I thought I'd quickly touch upon something
that I haven't mentioned much before: the mortal races. Despite the fact that
humans form the vast majority of most mortal races in Elyden, that was not
always the case. The reasons for this human proliferation are varied. Firstly,
Most works of fantasy fiction, for one reason or another, have humans as the
protagonist race. I presume it’s just laziness or ease of worldbuilding –
creating cultures and histories for invented nations is difficult-enough as it
is: making them for alien races is something else entirely. It’s just easier,
as a human (yes, I’m human), to write something from the POV of a human than
another race. That’s not to say, however, that I won’t do it at some point.
Indeed, the protagonist of what I’m currently writing is not strictly human, so
I’ve already ventured into that territory.
Having said that I love the variety that
different race bring to the world and Elyden has varied sources from which I
can create such creatures: the Two-and Twenty mortal races (the asicthai), the Otherworlders (Isawhan) and Halfbloods (Anthropeidos). Scions (the offspring of
the demiurges and other creatures, normally asicthai)
do not fit into any of the other classifications and exist as a fourth,
unofficial one. I’ll talk about each race, in brief, mentioning the mortal races in this post.
Literally translated from Korachani as ‘not-human’, this was once used in
reference to any non-human race, though over time it became a generic term,
interchangeable with mortal, or, more precisely, one of the descendants of the
Demiurges’ children: the Two-and-Twenty.
Though
referred to as the Two-and-Twenty mortal races (in mirror of their sires, the
Demiurges) the naming convention is not exactly true. Some races are now
extinct or have become so few in number or insular that contact with them has now
been lost. Indeed, the stillborn god Ryhassharauch never sired anything that
can be classed as living and opinion is divided whether or not his children,
the rarevas, can be classified as
mortals (for the sake of this essay I’ll include them with the asicthai).
Illidræn: one of the
Two-and-Twenty tribes, and children
of the Demiurge Allaishada. Often winged, normally of alabaster skin & dark
hair and serene dispositions, they are equated with angels by other races
(particularly humans who have a tendency of deifying them, often without true
cause), though they are far from perfect moral creatures. In truth, they are
beings of compassion so pronounced that they must resort to asceticism and
meditation to control their emotions. Due to their natures they tend to devote
their lives to single pursuits, which they perfect, becoming experts in their
chosen fields.
The race was
whittled to near-extinction during the Shadow
War that led to the fading between
the Fourth and Fifth-Ages, the remnants of the species dispersing and living out
the end of their race’s days as solitary eremites in forgotten temples and
ruins. To many they are indeed extinct though scholars maintain that scattered
individuals have survived, their natural longevity and asceticism a bulwark
against death and decay.
Serapi: one of the
Two-and-Twenty tribes, and children
of the Demiurge Ashterath, Name for
lizard-folk and dragon-kin cursed by the Demiurge
Talantehut to be servants to the sun and to crawl in the hot earth on their
stomachs. Their tongue is closest of any living creature to that originally
wrought by the Demiurges, before the cataclysm of the Bridge of Worlds. Little is known of their original form or
culture, only that it was their apparent sadistic nature that earnt them the
scorn of Talantehut, who changed
their form and that of their descendants forevermore.
They are relatively common in the
sun-drenched parts of Elyden – such as the deserts south of Venthir and those
dominating Kharkharadontis, though little remains of any culture save base
primitive tribal structures. Some claim that in some regions vestiges of a more
civilised form remain, though such claims are unsubstantiated.
Ifirmian: one of the
Two-and-Twenty tribes, and children
of the Demiurge Duruthilhotep, and
the first mortal race to ever shape the Firmament. They are now commonly known as the
immortal guardians of the Meniscus,
named after the eponymous continent. They are the most proficient Firmamentists
and are thought to be the closest in design to the original immortal races,
whose gestation was interrupted by the worldcrafting of the Demiurges, resulting in
the birth of the imperfect mortal races.
They
are slender people, tall, of long tapering heads and are not want to
communicate with others without dire need. They are rarely seen outside of the
lands surrounding the Meniscus and are thought extinct by most insular people.
