All Races
36 base races. Kinborns and bloodline variants appear beneath their base race, with the lore that differs and only the racial stats that change.
Bast
Bast treat most encounters like a game they've already decided to win. Quick tongues and a knack for always landing on top, figuratively and otherwise, have earned them a reputation as charming liars and worse cardsharps. They're easy to underestimate and that's exactly how they prefer it; a Bast caught in a straight fight has usually already lost, but a Bast given an opening rarely needs a second one.
Bast accounts open on a temple-city rather than a homeland, and on the office their forebears held in it, which was to be let in everywhere and accounted for nowhere. That standing was granted, never earned, and the Bast have carried the manner of it long past the city, which is why a Bast enters a room as though already invited and is so rarely questioned on it.
Lore has it that Bast are blessed with nine lives, and there's something to the legend, while most don't dare attempt Rejuvenation before Growth 30, a Bast can try as early as Growth 21, nine LVLs ahead of everyone else.
That same luck runs out eventually, a Bast who's burned through one too many close calls finds the next gamble doesn't go their way nearly as often, and their thin frame rarely holds up to a straight fight once the trickery runs dry.
Native Planet
Zailister
Cultural Armaments
Bast armament is chosen for how it looks winning. Light, fast and showy, cut to move and to be seen moving, with more attention paid to the finish than the plate. A Bast will take a worse set that suits them over a better one that does not, and is usually right about the odds. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history.
Spirit & Apex
Spirit Start 6 (+3 growth) | Apex Start 8 (+2 growth)
Innate Trait Adjustments
+1 Agility, +2 Dexterity, +1 Constitution, +1 Piety, +1 Deceit, +1 Intuition | -3 Toughness, -3 Courage, -3 Warded
Starting ATTR Floor
Artistry (ART) 2, Vigilance (VIG) 1, Physique (PHY) 1, Wisdom (WIS) 1
Innate Aptitude
Ninelives | tracks 9 lives, marked off one at a time as they're spent. Any time this Bast is resurrected, by any means, including a Resurrection performed by another character (a Cleric, for instance), one life is spent. Unlike any other race, a Bast doesn't need a resurrecting class or character present to come back: with no one capable of Resurrection anywhere nearby, the Bast is restored anyway, a life spent all the same. Once all 9 are gone, a Bast comes back from death exactly like anyone else, no free revival, and nothing left to spend on one.
+2 to Deceit rolls made for cardsharping, bluffing, talking a mark down off a hard line, or feigning death.
Innate Inaptitude
Every life spent through Ninelives counts toward the Character's death total for the Death Penalty (see Basic Rules pg. 5), same as any other death, Time Lost and the rest all still apply in full.
-2 to all rolls in a straight, prolonged fight with no opening to exploit.
Lifespan: ~150 years (Mortal)
Starting Age: 38 | Retirement Age: 78 (see Time, pg. 4)
Favored Classes
Strategist (Rogue) +4 / Path: Shadow Stalker +4 / Branch: Wraith +6
Favored Companions
1. Pet, a Small companion suited to a Bast's quick, opportunistic lifestyle. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
2. Guardian, a Goliath-sized companion that fights alongside its owner. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike.
Brownling
Charming smallfolk born of Halfling blood and the Brownie Fae race of the wilderness, Brownlings carry slightly pointed ears and an earthy, luminescent complexion that bestows their dual heritage. With deep cultural roots and a gift for artistic expression, they excel in Fae and nature magic, weaving gentle enchantments with ease. Brownlings are also elusive and keen characters making for good rogue and thief roles.
Brownling accounts turn on a bargain rather than a founding. Their forebears are held to have given their work to households freely and unasked, on the single understanding that the work never be repaid, and to have left without argument the moment payment was offered. Every Brownling still carries the shape of that arrangement, generous without limit and unreachable the instant a debt is named.
Of Fae lineage through their Brownie Fae parentage, tracing back to Tenue, through the Veilwood, into Zailister, same as Elves (see Fae, above).
Although adventurous, Brownlings are naturally reclusive and like being home, and with a touch of magic, tending a woodland or upkeeping a household comes naturally to them. Masters of craftsmanship, upkeep and stealth, little escapes their notice or their hands.
That homebound streak runs deep, a Brownling pulled too far or too long from their household or woodland grows visibly anxious, and their craftsmanship suffers the longer they're away from a proper hearth.
Native Planet
Zailister
Cultural Armaments
Brownling work is Fae-touched smallfolk craft, earthy, light and quietly enchanted more often than not. Little of it is made for war, and what is tends to have been a gift rather than a purchase. Telluric, Fae-touched at the making, and enchanted far more often than it is armoured. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history.
Spirit & Apex
Spirit Start 3 (+1 growth) | Apex Start 7 (+1 growth)
Innate Trait Adjustments
+2 Charisma, +1 Knowledge | -2 Strength, -2 Toughness, -1 Intuition
Starting ATTR Floor
Artistry (ART) 2, Wisdom (WIS) 1
Innate Aptitude
Hearthcraft | gentle Fae-touched skill with craftsmanship, upkeep, and stealth; +2 to rolls made tending a woodland or household.
Innate Inaptitude
-2 to all rolls made far or long from home; a Brownling pulled away from their household or woodland grows visibly anxious.
Lifespan: ~150 years (Mortal)
Starting Age: 38 | Retirement Age: 78 (see Time, pg. 4)
Favored Classes
Bard (Performer) +4 / Path: Strumalong +4 / Branch: Stroller +6
Marksman +5
Favored Companions
1. Pet, a Tiny woodland companion that keeps close to a Brownling's hearth. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
2. Fellowship, a Small humanoid companion who shares a Brownling's household and craft. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike.
Bugbear
Bugbears are tall, broad-shouldered predators covered in coarse, bristled fur, built for both raw strength and the patience of a hunter. Despite their size, they move with surprising quiet through dense brush and rocky terrain, relying on ambush as often as brute force to bring down prey twice their size.
The Bugbear name was not chosen, it was given, first spoken by other peoples as the thing waiting past the edge of a settlement to frighten children into staying inside it. Bugbears know precisely what they were made into and have never petitioned to be called anything else, holding that a name others are afraid to say aloud does most of the work of a border.
For all their size, Bugbears move without a sound through forest and stone, slipping past brush and scree that would announce any other predator's approach long before it ever got close.
All that patience for the hunt leaves little for anything else, a Bugbear forced to sit still without a target in sight grows restless fast, and conversations rarely hold their attention long enough to finish.
Native Planet
Zailister
Cultural Armaments
Bugbear work is a hunter's, not a soldier's. Heavy where it covers, silent everywhere else, and built around the patience of a stalk rather than the shock of a charge. Coarse hide over their own bristled coat, which does half the job already. Telluric work, hide and worked metal, nothing in it that needs charging. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history.
Spirit & Apex
Spirit Start 4 (+4 growth) | Apex Start 10 (+3 growth)
Innate Trait Adjustments
+2 Strength, +1 Intuition | -2 Charisma, -2 Wit, -1 Piety
Starting ATTR Floor
VIG 1, PHY 2
Innate Aptitude
Silent Stalk | moves through brush and rocky terrain without a sound; +2 to Stealth rolls made while closing on prey or an ambush target.
+2 to Intuition rolls made while tracking or stalking a target before a strike.
Innate Inaptitude
-2 to all rolls requiring patience without a target in sight; grows restless when forced to wait or hold position.
-2 to social rolls requiring sustained conversation or negotiation.
Lifespan: ~80 years (Mortal)
Starting Age: 20 | Retirement Age: 60 (see Time, pg. 4)
Favored Classes
Barbarian (Warrior) +4 / Path: Cimmerian +4 / Branch: Beast +6
Favored Companions
1. Guardian, a Goliath-sized companion that fights alongside a Bugbear in the hunt. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
2. Pet, a Small companion suited to a Bugbear's quiet, patient ambush lifestyle. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike.
Caelen (Corpus Caeleste, Standard Size)
The Omnè Astral invaded Corpus Caeleste. The Caelen fought hard, but their technology was not as advanced, and they had no magic. They were taken by the millions and experimented on. The experimented Caelen became too strong to control, fought back, sought revenge and got a great deal of it, and took their captors' vessels home to reunite with their families, who are just normal Caelen. This card is the experimented line. The Caelen who were never taken remain as they always were.
