Races of Lumora

*A series of excerpts from the various reports and histories found in the tree-keep Garat’Lia, seized by Lord-Warden Hale in the border skirmishes three-quarters of a decade back. Among the espionage reports and correspondences, it seems the Blade in charge fancied herself a scholar in addition to a thrice-damned agent of that immortal witch. While universally condescending and occasionally speculative, thus unsuitable for mass print, there is much worth considering among them, your Highness.*

*I have taken the liberty of compiling the least egregious of these accounts alongside my own writings on the subject.*

*Your invisible hand,*

*Silas Haverforth, Vintarum*

## On the Races

### Humans

Originally designed as the perfect slave race for Lothe'lian society, humans have come to utterly dominate the continent of Lumora. Designed to be attractive, and fast-healing, and with a far greater generational turnover than their creators it seems almost inevitable in hindsight they would seize the chance to rebel. Of course, immediately after throwing off the Elven yolk their blades turned inward and now political tensions and skullduggery run rampant across the entire continent.

##### Demi-Humans

A quirk built into humanity by their creators, humans are able to create viable offspring with any other race they encountered. While this was likely intended only to be true for their elven masters, the fondness for humans that dwarves and fey are known to develop prove that it certainly isn't exclusive. These hybrids breed true, just like their human parent, and after a few generations fully human children with no trace of non-human parentage are born.

### Elves

Once the only known race in the world, and unquestioned masters of the continent of Lumora, elves fell hard and fast after the Cataclysm. As most of their empire literally burned in cataclysmic fire, the rest was forced to contend with a mass uprising on a scale that can barely be comprehended today. They have been large chased out of all the lands that remains unburned, save one. Lothe'lia, seat of their people's religion, a densely forested province that extends from the foot of the Barrier Mountains to the waters of the Draybel in a thin corridor.

### Dwarves

Emerging after the Cataclysm cracked the mountain beneath which the Great Underpolis of Uthar sat, dwarves are typically characterized as stubborn, fiercely loyal, and honorable to a fault. Before the pathway to the surface appeared resources in the caverns had to be pinched and rationed, with planning done on the timeline of decades, or even centuries. This produced a rigid caste-based society that humans have now begun to integrate into at nearly all strata

### Halflings

Though the first halflings were said to be born from an odd coupling of humans and the smallest fey, Halflings have long since left those roots behind. They have grown to have their own culture distinct from the humans that begat them, and are welcomed as trusted members of both courts in their homeland of Etraine.

### Dhampirs

Half-human spawn of the Vampiric Houses of Kovarik, Dhampirs serve many purposes to their undead scions. The original race of their progenitor affects nothing aside aesthetics, and their traits very greatly from house to house, so few generalizations are worth considering aside from their very complicated relation ship with their own mortality. Often looked upon with suspicion due to a combination of their monstrous traits, unnatural powers, and questionable loyalties.

### Changelings

Also from Kovarik, the Changelings are the least understood race on all of Lumora, for the sole reason that almost none of them can be trusted. These bastard Hagspawn most often live in the Wytchwood, serving as essentially a spy and convenient puppet for their twisted mothers. Most humans in Kovarik consider it too great a risk to allow one to live once discovered, as for every one innocent fleeing their mother they kill they've kept a dozen spies from integrating into their communities unnoticed.

### Centaurs

Often considered the last great working of the gods on Lumora, Centaurs were created at some unknown point within a century before or after the Calamity. Bro'kar, Scion of Victory saw what could be accomplished by horse and rider together and blessed a stallion with the best traits of both. They hail from Avarga Tӧm, the untamed crossing, and are fully integrated into the existing human societies whose horses they were uplifted from.