| Human |
- Overview/History: Humans are a highly adaptable and capable race, which has produced more explorers and adventurers than most of the other Elder Races combined. They have a wide mix of cultures, traditions, politics, and beliefs; however, they are also the race most others compare themselves to (or at any rate, are compared to historically) when stating things such as "Minotaurs are strong" and "Psylons are smart." While humans are not the most powerful people in any one area, they are at least average in all of them, and their incredible adaptability and inner drive often leads them to great things. Humans of modern Taera are considered a "primary" Elder Race, which is to say that they represent the least-mutated form of their species from those who existed during the Golden Age.
- Personality: Humans are a very diverse people, running the gamut from showy to austere, devout to completely impious, saintly to diabolical, and virtually any other set of terms one could think of. They are easily the most adaptable and flexible of the Elder Races, and among the Mutants, only Tabaxi can claim to come anywhere near their reach in this area. Some of the longer-lived races are vexed by humans' short collective memory (they don't tend to keep track of history beyond a few centuries), but that seems to be a natural result of their constantly changing cultures and short lifespan.
- Physical Description: Humans are mammals related to primates, standing from 5-6 feet tall on average, and weighing from 125 to 250 pounds. The men are usually taller and heavier than the women, and grow more hair- generally, only human men can grow facial or body hair. They are physically diverse, with skin tones ranging from dark brown to a light pink. Their hair can be curly or straight, rough or soft, and ranges in color from black to very light yellow (blond), usually turning gray and white with age. Their lifespans are short; typically they are considered adults at 15, and rarely does a human live longer than 90 years without help from magic, psionics, or Ancient medicine.
- Relations: Being so diverse themselves, humans are among the best diplomats and emmissaries; they tolerate other cultures well, and tend to have little trouble finding common ground between sides. They mix readily with others, and some of the Elder Races refer to them as "everybody's second-best friends." One notable fact is that while humans regularly mix well with other races, they can have trouble mixing with themselves- humans kingdoms most often fight wars against other humans, rather than anybody else.
- Alignment: Humans have no alignment tendencies whatsoever; all types are found among them.
- Human Lands: Given their diversity, it is no surprise that human lands tend to be in constant flux, changing beliefs, customs, and traditions every few years. Although some humans are indeed staunchly conservative traditionalists, the traditions those conservatives support are virtually always the ones they grew up with. Thus, even conservative humans support very different ideas from land to land, and from decade to decade. Humans also welcome other races into their communities, even more so than the other Elder Races do; members of virtually any intelligent race on the planet can be found in large human cities. Individual human kingdoms are therefore as hard to pin down as individual humans.
- Human Range: Humans range across the entire surface of Taera, and are also a significant presence in the Hollow World of Arite. Human adaptability has led them to settle (or at any rate live) in nearly every place on either world that can support them, meaning pretty much every place with air. It is this tendency to spread themselves out that led to the genesis of most of the mutant Human subraces listed below.
- Religion: Humans count worshippers of all 30 gods among them, and most (if not all) of the demigods as well. Being so diverse as a people, humans can accept virtually any religion, and tend toward none of them in particular.
- Language: Humans, like the other Elder Races, speak the modern Common tongue most often, though the various lands usually develop local dialects of it. They learn other languages readily and regularly, so human lands usually include many citizens who can speak the languages of their neighbors, whatever those languages might be.
- Names: No human names are typical across the entire race. Most kingdoms and cultures have some naming traditions, but these are too many to list here.
- Adventurers: Humans produce more adventurers than any other primary Elder Race, and most mutants as well; their extreme cultural diversity means that they tend toward supporting causes and beliefs rather than territories or groups. Since most humans also value wealth and power, they readily pursue treasures and pay for dangerous services.
- Height: Male: 60 + 2d10 inches; Female: 59 + 2d10 inches.
- Weight: Male: 140 + 6d10 pounds; Female: 100 + 6d10 pounds.
- Starting Age: 15 + 1d4 years.
- Maximum Age: 80 + 5d10 years.
|
|
|
Merfolk/
Sea Human |
- Overview/History: When the Annihilation wiped out most of the surface life of Taera, most of the survivors moved underground into specially created Enclaves to wait out the recovery of the biosphere. A minority of the people did not wish to confine themselves this way, however, and took their chances making living spaces in the intact portions of the Diamond Towers. With their rarified vantage point, they noted that most of the sea life had survived, and many of the Tower dwellers accordingly decided to move into the water. Using the Ancient sciences, they altered their forms to allow themselves and their descendents to survive underwater. Merfolk are the descendents of the Humans who participated in this change. Within the Underwave, they fill much the same niche that normal Humans do on land.
- Personality: Merfolk, like landbound Humans, are a very diverse people, and contain virtually all personality types among them. It is notable, however, that Merfolk exhibit conservative tendencies far less often than other Humans do, which has led to much speculation among sages about how personality traits are passed from parents to children- if they are passed at all. It is clear, for example, that sea life provides few opportunities for permanence, so personalities that prefer for things to remain changeless are at odds with life there. However, it is just as true that the first Merfolk who moved out of the Towers couldn't have been very conservative themselves, to attempt such a radical change, so perhaps they simply passed the trait on to their children. In any case, aside from that absence, Merfolk are a diverse bunch.
- Physical Description: Merfolk look much like Humans from the waist up, but below the waist their bodies become icthyic, growing scales and merging what would normally be a pair of legs into a single, fishlike, tail. Merfolk skin comes in as many colors as Human skin does, though their eyes are generally only green or blue, with a few individuals having yellow or white. Their hair color also tends to be in sea tones, ranging from light green to light blue. The scales of their tails are normally single-colored in tones similar to their skin color, but some individuals have spots or stripes of other colors, including green, blue, or other undersea colors. When fully stretched out, Merfolk are around 10 inches taller than the Human norm, and 20 pounds heavier. Merfolk do not grow facial or body hair, but the hair on their heads can grow as long and luxurious as any landbound Human's.
Because their life in the sea is less harsh in general than life on land, they also live slightly longer than most humans, often reaching the age of 100 or more.
- Relations: As mentioned above, Merfolk fulfill much the same niche in the Underwave (the name given to the lands and territories in the waters of the seas and oceans) that normal Humans do on land. That is, they are diplomats and emmissaries who mix readily with most other races. Merfolk can be found most anywhere in the Underwave. Furthermore, because they still have lungs capable of breathing air, Merfolk are frequently emmissaries between the Underwave and the air-breathing kingdoms and nations that cover the rest of the world.
- Alignment: Merfolk have a loose tendency to be Chaotic, but otherwise have none, and can be any alignment.
- Merfolk Territories: Merfolk territories in the Underwave are in constant flux, much like the lands of normal Humans. Most aquatic races can be found in or around Merfolk settlements, especially the larger ones, with the only exceptions being fanatically xenophobic people like Aboleth and Sahuagin.
- Merfolk Range: Merfolk range throughout the Underwave of Taera. The salty oceans of Arite are not known to harbor any intelligent life, and Merfolk have not broken that tendency. Merfolk are capable of moving about on land, and enjoy coming to the surface to look at the air-breathers, so they usually prefer life near coasts. Because they have great difficulty moving about on land, however (their fishlike tails are difficult to balance on, and they are forced to hop and flop about to move), Merfolk have no established settlements on land.
- Religion: Merfolk worship most of the gods, but given their environment, it should come as no surprise that they pay Marna and his demigods great homage.
- Language: Merfolk speak the Common language of the Underwave, called Aquacommon, though as with landbound Humans, individual territories frequently develop local dialects. They learn other languages readily and regularly, so Merfolk territories usually include many citizens who can speak the languages of their neighbors, or at least understand them (in the case of strange languages like the color-shifting of the Tako).
- Names: Merfolk names are as diverse as can be expected, given that they are Humans; however, their names are most often taken from aquatic races, and very rarely from landbound people- some names which appear similar are in fact word-descendents of names carried down from the Golden Age.
- Adventurers: Merfolk produce adventurers and explorers just as often as landbound Humans, if not more so given their love for landwatching. They also tend to support causes or beliefs rather than territories or groups, and they also value wealth and power.
- Height: Male: 70 + 2d10 inches; Female: 69 + 2d10 inches.
- Weight: Male: 160 + 5d10 pounds; Female: 120 + 5d10 pounds.
- Starting Age: 16 + 1d5 years.
- Maximum Age: 90 + 5d10 years.
|
|
|
Icefolk/
Frostling |
- Overview/History: One of the first Enclaves to go dark was the Nard Delve, located in an unknown place deep under northern Anyrk. When the surviving people emerged into the harsh surface world, they found themselves on an enlarged ice cap, as they emerged during the Ice Age that lasted from about 200 to 2000 AA. During the centuries that followed, those who were unable or unwilling to move south in search of warmer climes acquired mutations which helped them survive in the frozen wastes, and the Humans who were so mutated became known as the Frostlings, or Icefolk. They are the rugged dwellers of the frozen north, hardy survivors of the apocalypse who carry their lessons (and, in fact, environment) with them wherever they go.
- Personality: Frostlings tend toward extreme personalities- either they are living life to the fullest, or they are near-emotionless and as "cold" as their racial name would suggest. These extremes can be attributed to their life as thralls of the hateful Ice Elves in the centuries following the exodus from Nard. The Ice Elves were usually emotionless types, so while some Frostlings emulated their masters, others decided to "act out" their resentment at being slaves, and behaved wildly and with emotional abandon. Though the Ice Elves are long gone, now only alive in stories told to frighten Frostling children, the personality extremes are deeply embedded in the culture of the Icefolk, as well as their inborn temeraments.
- Physical Description: Frostlings usually look like fairly normal Humans from a distance, aside from perhaps being a bit too pale. The differences become immediately clear when one gets close enough to them, however- because Frostlings have adapted to extreme cold, and evolved a unique ability to control the temperature around themselves. All Frostlings, therefore, radiate a strange aura that reduces the temperature around them to levels near freezing, no matter how warm or hot it may be away from their immediate presence. This allows Frostlings to go more or less anywhere in the world and stay comfortable, though the races they meet on travels in tropical regions don't normally feel the same way about the aura. Frostlings have the same general body proportions as regular humans, though a few inches taller on average. They almost always have high metabolic rates which prevent them from gaining too much weight- so they tend to be skinny by average human standards.
Frostlings have very pale skin tones, ranging from very light pink (almost a normal human color) to dead white, and a few individuals are even colored light blue. Frostling hair color is usually light gray, pure white, or light blue, though some rare individuals are a very light blond color. Frostling eyes, in contrast to the rest of them, are frequently dark colors ranging from black to brown, but a minority of their population has blue eyes. Male Frostlings can and often do grow facial and bodily hair, just as normal Humans, and females do not. Their lifespan is identical to that of normal Humans, meaning, less than a century on average. Children of Frostlings and normal humans have around a 25% chance of retaining the Frostling mutations; otherwise, they become normal, though pale, Humans.
