By Esteemed Scholar David Nybroki, Human expert on races
to Lord Matrapsa
Humans - Dwarves - Dragons - Elves - Orcs - LizardFolk - Tree-Kins
What is there to say about Us?
Our race, that of Humans, is the youngest on this world. A fair estimate put Our race at about four thousand years I would say. Where Our exact cradle of origin lies is unkown, though signs point to it being somewhere in the Sunset Sea. Quite possibly on an island that have sunk beneath the waves. Those wise in what is called Geology tells me it is quite possible, and that is a quite natural explanation that does not have to mean Our cradle were destroyed by vengeful Gods.
Saying that We are the youngest does not mean we have no history. In fact, no other race can support as well-documented history as Our race! Of course, the first century or two since Landfall, as is commonly called, is hazy indeed, since it was chronicled from oral tradition. But once We got started, We chronicled Our history, with the rise and the fall of Our first Empire, most dilligently.
The oldest texts, that from before the forming of the first Nation, is illegible to the common man of today ... not only because most people can not read, but because they are written in what appears another language, with most definitely a different script. I am no expert on languages, but some in your employ that are have translated the early scripts to modern language for both Our sakes, and I'm grateful for having had the privelage to read them.
Since this work is to be as complete a book about the races of Our world as possible, I have included a summery of what those texts tells Us about Our history so far.
When we first made Our pressence on this world known we were welcomed by Dwarves, Elves, Treekin and Dragons as mere children unable to fend for Ourselves, though that changed fairly quickly. Lizardfolk and Orcs were and still are savages that tried to hunt Us, for whatever reasons that motivate such beasts. The records are a bit unclear exactly how many years after "landfall" the first Nation was proclaimed, but my estimates put it into the sixth century. This nation lasted about three thousand years before it fell, betrayed from within by leaders blinded by greed. The betrayers could not have done such deeds had they not been assisted by the Elves.
Some claim that it was and still is a minority group within the Elven race that was the cause. However, concidering the fact that Our smiths then could compete with the Dwarven mastersmiths, that Our sages could argue on equal terms with the Elves, that we had armies who caused more casulties amongst the Lizardfolk and Orcs than they had previously caused Our race harm and that Our nation gathered more wealth of coin and lore than the Elves makes me question such a claim.
That the dwarves had little or nothing to do with the fall of Our first nation is fairly clear when one reads the documents chronicling the last three centuries before the fall. They did give us warning, and they did not break contact during the fall, nor have they tried to deal with us unfairly since.
Unlike Elves.
Now there is still trouble on the horizons. We are growing strong yet again, and the Elve Nations are still unwilling to trade fairly. Orcs are more often than not winning the battles waged between Our races. The Dragons are also causing us grief like never before, sometimes just scaring of the heards of a farmer, or burning down whole villages.
As if We have not learned the lesson of caution and humbleness.
Humans - Dwarves - Dragons - Elves - Orcs - LizardFolk - Tree-Kins
Dwarves, or actually Dukelir in their own tongue, is a short-grown people with a lot of physical strength, compared to a Human. Some claim that the Dwarven psyche is possibly stronger than Ours as well, and it might be true. I can not say for sure if such claims are correct.
Though they individually might not be as versatile as Us they sometimes make it up with mastery in a single craft or trade. It appears that near to no smith of any race, not even the more long-lived Elves, can match the skill of a Dukelir Mastersmith. I have heard it told that a Dukelir woodcarver will work on a single piece of carving for years if necessary to get it right, and that such dedication is not uncommon among their kind. However, I do not think they will abandon the chance to earn a few coins working on other objects or projects while they strive to perfect their masterpiece.
That this people have mastered how to make a comfortable and sturdy dwelling is soon appearant if one visits one of their outposts, even if it can be a bit low to the cealing. A prime example of their construction-mastery can be seen in the fortress-city of ORTSNAMN. I do not know for sure if it is all one building, or a handfull of buildings erected to give the impression of being one building. The legend that no army ever having taken the city by force may very well be true, and concidering the rules that applies for visitors taking it by guile would be not much easier.
Humans - Dwarves - Dragons - Elves - Orcs - LizardFolk - Tree-Kins
Dragons. There is much to be said about Dragons. First of all one should realise that they are probably more real than this tome that you are reading.
