Humans: An unremarkable race descended from apes, with little to their name other than their rapid reproductive rate. They are prone to disease and lack any distinctive physical characteristics to defend themselves with unless in large numbers or using tools. They were believed for a long time by Inhumans to be the only race capable of reanimating as undead, lending to the belief that humans were innately soulless, and as long as their body moved and ate there was no difference between a living one and a dead one. In Radux, it is believed the earliest humans were slaves of reptilian creatures and their stone-giant foes. In Calux, the humans initially were treated as low, non-sentient life forms, until halflings agreed to trade with them. It is the tenacity of humans and their adaptability that led them to become the sole remaining masters of Calux, as well as their compatibility in bearing half-breed children with similar species.
Inhumans: Pure-blooded, non-human species. Hated by humans because all Inhuman races have had at least one case of hostile activity towards them. The policy towards Inhumans varies from total genocide to allowing isolated ghettos, but virtually no pure-blooded Inhumans still exist.
Demihuman: Half human, half “Beast.” Also called “Beastmen.” Any human with Inhuman blood is considered this. Most are killed before they reach maturity, but some tiny, mobile camps of these people exist, struggling to evade hunting squads. The most common of these are half-elves, half-dwarves and half-orcs, who were tolerated for longer than other Demihuman species due to the compatibility of their races in breeding and their usefulness in the war against their own kind. They now band together in a futile attempt to regain their lost culture and create some semblance of the old civilizations. Of course, many attempt to hide their Inhuman heritage and live among normal people with some degree of success. Those who are almost indistinguishable from humans can occasionally thrive in human society. Depending on the nation, the harsh feelings towards Inhumans have been tempered somewhat, and Demihumans may be able to attain citizenship or prestige. These Demihumans have almost totally disavowed their heritage however.
Because magic during the great war thinned the blood of many Inhuman creatures, some Demihumans manage to exist within human society through great secrecy. Demihumans who fully resemble their old Inhuman species are exceedingly rare and almost always found and killed in their childhood. Those who have visible traits flee to the nomadic camps. Their blood is so thin and culture so thoroughly incinerated that their offspring would be essentially human in every meaningful way.
Elves: True name of "Alboz." A proud, ancient race. Appearance is similar to humans in facial structure and body type, save for a shorter average height and a pair of pointed ears. The Elves straddled the gap between the artistic and the warlike, valuing trade the least in their culture. There were many subspecies of Elves, depending on where in their territory they were born, as the race was heavily tied to the land. Wood elves had a reputation for being wild and impulsive, and eschewed organized settlements. River elves were highly skilled sailors and fishermen. Dark elves or Drow, lived underground, and were the "untouchables" of elvish society for innumerable centuries. Every elf subspecies organized itself into a “house.” Twice per cycle, (the elvish equivalent of a human year) all clans of elves would convene together in the high elf (Eladrin) capital and coordinate religious ceremonies and hold massive festivals. This was the one time of year in which business was valued over spiritual, artistic and martial pursuits, and the clans traded enthusiastically. The different clans also set political goals for the coming year and transitioned into new leadership at the convention.
Staunchly isolationist, they used the Deepspell to make the woods surrounding their cities seem endless to any person attempting unwelcome entry. Their plateau mostly terminated in waterfalls and rapids, making approach by river hazardous. The elves were the erstwhile rivals of the dwarves, loathed the materialism of the halflings, hated the brutishness of the orcs, and scoffed at the unseasoned young human nation. Even within themselves, each variety of elves tended to favor different facets of their culture heavily, and beyond that, each bloodline of elves had a distinct sense of aesthetics and philosophy, like an endlessly branching series of veins or a tree. Losing the war was a mental trauma the entire race never recovered from. After the conquest, the Elves became sub-citizens and were forced to marry with humans. The distinctiveness of each elvish subspecies was ignored. Practicing their treasured, unique culture became a crime, and their rich artistic, literary and mystical pedigree was lost to time.
Some elves believed they were capable of accessing the memories of their ancestors when meditating or unconscious. As if entering an archive, they could withdraw phantom sensations, emotions and knowledge from those that had gone before them. Though the existence of this ability to “junction” spirits to oneself was never conclusively proven even by magic scholars, it ensured that the oldest families in each elf house were the most seasoned and respected. They carried the lion's share of leadership responsibilities and perks to the exclusion of others, who were essentially auxiliary to their function in the society. The subspecies with the largest concentration of the oldest families was unquestionably the House of Clouds: The High Elves, or the Eladrin in the elvish language. Other houses were the House of Rivers and the House of Trees, obviously enough.
