Clades
Work in progress: Clades are being built toward this design. Some current rooms and commands still use the older word "race".
A clade is the body, ancestry, culture, and old magic a character carries into the adventuring life. Clades change stats, size, vision, resistances, languages, hunger, thirst, flight, natural damage, and sometimes guild access.
Most adventurers begin as Darkwinders, then find a Hall of Races or a stranger place of reincarnation when they want a different life.
Reading Clades
- Positive stat traits make that stat grow better over time
- Negative stat traits make that stat harder to raise
- Small clades handle some equipment differently and have trouble with very large weapons
- Large clades handle larger weapons more easily
- Alignment traits make movement toward that alignment easier
- Resistance traits reduce damage from that source
- Vulnerability traits increase danger from that source
- Flight and wings matter for travel, restrictions, and special checks
Regional Clades
Darkwinder
Darkwinders are the humans of Darkwind City and its surrounding lands. They are adaptable, well liked in trade, and unusually comfortable with reincarnation.
- Home: Darkwind
- Lineage: Human
- Traits: charisma, experience gain, race change affinity
- Languages: Common
Barbarian
Barbarians are the rugged humans of Canith, south of Darkwind City. Their lives favor strength, stamina, blunt honesty, and the pursuit of common good.
- Home: Darkwind region
- Lineage: Human
- Traits: strength, constitution, charisma, experience gain, good tendency
- Languages: Common
Glavian
Glavians are humans from the mountain kingdom of Glavia. They are peaceful and open-minded by habit, but their history of resisting demonic forces leaves a strong goodward pull.
- Home: Glavia
- Lineage: Human
- Traits: charisma, experience gain, good tendency
- Languages: Common
Faerie
Faeries are woodland sprites, brownies, dryads, atomies, and other small fae folk. They are wise, winged, flighty, and more resilient against mental force than their size suggests.
- Home: Darkwind and faerie places
- Lineage: Faerie
- Traits: small size, wings, flight, wisdom, psionic resistance
- Languages: Common, Faerie
Halfling
Halflings love food, comfort, stories, jokes, and trouble that looks harmless until it is already happening. Adventuring halflings tend to be quick, charming, and hard to pin down.
- Home: Darkwind region
- Lineage: Halfling
- Traits: small size, dexterity, charisma, weaker strength, lower wisdom, food and drink endurance
- Languages: Common
High Elf
High elves come from the elven kingdom south of Darkwind City. They are bright, graceful, persuasive, and fragile in the way old glass is fragile: beautiful until someone tests it badly.
- Home: Darkwind forests
- Lineage: Elf
- Traits: vision, dexterity, intelligence, wisdom, charisma, lower constitution, light resistance, good tendency
- Languages: Common, Elvish
Kender
Kender are small, fearless wanderers with quick hands and very little respect for the idea that danger deserves solemn behavior. They are agile, lucky, and deeply annoying to people who like quiet plans.
- Home: Hidden Darkwind enclaves
- Lineage: Kender
- Traits: strong vision, small size, strength, high dexterity, low wisdom, psionic resistance, evil vulnerability
- Languages: Common, Kenderspeak
Rift Duergar
Rift duergar are subterranean dwarves twisted by old darkness. They are hardy, strong, suspicious, and more comfortable under stone than under any honest sky.
- Home: Rift depths
- Lineage: Dwarf
- Traits: strong vision, small size, strength, constitution, lower intelligence, lower charisma, magic resistance, psionic resistance, light vulnerability, drink endurance, evil tendency
- Languages: Common, Dwarvish, Shel-zaran
Shel-zaranite
Shel-zaranites are an ancient underground branch of elvenkind. They are agile, clever, and steeped in the customs of a hidden city that remembers forgotten gods too fondly.
- Home: Shel-zaran
- Lineage: Elf
- Traits: strong vision, dexterity, intelligence, wisdom, lower constitution, light vulnerability, evil tendency
- Languages: Common, Shel-zaran, Elvish
Silver Elf
Silver elves, also called moon elves, live along the road between Darkwind and the frozen north. Their culture honors Luna, favors grace and charm, and keeps its sharpest eyes for the night.
