PLAYER CHARACTER RACES
In addition to humans – the dominant species on Sethia – here are the available PC races for this campaign.
Bloodspeakers
Though technically not a race, Bloodspeakers were, prior to the Black Dawn, among the most feared and hated denizens of Sethia. Bloodspeaker mages were born with the ability to quite literally breathe magic – which took the form of clouds of dripping bloody haze that coalesced and was shaped by its creator – and this fearsome aspect made the entire race a despised minority in all of Sethia, due primarily to the perceived tendency of its members to wreak destruction wherever they went. Bloodspeakers were born, it seemed, quite at random: one’s parent did not need to be a Bloodspeaker, and just because one had a Bloodspeakers talents did not mean that her children would bear them, as well. There were perhaps one Bloodspeaker for every hundred or so that were not.
Bloodspeakers were shunned and avoided in Den’nar, which was preferential to the treatment they received in Jlantria, where they were hunted, incarcerated, and killed with appalling regularity. Arcane tests and equipment developed that allowed Bloodspeaker to be rooted out and hunted, though these tests were far from reliable, and many innocent people were killed. The hatred of Bloodspeakers became a witch hunt. Anyone could be a Bloodspeaker, since they looked just like any “normal” person, and the threat of being accused of being a Bloodspeaker soon weighed heavy on citizens of the Jlantrian Empire. To the Throne and the Church of Corvinia, Bloodspeakers became a physical embodiment of the evils of society: they were a convenient bind to be thrown over the general population in order to keep them under control.
Since the Black War and the Black Dawn, the stigma regarding Bloodspeakers has lifted somewhat, due largely in part to the dissolution of the Jlantrian Empire. That being said, Bloodspeakers are still treated with a general malaise by other races, and the fact that militant Bloodspeaker groups like the Revengers still carry out violent criminal acts in the name of their race certainly hasn’t help to alleviate the enduring tensions.
Doj
Despite being a race of imposing giants, history has proved the Doj to be one of the most exploited Nethermost races: their past is filled with periods of enslavement at the hands of the Eidolos, of being driven from their ancestral homeland by the Dracaj, of being experimented on with Meldoarian war thaumaturgi and of being slaughtered by the Cruj. True Doj appear as large (albeit somewhat stocky) humans roughly fifteen feet tall; their hair is generally curly and dark, their eyes are black, and their skin ranges in color from white to nearly ebon. It is believed that the Doj race was once both larger and more culturally advanced as a society, but centuries of war, underground imprisonment and surviving cruel thaumaturgic modifications has greatly reduced the size of the average Doj and effectively stymied their societal development.
There are no actual Doj lands remaining: these giants have been so thoroughly decimated by history and circumstance that they bear little left to grant themselves any sort of unified identity. Large bands of Dojian raiders roam the Nethermost, battling whatever they encounter, while others travel in caravans, merely attempting to avoid the Cruj and the Eidolos. Doj on the surface are almost always “half-Doj”, an offshoot race that has evolved from the Crujian slave stock and that is much smaller (roughly half the size) of their subterranean cousins, and who generally trend to have gray skin and gray or white hair. When most surface dwellers think of Doj, it is almost always the “half-Doj” they are actually referring to.
Most Doj encountered will be half-Doj on the surface world, who readily find work as mercenaries or specialized laborers. The Gray Watch outside of New Koth is the largest surface assembly of these sad creatures known to exist.
Dracaj
The Dracaj are a race of cunning, magic-yielding reptilian warriors who ruthlessly scheme to dominate the Nethermost. Dracaj appear as roughly human-like lizards of varying color, with slightly elongated arms and pale white eyes that bear no pupils; the creatures can either crawl or walk erect, and their tails are roughly twice as long as their bodies. Dracaj speak to one another in a strange, guttural language of bark-like roaring noises.
