Valhonians wander the world, seeking to atone for their past arrogance. At the beginning of First Shem, they lived in a mighty nation called Valhonia, a mighty empire that spanned most of Palhur. During this time, they took on students from all races, offering them access to their great Gift vault to study the nature of magical powers. Amongst their Gifts were the Armor & Sword of the Gods.

Believing that they could stop anyone who tried to misuse the Gifts they had, being the dominant source of magic in the area, they let a human being have access to these. His first action upon taking upon godhead was to take on the aspect of void, & shatter the power of the Valhonians. He scattered them about the world, leeching the power from their souls & forcing upon them a need to search the world for redemption.

Valhonians refer to their former selves as "the V'honians," & they seek the world over for a way to cleanse their racial history of this taint & re-empower themselves. On Second Shem, the nation of Valhonia was re-founded, though some Valhonians still wander the world.

Unlike other elves, they lack the inherent superior attitude. Instead, they are a humble, scholarly race. Furthermore, all elven societies are matrilineal.

Cats are sacred to them.

Wanderers:
When a wandering Valhonian is born, they are first given a name by the parents (or appropriate guardians). This name is told to all in their circle (the term for a group of wandering Valhonians) and if the mother is well, there will be celebrating. If the mother is unwell, the celebration is held until she is well. Every birth is celebrated and every member of the circle will give the child an enchantment that will last the first ten years of their life. If a person dislikes the child or (more likely) the child's parents, the enchantment is usually extravagantly beneficial as a show of power. However, if one loves a child or their parents, the enchantment is usually extravagantly beneficial as a show of love and respect. As such, these things can be confusing, but Valhonians like it that way.

As young children, Valhonians are watched closely by the circle to see what aspects they will favor. Once they cast their first spell (usually on accident), they are given a new name and they begin being encouraged to Bond. Once a child is about 50 or so, they naturally bond to an animal or plant (or, rarely, a fungus) associated with the group. The most common biota for this include domesticated cats, macaws, frogs and toads, crocodiles, ants, caracals, papyrus, rimu trees, snails, ravens, wolpertingers and related fauna, verain, juniper trees, peonies, ylangylang trees, douglas firs, spirit oaks, hsigos, brolgas, jacamars, grouses, soras, ibises, waxwings, sarimanoks, bluejays, azure drakes, merlins, slugs, blue tigers, moly plants, nguruvilus, gunnis, azure behemoths, sorcerer silverfish, azure grass, thaumic sage, sorcerer's friend plants, azure mold, obias, and milsama trunfusefs.

The most common of those are cats, bluejays, macaws, frogs and toads, ravens, and merlins. The most powerful are gunnis, azure drakes, azure behemoths, and blue tigers.

Shortly after a Valhonian Bonds, they begin their education. Wandering Valhonians educate their children amongst the circle, usually focusing on one style above others. If a child has an innate ability for a style not common in the group, an exchange is made with a circle that has that focus, with the child returning to his or her parents for half the year. All Valhonians are born with innate forms of magic, mostly soulcasting and heartcasting, but some rare ones have manadrawing, heartdrawing, soulbonding, heartbonding, or even in some very rare cases, mediumship.

The child learns magic for about 300 more years, though the usual coming of age ceremonies fall in that range, somewhere between 75 to 125. The coming of age ceremony is called First Graduation, and it marks the child's assent to adulthood and their selection of a focus. At this time, they are given a name by the circle and they select one for themselves. After they come of age, they continue their schooling, gaining more and more focus as they go along, until they have decided upon a profession within the circle. No matter what they do, it is the magical version thereof. When they reach the age of 500, regardless of their life status, they decide upon a new name.

Marriage amongst the circles is an occasion when two circles come together in celebration (usually). There are some circles who have long-standing feuds, and marriages between them are miniature cold wars. Marraige ceremonies amongst wandering Valhonians involves many displays of magic, magical presents for the couple, and a lot of embarrassing advice from drunken elders. Later, a lot of drunken magic takes place, and the guests all scatter for the safety of the wagons.

