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The Lore of The Silver Sea

Atinan Naming Conventions

Atinan names have certain particularities that must be understood, as they differ a great deal from the names of humans living within the world of The Silver Sea. An Atinan name starts with the given name, which is followed by the sexed preposition, and ends with a joined surname. Yvvie Fah Ro’Sah and her husband Myunn Er Su’Un will be used as the examples for this explanation of Atinan names.

Yvvie Fah Ro’Sah
Myunn Er Su’Un

Yvvie and Myunn are both given names, and there is nothing particularly important about them. Given names carry the same weight as any name given to a human. One thing of note, if something must be stated at all, is that Atinans have a cultural preference for double consonants in their names, as seen in Yvvie and Myunn. Not all Atinan names share this trait, but it is not uncommon amongst their people.

Fah and Er are special ‘sexed’ prepositions and are not exclusive to any one Atinan as all Atinans will present their full name with Fah or Er. Fah is the feminine form of the preposition and Er is the masculine. Males will always use Er and females will always use Fah. As they are prepositions, if they were ever to be translated into Radian, the word “of” would be used without any indication of sex, which is why it has never been translated as such by any human scholar. The importance of the sexed preposition is that it immediately conveys the sex of the Atinan without the addition of any other information.

The surname of an Atinan is loosely known as a “joined surname”, if a name must be given to it at all. Every Atinan has a mother and a father, and the surname of an Atinan is an adoption from both the maternal and paternal line. The surname has an apostrophe (‘) in the middle, as clearly seen in every Atinan surname, and it is that apostrophe that separates the maternal from the paternal. In the example of Yvvie Fah Ro’Sah: Ro is adopted from her mother and Sah is adopted from her father. In Radian these are often referred to as “Houses”, such as the House of Ro or the House of Sah. These are merely family lines. The first half of a surname is always the maternal, as it is the mother that a child first meets in life when they are born into the world. The father is the second, and it is his half that comes second. An example of this in practice would be the first born of Yvvie and Myunn, Vienna Fah Ro’Un. Vienna adopts Ro from her mother and Un from her father.

When viewing the family tree of any Atinan you will be able to clearly track both the maternal and paternal lineage by following the first and second halves of the joined surname. Every female and every male will always know by the virtue of their surname their ancestry for both sides of their lineage.

This differs greatly from Radian tradition where the child of any couple is given the surname of the father at the exclusion of the mother. Further, even in marriage Atinans will not adopt the other’s names. No Atinan will ever shed their birth name and to understand the lineage of an Atinan, or their marital status, then one must either ask or pay close attention to other signifiers.

The Atinan Physiology

Atinan dragons are unique from humans in many ways. The most notable differences are the most superficial ones. The description given of the Atinan people will begin with the most superficial and obvious differences and then end with the most obscure, spending as much time as is necessary to adequately describe them as best as is possible with what we know.



Infancy & Horns

The Atinan is first born as an infant, or they would call them a “whelp”, much as a human child would be. They are slightly larger than humans upon birth and weigh an equal measure more as would be expected. In their infancy the Atinan is missing some small number of characteristics than their people are often most known for. The Atinan’s iconic rack of horns is missing at this age, hidden still beneath the skin of their scalp and hair. Upon examination of the child, you will find a single pair of bumps just under the skin, which is where the dominant pair of horns will grow from, with the submissive pair being hidden completely until the child has grown another year. When it is time for the horns to breach the skin, the infant will enter into an irritable stage of life similar to human children when they begin to teeth. It is understood that even Atinans start without teeth and must go through a traditional teething stage as well, making this early part of an Atinan’s life a difficult one for a parent who is dealing with a child suffering from both the emergence of teeth as well as horns. Upon first emergence the horns of an Atinan are still nubs, but as the child grows the horns will increase in size and length. The horns have a unique appearance, the bone which makes up the horn forming segments that increase with size the closer to the skull it is located. The curvature of the horns varies from Atinan to Atinan, but it is a heritable trait and will always have a similar appearance to one or both parents. The inner structure of the horn appears to be similar to that of cattle. Most sensation felt by the horns comes from the base of the horn where it is fused to the skull, as touching anywhere further down the horn does not appear to provoke notice. In rare cases where a horn is broken, it is often as painless as trimming a toenail, however discomfort can come from stress being applied to the base where it connects to the skull. The size of the rack of horns can become quite impressive with many older Atinans displaying horns that would shame many a noble forest stag.

