Ewiddidir

Ewiddidir
Also Known As	Lightwings, Hummingbird Faries
Type of Group	Species
Role in Story	Secondary Protagonists
Book	Skyefin Tales (working title) by E.E. Buchanan

The Ewiddidir (eh-WEE-did-eer) Peoples, which in their language translates to their other name of Lightwings, are a large but rather delicate humanoid species of fairy. Due to their wing shape, they are sometimes referred to as Hummingbird Fairies. The entire known population resides in a mostly inaccessible part of a large rainforest in the alternate earth known as Tasiphin, though in prior days they lived far farther north. They have magic abilities mostly related to illusions and phantom sensations but also some healing and decorative skills as well. One tribe of humans with whom they had a longstanding enmity also dubbed them the "Nightmare Creatures", though this was deemed to be grossly unfair by other humans who had interactions with them.

Created by ScottyBlue.

NOTE:
This page is not free to edit unless you find a spelling error or something of that sort.

Physiology

The Ewiddidir (the term is both singular and plural) maintain many fairy traits, such as slender bones, little body hair, and wings. However, they are mostly humanoid due to the fact their ancestors were human, by most accounts.

Appearance and Dress

Ewiddidir resemble tallish, thin humans, with quite normal-looking faces and arrangement of limbs and digits. Indeed, with the wings out of sight, most Ewiddidir can be mistaken for your average human at a distance. The males average 74-80 inches (188-203 cm) in height and the females only slightly shorter. They have hair on their heads, but intertwined with their hair are several glowing feathers. Both tend to wear their hair about shoulder length and tied back in various loose, somewhat shaggy styles. The ears have a slight point to them but not much. The males have square, strong chests and slightly broader shoulders than the females but overall both genders are very slender and delicate looking at first glance. The skin is a variety of colors, mostly pale/fair but with definite tinges of other colors such as violet, blue, or green instead of pink like normal fair-skinned humans. The hair is darker shades of either purple, green, or teal-blue. From elbow to wrist, and from knee to ankle, both genders have a layer of soft, iridescent, scale-like feathers. The males also have them extending over their shoulders and upper chest, and females have them extending over their necks down to their collarbones. The hands are mostly humanoid, if a bit elongated, but on the feet the skin is tough and scaly and calloused and the toes are definitely far longer than humans. They tend to also grow out their nails, so this gives them a bit of a birdlike appearance. They have no teeth, but their mouths are not deformed sunken like a toothless elderly human, thanks to bony plates inside their gums.

The wings of an Ewiddidir, when not glowing with magic lights (see below in "Magic"), are identical to those of a hummingbird but on a massive scale. Average wingspan is as much as 12-13 ft (3.7- 4 m) in full grown adults. When in flight, these wings raise out laterally, perpendicular to the body, but when walking they are held like a moth's at a v-shaped angle to prevent them dragging the ground. The coloration, like that of the skin and other feathers, varies wildly from individual to individual, but the patterns are always of greens, pinks, purples, and blues. WHen in flight, the wings make a distinct humming that humans from Modern Earth have compared to an old F4U Corsair plane taxiing down the runway, or a small cropduster buzzing overhead at a distance.

Typically, they dress in magically-created clothes that are a combination of plant material and magically enlarged feathers. The males tend to keep their chests bare and wear long, flowing short-sleeved or sleeveless robes and knee-length trousers, with ropes of beads and jewels and feathers around their necks. Females wear knee-length tights and loose, high-collared sleeveless or short-sleeved tunics, often with dozens of long, thin long peacock-like (or more accurately racquet-tail hummingbird like) feathers dangling sporadically all around the tunic hem like tassels, as well as ropes of jewelry about their necks like the males. Usually these baggy tunics hang asymmetrically off one shoulder. Of course, depending on personal tastes, and current occasions, there are great variations to these themes of dress, but this is the standard everyday dress of the creatures. Many Ewiddidr also have glittering jewel-like dust applied to their skin as sort of temporary tattoos, in places. This is more common in females than males.

Internal Physiology

Again, probably due to the fact they were once humans by most accounts, the Ewiddidir's internal organs and musculature are almost identical to those of humans. Average lifespan is about 85-90 years unless killed. There are a few differences, however. First off, the skull has a solid bony plate inside the gums instead of teeth, which prevents their eating anything that requires much crushing or chewing. Secondly, (see "magic" below), the muscles, especially those of the wings, tend to glow in various bright colors, when put under great strain or prolonged exertion, or when magic is being used. Furthermore, Ewiddidir bones are much lighter than normal human bones, hence their delicate nature and their very low weight for such large people. Ewiddidir are far more likely to suffer broken bones than any other serious injury, as the thick layer of feathers over most of their exposed skin prevents cuts.

