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Terata

"Monstrous" spirit folk.

Adlet

Dog-legged beings

  • Alignment: Elemental

  • Lifespan: 80 years

  • Diet: Meat-heavy mortal fare

  • Habitat: Ice floes and polar coasts

  • Socioeconomic Status: Oppressed

Adlets have the legs of dogs and upper bodies of humans who stand about 7’ tall. Their furry legs often have red and white spots.

They are immune to the cold. They are very good swimmers, and in polar or very cold sea water, they can run so fast they rush over the water. They can leap from ice floe to ice floe, and they can speak to whales and seals, as well as dogs.

Adlets are fishers and hunters, living in the cold coastal regions. They paint their faces when they hunt or fish as a ritual of offering, and they are known for their dog sledges and ferocious defense of their homes from colonizers, who accuse them of cannibalism and sexual assault.

They are very good sailors.

PRO 9 ATH 10 Speed 14 Swim 12 STR 8 AWA 8 WIL 7 PRS 7 STH 9

Ateixco

Jaguar-headed warrior people.
  • Alignment : Celestial
  • Lifespan: 200 years
  • Diet: Meat-heavy mortal fare
  • Habitat: Tropical rain forests
  • Socioeconomic Status: Oppressed
Jaguar-headed species who are renowned for their bravery. They stand about 6' tall and have spotted fur all over their bodies. They have the heads of jaguars and prehensile tails, but other than the fur, the rest of their bodies are human-like. Their eyes glow scarlet when they are up against an enemy more than 6 points higher than them in PRO, ATH, or STR.

When their eyes glow scarlet, they can see an enemy's weakness.

They are skilled fighters, hunters, and climbers. They have a keen sense of smell. Their prehensile tails can wield weapons or be used as an extra hand.

When up against an opponent who is more powerful than they are, and if that opponent is a true enemy - infernal or oppressive - they also gain powers based on their enemy's powers. This varies by opponent. It only takes effect once the enemy has used an active but innate ability.

Most ateixcos are born into sets of twins.

Ateixcos come from the far west where they live in a dangerous area dominated by foreign empires. Their culture is one of resistance and deep faith. They have a complex cosmological view that posits them as defenders of the world against great evils.

Twins are considered sacred in their culture, and those born into twins are granted special names, gifts, and celebrations, but also given much, much heavier responsibilities.

They pride themselves on their bravery and consider that there is nowhere too dangerous for them to go. As such, they have many legends of going into the afterlife, going into infernal realms, and so on. Those who are enslaved to the colonies, therefore, view the oppression they face there as a challenge to be faced bravely.

PRO 11 ATH 11 STR 10 AWA 9 Smell 10 WIL 8 PRS 8 STH 9

Centaur

Horse people of the great plains.
  • Alignment: Elemental
  • Lifespan: 400 years
  • Diet: Normal mortal fare with more fiber
  • Habitat: Grasslands
  • Socioeconomic Status: Privileged oppressed
The upper body of a human, the lower body of an equine. They have the same range of appearance in both parts as equines and humans do. They are distinct from equine animal folk, who are extremely rare and have horse’s heads and human-ish bodies. Some centaurs have forelegs that end in human-like feet and ears that fold over the top; this is a rare condition called chironism.

All centaurs have the endurance, strength, and speed of the horses they resemble. Their blood is poisonous to other mortals and releases fumes if it sees the sun.

All centaurs wear clothing, though public perceptions of them often suggest they live naked amongst their tribes. Their clothing is usually a form of barding for their lower body and tunics for their upper body. Most centaurs do not wear horseshoes, but some who live in cities do so for practical reasons. Many centaurs view those who wear horseshoes as “soft”. They refuse to wear saddles, bits, or reins, which they view as emblems of enslavement.

Every centaur takes on new names as they grow older. At different stages of life, they take new names. At birth, they are given a name that all know will be temporary. By age 12, they will usually have chosen a name. At 18, when they reach maturity, they pick a new one. From then on, they pick a new one when they meet a major life event - having their first child, succeeding at an important task, fighting an important battle, reaching the ages of 100, 200, 300, etc.

There are several nations of centaur, each with their own powers, cultures, and forms:
  • Anggitay: From the far east, Anggitays have horns on their heads. Anggitays have the power to repel evil with their horns. The Anggitay have a single horn in their forehead, a feature they developed as they moved eastward into the rainforests and mountains of their homeland and engaged in use of fey energies to survive. They have a great affinity for gemstones and jewelry and live amongst the diwata.
  • Besta-fera: From far to the north of the colonies, Besta-fera have sharp fangs. Besta-feras have an aura of fear that emanates from the stampingof their hooves. The Besta-fera are a much-feared nation in their homeland. Unlike other centaurs, they have sharp fangs and eat diets heavy with meat. They dwell in tomb-like structures, ride in wild hunting parties, and keep hunting dogs. They use the clangor of their hooves on the forest floor to terrify people, and they prefer to hunt at night under bright moonlight. They wear masks as well which are designed to terrify people.
  • Hogatar: From the far east, their lower bodies are that of onagers. Hogatars can petrify other mortals with their bites. The Hogatars developed lower bodies more akin to that of onagers than horses. They live in the mountains of western Dabusen and have a powerful affinity for this landscape. They are wielders of earth magic, which they use to shape roads and paths through the mountains, and they are known for their resilience.
  • Ichthyocentaur: From the oceans near the imperial core, ichthyocentauroi are that of hippocampi (seahorses). Ichthyocenturoi can live underwater and can see relationships between people. The Icythyocentauroi have the rear body of a fish and the forebody of a horse with the torso of a human. There are many legends as to how they developed, but the truth is mostly that they evolved over many eons as amphibious and then as fully subaquatic beings.
  • Inyedube: From an east-central continent, they have the lower bodies of zebras. Inyedube can give each other learned skills temporarily by touching each other’s shoulders. The Inyedube are respected locally as hunters, artisans, and precision workers. Their use of skill magic developed as they sought to survive on the savanna, matching the more powerful predators there.
  • Ixionidae: The original, horse-like centaurs. Ixionidae have super-hearing. The original centaurs are said to be children of a fiery wheel and a glowing cloud, in their own mythology, which is a metaphor for the mortal use of technology and the power of nature. The culture of the Ixionidae focuses on their nomadic ways. They love to grow out their facial hair and to wear heavy manes. Women (often called centaurides) and men share equally in the work of the tribe, and other genders are respected. Marriage is not practiced in the original tribes. While they reject the practice of eromenos in the wider culture (the practice of using young boys for sex), they respect same-sex relationships.
  • Mo'éhno'ha Vo'ęstaneo'o: From the plains to the northwest of the colonies, mo'éhno'ha vo'ęstaneo'o have the lower bodies of dinohippi. Mo'éhno'ha Vo'ęstaneo'os are immune to sharp edges. The Mo'éhno'ha Vo'ęstaneo'o developed lower bodies similar to the dinohippus horses of the area. They are a part of the local nation there.
  • Onocentaur: From the central continent, they have the lower bodies of donkeys. Onocentauroi can hold up buildings even if they are structurally unsound for up to 10 days. They dwell in the mountains, where they are known for their defense of their homelands and intricate houses.
  • Polkan: From the northern parts of the imperial core, they have the lower bodies of woolly horses. Polkans can speak to dogs. They are adapted to the cold steppes. They keep dogs, hunt lions, and are known for greeting people with rough housing as their way of making friends. They are much faster and stronger than other centaurs due to their cultural love of feats of strength.
  • Siesorn: From the floating contiennt of Gyrah, they have wings. Siesorns can fly in space. They are known for their love of astrology and mathematics.
  • Toynaklı: From the far east, they have the lower bodies of tarpans. Toynaklı share communal bonds. They are known for their communal living and refusal to accept assimilation into patriarchal cultures.
Other centaur nations are possible, but will require a different equine lower body.

PRO 9 ATH 10 Endurance 14 Speed 12 STR 12 AWA 8 WIL 8 PRS 8 STH 7

Citigrade

Feathered people who fly on celestial winds.
  • Alignment : Celestial
  • Lifespan: 200 years
  • Diet: Seed-heavy mortal fare
  • Habitat: Tropical skies
  • Socioeconomic Status: Oppressed
Feathered beings who glow and fly on celestial winds. Citigrades are 6' tall feathered reptilian figures with massive wings that stretch beneath their arms. They have tails with stingers. Their feathers, which cover their bodies, are bright and colorful. They have fangs and claws.

Citigrades fly on celestial winds. This means that even when natural wind isn't blowing, they may still be able to fly if magical winds are. Celestial winds are the winds of liberation, of victory, of resistance, and of uplift. Citigrades can call them with their voices, like a rallying cry.

They also have the ability to bring encouragement and morale to others by giving them a feather. Their stingers stun the infernal.

When they touch a rainbow, the rainbow shines brighter and empowers those near it.

Citigrades are from sky islands and the tropics. In these areas, they live in small nomadic groups that seek out others in need and help them. They are often guerrilla forces agaisnst oppressive empires. Their constant harrying of imperial forces means many of them are captured and enslaved, and so some of them have ended up in he colonies.

Those few who have freedom in the colonies try to continue their work, usually, and end up being criminals.

PRO 9 ATH 10 Flight 12 STR 9 AWA 9 WIl 8 PRS 9 STH 7

Corniog

  • Alignment : Infernal
  • Lifespan: 120 years
  • Diet: Meat-heavy mortal fare
  • Habitat: Temperate forests
  • Socioeconomic Status: Ruling class
Horned folk who are relentless hunters. They stand about 9' tall. They have green skin and dark, velvety fur, and their heads are animalistic with huge horns. Their eyes glow yellow. They have claws and a tail.

Corniogs have natural hunting abilities. They can sense non-intelligent mammals, reptiles, birds, or amphibians within 50' of themselves. They have keen senses of smell, and they have heat vision. They have an aura of fear around them when they hunt at night, and an aura of shadow when they hunt during the day.

If they eat a pregnant animal, a child animal, or a breeding adult, their sense for that animal will extend tenfold.

If they take part in a hunt to extinction, they gain powers from the animal they wiped out. This applies only to those who took part and their descendants. Thus, many distinct nations of corniogs are known by the powers they have taken from extinct animals.

Some powers include but are not limited to the following:
  • Water-breathing
  • Fire resistance
  • Cold resistance
  • Electrical resistance
  • Hibernation
  • Metabolism control
  • Increased athleticism
  • Increased strength
  • Improved vision
  • Improved olfactory
  • Improved hearing
  • Heat regulation
  • Venomous bite
  • Acidic spit
And so on. Consult with the GM if you have other ideas.

