Races

CANINE

The dogs chose to rely on magic, not science for their needs. They tend to live wild and free, roaming their land in nomadic packs, each ruled by a Shaman adept in the arcane arts. The dog-nation, known as BOW-WOWRIA, has produced many great mages, alchemists and brave warriors.

Their driving forces are the Spirit and the Heart and their element is Fire.

BOVINE/EQUESTRIAN

Those with little ambition joined the peaceful, hard-working folk of RUMINIA, who live simple lives, on an almost-Communist-like kolkhoz-farms. The capital of Ruminia is Mooscow. Ruminia has produced very few heroes—apart from a few very artful artisans and craftsmen, few outstanding figures emanate from this fertile nation. Ruminia is known for many great achievements and breakthroughs (particularly in the agronomical field), but most landmark accomplishments are not the work of a single individual, rather: the culmination of a joint effort by an entire kolkhoz.

Their driving force is the Stomach and their element is Earth.

AMPHIBIAN

Unburdened by excessive intelligence, the mostly-benign frogs, salamanders and toads live in the jungle-nation of PADDESTAN, that shares borders with Ruminia and the Great Valley Gorge. Unfortunately for them, their tropical home sits right above the evil, subterranean empire of FIENDLAND so it is fraught with danger, as panicky, half-formed abominations often escape the Fiendish flesh-kitchen below.

The Amphibians are a neutral species, who are also not too fond of sunlight. From their (limited and low) perspective, the Fiends would be much nicer neighbours, if they would only keep their beasties to themselves and heed numerous pleas to cut down on the forays, kidnapping and mutating their neighbours above.

They are driven by Slime. Their element is Water.

ANCIENT (Fiend/Amphibian/Reptilian)

The low places of the world belong to the Shadow Fiends, the aboriginal dwellers of Animus. An ethereal, shape-shifting, shadowy race, the Fiends are notorious for their extremely low tolerance for sunlight and joy-joy feelings.

Prior to the arrival of the newcomers, the Fiends had gone to great lengths to pollute and darken the world of Animus. When the new settlers arrived from Earth via a dimensional rift, a never-ending feud was sparked, as the unwelcome interlopers went about brazenly cleaning up the planet, terra-forming their new home to suit their needs. Driven back by scorching sunlight, the Fiends claimed the Great Valley Gorge, where sun’s rays never fall and called their humid, subterranean nation FIENDLAND. The Fiends are not at all evil from their own perspective. To other races, however, eating each other indiscriminately and stoking volcanoes, to blot out the sun with ash and smog pretty much counts as evil (not to mention kidnapping their amphibian neighbours to sate their hideous bioengineering appetites). The serpent-nation spawns skilled, albeit oft-deformed, warriors and vicious money-lenders.

The Fiends solve all their problems through bioengineering. They subjugated the Reptile and Amphibian races and use them to create purpose-built servants.

They are driven by Smog and Darkness. Their element is Air.

Although the national borders are set, the populations are mixed and there are communities of the various species in all three countries. Bovinia has the greatest diversity of the three nations, in terms of species, as many rodents and birds flee here to escape the inevitable fate of becoming someone’s dinner elsewhere.

ANGELS

At the Roof of the World, at the centre of the Sky Ring Sea, lies the island of ANGELHOLM on which lives an immortal, winged, humanoid couple. They barely ever leave the island and almost never directly interfere in the workings of the world. But when least-expected, they have been known to grant wishes in singular cases, when they deem Fate’s games to be too mischievous and cruel. They are the Guardians of the World and uphold the balance between the various forces that act upon it.