Valhonians never truly stop studying, they simply become more focused. Adulthood and middle age are just refined studies, and elders simply shift the focus of their study from solitary to one in which they learn by teaching.

Wandering Valhonians' social structures are fairly loose. Every circle has elders who lead, but if the elders are deemed too inept at leadership, others will take up the position. There is no official method for this. They simply do what needs to be done. This can lead to conflicts, but if it becomes too difficult to function, the circle simply splits into smaller circles. Hard feelings may linger, feuds may be born, but this is considered preferable to organization and structure which might detract from learning.

National Valhonians:
National Valhonians are the ones that live in the region known as Valhonia. On Second Shem, they settled in their ancient home, becoming less guilt-ridden and more comfortable, more formal. When a national Valhonian is born, a solemn ceremony is held in which the child and mother are washed in magical waters that will protect them for the first few years of the child's life. At this time, the child is given the birth names. During the early years of life, the child is taught the simple basics of magic, even before they can use it, and when they cast their first spell it is often because they have been trained and encouraged to do so. When the child reaches about 50 years of age, s/he will be encouraged to Bond with a creature (much the same list as above). Once a child has Bonded, they will be sent to a proper school, one designed to teach them the specifics of their innate style of magic.

When a Valhonian has achieved either Proficiency (a 10) in soul magic of some kind or become comfortable in three aspects with heart magic, they graduate their first school and are sent to a new school where they are encouraged to focus on a set of 11 aspects rather than gain a general education. They will graduate from this school once they have achieved comfort in the full 11 aspects in heart magic or achieved Expertise (13) in the full 11 with soul magic. Once they have graduated this, they move on to a very specialized education under a true master and begin to seek Excellence (16) in at least one aspect with soul magic or comfort in a total of 16 aspects with heart magic.

Regardless of where they are in their education, some time around their 100th birthday, a Valhonian has a coming of age ceremony in which they are challenged to a series of magical tests. Those who fail must retry every 5 years. Those who pass are considered adults in society and may pursue specific careers. They may quit schooling at this time if they want, but it is frowned upon heavily by the elders unless they have achieved Excellence.

As adults, they may become properly involved in one of the major institutions of Valhonia. These include academia (which teach magic), the witches (the religious side of society), the magisters (the law), the apologians (those who seek to bring back the wanderers), the practicums (those who use magic in various professional fields), and the squads (the military). Or a mixture thereof, even.

Academia is the most powerful institution. The academians educate the children and craft and shape the magic of Valhonian society, and the heads of the universities are the de facto rulers of it. The witches are a respected institution, but their practice is seen mostly as a complement to magical study. There are no leaders amongst witches except at a local level. The magisters enforce the law at the behest of the academians. They are local police, judges, and makers of municipal codes. The apologians are a special guild of national Valhonians that travel the world seeking the wanderers and trying to convince them to return. Their leaders are bureaucrats who keep track of every Valhonian in the world as best they can. The practicums are the most common sorts after academians, but they have no leaders. These are the common workers and businessmen of Valhonian society, and magic as a practical complement of that is second nature to them. The squads, as the military is called, recruit heavily from academia and other groups, finding those who are naturally gifted at combative magicks. Their leaders work at the behest of the academian leaders, but they have an occasional independent streak.

Valhonians who achieve Excellence in school are still encouraged to study, but few continue after that unless they seek to become teachers or deans. Most become practicums, join the squads, or one of the other groups a a career.

Marriage in Valhonian society is handled by the magisters or the witches (both have the authority to officiate). The ceremonies are specific to those who are involved, always very personal. Parenthood is almost never entered into lightly, as the raising of a child requires much effort that takes one away from studies. As such, unwanted children are often given to the academians, who raise them in special schools and never tell them who their parents are. After giving birth, Valhonian mothers often Re-Bond to help influence their children's magical educations.

In middle age, Valhonians generally begin to return to study in their spare time if they are not still in academia. They generally begin to slide back into academia, retire from their other careers, and become elders in academia and teachers when they are in their old age. Any Valhonian over the age of 700 will almost certainly have either 20-30 heart magic aspects or a 19 in at least one soul magic aspect (if not, then they will likely have two or three 16s).

