Humans
“Men” here refers to the civilized world that includes Argentus, Cardosa, Yurie, Ravenna, and Vasteras. Theirs is a feudal society. Their technology includes the plough, the screw, and papermaking. They use the stirrup, the windmill, the hourglass, and the spinning wheel. Plate Armor and the compass are both known, but not common.
Prall/The Gols
Primitive humans from an earlier age still exist in isolated pockets in the extreme edges, mostly the north. They stick to the thick, dense forest primeval that remains, and follow their own Gods who are cruel, disdainful, and capricious. They are considered barbarous and savage by the civilized men of the world.
Elves
There are two castes of “Elf.” Both were created by the true Elves, the Celestials, to act as immortal servants, consorts, and wardens. The Celestials joined Val, their god, when he left the world and created his own realm, Avalon, leaving their servants behind.
The Elves venerate Val, but there are no churches to him and they do not worship him or gain power from him. The Kings or Queens of their cities are chosen by the Elves, who consider who would be the best leader among them from the descendents of past rulers. The early rulers were direct descendents of two Elves who served in Val’s Court.
The Elves have little in the way of amenities for visitors. There are no taverns, inns, or stores in the community. Food is rationed by the king or queen. PCs looking to make purchases must do so from the ration stores.
Rather than work with stone and metal, they craft with wood. Most Elves are craftsmen and build for themselves, having little interest in trade.
The Wode Elves
Wood Elves who kill those who trespass in their forest. Guerilla warfare elves. They were created by the Celestials as immortal servants who would tend the Elven Wodes.
A Wode is a highly magical forest, where the Elves await the return of their creators.
The Court Elves
High Elves who live in floating cities. When Val departed, he imparted special knowledge to the Elves who served as his personal servants. These Elves stored Val’s secrets in the Codex Caelum, a tome containing powerful techniques that could cause entire cities to levitate. The Court Elves got to work constructing flying cities using the knowledge of the Codex Caelum. The cities can rise and fall, transpose, and even teleport.
There is a floating city for each division of Val’s celestial Court, including the Sun Court, Moon Court, and Star Court. The Elves created these cities to physically close the distance to the celestial bodies they represent, as well as to get away from the riffraff, the inferior life forms on the land below.
Their people are largely ascetic and withdrawn. They are immortal and all troubles will pass. The problems happening below don’t concern them. So, their people rarely leave the floating cities. No one in recorded history has ever convinced them to join a side in a conflict, much less even get a hearing; though, everyone knows that they would be utterly formidable from their high ground.
Because Elves are, in a sense, artificial beings created by the Celestials, they cannot normally have children. This ritual is their only means of extending their race. Most consider it disgusting and unnatural, but some few seek it out, desiring children.
Half-Elves
No two races can naturally interbreed. But when an Elf and a Man fall in love, they may find a powerful priest to petition the gods on their behalf. If the gods find favor in the union, they grant the priest a ritual allowing the couple to mate.
The offspring of such unions are Half-elven. Because the Half-elven cannot breed even with the aid of a ritual, they may, at any time in their lives, choose to be fully Elf or fully Human. A choice that cannot be unmade.
Dwarves
Dwarves are hostile, dour, and bear long grudges. Like the Elves, they are created rather than born. Their skin is a mixture of flesh and stone.
Thane Rurik leads their underground world. They have many underground strongholds throughout the world, but their capital is the great hanging city of Klyuchar in Yurie.
The Dwarves and Elves were once allied but now mortal enemies. During the fall of the Pathaman Empire, the Elves assassinated the Dwarf Thane Ifrit, the Puppeteer, whose work on animated sentinels and constructs they considered anathema to nature. Without their leader or construct technologies, the Dwarven Kingdoms were overrun by Abyssal forces.
Orc
The Orculantar were a tribe of Gol who tried to bargain with the harsh Kaelix to grant them the strength of Dwarves. They were willing to sacrifice greatly, so that the bargain would have succeeded if Anax had not intervened, corrupting the Orculantar into what they are today.
Rather than bear the strength of stone like Dwarves, the Orc bear likeness to the earth — mud and dirt. Their skin changes color depending on what part of the earth they live in. Greener skins from warmer climates.
Goliaths
Known locally as the Barrow-men because they come from the mountains above the Barrow Hills, these tall humanoids are demi-giants. Their own name for themselves is the Hakaan. They are long-lived and solitary with no centralized leadership.
They view feudal society as a kind of madness, do not ride horses and do not fight in heavy armor. They have little use for worldly knowledge or lore, relying instead on their power of their minds and will alone.
Ages ago the Hakaan were much more formidable Giants who bargained away their great size and strength for oracular vision. But they were betrayed. Instead of the ability to see the future, each knows only the manner of his own death, his Wyrd. This knowledge is considered both a blessing and a curse. Seeking to run from one’s Wyrd is considered rebellion against the gods, so Goliaths are most often found seeking to fulfill their Wyrd.
Halflings
Halflings call themselves Hobbits, and were created millennia ago by the Beast Lords of Kham to be cooks and servants. The same traits which make them quiet and unnoticed servants make them excellent thieves and soon the Lords of Kham were employing them as assassins.
Hobbits were the last of the Beast Lords’ creations to have the ability to reproduce. Their independence was a constant curse to the Lords of Kham. Now they have integrated with human society so well, they are considered by most as honorary humans, sharing their towns and cities and worshipping their gods.