Iquendi

The Iquendi are a secretive race of Elves who came from an unkown land which possibly was another continent and migrated away when they where forced out by mightier people. They would settle a long time ago in what is now SI long before even a first kingdom of man they had a mighty kingdom until a faithful day, in which a civil war consumed the Iquendi as a people into hundreds of years of war. finally, their kingdom collapsed and the surviving Iquendi retreated into the wild, and did their best to stay away from trouble. They would become known as the Iquendinorean Order which was an order of Iquendi that as rangers did their best to protect the people wandering into their land.

Origin
It is unknown where the Iquendi came from but it is suspected that they migrated away west before any of the other elven kinds migrated in the Elven Migrations they changed physically to become stronger and lived longer lives, whilest they went through the icecold tundra towards the west of rathnir.

Ancient period
The Iquendi originally lived in a fertile and plentiful land east of rathnir in a valley, which the Iquendi call "The holy land", they would found a kingdom which was believed to be known as Iquendinor. This kingdom would be founded at a well at which the first high-king of the Iquendi saw a vision of a god named "Sol Invictorion" who was also known as "the unconquered sun" who told him in his holy voice: "Thee shalt build a city around my holy lake, and thy shalt be the high-king of the kingdom of Iquendinor, if thy refuses to accept thee holy mission I give to thy, then tell me now; if thy accepts, then do as what I say and thy shalt become a prosperous leader."

The high-king would later be known as Voronwë I "The enlightened", he would build the social structure of the Iquendi. He would create the noble families, and differentiate the High Iquendi from the Iquendi in social status, he would also found the first university in Iquendi history, and lay the ground work for a strong military of unrivaled quality in the area, he would be killed in an ambush orchestrated by a rival that would end up being the bane of Iquendinor. The hard work of Voronwë I and his heirs, the Imin Voronwë, would lay the foundation for the Iquendi golden age. Or so they believed; due to war and infighting and very weak rulers, the Ancient Iquendinorean kingdom declined in splendour and power for the first time since its begin; this would all transpire into the Iquendi dark ages.

Dark ages
As previously stated, due to the first Iquendi civil war in which two brothers fought for the right to succeed their grandfather, corruption, weak rule and more the Iquendi declined in splendour and power and entered its first dark age. This also caused a sharp decline in population with approximately 35% due to disease and dispair. Whilest all of this transpired, barbarians crossed the Ered Ninuthiel which was the mountain range that existed around the Iquendi kingdom and launched an invasion to conquer the kingdom of Iquendinor.

First Barbarian Invasion
During the dark ages an invasion by barbarian human tribes which crossed the Ered Ninuthiel and arrived at the fortress of Qiralanthë which was a border fort in the Iquendinorean kingdom used to check travellers before they entered the kingdom. The barbarians wo where approximately 945 thousand strong split into two groups; the first one build an encampment for the women, elderly and children; whilest the second one layed siege to the fortress, the legendar figure, called "the first light" appeared in the fortress and rallied the outnumbered Iquendi to fight until the last man all the way until aid would arrive; this hero also had send a raven to the capital to inform of this invasion. When aid finally arrived three months later, they found a fort full of corpses of the massacered Iquendi, they would pursue the barbarians and during a faithfull day in the winter with nearly 12 inches of snow, they met the barbarians in battle, at the plain of Qurtanth at which the Iquendi suffered a deceisive defeat. After their victory the barbarians went to the unguarded city of Qalandë which they destroyed, they sold the population into slavery. The war ended when the Iquendi drove the barbarians out during the winter a few years later.

Slow recovery
The Iquendi in the late dark ages started slowly recovering in number and started rebuilding what had been lost, thanks to some terrible rulership this process couldn't be fully accomplished, an Iquendi citizen once said:"It is a wonder our kingdom still exists whilest absolute idiots rule it.", faith in the monarchy didn't really recover until the end of the dark ages and beginning of the revival era, the best thing that happened in the late dark ages was the military reforms in which the central government completely overhauled the military to better defend the Iquendi people.

Revival Era
After many long millenia the Iquendi finally started reviving the kingdom of Iquendinor through reforming: defense, economy, taxation, culture,. . . this resulted in improvement of life, all across the kingdom. The general rivival started, a few centuries after the end of the dark ages and beginning of the Revival Era.

Biology
Iquendi are tall strongly build humanoids with white skin and usually blond, very light brown, and white tints of hair. Thee most common eye colour is yellow with green, blue, gray, white, purple appearing less commonly. The typical height range is 1.79m to 1.89m for women and 1.83m to 2.13m for men.

Iquendi blood is light and thick and contains a strong resistance to extreme heat which was caused by the plus minus thousand years spend in the warm deserts to the west of Rathnir. Whilst temperatures of 70°C and above usually can be deadly to Homo Sapiens whilst the Iquendi can live through it, the Iquendi doesn't feel the warmth but does feel a tingling feeling in their body when exposed to extreme temperatures The bodies of Iquendi have weak to no resistance against cold, the lowest temperatures the Iquendi can withstand are -29°C for the weakest to -49°C for the strongest, which came to great disadvantages in the great migration which happened during the longest winter ever recorded in Iquendi history.

The metabolism of Iquendi is far higher then the one of humans due to the fact Iquendi bodies have to keep up high athleticism this also prevents Iquendi from building a lot of fat, they still have the ability to build a lot of muscle. The body weight of Iquendi is usually higher then the one's of humans due to the fact Iquendi are on average far taller then humans.

Iquendi life expectancy is typically around 10000 years old however it is fairly common for those involved to dynastic struggles or are in military organizations usually don't make to even 7000 years old. Some few Iquendi of a pure lineage manage to live until 35000 years old, and some through religious practices have obtained immortality and will not grow in mind nor body beyond the age at which immortality was obtained. Iquendi become adults at around 35 years old and typically start puberty in their early twenties. Old age is accompanied with a very slight shrinking though not as much as humans.

Iquendi vision can change to be perfect for the environment in which it is used. The vision of the Iquendi can in some aspects and amongst some people go to Infrared vision.