Snow Elves
Attention! Snow Elves are no longer a race, but are a culture of normal Elves. If you would like to play a snow elf and need help, contact a community team member for assistance. Please keep this in mind as you read this page. |
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The Mali'fenn [1], or Snow Elves, are Elves in ancient times of High Elven blood before being altered by Lomal's World Altar. After the first snow elves were altered and experienced insanity they were pitied by a passing aengul, The Lord of the Deep Cold, Wyvrun he sought a people to populate his mortal domain, Hesin’fin. For the land was harsh, and its occupants few. Thus a contract was made between Aelthos and Wyvrun, sanity in exchange for stewarding his lands.
The Snow Elves are a militant subrace of Elves devoted to their own people and to the Aengul they worship, Wyrvun. Due to the long history of war, persecution, and genocide that the Snow Elves have endured, they are cordial but cold to all but those of their distant, isolated Princedom - the Princedom of Fenn.
Contents
Physical Attributes
The Mali’fenn are generally around 5'7 and 6' tall and have muscular builds on average, results of their time passing through the World Altar. The average Mali’fenn has a hair color ranging from white to pale blonde, with any darker color being unheard of. Their eye colors range from white-silver to hyper blue, to a deep amethyst and everything in between. Any other eye colors indicate mixed-blood with either High Elves or other races, which is not necessarily frowned upon. They lack much of the inherent magical prowess formerly exhibited by their brethren, though they are by no means unable to use magic. Their high cheekbones and angular faces have been softened, somewhat, though their ears ranging from two to four inches in length have become sharpened and angled.
Aging
The Snow Elves enjoy the same benefits of a long lifespan as most of the Elves do, though very few Snow Elves make it to the age of natural death found in Elves due to the massacres of the past. The average age for a Snow Elf is in their 100's, and many Snow Elves are thought to go insane around the ages of 600-700.
Curses
See: Curse of the Elves.
Culture
The Snow Elves are a fairly isolationist people. Education and equality are the main priority of the Princedom. Gender and race do not come into any factors inside the Citadel and Princedom cities as all citizens are protected by the laws. It's clear to see the Mali'Fenn military activity inside the citadel itself. Men and women join the military and may start training at the age of 15 to become an officer and enter battle by the age of fifty.
People living in the Citadel live comfortable in pre-furnished rooms and able to take any jobs from kitchen staff to university professor. Snow Elves and the citizens trust the government to guide them but are allowed to freely speak out of or against it. The Grand Council listens to the citizens and makes laws or change some depending on what they see is best for the citizen. Democracy is looked down upon as they see it as a majority of the people disregarding a minority, therefore complaints are given to the council directly and they will act on it. Decorating your body is a common thing in their society. Tattoos depicting Houses, families or the Fenn God Wyrvun are a common sight. The Mali'Fenn like to wear more constraining clothing, usually with shorter sleeves. Ornate armour made from expensive materials is very common for Snow Elves, as they want to enjoy everything that life has to offer. The community in the Citadel is very close together. Asking the Council for materials or tools is not unheard of- in fact it's encouraged. The citizens of the Citadel like to take care of each other because, at many times in the history of the Princedom, the only people who backed them up were each other.
Thill’al - The belief of the Mali’fenn that they have achieved thill’al, or complete purity, has given them an attitude of sympathetic benevolence. They had become perfection itself and needed no validation of it. Therefore, while not outwardly cold to outsiders like their cousins, they would be far less likely to fall to impurity, and for their children to show the signs of it. Their governmental policy is made to reflect this, with open entry and citizenship but the highest leadership positions almost always being taken by those of Fenn. Anti racism and general discrimination laws are in place to protect all the citizens of the Princedom, with punishment for committing such terrible crimes can range from a fine up to banishment.
Chul o’tilru - The saying chul o’tilru, or “to serve as a must”, comes from Aelthos’ legendary meeting with Wyrvun far past Anthos’ Wall. For they are the chosen of Wyrvun, in return for their great boons they must serve the Aengul. It is the cultural understanding that all Mali’fenn must serve the Mali’fenn people as a whole, and Wyrvun, typically through military service. The concept is an acknowledgment of the Snow Elves’ existence as a militaristic society in which all Mali’fenn are expected to engage in soldiering and be proficient in its practice.
