A Summary of the Five Known People

DWARFSHumans might be more plentiful, but we dwarfs come in second, and we are of course the perfect creatures: Blessed with good looks, high intelligence, long lifespans, the exact right size -- and no, of course I'm not saying all this just because I'm a dwarf myself. Well, mostly not.

Now, one of the stereotypes about dwarfs is that we're very good businessmen... and yeah, that's more or less true: We're absolutely, totally great at making money. If there's any possible way of turning a profit at anything, then nine times out of ten a dwarf will find that way. Okay, some of us find the ways by turning to crime, organized or otherwise, and it's true that in most countries, the underworld and organized crime is more or less ruled by dwarfs. But, well, most dwarfs, including yours truly, are lawful, respectable citizens. Trust me.

Oh, and most dwarfs have beards. And because I always meet some humans who start thinking this is weird: Yes, that includes our women. We're the only People where all the females naturally have beards. Although, in the later few centuries there seems to be a bit of a fashion statement among the younger dwarfs to shave. Probably just a fad.

WIGHTSAnd here's the wights, the youngest and most diverse of the Five Known People.

While dwarfs and elves and humans tend to follow a certain standard look, wights vary slightly more in appearance. I mean -- you know how dogs come in various shapes and sizes, and how you'd hardly think a big wolfhound could be of the same species as one of those small yap-yap dogs? Yeah, same with the wights. Apart from a few common physical traits, like how they all have tails, big ears and clawed feet, any two wights can look so different you'd swear they they couldn't possibly be related, and then it turns out they're twins or something.

Now, the wights aren't really famed for their intellect... all right, most of them are considered plain stupid. Not that you can't get smart wights, but they're not a people of geniuses. They have other advantages, though; all wights have very sharp senses and an almost animalistic ability to know when something is dangerous and when it isn't. They're also very strong both physically and (believe it or not) mentally -- your average wight is actually pretty hard to fool. As long as you don't start talking about numbers or philosophy or mechanics or anything like that. For this reason, you often see wights working as security guards. law enforcers and Meddlers.

DRAGONSDragons are an interesting bunch. Like the elves they're technically immortal, because they are... well, some people say they are half-gods, given that they are direct descendants of the Dragon. I mean THE Dragon, the Dragon with a big D, the god.

As you may have guessed, they're pretty much the most powerful creatures in our world, with vast magical abilities, huge strength and speed, and of course the ability to move between the mundane and magical lands at will, which nobody else (apart from the gods) can do. They're also without question the weirdest creatures in our world, with habits and needs that just makes you go "huh?!"

See, dragons are shapeshifters. Most of the times you see a dragon it'll be high up in the sky, flying along and minding its own business, but then you find that someone you know was actually a dragon all along, who had taken on the form of a dwarf, and then things get really complicated. Not that I speak outta personal experience, mind you!

We don't really know much about dragon society, which is pretty loose. We know that they do have a king, who resides in Kandrazaal, the dragon country, but other than that, the dragons are pretty secretive about their ways. Most of them tend to be loners, but there are the odd few who decide they like company and basically live for years at a time as a dwarf or elf or human or whatever.

OTHERS

You might occasionally meet someone who doesn't fit in with these five People, like a pixie or a vampire or something like that. And then you might decide to come to me and say "Berrok! I just discovered a new people! We have to upgrade the definition so it's the Six Known People!" And in that case, I'll have two things to tell you:

First of all; I'm flattered that you think I have any sort of power to change official terms and definitions, but that sort of thing's a little above my pay level.

Second of all: Most likely what you've seen isn't actually a new People, just some poor Spellstruck. Either someone who comes from the Mundane Lands and got overwhelmed by the magic, or some idiot who went through the plains of Gobar on a dare, or whatever.

If you're a seafarer, then you might have met a mermaid or two. Or a dozen. Really, mermaids are common enough that a lot of scholars have argued they should count as the Sixth People... but don't you believe them. All mermaids are Spellstrucks, and a good number of them are the former victims of the pirates of Sanctuary. See, these pirates have a particular liking for attacking a ship, turn all the crew into mermaids, and then take the now-crewless ship and all its riches back to Sanctuary... leaving the crew swimming about in their new mermaid shapes.

I can't really tell you a whole lot about mermaids beyond that -- most of them are friendly enough, but they're such scatterbrains you can't get a sensible word out of 'em. That, and they have this weird ability to just vanish and then reappear anywhere there's water, so they hardly ever stay in one place for long enough for anyone to find out much about them.

And that's pretty much it. Well, you know, in brief that's it. There are other details that I haven't touched upon, but I'm actually kinda talked out right now. What do you say we go get a bite to eat? By the way, is it okay if it's your treat? Yeah, I mean, I have been going out of my way to explain this to you, and I don't really have all that much cash on me right now, so...