Races of Five

LeatherWing

This strong proud race is demonic looking or draconic depending on who you ask. At any rate, they are considered to be demons by almost everyone, outside of the Orcs. Everyone remembers the blood shed of the war with The Unstoman Empire, and the chaos that was left in their wake.

SkyLords

These are the winged dancers of the sky, undisputed masters of the air or as close as anyone can claim that title. These raptors are a race of warriors, poets, and artisans. Not having any use for “plant farming they have become master herders and have vast numbers of goats and mountain sheep many times their size under their care. These use dogs to help them with their charges. Long ago they discovered a way of growing crystals and sculpting them as they grew. Their long established cities are works of these marvelous wonders. New settlements in the edge of the Empire of the Five Races do not have these yet, but you can bet they are working on them. ShyLords are all raptors and generally look like falcons, hawks, and eagles. They dye their feathers and use beads to accent themselves.

GrassLords

This cat like race resembles the beast called panthers, tigers, and leopards. These people are extremely good hunters and warriors. Neither war nor hunting is their pride, but song dance and jokes… which sadly they are not good at by other races standers. Oh they are wonderful with song, and dance, even if it is load and bizarre to outside eyes and ears, but to them the highest form or joke, is the Pun. Being one of the 5 races of the Empress, Grass Lords are ancestor and hero worshipers, and their greatest hero is a Grass Lord known as the Sothern Cat. She was jester and trickster to the Empress and the Dark One, teaching them both valuable lessons, and keeping them humble. They consider this heritage to be their sacred duty no matter what their adventuring job may be.

The Heard

Beware, beware hunting in the woods, take only what you need, not everything you could, never use traps or ambushes to kill, for the devil dear do not like this and fear them you will.

The Heard from afar look like wild deer, maybe a little bigger, but that look is most deceiving. They are as intelligent as any man. They see themselves as part of the natural order, so you may, if you haven't broken their rules, have dined on their meat. But the second you hunt dirty or for trophies... well many a Lord hunting lodge have found not even the best guards can keep the devil deer at bay. 

Man

Races of man

Human

Humans are well, human. They run the gambit through all walks of life. The other races do as well, but nothing is as adaptable as a human. Humans come in every race, size, and belief. Most humans are still superstitious and racist to some extent, not against humans with different color skin, who cares how the gods paint you, but against the lesser races of men, or worse the demon races. Then, of course, there are the unnatural people, men, and women who look just as you and I do, but with strange appetites.

Dwarves

Dwarves are a hard-working agrarian and mining culture. They keep sheep and goats and plant fields on terraces built from the dirt and rubble of their mining excavation. Both Dwarven males and females have beards with female beards being less full and softer than their male counterparts. Dwarven women adorn their beards with beads and intricate braids, while men prefer things that show off how thick and strong their beards are. They value hard work and live a very family-centric, clan lifestyle.

Dwarves see quite well in places most races would find too dark, this is due to the fact they see further in the spectrum both in inferred and ultraviolet than humans and most other races. 

For Dwarves, adventuring is a rite of passage. It is how one proves they are worthy of their clan name. Almost all dwarves have adventured at some point in their lives, but almost no dwarf does it for long without reason, as the clan needs protecting and to be looked after. Most dwarves are there and back again in under 10 years.

Elves

This slender race is often mistaken by outsiders as both female and decadent. These are both untrue and due to a lack of understanding of what an elf truly is. Elven males do have fair skin and breasts with round hips, but female elves are rounder. As to the decadent part, elves will never die of natural causes, as such, they will spend decades of time working on single projects and when they are finished they will truly be a work of art. They have all the time in the world and that is a problem. Elves are suffering from something they call a mental miasma it has a name, it is the Wei’.  This means that the elves have for thousands of years done anything to sensate the senses. The Wei’ usually takes hold of an elf in the second half of their first 100 years, but don’t get truly bad until they are well over 800. They do not become utterly reckless until well after their 3000 birthday. Very few elves can claim to be over 5000.

Elves see clearer than most other races in dim light, 3 times as far by any light sources. This makes them excellent night hunters.

 “When you are immortal, or at least don’t die due to old age as most races do, you get bored. On top of that, want to be a blacksmith? Sorry, the guy down there can shoe a horse better, faster, and cheaper than you. Want to be an artist? Sorry, you are just an amateur if you haven’t done this for 700 years. Want to make a name for yourself, not be bored, and actually have a chance at life before you are over a thousand? Go Adventure! Besides, it cuts down on the population.” This is what an elf actually said when asked why elves leave their soft lives.

Half-Elves

These people are not a true breading race, in fact, no two half-elves have ever sired children with each other. Whatever raced in the human world, or the elven, half-elves always have one thing in common. This mixed heritage causes them to see the world differently. One foot deep in their elven parentages' mystic blood, one in their very human world, they are disconnected from both. They may be free from the Wei’, but no one will ever truly understand their point of view, not even another half-elf. Some use this to great advantage, while others use it as an excuse not to try.

Half-Elves have an innate ability to see the energies of magic; as such, they have a good chance to tell if anything is magical. This is due to their mixed heritage.

Gnomes

Gnomes are a hardy race, so much so that they have literal rocks in their bones. Gnome bones have a high level of carbon in them that seems to make a latticework making them not only heavier than they should be but hardier. Gnomes are the Lowlands cousins to Dwarves. They are a people that have built their houses in the swamp and have lived that way for thousands of years. Their feet are larger to give them stability when they walk on uneven and weak surfaces such as mud. And have developed a knack for eating anything. Food, even poisonous food, never adversely affects a gnome if they eat it and as long as it is natural. Refined poisons, even of naturally occurring compounds affect them as normal. Gnomes know very well who and what they are, and what they are is a quick race that is stubborn to a fault. Slow to anger, slow move, slow to change. However, once they put their minds to it, they are unbelievably adaptable. It is getting a gnome to accept a new idea that is the problem but once they do, to them this is the way it has always been. Gnomes are one of the few races to have worked with the steam engine to any extent. They do not have things like trains, but instead use them for heavy lifting with complex crane devices, chopping wood with devices other races think of as “death wheels”. Sadly gnomish contraptions, though they do seem to work well for gnomes, for the most part, are looked on with horror by most other races.

Liberi

This is the race of man! Or it would be if man stopped worrying about social standings and other made up nonsense. Liberi are The Free, they even claim it is what their name means in a long dead tongue. They believe in eating when you’re hungry, sleeping when you are tired, and taking what you need from the world around you. Sometimes this means it once belonged to someone else… and they will happily give it back… if it was them that took it after all. Oh, they don’t mind hard work, in fact, they love it, but there is a time and place for it after all. And it is not that they don’t understand possession of stealing, they very much do… but if the item won’t be missed they obviously didn’t need it and the Liberi did. Otherwise, why did they take it? Liberi mostly just want one thing, a comfortable life, and they are willing to do almost any amount of work to get one. What is comfort you may well ask? Why that is up to the individual Liberi.

These people look just like normal humans, only toddler-sized, granted some do get up to four feet tall, but it is not something that happens often.

Orcs and True Orcs

They are Orc; they are the great-grandchildren of  True Orcs and humans. When the Empress came and free them from the pits she earned a life debt that ever Orc feels. Now they roam the world keeping their brutal cousins in check, and trying to make a life for themselves in this world of man. Orcs found out early that they can easily breed amongst themselves. That is good because humans won’t touch them for the most part, and as for the mating habits of True Orcs, they shudder to think of such things.