- Relations: Frostlings are a lot like normal humans once one gets past their unusual appearance and personality, so they are often treated much the same as normal humans wherever they go. Due to the special services their cold aura allows them to provide, they are often welcomed by merchants and other people needing cold storage, so Frostlings more often develop mercantile skills than non-mutant humans do. It pays to develop one's strengths, and if one is a good bargainer, it can pay especially well. Since individual Frostlings can be of any alignment, just as normal humans, their relations with other races and cultures (based purely on their status as Frostlings) are virtually identical to those of normal humans.
- Alignment: Frostlings can be of any alignment, as noted above, though due to their racial predilection for extreme personalities, they are rarely of the Neutral alignments.
- Frostling Lands: Lands ruled by Frostlings are, without exception, in cold northern climates near (or on) the northern ice cap of Taera. Their kingdoms can therefore be found only on the continents of Arcia, Anyrk, and Nakhu. Despite this, however, Frostlings are found on all continents and in all lands, because (given their cold aura) they can live comfortably wherever they go. Frostling communities tend to follow the "work hard, play hard" mentality, ekeing out crops or other food from the frozen wastes, then gleefully celebrating existence with wild abandon when the working day is done. People who appreciate hard work, like dwarves, as well as people who appreciate good play, like gnomes, are therefore quite welcome in Frostling territory, and can often be found there.
- Frostling Range: Because of their unique temperature adaptation (which can never be "shut off" as long as the Frostling generating the aura is alive), Frostlings can and do live anywhere on Taera's surface, despite being totally adapted to cold. In fact, their signature racial ability grants them a significant money-making opportunity in most of the warmer lands they travel to- they can keep foodstuffs and other delicate items cool or cold, thus extending their shelf life. Nobles in tropical lands frequently have Frostling retainers solely for the purpose of providing cold drinks, and in fact cooling in general, on demand. Given this valuable ability, Frostlings have spread all over the world, and can be found almost anywhere normal Humans can be, though they are always less common than their non-mutant cousins except in their own frozen lands.
- Religion: Frostlings worship all the gods, just as non-mutant humans do, but they seem to subconsciously credit Thrym with granting them the cold aura that allows them to thrive so well in the world at large, because the cults of Thrym are much more powerful in Frostling countries even than in the lands of other cold dwellers, though that doesn't count for as much as it might sound since Thrym's cults are rarely a real "power" anywhere they exist.
- Language: Frostlings learn and speak as many languages as non-mutant Humans. The Frostlings who live on various continents speak the Common of their homes, though often with an unusual accent and peppered with expressions from the Common languages of the three continents their kingdoms are located on (Arcia, Anyrk, and Nakhu). Most Frostlings can speak at least one of those three Common dialects fluently, regardless of the lands they call home.
- Names: The Icefolk give their children names recalling the lands of the frozen north, regardless of where they might be living, in an effort to carry on their heritage. Frostlings therefore often maintain "name chains" across several generations, and it is not at all uncommon for a Frostling to carry a number after his or her name- for instance, Bragg Bjornsen III. This is less typical in actual Frostling kingdoms, where parents often adopt whatever names happen to be in fashion at the time (and given how quickly human fashions change, that means virtually any name, just as for non-mutant humans). Frostlings normally have a personal name and a family name, with the family name normally recalling some famous ancestor (as with the "Bjornsen" name noted earlier) or family trade (such as "Tanner"). Personal names often sound vaguely elvish, another legacy of their time under the thumb of the Ice Elves.
Male Names: Austn, Bragg, Bjorn, Caleb, Ernis, Finn, Hald, Hemo, Njorl, Sven, Theorn, Xander.
Female Names: Anastasia, Antina, Drusila, Eola, Gerta, Ilen, Leia, Marli, Silvie, Tinil, Valara, Xayide.
- Adventurers: Frostlings can be comfortable in many strange places given their racial ability to carry the cold with them, and since resources in their homelands are scarce, young Icefolk often go off to explore unknown lands in hopes of making a comfortable living. A higher proportion of Frostlings (compared to their general population) become adventurers than even the normal Humans, making Frostlings a highly adventurous breed indeed. Though a wandering time is not "built in" to their culture like that of the Gnomes (for instance), the adventurous Frostlings who gain wealth and power over the course of their travels are as respected by their home crowd as Human adventurers are, and many Frostling clans in non-frozen lands were originally founded by adventurers who settled down.
- Height: Male: 62 + 2d12 inches; Female: 61 + 2d12 inches.
- Weight: Male: 140 + 4d10 pounds; Female: 100 + 4d10 pounds.
- Starting Age: 15 + 1d4 years.
- Maximum Age: 80 + 5d10 years.
|
|
|
Day People/
Sun Human |
- Overview/History:
- Personality:
- Physical Description:
- Relations:
- Alignment:
- Day People Lands:
- Day People Range:
- Religion:
- Language:
- Names:
- Adventurers:
- Height: Male: 58 + 2d12 inches; Female: 57 + 2d12 inches.
- Weight: Male: 140 + 5d10 pounds; Female: 120 + 5d10 pounds.
- Starting Age: 15 + 1d4 years.
- Maximum Age: 80 + 5d10 years.
|
|
|
| Firewalker |
- Overview/History: It is said that after the Annihilation, magic across both Taera and Arite was heavily disrupted, and the ancient Darth Tower which had kept the Central Sun alight for so many millennia began to falter and fail. Desperate to save their ancestral duty and home, the Sun Elves turned to the survivors of the cataclysm who had come to Arite in hopes of making their new homes. Out of those who received their summons, five families of Humans and two clans of Dwarves answered. By using Ancient sciences and the last of their reactor fuel, these people were able to keep the sun lit for another decade, but they knew that that would not be nearly long enough. Accordingly, the Humans and Dwarves left the Blasted Lands and spread across the world in hopes of finding another solution. After nine long years, the sun was near to failing again, and the seven clans came together again at the Tower to share what they had learned and found.
The Dwarves had beseeched the powers of Earth to help them, and asked them to provide gigantic and perfect crystals to better focus the energy of the Tower on the Sun. The Humans, by contrast, had looked for help from the powers of Fire, hoping to gather enough heat to keep the Sun burning forever. In the end, they fell to squabbling over whose plan was more likely to work, and could not agree. After three months, and still no closer to a solution, the people fell into despair as the Central Sun began to dim once more- but then, a lone Human woman came out of the desert with a solution. This woman, a powerful lavamancer, was on good terms with both the powers of Fire and of Earth, and calling for the help of the Craft god Keron, she poured all of her power and life into a single, huge, perfect crystal, dying in the process. But Keron had heard her plea, and found the crafting good, and accordingly blessed it with power of his own to complete the last of the enchantments.
The Heart of the Sun was born, and pulsed to life for the first time. What was left of the woman's spirit, being within the crystal, was infused with the god's essence, and became the Magma goddess Chlimbia. The birth of the new goddess sent shockwaves of energy out across the plain, infusing the people present with new life and powers. The five Human families, as if in a nod to their dealings with Fire, were infused with great heat, and became the first Firewalkers.
- Personality: Firewalkers have the same range of personalities as normal Humans, and show little differences despite their great power. They are, of course, rarely afraid of any sort of flame or heat, but that is balanced out by the greater proportion of fear of cold in those individuals who have a propensity for fearing something.
- Physical Description: Firewalkers are human in shape, but look more like outsiders because of their strange appearance. Their skin tones are invariably some (dark) shade of gray, or dead black, and their eyes usually have red or orange irises. Furthermore, the sclera (the "white") of Firewalker eyes is not white, but rather a deep yellow or orange, which seems to glow slightly in dim light (whether their eyes actually do glow or not is a matter of debate among sages who study them). Also, Firewalkers are almost completely hairless, having only eyebrows to mark their faces (even men grow neither facial nor body hair). Their eyebrows are normally colored red, orange, or brown. Finally, and most significantly, Firewalkers possess enormously high metabolic rates, and accordingly high internal body heat, being nearly hot enough to burn normal races with a mere touch.
Firewalkers' bodies burn virtually all possible energy out of the food they eat, so they have no body fat, and always appear to be in peak physical condition even if they really aren't. They are slightly taller than normal Humans, about 6 inches on average, but are height-weight proportionate without exception. Their internal temperature gives them a degree of heat and fire tolerance unmatched by any other race native to Taera or Arite, and Firewalkers are perfectly capable of walking across rivers of lava without discomfort. This high tolerance for heat has a significant down side, of course- Firewalkers also have a much lower tolerance for cold than any other Taeran or Aritian race. Because they have fewer health problems, and more easily get the resources they need to survive, Firewalkers can live for a long time, often surpassing the century mark in age.
- Relations: Firewalkers treat other races largely the same as normal Humans do; however, they rarely fight large-scale battles among themselves (their culture has a ritual of combat called the "Trial of the Firepit" by which differences between individuals are settled if arbitration does not work). Firewalkers do fight wars with other races (including normal Humans) who attack them, and their prowess in such battles has given them a fierce reputation in Arite. By and large, Firewalkers give respect as they get it, and most Aritian people prefer to give them respect rather than the reverse.
- Alignment: Firewalkers have no alignment tendencies, and can be any alignment.
- Firewalker Lands: Though Firewalkers have no greater isolationist tendencies than normal Humans, their preferred terrain is much hotter than other races are comfortable living in, so it is rare to see non-Firewalkers in Firewalker lands and communities. Outsiders who do deal with Firewalkers in their own countries are treated much the same as they would be by normal Humans, but few can stand to stay in such hot regions long enough to make permanent homes there. The vast majority of non-Firewalkers who live in their lands are transients, only there long enough to reach some goal before they leave. Firewalkers themselves have a rather loose and open culture, and maintain few rituals from decade to decade (the Trial of the Firepit is one of the oldest still-surviving ones), just as normal Human cultures do.
- Firewalker Range: Firewalkers are creatures of heat, and prefer to live in hot regions, but since there are such regions all over Arite, they can be found in most places on Nufalgrot, and a few live as servants of the dragons on Drachaven. They were created in Arite, and no settlements of them are found outside it. Given their lack of tolerance for cold, very few Firewalkers are strong or confident enough to brave the journey through the extremely cold (by their standards) Underdark to reach the surface of Taera, let alone survive such a trip, and therefore they are virtually unknown to surface people. The few Taerans who meet Firewalkers nearly always think they are some strange form of elemental or outsider, rather than a mutant race native to their own planet. Only those who do exhaustive studies of Arite and its peoples learn the truth.
- Religion: The birth of the Firewalker race was tied directly to the birth of the goddess Chlimbia, and they are responsible more than any other people for spreading her faith throughout Arite. Most Firewalkers venerate her, or Keron, but a minority actively worship other deities- mostly those whose alignments are incompatible with either of the two majority religions. Within this minority, Firewalkers can be found worshipping virtually all of the gods, just as one would expect from normal Humans.
- Language: Firewalkers speak the Common tongue of Arite, and individual Firewalkers pick up other languages just as Humans do.
- Names: Firewalker names vary as much as normal Human names do, though they use three names where most Humans use only two. The third name denotes which of the original Five Families the individual is a descendent of, and these names are passed down through the mother's side. The Five Family names are Bardock, Guthien, Jamry, Nindul, and Spride. None of the five families is less prevalent in modern Firewalkers than any other, and no status is attached to any one above the other four, but Firewalkers always keep the names as a reminder of where they came from.
