Post by Moonlight on Mar 9, 2009 20:56:33 GMT -5
The myriad of wonderful forests, exotic cities, and odd planes are full of mysterious races. Here is the several choices, followed by short descriptions, of races you'll be able to play as in your exciting adventures. I will post the more technical information in the Advanced Info. Reminder, these are general descriptions of each race, and are very flexible depending on the kind of character you want to play. While a Dragonborn is typically honorable, maybe something happened in his past that made him deceptive and cruel. That doesn't mean everyone should go around breaking the stereotypes though, they are their for a reason they're just not set in stone. A link to a picture has been presented for each one that isn't completely obvious like dawrf or elf.
To a dragonborn, honor is more important than life
itself. First and foremost, honor is tied to battlefield
conduct. Adversaries should be treated with courtesy
and respect, even if they are bitter enemies. Caution
and discretion are key to a warrior’s survival, but fear
is a disease and cowardice is a moral failing.
The drive to behave honorably extends into the rest
of a dragonborn’s life: Breaking an oath is the height
of dishonor, and attention to honesty extends to every
word. A commitment made must be carried out. Ultimately,
a dragonborn takes responsibility for his or her
actions and their consequences.
A continual drive for self-improvement reveals an
additional aspect of dragonborn honor. Dragonborn
value skill and excellence in all endeavors. They hate
to fail, and they push themselves to extreme efforts
before they give up on something. A dragonborn holds
mastery of a particular skill as a lifetime goal. Members
of other races who share the same commitment
find it easy to earn the respect of a dragonborn.
The dragonborn dedication to honor and excellence
sometimes leads others to view dragonborn as arrogant
and proud. Most dragonborn share a great pride
in their race’s past and present accomplishments, but
they are also quick to admire the accomplishments of
others. Even though the tiefling empire of Bael Turath
was the enemy of the ancient dragonborn empire of
Arkhosia, dragonborn recognize tieflings as worthy
companions or opponents, admiring their strength
and tenacity as friends or enemies.
Dragonborn seek adventure for the chance to prove
their worth, win renown, and perhaps become champions
about whom stories will be told for generations.
To win everlasting glory through mighty deeds, daring
exploits, and supreme skill—that is the dragonborn
dream.
www.playfactory.fr/dungeons_dragons/img/visuels/Dragonborn_M_Warlock_111115.jpg
Proudly proclaiming they were made from the earth
itself, dwarves share many qualities with the rock they
love. They are strong, hardy, and dependable. They
value their ancestral traditions, which they preserve
through the ages as fiercely as they defend the carved
structures of their mountain homes.
Dwarves believe in the importance of clan ties and
ancestry. They deeply respect their elders, and they
honor long-dead clan founders and ancestral heroes.
They place great value on wisdom and the experience
of years, and most are polite to elders of any race.
More so than most other races, dwarves seek guidance
and protection from the gods. They look to the
divine for strength, hope, and inspiration, or they
seek to propitiate cruel or destructive gods. Individual
dwarves might be impious or openly heretical, but
temples and shrines of some sort are found in almost
every dwarven community. Dwarves revere Moradin
as their creator, but individual dwarves honor those
deities who hold sway over their vocations; warriors
pray to Bahamut or Kord, architects to Erathis, and
merchants to Avandra—or even to Tiamat, if a dwarf is
consumed by the dwarven taste for wealth.
Dwarves never forget their enemies, either individuals
who have wronged them or entire races of
monsters who have done ill to their kind. Dwarves
harbor a fierce hatred for orcs, which often inhabit
the same mountainous areas that dwarves favor and
which wreak periodic devastation on dwarf communities.
Dwarves also despise giants and titans, because
the dwarf race once labored as the giants’ slaves. They
feel a mixture of pity and disgust toward those corrupted
dwarves who still have not freed themselves
from the giants’ yoke—azers and galeb duhrs among
them.
To a dwarf, it is a gift and a mark of deep respect
to stand beside an ally in battle, and a sign of deepest
loyalty to shield that ally from enemy attack. Dwarven
legends honor many heroes who gave their lives to save
their clans or their friends.
