lørdag den 3. august 2013

The people of the Seven Army Nation

Human, orc, elf. It does not matter, they all bleed and die when they meet my grandfather's axe.

Torak Ironhammer, Darkwood Town, Kingdom of Drahar, 5799

Humans


Just as in the rest of Gemnos, there are two distinct human races. One black, one white. Sunites and Moonites. Born during the day, Sunites are black, while Moonites are born during the night and white. The time of birth determines the color of skin, nothing else. Two white Moonites can just as easily as two black Sunites get a Sunite as son or daughter. Aside from the their skin color, humans of Gemnos are as diverse as those of other worlds, but there are only those two types of humans.

Elves


There are two kinds of elves living on the surface of Gemnos. The high elves are the most commonly encountered, even though they represent the smallest fraction of the elves. Even though they as a general rule are reclusive, you can still find small enclaves in most big cities. Otherwise, they build small communities in remote areas, typically in remote mountains or deep, dark forests.

The other side of the coin, the wood elves are more common in numbers, but since most of them are xenophobic, they keep to themselves in the woods. Even though most keep to themselves, some wood elf communities still keep informal ties with nearby human communities. Very few wood elves are encountered outside their woods.

Halflings


There are also two types of halflings. On one hand, there are the lightfoot halflings. Explorers, travelers, traders and merchants, their extended family-clans travel up and down the rivers and along all the roads of the Seven Army Nation. Some make their living in the cities, where they either run merchant businesses or more shadier businesses. Generally friendly but a bit reserved, expecially those who live in the cities tend to have a bit more edge.

The other kind of halfling, the stout halflings are family orientated farmers, who often live far from big cities and other races. Sometimes they form bonds with wood elves in nearby forests, but that is it. As a general rule, they are happy to keep to themselves and not get involved in the affairs of the big world. But once in a generation, even a stout halfling can be caught up in the lust of adventure and seek out the road.

Dwarves


The hill dwarves are by far the most common of dwarves in the Seven Army Nation, but there is only one hill dwarf enclave, the town of Hillstown. The rest are spread out, families living amongst humans, working as weapon smiths, jewelers and mercenaries. The many years amongst the other races have made them more easy-going and understanding than the mountain dwarves.

The mountain dwarves are fairly rare, they usually live as miners or crafters in big cities. Since they have no cities, they have a tendency to huddle together in the human cities. They dream of the ancient days of glory, when the mountain dwarves ruled the mountains and the underground over all of Gemnos. They dream of reestablishing the ancient line of dwarven kings and once again have Gemnos beat to the beat of their hammers.

Gnomes


The last of the original races of Gemnos is the gnomes. As most of the other races, the two kinds of gnomes are very different from one and another. On one hand, there is the forest gnomes - shy, animal lovers who live on the fringe of elven communities, and rarely seen far from a forest. On the other hand, you have the rock gnomes. Tinkers and builders, mad scientists who live for building and blowing up things. Rock gnomes are commonly found in Alkabar near the Howling Mountains, the city who by far holds the biggest concentration of rock gnomes, but most major cities have quite a few.

The rest


Aside from the five original races, created at the birth of Gemnos by the Twins, there are four races which have been created later.

The half elf started as a symbol of a man-elf alliance that created peace across most of Gemnos some 6000 years ago. For 1 years, all children born by elves and humans alike were half-elves. Since then, it has been it's own race.

The half orc is the creation of ancient high elf wizards. 1200 years ago, when the last high elven empire ruled large parts of what is now the Cursed Lands, they were, when the empire was starting to decline, losing a war against barbarian tribes. To match the ferocity of the barbarians, the high elves took certain attributes from the orcs and magically infused humans with said attributes. The goal was of course to create a hardier, stronger and more intelligent race than the orc, to use in the wars. They succeeded and won the wars. When the empire crumbled years later, the half-orc was free of it's shackles and now considered as it's own race.

In ancient times, Gemnos was mostly ruled by the dragons for almost 2000 years. At the height of their power, the power of the dragons was said to rival the gods', and so was their ego. Not content with ruling the lands and the people, the dragons created a humanoid race in their own image to serve them. The dragonborn. With the fall of the draconic empire, the dragonborn were left to their own. Nowadays in the Cursed Lands, dragonborn are most often found as mercenaries and sell-swords. Honorable and able, they live and die by their ancient codes.

The last of the created races, the tiefling, is another biological left-over from the ancient empires. The descendants of arrogant warlocks with an insatiable thirst for power who made a deal with Asmodeus, most tieflings live their lives in the shadows, on the fringes of civilization. Tieflingism is seem by many as a curse, especially in the rural areas. Maybe that is why many tieflings seem to have a shady character and a huge chip on their shoulders.

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