Though Aerune is able to support any D&D characters without altering, some players may wish to craft their characters to fit Aerune in particular.
Common Races
Dragonborn
Dragonborn in Aerune are the humanoid bastard children of the true dragons of Qelira. They hold their land with a ferocity and a fastness not unlike their mighty ancestors. Though they are firm in their borders, they are not hostile to others and do carefully trade with the satyrs, goblins, and even humans who are their neighbors. They think very little of kobolds, who claim draconic ancestry, and can clash or ally with drakonka, the shunned and wingless offspring of the true dragons.
Dwarves
Dwarves in Aerune enjoy a colder, drier, and rockier land on Feraweth that’s thick with ore and gems, which they use to build their family city-states and secure their descendents’ riches. Orderly, materialistic, and strong, they are not particularly war-mongering, but few would tangle with a dwarf.
Elves
Elves in Aerune are primarily high elves, with only a few small groups of wood elves living deep in uncharted expanses of wilderness. High elves were once populous across the whole of Elomawan, spreading elegant civilization and the organized study of magic, eventually settling and building upon Elm Sheras as the bastion of multiracial civilization. Over time, other races began outcompeting the elves for natural resources, living so much shorter but reproducing so much more often and more quickly.
The elves eventually left Elomawan for Umardothiel, an island cloaked in a perpetual fog of cold rain and deep winter, and since most other humanoids suffer poorly from such an environment, the elves were left alone in their last refuge. As a result, elves from Umardothiel tend to be either wary of or outright hostile towards many other races, while the remaining high elves of Elm Sheras maintain their noble standing amongst the many races of that sophisticated isle.
As a specific note about elf subraces: high elves are called thus due to their origins in tall, lofty mountain ranges and their natural hardiness against thin air and low temperatures. Rarely, high elves will be called mountain elves, and they tend to have very pale skin and black or dark brown hair. Wood elves are occasionally called forest elves and are nearly universally brown-skinned, though their hair can vary from black to brown to, occasionally, green.
Moon elves and sun elves are also present on Aerune in relatively low numbers, usually living alongside high elves or half-elf nobles. Identifiable by their purely silver or golden eyes that give off the faintest glow, their skin is usually mist-grey or silver, or rich amber-gold or brass-bright, respectively. Moon elves usually have white, silver, or black hair, while sun elves can have flame-colored hair, golden hair, or black hair. Even more rare than moon and sun elves are fey elves, star elves, and sea elves; the former live almost exclusively near the vast jungles on Feraweth, and the latter live alongside merfolk in Niradon, the underwater kingdom off the northern coast of Elomawan.
Dark elves, also called shadow elves, tend to live in murky or dimly-lit areas, or underground, but they are not the same as drow. Drow are a corrupted, sickened offshoot of dark elves. Dark elves themselves are neither evil nor hateful of those who “walk in the sun” - they are simply a people more adapted to darkness than to bright light. Calling a dark elf a drow is a serious insult and faux-pas in any situation and can result in outright violence.
Gnomes
Gnomes in Aerune hold a swath of lands on Feraweth, deeply green with deciduous forests and lush meadows, their coastlines rich with saltwater fishing. They live close to the natural world in nomadic bands or small villages, comfortable with their halfling and dwarvish neighbors. They are not rare in the wider world of Aerune and often seek out halflings and dwarves as allies when other gnomes are hard to find.
Halflings
Halflings in Aerune hold a swath of lands on Feraweth, deeply green with deciduous forests and lush meadows, their coastlines rich with saltwater fishing. Halflings build comfortable small towns surrounded by orchards and small patches of fertile farmland. They are quite friendly and gregarious to their gnomish and dwarvish neighbors, but they don’t as often leave their homelands to wander. When they do, they remain affable and can befriend nearly anyone.
Half-Elves
Half-elves in Aerune are uncommon and largely born of half-elvish parents, rather than the union of a human and a full-blooded elf. After the elves retreated to Umardothiel, only the half-elves that were littered in the wake of their slow departure were left to make their way in a human-dominated land.
Half-Orcs
Half-orcs in Aerune, like half-elves, are a product of half-orc parents, not human and orc hybrids. Once a rare occurrence, they eventually became populous enough to actually conquer both of their parent races and claim a large island just off the eastern shores of Elomawan as their own. Half-orcs often venture beyond their homeland into the wider world, proud of their heritage and unafraid of other races.
Humans
Humans in Aerune are diverse and varied with dozens of large and small ethnicities and local cultures that brew together to create unique individuals at every turn. They are so impossibly different from each other that other races often have a hard time keeping track of which humans like or do what. Even so, humans are one of the more gregarious races, inclined to curiosity and invention, coming up with contraptions just as often as new magical techniques. Adaptable and clever, humans often have conflicting reputations both among other humans and other races, but they cannot be broadly categorized as good or evil, chaotic or lawful.
Please see the
Humans of Aerune for more details on specific human ethnicities and languages.
Tieflings
Tieflings in Aerune are centralized on the tiny island of Molthuth, northeast of Elomawan. Molthuth is a magic-torn land of patchwork terrain and lightning-slashed sky that reveals glimpses of other planes. The tieflings who live here guard the skies from other races who might bring the heavens crashing down on them all; no non-tieflings are allowed on the island.
Tieflings who leave Molthuth to walk the wider world are uncommon but not unheard-of. Even those who are born outside of Molthuth are well-aware of the island’s importance and their kindred’s efforts to keep it safe and sacred from those who might exploit the planar rifts. Most tieflings are the offspring of tiefling parents, rather than a fiend and a human or elf parent, though the latter does still occasionally happen.
