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+===== The Arethara, the Elder People =====
+The Arethara, who regard themselves as being the heirs and main descendants of the greater powers of the [[pantheons:class:cephareth|Cephareth]], reside within the land of [[planes:aurius:arethayn:start|Arethayn]], where light and mana emerge from the cracks within its foundations. As the Cephareth, who were the eldest ancestors of [[races:elves:start|all elven races]], had originally created Arethayn and bound [[pantheons:class:sorya|Soryi]] blood within it, the land of which the Arethara inhabit is believed to be a sign of providence by their ancestors. It is furthermore commonplace among the Arethara to claim that these powerful ancestors had gifted the Arethara with their crowns before they fell into the comatose state of death and mortality, and it was by order of these Cephareth that the caste system would be instated. From this caste would arise the theocratic authorities of the [[pantheons:class:elefyr|Elefyr]], those of the Arethara who had achieved apotheosis through a sublimation of the darkness within themselves.
+==== Origins ====
+The Arethara, otherwise known as the eldest of the elven people, are descendants of the Cephareth, the first of the [[pantheons:class:aurya|Aurya]] to incarnate from the Soryi blood that had mingled with the primal void beneath the immortal plane of [[planes:heavens:start|Avaerus]]. By the token of their ability to incarnate in this phase, the Cephareth could come to realize that they possessed the ability to manipulate the mana and energies of the light, and, in doing so, allowed them to actualize themselves into a better form by trapping the golden light within themselves. Thus was born the first of the elven peoples, who had crystallized apart from other Auryi beings at a time where the light was more plentiful and abundant throughout the worlds of creation.\\
+\\
+Upon forming from the instabilities of the beginning time from the mana and light that resided within the Aurya, the Cephareth founded a mythical land that would come to be the place of origin of all of the elven peoples, a place of consecration and stability. As this land was considered to be most reminiscent of Avaerus, the immortal plane of light and energy, it encapsulated within itself an immortality and eternal being that the darkness could not stain without a great grievance. This land would come to be known as Arethayn, the elder land.
+==== Culture ====
+The Arethara, in their earlier stages, worshipped the Cephareth as powerful ancestor spirits who they strove to emulate, though as their society grew, there came to be a stratification that saw that only the ancestors of their betters were to be emulated. It was furthermore held that these superiors were as such because of the increased presence of [[pantheons:deities:caelarkhe|Caelarkhe]]’s light within their essences, and as Caelarkhe was regarded as the primordial force that gave rise to all spirits of the world, this inclusion into their souls was advantageous. Thus, with this stratification, there came to be the worship of only Cephareth who were believed to have been particularly infused with soul and mana by the impersonal Caelarkhe, and it was from Caelarkhe that virtue and grace descended from. Idols of the most powerful of the Cephareth, then, were scattered throughout Arethayn, and it was their believed purity that the Arethara initially strove to emulate in this time of before.\\
+\\
+Though the Cephareth are acknowledged throughout Arethayn as their idols are enshrined in places of worship, the Arethara have, in modern times, adopted the worship of beings which they call the Elefyr, who are thought to be the gods of the Cephareth reborn into a modern yet recognizable form. These beings of the Elefyr are believed to be gods born of flesh and the heirs of the Cephareth’s power, and as they maintain that the Elefyr are to be acknowledged as gods, it is believed that the greater Cephareth had chosen the Elefyr to continue their legacy among the lands of Arethayn. As the Elefyr have become the primary deities to be worshipped throughout Arethayn, it is they who hold all theocratic authority among the Arethara, and they permit only worship of the greater Cephareth and themselves, thereby limiting the Arethara in their rituals of worship.\\
+\\
+The gods of the Elefyr, then, are believed to have sublimated the essence of the curse of darkness that the original Cephareth had faced, thereby being able to remain immortal and undying even in the face of the worlds of mortality that existed from without Arethayn. It is furthermore believed that they achieved apotheosis through supernatural virtue and discipline of this dark power known as Azratha, the same which haunts at all of the liminal, empty spaces between flesh and spirit. Though the Cephareth were once acknowledged as the ultimate actualization of the elven peoples, it has since become much more common among the Arethara to worship the Elefyr as such instead, simply because the Elefyr maintain themselves as being immortal entities that contrast with the deaths of the Cephareth in times of antiquity. Thus, the Elefyr have proven themselves to the broader Arethara to be more worthy of worship than the original Cephareth, thereby enabling the Elefyr a greater degree of political power throughout the land of Arethayn.\\
+\\
