Aedharcen

Aedharcen stand between four and five feet tall when their antlers are not considered - ranging upwards of six foot if they are. They are bipedal with digitigrade legs capped in cloven hooves. Their powerful legs are capable of launching them distances up to twenty feet with preparation. Two arms end in hands with retractable razor sharp claws that can extend several inches from their fingers.   Aedharcen coats are dappled and mottled, ranging from dull white to dark blue in color - before they have activated their camoflage. Their camoflage works best in heavily wooded in dimly lit areas, and can change the color of their coat to match their surroundings and break up their silhouette.   Aedharcen are generally broad shouldered and stocky among both genders, and the antlers of the females protrude at a different angle from their skull. Across both sexes, the antlers have a texture reminiscent of the wood of stórrwood trees, with a rough and spiky exterior that grows throughout the life of an aedharcen. Not meant to shed, losing ones antlers is seen as a sign of failure and weakness.

The aedharcen method of reproduction is by far the bloodiest among the foundlings. Under the fertile moon, aedharcen pairs will hunt a marked beast through the woods, lost in the hunt as a trance. Once they catch the beast, they fell it and tear its belly open, their child to be found bloody and steaming within.

Newborn aedharcen can walk by the time their parents have carried them home from the hunt, and adolescence is reached within five winters. By fifteen winters, aedharcen are considered full members of the community, and may take a mate themselves after they have proven themselves with a great hunt.

Stórrwood groves remained the favored habitat of the clans and lone aedharcen doing their best to survive the hellish violence of the Time of Darkness. Their camoflage works far less effectively out in the plains and furrows than it does in the dark and dense woad.

Aedharcen require a steady supply of raw meat, the diet they have maintained since the ages before the Time of Darkness. Many beasts have fallen prey to the aedharcen over the years, even other foundlings at times - though most make for poor eating.

Aedharcen have eyes matched only by the khertyr, both having spent the Time of Darkness surviving in the dark and wooded placed of the realms. They can't see perfectly in the dark of the woad, but they are far more capable than an unprepared newtling of dverge that might wander in.