Caelen accounts begin at the invasion and refuse to begin anywhere earlier. What came before was recorded and is now held to be another people's property, taken along with everything else, and a Caelen asked about it will tell you the question is the theft continuing. What they keep instead is a count of the taken, maintained exactly, and it has never stopped being added to.
The Caelen were remade piece by piece, until almost nothing of the original remained. It was never one decision. A hand, then a lung, then an eye, and somewhere along that line the person stopped being the thing they started as. They do not consider this a loss and have little patience for anyone who does. Corpus Caeleste sits past Tawdry Dwarf where the old star gives too little to live on unaided, and the Caelen answer to that was to stop needing what it could no longer give. See Tawdry Dwarf & Beyond for more.
What is left of them runs precisely. A Caelen does not tire the way flesh tires, does not misjudge a distance, and does not forget a figure they have been given.
What went out with the flesh went out for good. Adoria's light finds nothing in a Caelen to work on, and a mending spell laid on one closes half of what it would close on anyone else.
Native Planet
Corpus Caeleste
Cultural Armaments
Caelen work is installed, not issued. A limb is machined to its owner and to nobody else, which makes a Caelen kit worthless secondhand and priceless to the one wearing it. They carry TAW alongside it for anything a body should not hold. Attachments were first crafted by the Omnè Astral, for the grafts it had made. Production stopped once the Caelen took their revenge and sailed home, and the Caelen have crafted their own ever since. They are enhanced the way TAW is enhanced, by Modification. Grafted, machined to one body and worthless off it. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history.
Grafted Fist Attachments
Fitted to the hand and forearm, and worked by Tyrants, who take them as a pair. Like all Grafted work they cannot be disarmed, stolen or dropped.
Driver | Fist. A piston seated through the forearm that fires on contact rather than on the swing, so the fist arrives closed and opens once it is already inside the guard. A Caelen who has landed one will tell you the sound comes second.
Vise | Grab. Fingers that thread rather than close. It takes a limb, a haft or a throat and keeps it until its owner says otherwise, and since Grab never rolls damage, holding is the whole of the work.
Backhand | Fist. Knuckles machined onto both faces and a wrist that turns further than a wrist should. There is no recovery stroke on a Backhand, only the next one.
Ember Seat | Fist. Waste heat off the graft vented into the striking face instead of away from it. Warm to shake, considerably worse to be hit by, and nothing cools it short of taking the arm off.
Quiet Hand | Fist. Machined to land without report. Nothing in it strikes harder than the standard pattern, it is simply the one nobody hears coming.
Innate Trait Adjustments
+2 Dexterity, +2 Knowledge, +1 Toughness, +1 Focus | -3 Piety, -2 Charisma, -2 Willpower
Starting ATTR Floor
INT 2, PHY 2, VIG 1
Innate Aptitude
Installed | one Grafted Armament is fitted at creation. It cannot be disarmed, stolen, or dropped, and it is neither Sundered nor Salvaged. Repair follows the Armament's own Condition rules.
+2 to Dexterity rolls made for precision work, ranging a distance, or recalling an exact figure.
+2 to Knowledge rolls made on machinery, whether their own or another's.
Innate Inaptitude
Healing magic restores half its rolled value on a Caelen, rounded down. Miracles do nothing at all.
-2 to Charisma rolls made with anyone who has not met a Caelen before.
-3 to all nature, wilderness, and foraging rolls.
Lifespan: ~200 years (Mortal, parts replaced)
Starting Age: 30 | Retirement Age: 70 (see Time, pg. 4)
Favored Classes
Marksman +5
Strategist +5
Overseer +5
Favored Companions
1. Mechanical, a Standard-sized constructed companion maintained rather than fed. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike.
Centyr
Centyr, derived from the word "Center," a mythical race combining human-like features with various types of horns and matching animal lower bodies. Centyr beings possess a striking and unique appearance.
At their core, Centyrs have human facial features, retaining the familiar structure of a human face and a human torso, arms and hands. However, it is their horns, ears, lower body, including the rump and hind legs, hooves and tails that truly distinguish them.
These horns come in diverse shapes and sizes, reflecting the wide range of animal influences within the Centyr race. Whether it be the majestic antlers, ears, tail and hooves reminiscent of a moose or elk, the elegant and spiraling horns reminiscent of a unicorn, the curved and twisted horns reminiscent of various goat or sheep, or the tusks, ears, hooves and tail of a forest hog, each Centyr bears a distinctive set of horns that adds to the allure of their appearance.
In terms of their physical structure, the Centyr maintain a human torso, enabling them to engage in social interactions and activities akin to their human counterparts. However, from the waist down, their bodies transform into the matching lower body, tail and hooves of the animal that corresponds to their unique horns. This fusion of human and animal forms not only grants them remarkable physical abilities and characteristics but also showcases their deep connection to the animal kingdom.
Note: Homebrew Centyr may be developed between GMs and Players, for instance a Satyr would fit the description of a Centyr.
Native Planet
Zailister
Cultural Armaments
No standard Mould fits a Centyr, and their armament is defined by that. Everything is built in two pieces, an upper set cut like any Standard-size harness and a lower barding for the animal frame, and the two rarely come from the same maker or the same culture. Telluric in both halves, though the lower set is barded to a pattern no other people keeps. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history.
Spirit & Apex
Spirit Start 4 (+3 growth) | Apex Start 9 (+2 growth)
Innate Trait Adjustments
+2 Agility, +1 Charisma | -2 Toughness, -2 Willpower, -1 Wit
Starting ATTR Floor
ART 1, PHY 2
Innate Aptitude
Dual Nature | retains the agility and stamina of their animal lower body alongside human dexterity; +2 to rolls combining physical grace and fine manipulation, such as performing while in motion.
Innate Inaptitude
-2 to all rolls requiring confined movement; a Centyr's animal lower body makes tight corridors, ladders, and narrow stairs especially difficult.
Lifespan: ~300 years (Mortal)
Starting Age: 75 | Retirement Age: 115 (see Time, pg. 4)
Favored Classes
Bard (Performer) +4 / Path: Strumalong +4 / Branch: Melodist +6
Favored Companions
1. Draft, a Standard-sized working animal that hauls gear and instruments on the road. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
2. Fellowship, a Standard humanoid companion who travels and performs alongside a Centyr. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike.
Drāco Blood
Dragon-blooded humans carrying the lineage of one of six ancient dragon bloodlines, chosen at character creation. Drāco Blood characters bear innate charisma and draconic resilience, capable of wielding powerful draconic magic. Their bloodline determines their Elemental Aptitude, granting a bonus to rolls, damage, and resistance involving their aligned element, and a penalty against its opposite where applicable.
Bloodlines: Red (Fire | penalty: Ice), Blue (Ice | penalty: Fire), Black (Shadow | penalty: Lightning), White (Arcane | penalty: Shadow), Green (Poison | penalty: Nature), Gold (Nature | penalty: Poison). Each is a hue worn in the skin as much as a lineage, and a character is one of them, chosen at creation.
That draconic blood runs hot in more than just magic, Drāco Blood are prone to pride and short tempers, and an insult to their bloodline rarely goes unanswered, sense be damned.
Native Planet
Zailister
Cultural Armaments
Scale is Drāco Blood work, the overlapping pattern taken directly from their own lineage's hide, and the five bloodlines each finish it differently. It is the one Mould that spread everywhere without its makers ever losing the claim to it. Telluric in the making, though a bloodline's finish carries its element and reads Chthonic to an Assayer. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history.
Spirit & Apex
Spirit Start 8 (+5 growth) | Apex Start 2 (+2 growth)
Innate Trait Adjustments
+2 Charisma, +1 Intuition, +1 Defense | -2 Piety, -1 Agility
Starting ATTR Floor
Artistry (ART) 2, Vigilance (VIG) 1, Physique (PHY) 1
Innate Aptitude
Elemental Aptitude | +2 to rolls, damage, and resistance involving their bloodline's aligned element.
Innate Inaptitude
-2 to rolls, damage resistance, and checks against their bloodline's opposing element.
Lifespan: ~200 years (Mortal)
Starting Age: 50 | Retirement Age: 90 (see Time, pg. 4)
Favored Classes (by Bloodline)
See Drâco Blood Bloodlines table above. Each bloodline favors a specific Class Tree aligned with its elemental nature, with bonuses scaling from Tier (+3) to Path (+5) to Branch (+7).
Favored Companions
1. Pet, a Small companion that shares a Drāco Blood's draconic temperament. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
2. Guardian, a Standard-sized companion that fights alongside its Drāco Blood owner. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike.