Eladrin: The House of Clouds, a subspecies of elves, known as the high elves or eladrin to humans. Only eladrin had light colored hair among elves. Hair was almost always blonde, often white even from childhood. Eyes ranged from gray to black. Frivolous magic experimentation resulted in irregular hair and eye coloration for some eladrin. Their traditional domain was the peak of the plateau elven civilization was situated upon; a mountain chain constantly shrouded in billowing white clouds. The eladrin were the oldest and most respected of elf races, though during the time at which the drow were an accepted part of elvish society, they had competition for the title of “progenitor bloodline.” After the drow were driven out, the House of Clouds rewrote elvish history records to suggest that the high elves were the original elf species, and that the others originated from them. Although eladrin were not the only ones who could use magic, they were often considered the most adept users and most of the basic principles of magic were based off of eladrin thaumaturgy. The high value of magic to keep the elven race's culture pure and untainted of outside influence, as well as its war and artistic applications, meant that eladrin consistently had a powerful influence on elvish government at the bicyclic conventions, which led to the misconception among outside races that the elves valued those with light hair as the epitome of beauty, and made them into a ruling caste. In fact, darker hair and lighter skin were considered more attractive among many elves, domain of the substantially lower-class River Elves.
Drow: Subterranean subspecies of elves. Their appearance was the antithesis of what elves considered aesthetically appealing and they were frequently subject to internal purges and genocide. The drow worshipped a heretical spider goddess that supposedly communicated to them her intentions to bless any of those who crossed The Canal. At the outset of the Age of Retribution, all those drow remaining “migrated” across human lands in the south and crossed The Canal, impossibly enough, walking unhindered through The Seal of Sanctity. The destruction they caused was the final chapter in the Retribution. They have not been heard of since.
Dwarves: Two stocky races of short humanoids lived in the plains and mountains. Those that lived in the mountains considered themselves a different species than the plainsdwellers, and referred to themselves as the Dverger, or in the human central tongue, dwarves. They typically reached the shoulders of humans in height. Their specialty was in metal working, but infrequently traded with the humans. Unlike the elves, the dwarves valued business skill and pragmatism over warfare and artistry, but they were still highly capable defensive fighters, and conquering their mountains was not easy for the humans. The dwarves were the first to offer aid to men during the Fading of Jasteauch, offering their cannon technology and simple machines to help the nation of men mass-produce weapons. As a result, humans and dwarves were at peace for longer than any of the other Inhumans save the halflings, their kin.
However, the dwarves eventually began to resent the powerful competitor they had created, as the humans proved highly skilled at manipulating machinery, creating the living construct with elvish magic and dwarven technology. They warred frequently with the elves, and their brief alliance with the elves during the war with humanity broke down quickly. Though they offered aid in the form of advanced metalworking, the dwarves were slighted by the creation of warforged and resumed war versus mankind. Despite having no allies, the dverger proved to be a tremendous threat as they controlled mineral deposits of substantial value, and their mountain homes were naturally fortified. Eventually they were defeated by Duke Bourgundy's army, which in desperation entombed the remaining dwarves in solid molten metal with their own smelting machines. The dwarves were in this way the first of the Inhumans to go effectively extinct.
Halflings: The plains-dwelling cousins of the dwarves, known as nisse in their shared language. Similar to dwarves in height but not as stocky or muscular due to their more relaxed lifestyle, they too valued business, but their specialty was agriculture. They were by far the friendliest race to man and aided them long before Jasteauch's disappearance by teaching them crop rotation and sharing their seed-planting technology. This agriculture made it possible for the humans to fully utilize their rich lands and support a larger population, which made the humans a true power for the first time in history. Halflings lived wherever the land was flat and well-suited for agriculture.
Because of their rapid expansion, the humans naturally gained the ire of other races and the halflings, by association, were seen as breeders of men, who were cultivating the humans like cattle to make up for their own physical deficiencies. At the time, the halflings had begun to give birth to smaller and smaller children; this became a subspecies known as gnomes. Halfling fertility rates were declining, so their population continued to shrink in both definitions of the word; this was the motivation behind their innovative agricultural techniques. Because of this latent hatred, trade relations with non-human races soured, and the halflings and gnomes became more and more reliant upon the race of men, eventually merging with their empire entirely. Other races saw this behavior as traitorous, and their bountiful fields and vineyards were razed by the dwarves. Some halflings became highly skilled assassins, perhaps as an attempt to prove that they weren't the slaves of humans, and became a threat that left most human generals and royalty unable to sleep at night. Their land was thus occupied by the humans and kept thoroughly under control. Clans of assassins were hunted down and purged.
