Bien sûr, le Sviirog n'avait pas été complètement préparé pour un test de connaissance, et elle n'était pas tout à fait sûre de la pertinence des connaissances existantes pour le travail. Mais elle avait répondu indépendamment - en profitant pleinement de ses lunettes obsidiennes et de sa stature pour "emprunter" les réponses les plus courantes d'autres candidats sans être facilement attrapée.
Il s'agissait d'une série de questions assez simples, et aucune d'entre elles n'exigeait de réponses éloquentes, ce qui facilitait considérablement la tricherie. Les réponses en un mot étaient simples, bien que Kyik n'ait pas tout à fait compris les concepts de Titans ou de Born of Ash. En effet, elle et son peuple étaient complètement ignorants du folklore des habitants de la surface, et n'avaient même jamais pris la peine de se demander d'où ils venaient en premier lieu.
Cependant, lorsqu'elle a remis son journal, bien qu'elle ait volé ses réponses à d'autres, elle était confiante qu'elle était passée. La collecte d'informations était une compétence importante pour toute sorte de 'chunter' quel que soit le type. La troisième question, cependant, a sonné dans son esprit jusqu'à la prochaine partie de l'examen. Dans quelle ville ne devez-vous jamais entrer, car c'est la source de toute la mort et de l'obscurité?, on lui avait demandé - et bien que la réponse écrite était Le Burg, cela n'avait très peu de sens pour elle. La mort et l'obscurité étaient partout - aucune ville n'avait de prétention exclusive non plus, et le cadrage de la « noirceur » comme une mauvaise chose semblait un peu insensible à son esprit caverneux.
Des mentions de lecture d'esprit ont été faites, et elle n'a pas été dérangée dans le moindre au concept de l'invasion de la vie privée. Ce n'était pas comme si elle avait quelque chose à cacher sur elle-même, après tout - et elle voulait savoir si l'Arc-Mage était capable de lire des intentions et des émotions plutôt que de penser des mots.
Elle a répondu aux déclarations de Varioyn avec une éraflure, et a remis son papier avant de se diriger vers la porte. Il serait intéressant de voir comment ces personnes qui marchent du soleil se produiraient dans les tests physiques.
A race of humanoids found in only the deepest, darkest pits of the earth, where not even the Kiln dare to delve. Their origin is, like the caverns they inhabit, muddy and hidden - and it's suggested by those few who have ever encountered them that they were either created alongside the Elves, or alongside Men - or are a twisted version of either that has long since disappeared from the blessings of the sun.
They only rarely venture out of the depths of the earth, and typically turn back and go home upon reaching the caverns, mines, and forges of the Kiln, as the colder air towards the surface greatly bothers them. No Sviirog cities are known to exist, as their culture revolves around small familial groups tucked away within the cramped confines of their homes, where they farm rock-hard fungi and deep ponds of foul bacterial slimes.
They are extremely tall and spindly, standing at seven feet tall. They appear to almost be batlike - universally albino, with yellow or pink eyes, enormous lightly furred ears, and razor sharp teeth. Dim bioluminescent splotches or stripes criss-cross across their skin all the way across their bodies, to provide the minimal light needed to see in the deepest places of the world. Surface-dwelling Sviirog wear obsidian-lensed goggles to protect their eyes from the blinding sun.
Those Sviirog who walk the surface are considered by their kin to be severely and incurably mentally ill, and can never again return to their homes - and, for the most part, they wouldn't want to return in the first place. They are silent and clever, and above ground they are recognized as competent pyromancers and assassins.
Note: Though gifted with the ability to see with absolutely no light sources whatsoever, they do not see colors the same way as other races do. This leads to the amusing ability to easily tell the difference between different kinds of otherwise identical minerals, fungi, and grasses, while simultaneously not being able to tell the difference between an orange piece of cloth or a purple one.


Kyik'thai Tvikiir
(or Kyik, for those with trouble pronouncing it)
Age: 26
Gender: F
Race: Sviirog
Appearance:
Kyik stands at an imposing 7'3" - a fair bit taller than the average Sviirog, and weighs in at 105 lbs, giving her a twiglike, fiendish look, almost like a twisted elf. Her large, angular eyes are a shade of near-lilac pink, though she always keeps them hidden beneath Kiln-made obsidian welding goggles. Like most Sviirog, her hair is thin, white, and scraggly - and she keeps it in a ponytail to keep it from drawing any attention. Massive batlike ears are coated with very fine snow-white fuzz, peaked neatly at the tips - and it's obvious that she takes quite good care of them. For the Sviirog, ear care is vastly more important than hair care, after all.
A ghost of a glow can be seen on her skin in a tiger-stripe pattern all across her body and face - faint enough that it's only properly visible for those with near perfect nightvision in a dark room.
