Anasthaia

Instead of blood, Anasthaia have a sort of “liquid light” within their veins. The color of the glow tends towards warm whites and pale ambers, but the exact tint is fairly unique to the individual. When wounded, an Anasthai’s light dissipates into a glowing vapor when exposed to air, and they become dangerously dim when close to death. Strangely, Anasthaia skin feels more like soft sand to the touch. Calluses feel more like sandstone as well. But aside from that peculiar property, Anasthaia skin functions just like any other race’s.

When they do find themselves in groups of their own kind, Anasthaia tend to form incredibly tight, familial structures. Anasthaia tend to feel at least a slight innate kinship with their own kind, and it is extremely common for Anasthaia to adopt each other as parents, siblings, children, etc. Sometimes they make this adoption official through whatever the legal channels of where they live are; most of the time these relationships are unofficial. Some speculate that this behavior is partially to compensate for the fact that many Anasthaia have little to no biological family of their own; many Anasthaia have no knowledge of any parents, and most Anasthaia couples struggle to have a single child of their own. Other myths speculate that this behavior hints to a possible origin of the race splintering from one magical source—the details of which differ from myth to myth.

Anasthaia have incredibly long, emotive ears. They also have transparent hair that takes on the color of their internal glow, which also shows through their eyes. Prominent epicanthic folds are also dominant, and on the whole most Anasthaia have soft, graceful facial structures.

Anasthaia are native to the uppermost parts of the first layer of Weolcan.

All Anasthaia have an innate sense of direction that most credit to an inborn connection to the stars. They always know which way is north and many have a reputation for never getting lost. Many become excellent navigators and are highly sought after as helmsmen. In addition, almost all Anasthaia are aether-sensitive. They can tell when an Aether storm is rising, and particularly attuned individuals can sense magical Waystones and similarly magical items while blindfolded from a considerable distance away.

Most Anasthaia given names, whether given at birth or adopted later in life, tend to correlate to the stars and the night. Some are named after a star that was prominent in the sky the night of their birth, others choose a favorite constellation. Surnames, meanwhile, tend to echo human surnames as many were adopted by humans or raised near human populations.

The main organization that the Anasthaia have formed is a widespread, though thinly populated society known as the Constellation. It was originally formed as a fellowship to connect lone Anasthai to each other, but nowadays it occasionally welcomes other “lone souls” of other races and commonly acts as a diplomat society.