Drevane (Omnè, Small Size)
The original inhabitants of planet Omne Malum, older than any recorded history on the planet and deeply tied to its ecosystem. When Tawdry Dwarf began its long death and the atmosphere of Omnè shifted into something hostile, the Drevane did not build around it. They adapted to it. Over generations their bodies absorbed the pressure, hardened against the toxins, and evolved to thrive in conditions that drove the Omnè settlers into suits. They are watchers and keepers, they remember what Omnè was before Tawdry started dying and they do not share that knowledge freely. They do not oppose the Omnè's construction projects, but they do not help either.
Drevane accounts predate the words now used to keep them, and the Drevane hold that this is why they cannot be given away: the oldest of them cannot be said in any tongue an outsider has, only shown, and showing requires the ground it happened on. A people whose record cannot travel have never seen the point of an ally who cannot come to it.
A Drevane doesn't need to roll to catch a shift in pressure or a whiff of corrupted air, they simply notice, no test required, where anyone else might roll and miss it entirely.
A Drevane's hands were never made for circuitry or machinery, and what they know of Omnè's past, they keep close, walk one into a city of steel and glass and watch them grow visibly uneasy, trusting the feel of open ground over anything built.
Native Planet
Omne Malum
Cultural Armaments
Drevane armament predates every factory on their own world. As Omnè's original inhabitants they built from the ecosystem they are tied to, fibre, resin and shell, and they were wearing it long before TABA existed. Most Drevane now wear Omnè tech like everyone else, and a Drevane who still works the old organic patterns is making a point about who was there first. Telluric, fibre and resin and shell, built from an ecosystem rather than a forge. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history.
Spirit & Apex
Spirit Start 1 (+0 growth) | Apex Start 4 (+0 growth)
Innate Trait Adjustments
+2 Constitution, +2 Toughness, +1 Intuition | -2 Charisma, -1 Agility, -1 Knowledge
Starting ATTR Floor
Vigilance (VIG) 1, Physique (PHY) 2
Innate Aptitude
Immune to gas, toxin, and atmospheric hazards native to Omnè.
Thick, hardened skin grants +2 natural Armor Scr. before armor is applied.
+2 to all survival and endurance rolls.
Passive environmental awareness, can detect atmospheric changes, pressure shifts, and incoming hazards before others register them.
Innate Inaptitude
No affinity for technology or engineered solutions. -2 to all technology and crafting rolls.
Do not share knowledge freely, -2 to social rolls involving information exchange with outsiders.
Deeply distrustful of artificial structures, -2 in heavily urban or industrial environments.
Lifespan: ~900 years (Mortal)
Starting Age: 225 | Retirement Age: 265 (see Time, pg. 4)
Favored Classes
Shaman (Mystic) +4 / Path: Primordial +4 / Branch: Whisperer +6
Barbarian +5
Druid +5
Favored Companions
1. Draft, a Standard-sized working animal hardened against Omnè's hostile atmosphere alongside a Drevane. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
2. Guardian, a Standard-sized companion that helps a Drevane keep watch over Omnè's old ecosystem. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike.
Dwarf (Glimmerstone)
Glimmerstone Dwarves are renowned as Master miners and treasure hunters, with an exceptional talent for uncovering hidden gems and enchanted materials deep within the earth. Their keen senses and innate connection to the mineral veins allow them to detect valuable deposits that others might overlook. They possess an Aptitude called "Mineral Instincts," which enables them to sense the origins and true potential of the materials around them.
Glimmerstone blood runs part dwarf, part Fae, a lineage struck generations back somewhere in the deepest veins they still mine today. That Fae inheritance shows in short, uncanny bursts of speed, a Glimmerstone Dwarf vanishing from one spot for a heartbeat before reappearing already standing in another.
Additionally, they have a skill called "Greed," which involves marking a target so that as it is defeated, it yields increased chances of Rare treasures and enchanted loot. While they excel at hunting for materials, these Dwarves prefer the thrill of discovery over crafting, focusing their skills on unearthing the most valuable resources. This combination of instincts and the active "Greed" effect gives them a significant edge in exploration and resource gathering, helping them uncover the game's most coveted treasures with ease.
That instinct for treasure cuts both ways, a Glimmerstone Dwarf finds it almost physically difficult to walk past unclaimed valuables, even when doing so is clearly the smarter call. Their greed is not subtle, and it does not stop at outsiders, Glimmerstone Dwarves haggle, needle, and undercut one another over a single gem with the same unattractive hunger they'd show a stranger, kinship counts for little once coin or treasure is on the table. What keeps that hunger from costing them everything is the charm to back it up, Glimmerstone Dwarves are natural schmoozers and superb barterers, talking a fair price down to a steal with a smile the other party doesn't realize they should distrust. It helps that they're cute, round faces and bright eyes that put strangers at ease, and that cuteness is deceptive, underneath it Glimmerstone Dwarves are mean, calculating people who've learned to perform charm rather than feel it, all the better to close a deal.
Glimmerstone Dwarves favor light or delicate armor over their kin's heavier plates, trading protection for the speed and reach their treasure-hunting demands. On their feet they wear only cobblers of their own making, wooden shoes carved rather than stitched, shaped with the same sculpting tools they turn to art and ornament. A well-made pair never wears out, and a Glimmerstone Dwarf takes more pride in their cobblers than in almost anything else they own, save perhaps whatever treasure they haven't found yet.
Native Planet
Zailister
Cultural Armaments
Glimmerstone Dwarves draw ring and wire finer than any other people, and chain in all its forms is their work. Master miners fund master metallurgy, and what they do not wear they trade, which is why mail is everywhere and plate is not. Telluric, drawn finer than any other people draws it. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history.
Spirit & Apex
Spirit Start 7 (+2 growth) | Apex Start 3 (+2 growth)
Innate Trait Adjustments
+2 Intuition, +3 Deceit, +2 Charisma | -2 Piety, -1 Agility, -1 Defense
Starting ATTR Floor
ART 3, VIG 1
Innate Aptitude
Mineral Instincts | senses the origins and true potential of nearby materials; +2 to rolls made to locate hidden gems or enchanted materials underground.
Greed | marks a defeated target, yielding increased chances of Rare treasure and enchanted loot.
Glimmer Step | Fae-blooded burst of speed, vanishing for a moment before reappearing several feet away at any spot within sight, once per encounter.
Innate Inaptitude
Cannot pass unclaimed valuables without attempting to investigate or claim them, even against better judgment.
Starting Gold: 150 (see Starting Equipment, pg. 2)
Lifespan: ~400 years (Mortal)
Starting Age: 100 | Retirement Age: 140 (see Time, pg. 4)
Favored Classes
Strategist (Rogue) +4 / Path: Rogue +4 / Branch: Recon +6
Magic User +5 | Trickster +7
Favored Companions
1. Pet, a Small companion with a knack for sniffing out hidden gems alongside its Glimmerstone Dwarf owner. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
2. Draft, a Standard-sized working animal that hauls a Glimmerstone Dwarf's mining hauls. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike.
Dwarf, Common (Playable in Starter Set)
Sturdy and resilient, Common Dwarves are known for their craftsmanship, endurance, and hearty nature. They thrive in mountain halls and underground cities, with a mastery of forging, stonework, and deep-earth navigation. Their tough physiques and unwavering determination make them formidable allies and resilient foes.
Dwarf accounts do not open on a homeland, they open on a list. Every hall keeps the line of names it descends from, recited whole and in order, back to the first smiths held to have been cut out of living rock rather than born to it. A Dwarf who cannot recite their hall's line is counted a Dwarf without a hall. The craft they are known for is understood among them as the debt owed for that making, stone given shape in return for having been given shape.
Take a Dwarf out of stone and underground and put them in open water or featureless plains, and that same sharp instinct that reads a cave wall like a book goes quiet, they sink fast and read the wide world poorly, and magic study never quite clicks for them either.
Native Planet
Zailister
Cultural Armaments
Common Dwarf craft is the baseline the rest of Essentia measures plate and mail against. Solid, matched, made to outlast the wearer and usually to outlast their heir. Where another culture innovates, a Dwarf refines the same pattern for another century. Telluric, and the standard every other Telluric tradition is measured against. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history.
