Races of the New World

*The following excerpts are taken from **The New World Guidebook**, a work assembled and written by members of the Whittenmire Expedition, as led by Darius Whittenmire, one of the Amber Hunt’s foremost explorers. He’s had his fair share of scandals, but almost all the information in the guide has been corroborated at this point. While delegations aren’t supposed to arrive for a few weeks, You may wish to read a little about the cultures we’re to come in contact with, your Highness.*

*Your blade in the dark,*

*Zayn, Vintarum Attaché*

## On the Races

### Goblins

A race of short, green-skinned xenophiles who are spread over most of the New World, separated into several tribes. They can quickly adapt to their environment, and have been involved with most of the first contact of those from the Old World. Culture heavily depends on which tribe or race they are a part of, but they all share their gregarious attitude. Their language is the most widely spread on the continent, due to them existing in almost every other society, making it the most common language in the New World.

### Orcs

A brutal warrior society spread across dozens of walled monastery city states across the savannah and tundra. Orcs are slavers, with a cultural belief that every being has their place in the world and those who are too weak to avoid being placed at the bottom of society belong there. They have an immense respect for brute strength, magical ability, and wisdom but ruling members tend not to last into their twilight years, organizing a series of games known as The Test to select their replacements.

### Eth'lea

The matriarchal Elven civilization of the New World, the Eth'lea are distant relatives of the Elves of the Old World. Living among the trees in the dense jungles, they are quite similar to their relatives, but have several adaptions to treetop living. Slavery is common, as they hold a superior view of themselves over the other races of their continent. Ultimately, they keep a brutal lifestyle but live with their area, many of their weapons being fashioned from the wood of the trees and animals that they commonly hunt, and the things they hunt are sacrificed and given back to the jungle after they take what they need.

#### God-Touched Eth'lea

God-Touched are Eth'lea that have been personally touched by one of the four animal deities worshiped by the dark elves. Exemplifying the traits of the animals they represent, the God-Touched are important to the Eth'lea. The four forms of God-Touched are the Aranea, blessed by the Divine East to be spiders, Tif'en, blessed by the Divine North to be serpents, Corycia, blessed by the Divine South to be moths, and Onca, blessed by the Divine West to be jaguars. These God-Touched generally represent the largest powers in their society, due to how close they exist to their gods.

### Thriae

Psionically gifted eusocial insect humanoids ruled by Queens in large hive cities, the Thraie display characteristics of many different kinds of common bugs, mostly from wasps, ants, and mantids. They are strictly divided into nominally equal castes, that also determine their body's shape. Workers represent the bulk of the labor, with Warriors performing duties attached to their namesake, and Nomarchs functionally being powerful influences over an area that exist below the Queen. The Thraie are born into one caste, but there does exist methods to change both body shape and function through alchemy, another talent of the race.

### Yuukia

The androgynous snow half-spirits with many similarities to the Lumoran vampires, the Yuukia are descendants of spirits who escaped into reality. Unlike both of those groups, they instead leech spiritual force from other creatures (leaving them as carnivores), and are not affected by traditional vampire weakness, but are hurt by spiritual attack. Studious and lithe, Yuukia revere intellect and knowledge, and culturally most follow these ideals, including a tradition of covering their faces with veils, as that is seen as the most intimate part. They even take this ideal into religion, the Gods simply being viewed as another thing to study.

### Merfolk

The both curious, and numerous, race in the sea around the Coral Archipelago, Merfolk are defined by their lack of legs and new found curiosity towards all the new travelers to the continent. Merfolk love interacting with other races and amongst themselves, and are seen as friendly and welcoming people, if not a little simple, with no delusions of conquering or expanding. The idea of Wanderlust and exploration manifests as a demonic figure that they fear, so while adventuring Merfolk aren’t shunned, they are outsiders to their own race.