Just mentioning again that the encyclopedia is written out of the perspective of a character in the game. The "author's notes" in these posts are in fact not MY notes, but his.
Humans
Humans are
the dominant race in Elidrophyn and Halga. The humans are a very fractured and
diverse race, making up a great number of factions and kingdoms in the lands
they inhabit. The humans come in every shape and form, and depending on their
point of origin they can be beige, brown, black, or any variation of these
tones. The humans are a quite intelligent race with excellent magical aptitude.
The average life span varies greatly depending on the available medical care
and sustenance in their home regions, but are recorded to vary from 50 to 80
years. (50 in the north, 80 within Babylon)
Many
significant adventurers and heroes have risen from the humans, and some are
even known to carry on Titan blood.
Azur
A short and
nimble race, the Azur are born travelers and seafarers. The azur live mostly in
connection to the sea, along the coasts of Elidrophyn or Halga, or on floating
citadels at sea. They mostly come in beige to brown skin tones, and have an
average lifespan around 60 to 70 years.
Ifrit
Native to
the deserts of Halga, the Ifrits live predominantly as nomads, travelling with
their herds throughout the desert. The Ifrit clans are known as extraordinary
horsemen, and have few steady settlements. Where they have given up the nomadic
lifestyle, they either live as citizens of the Babylonian empire, or as
mercenaries travelling the world for fame and glory.
Gray
A split
race, the Gray as they are called have divided themselves into two very
distinct societies. On one side, there is the tribalistic hunter-gatherer
female-dominated society that has based itself in the deep jungles on the
western coast of Io, and on the other there is the ordered and technological
male-dominated empire that has its’ capital in a mountain hollowed out by a
meteorite strike long ago.
While their
society is split, there is still significant interactions between the different
factions, primarily for trading and breeding purpouses. The gray have been
given their name due to the fact that they are born perfectly white in
coloration, and over the course of their life slowly tone through deepening
gray colors. At the end of their life span, they become black as the night in
skin tone.
The gray
are known to perform a form of ancestral worship, where they pray to the
spirits of passed-on family members.
Life spans
vary between 80 and 90 years.
Lianese
One of the
dominant races of Io are the Lianese, a gold-skinned people that has created
two significant empires on the continent. Quite unimaginatively they have named
these empires the “northern kingdom” and the “southern kingdom”. Quite spiritual in nature, the Lianese
generally worship the spirits of the world as gods, and are known to create
artefacts that allow the spirits they are bound to, to manifest freely within
vicinity of the artifact. While all Lianese have golden skin tones, the shade
varies between the north and the south, with darker tones in the south and
lighter in the north.
As of
recently, the northern nation was conquered by the Kalinese.
Average
life spans are 70 years.
Kalinese
A
imperialistic and expansionistic empire, the kalinese adopted a dragon as their
emperor and god, and went on to enslave the Oni and plunge the continent of Io
into a infernal war. Seeing dragon-corruption as a blessing from god, the
society quickly plunged into darkness as sacrifices of prisoners in order to
please their dark god became commonplace.
The Kalinese
have pale yellowy-skin, slightly reminiscent of their lianese cousins, but many
bear draconic taint.
Many
kalinese are unable to properly handle larger amounts of sunlight and thusly
cover themselves entirely with cloth.
Lifespans
average at 90 – 100 years, due to draconic regeneration.
Kitsune
*Writer’s
note: It is difficult to place the Kitsune into a specific category due to the
fact that they in essence are a offshoot of proto-kalinese origin, but due to
the fact that they have separate culture and breeding habits, I have decided to
place them as their own race.
The Kitsune
are a race of semi-arcane origin. Being a race of only females, Kitsune have to
rely on males of other races in order to procreate, even though all children
conceived will be born Kitsune.
According
to legends, the Kitsune came to be as a michevious woman tricked the fox god
out of his precious gemstone, containing most of his power. She refused to give
it back unless the god granted her a portion of his power. The fox god agreed,
but also cursed the woman for her deed, so that she and every child of her
lineage would carry foxlike traits on their body, such as a fox tail and ears.