Corniogs are a ruling class nation in the empires. There, they dominate other species with brutality and tyranny. They are mostly a feudal society, but they also trade in slaves. They are known for their massive feasts and excesses. In the colonies, they continue their dominance.

There are those among the corniogs from "lesser" nations who do not take part in extermination hunts. These are oppressed, and they are considered inferior, weak, and unworthy of life. They are usually serfs and peasants in the corniog kingdoms.

Corniogs have many crafts made from the animals they kill, including clothing, weapons, armor, tools, and of course, food. But their biggest export is a wine mixed with animal blood that is popular throughout the continent.

PRO 10 ATH 10 STR 10 AWA 8 Smell 10 WIL 8 PRS 7 STH 8

Cyclops

  • Alignment : Fey
  • Lifespan: 500 years
  • Diet: Fish-heavy mortal fare
  • Habitat: Temperate, often volcanic islands
  • Socioeconomic Status: Oppressed
Cyclopes stand about 12’ tall. They have a single eye in the middle of their foreheads. Their skin tone and hair color ranges the normal range of human skin tone and hair color.

Cyclopes are supernaturally strong. Their eye can see through any illusion. They have the supernatural ability to know when something is subjective.

There are seven ancient truths that all cyclopes are taught. They are empowered to wield them by the learning of their truth. The secrets are as follows:
  • Forging of raw electricity into solid form
  • Forging of the currents of narrative into metallic form
  • Crafting of fabric that, when worn upon the head, grants invisibility
  • Crafting of bows made from special wood that can allow for silent hunting
  • Crafting of arrows that are almost impossible to see
  • Building of massive walls that remain together without eroding
  • Catching of fish without making sound when breaking the surface of the water
There are several cyclops nations around the world. Those who end up in the colonies are either immigrants or the enslaved, though there are some part of the local native nations. They are often used for their strength or for their building skills, though they never betray their secrets to others.

They tend to prefer to be alone.

PRO 8 ATH 7 STR 17 AWA 8 Hearing 11 Sight 7 WIL 8 PRS 8 STH 9

Cythreulig

  • Alignment : Infernal
  • Lifespan: 300 years
  • Diet: Meat-heavy mortal fare
  • Habitat: Cities and towns in formerly forested areas
  • Socioeconomic Status: Ruling class
Furred forest beings. Cythreulig appear to be 6' tall on average. They have yellow, red, or orange skin. They tend to be hirsute, with hair that is usually straight and shimmering in various colors, from blue to green, yellow to white. They have three eyes. Their mouths have teeth like that of a snake, and their bite is venomous.

Each cythreulig nation is attuned to a different domesticated animal that their family, community, or nation has dominated for Ages. This attunement allows them to control, influence, and command that animal, and if they eat it, they grow temporarily stronger and briefly have horns or antlers. These are always a kind of domesticated ungulate; their horns or antlers will reflect the horns or antlers of that which they devour. If the animal has none, they will simply have stubs or bumps.

Cythreuliaid have sharp senses of smell. They are innately skilled at reading peoples' reactions. Powerful cythreuliaid can steal souls with their gaze if they have devoured enough of their attuned animal.

The touch of a cythreulig will cause a target to lose control of their muscles temporarily if the cythreulig has eaten enough of their attuned animal. They will need to replenish soon after.

Cythreuliaid began as a nation in Deseria where they were a ruling, oppressive nation. They dominated other nations, cultures, species, and forged an empire. They were called the Arweinwyr, or rulers, and they were ruthless. They keep a strict, hierarchical system of society. At the top of their system are the ruling family, the Ymffrostgar dynasty, with a powerful ruling noble class around them. Below the nobility are the warrior caste and the esoteric caste. Everyone else is a slave.

In the colonies, they are among the ruling class species.

If a player chooses to be a cythreulig, they must be one who has abandoned their privilege.

PRO 11 ATH 10 STR 10 AWA 11 WIL 10 PRS 11 STH 10

Forest Folk

Antlered folk who protect and embody the forest.

  • Alignment: Elemental

  • Lifespan: 1,000 years

  • Diet: Meat-heavy mortal fare

  • Habitat: Forests

  • Socioeconomic Status: Oppressed

Forest folk appear to be 9’ tall beings with antlers. They are covered in greenish black fur, have eyes white as clouds, sharp fangs, hooved feet, and clawed hands.

Forest folk are able to speak to the plants of the forest they were born in or have attuned to (needing at least a year and a day there). They can see in the dark.

If they kill someone for being a threat to their forest, they can fuse the body of their victim into a tree, feeding the tree and the forest, and thus themselves. When they do this, the blood of the victim is absorbed and gives the tree the ability to attack enemies of the forest.

All forest folk have different powers depending on the kind of forest they live in:

  • Bloodwood Forest: no powers - they become cythreulig.

  • Bluebell Wood: they can make flowers grow and refresh people.

  • Boreal: they are immune to cold.

  • Broadleaf: they can make their skin hard as bark.

  • Cloud Forest: they can teleport within clouds.

  • Cypress Forest: they can walk on water.

  • Evergreen: they do not experience senescence before they die of old age.

  • Faeriewood Forest: they can see into the dreams of those who sleep in their forest.

  • Genesis Forest: they can unleash elemental magic that harms destroyers.

  • Hemiboreal: they are resistant to cold.

  • Jungle: they can become invisible.

  • Laurisilva: they have higher AWA than average.

  • Light Forest: they can see further than others.

  • Montane Forest: they are skilled climbers.

  • Needleleaf: they can make their skin rough like pinecones.

  • Night Forest: they can speak to shadows.

  • Petrified Forest: they can make their skin hard like stone.

  • Pine Barrens: they are immune to acid.

  • Rainbow Forest: they can empower others with a touch.

  • Rainforest: they can speak to animals.

  • Riparian Forest: they can breathe underwater.

  • Sallowwood Forest: no powers - they become cythreulig.

  • Silverwood Forest: they can heal with their blood.

  • Skywood Forest: they can walk on clouds.

  • Sparse Woodland: they are faster than average.

  • Subterranean Forest: they have cave sense.

  • Taiga: they can teleport to other taigas.

  • Thorn Forest: no powers - they become cythreulig.

  • Tugay: they can go longer without water.

  • Voidwood Forest: they are resistant to esoteric powers.

  • Woodland: they have better hearing than average.

Forest folk are protectors of the forests and thus make that a central part of their culture. They are allies of the native nations, but they keep to themselves. They are very good hunters and trackers, and they live in harmony with the forest. The colonizers hate and demonize them.

PRO 9 ATH 9 STR 11 AWA 9 WIL 9 PRS 8 STH 8

Gedhesuri

Maned folk empowered by honor.
  • Alignment : Celestial
  • Lifespan: 200 years
  • Diet: Common mortal fare
  • Habitat: Arid savanna
  • Socioeconomic Status: Oppressed
Large, maned beings with sharp fangs and claws. Gedhesuris stand 8' tall. They are broad-shouldered.

Gedhesuris are empowered by honorable behavior. They define this differently depending on culture, but once defined, it is imbued in them when they come of age. After this, their honor is known to all by the mane they grow (regardless of gender).

The longer their mane grows, the stronger, faster, and more formidable they become.

The main culture of the gedhesuris is one where honor is defined by living with honesty, integrity, and care for others. Most other gedhesuri cultures have some variation on this, ranging from codes of chivalry to complex spiritual beliefs, but in none of them is oppression, exploitation, abuse, sexual assault, or cowardice allowed.

If they lose their manes, they lose their powers, regardless of their honor.

They do not have to live by these codes, but if they don't, they won't grow more powerful.

In the colonies, they are usually there as slaves or the descendants thereof, and they face deep oppression. Resistance to that oppression is a matter of honor there, and thus, the Endruinite ruling class often shaves off their manes to weaken them intentionally.

PRO 9 ATH 9 STR 9 AWA 8 WIL 8 PRS 9 STH 7

Geliqurofi

Cerosian beings who do not like change.
  • Alignment : Unaligned
  • Lifespan: 200 years
  • Diet: Hardy mortal fare
  • Habitat: Arid mountains
  • Socioeconomic Status: Privileged oppressed
Cerosian stoics. The average geliqurofi stands about 7’ tall. They have the heads of rhinoceroses, but they are far more expressive. They have large snouts with three keratin horns. They have broad frames with stocky arms and legs. Their hands have bone spurs on the knuckles. Their skin ranges from ruddy brown to dark grey, and they have pitch black eyes.

Geliqurofi have supernatural size, strength, and endurance. They can curl up into a ball and appear to be craggy rocks.

The horns of a geliqurofi are infused with magic. Every impact makes them stronger. They can shatter solid rock, rend metal, and break muscle and bone with ease. If they strike each other, the impact will cause both geliqurofi to temporarily have an aura of invincibility (about 15 seconds).

Non-geliqurofi in the presence of a geliqurofi can be overwhelmed by them, neutralizing them and their powers.

Geliqurofi are immune to one each of celestial, infernal, poioumenonic, and aetherial energies. Each geliqurofi has a different set of immunities.

In the arid mountains on a southern continent, the geliqurofi live in small cities carved into the terraced heights. They fashion great aqueducts, tunnel systems, and massive walls and catwalks that create stone fortresses out of their cities. They have a complex culture surrounding several ruling families and the industries they have influence over. They try to remain neutral in the world, but that is often not an option. All geliqurofi come together once a year for the Great Games, a series of combat games where they fight only with their horns. This festival is the biggest day of the year.

In the colonies, they are privileged but still oppressed.

PRO 10 ATH 8 STR 12 AWA 8 WIL 9 PRS 8 STH 7

Giant

NPC only

Huge spirit folk made vast by harvest magic.

  • Alignment: Elemental
  • Lifespan: 70-120 years
  • Diet: Vast quantities of mortal fare
  • Habitat: Pastoral lands
  • Socioeconomic Status: Privileged oppressed

Giants stand anywhere from 10’ to over 20’. They have a vast range of appearances, varying by legends of giants in their area, but they tend to range the gamut of human appearances, just bigger. The commonest giants stand 16’ tall.

Giants have supernaturally powerful bodies with great strength, above average agility, slightly quicker healing speed, resistance to gastrointestinal diseases, resistance to senescence, sharper taste, proprioception, and balance, and, of course, great size. They can use nimusti exercises to alter their bodies (gaining more strength, speed, or resistance, or even growing new arms or legs in rare cases). They have a knack for farming that gives them innate senses into the needs of livestock and crops.

