Aesani

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Aisani - The Cold People

The Aisani are the arch enemies of the Mastani, and have been so for as long as either race can remember. This enmity is a result of the incredible differences between the two races. The Mastani are subterranean, fire-based, highly organized, and fiercely aggressive. The Aisani are nomadic, ice-based, chaotic, and so fierce the Mastani seem passive in comparison. Incredibly, in Fuerholm, the two races, despite their huge difference in diet, and habitat, are competing for the same living space! The Mastani live in fumaroles they dig out of the smoldering volcanoes, living by tilling the land above. The Aisani live in nomadic encampments atop the skyrivers, as they call the abundant glaciers that wend their way through the mountains. The Mastani want the land they live beneath, and the Aisani want the land they ride through on their glaciers.

The Aisani are worthy foes for the Mastani. A typical Aisani warrior stands fifteen feet tall. Their skin is translucent and can be bitterly cold, giving the false impression they are composed of living ice. Their preferred habitat is so cold that liquid water is something of a novelty to them. Their technology is low, but they are potently magical, perhaps even more so than the Mastani. They are not as physically powerful as the Mastani, and are far less well organized. The Mastani have been outnumbered by the Aisani in nearly every battle they have ever fought, but the superior discipline and tactics of the Mastani have enabled them to prevail in most of these battles. The Aisani still remember the Great Battles, which occurred nearly three thousand years ago, after the Hate fell. The Mastani attacked in the confusion, driving the Aisani before them like sheep. The slaughter was unbelievable, and only the fact that the Mastani have many enemies saved the Aisani.

After, the Aisani slowly recovered, keeping well clear of the fiery mountains of the Mastani. In this time of trouble, the Aisani made an alliance that would serve them well in the future. The Hate reaches all the way to the sky (not far, in the Ironbacks!) and was being troublesome for the Skeinai, or the Sky People.

The frigid Sky People are mighty indeed, but are also reclusive and few in number. The Hate hedged them in terribly, and slew them in droves. The Skeinai came to the Aisani and asked for aid, in return for aid. In a rare moment of foresight, the Aisani agreed, and the fey and mighty Skeinai have aided them ever since. The two races get along very well, and it was the Skeinai who taught the Aisani the weather magics, as well as the techniques for awakening the air and water spirits who live in the glaciers. Now, the Aisani direct their glaciers where they will, and their approach is a terrible thing, crushing all in their path. The Mastani battle back by heating the stone beneath them with rivers of the fire that flows in abundance in Fuerholm. These battles have raged for thousands of years, with neither side able to crush the other completely.

The Aisani are jealous of the Mastani slaves, and sought the Ehvai for themselves, but try as they might the fragile Ehvai soon die in the frigid camps of the Aisani. Even the furry Burrub are unable to tolerate the freezing cold for long. Indeed, only two of the Mastani slave races are used by the Aisani. Surprisingly, the lowly Orch, humble and clumsy, are hardy enough to tolerate the Aisani. The Orch suffer under the Aisani, but they serve only poorly.

The other race the dominant giants share are the sullen Stongai. These stony giants are as valued and feared by the Aisani as they are by the Mastani. Despite their height, an Aisani is not as strong as a Mastani. The risk of a Stongai successfully rebelling is correspondingly greater, so the Aisani resort to bestial methods of control. Since the Dahvs will have nothing to do with the Aisani, the chains worn by their slaves are mostly either Orch or Aisani in make, which means they are heavy, cumbersome, painful, and utterly unbreakable. The Aisani also find the Stongai extremely attractive, and many of them serve in vile bondage to the cruel warlords and warriors. The Stongai fail to notice the cold of the Aisani world, simply finding it a comfortable room temperature. The body of a Stongai will often cool until it is colder than ice before the Stongai feels any discomfort. A simple shift is plenty of protection for them.

