Peoples and Cultures

Natural Races

Dwarves—A natural race of Ahmbren from the hills and mountains. Natural cavern homes with underground mountain kingdoms called kelds. Outsiders call them “dwarves”. Their own name for themselves are the Modhirim, which means “People of Modhrin.”

Humans—One of the natural races of Ahmbren from the flatlands of desert and plains. Humans are the dominant race in Artalonian history.

Orcs—A natural race of Ahmbren from the steppes. Orcs are larger than their human counterparts. Usually organizing in tribes and warrior culture, many have been integrated into human society. The first to domesticate and use the horse. Large and muscular with wide faces, flat noses, and lower teeth that protrude from their lips as fangs.

Trolls—A natural race of Ahmbren from the jungles and swamps. As lithe and graceful as orcs are large and muscular, troll tribes have retreated from civilization, preferring seclusion and privacy in their deep forests. Ruled by a priest class, they also have druids in their midst, making them formidable foes to the unwary intruder. Women appear as humans with small cheek tusks and blue to green skin. Men appear more inhuman, with large diagonal eyes, animalistic noses, large cheek tusks, and a lightly furred body.

Other Races

Darklings—Originally humans who made pacts with demons to rival the power of the High Elven Imperium, they and their descendants are forever cursed with the hell’s mark. They transformed Artalon into a dark kingdom until the Dragons Archurion and Eldrikura destroyed their kingdom. They appear human except for demonic horns, solid black or red eyes, tails, small finger claws, and sharp teeth.

Elves, Seelie (Light Elves)—Shards of the Fae encapsulated with the Green Dragon’s essence manifested as light elves, falling to Ahmbren fully adult, each with fragments of memories of the dead Fae realms. Taller than sidhe, they usually stand between six and seven feet in height. They have a variety of skin colors, from silvers and light hues to gold. Hair color is equally varied. The first generation of seelie have glowing striations in their irises. They did not exist before 11,063 in the Third Age. Their first generation was born as full adults with fragments of Fae and Dragon memories, with powers manifesting in various ways and intensities. Their children grow up normally, manifesting no such dragon powers and have no trapped memories warring for control. Subsequent generations also have no body markings, and their eyes do not glow (glowing eyes in the first generation indicate the presence of the Dragon’s soul within them).

Elves, Sidhe (High Elves)—Descendants from the first Fae who crossed in to the mortal world from the Otherworld. They became the sidhe and established the High Elven Imperium, the first great civilization in recorded history. Typically five to six feet in height, they are usually more slender than humans, fair in color, and have light pink skin and long pointed ears.

Gnomes—The remnants of bronze dragons who assumed mortal forms and stayed mortal for so long they lost all draconic nature. Tinkerers par excellence, they invented gunpowder, developed magical flying machines through the use of elodian crystals, and excel at intricate gear-work and magical spellcrafting.

Ratlings—A race of humanoid rats resulting from a mad gnomish wizard’s experiments gone wrong. Adept at tinkering, they created a fleet of zeppelins to rival the elodian ships of the gnomes.

Wolven—Originally humans, a slave race magically created by the darkling sorcerers to fill the army of their kingdom to fight against the High Elven Imperium of the sidhe. They can assume human or wolf-man forms.