Spirit & Apex
Spirit Start 7 (+2 growth) | Apex Start 3 (+2 growth)
Innate Trait Adjustments
+1 Toughness, +1 Dexterity, +1 Constitution, +1 Strength | -1 Charisma, -2 Agility, -1 Wit
Starting ATTR Floor
ART 1, PHY 1
Innate Aptitude
+2 to crafting rolls.
Stone Sense: detects structural weaknesses, hidden passages, and stone composition at close range. Complex structures may require a Perception check.
Dark Vision: sees clearly up to 60 feet in low light. Detects shapes up to 30 feet in near-total darkness. No color in total darkness.
+1 Perception (sound or scent).
Treasure Sense: passively detects metals, gems, and valuables nearby. General direction only, not precise. Suppressible by magic.
Innate Profession: Blacksmith. Begins with Apprentice-LVL expertise.
Innate Inaptitude
-3 to swimming rolls. Sinks in deep water without aid.
-1 Perception and Intuition in wide, flat, or featureless terrain.
-1 to all Ability Rolls when using Spells in arcane Class Trees.
Lifespan: ~350 years (Mortal)
Starting Age: 88 | Retirement Age: 128 (see Time, pg. 4)
Favored Classes
Avenger (Divine) +4 / Path: Cleric +4 / Branch: Holy +6
Overseer +5
Barbarian +5
Favored Companions
1. Mechanical, a Standard-sized constructed companion built in a Common Dwarf's own forge. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
2. Guardian, a Standard-sized companion that fights alongside its Dwarf owner. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike.
Dwarf, Common Kinborns
Same size as the base race. Only what differs from it is listed; anything left blank is as above.
| Kinborn | Cultural Armaments | Innate Trait Adjustments | Starting ATTR Floor | Innate Aptitude | Innate Inaptitude | Favored Classes | Favored Companions | Lifespan and Age |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dwarf (Arctic) | Arctic Dwarf work is the only tradition built for weather before war, fur and layered hide over glacier-hall steel. Cold kills faster than an enemy at those elevations, and their armament is honest about the order of those threats. Telluric, weather-first, with the steel buried under fur and hide rather than showing. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history. | +2 Constitution, +1 Warded | -2 Charisma, -2 Agility, -1 Wit | PHY 2, RES 1 | Frost-Hardened | immune to frostbite and biting wind; cold and storms never slow an Arctic Dwarf down or wear them out. | -2 to all rolls made in heat or humidity; an Arctic Dwarf tires far quicker than other races as the temperature climbs. | Warrior (Warrior) +4 / Path: Armorer +4 / Branch: Ironclad +6 | 1. Draft, a Standard-sized working animal bred to haul loads through ice and frozen cliffs. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep. 2. Guardian, a Standard-sized companion that helps an Arctic Dwarf hold their frozen hall. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep. Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike. | Lifespan: ~400 years (Mortal) Starting Age: 100 | Retirement Age: 140 (see Time, pg. 4) |
Arctic Dwarves carved out lives in some of the coldest, least forgiving terrain on the continent, building their halls into glaciers and frozen cliffs where the cold itself becomes a defense against invaders. Generations of exposure have left them nearly impervious to frostbite and biting wind that would cripple softer races. When the old halls divided their line, the names that went north went furthest and kept least. Arctic Dwarves hold that their forebears were given the ground nobody contested because nobody could hold it, and that the cold was not an enemy in that bargain but the terms of it. Their line is recited outdoors, in weather, and a recitation cut short by the cold is held to have failed. Outsiders who visit Arctic Dwarf holds come away surprised that the cold never seems to slow them down or wear them out, even in storms that would leave anyone else frostbitten within the hour. All that cold resistance comes at the other end of the thermometer, Arctic Dwarves wilt fast in heat and humidity, tiring far quicker than other races the moment the temperature climbs. | ||||||||
| Dwarf (Ash) | Ash Dwarf armament comes out of volcanic forges and shows it, heat-worked, dark-finished, and heavier than it looks. Their sets are the physical counterpart to Red Dwarf alchemy, the same fire put to labour rather than to study. Telluric worked at volcanic heat, which darkens and hardens it past what the Variant usually gives. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history. | +2 Warded, +1 Strength | -2 Agility, -1 Charisma | PHY 1, RES 2 | Forge-Born | bodies resistant to scorching temperatures; immune to heat-based environmental hazards and +2 to rolls involving smelting or forge work. | -2 to all rolls made in cold or damp conditions; chill weather stiffens an Ash Dwarf's joints and slows their reactions. | Warrior (Warrior) +4 / Path: Armorer +4 / Branch: Ironclad +6 | 1. Draft, a Standard-sized working animal that hauls ore and stone through the forge halls. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep. 2. Mechanical, a Standard-sized constructed companion built to withstand an Ash Dwarf's volcanic forges. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep. Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike. | Lifespan: ~300 years (Mortal) Starting Age: 75 | Retirement Age: 115 (see Time, pg. 4) |
Ash Dwarves originate from volcanic regions, most notably from the fiery volcanic pits to the ice-capped peaks of Mt. Grayface, and are uniquely adapted to extreme heat, with bodies resistant to scorching temperatures that allow them to navigate harsh environments with ease. Their ashy-colored skin, a result of their working conditions, gives them their name. Ash Dwarves focus on studying stone and harnessing volcanic properties for smelting steel used in martial combat. Ash Dwarf accounts hold that their forebears took the fire itself as the hall, following the heat down rather than sheltering from it, and that everything since has been the working out of that choice. The line is recited over a lit forge, and a forge allowed to go cold during the recitation is a mark against the hall that let it. Built for fire and forge, Ash Dwarves fare poorly anywhere cold or damp, chill weather stiffens their joints and slows them in a way no amount of stubbornness can shake. | ||||||||
| Dwarf (Red) | Red Dwarf work leans on fire magic, alchemy and jewel craft rather than the hammer, so their armament is treated, warded and set rather than simply forged. Lighter than an Ash Dwarf's and considerably more expensive. Telluric treated past the forge, warded and set rather than simply hammered. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history. | +1 Constitution, +1 Dexterity, +1 Strength | -2 Charisma, -2 Agility | — | Flame Shaping | shapes and directs flame without touching it; +2 to rolls made to bend, ignite, or control fire at range. | -2 to all melee combat rolls; a fight that closes to melee range goes poorly for a Red Dwarf more often than not. | Sorcerer (Magic) +4 / Path: Wizard +4 / Branch: Fire Breather +6 | 1. Pet, a Small fire-resistant companion at home near a Red Dwarf's forge and flask. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep. 2. Mechanical, a Standard-sized constructed companion that assists with a Red Dwarf's enchanting work. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep. Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike. | Lifespan: ~400 years (Mortal) Starting Age: 100 | Retirement Age: 140 (see Time, pg. 4) |
Red Dwarves emphasize fire magic, alchemy, and jewel crafting, relying less on physical labor compared to their Ash Dwarf cousins. While Ash Dwarves master stone and volcanic forging, Red Dwarves are skilled in manipulating fire and its elements, making them natural Sorcerers and alchemists. Red Dwarves keep a line that breaks from their kin at a single name, an ancestor who is said to have stopped striking the metal and begun asking the fire to do it. Their halls hold this as an inheritance rather than a defection, though the older halls have never entirely agreed, and a Red Dwarf recites that break aloud where other Dwarves recite unbroken descent. Living amidst extreme heat and volatile terrain, Red Dwarves have become formidable Spellcasters and enchanters, harnessing the destructive yet transformative power of fire to craft powerful magical artifacts and unleash devastating Spells. Their Mastery over molten magic makes them both feared and revered in their fiery domains. Red Dwarves are known to shape and direct flame without ever laying a hand on it, bending a candle's fire into a rope, or igniting steel to a glow for a forge. This makes them invaluable partners to their Ash Dwarf cousins, smelting and heating ore and metal from a distance for the Ash Dwarves to forge, without either of them needing to touch an open flame. Spending their lives bent over flame and flask has left Red Dwarves with little patience or skill for physical confrontation, a fight that closes to melee range goes poorly for them more often than not. | ||||||||
Elf (Common) (Playable in Starter Set)
Graceful forest dwellers skilled in archery and nature magic, living in harmony with their woodland environment.
Elves hold that their first ground was not taken but given, a gift made to them before they had done anything to deserve it, and every account they keep is arranged around that debt. It is why an Elf reckons obligation in centuries and why an Elf who considers a debt unpaid does not consider the matter old.
Of Fae lineage, the root Elf bloodline, descended from Tenue, through the Veilwood, into Zailister (see Fae, above).
