Nirda

Not much is known about this northern-most nation of Noefra. Isolated at the head of the Steadfast Bay, with mountains to the south-east, the Northern Wastes to the west, and the Hagfen to the south-west, the only stories and goods about them come from the Kor Abantu. They are a source of finely-worked ivory and intricate knotwork.

Demographics

The people of Nirda (the Nirdans) are uniformly of a unique elven race, having some of the characteristics of both the puun ihmisia and the gwerin. They have the tall, long-limbed stature of the former and the bond with the elements of the latter; their hair is shades of white, their skin is pale and cool, and their eyes are blue-grey to electric blue.

The total population is only 10k or so, and the only major settlement is Nirda itself, on the shore of the Slumbering Bay.

Magic

They wield a mixture of arcane (mostly biomantic) and primal magic; the kami are uniquely ordered in their realm. There are substantial ties to air and water especially; ice aether is omnipresent (as expected from living nearly on the Arctic Circle), but the land itself is fertile due to the structured magic. They bind elementals easily, binding them to propel their pontoon boats; these three-hulled boats lift their central hull out of the water and seem to skim across the water rather than fighting the waves. They also lack sails, propelled as they are by the bound elementals.

They grow and shape biology to their needs; their large structures and ships are made out of engineered bone-trees, grown into shape rather than cut.

For reasons as of yet unknown to the outside, they seem to have a strong connection to memory and/or divination; they speak of their relatives Remembering (with the capital letter) things they could not have known (including events that occurred recently across the world).

Architecture

The buildings of Nirda are mostly underground, with mound-like entrances to tunnels. They are lit and heated by magic (tiny bound fire elementals), and most of the buildings are interconnected underground.

The only large buildings are the bone-tree spires, standing 90-120 ft tall and 30-40 ft in diameter. There are 8 of these towers throughout the city.

Culture

The Nirdans are closed off socially as well as politically. Once you know them, they marginally open up, but silence is quite common. They are extremely orderly--there is very little crime or dissent among the people, and it doesn't seem forced. Emotions are repressed as a matter of course. The only thing they show passion about is the Hagfen; anything associated with it is forbidden to even discuss, and anyone hag-touched is exiled or killed.

There is very little focus on biological ties; ancestry is recorded to avoid consanguinity, but otherwise men and women partner temporarily and then separate and polyamory is the norm. Jealousy is rare and quickly suppressed/salved. Children are raised by the community.

Outsiders

Outsiders are confined, for the most part, to one small area in the capital. Not by force, but no Nirdan outside that area will talk to an outsider except in extreme need. There is a tavern there (one of two public taverns) and an inn, and a small trading establishment where Nirdans trade engineered ivory and other goods for outside worked metal, spices, dyes, and especially fabrics