History

At first, there were only humans, orks, dwarves, and elves. The Highest created them as the explorers, fighters, creators, and magicians. They were supposed to keep the world in harmony, excelling in their own fields. With time, other races came to exist.

The First Wave

After the Unleashing, magic got into the system of many animals and people throughout the globe. Mainly, the rats. Animal Mutants were the first to rise. A lot turned into horrors, but some remained sapient and capable of normal life. They started making their own primitive nests, with some becoming smart enough to set up entire colonies and even cities. Most of the animal mutants of the first wave were small mammals, however no species were safe from the effects of magic radiation. While rats were most common, one could spot bird mutants, or even fish ones.

Next came the fairies, which are born purely of magic. Certain flowers in the Glistening Woods turned downwards, with little glowing bodies emerging from them. The protofairies exist just to play tricks on people and illuminate the way, alongside playing a minor role as pollinators. Some of the protofairies turned into the bigger, more human looking fairies because of wanting to be closer to humans and to appear more friendly. The now proper fairies started to build villages and learn human craft, like making jams. Rumors started spreading among men, that a pregnant woman drinking tea made of snowdrop and fairydust will have her child grow to be stronger and smarter than anyone else. They turned out to be only partially true, because the children, while smart, came out as fairyborn, small and with wings, unable to fly long distances, but able to cast magic like no one else.

Some of the fairyborn are born defective, with no wings or magic in them. They became the first halflings. They are as short as all fairyborn, even shorter than dwarves, but because of that they are well known for being agile and fast thinkers. The first halflings were often killed due to being “defective”, but with time enough has appeared to make them into their own race.

Year 673

Humans of what is now Nova Zemia decided to create their own slave race. Using magic and bits of many other races, they have created the gremlins, perfect slaves, strong of body, weak of mind, easy to control. After a plague wiped out the entire human population of Nova Zemia, the gremlins started to rule on their own.

The Second Wave

An asteroid filled with concentrated magic fell onto a beach. A second shockwave went through a large portion of the land. New animal mutants and horrors appeared, this time of much different looks. Known as spacekin, the mutants ended up looking much more humanoid than the ones of the first wave, however with their animal features malformed into pseudo-human looking ones. The animals were mostly snails, slugs, fish and insects. They are often referred to as aliens by people, because of their origin and looks. They quickly blended into human spaces, instead of being feral. They made their own villages, and even cities. While people were normally hateful towards animal mutants, the spacekin got special treatment, as they never had any ill intent.

However, the asteroid also affected the sea monsters. The gigantic squids and bloodthirsty serpents mutated further. Some of the smaller ones obtained sentience, and an ability to change their form. The shapeshifters are sea monsters that crawled out of the seas, looking for a greater purpose than swimming around and eating smaller beings.

The unknown

The origins of certain races are not yet known. The dryads, the gnomes, or the Bellringers are most well known examples of such creatures. It is speculated that at least some of them are the Earth’s response to all the events happening aboveground. The reason for that is because of the dryads, which are direct descendants of Mother of All, who is said to be a manifestation created by the Glistening Woods.

The First ones

Humans

Humans are a race with a population count of a billion, making them the most numerous one, at least on the surface. They are known for their love for adventuring and exploring new lands. There's a common belief amongst some races, such as the elves, that humans are reckless and don't value their life, however, the truth is that they value safety quite a lot, as their lifespans aren't as long as of others. They seem to be uncaring simply because creatures with longer lives, like mentioned earlier elves, have taken security measures to the extremes, not being able to comprehend the human need to investigate and learn.

Since humans live all over the world, their architecture and cultures vary a great amount. In the northern parts of it, where winters are cold and harsh, they tend to use wood and stone to build their homes, trying to keep them as low as they can, in order to stay warm. Meanwhile in the south, where mutants still run rampant and the heat is unforgiving, they make their homes high up and much less closed, in order to protect themselves from beasts and nature alike.

Humans have populated much of the land, there aren't many places where they aren't present. Even underground, there are areas where one can find them, such as the Undercity. They are a creative bunch, able to survive on anything they find.

