Elden World/Races and Monsters

There are many races and different kinds of monsters within the Lore of Elden World.

# **Races**

## Demons

The Demons of Helith were not mortal creatures. They, especially stronger ones, were more like forces of nature that embodied primal sins. Because Demons were more like aspects and not truly flesh and blood creatures, it was impossible to fully put them down permanently without some form of holy magic. And where was the holy magic in the real world? Where were the priests and paladins? In the real world, Demons might as well be unstoppable immortal monsters. Heroes and weapons could break their bones, blast off their limbs, or even turn them into nothing but scattered atoms, but none of that mattered. So long as a Demon's Spiritual Core remained stable, they would always, always reform. Also, Demons were one of the very few existences immune to being raised as undead.

Aldrich did not know everything about demon lore, but he did know what Flame Arcs were. Demons were not actually native existences to Elduin, the main physical realm that Elden World mostly operated on. Demons instead hailed from a hell-like separate realm of eternal flame called the Pyre. Because of their extradimensional status, demons needed some kind of physical anchor in Elduin to manifest. For most demons, this was the Flame Arc, an enormous collection of demonic runes that generated a constant eld of infernal energy from the Pyre that sustained demonic presence. Demons that relied upon the Flame Arc were called Incarnated demons for their physical forms were literally built up and incarnated by the Flame Arcs. Other demons, particularly those that were converted from Elduin natives to demons, were called Anchored demons, for they were permanently 'anchored' to a specfic physical body. In Volantis's case, this was his armor form. Flame Arcs also supported the vast majority of demonic magics.

### Battle Demons

These were fanatical devotees to the Demon God of War Carnasus, and they had a special racial ability where if they fought head on with pure martial honor with no sneak attacks or ambushes or even much of a plan other than a desire to do battle, then they received damage buffs, immunity to psychic damage, strong regenerative capability, and damage reduction. Consequently, this way of straightforward, smash everything on sight battle also made them highly susceptible to sneak attacks, ambushes, and traps. Battle Demons thus absolutely hated being the subject of such tricks, believing them incredible insults to their very way of existence. Thus, they forged demonic constructs called Living Armor that had something called Truesight which let them perceive hidden units. Living Armor and Battle Demons therefore had a symbiotic relationships. Where battle demons were the aggressive muscle and brawn, living armor were calmer, made better decisions, and had higher observational ability.

### Living Armors

were forged by Demonkind to be the ultimate battle companions to the highest of Battle Demons, often Battle Demon Princes, and their fondness for direct battle," said Volantis. "Thus, each and every one of us forged with the highest level of Truesight". Living Armors can function on their own but are designed to bind inseparably from their master. becoming a tool that can equip and unequip itself at will and synchronize with their Lord's will, providing their power to them. In Aldrich's case, **Volantis** follows **Occultation of the Shattered Bone** and Aldrich can use its spells through him.

## Elves

Elves are a proud and arrogant race with a high affinity for nature and a habit of building towers that they use slave labor to construct. Their capital city was Ars Fisteria, home to their massive "tree tower" which was destroyed by Death Lord. Their unyielding pride was remarked upon by her who said *"I granted the elves three chances to surrender, but they refused to yield. Far too proud a people for their own good, I dare say."*.

## Orcs

Orcs in Elden World were immense physical powerhouses with their underlying trait being their endurance. Unlike trolls, orcs did not have regeneration, but what they did have was an indomitable will and bodies that seemingly never tired, letting them fight and fight and fight for days even while they hungered or even nursed near lethal wounds. Orc warriors practiced their own unique combat art called Shaping that involved martial arts moves that manipulated the elements of nature around them.

Orcs in Elden World were generally regarded as gruff, unintelligent, barbaric creatures by other races due to their bloodthirsty warmongering ways that sought conflict seemingly with their every waking moment. Many races looked down on orcs because of this, and Volantis himself, with his memories erased, saw them as brutes. But it was simply a difference in culture and circumstance. A matter of perspective. Orcs did not care about building towering cities or longstanding civilizations that would last through the test of time. The Shatterlands from which they hailed from raged with routine devastating storms that would wipe out any attempt to build a city. Hence, the orcs were nomadic, but this also meant they were mocked as uncivilized. They did not have grand archives that told thousand-year histories of their people. They moved far too much to ever have a place to store any kind of document of their lives. Instead, the orcs told their tales through stories passed down from generation to generation, causing other peoples to believe they lacked any real sense of culture.

