Bestiary > Humanoids > Anthronids > Radiant > Tilwen

Tilwen are a race of long lived, swift, and clever beings. Through most of civilized Terrok, tilwen make up about ten percent of the populated urban centers. Populations in rural and wilderness areas vary by location. (In some wild places they outnumber all other civilized races, because these natural settings are pleasing to them)

Tilwen prize their differences and individuality, and have a childlike charm and an infectious love for life. They are inquisitive and curious, and love puzzles, riddles and secrets, even going to great lengths to discover satisfactory answers to such things. Tilwen are not industrious and have no love of hard labor, but their crafts are ingenious and attractive, and they love making beautiful or magical things of any kind.

Tilwen are fond of wit and grace, skill and showmanship, and love magic in every form. Anything that is new or curious is a sure draw to a tilwen, and often it is this curiosity that can be their one great weakness. The arts, especially music and dance are favorite subjects, although they create great works in every media. To human tastes, tilwen art is considered wild and avant-garde, but to the tilwen every brushstroke or note should be a celebration of life.

Their humor is clever, and it is often woven into their songs and poetry. They eat sparingly, and favor vegetables, nuts and fruits. They drink wine—particularly faewine—but rarely to excess. They are not overly interested in material gain, but in human lands they try to husband their wealth wisely to afford themselves lives of ease.

The primary attribute which sets tilwen apart from all other races (aside, perhaps, from dragons) is their long lifespan. Tilwen prefer to live in the moment and celebrate the fullness of every form of pleasure, but that said, they also have great patience because their long lives give them a perspective few other peoples can appreciate.

Tilwen never show any sign of aging or graying and their skin remains unblemished until their 5th century, at least. Most continue to grow through their entire lives, and one of the surer ways to guess a tilwen's age is by his or her height. They grow to a height of approximately 15 hands in their first century, and start puberty at about fifty years old. Most are considered mature by the time they are 75.

Tilwen are born smaller, but similar in appearance to humans, aside from slender features and slightly pointed ears. During their first century they continue to resemble young humans. Most have golden blonde, brown, or silver hair, and green, amber or violet eyes during this time.

Pre-pubescent tilwen are known as 'imps,' an apt name for the energetic, mischievous youths. In most locations, tilwen cloister their young away from outside peoples, both because they are cherished so highly and as a nation have a very low birth rate, but also because imps love practical jokes, getting into places they don't belong, and discovering or inventing ingenious ways to push boundaries. As Tilwen are, as a rule, peaceful and kind, these jokes rarely come to harm, but more than one human community has shown resentment when a 'tumble' of imps has gotten loose form a local tilwen compound or palace. Adult tilwen see imps' pranks as the innocent experimentation they are intended to be.

After puberty, tilwen mellow somewhat, and begin to pursue other goals. It is during this time that most take up their first trade, becoming apprentice to a master, perfect their art, then declare another. By their third century, a tilweni may have had many occupations and adventures. Most learn and master one or more forms of artistic expression, as well as a variety of martial arts and survival skills. Adult tilwen of a century or more are equally at home in urban sprawls, where their wits, likeabilty and knack for politics come in handy, and in wilderness areas where they can be close to the natural beauty of Terrok.

Another striking trait of tilwen, related to their long lives and magical ties with nature, is the fact that their bodies actually evolve over time to reflect harmony with their surroundings, and become more unique in appearance the older they get. Their bodies can come in all shapes, especially among the older of their kind, but most are thin, flexible and strong. Tilwen features are finely chiseled and delicate, and they speak in melodic tones.

As they grow into their first 700-900 years, tilwen skin and hair color begins to change very slowly. Although most tilwen either leave human cities or expire by this time, those living in the wild or in their own cities will continue to change, reflecting the colors of the natural world around them. Forest dwelling tilwen tend toward light bark colored skin and green hair over time, and their limbs grow long and thin. The bodies of desert dwelling tilwen become thicker, and their skin and hair are a sandy or stony gray color. Those inhabiting arctic regions are slightly shorter and thicker to retain heat, and are often mistaken for albinos their coloration is so pale. Rare individuals also grow snowy fur over much of their bodies.

Elder tilwen living in cities of their own kind become very tall, with shining silver hair and very fair skin. Often, these elders are called "the Nobles," or "the Gray," although these respectful epithets are not part of any system of government.

Tilwen can be found anywhere there are growing things, as their bodies allow them to dwell in environments even more diverse than humans would find comfortable. There are even nations of aquatic Tilwen who have adapted to life under the seas, and passed this ability on to their children. Some aquatic tilwen choose to magically change their bodies even further, giving themselves tails like merfolk, or webbed fingers and toes.

Tilwen are said to live for as long as life is new and exciting to their spirits, often for more than 1200 years. For this reason, although bad luck or the battlefield can cut this long life short, boredom and stasis are the things tilwen fear most. Although this widely accepted theory has not been definitively proven, it is known that tilwen living in human cities and countries live vastly shorter lives than those who live in natural surroundings or among others of their kind.

Most tilwen take periodic pilgrimages to the Forest of Light, the sacred home of their race, in the hopes of pushing back the forces of stasis that wear so heavily on them. There is a pool of purest water in that place which is said to reverse the wear of the world completely with one drink, leaving them new, fresh, and ready for centuries of life. After such a pilgrimage, most tilwen do not return. Human legends call the same pool the Fountain of Eternal Youth, and although the Tilwen claim the pool has no life giving effect on humans, there have been countless wars over the ages between powers seeking to control the pool.

Tilwen are a paradox to shorter lived races because they seem flighty and aloof but underlying all their antics are the qualities of patience and forsight. A well known tilwen ideal claims "tilwen are flexible enough to stand tall in the wind, patient enough to out-wait a mountain, and quick enough to out-think a storm."

(Tilweni siri obith bama rilli il'henlafer, wa'irnym il'myron, ffliss walizund 'il entressi.)

They love ships but are not fond of subterranean areas or mines, prefering to be under the open sky. Tilwen breadth of experience tends to give them a haughtiness or patronizing attitute toward others, but they regard all sentient beings as equals. They do not make friends among other races easily, but they have long memories and a friend (or enemy) is never forgotten. They prefer to distance themselves from humans, tolerate dwarves (especially during holidays and festivals when dwarves are more at ease), find A'Shee craftsmanship and invention fascinating, and hate the evil denizens of the woods.

As they get older, tilwen develop deeper and deeper insights into the world around them, and it is this daily renewal of natural discovery that keeps them alive and well for millenia.

The tilwen have their own very complex, lilting language spoken fluently only by tilwen students who have completed their seventy year study. Shorter lived races usually can only manage to scratch the surface of understanding the shifting meanings and contextual variations, and yet a cursory knowledge of Tilwenic is considered a thing to boast of by scholars of any race around Terrok. To demonstrate the complexity of Tilwenic, consider that a master of the language can change the meaning of his words by referring to certain celestial events or to fragments of history in an incorrect tense, while simoultaneously delivering emotional overtones of sadness or amusement by the lilt of his voice. Such meanings are totally lost on listeners who might not be fully fluent. For instance, a human speaker of Tilwenic might be in a crowd of tilwen and be the only one to miss a joke at his expense. 

Such is the price of dealing with the whimsical tilwen.