Ancestries

This page will give a brief explanation of all the player ancestries/races in Eldaron. Generally, all 5th edition races will be allowed, with a few exceptions. Dragonmarks (as in, dragonmarks from Eberron) do not exist in Eldaron and thus, dragonmark subraces are no allowed. Races are generally sorted by the source, although some have been moved around to make more sense within the lore of Eldaron (note: do not take the section headings to have any link to how the ancestry is presented in Eldaron).

### Key:

* ? - Origin not yet determined, but likely a valid player choice. I am either undecided whether or not I want to include them, or I know I want to include them but have not thought of a suitable origin.
* X - Not a valid player choice in Eldaron

## PHB Core Ancestries

### Humans

The Humans of Eldaron has a strange advantage to the other ancestries that can be attributed to their success and status as the most widespread ancestry on the Prime Material Plane; they were rejected by the deities. While all other ancestries originated from Shendali's first mortals being modified by the various deities of mortals to suit their own purposes, humans developed out of those that were never chosen. As such, humanity had to rely on its ambition and adaptability to survive, and it survived them well. A strange result of this is that humans can successfully mate with non-human ancestries as there is no conflict between the divine origins of the ancestries, leading to the existence of half-elves, half-orcs, and the like.

### Dwarves

Children of The Ironfather, Dwarves were created in order to extract the resources of the Prime Material Plane to satiate the endless greed Nawok cursed The Ironfather to have. Strong and hardy, the dwarves are a proud people and widely respected from their craftsmanship.

#### Mountain Dwarves

The most common of the dwarven ancestries, Mountain Dwarves are well known for their martial prowess and their ancestral strongholds deep within the mountains of Eldaron. It is a commonly held belief that the first dwarves were Mountain Dwarves.

#### Hill Dwarves

It is unknown how or why the ancestries of Hill and Mountain Dwarves separated. Hill Dwarves, despite being less populous than Mountain Dwarves, are much wider spread across the world and more frequently found within non-dwarven settlements.

#### Duergar (Grey Dwarves)

As children of The Ironfather, all dwarves inherit his curse to some extent. The Duergar suffer the curse of greed greater than most. Originally mountain dwarves, the duergar recklessly descended into the Underdark seeking treasure and riches for The Ironfather. The effects of the curse and the magics of the Underdark warped the duergar, causing them to deny The Ironfather and claim all their treasures as their own, now building empires in the Underdark to fuel their desire for wealth.

### Elves

The creations of Ysilla, the Elves were made to be the most refined of the mortals; to excel in all things and to possess poise and grace. Created with Titania's essence, the Elves have a greater resistance to immense magical forces, allowing for strange offshoots to exist.

#### High Elves

The first Elves, the High Elves are a magically inclined and powerful ancestry. High Elves are very common in Eldaron, being second only to humans in number.

#### Wood Elves

Some High Elves venerated Lady Alimma, lesser goddess of natural beauty, are travelled into the wilderness. Lady Alimma's influence changed them into the Wood Elves.

#### Drow (Dark Elves)

During the Illithid era, many elves fled to the Underdark to escape the Mind Flayers. The struggle broke many elves' faith in Ysilla, and began to hear whispers from the depths. Tempted by the demon Lolth, they became the Drow and succumb to cruelty. The Drow are the dominant force in the Underdark, with their empires spanning through the winding caverns. Not all Drow are loyal to Lolth; some escape her influence and either form hidden sanctuaries in the Underdark and travel to the surface.

#### Pallid Elves

Not all of the elves who descended into the depths of the Underdark lost faith in Ysilla. The minority who remained loyal to their creator were protected from Lolth's demonic corruption and instead were changed into the Pallid Elves. Not realising that the tyranny of the illithids ended long ago, they spent millennia in the Underdark before returning to the surface world. Some still remain in the depths, fighting a hidden war for survival against the Drow.

#### Shadar-kai (Shadow Elves)

When the Shadowfell was separated from the Prime Material Plane, many mortals were sent with it. Most died almost instantly due to the lifelessness of the Shadowfell. Elves, however, protected by both Ysilla's divinity and Titania's fey magic, survived and were changed into the Shadar-kai. As the barriers between the planes have decayed, some Shadar-kai have managed to travel to the Prime Material Plane.

#### Eladrin (Fae Elves)

Eladrin have a similar origin to the Shadow Elves, but instead of being caught in the Sundering of Dread, they were caught in the Sundering of Delight and became trapped in the Feywild. Here, Titania could exert a greater influence over them, and the Elves became Eladrin, elves more attuned to their fey heritage instead of their divine heritage.

#### Astral Elves

? - Astral Elves do not currently have an origin in Eldaron. However, they are a valid player choice. If you would like to play an Astral Elf, let me know and I can update this section. Note that they will likely not be associated with the Astral Plane in Eldaron. I have some ideas (e.g. similar origin to wood elves but for Lady Iphil) but these may change.

#### Sea Elves

X - Sea Elves do not exist in Eldaron. If you would like to play a Sea Elf, let me know and we can discuss changing the flavour of them.

### Halflings

Created by Tinkleberry, Halflings are an ancestry of short humanoids that have unnatural luck. There are a few different offshoot ancestries. Tinkleberry created the halflings from abnormally weak and small mortals that Shendali had created, giving them supernatural luck to defend them.

#### Lightfoot Halflings

The first of the halflings, Lightfoot Halflings are naturally stealthy.

#### Stout Halflings

Stout Halflings were a gift from Tinkleberry to her devoted friend Sellis Strongheart, lesser god of bravery. Legend says that Nawok, greater god of curses, diseases, and poisons, challenged Tinkleberry to drink a vial of a potent poison. Sellis drank the vial in its entirety so Tinkleberry would not have to. Through his own strength and Tinkleberry's influence over luck, Sellis survived and his followers were granted resistance to poison.

#### Ghostwise Halflings

? - Ghostwise Halflings do not currently have an origin in Eldaron. However, they are a valid player choice. If you would like to play a Ghostwise Halfling, let me know and I can update this section.

#### Lotusden Halflings

? - Lotusden Halflings do not currently have an origin in Eldaron and I am unsure whether I want to include them. If you would like to play a Lotusden Halfling, let me know and I can update this section.

## PHB Expanded Ancestries

### Dragonborn

Won via bargain by the Goddess of Dragons, Tiandra, the Dragonborn were mortals transformed to reflect the power of the dragons and to gain respect for Tiandra as one of the Deities of Mortals. Each major species of dragon has an associated type of dragonborn, with the exception of the Moonstone dragons (the reason for this is unknown). Found all across Eldaron, their late origin to the world means that very few dragonborn settlements exist, although tight-knit communities can be found within almost all major cities.

### Tieflings

Mortals with infernal blood, tieflings are widely accepted as not being evil purely from their devilish heritage. Rural areas where tieflings are less commonplace are more likely to make incorrect presumptions about tieflings, but this is an uncommon occurrence.

## Spelljammer Ancestries

### Giff

? - Want to include, not sure how, God of Guns, Giff, and Hippos?

## Ravnica Ancestries

### Vedalken

X - Just no idea where they would fit in. Might come back to it. If you really want to play one, I can try come up with something but no guarantee.

## Miscellaneous Ancestries

### Kender

? - Not sure. Maybe include. Would probably link to halflings (Dragonlance origin links them to gnomes)

### Lineages from Ravenloft

#### Reborn

? - Souls are weird in Eldaron. A living creation without a soul can't really be sentient/sapient, so Reborn must have souls.