The Peoples and Cultures of the Ascended Children
in Adventures in ValerickA Foreword regarding Ancestry, Heritage, Culture, and 'Civilization'
Hello dear reader, before you embark upon perusing this tome, it felt prudent to lay out a brief introduction as to the principles of this work, its purpose and the educational understanding behind it. I would premise all within by making clear, this tome is not to suggest or claim deragotarily that other species like the Greenskins or Bestials do not have their own cultures or 'civilizations' in a sense. They have structure, hierarchy, religion and regardless how foul we may view them, rightfully or wrongfully, even traditions. They have language, 'art' in their own twisted fashion, and even writing. To portray them, the Joten, the Night Elves or even the Norsii as anything but fellow societies is to drastically misnote their true danger and threat. They are in many cases tribal, prone to infighting perhaps, more let us say rudimentary, but they are societies in structure. They are fellow sapient beings which means the potential of their threat and power is the same as our own great nations rising out of what was a Sundered world. To view them as anything less is to be foolish.
However that is not the purpose of this work. This work is meant to be a study of our own peoples. The children of the Ascended, those whom were spared the full harshness of the Void, by their will, their sacrifice and the efforts of heroes from ages long gone, many of whom history forgot. From them we rose and because of them we stand. We flourish and have become more than merely the children. We have become distinct. Dwarves cannot produce children with mankind for example, but can with gnomes, and though it is rare, elves. Suggesting common ancestry though we know not what it is. Similarly humans cannot produce children with gnomes or halflings or dwarves, but elves and Tantur they absolutely can. We are a patchwork, descended from unknown common ancestry, likely two or three distinct lines.
Beyond this difference, we have developed different traits and body structures as well as commonalities we share. Some have diverged further, splitting into multiple groups, such as the Skye and Woad Elves, or their cousins whom lost the light, the Night Elves. Or the humans, whom have three distinct lineages, suggesting they were omnipresent before the world shattered, as they have one distinct lineage on each continent. Koltani, Mogol and Renarii.
Then we must discuss culture and ethnicity. Ethnicity influences cultures and thus that is what we mostly study herein. Our peoples are not merely divided by their genetics, however where we were born and raised, our heritage if you will, often plays a heavy role as well. It influences both how we may percieve the world and move through it, as well as in many cases, over long enough times, altering even simple things about our biology. Those with long lineage living in desert climes in their family history for example, burn less easily under the sun's harsh kiss, their skin more climatized to its piercing light and heat. Whereas those with long lineage living in the cold extremes of the Suranthi tundra may have a higher penchant for carrying a bit of extra body fat, seeing them better insulated and more resistant to the bone chilling cold that accompanies the long tundra and sub-arctic winters.
In this way we are products of our bloodlines but also of our heritages and the cultures we grow up in. Even if we acclimate beyond that moving somewhere new, those markers remain, only shifting over generations. It is these distinctions more than any that shall be the focus of this work, primarily. You will find this tome will cover three main facets. Ancestry, that is the actual sapient bloodlines of our peoples and their unique differences and markers as well as the elements of culture, linguistics and tradition tied directly to them. Heritage which is to say the more long term partially cultural and partially inherited traits, conventions and markers; behavioral, physical and otherwise based upon where you live or hail from/where your kin came from. These two things meld together in a myriad of ways to form cultures, civilizations, with a host of other factors as well influencing them, that more or help create what we might see as 'Cultures' or Ethnicities that come with all manner of interesting notes both factual and of course, inevitably, stereotypes, which will also be discussed and covered here at least a little, both their history and the disillusioning of them.
With all that in mind, should you possess the curiosity to better understand the peoples of our world, your fellow children of the Ascended, and the cultural pathwork blanket of this new age, as we rise into an era of a more modern and interconnected world, I humbly invite you to venture forth, and seek knowledge. This academic pursuit is my crowning study and achievement, and I am most pleased to be able to share what I've learned with the world.
Sincerely Yours,
Lector Rafiq Ali'mead.
However that is not the purpose of this work. This work is meant to be a study of our own peoples. The children of the Ascended, those whom were spared the full harshness of the Void, by their will, their sacrifice and the efforts of heroes from ages long gone, many of whom history forgot. From them we rose and because of them we stand. We flourish and have become more than merely the children. We have become distinct. Dwarves cannot produce children with mankind for example, but can with gnomes, and though it is rare, elves. Suggesting common ancestry though we know not what it is. Similarly humans cannot produce children with gnomes or halflings or dwarves, but elves and Tantur they absolutely can. We are a patchwork, descended from unknown common ancestry, likely two or three distinct lines.
Beyond this difference, we have developed different traits and body structures as well as commonalities we share. Some have diverged further, splitting into multiple groups, such as the Skye and Woad Elves, or their cousins whom lost the light, the Night Elves. Or the humans, whom have three distinct lineages, suggesting they were omnipresent before the world shattered, as they have one distinct lineage on each continent. Koltani, Mogol and Renarii.
Then we must discuss culture and ethnicity. Ethnicity influences cultures and thus that is what we mostly study herein. Our peoples are not merely divided by their genetics, however where we were born and raised, our heritage if you will, often plays a heavy role as well. It influences both how we may percieve the world and move through it, as well as in many cases, over long enough times, altering even simple things about our biology. Those with long lineage living in desert climes in their family history for example, burn less easily under the sun's harsh kiss, their skin more climatized to its piercing light and heat. Whereas those with long lineage living in the cold extremes of the Suranthi tundra may have a higher penchant for carrying a bit of extra body fat, seeing them better insulated and more resistant to the bone chilling cold that accompanies the long tundra and sub-arctic winters.
In this way we are products of our bloodlines but also of our heritages and the cultures we grow up in. Even if we acclimate beyond that moving somewhere new, those markers remain, only shifting over generations. It is these distinctions more than any that shall be the focus of this work, primarily. You will find this tome will cover three main facets. Ancestry, that is the actual sapient bloodlines of our peoples and their unique differences and markers as well as the elements of culture, linguistics and tradition tied directly to them. Heritage which is to say the more long term partially cultural and partially inherited traits, conventions and markers; behavioral, physical and otherwise based upon where you live or hail from/where your kin came from. These two things meld together in a myriad of ways to form cultures, civilizations, with a host of other factors as well influencing them, that more or help create what we might see as 'Cultures' or Ethnicities that come with all manner of interesting notes both factual and of course, inevitably, stereotypes, which will also be discussed and covered here at least a little, both their history and the disillusioning of them.
With all that in mind, should you possess the curiosity to better understand the peoples of our world, your fellow children of the Ascended, and the cultural pathwork blanket of this new age, as we rise into an era of a more modern and interconnected world, I humbly invite you to venture forth, and seek knowledge. This academic pursuit is my crowning study and achievement, and I am most pleased to be able to share what I've learned with the world.
Sincerely Yours,
Lector Rafiq Ali'mead.