The New Races

•Iomadi: (Yo-mah-dee): The Iomadi were once the supreme rulers in Adel. They conquered most of the continent via their numbers and power, but were soon ousted. They share traits of foxes and humans. Long, straight ears of flexible skin extend from the sides of their heads, covered slightly with fur. A long, furry tail extends just above the buttocks, and all Iomadi clothing has a hole for it. In all other respects, they are like the humans that might be their close ancestors, though slightly shorter.

Their eyes are bright and foreign, colored yellow or brown, and sometimes red. Their hair is long and lustrous, usually red or brown, or a light gold. Their skin is light or dark toned depending on their environment. Southern and central Iomadi tend towards tan to brown skin while Iomadi from the north tend towards lighter, peach-toned skin. From the Southland of Andaliel to the tropics, Iomadi skin begins to vary more, while Iomadi in the Hetuku can be as pale as the snow that surrounds them. Iomadi of all sorts can be found anywhere, however, as they are a very adaptable and enduring people.

-Common Professions: Any.
-Names: Iomadi names tend to be simple and average, such as Erica or Quinn.
-Lifespan: Adulthood at 15, lives about 110 years, begins to age significantly starting at 50-60, becomes enfeebled by age around 90-100.

•Athirua: (Ae-thee-rua): The almost magical beauty of the Athirua has captivated the eyes, minds and lusts of the people of Adel since as far as there are accounts of them. A nomadic people, the Athirua are aloof, grandiose and exquisite. Their light, graceful bodies boast eerily beautiful and perfect indigo skin and golden hair.

The race is known for its beautiful women – and its hardly distinguishable effeminate men. Unlike other humanoids, variation in skin and hair tones and colors in Athirua is very rare, and celebrated among their culture as a supernatural beauty gifted by the spirits. The Athirua value individuality and personal appearance. They tend to wear revealing clothes, though the chest, even in men, is typically at least lightly covered. Their beauty is both a blessing and curse. With their indigo skin and golden (and sometimes, pale, red or light brown) hair, they are never mistaken and never missed. They are greatly coveted.

Athirua are often entertainers. They are a nomadic race that traveled around Adel, performing and passing on their arts and style. Their radically revealing clothing, fast and sensual dance and song, their tales of lust and romance, and the mysticism regarding such affairs, have all become extremely popular culture all around Adel.

-Common Professions: Dancer, singer, acrobat, courtesan, diplomat.
-Names: Athirua often have flowing or soft names like Camille or Lyle, and males may have female gender names.
-Lifespan: Adulthood at 13, lives about 100 years, ages very little after that.

•Cuporo: (Cue-poe-roe): Cuporo are a widespread race with rather mysterious origins. Due to the odd wiles of the fey, it is unknown whether they are descended from humans, or if they are simply akin to them by fate. Cuporo tend to resemble human children in stature, build and development. Their hair is long and of earthly colors, greens, browns, and are always entwined with what appears to be natural-growing reeds or algae. Their eyes are large, colorful and aware. Their skin is of earthly and vegetable coloration.

Cuporo intermingle with the other races and as a result, couplings of the small fey with the taller races can often be seen on the streets of cities. They are energetic, creative creatures that value their dignity and seek respect. Cuporo love travel and collecting lore and stories, and take well to learning new things. They are energetic and make great entertainers, but are also scholarly and perceptive, and their curiosity leads them to pursue many paths.

-Common Professions: Merchant, scholar, bard, lawyer.
-Names: Cuporo names are often elaborate and compound, like Bartholomew or Annamaria.
-Lifespan: Adulthood at 30, lives about 120 years, does not age too significantly until around 90.

•Damakran: (Dah-mah-krawn): Damakrans are a race of humanoids with the characteristics of fish, particularly a shark-like fin on their heads and a brash demeanor. They have typically short heads of hair, down to the jawline or shoulders, which they typically dye their favorite colors. Their skin varies from a light grey to a dark blue-grey and is almost entirely hairless. Their feet and hands are webbed and their ears are the shape of fish fins, with the outer cartilage being largely cosmetic. A small fin-like crest grows out from the peak of their heads, at the partition of the hair. This fin is a decorative matter to Damakran, who dress it up with rings and tattoos or other accessories. They are very human-like in face and features besides this, as the Adelian races all are.

Though similar in build to humans, Damakrans can easily attain larger size and better muscle tone. Damakran are often temperamental and passionate. Though they can no longer live indefinitely in the sea, they still feel more at home in coasts or along rivers, playing in the waters that they perhaps once dominated. It is said that the mood of a Damakran depends heavily on how much liquid he or she has been covered in lately.