Valthas: one of the
Two-and-Twenty tribes, and children
of the Demiurge Talantehut. They were once very similar to humans, though through
the long slow neglect of their Demiurge
mother became corrupted into something baser; grey things without passion or
hope or love. They became achromatic; creatures alive but without life, much
like their mother. Where Talantehut
was chosen to be a force of balance amongst her siblings, the valthasi were allowed to wither and die,
their mortality dripping away with every eon their mother ignored them until
they became the rotten shells that they are today, dwelling in the dark places
of the world where they can pass unnoticed, much like their incorruptable Demiurge parent.
Many
physical laws that affect the mortal races do not apply to the valthas, which
exist in a form of fugue between worlds – neither dead nor truly alive.
Dverg: one of the
Two-and-Twenty tribes, and children
of the Demiurge Synchthonith, though they maintain few open ties to their ancestry.
A few ancient temples have been discovered by Imperial explorers, hewn from
deep caverns, though all are eons old, abandoned. Mulls are also believed to be distantly related to the dverg, though having diverged long ago
they are now considered different races.
Stunted,
technologically aware mortals native to lands north of the Inner Sea,
originally centred around the Rhaecha
mountains, though rarely seen in the open. Their lands and clades were wiped
out millennia past by human expansion in the Fourth and early Fifth-Ages, and
now they remain largely as a caste within the Korachani empire, an
essential part to its industries. The Steel
Cataract was mostly built by dvergai hands. Very shy, rarely leaving
their underground clades, those seen in the empire are usually slaves and
technologists. Their pale skin and large black eyes are sensitive to light so
when seen close to and above ground they are almost always covered in thick
leather suits and tinted goggles; the accountrements of their trade. They show
little affinity for the Firmament or
the Penumbrism, though have a
cultural understanding of the latter and its applications within technarcana, and their seemingly innate
affinity for engineering is legendary.
Lhaus: one of the
Two-and-Twenty tribes, and children
of the demiurge Yaldabaoth. In their father’s obsession with seeking eternal life,
the lhaus became acolytes of the art of klados
and followed him down the path of eternal life. Over the eons and their
obsession with klados, they became a changed race, their goal of prolonged life
achieved yet not without cost. Like their father, those with the purpose
and means created secondary bodies (known as iterants) in which they would
transfer their spirits upon death to achieve prolonged life, or a vague
semblance of it. Each such iteration of an individual would bring with it a
body that was more grotesque and featureless than the last, until, after dozens
of such iterants had perished, the original person would be lost beneath a
hollow shell that was consumed by its obsession with life.
By
the early days of the third age the leaders and upper echelons of lhaus society
were embroiled with seeking the mysteries of klados and lhaus culture broke
down, the tribes of lesser beings –
unable to follow their masters in their pursuit – began a diaspora across
Elyden, where their blood became diluted with that of other races and they
eventually died out, their father too preoccupied with his own obsession to care.
Those amongst them who achieved true eternity through klados became miserably secular creatures, their time spent researching better ways to achieve
immotality, their thousands of followers, retainers and slaves existing only to
aid them in their quest. Their solitary city-states warred against one-another in
the pursuit of resources and chemicals needed in their timeless compulsion. By
the latter days of the Third Age the lhaus were reduced to a few dozen miserable
totalitarian city states, hidden from the rest of the world in western
Kharkharadontis. Memory of their tribe was almost lost by the dawn of the
Fourth-Age and it was only the actions of the aggressive city-state of Thamaaz
(over a thousand miles south of what is now known as Erebeth) and its ruler,
Leontoeida, Lord of the Clades, in the mid Fourth-Age (c. -4500 RM), who
scoured the lands around his city for miles around, searching for further
secrets to immortality and his arsenal of slumbering klada. With the increase
of the Shadow in the Desert and the world's decline, contact with the city
was lost and the lhaus survive in Thracian legends and the Yothshammanei
tablets, found in a temple in the north-eastern Daened Sulrach in c. 750 RM
that is believed to be a mortuary complex dedicated to the wasted iterant of an unnamed
Clade Lord.
Little
is known of the original appearance of the lhaus though various records of the
general form taken by the Clade Lord iterants are known, and are commonly
dscribed as grotesque: exposed musculature over porcelain-like bones of artificial manufacture. Most have intricate head crests, like shields, and are without sensory organs of any kind.