Giants can sense a turn in the weather up to a week ahead of time (usually about a day). During harvest season, they have +3 STR, ATH, and AWA. During fallow season, they have -1 STR, ATH, and AWA. This is based on where they are at the time. Many giants in one place can cause a confluence of harvest aether that can make the weather alter drastically if the giants are outside of their homelands.

During a times of scarcity, elder giants can multiply the food at the table by sacrificing some of their harvest magic, weakening themselves for the betterment of the community.

The harvest magic within giants imbues their bodies with supernatural size, strength, agility, regenerative properties, constitution, and capabilities. They are resistant to gastrointestinal diseases and heal slightly faster than average for human/humanoid bodies. Harvest magic also makes certain senses more intense: taste, proprioception, and balance. They age the same rate as humans, but they weather it better, only being affected by senescence, on average, after 80 years. Because harvest magic is inherent to giants' bodies, they can alter their bodies through will power alone, albeit through a long process, by doing special diets and exercises called nimusti, which consist of seasonal changes to diet, special foods called wisawek (special grains, spices, and milk), and running eight miles every morning, doing 400 crunches every week, and lifting at least 500 lbs. five times every day.

Giants are master farmers. A giant has an innate understanding of what crops and livestock need to thrive. A family of giants can produce enough food for a whole country if left to their own devices. Commonly, giants powers of harvest magic allow them to produce more than average. They run large, efficient, and vibrant farms.

Common features of giant farms are large, colorful livestock. Blue or pink oxen, golden or red cattle, amber or blue sheep, blue or yellow goats, red or blue chickens, amber or pink ducks, rainbow geese, snow white or golden pigs, and red and white bees are commonly kept. Because of nourishing, they are usually larger than average, though they are not specifically supernatural species. Crops raised by giants tend to be imbued with more nourishing power than average crops - and more flavor.

Giants are known for reshaping the landscapes around them. In the hill lands of their home nation, they create incredible terraces, rivulets, ponds, and even woods and canyons to grow crops and raise livestock in.

The original giants dwell in western Palhur and are called the Kiwihla. There are many other giant nations around the world:

Nations by Size

Giant nations come in different sizes.

Big (10'-13')

  • Ama-ron, legendary giants who wield the power of stories
  • Chahnameed, giants who like to play tricks and eat huge meals
  • Famangomadan, giants known for their use of blood magic
  • Goliath, giants who known for feats of strength beyond their size
  • Ispolin, giants who protect fragments of Divine Law
  • Maero, giants of the Southern Island Bridge who drink baleblood
  • Neringa, giants who are known for their cruel wielding of torture
  • Tsul'kalu, giants of the forests known for their wisdom
  • Velikan, giants who live in swamps and wield plague magic

Large (13'-16')

  • Caligorante, giants who bring misfortune with them
  • Hewiixi, giants who create fine alcohols
  • Hrimthur, giants who live in ice
  • Humbaba, giants who draw power from the sun
  • Kiwihla, the original giants, great gentle farmers of the plains northwest of the colonies
  • Kua Fu, giants who are traders and merchants
  • Patagon, giants in cold deserts who worship the moons
  • Puntan, giants in the Southern Island Bridge who use complex math in their farming

Huge (16'-20')

  • Cormoran, giants who wield the winds and live on clouds
  • Dasamahayodha, giants who wield boundary magic to build great walls
  • Gawr, giants of the imperial core who live in the mountains and fight against the oppressors there, uniting farm workers to do it
  • Goegmagot, giants of the impieral core who are part of the ruling classes there, working as massive slavers
  • Jentil, giants who are great smiths and metalworkers
  • Starkad, giants known for their vast houses and protection thereof
  • Si-Te-Cah, giants who live on giant rafts in lakes and rivers near the colonies
  • Titan, giants who have power over the storms
  • Uriaș, giants who value the truth

Massive (20'+)

  • A-senee-ki-wakw, local giants who live in the mountains and have stony skin
  • Daidarabotchi, giants who value love above all else
  • Fomorian, fey giants who wield mollesse and serve the Unseelie and Unkindly Courts
  • Inugpasugssuk, nearby giants who wield psionic powers in the deep ice
  • Jenu, hairy giants who wield body magic
  • Jotunn, giants who maintain the status quo
  • Surtr, giants who wield flame in the mountains
  • Toell, giants who are great warriors
  • Ysbaddaden, giants who contain paradox

Giants among the Kiwihla live in farming communities, focused on extended families. The eldest giants have places of respect, but they earn this by sacrificing part of themselves in hard times. Giant children are nourished by their mothers till they are weaned, then they are taken care of by the community at large until they are strong enough to work. Everyone is expected to pitch in to work on the farm. Children have special tasks which combine meeting the needs of the community and teaching them new skills. When a giant is about 10 years old, they are given the opportunity to visit other farms in the community and stay there for a time to meet new people and learn other skills to bring back to their home farm.

Giants are considered adults when they have their last growth spurt, usually between the ages of 17 and 20, and meet their maximum height. They know when this is because they will grow rapidly in height for six months, then stop, usually gaining the last two feet in height during this time. Rarely, a giant will not naturally hit this growth spurt. In some communities, an elder giant will sacrifice some harvest magic to help the young giant along. Others will engage in numisti exercises to reach it, though this takes years and is very painful. Still others simply accept that they will not have their spurt, and some find it much later in life. Those giants who never have a final growth spurt are usually considered special wards of the farm. In the more conservative farms, they are not allowed to be married and must work harder to earn their place. In less conservative farms, they are treated as revered members of the farm and given special treatment because of it.

Giants love festivals, feasts, and celebrations. Every year sees major seasonal festivals: rebirth season (the start of the year), spring (celebrating the thriving life), midsummer (celebrating the hardest part of the work), harvest (the most important festival), and midwinter (the worst of it is over, light is returning). These seasonal festivals bring giants from all over together, usually regionally and not just within one farming community. Every giants' life is marked by special feasts at certain times of their life: birth feast, worker feast (when they start working), exchange feast (when they go off to stay at a different farm), return feast (when they come back to their home farm), the growth feast (the end of their final growth spurt and their ascent into adulthood), marriage feast, first child feast (combined with the child's birth feast), first grandchild feast (combined with the child's birth feast and parents' first child feast), elder feast (marking their retirement from work at the age of 60 or in times of debilitation by injury or disease), and their wake.

Every farm has special feasts unique to them as well. These usually celebrate historical milestones, new ideas, changes to the farm, successes or special achievements, or special guests. Hospitality is sacred and important to giants, and anyone who violates the laws of hospitality is outcast from the farm.

A giants' farmhouse will always feature a massive kitchen and dining area - sometimes these are separate buildings each. Outdoor stoves are often built for festivals, and at the end of the festival, when the massive stoves are still hot, giants will skate up and down the stove tops in special races.

Giants who are not farmers are rare, but those who leave farms for independent life often find themselves working on the fringes of communities meeting certain needs like logging, trading, fishing, or hunting. Within giant communities, the law is handled by the community council and certain giants specially recognized from each family as agents of the council who act as enforcers in times of need.

By size:

  • Big PRO 8 ATH 11 STR 18 AWA 8 WIL 8 PRS 8 STH 4
  • Large PRO 8 ATH 11 STR 21 AWA 8 WIL 8 PRS 8 STH 4
  • Huge PRO 8 ATH 11 STR 24 AWA 8 WIL 8 PRS 8 STH 4
  • Massive PRO 8 ATH 11 STR 27 AWA 8 WIL 8 PRS 8 STH 4

Goblin

Small folk attuned to nightmares.
  • Alignment : Infernal
  • Lifespan: 120 years
  • Diet: Meat-heavy fey fare
  • Habitat: Temperate to subarctic
  • Socioeconomic Status: Ruling class
Small, nightmarish beings. Goblins vary in appearance, but usually have bat-like, pointed ears, fangs, claws, and green or grey skin. They stand about 4' tall, and often have pig-like snouts. Some are furry, some are not. Many are piebald.

Goblins produce a toxin that causes nightmarish hallucinations. This toxin comes out of their skin as sweat, is in their saliva, in their phlegm, and in their tears. They collect it and use it in their weaponry and magic.

They have powerful fey magic that is fueled by this toxin (called uafan toxin), and they sprinkle it on anything while chanting or making rhymes to make horrible illusions more real. Their different rhymes and chants may have other effects, and these vary by culture and nation.

There are many, many goblin nations around the world, and they all come with their variations. Some of these nations include alux, bauchan, bugbear, chaneque, coblyn, dokkaebi, douen, dunnie, duende, ettin, farfadet, gudrobonga, hobgoblin, iratxo, knocker, kobold, kuttichathan, menninkainen, muki, nuno sa punso, ponaturi, pukwudgie, shishiga, and trasgu. Consult the GM if you wish to play one of these specific ones. Pukwudgies are part of the local native nations.

Goblins are an elite ruling class species in the colonies.

PRO 9 ATH 9 STR 6 AWA 9 WIL 7 PRS 7 STH 9

Incustian

Subterranean folk who seek out metals.

  • Alignment: Infernal

  • Lifespan: 200 years

  • Diet: Stone

  • Habitat: Subterranean Realm

  • Socioeconomic Status: Ruling class colonizers or Privileged oppressed

Incustians are 4’ tall figures with large shells on their backs. They have red skin and eyes. They have no hair, but there are golden streaks along their bodies where their veins can be seen under their skin. They have sharp claws.

Incustians can shape mundane or infernal metals with their hands, without melting it. They are immune to heat and cold, and they can see in the dark. Their claws can rend stone. All incustians consume stone for nourishment. Their shells are very strong and can resist cave-ins.

Incustians live in massive cities underground, where their rulers are powerful miner barons, and their oppressed are miners. They make their cities out of metals, including gold, and they are known for their splendor. Incustians in the colonies are either there as mining barons and experts, or privileged mine workers.

PRO 8 ATH 7 STR 8 Shell +8/+8 AWA 8 WIL 8 PRS 7 STH 9

Lake Folk

Tall, ichthyoid folk living in or around lakes.

  • Alignment: Elemental

  • Lifespan: 200 years

  • Diet: Fish-heavy mortal fare

  • Habitat: Lakes

  • Socioeconomic Status: Oppressed

Lake folk have fish-like faces, pale blue and green bodies, and webbed hands and feet. They stand about 6’ tall.