Damakran secrete a slime from their mouths as saliva that helps them to digest “land food”. This secretion is not harmful unless they want it to be – they turn it into a poison, or an acid or freezing agent every once in a while and spit it out. It is otherwise harmless, and in some less than proper social circles considered a very sensual trait.

-Common Professions: Laborer, fisher, mercenary, exotic prostitute or courtesan.
-Names: Damakran often have gruff one-syllable names like Gerd or Kathe.
-Lifespan: Adulthood at 17, lives about 90 years, does not age too significantly until between 40 and 60, enfeebled at around 75.

•Dromidae: (Draw-meh-day): The Dromidae are a race of humanoids that existed in the forlorn voids. By means of their own alien magic and artifice the Dromidae created colonies in space. Their buildings themselves are creatures and are alive, able to convert the hostile atmosphere of the Voids into a less harsh space for the Dromidae to thrive in. Their origins are mysterious and they know little of the early Adel. They are quite interested in both topics, as both are things that seemingly came before them.

Dromidae look very alike. They have no facial or body hair and their head hair is either white, pinkish or blood red, with their skins either light pink or light brown. They all have either golden or orange eyes. All Dromidae have long, ribbon-like white antennae that curve out from their foreheads and bend gracefully over their heads. Some are long enough to go over and fall behind the head, hanging as though part of their hair. Internally, their innards are coils of tentacular alien flesh.

All Dromidae are either effeminate or androgynous, and femininity is believed to be a perfect state of body in their culture, which reveres fertility and birth. Their society is matriarchal and ruled by a special Queen Dromidae. There are native Dromidae that were born in Adel from immigrant parents and there are also extra-planetary Dromidae immigrants that travel to Adel. They regard each other as one in the same, having no racial conflict. They worship spirits of the sky and of the darkness, taking to religion as a curious but charming cultural innovation they have learned from the Adelians.

-Common Professions: Physician, alchemist, mercenary, scholar, diplomat.
-Names: Dromidae are either numbered (usually Adel natives) or named fairly strangely (usually Void natives), such as Daelyma or Shofoth.
-Lifespan: Adulthood at 12, lives about 100 years. Suffers no effects of aging beyond adulthood.

•Ainyu: (Aee-nyu): Ainyu are a spirit-descended humanoid race somewhat uncommon in Adel. They are alike to humans with silver or blonde hair, black, silver or gold colored skin, gold or red eyes and glowing sigils on their cheeks, palms and feet. Small living motes of light fly around them, usually three per ten years of age the Ainyu has.

An Ainyu can speak to and understand its motes, but the motes cannot travel more than thirty feet or so from the Ainyu and are for the most part blind to the outside world except for things the Ainyu can readily perceive. These little bits of consciousness are part of the Ainyu and waver when the main body is hurt. The Ainyu typically names them and marries off little pairs of them, if there are enough.

Ainyu are not asexual and have defined genders and characteristics, but nonetheless don’t reproduce normally. After they’ve collected enough motes, they can create a new Ainyu by joining together some of the motes. These produce a child-like Ainyu who is then assigned motes from the parent as guardians. The new Ainyu’s motes retain memories of the old Ainyu and “care” for the child – they offer parental reassurance and guidance based on the bits of the old Ainyu that they have inside them. When the new Ainyu becomes an adult its motes become fully attuned to its consciousness and individuality.

Ainyu emotionally are as varied as any race, but they tend toward goodness, worshiping the kind deity Arcline. Most of them live in small communities, welcoming the harmony and simplicity of country life. Many become clerics or manifest healing power. A lot of Ainyu clerics become “Guardian Spirits” to small towns and communities, using their acquired divine magic to mimic the natural divinity of true spirits.

-Common Professions: Any low-class job, town spirit, healer, justice.
-Names: Usually named after concepts, flowers, emotions, such as Joy, Art, or any Iomadi or Human name.
-Lifespan: Adulthood at 17, lives around 120 years. Does not age physically beyond adulthood.

•Setah: (Seh-tah): Setah are wolf descendant humanoids that originated in the wild feylands within the vast jungles of Selvage. They were in the past referred to as “Wolf Iomadi,” nomenclature now considered a slur. They are as though an opposite to Lycanthropes, being humanoids with some wolf features rather than beasts who mimic the humanoid form. Indeed, the two races are said to be linked in the distant past. Setah can focus their minds to channel the wild rage of a predatory animal and prefer melee combat.

Setah have furry ears and collars of fur on their necks, furry tails and predatory eyes. Some are even more feral, having larger amounts of fur and a terrible odor. They are otherwise very human-like. Setah reproduce normally with other Setah and humanoids. Many are hunters and mercenaries, or farm guards, preferring work in the rural sections of Adel.