Eladrin society straddles the boundary between the
Feywild and the natural world. Eladrin build their
elegant cities and towers in places of striking natural
splendor, especially where the veil between the
worlds is thin—isolated mountain vales, green islands
along wild and storm-wracked coasts, and the deepest
recesses of ancient forests. Some eladrin realms exist
mostly in the Feywild, only rarely touching the world,
while others appear in the world at sunset each day,
only to fade back into the Feywild at dawn.
Long-lived and strongly tied to the Feywild, eladrin
have a detached view of the world. Eladrin often have
difficulty believing that events in the world have much
importance to them, and they consider courses of
action that can last for centuries.
Their general detachment from the world can make
eladrin seem distant and intimidating to other races.
Their fey nature also makes them simultaneously
alluring and a little frightening. However, eladrin take
friendships and alliances to heart and can react with
swift fury when their friends are endangered. Combined
with their intellect, bravery, and magical power,
this loyalty makes them powerful and respected allies.
Eladrin live by an aesthetic philosophy common to
the Feywild and personified by Corellon, the god of
beauty and patron of the fey. Eladrin seek to exemplify
grace, skill, and learning in every part of life, from
dance and song to swordplay and magic. Their cities
are places of stunning beauty that shape and guide
their natural surroundings into elegant forms.
Eladrin are close cousins to the elves and are occasionally
called high elves or gray elves. Eladrin favor
the Feywild and arcane magic more than elves do,
but the two races hold each other in high regard. They
share a burning hatred for the third branch of their
race—the drow.
The Feywild’s most powerful eladrin, called noble
eladrin, become so infused with their realm’s inherent
magic that they transform into entirely new creatures.
These noble eladrin take on characteristics of the seasons
and other natural phenomena.
laopiniondelcuco.blogcindario.com/ficheros/Eladrin2.JPG
Elves are a people of deeply felt but short-lived passions.
They are easily moved to delighted laughter,
blinding wrath, or mournful tears. They are inclined
to impulsive behavior, and members of other races
sometimes see elves as flighty or impetuous, but elves
do not shirk responsibility or forget commitments.
Thanks in part to their long life span, elves sometimes
have difficulty taking certain matters as seriously as
other races do, but when genuine threats arise, elves
are fierce and reliable allies.
Elves revere the natural world. Their connection
to their surroundings enables them to perceive much.
They never cut living trees, and when they create
permanent communities, they do so by carefully
growing or weaving arbors, tree houses, and catwalks
from living branches. They prefer the primal power
of the natural world to the arcane magic their eladrin
cousins employ. Elves love to explore new forests and
new lands, and it’s not unusual for individuals or
small bands to wander hundreds of miles from their
homelands.
Elves are loyal and merry friends. They love simple
pleasures—dancing, singing, footraces, and contests
of balance and skill—and rarely see a reason to tie
themselves down to dull or disagreeable tasks. Despite
how unpleasant war can be, a threat to their homes,
families, or friends can make elves grimly serious and
prompt them to take up arms.
At the dawn of creation, elves and eladrin were a
single race dwelling both in the Feywild and in the
world, and passing freely between the two. When
the drow rebelled against their kin, under the leadership
of the god Lolth, the resulting battles tore the fey
kingdoms asunder. Ties between the peoples of the
Feywild and the world grew tenuous, and eventually
the elves and eladrin grew into two distinct races.
Elves are descended from those who lived primarily
in the world, and they no longer dream of the Feywild.
They love the forests and wilds of the world that they
have made their home.
Half-elves are more than just a combination of two
races—the combination of human and elf blood produces
a unique race with qualities all its own. They
share some of the natural grace, athleticism, and keen
perceptiveness of elves, along with the passion and
drive of humans. But in their own right, they are charismatic,
confident, and open-minded and are natural
diplomats, negotiators, and leaders.
Half-elves like to be around people, the more
diverse the better. They gravitate toward population
centers, especially larger settlements where members
of many races mingle freely. Half-elves cultivate large
networks of acquaintances, as much out of genuine
friendliness as for practical purposes. They like to
establish relationships with humans, elves, and members
of other races so they can learn about them, the
way they live, and how they make their way in the
world.
Half-elves rarely settle down for any length of time.
Their wanderlust makes them natural adventurers,
and they quickly make themselves at home wherever
they end up. When their paths take them back to a
place they have visited before, they track down old
friends and renew old contacts.