+With the rise of these gods known as the Elefyr, they came to instate the prolific caste system which necessarily placed the Elefyr on a higher echelon of existence than the others of the Arethara, in time completely eclipsing the practice of the worship of their betters’ ancestors. Eventually, this act of the abandonment of ancestor spirits would lead to the departure of what would become the [[races:elves:silvara:start|Silvara]], [[races:elves:ayenara:start|Ayenara]], and [[races:elves:undara:start|Undara]] as their worship of powerful ancestor spirits had become degraded in this elven, theocratic society that instead sought after the sybaritic realization of immortality rather than the emulation of ancestor spirits. With the ascension of the Elefyr to godhood and their reputation among the Arethara, the [[races:elves:neiara:start|Neiara]] would also flee Arethayn upon the fulfillment of the greater Cephareth to a higher degree of authority, as they believed the original elven society to have fallen far from the grace of that which the Cephareth had maintained and procured in times of before and thereby being led astray in their presentation.\\
+\\
+Though the caste system instigated many of the elven peoples to exit the elven homeland, there are still some to be found that reside within the lower castes. These of the Arethara believe that this preserves the purity of the original Cephareth while instigating a certain purity from them so that they can understand the Elefyr to be paragons of virtue themselves. Accordingly, any act of deviation from this purity is rejected and admonished by the greater Arethara, and this broader theocratic state holds that the ways of man and even other elven races are impure in their essential being, and thereby being lesser beings who are plagued with the blight of both death and mortality.\\
+\\
+Notably, the ideals of purity proclaimed by the Arethara are founded on the preservation of the primordial force of Caelarkhe, who had earlier been present and provided a stability to the worlds of [[planes:aurius:start|Aurius]] such that their people had come into existence. Furthermore, it is believed that the Elefyr maintain the most of Caelarkhe within themselves, enabling them to be immortal and undying in the face of change and the chaos that pervades all aspects of creation. The Arethara most commonly believe that other races evolved instead from mortality and chaos, being the offspring of such forces so that instead, they know death and change rather than the eternal life and sustenance of the light. Accordingly, the Arethara maintain that their spirituality and magic originate from the presence of Caelarkhe within their blood, and because of this connection to the divine, they find the other races with no such direct connection to have come from a world where Caelarkhe was not preserved.\\
+\\
+The magic of the Arethara is adopted from those practices of the greater Cephareth, as they formulated themselves and their physical forms through a greater prowess in the manipulation of the energies of the light, and this manipulation being the very foundation of Arethari magic as they control the mana that originates from the heavens above. Though this may be the foundational aspect of magic among the Arethara, there are many still who have founded a school that observes the manipulation of already incarnated elements, and those of these schools find this method to be less difficult in its presentation. Regardless of the disparity between the practices of magic, it is found that the higher echelons of the caste system display a greater propensity for both schools, indicating that an exposure to magic by their arcane parents provides a greater respect for such rituals. Magic is, therefore, regarded as a gift among these peoples, and not only is it potent in its practice, but it is also virtuous in that it properly enshrines the gifts of the original Cephareth.
+==== Biology ====
+These elves are known to possess a variety of skin tone, consisting of a deep golden to a slightly golden tint. Oftentimes, the exact amount of a golden tint shows which group of Aurya the elves descended from, usually a signifier of the superiority or inferiority of their position in their caste system. Their hair color is often a dirty blonde, with some being browner and some being blonder. Their eyes are often golden, as a remnant of their godly origins.\\
+\\
+As descendants of the firstborn of the Aurya, they tend to have a longer lifespan than the mortal races, the dilemma of time not being an issue for this elven race. They often live to ages of hundreds or even a thousand years, still maintaining their youthful appearances due to their potent magic. Those higher in the caste system live longer, due to their exposure to magic and relative safety from the world and its troubles.\\
+\\
+They rarely reproduce due to their extended lifespan, not seeing a purpose to reproduce unless the population wanes. They rarely even have two children in their entire great lifetime, an elven union usually producing one child.\\
+\\
+In addition to the other physical traits, they are known to be much more slender and graceful than the mortals are, the beauty of the gods revealing themselves in this elven race. Sharp, pointed ears also predominate among the race which descends from the gods, though the elven grandeur of appearance does not end with that radiance; the continuation is the flawless facial features of their high cheekbones and sharpness of the skull, the normally and traditionally taut skin revealing the original beauties of the elven facial structure.