Their eyes are marginally better than average, and their lungs have a far greater capacity than the average human, allowing them to hold their breath much longer than the average human, sometimes as much as an hour. However, they cannot fly above a certain altitude without both the wind and the cold being too great for them. They are actually rather strong, though it is mostly lean muscle, and have a particularly fast metabolism, hence very rarely becoming stout or even more than slender in appearance. Therefore, they cannot last as long as a human can without food. An Ewiddidir who has not eaten in more than four days is very likely to die. However, they can last a day or two longer than the average human without water, getting moisture from the fruits they eat and extra oxygen from their increased lung capacity.

Ewiddidir are capable of intermarrying with and reproducing with humans. Children that come from such unions have the fairy parent's powers but usually are heavier, weaker fliers, and possess regular color skin and hair. Some have teeth. However, the magic usually is not any stronger or weaker as a general rule. Furthermore, whether the mother is the fairy or the human of the couple, the lights that come with the muscle contractions still occur when the baby is being born. A child of an Ewiddidir-Human union can marry either a human or Ewiddidir themselves but the child will always have the fairy powers regardless, being a full fairy if the half-fairy marries a fairy and another half-fairy if the half-fairy marries a human.

Magic

Ewiddidir, like most Fairy types in Tasiphin, possess some magical abilities. Almost all Ewiddidir magic occurs in connection with the motion of their wings. Exactly how this works is not fully understood, as the Ewiddidir themselves act mostly on instinct more than practice and research when it comes to using their magic, never really having need to explore much. A flying Ewiddidir has exponentially more strength with their powers than one on the ground. Furthermore, the moon seems to have an effect as well on their powers, for Ewiddidir are said to be more powerful in moonlight than in daylight, and on a full moon on a perfectly clear night they perform a moon dance, which really is just a fun and non-choreographed group flight. Being in the full light of an unblocked moon strengthens their wings and in fact young children who fail to take part in one may well have stunted wings or even non-functional ones that need treatment to become functional. A fairy whose wings are broken becomes quite weak and unable to use some of their magic, and one whose wings are completely cut off loses most of their abilities and, over time, many of the feathers on their body and their colorful skin, becoming almost like a half-fairy-half-human creature.

Specifically, Ewiddidir's magic mostly consists of feather manipulation (to make clothes mostly), light and air manipulation, illusions, dreams, and phantom feelings. They are able to disorient enemies with bright flashes of light and sensations of disorientation, floating, nausea, or being lost. They cannot manipulate a person's emotions or reactions, only alter what a person sees, hears and physically feels (touch/faint pain/nausea). They can alter the appearance of things around them, though it is only a vision and not something actually there. For instance, making a forest appear in the same place so someone gets lost, or making you see or hear someone calling you, much like a Siren. Multiple Ewiddidir together are stronger than one alone, and can even use magic to cause someone to levitate for a while, or even feel phantom pains or phantom objects touching them that are not really there. However, they use this sort of ability only in self defense. When not in danger or threatened, they can give good feelings and dreams and in fact enjoy doing this far more than anything else. They love telling stories, and use their ability to create temporary images to help 'illustrate' the stories. THey can also make shapes out of light, and leave aurora-like trails of light when they fly, especially in direct moonlight. Furthermore, they can use their more solid powers such as air manipulation to help improve the health of others. A sick or injured Ewiddidir can be revived by several companions using their magic at once, as a bit of it sort of bleeds off into the air and can be absorbed. Humans nearby have described this effect as a temporary feeling of weightlessness and general good health, though they do not actually become weightless/able to fly.

As with all Fairies, the kiss of an Ewiddidir to a non-magic person transfers magic very strongly, especially if the kisser happens to have been doing a moon dance or been around many other Ewiddidir before. This has not been fully explored, but it is known that a single kiss may cause the recipient to temporarily gain weightlessness, like a flying Ewiddidir, and it is suspected multiple kisses might do further magic.

History

The history of the Ewiddidir can be divided into four distinct eras. The second phase was actually lost to history for a while and left to vague legend. The true facts were only recently rediscovered by travelers coming upon the remains of the City of Anffin.

First Phase-Beginning

When the world of Tasiphin was created, there were a couple magical peoples and creatures, but exponentially fewer than there eventually came to be. The first Ewiddidir were either a human or half-human-half-giant people who came into contact with one of the many "Objects of Transformative Magic" (OTMs) that existed when the world was young. Most of these magical objects were meteorites or other similar arrivals from the stars, or either plants that were affected by contact with these things, and possessed the ability to transform anyone who came in contact with them and give them magical powers. There are precious few if any of these left now. In general, a meteorite or space rock type OTM could grant anyone who touched it power. A plant-type OTM would usually have to be ingested, not touched, for it to work.