Ultimately, half-elves are survivors, able to adapt to
almost any situation. They are generally well liked and
admired by everyone, not just elves and humans. They
are empathetic, better at putting themselves in others’
shoes than most.
Half-elves naturally inspire loyalty in others, and
they return that feeling with deep friendship and a
keen sense of responsibility for those who place themselves
in their care. Half-elf warlords and generals do
not order their followers into danger that they would
not face themselves, and they usually lead from the
front, trusting their allies to follow.
Half-elves have no culture of their own and are not
a numerous people. They usually bear human or elf
names, sometimes using one name among elves and a
different one among humans. Some are anxious about
their place in the world, feeling no kinship with any
race, except other half-elves, but most call themselves
citizens of the world and kin to all.
Halflings are an affable, warm, and cheerful people.
They survive in a world full of larger creatures by
avoiding notice or, barring that, avoiding offense. They
appear harmless and so have managed to survive for
centuries in the shadow of empires and on the edges of
wars and political strife.
Halflings are practical and down-to-earth. They
concern themselves with basic needs and simple
pleasures, harboring few dreams of gold or glory.
Adventurers are no more rare among halflings than
among other races, but they usually pursue the
adventurer’s life for reasons of community, friendship,
wanderlust, or curiosity. Halfling adventurers are
brave and faithful companions, relying on stealth and
trickery in battle rather than raw might or magic.
Tight-knit halfling communities are found near
the settlements of other races, often along or even on
the surface of a body of water. Halflings have never
built a kingdom of their own or even held much land.
They don’t recognize any sort of royalty or nobility of
their own, instead looking to family elders to guide
them. This emphasis on family and community has
enabled halflings to maintain their traditional ways
for thousands of years, unaffected by the rise and fall
of empires.
According to halfling legend, Melora and Sehanine
created the halflings together, giving the race a love
of nature and the gift of stealth. When their interest
waned, Melora and Sehanine stopped looking after
the race, or so the legends go, and halflings made
their own way in the world. They say Avandra, the god
of luck, admired their resourcefulness and adopted
them, favoring them with good fortune. Not all halflings
worship Avandra, but nearly all breathe a prayer
of thanks to her when fortune favors them.
Halflings are fond of stories and legends such as the
myth of Avandra, and their culture is rich in oral tradition.
Few members of other races realize that halfling
folktales contain a vast amount of lore about people
and places long past. Many halflings are able to dredge
up knowledge about the history, religion, or culture of
other races, but that knowledge is usually wrapped in
a fable.
www.patrickriggs.com/L54/images/stalking_halfling.jpg
Humans are decisive and sometimes rash. They
explore the darkest reaches of the world in search
of knowledge and power. They hurl themselves into
danger, dealing with consequences as they arise. They
act first and ponder later, trusting their will to prevail
and their native resourcefulness to see them through
perilous situations.
Humans always look to the horizon, seeking to
expand their influence and their territory. They chase
power and want to change the world, for good or for
ill. Their settlements are among the brightest lights in
a dark and untamed world, and humans constantly
seek to explore new lands and settle new frontiers.
Their self-reliance and bravery inclines humans
toward martial classes such as fighter, warlord, and
rogue. They often prefer to find hidden reserves of
strength in themselves rather than trust to the magic
of wizards or clerics.
That said, humans tend to be a pious race, worshiping
the whole pantheon of gods. Their myths name no
god as the creator of the race. Some tales say the gods
worked together to create them, infusing them with the
best qualities of each race that had come before. Other
tales say that humans were the creation of a god whose
name is no longer known, a god killed in the war against
the primordials or perhaps assassinated by another deity
(Asmodeus and Zehir are often accused of the deed).
Humans are tolerant of other races, different
beliefs, and foreign cultures. Most human settlements
are diverse places where different races live together
in relative peace. The human empire of Nerath,
the last great world power, united many different
peoples. Most of the human towns that have survived
the empire’s fall are fortified bastions against the
encroaching darkness. When elven forests are razed
or dwarven mines overrun, the survivors often flee to
the nearest human town for protection.
Despite the far reach and power of Nerath, humans
in the present day are a scattered and divided people.
