Adapted from Fantasy Flight Game's Mythic Races, the appearance section is a direct quotation from their website
Mysterious masters of the arcane, the Pevishan have always been an enigmatic race. This otherworldly race always seems to live in a world not quite our own. Although to many they seem to be harmless conjurers it is a well known fact that even the Sorvanni feared them.
Personality: The Pevishan always seemed to be laughing at some private joke. They have been raised to regard the rest of the world through cynical eyes however even though they expect the worst it never seems to truly touch their light-heartedness. Each of them has been taught from youth to seek magical knowledge
Physical Description: Standing between 5 ½ and 6 ½ feet, Pevishan are medium sized humanoids who look very similar to Sorvanni in terms of musculature and build. Each Pevishan is born into a birth school that will give them different birthmarks, hair color, and determine their general arcane bent. Pevishan eyes have no irises (except the necromancy birth school). Pevishan achieve maturity near the age of 15 and can only extend their age beyond 60 by using magic. Many have postulated that the magical energies running through them are the cause for their short lives, giving them great power and great cost.
Abjuration (Silver): A pevishan of this birth-school typically has silver-white hair and silver markings on his body. His eyes also glow with a silver sheen that can have a powerful effect on others.
Conjuration (Gold): Pevishan of this birth-school typically have no hair at all. Many of the other pevishan are somewhat envious of the conjurer's beautiful gold birthmarks and deep golden eyes.
Divination (White): Sometimes mistaken for the abjuration birth-school, the children of divination find that their white hair and hauntingly white eyes tend to make them look a little older than they are. Their birthmarks are barely noticeable.
Enchantment (Blue): A child of the enchantment birth-school is often the center of attention, as his blue hair, blue eyes, and radiant blue markings draw attention wherever he goes.
Evocation (Red): With fiery red hair and deep, crimson eyes the children of evocation often favor combat over rational discussion. The evoker wears his red markings like a barbarian might wear the war paint of a proud clan.
Illusion (Purple): With soft, subdued shades of purple, a pevishan illusionist prefers to blend into a crowd rather than show her true self, many times choosing to cover her lilac markings, hair, and eyes with long sleeves or hooded robes.
Necromancy (Gray and Black): The necromancers are sometimes the subjects of a certain amount of scrutiny and distrust because of their birth-school. With black hair streaked with gray, members of this birth school have coal-black eyes with gray irises. Transmutation (Green): With deep green hair, birthmarks, and eyes, the children of transmutation change their looks often, whether it be hair-styles or clothing. Always changing, a child of transmutation is often characterized by extreme mood swings.
Alignment: Pevishan tend towards different alignment depending on their birth school.
Abjuration, Divination, Necromancy – Lawful
Enchantment, Illusion, Transmutation – Chaotic
Conjuration – Neutral || Evocation - Any
Effects of War: The Pevishan have always been a mysterious race. They actually welcomed the Sorvanni, voluntarily pledging allegiance to their Empire. In later years Pevishan became an institution in the colleges and guilds of the Sorvanni, as students and later as professors. They grew to dominate much of the arcane study in the Empire, however they maintained such a loyal façade that few ever questioned them. But within the inner circles of the empire there was much grumbling over the slow shift loss of the Sorvanni magical advantage.
During the war the Pevishan withdrew to their own prepared fortresses, which were always located in easily defendable places of magic power. They had seen the invasion that was coming and had prepared for it, but had chosen not to share the information. The Pevishan fought alone, shunning the rest of the races. They organized into a council of and supported each other whenever the Kaelra brought their might against one or the other and they remained independent until late in the war. Some of the Pevishan disagreed with their race’s strategem and left the fold. They founded an organization to fight the Kaelra in concert with the rest of the races, called the Shadow Bond. Eventually the fortresses started falling. First one and then the next, until only seven were left. At that meeting of the council a young man named Karam slipped into the room. While the men on the council tried to work out some plan for their continued survival the leader of the Shadow Bond began to speak quietly. His words are not known today none of those who heard them ever spoke of what he actually said. However 5 of the remaining men on the council followed that man out of the room, and two stayed.