These beings possess a horrifying beauty and a might like no other beings. Even a small, relatively speaking, member of their race is large and powerfull indeed. The dragon I, on several occations, belive it or not, spoke with was no less than 6 paces in lenth, not counting tail! However, this dragon was on the other hand about 200 years old. From what it told me, I have gathered that they never actually stop growing, even if the pace at which they grow diminish somewhat with age.
Dragons can reach a great age indeed, in fact well over 3000 years if they take care of themselves. I would fear to meet such a dragon though. I imagine that their jaws may span a full 10 feet in width … however their physiqe is not what is most fearsome about these beings.
It is Magick.
They weave their spells with their mind alone, seemingly effortlessly, and with dazzling speed.
You would need human mages who have, collectively, dealt with magical energies three or four times as long as a dragon to possibly be able meet it on equal terms … possibly equal terms. They are not to be underestimated.
One of the signs that Dragons are magically potent is the fact that almost everything from their body is a more or less powerful magical reagent. Though, hunting for bits of a Dragon is generally a dangerous business, it can be highly lucerative. However, I did get a tooth from the Dragon I spoke with, and I had it wrought to a most wonderful Athame.
One thing few realises is that Dragons goes to wars amongst themselves. Why this is the dragon would not reveal, and pressing a dragon for an answer to a question is folly indeed. Most likely a fatal folly. My theory about the infighting among dragons is a rather basic one, namely that of territorial rights. Before you scoff at my idea as simple and unworthy such magnificent beings, hear me out. All creatures have a desire to call something theirs. A being 20 paces from head to tail would off course have a much larger desire than just an acre or two to call their own, but might concider everything within a league or two from it's lair, or sleeping place, to belong to it. In case two dragons grow so large their increasingly large areas of dominion would overlap, well they do as We humans would. They fight over the rights to the lands.
Humans - Dwarves - Dragons - Elves - Orcs - LizardFolk - Tree-Kins
There is much that can be said about Elves.
First of all, do not let yourself be tricked by their beauty. They might strike you as the fairest of all creatures of this world, but mark my words. They harbour as much, if not more, darkness in their souls than the Orcs. Just take a look at the Dawn-elves, or the so called "Battle-dancers".
Had I not been in ORTSNAMN I would not have belived that two lonely Elves would first apologise to the Mayor and then cut down his son, before making their way out of town with the dead son of the Mayor in tow, and in the process kill or maim almost all guards, no less than sixty men. After such an atrocity they calmly proclaimed from the city gate that none of their kind would come to the aid of the town due to the inhospitality THEY, the Elves, had been shown! Such outrage!
Even though an Elve may appear simple in clothing and equipment, I must warn about that deception. Take a common soldier's armour, wrought out of no more than leather, and you will find that it can withstand arrows, and you might break a cane half an inch thick over their vambraces without bruising the wearer. And if they bestow such enchanted items on a simple soldier, what will not their knights and kings wear?
One last thing. Elves either have a wholely different view of the year, or they exaggerate their age. Not even Dragons, which may well be over two millennia of age, shows so few and small marks of age as an elf. A few faint lines around the eyes, a lack of spring in the step, and the Elve can claim to be four hundred years.
Maybe I am unfairly biased against the Elves, but I am not ashamed to say that I do not trust them.
Humans - Dwarves - Dragons - Elves - Orcs - LizardFolk - Tree-Kins
There is much to be said about Orcs.
They're savage, hardy, brutal, strong, agressive, primitive, straightforward, dishonourable and none too beautiful.
First of all, their lack of beauty have two reasons. They fight inceastantly and thus tend to have a large number of scars covering large parts of their skin, and since they don't care where they hit someone their facial scars are seldom less numerous than that of their torso. The second reason for their lack of beauty is that they breed for strength and hardiness alone.
Their race is divided into numerous tribes, that fall into two categories. One is male-dominated, and there the females are little more than breedingstock, and the other is female-dominated, and these are slightly better equipped as the males do a bit of crafting.
One thing is true for all tribes though, and that is that strength and fighting ability is what rules the hieracy. Not only among the common Orcs, but among the Shamans as well, though they are treated as a kind apart. I have not been able to determine why it is such a taboo among the orcs for them to hit a shaman unless the shaman have struck the first blow.
In fact, the mere subject of Shamans seems to be somewhat of a taboo among orcs. What I know is that most orcs fear the Shamans, regardless of tribe or it's standing. However this has nothing to do with an orcish fear of magic, for they will gladly charge any opponent, except a Shaman.