Dozens of small kingdoms, fiefdoms, and free cities
have arisen from Nerath’s ruins, and many of these
realms are petty, weak, or isolated. Tensions and
misunderstandings among them often precipitate skirmishes,
espionage, betrayal, and even open warfare.
Hundreds of years ago, the leaders of the human
empire of Bael Turath made pacts with devils to
solidify their hold over its enormous territory. Those
humans became the first tieflings, and they governed
their empire in the name of their infernal masters. In
time, Bael Turath came into conflict with Arkhosia,
the ancient empire of the dragonborn, and decades of
warfare left both empires in ruins. Bael Turath’s grand
capital was thrown down in ruin.
Tieflings are the heirs of the surviving noble dynasties
that ruled the empire. Their bloodline is tainted by
their diabolical connections, passing to their descendants
through all generations. In many ways, they
are human; they can have children with humans, for
example, but their offspring are always tieflings.
Centuries of other races’ distrust and outright
hatred have made tieflings self-reliant and often too
willing to live up to the stereotypes imposed on them.
As a race without a homeland, tieflings know that they
have to make their own way in the world and that they
have to be strong to survive, and they are not quick to
trust anyone who claims to be a friend. However, when
a tiefling’s companions demonstrate that they trust him
or her, the tiefling quickly learns to extend the same
trust to them. And once a tiefling gives someone trust
and loyalty, the tiefling is a firm friend and ally for life.
Although the nobles of Bael Turath subjugated
themselves to devils, most present-day tieflings give
little thought to gods or patrons, preferring to look out
for themselves. Therefore, they do not often follow the
path of the divine; tiefling clerics or paladins are rare.
Tieflings are not numerous. Sometimes a tiefling
merchant clan that is descended from a Bael Turath
dynasty settles as a group in a land where wealth can
purchase safety and comfort. But most tieflings are
born outside such hidden dynasties and grow up in the
roughest quarters of human cities and towns. These
tieflings often become swindlers, thieves, or crime
lords, who carve out a niche for themselves amid the
squalor of their surroundings.
dnd4.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/tiefling.jpg
Dragonborn
Proud, honorable warriors,
born from the blood of an ancient dragon god
born from the blood of an ancient dragon god
To a dragonborn, honor is more important than life
itself. First and foremost, honor is tied to battlefield
conduct. Adversaries should be treated with courtesy
and respect, even if they are bitter enemies. Caution
and discretion are key to a warrior’s survival, but fear
is a disease and cowardice is a moral failing.
The drive to behave honorably extends into the rest
of a dragonborn’s life: Breaking an oath is the height
of dishonor, and attention to honesty extends to every
word. A commitment made must be carried out. Ultimately,
a dragonborn takes responsibility for his or her
actions and their consequences.
A continual drive for self-improvement reveals an
additional aspect of dragonborn honor. Dragonborn
value skill and excellence in all endeavors. They hate
to fail, and they push themselves to extreme efforts
before they give up on something. A dragonborn holds
mastery of a particular skill as a lifetime goal. Members
of other races who share the same commitment
find it easy to earn the respect of a dragonborn.
The dragonborn dedication to honor and excellence
sometimes leads others to view dragonborn as arrogant
and proud. Most dragonborn share a great pride
in their race’s past and present accomplishments, but
they are also quick to admire the accomplishments of
others. Even though the tiefling empire of Bael Turath
was the enemy of the ancient dragonborn empire of
Arkhosia, dragonborn recognize tieflings as worthy
companions or opponents, admiring their strength
and tenacity as friends or enemies.
Dragonborn seek adventure for the chance to prove
their worth, win renown, and perhaps become champions
about whom stories will be told for generations.
To win everlasting glory through mighty deeds, daring
exploits, and supreme skill—that is the dragonborn
dream.
www.playfactory.fr/dungeons_dragons/img/visuels/Dragonborn_M_Warlock_111115.jpg
Dwarf
Masters of stone and iron, dauntless
and unyielding in the face of adversity
and unyielding in the face of adversity
Proudly proclaiming they were made from the earth
itself, dwarves share many qualities with the rock they
love. They are strong, hardy, and dependable. They
value their ancestral traditions, which they preserve
through the ages as fiercely as they defend the carved
structures of their mountain homes.
