The Holy Crystals (Crystals by Elwood W. McKay III)
The Gemsisters
“Precious gems are like reality, they change depending on how you look at them, and somehow, they are always different, can you see? Ok good, now you will do exactly what I say.”
Names
Earthdaughters, Earth Jinns, The Mindwavers.
As the Earthsons, this race shares a common origin as members of the Earth Jinn race, one of the first four Elemental Races. This is a name which is very seldom used by the gemsisters and usually in very formal ritual occasions.
Earthdaughters is a term which especially above-land dwellers enjoy using, but not disdained from the Gemsisters as well. It tends to refer to fact that they live beneath earth and that they are closely related to the Earthsons.
Gemsisters is the name members of this race tends to use most of the time to identy themselves.If refers to deep connection they have to the beauty and energy of earth such as their veneration for the Holy Crystals.
====History====
The Origins
Gem sisters share their past with Earthsons as members of the Earth Jinn race. After the Queen of Earth Gea was imprisoned by Shadow Dragonsoul Highmages and her worshippers enslaved, the Earth Jinns where separated into males and females. The reasons for this sharp separation are still unclear, but weakening the strenght of the race and following the advice of some obscure oracle seem to have play a large part in this decision.
Slavery
While the Earthsons were mainly employed for heavy labour, earthdaughters were primarily assigned to domestic or light tasks. Many of them were maids, musicians, singers or even mistresses for their Dragonsoul masters.
This allow them to live in relatively good conditions and to learn a lot of their lords culture. Furthermore Shadow Dragonsouls started sperimenting on their very bodies, in order to make them more gracious and good-looking.
After few generation the result was a group of beautiful, well manered and dutiful home slaves. What their masters were not aware of, was that these servants had developed some powerful mindpowers. Although some Dragonsouls had understood what had happened, most did not know (or did not care alltogether).
Gemsisters became able to use their minds to communicate with each other and, most importantly, to attune themselves with the "Holy Gems". This is the underground variant of the Spiritgems. The energy of these Spiritgems allowed them to start cracking the Void Prison in which the Queen of Earth, Gea, was kept.
Thanks to the weakening of her prison, Gea, with only a spark of conscience, started communicating with her worshippers and through them with the Earthsons as well. This silent network, empowered by the Holy Gems, allowed the Queen of Earth to wave a plot against her prisoners, which took generation to be fullfilled.
Finally, after decades of careful tasks being done by Earthdaughters and Earthsons, Gea started a fullblown rebellion, and thanks to all the various traps and plots which had been laid in the previous years, the descendants of the Earth Jinns won, freeing Gea and starting the collapse of the Empire of the Shadows.
Freedom
After the rebellion, women and men never really managed to reform a united society, so they remained separated, developing ways to get together in order to continue the race.
Although this is rarely said, whereas Earthsons truly rejoiced for the breaking of their schackles, for the Gemsisters freedom became a bittersweet gift. Their slavery was a golden cage, with all the perks of living in the palaces of their master and having to learn manners and culture. After the fall of the Empire, only ruins and hard work were left.
As the Gemsisters started rebuilding their homes, the King's alliance was officially struck. Efreets, fascinated by what women of the Earth Jinn race had becomed, contribuited heavily to the reconstrunction gemsister cities and culture. This allowed the Earthdaughters to quickly rebuild a refined and sophisticated society.
====Society & Culture ====
Gemsister society is focused on beauty and emotional balance. Beauty is shown through various forms of arts as well as from a flawless sword dance. Some of them go to other on quests to bring beauty there and to learn something from new aesthetic canons, other stay in their Courts in order to increase their collections with new art and creations.
There is another darker side to Earthdaughters’ society; to defend themselves and to communicate during the Dragonsoul slavery, these women developed a powerful mind which allows them to use the Flow to do subtle mind-controlling magic
Gemsister society is divided into four “emotions”: gemsisters grow into attuning to some emotion more than another, such as anger or sorrow: their powers and physical appearance varies as well depending on the emotion, ranging from fiery ruby hair to cold diamond pale sisters.
The Four Emotions
During ancient times, Mathema experimentation of the Dragonsoul led to Gemsisters with the most diverse traits (in addition to various aberrations, some of which are said to be still living in the darkest corners of the underground world ...). Amethyst or Acquamarine aspects are mentioned in ancient tales, but they are now extinct, it is unclear if due to natural causes (one obscure story says that some gemsisters stood loyal to the Dragonsouls and their families were completely exterminated after the Rebellion). The Gemsisters are now divided into Diamond, Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald Sisters.
Diamondsisters These Earthdaughters are usually pale, with blue eyes and white or silver hair.
Their Emotions are Calm and Sorrow
Rubysisters Tanned skin and fiery red hair make them sometimes look like efreets.
Their emotions are Generosity and Anger.
Sapphiresisters These Earthdaughters are usually light-skinned with dark eyes and hair ranging from black to dark blue.Love and Greed are their emotions
Emeraldsisters These daughters of the Earth have slightly tanned complexion, with hair that tend to be very dark green. Their eyes are green.
Joy and Cruelty are these mindwavers' emotions.
====Religion====
The Gemsisters follow the religious schools of the Forgotten Gods, coupled with their veneration for Gea, the Queen of Earth.
====Distribution & Relations ====
Although gemsisters often share with earthsons underground caves, they often end up wondering above ground in order to search for beauty or to get into touch with new minds… After their iron bon with the Earthsons, the strongest relationship is with the Efreets who often share similar aesthetic views. Dragonsouls are the race they probably hate the most.