Re: Elliott's peoples

Here goes an attempt at answering Sally's questions

The Neste and the "Elves" are the same. I don't call
them Elves anymore, since I didn't like the
Tolkienesque connotations. The website hasn't been
updated. What I meant by "Elves" though was the
following:

They are extremely long lived, but are not immortal.
They die around the time when they're 5,000 or so. In
the first age of the Neste, the Age of the Moon, they
lived for 2,000 to 3,000 years. As they're society
developed and the next age of occured, the age called
The Age of the Neste, their years increased to 5,000
or 6,000. After this zenith their years decreased,
I'll explain that in a second. The Age of the Sun saw
them back down to around 2,000 or 3,000 whereas the
Age of Ice was around 1,500 or 2,500. Finally in the
Age of Man, their years were around 2,000.

They are intimately connected with the Moon, which is
called by many names in all Nestean languages. In
Silindion, the moon is:

Alarie   'the Moon-Goddes'
Yariel    'the Lighter'
Silma-vaurie  'Shining-Moon Spirit'
Meulohyari 'Mother-of-Stars'
Mielea 'Holy-Mother'
Ima 'Moon'
lare 'the moon as an object'
nolma 'the white moon' (a religious amulet worn by
priests and so forth, also called _nolima_)
nona 'the waxing-moon'
niva 'the full-moon'
samma 'the waning-moon' (I'm not sure about this
one..but anyways you get the point)

When I say intimately connnected I mean intimately.
They are strengthened when in the presence of the moon
and they all have a 'third-eye' (so to speak) whose
light depends directly on the amount of moon-present.
Of course, this is all very sci-fi-esque..but, ah
well, such is life :)

Er..well, not really, but...moving on.

This third-eye is called 'esil' which is an archaic
word for 'star'. It is a faint light 'jewel-like'
thing on the forhead which becomes brighter in the
moon-light. It is their connection with the moon, and
a source of most of their stamina and strength. You
poke that thing out, you kill them basically.

Physically, they're around 6 feet tall on average.
They have slanted eyes black and brown eyes, and brown
or black hair. No pointy-ears. Basically, they look
vaguely 'Asian' although that term is not quite
accurate..but, moving onward.

They are extremely gifted in art, I suppose like
Tolkien Elves... hmm..Well...let's see. Their art is
based upon the precept that God has created
everything, and what art they make is only an
expression of God's creation. In away they are taking
the divine they think (or know) is present in the
world and giving it outward form, as a means of
glorifying and worshipping God. They put much emphasis
on Contemplation, and those who acheive total
contemplation (in otherwords, those whose 'world-soul'
merges in a way with the 'Divine-soul') are called
_Nassande_, which is loosely translated as Druids,
but...again, it's not exactly the same. Every Neste
has a potential to become a Nassande and as they come
closer to attaining that, their _esil_ becomes still
brighter.

Let's see, Neste are also connected with nature. They
view nature as the immanent-God, that is, the God
within the world, or what they term _Ildiva_ or
'Divinity'. They are part of this Divinity as God's
creation, that is; they are part of the immanent-God,
the inteligible world, just as much as they are part
of the sensible world as well. When they die however,
they are admitted into the society of the Angels, that
is, they become fully divine, and part of the
immanent-God only. There is no reincarnation. I'm not
sure if I'm explaining it correctly....ask questions,
and I'll figure it out more.

The Neste are divided into several groups:

Silindi, West Sili, South Sili, Nindi, South Nindi,
Sulindori Mendi and various other wandering tribes.

The other 'races' (although that term isn't right
either), are "GOD", Angels, Humans, Half-Neste,
Faerie, and Kalaqhai.

Angels: They are those beings which are worshipped as
the main representations of God's Will (Divinity) in
the world. They are termed _gods_ in English or
_vaure_ in Silindion. There are angels to cover The
Moon, Stars, Trees, Waters, Winds etc. They are
similar to Neste in most respects, except for the fact
that they are purely Divine to begin with, and they
are immortal.

Humans: They are late comers in the world, just like
in Tolkien. They aren't connected as closely with any
particular entity, like the Neste, however they too
are Divine and a part of the sensible world, and they
too become fully Divine when they die. They live
shorter than the Neste, somewhere around 50, to 70
years. They look like Humans in this world....and some
even look Neste-ish..although usually they aren't as
'ethereal' or seemingly unconnected the physical
realm. Their divinity lies more in Reason (as
according to Neste-Philosophy at least) than in Art as
the Neste's. They have less of a potential for
reaching full Divinity during there life like the
Neste's Nassande do. Perhaps that's merely since they
dont have the life span too. But I know there's more
separating them from Neste, I'll have to find out.

The major group is the Atalanteades, which, through
various intermarriages with the Neste are the major
source of Half-Neste.

The second major group was the Lepontids, which were
at an early time wholly mixed with the Sulindori
Neste.

Half-Neste: These are Humans who have Neste blood.
They have all the potential of the Neste, however they
must choose to fulfill that potential. If they do not,
they are only disguished from other humans in their
long life: they may live from 100 to 150 years or so.
If however they do choose to fulfill their potential
as descendants of the Neste, there are two courses
that they might follow. Either they can be like the
Atalanteades with Neste blood and become Nassande. As
Nassande they continuously strive toward complete
contemplation...but still they remain partly human and
remember their roots as well.  Or they can be like the
Lepontids with Sulindori blood and lose completely
their human identity...eventually becoming only
spirits to human and Neste alike. These Half-Neste
could not control their two heritages and faded. In
either case, those who do fulfill their potential
usually can live 200 to 300 or so years, give or take
some.

Faerie: These are spirits and demi-angels such as
'dwarves' (nothing at all like the dwarves of
Tolkien), dragons, dryads, and other types 'faerie'.
They were created in imitation of the Divine by
Angels. They are not accounted as divine and just
cease to exist when they die.

Kalaqhai: Late comers to the world. They are read
headed and slightly red skinned. They are extremely
advanced technologically and are extremely gifted in
Mathematics. They do not account Art as anything to be
pursued. Rather they look for power. They are from
another planet originally...and well, I can't speak
more of them since their history and development is
mostly the department of my codeveloper.


Oh yeah, this whole Celtic thing is blown out of
proportion...I just like the way it sounds and looks
:)
And also, the grammar is pretty cool. But, really...it
wasn't Celtic 'culture' and myth wasn't a real direct
influence. I suppose it's kind of there...


I suppose that sort of answers the question.
At least it's more in depth than I've shared here
before.

Elliott


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