The Intelligent Races
Contents
The name "elf" is, in fact, not elvish. The elves have no name
for themselves, leaving naming to others. The names for the factions are
rarely used by the younger races. Generally, the Manai'u are called "green
elves" for their forest homes, the early Thytota'u are called "grey
elves" after the color of their stone cities, and the late Thytota'u
are called "black elves," either for their coloring or their intentions.
The elvish factions are distinct physically as well as philosophically and
geographically. By agreement, black elves have black hair and blue or violet
eyes, grey elves have blue or violet eyes but blonde or white hair, and
green elves have blonde or white hair and green or hazel eyes. Their skin
is pale or, in the case of some green elves, olive, but rumor has it that
the black elves are ruled by a monarch or council of rulers whose skin is
as black as their hair.
Green elves are elves as written on p. M98. Most live in settlements built
in the deepest part of the Manai-Tir-Quelli, although a few can be found
in smaller forests. They tend to be on the shy and retiring side, prefering
the company of nature to that of the younger races. Their "tirs"
(an elvish word meaning, depending on context, city, center, home, or several
lesser meanings; the word is pronounced "ter" in the Thytota'u
dialects) are made of platforms and canopies built in and around huge trees,
and they live off of superabundant clusters of seeds and fruit, nutritious
saps fermented into peculiar wines, and other products of the forest, encouraged
to grow by the elves themselves. Grey elves do not, as a race, have the
Sense of Duty towards nature (although individuals may), but they are Intolerant
(-5 points) of the younger races except more civilized humans and tend to
be condescending even towards them (total cost 50 points). They live in
densely built, tall-spired cities, built from elaboately sculpted white
or grey stone according to complex and far-reaching architectural plans.
While they will buy food from the farmers of other races, they subsist mostly
on flowers and nectar and the produce of their own hothouses. Black elves
are like grey elves, but are fully Intolerant (-10 points) of other races.
Their way of life is probably similar to that of the grey elves, but their
cities are black or dark grey.
Elven government is completely obscure to non-elves. They seem to operate
by concensus, but they also have a hideously complex aristocracy of which
every elf appears to be a member. Elvish etiquite is equally convoluted,
with different and precise degrees of formality applying to huge numbers
of specific circumstances. Therefore, Elven Savoir-Faire is a Mental/Hard
skill. Elvish religion is likewise obscure. It appears to be more akin to
philosophy, and is largely free of ritual.
Dwarves are as written (p. M97). Dwarven lives are structured around the
family and the darrow. The traditional dwarven family has a patriarch overseeing
the activities of four or five generations of descendants. In addition to
being the head of family business, the patriarch is expected to be an outstanding
craftsman, capable of instructing his descendants in the family trade. When
the patriarch dies, his closest male relative is expected to take over,
usually an eldest brother or son. However, conflicts can arise at this point
to split families. For example, a patriarch's brother might be challenged
for leadership of the family by the patriarch's son, particularly if the
son is a superior family. Family members will often take sides and the family
itself might divide over the issue. Similar conflicts may arise if the patriarch
had no surviving brothers or sons.
Obedience to and respect for ancestors forms the core of dwarvish religion.
Every dwarvish home has a shrine to the family's ancestors, who are believed
to look after the family's activities and judge their fitness to continue
the family or enter the afterlife. Small homes have a small niche holding
a few family heirlooms, while large, well-established families may have
a huge, well-decorated room lined with examples of the previous generations'
crafts and images of particularly revered ancestors. Families observe religious
rituals and celebrations separately from other families, although some of
the royalist darrows are seeing widespread reverence for the ancestors of
the royal dynasty and darrow-wide festivals.
The classically republican darrow is governed by a "senate" composed
of the heads of every citizen family. Judges are chosen from among the senators
by lot for two-year terms. The senate theoretically has absolute power over
the darrow, but dwarvish political debate is such that its power is rarely
exercise. Senates have been known to go for years without issuing new legislation.
