Fiction:Cosmos of Nahiarus/Aurelian

""It is rather amazing - that is, they are rather amazing. The Aurelians. Five millennia ago, they walked the world as its masters. And five millennia later, the sands of time eroded much of what we knew of them. Under the deep deserts of the world, there are a plethora of secrets and history that are waiting to be uncovered. Even now, the magic that protected their sacred sites are strong as they were then.""

- Ia'seirel Andhusarien, Taeleni historian

The Aurelians, also known as the Elder Ones are an extinct race of humanoids native to the central deserts of the world. The common ancestor of a majority of elvish races across the modern world, the Aurelians were part of a massive expanse known as the Aurelian Empire that reigned almost half of the central landmass between ten and five millennia ago. Over time, the Aurelian race dispersed and died out as other elvish races interbred, eventually giving rise to the elvish races of the modern world millennia later. Leaving behind an archaeological legacy near unparalleled in its grandeur, the Aurelians are the subject of much academic study in the scholarly places of the world as one of the originators of civilisation and written history as well as the exploration of magic.

Biology
Aurelians were collectively not too different from that of the racial characteristics altogether as denoted by ancient art that depicted them. Aurelians had a golden complexion with an occasional red undertone; their eyes ranging from colours between an ebony-like black to a gleaming white and several colours in between. They were notably taller than most or all known modern elvish races; several accounts of them portray them at least twice the height of a grown human man (which implies that they were at least three metres or nine feet and eight inches tall). Modern physicists tend to estimate their weight as also at least twice that of a normal man, or around 160 kilograms (350 pounds). Sculptures of Aurelians indicate that they were of somewhat broader physique than the average elf, although not as broad as a man. Aurelians possessed a wide array of hair colours, although it appeared that the most common was a platinum white.

The lifespans of Aurelians were not particularly well documented, although some modern estimates suggest over a thousand years, which is longer than that of any known modern elf. Aurelians of a more senior age were known to grow ivory-like curved horns on their heads, although this was not common between all of them and was likely an inherited trait. Aurelians were known to have been immune to most diseases that humans suffered, although they were likely not immune to magical afflictions.

Pre-Empire History
Though ostensibly from Aurelian legend, the Aurelian Empire formed approximately ten thousand years ago from a unison of tribal city states that existed in the desert plains of the central landmass of the world. This epoch of history is globally regarded as the Pre-Aurelian era, which has sparing archaeological evidence of prehistoric art and yet-to-be-deciphered cuneiform writing which was likely from pre-Empire Aurelians. Artistic depictions suggest that the unison of the tribes into the Aurelian Empire was a result of one of the few known prehistoric conflicts, possibly a series of wars. No complete names survive from this period in history, although Classical Aurelian translations survive as elves that had names of mythological beasts. There is not a concrete numerical attestation to the date of which the Aurelian Empire formed, although historians agree that it was between 10,250 and 10,100 years ago.

Old Aurelian Empire
One of the earliest known cities established in the Aurelian Empire that survives is Hursanu, located in the far southeastern mountains in modern day Sarpardarshin. Some of the earliest stone foundations of Hursanu have been dated between 10,250 and 9,900 years ago as part of the entrance to one of the sealed necropolises and was abandoned approximately 2,500 years ago during the collapse of the Khiyamanid Kingdom. Located alongside a river that likely dried up around the same time the Khiyamanid Kingdom collapsed, Hursanu was the centre of the cult of Aur for over seven thousand years. The city was seized and plundered innumerable times in history, although it was largely impenetrable during the times of the Old Aurelian Empire. It was an architectural trait of the Old Aurelian Empire to build in mountain ranges and coastal regions, although due to the extreme antiquity of these cities most of these ruins no longer exist.

Culture
A vast number of modern civilisations are a cultural evolution of the Aurelians (among other cultures that existed at the same time); governmental hierarchies, slavery, religion, imperial law and feudalism existed in one form or another with the Aurelian Empire. As the Aurelian race gradually died out, sentiments of racial superiority changed alongside cultural imbalances. For most of the Aurelian Empire, the Aurelian race were seen as a ruling caste. As racial diversification increased over time, Aurelians were gradually considered a dying race until their eventual extinction. For most Aurelians, interracial reproduction was an undesirable trait, and some families practised consanguineous marriage. This was later outlawed half way through the New Empire, although several Aurelians elected not to reproduce with other species, which eventually led to their extinction some thousands of years later.

Language
Aurelians spoke a collective of languages that are eponymously named as the Aurelian languages; an evolutionary chain of spoken languages over five thousand years that diversified into many of the modern languages spoken today. Most surviving archaeological remnants of the Aurelian languages survive from the Classical Aurelian language, which was the lingua franca of the Aurelians between approximately 8,100 and 6,900 years ago. Old Aurelian is seldom understood, with vague cross-referencing of Classical Aurelian to understand some cognate terms. Old Aurelian is still used as liturgical language and for academic reasons considering Aur's theology. Late Aurelian, mostly a diversification of Classical Aurelian into spoken native languages of the cultures living alongside Aurelian rule, was in use until roughly 3,200 years ago.

Relations with other races
Aurelians were somewhat disliked throughout most of their history due to the strong cultural practices of racial superiority which were only greatly dispersed by the time of the Late Empire. Even in the modern age, Aurelians are generally thought of as slavemasters and destroyers of cultural identity by some cultures, although they were in most ways responsible for the inception of several humanoid cultures from the last five thousand years. Some elvish cultures, especially Aurseleth, regard the Aurelians as their ancestors whilst others tend to rebuke the claim that the Aurelians even existed. In ancient times, Aurelians were mostly feared for their imperial expanse and the projection of their affluence.