Lake folk can breathe underwater, are resistant to cold, and are not affected by changes in pressure. They can survive on land, but they need to return to lake waters once per week at least, usually once per day. If they are from a salt lake, they must return to a salt lake, otherwise, it need be a freshwater lake.

All lake folk can speak to the fish of the lake they were born in. They can restore themselves by sleeping at the bottom of the lake for a full day, even if they are near death by disease or injury, but not from aging. Some diseases are more difficult to heal than others.

Lake folk have the power to return to their lake of origin once per year, no matter how far they are from it, by diving into any body of water deep enough to entirely cover them.

Lake folk are a major part of certain native communities, protecting the major lakes of the area. They are hated by the colonizers.

PRO 8 ATH 9 Swim 11 STR 9 AWA 8 WIL 8 PRS 7 STH 7

Lampiada

Eye-covered beings.
  • Alignment : Celestial
  • Lifespan: 300 years
  • Diet: Light mortal fare
  • Habitat: Sky islands
  • Socioeconomic Status: Oppressed
Beings covered in eyes. Lampiadas have eyes on their arms, legs, shoulders, hands, feet, bellies, chests, backs, faces, necks, foreheads, and the backs of their heads. They otherwise look human.

Not all lampiadas are completely covered in eyes. Most have eyes in about half of the locations listed, though all have at least four eyes on their faces. They are always in pairs, though the pairs are not always next to each other. If they are not side by side, they will be on complementary locations, such as on each elbow or each knee, or each foot or each hand.

Other than their primary two eyes, all of their other eyes see on different spectrums. Some examples include the following:
  • Heat to cold
  • Sound to silence
  • Low light vision
  • Infrared
  • Ultraviolet
  • Gravitational
  • Infernal to celestial
  • Infernal to elemental
  • Fey to elemental
  • Fey to unaligned
  • Celestial to unaligned
  • Infernal to unaligned
  • Emotion
  • Thought
  • Soul
  • X-ray
  • Microscopic
  • Telescopic
  • Bent (around corners)
  • Relationships
And so on. Consult with the GM if you have other ideas. The only visions they cannot have are evil ones. Players will pick up to four different visions to have.

Lampiadas live on sky islands and keep watch for dangers to the world, along with other powerful species dwelling there. They live in small, egalitarian communities led by elders and spiritual leaders. They are quiet, studious, and introspective by culture, though they are also known for having colorful, translucent clothing.

Most of them living in the colonies have ended up there as slaves, used to advise powerful beings by using their visions.

PRO 8 ATH 8 STR 7 AWA 14 WIL 8 PRS 9 STH 7

Lapina

Kindly rabbit-eared people.
  • Alignment : Celestial
  • Lifespan: 120 years
  • Diet: Vegetarian
  • Habitat: Grasslands
  • Socioeconomic Status: Oppressed
Rabbit-eared, friendly folk. They stand about 4' tall, not counting their ears, which are usually between 3" and 12" more. They have buck teeth, rabbit's feet, and bushy tails. Their eyes glow blue, and they have two hearts.

Lapinas can magically bond with anyone who is a friend. They cannot do this without consent, but they can do it even if the friendship is unequal or one-way. However, it may be more difficult if the other person is insincere in their friendship. The bond allows them to know when their friend is in danger, wounded, sick, or lonely, and to gain bonuses to speed to go to them in these situations.

Lapinas have sensitive hearing. One in seven have supernatural good luck.

Local lapians are embedded in the native nations.

Lapinas live in small communities in wide grasslands. Their communities are tight-knit and bonded, and they use their bonds to keep the whole community safe and close together. They are friends to any who come to them, and they are known for being helpful to travelers. However, they are also easily tricked and exploited, and thus, they are often targets for enslavement and conquest.

In the colonies, their undefeatable good spirits are taken advantage of. They are deeply oppressed.

PRO 7 ATH 14 STR 6 AWA 9 WIL 8 PRS 10 STH 9

Merfolk

Part-fish, part-human legends of the seas.

  • Alignment: Elemental

  • Lifespan: 200 years

  • Diet: Augmented underwater fare

  • Habitat: Any body of water

  • Socioeconomic Status: Privileged oppressed

Typically, merfolk have the upper body of a human and the lower body of a fish. The type of fish varies by region and nation, but they are almost always oceanic fish or mammals (like dolphins). Freshwater fish are much rarer, but do exist. Some common variations in their form include the following:

  • Those with two tails

  • Finned arms, legs, neck, back, and/or head

  • Fish-like facial features

  • Facial features such as antennae or other bumps or even horns

All merfolk have gills in their necks.

Their human half can have the appearance of any sort of human or metahuman, as well as some variations with blue, green, or violet skin tones and hair colors. Sometimes their noses take a reddish hue when they leave the water. Some have more fish-like skin, resembling local aquafauna.

Some merfolk have sexual features associated with both patriarchal genders.

The fish part of a merperson molts every three years or so.

Merfolk have the power to interact with magical currents and combine them with currents of water. This can be used in many different ways which vary by culture and individual. Most merfolk will only know how to use these powers in a small number of ways, usually no more than three, at most six.

Merfolk can read magical currents by singing into the waters around them. This only works while they are submerged in water. This is commonly used to predict upcoming events. Different merfolk have the power to read currents about specific things, including weather, disasters, epidemics, the quality of a harvest or fishing season, whether someone will have a child, whether someone will fall in love, how individuals are connected to one another, whether someone will get something they want, what secrets someone is keeping, and random knowledge or lore.

Merfolk can also direct this power inward, using the blending of magical and marine currents to alter themselves or others who are attuned to either kind of current. Common uses for this power include changing their own size, taking a water form, taking different fish or marine animal forms, healing diseases, visiting someone’s dreams, altering someone’s luck, sense and communicate with spirits, influencing underwater animals, keeping objects dry underwater, grant protections against specific energies, retain youthful appearance, or even control or influence the bodies of others. If a merperson uses a conch shell to amplify their voice, they will have stronger influence over physical currents.

Those merfolk who attune to moonlight will resonate with a special light that allows them to control and ride waterspouts, sense and follow rainbows, be healed by moonlight, and control currents directly.

Attunement is always united between narrative and physical, water-based currents. Merfolk attune to them by combing their hair within these currents; if they do not have hair, they will comb where hair would be. As they comb, they sing or speak stories that are connected to them somehow - these connections are usually because the stories are passed down in their families or through their local cultures, but they are sometimes more abstract.

Even freshwater merfolk need to submerge in saltwater periodically to survive. They cannot survive on land for very long without returning to water.

There are many, many nations of merfolk around the world. They are the most common subaquatic mortal species:

  • Adaro: in the southern Island Bridge, the Adaro nation is known for taking a form with high placed gills (usually behind their ears rather than lower on the neck) with a shark’s dorsal fin worn like a horn. They will have a swordfish or sawfish spear in their heads as well sometimes. They are belligerent toward outsiders (because of years of attacks against their territories). They use poisonous fish as darts. If they hear people in boats above their homes, they will attack them, so local sailors avoid paddling in some areas. The Adaro are adept at dream magicks and will visit people in their sleep.

  • Apkallu: the Apkallu nation is ancient and powerful. They are mostly fish-herders, but they have special castes of sages (who wield sceptres), weavers (who use spindles), warriors (who go naked), and hunters (who wear land-based foliage) who have significant roles in their culture. Their leaders are seen to wear mural crowns. They also revere inventors, and they are known to have invented underwater appliances to use in their homes. Special underwater fruits and cereals are commonly eaten or land-based ones taken as tribute from landdwellers who ask them for safe passage over the seas. Fertility rituals are common among them.

  • Aycayia: in the Reever Sea, the Aycayia nation is known for their shared wealth, their communal lifestyle where they make sure they all have what they need. Local landdwellers say they take “beautiful” forms because of the colorful fish they emulate, and they often use hibiscus flowers in ornamentation. They are often attacked because of their use of gold and silver.

  • Balıkhalkı: the Balıkhalkı is a nation who dwell more in freshwater regions, in rivers and lakes. They wear their hair long and green, keep their skin pale, and go about dancing in the moonlight. Landdwellers often go to them to learn of impending disasters. (Based on the Susulu.)

  • Bhaual: the Bhaual nation dwells in the deepest seas. They are very feared by all who know of them. Called the Deep Ones by landdwellers, they are more fish-like in facial features than other merfolk nations. They raid on land under the dark of new moons for victims. They prefer forms with greyish green skin, white bellies, and ridged backs. Their eyes are large to help them see in the dark. They are usually bigger than most other merfolk, partly because the seas they dwell in are suffused with Eldritch energy. This also grants them longer lives. They eat fish whole and alive. They keep magical golden jewelry in strange forms that landdwellers often seek out. Their massive city with cyclopean walls is called Yhuathnagh, and it lies in the depths of the Red Sea where few landdwellers have ever been.

  • Ceasg: the Ceasg nation commonly take a body with a grilse (salmon) tail. They move between sea and freshwater often, because they protect landdwellers they have taken a liking to. It is said they will swallow landdwellers whole if they are angered by them. They love the music of harps. They have one of the strongest relationships with landdwellers. They are known for their skill at helping sailors avoid storms, guiding them to good fishing grounds, and taking on feminine forms the landdwellers are attracted to. Women among them are sometimes called maighdean na tuinne ("maid of the wave") or maighdean mhara ("maid of the sea"). They are fond of eggs of any kind. It is a common practice among them to offer three “wishes” (uses of their powers) to landdwellers who please them.

  • Chernava: the Chernava nation dwells in a massive river. They are a feudal nation who are subject mostly to the Vesturian crown and assimilated into their culture. Those in Colesh sometimes have a more nature-based religion and often take watery forms. Their leader is a princess of Vesturia.

  • Hairen: the Hairen nation take forms with webbed hands and drooping skin. They have mastered the art of keeping a coat of saltwater when they leave their undersea homes to protect themselves. This causes them to collect dirt and plant material on land, giving them a gross, slimy appearance, which does not bother them. They are assimilated into Unbulese society otherwise.

