Eltar (race)

Broad, muscular people with olive skin who live near the Black Needle Forest, on the adjoining plain which is also called Eltar. The Eltar organize themselves under a king called the Elephant Brother. They trace their ancestry to a set of Strein triplets whose parents were killed by a Grim; they were then raised by Slon, disguised as an elephant, who gave them the name of Eltar and blessed one of them to be a Phage. The true story is that a small group of Strein elephant herders were preserved by Slon when they devoted their worship to him; they changed their name to Eltar and a third of their children were blessed with the magic of the Phages. So, they aren’t that far off, really. This all occured in 3920 A.B. The Eltar keep herds of elephants, which they breed for many distinct purposes: dwarf elephants for the Naums, brawny, oversized elephants for grunt labor, aggressive elephants for war, fast, sturdy elephants for hunting on the Eltar plains, dextrous, intelligent elephants for public entertainment (these are sometimes sold to the Phyllosian Traveling Circus), and more docile elephants as pets for the rulers of nearby kingdoms. The main city of the Eltar is called Phantus, which contains the largest food storage unit in Duskain, the Square. Among the Eltar there are also goat herders; these are looked down upon as worse than beggars, even though they help provide cloth for the blankets, clothes, and tents that most of the Eltar rely on.