Plagi: one of the
Two-and-Twenty tribes, and original children
of the demiurge Rachanael. Of dark skin, red eyes and horned brows, the plagi were
a powerful if not populous tribe, their martial prowess and penumbral skill
earning them the enmity of many other tribes. Their territories were never
expansive, and they rarely emerged from the gargantuan dry basin that makes up
what is now the wasted land of Kharkharadontis.
Though considered by others to be children of the Penumbra, they were not
immune to its effects and survived its corruption largely due to the aegis of
their father Rachanael.
With Rachanael’s imprisonment in Daekyn in the dying days of the Fourth-Age, the plagi
were left leaderless. At the mercy of the Penumbra,
their bodies became prone to corruption. To escape its effects, many amongst them
left Kharkharadontis in a great
exodus that saw them travelling south, where they would become lost to imperial
annals; and north and north-east to the to the Daened Sulrach and Umbra Solare, where their breeding with humans would dilute the race into
what later become known as the Etheri
Nomads.
The few that remained in their homelands
haunt the regions around the pit of Daekyn,
never moving far from their father's prison, little more than mindless husks driven by a consuming bitterness. The Archpotentate Malichar’s arrival there in 212 RM saw the
remaining plagi join him in his travels where they sojourned in Nyala before aiding him in the
construction of the Leaden Throne,
upon which the newly-liberated Rachanael would be interred. With that deed was
the long history of the plagi ended, their last known descendants becoming
known as the demiurnes of Rachanael. In their place Rachanael
adopted humans as his children.
What few true plagi remain do so in isolation
or in distant lands, inhabiting the near-mythical metropolis of Kharakhara, their sorcerer-kings protecting
them from the foulness of the Penumbra
there.
Giganri: (Imperial:
sûnéanthros, compare with anthslach). One of the original Two-and-Twenty mortal tribes, the
children of the Demiurge Urakabarameel. The Giganri, alongside humans,
are one of the tribes that have changed the least since their original creation. They are referred to as goliaths by the Korachani empire and
giants by nations farther east, which have had even less contact with them over
the years. The giganri are an insular
race, separated by the rest of Elyden
by the near-inassailable natural wall known as the Black Mountains that
flanks the western shore of the Skarosian
Gulf and the treacherous waters of
the Sea of Serpents in the west of the Inner Sea.
They stand roughly twice the height of an average
humans, though their legs are proportionately longer than those of humans,
giving them a somewhat lanky gait. Despite this they are prodigiously strong
of both body and mind, with their culture placing a great deal of importance in
asceticism and martial perfection and moderation. Their bodies bear signs of an
earthly heritage, and their skin is cold and rough to the touch like the
granite and marble from which legend (falsely) claims they were shaped.
Likewise, their skin can range in colour from alabaster-white to obsidian-black
and a myriad of other colours in-between.
Though little is known about them, it
is believed that they are a race of many castes, likely determined by their
colouration, with different castes including the upälant, a black skinned variety that is the most documented by
Korachani explorers and traders of the Skarosian
Gulf, sometimes seen in the mines of Adamati, though any attempts to follow
them back west invariably fail. The maramari
are an off-white colour with green veins and are the most silent and
morose of all giganri encountered, pensive and slow to action. Carnous are red-brown skinned, and stand
taller than others, appearing to be a martial caste.
Generally, the Giganri are introverted and quiet
beings, likely to be considered slow by other races for their reticence to
speak that stems from their calculating natures. Little is known of the culture
save their extreme asceticism and their devotion to the philosophy of alchemy
and Gnosticism, lending them a mystical air.
They are
amongst the more populous mortal races, after the dominance of humans and are
common in both western Llachatul, as well as Menisucs. It is commonly believed
that oghurs are a degenerate offshoot of giganri, with many blaming penumbral
taint or cannibalism as their source.
the Forgotten: One of the
original Two-and-Twenty tribes, and
children of the demiurge Abufihamat (later known as Baphomet). Once one of the most powerful
and wealthy of the Two-and-Twenty
tribes, they were oppressed to the point of desperation by Abufihamat. A few amongst them came to secretly worship a
diametricly opposed corruption of the Demiurge,
who became known by the name of its idol – Baphomet.