- Adventurers: Adventurous Firewalkers leave their safety and homes behind for much the same reasons that normal Human adventurers do. Their great resistance to heat allows them to explore some areas that other races cannot reach except by magic, such as caves in active volcanoes, but their inability to travel in cold regions without magic of their own balances out that perk, so Firewalker adventurers are treated much the same as any others wherever they go.
- Height: Male: 66 + 2d10 inches; Female: 65 + 2d10 inches.
- Weight: Male: 160 + 3d10 pounds; Female: 120 + 3d10 pounds.
- Starting Age: 16 + 1d5 years.
- Maximum Age: 90 + 5d10 years.
|
|
|
Green Human/
Gren |
- Overview/History: The continent of Yoor contains in its landmass the largest remaining piece of a former nature preserve on Golden Age Taera; accordingly, when the Annihilation struck, the landmass that became Yoor was the least affected by the cataclysm, and the first to recover. A group of ecological scientists and nature-spellcasters established the first true Enclave under what was called "The Last Forest" (whether it literally was the only place on the planet where living trees still grew is a matter of some debate among modern sages), and set up machines on the surface to monitor the life in the region before they sealed themselves in. Though all known Enclaves eventually failed and "went dark," the Yoor Delve (from which the name of the modern continent is taken) was one of the last to do so.
Being able to monitor the lifeforms above them on the surface, and having some warning time before the final failure of their power systems, the people of the Yoor Delve had time to prepare for the coming exodus back to the surface. In fact, since so many biologists and nature researchers were among the inhabitants, they regularly sent up teams to explore the lands above the Delve, and repair and maintain the machines which allowed them to watch from below. Most people in the scouting parties were able to resist mutation from the radiation suffusing the environment, but a few humans proved susceptible. Rather than deny them the ability to go aboveground, the enterprising Yoor scientists took advantage of the changing DNA of their unfortunate fellows, and altered them in ways they hoped would allow the greatest long-term chance for survival. Since water was relatively abundant on the nearby surface, the greatest problem was how to find food, and the scientists solved it in a brilliant way.
By infusing the bodies of the people with plant genes, the scientists allowed these humans to produce chlorophyll and photosynthesize like plants do, thus allowing them to avoid eating altogether. This is how the race of Gren was born. For the centuries leading up to Yoor Delve going dark, the Gren served their former home as liasons between the "People Below" and the surface world; after the Delve went dark in 2850 AA, they helped the former Delve dwellers become acclimated to surface life. Today, Gren have no such obligations to discharge, and generally live as they please unless they are slaves.
- Personality: Modern Gren are generally a reclusive people who keep to themselves, and live in the deep forests and jungles in peace. Not needing to eat to live, beyond occasional soil consumption for mineral nutrients, Gren are used to having all the resources they need close at hand, and spend most of their lives in discussion and enjoyment. Their reclusiveness comes from centuries of being hunted by other races living near their territories, and they are generally distrustful of outsiders as a result, though not openly hostile except in wartime. Without the occasional raids by outsiders, Gren life is a virtual paradise, and it shows in their attitudes towards life.
- Physical Description: Gren appear much like normal Humans, aside from having green skin. They are shorter than the non-mutant variety, to the tune of about 4 inches on average, and typically weigh around 10 pounds less. Because it is usually impossible for them to overeat, Gren are very rarely obese, and almost all of them are in excellent physical shape, though certainly the ones who exercise less often show it by being thinner and having less toned muscles. Gren normally have brown hair, or a dark green color, though some are known to have black hair. Their eyes are normally green or brown. Many Gren, both men and women, prefer to shave their heads for fashion reasons, and to help rid their bodies of heat in the steamy jungles they call home. Likewise, while at home, Gren rarely wear much (or any) clothing, living as close to nature as possible.
Finally, due to their relatively easy and idyllic lifestyle, Gren live longer than any other Human subrace- never less than a century unless killed by poison, disease, or violence. Some Gren have lived to be nearly 150 years old.
- Relations: The ability of Gren to live without food has the unfortunate side effect of making them ideal for very cheap slave labor, and this fact has not been lost on those races which practice slavery as an institution. Gren have good relations with those forest-dwelling races who do not use them as slave labor. Wood Elves, in particular, are often allies with Gren, as are Grippli and Tabaxi. Races who do raid Gren territories, such as K'r'r'r (and by extension, their slaves the Coelopterans) and Ophidians, are met with open hostility by most Gren, though individuals from such races may earn the trust of individual Gren or even entire communities through trustworthy actions. Races who generally do not live near Gren, or live near them but do not try to interact, are treated neutrally- either curiousity, or shyness, depending on the prevailing community mood.
Individual Gren outside their jungle homes are usually eager to make new friends, and accordingly show more curiousity than fear towards most races new to them.
- Alignment: Gren tend towards Neutral Good alignment, though their shy nature gives many communities (especially on or near borderlands with raiding neighbors) Chaotic tendencies. Occasionally, a Gren community becomes inflamed by repeated raids, and turns into an encampment armed and eager for war; these communities tend towards Chaotic Neutral (or in some rare cases, Evil) alignment. Gren rarely take attempts at direction or organization well, so they are rarely Lawfully aligned.
- Gren Lands: Gren live in small villages and nomadic tribes which are scattered throughout the jungles and forests on modern-day Yoor. Since around two-thirds of the continent is covered by such greenery, Gren claim small parcels of land in thousands of places on the continent. A few Gren have travelled (or been taken by slavers) to other continents, and those who live in tropical places on those continents (only Arcia and Zephra have such places) sometimes form communities in forests and jungles on those lands, just as they do in their true homeland.
- Gren Range: Gren are most common near forests and jungles in Arcia, Yoor, and Zephra. Yoor is where most of them live and can be found, since their race was created there. Individual Gren are sometimes taken by slavers to other lands, and occasionally a young one with wanderlust will freely travel that far, but most of them are still found near communities of their own people. Given the heat most of them grow up with, Gren are rarely comfortable travelling in temperate or arctic lands, though they are as capable of living there as any other human subrace (Firewalkers excepted of course). Their ability to go without food allows them to take long trips with little trouble, as long as they can get enough light.
- Religion: Gren generally venerate the Good-aligned deities above all others, especially Gaeya and Luumpho. Cults of Evil gods are extremely rare among them, and never comprise more than a few individuals; furthermore, cults of Nexus and Patrin have never been found among Gren, because the ideas they preach are so alien to the Gren mindset.
- Language: Gren speak the Common language local to where they grow up, whatever that may be; Gren from Arcia, for example, speak the Common dialect of Arcia. Most Gren can also speak languages for one or two races which commonly neighbor their territories, such as High Elvish (for Wood Elves), and most who have relatives among Druid circles are taught to speak or understand Druidic (Gren Druids don't tend to go to as much trouble to keep their language secret as Druids of other races do).
- Names: Gren never really lost touch with their heritage the way many mutant Elder Races did, so their names show as much variation as non-mutant humans do. Names given to Gren tend to follow prevailing human patterns for the continents they live on, of course. Gren who are kept as slaves are often given "slave names" by their masters in an attempt to divorce them from their own culture; these names are usually similar to names for the masters' own races, and some Gren born into slavery have no other names they know.
- Adventurers: Gren adventure for many reasons; trying to escape slavery is probably the most common one outside their ancestral lands. As mentioned above, young Gren sometimes get a touch of wanderlust, and go off to see the world; since this is common to Humans in general, it's hardly surprising to see it among the Green People. Finally, Gren from warlike tribes constantly hounded by raiding neighbors will often go on forays to build fighting strength, and prepare for raids of their own to free their fellow Gren. Since Gren don't really need many resources naturally, adventurers who return home to them aren't met with as many accolades as adventurers among other human subraces, but the people of the communities always have an appreciation for hearing new stories, and those near raiding neighbors are always looking for new fighting techniques to help their battles.
- Height: Male: 58 + 2d8 inches; Female: 57 + 2d8 inches.
- Weight: Male: 130 + 5d10 pounds; Female: 90 + 5d10 pounds.
- Starting Age: 15 + 1d6 years.
- Maximum Age: 100 + 5d10 years.
|
|
|
Dark Human/
Skulk |
- Overview/History: The checkered past of the Dark Humans, dubbed "Skulks" by surface dwellers because of their habit of staying out of sight and commiting crimes, is a murky one. Not only do Skulks live in small nomadic tribes, most of which keep no written history, but they have a tendency to self-aggrandization and self-pity as a people, so the stories of their existence have been colored and twisted over the centuries to put the tellers in the best light (so to speak). What is known for certain is that Skulks are a subrace of Human mutants who somehow developed the ability to change their coloration to blend in with whatever environments they happen to be in, much like chameleons do. They prefer to live underground, and alone among humans have evolved the capacity for Darkvision; in spite of this, however, they suffer no penalties in bright light like most other Underdark races do.
Wherever they live, they prefer to do it parasitically, stealing and killing in cities and lands built by others. Skulks have no known cities of their own, nor do they have any leaders who can claim control over more than a tribe or two at a time. It is thought that these facts point to their origin- they were probably survivors of an Enclave that went dark suddenly, so that they were unable to get out immediately (or beforehand) like most other Enclave survivors were. With the radiation shielding in the Enclave gone (most of the known Enclaves used technological energy shielding to stop the radiation), they began to mutate, and life following the failed attempt to leave would have quickly turned harsh. Under such conditions, the culture of the survivors would have turned to looting and killing, and only the strongest and those best able to hide themselves and what they had would have lived very long.
Most Skulk tribes in any given area claim a history of persecution and/or enslavement at the hands of whichever Underdark race is most powerful there, but since the tribes in various areas claim such treatment from different races, most sages who have made a serious study conclude that those claims are fabrication, intended to justify the Skulks' preferred lifestyle as revenge for past mistreatment. Whatever their true history is, Skulks have been recorded since at least the early 1800s AA, and exist today as a widespread plague on civilized people.
- Personality: Skulks are a naturally sneaky, suspicious, and paranoid lot, and it is rare for them to feel any genuine emotional attachment to other people. Even the bonds of basic friendship are foreign to them, even with other Skulks (some would say, especially other Skulks). Even the rare, few Good-aligned Skulks are usually foundlings who were raised among other races, or unusually strong people from Skulk tribes who left the tribes out of fear for their lives at the hands of their weaker (and envious) fellows, and either way they find it difficult to open up to others in any meaningful way. Skulks live and work best in small groups led by whoever is strongest, and best able to keep the others in line. Occasionally, an especially strong or dangerous leader can bring an entire tribe (or several tribes) together, but usually such a strong potential is assassinated by angry underlings or jealous rivals long before becoming that powerful.
