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The Markhalyr

Stalwart and doomed children of the mountains

Infobox

The Markhalyr

- Facts -

AliasesThe Stonebound
TypeSentient, Humanoid
AncestryAncient Monkhalyr
Age50 Years (Adult)
1200 Years (Lifespan)
Height1.5 meters
Weight~150-250 kg (varies by mineral composition)
Weaving
Discipline		Essence Carving
SocietyFractured,
Clans
GovernanceVaries,
Elder Councils,
Theocracies,
Gerontocracies,
Tribes
SpeechMarkhalyri

"The only death one should fear, is the death of sensation. For with it dies all desire to life"

Elder Tarnir, Clan Vek’al, 17th Day of Shadowfall

"In stone, we stand. In memory, we endure. In dust, we are forgotten"

High Chanter Rulvak, Last Sermon of the Hollowed Mountain.


Basic Information:

The Markhalyr are a distinct, resilient offshoot and remnant of the ancient Monkhalyr, transformed through constant exposure to raw, primordial magic that originated during the Convergence 30,000 years ago.

Having sensed the coming apocalypse, their ancestors took shelter deep within the mountains. There, over aeons, the Markhalyr’s bodies slowly merged with stone and metal, granting them increased resilience and making them nearly impervious to external magical influence while also weakening the fabric of the Veil around them and prohibiting them from using any Weaving Disciplines other than Essence Carving

Their rigid, hierarchical society is both their strength and their doom. They dwell in monumental subterranean cities, carved from the bedrock and adorned with ancient symbols of their dying culture. They draw sustenance from the Mirror itself. This constant drawing from the mirror slowly erodes the Veil, destabilizing the world and condemning them to a gradual petrification—a process they view as their races curse and the path to their ultimate doom.

The Markhalyr have bodies that blend Khalyri form with the resilience of stone and metal: Their bodies feel cold and dense, with increased durability due to stone-like skin embedded with veins, shimmering faint threats of metal and crystal, naturally forming armor-like exoskeletons, and eyes that emit a soft, otherworldly glow.

  • Physical Characteristics: Short, broad, with thick, stone-like skin and veins of metal and crystal, granting natural armor but slowing their movements. Eye glow often matches vein coloration.
  • Longevity and Decay: Though they can live over a millennium, the latter parts of their lives are marked by increasingly severe signs of petrification. The Markhalyr see this as a symbol of their slow march toward extinction.
  • Weaving Discipline: They practice Essence Carving, a discipline allowing them to enhance objects, create runes, and imbue themselves with controlled magical properties, but with no reversal of their gradual petrification.
  • Social Structure: Fractured clans with diverse governing systems, primarily Elder Councils, Theocracies and Gerontocracies dominate, with the oldest members holding authority. Each bound by traditions and a shared sense of their impending end.
  • Religious and Cultural Beliefs: The Markhalyr hold an ingrained fatalism, revering ancestors in addition to their own interpretations of The Gods as reminders of resilience while mourning their inevitable petrification as a people.

Current Affairs

The Markhalyr exist in a fragile state, their society fractured and their civilization in decline. With each generation, they move closer to becoming immobile remnants of their past, caught between survival and the burdens of their heritage. Their once-thriving subterranean cities have become isolated strongholds, each governed by its own council of elders or tribal leader and finding it increasingly difficult to keep stable contacts to neighboring clans.

Since the Convergence, the Markhalyr have lived in rigid, insular communities, fiercely protective of their territory but increasingly affected by the toll of petrification. Their dwindling numbers and the inability to grow as a society has also left them vulnerable and Markhalyr leaders debate on the best course for their people.

Some clans have formed alliances with other underground peoples, including the Varashalyr, others have started looking to the surface, while others yet remain isolated, wary of external threats and the dangers that encroach as the Veil thins.

Key Issues Facing the Markhalyr:

  • Isolation and Division: Divided between clans and struggling with disunity, the Markhalyr lack a cohesive strategy for their survival.
  • Declining Numbers: They are a dying race. Each generation is smaller than the last as the Markhalyr struggle with infertility and the slow transformation into stone.
  • Veil Impact: The Markhalyr’s reliance on the Mirror is both a gift and a curse; while it sustains them, it accelerates the Veil’s weakening in the mountain ranges they inhabit, creating areas of instability and hazardous magical surges.
  • Relations with Other Races: While some Markhalyr clans interact cautiously with other underground or mountain-dwelling species, others are isolationist. The thinning Veil has brought Markhalyr into occasional conflict with surface dwellers as territorial boundaries shift unpredictably.

The Markhalyr stand as both guardians and prisoners of their mountain homes, resigned to their inevitable petrification yet fiercely protective of their legacy. Their society faces a paradoxical fate: while the Mirror sustains them, it hastens the unraveling of both their people and the world around them.

Myths and History:

Fact1:

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Myth2:

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