NERETHSILA

An ancient city upon which modern-day Niania is built. Possibly of elven origins, but long inhabited by the Kelari Karragit.

NORTHWIGHTS

A humanoid race dwelling to the far, far north of Alastari on the glacier, which they call "Chisoth's Realm." A northwight resembles an elf, but has blue skin and white hair. To the best of anyone's knowledge, they cannot interbreed with humans, the very touch could freeze the human or burn the wight. Northwights subsist mostly on blood, taken from living creatures and frozen so as to be palatable. Unfrozen water has been known to burn young wights, although older ones gain strength. Very few wights have been known to live in Alastari proper, as the climate is too warm for them. They are clannish and keep to themselves.

The recorded history of the wights goes back nine thousand years. What occurred before then is officially unknown. The current king, Chisoth, was alive at that time, and can recall the first recorded event, the "Avsherk," which translates loosely as plague; although many non-imperial scholars debate as to whether or not this was actually a disease.

The only survivors of the Avsherk were members of the Jykrath tribe, led by the Xankk. The Xankk were twelve leaders in charge of the tribe. After the Avsherk, one wight, called Gkruvis-skra-Thytris, accused the Xankk of some sort of treachery (an historian "accidentally" spilled ink on those few lines). There was a fight of some kind and all of the Xankk either died or went crazy, except for Chisoth, who took the throne.

So Chisoth became the sole leader of the wights, pronounced the Xankk-Triv (a very bad thing, apparently), and Gkruvis was made armsmaster.

Other things afoot at the time: From the Avsherk came the seven thousand nine hundred fifty-third occurrence of the Vir. To define what the Vir are (translates, in this context, to "the Twelve"), some religion will have to be explained.

First there was Raad. From Raad came two pieces, equal parts of Raad. One was male, and called Tryvryk. The other female, called Vakktriva. These two were absolute opposites, and each kept to their own devices. However, Raad was not gone. The third that remained was Spawvis, the highest god of Chaos. The three forces of the universe now existed: aatha (Tryvryk), gutha (Vakktriva), and spawtha (Spawvis). To simplify and relate to human terms, Tryvryk is "good," Vakktriva is "evil" and Spawvis is "entropy," or the guy who stirs up trouble. These are incredible oversimplifications, except for Spawvis. His interest lies in rejoining Tryvryk and Vakktriva, since then he will once again become Raad. To do that, he only needs to continually bring them into contact with each other. One time, he succeeded in a big way.

Using himself to twist the visions of Tryvryk and Vakktriva, he made each appear beautiful to the other. It wasn't long before the two coupled, and the result was twelve identical offspring: the Vir.

The Vir fell to earth and joined the wights living there. When all together, the Vir wield power unimaginable to even Tryvryk, Vakktriva, or Spawvis. Alone, they are as weak as a mortal northwight. Back to the history, the Vir moved over the landscape like forces of nature, arbitrarily aiding or harming anyone or anything they met.

Returning purposefully to the Jykrath camp three days after the Avsherk, they confronted King Chisoth. Somehow, Chisoth managed to separate them enough for his guard to take them into custody. Not daring to keep the Vir in one area, he ordered them scattered across Ghea. They were all weakened, but they are still immortal in every sense of the word, and are probably roaming the world right now in search of each other.