Somehow the Kaelra learned of the split between the council and concentrated all his forces on the two dissenters. No help was sent to either fortress, they had chosen their own fate. As the armies closed on Caravel Hold, nestled deep in the Blind Mountains, suddenly it exploded, ravaging the countryside for miles and lighting the Leta Forest afire. The armies of the Kaelra, encamped in that wood, were utterly destroyed as was Caravel Hold. The Kaelra were determined not to make the same mistake with the remaining hold, appropriately called Last Refuge. The Kaelra sent small probing attacks into the lands of Last Refuge with devastating effect. Finally shock troops were dropped from the sky into the hold and they found it empty, utterly abandoned by the Pevishan. However they did find that it was full of Sharni, demons of fire. The Sharni destroyed all the Kaelra invader who approached, and kept control of the fort until the end of the war. They fought both sides equally. On that same day 50 wraiths, the ghosts of Pevishan who had willingly given their life for such a person, went out to hunt Karam, who had caused the death of Last Refuge. Karam was hunted by these wraiths for the rest of his life, unto his death.
The remaining holds and the forces of the Shadow Bond joined with those of the other races who still remained in the fight. In particular the Shadow Bond’s powerful magic proved useful during the War of Daggers. And although one of the remaining Holds fell during the War of Falling Stones and 2 more fell during the War of Daggers the holds also proved to be some of the resistance’s most reliable refuges. In the last days of the War of Earth both Pevishan fortresses teleported, at great magical cost, to the New World. One ended up in the sea, where it was abandoned and the Pevishan were forced to make their way to land independently. The other ended up in the midst of the Great Green Wild on Vay, where it has become the center of the city of Marat.
Known Pevishan Lands: The main Pevishan land is the city of Marat in the western portion of Vay, in the Great Green Wild. Otherwise Pevishan tend to set up small, secluded holds in the hills and mountains near large cities. Fireside Hold is one such, set up in a dormant volcano on an island off of New Wessmark. There is also a hold underneath a stagnant pool near Harrack. In general the Pevishan like to keep the exact location of their holds secret, in order to discourage thieves. They welcome visitors only with death and never invite even the best of friends past their receiving rooms.
Religion: Pevishan worship Seneschalae of the Arcane, goddess of Mist, Magic, and Stars. Their places of worship, like everything else about them, are a secret. Though they seem not to take religion seriously in reality they place great emphasis on their secret rituals. They believe that Seneschalae entrusted unto them the care of magic and they will punish severely any who pervert it. All of their temples are said to contain great black altars that absorb any spells. The Pevishan worship by casting spells into the altar, which powers the nodes that all their temples are inevitably built on. The temple then makes money by charging for the use of said node.
Language: Noar, the Pevishani language, is of course full of magical terminology. It is the language of many ancient magical texts and should be at least partially decipherable by any mage (but not sorcerers) for that reason. Noar, when written, looks simply like a huge mass of lines. In reality each of those lines can contain meaning, furthermore almost all permanent books in Noar are written in arcane marks.
Names:
Accent: Ghaleon and other anime villains
Adventurers: Pevishan adventure in order to further their magical studies. No man ever became an archmage sitting at home. Those Pevishan who seek to become something other than mages must leave home to get training. Thus Pevishan make up a disproportionate number of adventurers.
Notable Rituals: Ten Days of Fire – To the Pevishan the two holds which died rather than integrate with the rest of the races are martyrs. This most important holiday of the Pevishan calendar lasts for 10 days in the month of Darkrod. It starts with a great fireworks show that represents the explosion of Caravel Hold and then ends with a great conjuring show that represents the demons conjured by those of Last Refuge. Outsiders are invited to both the first and last shows, in order to witness the splendor of the Pevishan. However most of the festival is divided into an Inner and Outer show. The Outer show consists of magic festival, trading, and such that takes place with any outsiders. The Inner festival is a more solemn time, meant only for Pevishan, few know what goes on inside the holds during the Ten Days of Fire.
Markings – Pevishan’s markings are genetic in nature, and tell much about that Pevishan’s ancestry. Pevishan can tell what hold one another come from with a single glance. Furthermore anyone who has studied Pevishan History or Genealogy can make a knowledge check to learn more about a specific Pevishan’s ancestry and in doing so can perhaps learn something of his family’s history.
Pevishan Racial Traits