Wyrvun I’ayla - Wyrvun I’ayla, or “Wyrvun is good”, is the now-traditional cultural goodbye of the Mali’fenn. It represents a complete faith in their patron, and in the knowledge, they will continue to live well. It is also often used as a war cry by the Ivae’fenn and Wyrvunic worshippers as a whole.
Elcihi’fenn - The city of snow, this is meant to mirror the Elcihi’thilln which they once inhabited. The Princedom always lives within a single, centralized city, their only other settlements being farming colonies. Central to their cities are often great temples to Wyrvun containing vast libraries. The cities of Fenn are built of marble and stone, with many areas decorated with lapis in reference to the chilling thanhium ore.
Literature
Snow Elven literature is rarely a pastime and much more often used simply to document history or as a means of propaganda among the culture's populace. They have always kept tomes of history so that their numerous losses would not be forgotten. Their writing is often fluid and well-versed, though literature of the culture is hard to find, as the codexes of their history are held almost exclusively by the head bloodlines.
Religion
The Wyrvunic Contract
The basis of our worship is on the Wyrvunic Contact and the pago’taliame. In saving Mali’Fenn from insanity, our lives are indebted to Wyrvun. Whilst not originally religious, they bound their fate to Wyrvun, thus both saving them and giving themselves away as a race. They worship him not as a god, and the religion is under a government body known as the Branches. The Pago’taliame is the sacred site of the religion as the gift of Wyvurn and thus ‘The branches’ are used to represent the sectors of the religion that priests and priestesses chose to follow to orientate their paths of worship. There are five branches to follow; knowledge, Art, Justice, War and Peace. Within these branches are separate chains of power in which acolytes are also trained in both the religion and the branche’s respective skills. The Faith is directed by a High Priestess, which is a position within the Grand Council, and five leaders within the branches.
Law
The Snow Elven nation, the Princedom of Fenn, has its origins in the Constitutional, Hereditary, Representative Monarchy formed in Frostfall under the House of Tundrak, in Anthos. However, a period of in-fighting among the Grand Council and rebellions against Tundrak authority led to the gradual stripping away of the Grand Council's powers, eventually leading to the Absolute Hereditary Monarchy that the Mali'fenn maintain to this day. The common laws that are in place within the Princedom of Fenn in the modern era are made up by the Grand Council with the blessing of the populace of Fenn, and with the signature of the Grand Prince- the absolute monarch of the Princedom of Fenn. The laws in the Princedom and her cities are very progressive and free-thinking. Prejudice is illegal and in its worst forms could end up with execution.
Punishments in the Princedom of Fenn can be very harsh from an outsider's perspective. Snow Elves see their laws as sacred, therefore encroaching on the laws is a direct disrespect to the Crown, the Princedom, and her citizens. For non-citizens of the Princedom, breaking any law could cause the instant execution without trial by the proper military personnel within the city at that point. Citizens of the Princedom are granted the right to a fair trial by a member of the Grand Council, that usually being the High Chancellor whose job is to oversee and manage the daily life of the Princedom's citizens.
History
Part I: The Experiment
The tale of the Mali’fenn begins with the schismatic war of the ancient Elcihi’thilln of the High Elves, or the Silver City. The untouched visage of the would-be ruler of the Mali'aheral, Lomal, after the inferno died around him during his trial by fire had stunned the many Mali’thilln of the Silver Hall, among them a young researcher named Aelthos Thuln’diraar and those of his laboratory. They stood then as he called for followers, a fire sparked in their hearts by the claims of elevation and destiny, and joined Lomal. They would be among the first of the Elsil’Parir, the Swords of the Harbinger, the flock of their prophet. As Lomal, who now called himself the Elannil’Ilum, chose Aelthos to be among the first to ascend the steps to his word altar and change his form, Aelthos would continue his research in a spectacular way - to ask for a change akin to that of the Golden Pools that their parents and grandparents had bathed in centuries before. Instead of gaining the fantastical form of a half-animal, and instead of gaining vast magical resistances, he would seek his version of the completion of maehr’sae hiylun’ehya - to become what he would call thill’al, purity complete. Physically his ears shortened and became more triangular as the hair around it bleached to a snow-white color. His eyes became a bright silver, and his skin paled to just more than that of a ghost. His muscles became more pronounced, his arms toned and hands dextrous, and his height shortened to an even six feet. He, however, would not take up any of the truly transformative properties that many other Elsil’Parir had chosen to take as he saw himself as the embodiment of physical perfection.
