Tales of Nimoria · Wyrdborn Compendium
Anden
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"They'll fight you tooth and nail over wearing clothes that aren't Anden made, only to turn around and start making those same clothes out of some new silk they discovered. Firm Soles and Free Hands, as many of them say."
Anden
PLACEHOLDER
- Overview
- Character Creation
- History
- Physiology
- Longevity & Aging
- Society & Governance
- Diet
Overview
The Anden are a stout, dexterous people shaped by the volcanic, storm-lashed island of Vedua. What began as isolated communities in the temperate highlands and caverns now sees every clime claimed by Anden hands.
Their nimble nature sees them renowned for their crafts, but that agility has earned them a place as practiced sailors, musicians and explorers all the same.
Anden are distinguished by stocky builds, strong hands, and durable frames, suited to both rugged terrain and detailed work. Facial hair and body hair are common across all sexes, reflecting their ancestral adaptation to cooler climates. Though small in stature compared to many other mortal races, their resilience, dexterity, and communal spirit make them formidable in both work and warfare.
Character Creation
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Anden stand between 116–152 cm in height, with females only slightly taller than males. They possess stocky, muscular builds, broad hands, and strong, dexterous fingers. Hair and skin tones vary with environment and lineage, typically earthy shades ranging from dark browns to muted reds or tans. Facial hair is common, and body hair is more pronounced than in humans.
They reach adulthood at 18–25 years and have long lifespans of 100–150 years, aging slowly after maturity. Anden are omnivorous, with diets ranging from meats and tubers to vegetables and cultivated crops. Their dexterity makes them naturally skilled in climbing, crafting, rigging, and artisanal work. Culturally, they favor cooperative, community-oriented societies, often organized around meritocratic or collegiate systems that balance expertise with shared governance.
History
Most attribute the Andens' origins to the Vital God of Earth; Qundan, in their tongue. While he is undoubtedly venerated by the Anden, most of their folklore shows trends toward the origin of stones falling from mountainsides. Indeed, many early tools for most of the Kalmenids were split from such falls, acting as early hand axes. The Anden view themselves as being shaped by similar forces, if only in myth.
The Anden split from the main Kalmet branch roughly 280 kya ago. Likely of similar stock to the early Kalmenids who braved the seas to the Sarnevalian Archipelago, material evidence found on the relatively large island of Vedua on the Westernmost end of the island chain, dated to around 325 kya, shows around 30,000 years spent on and around the island.
Vedua, notable for its high levels of volcanic activity, appears to have begun pushing the Anden to favor subterranean abodes. Similarly, with the intense subtropical storms that dominate the region, high ground in the highlands is the most favorable terrain on the island. These factors, among others, pushed these proto-Anden into living in caverns in the more dormant highlands of the island's south end. But methods of divining activity within the volcanoes of the island through Cyan and Elemental magic has seen the more dangerous but exceedingly more fruitful North more heavily populated.
Physiology
The height of the Anden is one of their more notable features, alongside their more stout proportions. Height ranges from 116 to 152 cm across all sexes, as dimorphism is more muted in Anden than other Kalmenids. Indeed, where facial hair tends to be more absent in some sexual configurations among Humans, all Anden exhibit facial hair to some degree, alongside a general trend of more hair coverage across the body.
Their hair is one of a few adaptations to their generally cooler, highland, and subterranean homes. Their proportions are stockier than those of Humans, with longer extremities tending to fair more poorly in colder climes. Just as well, their stature is well-suited to maneuvering to the often cramped caves they forge their homes in, though these are almost always expanded.
A further point of note is their dexterousness. They are proficient climbers, with their strong and nimble fingers and wide stance, making maneuvering through uneven highland terrain trivial. This dexterousness lends itself well to any number of tasks, including climbing trees or cliffsides, playing musical instruments, manning the rigging of a sailing ship, or most artisanal tasks. It is the latter of these that tends to see Anden stereotyped as "master artisans." While artisanry is held in high regard in Anden society, many don't go into associated professions. Most diaspora populations have even been noted foregoing their mountain homes for life out at sea.
Longevity & Aging
For reasons yet undetermined, but often attributed to the herbs and spices of the Sarnevalian Archipelago, Anden can easily live up to a century, with the oldest among them living around 150 years. While they begin to show signs of aging around 60 or 70, the process is slow. It's not uncommon for Anden in this age range to appear as humans do in their 40s. Even among those individuals who live well into their second century, signs of age seem to be slow to set in.
Society & Governance
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The archaeological record shows that Anden society was predominantly patriarchal, with the more lavish burials usually being those of high-ranking males. It should be stated, however, that even to this day, child-rearing is a communal effort, regardless of sex, undertaken by not only close family but even neighbors within a community.
While most Anden polities of Vedua span both the lowlands and highlands of the island, the largest settlements, particularly on the island's Eastern face, favor the highlands. The more temperate climate and proximity to transitional climates for more tropically adapted plants allows for immense agricultural diversity and productivity. Moreover, the active volcanism of Vedua has seen the proliferation of many subterranean settlements that act not only to facilitate mineral extraction, but also as security measures for eruption, depending on location.
Anden were among the earliest apart from the Selkotai to experiment with more meritocratic forms of government. Most modern, Anden-forged societies are classified as Collegiate Republics, with their leadership, local and regional, being comprised of experts in particular fields, to ensure that no one part of their society goes without intersectional oversight.
The nuances of these systems will be covered in the articles of Anden cultures of Vedua, but they can be broadly said to have been shaped by the island's environment. The island is quite large and diverse in its climate, but its proximity to the tropics and heavy volcanism see storms and eruption frequently enough that most Anden societies are built upon bedrock solid foundations that uplift a more flexible overall structure. Firm Soles, but Free Hands.
Diet
For much of their history, the favored terrain of the Anden pushed them toward more generalist tendencies. As such, they are decidedly omnivorous, with their diet being equally comprised of meat, tubers, leafy vegetables, and most other edible matter that call the island of Vedua home.
Agriculture and sedentary life saw its start in the highlands nearby to transitional zones, which saw an explosion of crop diversity that persists across the island to this day. Theirs remains a highly varied diet among Kalmenids, save for a number of Floren societies, given the robust horticulture and husbandry practices that most major Anden settlements are centered upon.