Folks of Euboa I

This picture is part of the remake of my old 'Folks' series, portraying various folks from my Witch Hunters and Sword and Feather books.

There will be more folks to describe sometime in the future, hence the 'Part One'. Originally I didn't want to write all the folks' descriptions again under this one, but I decided otherwise so you won't have to click to the single versions to read them - so please do, for they are part of the picture(s).

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FOLK DESCRIPTIONS:

In general: All folks who originated in the fae world are called Dark Folk. All folks who originated in our dimension, are called Light Folk, which might cause some confusion here and there.
 

HIGH ELVES belong to the Light Folk and are one of the old folks. They live very long, possess great magical powers and higly developed minds, but there are no telepaths among them. Living so long and knowing so much, like many highly skilled people they tend to be offish and arrogant, the dwarves say that high elves are born with a golden stick up their backside. On the other hand, when a high elf falls in love, this bond lasts all his or her life and often is so strong that if the beloved one dies, the high elf loses all will to live, withers away and follows to the grave.

HUMANS belong to the Light Folk, are one of the younger folks and the one largest in number. Aggressive, warlike and evil on the one hand, but creative, curious and benign on the other hand, they're in constant conflict with one another, the other folks and the world they live in. There are rather many humans capable of psychic powers or great magic; the older folks say that's because there's so much unused space in their heads. Compared with the older folks, humans don't live very long, which might be the reason why they tend to do things too rashly and forget about their previous mistakes too fast. None of the other folks tries so ardently to get rid of the evil  - which is caused constantly by themselves - than humans do.

DWARVES belong to the Light Folk and are one of the middle-aged folks. Short of stature, but strongly built, the tough dwarves live not as long as the oldest folks but still much longer than for example humans. There is the saying that it's much easier to kill cockroaches than dwarves. There are many different clans of dwarves that may vary strongly in appearance and culture, though dwarves can't be as easily defined into sub-folks as elves, they're more like humans here. What they all share is a rather stoic, sometimes even gruff nature, though affectionate and loyal towards those who won their hearts. They love to craft, work hard and deliver excellent results, may it be in warfare or toy making.

ORCS belong to the Light Folk and are one of the middle-aged folks. Similar to humans, the tall, athletic orcs can be found in countless shades and live almost as long as their relatives, the elves. Their home are the Great Eastern Steppes where they form nomadic clans with a rich yet rather strict culture. Cause they are such skilled warriors, orcs often work as mercenaries far away from home, so most folks had to fight against them no matter with whom they were actually in war. This might be one of the reasons why orcs suffer under a bad reputation which they don't deserve. Orcs are brave, loyal and despise to lie - which might also play a part in why so many people don't want to have them around.

BANSHEES belong to the Dark Folk and are one of the older folks. The pale, dark-haired banshees are the descendants of the ghostly fae whose scream predicts an approaching death. They had to adapt to persist in our world: Innovations like a solid body and males proved to be rather useful, so today's banshees have little similarities left with their ancestors who yet exist in the fae world. But still most female banshees can foresee the approach of a possible death and warn the person concerned. Both genders possess great telepathic and empathetic powers and can, if they should die before their time, be reborn in their old form and live on till death calls them. How fast they are reborn varies from years to those who seem to be immortal. When a banshee dies for good, the body simply vanishes into thin air, there are no mortal remains. There is the saying that banshees visit death for tea, but only if they have the time. The younger banshee generations tend to develop new powers that didn't appear before. Perhaps this can be explained by the fact that banshees are still adapting to our world.

DARK ELVES belong to the Light Folk and are one of the old folks. The high elves consider their athletic, grey-skinned relatives somewhat as the black sheep of the family, for nobody knows more about curses and similar kinds of so-called dark magic than dark elves do - and also because they look a bit wild. Though the dark elves handle their skills in a very responsible way, they may have earned them a lot of respect, but even more quite a sombre reputation. The humans, who tend to hate what they fear, were so afraid of the dark elves that their witch hunters did much harm among them during the Dark Folk Persecutions (though they actually even belonged to the Light Folk), something the witch hunters learned to regret in the end. Dark elves are rather stern, but also wise, loyal and brave. They have a grim sense of humour as well and say, their existence is a test for the other folks which those constantly manage to fail.

THE LIGHT FAE are one of the old folks and belong to the Dark Folk. The brightly pastel coloured light fae are the descendants of the legendary Old Fae, the maybe most magical beings ever. Hence also the light fae are blessed with great magical powers. The Old Fae returned to the fae world after they'd lost the bigger part of their magic, those who remained had to adapt to our world so they developed solid bodies and males. When a light faerie dies, the body vanishes in a sparkling cloud of dust, there are no further mortal remains. They are not always so sure what to think about their local fae colleagues, the banshees, and call them 'goths' -  the banshees call them 'sparkles' in turn. The light fae live rather seclusive and don't reveal much of their culture to outsiders, but they made it sure repeatedly that they don't grant any wishes. (btw: singular=faerie, plural=fae)

ALPS  belong to the Dark Folk and are one of the older folks. The pale, cat-eyed alps are the descendants of the mares, related to the shadow alps and live almost as long as elves. They have telepathic powers, but alps can also manipulate the dreams of others, they even can make the dream seem so real, that the dreamer might die of shock. Beyond that, there is another reason for occasional nightly visits: Alps are rather infertile but possess very strong genes. After being depleted by the witch hunters during the Dark Folk Persecutions, they were forced to have some children with more fertile folks, above all humans, which was very embarassing for the alps, most humans, shallow as they are, didn't mind too much having an alluring alp in their bedroom. Though alps primarily appear to be very charming and smart you shouldn't mess with them -  for behind their sparkling facade they haven't forgotten at all what wrong has been done to them.