His experiment, then, was to question whether the the use of the word altar would fundamentally change them, and to do so he would enlist his laboratory. His researchers, scientists, the sparse few mages of the laboratory, and their families would gather at the altar one day and Lomal would change them one by one, granting them all nearly the same changes as Aelthos before them, with slight individual modifications of eye and hair color. Some had eyes a deep amethyst color, while others chose hair a pale blonde color instead of white. He saw them as family, then, and they tested themselves and each other.
Part II: Purity
They would, however, soon be forgotten by Lomal for those he had changed into more exotic and powerful forms, and by Larihei’s folk for their lack of connection to Lomal thereafter. Indeed, though originally entranced by their new forms, the lack of change during the stagnated conflict left Aelthos disillusioned, and whilst he had thrown in his proverbial lot with the Elsil’Parir, his people wished to return to their cousins and their purpose of forging their own destiny. He would, late in one Snow’s Maiden night, send a message across the wall asking for return. Months later, they would enact their plan on the third night of what would be called the Ball of the Century. As Lomal hosted perhaps the most grand ball the Silver City had ever seen, with magical displays far beyond that which had come before, Aelthos and his band stole away across the wards of the great wall put up to protect Larihei’s people from Lomal’s, assisted by those of Larihei’s followers that had been trying to undermine Lomal’s influence.
They found themselves quickly isolated, however, as many of those that had once been their friends now declared their forms impure. Those that sought to join them thereafter were a tenth of the number that had applied previously to the once-prestigious laboratory, and indeed they found themselves to be a different definition of pure than their brethren.
While they had set themselves back on the path of progress as they had once known it, peace would not come to them easily. When Larihei called upon Lomal for a final debate and shot in front of their many followers, and when Lomal’s supporters then broke through great wall’s wards, they fled with their brethren. They fled through Tahn’s great plains and ancient wilderness, and when they came across the portal, they too trusted in the missing Larihei and jumped into the portal.
Part III: Ice
When they found themselves deep in the Aegisian wilderness, they wandered separately from the many that would later assimilate into Laurelin. Instead, they would find themselves in the deep North, far past the future location of the Human city of Winterfell, where their changed bodies would not be called a curse by their cousins. Here they found that they had indeed lost some of what had once made them Mali’aheral - their eyes had only flecks of the deposits once vibrantly glowing within, and their search for health halted as soon as they had become accustomed to their "perfected" bodies.
Instead they sought to defend themselves from the constant ringing within minds, the effects of the loss of the word altar. For decades, the men and women of the laboratory tested everything they could, subjecting themselves to intense training and work to delay what had taken the minds of their weakest. Indeed, deep in Aegis’ northern tundras, Aelthos seemed to be the only truly sane one of them. For this reason, they would not scout far past their frozen laboratory until the advent of Iblees, which forced them to flee south and into The Verge with the rest of the Descendants. In Asulon, too, they searched for a cure for decades with little luck before the continent was destroyed in fire and flood.
Aelthos, while a good leader and smart in coupling his people, knew he would not be able to hold their new curse at bay for long. He had slowly found himself less in control, and while the changes of the word altar on him were small, he had still accepted Lomal's changes those many years go. Though outwardly he was still the same grand leader his people had always seen, he felt the lack of the altar eating at the edges of his mind. For Aelthos, though, he most cherished and cared about his young and growing son. When his son showed to be under the same mental strain as he, Aelthos knew finally that for their survival they must leave their laboratory. To find a cure for his son and his kin, Aelthos and his two original laboratory managers searched Anthos far and wide before finally standing at a frozen, bright blue lake far beyond the Wall that mirrored what had once kept them from being true High Elves. They had traveled for years, and their wills were all but broken by their lack of success. Their last lead had brought them to this lake, but they’d found it to be devoid of even the slightest lead. Here, as a tribe of mutated Bohra began to surround the group, they finally collapsed. Aelthos, for the third time in his life after his change at the altar and leap into the portal, placed his life in the hands of a greater being than he. Here, despairing for his son and their family’s fates, he prayed for salvation.
