The Language of their folk, Anaphite, is not well recorded. While not guarded, few keys to translation exist and what do are often only partial. While their spoken language is dead and has not evolved in several thousands of years, its written one can be seen time and again in primitive Amol-Kalit, and derivitives of it evolving into unique languages and scripts. The age of the language means that, while challenging, when spoken it can be understood to some extent. When read, a translation key must be on-hand to even gleam an idea of the meaning.

Otherwise, they speak and write other languages as easily as a human; often their grammar and parlance falls behind by several years, sometimes hundreds, due to having learned it in a bygone era. On more than one occasion, miscommunications have occurred due to speaking an outdated tongue. To smooth things over, magic charms are often employed, icons with a language recorded into it to ease the burden of communication.

Tall, strong, and otherworldly, the Anaphite are almost the definition of divine. While they share some traits with Jackals, they also are more closely in shape related to Man. Only their feet and heads are clearly different, though the fur which covers their heads, chest, back and legs often adds to the strangeness of it all. While some do have fur across their whole bodies, not all do.

Well built to a man, regardless of gender, Anaphite are imposing figures. They tower over mortals and through weight of their presence and age can even intimidate the wiser dragons and elves into showing respect. While the naive will always treat them as strange oddities, no different from a werewolf, it is well within an Anaphites ability to match these creatures, with the cunning to utilize their abilities.

Their eyes begin to glow after their seventieth year, thanks to their diet of souls, the over-abundance of digested magic causing them to go seemingly-blind, their eyes becoming a solid color. When starved or exhausted and in need of food, their eyes will lose the glow and be perceptable normally. Their iris seemingly expands to consume the eye whole, though their eyesight is not critically hampered when in this state.

Somewhere, connected to one of the lost portal stones, exists a city. This place, the Anaphite city, is lost to outsiders; those who know the combination to reach it are usually slain well before they can report its existence. The only thing known about it is a strange sight seen by observers when Anaphite depart through the portal, that of a massive temple, a staircase rising into the sky where it meets a vortex of immense size in mid-air. No other information about their capital is known, outside of it being the true home of the Anaphite. Wherever, or whenever, it is, the city is largely understood to be beyond exploration by mortal races.

Anaphite Enclaves are small settlements, no larger than a cathedral, where between twenty-five to eighty Anaphite will live for an extended duration. These Anaphite tend to chores, duties, and rituals all within the scope of an agreed upon goal. Enclaves are the polar opposite of their City of the Dead; welcoming, offering shelter to all, and freely sharing items and goods for trade or donation. Divided into three sections, the Enclave can be understood as a pair of rings within a rectangle; the Courtyard, the outer sanctum, and the inner sanctum.

The Courtyard is usually watched but not guarded. Anyone who approaches is usually regarded pleasantly but not significantly, and may ask for trade or supplies. Usually, near cities or population centers, this becomes a thriving village in its own right with many merchants setting up camp to sell their own goods under the protective watch of the Ancients. Access to the Inner Sanctum is through a single large door, narrow enough to allow no more than two Anaphite at a time through it.

The Inner Sanctum is a garden; fountains, plants, tiled pools, and a menagerie are often kept. Usually considered an administrative center, visitors must leave their weapons at the doors to proceed. When inside, anyone within is guaranteed safety so long as they abide by the rules: No violence, no blasphemy, and no magic. Non-Anaphite Violators will usually be reminded once before being asked to leave if they do not stop. The Anaphite do not ask a second time; the violator will be either cut down on the spot or tossed from the Enclave if the Tomb Knights are feeling merciful.

The Inner Sanctum is off-limits to all non-Anaphite. It is here they rest, perform rituals, and inter the dead of those that ask it. The Anaphite offer a protected and guaranteed burial and afterlife for those who approach them, though such bodies are never seen again. It is here that captured prisoners and offerings are brought to be mummified alive and have their souls carefully extracted into canopic jars, which are then either distributed as food or shipped back to the City of the Dead for use there. Any Anaphite which dies in an Enclave is buried in the Enclave.

Anaphite cannot be resurrected; no magic is capable, regardless of exertion, of bringing them back. Why is a subject of debate, as the Anaphite state that their dead return to the Gods to serve further. A more accurate explanation might lie in their peculiar ossification. After death, the Anaphite turn to sandstone over a period of a week. Their weight in life reflects this, and once they pass the process begins immediately.

Anaphite strength can be accurately measured as obscene. They can break softer stone with a few blows or a kick, and have strength enough to shatter bone with a focused backhand. Their landspeed is between sixty to seventy kilometers per hour at a sprint, though they can sustain a slower run of fifty or less for long durations. Their leaps are able to propel them into the air upwards of twelve meters, enough to clear most obstacles and catch low-flying beasts.