All Setah tend to be deeply spiritual and honor-bound in all sport and combat: even if the only honor they give is a swift death and the only spirits they worship those of destruction. Most Setah do not fall to the violent extreme of a beast, but many do, and many of them struggle to control themselves and their tempers.

-Common Professions: Any low-class job, mercenary, hunter.
-Names: Usually named after fruits, animals and plants, such as Bison, Lobelia.
-Lifespan: Adulthood at 12, lives around 110 years. Begins to age significantly at around 50, becomes enfeebled by age around 90, but the toll isn’t as heavy as in other races.

•Rhonnu: (Row-nu): Rhonnu are devilish humanoid creatures, often referred to derisively as imps. They are scheming humanoids with sharp bat-wing ears and small horns. The shape and location of the horns depends on the individual, but they tend to sprout from the sides of their heads. Their skin tends to be red or blue and sometimes even black or grey, with purple, red or yellow eyes. Their hair varies in coloration as much as their other features, and they possess long, forked tails.

Often callous, cruel and completely self-interested, the Rhonnu have a reputation for subterfuge. Most Rhonnu are bad eggs. It might be their essence derivation that drives them so, but most tend to be at best indifferent to other creatures, and at worst evil and self-absorbed. In corrupt governments like Vedaria and Periterim they tend to hold positions of power over creatures they deem lesser to them.

The position of a Rhonnu’s horns and their shape is said to indicate something about it. For example, one with Ram’s horns is more reserved, while straight horns might mean mischievous. Though it is rare that this be completely true, many people believe it.

-Common Professions: Any middle class job, politician, lawyer, mercenary.
-Names: Usually grandiose names like Cornwallis and Tytania.
-Lifespan: Adulthood at 14, lives around 110 years. Does not age too significantly beyond adulthood.

•Anpe: (Ahn-peh): Anpe are somewhat short, energetic, curious creatures. They are somewhat short humanoids with insect traits, earthy colored or green skin, hair and eyes, bodies thin, light and evenly proportioned for their size. They have antennae and good senses, and can regrow severed limbs. On their backs, they have smooth elytra which open to reveal membranous wings they use for flight. The overall construction of the Anpe prevents it from flying too high or for long stretches of overland travel, but they are nonetheless of good grace in their movements. They typically wear light, backless and shoulder-less (and often sleeveless) clothing when expected to be decent – they would prefer nudity, but society has its own ideas about that.

They dislike regimented urban living, but due to their usefulness as scouts and ability to overcome certain natural obstacles with grace unmatched, a good number can also be found as sellswords in large cities.

-Common Professions: Scout, fruit picker, laborer.
-Names: Simple names often derived from flowers, seasons, colors.
-Lifespan: Adulthood at 10, lives around 95 years. Does not age significantly after adulthood.

•Inaw: (Ee-naw): Inaw are undead humanoids made of other humanoids. Inaw are stitched together from various parts into a complete and new creature, surviving by some dark powers still not fully understood. The level of craftsmanship in Inaw varies wildly. Some might be horridly-stitched hulks while others might be inconspicuous save for the stitches and discoloration. Some might even be exotically attractive and even beautiful by design. Clay, wood, mithral steel, or other reinforcing materials may be used to make the body strong or supple, and oils and other extracts applied to the skin for texture. All Inaw have sockets in their shoulders and hands where tools and weapons can be fitted. Inaw can plug these holes with clay, wooden plugs or corks if they choose.

Inaw creation is outlawed. It originated during the Intolerable War, where the rituals were outlawed and their creators hunted down. After the war, Necromancers who got hold of the formula for creating Inaw added them to Necromantic tomes and refined the technique. Inaw are still illegally created to this day.

Emotionally, Inaw tend to lack any sort of common sense and instead behave very literally and logically. Almost all Inaw try to reconstruct the hierarchy they were raised in, classifying their new families as “masters” or “taskmasters” or “second-in-commands” and so forth, depending on their experiences. Most are confused by the prospect of leading their own lives and tend to follow orders or seek submission to others.

Inaw do not reproduce and do not have much bodily function – though they can force their supernatural selves to take some life-like semblance, such as forcing an illusory blush, digesting food or pretending to breathe. If they are hurt but not killed, they can return to their preserved state from right after their “birth”, growing back any hair burnt off, healing any of the flesh lost, mending broken bone, just as a human body heals.

-Common Professions: Any low or middle class job; assassin, ritual caster.
-Names: Whatever the necromancer thought was appropriate.
-Lifespan: Undead, therefore does not grow old and does not die of age, and is “born” as an adult.

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