The People of Alera

## **City demographics:**

The average demographics of the continent. Some Ranges have a much higher concentration of one race over the others, such as the elves of the Forest Ranges, or the gnomes of the Metal Ranges.

1. **Dominant** (human) (~65%)
	* You will be able to find these anywhere in the cities, and they are meaningfully involved in the politics of the city.
2. **Minorities** (elves, half-elves, dwarves, halflings, gnomes) (~22%)
	* Can still easily be found in any larger city, however, these just don’t have as much political power as the dominant species for a number of reasons.
3. **Enclave** (orc, half-orc, goliath, goblin, firbolg, tiefling, treefolk, glaberkin) (~9%)
	* Can only be found in one district/neighbourhood of most cities, or in relation to certain professions. These districts often have signs etc in their particular language. These groups are often created due to refugees, slave trade or similar.
4. **Group** (dragonborn, genasi) (~3%)
	* Something akin to a delegation. Often the groups know each other individually or know of each other being in the city due to so few being present.
5. **Singular individuals** (tortle, aasimar, kenku, marat) (1<%)
	* Hard to find, exotic, individuals, each being there for their own reasons. Often former adventurers or specialized craftsmen. These don’t represent any kid of visible democratic population in the city.

## Races:

### Goliath

* Goliaths or the 'Unkalaki' hail primarily from the Greymist Mountains
* Often referred to as 'horn-eaters' as they are known to eat anything and everything, with a special attraction towards things that crunch (like oyster or crab shells), which would normally be regarded as unsightly in food
* Has their own language - 'Alaii'iku'. In which they have their own names, but as the names are most often a word that would be translated into a rhyme or saying in common, the Unkalaki almost always receives an additional name that is easier to pronounce through their encounters with the 'lowlanders' (Alerans)
* Generally a peaceful people if left unprovoked. The Unkalaki occupations are traditionally determined by order of birth - first two sons are to ensure food production (farming/hunting/fishing etc). The third is allowed to choose a craft (smithing, woodwork etc). The fourth (or below) will be a soldier and is trained for combat/war.
	+ That being said, instead of 'knives at dawn', they prefer 'songs under the moon', where the two participants drink, rhyme and sing against each other until one is no longer able to due to slurred speech.
* The Unkalaki is a greatly God-honoring people, who does not take kindly to disrespect or the breaking of vows/oaths. The people traditionally honor the Gods of the elements (God of the mountain in particular, but also the one of sea, forests etc.) instead of a specific one as the Alerans are prone to.

### Aasimar - the soldiers of the Gods

* The Aasimar is not a people as such, they are God-touched beings (generally humans), singled out, selected and given a purpose in this world, often a specific one depending on the God. They serve as guardians of law and good, expected to strike at evil, lead by example, and further the cause of justice.
* Aasimar cannot die, at least not permanently, while 'chosen', they instead can only 'Ascend', 'Return' or 'Fall'.
	+ *Ascend*: If an aasimar achieves their objective(s) repeatedly and proves themselves, they can ascend, joining their God, to live in tranquility forever.
	+ *Return*: If an aasimar achieves or fails their objective (referred to as 'Trials' by themselves), they are required to end their own life to return to their maker to be redeployed at a later point and place. Similarly, if an aasimar dies they also return. Every time an aasimar returns, their age is reset to when they were first Chosen.
	+ *Fall*: A life of constant battle, strife and peril, eats away at ones sanity and most aasimar, at some point, elect to leave the God behind and seek a normal life. If so, they will slowly lose contact with their God and if straying from the path that once led them to be chosen, will lose most of their God-given abilities and visual characteristics that one associates with the race.
* Members of this race is often referred to as 'the Heralds' and revered in Adua as historically they are listed as the saviors in almost all of the ancient battles against the Voidbringers.
* At one point in time there were many thousands of this people, now those one associate with the people once depicted as aasimar are few and far between.

### Gnome

* Gnomes hail from the Metal Ranges of Alera, primarily from Riva, the great steam city build partially inside of a great volcano.
* Always hungry for new experiences, gnomes constantly wander both mentally and physically, attempting to stave off a terrible ailment that threatens all of their people. This affliction—the Bleaching—strikes gnomes who fail to dream, innovate, and take in new experiences. The Bleaching slowly drains the color—literally—from gnomes, and it plunges those affected into states of deep depression and solitude that eventually claim their lives.
* Most gnomes stand just around 3 feet in height and weigh little more than a human child. They exhibit a wide range of natural skin, hair, and eye colors. For gnomes that haven’t begun the Bleaching, nearly any hair and eye color other than white is possible, with vibrant colors being an option, while skin tones span a slightly narrower spectrum and tend toward earthy tones and pinkish hues. Gnomes’ large eyes and dense facial muscles allow them to be particularly expressive in their emotions. Gnomes typically reach physical maturity at the age of 18, though many gnomes maintain a childlike curiosity about the world even into adulthood. A gnome can theoretically live to any age if she can stave off the Bleaching indefinitely, but in practice gnomes rarely live longer than around 200 years (as opposed to the RAW ~500 years).

**Dwarf**

* Dwarves are slow to trust those outside their kin, but this wariness is not without reason. Dwarves have a long history of forced exile from ancestral holds and struggles against the depredations of savage foes, especially goblinoids, orcs, and the horrors that dwell deep below the surface. While trust from a dwarf is hard-won, once gained it is as strong as iron.
* Dwarves are short and stocky, standing at least a foot or two shorter than their human counterparts. They have wide, compact bodies and burly frames. Dwarves of all genders pride themselves on the length of their hair, which they often braid into intricate patterns and ornamented in some way, some of which is done to represent specific clans. A long beard is a sign of masculinity and honor among the dwarves, and thus a clean-shaven male dwarf is considered weak, untrustworthy, an exile or worse.
* Dwarves typically reach physical adulthood around the age of 25, though their traditionalist culture places more value on completing coming of age ceremonies unique to each clan than reaching a certain age. A typical dwarf can live to around 150 years old (as opposed to the RAW 350 years).
* In the old days, dwarves were almost exclusively found in their own settlements inthe Greymist Mountains and Redhill Heights, where they ignored the social-political games of man. Now they are much more common and often seen throughout the land. However, they still primarely reside in their own underground cities.

### Elf

* Second most long-lived race, living often to be well over 200 years old, with singular members being as old as 350 (as opposed to the RAW 700+ years).
* Elves live almost exclusively in the Forest Ranges of Alera, more specifically, in Nemorocevs' Forest near Rhodes.

### Parshmen / The Listeners

* Common to the continent of Adua, used as slaves and servants performing menial labor tasks. They are thick-witted, but make excellent workers. They are docile and seen as little more than animals, to such a degree that they are bred like cattle. It is said that if one was to leave a parshman in the woods, he would simply sit there until someone came along to tell him what to do.
* Parshmen are grey-skinned with black eyes, making them hard to spot in the dark, though providing them no advantage in seeing in the dark.
* They hold an extreme disdain for people touching a corpse of a humanoid, in particular one of their own race.
* Despite not being very vocal, they often hum a tune to themselves as they work and appear to have a form of limited telepathic ability to communicate with each other, evidenced by two parshmen working separately, a long distance apart, can often be found humming the same tune in time with each other.