Humans - Dwarves - Dragons - Elves - Orcs - LizardFolk - Tree-Kins
Though the Orcs are simple and savage, they are practicly refined folk when compared to the Lizardfolk. These huge, anywhere from 6'4 to over 7 feet, brutes are practically no more than beasts on two legs that wield what tools other have left behind. They have no sense of history, they make no tools on their own and they eat practically any meat they can lay their hands on, even their own family members in times of famine.
I have heard tales that these were ones scholars of great learning, but their savagery belies such stories.
Humans - Dwarves - Dragons - Elves - Orcs - LizardFolk - Tree-Kins
Whether the Treekin is one race or two can be debated, but I want to make it clear that I am convinced that the Treekin is one race, with two wildly different manifestations.
The first form, called "Entin" in both Elveish and Dwarfish and with a name that would probably fill half a page in their own language, are large ambulatory trees. The common view is that these are the "males" of the Treekin, at least grammatically. One thing that sets them even further apart from the other races of Our world is that they are totally unable to use magic in any form, and they are also completely impervious to any and all effects of magic. Even the strongest elemental bindings seems to slide off them almost like water on a goose.
The second form is called Deryahndae, or Dryad in common language. These are the most curious of all beings of Our world, in my eyes. A Dryad is actually a spiritual form created by a grove of trees. This spiritual form can take any shape and size it pleases, and since they are not hindered by physical barriers they're very hard to follow if they don't feel like being followed. Some say that they can move with the speed of thought, however I have seen nothing to indicate this, though they are quick like the wind, and even more elusive when that mood strikes them.
The Ents' lack of magic is more than made up by the Dryads' ability to use magic. I would say that they have no superior save the Dragons. Considering that a Dryad's mood is much more fickle than that of Dragons I would say that the Dryads are more dangerous of the two on short term. However, having a Dragon for enemy is not something I wish even the worst of people.
I did make an inquiry to a Dryad about how their race reproduces, and if it's true that the Dryads need human males. She laughed at the idea, since physical intimacy of the kind other races share when they reproduce is impossible for Dryads. She told me, quite frankly that what time they spent with members of other races than Entin was for fun and pleasure alone, and their way of reproduction is most similar to that of flowers, though they, as sentient beings, had much more choice in the matter. It was however clear, since I asked specifically about it, that the fertilization is mutual of both the Ent and the Dryad. The question if a Dryad could reproduce with the help of another Dryad was met with such a shocked expression and absolute stone silence that I did not press the issue.
Since fun and pleasure have been mentioned perhaps I should dwell a little more on the subject. The Ents seems unable to grasp the concepts of "fun" and "pleasure" other than in context of learning but seems able to hold forth for hours on the subject of "duty", and could quite possibly hold a weeklong speach about what "chivalry" means.
The Dryads on the other hand seemed quite the other way around, with "honour" being an empty word, whereas Our word for "pleasure" could be defined in eleven ways by the Dryad I spoke with, without her having to pause to think. Had I not stopped her she would most likely have tried to show them to me too.
For both sides of the race the concepts of "knowledge" and "wisdom" are entwined and mean the same thing to them, and they are seen as the highest of pursuits, though Dryads and Ents go about it in totally different ways.
Since I have written about the lifespan of the other races perhaps I should do the same about the Treekin.
Let's start with the Ents. They start their lives as fruits or buds on an older Ent and at about two years of age falls off and starts the slow process of learning how to be an Ent on their own. The process of growing into their own and becoming responsible Ents is a process that takes about 100 years. Even without, or perhaps because of their resilience to, magic Ents live a long time. Ages of 1000 years are not uncommon, and tales are told among the Dryads, and Elves for some reason, of "Old Grandfather", an Ent who lived at least 1300 years. Even though the time of his passing is well known the exact year of his conception is not.
Dryads are quite peculiar, for they have not one body that determines their age. Since they are composed out of a grove of trees, their ability to survive depends only on the replenishment of their grove. While the Dryad I spoke with was, according to herself, and I have no way of checking it since she wouldn't let me see her grove, "only 300 years", she told me that her great-grandmother had told her about the day she, the grandmother, first had heard told of a new race appearing on the shores of the Sunset Sea.
It is my suspicion that Dryads might well compete fairly with Dragons when it comes to reaching greatest age.