Children of Syn
Contrary, the egg before the bird. A listless form, divine and kind, Queen of heat and sun. Weaver of light and warmth, forebear to the pull of earth and time. Before there was we, there was one. One among four, a deific Quartet of sound divine. Bred life into the light and breathed fire, a brilliant sun.
She molded us from the flame, granted us wings to fly closer to her divine light. Our wings caught fire, instead of fall like Icarus of names in another world. We soared higher, closer to our Mother. Thermals we made, to take us beyond the stars, beyond her light we took her with us. Formless she was then, an everpresent force. Granted to us, the stars she made, for we were the stars themselves.
She loved us so, she took our forms. Wings of peerless splendor, a Mother in flesh as we were Children in spirit. Immortal souls she gave us all, weaved light into the Great Mother's song and granted us sentience. Minds to think, hands to make, souls to wander. Our Dearest Syn, you walk among your Children as our Sun. Our Shining Beacon to Warm us in your arms.
Culture
Average technological level
As with all the Children of The Quartet they attained levels of technology that have never been seen since the War with the Shadows. Though the vast majority of these still exist inside The Elsewhere, many cannot be used to their full potential due to the nature of the pocket existence they live now. They had reached pinnicles of magitech that rivaled the most efficient Dyson Spheres, able to access nearly the same amount of power as the gods who created the universe for them to explore.
The Children of Syn were, however, the most advanced in terms of military might. Being the frontline protectors against the Shadows did have it's pressures involved afterall. Able to traverse galaxies millions of lightyears away from current targets in mere seconds, they were always a threat to the darkness. Never far, always near, always armed and more than capable of annihlating planets if needed. They constructed vast intergalactic warships that dwarfed moons and small planets. Known simply as the Ash Bringers.
These warships boasted the full might of Faeries and their control over entropy, sunlight and heat. Immense ionic cannons capable of igniting entire atmospheres, Seismic disruptors that shattered tectonic plates and split planetary cores. Innumerable amounts of Orbital to Surface artillary that were used to control the infection from a distance, though as the War progressed this even proved ineffective.
Each soldier that planted their boots on alien worlds was more than enough to fight back the darkness for a while. A single soldier whose wings could power thier equipment for generations given the chance. Railguns that would stop at nothing but the material held within neutron stars, ark gloves that maifested great weaves of lightning to level cities, armor intigrated for deeply within the body that it near indistinguishable from flesh and bone. A single Faerie would be more than enough for any military on the Branches of The Great Tree.
While their war machines are the metalic titans that rival the stars, their homeowrlds and cities were the things of myths and legends. While not truly specific to the Children of Syn, their cities blended perfectly with environments that hosted them. The faeries preferring to build their cities and Citadels under open planes with wide expanses of sky, so conscious they were of not disrupting the light from touch the surface. They built cities that blended seamlessly with the horizons, powered by the magic generated from themselves and the Sunlight gifted to them by their goddess.
With the aid of the Fae and the Brownies they built vast communications networks with limitless range and potential. Working with the immense distance of space, they built the Portal Nexus arrays that allowed for even faster communication and travel. Granted this is the same Portal Nexus array used extensively by the Wayfare Guild, the guild operates a stripped down version of the same network.
Funerary and Memorial customs
A delicate subject these days, one familiar and all-encompassing that their Arch Valkyrie chose to become a god of death in their greatest time of need. A funeral or death was an abstract concept for many of the Children of the Quartet. Being so long-lived as to be immortal, their individual peoples having prospered to unfathomable amounts to inhabit countless homeworlds spanning limitless galaxies. The idea that the Children were, in fact, mortal was not something the Quartet wanted to advertise to any real degree. The gods had wished for their Children to enjoy life without the worry of an end. Their plan was to create endless horizons for them to explore, to grow, and wonder with wanderlust to fill their eyes.
To the Children of Syn, when Warmth had thrown herself in her entirety to fight the Shadows and their plague, they knew death on a first-name basis. In the beginning, they were unsure of their feelings on the matter. They felt betrayed that they were mortal, they felt shame that they could be defeated, and they felt the horror as one by one they were turned and forced to kill the same faces they once loved and called family. As the war progressed and their numbers dwindled, fighting on theatres of alien worlds, wrapped and twisted by the Shadows corrupting touch, outnumbered, surrounded, a Sword of Damocles held to the throat of the gods themselves.
To the feeling of disgust they felt in their souls at killing their own people, they felt honor bound to honor those they took. The Faeries in particular feeling the change in their nature as Syn changed her own, felt it necessary to remember the Fallen. In their own way, they created something not seen. Syn was touched by their dedication to the task, and the Quartet warned against continuing the practice they created. It would only end in more of the Faeries meeting an early end, however, Syn didn't have the heart to enforce the command.
Final Sunsets
The Faeries would find the bodies of the Fallen and if they still had their wings, would wrap them around the body and place the deceased's hands over their heart. Turning their heads upward faces to the skies, they wound open their eyes to watch the skies in eternity. To them, it was cruel to disallow the fallen to not see the glory the gods had made for them. To them, what was better than to see the very suns Syn had made for them, distant stars to be the final comfort for the dead.
After the placement and posture was completed for the honor of the dead, they would immolate them. A sacred pyre made from the bones of the very beings whose flames consumed them. They found it fitting for them to be born from fire to end in that same fire. From blessed sunrise of life to their final sunset in death. From ashes to ashes. The reason for why the Quartet warned them against this was simply that they felt so bound to give their dead the final respects they deserved to such a degree, that they would enter areas of imminent danger to do so. Re-entering areas overrun with Shadow touched, overrun with shadow spawn, planets whose surfaces were reduced to nothing but nuclear glass, but they would not allow themselves to turn a blind eye to them, it put them at significant risk, and often led to more casualties than nessessary.