- Home: Silver elf settlements
- Lineage: Elf
- Traits: strong vision, dexterity, intelligence, charisma, lower wisdom, lower constitution, good tendency
- Languages: Common, Elvish
Stone Dwarf
Stone dwarves are surface dwarves bound by tradition to mines, stonework, and the service of Mitra. They are compact, stubborn, and built for places where the ceiling is too low for fools.
- Home: Darkwind mines and underworld roads
- Lineage: Dwarf
- Traits: strong vision, small size, strength, constitution, lower dexterity, psionic resistance, drink endurance, strong good tendency
- Languages: Common, Dwarvish
Uruk
Uruk are orcs from warlike tribes around Darkwind. They prize strength, stamina, weapons, raids, and survival in rough ground over scholarship or diplomacy.
- Home: Darkwind borderlands
- Lineage: Orc
- Traits: vision, strength, constitution, lower intelligence, lower wisdom, lower charisma, weapon specialization, disease resistance, poison resistance, evil tendency
- Languages: Common, Orcish
Northman
Northmen are the humans of Hyperborea, especially Grimsfjord and the northern trade routes. They are hardy travelers, capable hagglers, and stubborn enough to call freezing weather a local custom.
- Home: Hyperborea
- Lineage: Human
- Traits: charisma, experience gain, northern cold affinity
- Languages: Common, Northern
Arctic Elf
Arctic elves are northern elves adapted to Hyperborea's ice, wars, and ancient ruins. They are quick and bright, but their bodies carry the familiar elven fragility.
- Home: Hyperborea
- Lineage: Elf
- Traits: dexterity, intelligence, wisdom, lower constitution, fire vulnerability, northern cold affinity, evil tendency
- Languages: Common, Northern, Elvish
Hyperborean Gnome
Hyperborean gnomes are small, practical folk from the habitable edges of the north. They survive through nimble hands, clever heads, and a surprising tolerance for harsh environments.
- Home: Hyperborea
- Lineage: Gnome
- Traits: small size, dexterity, intelligence, wisdom, fire resistance, acid resistance, poison resistance, drink endurance, northern cold affinity, good tendency
- Languages: Common, Northern, Gnomish
Ice Gnoll
Ice gnolls are predatory northern hunters with more appetite than mercy. They are strong, fast, and direct in a way that makes other clades choose longer roads.
- Home: Hyperborea
- Lineage: Gnoll
- Traits: strength, constitution, dexterity, lower intelligence, lower charisma, food endurance, northern cold affinity, evil tendency
- Languages: Common
Ice Ogre
Ice ogres are huge mercenary brutes from the cold wastes. They are immensely strong, thick-bodied, and poor company for anyone who values subtle thought.
- Home: Hyperborea
- Lineage: Ogre
- Traits: large size, high strength, high constitution, lower dexterity, lower intelligence, lower wisdom, lower charisma, disease resistance, psionic vulnerability, food and drink endurance, northern cold affinity, evil tendency
- Languages: Common
Souvraeli
Souvraelis are city-dwelling humans of the desert continent. Trade, education, and politics shape them into quick learners with good manners and sharper motives.
- Home: Souvrael
- Lineage: Human
- Traits: intelligence, charisma, experience gain, water vulnerability, desert affinity
- Languages: Common, Souvraeli
Desert Nomad
Desert nomads are the wandering peoples of Souvrael. Hospitality, faith, endurance, and open sand shape their lives.
- Home: Souvrael
- Lineage: Human
- Traits: constitution, charisma, experience gain, fire resistance, water vulnerability, desert affinity, good tendency
- Languages: Common, Souvraeli
Desert Dwarf
Desert dwarves keep small, peaceful settlements in Souvrael's dry places. They are strong, hardy, resistant to magic, and accustomed to long thirst.
- Home: Souvrael
- Lineage: Dwarf
- Traits: vision, small size, strength, constitution, wisdom, lower dexterity, magic resistance, psionic resistance, drink endurance, desert affinity, good tendency
- Languages: Common, Souvraeli, Dwarvish
Wayfarian
Wayfarians are elves marked by a holy legacy. Their stories remember oppression, Mitra's blessing, and the bright aura that lets them strike evil with more than steel.