These heretics were persecuted and slain without abandon, though their roots
were set deep and the cult spread. Abufihamat,
punished alongside the rest of the Two-and-Twenty,
fell from grace, greatly weakened. That, coupled with a tribe that was rapidly
abandoning it for the blameless excesses offered by Baphomet, almost destroyed Abufihamayt,
who sought the aid of the heretics, offering them that which they sought in
return for fealty. It was granted, and Abufihamat
finally died, replaced by Baphomet.
Baphomet ignored its
true children and instead sought the embrace of alien tribes, who it bribed
with gold and fecund capriform idols. Growing weak and sickly from their
excesses, Baphomet’s true children
were allowed to all but die, surviving in minute numbers that scattered from
their homeland in bitterness.
Since that time the handful of Baphomet’s true ancestors survive as
strange alien beings, their bodies tall and gangly, their features inhuman,
that live on the fringes of society, in places shunned by civilisation –
marshes, wastelands, barren places. Known only as the Forgotten, any memory
of their past history relinquished, they are now neolithic hunter-gatherers,
sullen, aloof and xenophobic, living in large communal tents, as they once were
under the auspices of Abufihamat.
Vapula: One of the
original Two-and-Twenty tribes, and
children of the demiurge Arimaspi. Though
arimaspi is known for the many creatures and beings that he created, his true
children are the vapulim. Humanoids standing around 7-feet tall, they are
bulky yet graceful, with leonine features and feathered backs, heads and
forearms and tool-wielding hands with opposable thumbs.
They were
once a populous race dominating the arid lands of the ancient world, though have lessened over the march of time. They have been thought extinct for many years
though a relatively large number were found to remain in the nation of Datepha on the island of Isea, in the south of Elyden. What led
to their diminishing across Elyden is unknown and little reference is made to
them in the Mythologia Elyden or other ancient texts. This is likely, as though
the vapulim are Arimaspi’s true children, they (like the other mortal races) were
not crafted through his direct actions. He is known to have poured his love and
passion into his other creations (like the aiklahs, eelyouhns, haagenti,
griffins and sphinxes) and likely abandoned the vapulim.
Sieth: one of the
original Two-and-Twenty tribes, and
children of the Demiurge Neith. Very little is known of them
other than their association with the Ivory Moon and their purported homeland
in what is now Malan.
Shie: (also Shy) one of the original Two-and-Twenty tribes, and children of
the Demiurge Sybaris. They are of russet skin and possess four arms with
delicate curving horns atop their brows beneath which glare feral yet beateous features. Like their mother,
they are beings of carnal passion and are epicureans.
Never a numerous
race, they largely excluded themselves from world-wide events and are never
noted as participating, as a race, in any large wars or conflicts. Instead they
are largely recorded as explorers of the contemporary world and pockets of them
can still be found in small numbers metropolitan regions, where they can
mostly be found as individuals, studying hedonism.
Catachis: one of the
original Two-and-Twenty mortal races,
and children of the Demiurge Dopellanich. Though extant examples are
rare, the histories of Elyden
describe them, much like their primogenitor, as dualistic beings. Twin births
are the norm and as such their societies across the continents and time have
always revolved around the sacred bond between siblings and in many respects
twins were regarded as a single person in two bodies. Conjoined births were
somewhat common and of a more stable form than similar births amongst other
mortals, which are seen as an aberration of sorts. As such they were regarded
as high-born, granting measure of prestige upon their families and commonly
becoming part of the priestly-caste. Single births are conversely seen as weak
and such unfortunates tend to live hollow lives of ridicule, often forcing them
into self-imposed exile.
Physically, they are little different to
humans, though their craniums are slightly bulging when compared with humans,
and their fingers are long and delicate, though neither can be use to truly
identify such mortals. Conjoined twins usually take the form of a symmetrical
four-armed body (one pair smaller than the other, below it, often considered
vestigial and bedecked in jewels amongst the wealthy) and a single head with
two faces, one facing left, the other right; though other less symmetrical
morphologies are common.