Their most useful function is to coordinate labor, for the darrow is an
economic collective as well as a political one. Mining, building, and craft
activities are coordinated by the senate, and goods and profits are distributed
according to time-honored conventions set by the earlierst dwarven assemblies.
The royalist darrows tend to see more legislation, but are just as likely
to see public demonstrations by disgruntled craftsmen.
Many darrows have a small, insular community of Syrmidonese dwarves. In
their flight from the Syrmidon mountains, the western dwarves were received
in the darrows only grudgingly, and they were granted few if any rights.
Even through the years of elven occupation, they were denied citizenship
and prohibited from the upper ranks of dwarven society. As a result, the
Syrmidonese have reduced status in most darrows (a -5 or -10 point Social
Stigma) and live in socially distinct enclaves within the darrow, often
called the "western tunnels," regardless of where they actually
are in the darrow.
The basic physical form of a darrow is a large central plaza with passages
radiating away in all directions. The passages are lined with homes and
shops, eventually leading to working mines and passages to outlying areas
and industrial facilities. One passageway, often the broadest and best decorated,
leads to a heavily fortified main gate. Smaller cross-tunnels provide short
cuts from one main passage to another, and even smaller tunnels provide
water and ventilation. Many darrows have extensive plumbing and ventilation
systems powered by waterwheels and sometimes assisted by the heat of deep
volcanic pits. They are lit by skylights, oil lamps, candles, phosphorescent
fungi, and enchanted or naturally magical crystals.
Human societies can be divided between the civilized south and the tribal
north. The tribesmen of the north were almost entirely nomadic hunter-gatherers
until the middle years of the elven empire, when a few tribes began to take
up a more sedentary lifestyle. The first settlements sprang up around trading
posts set up by tribal chieftains who were deeply involved in trade with
the elves (the Dwerin of Dwerinshalle was supposedly a particularly clever
clan head who built up an extensive trade network among inland tribes).
More recent settlements have taken up crafts to trade with other tribes
or agriculture to support themselves. About half of the Hetchat Byaz plain
and large areas of the Mastiqua reach are inhabited by permanent settlers.
The rest of those territories and the Girawli archipelago are still inhabited
by nomads, who have also come to have an important role carrying trade goods
among the villages of their settled cousins.
The civilized lands are another story altogether. The southwestern corner
of the continent has seen hundreds of city-states rise and fall over the
course of thousands of years, each of which has had its own unique character.
Some have endured for centuries, some are remembered only in vague traditions,
and many have vanished altogether. The greatest single influence on the
civilized human world has probably been the Nurmarian empire. Every human
language found south of the Lustua mountains has at least a great many Nurmarian
loan words, and the languages of Medau-a-Ver and Pendolo are identifiably
evolved from ancient Nurmarian. Of course, modern Nurmarian is direct descendant
of the ancient form.
Nurmar is also the center of the Vissanist religion. Most human religions
are based loosely on elven lore, inferring conscious personalities behind
what the elves view as largely impersonal forces of creation and destruction
and attempting to influence those personalities (called variously avatars,
exemplars, or gods) with religious rituals. The Vissanist religion is something
a bit different. Vissanus, a Nurmarian general of the last years of the
Calanxian dynasty, is said to have had a series of visions after completing
the conqust of Wynadon. He shared these visions with various assistants
and hangers-on, eventually delivering sermons to his troops and the peoples
he had conquered. He soon became convinced that he must send these teachings
over the entire world. Gathering together a huge band of fanatically loyal
followers, he marched on the capital, deposed Geurentius IV, the last of
the Calanxian emperors, and put himself on the throne. He spent his remaining
years prosletyzing the religion, occasionally imposing it by force. On his
death, he assigned imperial authority to his youngest son, but made his
eldest his "spiritual" successor, a tradition largely followed
since then.