An Elf's body simply isn't built for sustained physical strain, and their easy charm falters fast around Ogres, Trolls, and Gnolls, underground, in the dark and confined, that same grace deserts them entirely.
Native Planet
Zailister
Cultural Armaments
Common Elf armament is built around the bow, cut to leave the draw clean and the step quiet, with nature magic worked into the material rather than layered on afterward. Nothing about it is designed to hold a line. Telluric with the nature magic worked into the material at the making, never layered on after. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history.
Spirit & Apex
Spirit Start 2 (+1 growth) | Apex Start 8 (+1 growth)
Innate Trait Adjustments
+2 Agility, +1 Wit | -2 Strength, -2 Toughness, -1 Constitution
Starting ATTR Floor
INT 1, PHY 2
Innate Aptitude
+2 Intuition (sight or sound, outdoors).
Nature Sense: passively detects health and mood of nearby flora and fauna. Disturbed nature registers immediately, no roll required.
Forest Navigation: cannot become lost in natural environments. Navigation in forests, plains, jungles auto-succeeds.
+2 Knowledge (lore, history, ancient events).
Innate Inaptitude
-1 Endurance rolls in physically demanding situations.
-1 Charisma when interacting with Ogres, Trolls, Gnolls.
-1 to all rolls in caves, mines, or underground environments.
Lifespan: Immortal, begins adventuring later and retires later than most races (see Starting Age and Retirement Age below, and Time, pg. 4)
Starting Age: 100 | Retirement Age: 140 (see Time, pg. 4)
Favored Classes
Marksman (Ranger) +4 / Path: Ranger +4 / Branch: Forest Guardian +6
Druid +5
Magic User +5
Favored Companions
1. Fellowship, a Standard humanoid companion who travels the woodland paths alongside an Elf. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
2. Pet, a Small songbird suited to an Elf's forest life. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike.
Elf Kinborns
Same size as the base race. Only what differs from it is listed; anything left blank is as above.
| Kinborn | Cultural Armaments | Innate Trait Adjustments | Starting ATTR Floor | Innate Aptitude | Innate Inaptitude | Favored Classes | Favored Companions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elf (Arch) | Arch Elf work is the pattern every other Elven set descends from, plain by later standards and cut to last centuries rather than to be looked at. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history. | +2 Wit, +1 Piety | -2 Strength, -2 Constitution, -1 Agility | INT 2, WIS 1 | First Tongue | reads and speaks the oldest form of Elven; +2 to Knowledge rolls made on work, script or magic older than the present age. | -2 to rolls involving any method, tool or tradition invented within the last century; an Arch Elf treats the recent as unproven. | Magic User (Magic) +4 / Path: Mage +4 / Branch: Chronomancer +6 Sorcerer +5 | 1. Fellowship, a Standard humanoid companion old enough to remember what an Arch Elf remembers. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep. 2. Pet, a Small companion kept since before the current age. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep. |
Arch Elves are the eldest Elven line, the ones who made the first crossing out of Tenue and set down the craft and the speech every Elf after them inherited. High Elves are their descendants, and say so. | |||||||
| Elf (High) | Mithril is High Elf work, and for it Mould, Grade and Type collapse into a single thing that appears at no other Grade. Their other sets, robes and light ceremonial plate, are made to carry knowledge and rank as much as protection. Telluric, and Mithril is the one Grade where the Variant produces something no other people can. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history. | +2 Agility, +1 Wit | -2 Strength, -2 Constitution, -1 Deceit | — | Unfading Memory | never forgets a face, name, or slight; +2 to Knowledge rolls made to recall decades-old detail. | -2 to social rolls with names or bloodlines tied to an old grudge; a High Elf rarely lets go of a slight, however ancient. | Sorcerer (Magic) +4 / Path: Seer +4 / Branch: Mystic +6 Bard +5 | 1. Fellowship, a Standard humanoid companion who shares a High Elf's long memory and tradition. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep. 2. Pet, a Small companion kept for centuries of quiet company. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep. Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike. |
Descendants of the Arch Elves, High Elves are versatile spellcasters and ranged combatants with a deep appreciation for knowledge and tradition. Like all Elves, of Fae lineage, descended from Tenue, through the Veilwood, into Zailister (see Fae, above). High Elves carry themselves with the unhurried confidence of a people who measure time in centuries rather than years. They are said to never forget a face, a name, or a slight, recalling decades-old detail comes to them as easily as recalling yesterday. Centuries of memory cut both ways, a High Elf rarely lets go of an old slight, and grudges that should've faded generations ago still color how they treat certain names and bloodlines. | |||||||
| Drow | Drow armament is built to defeat sight and sound before it defeats a blade, matte, jointed, and silent underground. The black magic they work is bound into the material itself as often as cast from it, which is why Drow sets are rarely worn comfortably by anyone else. Malign, the working bound into the material at the forge rather than laid over it after. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history. | +2 Agility, +1 Wit | -2 Strength, -2 Piety, -1 Charisma | Intellect (INT) 1, PHY 2 | Dark Vision | sees perfectly in total darkness, treating the deepest cave or moonless night as no obstacle at all. | -2 to all rolls made in direct sunlight; light is the only thing that ever truly inconveniences a Drow. -2 to social rolls with surface-dwellers who respond to a Drow with suspicion or open hostility on sight. | Warlock (Magic) +4 / Path: Bloodlock +4 / Branch: Vampire +6 Strategist +5 Witch +5 Favored Companions 1. Guardian | Mount: Theowarg, a Standard-sized wolf-boar hybrid bred for war, fighting fiercely at a Drow's side and carrying them swiftly through total darkness. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep. 2. Pet | Nightcrawler, a Small spider-kin companion descended from the Ancient Drow's bloodline, moving silently through the dark alongside its Drow. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep. Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike. | 1. Guardian | Mount: Theowarg, a Standard-sized wolf-boar hybrid bred for war, fighting fiercely at a Drow's side and carrying them swiftly through total darkness. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep. 2. Pet | Nightcrawler, a Small spider-kin companion descended from the Ancient Drow's bloodline, moving silently through the dark alongside its Drow. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep. Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike. |
Solitary and feared, Drow wield black magic drawn from the earth itself, associated with death, darkness, and hidden power, known to bring disease and nightmares upon those who cross their path. Rarely seen by surface-dwellers without intent, an encounter with a Drow is seldom a fortunate one. Descendants of the formidable, spider-blood infused Ancient Drow, a pact broke away thousands of years ago, shedding that lineage over the millennia and becoming what is known today simply as Drow. | |||||||
| Vila | Vila work is made to be worn in wind and never to be worn heavy, layered cloth cut long and a bow that is theirs before it is a weapon. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history. | +3 Agility, +1 Intuition | -2 Strength, -2 Toughness | PHY 2, ART 1 | Windstep | moves with the wind rather than through it; +2 to rolls made on open high ground and against airborne targets. | -2 to all rolls while her hair is bound, cut or covered; a Vila carries her strength in it and knows the moment it is taken. | Marksman (Nature) +4 / Path: Bowman +4 / Branch: Archer +6 Bard +5 | 1. Pet, a Small swan or falcon that keeps to a Vila's ridge. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep. 2. Guardian, a Standard-sized companion that holds the ring while a Vila dances. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep. |
Vila keep to high meadows and the ridges that sit in cloud, and they are most often met dancing, a ring worn into the grass that is still there long after they are not. A Vila's strength is in her hair; loose, she rides the wind and shoots from it. | |||||||
| Haugfolk | Haugfolk work comes out of the mound already old, dark metal and grave-cut stone fitted by people who have never had to hurry. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history. | +2 Toughness, +1 Knowledge | -2 Agility, -2 Charisma | FRT 2, VIG 1 | Mound-Hidden | cannot be seen while still against earth or stone; +2 to rolls made to go unnoticed underground or against a mound. | -2 to all rolls made under open sky between midmorning and midafternoon; a Haugfolk is a poor traveller in daylight. | Shaman (Nature) +4 / Path: Medicine Man +4 / Branch: Ancestral +6 Doom Knight +5 | 1. Guardian, a Standard-sized companion that keeps the mound while its people sleep. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep. 2. Pet, a Small companion at home in the dark under a hill. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep. |
Haugfolk live inside the mounds, and a mound is not a grave to them but an address. They are not seen unless they choose it, and time keeps its own pace under a hill. | |||||||
Emberscale (Ignis, Standard Size)
Cold-blooded reptilian humanoids native to Ignis's ash fields and lava-carved caverns, their scaled hide drinking in heat rather than suffering it. Lean and broad-shouldered, standing a head taller than a Human on average, an Emberscale's scales run in deep ember-red or ash-black, veined with thin seams that glow dull orange when they've basked recently. Their eyes burn a solid, pupil-less amber, and a low ridge of hardened scale runs from brow to the base of a short, blunt tail. They live scattered between the world's wandering fire elementals and golems, and many Emberscale tribes venerate them as kin rather than fear them.