Irkalla: one of the
original Two-and-Twenty mortal races,
and children of the Demiurge Nergaal. Little is known of these people, save the tantalising
clues left behind on subterranean monoliths on the island of the same name, off
the south-western coast of Cuth. What
little we know is that they were a base civilisation in which the sick were
worshipped (seen as favoured of Nergaal)
and the strong broken of their will and used as slaves. A sun cult was (despite
the subterranean nature of the monuments on which the records were found) at the
centre of the race; though where other sun cults deified light and warmth, this
cult saw instead the need to pay tribute to the devastating nature of sun;
drought, plague and heat. This might be indicative of the races’ retreat to the
caverns beneath their home; perhaps as a sign of reverence or fear.
Irothan: one of the
original Two-and-Twenty mortal races,
and children of the Demiurge Nyarloth.
Little is known of this race other than it was all but destroyed following a
brutal civil war. The war came about following the internment of the Demiurge Nyarloth within a soul-engine, following his murder at the hands of
the Demiurge Rachanael, who helped
him construct the machine (with the intent of using it for his own gain). His
body remained, becoming a stone-like edifice known as the Host.
The majority of irothani came to worship the
Host, rather than the contents of the
engine, leaving Nyarloth weak and in
a state of torpor within the Soul-engine.
The irothan rulers, known as Septs, knew the error of this idolatry
and tried to persuade the people that their god was the machine and not the
idol, but most people did not listen, this resulted in a civil war that tore
the ironthani empire asunder,
bringing to an end one of the largest and most long-lived mortal empires in Elyden.
Physically they were similar to humans though
their skin had a bluish tint and their eyes glowed as though with an inner
light.
Aithar: One of the
original Two-and-Twenty mortal races,
and children of the Demiurge Malachai,
who became corrupted into the Alakhi (or ‘bidekin’). Little is known of the
Aithar, though the Al akhi, which survive in Stolas, north of the Empire are
well-catalogued. Like their ancestors, the Al
akhi are an insular race, regarded as
somewhat of a rarity to most outsiders and unknown to those in distant lands.
They stand roughly 6 – 7’ tall and are of
emaciated frames and overlong spindly limbs (their totem-lords [primitive
priests] in particular seem to suffer from the condition). Their bodies are
hairles, though primitive feathers (often spine-like) are common on their
forearms, backs, necks and shins, which are more prominent on males. Their
heads are muzzled by long slender beaks, which limit their vocal abilities (al akhi
language is nonetheless complex, and relies heavily on the written form; seen
in their many rune-tablets and cavern-epics). The al akhi are prone to
distorted features and aberrant forms are not unusual, with a rare few
appearing as little more than misshapen beasts.
Al akhi society is tribal and revolves
heavily around idolatry: traditionally that of an anthropomorphic avian totem
known as Merkabh, which is believed
by scholars and mythologists to be a corrupted form of the now-dead Demiurge Malachai. Males are dominant in
these societies, though females do play in important role in the creatures’
primitive religion. Important members of society are mummified and placed in
niches within family hovels, where they remain with their tribes as ancestral
figures, who the birdmen pray to in times of personal trouble (in a practive
similar to Sauan and Temujan ancestral spirit worship).
Like most of Elyden’s beast-men, al akhi
are fetishists and of a poor technological position. They fashion crude metal
weapons but seem to have little affinity for clothing and armour beyond rags
(they wear little clothing and use heavy wattle shields only rarely), though
they have been known to scavenge ruined metal from the Desolation
of Astudan (particularly the passage
the Red Route takes through it on its way to Gâtha), though such forays outside Stolas are rare or sporadic at best.
Human: one of the
Two-and-Twenty mortal tribes,
and the children of the Demiurge Avraham
the White King. Humans are unique in that they are the only mortal race that
can breed with other races naturally and unaided (physical restrictions
permitting), leading to many various half-breed races and creatures. None truly
know the origins of this trait, though it is believed to lie within the nature
of their father, Avraham.
Humans
were abandoned by Avraham following the appearance of the Azor (descendants of
unions between humans and his scion Azer), whom he regarded far more highly. Humans
were later adopted by the Demiurge Rachanael.
Keratin: one of the
Two-and-Twenty mortal tribes,
and the children of the Demiurge Kharani.
They resemble humans in most ways, with males averaging 6-feet tall and
weighing 180 – 190 lbs. They are heavily built, with powerful bodies and hard
bony ridges on their elongated heads, with horns prominent amongst males and
often seen as a mark of strength. Their skin ranges from pale grey to a dark
brown, with various shades in between, and a red tint is considered as a sign
of virility.