The Vissanist faith is based on a number of precepts clearly derived from
other human religions, but influenced by Nurmar's imperial tradition. Vissanists
believe that a single conscious force is responsible for all creation and
destruction, although that force may be more effectively addressed in the
form of individual aspects, some 7777 of which have been named. They believe
that everything lives twice (the moon, for example, is the previous month's
sun). Humans are in their first life and destined to live again in the next
world, elves in their second and last. According to Vissanius's visions,
society must be organized so as to push everyone to the greatest possible
virtue. As a result, the Vissanist religion has a far more complex and durable
organization than other religions. Where most priests are simply functionaries,
carrying out ceremonies, Vissanist priests are the leaders, or at least
advisors, of Vissanist communities, paying close attention to their everyday
lives. While latter-day Vissanists may pay little attention to the Grand
Hierarch in Nurmar, they maintain organized networks of priests and lesser
hierarchs.
The orcs originated in the deserts of the Greater and Lesser Zuznun peninsulae
and are largely confined there, although a few bands may be found on the
outskirts of the Kubrukh-Mar, the edges of the Deserted Quarter, and around
the Groaning Cliffs. Most orcs live in nomadic bands of thirty or forty,
traveling from watering hole to oasis, living off of small animals and tough
desert vegetation. However, some bands have settled down in small villages.
A few particularly powerful tribal leaders have been able to build up city-sized
settlements, centers of trade, piracy, and weapon production. Orcish cities
at Basai, Keshvir, and Garmag control sizable networks of outlying villages
and nomadic bands. The Despots of Basai have grown particularly powerful
recently, organizing most of the Lesser Zuznun. While orcish activities
are rarely well-coordinated, a particularly charismatic leader might be
able to use a huge body of orcs in a deliberate and devistating campaign
in the Mastiqua reach or against the easternmost darrows.
The centaurs hold an unenviable position. Once the nomadic rulers of the
Nuramian plain and Vefrites plateau, they are largely confined to Nurmarian-controlled
lowlands near the Sybine river. They have never been completely integrated
into Nurmarian society, but a few bands still lead something like their
old roving lifestyle, albeit constrained to a far smaller area than before.
An elite unit of centaur guards is assigned to the imperial palace at Nurmar.
Elsewhere in the southwest, centaurs are found in tiny, scattered families,
working as herders or perhaps living in agricultural villages, but rarely
in cities, where narrow streets and low doorways restrict their movements.
Little of early centaur culture remains, and most follow human religions.
The trolls are called an intelligent race largely as a courtesy, since it
has been demonstrated that they have some sort of language and occasionally
use crude tools. They are found exclusively in and around the Groaning Cliffs,
living alone or in groups of ten or less. Little is known of their culture,
but crude, abstract paintings on the walls of caves in the region are often
attributed to them.
A sight feared by travelers in high mountain passes. While they have rocky
skin and bones, they also eat meat in whatever form they can find it. Gargoyles
live in mountaintop nests of 50 to 100 and often hunt in groups of five
to ten. Little is known about their tribal society, but they seem to have
a deep religious awe of dragons. Gargoyles can survive in any climate that
humans can, but it appears that they cannot reproduce if they live at low
altitudes. Therefore, they have never expanded beyond the tops of the Syrmidon,
Kubrukh-Mar, and the slopes of the Great Buruch.
Like the other uncivilized races, little is known of the reptile men. Their
villages are found in the swampy lowlands of the Epaline wilderness, where
their thick skins protect them from the insects and other small pests that
would drive any other race to madness in days. They live off of fish and
such animals as they can find, and they are said to be very patient hunters.
Like trolls, the minotaurs are regarded as intelligent only grudgingly.
They live in small family groups around the Deserted Quarter and in the
western foothills of the Kubrukh-Mar. They are the only intelligent race
known to live in the Deserted Quarter, raising speculation concerning their
relationship with whatever forces lie deeper within the forest.
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