The Tail

The tails of Atinans start very small but are visible upon birth. A short stubby tail is the beginning of what will eventually become a great length of muscular flesh. The tail grows rapidly with the child through their early years and only slows its growth when the Atinan comes of age. The tail is unique from other creatures with similar due to its dexterity. Although not as formidable as a hand, the tail of an Atinan is still agile and most Atinans can perform the most rudimentary of tasks with it, much as one would perform a task with a single finger, although among adult Atinans using their tails openly is sometimes considered rude or childish to do so, much like how we humans would frown upon using one’s feet and toes to pass the salt. The strength of the tail is flexible, much as the strength of any other appendage. Being an extension from the base of the spine, the tail is wrapped in muscle that can be trained with use and once into adulthood, the tail can be a formidable tool in combat, as has been reported by those who have fought alongside or against Atinans in battle.

Their Height

Atinans are notoriously very tall people. Even at birth they are slightly larger than human children, but as they age their growth never seems to stop except for those that are especially old. From birth to their coming of age, they grow rapidly. Around the age of fifteen the growth slows to a crawl for most Atinans, but even at this young age they will often be nearly six feet in height for both the males and the females. Neither sex appears to show any advantage in height over the other, another oddity about the Atinans that sets them apart from man. After their coming of age, the growth is so slow that one might, after five years’ time, record an increase of a single inch to their height. It takes a great many decades for Atinans to achieve the impressive heights that they are most famous for. It should also be noted that the horns and tail, too, grow very slowly, but always at a rate that keeps pace with their height. As they grow taller their tails naturally grow in thickness and length, and their horns lengthen and grow in splendor. In closing, it should be remembered that the tallest known Atinans have all reached a height of eight feet with some rumored to have been able to exceed that by a few inches.

The Eyes

Most Atinans have no discernable pigment to their eyes, the color of them being a pale shade of grey that can often become lost amidst the whites of the eyes when viewed at a distance. This is due to age. Atinans are born with pure grey eyes, and it is only after many decades of life that they begin to develop their first color. It is often said that fifty years is the time it takes for the first flecks of color to appear. The Atinans refer to them as flecks, or as embers in cases of those who possess red or orange eyes. Once the flecks begin to appear they grow in number until eventually the grey is completely replaced by the new color, which will only become more brilliant in their hue as the Atinan continues to age. It is said that very old Atinans have beautiful eyes that shimmer with color if you stare into them, which is considered a rude thing to do, so please do not unless invited. The color the Atinan eyes can take is heritable and comes from one or both parents, but the colors possible are equal to that of the many gemstones hidden within the earth. Blues, greens, reds, oranges, and many more shades have been reportedly seen amongst the older Atinan population.

The Atinan Lifespan

Atinans can live for a very long time, often living three to four times longer than any human. It is not known why they were blessed with such long lives, but it is recorded that the Atinan body can last for as long as three hundred years, although most will pass sometime after their two hundredth year. Most Atinans do not live to three hundred, as any conversation with an Atinan will reveal that advanced age is difficult to reach in the harshness of Atina Nah. Their homeland is a dangerous place, and their people have been plagued by drought, famine, and war. It is only within the last hundred years and more that the Atinan people have the prosperity to allow themselves to age not just to two hundred, but to breach it and climb higher to three. The most interesting thing to note is that despite their advanced age, older Atinans never appear old to human eyes. Their skin is as supple as when they were children, their hair is as fine as during their youth. All the typical signs of age that humans look for to determine the age of another person are missing in Atinans. Instead, one must look to the superficial characteristics described so far in this document. The size of their horns, the length of their tail, their towering height, and the color of their eyes are more valuable at gauging an Atinan’s age than any other factor. It is; however, said that Atinans who are very old will complain of the same aches and pains that human elderly do. With age comes physical pain, for both humans and Atinan, although the cause of that pain for Atinans is not clear. That pain is the ultimate cause of their deaths, though few have had the chance to grapple with the exact why of it.