In terms of clothing, she is often bundled up in very heavy cloaks or coats at all times, very few of which actually fit her, and all of which clash horribly with one anothers' colors. Beneath the mountains of warming fabric, she wears sturdy yet flexible dark stone green leather armor over a matching skintight leather suit. She often wears soft fur earmuffs to protect from the loud winds and speech of the surface. A green-and-red plaid flat cap sits atop her head, between her massive ears.
Backstory:
The Tvikiir clan, comprised of no more than ten Sviirog, was a well respected family within the circle of caverns four kilometers beneath Caragosh. Their depth was an indicator of their status, as the deeper caves provided the most heat and moisture - vital for fungus and slime farming - as well as access to the best ore veins. Her fathers were miners by trade, and her mothers tended to the sludge pools - sustaining themselves by trading materials and food further up the caverns to those closer to the surface.
As a Sviirog of breeding age, she was expected to help replenish the populations of the other clans to prevent inbreeding and a rapid population - and she did her duty as well as any other Sviirog. Most Sviirog have an average of five children throughout their lifetime, each by different sets of parents, and blood ties are generally forgotten in favor of clan and guardian - though most don't survive to adulthood, thanks to the harsh living conditions in the depths of the earth. She neither knows nor cares if her spawn are still alive.
By 23, having done her duty to her people, Kyik felt restless and unsatisfied with a life of watching pond scum reproduce, and sought out alternate ways to make herself useful - from basic medicine, to spectacularly failed attempts at inventing new tools (the Sviirog are, despite being clever earth-dwellers like the Dwarves/Kiln, not well suited to engineering). At 25, she heard a rumor from one of the surfaceward clan traders that there were strange, tiny creatures that go on two legs far, far above them, where the air was biting cold and foul to the nose - and she heard that they were masters of crafts the Sviirog didn't even have a name for.
She said her goodbyes to her clan, who all told her that she would be back within the year, but didn't object to her leaving. They figured she would be sickened by the uninhabitable air and the poor food up above, and would come running back home when she grew tired of it. They were wrong.
It took almost four months for her to climb all the way from the caverns, on account of the incredibly treacherous vertical ascents and the rather nasty wildlife that kept the Kiln from going any deeper than they already had - but she eventually reached one of the mine shafts near Caragosh. One Kiln saw her, and she saw the Kiln - before both immediately scurried back down their respective holes in fear. She crawled back out, and the Kiln had returned - this time, with a blanket and a lantern, which burned her eyes horribly. The two couldn't understand eachothers' language, but after some time, they came to an understanding, and she continued on her journey upwards, now in possession of clothing and a set of welding goggles.
Kyik cannot remember what adventures she had between meeting the first Kiln and arriving on the surface - but she found herself with no nonviolent skills, no home, and only the faintest idea of the language of the surface dwellers - and she was very, very cold. Much of her time was spent trying to blend in with the locals (and failing miserably), or hunting the local wildlife for food, as the only sustenance that kept her strength up was meat.
Her 26th birthday has recently passed, and with it, she has learned of a place where she may find work, and thus life: the Hunters' Guild.
Personality:
Borderline alien.
Sviirog culture is so far removed from surface culture that it is difficult to identify specific personality traits amidst the tribalism and strangeness, but others have described her from the viewpoint of surface dwellers. Here's what they've had to say.
She is fiercely proud of her heritage and family, and if successfully insulted (in such a manner that she understands it to be an insult, and it actually offends her Sviirog nature), she has been known to brawl viciously. She's surprisingly talkative for someone who only half-understands the local language, and often attempts to joke, though the translation from Sviirog to the common tongue usually causes it to fall flat. She has begun taking a strong interest in puns, though, which can be a little bit annoying at times.
She values courtesy, and hates magic being performed too closeby - the otherworldly heat and vibrations of casting makes her very uncomfortable.
She values life much less than most and doesn't think much about morality when accepting jobs.
Although it hasn't been confirmed, there have been reports of small fires spreading in every town she has visited while she was present. Possible minor arsonist.
She appears to be very, very clever and pragmatic - though she has more or less no surface education.
Weapon skill/choice: Rows upon rows of razor-sharp teeth. She is very good at biting things. Failing that, she can and will use a dagger, but that's pushing it. She feels awkward with a weapon in her hands, and prefers to use her natural equipment.
Notable abilities: Completely untrained natural pyromancer. Like most Sviirog, she is capable of producing flames at any point within twenty meters of her body, but unlike most Sviirog, she never focused on developing this skill - and, as such, is only able to make the equivalent of a large candle flame, a loud popping noise, or a bright flash of light.
The time she didn't spend on learning fire magicks, however, was spent on learning to climb and explore the caverns without attracting the attention of other Sviirog or the local vicious beasts. She can nearly silently scale any porous surface the fine hairs in her skin can take hold of.
Sviirog strength and agility permits her to contort herself into otherwise unthinkable positions, making her motions very difficult to predict in combat.
Other Info: Odd-color vision, perfect darkvision. Incredibly fine hearing, but can be very easily incapacitated by loud noises if not wearing hearing protection.