The orcs did not worship a god or a pantheon of gods, for as a people, they were too scattered, too fragmented in countless different nomadic tribes, to ever ball up their faith enough to sustain a proper god. Nor could the orcs who lived for the moment, for the present, ever stand the often intangible nature of more major gods that shared their presence only with a precious few priests. Instead, they worshipped what they could tangibly see around them every day—nature. But this also meant some peoples, particularly the zealous followers of the goddess Amara, believed the orcs to be godless heretics. Orcs loved to battle, with the thirst for the fight wired into their very blood, and thus they were perceived as bloodthirsty brutes. But that trait kept the orcs alive in an ever changing yet constantly harsh environment. Their culture reflected this reverence and desire for the fight with their penchant for taking bones as war trophies. A sign of respect among their ways, but to other peoples, such an act screamed of horrifying barbarism. Volantis's striking obsession with fighting powerful enemies and harvesting their bones likely came directly from this orc practice.

Orcs were known to unify every now and then into hordes under a Warmother or Warfather and conduct large scale raids. The most powerful of these was Thela the Conquerer, who was able to reach Helith, land of Demons.

## Giants

### Earth Giants

There are giant descended from ancient clans that split off from the Borean line, deciding to give up life atop the skies and instead tread upon the humble dirt. Because they decided to forego the skies to live upon the earth, they were called Earth Giants. Earth giants tended to be less intelligent than their sky giant counterparts, but at the same time, they were far less aggressive and one of the friendliest races in Elden World. Gentle giants through and through. Which made them easy to exploit, causing many civilizations to enslave them not only for their prodigious strength, but their strong connection to the earth that granted them an affinity for metal working.

### Sky Giants

In Elden World, most giants like Aldrich's zombie giant lived in a faraway northern land of towering mountains. There, the giants used enormous swathes of solid mystic clouds like giant aerial plains, living upon them or using them to cross from mountaintop to mountaintop. Thus, these giants were aptly called Sky Giants.

# **Monsters**

## Undead

### Lich

Liches are beings that are akin to Elementals of Death. Spiritual entities with a physical anchor that represented a specific natural force. In the case of a Lich, that element was the ever present, ever reaching flow of Death itself. Liches are beings that occupy a plane of existence higher than any mortal nor mere undead. To become a Lich, one must achieve three things. the first is to build a phylactery, which acts as a container for your soul. The second, is to sever all mortal chains that bind you to the living; these chains can be made of both love and hatred. The third is to receive an Obelisk of the Death Lord, which is akin to a shard of her power and counts as her acknowledgement. If you are not able to overcome her trial, you will become a Shade, which is a Lich with no free will that serves Death Lord. If you are able to overcome her trial, you take the shard of her power for yourself and become a true Lich. Their proximity to death makes them greatly proficient in necromancy, whereas mortal and even undead Necromancers can merely scratch the surface of death magic and necromancy. Rather than simply wading through the river of death, they become a part of it. As a result, even a lower leveled Lich poses considerable threat.

### Arisen

A Necromancer cannot take a soul and also reanimate a corpse. Once a soul was taken, the corpse lost its capacity to be reanimated and crumbled away. But if a corpse was reanimated with its soul intact, it became possible to resurrect higher tier undead. The undead, unlike zombies, are intact and can develop individuality and retain any martial arts training they had when they were living. However, they lose all their active memories, turning them into amnesiacs that unfailingly served their new master. If needed, a Necromancer could also just prevent any individuality from forming at all, essentially turning the raised undead into basically high functioning robots that retained combat training skills but no real free will.

### Zombie

Zombies are simple reanimated corpses. Although slightly stronger than when they were living, they are slower, dumber, and unskilled, mere mindless monsters that tear apart whatever they are ordered to. Weak to severe head trauma, fire and healing.

### Skeleton

Skeletons created from scratch or through Burning Agony and are specialized, well coordinated and capable of using skills. Weak to healing, but not to fire or severe head trauma, as they do not have brains.

### Spirit

Necromancers can also contract with negative spirits.

## Dragons

### Bloodblaze Dragons

Bloodblazes are a vampiric type with a particularly nasty breath that created torrents of crimson flame that not only burned, but also rapidly built up the [Bleed] status effect. This effect was so potent that in the lore, it was said that whenever a Bloodblaze Dragon went on a rampage, the rivers would run red with the blood it spilled.