---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

live in the skies, nestled in the clouds, bothered by few. They keep to themselves for the matters of Earthborn do not concern them. They live to preserve their own race and to guard The Lady of the Skies, The Sky Queen Kolydi Karael. The queen is the mother of all the Arials and she is the living goddess. It is indefinite if she truly is the physical form of The Mother or if she is The Mother’s vessel. She will at times produce an egg asexually, giving birth to Arials destined to forever guard her, her White Knights. All female Arials carry an egg inside them when they reach maturity that will only grow once they have lain with a male. The female will then lay the egg and keep it forever close to her warm bosom until it hatches. The difference between standard Arials and the White Knights are their hair and wings. All White Knights have stark-white hair, skin, wings, and eyes. They bear no other color. As for their wings, the Arials’s most defined trait is their wings. Every Arial has wings and they vary in color. There is no standard color for an Arial. Their hair and their wings could meet every hue of a rainbow. It is the queen whose wings and hair radiate and encompass all the colors of the rainbow. Like the queen, all the Arials are a beautiful people and bear a gentle glow of mysticism. The Arials are said to be why lightning flashes in the clouds. They mine for a special resource called the Lightning Stone and use it to forge powerful weapons and armor. When two Arials are sparring, their lightning weapons are what crack and thoom for all the land to hear. A storm on a rain-less night or day is the sign of Arials in battle.

The Arials, although rarely ever seen by Earthborn, exist in their books as legendary beings. They are the angels that slay the demons and the undead. They are often depicted saving Earthborn from falling from cliffs, mountains, raging rivers, being stranded at sea or marooned on islands (the tales go on). What is true is that the Arials are not fond of things that go against the Laws of Life and Death. Once something dies, it should stay dead, and if it is resurrected, then it is a disease to the world. The White Knights actively hunt demons and undead often assisting other nations from Humans, Elves, Dwarves, and other species in eradicating them—but this does not make them necessarily allies. They just share a common nemesis.

As perfect as the Arials may seem, they are far from perfect. They are extremely arrogant and look down on the Earthborn as lower lifeforms. Most kings who have fought alongside the White Knights could hardly tolerate their presence because they always spoke to the Earthborn as though they were inept. As though, the sole reason the Arials were even there was because the Earthborn armies were too incompetent to handle their own problems. The Arials have earned the most hate during the War of the Mad King. They took no part! Selfishly, the White Knights were ordered by the queen to refrain from aiding the ground armies. It was about time the Earthborn handled their own problems rather than she risking her own children to always save them. They were ordered to wait until they had managed to cull the dark numbers and if it looked as though their units were near diminished, then they were to involve themselves. Unfortunately, the command never came for the dragon had been unexpected. The beast wiped out the armies before the Arials had a chance to intervene. Shame. Ever since, the Arials were despised for many Earthborn claimed that if the White Knights had been involved, then surely they would have won.

The wiser Earthborn kings and queens were patient with the Arials. They humbled themselves, sending messengers to their sky kingdom to ask for the Sky Queen’s trust. The Sky Queen relented, offering to have her White Knights assist the kingdoms understanding that the Earthborn were the first defense against the Dark Ones. If the Earthborn were wiped out, then her kingdom, Sepherine, would surely be next.

The standard Arials are capable of elemental magic. The color of their hair and wings hint what element they specialize in: Red (Fire), Green (Air), Brown (Earth), Yellow (Light), Blue (Water), and Purple (Lightning). Other colors such as Orange, Indigo, Pink, Violet, etc are a tossup. They were often the offspring of two parents with colors that mixed such as a Red Arial and a White Knight producing a Pink Arial. The child of a White Knight and a non-White Knight (NWK) do not produce a hybrid for the breed is diluted once a White Knight breeds with a NWK. Non-White Knights are often called "Nawks" by White Knights to mean exactly that. All Arials have innate abilities similar to avian species. They have hawk-like eyesight, they can dive like the peregrine falcon, and maneuver the skies, changing immediate direction with the agility of a sparrow. Like the owl, they can even hunt demons at night. The Earthborn, who abhor them, have nicknamed them "Pigeons."

The White Knights differ from the standard Arial. They are born directly from the queen and they often refer to each other as Brother or Sister. Because of their pure breed, they are the strongest of the Arials with the highest magical affinity. They harness the lightning forged in their weapons and are capable of harnessing multiple elements to aid them, the most common being air and light. They are the distinguished soldiers of the Sky Queen’s squadron, and if ever she is in danger she can send out a distress signal to summon them to her side.

---

---