Briandyna and the Briandynians:
Briandyna is the country of Icy Mountains and wind-swept, abandoned plains. The Briandynians originally lived on the plains in low, curling buildings of shimmering stone and crystal, but when the war came between the Koholeans and the Briandynians, the Briandynian cities were razed, burned and the survivors abandoned them. Now those fields are filled with tall sweeping golden grass and grain, nearly covering the blackened burnt-out shells of buildings and crumbling foundations. In the silence you can hear the wind rustling through the tall grass and you wonder if perhaps the country is not populated at all.
Past the fields the grass gives way to soft fertile ground carpeted with thick flowers, weeds and hundreds of thousands of stakes, once covered with blood and now only wind torn with bits of fabric soaked in rain and dirt and blood nailed to their tops. This feild of tilting poles is the graveyard from that War of Old, the last warning before the Lake of Teleninamaa, where the Watery Keeper guards the pass to the foothills.
As soon as you step onto that perilous mountain path the temperature drops, as if the solid heart of some ancient god had frozen in the earth of the mountains. But all you see is the white, untouched snow. A few tracks of small feet lightly touching the snow, but these are old tracks, and with the wind that howls through the crevaces from the ocean in the east, determining how old these tracks truly are is near impossible.
The path reaches higher into the mountains, and after a few days you find your way to a valley nestled in the snow. Sprinkled with coloured lamps which reflect off the pristine white around them, and warmed by cooking fires, furs, tightly nestled houses and merriment, you feel as if you have finally found the pulse of that frozen country. In the Valley of Arrmennia you find nearly half of the entire country's population. The rest they tell you is about half a weeks trek north into the high mountains above the Courting Valley.
When you finally climb to the next settlement you see not a network of villages as had been in the Valley, but one massive crystal palace, spreading out over the snow, stretching from one stoney wall of mountain rock to the other. Its huge crystal walls have murals painted on their insides and huge internal basins of fire light their luminescent colours and send their patterns dancing over the snow outside. The towers and spires resonate with a soft heavenly singing of a tireless chorus somewhere within. Some windows release steam and others smoke, and all of it is glittering Briandynian crystal and wrought silver and electrum.
Nearly 60% of the Briandynian people live within the capitol of Usisesuoh. Nobles, aristocrats, musicians, mages, scholars, sages, pansies, dancers, prophets, all are welcome in the vast and beautifully ornate halls. Past corridors of tall inlade columns and archways, living quarters and public baths, the singing continues to resonate, growing steadily louder. And then you find the source at the very center of the palace where lies an enormous antechamber, and within it on a tall crystal throne sits the Emperor of Briandyna, his long white beard and hair swirling down over the stairs the throne rests on. The Emperor has not moved in over 50 years, and now one would think him a statue, for he never shifts, save for the occassional flick of his hands and the peaceful smile that breathes upon his lips. Around him, thousands of his country men and women have gathered to dance and talk and play, and always singers fill one wall raising their angelic voices for the Emperor.
The Briandynian people live longest of any race; the current lifespan is about 800-1000 years. Their lifespans are so lengthy because their cells take a long time to decay and an equally long time to reproduce. Because of the time and care taken to reproduce each cell, the Briandynian ages slowly, but the developement is perfect. Not a single error is made in cellular reproduction, and so they cannot get cancer, cannot scar, and take an incrdibly long time to heal. Because of this last quality, the Briandynians usually rely on magical healing to save their kind. Healing magic is not their only talent, however, for the Briandynians are among the three most powerful magic races in the world.
Briandynians are fairly short, standing about 4'8 - 5'6 usually, with slim and slender figures and androgynous features. Their skin is porcelain white, and often has the look and sheen of marble when they spend time out in the wintery climate. Their hair is pale, anywhere from a swedish blonde to a snow white, and their ears are slim and tapered, curling back to hug the sides of their heads (this protects them from wind chill). Their eyes are large and almond shaped, with large irises of brilliant green, blue or purple, and it is common to see Briandynians with one blue and one either purple or green eye. Such mismatched eyes are considered beautiful in their culture. The Briandynian teeth are all small and pointed fanglets which they use to chew the tough and thick roots and winter vegetables of their region. They also eat a lot of fowl or rodents, and rely heavily on their supply of crisp snow fruits which give them many of the nutrients they need.
Briandynians are highly intelligent and wise, but often elitist and condescending. They look down on the other western races, with exception to the Val Nyes whom they consider equals, mostly because the Val Nyes can fashion the incedibly hard and durable Briandynian crystal into formidable weapons. The Briandynians are also often seen flirting with Fudorian who they find charming and homely. The Fudorians drawn by the supernatural grace and beauty of the Briandynians have often coupled with them, and their offspring are the most common breed of halfling, or Agrimon, in the west. A Briandynian's gestation period is 100 years, and it is impossible for them to miscarry, although stillbirths occur in the case of Agrimon. When the Agrimon are successfully born, however, they are usually abandoned on the border to the Ancient Lands. The Greatest Mage of All Time, Ahd'ar'ohk, was one of these Agrimon.
The Briandynian language has its roots in the tongues of the Suoro and the Tirivahni who were among the blood that crossed to create the delciate snowy race. Their tongue is difficult in both pronunciation and grammatical structure, and its writing system is loosely based on the scrt of the Suoro.
The Briandynians make wonderful thieves and assassins, as their ability to camoflauge themselves in their environment and to flicker in between shadow ad substantiality make them incredibly difficult to fight. They are also extremely talented with bonding Familiars and casting illusions. All Briandynians can withstand cold temperatres due to their environment, and in addition they have the ability to completely still their movements so that they appear to be no more than stone statuary. When they reach their 800th year, however, they lose the ability to move, and choose either a chair or bed on which to spend the remainder of their time. Here they will remain until the day their heart finally stops. They do not wrinkle in age, but all Briandynians, females included, grow long silvery beards and mustaches once they cease to move, and this long mane of hair continues to grow until the day they die.
Because of their long lifespan, their androgynous features and their love of beauty, about 80% of Briandynians are homosexual, 12% are bisexual and the remaining 8% are heterosexual. They are the only race on the Western Continent who have such an openness with sexuality, and many times Fudorian men have been seduced by beautiful youths they thought to be women that turned out to in fact be men.