It is said among the Ewiddidir themselves that a group of humans (or possibly human-giant decendants) who lived in the early days of the world discovered a strange and beautiful vine flower growing among their cultivated lands, after a meteor shower one night. The humans initially planned to burn the field, as the vines were too thickly intertwined with the young plants to dig up without killing the other plants anyway, and attempt to start that year's crop over. However, when they went to destroy them,the smell they gave off was so beautiful and delicious that many people ate them as a snack while they were working, much as one might eat a honeysuckle.

Accounts from here differ - one says that some nights later, when the full moon rose, all those who had eaten the flowers found themselves unable to resist walking out into the moonlight, and the instant the moon shone upon them, they started to glow with magic, and then to change shape and color, becoming taller and slimmer. Then, suddenly, Great wings burst from their shoulders and feathers appeared over them and their teeth disappeared, and they flew into the sky leaving glowing trails of magic behind. Another account says that once they ate one flower, they felt a great hunger and thirst for more, and began to grow feathers. Each feather that grew represented one flower and their magic abilities slowly started to appear, causing them to decide to eat the flowers until they all were gone. Over the next several weeks, they had eaten so many that by the time of the full moon the feathers had turned to wings upon their backs and in the light of the moon they gained flight and their magic powers were fully realized, though by this point they already were essentially Ewiddidir in appearance. Regardless which account is correct, most if not all of the population transformed, including unborn babies carried by pregnant women who themselves transformed, and the genetics were permanently altered so all Ewiddidir for generations to come bequeathed the powers down.

Second Phase - Anffin

This part of the history is poorly understood. What is understood comes from discoveries of scrolls and tablets and ancient writings discovered in the ruins of Anffin. This huge city, built along a temperate forest riverbank, was a great civilization and crossroads in ancient times, a place of great culture and education and home to many humans as well as some Giants, friendly Trolls, shapeshifters, and other fairies. The humans outnumbered the other creatures 10-1. Most of the beings there lived in harmony, according to what was recorded in the extensive Library which was preserved by falling rock from the passage of time.

The writings indicate that the Ewiddidir appeared about 200 years into the City's existence, though they likely had existed for centuries before, and were known to live in the woods outside the city, preferring nature to stone and buildings and crowds. However, some would occasionally come into the town to sell fruit or nuts they harvested, or goods they made from feathers. They were considered eccentric but harmless nomads, and their ability to tell and magically illustrate stories was revered. They had little occasion to use their disorienting/illusion magic but when enemies approached the city they would do this in just enough time to escape. By this time, the Ewiddidir had apparently forgotten much of their initial past and having never had a written language they spoke to each other in the language of bird-like twitters and chirrups they adopted among with other birdlike mannerisms after gaining their powers, but they were quite capable of learning the common tongue and many apparently did. Furthermore, in the marriage and birth and death records these educated people kept, there are some records of Human and even smaller giants marrying Ewiddidir and bearing fairy children.

Anffin eventually fell into ruin in its 632nd year, when the river that flowed through the city center terribly flooded from an unusually-far-inland hurricane destroying an upriver dam, killing many thousands, and bringing down most of the buildings. The potential danger of the dam had been a point of contention for many years which had caused Anffin to become less harmonious than it had been at its founding, and when it fell there were hard feelings against many of the non-human creatures who had helped to build it, the giants, fairies and trolls in particular. Unfortunately none of the peoples of Anffin were able to rebuild the city thanks to subsequent famine and hard winter and illness that claimed more lives, and conflict that arose. The ruin was eventually abandoned as people groups split and sought homes in safer territory away from others of different race. The last mention of Ewiddidir before the city was abandoned is found in the last tablet that was written and sealed in the Library, left by a scribe in hopes that maybe someday some would return and rebuild the city. It says the Ewiddidir were the first to leave, quietly disappearing one night, with one who could write the common tongue leaving a note saying they felt with their high need for food their voracious appetites were hurting the other survivors and they wished to do no harm to their friends, even if the humans no longer considered them friends. They are the only ones of the people groups that split away from Anffin that have been traced, since.

Third Phase - Vallismare

The best understood phase of the Ewiddidir's history comes after the destruction of Anffin, but is incidentally, thanks to long conflict, war, and fear, the reason why they lost a lot of their history and culture except the stories of how they first came to be. The Ewiddidir themselves do not remember the details of Anffin, but say only that they were driven from the lands they originated from by a great flood and famine, and traveled northwest, in search of food. Almost instantly, they found themselves in terrible, seemingly endless desert country with hardly any food to be had at all save insects and very scanty plants. It was only with great difficulty and much loss of life that they survived this, and found another forest near the Great Western Sea and realized they could not survive a journey either back across the desert (and they did not know the way to do so, anyway) or further across the ocean, so like it or not they were trapped in these cold, mountainous forests. There were plenty of pine nuts, insects, bee's honey, and apples to be had but not really enough for them to ever gain full strength to have the energy for another long flight, but they settled here near the fertile shores of a great lake and hot spring, about fifteen miles from the coast.

