Iquendi

The Iquendi are a secretive race of Elves who came from an unknown land which possibly was another continent and migrated away when they were forced out by mightier people. They settled a long time ago in what is now SI long before even the 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, an order of Iquendi that 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, whilst they went through the ice-cold tundra towards the west of rather.

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 the 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 groundwork for a strong military of unrivalled quality in the area, he was 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, infighting, and very weak rulers, the Ancient Iquendinorean kingdom declined in splendour and power for the first time since its beginning; 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 despair. While all of this transpired, barbarians crossed the Ered Ninuthiel, 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 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 who were approximately 945 thousand strong split into two groups; the first one built an encampment for the women, elderly and children; while the second one laid siege to the fortress, the legendary figure, called "the first light" appeared in the fortress and rallied the outnumbered Iquendi to fight until the last man until aid would arrive; this hero also had sent 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 massacred Iquendi, they would pursue the barbarians and during a faithful 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 decisive 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 whilst absolute idiots rule it.", faith in the monarchy didn't 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 millennia the Iquendi finally started reviving the kingdom of Iquendinor through reforming: defence, economy, taxation, culture,. . . this resulted in improvement of life, all across the kingdom. The general revival started a few centuries after the end of the Dark Ages and the beginning of the Revival Era. It is a period marked by a succession of good to outright great monarchs, of which Voronwë IV and Amandýre III are the greatest. During the revival era, the fifteen invasions of the Carcarics were repelled, and the population greatly expanded.

Biology
Iquendi are tall strongly built humanoids with white skin and usually blond, very light brown, and white tints of hair. The most common eye colour is yellow with green, blue, grey, white, and 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 spent 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 than the one of humans because Iquendi bodies have to keep up high athleticism this also prevents Iquendi from building a lot of fat, but they still can build a lot of muscle. The body weight of Iquendi is usually higher than the ones of humans because Iquendi is on average far taller than humans.

Iquendi's life expectancy is typically around 10000 years old however it is fairly common for those involved in dynastic struggles or are in military organizations who usually don't make it 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 by 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.