Emberscale accounts are kept in heat and lost without it, recited beside a flow or not recited, and their forebears are held to have chosen the ash fields knowing exactly what the choice foreclosed. Cold does not merely hurt an Emberscale, it takes the record with it, which is why no Emberscale line has ever wintered anywhere and returned intact.
An Emberscale resting near an open flame or lava flow doesn't just tolerate the heat, they draw strength from it, recovering faster than they would anywhere cooler.
That same body turns sluggish fast the moment the temperature drops, an Emberscale caught in snow or deep cold moves and thinks like someone twice their age.
Native Planet
Ignis
Cultural Armaments
Emberscale hide drinks heat rather than suffering it, so their tradition is the thinnest on Ignis, worked to shed weight and let the scales do the work. What they do build is heat-forged where Primal work is hand-bound, the two traditions have shared the same ash fields for as long as either remembers, and each has taken from the other. Chthonic, the heat held in the work itself rather than beaten out of it. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history.
Spirit & Apex
Spirit Start 8 (+5 growth) | Apex Start 2 (+2 growth)
Innate Trait Adjustments
+2 Toughness, +2 Resistance, +1 Constitution | -2 Agility, -1 Wit, -1 Charisma
Starting ATTR Floor
PHY 2, RES 2
Innate Aptitude
Sunbasked | resting within 10 ft. of open flame, lava, or intense heat restores Vitality at double the normal Spirit rate.
+2 to Resistance rolls against fire and heat-based hazards; immune to non-magical fire damage from natural heat sources such as lava or open flame.
Natural claws deal +1 unarmed damage.
Innate Inaptitude
-3 to all rolls in cold or freezing environments; movement speed halved below freezing temperatures unless magically warmed.
-2 to social rolls with races unaccustomed to reptilian features.
Lifespan: ~120 years (Mortal)
Starting Age: 30 | Retirement Age: 70 (see Time, pg. 4)
Favored Classes
Barbarian (Warrior) +4 / Path: Cimmerian +4 / Branch: Bloodrager +6
Shaman +5
Favored Companions
1. Guardian, a Standard-sized companion that helps an Emberscale hold their ground near the flows. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
2. Pet, a Small companion drawn from Ignis's ash fields alongside an Emberscale. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike.
Firbolg
Firbolgs are gentle giants who carry themselves with a quiet, deliberate calm, more inclined to step around a conflict than start one. Their lives are spent deeply entwined with the natural world, tending to forests and wildlife with the same care others might reserve for family.
The oldest Firbolg holdings were not won, they were carried, earth borne in hide sacks out of the deep woods onto dead ground until the dead ground answered. Every Firbolg alive still counts that labour, not conquest, as the founding of their people. They held those first forests before the peoples who hold them now, and lost them, and the losing is the part their own accounts dwell on: rather than be unmade defending ground, the Firbolg stepped back and let it go, a settlement their descendants have never entirely stopped making.
Of Fae lineage, however distant, descended from Tenue, through the Veilwood, into Zailister, same as Elves (see Fae, above).
Stories travelers tell of Firbolgs speaking with deer and trees aren't far off, a Firbolg can share simple thoughts with any animal or plant they can see, a quiet conversation that needs no words and no effort.
That same gentleness makes Firbolg slow to anger and slower still to act first, in a fight that demands a hard, fast decision, a Firbolg's instinct to step back can cost them the opening.
Native Planet
Zailister
Cultural Armaments
Firbolgs armor to end fights rather than start them. Broad, heavy and deliberately unthreatening in line, the work of a people who would rather absorb a blow and give the other side time to reconsider. Little ornament, and none of it martial. Telluric, and deliberately plain for it. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history.
Spirit & Apex
Spirit Start 6 (+2 growth) | Apex Start 8 (+2 growth)
Innate Trait Adjustments
+3 Intuition, +1 Piety | -2 Deceit, -2 Charisma, -1 Agility
Starting ATTR Floor
VIG 2, WIS 1
Innate Aptitude
Speak with Flora and Fauna | shares simple thoughts with any animal or plant within sight; passive, no roll required for basic exchanges.
Innate Inaptitude
-2 to all rolls requiring a fast, aggressive first move; a Firbolg's instinct to step back costs them the opening in any sudden confrontation.
Lifespan: ~500 years (Mortal)
Starting Age: 125 | Retirement Age: 165 (see Time, pg. 4)
Favored Classes
Druid (Nature) +4 / Path: Hyborian +4 / Branch: Metamorpher +6
Favored Companions
1. Pet, a Small forest creature drawn to a Firbolg's quiet, gentle company. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
2. Guardian, a Goliath-sized companion that watches over the woods a Firbolg tends. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike.
Gnoll
Gnolls live and fight as a pack first, individual second, a lone Gnoll is rare, and rarer still is a happy one. Tribal hierarchy is settled through strength and is rarely questioned once decided.
Gnoll accounts are recited by the whole pack at once and never by one voice, and a line a single Gnoll can still recite alone is held to be already lost. What is remembered is the pack that held together and the pack that came apart, and nothing at all about who led either.
A Gnoll can track prey or an enemy by scent alone across miles of broken ground, picking a single trail out from a dozen crossing ones without slowing down.
A Gnoll torn away from their pack for too long grows erratic and short-tempered, the hierarchy that keeps them stable falls apart fast without others of their kind nearby to enforce it.
Native Planet
Zailister
Cultural Armaments
A Gnoll armors as the pack decides, and rank is legible in the set. Hierarchy is settled by force, so the best gear moves upward after every challenge, and a Gnoll wearing a matched harness is telling you exactly where they sit. Telluric, and legible as rank before it is legible as protection. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history.
Spirit & Apex
Spirit Start 4 (+3 growth) | Apex Start 10 (+2 growth)
Innate Trait Adjustments
+2 Strength, +1 Courage | -2 Wit, -2 Charisma, -1 Knowledge
Starting ATTR Floor
Fortitude (FRT) 1, PHY 2
Innate Aptitude
Trail Sense | tracks prey or an enemy by scent alone across miles of broken ground; +2 to tracking rolls, even across crossing trails.
Innate Inaptitude
-2 to all rolls made when separated from the pack for an extended time; a Gnoll grows erratic and short-tempered without others of their kind nearby.
Lifespan: ~60 years (Mortal)
Starting Age: 15 | Retirement Age: 55 (see Time, pg. 4)
Favored Classes
Tyrant (Warrior) +4 / Path: Berserker +4 / Branch: Fury +6
Favored Companions
1. Guardian, a Standard-sized companion that fights alongside a Gnoll in the pack. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
2. Pet, a Small companion that runs alongside a Gnoll's pack on the hunt. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike.
Gnome
Gnomes treat every locked door, broken machine, or half-finished contraption as a personal challenge, rarely able to walk past one without stopping to tinker. Their small, wrinkled faces carry an almost mole-like look, a soft, blunted snout and squinted, light-sensitive eyes suited to long hours spent tinkering underground.
Gnome accounts hold that their first people moved through stone the way other peoples move through water, and that the working of mechanisms is what remains of that, the same instinct forced to go the long way round. A Gnome who cannot leave a locked thing alone is held to be answering something considerably older than curiosity.
A Gnome can take apart and reassemble most mechanical devices on sight, often improving on the original design without meaning to, though just as often leaving it rigged with an unplanned side effect.
A Gnome can't walk past a broken lock or stalled contraption without stopping to fix it, no matter the timing, and their hands were never built to swing anything heavier than a wrench, subtlety in conversation fares about as well, since they tend to interrupt to explain how something works.
Native Planet
Zailister
Cultural Armaments
Gnomish armament is a contraption before it is a defence, hinged, catch-fitted and full of ideas that mostly work. No two sets are alike because no Gnome has ever finished improving one. Telluric, mechanical, and never finished. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history.