Dwarves believe in the importance of clan ties and
ancestry. They deeply respect their elders, and they
honor long-dead clan founders and ancestral heroes.
They place great value on wisdom and the experience
of years, and most are polite to elders of any race.
More so than most other races, dwarves seek guidance
and protection from the gods. They look to the
divine for strength, hope, and inspiration, or they
seek to propitiate cruel or destructive gods. Individual
dwarves might be impious or openly heretical, but
temples and shrines of some sort are found in almost
every dwarven community. Dwarves revere Moradin
as their creator, but individual dwarves honor those
deities who hold sway over their vocations; warriors
pray to Bahamut or Kord, architects to Erathis, and
merchants to Avandra—or even to Tiamat, if a dwarf is
consumed by the dwarven taste for wealth.
Dwarves never forget their enemies, either individuals
who have wronged them or entire races of
monsters who have done ill to their kind. Dwarves
harbor a fierce hatred for orcs, which often inhabit
the same mountainous areas that dwarves favor and
which wreak periodic devastation on dwarf communities.
Dwarves also despise giants and titans, because
the dwarf race once labored as the giants’ slaves. They
feel a mixture of pity and disgust toward those corrupted
dwarves who still have not freed themselves
from the giants’ yoke—azers and galeb duhrs among
them.
To a dwarf, it is a gift and a mark of deep respect
to stand beside an ally in battle, and a sign of deepest
loyalty to shield that ally from enemy attack. Dwarven
legends honor many heroes who gave their lives to save
their clans or their friends.
Eladrin
Graceful warriors and wizards at home
in the eldritch twilight of the Feywild
in the eldritch twilight of the Feywild
Eladrin society straddles the boundary between the
Feywild and the natural world. Eladrin build their
elegant cities and towers in places of striking natural
splendor, especially where the veil between the
worlds is thin—isolated mountain vales, green islands
along wild and storm-wracked coasts, and the deepest
recesses of ancient forests. Some eladrin realms exist
mostly in the Feywild, only rarely touching the world,
while others appear in the world at sunset each day,
only to fade back into the Feywild at dawn.
Long-lived and strongly tied to the Feywild, eladrin
have a detached view of the world. Eladrin often have
difficulty believing that events in the world have much
importance to them, and they consider courses of
action that can last for centuries.
Their general detachment from the world can make
eladrin seem distant and intimidating to other races.
Their fey nature also makes them simultaneously
alluring and a little frightening. However, eladrin take
friendships and alliances to heart and can react with
swift fury when their friends are endangered. Combined
with their intellect, bravery, and magical power,
this loyalty makes them powerful and respected allies.
Eladrin live by an aesthetic philosophy common to
the Feywild and personified by Corellon, the god of
beauty and patron of the fey. Eladrin seek to exemplify
grace, skill, and learning in every part of life, from
dance and song to swordplay and magic. Their cities
are places of stunning beauty that shape and guide
their natural surroundings into elegant forms.
Eladrin are close cousins to the elves and are occasionally
called high elves or gray elves. Eladrin favor
the Feywild and arcane magic more than elves do,
but the two races hold each other in high regard. They
share a burning hatred for the third branch of their
race—the drow.
The Feywild’s most powerful eladrin, called noble
eladrin, become so infused with their realm’s inherent
magic that they transform into entirely new creatures.
These noble eladrin take on characteristics of the seasons
and other natural phenomena.
laopiniondelcuco.blogcindario.com/ficheros/Eladrin2.JPG
Elf
Quick, wary archers who freely roam
the forests and wilds
the forests and wilds
Elves are a people of deeply felt but short-lived passions.
They are easily moved to delighted laughter,
blinding wrath, or mournful tears. They are inclined
to impulsive behavior, and members of other races
sometimes see elves as flighty or impetuous, but elves
do not shirk responsibility or forget commitments.
Thanks in part to their long life span, elves sometimes
have difficulty taking certain matters as seriously as
other races do, but when genuine threats arise, elves
are fierce and reliable allies.
Elves revere the natural world. Their connection
to their surroundings enables them to perceive much.
They never cut living trees, and when they create
permanent communities, they do so by carefully
growing or weaving arbors, tree houses, and catwalks
from living branches. They prefer the primal power
of the natural world to the arcane magic their eladrin
cousins employ. Elves love to explore new forests and
new lands, and it’s not unusual for individuals or
small bands to wander hundreds of miles from their
homelands.