The Dracaj are among the more indecipherable of the denizens of the Nethermost. They are subtle and cunning, and rarely engage in open conflict, although they are known to patrol the borders of their domain with murderous alacrity. Trespassers into Dracaj territories vanish into the depths of the Nethermost, subjected to terrible flesh altering experiments, rendered blind and then sold as slaves, or else put to work in rare ore mines buried miles below the surface. The Dracaj are also rumored to have highly unsavory sexual appetites, with humans as their choice of fetish.
There are several sub-species of Dracaj, classified by scholars according to color: red (small, quick, superior understanding of magical technology), blue (primitive, more lizard-like than human-like), gray (human sized, most adept at magic) and black (giant-sized, skilled warriors, highly barbaric). There also exists the so-called half-Dracaj: not true hybrids at all, but the offspring of once-captured humans who were partially imprinted with the Draconian genetic structure in a strange attempt on the part of the evil race to conquer through forced reproduction. Half-Dracaj are fairly uncommon, and most first-generation have difficulty re-adjusting to normal life, though their offspring are generally well accepted.
Gol
These strange, cursed people came to be as result of Meldoarian magic, though the Gol are not necessarily of Meldoar themselves. The Gol are a diminutive race of near humans with terribly scarred flesh, opaque eyes and a proclivity for sorcery and witchcraft. Gol first began to appear in both Jlantria and Den’nar roughly eighty years prior to the Black War, claiming to be the survivors of some calamity brought on by Talosian witch magic. Their diminutive bodies, they claimed, were not their own, but vessels that their individual souls were trapped as part of a mass, failed experiment Meldoarian experiment. Unfortunately, due to the fickle nature of Talosian magic (which tampers with time and consciousness, often with unexpected results), the Gol have been left without any clues as to their true origins or identity. They live in prisons of flesh: lost souls bound in unfamiliar bodies.
Hard to believe as their stories were, Veilwardens of Jlantria and Den’nari mystics have authenticated the collective Gol tale through experimentation and mind reading. At the point of their initial appearance, there were roughly 10,000 Gol scattered through both Empires, all sharing the same general sense of their shared fate even though most, it seemed, had never met.
The Gol population has fallen sharply over the years due to an apparent lack of ability to reproduce. The Gol’s misshapen frames are blessed with unusual longevity, however, and the scattered refugees of whatever calamity befell them found homes in both Den’nar and the normally xenophobic Jlantria before the War, and many of them found work as alchemists, mages and soothsayers, all arts they seem naturally adept at. They are a crass, angry people, deprived of the knowledge of their own origins, forever displaced in a world that views them with both amusement and pity. Today, there are perhaps 1,000 Gol remaining in the world.
Sulaj
Buried in a number of hidden villages deep in the Dusk Hills, the Sulaj are a quiet race of mystics, sorcerers and warriors. An offshoot race of humans, the Sulajji are pale-skinned, fair-haired, and with milky eyes, a result of a millennia of incarceration in the Nethermost. The soft-spoken Sulaj are athletic and graceful, and they hold a strong and rich scholarly tradition through the passing down of whispered tales and astral dirges. Sulaj are incredibly secretive and, in their own way, highly xenophobic, as they are reluctant to share information or work with outsiders unless placed in a situation where they have little other choice.
After a bloody rebellion that enabled the Sulaj to escape from the subterranean Crujian metropolis of Meledrakkar, they escaped to the surface world, where they were forced into hiding for a good many years by the militant Jlantrian Empire, which viewed them as intruders and insurgents. The Sulaj eventually found refuge in the more peaceful Empire of Den’nar, where they were allowed to develop their own communities unmolested. Though relatively isolationist, the Sulaj were considered free citizens of the Den’nari Empire, and individuals often set out on their own in search of knowledge or to aid in the greater good. A few even found homes in Jlantria, though generally out of plain sight. During the Black War, the Sulaj made a name for themselves acting as Veilwardens, assassins and scouts; it was primarily through the effort of valiant Sulajji agents that Chul Gaerog was destroyed and the war ended.
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