Spirit & Apex
Spirit Start 2 (+2 growth) | Apex Start 9 (+1 growth)
Innate Trait Adjustments
+3 Wit, +1 Deceit | -5 Strength
Starting ATTR Floor
ART 1, Intellect (INT) 3
Innate Aptitude
Speak with burrowing Flora (such as fungi) and Fauna (such as small burrowing animals). Passive, no roll required for basic communication; complex exchanges may require a Wit check at GM discretion.
Flora and Fauna Handling: naturally adept at caring for, calming, and handling plants and animals. No roll required for non-hostile creatures in calm conditions; reduces handling difficulty for agitated or exotic creatures.
Artist: gifted in all articulate arts, intricate craftsmanship, music, and illusionary expression. +2 to rolls involving fine art, performance, and illusion-based magic or trickery.
Engineering Prowess: +1 to all mechanical interactions, devices, traps, constructs, locks, and engineered systems.
Innate Inaptitude
Compulsive tinkering, cannot leave a broken device, lock, or mechanism alone without attempting to fix it, even mid-mission.
-2 to all Strength-based rolls; cannot wield Standard or larger 2h weapons.
-2 to social rolls requiring patience or subtlety, Gnomes tend to interrupt to explain how something works.
Lifespan: ~400 years (Mortal)
Starting Age: 100 | Retirement Age: 140 (see Time, pg. 4)
Favored Classes
Bard (Performer) +4 / Path: Strumalong +4 / Branch: Plucker +6
Magic User +5
Favored Companions
1. Mechanical, a Small constructed companion a Gnome tinkers with constantly. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
2. Pet, a Tiny burrowing companion drawn to a Gnome's mole-like senses. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike.
Goblorc
Goblorcs combine a goblin's quick mind with an orc's brute frame, building war camps that run on cleverness as much as muscle, the smartest goblorc in a camp usually outranks the strongest.
Goblorc accounts open at a camp neither parent line will claim, built by those both had turned out. Nothing before that camp is kept, on the reasoning that a people who were not wanted owe their forebears no recitation, and every Goblorc camp since has been raised as a rebuttal to the two lines that produced it.
A Goblorc can read a battlefield or a building's layout in moments, instinctively spotting where a trap, ambush, or shortcut would work best, often before they've even finished walking it.
A Goblorc's cleverness rarely earns trust from either side of their bloodline, orcs see them as too small and sly to lead from the front, while goblins see them as too brutish to out-think a real plan, leaving most Goblorcs without a clear place in either society's hierarchy.
Native Planet
Zailister
Cultural Armaments
Goblorc war camps run on cleverness as much as muscle, and their armament shows both, orcish bulk assembled to a goblin's plan. Scavenged, cleverly re-fitted, and better than it has any right to be. Telluric by salvage, whatever Variant the parts began as. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history.
Spirit & Apex
Spirit Start 3 (+1 growth) | Apex Start 7 (+1 growth)
Innate Trait Adjustments
+2 Deceit, +1 Knowledge | -2 Courage, -2 Charisma
Starting ATTR Floor
ART 2, WIS 1
Innate Aptitude
Tactical Eye | reads a battlefield or building's layout in moments, spotting where a trap, ambush, or shortcut would work best; +2 to Tactician-style planning rolls.
Innate Inaptitude
-2 to social rolls with both Goblins and Orcus; a Goblorc's cleverness rarely earns trust from either side of their bloodline.
Lifespan: ~80 years (Mortal)
Starting Age: 20 | Retirement Age: 60 (see Time, pg. 4)
Favored Classes
Strategist (Rogue) +4 / Path: Rogue +4 / Branch: Assassin +6
Witch +5
Favored Companions
1. Guardian, a Small companion that fights alongside a Goblorc in the war camp. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
2. Pet, a Tiny companion that helps a Goblorc scout a layout before a raid. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike.
Helf (Half-Elf)
Adaptable hybrids inheriting Traits from both humans and elves, excelling in magic, diplomacy, and versatile pursuits.
Helf accounts are kept twice, once as each parent line would tell it, and the two are never reconciled. A Helf grows up holding both versions of every founding, aware from the beginning that a story is a position someone is taking, which is the whole of where their eye for a stranger's intent comes from.
Half-Elves carry Fae lineage through their Elf parentage, descended from Tenue, through the Veilwood, into Zailister (see Fae, above).
Growing up reading two cultures at once has left Helf with a sharp read on people generally, they tend to pick up on a stranger's mood and intent within moments of meeting them, faster than most races raised within a single, familiar culture ever learn to.
Belonging fully to neither culture leaves a Helf without a true home in either, they're skilled at reading a room of strangers, but struggle to find one where they're not, on some LVL, still the outsider.
Native Planet
Zailister
Cultural Armaments
Hybrid gear is Helf work, and the name is not incidental. Two traditions spliced into one kit, elven cut over human hardware or the reverse, made by a people who inherit from both and are fully claimed by neither. Telluric on both sides of the splice, which is the only reason the two halves fit at all. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history.
Spirit & Apex
Spirit Start 6 (+1 growth) | Apex Start 2 (+1 growth)
Innate Trait Adjustments
+2 Agility, +1 Wit | -2 Strength, -2 Toughness, -1 Courage
Starting ATTR Floor
INT 1, PHY 2
Innate Aptitude
Dual Reading | reads a stranger's mood and intent within moments of meeting them; +2 to Insight rolls made on first impressions.
Innate Inaptitude
-2 to social rolls seeking full acceptance into either human or elf society; a Helf is skilled at reading a room but always remains, on some LVL, an outsider.
Lifespan: ~300 years (Mortal)
Starting Age: 75 | Retirement Age: 115 (see Time, pg. 4)
Favored Classes
Strategist (Rogue) +4 / Path: Spellblade +4 / Branch: Shadowblade +6
Sorcerer +5
Favored Companions
1. Fellowship, a Standard humanoid companion who shares a Helf's footing between two cultures. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
2. Pet, a Small companion that adapts as easily as its Helf owner. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike.
Halfling (Playable in Starter Set)
Halflings build their lives around comfort, community, and staying just out of the way of bigger trouble, their hidden burrows and villages are easy to walk past without ever noticing they're there.
Halfling accounts are kept as a tally of what was never lost. Where other peoples record what their forebears took, the burrows record the years that passed without incident, the harvests that came in whole, the times trouble went by on the road above and did not turn off it. A Halfling who can add nothing to that tally is held to have done the work regardless.
Halflings seem to have an uncanny knack for things simply working out in their favor, a missed step, a lucky find, a fight avoided by seconds, more often than chance alone would explain.
A Halfling's small frame keeps anything built for bigger hands out of reach, and the same size means they carry less before it starts to weigh them down, trying to command respect from someone twice their height rarely lands the way they'd hoped.
Native Planet
Zailister
Cultural Armaments
Halflings build for comfort and for staying out of the way, so their armament is light, quiet and easy to live in for a long day. What protection there is has been argued into the design rather than the other way around. Telluric, light, and argued into shape rather than forged into it. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history.
Spirit & Apex
Spirit Start 7 (+1 growth) | Apex Start 2 (+1 growth)
Innate Trait Adjustments
+1 Agility | -2 Strength, -2 Toughness, -1 Intuition
Starting ATTR Floor
Vigilance (VIG) 2, PHY 1
Innate Aptitude
Reroll one failed non-combat roll per session. Result stands. Additional rerolls available through the Luck talent in the Leprechaun Talent Tree.
+2 Stealth (outdoors, rural). Leaves minimal tracks passively.
Locate food and water in the wild. No roll in abundant areas; reduced Perception check in harsh terrain.
+2 Courage (fear, intimidation, panic).
Innate Profession: Tinker. Begins with Apprentice-LVL expertise.
Innate Inaptitude
Cannot use 2h weapons designed for Standard or larger races without specific class abilities.
Carry limit at half standard weight before encumbrance.
-1 Intuition when projecting authority to Standard or larger races who don't know them.
Lifespan: ~130 years (Mortal)
Starting Age: 32 | Retirement Age: 72 (see Time, pg. 4)
Favored Classes
Strategist (Rogue) +4 / Path: Rogue +4 / Branch: Shroud +6
Bard +5
Favored Companions
1. Pet, a Tiny companion that finds food and shelter alongside a Halfling. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
2. Fellowship, a Small humanoid companion who shares a Halfling's burrow and community. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike.