Elves are loyal and merry friends. They love simple
pleasures—dancing, singing, footraces, and contests
of balance and skill—and rarely see a reason to tie
themselves down to dull or disagreeable tasks. Despite
how unpleasant war can be, a threat to their homes,
families, or friends can make elves grimly serious and
prompt them to take up arms.
At the dawn of creation, elves and eladrin were a
single race dwelling both in the Feywild and in the
world, and passing freely between the two. When
the drow rebelled against their kin, under the leadership
of the god Lolth, the resulting battles tore the fey
kingdoms asunder. Ties between the peoples of the
Feywild and the world grew tenuous, and eventually
the elves and eladrin grew into two distinct races.
Elves are descended from those who lived primarily
in the world, and they no longer dream of the Feywild.
They love the forests and wilds of the world that they
have made their home.
Half-Elf
Born heroes and leaders who combine
the best features of humans and elves
the best features of humans and elves
Half-elves are more than just a combination of two
races—the combination of human and elf blood produces
a unique race with qualities all its own. They
share some of the natural grace, athleticism, and keen
perceptiveness of elves, along with the passion and
drive of humans. But in their own right, they are charismatic,
confident, and open-minded and are natural
diplomats, negotiators, and leaders.
Half-elves like to be around people, the more
diverse the better. They gravitate toward population
centers, especially larger settlements where members
of many races mingle freely. Half-elves cultivate large
networks of acquaintances, as much out of genuine
friendliness as for practical purposes. They like to
establish relationships with humans, elves, and members
of other races so they can learn about them, the
way they live, and how they make their way in the
world.
Half-elves rarely settle down for any length of time.
Their wanderlust makes them natural adventurers,
and they quickly make themselves at home wherever
they end up. When their paths take them back to a
place they have visited before, they track down old
friends and renew old contacts.
Ultimately, half-elves are survivors, able to adapt to
almost any situation. They are generally well liked and
admired by everyone, not just elves and humans. They
are empathetic, better at putting themselves in others’
shoes than most.
Half-elves naturally inspire loyalty in others, and
they return that feeling with deep friendship and a
keen sense of responsibility for those who place themselves
in their care. Half-elf warlords and generals do
not order their followers into danger that they would
not face themselves, and they usually lead from the
front, trusting their allies to follow.
Half-elves have no culture of their own and are not
a numerous people. They usually bear human or elf
names, sometimes using one name among elves and a
different one among humans. Some are anxious about
their place in the world, feeling no kinship with any
race, except other half-elves, but most call themselves
citizens of the world and kin to all.
Halfling
Quick and resourceful wanderers,
small in stature but great in courage
small in stature but great in courage
Halflings are an affable, warm, and cheerful people.
They survive in a world full of larger creatures by
avoiding notice or, barring that, avoiding offense. They
appear harmless and so have managed to survive for
centuries in the shadow of empires and on the edges of
wars and political strife.
Halflings are practical and down-to-earth. They
concern themselves with basic needs and simple
pleasures, harboring few dreams of gold or glory.
Adventurers are no more rare among halflings than
among other races, but they usually pursue the
adventurer’s life for reasons of community, friendship,
wanderlust, or curiosity. Halfling adventurers are
brave and faithful companions, relying on stealth and
trickery in battle rather than raw might or magic.
Tight-knit halfling communities are found near
the settlements of other races, often along or even on
the surface of a body of water. Halflings have never
built a kingdom of their own or even held much land.
They don’t recognize any sort of royalty or nobility of
their own, instead looking to family elders to guide
them. This emphasis on family and community has
enabled halflings to maintain their traditional ways
for thousands of years, unaffected by the rise and fall
of empires.
According to halfling legend, Melora and Sehanine
created the halflings together, giving the race a love
of nature and the gift of stealth. When their interest
waned, Melora and Sehanine stopped looking after
the race, or so the legends go, and halflings made
their own way in the world. They say Avandra, the god
of luck, admired their resourcefulness and adopted
them, favoring them with good fortune. Not all halflings
worship Avandra, but nearly all breathe a prayer
of thanks to her when fortune favors them.
