Proposed 5e Lillend Lore

Just as Hags are said to embody the ugliness inherent in nature, **Lillendi** are said to embody its beauty. Fey embodiments of the wild beauty of the virgin wilderness, the desire for pleasure, and the glories of unbridled chaos, the lillendi are a race of fey skalds; warrior-bards who revel in beauty and savagery with equal desire.

### Physical Traits
Lillendi are unmistakable for any race. From the waist up, they resemble elves with beautifully colored, feathery wings; some have feathers in lieu of hair, but this is a rare trait. From the waist down, they have the undulating coils of enormous snakes, with their scales adorned in any number of vibrant colors in elaborate patterns. They are invariably beautiful, and take great pride in their physical appearances; what limited clothing they wear is worn for appeasing the need other races feel for modesty, and a lillend relies more on ornaments such as necklaces, bracelets, armlets, torcs, piercings or other jewelry than on clothes to accentuate her beauty.

A highly unusual trait of the lillendi is that they are, to all practical extents, an entire race of females. A minority of lillendi have more masculine-seeming visages, and so they usually adopt masculine identities when amongst other races, but even these lillendi are still biologically female. The race reproduces through parthenogenesis, with a lillend spontaneously falling pregnant with a daughter who will be mostly, but not completely, identical to her mother once she is born. Lillendi may also give birth to half-fey offspring after cavorting with males of other races.

The diet of the lillendi is another highly unusual trait; they have the ability to eat literally anything, devouring both material food and magical essences. Lillendi can, and usually do, sustain themselves on moonbeams and the elemental essence of the wilderness (mountain breezes, gentle rains, raging rivers, and forest fires), though they prefer more substantial fare. They are a race of gourmands in the most exotic sense, and will consume meat, vegetables, hay, grains, or spell components with equal abandon. Tasting strange and exotic new foods is something of a racial passion, but if there is one food they particularly enjoy, it's meat. In a trait reminiscent of the serpents they partially resemble, lillendi derive a euphoric pleasure from gorging themselves on flesh, which forces them to enter a torpid digestive state that can last for hours or even days. That said, as much as they enjoy the blissful sluggishness that this state brings, they are not fools; a lillend will not go into such torpor alone and unguarded. Still, those wishing to earn favor with them are well advised to present them with interesting things to taste and eat, particularly when visiting or summoning them.

Lillendi digestion is complete and efficient; despite the best efforts of planar hunters and rangers to find lillendi scat or other leavings, the consistent failure to do so means that it seems that lillendi excrete nothing. That said, lillendi do sometimes exhale a strange fog, which some believe to be the leavings or indigestible portions of their food; these theorists argue that lillendi transmute the matter they ingest into magical energy, and the fog they produce is a residuum-equivalent waste product.

The lifespan of the lillend is long, easily comparable to that of an eladrin; the typical lillend can expect to comfortably spend centuries reveling in all of the joys and wonders of life. Bathing in nature's beauty, refining their skills, chasing new sensations; these are what give purpose to a lillend's existence. But nothing lasts forever, not even amongst the fey; inevitably, the thrills that once filled lillendi with joy lose their charm, and life itself loses its luster. When a lillend feels she has lived to long, she may call upon a strange and mystical boon native to her race; the Silent Hour. This strange power allows a lillend to designate a point in time up to one week hence; the moment the appointed hour comes, then she will perish, dissolving into mist and moonlight. Though this may seem a frightful thing, to the lillendi, it is a bittersweet blessing; all things in nature have their cycles, and even the fey cannot live forever. By accepting the mercy of the Silent Hour, a lillend may peacefully pass on, knowing that she has truly lived a life worth living.

Different lillendi undergo their Silent Hour in different ways. Some retire to favored retreats, alone or with their closest paramours, to bask in their memories and pass on amidst the splendor of the wild. Others hold a final party or performance, guiding others in accepting the wisdom of living well in the time one has. And some seek out a more bloody end, spending their Silent Hour riding with the Glorious Hunt of Arvandor, or battling worthy foes upon Ysgard; these battle-maidens make singularly fearsome foes, for their acceptance of their inevitable death seems to bring with it mystical might. However she passes, be it in the midst of a wild party, alone with her thoughts, or cut down by a worthy foe, the lillend ultimately passes away. The site where she discorporated is infused with the faerie essence of her very being, resulting in many strange and magical effects; in the mortal realms, such a place will most likely become a faerie crossing, a gateway between the material plane and the Feywild. The precise effects of this "death glamor" are unpredictable, as is their duration; some last but a night, others last forever. Many hold theories as to why, but none can say for certain.

Such is the acceptance of the Silent Hour in lillend culture that dying without having ever achieved it is seen as a far more tragic fate, for such a lillend has been cut down in her prime, and never had the chance to truly sup her fill of life's wonders.

### Mentality
The lillendi are a race of contradictions; at once charming and savage, urbane and yet wild, they embody the dichotomy of beauty and wildness so endemic to the fey. Under opportune circumstances, lillendi are charming, gentle-natured and peaceful, with the worst of their vices being a typically fey love of pranks and jests. However, the race also bears a fierce temperament; their wrath is easy to arouse, and like many fey they can be quite disproportionate in venting their fury. Worse, they are vicious grudge-bearers, and can nurse hatreds and wrath over many, many decades.

Beauty and creativity are the foremost virtues, in the eyes of the lillendi. They are lovers of music, art, poetry, and all manner of related forms; material wealth means nothing to them, but a song, poem or painting is cherished for the value inherent to itself.

