Born from the descendants of beings of elemental air such as djinn, sylphs are often a shy and reclusive individuals consumed by intense curiosity. Sylphs spend their lives blending into the crowd, remaining unnoticed as they spy and eavesdrop on the people around them. They call this hobby “listening to the wind,” and for many sylphs it becomes an obsession. Sylphs rely on their capable, calculating intellects and on knowledge gleaned from eavesdropping to deliver them from danger.
Physical Description: Sylphs tend to be pale and thin to the point of appearing delicate, but their skinny bodies are often more resilient than they look. Many sylphs can easily pass for other ancestries with some effort, though the complex blue markings that swirl across their skin reveal their elemental ancestry. Sylphs also bear more subtle signs of their heritage, such as a slight breeze following them wherever they go. These signs become more pronounced as a sylph experiences intense passion or anger, spontaneous gusts of wind tousling the sylph’s hair or hot blusters knocking small items off of shelves.
Since sylphs are descendants of outsiders, many live long lifespans. They reach adulthood around 60, with middle age at 150 and old age around their two hundreds. The most venerable of this ancestry live into their mid-two hundreds.
Sylphs are sexual dimorphic, with the average height of males around six feet and females a couple inches shorter. Their body mass is similar, making most females weigh slightly less than males.
Society: Sylphs are usually born to parents of other ancestries, and so are raised according to those customs. Most sylphs dislike the attention they receive growing up in those society, so it’s common for them to leave home soon after coming of age. They rarely abandon civilization altogether, however, preferring instead to find some new city or settlement where they can go unnoticed among the masses. A sylph who happens upon another sylph unnoticed often becomes obsessed with their kin, watching and learning as much about the other as they possibly can. Only after weighing all the pros and cons and formulating plans for every potential outcome will the sylph introduce themself to the other. Rarely, two sylphs will discover each other’s presence in a community at the same time. What ensues thereafter is a sort of cat-and-mouse game, a convoluted dance in which each sylph pays attention to the other as both attempt to gain the upper hand. Sylphs who meet this way always become either inseparable friends or intractable enemies.
Relations: Sylphs enjoy prying into the affairs of most other ancestries, but have little taste for actually associating with most of them. Sylphs can relate on some level with elves, who share their tendency toward aloofness, but often spoil any possible relationship by violating the elven sense of privacy. Dwarves distrust sylphs intensely, considering them flighty and unreliable. They form excellent partnerships with halflings, relying on the short folk’s courage and people skills to cover their own shortcomings. Sylphs are amused by the annoyed reactions they provoke in ifrits, and find oreads too boring to give them much attention.
Alignment and Religion: Sylphs have little regard for laws and traditions, for such strictures often prohibit the very things sylphs love – subterfuge and secrecy. This does not mean sylphs are opposed to law, merely that they use the most expedient means available to accomplish their goals, legal or not. Most sylphs are thus individually or principally aligned. Sylphs are naturally drawn to mystery cults, and to deities who focus on secrets, travel, or knowledge.
Adventurers: An inborn urge to get to the bottom of things drives many sylphs to the adventuring life. A sylph who runs across the trail of a mystery will never be satisfied until they has uncovered every thread of evidence, followed up on every lead, and found the very heart of the trouble. Such sylphs make plenty of enemies by poking around into other peoples’ affairs, and usually turn to their roguish talents or wizardry to defend themselves.
Names: Akaash, Eydan, Hanuun, Inam, Keeya, Lissi, Nava, Radaya, Siival, Tena, Vasaam