- Home: Wayfare
- Lineage: Elf
- Traits: good damage, evil resistance, chaos resistance, strong good tendency
- Languages: Common, Elvish, Talamh
Sidhe
Sidhe are unseelie fae touched by old corruption and a vampiric strain. They are clever, winged, magically quick to recover, and frail in body.
- Home: Talamh Darag
- Lineage: Faerie
- Traits: small size, wings, flight, dexterity, intelligence, spell point recovery, lower strength, lower constitution, drink endurance, strong evil tendency
- Languages: Common, Talamh
Pixie
Pixies are small fae tricksters with silk-like wings and a talent for making other people's plans worse. They are bright, magical, and morally inconvenient.
- Home: Talamh Darag
- Lineage: Faerie
- Traits: small size, wings, flight, intelligence, magic resistance, evil tendency
- Languages: Common, Talamh, Faerie
Crannian Gnome
Crannian gnomes are earth-dwelling, misshapen, treasure-guarding cousins of gnomes and dwarves. They are quick, clever, charming, and uncomfortable with the needs of ordinary flesh.
- Home: Talamh Darag
- Lineage: Gnome
- Traits: strong vision, small size, dexterity, intelligence, charisma, experience gain, lower constitution, weaker food and drink endurance
- Languages: Common, Gnomish, Talamh
Hidden And Exotic Clades
Gypsy
Gypsies are bright-clothed wanderers, performers, fortune tellers, and artful travelers. Their lives reward charm, quick fingers, strong stories, and a talent for leaving before the bill arrives.
- Home: Darkwind wanderer camps
- Lineage: Human
- Traits: dexterity, charisma, experience gain, lower wisdom, drink endurance, good tendency
- Languages: Common, Romani
Scro
Scro are disciplined orcs adapted to wildspace and organized war. They are less brutish than uruk, more mentally capable, and trained to treat the strange as a military problem.
- Home: Hidden wildspace outposts
- Lineage: Orc
- Traits: vision, strength, constitution, intelligence, lower charisma, weapon specialization, psionic resistance, astral resistance, evil tendency
- Languages: Common, Orcish
Sylph
Sylphs are high-air fae from mountains, tall trees, and places where the wind has room to think. They are graceful, clever, charming, and lighter than a front-line warrior wants to be.
- Home: Kerei and high faerie places
- Lineage: Faerie
- Traits: strong vision, wings, dexterity, intelligence, wisdom, charisma, lower strength, lower constitution, food and drink endurance, good tendency
- Languages: Common, Faerie, Elvish
Thraxian
Thraxians are draconian humanoids from eastern Hyperborea. They carry wings, breath, harsh features, and enough dragon-blooded presence to make tools and polite society both slightly awkward.
- Home: Thrax, Hyperborea
- Lineage: Draconian
- Traits: vision, wings, flight, breath, strength, constitution, intelligence, wisdom, lower dexterity, lower charisma, food endurance, northern cold affinity
- Languages: Common, Draconian
Swamp Troll
Swamp trolls are large, ugly survivors from wet and hungry places. They heal well, hit hard, and dislike sharp punctures more than flames.
- Home: Swamps and troll marshes
- Lineage: Troll
- Traits: large size, high strength, hit point recovery, lower dexterity, lower intelligence, lower wisdom, lower charisma, fire resistance, piercing vulnerability, food and drink endurance
- Languages: Common
Dragon
Dragons are enormous mythic bodies rather than ordinary ancestry. A dragon life changes scale, appetite, language, travel, equipment, and the way the world decides whether a doorway is a joke.
- Home: Dragon class rites
- Lineage: Dragon
- Traits: huge size, slower experience, dragon language
- Languages: Common, Dragon
Crinos
Crinos is the war-form of the wolf-blooded: part person, part wolf, all claws, rage, and terrible presence. It is a transformed clade rather than a normal birth clade.
- Home: Garou and lunar transformations
- Lineage: Lycanthrope
- Traits: vision, large size, high strength, dexterity, high constitution, lower intelligence, lower wisdom, very low charisma, food endurance
- Languages: Varies
Wolf
Wolf form trades hands, speech, and polite society for speed, instinct, teeth, and the clean honesty of a hunt.