WOOD ELVES belong to the Light Folk and are one of the old folks. They mainly live in the forests of Two Isles, in cities you may not discover until you stand in the middle of them cause they blend in so much with the nature. Wood elves are agile and fast and skilled archers, but they use magic only in unspectacular, somewhat silent ways - 'green magic', the high elves call it with a sneer. Maybe that's one of the reasons why the friendly wood elves are considered to be far less arrogant than the high elves and not as stern as the dark elves; they just tend to get along with people. The bright wood elves are very curious in a practical rather than an academical way; they like to know how things work and why people do what they do by trying and asking rather than calculating and watching. That's why they enjoy to live and work together with the other folks - at least until they miss their beloved home forest.

MARES belong to the Dark Folk and are one of the old folks. They are the ancestors of alps and shadow alps. The tall strong mares with their spooky empty eyes had huge telepathic and empathetic powers and may have been the only imperialistic folk who didn't just feel superior to others but actually was; highly skilled mares could kill with a thought. Mares could be found as the dark nightmares and the light moonmares, whose telepathic skills varied. They were united in their draconic society, that considered emotions shown in public as a sign of weakness and a disgrace. After conquering half the continent, the expansion of the Marish Empire was finally stopped by the dark elves. The huge empire fell apart and most of the other folks were quite relieved when the mares followed it into oblivion - the word 'nightmare' for a really bad dream exists for some reason. The excessive (mis)use of their telepathic powers had caused some form of incurable brain damage which was inheritable and slowly killed all mares in the centuries after their empire had fallen. Today, mares are extinct.

SHADOW ALPS  belong to the Dark Folk and are one of the older folks.The huge, winged shadow alps are related to the mares and alps and like them, they possess telepathic powers; weaker than those of the mares, but stronger than the powers of the alps. They've learned from the fate of the mares and use their powers very carefully and never to do harm. Though a shadow alp could literally tear you apart bare-handed, they are known as calm and decent people who loathe violence - maybe that's one of the reasons why the witch hunters were able to decimate them so severely during the Dark Folk Persecutions. Because of their appearance, shadow alps were often mistaken with so-called gargoyles (a winged, horned type of troll who inspired a type of decoration on high buildings) or demons, both creatures humans don't want to have around them, and they made it very clear to the shadow alps that they're not wanted either. Today, the gentle shadow alps are said to be extinct (or rather eradicated), and few have hopes that there still might be some of them left and living hidden, nonetheless.
 
ICE ELVES belong to the Light Folk and are one of the younger folks. They are NOT related to the other elf folks.
The common theory is that they decended from the elemental folks, which would also explain their strange body temperature, which is not cold in the absence of warmth, but a 'living', constant coldness. In fact, there is not much known about them, for they've lived in isolation for a very long time. On the few occasions people from the other folks could spend some time with them and return home to tell about, the ice elves seemed to be reserved and rather harsh - just very cool somehow. 'To make an ice elf laugh' is a description for trying to do something impossible. Ice elves don't like to discuss their culture with foreigners, but it is known that they worshipped a nameless double-faced hermaphroditic deity who loves the colour red. This colour is not often seen on the icy home island of the elves, and since their own blood is bluish-purple, they used to kidnap 'warmbloods' as sacrifices for their deity, or as slaves; some redheads even had the doubtful honour to serve the deity in its temple. There haven't been any known kidnappings, sacrifices or similar for quite some time now, but still the other folks can't develop real warm feelings for the cryptic icy elves yet.

FLOWER FAIRIES belong to the Light Folk and are one of the younger folks. The tiny winged fairies live in also tiny hidden towns in forests or meadows. They possess only limited magical powers and are related to the elemental folks, but not to the fae. The sparkling dust which rains from the fairies' wings when they're flying can cause an allergic reaction similar to hay fever, but that's not the main reason most folks prefer to avoid them. Flower fairies think everything is fine as long as you smile (no matter what you feel or think) and don't behave different in any way - for everything that's different, is wrong, no discussions. They preach that philosophy to everyone, all the time, no mercy. And they giggle while doing so. Grown warriors have been seen fleeing in terror after they accidentally ran into some flower fairies. The dwarves say that flower fairies puke rainbows and poop glitter, but their hearts and minds are wasteland. Since recently there seems to be some spark of rebellion among the younger flower fairies, but they still have a long way ahead of them to make a real change in their shallow twinkling world of false smiles.

EARTH ELEMENTALS  belong to the Light Folk and are one of the middle-aged folks.
Not too much is known about the placid elemetals, who can appear in various forms - actually, they can change their form to a certain degree, the skilled ones might even seem like (small) trees or (large) animals if they like.
They are quite fascinated by the strange idea of one solid form; a fascination that sometimes resulted in offsprings with other folks, but those hybrids seem to inherit very little from their elemental parents.
Earth elementals need the nature around them, if they try to live in the so-called civilisation, they become ill and might even die.
Usually, they possess only limited magical powers, but every now and then, a highly skilled mage is born - and nobody should be so foolish to cut down a tree in a forest that's protected by such an elemental mage.

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