Waifs

An Introduction
The waifs were one of the first of the elder races to rise from empty trappings of a budding world. They were brought into being by Kylar, the God of darkness. Waifs stand no higher than 4 foot tall with their average height standing at about 3 foot. They have huge bat like ears which were gifted to be so hypersensitive that it became a talent, telepathy, giving them the power to hear other's thoughts and project images, sounds and ideas into the minds of others. They live for approximately 400 years, reaching maturity very quickly for such a long lived race, at around the age of 13, this is mostly due to connection of a Waifs mind to every other Waif, hearing and understanding, their ambitions, histories and their pains. The Waifs reside in the city atop a gargantuan plateau that rises up from the ground, the city and plateau are named; Kylar's Roost.

Biology
Waifs are very short race and unlike races such as the dwarves this is not offset by a broadness or thickness of stature, quite the opposite, Waifs are physically very fragile beings, with very skinny limbs and bodies. However do not think this means they are of no threat, just because their physical strength is lacklustre, they are very subtle and sneaky, magical beings who could skewer you with knives, arrows or bolts of pure darkness as they see fit, before you even know they are there. Waifs have oddly shaped heads, unlike most humanoid beings whose heads tend to be rounded, a Waif's head shares some similarities to that of a hammerhead shark, just not quite as wide, their eyes are still situated at the front of the head, facing forwards. Their bodies, while being fragile and spindly, are much the same proportions and shapes as that of a human. Their skin colours vary, though they all share a paleness of colour, mostly due to lack of exposure to sunlight. The lack of sunlight is due to the dark clouded sky that hangs over all the land the Waifs call their own. Their digestive system is perfectly suited to their diet, Waifs feed on a variety of fungus that grows nearly everywhere in the world there is a lack of light, most races avoid these mushrooms, believing them to be "evil" or "bad luck" and other such superstition, however, they are perfectly fine to eat and actually contain all the nutrients Waifs require, one of these mushrooms is enough to fulfil the dietary needs of a single Waif for one full day.

A Struggle To Survive Creation
Just before Kylar first brought the Waifs into being, he first raised the mountains, and the plateau upon which they would build their city. The Waifs spent some time soon after their creation milling about in the maze of tunnels that riddled the great plateau, with little direction, at this point in their lifespan they did not have any hyper sense of telepathy, they formed a primitive first language, with no direction and incentive they began fighting amongst themselves with rudimentary daggers and bows, fashioned from the rock around them and the wood equivalent of the great fungi stalks, found in a grand forest of giant mushrooms to the north east. Very soon they discovered an animal species, resembling a bat, but on a grander scale, a body length at least 9 feet at maturity and a wingspan to match. This forced the Waifs to begin working together more closely, out of a basic need to survive, these bats do not always feed on the Waifs preferring to eat the fungus found so bountifully in the tunnels however they began to eat Waifs due to the ease of access to them. Unknown to them, Kylar had created these hyper aggressive bats to force the Waifs into a closer companionship, and also a tool for later. Soon the Waifs began to create rudimentary structures atop the plateau, no longer residing primarily in the tunnels filled with the bats, then, they received a dream vision of the God Kylar, at the time, only a black and formless shape to them, who told them that they had great things planned for them, and that they would soon begin a new era and to be strong in the days to come.

A New Day
On this day of the First Age, the Waifs awoke as one, after the vision of their great God, and as one, something in their minds snapped. Suddenly, everything became immensely loud and they collapsed to the ground, Kylar had unlocked their power of telepathy, they could hear the thoughts of every other being around them, the sudden influx of noise was overwhelming to the minds of the Waifs and for many hours, the race lay there, helpless, terrified of what they could now hear - everything. Soon, the Waifs groggily and weakly got to their feet, all feeling and hearing the fear and confusion of each other Waif around them, an experience that inexplicably bound them each to one another. As they looked upon one another with a newfound respect and belief, suddenly, a wave of the bats flew up out of the tunnels and around them, a cyclone of wings and ferocity, and as one power, the Waifs remembered what Kylar had said to them and turned their new power onto the mind of bats, forcing themselves into their subconscious until they broke through, gaining a passive mind control over the creatures. Realising the gift they had received they rejoiced that night, revelling in the freedom of flight! Shortly after this great event in their history, a second animal species was brought into the world by Kylar, a race of giant spiders, with bodies at an average of 8 foot, legs giving them even greater size and larger presence. However, the Waifs were not afraid this time, no, their days of fear were over, again, they pushed their talent together and forced it into the subconscious of the spiders, breaking through and taking them for their own. Though the Waifs have complete control over these animals, they still have a respect for them, as beings also created by the God Kylar they felt a duty to care for them, these creatures live nearly as family to the Waifs.

