The vested and Vaenir races

The Vaenir made creatures of chaos and passion. Several are recorded here; the full roster with lifespans is in the species reference.

Elves, dragons, and trow

Elves are a Vaenir race whose hatred for the Celeste runs deepest of all. Dragons are effectively ageless at the eldest, and — with the trow — are among the few Vaenir who do not hide among mortals in the present age.

The trow are shapeshifters: very beautiful, cold, foreign, and ice-natured, and given to hiding their true face from all but their spouse — tall, regal, magnetic, wintry beings whose fairness conceals something inhuman. They are natural enemies of the Aesir. Their shape-changing is innate rather than worked through a vestment, unlike the vested races below.

The vested races

The vested races change shape by means of a magical garment, the vestment. Putting it on or taking it off moves them between forms.

• The Celeste wear a feathered cloak that becomes wings, and are nearly immortal.
• The selkie wear a sealskin, in the traditional manner.
• The merfolk and the naga are also counted among the vested races; their vestments and lifespans are not yet established.

Lifespan varies from race to race, and the Celeste are the longest-lived of all; how near the selkie, merfolk, and naga come to the Celeste’s longevity is not yet established.

The Lobine, by contrast, are an Aesir creation: wolf-like guardians descended from the first Great Wolf. They shapeshift by an innate, honor-bound art of their own, not by a vestment, and are noted here only to distinguish them from the Vaenir shapeshifters.