- Physical Description: Skulks are strange examples of humanity. They are significantly shorter than non-mutant Humans, having an average height of only 5'4" (for men) or 5'3" (for women). They are completely hairless, not even having eyebrows, the better to allow them to blend in. Their natural coloration is slate-gray skin and bright, glittering gray eyes, but of course, one rarely sees a Skulk sporting his or her natural colors. Men and women alike are slight and thin, which is a result of having to scrounge for food virtually everywhere they go, and is incidentally helpful for sneaking around to find food. Skulks tend to live hard lives, and rarely survive past 80 years (if they even survive to reach old age, for that matter). Children of Skulks and normal Humans have about a 50-50 chance of retaining the chameleon ability (and staying hairless all their lives); otherwise, they become normal, though short, Humans.
- Relations: Skulks aren't well-liked, as a people, no matter where they are- it is a rare place that has never seen a Skulk, since the tunnels of the Underdark underlie most of the world whether one is talking about Taera or Arite. Skulks tend to move to an area and start their usual pattern of theft and murder. Then they run up against local law enforcement, use their "history" of persecution to conclude that the locals are agents of their former masters/oppressors, and become guerilla terrorists in the area. Individual Skulks (especially adventurers) have occasionally been able to break out of this pattern and find a measure of acceptance, but the bulk of the Skulk population never does, and thrives on the constant conflict. Therefore, other races nearly always treat Skulks like the pests they so frequently are, though that doesn't stop the rich and powerful members of other races from hiring out their dirty work to Skulk mercenaries from time to time.
- Alignment: The vast majority of Skulks are Chaotic Evil; some living in tribes are Neutral Evil or Chaotic Neutral, but most others living among their own kind don't live long enough to reach adulthood unless they become sociopaths like everybody else. Skulks who leave their tribes behind can be of any alignment, but Lawful or Good Skulks are so rare as to be nearly unheard of.
- Skulk Lands: Skulks have no lands of their own, though many tribes maintain tales of a prophesied savior-king who will unite them and found the first true Skulk nation. Given their racial tendency to kill aspiring leaders before they can get very powerful, however, it is all but impossible that any Skulk "king" could survive long enough to unite more than a few small tribes, let alone pull off such a coup as uniting all of them. For the time being, and for as long as history has recorded their existence, Skulks live and have lived as parasites of other societies.
- Skulk Range: Skulks began in the Underdark, but have spread far and wide, as Humans are wont to do. Since the Underdark reaches all lands of Taera and Arite alike (except Wak), and even parts of the Underwave, Skulks can be found living most anywhere they have the ability to get the basic needs of food, water, and air (or at any rate breath).
- Religion: For all their cowardice and depravity, Skulks have a surprising range of religious faith, almost as much as normal Humans do. Churches that have compatible alignments are virtually certain to have some Skulk followers somewhere, so individual Skulks can follow just about any Neutral or Evil god. They rarely follow the Lawful gods, and still more rarely the Good ones, but Skulks seem to have kept the Human range of beliefs largely intact throughout their mutation and subsequent history. Unsurprisingly, they most commonly follow deities such as Mob and Ehkahk, with Nandra, Deceptor, and Cenob also getting a strong following.
- Language: Skulks speak Undercommon as a base tongue, but usually pick up languages from their unfortunate "host" regions for easier survival.
- Names: Names given to Skulk children usually emphasize something of importance to their birth tribe in some way; for instance, a tribe that values feeling powerful or grand might name children after local heroes, or give them three or four names and add "numbers" (such as, Bernardo Balthazar Boorn III), even if those names bear no actual relation to those of their parents, siblings, or other family. Other tribes value stealth, or the idea that the world is out to get them; a name from such a tribe is usually short and common, such as "Jon Smythe." Finally, some tribes value their shared history (fabricated or not, the tribe members always believe in it), and give children names to emphasize that "history" and remind them of where they came from, such as "Dirtsneak" or "Bonden." Skulks are usually a chaotic lot, so their name preferences change significantly with nearly every generation.
- Adventurers: Skulk tribes could almost be considered large groups of adventurers, since they never settle down and usually fight for everything they get. Of course, actual Skulk adventurers, who willingly associate with and live among other races, usually leave their tribes behind; common reasons for doing so include being the last survivor of a failed attack, being forced out to escape assassination or persecution, or even simply becoming tired of the endless cycle of violence Skulks live in every day. For whatever reason, adventuring Skulks make the (unusually) brave decision to leave their old lives behind, and try to start new ones. Their people usually treat such turncoats as prey no better than those they live with, but adventuring Skulks are usually the only ones who find acceptance among people of other races.
- Height: Male: 57 + 2d6 inches; Female: 56 + 2d6 inches.
- Weight: Male: 120 + 3d10 pounds; Female: 90 + 3d10 pounds.
- Starting Age: 15 + 1d3 years.
- Maximum Age: 70 + 5d8 years.
|
|
|
Ghost Human/
Astari |
- Overview/History: During the same time that some Tower dwellers were making their plans for a move to the Underwave, one Human researcher into dimensional manipulations conceived of a still bolder plan. Since the object of the move was to survive until the world's biosphere had recovered enough to sustain habitation once more, he reasoned, why not cut out the bother of living through the intervening time at all? After his experiments convinced him it was possible, he gathered together his family and closest friends, and activated machines to phase them out of existence until the conditions were right to bring them back. Unfortunately, something went horribly wrong during the experiment. The people found that they were indeed phased out of the space of the world, but not the time- and because they were now incorporeal, they could no longer touch the machines to activate them and bring themselves back.
Seeking another solution, they left the Amethyst Tower (where the experiment took place), and went out into the world in search of help. Though they never found it, they did eventually learn a small measure of control over their environment, and their descendents became the Astari.
- Personality: Astari as a people tend to be calm and serene, though with an air of melancholy about them. The calmness results from the fact that there aren't many things which can actually threaten them in their present phased-out existence; their melancholy results from the fact that most of them really would rather be fully physical and a part of the world they live in. Naturally, Astari are well aware of the astounding value their nature gives them to people who want to "find" things, as well as the astounding danger to people who would rather keep certain things secret or sealed away. Some Astari are happy to sell their services to people looking for a spy or thief, while others are determined not to misuse their power, and to prevent others from doing the same. Though Astari psychology is dominated by the strange life they lead, they are still Humans, with all the conflict and diversity that implies.
- Physical Description: Astari look like other Humans do, though the same influence that colored the Amethyst Tower apparently left its mark on them as well- their skin tones are always some shade of purple, from pale lavender to deep violet, and their eyes are usually purple or red. Astari hair color is normally red or brown, but a few individuals have blue hair. Astari tend to be about six inches taller than average Humans, though they weigh about the same, so on the whole they are thinner. Of course, weight doesn't tend to matter much to Astari, because the thing which most sets them apart is the fact that they are incorporeal, capable of passing right through solid objects without affecting them (or being affected) in the least. Adult Astari have always learned a small measure of control over their "phase" within reality, and can partially materialize in order to interact with objects and people.
Astari children are not considered adults until they can so materialize, and the "First Passage" as it is called in their culture, is arguably the most important time in any Astari's life.
- Relations: The bulk of Astari population prefers to keep to their own affairs, only interacting with people who don't know what the "Purple People" can really do, and preferably while materialized so as to avoid letting them find out. Accordingly, most people treat Astari as simply strangely-colored Humans. Powerful and knowledgeable people, however, often do know what Astari can do, and they are more likely to treat Astari as commodities or threats (depending on whether they currently want something to stay hidden or be found). Astari relations therefore tend to be strained, brief, and secretive, even for relatively mundane trades. Of course, adventurers lucky enough to have Astari companions quickly come to value their unique skills, once they discover them, so Astari adventurers (though rare) often find a far greater measure of acceptance and friendship than others of their people do.
- Alignment: Astari can be of any alignment, but their race as a whole tends to be True Neutral, preferring to stay out of the conflicts of the world. Chaotic Astari are rare, because they often end up breaking the rule of Astari society to not reveal their nature to outsiders- and are accordingly shunned. Astari rarely make friendships outside their people, and the vast majority are afraid of being forced to try, so the threat of exile keeps most of them "in line" as it were.
- Astari Lands: Astari lands are without exception in secret valleys or other lands which are either far from other races, or at the very least inaccessible without teleportation magic (or the ability to walk through walls or other solid obstacles as the Astari themselves can). Within their lands, life tends to be peaceful and friendly, though common Astari are invariably suspicious of outsiders and tend to treat them brusquely, or even badly. Astari communities are small, never having more than 1000 or so individuals in one place, because they fear being revealed if they gather in larger numbers. Though strangers who do somehow arrive are welcomed into their towns, they are always housed (if possible) in specially constructed areas of the towns which consist of both normal and Astari building materials, so that non-materialized Astari don't accidentally reveal their abilities by falling through walls or something equally embarrassing.
Astari always take care to materialize before interacting with the outsiders, and do their best to keep their abilities secret, unless it is clear from the start that the strangers know what they can do. In that case, the Astari usually leave the town and area en masse, never to return, unless the "strangers" arrive with a trusted town inhabitant who declares them friends. Even then, the outsiders are treated with cool politeness at best, and asked to leave as soon as possible. While not actively xenophobic, Astari don't take kindly to intrusions, even if they are prepared with appropriate living spaces and equipment.
- Astari Range: Astari communities are all located in remote areas on the continents of Zephra and Nakhu, except for one town that was founded near the ruins of the Diamond City on Arcia (in hopes of finding something helpful in the ruins). Astari themselves don't normally leave those continents because of their isolationist tendencies, so people in other lands have rarely heard of them, let alone met any. A few adventurers of the Astari have gone to other lands, but not many, and not enough to start stories about the people as a whole.
- Religion: Astari are not very religious as a people, tending to distrust gods as much as other outsiders. However, the god of Secrets and Concealment, Ehkahk, is known to have a sizable following among them, and probably for the most obvious reason- Astari do try their best to conceal their nature from non-Astari. Aside from Ehkahk, the gods of Magic have the greatest following among them, due to the heavy emphasis on magical study in their culture, and Helm has a devoted cult due to their constant lookout for trouble with outsiders.
- Language: Astari speak the Common language of whichever continent they happen to live on, which means Arcia, Nakhu, or Zephra in any case. Astari who deal with other races with their own languages often learn to speak those languages to help relations, but few Astari actually leave their communities to deal with outsiders that way, so most only speak the local Common.
- Names: The Astari have preserved as many of the traditions of Ancient civilization as they could without being able to use the machines, and this is reflected in their preferences for names. Astari tend to choose names that have a very old lineage, such as Jon, Tom, or Hari for males, or Jen, Dori, or Belle for females. Their family names are always derived from ancestral names, such as Tomsen or Harister. Astari moving among outsiders tend to adopt nicknames and aliases which sound as little as possible like their birth names, so as to better fool any possible scrying magic or psionic powers, and allow them to conduct business purely on their own terms. One of the few famous Astari, for example, was a wizard who served the Elf King of Valusia in Eastern Arcia in the 4720s. His birth name is unrecorded, but the name Darrin Shadowchaser was well known, as was his ability to "appear and disappear at will."
- Adventurers: Given the Astari propensity for isolationism, it should come as no surprise that adventurers are quite rare among them, in spite of their human ancestry. Young spellcasters or psionic manifesters, especially Nomads or Locators, are the most likely Astari to take the enormous risks inherent in leaving the safety of their home villages. Those who return are, as in other human communities, accorded great respect, but even so, few are willing to leave hearth and home and risk being permanently outcast should they reveal their abilities. That said, occasionally Astari become outcasts for some other reason, and most of them become adventurous purely for survival. They, of course, don't usually have any compunctions about revealing their ability to phase out, and many actively hire their services out to others.
