Ballads in the Blood

Many well-known races of the material plane share common story threads throughout the Dream. Here are a few of the most prominent.

Dwarf. The dwarves of the Bones may hold the strongest position in modern affairs - rich mineral wealth and vast holdings untouched by war. Their insular nature has kept them safe. Instead of war? The ‘old clans’ seek immortality in art, lore, and craft. Beyond the Bones, their skills are welcomed by many.
Elf. Mistrustful of others and of the Empire least of all, the collective of Elvenkind in the Old Wilds boast arcane, natural, and military might to rival any nation, but remain internally fractious. Native wood elves host their high elven cousins who fled orcish slavery. The stoic, harsh daev (drow) protect all from below.
Halfling. Kind hosts but ruthless enemies, the river families of the Coast claim to have acquired access to the Throne of the Delta by legitimate trade with the gnomish Concerns. With their vast connections and shared wealth, it may even be true. They have a surplus of luck and destiny both, and travel everywhere.
Human. Humanity finds itself in a precarious position. The Galasteri are reviled as foot soldiers of a mad king, yet were also the most numerous who died to stop him. Other human peoples struggle against regional pressures or local tyrannies, all eager to ensure the Empire finds no human allies or peers.
Dragonborn. The great Clutches of dragonkind did not care when Savrias sought his godhood. They don’t care what follows. The Clutches keep to their enclaves in the most forbidding terrain in the Dream, gathering wealth and raising temples and tombs to guard it. One question remains unanswered - Why?
Gnome. Politically neutral, the gnomish trade Concerns manage their vast ambitions with respect, care, and cunning. Few miss the Throne they allegedly sold to the halflings, claiming it to have been haunted by wickedness. Few, but perhaps enough: some bosses aren’t content as minor players in the Dream.
Half-Elf. The threat of war between Galastaire and Elvenkind was once managed via marriages, with its success spreading half-elves across the Empire. In the Old Wilds, romance between Kin and Kind is common, as blooded Kin navigate praise and limited status. Many half-elves form their own communities.
Half-Orc. Inter-marriage between the Empire and the Horde was far less successful. Full citizens to the Orcs, but mistrusted by the Empire and others, the Blooded Houses of the Coast stand somewhat independent after the war made them rich. Half-orcs outside of the Houses are often born of respected mutual foes.
Tiefling. The eternal outsiders have a new home atop the Ramparts. By saving a Throne from the orcish onslaught, the Devil Captain left her mark upon the Dream, proving that tieflings can and will fight for the good of all - but can the legend last? Not all tieflings flock to her banner, and not all folk fear them.
Ideal*. These half-spirits live their stories writ large against the Dream, and though not an unusual sight, the Ideal are anything but common. One way or another, attention finds them and anyone who happens to be nearby.
Refined*. Victims of machinations long forgotten, a rare few members of other races are “refined” into alien, innocent, and sometimes unnerving new forms. These new Refined are inquisitive, but their greatest questions unite them - Who was I? Who am I? Why was I made? And what will the future hold?

Born of Soil, of Hill, of Flame, of Snow

Native Galasteri speak of being birthed from the rich, dark mud of the continental heartland. As each of their names was written by their gods, so did the first of their many families rise up and write lovers, children, and futures of their own. From the grand island hill that would become the imperial capital, they claim that humanity began. As the cousins who would become great Mansas and waylords arrived, they found many commonalities. But not all humans rose from Galasteri soil. Each have their own tales.

When the dwarves first followed the whispers in the stone and descended from the farthest northern Bones, humans - dark of eye and light of skin – traveled alongside them through the windy buttes and plateaus into the lowlands of the snowy hills. These tribes of the hills walk their own path now, separate from Galastaire. Many still tend gardens, herds, temples, and craft halls above and below ground, more kin to dwarves than to the Empire, while others walk old paths set by the herds they tend, free of all other concerns but their cousins and their enemies. Often shamanistic, animistic, or both, hill nations tend to honor ancestors and culture heroes, while others worship nature spirits or complex celestial hierarchies.

From the warm winds of the Steppes and the dense and verdant Old Wilds, the tribes of flame make lives in less than ideal territory for agriculture, but raise wondrous nations nonetheless. To the west, they venerate dragons and winged serpents as the Muses’ “true forms”, even as they defy draconic and dragonborn domination. To the east? They exchange blood, faith, and life with elves, as Kin or bitter foes.

The latest humans to lay their roots in Galastaire have come by loss and diaspora. The “snow peoples” - pale high elves and their paler human kin - fought the might of the Orcs in their homeland and lost. Over the centuries, they saw their lands rebuilt in the orcish image, losing structure, definition, and freedom. Rather than submit as client races, the snow peoples fled across the Sea to join existing communities or to build their own up from nothing. Many serve Elvenkind, but others resent their failed elvish elders.

