Consati

Consati are similar to wood nymphs and therefore could be considered a sidhe race. They are basically human, with a few notable exceptions:

• Their blood is similar to tree sap, though thinner and warmer.
• Their immune system is fairly poor when it comes to illnesses caused by humans, but they are immune to many natural ailments.
• They can sense each other within the forests.
• They can smell emotion.
• They live for as long as 1650 years, but the average life expectancy is only a little over 1100.
• They eat very little; a single elk can feed an entire tribe.

Consati live in tribal groups within the forest (referred to as clans). Tribe size ranges anywhere from 10 to 100 members.

Consati do not use the second person perspective, either in accusatory or as commands. They refer to another person as "this one" or by their name. They do not command others (and therefore have no official government), as they believe in complete free will (and vigilante justice, as well). Instead they say "This one should..." as a command. For example "This one should not fight with the human."

Consati do not approve of humans invading their forests, as humans tend to over-hunt. So far, however, humans have not reduced the size of the forests.

They are very territorial and will defend anything they view as theirs. Overall they are peaceful, but they will fight to prevent harm to their possessions. Also, they do not own the land they are on and believe all of the forest belongs to the individual clan. They do have individual homes when they complete the Rite of Adulthood.

There is only one clan per forest.

Appearance

Consati look nearly human, but are more of an amber color than the traditional pinkish hue of most Caucasian humans. They can have skin anywhere from almost pure white to a dark amber color, depending on tribe. Their eyes are any combination of brown and green (pure brown, pure green, hazel, or one brown with one green and any variation on these). They wear clothes bought from stores in nearby human towns, but modify them for camouflage and protection with things they find within the forest. Their hair ranges from black to white in shades of brown.

All Consati clothing and hairstyles are unisex, so it is not uncommon to see males in skirts with long, braided hair filled with ribbons and feathers in some clans.

Consati height ranges from 4'8" to 5'9" (1.3462 m to 1.7526 m) and they can weigh between 80 and 145 lbs (36.2874 kg and 65.7709 kg) when fully grown, with the females being on the slimmer, shorter end of the scale.

Reproduction

Bonded Consati (see "Rites", second paragraph) reproduce in the same means as humans. Though they are physically similar, Consati and humans cannot interbreed. In fact, interbreeding is physically dangerous for Consati because of their immune systems. Human fluids are caustic to Consati and Consati fluids are poisonous to humans. This is common knowledge among all Consati and humans and further raises tension between the two races.

Technology

Consati use any technology they can create with their resources as well as anything they can salvage from abandoned human settlements within their forests. This ranges from clothing to computers to weapons (which are only used within the town, as they still prefer their traditional knives).

Rites

When a Consati reaches puberty (anywhere from 130 to 180 for females and 10 years later for males), they are required to perform a simple hunt as a rite of passage. The quarry varies with the tribe. The most well-known tribe, the Rinou, must hunt an albino elk stag. This has become incredibly difficult as humans have hunted them almost to extinction for "sport".

The Rite of Bonding is similar to marriage, only it is not based on love entirely. Bonding is solely for procreational purposes, but the bonded Consati become each other's property, so the other would be willing to die in order to save them. The two that are bonded could be family (since there are no genetic Consati diseases and tribe sizes are small, incest is fairly common), friends, or even enemies. The ritual itself, however, varies between clans. It isn't uncommon for Consati clans near human towns to attempt to create the genetic diversity humans have by sending an unbonded Consati to another clan to have them bond.

Cuisine

Consati are omnivores, like humans, but only eat what they can find in the forest (unless humans have limited this with over-hunting and over-harvesting). If their forest is low on food, a consati may go into a human city to sell goods for money to buy food.

Relations

Consati rarely trade with other races and have no real system of bartering among themselves. They share necessities with each other if someone needs it. If they don't have something within the forest that they need, they will trade crafts for money in human cities so they can buy it. The majority of humans view them as dirty beggars and thieves, but this is entirely racism, as they never steal, are immaculately clean when in human cities, and never beg (or even ask) for humans to buy their goods. They are often used as scapegoats by humans, making up for up to a fifth of the local prison population in cities near their forests.

Consati are utterly afraid to enter what humans call the "city of the dead", the Dar Mien city (which they refer to as Dar Mien Cu, literally "it falls unjust here"). They are terrified of the Dar Mien because they are similar to how ancient legends describe a race bent on destroying forests, which supports the claim by the Consati ibanla (scientist of the others) that Dar Mien Cu is located where a once great forest stood with a powerful Consati tribe within. This was claimed because of how fertile the land is within the city.

Classes

Consati intelligence makes them focus more on the scientific pursuits, and therefore they have more Conduits than other races. Each village has a gravetender as well. Darkenings are fairly uncommon among Consati.