Ehvai

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Ehvai - The High People

The Ehvai have been enslaved by the Mastani for as long as the Ehvai can remember. They have a considerable tradition of non-written legends, most of which concern the myths and legends which they have been able to preserve during their long travail. The oldest legends the Ehvai have concern the demonic Hate People, or Sachani. The Sachani are the ones who broke the Ehvai and turned them over to the mighty Mastani. The Ehvai use the Sachani as the proverbial "boogey men" and they are generally blamed for all of the ills which befall an Ehv during his or her life.

The Ehvai are long lived, often reaching a century. The legends say that the Ehvai used to live much longer lives, but the Sachani were jealous and so gave them to the Mastani, who steal the lives of the Ehvai for themselves. The Ehvai are one of the Fey races, magically powerful and gifted with grace and beauty. The Ehv are a very pretty race, slender and fine boned, with pleasing and regular features. They have skin of every color from alabaster to nutmeg, eyes which are gold, brown, lavender, green, blue, silver, or white, and hair which is blonde, white, red, green, brown, silver, gold, or black. A typical Ehv is born to a drudge or a Mage. There are female warriors, but the rigors of their lives mean they are rarely fertile, but their few children are highly prized. Ehv babies are called kits by the Mastani, and are highly prized by the Mastani, as the most valuable type of slave a Mastani can have is an Ehvai Mageslave. Ehvai are born needing a great deal of care, so most kits are removed from their mother after about six months and placed into the creche. Kits are raised in the creche until they reach the age of ten years, being used for very light tasks such as rug and basket weaving, washing, and delivering messages. From ten until twenty, the kits help in the rearing of their younger siblings, as well.

At the age of twenty, the kits have reached about two thirds of their physical maturity, and a series of tests is administered to them, these tests determining the suitability of the kits for the various professions. The most coveted job is Magery, since Mages avoid much of the brutal treatment that characterizes the Mastani. The next most coveted class is the Warriors, and finally comes drudges. Drudges make up about two-thirds of the Ehvai, and are further subdivided into menials, attendants, and artisans. A skilled artisan drudge can receive quite acceptable treatment, by Mastani standards, while a favored attendant can also live in relative comfort. The menials live a life of aching despair, and tend not to last long. Drudges are chained at all times, about the ankles and neck. Kits are fitted for their first chains at the age of ten, and are usually refitted three times before they finally reach physical maturity at age thirty. The Ehvai used to be tremendously long lived, and do not emotionally and intellectually mature until they reach at least a century in age. Unsurprisingly, most Ehvai, when they view their plight with an adults sober perspective, do not last long. The Warrior Ehvai are also chained at all times, around the ankles, neck, and wrists. The only time the Warriors have their chains removed is when they are locked into their Warmasks, about to go on a raid. Warriors are not castrated, so the competition to succeed is understandably intense. A relatively small proportion of warriors are female, since the larger males have an advantage in the sort of combat the Mastani favor. The elite class is the Mages.

Mages are not castrated, and are encouraged to brood well and often. Since they also have access to considerable power through their magic, Mages are kept gagged in a Magemask at all times when they are not in preparation for a battle. In addition, to enforce their physical helplessness they have their legs amputated at the hips as soon as they begin their mage training. Still, their duties are light and their treatment is gentle compared to a drudge or warrior. Male mages have lived as long as two hundred years before passing away, while females often live to be a hundred fifty. Female mages are bred as often as possible, as the Mastani hope to produce more mages over time. Some female mages are even retired and go into the creches, where they devote their time to raising the kits and teaching what few lessons they may pass on through their oral tradition. Kits nurse until the age of five, when they are weaned. The Mastani do not wish to have their valuable Ehvai slaves tied up nursing for five years at a stretch, so they use Orch as wetnurses, since Orch have fewer valuable skills and six teats each. Orch are also much more robust than an Ehvai, so they are less likely to pass illnesses to the kits. Being made a wetnurse for the Ehvai is one of the easiest possible duties for an Orch woman, so the competition is fierce for those positions. This is perhaps the keenest of ironies, as the Orch and Ehvai have been racial enemies from the dawn of time, as have all of the Fey and Necrofervorous. The Ehvai normally hate all Orch, and the reverse is also true, as much as the Ehvai can hate anyone.

The Ehvai do not have emotions as strongly as a human, especially anger, hate, fear, rage, etc. The Ehvai do not have adrenal glands, which certainly explains their muted response in many situations where a human would react with much more vigor. The Ehvai are blessed with superb vision, and the term they use for their infravision is heartsight. When it is extremely dark, they can see a bodies warmth, and this is what they use to communicate with their sign language in the dark. A common phrase they use is "Speak up, your hands are cold," since the bodyglow fades when the extremities become chilled.

Compared to a human, an Ehvai has a slower metabolism and a much lower body temperature, around eighty-five degrees. As a result of this, and their extremely slender build, Ehvai have great difficulty handling cold. One of the most insidious killers of the young and injured is hypothermia, and it is easy for an Ehvai to slip into a cold induced coma and die quietly. The Mastani have incredible magically amplified metabolisms and like it extremely hot, which suits the Ehvai to a "T" , but when they are forced out of the Mastani strongholds they suffer terribly in the cold. Conversely, this leisurely metabolism may be the reason that the Ehvai live to such extreme ages.

In matters of breeding, the Ehvai are not extremely fertile. Even under the best of conditions, an Ehvai woman does not ovulate more than once per year. If under stress, it is not unusual for an Ehvai woman to skip one, two, even three or more ovulations. Many Warrior maidens are under such stress that they never ovulate at all, and any Ehvai woman will not ovulate for at least three or four years after a pregnancy, no matter how gently she is treated. Fortunately, an Ehvai woman is given several cues well in advance of her estrus so that if she wishes a pregnancy, she may prepare for it. These cues include aggressive lubrication, light cramping, an increase in metabolism, and increased sexual urge. If she mates during her estrus, or is "brooded" as the Mastani put it, she will conceive a child about two-thirds of the time.

The normal gestation period is between seven and eight months, and the kit is usually between two and four pounds at birth. The Mastani are engaged in an active breeding program with the Ehvai, and keep extensive pedigrees on all of those born. To keep track of all of this, all Ehvai kits are tattooed with a set of characters detailing their pedigree shortly after their third birthday. These tattoos go on the back, vertically down the center. Ehvai artisans make most of the Mastani clothing and housewares, as well as the majority of the clothes and tools used by the Ehvai themselves, with notable exception of the chains, shackles, collars, and other restraints that the Mastani have learned are needed to keep the Ehvai docile. Those items are made by a reluctant ally race of the Mastani, the dour Dahvs. Before they were enslaved the Ehvai were the most civilized of races, with a high culture and incredible refinement of song, dance, painting, music, and philosophical thought. The typical Ehv today is happy to survive a day without pain.