Perhaps related to this, lillendi are also devotees of the beauty in nature. Protecting it from being tamed or exploited are highly important to them, and though they do not consider civilization inherently evil, they will wrathfully defend the wilderness from exploitation or domestication. For this reason, they are highly appreciative of druids and of sages who focus their studies on the fields of astrology, astronomy and ecology, and frequently interact with them as equals.

### Native Environments
Though native to the Feywild, lillendi have also spread to the planes, gravitating to those realms that mesh with their ethos. In the World Axis, they are drawn to Arvandor first and foremost, but have also been seen dwelling in Celestia and Hestavar. In the Great Wheel, it is the Beastlands, Arborea and Ysgard where one will find them.

### Culture
 The lineage of the lillendi is a mystery, not helped by the fact that they have no clear Courtly allegiance to cling to. One of the pervading theories is that they are descendants - or creations - of Hyrsam, Prince of Satyrs, an archfey also associated with music, nature and chaos. They frequently become master musicians and songstresses at faerie courts, but are just as likely to become deadly duelists, musical bodyguards, or perfection-seeking warrior-artists.

Lillendi are found amongst most of the factions of the Court of Stars. Those who prioritize beauty and music gravitate towards the Summer and Gloaming Fey, whilst those who champion nature join the Green Fey. A notable minority of the latter joins the Court of Coral, seeking the beauty of the underwater realms. A rare few join the Winter Fey, seeking the raw, savage beauty of ice and snow or the chilling melodies of grief and loss. The tiniest minority even joins the Unseelie, becoming dark seductresses who explore vice and sinful gratification.

Though the Feywild lillendi favor the direct rulership of the archfey, in particular Oran, Titania, Hyrsam, and the Maiden of the Moon, they still acknowledge some of the gods as worthy of their respect. It is the planar lillendi who truly dedicate themselves to the creeds of one or more patron deities. Common lillend patrons include Corellon and Sehanine Moonbow of the Seldarine, Kord and Melora of the Dawn War, and Eilistraee of the Dark Seldarine.

The hunt is a sacred thing to the lillendi, being the embodiment of nature at its savage and most beautiful. Hunting based games and rituals are common in their culture, and a significant minority join in the Wild Hunt of the Feywild, or the Glorious Hunt of Arvandor.

Lillendi culture at its core is shaped around the race's unusual reproductive methodology. As each lillend will give birth to many daughters on her own with no need of a mate, lillendi clans are based as much on adoption as on blood relationship - if not more. Lillendi social status depends on a simple system of initiations into mysteries and the ownership of certain totem masks. The mysteries are akin to secret societies, and each mystery is a specific kernel of wisdom passed on from one generation to the next. The more societies a lillend is a member of, the greater her status. Each society is devoted to particular musical forms, songs, instruments, and weapons, so a group of lillendi usually uses the same instruments, weaponry, and spells.

The masks are tangentially related to the societies, since each mask design belongs to a specific family, and long ago each family lived in a single lodge and wore a single type of mask. Things have gotten a little more complicated since then, but the masks still roughly indicate status and family affiliations.

The lodge itself forms the centerpiece of the lillendi community, initially a communal home and rest stop for lillendi of the same clan, they have since morphed into a communal meeting hall and practice ground for a society's chosen craft while still remaining something of a makeshift family for those initiated into their ranks. Typically found deep in a particular society's hunting grounds, most lodges are built around a central hall, usually decorated with trophies of the clan's previous hunts and battles, and several rooms for family members and visitors to rest in. As each lodge is built up and maintained by the clan or society over the years, the exact layout, furnishings, and amenities differ, usually based on the game found in the hunting ground, the nature of the plane their on, and the specific art practiced by that particular society, though when possible, the lillendi will shirk new construction, especially when a nearby clearing may serve just as well instead of a new room.

In addition to serving as a place to return to between hunts and meet with kin, each lodge has a specific art they focus on, be it a specific style of spell casting, music, or swordplay, as well as a small number of related hobbies the clan that founded it long ago chose to focus on. That's not to say lillendi are discouraged from pursuing other crafts while they're there, merely that a lodge built by a society that enjoyed practicing the lyre may not have the facilities to repair a blade broken mid-training.

### Interactions with other races
Lillendi can be both friend and foe to mortal races. They prefer to serve as muses and companions, sharing their own beautiful artwork and taking inspiration from mortals in kind. But they are devoted to the preservation of the wild, and champions of freedom; when combined with the oft-alien mentalities of the fey, they can be deadly to those who draw their ire. Some realms revere lillendi as liberators; others curse them as anarchists. Some say that the lillendi invented the art of bladesinging and taught it to the elves, for its combination of artistry, music, and combat is endemic of the three virtues of lillend combat.

Their callings make lillendi natural enemies of those races that eagerly despoil the wilderness. Orcs and goblinoids are natural foes for the lillendi, and frequently battled both on the material plane and in the Feywild - the hobgoblins and their obsession with taming the wilderness are perhaps the most hated of the mortal races by lillendi. Drow are pitied, more than hated, and lillendi would prefer to seek to redeem them if they can. In the Feywild, their enmity is most reserved for Hags.

Amongst the other realms, lillendi are drawn to battle both devils and modrons; whilst they oppose the latter for their obsession with stifling the chaotic beauty of nature in exchange for order, it is the devils and their soul-crushing tyranny that earns their true wrath.