Part IV: Fenn
Whether by luck or by the will of a higher being, they were saved that day. As the Bohra closed in, the mountains framing the valley trembled and shook as great sheets of white thundered down around them, annihilating the small army of Bohra that had surrounded them and subsiding enough by the time it reached them to only push them onto the ice covering the lake.
Also, perhaps because he sensed the avalanche, or perhaps of sheer luck in passing, Wyrvun, the Aengudaemon that had once fallen to corruption, learned of their survival, their drive in searching for sanity. Delving into Aelthos' half-mad mind, he pressed himself in a vision to Aelthos, delivering a verdict - bind himself to the Lord of the Deep Cold and have his people returned to sanity, or condemn all that had followed him those many years ago to the continuation of the painful spiral they had endured. Aelthos made up his mind in a heartbeat, and the effects were felt the next.
When they returned to their laboratory, they were welcomed with great fanfare. To their new savior, Wyrvun, they dedicated shrines, temples, even their laboratory to him, renaming it to Fenn for the crystalline sheet that had covered the lake, saving Aelthos' group from death by Bohra or avalanche. They so truly followed their new lord that they took to calling themselves Mali’fenn, and neither Wyrvun nor Aelthos would stop them. Those joyous times, however, would not last. Only three years later, Aelthos would pass in his sleep. He was given a grand funeral, with a display of magic and people none of them had seen since Elcihi. It, however, raised the question of who would be the next head of those of the Deep Cold. Thill’al, that notion which had separated them originally from the other Mali'aheral of the city, gave their answer - his son, he who had inherited his father’s silver eyes and “perfected” features. There could be no other.
They were a new people, then, with large numbers and a mew leader. Aelthos II, whose original name is now lost to time, declared Fenn a Princedom in honor of Malin, only true king of the Elves. He became Grand Prince, for he was declared thill’onn, born of purity. His people, some now exhibiting the traits of those who had joined later rather than those created, worked to make their newfound Princedom their pride, and Aelthos II would open the Princedom to the outside world.
Cities
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The Snow Elves have always inhabited castle-cities made of bricks, quartz and ice and have lived in tundras, mountains, or cold foothills. Each time, their cities have become harder and harder to locate without a guide, and now if chanced upon their gates are heavily guarded. If you are allowed in, you will be heavily monitored. While in the past they held festivals and were open to all, now to the outside only heavily armored men and women walking the walls can be seen. Tall walls of brick and white quartz surrounding spires decorated with glass and thanhium are generally the appearances of Fenn fortresses. They currently live in Tahu’lareh, a city in the northeast of Arcas.
Current
- N/A
Previous
Arcas
- Tahu'lareh
Atlas
- Talar'ikur
Anthos
- Frostfall
- Khazad'karrzark
The Fringe
- Okarn'fenn
Thales
- Lindale
- New Lindale
Vailor
- Tar'sil
- Tennallar'fin
Axios
- Nim'Lindel
- The Tundrak Palace
- The Citadel of Acael
- Velaris
Full Lore
The ExperimentThe tale of the Mali’fenn begins with the schismatic war of the ancient Elcihi’thilln of the High Elves, or the Silver City. The untouched visage of the would-be ruler of the Mali'aheral, Lomal, after the inferno died around him during his trial by fire had stunned the many Mali’thilln of the Silver Hall, among them a young researcher named Aelthos Thuln’diraar and those of his laboratory. They stood then as he called for followers, a fire sparked in their hearts by the claims of elevation and destiny, and joined Lomal. They would be among the first of the Elsil’Parir, the Swords of the Harbinger, the flock of their prophet. As Lomal, who now called himself the Elannil’Ilum, chose Aelthos to be among the first to ascend the steps to his word altar and change his form, Aelthos would continue his research in a spectacular way - to ask for a change akin to that of the Golden Pools that their parents and grandparents had bathed in centuries before. Instead of gaining the fantastical form of a half-animal, and instead of gaining vast magical resistances, he would seek his version of the completion of maehr’sae hiylun’ehya - to become what he would call thill’al, purity complete. Physically his ears shortened and became more triangular as the hair around it bleached to a snow-white color. His eyes became a bright silver, and his skin paled to just more than that of a ghost. His muscles became more pronounced, his arms toned and hands dextrous, and his height shortened to an even six feet. He, however, would not take up any of the truly transformative properties that many other Elsil’Parir had chosen to take as he saw himself as the embodiment of physical perfection. His experiment, then, was to question whether