Additionally,
each time they were to mate with a man, they would devour the man’s soul,
gaining an additional tail and increased power.
Oni
A more
intelligent cousin of the Trolls found on Elidrophyn’s northern reaches, the
Oni are large, muscular (yet still rather unintelligent) species. They have
large tusks sprouting out of their mouths, and are usually orange or red in
skin color. The oni look, to a casual onlooker, somewhat like a promethean
species’ (an exceptionally ugly specimen, to be honest), with the addition of
unusually thick lips, tusks, and occasionally horns. The onis’ lifespan is so far
not publicly recorded as they have the tendency to die brutally in one dispute
or another, as they seem to find that the only way to solve any sort of
argument is with violence.
Jotun
Almost
seven meters tall, the Jotun (or as they are called elsewhere, the Giants) are
a very imposing species that make their living from the sea and occasionally
small farmsteads or goat herds on the continent of Jotunheim. The Jotuns are
largely human in appearance, with skin and hair colors generally coinciding
with the norse clansmen from Elidrophyn.
Many
parallels can be made between them and the norse, since both generally live in
small villages and towns, both make their living on otherwise rather
unhospitable lands, and both live much of their life at sea.
The Jotuns
have a fascination with sea serpents, and much of their architecture and
craftsmanship reflect this.
*Author’s
note: There seem to be two different nations of Jotuns, both of which hate the
other with a fury I have never seen reflected anywhere else. From my records,
there have been over 200 wars between these two nations. These numbers are
simply fascinating.
Average
life spans vary between 50 and 80 years.
Minosans
An odd
species, the Minosans share the western continent of Jotunheim with the giants.
The Minosans have an intricate fascination with labyrinths, something reflected
by their architecture. The minosans have some of the most confusing layouts of their
towns that have ever been seen. This is only exaggerated further by the fact
that they seem to greatly enjoy construction.
One of the
most remarkable and distinct traits of the minosans are their large, muscular
frames that sometimes reach 2.5 or even 3 meters, dwarfed only by the Jotuns,
as well as their bull-like heads and cloven-hooved feet.
*author’s
note: The only truly significant city on the continent of Jotunheim, Niflheim,
was constructed by minosans, and have city maps placed with regular intervals
in order to ensure that the residents do not get lost while walking about the
city.
Average
life spans vary between 60 and 75 years
Centaurs
Half-horse
and half-man in appearance, the centaurs are a feral, and tribalistic society
native to the tundra and plains of Jotunheim. They are large and commanding in
both appearance and act.
While the
males are warriors and raiders, each either a tyrant or a tyrant’s servant or
slave, the females are of a more timid nature and are generally kept away from
conflicts.
Their
society is hugely male-dominated, where the strong rule the weak, and brutal
combat decides each man’s role in society. From observation, female centaurs
seem to have little to no say when it comes to their fates.
Average
life spans vary between 50 and 60 years.
Gobins
A race that
shares the azurs’ diminutive stature, the goblins are a barbaric species that
rule eachother through fear. In culture, the goblins have some similarities to
the Kalinese in that they are closely linked to the dragons, except that it is
taken to further extremes. While kalinese people still display largely humane
traits, the Goblins seem to have no compassion for one another or towards other
species. Their reproductive cycle is a fraction of that of promethean species,
and if left unchecked the Goblins may very well overrun the world with sheer
numbers. Luckily for the other species’, the Goblins inhabit a hostile volcanic
region in the north eastern parts of halga. The area is bordered by a mountain
chain, deserts and seas, making their expansion difficult at best. Additionally,
due to their malevolent nature, it is commonplace that the goblins turn on one
another as resources are scarce; ensuring that large-scale organization of the
species is difficult if not impossible without outside influences.
The goblins
are hairless, and their skin is generally brownish or green.
Average
life spans are 20 years.
Merpeople
Half-human
and half-fish, the mermen share many traits with the Naga, even though their
society and culture is very different. The merpeople generally live in small tribes,
and their society is largely hunter-gatherer. The merpeople are known to eat
anything in the face of starvation, including one another and shipwrecked
sailors. Additionally, there is a lot of folklore surrounding the merpeople,
and especially the mermaids. Parts of it say that they often rescue sailors
from drowning, bringing them back to shore, and others say that a mermaid’s
kiss grants the ability to breathe water.