Orks

The orks are fierce, giant, and rather stubborn. Way before the Godhunt, the orks had a reputation of being more territorial than aggressive, known as a resourceful race, and a good trade partner. They provided protection, animal goods, and building material. However, after Varenmere's conquest, and Alephad’s attempt at killing Lei'Sann'Gealach, the orks had an argument about whether they should stay in the mountains or not, which ended in them splitting into two tribes. The first one, which became the mountain orks, decided to stay where they've lived their entire lives. The second tribe decided to leave, settling in the woods on the bottom of the mountains, becoming forest orks. Some traveled even further, becoming desert orks.

All three kinds of orks have differences in how they look. They all share their pig looking snouts, rows of hair on their backs, three fingers on their hands, as well as short tails and hooved feet. However, they adapt to their environment. Their skin seems to have chameleon-like capabilities, shifting its hue to whatever are their surroundings. The process is much longer than that of the animal, but that lets the orks be quite decent at stealth, despite their loud tendencies.

Mountain orks are fatter, hairier, and grey. They are the smallest of all the orks, although they still reach six feet tall on average. They remained territorial, much like their ancestors, sometimes still trading with those living outside the mountains. They only live in the northern part of Brydenn, in their country of Nugrurg, very rarely traveling outside in order to trade or gather materials. They are quite superstitious, having many beliefs, mostly related to the sun. One of such superstitions is that the sun is going to make them dumber, thus they go out only at night. During the day, they cover their heads to not “get their brains fried”. They have quite advanced building skills, making a lot of pathways and stairs to go from cave to cave. More important orks even have houses made for them on the mountainsides, although they still tend to build most of their homes inside the mountain.

The forest orks are slightly taller than mountain orks. Their skin is more green and less hairy. One can see a noticeable increase in the size of their tusks, with a decreased forehead length. They are what made orks seem like aggressors to humans and other races, because they turned to plundering villages instead of building a new place to live in on their own. They have no craftsmanship skills like the mountain orks, however they are quite advanced at warfare. The forest orks are known for aiding Alephad in its many wars, especially the Laani Campaign. Instead of trading with others, the orks turned out to be quite excellent mercenaries for hire. As long as one wants to deal with their quite disgusting behavior.

The desert orks, on average, reach seven feet tall. They are less fat than the mountain and forest orks, with massive muscles and ears for heat control. Their skin is colored many shades of sandy colors, yellows, browns, and sometimes grays. They are very aggressive, but prefer to stay territorial like mountain orks. They won't warn you about entering their territory, though. The desert orks have massive tusks, strong jaws, and very short foreheads, making them look unintelligent. They don't build homes as they like to change their place of living from time to time and live as nomads. The orks can survive long times with no water and food, living only off their body's supply of nutrients for days. While looking unintelligent, they still have just as great combat skills. They are less brutish than the forest orks, relying on tactics instead. This is mostly due to their lower population, it’s harder to survive in this sandy land.

All the orks speak Orkish, which is a rather primitive language that consists of grunts and other similar noises. They often borrow words from common languages found where they live, although they tend to have very heavy accents when speaking them. Occasionally, they learn just enough words from other languages to speak them in a broken manner. Many people believe they are very stupid because of that, which isn’t exactly the truth. The orks, while not having such cultural impact as the elves, are all great at tactical thinking and resourcefulness.

Elves

The elves are a race of beautiful, slender humanoids with long ears and a natural magic supply within them. There aren't many elves in the world, the Unleashing caused many of the elves to mutate and die, leaving only a few of them alive. Every elf has an organ filled with magic in their body, called an arcaneus. It behaves similar to the tumors found within sorcerers, letting elves cast magic more safely, and letting them control its flow in case of a possible Taint overload, even when the elf is not a spellcaster.

The elves can live for over a thousand years old, however not many of them actually live to this age. This long lifespan makes them incredibly fearful of dying in an accident or from illness, since they don't want to miss all the things they could see in the future. Instead, they often die due to being overly careful, not wanting to take risks in dire circumstances for example. Elves are often snobbish, because other races seem inferior compared to them with their long lifespans and magic abilities.

They tend to grow their hair long and aim for looking as clean as they can. Male and female elves are often confused by people who don't know them much. They also tend to wear traditionally feminine clothing, which only makes people confused even more. Despite that, they are a symbol of beauty to many people around the world, which sadly sometimes ends with fetishising them.