  • Havfrue: The Havfrue are considered the original merfolk nation who live in a feudal society. The ruling noble classes control vast stretches of the oceanic plain and coasts, but by tradition, the upper reaches of the seas are open to the whole population. The Havfrue live mostly near the coasts and therefore deal with landdwellers quite often. They use their powers and knowledge to make alliances with different landdwelling countries, companies, or communities. They often trade with them, and they will help their sailors or ships. They use passwords and codes to know which sailors and ships are their allies. Fishers will often provide them with materials they can’t get under the sea in exchange for good fishing, sailors will ask for predictions about the weather, and explorers will even trade for locations of sunken treasure. It is not uncommon for them to kidnap and drown landdwellers whom they are in conflict with, though their reputation for doing this is outsized. It is true, however, that younger merfolk aren’t always aware that landdwellers cannot breathe underwater, which has led to tragedy in the past. Octopi and dolphins are never hunted or killed. It is considered a grievous crime. Like blue whales, they are considered sacred. All three are considered equally intelligent. Octopi are revered by esotericists, especially. Orcas are not eaten, but they are feared enough that sometimes they are killed if and only if they are posing a threat to a community. All children are assumed to have some connections to the lunar positions they are born under. Music is the most important art and entertainment among the Havfrue (and most merfolk). It is part of their magical powers. Songs always tell stories; those that don’t are considered unpleasant and even rude. Because merfolk can control their forms somewhat, there are common trends amongst them for how they appear.

  • Iara: the Iara nation is led by women. They bask in the full moon, take river dolphin and manatee forms if not fish, dwell in the vast rivers of the rainforests, and wear their hair long. Their singing attracts everyone, and local landdwelling men fetishize them sometimes. If they are angered, they perform ritual mutilation of their enemies, removing their mouths, noses, fingertips, and genitals, which has led to unfounded accusations of cannibalism.

  • Jengu: the Jengu nation (sometimes called Liengu or Bisima in different regions, called Miengu in plural) wear their hair long and have gaps in their front teeth. They dwell in any body of water in the region, and they are known for their complex rituals and relationships with landdwellers. They often take up a religious role in local cultures, being intermediaries for spirits. They farm crawfish, work as healers, and are led by women. They are a major part of the landdwellers’ pirogue races. They also often keep objects the landdwellers give them underwater, using their power to keep these things dry to hide them from those who might steal them.

  • Kataw: the Kataw nation wear long, wavy or curly black hair and have black eyes. They have beautiful underwater houses. They are known for their sad story songs.

  • Kulilu: the Kulilu nation is mostly known for their destructive nature, their constant attacks on ships, coastal towns, and other underwater settlements. They are terroristic and dominant, a warrior nation bent on conquest.

  • Kymatistís: the Kymatistis are a patriarchal culture that is assimilated into various local cultures. They use their powers to control the seaways there.

  • Mataikan: the Mataikan are assimilated into the local cultures in various ways, usually as either protectors or raiders of ships and coastal towns. They are fish-herders and hunters.

  • Marmennill: the Marmennill are known for their senses of humor, laughing loudly at foolish antics. They are stereotyped as being incautious and get caught in nets often. In these instances, they trade a use of their powers (predicting weather or good fishing) in exchange for release. Also called Marbendill, the Havfrue think of them as stupid.

  • Mintuci: the Mintuci nation are often confused for yokai. They are often bald, very short, and dwell in rivers. Their faces are purple or red, and they take on sea turtle features. They mimic local yokai like kappa by distorting their bodies such that their arms are connected in a way that means tugging on one will shorten the other. They go on land more often than their cousins, being sometimes found in montane bodies of water. They use their powers to grant luck in hunting and fishing, creating amulets to protect people. They like puppetry and land-based livestock.

  • Morgen: the nation of the Morgens (or Mari-Morgans) are a powerful, woman-led nation who use their vocal powers often. They dwell near the coast in caves or at the mouths of rivers. Their love of gold makes them targets for landdwellers, whom they ably defend against with their magicks. They are known to flood whole towns in revenge for acts of theft. They prefer youthful appearances and are sometimes considered vain.

  • Muldjewangk: in the southern Island Bridge, the Muldjewangk nation dislike industrial development in their area and are known to destroy more modern boats like steamboats. They will take larger forms to terrify landdwellers, but prefer the standard merfolk form. They will sometimes use their powers to cause bloody blistering on enemies. Sometimes they ambush folk by hiding in clumps of seaweed. They are a hostile nation due to the constant invasions of their territory.

  • Narandan: the Narandan nation are assimilated into the local culture and serve as protectors. They warn fishers of bad weather by singing or throwing rocks.

  • Ngal-kunburriyaymi: also called yawkyawks, the Ngal-kunburriyaymi in the southern Island Bridge are known for taking on saltwater crocodile forms, wearing seaweed in their hair, and keeping dragonflies, snakes, and swordfish. They are servants of the rainbow serpents.

  • Ngeụ̄xk: the Ngeụ̄xk nation live near bridges, which they see as encroaching into their territory. They are otherwise fond of landdwellers. They hold races and revere underwater speed.

  • Njuzu: the Njuzu are very solitary, preferring to keep a single body of water per Njuzu. They are known to like alcohol, which they take as tribute from landdwellers, whom they offer healing. They live in freshwater but go back to the sea often. They are also known for their willingness to use their powers to cause problems for landdwellers who displease them.

  • Nommo: the Nommo nation lives near desert coasts. They are shamanic and assimilated into local cultures as teachers and protectors. Local legends say they came from the sky “with fire and thunder” and created a water reservoir. It is said they lived on a planet circling a distant star, but this is probably a myth. They practice endocannibalism.

  • Owu Mmiri: the Owu Mmiri river merfolk nation are part of the local cultures in a massive southern-central continent.

  • Pezvare: they look very similar to landdwellers and share a lot of ancestry, leading to rumors they are the ghosts of those lost at sea. They have white skin, red hair, and scaly bodies, commonly. Otherwise, they are assimialted into Danuan culture. The Havfrue view them as creepy.

  • Pincoye: the Pincoye nation (Pincoy - male, Pincoya - female) are divided by gender. The men take on sea lion features. They have bright golden skin with handsome and manly human faces and long golden hair. They sing to attract women on land and in the sea. Women have long blonde hair and are considered beautiful by local landdwellers. The women perform fertility rituals for the local fish herds and dance to bring abundance (by facing the sea) or scarcity (by facing the mountains). All Pincoye practice the funerary practice of carrying the dead - their own or that of the locals - to a special “ghost” ship kept off the coast. A third gender, the “sirena chilota”, are women who have golden scales and hair. They are fish-herders. They have large flukes and strong tails that help them swim long distances. It is said their tears have special magic.

  • Sakanahito: also called ningyo, the Sakanahito nation live in fresh and saltwater. They have either red hair or a red cockscomb, and some of their more mystic members will take a form with no torso - just head and fish tail. They sometimes wear golden horns. Their bellies are red and they have carp tails, and their hands are webbed. Some rare ones have snake tails instead, or even have a third eye. They are sometimes confused for yokai, and they are largely assimilated into yokai culture. The oni believe that eating a Sakanahito will bring them a long life.

  • Siyokoy: the Siyokoy nation have webbed hands and large fins. They are green or brown in color and even sometimes have tentacles. They prefer to take squid, ray, eel, or octopus form and often have these animals around them. They are hated by the Havfrue as monsters. They are known to use their powers to possess landdweller bodies.

  • Suire: called merrows, the Suire are a powerful nation with a relationship with the fey folk. Tradition says their magical caps (cohuleen druith or cochaillín draíochta) that glimmer in moonlight allow them to switch between land and water, and if they lose their cap, they are stuck wherever they are. They are green haired and scaled, have red noses, stubby arms, and green eyes. Also called muirgheilt (women) or macamores (men), they have complicated relationships with landdwellers. They like to change their forms often. Salmon skin is commonly worn, and on land, they use fey glamours to take on landdweller forms like hornless cows and pigs. They use lobster pots to store esoteric powers and even souls. Their music is called sambuga.

  • Taong Isda: the Taong Isda are the third merfolk nation in a distant southeastern continent. They are vicious to landdwellers due to the invasion of their territories. They protect their territories more ferociously than most, using their voices to drown and control landdwellers. They keep dugongs, sea turtles, and small cetaceans like dolphins. Their flowing hair that is often curly or wavy is used to commune with the currents, and they are attuned to the moons and speak to moon spirits.

  • Triton: the nation of Tritons (male is triton, female is tritoness) is world famous for their golden palaces. They are the greatest performers of conch shell music. They live in the depths. They keep their shoulders barnacled with seashells. Their skin is cerulean in color, their hair green or gold, their eyes blue, their nails like the shell of a murex, their tails delphine, and their skin sharklike. Wrestling is a common sport, and dolphins and hippocampi are kept as steeds. Powerful Tritons might have wings or claws, and some have double tails.

  • Vittorian: the Vittorian nation have duck and frog features. They explore deep into land and sometimes even have feet - duck feet. They collect lost treasures from the sea and trade with landdwellers. Their eyes are always reddened. They are assimilated into the local cultures.

  • Zitiron: a warlike nation known for wearing armor as a knight on their upper bodies, they are a feudal nation constantly at war with the Havfrue.

Among the original merfolk, the nobility try to enforce a binary, patriarchal view of gender. Men wear beards and are encouraged to appear menacing and fearsome to landdwellers, women are encouraged to stay “beautiful” by local and landdwelling standards. Women wear seaweed in their hair and keep clouds of foam around themselves; men go topless and try to look fierce.

Those who defy gender binaries are frowned upon but not necessarily banned - if and only if they take up esoteric or faith-based occupations. Anyone trying to be of different genders outside these roles is ostracized. Among other nations, non-binary views of gender may be more common, as the power to take on different forms leads to a great deal of variance in appearance.

Merfolk are often seen as kidnappers, murderers, cannibals, bringers of misfortune, and wreckers of ships. They are hated by many landdwellers, but also fetishized and worshiped.

PRO 8 ATH 9 STR 8 AWA 9 WIL 9 PRS 10 STH 9

Mgeli

Wolf-headed hunter folk.
  • Alignment : Elemental
  • Lifespan: 200 years
  • Diet: Meat-heavy mortal fare
  • Habitat: Forests, mountains, and grasslands
  • Socioeconomic Status: Oppressed
Wolf-headed hunting folk. They stand about 6' tall and have fur-covered bodies. They have lupine fur, tails, and heads, but they are otherwise human in appearance.

Mgelis have supernatural hunting abilities. They have keen senses of smell and hearing, and they can howl to communicate over vast distances. They can see in the dark, and they have the ability to bond with others in their "pack" that allows them to communicate silently and see through each other's eyes. The other members of their pack must also be mgelis.