Halflings are fond of stories and legends such as the
myth of Avandra, and their culture is rich in oral tradition.
Few members of other races realize that halfling
folktales contain a vast amount of lore about people
and places long past. Many halflings are able to dredge
up knowledge about the history, religion, or culture of
other races, but that knowledge is usually wrapped in
a fable.
www.patrickriggs.com/L54/images/stalking_halfling.jpg
Human
Ambitious, driven, pragmatic—a race of heroes,
and also a race of villains
and also a race of villains
Humans are decisive and sometimes rash. They
explore the darkest reaches of the world in search
of knowledge and power. They hurl themselves into
danger, dealing with consequences as they arise. They
act first and ponder later, trusting their will to prevail
and their native resourcefulness to see them through
perilous situations.
Humans always look to the horizon, seeking to
expand their influence and their territory. They chase
power and want to change the world, for good or for
ill. Their settlements are among the brightest lights in
a dark and untamed world, and humans constantly
seek to explore new lands and settle new frontiers.
Their self-reliance and bravery inclines humans
toward martial classes such as fighter, warlord, and
rogue. They often prefer to find hidden reserves of
strength in themselves rather than trust to the magic
of wizards or clerics.
That said, humans tend to be a pious race, worshiping
the whole pantheon of gods. Their myths name no
god as the creator of the race. Some tales say the gods
worked together to create them, infusing them with the
best qualities of each race that had come before. Other
tales say that humans were the creation of a god whose
name is no longer known, a god killed in the war against
the primordials or perhaps assassinated by another deity
(Asmodeus and Zehir are often accused of the deed).
Humans are tolerant of other races, different
beliefs, and foreign cultures. Most human settlements
are diverse places where different races live together
in relative peace. The human empire of Nerath,
the last great world power, united many different
peoples. Most of the human towns that have survived
the empire’s fall are fortified bastions against the
encroaching darkness. When elven forests are razed
or dwarven mines overrun, the survivors often flee to
the nearest human town for protection.
Despite the far reach and power of Nerath, humans
in the present day are a scattered and divided people.
Dozens of small kingdoms, fiefdoms, and free cities
have arisen from Nerath’s ruins, and many of these
realms are petty, weak, or isolated. Tensions and
misunderstandings among them often precipitate skirmishes,
espionage, betrayal, and even open warfare.
Tiefling
Heirs of a shattered empire who live in the shadows
and do not fear the dark
and do not fear the dark
Hundreds of years ago, the leaders of the human
empire of Bael Turath made pacts with devils to
solidify their hold over its enormous territory. Those
humans became the first tieflings, and they governed
their empire in the name of their infernal masters. In
time, Bael Turath came into conflict with Arkhosia,
the ancient empire of the dragonborn, and decades of
warfare left both empires in ruins. Bael Turath’s grand
capital was thrown down in ruin.
Tieflings are the heirs of the surviving noble dynasties
that ruled the empire. Their bloodline is tainted by
their diabolical connections, passing to their descendants
through all generations. In many ways, they
are human; they can have children with humans, for
example, but their offspring are always tieflings.
Centuries of other races’ distrust and outright
hatred have made tieflings self-reliant and often too
willing to live up to the stereotypes imposed on them.
As a race without a homeland, tieflings know that they
have to make their own way in the world and that they
have to be strong to survive, and they are not quick to
trust anyone who claims to be a friend. However, when
a tiefling’s companions demonstrate that they trust him
or her, the tiefling quickly learns to extend the same
trust to them. And once a tiefling gives someone trust
and loyalty, the tiefling is a firm friend and ally for life.
Although the nobles of Bael Turath subjugated
themselves to devils, most present-day tieflings give
little thought to gods or patrons, preferring to look out
for themselves. Therefore, they do not often follow the
path of the divine; tiefling clerics or paladins are rare.
Tieflings are not numerous. Sometimes a tiefling
merchant clan that is descended from a Bael Turath
dynasty settles as a group in a land where wealth can
purchase safety and comfort. But most tieflings are
born outside such hidden dynasties and grow up in the
roughest quarters of human cities and towns. These
tieflings often become swindlers, thieves, or crime
lords, who carve out a niche for themselves amid the
squalor of their surroundings.
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