Thus were the nisse placed in a precarious position; reliant upon humans for commerce, their chief cultural value, but unable to become fully human and accepted in their society. They could not associate with other races, and especially not their cousins under the mountains. In a few centuries, the halflings, breeding freely with humans in an effort to save themselves, were all but a swiftly fading racial memory. The northeastern races of men are noticeably shorter than the others.
Gnomes: Even shorter, mutated halflings. The name for gnome is the same in human languages as it was in the halfling language because of the closeness of the two species. Gnomes are one of the few races other than men to exist in any number, but they are still far from common enough to be anything but overlooked. It is unlikely that more than a few thousand exist in the entire world. Due to their rarity, many people are unaware that they are in fact halflings and assume they are humans of exceptionally small size.
Orcs: Nomadic, predominantly carnivorous tribes of large humanoids with thick teeth and great muscle mass living in the desert planes to the south of the human lands. Long feared for their great strength and warlike tendencies, the orcs never had peace with any nation for long, and due to their disparate tribal nature, fought as mercenaries in almost any war they could find themselves in. The orcs lived for battle, much like the dragonborn, though their martial heritage was entirely different. Orcs did not bow to any leadership but strength or money, and their undisciplined, brutal tendencies left half-orc brood in the territories they helped conquer. These creatures were outcasts in their own tribes and often needed to live among humans, who were more accepting of them.
It was common folklore that the orcs were descendants of wild boars and the orcs resented this suggestion. Some embittered humans even referred to the orcs as “pigmen,” and vehemently hated the race. Although capable of eating almost anything, orcs were not shy about consuming the remains of their slain enemies and were feared for this fact. This is how war was carried out among their own tribes, and though they recognized that other races did things differently, they quickly realized that their own culture was valuable as a shock weapon. Thus outbound orcs who worked as mercenaries were actually far more brutal than the orcs living in their home territories. They did not believe in the rights of the defeated, or in the concept of honor, and thus raped/pillaged as they saw fit.
The truth was Orcs actually had a highly sophisticated, varied culture focused on shamanistic ritual and ancestor veneration, but they did not share this with other races and thus the only exposure to orcish culture was martial outside of their tribes. Humanity's superior grasp of magic, technology, value of strategy over melee tactics, and their willingness to use half-orcs as more than agricultural slaves meant that it was only a matter of time before the orcs were completely eradicated. In spite of their uncanny martial prowess, their capability for long-term strategy was hampered by their deeply ingrained cultural paradigms of fast raid warfare and personal combat, and they were not prepared for the human technique of attrition warfare. Orcs were large creatures and required a substantial calorie intake, as well as being strictly meat-eaters, so they were easy to starve. Their willingness to cannibalize was actually in many cases due to intense starvation.
Half-orcs still suffer severe discrimination even among demi-humans, and are the most common members of the bands of roving demi-human camps. They look largely human but carry some of the thickness of tooth and face that characterizes their ancestors. Their facial features are almost entirely human-like, depending upon their heritage, but if one opens his mouth, there are slightly enlarged canines, with teeth being thicker and wider in general. Many have a strong jaw, giving the impression of a flesh-eater. Most noticeably, they have an unusual tanned complexion and have remarkable height and muscle mass. Their stereotypes of brutishness and volcanic temper lends to the uneducated belief that the camps are nothing more than criminal bands or barbarians. Of course, these criminal bands of demihumans became criminals because they were exiled from human society and cannot survive otherwise.
Dragonborn: Children of the Spilt Blood, the dragonborn, known by the human race as lizardmen, were the last relics of the ancient race of beasts known as dragons. In ancient times, before humans had fully developed into a civilization in their own right, the races of the world were threatened by powerful creatures that could fly, spit fire, lightning, acid and cold winds, and were feared and worshipped like gods for their unlimited power and fiendish intelligence. It is believed that shortly before recorded history, the good people united to hunt down and slay the dragons for the benefit of all those who had their numbers culled by the aerial carnivores. A legend lost to time suggested that the dragonborn rose from the spilt blood of the dragons that flowed into the bodies of those who died in the great wyrm hunt. Thus the dragonborn were creatures who were born from violence and lived thus ever afterwards in violence. These fierce creatures were paragons of martial skill and many of the world's greatest warriors learned from the rare “scaled hermits.”
