Ferais

Ferais ("ferray") are a bipedal, humanoid species, one of Shade's five major races.

They are shorter than faleighs and taller than srolli.

Appearance

Ferais run to slim builds, even gracile or fragile-looking, and have medium-to-fine hair (coarser than faleigh, finer than sroll) with a distinctive texture. Their ears are rounded, almost c-shaped.

Ferais have a goldish or tannish tint to their skin (with some variation by area of origin, as with humans, srolli and voks). Hair ranges from dark to light brown or from russet to light brown. Eyes can be anything from green to brown, green to blue or grey.

Elves?

Other worlds and cultures familiar with generic fantasy tropes consider ferais to be Shade's closest equivalents to elves, for various good reasons. However, they lack the more mystical and sparkly elf stereotypes: they do not live for thousands of years, they don't have pointy ears and they don't have a special relationship with trees -- at least, not one that isn't explainable from a long history of hunting-gathering, shading into modern-time slash-and-burn agriculture.

Medical

Ferais are not allergic to iron.

They have strong adverse reactions to many kinds of smoke and other airborne pollutants. Coughing, lungs constricting, eye-watering and temporary damage to the voice are all common in mild inhalation cases. More than a gulpful can cause pneumonia-like symptoms. [1] Consequently, lung and breathing disorders are common relative to Shade's other sapes.

Ferais tend to fairly light bones and heal quickly from fractures, but calcium-leaching or brittle bone disorders are particularly serious in individuals with low bone density to begin with.

Species and cultural idiosyncrasies

Ferais are known for eating large quantities of fruit compared to the other races, who rely more on grains and vegetables. (All five species eat meat in similar proportions.)

Especially at the beginning of the worldgate event timeline, ferais are known for being standoffish and shy of other species.

They are typically fond of the arts; most enjoy music, and very many of them play an instrument or two. Ferais are, on average, the worst of the five races at languages; they do not tend to be big readers, favouring conceptual or practical methods of learning. At a suitable stage in Shade's history, they prefer to live outside built-up areas, and tend to keep a lot of pet plants.

Magical ability is relatively common among ferais, and telepathy is possible but very unlikely (less so than any of the other races).

Vocabulary

• ferais: one member of this species
• ferais: plural; possessive the ferais's blueberry bush ("ferrayz")
• feraisai: of a ferais, of ferais in general
• ferais-like, feraisesque ("ferryesk") or fairyish (pejorative): ferais-like
• feraisity: quality of being like a ferais ("ferrayzity")

Feraisai characters

• Robett Freedman

See also

• Elf