*author’s
note: From my observations of the merpeople, these legends seem exaggerated or
flat-out false. The mermaids seem to have no special inclination towards saving
sailors from a watery doom than any other aquatic species’, and seemingly less
so than the Naga.
Naga
A
female-dominated species, the naga live in city-states beneath the sea to the
east and west of Halga. The Naga seem to be a warlike species and their
city-states often wage war on one another as well as on the shauhagin and
merpeople. The naga are in general less aggressive than the shauhagin when it
comes to dealing with surface people, as they seem disinterested in assaulting
ships that travel their seas, instead allowing storms or other aquatic species’
sink the ships for them, and then capturing what they please from the wreckage
and its’ crew. If they wish to sink ships on their own, it is generally a deed
performed by enchantresses that utilize a hypnotic song to lure the sailors
into steering their ships onto shallow rocks.
Naga seem
to have a disposition towards stealing away the crews of ships, though in stark
contrast to Shauhagin and Merpeople, they seem to completely abstain from
eating promethean flesh, instead keeping their captured slaves as entertainment
in air-filled buildings at the sea bottom.
The naga
live in a society divided into several castes, where only the upper castes, (priestesses,
enchantresses and nobility,) seem to have significant power to decide over
their own lives, with the lower castes (such as peasants, workers, and
warriors) merely get to do as the upper castes say. And the entire city obeys
the queen’s smallest whim.
*author’s
note: The naga are an aquatic species with promethean and serpentine traits.
Seeing as they birth live young and are genetically compatible with
prometheans, I can only assume that they are closely related to them.
The upper
body of a Naga is very human in structure and appearance, and if their odd
coloration (since most naga are a variation of the color blue) and lower body
is ignored, could be considered inseparable from a normal human. At the waist
the Naga turn from the human nature and turn into a long serpentine tail,
usually three or four meters in length. The naga are generally very muscled as
they live their lives beneath the surface of the sea. Additionally, the Naga
have a series of gills behind their ears, plus a set of lungs, allowing them to
survive both above and beneath the sea surface. Though, so far, Naga seem
incapable of breathing non-salty water.
Shauhagin
The goblins
of the sea, the Shauhagin are short creatures of extremely aggressive
disposition, and gladly raid anything they can get their hands on, be it
surface ships, Naga villages or merpeople tribes.
Rapidly
reproducing due to the fact that Shauhagin females lay entire clutches of eggs
after the end of the breeding season, the shauhagin (while disorganized and
relatively dim-witted) are a large threat to all who live in connection to the
sea. Though they have the same problem as their surface equivalent, they seem
incapable of organizing themselves in larger numbers without in-fighting.
The
shauhagin are in general bluish gray, and they have two rather small and thin
arms and legs, with both webbed feet and hands, with four toes and fingers on
each. The shauhagin also have a rather large head on top of their torso, most
of which is made up of a massive jaw.
In
appearance, the shauhagin seem somewhat related to both sharks and eels.
Dragons
The dragons
are immortal death machines created by God at the beginning of the titan war in
order to hunt and kill titans. They are highly intelligent, and very dangerous.
The dragons are capable of shape shifting their form to whatever they please,
and they are surrounded with an aura of unspeakable dread that warps their
surroundings into nightmarish shapes. The blood of a dragon is enormously
mutagenic, and transforms any living creature it comes into contact with into a
mindless dragon-spawn if consumed. The dragons are also highly regenerative,
making them nearly impossible to defeat.
Dragon
scales are both hard as steel, and provide a sort of protection from magical
abilities.
Dragons are
enormously powerful magicians, and on top of that they can breathe a magical flame
that cannot be stopped by magical protection and that cannot be put out until
it has run its’ course.
Even if
their mortal form is destroyed, the Dragons retreat into indestructible soul
stones where they await resurrection.