If they violate one of the laws of the hunt, they lose one of their powers. If they lose all of their powers, they die.

The rules of the hunt are to never kill a pregnant animal, to never kill a child animal unless it is in unhealable pain, to never kill a breeding adult, to never kill more than is needed for the pack, to never use poison, to never over-hunt an area, and to never leave an animal with a debilitating injury.

They live in nomadic, egalitarian tribes. They honor the hunt as a force of nature. They are protectors of their territories, which they tend closely.

Local mgelis are popular among the native nations.

In the colonies, they are stereotyped as aloof, murderous, and animalistic, and they are extremely oppressed.

PRO 9 ATH 9 STR 10 AWA 9 Smell/Hear 10 WIL 8 PRS 8 STH 9

Miikoo

Celestial fish folk.

  • Alignment: Celestial

  • Lifespan: 200 years

  • Diet: Fish-heavy mortal fare

  • Habitat: Coastal regions

  • Socioeconomic Status: Oppressed

Miikoos are pale blue fish people with long spindly limbs, webbed hands and feet, and big sucker-like mouths. They stand about 7’ tall.

Miikoos can breathe underwater, are resistant to cold, and are unaffected by pressure changes. They purify waters they swim in, and they can make any water they carry in their webbed hands into celeste water, magical waters that provide protection, soul cleansing, and healing.

Miikoos live in coastal areas, usually in transitory or brackish waters. They live in communal settings where everyone is taken care of, providing protection and support for anyone who needs it. If someone come to them seeking to change their ways, they will take them into the waters to purify them. If they are insincere, the waters will burn them. If they are sincere, the waters will cleanse their souls and show them the way to redemption.

Colonizers view them as monsters to be destroyed.

PRO 7 ATH 8 Swim 10 STR 10 AWA 9 WIL 9 PRS 8 STH 7

Minotaur

Bull-headed protectors of labyrinths.
  • Alignment : Fey
  • Lifespan: 200 years
  • Diet: Meat-heavy mortal fare
  • Habitat: Large structures
  • Socioeconomic Status: Oppressed
Bull-headed protectors of places. Minotaurs stand between 7’ and 9’ tall (not counting horns). They have the head and tail of a bull and the body of a human. Their feet are hooves and their bodies are hairier than most humans’. Minotaurs are not to be confused with bovine folk, who often have a similar appearance, but different inherent powers.

Minotaurs are supernaturally strong. They have sharp, non-bovine teeth.

Minotaurs are bonded to the place they live in. If they have settled somewhere for more than a week, they begin to have senses that allow them to know what is happening within the structure they dwell in. They also gain the power to alter where passageways and portals within the structure go - i.e., they can open a door and step into a room it isn’t connected to.

The form of the place they dwell in, the structure they bond to, imbues them with specific powers. Some examples include the following:
  • Amphitheatre: performance skills
  • Arena: presence bonus
  • Castle: toughness bonus
  • Catacomb: resistance to death magic and undeath
  • Fortress: prowess bonus
  • Labyrinth: stealth bonus
  • Lighthouse: awareness bonus
  • Mausoleum: hard-to-kill edge
  • Prison: guarding skills
  • Pyramid: resistance to death magic
  • Tower: building skills
  • Ziggurat: faith bonus
And so on. Form influences power. Other energies present also influence the powers.

Long ago, early minotaurs were enslaved by other mortals and kept imprisoned in labyrinths. Eventually, their resistance to enslavement forced these mortals to make a deal with them - they would remain as warriors in these labyrinths where they would work for the mortals as jailers, but they would be fed and supported. However, not long after, these minotaurs learned that the meat they were being given was from other mortals, and in their outrage, they smashed the labyrinths, slew their masters, and captured entire islands as their own.

Though the minotaurs rebelled, they retained tutelary powers as they returned to their labyrinths and other prisons and reformed them into homes. Now, a labyrinth is not a prison but a palace to the most powerful minotaurs. They turn them into ceremonial dancing grounds at their centers, with vast rooms, galleries, and living quarters. There are observatories to watch the stars and study the sun. They keep other mortals as slaves, and they are masters of their islands.

Minotaurs may rise in class through combat. Trial-by-combat is the heart of all Epanastátean society. Instead of court systems, social advancement, or measures of wealth, they resort to violence. These trials always involve rituals, intricate rules, and agreements beforehand. It is always known whether, for example, killing is allowed. Usually, the goal is first blood or clipping of horns (if the combatants have horns). Sometimes the goal is merely a tap or sometimes even a number of parries or dodges. Other times, death is the only acceptable end. There are many, many variations, and the complexities of what is allowed and when are all social norms and not written down.

Though their diet is meat-heavy, they do not eat beef. They prefer mutton and goat. This is supplemented by wines, oils, and spices, heavy grains, and goat’s butter, cheese, and milk. Their primary art is architectural - ornamentation on buildings is complex. They enjoy other arts, especially poetry and music, but structural art is their greatest passion. They play many combat and contact sports.

Every community has multiple annual festivals. These are feasts and games hosted by the local nobles, who fund them in order appease the masses. Slaves draw lots to see who must work and who may rest on these days. Those who may rest are allowed to join in the games, and if they perform well, they will be given special advantages if they engage in trial-by-combat for freedom. There are other prizes for nobles or free minotaurs who play in the games, which are always combat-oriented.

In the colonies, they are slaves or the descendants of slaves. They were kept kept as slave-soldiers, hard laborers, or gladiators.

PRO 11 ATH 9 STR 12 AWA 8 WIL 8 PRS 7 STH 7

Morwynian

Contradictory animalistic folk with weather magic.

  • Alignment: Elemental

  • Lifespan: 200 years

  • Diet: Common mortal fare

  • Habitat: Anywhere

  • Socioeconomic Status: Oppressed

Morwynians stand about 5’ tall. They have animalistic features, always of two different animals, always in these broad pairings:

  • Fish and reptile

  • Bird and mammal

  • Worm and arthropod

  • Amphibian and mollusc

  • Novotheria and pluribi

Morwynians all have the power to influence the weather. They do this by using the elements around them - a fire can bring sunshine, a bit of water will bring rain, a stone can bring clouds, a bit of metal can bring thunder and lightning, and so on. They just take them in their hands and smash them together. They can, however, only do this for contradictory forms of weather - sunshowers, thundersnows, and so on.

They live either among the native nations or in their own small communities. They hide their powers for fear of being exploited.

PRO 8 ATH 8 STR 8 AWA 8 WIL 8 PRS 7 STH 7

Napash

Fire-breathing tusked folk.
  • Alignment : Elemental
  • Lifespan: 200 years
  • Diet: Meat-heavy mortal fare
  • Habitat: Mountains and rock flats
  • Socioeconomic Status: Privileged oppressed
They are 7' tall and have porcine faces. Their skin is red and orange, and their eyes are blood-red. They are often confused with the baleful, though they are fierce enemies. They have large tusks.

Napash breathe fire. Their fire breath is fueled when they eat hot coals. Other than being strong, they have no other special powers.

The original culture of napashes is a warrior nation on a southern continent. They are enemies of the baleful, magically created beings whose blood boils and gives them tusks and other porcine features. This rivalry for territory and resources has them locked in a long, brutal war, and the napashes are often on the losing end of it.

They worship volcanoes as powerful nature spirits and believe in fire as a symbol of their ferocity and strength. They are led by war-leaders chosen in trials by combat. They have great ceremonies around bonfires where they dance and throw themselves into the fire to gain strength. They paint themselves in ash and enter battle screaming and spitting fire.

An enemy defeated but unburnt is not defeated. They mark their prisoners of war with burns and scars, and enemy leaders are sometimes sacrificed to volcanoes.

Those who do are not warriors are still considered vital parts of their nation. They are expected to contribute to the community, and they are not lesser than the warriors.

In colonies, they are treated as a privileged oppressed group. They are stereotyped as monsters, conscripted into the military, but also courted for their skill in battle.

PRO 10 ATH 8 STR 14 AWA 8 WIL 8 PRS 7 STH 7

Ogre

Child-eaters.
  • Alignment : Infernal
  • Lifespan: 120 years
  • Diet: Meat
  • Habitat: Temperate hills and forests
  • Socioeconomic Status: Ruling class or oppressed
Ogres stand between 7’ and 9’ tall. They have a disproportionately large head. They tend to be hirsute and have skin ranging from palest white to dark green in color. They find it easy to maintain muscle mass.

Ogres are always hungry, and they are capable of eating almost any kind of meat without fear of poisoning (see Weaknesses for exceptions). What meat they are eating may give them other powers. If they eat the meat of a mortal child, they gain bonuses to their strength. They do not need to eat mortal children to survive, though they often claim this is so.

For any meat that they eat, they may gain other powers. If they eat a child of that species, they gain more bonuses than if they eat an adult. Consult the GM for the powers different species might give them.

It is said ogres originated from a group of either humans or giants who ate their own children and were cursed with voracious, cannibalistic appetites. The original nation is a powerful ruling class nation who encourage this origin legend as well as many other legends depicting themselves as tyrants, killers, and overlords to frighten the local populace into serving them. “Serve or your children will be eaten” is the message they send, and it is very effective.

In truth, most ogres don’t each children or even other mortals. They eat meat-heavy diets and tend to live in squalor due to the horrific reputation of the ogrish ruling class. They face extreme repression in other parts of the world because of this undeserved reputation. Only the powerful among the Mauditien engage in such horrific practices.

The ogrish lords live in luxury off the tithes and tariffs and taxes they levy upon the serfs they control. The serfs of Vieux Terre are of many different species and usually identity generally as Galdish and with the wider Galdish culture, while the Mauditien embrace a narrower, more grotesque culture. There is a gap between the culture of the lords and the serfs.

The culture of the lords is dominated by ensuring their power and frequent feasting. Most feasts do not involve mortal flesh, but every month, there is one feast that involves the eating of a mortal child, almost always a non-ogre. Different families have a different preferred species to devour, usually taken from the local serf stock or imported as slaves. Many breed slaves.

In the colonies, most ogres are visiting nobles with a lot of wealth and power. If a player chooses to be an ogre, they must be a lower class one or one who has abandoned their power to be a criminal.

PRO 9 ATH 8 STR 11 AWA 8 WIL 8 PRS 7 STH 7

Raghju

Flying, terrifying beings.