These slave races served as well as they are able, but the Ehvai mageslaves were an insurmountable obstacle. Finally, while in desperate straits beneath the pressure of the disciplined Mastani, the Aisani discovered the awful Roobrai. Roobrai are hideous abominations that live only to kill and eat, reveling in wild solitude and subsisting as bandits. Their monstrous powers of recuperation suit them well in this role, but their physical harmony is sufficient to allow them to function as groups. The Aisani captured some Roobrai, and bound them into slavery of the lowest sort, battering them awfully. The cold of the skyrivers has infused the Roobrai over the years, so they are scarcely recognizable anymore compared to their wild cousins. The Roobrai thrive on the punishment the Aisani heap on them. Their unbelievable magical metabolism makes them impossible to kill by simple physical damage. Only fire or acid can slay one for good. The Aisani naturally dislike fire as well as the Roobrai, but they soon learned to keep fire pits burning, to frighten the insanely fierce Roobrai. The Roobrai are not kept chained, as they will simply tear their own flesh until they can slip the bonds. Instead, the Aisani drive spikes of metal completely into their undying flesh, and can use their powers to chill the spikes and cause unbearable pain.

With the Roobrai to serve as unkillable shock troops, the Aisani finally have a foil to the Mastani Ehvai. The Mastani have never been able to keep a Roobrai sane long enough to try to enslave it, to their considerable regret.

The Aisani have a well developed culture, and everyone has a place in that culture. It is a fluid pecking order, the strong or clever dominating those weaker or stupider. They are nomadic, but because of their long lifespan and the usually slow pace of their skyrivers, it is quite common for them to inhabit the same camp for several decades and to carve out elaborate defenses. when the camp gets into the warm lowlands, it is abandoned and everything is packed back up to the head of the glacier, or even onto another glacier altogether. It is common for one glacier to house many roving bands at a time. The Aisani greatly respect strength, and care little for most other aspects of social interaction. They are innately cruel, and simply do not experience many emotions that humans have. They have no concept of mercy, love, compassion, loyalty, or tenderness. They are unable to feel friendship, and the concept of obligation to others is totally foreign to them, except to avoid punishment. All Aisani are out for themselves first, screw everyone else. They have cold, cruel, violent personalities, to the last one. They may best be described as evil to the core, from birth. They have a great deal of trouble organizing anything larger than a clan of a hundred or so, since larger groups fragment quickly as more than one powerful Aisani strives to make himself leader.

This lack of cooperation has cost them dearly in the past, and will again. The most respected class in society is the warrior, followed by a skilled craftsman. Their shamans and sages are not respected, but are greatly feared, as being even more violent and cruel than usual, on top of the odd powers they wield. These sages and shamans supply some small amount of magical prowess to the Aisani, which they sorely need to combat the Mastani and their accursed mageslaves. They have no respect for any weakling, be it a female, weak male or a slave. As badly as the Mastani treat their slaves, the Aisani are much worse. This wanton cruelty and disregard for consequences is one of the large reasons the Dahvs have sought out the Mastani as allies. They are awful, but the Aisani are much worse. The Dahvs know how the Mastani will react in most cases, but the Aisani give you no such luxury.

There is a fluid pecking order among the various tribes, and each glacier usually has one glacial chief, who at least claims to have the fealty of all the tribes on a particular glacier. Similarly, each mountain has several glaciers, and one great chief is usually the strongest, and so bullies the other glacial chiefs into aiding him and paying tribute. These tyrants are called Emirs. Each of the various ranges has several mountains, and one Emir will dominate the others, being called the Great Emir. Lastly there is an overlord, the supreme Caliph of all Aisani. This near mythic creature is the mightiest of them all. The Aisani have a fine time fighting over who are the Great Emir, who runs each mountain, who runs each glacier, etc. If it were not for the threat of the mighty Mastani, the Aisani may have driven themselves to extinction long ago.

The Aisani breed often and easily, their females going into estrus three times a year. A pregnancy lasts a year and results in two babies most of the time, each weighing fifty to a hundred pounds at birth. Given the size of the Aisani, births are easy affairs, as are pregnancies. The child reaches maturity at age thirty-five and may live to be five hundred, with luck. Few old Aisani exist, however, being killed by their more vigorous younger competitors at the first sign of weakness.

An old Aisani is possibly one of the most dangerous creatures on Erth, for their odd mystical metabolism is never content in their bodies, and they gain new, strange, abilities as they grow older. These usually involve affinity to ice or air, or new and better senses. The Aisani thrive on a diet of ice and cold air, supplemented with frozen meats and plants. How they derive nutrition from plain water ice is one of the mysteries of their magical metabolism. They especially prize fresh snow and old, dense, compacted ice from deep in glaciers. They will eat anything they kill, and often do so with great gusto. One of the largest problems they face is getting the delicious delicacies of game and fruit, when the foul Mastani control most of the land in which these things grow. Driving the Mastani out is a cherished dream of the Aisani.