Elcari
From Almeopedia
| Elcar | |
| Taxonomy: | elcar hurises |
| Habitat: | Mountains |
| Avg. height: | 4.8 ft. / 145 cm |
| Population: | 20 million |
| Verdurian: | elcar |
Elcari [ɛl ˈka rɪ] are an intelligent species found throughout Almea, chiefly in mountainous regions. Almeans consider them a different species than múrtani, but by terrestrial standards they are not, as the two are interfertile. Like humans and flaids, they are hominids.
Physical description
Elcari are adapted to high, dry climates: they have large chests with powerful lungs, can survive for a week without water, and have large noses with adaptations allowing them to breathe without water loss. They are smaller than men but stronger, especially in the upper body.
They have large ears, and not much hair. In warmer climates they tend to have brown skin and brown or black hair. In cold climates, their skin tends to be reddish and their hair white. Their feet are small with agile toes and powerful ankles, both contributing to sure-footedness on hilly ground.
An Elcar may live as long as 600 years with 300 years being the average lifespan. As they come to maturity in only 30 years, child-raising takes only a small portion of an elcar’s life, and the attention of society as a whole. Probably for the same reason, the sexes are not strongly distinguished either physically or culturally.
Lifestyle
The elcari build great stone cities (khat) in the mountains, extending deep into the earth (taking advantage of the year-round moderate temperature of underground dwellings). They are experts in mining, metallurgy, and crafts based on these such as jewelry-making, armor-making, and blacksmithy, and indeed bands of elcari often pass through human territory providing these services.
They grow crops in nearby regions, and keep animals both for wool and for meat. They can be entirely self-sufficient if need be, but freely trade with humans when the latter have desirable trade goods.
They dislike permanent obligations except those of family and friendship; they organize bodies (ddux) to take on some particular project, such as creating a new excavation, starting up a trading expedition, or waging a war, but disband it when the enterprise is complete. Larger issues are dealt with in a khat-wide council, the ggêj.
To humans, elcari seem stubborn and stolid, practical and pedantic, though they are loyal friends and jolly drunks. They are little interested in abstract studies with no practical application, and they prefer their arts to be solid, preferably made of stone— they have little patience for verbal art or literature.
Elcari worship one God, Khemthu-Nôr, and (not without reason) consider the gods of the polytheistic múrtani to be demons. Eleďi consider elcari to be unfallen, and Khemthu-Nôr to be Eleď, but some have problems with the non-trinitarian aspect of elcarin belief. Jippirasutum have a similar opinion about Khemthu-Nôr being Jippir.
Elkarîl, the language of the elcari, is extremely conservative and differs little from how it was spoken 15,000 years ago; the elcari believe their language to be a gift from Khemthu-Nôr, and far be it from mere mortals to tamper with it. This cannot be said for the múrtani to the west, who speak a related, much-altered, and (to the elcari) highly debased language called Nmuroikhu.
Etymology: Cuêzi, Caď., Ver. elcari, Barakhinei ûka, Ismaîn ełşŕ all from Elkarîl elkar ‘the making people’; Ax. gedigumei 'metal men', X. gedzaysú, Ṭeôši gezûžumi; Old Skourene atingetoro 'creators by cutting'.
See also
- Elkarîl, the language of the elcari nearest Verduria
- On the creation of the elcari, from the Count of Years