And with this, the most obvious differences have been settled. The aforementioned characteristics are those things you could witness yourself while browsing an Atinan marketplace. For the rest of this document, we will be describing those traits that only someone deeply familiar with an Atinan would come to notice.



Poorly Suited to Cold

The first would be how vulnerable the Atinan is to cold weather. Even with their homeland of Atina Nah falling nightly to freezing temperature, the Atinan body is poorly equipped to withstand it for long. In their homeland they almost never travel at night, preferring to stay home and within the warmth of a nearby fire. It has been well recorded that the cold climate of Radiah is quite punishing to the Atinan, as every instance where Yvvie Fah Ro’Sah marched an army to Radiah was during either the fall or winter. Radian soldiers have long reported that cold weather slows down an Atinan much more than it would any human, and that exposure to snow is painful to them, much like how a frozen hand may feel pain when exposed to hot water. Without proper protection from the cold, Atinans have been known to perish from it far more quickly than Radians, and it has become a standard practice within Radian to be well trained in creating bonfires suitable to keeping a group of Atinans warm, should they every again come to march beside Radian soldiers during the fall and winter seasons.

Body Heat

As much as they are vulnerable to cold, they are surprisingly warm creatures. Atinans do not often allow themselves to be touched by another person, but in the rare instance a Radian has done it, they have come away reporting that the skin of the Atinan was very warm to the touch. For those times where Atinans have traveled to Radiah during the fall or winter, as well as in their own homeland at nighttime, their bodies are so warm that their breath is always visible from the heat meeting the chill air. The foggy breath of an Atinan cannot be outmatched by man, and it is somewhat of a spectacle to see. Furthermore, some members of the Radian royal court have recounted times when they’d seen Her Majesty Yvvie Fah Ro’Sah “steaming” when standing out in the cold, not from her breath but from her body, as if the whole of her was so warm that it was creating fog in the cold.

Their Breath

It is not unusual to see even a man exhale a bit of fog in the cold, but what is strange is to see an Atinan exhale air so hot that it can singe the hair clean off one’s arm. This appears to be an extension from how warm their bodies can be, as they can expel that heat from their mouths whenever they desire. From multiple accounts of witnesses, the Atinan people can all perform this feat, but it appears that older Atinans are more adept at it than the young. The older Atinans are so adept at it, in fact, that it is understood that their breath is used in the process of blacksmithing and glass making. It is not known exactly how hot their breath can become, but if an Atinan can find use for it in the trades of melting metal or sand, then it must be quite hot indeed! The most casual recorded instance of this being done in Radiah is the simple act of starting a fire. For an Atinan, it is apparently quite a simple task to light kindling with just the heat of their breath, blown through the lips like one might attempt to whistle.

Their Imperviousness to Fire

To end this description of the Atinan people, we will finish by speaking of their imperviousness to fire. Most commonly, there have been accounts from soldiers who have seen an Atinan touch fire without injury, often by reaching in or near a campfire. Far more legendary accounts speak of how Her Majesty Yvvie Fah Ro’Sah walked through the inferno of the burning Castle Darfell after it was set ablaze during the first war against them since signing the Treaty of Five Kings; however, it is not clear if that story is true or just an exaggeration to frighten the Darfellan away from any future war with Radiah. However, there is a much more convincing feat witnessed by those who have travelled to Atina Nah on their own, and these accounts are strengthened by the stories told by some members of the royal family. In Atina Nah, the Atinan people practice an art known to us as “fire dances”. In a fire dance, one or two Atinans will perform their dance dress lightly or not at all. The dance is always performed on a bed of hot coals, and they have been repeatedly described as having been lit on fire themselves, often wielding oil-soaked ropes to add more fire to the spectacle. The entire dance is performed amidst open flames and hot coals with embers sparking through the air. It sounds foolish and unbelievable, but the earliest descriptions of these dances hail from King Edgard Sundile, and no one would dare claim that he would exaggerate something so bewildering. Every account provided of the Atinan’s ability to resist an open flame is the same, that they can come into contact with fire without any discernable injury. At most, an Atinan might express some discomfort, but never enough to give them pause. It is not clear if this imperviousness extends to all things that are hot, but one would imagine that if they can weather an open flame then a piping hot kettle would be no different to them. Out of all the curiousness this provokes, the fact that they can be so wounded by cold is a true confusion. One would think that a creature so warm to the touch and so resistant to fire would be able to withstand the falling of snow.

