Gaidelos

"Ours is the Eternal Flame"

— Gaidelos Motto

Their features are shaped by wind and flame—pale to ruddy skin, often freckled or weathered, with storm-gray or ember-bright eyes. Hair ranges from fiery red to dark auburn or deep black, often worn long or braided in tradition.

Magic

The Gaidelos are beings who channel raw magic through their own bodies, mastering fire and time with fierce resolve. Their Awakened are called Sorcerers and can overcharge themselves and cast spells without mana, pushing the limits of both magic and flesh. Their magic is visceral—drawn not from study, but from burning will. Every spell is a risk, every moment a spark between brilliance and ruin.

History

Once rulers of the sunless Cradle, the Gaidelos were a reclusive and brilliant civilization whose mastery of fire and time magic defied nature itself. Afflicted by porphyria, many of their kind could not bear sunlight, leading them to settle in the perpetual twilight of Vantasil’s Cradle, where no sunbeam touches the valley floor. There, they constructed the radiant city of An Tuil Gàrradh—The Flooded Garden—a marvel of magical engineering, now choked by ruin.

To survive, the Gaidelos altered two plants. The Suntree, created by the child prodigy Chulainn, provided heat and light to their dark world. Separately, they modified a native plant called Vantasil, hoping to create an endless food source. But Vantasil grew sentient and hungry. When God-King Branwen tried to rejuvenate it with time magic, the plants time had come—impaling him and unleashing a deadly bloom of vines. This marked the fall of the Gaidelos. Survivors fled east, their once-immortal city lost to wild growth and myth.

Today, their memory is preserved in shattered monuments, magical relics, and the lightning-wielding Dragonkin who now inhabit their fallen halls.

Notable Figures

• Chulainn, the Child of Light – A half-Hrethlingas prince and transmutation prodigy. Created the Suntree and symbolized the Gaidelos' peak. After the fall of An Tuil Gàrradh, Chulainn lead the surviving Gaidelos east in search of the Altaii.
• Branwen, the God-King – Final ruler of An Tuil Gàrradh. Revered as a god in life, slain by Vantasil during its rebellion. Her death marked the collapse of Gaidelos power. /
• Joan, the Twilight Sun – Daughter of the Ignari god Virgil and an unknown Gaidelos noblewoman. Imprisoned by her own people out of reasons unknown, now trapped in a magical portrait in the ruined castle.
• Virgil, the Silver-Tongued – A cursed Ignari god unable to withstand sunlight. Still stalks the edges of the Cradle seeking to rescue his daughter, offering dangerous bargains to adventurers.