Anaphite are able to devour souls unaided. When their jaws clamp around the heart or the ethereal form of a creature, they are able to rip free the and consume the spirit itself. While the act is arguably evil, the Anaphite assert that any soul they devour is digested of its sins and is guaranteed a peaceful afterlife without pain. While they can extract magical power from consuming undead, it will offer them no sustenance and as such they prefer not to do so though may threaten with the oblivion of their appetites should it come to such.

The Anaphite are host to a small population of nigh-immortal specialists. Each Anaphite will take a name reflecting their role in society or their grand scheme for the world. While an Anaphite will take countless names over their life, most will trend towards specific ones as their 'Informal' name; usually this could be called a nickname, or a title, which they hold throughout their life and share with those close to them. Due to their longevity, it is common for Anaphite to treat this as an 'in' name, with few mortal creatures knowing the name yet most Anaphite atleast understanding to whom the name belongs.

Most Anaphite hold 'mortal' races, those with less than half a millenium of maximum lifespan barring artificial extension, in disdain. Few among their number acknowledge these creatures as being people, viewing these creatures in the same (or in some cases less) regard than common animals. While this is a majority view among the species, they are not without a sizable number who understand there to be more nuance to the mortal races. Those whom hold these views are often public about it, and are titled with such names as "Merciful" or "Kind", in acknowledgement of their generosity in extending 'personhood' to creatures they do not usually consider as valuable.

Despite this superiority complex, the Anaphite are widely considered, internally and externally, as having Arethil's best interest at heart. They advance medicine and mobilize in veritable armies of physicians and doctors to combat epidemics, as well as marshaling "MenfitSetep" or a regiment of DuneStriders and Tomb Knights to support and organize mortal races. Usually this is against a threat to either the mortal peoples or the design for the world that the Anaphite aim to bring about, though occasionally they will decide on a course for more personal reasons. One such act, the spiriting away of ancient bloodlines and harboring them til the time was right, is a subject of contention and debate among Anaphite; whether they should so directly interfere in events in the world on such a grand scale, or remain as manipulators and antiquarians of forbidden knowledge.

While they are usually homogenous in ambition, many times historically have the Anaphite acted individualisticly. While their advanced age advocates humility this is not entirely the case, and ambitious individuals can and have risen to rather public renown. Be they public advisors or even celebrated warriors, these publicly active individuals are carefully observed and policed, to ensure they do not inadvertently threaten the overall image of regal and demi-godliness that has been carefully cultivated since the earliest ages.

Anaphite recorded history begins at what they call the first awareness, when the Gods brought them into being with a directive: Cure the plagues that the Gods had created in spite. Since then, they have closely guarded their reasons, slipping only on occasion other hints as to alternative aims to this divine mandate. The subsequent generations, having been absent from this divine creation, are more liable to slip small details that the few remaining first generation would never give freely nor under duress.

Anaphite, where they are known, are often regarded as demons, ghosts, or divine messengers and agents. While they are found across Arethil, they are such a reclusive people that rarely are they understood even when seen. Cairns, tombs, and lost ruins are sometimes host to artistic depictions of the Anaphite. It is even speculated that recovered Nagai artifacts may depict the Jackalfolk, though such rumors hinge entirely upon the viewer's interpretation. In all events, the supernatural air they always hold, and with how they command respect through deep voice and intimidating form manages to remand them to a realm of mystic and other-worldly. While few are likely to be aware they even exist, those that come to such a realization fall into two camps: The welcome, and the afraid.

Supposedly they come bearing gifts of medicine and knowledge. Supposedly they have existed, guiding mortal development subtly since mortals first put tin to copper. Supposedly they commune with the Gods directly. Supposedly they possess such rituals and curses, ancient and terrific, so as to bring apocalyptic ruin should an enclave deign a civilization detrimental. Supposedly, the Anaphite are not Demi-Gods, but a form of ascended creature, one that must feed to perpetuate their eternal life. And so it is, supposedly, that the true ambitions of the Jackalfolk are not as it seems, in Arethils best interest. Supposedly, of course. What little is known can only be observed from outside, for the Anaphite offer little, and explain none.

The Family: Anaphite Society and Rituals
Law of Contagion: Anaphite Physicality, Appetites, and Perspectives on others
The Physician: Werewolves: Anaphite Physicality, Ambitions, and Perspectives on others
Path of Miracles: Anaphite Magic, Knowledge, History, Physicality, and Perspective on others
The Blue Mountain Gala: Anaphite Influence, History, and Perspective on others

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