Remains of traditional elven architecture can be found around the Glistening Woods where they used to live, as well as in some bigger forests in Laani. They can also be found in places such as Lalim Lupa, but there aren't many of them around. Elves like to make their items and buildings very ornate, often using gold and other expensive materials to decorate them. They do not have a country of their own anymore, usually living their entire lives wherever they were born. Elder elves tend to teach young ones of their history, so they do not forget ancient elven culture, which is largely forgotten nowadays. Young elves are heavily laanicized, speaking and behaving like people from the country. The ancient elvish is a hard language with many similar sounding words and a lot of grammar rules. The young rarely want to master their own language.

The elves usually perform lighter work, such as being artists, merchants, or innkeepers. The older elves tend to still perform their ancient elven crafts they've learned in their long life, like blacksmithing and woodworking. They normally aren't big into combat, but their years of training made elven weapons some of the deadliest out there. Examples of such are elves like the legendary gunsmith and gunslinger Hakul Taimavar. Of course, elves are still outstanding spellcasters, usually druids or wizards. They lean towards defensive and support spells, as they do not want to get hurt themselves.

Dwarves

The dwarves are known for their craftsmanship abilities, as well as being incredibly talented fighters. Living in the canyons of Haggarum, they have created a mine system of astounding size, which provides them with all the resources they will ever need.

The dwarves are short, normally reaching about 4 to 5 feet tall, but they are also much more stout than, for example, halflings. Both males and females grow beautiful, long beards, which they use as a way to show their status and to keep dust out of their lungs. Dwarven skin tends to be rather tan, due to them living in the desert. While their mines are, obviously, inside the canyon, they build their homes with access to the outside, to be able to enjoy the sun.

The longer one’s beard is, the more respected they are going to be. Of course, military, or craftsmanship achievements, are also very important. Most dwarves keep track of their fight and kill counts very precisely, so they can brag about them later on, during banquets and other feasts. Some dwarves even keep “kill journals”, where they note every fight and kill they have had, with names of their opponents and dates of when they took place. Faking one’s kill journal is very bad practice, most dwarves would get furious if someone faked one. That’s why it’s common practice to keep trophies of the creatures they killed or fought on that day. It’s usually small flat things, so they can be put in the journal, such as dried pieces of skin or fur, feathers, scales, splotches of blood, or anything else of that kind. Sometimes they put ribbons inside these pages, so they can hang their trophies from them, usually teeth, claws, or even bones. As for fight related trophies, dwarves usually cut off a bit of their opponent’s hair to put in their journal. If the fight was not between two dwarves, instead of hair they may put a coin in there, or anything else they have gained from it.

As far as craftsmanship goes, the dwarves are known as the godfathers of arcanagraphy and magitech. They were some of the first ones to create magic items, which then evolved into the practice of programming runes and building catalysts. At first they kept their secrets within the dwarven circles, but information tends to leak eventually, which is what also happened in the case of dwarven techniques. The dwarves don’t like to actually cast magic using wands and incantations, they prefer to use it through machinery and logic, so while there’s many magitechnicians amongst them, there aren’t many dwarven spellcasters. Of course, aside from that, they are also well known for their blacksmithing skills, as well as their favorite artforms, sculpting and carving.

Dwarven style of decor is a direct opposite of the elven style. They enjoy angular edges, hard surfaces, and general brutalism. They use stone and metal to create basically everything, from their cutlery and dishes, to seats, tables, and even beds.

The dwarves enjoy drinking and giant feasts. Holidays happen almost every month, there are always reasons to party. Dwarven alcohols are some of the strongest out there, surpassed probably only by Arcanarot ones. Dwarves have a great immunity to it, taking a lot more to make them drunk. Because of these feasts, they are commonly seen as just rowdy alcoholics. While they do like their alcohol, do not try to disrespect a dwarf like that. They have their pride, and if one feels like you are making fun of them, you will have to prepare for a beatdown. Once the feast is over, they ditch all their alcohol. They are incredibly efficient workers, and no dwarf wants to ruin a good mining session by being drunk or hungover.