Beginnings Of A Civilization
This was a time of growth and prosperity for the Waifs, their city truly became a city, with large irregular spires being the building of choice for the Waifs, tall spindling towers that rose up from the even higher to the heavens. They began the practice of magic, magic of the dark and shadows, they created this magic and brought it into the world, they practiced this magic for much time, become relatively proficient in it's use, growing it from minor cantrips to true spells wrought from the darkness of shadow. For many years, little happened of great note for the Waifs, they got on with their lives, practicing magic, creating their history texts, making their belief of the God Kylar into a more structured religious practice, with little exploration of the outside world or any need to build defences for themselves, they believed themselves the only sentient beings of the world. However that changed in a single day. The Waifs awoke to what they believed would be any other day however the sky all of a sudden became even darker than it usually was and the Waifs heard a new sound, one that they could not place nor focus in on, they looked up to the darkened skies to see a huge and terrible figure above them, a bat larger than anything they had ever seen, making the giant bats of the region look like infants of this larger being. Though soon, their fear turned to disbelief and then to joy as the being spoke to their minds, informing them that it was in fact their God, Kylar. He warned them that there were other sentient beings out in the world and that some small forced must be raised in case of a need to defend themselves but also that the Waifs should explore the world, find these other races and make themselves known to them, gather information, find out what you can about them, get close, but stay in the darkness, do not teach them of you, have them show you the uniqueness of their species and learn what you can and with that he dived through the largest tunnel in the side of the rock and began his long sleep in his cavern beneath the mountain, waiting for the day his people would need him. This occurrence lead them to naming their city and the plateau upon which it was built "Kylar's Roost". As he settled into this sleep, he rose up a near impassable reef around the coast and coated in a dark and deadly storm that raged non-stop around the coastal regions, in an attempt to halt and slow down any potential attempts at attack on the city.

Ending Of The First Age
As the first age grew to a close, the warning delivered by their God drove the Waifs into a drive for discovery, within a short space of time, the Waifs created their first two military forces, The 1st Spider Cluster and The 1st Bat Cloud. They also improved their knowledge, learning the intricacies of bow craft, metalworking and mining. In their first digs into the rock beneath them they discovered an abundance of metal and a smattering of diamonds. During this time they also further developed and honed their abilities with their magic, feeling nearly there to full mastery of it. Also, a scouting order was made and recruiting for The 1st Scouting Expedition began, very lightly armed bat riders, with bags stuffed with provisions to last up to a year. This division was split up and sent outwards from Kylar's Roost to explore the world beyond their doorstep and discover what other sentient life existed out there. Very quickly the Waifs discovered the Dwarves who resided on the continent south of them; the Dwarves reacted kindly to the Waifs even after a worried start, with Waifs landing and staring at them, scouring the Dwarve's minds for the words of their language and the ensuing struggle to remember how to use their voices again, after centuries without uttering a sound. They then soon after discovered the Jungle beings close to the east of their lands, the Ozzies not far to the west, the Elves to the west of the Dwarves on a neighbouring continent. On the continent of the Elves they discovered the Ura people and Orcs in the south west, the Reichen, who they experienced a difficult beginning with to the north west of the Elven lands, and thought they didn't meet, they spotted the beginnings of the Freeshires and to the north of the Reichen and Ozzies, the great Ice Giants and Wolfmen of the North. The Scouting parties that ventured to the easternmost lands discovered a deadly island which they were unable to explore near the Dwarven continent, a rich jewel filled land populated by Ryken, a wild land inhabited by what appeared to be a strange breed of human with a deadly transformation into beast to the east of the Ryken and south of them a jovial and peaceful people, Halfling or Hobbits, and finally, they discovered a race of strange insectoid people to the far south east, the Fukbois.