There are rumors, for example, of an elite cadre of assassins made up entirely of outcast Astari who serve the Rolfish Emperor in Zephra, but the rumors have never been confirmed (in fact, it is likely that anybody who could confirm the rumors would be killed by such a group as soon as possible, and before being able to go public with the knowledge). One other notable fact about Astari is that, since they preserved much of the culture of the Golden Age despite not having (or being able to duplicate) the Ancient machinery it was so dependent on, virtually all Astari communities have a sizable contingent of Conjoiners among them.
- Height: Male: 66 + 2d10 inches; Female: 65 + 2d10 inches.
- Weight: Male: 130 + 5d10 pounds; Female: 90 + 5d10 pounds.
- Starting Age: 20 + 1d3 years.
- Maximum Age: 120 + 5d12 years.
|
|
|
| Elan |
- Overview/History:
- Personality:
- Physical Description:
- Relations:
- Alignment: Elans have no particular alignment tendencies as a whole, just as the humans they once were have no such tendencies.
- Astari Lands:
- Astari Range:
- Religion:
- Language:
- Names:
- Adventurers:
- Height: Male: 60 + 2d10 inches; Female: 59 + 2d10 inches.
- Weight: Male: 140 + 6d10 pounds; Female: 100 + 6d10 pounds.
- Starting Age: 20 + 1d6 years.
- Maximum Age: None known.
|
| High Elf |
- Overview/History: High Elves are one of the four subraces of Elves that existed during and before the Golden Age. They are the Elves that most people mean when they say "Elves," and form what is essentially the baseline Elvish culture of Taera. As such, they are unquestionably one of the "Primary" Elder Races, and their rich magical and nature-preserving traditions have echoed down through countless millennia to reach the modern world. Though they prefer to live in forests, High Elves build cities of stone and wood much like other races do, and they therefore can be comfortable living most anywhere. Known for the beauty and power of the objects and buildings they create, High Elves are often among the strongest and most respected races of the regions they call home, despite their low numbers. Nobody knows just how old their culture is (even the Elves themselves), but they are suspected to be older than any races except the Illithids, Aboleth, and Dragons.
- Personality: Elves in general take a long view of life, since their life expectancy is so long to begin with (individuals of most Elf subraces can live at least a millennium); High Elves in particular are one of the oldest cultures on the planet, and they know it. They have a reputation for being standoffish and arrogant, but this usually results from simple misunderstandings coupled with Elven reluctance to form emotional attachments to people who will die in short (to them) periods of time. High Elves appreciate "beauty" (though as always, individuals define that differently) more than any other quality of the world, and accordingly prefer to surround themselves with beautiful things, especially natural beauty. They have famously even tempers, and it normally takes an enormous amount of trouble to make a High Elf upset.
For all their patience, however, High Elves are swift to respond to genuine threats, using their well-reknowned skills of archery, swordplay, and magic to their fullest, most devastating effects. Elves who focus on fighting arts are rare, but with centuries to hone their craft, they can become very dangerous indeed.
- Physical Description: High Elves are humanoid mammals (standing about 5 1/2 to 7 feet tall) which look a great deal like Humans, but tend to be quite slender (weighing between 140-160 pounds normally) and graceful. Their faces have higher cheekbones, and their slanted eyes are usually described as "almond-shaped." Elves are best known, however, for their prominent ears, which are swept back and come to points at the top. High Elves usually have light hair colors, with blond being the most common color; their eyes are usually green or yellow, with a few rare individuals having blue or violet eyes. Their skin tones are always pale, but they do not suffer any problems with sunburn as a result of it; although male High Elves are taller and heavier than females (to the tune of about 5 inches and 30 pounds on average), they do not grow any facial or body hair as Human males do.
Elves in general are the longest-lived of the mortal races of Taera, usually living at least a full millennium unless killed by violence, disease, or poison before then. High Elves take at least 50 years to reach full growth, and are not normally considered adults until they are at least 115 years old.
- Relations: Most races get along well with the High Elves, though those who prefer strong discipline find their laid-back view of life endlessly irritating, and evil-tempered races find their love of beauty and peace to be infuriating or even hateful. High Elves generally like Humans, Gnomes, and get along well with other non-Evil Elder Races, although the stubbornness of Orcs and Dwarves can try their patience. Evil Elder Races, especially the Dark Elves, get along badly with High Elves, and the feud with Drow in particular appears to have "history" going back to before the Golden Age itself. Among mutants, Tabaxi, Grippli, and Aarakocra are frequent allies of the High Elves, but they usually clash with the expansionist Rolves, K'r'r'r, and Urluu for territory when those races live near their settlements.
Given their long view of life, High Elves usually treat individuals of any race with respect until their actions prove them to be hostile; of course, groups of races known to normally be hostile (such as the Drow, or the aforementioned Rolves, Urluu, and K'r'r'r) are usually greeted with a hail of lethal arrows before they ever see an Elven face.
- Alignment: High Elves tend toward Chaotic Good alignment. Their loose social structure, combined with the love for things of beauty, leads them strongly in that direction. Some High Elves are not Chaotic Good, of course, but High Elves who are neither Chaotic nor Good are exceptionally rare, and Evil ones in particular are usually outcasts from their culture.
- High Elven Lands: Most High Elf cities and settlements are in natural surroundings, and they prefer forest life, though the number of other races that also prefer forest life sometimes leads them to found cities on high mountain peaks or in deep, secluded valleys. They build their structures with an eye to disturbing the natural surroundings as little as necessary, building with the materials at hand regardless of how much better other ones from farther away may be. Their mountain and valley cities, for instance, are usually built of stone, whereas their forest homes are built with wood (often by actually causing the trees to grow into the desired shape over their centuries-long lifetimes). Regardless of the materials, however, High Elf structures are invariably open and airy, and as graceful in appearance as their builders themselves- though frequently with meticulously carved (or shaped) patterns and artwork in the railings, doors, and walls.
Given how long they have to make the most beautiful homes possible, High Elves invariably choose to take their time, and add detail upon detail until the whole is truly astounding.
- High Elven Range: High Elf settlements can be found on all continents of Taera, and individual High Elves can be found almost anywhere in the world. Though they can live underground as well as any air-breathing race, they avoid doing so, both because of their dark cousins the Drow and because the exasperating Dwarves live there. Accordingly, under normal circumstances the only High Elves found underground (or in Arite) are adventurers or slaves. High Elves frequently visit their sea-dwelling cousins, the Coral Elves, but they have no permanent settlements there (especially since the Coral Elves already have that niche covered).
- Religion: High Elves are staunch followers of Amorus, Bast, and Gaeya, with Luumpho, Damok, and Paradox coming close behind. Those who pursue the fighting arts tend to value discipline more highly than the average High Elf, and a significant minority of their soldiers pay homage to Thero and Justice as a result. Some Elves choose to leave their own culture behind and pursue lives of trickery and deceit among other races, and those rogues often worship Ehkahk and Deceptor. Whatever their choice of deity, however, High Elves treat religion as they treat other aspects of their lives- with a laid-back, long-term view, and great patience. Accordingly, they very rarely become fanatically devoted to their beliefs the way Humans, Orcs, and Dwarves so frequently do.
- Language: High Elves speak their own variant of Elvish, which is the standard form used by other Elf subraces living on the surface of Taera. Individuals also speak the Common languages of whatever continents they happen to live on. With literally centuries to learn more languages, High Elves often do just that, learning to communicate with many people- not even necessarily those they expect to meet near their own homes.
- Names: High Elves have personal names and family names above all else, but often acquire epithets describing events or skills they are particularly noteworthy for among their own kind- for instance, an archer who slays a rampaging dragon with an arrow to its heart might be given the epithet "Dragonbane" or "Heartseeker." Family names are kept in "houses" which are essentially loose-knit clans; members of the same House do not necessarily live together, or even in the same settlement, but they all recognize the bonds of family when they meet each other. The family name is always given to every child of a House, regardless of gender or location of the child's home. Personal names are usually unique within a particular nuclear family, but Elves have their own common names for children (such as "John" or "Mary" among humans) that are often used many times within the same settlement by different houses. Some personal names are normally given only to males, others to females.
Male Names: Aramil, Aust, Celeborn, Enialis, Feanor, Finwe, Haldir, Heian, Himo, Ivellios, Laucian, Legolas, Quarion, Thalanas, Thamior, Tharivol, Xanathon.
Female Names: Anastrianna, Antinua, Drusilia, Felosial, Galadriel, Ielenia, Lia, Luthien, Mialee, Obeah, Qillathe, Silaqui, Sylphiel, Tinuviel, Valanthe, Xanaphia.
House Names: Amastacia, Amakiir, Dolothoin, Galanodel, Holimion, Ilphukiir, Larethian, Liadon, Meliamne, Nailo, Narsilin, Noldor, Siannodel, Sindar, Valara, Xiloscient.
- Adventurers: High Elves do not particularly enjoy leaving their lives of beauty and serenity for the hard lives most adventurers lead, but a significant number do so. The most common reason to leave home is to develop skills and powers, which are always best developed through experience and real-life testing. Elves who live near hostile lands, however, sometimes begin adventuring careers by being survivors of attacks upon their lands, or by being sent out as scouts for local defense (and then staying out once the initial mission is done). Since High Elves concentrate heavily on magical learning, and wizardry in particular, they often go on adventures for the same reasons wizards in general do- to acquire knowledge, new items or spells, or simply to gain more power. Regardless of their reasons, High Elves who stay adventurers tend to have a streak of wanderlust in them, and a capacity to enjoy life on the road or showing off their abilities.
- Height: Male: 65 + 2d10 inches; Female: 60 + 2d10 inches.
- Weight: Male: 150 + 3d10 pounds; Female: 110 + 3d10 pounds.
- Starting Age: 100 + 5d6 years.
- Maximum Age: 1000 + 2d100 years.
|
|
|
| Desert Elf |
- Overview/History: Desert Elves are an example of convergent evolution at work, at least as far as cultural evolution is concerned. They are descended from High Elves and Dark Elves who were either forced to leave dying Enclaves before the surface was completely habitable, or decided to do their best to remain on the surface in ancestral lands despite there no longer being any forests or decent living resources at hand to live on. In all cases, the ancestral Desert Elves learned to live far from the forested homes of their forebears, instead subsisting in the wide-open, heat-blasted deserts that covered most of the world after the radioactive period was over. Those who made their homes in Arite had to deal with similar deserts there (albeit for very different reasons), and developed a remarkably similar culture despite not even speaking the same language as the Taeran surface dwellers.
Regardless of the location of their home territories, Desert Elves eventually interbred and changed so much to live there that they were no longer recognizable as either High Elf or Dark, and their cultures were too different to rejoin the Elvish mainstream. As a result, they are today considered a separate subrace, even though they can and do interbreed with other Elves.