  • Alignment: Infernal

  • Lifespan: 200 years

  • Diet: Fear or meat

  • Habitat: Highways

  • Socioeconomic Status: Ruling class colonizers and Privileged oppressed

Raghjus are 6’ tall beings with massive wings - insectoid, bat-like, pterodian, or bird-like. They have sharp claws and teeth, long ray-like tails ending in stingers, and eyes that glow bright red. Their skin is dark grey.

Raghjus can fly. They can see in the dark, and they have poison in their stingers that causes hallucinations and nightmares. They have an aura of fear; they feed off the fear others feel. The more fear they devour, the more terrified their victims become. They do not have to feed on fear - they can live off meat.

Raghjus are a powerful ruling class warrior species. They are either elite leaders of shock troops and squads of killers, or they are private soldiers and assassins. Those who choose not to live off fear are treated as second-class citizens and exploited for their fearsome labor.

PRO 9 ATH 9 Flight 10 STR 11 AWA 8 WIL 9 PRS 9 STH 8

Rlagola

Creatures from any colored lagoon.

  • Alignment: Elemental

  • Lifespan: 200 years

  • Diet: Fish-heavy mortal fare

  • Habitat: Lagoons

  • Socioeconomic Status: Oppressed

Rlagolas are 7’ tall animalistic beings with a combination of fish, reptile, and amphibian features. They usually have ridged, scaly flesh, clawed and webbed hands and feet, and massive maws filled with teeth.

All rlagolas can breathe underwater. They are resistant to cold and are not affected by pressure changes. They are very strong swimmers, and they need to submerge in water at least once a day. In their home lagoons, they can speak to fish, control the waters, and move with greater stealth. If they are in another lagoon, they can only speak to fish. If they are in other waters, they can sense the nearest lagoon. Once a year, they can dive into any body of water deep enough to cover them and return to their home lagoon from anywhere in the world.

Rlagolas live in small communities in their lagoons, hiding from others, keeping their own traditions. They dislike outsiders, though they trade with the native nations, and they hate the colonizers.

PRO 9 ATH 8 Swim 10 STR 11 AWA 8 WIL 8 PRS 7 STH 9

Servulian

River people.
  • Alignment : Elemental
  • Lifespan: 300 years
  • Diet: Fish-heavy mortal fare
  • Habitat: Rivers
  • Socioeconomic Status: Oppressed
Servulians are ickthyoid figures who dwell in rivers. They have blue-green scales all over them, bulbous eyes, and webbed hands and feet. They stand about 6' tall.

Servulians have the ability to breathe under water and on land. They can swim against current without penalties, and they can hear the words of the currents as they swim against them. This brings them information from around the world.

They also bond to any river they live in for more than a year and a day. This bond allows them to teleport within the river system anywhere within three miles up or down stream if they are in the waters.

In the colonies, they are oppressed and discriminated against.

PRO 8 ATH 9 Swim 11 STR 9 AWA 8 WIL 8 PRS 7 STH 8

Sionnach

Fox people.
  • Alignment : Fey
  • Lifespan: 200 years
  • Diet: Meat-heavy fey fare
  • Habitat: Forests
  • Socioeconomic Status: Oppressed
Sionnachs are vulpine beings. They have fox-like faces and tails, red or grey fur, claws and fangs, and a third, glowing white eye in their foreheads. They stand about 5' tall. Sometimes, they have extra tails that end in glowing orange flames.

Sionnachs have magical hunting abilities. They can understand animals, teleport through the forest by entering one tree and exiting another (3 mile range), vanish three times per day, and create illusory selves by twitching their tails.

They have the ability to throw their voices and the ability to see through trees via their third eye.

They gain extra tails after a century of life, and it gains a flame after another 50 years. This extra tail extends their illusory powers, and the flame allows them to vanish twice more per day.

Sionnachs are protectors of their forests. They view interlopers as potential prey and will kill them without conversation unless the person brings them an offering. They live in small families that are devoted to their patch of forest together, with the parents being the default leaders. If there are multiple generations, the eldest lead.

Their culture is one of ritual and story. They treat the hunt as a special ritual of birth, death, and rebirth, and they base their entire culture around it. They know the story of every being they hunt, and they honor that story by telling it before, during, and after the hunt.

The prey is reborn after death by being used by the hunter. If it is improperly used, the prey will return to kill the hunter.

In the colonies, sionnachs are seen as monsters and hated. They are often enslaved or criminalized.

PRO 9 ATH 10 STR 8 AWA 9 WIL 8 PRS 9 STH 10

Spucker

Small folk who spew red slime.

  • Alignment: Infernal

  • Lifespan: 200 years

  • Diet: Meat-heavy mortal fare

  • Habitat: Wastelands and industrial areas

  • Socioeconomic Status: Ruling class colonizers

Spuckers are 4’ to 5’ tall beings with red skin, pointed ears, pig snouts, and clawed hands. They have no hair and yellow eyes. Their backs have spines down them.

Spuckers have the ability to spit out red slime that makes anyone who touches it distrust, hate, dislike, or otherwise have negative thoughts and feelings towards anyone too different from them. Spuckers’ claws and spines have a toxin in them that cause people to lose their capacity to love temporarily. Using their slime always causes them to lose capacity for some positive emotion.

Spuckers are a powerful ruling class species who live in eastern wastelands, mountains, deserts, and urban centers. They are employed by more powerful people to held spread division and hatred, or they use it for themselves. Those who refuse to use this power usually end up with too much positive emotional capacity and lose the ability to wield it eventually; these spuckers are enslaved or killed.

PRO 8 ATH 7 STR 6 AWA 7 WIL 8 PRS 6 STH 9

Troll

Dwellers under bridges.
  • Alignment : Fey
  • Lifespan: 200 years
  • Diet: Meat-heavy mortal fare
  • Habitat: Bridges and liminal spaces
  • Socioeconomic Status: Oppressed
Troll children are small, round, and hairy. They have are born with a lot of fat to keep them warm in the mountains. As they age, they become leaner and taller (usually). Their faces are always a little animalistic, usually having features of predators (sharp teeth, pointed snouts, big forward-facing eyes, big ears). The hair on their head is often kept long and unkempt. Some are more human-like in appearance than others. Their arms are slightly longer than proportional. They range from 5’ to 8’ tall.

Trolls are beings of liminal land spaces. They have some influence over these spaces while in them. This can be as narrowly defined as a small bridge to as widely defined as a border region or disputed territory or untamed wilderness. The space determines their other powers: if the area is a windswept plain, they will have influence over the winds while within it. If the area is a bridge, they will be able to sense when people near it and tumble them off without touching the bridge. The longer they are in a space, the more profound their influence over it is. A troll living in the edges of a forest may become master of all animals there, for example.

When they are not in the place they have connected to, they will still have influence over similar places. A bridge-dweller will be able to sense bridges nearby. A border-dweller will know when they are on other borderlands.

Trolls are supernaturally strong, good climbers, and can leap long distances.

Troll children are often given a stone to play with that they shape and craft until it is perfectly round. This stone becomes the troll’s “heart”, which allows them to hide weaknesses, thoughts and feelings, and some lifeforce temporarily. As children, they carry the stone with them always, being more free. As adults, they hide the stone in a place near their liminal space, usually some unusual spot, such as a fish’s belly, in a nearby cloud, or atop an ancient tree.

Trolls develop weaknesses based on the liminal space they connect to. Many bridge-dwellers live under the bridge and adapt to where the shadows are, and thus, they dislike bright sunlight. This weakness is very common, for many liminal spaces are in shadow.

All trolls fear lightning and dislike the distant ringing of bells.

They live in small clusters, usually one or two extended families to an area, dwelling near bridges in the high mountains, near tunnels, or amidst rocky slopes and cliffs. Most families are single-child homes. They are very territorial and not welcoming to strangers.

When a stranger approaches their space, one of the trolls will be there watching, ready to question them aggressively. This is done to judge the person’s worth and wealth. If they are deemed able to pay, the troll demands payment for passage. If they are deemed unable to pay, the troll decides if they want to let them pass based on attitude, mood, or whim. An important part of their exchange is the how the mortal responds to the troll’s boasting self-description, which is how they announce themselves. If the mortal responds in kind with their own boasting self-description, they are often seen as equals. If they are more meek or afraid, the troll will try to figure out if they do so because they have wealth they seek to protect or if they are truly a fearful sort. The latter will often be allowed to pass for free, sometimes with a small gift.

Their territoriality often leads to conflict with others nearby. They have reputations as raiders, kidnappers, and saboteurs. This is not always unfair, though the kidnapping is always done for ransom and the victims are often treated relatively well for kidnapping victims - and they never engage in kidnapping of innocent children, as they are often accused of. They kidnap warriors or leaders in the community, and they are just as often victims of the same in the area. This is a custom called bergtagning. Their acts of sabotage and raiding are usually to drive people away from building too close to their territories and are part of land disputes. They are known for their ability to hurl boulders.

Trolls live in small extended families. Since they usually have very few children, they tend to have small families. Each extended family is led by the eldest, no matter who they are, unless they are in mental decline due to senescence. Even then, they are consulted by the next oldest and interpreted through them. The matriarch of these families is the tröllkona, the troll-wife. The patriarch is the tröllherra, or troll-lord. If they have some other gender, they are still referred to by these gendered roles.

Trolls have a fondness for working with stone and often make things out of it that others would not - stone boats are common, stone wagons, stone armor, and so on. Living in the mountains, they become attuned to stone. Sculpture, masonry, and quarrying are common among trolls.

Every year, trolls in an area gather for a trolla-þing, or troll-moot. During this, they come together in flatlands and perform ritual dances. This always happens during the annual windstorm season, which they take advantage of to dance within whirlwinds. It is the custom that the women let their hair loose from their braids, put on heavy skirts, and stand in the center of the whirlwinds, letting their hair be whirled about and their skirts to kick up dust. This dance is performed by unwedded troll women; the men watch and choose their future brides.

After the dance is over, the men seek out the women they were most attracted to, asking them out. If the troll woman accepts, they lift their skirts and go into the mountains to sleep together, coming back the next day married. If they do not accept, they whip their hair at the men and wait for another year. If two troll men ask the same woman, it is up to her to pick one, the other, or neither. If they fight over her, she will usually reject both for being too foolish to marry. Thus, if they fight, they do so somewhere in secret, and explain away the bruises as “lightning strikes”. Though this is an obvious lie, the custom helps them save face.

Trolls are often shepherds, but they hate goats, which they view as untameable.

Most trolls in the colonies connect with bridges, crossroads, or border areas within cities or out in the wilderness. Most are immigrants to the area.