Much
like their Demiurge father, the Keratin are a passionate people, quick
to anger and skilled with their hands – something that they commonly apply to
the crafting of weapons and tools and cenotaphs and triumphal arches. Their
culture traditionally revolved around a stratocracy or kratocracy, with the
strong ruling the weak, commonly under a militaristic regime.
Though
a strong and united race, the Keratin
were relatively few in number, particularly when compared with the vastly
superior humans. Their numbers dwindled during the Shadow War that ended the
Fourth-Age of Mortal life, where they allied themselves with Rachanael and were used as shock troops
to deady yet phyrric effect.
Deruweid: one of the
Two-and-Twenty mortal tribes,
and the children of the Demiurge Achaiah. They are generally tall (between 7 – 9
ft.), with their skin undergoing a transition throughout their long lifes. The
young have malleable greyish green skin that flakes at the joints (like
sloughing birch). As they grow older their skin appears to calcify, becoming
darker and tougher, like gnarly bark. Hairless, they are an ascetic race,
without cities or clothing; aloof and xenophobic, living the last of their
declining days in the shadow of their Demiurge mother in the deepest reaches of
the Nameless Forest.
Abandoned to
their own devices with their mothers’ transformation into the Immortal Tree Agen,
the deruweids filled the void left in their lives with bodily mutilation,
thought by contemporary scholars as being a form of chastisement for what they perceived
to be their own faults. The deruweid s dwindled over the years, though
eventually those who remained in their old homeland (in what is now the Nameless
Forest) would rediscover their old mother, realising the true error of their
ways, devoting their lives to maintaining the Tree of Agen and slowly shaping
their bodies in her image.
Ropohaii: one of the
Two-and-Twenty mortal tribes,
and the children of the Demiurge Vorropohaiah.
Swallowed by the Prison Carceri in antiquity, little is known of this strange
race other than the madness which is known to have been passed down to them by their father.
Merill: one of the
Two-and-Twenty mortal tribes,
and the children of the Demiurge Shibboleth,
and the only known aquatic (or semi-aquatic race). There are seven different
lines of merill: one for each of the original mortals that came into being
following the shaping of the Demiurges, though of seven only one remains strong
(or known), with the other diminished and corrupted: for the torrent that once
sustained them is now gone.. They are most well-known amongst other races for a
curious trait known as genetic memory, where a newly born merill inherits the
memories of all its direct ancestors, all the way back to one of the original
seven merills. As a result they are brimming with emotion and memory, though have
little empathy, particularly with other races. They are beings of emotion,
though unlike keratin and illidraen it is not a personal passion, but an echo
of their many ancestor's lives – pain, suffering, love, loss death. Most
surviving members have been driven mad by the weight of memories that bear down
upon them, and every generation grows slowly more maddened. Indeed, in many
respects they are the closest of the mortal races to the Otherworlders.
They
are linked to the river Shibboleth, which bears more than just a name in common
with their demiurge forebear. They each undertake a long coming of age ritual
by going upstream to the river’s main source, where they immerse themselves in
the water. This somehow causes them to reach sexual maturity (Some scholars
think this is due to certain chemicals in the water or some other physical
effect that causes a metabolic change), though the proliferation of humans
around the river sees fewer and fewer merills complete this arduous ritual.
They tend to
talk in stream of consciousness, which is difficult for other mortal races to
understand. Very little is known of them, and what is known is likely
misunderstood though as Elyden’s seas retreat, soapstone metropolises have
begun to appear in the middle of once-submerged seas, built on volcanic atolls.
Where they survive they rely on coastal raids on ill-protected places far away from
the Korachani empire.
Rarevas: one of the Two-and-Twenty
mortal tribes, and the children of the Demiurge
Ryhassharauch. The children of the
stillborn demiurge, These beings were cursed before their conception and exist
as void, hollow, wretched things more akin to languid corpses than anything
living. The stench of vinegar and rotting flesh surrounds their bony grey
bodies. They keep their umbilical cords and make necklaces out of them in memory
of their catatonic god. Legends claim that only seven exist in a fugue state
between life and death, unable to die or reproduce.