- Personality: Desert Elf culture stresses self-reliance above all else. Though they live in tribes, each individual Desert Elf is, at least in theory, a "tribe of one," and individual Desert Elves have widely varying ideas of right and wrong. Most of them dislike being bound by rules and customs, of course, since those usually stress ways of living within and relying upon a community of people rather than every individual for him-or-herself as life in a tribe often is. That said, most Desert Elves also enjoy the company of their immediate family members, and appreciate having people around who understand and/or love them (as families are wont to do). Though Desert Elves are known for being a sneaky and generally untrustworthy lot among those not raised in their tribes, they usually treat each other well, and try not to anger members of their own tribes if possible (self-reliance is admirable, but life in desert terrain without a support network is very, very difficult).
One interesting trait of their cultures that seems common to all of them is that, due to their extreme self-reliance, the Desert Elves do not use pack animals of any sort, for travel or otherwise. They walk or run wherever they travel, and are never physically carried by their parents or siblings at all after they can walk. A tribe of Desert Elves running en masse across the sands during a migration is often considered one of the most impressive sights in the world by those outsiders who have witnessed one.
- Physical Description: Desert Elves are shorter than most elf subraces, being between 5 and 6 feet tall on average. They retain the generally lean bodies of other elves (weighing about what one would expect for their height), but in their case they bear the look of a hard life, since their lives generally are hard by other races' standards. They appear more athletic, healthy, and strong than other elves, as can be expected given how much running and walking they do during travel. Their skin is usually a pale shade similar to that of High Elves at birth, but by the time the child can walk, exposure to the desert sun has already rendered it bronzed and tan, and it remains so for the rest of the Desert Elf's life. Desert Elf hair is usually white or gray, but individuals with blond or sandy brown hair are not uncommon. Their eyes usually range from brown to yellow, with a few having green or blue.
Though their tribes do not consider life in the desert to be especially harsh, it does take its toll on them, and Desert Elves have a shorter lifespan than other elf subraces as a result. They are considered adults by the tribe around 20-30 years earlier than is normal for other elves (between 80 and 100 years old rather than 110 to 130), and they age more quickly, usually succumbing to old age before their first millennium is over (if they even survive to reach old age).
- Relations: Since Desert Elves rely on themselves and their tribes more than anything else, they tend to be insular, even xenophobic, when dealing with outsiders. Though they do often trade with other cultures they meet in their travels, the common saying among desert merchants ("If you think you got a good deal with an Elf, first count your money, then your horses, then your relatives...") shows that they have no compunctions whatsoever about dealing fairly, and in fact they generally prefer to cheat when they can. As a result, their relations with other desert-dwelling races are at best politely neutral. Their less-than-best relations have given rise, among other things, to the popular legends about Thri-Kreen enjoying nothing so much as the taste of elf meat (they don't normally eat sentients, but when the desert life turns harsh enough to force them to, the Desert Elves are usually the most convenient and least-missed targets).
Another complication in relations between Desert Elves and outsiders is that individuals consider only their tribal loyalties important, and elves from different tribes generally look very similar even if the tribes themselves have very different expectations and behavior. Thus, a merchant who makes a deal with one Desert Elf tribe to not hunt or raid his caravans across a desert may be unpleasantly surprised by a raid from a different tribe, who made no such bargain and is unwilling to consider one on the spot. Desert Elves have never been united in actual nations; the largest social unit that their culture accepts is a tribe. Relations can be complicated even more by the fact that individuals (men and women alike) sometimes marry into other tribes, and thus may follow the norms and deals made by either tribe. In general, therefore, people outside the tribes tend to give Desert Elves a wide berth, and that generally suits the elves just fine.
- Alignment: Desert Elves tend toward Chaotic Neutral alignment, which is probably the only logical result of a culture that stresses self-reliance so strongly. Individuals often carry other alignments, of course, but it is virtually unheard of for a Desert Elf to be Lawful- such a person would most likely either be driven insane by the tribe before reaching adulthood, or driven out of the tribe entirely for getting on the other members' nerves.
- Desert Elven Lands: Desert Elves do not maintain kingdoms or cities in the usual sense, though larger tribes usually carry cities of tents with them wherever they go. Sometimes, locations considered especially important by one or more tribes (for instance, a large oasis, a holy rock, a valley where multiple tribes meet every ten years, etc.) become sites for permanent structures built by them. Such structures are usually made of dried mud and wood from desert trees, and are made to be more functional than beautiful, though certain elements may bear the distinctive grace and complexity of typical elvish architecture. Though Desert Elves are not especially welcoming of outsiders, they are not (usually) unfriendly either, and it is rare for guests to not be offered at least the hospitality of a meal and place to sleep.
That said, such an outsider would be well advised to sleep lightly; it is not unknown for such a traveller to wake up in open desert without a tent or other shelter because the tribe moved on in the night and didn't think to wake up their guest (or worse still, decided to steal their erstwhile guest's supplies before leaving).
- Desert Elven Range: Since Desert Elf culture is nomadic and well-adapted to desert life, it should come as no surprise that nearly every significant stretch of desert on Taera and Arite has at least one tribe of hardy elves living in it. The vast majority of such deserts are on the Taeran continents of Anyrk, Nakhu, and Zephra, or the four continents of Arite. Desert Elves living in other places are usually away from their home tribes and lands, though a few extremely xenophobic tribes are known to live in the deserts of Arcia and Anarcia, and three small tribes (barely more than single families, truthfully) live in the Rahsa Desert on Yoor.
- Religion: Desert Elves worship all gods, though they rarely show enough interest in any of them to become actual priests (for instance). Those few who do tend to be from tribes which deal regularly with outsiders, and especially city-dwellers (who normally have temples to worship at). Most religious Desert Elves follow Chaotic gods, of course, though some feel the call to worship the elemental powers (Denor, Keron, etc.). One demigod in particular has a sizable following of Desert Elves: the god D'Zhan, whose sphere of control is Desert Winds, has at least three tribes of western Nakhu who regularly pay him homage at the rock outcropping known as the God's Finger.
- Language: Desert Elves speak the Common tongue of whatever continent they call home, and the variant of High Elvish which is common to elves of that place (i.e. either Taeran or Aritian). Tribes who deal regularly with outsiders usually pick up the languages of those people sooner or later; for instance, the tribes of the Great Pacific Desert of Anyrk often have members who know Thri-Kreen, since that desert is the home of a vast empire of the mantis-people.
- Names: Desert Elves generally go by personal names alone; if they have family names, they don't reveal them to people outside their tribes. A Desert Elf will give the name of his or her tribe if asked, but does not generally use it as part of his or her own name; i.e., Aramin from the Usul tribe answers to the name Aramin, not Aramin Usul or Usul Aramin. If two individuals from the same tribe (or different tribes who happen to be in the same place) share a name, they generally just trust the other elves around them to sort out who is who when dealing with or about them (and the people, in general, tend to bear out that trust).
Male Names: Aramin, Aurn, Celebrin, Enalisu, Feanin, Haodur, Heian, Hiru, Iviellos, Lacian, Laranol, Quaroin, Tharanos, Thaminor, Thavion, Xanathun.
Female Names: Anastri, Antinua, Drusilo, Felosiem, Galadrem, Irenia, Liu, Luthiem, Mialir, Qillatho, Siraqui, Sylphiem, Tiruvie, Varanthim, Xanaphiem.
- Adventurers: Given their extreme emphasis on self-reliance, it comes as no surprise to sages that Desert Elves are the most adventurous Elf subrace by far, even rivalling some Humans in terms of the fraction of the total population who do so. Though Desert Elves have shorter lifespans than other Elves, they still live longer than the vast majority of other mortal races, and they often feel a wanderlust that life in a nomadic tribe is not enough to satisfy. Others are somehow left behind by a tribe on the move, and rather than try to rejoin it, they go off on their own and try to find lives among other people. In some cases, an adventuring Desert Elf is the only survivor (or one of a few) of a failed raid, or in rare cases a disaster that somehow wipes out an entire tribe. These individuals turn to adventuring out of necessity, since there is effectively no tribe to return to.
- Height: Male: 60 + 2d10 inches; Female: 59 + 2d10 inches.
- Weight: Male: 140 + 3d10 pounds; Female: 100 + 3d10 pounds.
- Starting Age: 80 + 4d6 years.
- Maximum Age: 800 + 3d100 years.
|
|
|
| Wood Elf |
- Overview/History: According to legend, the ancestral forests that elves had treasured and maintained for more than one hundred generations were entirely wiped out by the Annihilation. A few elves who were off-planet at the time of the cataclysm, however, had saved some now-precious seeds and parcels of soil from those same ancestral gardens, and these tiny remnants- originally taken as sentimental reminders of home during voyages among the stars- were suddenly the only remaining hope of restoring the glory of what once was. Rather than plant the seeds and seedlings in what little soil was left to them, the keepers entrusted them to a sect of botanists called the Verdanists, who were slated to wait out the recovery of the world in Yoor Delve, under the last remaining piece of a nature preserve of old Taera.
Though the former seed owners by and large forgot the treasures they had sent into Yoor for safekeeping during the hard centuries that followed, the Verdanist elves never did, and when the scientists and seers determined that the land was safe to plant again, they sent out emmisaries to replant the seeds in locations as close to their former homes as was then possible. The Verdanists' original mandate was to watch the trees and other plants while they grew, to make sure they would survive and prosper in the world that awaited them. Since by the time the Verdanists were at last able to carry out their ancient plan, the Yoor Delve had lost much of its power and communications ability, however, the only way the Verdanists could properly ensure the seeds' survival was by actually staying with them and watching them grow on the surface.
Therefore, while other elves became adapted to life in deserts, frozen wastelands of the north, or other new environments, a few brave and dedicated elves settled down to guard and grow new forests, to replace the ones which had been lost so long before. Over the centuries that followed, these emmisaries lost touch with each other and the original Verdanists themselves, but with their entire reason for being outside the relative safety of the Enclaves drilled into their children time and again, they never lost the mission- the "Green Mission-" to care for the forests. After a few generations, and interaction with a nearly unrecognizable world, the emmisaries became a new culture and subrace all to themselves- the Wood Elves were born.
- Personality: Wood Elves have long since forgotten the original reason for caring for the forests (which in fact has long since been discharged), and they no longer care to ask; the Green Mission (their term for the mandate to care for the forests) is the all-important focus of their culture. All other concerns- including, if necessary, their own centuries-long lives- are secondary. Wood Elves take the same long view of events that most other elves do, but the overriding focus on the Mission had led their culture down a very different path. Where High Elves (for instance) are even-tempered and difficult to upset, Wood Elves respond swiftly, passionately, and (usually) lethally to anything which threatens the growth of the forests they call home. Distrustful of outsiders, who normally don't share the mandate of the Green Mission, the Wood Elves tend to be brusque and standoffish to people outside their tribes.
Within their hidden tree-cities, the Wood Elves live free and open lives in balance with nature, and they tend to react badly to any other environments they enter (especially the closed-off spaces one finds underground). Though modern Wood Elves generally strike agreements with other races (who tend to live in cities or other non-forest structures), and understand the need for trade and interaction with outsiders better than their ancestors did, ancient habits die hard, and the few Wood Elves who can learn to be tolerably comfortable in a non-wilderness environment normally take several years to do so. Though their culture emphasizes a respect for life of all kinds, Wood Elves find it easiest to respect life like their own.
