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I'm wondering if there is any information as to whether there are elven families living in Nidal and how that has affected them (being a usually CG race in an LE country). I presume it is so, but anything "official", such as families, would be cool.
I'm sure elven Callistria worshippers would be into the whole BDSM aspect.
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The elves of Kyonin frequently fall far short of CG, so no real worries about members of that race fitting into the Nidal mold. ;)
With the slightly morphic nature of elves, you chould have entire family lines of them that look more stereotypically Nidalese than their human countrymen, all washed out pale skin and stark white or jet black hair with fully black eyes. Probably the most popular Kuthonite elf was pretty close to that look, though she wasn't born there.
Nidal was created near the beginning of the Age of Darkness, just after the elves largely bailed on Golarion and left a bunch of their kin behind. Those abandoned elves in or around the Nidal area may very well have been absorbed into the culture, with their longevity serving as a useful means to ensure that newly born traditions took firm root and flourished during the dark ages. That many of those elves would have been Forlorn as hell probably made for some unfortunately impressionable converts during those early years.
One angle you could take with Nidalese families might be that one or two families belong to each sizable community, where they're sworn to the powers-that-be in the nation and thus serve as repositories and perpetrators of old ways and wisdom. Noble human families might own an elven servant from one of those lines, with the elf serving multiple generations as a weird combination of butler/priest/tutor/confessor/brutalized-plaything.
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Cripes Nidal is @#$%ed up.
I'm sure elven Callistria worshippers would be into the whole BDSM aspect.
I don't know... The prevailing attitude towards safewords in some parts of Nidal might be to remove their tongues for even thinking of such "blasphemy". :O
I was looking into incorporating something I read in the Nightglass excerpt into how the shadowcallers attempt to appear as inhuman as possible to the Chelish, with proper elves from Nidal attempting to appear even more "inhuman" in comparison to the most dedicated of human priests. I imagine having centuries to perfect the typical Nidalese stoicism in the face of sanity crushing agony and horror, in tandem with the apparant agelessness of their race, could result in some very chilling individuals.
@Mikaze: Appearance wise, that's how I imagined they'd look.
This is mostly research for an upcoming character and I want the dystopic authoritarian nature of his homeland to really make him stand out among the characters as a foreigner who comes from a place that could be a whole different world from Varisia.
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One fun possibility could be if he's completely unprepared and at a loss on how to react if people react to his Nightglass-ish inhuman and standoffish nature results in more curious reactions from some folks in Varisia than fearful. Especially if there's a gnome in the party. :D
On elves having more time to craft themselves into the Nidalese image, this can be taken to some horrific extremes given their longevity. Plenty of time to dabble in all manner of extreme body modification, and they can certainly take their time with whatever they choose. I remember the skinsend and regeneration spell combo that would enable Kuthonites to easily make clothing out of their own skin. Elves would have time to do it more slowly with just low-level healing magic.
So if he gives any gear made from himself to another party member, it's both that much more meaningful and makes for an uncomfortably creepy moment if he explains its origins.
I'm still debating as to the why he's in Varisia for the Rise of the Runelords campaign. One idea is that he's on a government approved expedition to do research into the ancient Thassilonian ruins and how their secrets can be used by the Umbral Court. Whether he's still YAYNIDAL.ZONKUTHONSMAHDADDY by the end of the campaign, who knows?
Alas, no gnome in the party. We were going to have a pair of gnome twins but one was abducted to our current Kingmaker campaign. Instead, we have a gunslingin' paladin. I imagine fun times ahead. (I was going to make him an elven Uskwood treesinger but, double alas, E only if I want to take the feat, and E and Paladin don't go very well together).
Body mods, years of undergoing various tortures to inure oneself to pain, years spent being creepy to out-creep your fellow classmates. You know, good, wholesome elven things. Also leaking in the LN alignment on somebody who, literally, has spent more than a century in Kuthland, and maintain verisimilitude in regards to personality and ethics development, is going to be entertaining as well.
I actually finished that campaign and...
Though I didn't think of that particular angle, I'm not certain if the goals of the Brotherhood, a fringe group in the Kuthonite faith, would be something he'd think was wise.
I'm hoping that there will eventually be a sourcebook on Nidal, though I realize we weirdos who wish to learn more of that crazy country may be in the minority.
I really like Mikaze's idea of having some of the elves being living repositories of history and lore and a special brand of slave to the Umbral Court and others being the very pinnacle of Nidalese culture and extremely patriotic (a bit like the 'urban elves' from Eberron), able to accurately trade back their lineage to the founding of the nation, though the two wouldn't be mutually exclusive.
I'm also wondering if there are any other Nidalese/Kuthonite flavored character options outside of the shadowcaster (and "Shadow" feats from Inner Sea Magic). A "shadowcaller" prestige class based upon the graduates of the Dusk Hall in Pangolais.