Hidden amongst the little tucked-away valleys, surrounded by the dense forests and secluded away in the deeps of unknown caves are the last of the Sithi race. They have developed such measures to keep themselves away from the other races, and subtle vibrations of wards fill the air where the Sithi live today.
The Sithi have a right to be wary, for they are few in number and the past actions of the other races - Humans in particular - have never been kind to them. Sithi are strangers to the other races - alien, unknown. They do not show their emotion but deep inside surge with them, so a Sithi might spring at any time. They are passionate, but logical, open but distant, welcoming but also coldly dispassionate. This contradiction does not allow the other races to gauge the reactions or emotions of a given Sitha and thus they remain forever apart from the rest. This might seem an odd evolutionary trait, but for many millennia the Sithi had only themselves to contend with. They have only recently had to develop ways to approach the other races, and not all have met with happy endings. Indeed, it has usually been quite the opposite.
Nowadays the Sithi prefer to remain apart from the other races. Their civilisation has had millennia in advance of the other races and they treat the other races similar to children. This in itself lead to the Sundering, for the White Foxes wish to teach the younger races directly, to interfere, whereas the Sithi believe in patience, that the lesser races must make their own mistakes - even if the mistakes lead to disaster. It is in this way that the Sithi remain out of reach of the others, separating themselves to that they watch from afar - it is not a good idea to remain at Ground Zero when the inevitable happens. Sithi have watched the fall of Human civilisation more than three times, and patiently watched from afar as the Guild War escalated. They have never involved themselves in these matters, and never will - that damage is for Humans and the lesser races, and for them alone.
So Sithi villages are made far away from prying eyes, warded with strange Fae signatures so that attention is diverted. They do not build the same way as they used to - no stone is carved, no mortar laid. Sithi villages today are amongst the greatest wonders of the world, and are things of stunning beauty, though few of the other races have ever laid eyes upon them. Scholars that have describe them as ‘Ships on the forest sea’ and ‘like great sails, or the wings of some great beast’ - but this does not fully convey the grace of Sithi design. Sithi villages are now designed to be taken down and to travel with the Houses that inhabit them should the need be required - to escape an attack, perhaps. But the subtlety of their structure also turns them into excellent places for ambush - for vast areas of the village can be pulled and re-shaped, making the village itself become like a bristling, ferocious wild cat. Its beauty doesn’t just lay in itself elegance, but also in this function.
Sithi villages, even when between cliffs of a ravine, even when deep in a mountain gulf, are made of vast sheets of cloth, tied to large poles of wood. This gives the village the appearance of sails or wings except the tents are always garish and brightly coloured, like their inhabitants. The clever ingenuity of the Sithi mean that these sail or wing structures can be hooked to each other, and cloth spread between them so that the shape of the tents can match the place they are set up in - whether it be in a forest or between vast rock structures. The strange pockets of materials attached within the tents mean that rooms are easily created, and small measures of privacy are kept - though generally Sithi have very little need of privacy.
The Sithi race is organised into Houses. Each House is lead typically by a matriarch, and Houses gain and lose power within their village by their actual influence - for the Sithi have no concept of money. A Sithi child grows within their House (which does not necessarily mean they are raised by members of their blood) and when they pass their first century they have three options: to remain in their birth House as a highly powerful member of the House, being direct blood; to join the House of their father as an indirect House blood - a respected position or to join another House as a ward - usually to join a more influential House. In this way Sithi society is highly fluid, and alliances and treaties between Houses are constantly made and remade. Thus a House has three distinct ‘layers’: the House Blood, which are the nobility of the House; the House Kin which are close confidants of the House and the House Kith which are not of the Blood or related to it. The Kith normally have a period serving a member of the Blood directly to ‘win’ their place as part of the House.
