The Silvara, the Crystallized Descendants of Nature and the Natural

The bestial and floral race of the Silvara, who inhabit the unkempt jungles of the islands referred to as the Isles of Ealis by the mannish Kataletia, live among this natural world in tribal communities just from without the gaze of the other inhabitants of the isles, their ability to become one with nature being so great. Those few who have seen and recognized those of the Silvara have observed them to be nearly bestial in their attitude and temperament, with the animalistic beings of the surrounding area appearing to be very similar to these peoples. This is because of their mutual and shared descent from the spirits of nature, who, in times of long ago, had called those who would become the Silvara to live amongst this nature within the jungles.

Origins

The Silvari race was known to have emerged from the worship of the trees, beasts, and other descendants of the original spirits of the natural and earthen, these spirits including the earth itself within its large swathe. Accordingly, this worship has given them the reputation as barbarians to the other elves, not having a caste system where those who descend from the lesser spirits are considered weaker. The spirits of nature, those same who descend from the earth goddess, are those who called them to the islands to be its protectors, as they had crystallized from the very same essences of which they would come to protect. These spirits of nature would grant the tribal peoples of the Silvara with great and boundless harvest not through agriculture, but simple foraging, being considered the children of this blessed nature and thus, being nurtured and sustained by its great powers of fruitfulness and life.

Culture

Their culture is intertwined with the deities of nature and the natural, along with their animal kin. These animals of the islands of jungle which they inhabit are protected and revered as a part of the supreme force of nature, along with the earth and trees. These savage elven peoples are also known to be much more free than the original group of elves, calling upon the powers of nature to do their bidding, and thus, not relying on a caste system, each individual being afforded with the natural rights that nature allows for them to have. The powers of nature are believed to be the most potent of all of the many forces, the laws of living peacefully amongst this revered nature concerning the wildness and the devouring of flesh and nature’s harvest of fruits and vegetables.

Though the Silvara are not united by means of government or law, they are known to each follow a code of ethics and instruction given to them by Terrara, the mother and nurturer of all of nature and the nature spirits, though there are divisions which are seen as tribes and groups of the Silvara that are shaped by the various teachings of the different spirits of nature who are born from the earth of Terrara, each tribe of Silvara being their loyal and worshipping followers. The spirits which these tribes acknowledge are believed to be their ancestors, looking upon them with great reverence as their tombs of earth and decorative cairns are believed to be sacred and yet, natural ground, the union of the elements of both natural and sacred existence being acknowledged by the Silvara as a gift of the deceased nature spirits which they claim descent from. It is these spirits who inhabit these cairns, sanctifying the ground as holy and consecrated.

A significant aspect of their culture is maintaining the overgrown jungles of the isles they inhabit, acting as guardians of the small pieces of land and the animals that belong to its natural wonder and beauty. They are known to assume the shape of the many incarnated spirits of the land, becoming the animals and trees themselves and thus, ensuring that the existence of their kind remains a secret to humanity. As protectors of the tropical jungles, they often choose to attack the violators of nature, swarming their cities of stone with great force and might and bringing their settled cities to a rather swift ending. In these times of swarming, they all take on the shape of the many animals found within the humid jungles, thus leaving the settlers with the vision of the ferocious and destructive animals and constant peril that comes with inhabiting the islands.

Biology

The Silvara, as descendants of the Auryi gods of old, were known to have originally possessed a skin color of the shade of a pale gold, along with the prevalence of the pointed ears which would allow for an even greater distinction to be withheld between those of humanity and the elves. In keeping with this descent from the pure, they also have eyes of a deep golden and hair as golden-tinted as the sun, though lacking in abundance the greater size and, accordingly, the prowess in magic that the siblings of their ancestors did and which allowed for them to consciously incarnate and maintain their shapes in the yolk that was the beginning of creation. Their smaller stature is thus more suited to the spaces of the jungles which they inhabit, allowing them to retain a certain quality of being hidden by the Kataletian colonizers. As a result of these traits, their biology has significantly differed from the grandiose stature of the Arethara, and which may furthermore distinguish them apart from their ancestors.

These elven peoples of the jungles also possess the ability to change their shape in accordance to the will of nature, oftentimes being called to hunt alongside the insentient wolves and other inhabitants of the jungle among other actions, and with this capability significantly altering their biology, even while they inhabit within their more humanoid forms. Oftentimes, worship of specific beings of both the bestial and the floral causes them to live in a form between the two in the times in which they are not engaging with any specific behavior which would require one form, thus causing the race to have a large amount of variation between their own beings. The Silvara who acknowledge the divinity of the sacred trees oftentimes boast a wrinkled skin, the bark of the trees finding its expression within these members. This adaptability, though being observed only when one of the Silvara is not engaged with an activity which would prove to be definitively easier while being held in one extreme, has caused them to be seen as some advanced form of the sentience of the jungles to the mannish inhabitants, while being considered wholly barbaric and impure to the Arethara.