- Home: Garou and lunar transformations
- Lineage: Lycanthrope
- Traits: vision, strength, high dexterity, high constitution, lower intelligence, lower wisdom, low charisma, food endurance
- Languages: Varies
Yugoloth
Yugoloth form is a fiendish bargain-body: powerful, cruel, resistant to evil and chaos, and deeply vulnerable to holy order.
- Home: Deathknight bargains
- Lineage: Fiend-touched human
- Traits: vision, strength, constitution, wisdom, low charisma, evil damage, evil resistance, chaos resistance, good vulnerability, law vulnerability, light vulnerability, food endurance, weaker drink endurance, evil and chaotic tendency
- Languages: Common, Demonic
Future Unlock Clades
The following clades are design targets for remort, shrine, quest, class, or other special unlocks. They are not normal Hall of Races choices.
Ashborn
Ashborn bodies carry the desert ash of Ashad in their lungs and blood. Their skin runs warm, their scars darken like soot, and their best work happens around flame, engines, burners, and ruined corpses.
- Unlock: Ashad remort shrine or ash research chain
- Traits: fire resistance, ash crafting, weaker water tolerance, strong endurance
Gearborn
Gearborn are Tekal-touched souls rebuilt with tiny machine miracles. Their hearts tick too evenly, their hands remember measurements, and their bodies make poor peace with wild magic.
- Unlock: Tekal moon shrine
- Traits: crafting, traps, devices, precision, magic vulnerability
Markasi
Markasi are moon-sanctuary descendants from the light of Markas. They are calm, beautiful, difficult to frighten, and drawn toward healing, protection, and astral travel.
- Unlock: Markas pilgrimage
- Traits: light resistance, fear resistance, healing affinity, lower brute force
Dailosi
Dailosi are plague-moon survivors touched by the God of Disease. Their bodies understand sickness too well: resistant to some corruption, unnerving to the healthy, and watched closely by temples.
- Unlock: Dailos shrine or disease quest
- Traits: disease resistance, poison resistance, grim aura, social penalties
Rimebound
Rimebound clades come from Dramasa's barren ice. Their breath fogs even in warm rooms, their blood chills quickly, and their patience outlasts storms that kill ordinary people.
- Unlock: Dramasa remort shrine
- Traits: cold resistance, endurance, slower recovery in heat, calm focus
Cinderkin
Cinderkin are Iglantu-born bodies shaped by lava rivers and elemental fire. They live close to combustion and carry a dangerous brightness under the skin.
- Unlock: Iglantu fire rite
- Traits: fire resistance, burn effects, heat vision, water vulnerability
Sporekin
Sporekin come from Lerquird's mushroom forests and wet fungal depths. They are patient, quiet, strange to read, and more comfortable with rot than with sun.
- Unlock: Lerquird mycelium pact
- Traits: poison resistance, disease resistance, regeneration, light sensitivity
Fallowsworn
Fallowsworn souls come back from the Bodachian Fallows with too much shadow still attached. They see ghosts in the corner of the eye and make haunted places feel almost welcoming.
- Unlock: Bodachian Fallows remort or ghost story chain
- Traits: fear resistance, spirit sight, shadow affinity, light vulnerability
Tideborn
Tideborn are Virodian sea-folk from warm coasts and reef cities. They are graceful swimmers, charming traders, and hard to keep away from salt water.
- Unlock: Virodia sea shrine
- Traits: water resistance, swimming, charisma, fire vulnerability
Lotuskin
Lotuskin are Kerei island mystics whose bodies carry jungle pollen, temple incense, and old faerie bargains. They move quietly and read omens in petals, smoke, and blood.
- Unlock: Kerei hidden temple chain
- Traits: dexterity, stealth, minor omen affinity, poison vulnerability
Serpentblood
Serpentblood clades descend from Souvrael's snake temples and dune cults. They are graceful, patient, venom-wise, and hard to surprise in hot places.
- Unlock: Souvrael serpent temple rite
- Traits: poison resistance, desert affinity, dexterity, cold vulnerability
Stormtouched
Stormtouched are Hyperborean souls claimed by thunder, giants, and old sky wars. Their voices carry, their tempers arrive early, and lightning treats them like distant kin.
- Unlock: Hyperborean storm pilgrimage
- Traits: lightning resistance, strength, loud presence, stealth penalties