This concludes the description of the Atinan people, at least in body. There is much more to the Atinans that what is written here, but that can be found in other documents.

An Illustrated Guide to Atinan Physiology

The above illustration shows the natural progression of growth for the typical Atinan male and female. As shown, both sexes grow at nearly the same rate and can achieve near identical heights. Variation in height exists between individuals, but the Atinan race largely tracks along the same grounds. Further details will be included alongside the following illustrations where the sexes were segregated.

Sexual dimorphism for Atinans is more limited than when compared to other races of people. The male and female sexes are distinct, however traits such as height and physical performance are largely the same for both sexes. The most notable traits that show the differences between the two sexes are their skin tones and their primary and secondary sexual characteristics.

Lyrren Er Yot'Ah & Feon Fah Lu'Ran were used as models for this illustration.

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All Atinans possess two skin tones on the body, one light and one dark. For the male sex, the darker of the two tones covers only the "underbelly" region of the body. This coverage extends from beneath the chin, running down the chest and stomach towards the groin, and then spreads to the inner thigh and underside of the tail where the limb attaches to the torso. A minor patch of dark tone is also found above the eye and beneath the brow.

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Like the male sex, the female possesses two tones of skin, but the location where the light and dark tones are found are in reverse. The female sex covers the extremities with their darker skin tone, leaving the "underbelly" region a lighter tone.

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The Voices of Atina Nah

It is said that every Atinan speaks with two voices. There is the first voice, the one every Atinan starts their life with, beginning with their first cry before growing into words, and then there is the second, the inner voice. With an Atinan’s first voice they speak to the world around them the same as we do with our own voices, but it is with the inner voice that they speak only with each other and only when the voice has grown with wisdom.

An Atinan’s inner voice is like a mirror to the soul, it cannot speak in words, but it can express what is felt within the heart. Sadness, anger, joy, and laughter are all possible with an Atinan’s inner voice, but it’s something only an Atinan can experience. No one else in the world will ever be able to experience this the way that they do.

The inner voice is also why the Atinan people can seem so cold to each other. They are so reluctant to embrace physical touch, keeping that locked away to private venues and between family and the closest of friends.

You see, as an Atinan grows older their inner voice grows along with them. Its strength and volume increases as they age, so much so that for young Atinans they can neither hear another’s inner voice nor can anyone hear theirs. In their youth the inner voice is very quiet, much like that of a whisper, that only a child’s parents would be able to hear even a single whisper of it. However, upon reaching adulthood those whispers grow loud enough that many Atinans can hear it, and only with a simple touch.

This is why they do not touch each other as casually as we might. With every physical touch their inner voice is exposed to another person, but it’s nothing like the first voice, the one they use to speak their words with. The inner voice cannot lie, and it cannot be silenced. When an Atinan touches another, they are forced to pour out their soul through the inner voice, and so Atinans do not casually expose themselves to anyone for this reason.

The only Atinans permitted to hear an inner voice are family and the closest of friends, where trust is high and forgiveness is easy. We all have things buried in our souls that can be both joyful and painful, and Atinans are always mindful of who they share that with. To be embraced physically by an Atinan in such a way where you might hear their inner voice is a great honor, a sign that they trust you.

It’s said that for Atinans that are much older than the rest, that they can speak to one another heart to heart, a kind of conversation of the soul. It is an enviable thing, especially when knowing that for an Atinan couple who have been married for many decades, that they are communing with each other on a spiritual level that few can understand. It is no wonder at all that their marriages are so strong, how could they not be?

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