Haltia

 

Abilities

In terms of abilities, haltias don’t have anything ‘severe’, other than their lifespan. Most notable ones are slightly better nightvision than other humanoids, and better hearing due their bigger and movable ears. Strenght-wise they’re pretty on-par with humans, although they seem to be able to activate a bump to strenght when in distress.

Lifespan

Due their longer lifespan, haltias tend to be concidered children up to 30 years, teen until around 50 and an adult after that. Their stable adulthood lasts well over 280, and health decline when they get older tends to be fast, special cases of course being some illnesses and hereditary conditions.

Society

Haltias tend to live in small-ish family groups, which can span up to several generations. Leaders of these communities are usually the elder ones, who are revered and trusted. These groups can live melded into human settlements, and still keep tight connections between themselves. These societies usually greet each other with joy, rather than implementing any kind of group distrust. There tend to be haltiass in many of the väkis that have resided there for long time. They are not bound to the place, however, and some groups have adapted into a migrant lifestyle, for example herding cattle and hunting. In different Hiidenväkis, they have also adapted their lifestyles to whatever the Hiisi requires.

Sometimes new groups can form, just by formed friendships and relationships, and the new people form new groups. This is not shunned upon, more of a celebrated event if so. Rarely elves even distance themselves from a homegroup, and go to live in human settlements, among humans.

Relations

Haltias are usually a bit anxious, and on their toes, but that’s usually not about race: but rather than the amount of people outside of their group. They are more relaxed among haltia subraces, due regarding them as their kin, and usually go along well with kannonhaltias and ahjonhaltias, but not badly at all with vedenhaltias and mananhaltias either.

Haltias regulary form co-relationships with maahinen settlements, living alongside them and helping each other.

Humans are a bit feared and revered, and haltias can act rather naive towards them, leading to humans being able to exploit their relationship rather easily.

Homelands

Haltias tend to make their homes rather similary as humans, but tend to build lower, homies houses and tighter built settlements and villages. They usually don’t dwell within deep forests, although that’s not entirely unheard of. Overall haltias and their settlements are rather versatile. They do not intend to hide in any particular way, but if there’s more human traffic and prominent road, they usually tend to go a bit further than right next to it.

Culture

Haltias regard singing and sung poems in high regard, but dancing is usually no part in this. It is normal for a whole haltia settlement to gather around the village central (or the elders house) and sing, or listen the elder one sing. Overall peace is something that is sought after, but there may be cases where there are some fights, especially when alcohol is involved, as when haltias get angry, they can be downright furious. Anger like this is something that is regarded with respect and if someone is angry like this, others usually bow down and move out of their way, but do not try to calm them down as that is seen disrespectful to someones anger. As thus, with two angry individuals some fights may ensue. They are not celebrated, but rather respected: and are let to happen, until the ones fighting have calmed down. If one happens to make permanent damage to the other, that can be either forgiven or shunned, depending on the reason of the fight.

 

Diet

Very omnivorous, even more so than humans. Haltias can add some bark and leaves to their diet with no problem, and their stomachs and palettes seem to sustain more than humans. Haltias stomachs can also melt bones, and bones are regulary kept as a kind of treats. They can eat almost anything, and regulary use different herbs to spice up food. For any human deciding to try their cooking, might want to be careful as they might contain some dangerous elements.

Subraces

There are at least four different subraces derived from elves by godly intervention, and one derived naturally.

• Kannonhaltia: Tapio and Mielikki melded them to be more alike to other forest folk, Hiiden väki are usually derived from them. It is said that they made ‘wrong’ patch first, creating a too feral version which later became trolls, and kannonhaltias are the ‘second try’, so to say.
• Vedenhaltia: by Ahti, as he molded them to fit amongst the waves. This is the biggest physical transformation, and it is said to have taken a few generations to ‘settle’.
• Mananhaltia: by Tuonetar to help tend Manala. These tall, eerie looking elves are bound to Manala and its borders after they were deemed to be bad for other races, after Rahko framed an attack by one of the largest mananhaltia settlements.
• Ahjohaltia:  Ilmarinen himself continued to enhance and modify to be stronger and tougher, to work with him. Some haltias feel disappointment and sadness that haltias weren’t good enough for Ilmarinen, but this is rarely voiced.
• Menninkäinen: a kind of a wild haltia. Very small settlements that decided to live by nature in the wilds like animals, slowly derived back closer to maahinens.