As they were solitary creatures and resembled the monsters imprinted in every race's memories as their greatest foe, the dragonborn were already hunted and discriminated against in all nations, and could only find solace in training in military arts with those who respected them. The humans retain a trace of respect for the dragonborn, perhaps because they are thought to have been totally extinct centuries even before the Age of Retribution, as some human kingdoms have orders or military decorations named after them, and many traces of their martial technique endure.
Much of the nature of the Dragonborn is a mystery and a wealth of conflicting information about them exists. One such theory contradicts the legend of their birth from dragon blood and instead stipulated that they were an entirely different race from another plane of existence that gifted the primitive races of the world with magic and machine principles, then disappeared. There are rumors that dragons continue to exist, that dragonborn continue to exist, and that both continue to exist, but that they even existed at all in the first place is often treated as little more than a folk tale.
Shifter: Freakish humans capable of harnessing the latent supernatural power within the blood of ancient extinct races. Their bodies undergo remarkable transformations that make them a popular subject for research and experimentation in secret. Not considered a true “race” yet as they are so uncommon as to be unheard of in most parts of the world. Considered abomination in most lands of men as the capacity to shift form and flesh without the use of magic is believed to be an element of the plague.
Warforged: Living constructs possessing qualities of a golem and an organic creature. The youngest of the races aside from humans. Their ancestor designs were originally planned by humans using Elven magic and Dwarven technology, based upon the body structure of the stone Goliaths. Initially intended simply for non-sentient activity and basic labor, as time went on and the humans desperately needed more soldiers for the war against the Inhumans, the strength and intellect of the living constructs were upgraded. As they are man-made, they enjoy a reasonable degree of respect. In some nations they are hated and in others they possess all the rights of human citizens. Their attitude towards the Inhumans is the same as human beings, only instead of seeing them as an ancient enemy, they see them as races too weak to continue existing. The fact that humans made Warforged means that few Warforged will see humans as being unable to adapt; adaptation being the chief tenant of their embryonic worldwide culture. (They see themselves as another one of humanity's myriad adaptations, which continues to adapt itself.) Some nations that do not accept artificial life-forms have “habitations” for Warforged; these are often in inhospitable locations humans rarely dare to tread such as waterless deserts and deep within the uncomfortably hot earth near volcanos. The lack of food, or in some cases even breathable air, poses no threat to Warforged.
Goliath: Supposedly the race which humans built Warforged in the likeness of, they occupied the position of dwarves as the mountain dwellers in the continent of Jasteauch. Characterized by a stereotypical pride and tendency towards contemplative thought over immediate action. The term Goliath is actually the human name for the race; another name they were known by was the Trow. They were known for their stoic philosophy and intense martial prowess. Historians believed they were the oldest species on the Jasteauch continent and controlled a massive empire that spanned the entire continent, the fall of which they would not explain to any not of their race. Supposedly they were 20 feet tall in the ancient days and were made of animated rock, but this diminished over a remarkably short span of time, relatively speaking. A few Goliath outcasts supposedly moved to the north in small mountain enclaves.
Deva: A rumored race with the gift of mana from the southern Jasteauch continent. They had an unusual violet skin color and glowing eyes, and their presence was phenomenal; they could not go unseen for their steps were followed by an aura of majesty, likely caused by their personality affecting reality around them through instinctive mana use. Rumored to be travelers from another dimension cast out by their rivals, the Asura. Nothing has been heard of them since the plague.
Genasi: A species of men formed by the fusion of magic energies with human beings, created in experiments conducted in the Triturian Empire. The objective was an attempt to harness Arcane magical energies. Also known as Element Liners, because of the way veins of elemental energy flowed along their crystalline skin. Nothing has been heard of them since the plague.
-Enemies of Humanity-
Undead: Catchall term for monsters that were created from dead sentient creatures. Ranges from ghosts to zombies to vampires to demons. Certain races were more apt to birth these affronts to life than others; humans being the most prone to rising as or creating undead. This was the origin of the Inhuman races' fear of humanity's infection with the unknown plague from Jasteauch, though the plague is of an entirely different sort. The state of being undead is completely unnatural, as death draws from life; thus the undead are the natural enemies of all that live, as no undead creature exists that does not feed upon the living in some way.