Though it should be said that the Children believed in no afterlife, they already walked with their Creators. They already knew a paradise in life that the Quartet had made for them, the concept of what came next was not something they thought about, is still something they do not think about even in the Elsewhere. The common saying at the time was "We'll meet on distant shores, again." The Faeries would for the sake of their own sanity joke about the mortality they were unfamiliar with. To them, they desperately tried to distance themselves from it, saying that they would meet again was their own way of dealing with the concept of death.
As a historical note, this saying spawned a traditional saying that spread into modern times of The Great Tree. The full saying was shorted to "The Shores Beyond", which over time took on different meaning to the Shadow Touched Children when the few that could remember what little they could. The Shores Beyond became the name of the afterlife to the Denizens of The Great Tree. When the shadow touched remembered the phrase, it was steeped in the same concepts that the Faeries tried to shy away from. Soaked in the blood of the fallen, bathed in the sadness and loss of the ones they loved, without ever realizing that they were the ones being mourned.
The irony that the name of the mortal afterlife of The Great Tree being used originally as their acknowledgment that there was none is not lost on the Elsewhere. They find a certain sadness that it is used in such a way, it was never a real place, it was never meant to be. The souls of the dead are returned to gods to give life a new, but what happens to a soul that has no god to return to?
Ideals
Beauty Ideals
Before the War with the Shadows
Men and women typically wore the same types of clothing, favoring long flowing garments that would listlessly drape below them as they flew. Though, anything that would impede the use of their wings was reviled, as such many of the Children of Syn would simply not wear anything to cover their chest or arms or back. Beauty was believed to be held in the mind, the soul, and the character of the individual. Therefore, the body was not seen as something to hide, not something typically hidden except out of practicality. Something they found little use for.
They were beings of Fire, Sunlight and Divine energy. Being immune to the cold or rain; wind or snow, they actually found very little use in clothing all together. A tradition echoed in how Syn chose to present herself nearly at all times, unabashed. What really set apart the beauty between men and women was how they presented their wings.
Wings made of molten Sunlight, liquid flame in the shape of butterfly wings or Dragonfly wings. Men would typically be seen pouring power into their wings to make them dance in shimmering waves of heat and plasma. While this was effortless on their part, men with greater storms of plasma and small arcs of lightning ripping between their wings were seen as being far more powerful, and thus considered more beautiful to the man not doing so.
Men would also adorn their antlers with caps of gold or bronze, often forcing pockets of cold air to surround their adornments to keep them from melting. Men also favored smalled antlers than women, seeing it to a certain degree of vanity. Keeping only the tips of their headsets capped in metal, they saw little else needed for them.
Women would favor keeping their wings bright, but not so chaotic as men. Though women would constantly flap their wings, the gentler motion being prefered. Seen as a show of control over their power, though this had much more to do with how the Goddess moved through the worlds. Mimicking her graceful movement in emulation.
Women nearly unanimously found themselves draping their antlers in opaque silks and lace. The degree to which they adorned their antlers was enough to obscure their faces from the world. Leading to a cultural normative situation where a woman revealing her face to anyone was seen as a sign of courtship. To offer an unoscured view of her face was a rare few but their lovers ever saw.
by Thereasonwhy
After War
"Oh dearest Mother, Grant us strength. Oh absent Mother, grant us peace"
The Children of Syn saw very little in way of beauty with their Goddess having chosen to become a god of war for the safety of the Quartet and all their Children. An Aegis by which the Quartet fought behind, they had become the frontline to keep their Siblings safe. With her change so too did they, lost were the days of listful beauty and casual competition between men to display the power to hidden beauties. Lost were the days of peace and pleasant dreams. Gone was the knowledge that they were safe in the arms of their Goddess.
They had become the Legion of Syn, they had no choice. It was fight or die, and fight they did and died they did. The strongest among them survived, the greatest among them survived, only they were found desirable by the Faeries. A hope of survival rather than beauty, a brilliant light in the dark. Hands dripped in molten fire, wings strong enough to burn away the darkness that eroded their world. Eroded themselves. The darkness that claimed their Goddess.
Wings occluded by armor created in mysticism and Divine protection. Bodies covered in metal unmarred by earthly means, swords held in gauntleted hands protected to fight once more. Guns raised to bring light to the Shadows and burn away their putrid miasma, their soul rotting stench. Faces hid behind visors that offered the world to them and more, to survive was the only beauty left seen in the world.
Value Shift
Where as the Faeries of old were powerful in their own right, they are the direct Children of the Goddess of the Faeries: Syn, after the War with the Shadows began the truth of why they and the other Children were shown to them. Though they were never intended to be used as such, their Divine Spark was meant to allow them to become gods alongside the Quartet. Only now, it's used as something entirely different.
Those few who had managed to nurture their Sparks to become new gods were quickly forced to give up their divinity in the defence of their peoples. Anlyth, First Son of Syn had chosen to become a God of Death to attempt to bring an end to the war alongside his Goddess. Though as she fell and the Queen of the Fae was forced into creating The Elsewhere as quickly as possible with as many of the surviving children as she could grab; Anlyth and Taneth The Navigator used their fledgling Divinity to aid her in making this safe haven.
From this point on, the Children of Syn valued the strength of a persons Spark as the only factor in beauty. The stronger they were, they more beautiful they were to their people. While this propensity has diminish greatly overtime, it still remains.
Parent ethnicities
Related Organizations
Related Myths
Languages spoken
Related Locations
Some wonderful detail here, and great prose at the beginning. The origin of the Elsewhere is fascinating.
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