the the use of the word altar would fundamentally change them, and to do so he would enlist his laboratory. His researchers, scientists, the sparse few mages of the laboratory, and their families would gather at the altar one day and Lomal would change them one by one, granting them all nearly the same changes as Aelthos before them, with slight individual modifications of eye and hair color. Some had eyes a deep amethyst color, while others chose hair a pale blonde color instead of white. He saw them as family, then, and they tested themselves and each other. PurityThey would, however, soon be forgotten by Lomal for those he had changed into more exotic and powerful forms, and by Larihei’s folk for their lack of connection to Lomal thereafter. Indeed, though originally entranced by their new forms, the lack of change during the stagnated conflict left Aelthos disillusioned, and whilst he had thrown in his proverbial lot with the Elsil’Parir, his people wished to return to their cousins and their purpose of forging their own destiny. He would, late in one Snow’s Maiden night, send a message across the wall asking for return. Months later, they would enact their plan on the third night of what would be called the Ball of the Century. As Lomal hosted perhaps the most grand ball the Silver City had ever seen, with magical displays far beyond that which had come before, Aelthos and his band stole away across the wards of the great wall put up to protect Larihei’s people from Lomal’s, assisted by those of Larihei’s followers that had been trying to undermine Lomal’s influence. They found themselves quickly isolated, however, as many of those that had once been their friends now declared their forms impure. Those that sought to join them thereafter were a tenth of the number that had applied previously to the once-prestigious laboratory, and indeed they found themselves to be a different definition of pure than their brethren. While they had set themselves back on the path of progress as they had once known it, peace would not come to them easily. When Larihei called upon Lomal for a final debate and shot in front of their many followers, and when Lomal’s supporters then broke through great wall’s wards, they fled with their brethren. They fled through Tahn’s great plains and ancient wilderness, and when they came across the portal, they too trusted in the missing Larihei and jumped into the portal. IceWhen they found themselves deep in the Aegisian wilderness, they wandered separately from the many that would later assimilate into Laurelin. Instead, they would find themselves in the deep North, far past the future location of the Human city of Winterfell, where their changed bodies would not be called a curse by their cousins. Here they found that they had indeed lost some of what had once made them Mali’aheral - their eyes had only flecks of the deposits once vibrantly glowing within, and their search for health halted as soon as they had become accustomed to their "perfected" bodies. Instead they sought to defend themselves from the constant ringing within minds, the effects of the loss of the word altar. For decades, the men and women of the laboratory tested everything they could, subjecting themselves to intense training and work to delay what had taken the minds of their weakest. Indeed, deep in Aegis’ northern tundras, Aelthos seemed to be the only truly sane one of them. For this reason, they would not scout far past their frozen laboratory until the advent of Iblees, which forced them to flee south and into the Verge with the rest of the Descendants. In Asulon, too, they searched for a cure for decades with little luck before the continent was destroyed in fire and flood. Aelthos, while a good leader and smart in coupling his people, knew he would not be able to hold their new curse at bay for long. He had slowly found himself less in control, and while the changes of the word altar on him were small, he had still accepted Lomal's changes those many years go. Though outwardly he was still the same grand leader his people had always seen, he felt the lack of the altar eating at the edges of his mind. For Aelthos, though, he most cherished and cared about his young and growing son. When his son showed to be under the same mental strain as he, Aelthos knew finally that for their survival they must leave their laboratory. To find a cure for his son and his kin, Aelthos and his two original laboratory managers searched Anthos far and wide before finally standing at a frozen, bright blue lake far beyond the Wall that mirrored what had once kept them from being true High Elves. They had travelled for years, and their wills were all but broken by their lack of success. Their last lead had brought them to this lake, but they’d found it to be devoid of even the slightest lead. Here, as a tribe of mutated Bohra began to surround the group, they finally collapsed. Aelthos, for the third time in his life after his change at the altar and leap into the portal, placed his life in the hands of a greater being than he. Here, despairing for his son and their family’s fates, he