Vidreans

Political Stance:
The vidreans never had any sorts of predators or prey during their fledgling years as a race. Therefore, they maintained a very isolated spot on the foodchain, and never had any need to fight anything.
They have carried this attitude with them and are incredibly pacifistic, only attacking when threatened. Thus, they have a very strange relationship with the dwarves. When dwarven miners find a vidrean colony, both sides turtle, waiting for the other to attack. Neither ever does, but tensions remain high as both sides anticipate attacks that will never come.
The drow tend to leave the vidreans alone, but occasionally the two societies will grow too close and end up in a sort of economical stalemate, unable to offer the other anything but unwillnig to move.

Physical Description:
Vidreans are rather stocky creatures, and commonly stand at about five feet when they reach the peak of their growth. However, Vidrean height can vary between three and seven feet depending on how rich and plentiful their diet was when they were young. They can live to be nearly 500 years old, but their growth usually stops, or is significantly slowed, once they reach the age of 80.
Coating their entire body is crystalline plates, covering every inch of their flesh. The crystal grows like an exoskeleton, and becomes a very durable natural armor for the vidreans. The plates grind each other down at a vidrean's joints, resulting in perfectly smooth, perfectly fitted natural armor, unique to each individual.
The crystal's color is mostly determined by diet, and so long as a healthy, clean diet is maintained, it remains a pure, shiny color. If the diet is tainted, the color becomes muddy and can lose its strength if the diet is not repaired quickly enough. If a vidrean's diet is ruined for long enough, the crystal over their eyes clouds and results in blindness.
If crystal plates are broken off, they take very long to grow back, and usually grow back significantly thinner and less durable than their ancestor.
Individuals have no one gender, and instead are a combination of several, like many plants.

Special Abilities:
The vidrean can enter a state of hibernation, their crystal exoskeletons instead absorbing mana from the area around them to produce the minerals it needs to survive. This ability is usually only used in times of famine or danger, since if not enough mana is present, they can slowly slip into death.
They also note very subtle vibrations within their crystal, caused by vibrations in the ground. This results in a very subtle tremorsense that the vidrean can use to locate nearly anything that moves on the ground.

Notable Settlements:
Animastu - Animastu is the largest vidrean colony to date. Due to the massive well of mana it is built around, it only grows as time goes on. It is also the home of the Vidrean Memory, a massive crystal that is suspended with old magic. The Vidrean Memory contains the memories of any vidrean that touched it during their life. It is a scene of mass study for many mages, and a place of pilgrimage for most any vidrean.

Culture:
The vidrean prefer to eat roots and minerals, such as quartz and granite. If a vidrean can maintain this diet, their crystalline structure is maintained and exquisite, as mentioned above.
The vidrean don't name one another, they don't take on last names, and they prefer not to call others by their last names either. Instead, vidreans name themselves once they feel they are old enough (this takes many years for some), and instead of a last name use the title of their village instead. Due to their seeding nature, they also have no true siblings, they know every vidrean as their brethren, and even those from other villagers are included in their family dynamic.
Vidrean colonies are not built as they are grown. Colonies are only made when a shaman decides to leave the city they reside in. This can be for many reasons. Once they leave, they find a new home, one rich with mana and renewable sources of food and energy. They then grow their homes and buildings using the shaman's connection to nature and magical currents.