The Old Races
Dwarves:
Dwarves survived the cataclysm. Their numbers are high and their culture thrives today still. Theirs is a culture of unyielding loyalty, honor and self-determination. Dwarves hold in high regard qualities of single-mindedness towards tasks and unwillingness to accept defeat or failure. Dwarves are skilled with their hands and value above all else something they make through effort – hand-crafts and smithing are great talents of theirs. The grand dwarven architecture of their noble houses is often brought to other nations. Dwarf-made weaponry and armors are legendary for their quality and it is said that the master dwarven smiths practice their crafts in a state of supernatural enlightenment that allows them to produce incredible weaponry that is only given to worthy heroes. Dwarves reside in the central Noye mountain range and the Noye valleys therein.
Their state of Noshiki holds and supplies other nations with the largest quantities of raw material and precious metals and minerals in Adel. Their nation is thus very rich, and controlled by the ancient Mithral Throne, the royal dwarf family. Dwarf culture is tightly honor-bound and while they accept (and have incorporated) many races into the culture of their nation of Noshiki, they are ever vigilant that law and family will be upheld, and that profit will not run rampant and subvert their precious way of living.
Elves:
The long-lived elves are at the twilight of their race. However, unlike many other races, they hold on to their identity. Ancient songs, scriptures, tales and snatches of history survived with them and they guard their identities jealously. Elves rarely mate with other species anymore and consider racial purity and nationality of high importance.
These elves, the majority of the race as it is now, see Half-Elves and other products of interbreeding as crucial mistakes that led them to what they have become now. Certain elves hold their brethren in low regard, feeling that their undoing will come from wanting to segregate themselves from the world, and these associate more with the other races.
The populations of elves are scattered. The highest exists in small pockets of territory in Selvage that they have claimed as elven sanctuaries. Neither the locals nor Vedaria particularly likes this move, but Periterim and Andaliel support it and the other nations are relatively indifferent to it. In these small places, populations of maybe a hundred to two hundred elves, consisting of ten to twenty major family bloodlines of the area, try to keep alive elven architecture, history and culture, and keep out other influences.
Elves worship the spirit Paikar to protect them in their forest sanctuaries, but have their own dead gods they worship over any Spirit. Elves can be found mingling with other races in Andaliel, Periterim and Sargasso, as well, but one must be careful approaching them. The rare elf might be tolerant, but others are bound to unleash a string of racial slurs if they feel threatened by one not of elven blood – which is often.
Humans:
Humans and Half-Elves band together to form one racial group now (though they are still distinct races), along with any elves who reject the Pure Elf Doctrines. They have little to no culture. Unlike the elves, they have nothing sacred left from the ancient days and they long for an identity. Humans are a rare and protected species in Adel, such that there are laws prohibiting and furiously punishing unneeded violence against humans.
In their search for a new identity, Humans take bits and pieces of lore and tradition from the areas where they live and from other races. They take well to the Iomadi and Athirua in particular. Humans are nearly extinct, and even less of them exist than elves. Adelians consider them a pure folk, and try to preserve them. But their fate is tied to a dead, forgotten world. They have little connection to the new one, but to exist along the Iomadi.
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I cant help but read this and think of an inverse of the Warhammer 40,000 opening lines. Something like
“To be a human in such times is to be one amoung a rare few. There are no human organizations or cultures to point out as achivements. It is to be a member of a race on the brink of extinction, without more then a glimmer of hope to carve out their own nitch in a world which has demonstrated no real need for them.
There are a few humans who reject this fate, and rile aginst fading into the final nightfall of forgotten history. Let the foolish amoung the Elves retreat to slow their decay into nothingness. The Humans, Half Elves, and Elves who remain will work to forge a future for their people, perhaps not as the grand rulers of all they survey, but a future that their children will inherit.”
In the world of Eden you have conjured, This is how I imagine a Human PC.
As a Human Hero, there is no past to look to for answers. There is nothing left to lose, But there is everything to gain. Be it a new world order under Magdalena Keehl’s Vedaria, or a new form of government in the banner of Andaliel.
Humans are adaptable, it’s what we do, our short active lives (compared to the new races especially) mean that the few of us are likely to be highly active. Perhaps our role in the Cataclysm means that forgiveness is impossible and we are doomed to extinction, but if we are to come to an end, let us make such an end as to be worthy of remembrence. Perhaps in the future ages humans will be seen as the lost founders of the democratic ideal?