Not only humans carry a broad variety of skin tones, hair, and traits. Elves, dwarves, halflings, gnomes, and all of the many races of the Dream draw their appearance from the land, sun, and climate, and can resemble each other more than strangers from another region. The few exceptions are exceptionally so.

Elvenkind Above, Alive, and Far Below

Elves of the Dream have a few natural and cultural differences from those who live on other planes, changed by the ephemeral nature of the realm and their own quicksilver origins. Those called ‘wood’ or ‘wild’ elves are as native to the Dream as anyone, the first to set foot in and settle what are now called the Old Wilds, long before the first human or dwarven arrivals. Over time, they delved into their affinity with the land and nature, building a community and philosophy around a unity borne of common experience, common struggle, and ecstatic awakenings. Through struggle, sacrifice, and revival, even the long-lived can remain as forever-new as the passing of seasons. But this view was not the only one to emerge. Elves naturally drawn towards stability, order, and a more careful cultivation of century-long studies turned towards the energies and questions of the sun. Even with an eternity, one could not see, consume, or understand the extent of that blinding brilliance. And so, communities arose along the jungle canopy to filter, unravel, and distill the endless pressure of awareness into the wine of wisdom.

Even then, a few of their kin - unmoved by the cycles of the seasons and blinded by the light of the sun - sought their own source of truth. Those too stern, too practical, too vast in appetites for quiet community or the few refugees from much darker worlds banded together among the deep roots of ancient trees. There, they found gardens nourished by shadow and the lingering magic in strange metals. There, they found caves and warrens that stretched for countless miles, and countless horrors within them. There, they found a purpose - a garden of their own to cultivate, and a promise to keep with their kin. In return for their autonomy, they would do what cannot be savored or seen. They would keep watch. And so, the daev attuned to the darkness and bound each other by similar oaths and geasa.

Elvenkind as a whole shares a cultural desire to cultivate life, especially the lives of their non-elven Kin. The varying clans organize along “Kith” role groups and “Kin” families, tolerating each other with the quiet assurance that the others will come to understand or at least appreciate their knowledge or their wisdom. A practical concern also binds them - those who experience great passions, epiphanies, or traumas may change their blood affinity - shifting not just in hue, but in build, demeanor, and anatomy. They are one people, no matter the conflicts they face, and a number of civil wars won’t ever erase that.

When united? Elvenkind often aims to “cultivate” the lands and affairs of others by isolating, weakening, or disrupting rivals to Elvenkind’s enlightened consensus. This is the goal of the daevish Mithrallim, a mercantile guild and more. Should this mission bring them wealth? So be it. Should it turn them cruel?

Well… What gardener isn’t cruel to weeds?

Scarlet Tide, Lonely Gems, Broken Walls

The southern Sea divides the warmer climes of the “known world” and the deep marches where the Horde has claimed dominance. Little is known of the southern interior, nor of the “client races” of the Horde. Goblinoids, kobolds, humans, and the rare high elf appear content or even happy on the surface when serving the orcs as favored slave-merchants. Well-educated and wealthy, it appears that skilled artisans and trustworthy soldiers are often relocated to best serve the Horde. The rest are never seen by outsiders.

The Sea itself and its many archipelagos are neutral, if only because neither region see much hope of subjugating the island nations that live there. Powerful spirits, an undersea fey ‘principality’, and hardy seafaring locals with extremely independent tendencies make sea travel treacherous, except by the circular “trade currents” around the fringes of the isles that the Blooded Houses and the Orc fight over.

Piracy is common, if resisted fiercely by both navies. Galastaire and other communities are far more permissive, so long as the orcs continue to feel the worst of the bite. Even so, independent raiders risk brutal deaths at the hands of the Horde. So instead? A pirate fleet has risen under the command of their queen – generous and monstrous in turns. But for those unafraid of the orcs? She offers endless gold.

The Sea offers a great bounty at a greater risk. Between the Scarlet and Broken Coasts, cultures clash and trade with equal passion. The clever make a fortune. The careless won’t live long enough to spend it. Along the Ramparts, summer is the war season.

And the Sea? Imposes its own will, favoring none first.

When Race is Not Race

Other races are not human. Despite the most prominent examples above, they are not monolithic cultures nor do they have the same common traits of ethnicities or tribes. These peoples have their own diversity, sometimes apparent but often invisible to humans. They have their complex histories.

What they share are common perspectives born of their natures. What are decades to an elf? What is soft, vexing wood to a dwarf? Halfling communities sing songs of rising and falling empires – never their own, as their fates often prove too fickle for conquest. With gnomes, who knows the real truth?

These beings are not human, even if largely familiar to us. Humans are often just as alien to them.