- Physical Description:
- Relations:
- Alignment: Wood Elves tend toward Neutral Good alignment, though due to the extreme focus on the Green Mission (which mentions nothing about individual happiness or life) it is common for individuals to be True Neutral instead. Wood Elves are occasionally Lawful or Chaotic, though most of those individuals are Good-aligned. Evil alignments are all but unheard of among them, and any such individuals discovered among them would most likely be sent into permanent exile or killed outright for the danger they would represent to the Mission. It must be noted, however, that even Evil people can appreciate nature, and an Evil Wood Elf could probably avoid suspicion for a long time among his or her own kind by simply directing the callous impulses towards interlopers into Wood Elf lands- that is, by being an ultra-radical protector of the forest who maims or kills any trespassers without hesitation.
- Wood Elven Lands:
- Wood Elven Range:
- Religion:
- Language:
- Names:
- Adventurers:
- Height: Male: 55 + 2d10 inches; Female: 50 + 2d10 inches.
- Weight: Male: 110 + 3d10 pounds; Female: 80 + 3d10 pounds.
- Starting Age: 90 + 5d6 years.
- Maximum Age: 1000 + 2d100 years.
|
|
|
Aquatic Elf/
Coral Elf |
- Overview/History:
- Personality:
- Physical Description:
- Relations:
- Alignment: Coral Elves tend toward Chaotic Good alignment.
- Coral Elven Territories:
- Coral Elven Range:
- Religion:
- Language:
- Names:
- Adventurers:
- Height: Male: 65 + 2d10 inches; Female: 60 + 2d10 inches.
- Weight: Male: 150 + 3d10 pounds; Female: 120 + 3d10 pounds.
- Starting Age: 100 + 5d6 years.
- Maximum Age: 1000 + 2d100 years.
|
|
|
Deep Elf/
Sea Elf |
- Overview/History:
- Personality:
- Physical Description:
- Relations:
- Alignment: Deep Elves tend toward true Neutral alignment.
- Sea Elven Territories:
- Sea Elven Range:
- Religion:
- Language:
- Names:
- Adventurers:
- Height: Male: 60 + 2d10 inches; Female: 59 + 2d10 inches.
- Weight: Male: 140 + 3d10 pounds; Female: 110 + 3d10 pounds.
- Starting Age: 80 + 4d6 years.
- Maximum Age: 800 + 3d100 years.
|
|
|
Dark Elf/
Drow Elf |
- Overview/History: The Dark Elves are one of the three subraces of Elf (besides the High Elves) considered a "primary" Elder Race. They existed during and before the Golden Age, and in the days shortly after the Annihilation proved instrumental in constructing the underground Enclaves within which most of the Elder Races waited out the long radioactive period. Dark Elves prefer to live underground, and do not easily tolerate the light of day on the surface of Taera- they are truly creatures of darkness. Their culture is almost as old as that of the High Elves, but somewhere in the deep unrecorded past before the Golden Age, the two cultures had a schism which has never completely healed. The Golden Age did much to unite them, but the centuries after it split them apart once more, and today the Dark Elves (or "Drow" as they are more commonly known) live much as their pre-Golden Age ancestors are thought to have done.
- Personality:
- Physical Description:
- Relations:
- Alignment: Drow tend towards Neutral Evil.
- Drow Lands:
- Drow Range:
- Religion:
- Language:
- Names:
- Adventurers:
- Height: Male: 60 + 2d10 inches; Female: 65 + 2d10 inches.
- Weight: Male: 120 + 3d10 pounds; Female: 140 + 3d10 pounds.
- Starting Age: 110 + 5d6 years.
- Maximum Age: 900 + 4d100 years.
|
|
|
Fire Elf/
Valheru |
- Overview/History: Valheru are one of the four "primary" subraces of Elf that existed before the Annihilation, though they are known to be younger as a people than the other three. Exactly how they began is not known today, though the fact that they are slightly thicker-built than most Elves (and that the males can grow facial and body hair) leads some to believe that their ancestors must have interbred with another race (usually thought to be Human) at some point, to produce them. Whatever the truth of the matter, however, Valheru are by far the most powerful Elf subrace, despite their extremely low numbers, and they are well aware of the fact- in fact, they usually end up leading or ruling the other subraces they live with. Valheru are above all convinced of their own superiority, and suggesting to their faces that they aren't "full-blooded" Elves is usually only good for getting painfully or messily killed. As a result, the truth of their origin is likely to stay murky and unknown.
The word "valheru" means "fiery one" in an ancient dialect of Elvish, and it is assumed that this word was actually the chosen name of the first actual Valheru. Their "subspecies" name, Fire Elf, is derived from that word, but they generally refer to themselves as Valheru.
- Personality: The Fire Elves live up to their name in one respect- they have blazing-hot passions and tempers. Valheru are by far the most powerful of Elves, a fact which puts them among the most powerful of mortal races in general, and that fact is deeply ingrained into their psychology. All Valheru are completely convinced of their own superiority, though exactly what they do based on that idea depends largely on their alignments (and to a lesser degree, the environments and situations they find themselves in). Though some Valheru are blissfully peace-loving, kindhearted individuals, even they have an air of pompous arrogance about them- and the cruel and mean Valheru, naturally, are happy to let other people know how superior they are. Another personality trait shared by all Valheru regardless of alignment, is their fiery temper; even the most patient Valheru is an implacable whirlwind of rage when actually aroused to anger.
Though not all Valheru have the ability to gain strength from their anger as Barbarians do, one wouldn't know it from seeing how they behave when throwing tantrums. In general, it is not healthy or wise to be near an angry Valheru, and most people who live with one quickly learn to avoid him or her during such fits. In any case, in spite of these faults, Valheru are difficult people to ignore, and they tend to feel a desire for leadership, so most of them gravitate towards the top of whatever groups of people they associate with. When two or more Valheru are present in the same group, the leadership of the group usually ends up being shared by all, or else fought over and split up (sometimes by splitting the group itself). Some Valheru families are known to rule elf kingdoms, but that situation is rare, both because all family members are jockying for power, and because Valheru rarely maintain any relationship with their children (see below).
- Physical Description: Valheru are extremely tall elves with a broader, tougher build than others of their kind. Women are slightly shorter (3 inches on average) than men, but even they are never shorter than 6'6" at adulthood. On the other end of the scale, some Fire Elves have been known to top 10 feet in height. Despite their thicker build and larger muscles (compared to other elf subraces), Valheru heredity apparently creates some very light materials for their bodies, because they only weigh 200-220 pounds on average (even the largest man recorded weighed only 250 pounds). Valheru have many standard elvish racial traits, including thin, angular faces and long, upswept, pointed ears, but Valheru men can and often do grow facial and body hair. Their hair color has a normal human range, from blond to black, with red and brown hair in between, but Valheru always have strikingly blue eyes- no Valheru has ever been known to have another color without using magic to change it.
Another interesting fact is that Valheru can sire children in both elves (Valheru or no) and humans, but regardless of the race of the other parent, the children of any Valheru are always Valheru themselves. Valheru do not generally make good parents, usually abandoning their mates at the earliest opportunity and leaving the children behind. Most of them feel no guilt over this, because their conviction in their own superiority leads them to believe that the child or children will naturally be just as superior and capable of survival on their own. Though this practice does little to endear Valheru to their immediate family members, it does often work, since Valheru children rarely do not survive the century or so it takes them to reach adulthood. Though their childhoods are just as long as those of other elves, the Fire Elves live far longer on average- assuming they are not killed at some point, no Valheru has ever died before the astoundingly old age of 9000 years. Many live longer still.
Since that lifespan is around double that of an average dragon, Valheru generally act superior even to those great beasts, though that is admittedly a very dangerous game to play before they develop real power.
- Relations: Valheru have no actual identity as a separate subrace; their identity comes from individuals in every case. Since they are usually the rulers of whatever regions they happen to live in, Valheru tend to be the movers and shakers who cause whatever relations their regions have with neighbors to go the way they do. That said, other races usually treat Valheru like they treat whatever other elves happen to live close to them, though with a hefty dose of fear and/or respect (depending on the Fire Elf's personality and temperament) added on. Valheru relations with others of their own kind tend to be bad, since they dislike the idea that anything can be as powerful as they are (and others like them clearly can be). In spite of that, some Valheru families and dynasties do form, and the current rulers of the island of Valinor (off the southeast coast of Anyrk) and Nikkon (off the west coast of Arcia) are known to be such families.
Valheru relations with dragons are perhaps even more interesting; as the only non-dragon race that lives as long (and seems to have as much or more inner magical and/or psionic potential) as the dragons do, the great reptilians tend to behave cautiously or even fearfully around the Fire Elves, even though the average adult dragon is easily capable of killing an average adult Valheru. Valheru-controlled lands usually have a remarkable paucity of attacks by evil dragons, and the few draconic troublemakers who do make their homes in Valheru lands are either astoundingly powerful (often Wyrm-age or greater), or don't live there very long.
- Alignment: Fire Elves can be of any alignment, but they have a strong tendency to be Chaotic rather than Lawful or Neutral. Their strong desire to lead and command rather than follow the rules and commands of others means that the vast majority don't have enough respect for rules to be Neutral, let alone Lawful. Even Lawful Valheru tend to behave according to their whims- they simply base their rules (and those of the subjects they inevitably try to acquire) on their common whims, and thus behave according to the rules because it happens to be natural for them.
- Valheru Lands: Valheru technically have no lands of their own, but in fact they usually rule the lands which ostentibly belong to other elf subraces. Valheru generally choose to live among elves, rather than humans (if they have human ancestry), because elves are more like them than humans are, and put up less of a fuss when the Valheru steps in to rule them. Valheru lands, therefore, are the lands of other elves, and exist as described in those races' sections.
- Valheru Range: Valheru are extremely rare (the world population of them is estimated to be a few hundred at most), but can be found in all places of Taera, Arite, and the Underdark, and even a few in the Underwave since many are powerful enough to use Water Breathing abilities.
- Religion: Valheru don't often provide more than lip service to favorite local gods, since they're used to being treated almost like gods themselves. That aside, Valheru who do choose to worship usually choose gods whose alignments are identical to their own, whose creeds appeal to their already-formed beliefs. The three gods of Magic are probably the most popular choices among them, but a sizable number of Evil Valheru follow Nexus (for the Power he offers and they have) and Patrin (because he tells them they're the "master race" destined to rule).
- Language: Valheru of Taera and Arite generally keep the High Elvish tongue as their own, though those born to Drow often learn Dark Elvish first and think of it as their native tongue. They normally learn the Common dialect of their home region as well.
- Names: Whereas most Elves keep personal names and family names, Valheru keep only personal names, and generally use names they gave themselves upon reaching adulthood. Valheru names are all unique, at least as far as people around them know, though in fact some names could be reused after several millennia and nobody else would really be able to tell. Occasionally a Valheru acquires an epithet or nickname, and at least one was known to prefer his nickname to his original chosen name- but most Fire Elves insist on being called by their chosen names. Valheru names tend to be long, with many syllables, because anything short tends to imply something unimportant or common (traits Valheru never associate with themselves).
