The Races

### **Human**

The most common race known to Incarcia, the humans spent a thousand years in chains and slavery to the giants of Ganoc before rising and spreading all throughout Incarcia. Hardy, innovative, and fiery, humans lead the world on the technological front, living in decadent cities lit with electricity and defended with gunfire. In the Kingdom of Wendon, humans have mastered the art of vampire slaying, while in Burg, they’ve adopted a strict rejection of dark magic and seek to undermine and destroy it, although in Sertheron, they’ve been known to use dark magic in everyday life to aid in their survivalist lifestyle. As well, humans are often the driving force behind major historical changes, having short lifespans that spark a need for validation, ambition, and glory.

### **Dwarf**

Honorable, traditional, and warfaring, the dwarves have made a name for themselves as some of the greatest conquerers on Incarcia. The mountain dwarves exemplify strength and glory, erecting mile-high towers of stone atop the graves of fallen rulers and wishing only to die in beautiful battle. Likewise, the hill dwarves retain this drive for rule, but rather than achieving it through strength and battle, they have adopted a lawful and bureaucratic lifestyle, climbing the political hierarchy through inheritance and intrigue. On the contrary, the duergar represent everything that their mountain/hill dwarven cousins are not. Physically frail, dastardly, and secretive, the duergar have recently come into power as tyrannical rulers over the mountain dwarves, using poison and guile to cheat their way to power.

### **Elf**

Once the powerful descendants of the Fourborn themselves, the elves have fallen far from such titles. The grey elves, deceptive, reclusive, and the founders of blood magic, choose now to lurk within the darkest forests of Incarcia, practicing sacrifical pagan rites and building their homes within the awoken trees. On the other hand, the high elves broke away from their celestial heritage thousands of years ago when their ancestors embraced the Boundless Lord, forever imbuing their bloodline with magic. Now, they isolate themselves in the mysterious city of Nexicir, led by the Boundless Lord, who has shown them the secrets of the Astral Plane. Overall, the elves are a solitary race, choosing quite often to remain with their own kind, plotting goals that stretch hundreds of years into the future due to their incredible lifespan.

### **Gnome**

Once the peaceful and enigmatic denizens of the forest, the gnomes have since split into two lines with an ancient bitterness held between them. The forest gnomes, once shining examples of the Fourborn’s power, have fallen to the temptation of the arcane. Imperial, ruthless, and calculating, the forest gnomes now live within cities propelled by and swollen with dark magic, using it to the fullest extent to sew their great city of Izer. The rock gnomes, on the other hand, are driven by cunning, curiosity, and individuality, rivalling and even besting the humans in terms of mechanical and technological ingenuity. Enslaved for countless years by the forest gnomes, the rock gnomes were only able to rise after the invention of the warforged, who aided them in their uprising. Once again, however, the rock gnomes have been faced with tyranny from their cousins in Izer, and now seek to reclaim the former glory that was their home of Satrum from the maws of Sincarnus.

### **Warforged**

Constructed by the rock gnomes as the ultimate weapons, the warforged are a seasoned, curt, and coldhearted race, with their frozen island capital of Mastia embodying that. Warforged long for and are driven by purpose, for it is purpose that stirred their inanimate form to life, and as such will do all in their power to find something worth fighting for. It is known that warforged who lose their purpose or cannot complete their purpose are driven to madness, apathy, and even suicide, and so the warforged live every moment in service to their cause. However, since the destruction of the rock gnome's homeland of Satrum at the hands of the Izerians, the secrets of constructing a warforged have been lost, sending the race into a constant decline. However, in the face of such disaster, the warforged continue on, believing that they can never die, but only can lose their purpose.

### **Vampire**

Cruel, selfish, and Machiavellian in nature, the vampires are the remnants of the celestial elves, who destroyed their link to the Gods long ago and transformed themselves into what they are now. Forsaken by the Gods and maddeningly immortal, the vampires do all that they can to reclaim a world that was once theirs by divine right. The vampires are separated now into three distinct major clans: The bestial Konorihn, who gave into their bloody hunger and became savage and primal; the conniving Thassarihn, who learned to control their hunger and control the lesser races from the shadows, and the mad Ezerihn, who used the shards of the ancient elven artifact Innara to transform themselves further at the cost of their own humanity. Now, after a 500-year-long genocide waged against them by the humans, the vampires are rare but not extinct, awaiting their time to reign once more as true claimants to Incarcia’s throne.

### **Aetherborn**

Driven, passionate, and short in patience, the aetherborn are a byproduct of the congregation of magic, born simply from its mere presence. Having no true place of their own and with lifespans shorter than even humans, the aetherborns’ foremost goal is leaving their mark upon the world in the limited time they were given. Aetherborn can be born from the three major types of magic and acquire traits related to the magic they were born from. Aetherborn created from Sincarnus are known as sinborn, and have forms that look more akin to shadows and tears in space, while those made from divine magic are known as starborn and often appear like humanoid stars, shining and radiant. Those born from blood magic are known as bloodborn, and appear made of bark and moss like a living tree.

### Feyling

Wild, absolute, and forgotten, the feylings are spirits of the Feywild ensnared in the corporeal forms of wild animals, isolated in the last vestiges of the untamed wilderness of the Swordless Front. For millennia, the feylings born have been quite rare, but ages of Sincarnus's presence on Incarcia have weathered the plane's stability, causing primordial spirits to drift free from their elemental planes to ours. The nature of a feyling is determined by the type of elemental spirit that possessed its body, be it one of fire, air, water, or earth, with each variation guiding the feyling's intrinsic goals, values, and even appearance. Fire feylings choose to possess beasts that represent passion and ferocity such as tigers and wolves, while air feylings slip into the forms of rabbits and deer, driven by wonderlust, movement and agility. Water feylings choose ambushers and skulkers of aquatic forms, such as crocodiles, sharks, and eels, valuing knowledge, cunning and subtlety, while earth feylings adopt the forms of defensive creatures such as turtles, bears, and rams, becoming guardians and wise sages in their followings.