Peace And Prosperity
The start of the Second Age was an easy time for the Waifs, little happened, yet they continued basic trade with the beings near to them, building, growing and maintaining friendships with those they could in order to protect themselves and not draw the anger of other nations. Many of the nations had large military forces which the Waifs could not stand to even slightly match if there were to be conflicts with these nations. The Waifs raised a couple more military forces just for safeties sake and continued to hone their skills in magic and also the more material knowledge's. It was a quiet period of time. Also, during the Second Age, all beings received a grand vision of darkness and destruction, the Waifs took little heed from this vision, barely acknowledging it, trusting in their God to be the one to warn them of impending dooms, and feeling safe having Kylar, the God of Darkness watching over them, assuming any darkness to be simply his power.

Changes
After a period of time in which the Waifs lived comfortably in peace, there was a day of great change. The grand dragon Mint arose over the city, claiming it to be his own, drawing people from all the nations to the Waif's city, which Mint now lorded over, they renamed it Freemint and the Waifs slunk into the background, barely noticed by any others, as was their way. The Waifs spent much of this time in their tunnels beneath the city, tending to their beloved spiders and bats, they lived as a community in the great cavern within which their God Kylar slept, they patiently waited and endured the corruption of their silent city as it was morphed into something nearly unrecognisable to them, the noise was their greatest adversary during this time. The Waifs eagerly awaited for Kylar to awaken and answer their pleas to move the outsiders away from their city so that they might have it back as their own again. However, Kylar slept on, still in his deep sleep and the Waifs continued their vigil. Mint was eventually defeated and a dwarven champion took from him the crown and marked himself up as leader of "Freemint" it was around this time that Kylar began to stir in his sleep and slowly awaken, during this process, he had the Waifs raise the shanty city of Freeport on their south east coast, he then leant some of his power to their power of telepathy to mentally persuade the thoughts of the outsiders of Kylar's Roost to leave and set up in the city of Freeport. Finally at long last the Waifs had their city back and they quickly restored everything to how it was, leaving no signs or evidence of the intrusions of the outsiders, happy in the silence of the Waifs at long last.

Closing Of The Second Age
As the second age was coming to a close, with the expulsion of outsiders from Kylar's Roost, Kylar himself finally awakened and flew out above the city, calling to his people, the Waifs, summoning them all, and he spoke down to them, questioning why they had not done something about the outsiders for so long to which they responded they had been waiting for his mark, to call out for them to do something about it and hide in the shadows no longer. Kylar, acknowledged what they had said and understood their intentions, but he did not want for this to happen to his people again and so he called out another time to them, and threw at them his power in aid, to erect a great ward around the city, to deter all but the most determined of beings from the city. Those who came towards the city would feel a growing disinterest in going there and suddenly find themselves turned around and walking away from the city and plateau, having lost any intention to go there. The Waifs rejoiced in their newfound safety, praising Kylar for what he had helped them to do, with their thanks, he again returned to his roost, and his deep sleep.

Society
The Waifs are outwardly a very silent people, who rarely feel the need to speak out loud and only do so when communicating with other beings. However, if one could hear what the Waifs do, they would realise they are not so quiet, their minds are filled with chants and song, singing the history of their people, their accomplishments and failures, the ambitions they each share and their individual aspirations, it is a glorious harmony that all Waifs can hear. The Waif religion is dedicated to their creator, the God Kylar, they worship him, not in set ceremonies as some do, or loosely call upon him as others but rather individually praise him and speak to him, they say individually but it is heard by every other Waif, though the thoughts of a Waif in worship sound decidedly different and Waifs make the choice to not listen to those thoughts, leaving each other to private worship. The Waifs have a very loose system of government, if it could even be called that. Their so called leaders are the high priests of Kylar, those who choose to live in his grand cavern and devote their time and energy to his praise, these are the Waifs who call upon others when there is need for more armed forces and are looked to in times of crisis. Yet day to day Waifs devote themselves to their passion, be it bowcraft, magic, harvesting, tailoring or animal husbandry, they do as they wish and enjoy what they do with their lives, following their passion. They are a content people, happy to live in peace and do as they desire.