As with all elves, groups of Valhonians affect the life around them. The rocks come alive near them and create azure crystals, which the Valhonians use to make the waters they wash mothers and children with, and to create enchanted buildings that are sturdy enough to withstand the earthquakes the region experiences.

Some notes on witches: Witchcraft is referred to as "the Old Religion" everywehere it is practised. A "circle" amongst witches is any group thereof that have more than three but no more than thirteen witches. A "coven" has three witches, and these represent the three goddess of magic most often, though sometimes, the some are excluded and a different goddess is included. With Valhonians, the Mother of Greater Magic is always included. All witches choose a fourth male Divine to serve as a balance/equalizer/contradiction to their three Divines. This is most often the Voidfather, but sometimes, it's a different male Divine. There are male and female witches, and no distinction is made between the two. All are called witches.

Witches sometimes recruit fourths to their covens to stand in for the opposing God. These are called brother-witches, even when they were female. Brother-witches allow covens to perform more difficult spells as all three Goddesses and God were represented during a ceremony. The downside to this is that the brother-witch was allowed a spell/effect of their god's sphere in balance to the spell the other witches cast. A good brother-witch is a valued thing-- they offered counterpoints to a witch's beliefs and challenged them to help crystallize their faith. Good brother-witches exist in a state of volatile respect/distrust and truce with a coven.

Bad brothers-witches are feared as taking on the aspect of the evil counter-Divine. These are those who refused to surrender their title of adversary after a ceremony or performed rituals alongside a coven to become their adversarial God's representative. A void brother-witch is especially feared, as they could "cast" by blocking spheres selectively. This gives them a breadth/depth of power that rivaled an archmage.

Prayers in witchcraft work similarly to ceremonial magic, but all the effects are delayed by at least an hour, usually a day, sometimes weeks or years. Which three goddesses you pick would determine your ceremonies, which is how faith is invoked. The goddess of greater magic is about innate magic like soul magic and heart magic, so something symbolic of the innate is necessary. Whatever symbol is chosen (often a wand) is generally the "holy symbol" of that coven or circle. bottles are the most common symbol for lesser magic (which is about learned magic like mind and body magic) and ankhs are for middle magic (which is bonding magic or mixed magic). Non-magical goddesses would use various symbols involved in their faiths. What effect you wanted would determine the ceremony, which would involve a more simple rule set that ceremonial magic. Most ceremonies would involve a symbol of the counter-point deity, too, usually set outside the ceremonial circle to draw away negative influences if the counter-point is adversarial. A Voidfather symbol is usually a piece of copper.

What you ask for will come (if it comes) within three months at worst, an hour (three sets of 20 minutes) at least. The most common time is 11 hours. The time is determined by the appropriateness of the ceremony and the potency of the asked for effect.

The Rule of Threes applies: what you invoke comes back on you thrice. However, it's not a simple "I killed someone, so I die three times" thing. For one thing, witchcraft is usually a neutral religion, so killing someone's not necessarily an issue. The rule of threes is more about how you treat magic itself. If you abuse the use of magic, it becomes three times harder to use it. If you use it wisely, three times easier.

A note about leys: Leys are the lines of magical current that flow around the world. There are places where multiple leys come together (such as in the capital of Valhonia or on Simon Island) where magic is stronger and easier. At any point on a ley, magic is a little stronger and easier if it is cast such that it flows with the ley. Void negates these effects, and blue zones travel along leys.

Special classes amongst the Valhonians include:
Apologians - seek the wanderers
Shapers - who craft the crystals
Witch - worshipers of magic (anyone who worships magic is a witch, not just Valhonians)
Brother-witch - the counter-witches
Brotherslayers - those who hunt down and kill the brother-witches
Catastrophists - squad members whose magic is focused on large scale devastation
Constables - magical policemen
Ley-finders - those who study leys and how they shift
Cat herders - exactly what it sounds like