Concavia: the Maäliset and the Vuoräinar.
Added 2025-11-27 15:31:17 +0000 UTCHey everyone, I hope you’re all doing well. I’m having a nice holiday with the family, it has been good to change pace and unwind a bit. I’ll be back on Monday to work on colouring that latest Humanity Lost page, I’m looking forward to it!
Introducing the Maäliset. These are a Neanderthal-like people in Concavia that can cut stone with a form of magic called “stone-song”. I’ll get round to drawing some full bodied character drawings of them at some point and what their women look like too. I also have plans to draw what their settlements are like, that will probably come first. I have so much I want to get around to drawing, it’s just a case of finding the time. There are many other hominid-like races like this in Concavia, but these Maäliset drawings should give you a good feel for what is to come. Some are more man-like, others are more ape-like.
Anyway, without further ado, here is the lore on the Maäliset:
“After the great flood that began the Days of Iron, Mehter brought forth the land-wights, watchers of the wilds who show themselves when men take too much from the earth. Yet one folk has found a way round these land-wights by living underground, so as not to upset the wild things above. The Maäliset they are called. They are a low, thick-set breed of men with long bodies, big heads and short but strong limbs. Their skin runs from grey to coal-black, their eyes from brown to fire-yellow and their hair from brown to white.
Yet in the deeps of Concavia, away from the land-wights, there were other fearsome things to dread. Since they dwelt underground, the Maäliset in time crossed paths with scattered bands of Dwalves. To stay there, the Maäliset bought their safety and staved off the wrath of the Dwalves by yielding a share of all their gain and offering it to them at holy cave-pools. They came to worship their Dwalven betters as lesser Gods, and the Dwalves in turn took Maäliset women now and then as their share of the tithe. Children born of these minglings became the high-born houses of the Maäliset, and it was they who held sway under their Dwalven overlords.
Dwalven blood brought forth gifted bloodlines that could wield the darker sides of the craft. Men of this line could shape stone with stone-song; women could shape dreams and toadstools. With stone-song the Maäliset hewed towns into the stone faces of deep hollows under the earth.
Though not all bowed to the Dwalves, some among them broke with their kin and settled in the high hills and fells above the ground. These sundered folk took a new name, the Vuoräinar. They never ceased using Dhegoma’s gift of stone-song, yet they heeded not his dark pull. The Vuoräinar carved their towns through the peaks and hollowed them to make their halls. Yet their break from their nether-kin made them foes both to the Dwalves and to the land-wights, for their folk were many and needed much from the land above.”
Comments
Cool! Sometimes I like to imagine that the other human species we used to coexist with are the origin of fantasy people in folklore. It’s interesting to re-imagine, as you have, new fantasy species breaking from the mold!
Gabu
2025-12-17 17:40:37 +0000 UTCHey Erika! Thanks so much 🙏🏻I’ll answer your questions one by one down below. They are more advanced than those on the surface, yes. The Maäliset and the Vuoräinar are the only races that still have cities; all others live in villages or travel around with tent encampments. The first of the Dwalves were more powerful than the lower orders; they made the weapons of the gods. The Dwalves are still master craftsmen, however. Those who live in smaller settlements tend to be quite ignorant of the time before the Flood, though some do preserve some knowledge through oral traditions. What is left of the Witches of Talanos catalogue all they can find, and they transcribe and share copies of documents between their temples of learning. Some groups have myths that tell an abbreviated version of the history of the world. The Alves are immortal, not invulnerable; they can die. Most would be terrified if they encountered a Dwalf. Some fear, some worship. You can imagine how a Human/Dwalf child would look by looking at how the Maäliset vary within their race. A mixed Human/Dwalf person would have hueless black skin, bright orange eyes, white hair, and they would be taller than their human parent. Someone with Dwalven blood would be met with immediate distrust. Mind you, that is true of almost any stranger at this level of society, where folk rarely meet anyone from beyond their own small community or kin. The wariness would be sharper in their case, however. The old tales of the Dwalves would colour every judgement. Some might even see them as a walking omen and choose to hunt them, or at the very least drive them away before they bring trouble to the settlement. Some may be fearful that they are a representative of their Dwalven overlord and run for the hills. Yeah, that would be a tense scene! I actually really agree with you, and I have been revising the design of the Dwalves behind the scenes. I’ll reveal that soon. The visual language for Concavia is still in its infancy, so it is not too late to update the looks of things. Thanks for your honest feedback, I really appreciate it. I came up with a really neat idea for this next Dwalf piece. You know how I mentioned that the Dwalves turn to stone in sunlight? Well, I came up with the idea of drawing a stone Dwalf so we can see all their features. I’ll be killing two birds with one stone with that piece also because all I’ll have to do to turn it into a living Dwalf is fill it in with black and draw the glowing pupils. I am making them much less like stereotypical demons and more like dark fae/shadow elves.
Callum Diggle
2025-12-03 20:29:57 +0000 UTCGreat work! i like what you did with their hair. Do you think the Maaliset (I can't figure out how to type it like you can, i don't think my computer has options for those characters,) have more advanced technology and greater knowledge than most who live on the surface? Not only are they away from the land spirits but they are ruled by the Dwalves who I believe you said were master craftsman? How knowledgeable are those who live in the many small settlements? Do they know about the history of Concavia as a whole? Do they know there are other cultures or races in the world? Do they know about magic or are able to read and write? I wonder, are the Albes who abandoned Upergora to hunt the Dwalves immortal as in they never age or are they absolutely indestructible and cannot be killed? Do the Dwalves, who are also closely related to the gods, have something similar? How would a settlement or people like the farmers or Boareon's people react if they encountered a Dwalf or someone else of the dark line? How would someone like Arrowaun react? If a Dwalf had children with a human, as in a human as we know them, not the Talanos, Maalisets or others, what would the child look and be like? Would they be tall like the Dwalves and/or have other features that may manifest in different ways due to the mixing of the two races? You don't have to consider this for Concavia at all, but I imagine a child with Dwalf and human parents would be taller, have different colored eyes and have their hair growing and forming into shapes on their head similar to the Dwalves' head crests. How would humans, Talanos and others outside the dark line react to someone like that? I sort of imagine a young Dwalf-human hybrid or a few of them who are dark magic users arriving at a settlement for some reason that has a normal wizard like Arrowaun at it and how tense the scene would be. This is a bit of really late feedback on the design of the Dwalves, but in my opinion I felt the designs that were just pitch black and didn't have the smoke effect or the forked tongue were more terrifying. Them having forked tongue's sort of reminds me of the average persons notion of what demons look like and seeing that notion so much in fiction has sort of taken away the originality for me personally. You don't have to change your design though. Sorry for forgetting to give that feedback earlier. I hope you are having a good holiday!
Erika Spooner
2025-12-01 21:29:09 +0000 UTC