Dragons are
capable of forcing mutations onto other living beings, and in large extent they
are capable of dominating the minds of others, turning other creatures into
mind-slaves. Additionally, the dragons are capable of a form of
reality-forging, where they can turn a fraction of their essence into
malevolent weaponry that corrupts those who wield it.
Titans
The first
sentient species created by God, the titans were an enormously gifted and
powerful species, each granted great powers of world-forging. During their
existence, the titans created weapons and artifacts of great power, sadly most
were completely destroyed when God created the dragons to destroy them.
As of
today, there are five titans still existing. They are: Prometheus, Hades, Ares,
Erra, and Limos, of which all except Prometheus are under the control of God.
Dryads
An
enchanted species, the Dryads are an all-female species that live in direct
connection to the forests of the world. The dryads live a dual life, with a
mortal form and a tree form that both exist linked to one another. The dryads
live as long as their tree does, and fall ill if their tree does. This is also
true for the tree. The dryads live on the border between the living world and
the world of nature spirits, and the ground beneath which the root of a dryad’s
tree stretches is great in spiritual power.
People who
are close to nature often flock to these areas, building small villages in the
dryads’ grove.
Dryads seem
to procreate differently from other species, as a new dryad is born from a
magical acorn taken from its’ mother-tree. While dryads are capable of mating
with other species, the resulting offspring will be a sylvian.
Subraces
Lycans
A people
that suffer from a terrifying affliction, the Lycans have become a wolf-like
humanoid with endless hunger and a complete lack of compassion or remorse. The
Lycans are driven to feed on fresh meat at all times, and most of all they
hunger for human flesh.
The lycan
affliction spreads through the bite of the lycans, and unless cleansed before
the rise of the next full moon, the afflicted will turn into a lycan
permanently.
It is said
that it is impossible for mortals to cure a person who has fully turned.
Lycans have
shown a weakness towards silver, and a disposition towards nocturnal
activities.
Cainites
The people
afflicted by the curse of Cain, often referred to as Vampires by other people.
The
cainites require blood of the living in order to nourish and sustain
themselves, they are a nocturnal people, and are divided into many different
clans, that each has developed its own method for survival, some of the most
noteworthy being the Nosferatu (or the “pure” as they call themselves). The
nosferatu were completely loyal to Cain, while he was alive, and they are a
very predatorial people. After losing Cain’s guidance they retreated to remote
castles in the wilderness, and stalk nearby villages and those unfortunate
enough to get lost on their land. Not many survive an attack from the
nosferatu, something that has made them the most renowned and feared of the
vampire clans, and when a mortal hears about vampires, the nosferatu are what
generally come to mind.
Another
powerful vampire clan is Toreador, which generally coexists with humans within
the walls of human cities. Most notably, the clan has essentially taken control
over the city of Govens, as they have taken over the ruling noble houses
through seduction, bribery and marriage. The vampires of the Toreador clan are
highly manipulative and generally prefer to deal with threats through guile and
deception, only resorting to violence when necessary. The Toreador generally
obtain sustenance from willing mortals. Those fed upon by the Toreador generally
survive the endeavor and more often than not return to repeat the procedure as
most subjects interviewed have claimed the procedure as pleasurable.
Dragonspawn
Living
creatures infused with the corruption that dragons seep into their
surroundings, the dragonspawn are creatures that have taken on draconic traits
(such as incredible regeneration, tough scales, and more), and live out their
lives as thralls to the dragon that spawned them.
Their
origin usually make so that they are tough to bring down, even though they lack
the incredible fortitude of their masters.
As they are
a very varied species (due to the fact that they can have originally been any
creature imaginable, prior to their corruption), any standardized template for
defining these creatures is impossible to write down.
Sylvians
The
resultant offspring of Dryads and mortal men, the sylvians have traits
inherited from both their parentages. While they mostly take from their father
in terms of appearance, they inherit a fraction of their mother’s longevity,
and naturalist powers.
Sadly, due
to their hybrid nature, the sylvians are born sterile, and thus larger
settlements of Sylvians are scarce and largely nonexistent. While a few
villages have cropped up in areas where dryads are close together, any
significant amount of sylvians would be nearly impossible to find.
Next on up are the nations of the world.
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