Male Names: Aramillion, Austagor, Enialinthas, Fingolfin, Glorfindel, Haldirilas, Ivelliorin, Lionalanthas, Quarionidil, Theamon, Xindilor.
Female Names: Antinuari, Daranithiles, Drusilida, Elistraee, Fellucina, Ibrindil, Liameesinel, Mialuccida, Qillatheril, Silaquina, Valarendi.
- Adventurers: Valheru who are not born in the lap of luxury and groomed as rulers from early childhood usually become adventurers for a century or few after reaching adulthood, as they work to gain experience and power before they feel ready to settle down and rule a place (often one found during adventures). Since most Valheru children are abandoned by the Valheru parent, most Valheru once led adventuring lives, though the actual fraction of the total Fire Elf population at any given time that is adventuring tends to be low. No Valheru are recorded to have been adventurers all their lives, except those killed in battles or traps while on adventures; the life of an adventure is a dangerous one, and most Valheru eventually feel the need to stay safe so as to not deprive the world of their important presence and abilities. Valheru adventurers frequently take the Leadership feat one or more times during their careers (to get minions to rule), though not absolutely all of them do so.
- Height: Male: 75 + 6d8 inches; Female: 72 + 6d8 inches.
- Weight: Male: 190 + 6d10 pounds; Female: 150 + 6d10 pounds.
- Starting Age: 100 + 5d6 years.
- Maximum Age: 9000 + 1d1000 years.
|
|
|
| Avariel |
- Overview/History:
- Personality:
- Physical Description:
- Relations:
- Alignment: Avariel are usually Neutral Good.
- Avariel Lands:
- Avariel Range:
- Religion:
- Language:
- Names:
- Adventurers:
- Height: Male: 58 + 2d10 inches; Female: 55 + 2d10 inches.
- Weight: Male: 90 + 3d10 pounds; Female: 80 + 3d10 pounds.
- Starting Age: 100 + 4d6 years.
- Maximum Age: 1000 + 3d50 years.
|
|
|
Sun Elf/
Darthaala |
- Overview/History: The Darthaala are a supremely disciplined people who have kept alive for countless millennia the tradition of guarding and maintaining the ancient and mysterious Darth Tower in Arite. They are believed to be descended from High Elves, somewhere in the dim past, but even before the Golden Age they existed much as they do today, so they are considered a "primary" Elder Race even though they weren't known to actively participate in any events of the Golden Age itself. Shut away in their secluded home, they wile away the millennia meditating and honing their potent psionic powers, and making sure that their Tower continues to perform its cryptic function. Because the Darth Tower is thought to have some connection with the Central Sun of Arite, its Darthaala guardians are most commonly called the Sun Elves by outsiders, but they do not recognize that name themselves. Rarely seen by outsiders, the Darthaala are one of Arite's oldest and most potent conundrums.
- Personality: Darthaala are generally quite calm and serene, even by elvish standards. As soon as they can crawl around, they begin training in the ways of their people, and by the time they reach adulthood the strict regimen inevitably smoothes out any rough spots which might have existed in their personalities. Darthaala maintain tranquility in their minds to help them better focus on their immense psionic powers, and use them in defense of their home and people. Sun Elves have a well-earned reputation for being completely unflappable- the average Darthaala adult can stand toe-to-toe with a dragon with no appearance (and more importantly, no smell) of fear, and can maintain a cool and logical viewpoint in any situation. This is not to say they are unemotional, but rather, that their emotions run deep and slow, and never goad them into rash actions.
One more point about the Darthaala needs to be made; whereas most Elves find magic to be a natural and desirable force, and a good thing to spend one's time on, the Darthaala concentrate their being on psionic power, and rarely if ever use magic (Arcane or Divine).
- Physical Description: Darthaala have the basic elvish form of humanlike people with angular faces and pointed ears, but they look quite different from most other elves. Darthaala are tall, often reaching heights of 7 feet, and have skin colored deep brown. Their eyes have colors ranging from a golden-yellow through orange, to brown, and their hair is always light blond or white. Their weight is generally proportionate to their height; men weigh between 160 and 190 pounds, while women range from 140 to 170. They also have extremely long lifespans, even for the long-lived elves- Darthaala are known to live at least 5000 years normally, and do not attain adulthood until the first time they successfully manifest the psionic combat modes Mind Thrust and Empty Mind without using actual power points to do so, a feat which usually takes 250 years or more of careful growth, self-exploration, and training to achieve.
- Relations: Darthaala are very insular and isolationist; their only desire regarding other races is to be left alone in their Tower and the lands surrounding it. Though they do not always attack interlopers, they attack them often enough that most outsiders are happy to let them have their solitude. It is known, however, that several of the current Darthaala Elders were alive during the Annihilation, and one was supposedly even a part of the Elder Circle that long ago- so historical scholars of Arite often beg them for audiences, even though the Darthaala rarely grant such priveleges, and were little more than observers from afar at the time of the event. Darthaala stay out of the politics of Arite, normally only leaving their ancient home to battle their oldest enemy, the Mind Flayers, when raiding parties of them approach the Darth Tower.
- Alignment: The Sun Elves are nearly all Lawful Neutral in alignment, their racial regimen of discipline and meditation allowing for little else. A few are Good or Evil, but such aberrations are rare- and no Darthaala of nonlawful alignment appears in the span of history recorded since the Annihilation. Such an aberrant individual would, in all likelihood, not survive childhood, since the Darthaala are quite harsh in their training methods and punishments despite their serenity.
- Sun Elven Lands: Sun Elves rule and originate in exactly one place on the planet: the Darth Tower at the effective "north pole" of Arite, and the smoking desert of hot rock surrounding it. No villages or cities exist in the desert, nor do any structures other than the Darth Tower itself and the watchposts the Darthaala have built in the surrounding area. People from outside the area (i.e., non-Darthaala) are only rarely granted access, and then only for specific reasons and short time periods. Within the Tower, life is for the most part quiet and peaceful, and the Tower itself clearly shows Elvish influences in its architecture (although nobody is certain whether or not the Sun Elves themselves built it, and its building material- mainly rough black basalt- is unheard of as a building material in any other Elf culture).
Sun Elves have as much appreciation for beauty as the High Elves do, but their appreciation is tempered by the overriding desire to defend the Tower and its secrets from outsiders, and especially from the Mind Flayers and Aboleth. Furthermore, their millennia of isolation in a barren wasteland have led them to appreciate different standards of beauty than other Elves, especially those who live in or around forests. To Darthaala, the very openness and barren expanse of their home is the most beautiful sight possible, displaying a starkness and unchanging nature that greatly appeals to their disciplined psyche.
- Sun Elven Range: The entire population of Darthaala is concentrated in their one small corner of Arite; they have never established any settlements away from their Tower, and show no signs of wanting to. It is thought that less than 200 Sun Elves live in the Tower, though admittedly no outsider has ever counted them. They very rarely travel outside the Tower, and even more rarely leave the Darthern Wastes to meet with outsiders on their own ground. The last recorded time the Sun Elves took such drastic steps was during the War of Return, in an effort to help the people of Darthern Nufalgrot resist the attempted invasion of their lands by the hated foe. Since that happened in 2999, no Darthaala in living memory has been known to leave the Wastes, and no appearance of the Sun Elves anywhere outside Arite has been recorded at all, at least not in records known today.
- Religion: The Darthaala have no official religion; their concerns override those of the religions of the gods. A few Sun Elves venerate Chlimbia, the goddess of the Central Sun, but none are known to receive any powers from her.
- Language: Sun Elves speak first and foremost their own variant of Elvish, called Sun Elvish by non-Darthaala. Sun Elvish sounds similar to High Elvish, and has a similar syntax structure, but uses very different words to mean the same concepts used in High Elvish. Of course, given their uncounted millennia of isolation in the Darthern Wastes, the Darthaala have evolved words for many concepts simply not embodied in the High Elvish language at all. Finally, though the Darthaala speak nothing but their own language to each other, most of them learn the Common language of Arite, the better to deal with outsiders during those times that they have to do so.
- Names: Darthaala do not reveal their own names (if they have any) to outsiders, and among their own kind they use telepathic communication often enough that names become unnecessary. That said, Darthaala who must deal with outsiders usually do adopt nicknames for a while, often words in Elvish that have some special meaning which is emotionally important, or amusing, to the individual Darthaala in some way. Recorded nicknames include:
Male Nicknames: Aglar, Amarth, Amon, Atar, Beleg, Celeb, Dagor, Echor, Ero, Faroth, Gond, Iath, Iauru, Kemen, Lhach, Minas, Nar, Orod, Ram, Ras, Tel, Thalion, Val.
Female Nicknames: Aina, Brith, Caran, Cuivie, Dae, Dol, Edhel, Eithel, Era, Esgal, Fea, Iant, Iauri, Kir, Lith, Maeg, Mir, Mith, Ris, Sul, Talath, Tir, Wen.
- Adventurers: In the annals of recorded history, no Sun Elf has ever left home for the reasons that adventurers are known to do (that is to say, wealth, power, revenge, exploration, wanderlust, love, etc.). Sun Elves have only left the Darth Tower and the lands surrounding it during times of extreme crisis for the Tower and its security, and always had well-defined goals and mission objectives when they did so. While an adventuring Sun Elf is not an impossibility (whenever somebody says something is impossible, the Multiverse has an ironic and sneaky tendency to make sure that the "impossible" thing happens fairly quickly), it is certainly so ridiculously unlikely that such a person would be a unique event in the history of the world. A Sun Elf player character who is not used as part of a one-shot adventure involving the Darthaala directly would need to have a background specially created as a joint effort between player and DM.
- Height: Male: 70 + 2d10 inches; Female: 68 + 2d10 inches.
- Weight: Male: 160 + 3d10 pounds; Female: 140 + 3d10 pounds.
- Starting Age: 250 + 5d10 years.
- Maximum Age: 5000 + 5d500 years.
|
|
|
Crystal Elf/
Quentvindi |
- Overview/History:
- Personality:
- Physical Description:
- Relations:
- Alignment: Crystal Elves tend toward true Neutral alignment. Their loose social structure, combined with the love for things of beauty, leads them in the direction of Chaotic Good, but the harsh realities of life on Arite combined with their insular culture and attitude of superiority balance out that tendency. Many Crystal Elves are not true Neutral, of course, but Crystal Elves who are not Neutral in at least one of the two alignment axes are exceptionally rare and often outcasts from their culture.
- Crystal Elven Lands:
- Crystal Elven Range:
- Religion:
- Language:
- Names:
- Adventurers:
- Height: Male: 60 + 2d10 inches; Female: 58 + 2d10 inches.
- Weight: Male: 160 + 3d10 pounds; Female: 120 + 3d10 pounds.
- Starting Age: 100 + 5d6 years.
- Maximum Age: 1000 + 2d100 years.
|
|
|
| Luminous |