfall, since the sun's UV radiation was no longer reaching them.
After Nightfall they also spread along the Mist Islands, most of which were raised in Nightfall, and turned them into habitable lands.
Some of the Isilmaquendár still live on the mainland, often being the harbourmasters and ship-builders in coastal cities. Those mainlander Isilmaquendár do not acknowledge the Lossëquendár history, but the eldest amongst their people know of it and keep the histories from those times, long before the Sunset War, and even before they took to the coasts and the seas. The Lord Captain was once known as the Ice King in an age so long ago only he and a few other recall. Not even the Three Sisters recall that time, as it was before their star fell to land.