| The Standard Races of Saldrin |
| This information relates to natives of the material plane of Saldrin. For information about natives of the satellite plane Yasat see the player handbook. Dwarves Dwarves are known to the world as a race of skilled warriors and artisans who forge very strong bonds within their own race and with other races, but these tend to take longer. Dwarves are slow to make friends and allies but once made these bonds are difficult to break. Dwarven culture is a clan based one with ancient feuds and alliances some of which stretch back more than a thousand years. Dwarven cities are built deep inside hill, mountains, and sometimes far under the surface of the earth. A city is normally inhabited by dozens of clans who keep to themselves most of the time. Since forges force rival clans into contact with one another these regions are prone to violence. Dwarven cities are fed primarily from food imported from the surface, extra planar plants which require no light to survive and to a lesser extent animals and beasts which eat these underdark plants. The most widely known feature of dwarven society is their religion. Most dwarves elusively worship Lord Girwin, The Great Lord of the Forge. It is not that dwarves to not accept that there are other gods besides their own, but they just believe that it is wrong for their race to worship any other deity, and that is it is an insult to their clan to do so. Clerics of Girwin have at times called forth his followers on holy crusades to protect the dwarven people. Such crusades are responsible for the elimination of all goblinoids across the planes. Stats as per the Player's Handbook, except they gain no bonuses against orcs and goblinoids. Elves Elves neither have nor desire a nation of their own. They have no known homeland; many elves dont even know who their parents are. For elven children unlike human ones experience no extend period of helplessness. When born they are far smaller than human children, but most are usually capable of limited movement within an hour of birth. Normally elven infants run off from their parents within a week or two; spending the bulk of their remaining childhood in the woods slowly progressing from animal to human intelligence levels. Those elves that do survive childhood often enter into druidic or arcane studies. Some elves follow other paths in life, but these are far less common. More often than not these elves are the result of a reincarnation spell. Most elves follow a religion, which is a mish mash of druidic traditions and the worship of human gods, but a few study one of these exclusively. Stats as per the Player's Handbook. Gnome The gnomish kingdom is a loosely nit group of villages in which all acknowledge that they are in fact gnomes. In short their is no central authority behind these villages. Each village is its own political unit which holds alliances with other gnomish villages. While some alliances are hundreds of years old and composed and hundreds of villages gnomes still refuse to refer to these as kingdoms. The hatred between gnomes and kobolds is an ancient one. Some theorize it had to do with battles between their now dead gods. Others claim it is simply that they despise each other for splitting themselves into two races. Whatever the reason for this long standing hatred it is on the slow decline. The Underdark Defensive Pact, signed by both races in 583, declared that no formal warfare may stand between kobolds and gnomes of any sort. It has yet to be broken. Most gnomes to not worship deities instead taking up the druidic religion. Some gnomes have begun to follow human gods, but this is a very small sect of the population. Stats as per the Player's Handbook, except they gain no bonus against goblinoids. Halfling Halflings are well known as traders across the material plane, and to a lesser degree across the planes in general. An exposure to such a wide array of cultures has made halfling religion an interesting mix of the worship of nature gods, human ones, and the practice of druidic rituals. There are few halflings which do not follow at least three gods, a practice which humans abhor. Most halflings belong to the four great houses which have been forged by intermarriage and inter-house warfare dating back before recorded history. Each of these houses has a local leader in every community based who is charged with determining how local halflings of their house should act. The position of house leader is based upon wealth. The halfling who has the most liquid assets in a community is the leader. The more they have over everyone else the more secure their position is as the leader. Stats as per the Player's Handbook. Humans Humans use the feudal system of government. Each kingdom is rule by a king who divides their land among dukes who then further divide it among their vassals. The eldest offspring of a king will become the king regardless of their qualifications. This fact forces a king to watch their back as it is possible for them to be turned to stone and used as building material by an eager heir. Humans accept many gods as a race, but most humans will only worship one or two gods. Humans tend to avoid druidic rituals many times scoffing at them as the work of foolish primitives with no understanding of the afterlife. Human religion is built upon the idea of good and evil gods. Good ones want to help humans and evil ones wish to destroy humanity. Some religious scholars claim that there is only one good god and one evil one, but none have yet to prove or disprove this theory. Stats as per the Player's Handbook. Kobolds It is unclear how kobolds came to be. Some claim they are descended from gnomes, others claim dragons, and still others claim that they are their own race so everyone should stop pretending to have a brain, and just accept it. Kobold society is largely a clan based one with villages composed of a single clan and cities composed of several clans. Collections of these villages and cities are called vlarns and are ruled loosely by the leader of the largest village or city in the region. Kobolds accept no god and few practice druidic rituals. There are still many kobold clerics who worship the deep flame (which many humans believe to be an evil deity). The deep flame allows its cleric access to the domains of earth, fire, knowledge, and magic. Some kobolds who grow up inside of human lands instead take up the worship of the human gods. 4 Strength, +2 Dexterity. Small size: +1 bonus to Armor Class, +1 bonus on attack rolls, +4 bonus on Hide checks, 4 penalty on grapple checks, lifting and carrying limits 3/4 those of Medium characters. A kobold's base land speed is 30 feet. Darkvision out to 120 feet. Racial Skills: A kobold character has a +2 racial bonus on Craft (trapmaking), Profession (miner), and Search checks. Kobolds are experts at both trap design and trap detection. A kobold that passes within 10ft of a nonmagical trap may automatically make a search check for that trap as if they were actively looking for it. +1 natural armor bonus. Light sensitivity: Kobolds are dazzeled in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell. This bestows a -1 penalty to attack rolls, Spot and Search checks. Automatic Languages: Common, and Draconic. Bonus Languages: Dwarven, Gnomish, Terran, and Undercommon. Favored Class: Psion |