prayed for salvation. FennWhether by luck or by the will of a higher being, they were saved that day. As the Bohra closed in, the mountains framing the valley trembled and shook as great sheets of white thundered down around them, annihilating the small army of Bohra that had surrounded them and subsiding enough by the time it reached them to only push them onto the ice covering the lake. Also, perhaps because he sensed the avalanche, or perhaps of sheer luck in passing, Wyrvun, the Aengudaemon that had once fallen to corruption, learned of their survival, their drive in searching for sanity. Delving into Aelthos' half-mad mind, he pressed himself in a vision to Aelthos, delivering a verdict - bind himself to the Lord of the Deep Cold and have his people returned to sanity, or condemn all that had followed him those many years ago to the continuation of the painful spiral they had endured. Aelthos made up his mind in a heartbeat, and the effects were felt the next. When they returned to their laboratory, they were welcomed with great fanfare. To their new savior, Wyrvun, they dedicated shrines, temples, even their laboratory to him, renaming it to Fenn for the crystalline sheet that had covered the lake, saving Aelthos' group from death by Bohra or avalanche. They so truly followed their new lord that they took to calling themselves Mali’fenn, and neither Wyrvun nor Aelthos would stop them. Those joyous times, however, would not last. Only three years later, Aelthos would pass in his sleep. He was given a grand funeral, with a display of magic and people none of them had seen since Elcihi. It, however, raised the question of who would be the next head of those of the Deep Cold. Thill’al, that notion which had separated them originally from the other Mali’aheral of the city, gave their answer - his son, he who had inherited his father’s silver eyes and “perfected” features. There could be no other. They were a new people, then, with large numbers and a mew leader. Aelthos II, whose original name is now lost to time, declared Fenn a Princedom in honor of Malin, only true king of the Elves. He became Grand Prince, for he was declared thill’onn, born of purity. His people, some now exhibiting the traits of those who had joined later rather than those created, worked to make their newfound Princedom their pride, and Aelthos II would open the Princedom to the outside world. FeaturesThe Mali’fenn are generally 6’ even and have muscular builds on average, and while many of the original ilk were changed by Lomal, many of them also have mixed High Elven blood. The average Mali’fenn has a hair color ranging from white to pale blonde, though light brown hair is not completely unheard of. Their eye colors range from white-silver, to hyper blue, to a deep amethyst and everything in between. Any other eye colors indicate mixed-blood with either High Elves or other races, though is not necessarily frowned upon. They lack much of the inherent magical prowess formerly exhibited by their brethren, though they are by no means unable to use magic. Their high cheekbones and angular faces have been softened, somewhat, though their ears ranging from two to four inches in length have become sharpened and angled. Perhaps because of the world altar’s effects, the Mali’fenn have a lower birthrate outside of their race, with interbreeding even between them and other Elves made less likely. Though all Elves eventually go mad with age, the Mali'fenn are particularly susceptible to this particular aspect of the Elves. While a normal Elf's mind begins to unravel around the age of 1000, a Snow Elf's will begin nearly half a millennia earlier, at the age of 600. OOC GuidelinesPregnancy: Roll out of 100, 95-100/100 meaning pregnancy. If with non-Snow Elf, roll out of 100, with 97-100/100 meaning pregnancy. This is partially to make sure we all follow the same guidelines. Magic and Physical Prowess: It is recommended that a Snow Elf be played as more powerful physically than the average Elf, but that their ability to use magic is greatly weakened. Even if one were to devote their entire life to magic, it is our recommendation never to go over 1 main and 3 subtypes for magic. Age: The oldest living Mali'fenn, as of this post, is dated to 193 years old, or the age of the Princedom on the server. It is recommended that you play a character at or below this age. We will be removing our current age restriction, but please remember that any Snow Elf above 600 years old will have their mind unravel, and by 650 would be fully insane. The subrace is meant to be played according to pretty strict features lore-wise, so we’d recommend not taking as much artistic license in the skin and structural features of the character. This means white to pale blonde hair, pale skin, and slightly shorter than High Elf ears. |
Reviewed by LM: ~~~~
Random Tidbits
- Snow Elves are a subrace!
- The Snow Elves do not get along well with their Elven kin, historically speaking. Thus, they tend to be more isolationist, which is evident in their typically reserved personalities.
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