F. The Races

The Intelligent Races.

Elves are, by their own claims, the first race. They believe they evolved from the spirits of the land, spirits that chose to take physical form. They believe they are superior to all other creatures, the perfect race, born to rule and be served by all others. They are elitist, fascist, arrogant and extremely gifted. Believing all these things doesn't get you where elves have been for over 10,000 years, the top dog. As long as anyone can remember, except maybe the dwarves, they have been the ruling race through superior intellect and physical prowess. Their beliefs have been vindicated over and over again by their victories and the success of their culture. So their beliefs are not based on wishes and 'wannabes', or dogma, or racial theories of purity, it is based on cold hard fact.

Something changed about 100 years ago. Nobody is sure exactly what caused it but legend would suggest that a group had a meeting, and from that meeting a plan was decided and passed to the leaders of every other major race. The result of this plan was that since that time no major battles have been fought, which historically elves always won. Instead a slow and steady bush war has been carried out, where the major aim has been to kill as many elves as they can whilst not suffering major calamities themselves. At the same time many of the opposing races actively retreated away from the major areas of elvish population. Dwarves went underground, goblins and orcs moved away from elf lands, trolls retreated into their homelands and centaurs migrated further north. It has taken 100 years but the plan has worked. The birth rate of elves is very low, and the death rate has been growing. IN recent years elves have begun to alter the way they interact with the rest of the world, they have retreated into their homelands and involved themselves less and less in the affairs of the other races. As it stands currently there are large areas of land left mostly vacant because everyone has moved away from them, a sort of neutral territory that everyone avoids.

There are actually two races of elves, True Elves and Feral Elves. True elves are the ruling race. They live many centuries, some even approaching 1000 years. They have stunningly robust bodies and minds compared to most other creatures (via stamina and agility). They are exceptional fighters, masterful mages and as one with their native lands (forest). They stand close to 7 feet tall on average and weigh around 140kg, making them very big. They have pointed ears and chiselled facial features. Their only draw back is a very low birth rate, due to natural causes and cultural choices. An elf is the equal of 6 men in most circumstances, and a small group of elves is a small army. In the past elves were often solitary travellers, which allowed for them to be ambushed and killed by strong, well organised groups. These days however elves travel in small groups and require a considerable force to overwhelm them.

The second race of elves, Feral Elves, or Green Elves, are more human in comparison. They have a much greater fertility rate but a much shorter life span. They still look elvish, but much smaller. Unfortunately for Green Elves the True Elves consider them to be a form of vermin and tend to kill them on sight. Accordingly Green Elves are very insecure and paranoid, and prone to running first and talking only as a last resort. Green elves are not an 'advanced' race, they tend to live more natural lives intune with their environments, and they have a preference for woodland terrain. Green elves need to be mobile so they do not cluster in large settlements, but remain in extended families that roam a large region, sort of like classical gypsies or north american indians.

Dwarves are the second major race in the land, mainly due to their technology. Dwarves are the only ones able to smelt and work iron and steel, primairly as they are the only ones who know where all the good deposits are, and often tend to settle such places. A Dwarf settlement is 80% or more underground and the surface is heavily fortified, always of stone. The underground portions of dwarvish settlements is forbidden to outsiders and the only times they have been entered is when elvish armies have occupied them. Normally a dwarf settlement will collapse its entry tunnels long before any invader can make entry, and the secrets of iron are always destroyed. In the current game time dwarves have abandoned many of their smaller settlements and collapsed the tunnels (most of them), retreating to major cities and digging more and more into the earth in an attempt to avoid a new war with the elves. This has put a lot of stress on all of them and this stress has manifested in a growing number of 'wild' dwarves. A 'wild' dwarf is one who abandons their people and strikes out into the surface world, often with a selection of valuable dwarvish materials to trade with. No 'wild' dwarf will know the secret of smelting iron and all would die before giving anything away.

Orcs are a primitive and violent but to some degree honourable, as long as you can back up what you say with force. To orcs 'violence is always an answer', and they respect anyone who can beat them in a fair fight. Orcish society is strangely split, the males from the females forming two distinct groups. Orc females are called witches and specialise in a specific area of magic. Orc males are called dervishes and have a completely different area of magic. The two groups will travel and settle together but they remain apart, with physical barriers and markers always showing the boundries of where one sex may go and the other cannot. Crossing the boundries can be fatal. In times of war however the two sexes will work well as a single force. Periodically special festivals will be held where they come together for the purposes of mating.

Elves

BODY: +2

MIND: +2

SOUL: +2

LOOK: +2

SIZE: Big, +1Phys, 2Dam

Dwarves

Orcs

Trolls

Goblins

Centaurs

Ogres

Giants