These coastal cliffs and hills were the land of Vallismare, which was the home to many small towns and villages of humans. The Vallismarians noticed the glowing lights when the Ewiddidir would fly at night, and once in a while a foraging individual in the woods might be spotted from a distance, but as the lands did not encroach, neither people saw the need to have contact with one another. The Ewiddidir in particular, probably remembering how through no fault of their own they fell out of grace in Anffin, kept themselves to themselves, though once in a while one might speak/show images to a human who approached in peace.

Unfortunately, as the human villages grew and united into larger villages over the next 150 years, the problem of needing fertile land became a serious point of contention. At the same time, they began to encroach on Ewiddidir lands, and vice versa, as populations of both people grew. The Ewiddidir began to fear the human warriors who would sometimes challenge them to fights, trying to prove their bravery, and used their magic to enchant and confuse them long enough to get away, in hopes of confusing them. However, friendly humans they interacted with with little fear, even giving gifts to favored ones, so long as there were no weapons. One or two humans were allowed into the Ewiddidir village through the illusion wall that surrounded it. The Council of Village leaders, seeing an opportunity, began a campaign of fear based on the negative interactions with warriors and the fact the Ewiddidir could cause illusions. Soon, the common theme was one of great mistrust, that even freindly gestures couldn't be trusted since there might be magic and deception behind it. Many village leaders went so far as to ban interaction with the Ewiddidir completely, and anyone who spoke against this was also deemed to be possibly "Enchanted" and not to be trusted. The Ewiddidir, in turn, began to greatly fear all humans and to keep well away from them, sensing the great danger the power-hungry leaders might bring upon them. Unfortunately, to keep away, more magic was used, thus fueling stories of the Ewiddidir of being dangerous.

Things escalated to full on war when a group of rash young warriors marched on the Ewiddidir land, supposedly to challenge them to a formal tournament for possession of the lake, which the Vallismarians contended was technically part of their land since they were int he mountains before the Ewiddidir were. They were found dead at the bottom of a cliff. The Ewiddidir, to this day, contend they never met any of the warriors and that they perished after getting lost in the terrible rainstorm that blew up the night they left. This is almost certainly true, as the cliff they fell off of is completely off course from Ewiddidir land some miles southeast, and no Ewiddidir goes flying in heavy rains as their feathers get waterlogged. However, this incident was all the Council needed to initiate the war, and the Ewiddidir were blamed for "enchanting" them to walk to their deaths and were quickly hunted down and slaughtered and their land taken. The survivors fled further into the mountains and again settled, though during the battle their disorienting magic had caused humans to drown, fight each other, or fall from ledges, thus making them guilty of human blood and permanently giving the Council reason to deem them enemies. The fertile lands were all taken for the Vallismarians, and settled there and eventually made their Capital City. This cycle repeated itself many times - each time teh Ewiddidir settlement was discovered, or an Ewiddidir was found foraging, battle ensued and the lands or foraging grounds were claimed for Vallismare, until after many generations the Ewiddidir were seen as evil forest spirits whose defeat heralded the reward of good and fertile land for the people, and the Council, for leading the army protecting the humans for the Ewiddidir, became the most powerful entity for a hundred miles and not to be opposed. Any Ewiddidr who attempted talks of peace, and any human who attempted any talks of peace on their behalf, was deemed an enemy (or "enchanted and therefore untrustworthy and dangerous" in the case of sympathetic humans) and quickly tortured or imprisoned or even killed, all hope of peace quickly faded. Warriors and Council members even began using feathers and wings of Ewiddidr as trophies to be worn or displayed, as symbols of power, until there were no Ewiddidir left to be defeated - all were killed, or had fled, and they passed into legend and eventually were considered near-myth.

For more than three centuries, the surviving Ewiddidir lived in a terraced village in a mostly inaccessible part of the mountains, coming down in the winter for shelter and to forage. Apart from the odd sight of a glowing light, or the odd feather or footprint, no humans had any interaction with them. As the generations passed, they managed to scrape out a rough but reasonably happy, if illness-stricken, life in these hidden terraces, provided they had access to foraging grounds in winter. YEars when for various reasons this did not come to pass resulted in the deaths of children and elderly, rather frequently. THey began to dread winter as the "Death season", though eventually they established some cultivated land in their lower foraging grounds and greatley reduced the risk. They did not forget, or forgive, the Vallismarians for driving them out and refused to go within miles of their cities or known hunting woods. Any human sighted was fled from immediately, no questions asked. However, the passage of time and increase of numbers of both Ewiddidir and humans and the spreading of the cities had the inevitable result, and eventually sightings of Ewiddidir became common among the humans again. By this time so much time had elapsed that humans no