There are also cases of haltiaraces mixing, and as well as humans mixing with different haltias.

History

Stories are told that first haltias came to be, after Ilmarinen saw maahinens created by Maaemo. He begged and pleaded to have some of them for himself, and Maaemo allowed this but only if they came willingly. It was not hard for Ilmarinen to get maahinens to follow him, and soon he had a healthy village following him. Ilmarinen told them about himself, about the world and praised humans. Maahinens got interested about humans as Maaemo had kept them rather secluded and only mentioned them sometimes, but by Ilmarinens praise maahinens got enthralled. They grew sad over their differences, and after a while they begged Ilmarinen to make them more alike to men. Ilmarinen was more than happy to follow their request, and forged them in his Suur-ahjo to be more human-like. And hence the first group of haltias came to be.

Creation of subraces

After Ilmarinen continued to guide the new haltia society and ensured that all was well with their initial transformation, other gods visited the society and regarded it curiously. They too had noticed the humans to be good followers, but rather short-lived and fragile, and this new, sturdier subrace made in the deeps of the elder gods Suur-ahjo had their curiosity. First one to ask for help was Tuonetar. She requested a single haltia family to help with her and Kyöpelis work, on gathering the souls and soulbirds of dying beings. Ilmarinen of course wanted to help, but Maaemo wanted that once again, those who would leave would do so by their own will.

Hence, Tuonetar visited the settlement, and told the haltias of her peril, that if she didn’t have help, the soulbirds would wander aimlessly, until they disappeared. She wanted them to have a home until they could pass into nothingness. The haltias were afraid, and didn’t want to leave to the land of the dead, but eventually a brother and a sister decided to help. Tuonetar was overjoyed, and left with them to Manala.

Second to visit was Tapio and Mielikki. Haltias were exeedingly curious about the two-faced god, as they’ve been visited by them when living with Maaemo for several times, and as some of them wanted to go with them, Twin-god had always declined, saying that as delightful maahinens were, they were too small of a prey to help herding the forests denizens. Now, as haltias, these same maahinens, now haltias, asked if they culd join the folk of the forest, and the twin god happily obliged, if Ilmarinen would agree. He did, a bit begrudginly, and a hefty amount of haltias left with Tapio and Mielikki to join the forest.

After this, Ilmarinen and the haltias were left alone by the other gods, aside from some smaller friendly visits. During this time, Ilmarinen also brought a group to help with his Suur-ahjo deep down inside Earth. But, despite their modifications, the haltias in the group dwindled: they were not strong enough to bear the Suur-ahjos heat and long times deep down below. Ilmarinen, despite being rather cheerful normally, was disappointed. He didn’t want to show his disappointment, but haltias working with him started to notice, and felt bad that they weren’t strong enough for him. They asked if there was something that could be done, and Ilmarinen answered that they could be further refined: but it required more time in the Suur-ahjo, that they might not survive its heat. His group still persisted, and after a second round inside the Suur-ahjo, ahjonhaltias were born.

As Ilmarinen was enthralled by his new ahjonhaltias, his focus to regular haltias dwindled, and he began to spend more time underground with the ahjonhaltias, to train them and raise them in the ways of the heat, melted metal and forging. Haltias were left to their own devices for a long time. After a long while, when the settlement had to be located next to Päijänne, Ahti visited the settlement. He saw that the haltias were struggling with fishing (as he was making it more difficult), and proposed a deal: he could teach some of the haltias to herd the fish like him. As the settlement was close to famine, some of them agreed: and Ahti took them under the waves, merging them with fish. The new vedenhaltias could herd the fish as Ahti promised, but due their inability to breathe air for a longer time, they could no longer return to the settlement. And hence, Ahti gave them a place to live in his court.