Ghosts: Malevolent spirits. Rarely overtly harmful, but some areas of great death such as battlefield from the Age of Retribution and the old abandoned cities of Elves and Dwarves are filled to the brim with grudge-bearing souls condemned to darkness. The form of undead that is most commonly associated with Inhumans, as they rarely raise as walking corpses or vampires. They are believed to feed upon the breath of the living, even living plants and non-sentient animals. Depending on the strength of their negative energies may have a deleterious effect on creatures around them, such is the volume in which they feed.
Walking Corpses: The lowest form of undead. Efforts to control zombies and ghouls, creatures who rose without any free will or consciousness from their dead state and crave the flesh of the living, expanded proportionately with the rise of humans, as did the numbers of the creatures themselves. The climate has an effect on the low undead's movement; in northern lands, the cold climate tends to freeze those exposed to the elements and make it even more difficult for the stiff corpses to travel aimlessly in their search for flesh. In the southern lands, they decompose quickly due to the heat and humidity. Lands that are most savaged by undead tend to therefore be temperate and arid climates at the center of the northern continent. Walking Corpses are animated by lower magicks and those who appear to consciously follow orders (A method more akin to pulling puppet strings) are referred to as Thrall; those who move randomly and eat flesh are referred to as Soulless. It is believed that the Grand Triturian Empire gained a massive amount of its territory by strategic application of Ritual alchemical necromancy and undead Thrall armies; historians believe this is the origin of the tendency in Old Aventian records to refer to the Triturian army as the “Shambling Dark.” Despite popular belief, zombies and ghouls are not capable of infecting other creatures to make more of their own kind; they are undead and thus contribute nothing to the world save death. Undead can only be re-animated through magic, such as that of a Vampire's bite.
Vampires: The lords of the undead. The name of their people is “fear” and they are the creatures that strike terror into the hearts of all mankind. Their falsely-immortal life cycle, feeding and destruction all involve the death of countless human beings and their powers are incomparable to other monsters known to most laymen. Unlike the lower risen corpses, vampires retain their intellect and ability to make free decisions, but lose all signs of their conscience, acting entirely upon selfish and preservative instincts. The goal of all vampires is to outlast humanity and escape the apocalypse, which they are all too willing to do through surreptitious and vicious means. However as their numbers and survival rely currently upon humans, they must act in secret and infiltrate human society in order to maintain a herd of loyal human thralls to feed upon, until they find a method of eternal life that allows them to outlast their prey. Vampires are often human spell casters seeking eternal life; these are also referred to as Liches and are in cases physiologically and magically different than other forms of vampires, who may have been reanimated by intense foci of magical energy or craven artifacts. Perhaps their most dangerous aspect is how similar they look to the living; a vampire can make his undead flesh bleed, cry, eat human food, and make love. Their skin appears to have the flush of life, as long as it isn't in direct moonlight, and weaknesses such as not being able to cross running water are little more than folk myths. Vampires do lose most of their infernal powers during the day however, and prolonged exposure to the sun will make them rot, but they are otherwise extremely hard to kill. The majority of vampires live and feed among the nobility of every nation, and to locate and exterminate them all would be a costly and dangerous undertaking.
Vampires themselves have a world wide quasi-religious social order based upon territories, and due to their ingrained self-preservation instincts, do not always work together as those instincts rarely extend beyond themselves. Wars have been plotted by vampire lords who conspired against rivals in foreign nations in an attempt to gain a larger flock to feast upon. In some respects, the game of territory exchange is a method to whittle away their unending lives and unending boredom, involving both charisma and guile to attract gullible fresh blood and at the same time evade detection by the royalty.
The Twisted: Mutated creatures from beyond the Canal. Their forms are distorted and their original state is almost completely indeterminate. Since contact was lost with the continent of Jasteauch, the red haze and "Agares Tear" appeared in the sky, nothing but disfigured aberrations have come through the Stele. What happened on the other side to unleash this plague is known to no man. The manner in which they act and whether or not they are sentient are total mysteries, but they kill or consume other living creatures at random when they pour out periodically from the weakening Grimoire's seal. Some are believed to be infectious and their presence twists the land. Their numbers are usually managed easily by the border guard, but once every few years a hideous flood is exhumed fourth from the Canal. Little is known about them, other that some simply kill their enemies; others are beasts and consume the flesh of those they kill. Still more seem completely lacking in hostility but graft and begin to merge with any fleshy creature they come in contact with, absorbing and dissolving them alive. Some Twisted have the bodies of humans jutting from their flesh, frozen in their dying moments as if still scrambling to escape as their limbs and organs began to betray them and junction to alien viscera.