PRO 9 ATH 9 Climbing 11 Jumping 12 STR 11 AWA 8 WIL 8 PRS 8 STH 7

Ulcisorian

“Monstrous” folk with infernal flames for insides.

  • Alignment: Infernal

  • Lifespan: 200 years

  • Diet: Flesh

  • Habitat: Mountains and rocky landscapes

  • Socioeconomic Status: Ruling class colonizers

Ulcisorians are 8’ tall, hulking beings with huge claws, fangs, and bone spurs coming out of their dark red flesh. They have eyes that gleam bright white and huge fangy snouts.

Ulcisorians breathe infernal flame, which causes physical and metaphysical damage. They are enormously strong.

Ulcisorians are a powerful warrior species who dominate the mountains of the east, ruling a sprawling series of mountain kingdoms. They come to the colonies to help conquer and control it. Those who choose not to be part of their empire of cruelty are hunted down and killed.

PRO 10 ATH 9 STR 12 AWA 8 WIL 8 PRS 7 STH 6

Utakan

“Monstrous” folk of glaciers and tundra.

  • Alignment: Elemental

  • Lifespan: 200 years

  • Diet: Meat-heavy mortal fare

  • Habitat: Tundras and glaciers

  • Socioeconomic Status: Oppressed

Utakans are 7’ to 8’ tall beings with white and blue flesh, hair like thin ice crystals on their heads (but none on their white bodies), and huge black claws. Their faces are apelike with dark blue skin. They have disproportionately long arms that run along the ground.

Utakans are immune to the cold. Their shaggy ice crystal hair shimmers in moonlight and makes them hard to see on snowy fields or icy glaciers. Their claws are good for climbing on ice. They can see temperature, and they can unleash a blast of icy air with their breath. If they scream, they can cause snowslides or split glaciers.

Utakans live in sprawling clans in the coldest parts of the world, cousin to yetis and friends to animal folk in the polar areas. They are protectors of the tundras, and they are feared by colonizers who seek to destroy or despoil their homes.

PRO 9 ATH 8 STR 12 AWA 8 WIL 8 PRS 7 STH 7 In Snow 9

Vaettir

  • Taxonomic Order: Terata
  • Alignment: Unaligned
  • Lifespan: 1,000 years
  • Diet: Offerings
  • Habitat: Temperate to subarctic
  • Socioeconomic Status: Oppressed
Vættir appear to be broad-shouldered anthropomorphic figures who stand about 4’ tall. They are similar to gnomes and dvergars, but they are broader and have animalistic features in their faces. Most have goat-, cat-, fish-, deer-, lizard-, or dolphin-like features in their faces.

Empowered by ancient laws (though not Divine ones), vættir are bound to rules that give them powers and have great consequences if broken.

Individually, they have the ability to vanish twice daily, calm or panic animals twice weekly, shatter or mend objects twice monthly, exert extra strength (+9 for 30 seconds) twice yearly, and bind a mortal to the laws of the vættir twice in their lifetimes.

The rules that dictate the powers of a vættir:
  • A vættir cannot be washed in warm liquid. This will cause their magic to be weakened or taken away for up to seven weeks.
  • A vættir may not use or suffer the likeness of a dragon on any structure, vehicle, or statue within their community, lest their strength be lost until the likeness is removed.
  • A vættir must remain in their domains (earth, mountain, forest, sea, lake, or house) and shall not move to a new location without performing the proper rituals of protection, lest they lose all of their powers, which derive from the laws of the domain.
  • A vættir must exchange gifts with visitors and neighbors at certain times of the year, lest they lose their connection to their domains, causing terrible things to happen as the protections fade.
  • A vættir dwells in a domain - an earthen area such as a mound or hill, a great mountain, a forest, the sea, a lake, or a home belonging to another kind of mortal - and may place protections upon it, usually for prosperity and health. There is a limit to their protections, of course, but they are generally able to provide adequate protection to be worth the offerings they require.
If they fail to live by their rules, the protections will weaken, and bad things will begin to happen within a week: livestock will sicken, crops will wilt, children will go missing, fields will fallow, adults will grow ill, objects may vanish. If they follow the rules meticulously, the opposite tends to be true: livestock remain healthy, crops and fields yield good harvest, children remain safe, objects are found easily, and adults remain hale.

Vættir must exchange gifts eight times per year:
  • The first day of the year
  • On the two equinoxes
  • On the two solstices
  • On Samhain
  • On the first day of harvest
  • On their birthday
The vættir are offered porridge with butter, apples and pears (preferably sliced into eight pieces), mulled wine, cider, warm bread, a fresh slaughtered pig, and so on are examples of offerings, but any offering of food or drink made politely will be accepted, so long as it is not poisonous to the vættir. Respect and politeness in offerings is of the utmost in importance. In exchange for these offerings, the vættir provides a song that promises protections, except on their birthdays, when they would instead perform chores around the house or do minor services for those making the offerings.

Vættir are bound to their own rules, which they are taught from a young age. They do not have to follow the rules until they understand them or until they reach the age of seven, whichever comes first. They dwell in small hollows under the ground or in shallow caves under the water, often under trees or houses or large rocks.

Each vættir family is headed by the parents, who share duties around the home and the domain. All vættir are expected to learn domestic skills, fighting, hunting, gardening, and more, for they never know which tasks the rules may require of them.

A vættir child is considered an adult by the age of 21, at which time they are tested by their family on the rules. If they do not pass the test, they are punished with a birch stick to the head and given a week to correct. They do this every week until they pass or run away. If they run away, they violate their own rules and die within a year and a day unless they find some supernatural means to survive.

As an adult, a vættir is expected to find their own domain and start a new family elsewhere, though in places where there are not many other vættir, they may remain with their original family for a long time. Their adulthood is spent taking on tasks and seeking someone to build a new family with. If they must find a new domain and not take one over, they must also make friends with the local mortals and share with them the laws, which the vættir learns from the domain itself after staying there for a fortnight.

Vættir make friends by making offerings, usually of food, and doing small tasks around the land, water, or house.

The main differences between national cultures is what kinds of spots they live in, the offerings they prefer, and their relationship with local mortals:
  • Landvættir: they dwell in burrows and hollows under mounds; they tend goats and prefer offerings that can be shared with their herds (apples are a favorite); they mostly work with farmers and ranchers and try to be good protectors of the livestock and crops. If things go sour, they are quick to be driven off. They have a mischievous streak that sometimes gets them in trouble.
  • Fjallvættir: they dwell in mountain caves near small towns or passes; they protect bridges and roads and keep them clean; they engage with travelers and locals alike; they prefer offerings of warm foods. If things go sour, they get blamed for avalanches and missing travelers, but this tends to enhance the locals’ desire to keep good relations. They tend to be very serious folk.
  • Sjóvættir: they dwell in caves next to or under the sea; they protect sailors and fishers; they engage with locals from nearby fishing communities; they prefer offerings of fresh fruit and vegetables. If things go sour, they get blamed for shipwrecks, poor fishing seasons, and bad storms. They tend to be equally loved and feared. They tend to be jovial and like a good, bawdy song.
  • Skogvættir: they dwell in great hollows within trees; they protect travelers and rangers and others in the forest, as well as the forest itself; they engage with the locals and travelers and also the animals of the wood; they prefer offerings of freshly butchered domestic animals such as pigs, for they will not hunt in their own wood. They tend to be respected greatly by the locals. They tend to be quick-witted and love riddles.
  • Vatnavættir: they dwell in caves near or under lakes, rivers, and ponds; they protect travelers on rivers or those who live near lakes and ponds; they are often blamed for local drownings. They are feared and disliked. They prefer offerings of fresh fruits and cold meats. They tend to be a little romantic and love their stories.
  • Húsvættir: they dwell under homes, usually in farming communities or small towns; they protect those who dwell in the homes; they do tasks around the house and protect from fires and illness; they usually have very good relations with those in the house and are considered part of the family. They prefer offerings of buttered porridge and warm bread. They are very serious about the rules of the house.
What is always made clear between vættir and those they dwell with or near is that they are not slaves. If ever there is not an equal exchange of gifts and services, they will exact payment or make clear the consequences. Furthermore, consequences are made clear beforehand, and if no agreement can be reached, the vættir will either relocate (after casting appropriate spells) or force the mortals to leave, depending on who has ownership. The laws follow the vættir.

Most in the colonies are slaves brought from other parts of the world or their descendants.

PRO 8 ATH 9 STR 7 AWA 8 WIL 9 PRS 8 STH 9

Yeti

Sasquatches.
  • Alignment : Elemental
  • Lifespan: 400 years
  • Diet: Meat-heavy mortal fare
  • Habitat: Mountains
  • Socioeconomic Status: Oppressed
Yetis stand between 5’ and 15’ tall. They are ape-like but stand upright. They have sharp teeth and larger than proportional feet and longer than proportional arms. Their fur can be brown, reddish brown, grey, black, white, or in rare cases, green.

Yetis are heavily resistant to the cold because they can regulate their body temperatures through releasing or storing heat via their fur. They can walk on snow, climb sheer cliffsides, and jump extraordinary distances in the mountains. Their whistling can start and stop snowslides. They are always stronger in the colder months or deep in the night.

If they migrate to warmer areas, their temperature regulation works the same - they can survive in high heat despite their fur. They do often develop a musk in warmer areas. Regardless, they still have greater strength when it is cooler out.

Yetis in other parts of the world go by other names, distinguishing their different nations: almas, amomongo, barmanou, chuchunya, esti captaki, hibagon, joogabinna, kalanoro, mande barung, mawas, nittaewo, nyalmo, rang shim bombo, sasquatch, sisimito, or yeren. Their original nation, in the high mountains of the southeastern continent, are called the Chuti. The locals are sasquatches and skunk apes.

Their homeland is a series of city-states atop the highest peaks, snow-covered secret cities. In the highest mountains, they craft cities of ice, stone, and bone. They form walkways between peaks of solid ice that only they have the sure-footing to walk, and they build solid-stone dome houses with windows of thin, clear ice. They form great statues from rock and bone that are said to capture heat, glowing frosty blue, and the walls around their cities are carved straight into the mountains. They live communally as hunters and foragers.

Other nations have some variations on their cultures, but they are almost all hunter-gatherers.

PRO 10 ATH 9 Climbing 15 Jumping 15 STR 15 AWA 9 WIL 8 PRS 7 STH 7
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Topic revision: r7 - 14 Aug 2025, SallyJaneBlack
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