Playable Races

[kenada]

Deep Dwarves
After the disappearance of the dwarves almost 1,000 years ago, the deep dwarves began looking for their former trade partners. Eventually, this search brought them into contact with the surface races where they reluctantly established direct trade relations with them.

Many deep dwarves are xenophobic and are loath to work with surface dwellers. Those who do venture out onto the surface tend not to be so hostile towards other, non-dwarven races; however, they tend to keep to themselves and speak little of their mountain homes.

While the dialect of Dwarven that deep dwarves speak is similar to Ancient Dwarven, those without training in the ancient tongue would be unable to understand it.

Changes
Ancient Dwarven is available to deep dwarves as a bonus language.

Drow
Prior to the disappearance of the elves, the drow possessed an immense hatred of everything elvish. Believing themselves to be the superior race, the drow frequently schemed to eradicate their nemesis. 600 years ago, the drow initiated another campaign against the elves; but their enemies were no where to be found. Feeling vindicated and believing that the remaining surface races were doomed, they returned to their underground home.

After The Fall, the neutral factions in the drow were able to gain influence and have led the race as a whole away from their evil tendencies. The resulting change in the social hierarchy (including a shift in typical alignment to neutral) has since allowed the drow  to begin exploring the surface and establishing trade relations with the surface races.

Like the deep dwarves, the drow’s dialect of elven is distinct from that spoken by elves in the past. Elder drow and scholars are the only ones with the knowledge to understand Ancient Elven.

Changes
Ancient Elven is available to drow as a bonus language. With the changes in the social hierarchy brought about by the neutralization of the drow, the favored class for both male and female drow is now wizard.

Halflings
Halflings originally hailed from the forests to the east before The Sundering, when their homeland was razed and sank into the ocean. Since that time, they have lived amongst humans, having no place of their own to call home.

Half-orcs
Half-orcs are the result of human-orc relations during the occupation of the human lands by the orc tribes hundreds of years ago. While most half-orcs are the descendants of other half-orcs, some are the offspring by modern human-orc relations on the border lands.

Humans
Before The Sundering, the humans were a prosperous race, having constructed many magnificent cities all across what is now known as Terra. As the world around them burned, the humans allied themselves with the orcs. While many felt it was a bad idea, it is unlikely that they would have been able to survive those dark times on their own.

Three hundred years ago, a human named Darvin Evenwood led a small band of humans against the orcs. Having no external enemy, they orcs tended to fight amongst each other when they weren’t abusing their human subjects. Darvin attacked after a particularly brutal fight between two of the orcish clans and was able to seize equipment and supplies from the orcish camp. A charismatic man, Darvin was able to gain support from many of the other captives who saw for the first time that the orcs could be beaten. After a grueling nine year campaign, the orcs were finally driven back into the mountains or put to the sword.

After the war, Darvin Evenwood chose a ridge facing the meeting of two rivers as the site at which the human civilization would begin rebuilding. The city came to be known as Ridgeland and the kingdom as Erhmm. The current ruler of Erhmm is Dorn Evenwood.

Lizardfolk
The lizardfolk were at ground zero when the gates of destruction opened, the lizardfolk’s jungle homeland was destroyed. They were able to survive the catastrophe through the heroism of one of their own, who had been a member of the group that eliminated the threat and begun to rebuild a new home for them before he disappeared along with the other heroes.

Lizardfolk wander the savannas in the south, looking for a new place to call home. They tend not to stay in any one place for long, and are tribal in nature. Almost all modern lizardfolk revere the Great Lizard, and any who do not are ostracized from lizardfolk society. It should be noted that there are no clerics of the Great Lizard.

Changes
Rather than receive racial hit dice, which effectively make a starting character level 3, lizardfolk characters start at level 1 like the other player races and receive hit dice as they advance in class levels. A consequence of this is that lizardfolk characters do not receive the racial skills, feats, and proficiencies in the listing; but instead possess skills, feats, and proficiencies per their class levels.

Plains Orc
At first, the orcs in the north joined aided the forces of evil who were raising elven and human city alike during The Sundering. However, with the humans scattered and the elves gone; the invading legions turned their attention northward to the orcish tribes in the mountains. On the verge of extinction, the orcs allied themselves with the human tribes to push back the menace. After the enemy was defeated, the orcs turned their attention back on the remaining humans and enslaved or hunted them until the humans were reunited under the banner of Evenwood once again. Since then, human and orc forces frequently skirmish along the borders of Erhmm.

A program of ‘civilizing’ orcs was initiated in an attempt to counter the orcish threat in the north. The goal was to train orcs loyal to the human realms and their interests and send them as agents to subvert the orcish tribes in the north. Unfortunately, the plan didn’t work at all because it was rather obvious even to the dumbest of tribal orcs that an orc who can read and speak eloquently is an outsider and should be killed or toyed with then killed. Since the failure of the program, plains orcs have been integrated into the human armies although few in the population really trust them.

Changes
Due to the discipline and being raised by human from birth, plains orcs tend to be lawful neutral rather than chaotic evil. Even though they show strength and ferocity in their roll as the shock troops of the human armies, the favored class of plains orcs is fighter. Due to their conditioning, plains orcs do not suffer from light sensitivity.