Halfling Kinborns
Same size as the base race. Only what differs from it is listed; anything left blank is as above.
| Kinborn | Cultural Armaments | Innate Trait Adjustments | Starting ATTR Floor | Innate Aptitude | Innate Inaptitude | Favored Classes | Favored Companions | Lifespan and Age |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hobbling | Hobbling gear is issued rather than chosen, matched across a unit and made to be fought in shoulder to shoulder. Hobgoblin discipline in a halfling frame, and the only smallfolk tradition that looks like an army's. Telluric, issued to a pattern, and matched across a unit rather than to a wearer. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history. | +2 Agility, +1 Dexterity | -2 Strength, -2 Charisma, -1 Intuition | ART 1, PHY 2 | Drilled Coordination | strikes and withdraws in a single fluid motion alongside allies; +2 to combat rolls made while fighting in coordination with at least one ally. | -2 to all rolls made when fighting alone or facing a problem that isn't solved by combat. | Fighter (Warrior) +4 / Path: Brawler +4 / Branch: Unarmed +6 | 1. Fellowship, a Small humanoid companion who fights in coordination alongside a Hobbling. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep. 2. Pet, a Tiny companion that keeps a Hobbling steady between fights. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep. Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike. | Lifespan: ~80 years (Mortal) Starting Age: 20 | Retirement Age: 60 (see Time, pg. 4) |
Hobblings carry a hobgoblin's discipline and a halfling's nerve, training from a young age to fight in tight coordination rather than relying on size or strength alone. Hobbling accounts are drills before they are stories, kept as movements rather than names, passed on by being performed until they hold. Their forebears are held to have concluded that a people too small to be feared and too few to be spared had one remaining option, which was to move as one thing, and every Hobbling since has been raised inside that conclusion. A Hobbling moves and strikes with an economy other races spend years drilling for, slipping past a guard's reach and landing a hit in the same motion, then vanishing back out of range before retaliation comes. Hobblings train constantly for coordinated combat and little else, left without allies to fight alongside, or facing a problem that isn't solved by a fight, a Hobbling is often at a genuine loss. | ||||||||
Hawkbear
Hawkbears are imposing hybrids, a bear's dense frame and head, with a hawk's hooked beak and piercing, predatory eyes. They also feature loose folds of skin stretching from wrist to ankle that when stretched out allow them to glide, whether it's from a jumping start or off of a mountain's edge, far distances in the air.
Hawkbear accounts are given from height and only from height, spoken at the launch before the drop, and a line recited on flat ground is held not to have been recited at all. What the oldest of them record is not territory but crossings, every span their forebears cleared, in order, the distances kept exactly where names would be.
There's a reason hunters fear a Hawkbear perched above a trail, one leap turns into a long, near-silent glide, and by the time that beak comes into view there's no outrunning what's already closing the gap from above.
A Hawkbear grounded in a storm or boxed into tight halls and tunnels loses every advantage their build gives them outdoors, that same bulk and gait that means nothing from a glide becomes impossible to hide indoors.
Native Planet
Zailister
Cultural Armaments
Hawkbear sets leave the beak, the crest and the loose flight-skin clear, which rules out most closed Moulds outright. What they wear is banded rather than plated, heavy across the bear frame and open everywhere the hawk half needs to work. Telluric, banded rather than plated, and cut around what a Hawkbear cannot cover. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history.
Spirit & Apex
Spirit Start 5 (+4 growth) | Apex Start 9 (+3 growth)
Innate Trait Adjustments
+2 Agility, +1 Defense | -2 Wit, -2 Deceit, -1 Charisma
Starting ATTR Floor
PHY 2
Innate Aptitude
+2 to Sprint and Jump rolls.
Gliding skin membranes allow long-distance aerial travel after a sprinting start or a fall from height. See Glide under Movement.
Innate Inaptitude
Glide requires open sky and a running or falling start, cannot be used in confined spaces, under heavy cloud cover, or in storm conditions.
-2 to all stealth rolls indoors; their bulk and gait give them away easily off the cliffs.
Lifespan: ~120 years (Mortal)
Starting Age: 30 | Retirement Age: 70 (see Time, pg. 4)
Favored Classes
Barbarian (Warrior) +4 / Path: Mountaineer +4 / Branch: Predator +6
Favored Companions
1. Guardian, a Goliath-sized companion that flanks a Hawkbear on mountain hunts. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
2. Pet, a Small winged companion at home gliding the same high cliffs. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike.
Human (Playable in Starter Set)
The most versatile of all races, humans are natural communicators, traders, and survivors. Their adaptability has allowed them to establish cultures across every corner of Essentia.
No two human settlements look quite alike, and that's the point, whatever the terrain, climate, or culture demands, humans bend to fit it faster than almost any other race, picking up new trades, gods, and customs within a generation or two.
Humans carry no innate edge in any one craft or fighting style, leaning instead on raw adaptability, and a human who goes too long without picking up something new starts to lose standing fast, restlessness being as core to them as versatility.
That versatility is why Humans are the one race Favored across every single Main Class in the book, no other race carries a bonus this wide, reflecting a Human's ability to pick up any calling and hold their own in it.
Native Planet
Zailister
Cultural Armaments
Tactical Armor and Tactical Gear are Human work, invented on Zailister and traded everywhere. Modular panels and mounts reconfigured for the job rather than committed at the forge. Humans invented little of it outright, it is dwarven plate cut into panels and Omnè hardware copied badly and then copied well. Telluric, modular, and the most widely traded Telluric work there is. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history.
Spirit & Apex
Spirit Start 5 (+2 growth) | Apex Start 5 (+2 growth) (Only race with equal values - baseline for balance)
Innate Trait Adjustments
+1 Courage, +1 Charisma, +1 Deceit | -1 Toughness, -1 Intuition, -1 Piety
Starting ATTR Floor
ART 1, FRT 1
Innate Aptitude
Begin with 2 additional spoken languages. +2 to all language rolls except Demonic, Draconic, and Ancient Primordial (requires a talent or cultural background to learn).
+2 to social rolls (negotiation, persuasion, de-escalation).
Can learn the first ability in any new Class Tree without seeking a trainer.
Once per session, after a failed non-combat roll, may immediately attempt it again with +2 added to the result.
Innate Profession: Body Artist. Begins with Apprentice-LVL expertise.
Innate Inaptitude
No race-based bonus to any single Profession, Talent Tree, or armament type.
3+ sessions without progressing a Class Tree or Profession: -1 to Prestige rolls until they do.
Lifespan: ~80 years (Mortal)
Starting Age: 20 | Retirement Age: 60 (see Time, pg. 4)
Favored Classes
Fighter (Warrior) +4 / Path: Hero +4 / Branch: Combatant +6
Overseer +5
Marksman +5
Doom Knight +5
Warlock +5
Shaman +5
Tyrant +5
Warrior +5
Favored Companions
1. Fellowship, a Standard humanoid companion who travels and trades alongside a Human. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
2. Draft, a Standard-sized working animal suited to a Human's adaptable lifestyle. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike.
Imperials (Tredeki, Standard Size)
Imperials are grey. Their Bloodlines each carry a hue of their own, worn in the skin, Crimson blood red, Onyx black, then Violet, Azure and Verdant. A character is one of them, chosen at creation. All of them share the same random gene pool for hair and eye color, ranging across the full spectrum, and all of them are the same but for what they favor. During the day, the lighter hues blend into their surroundings, and during the night, Onyx does the same. Their native planet is Tredeki, where they are the dominant race. Imperials are chaotic neutral by default, though their alignment is shaped by their culture and where on Tredeki they're from.
Imperial accounts are kept three times, once by each colour, and the three do not agree on a single founding between them. No attempt has ever been made to settle it. An Imperial raised inside three irreconcilable versions of their own beginning learns early how much of what anyone shows is chosen, and shows accordingly.
Imperials can shift the intensity of their natural coloring at will, fading into shadow or blending into a crowd until someone's looking right at them, most outsiders write it off as a trick of the light.
That same shifting unpredictability that lets Imperials blend in works against them just as often, few outsiders fully trust someone whose loyalties and appearance are both known to change at will.
Native Planet
Tredeki
Cultural Armaments
Techmat is Imperial work. Frail by build, with no natural protection and an eye for making, the Imperials answered Omnè's manufactured armor with a laminated psi-conductive mat pressed in plies, tuned to carry psionics the way no other TABA does. It is the dominant armament of Tredeki and it stops at Heavy Grade by nature. Advanced, laminated and pressed, and tuned to carry psionics as no other Advanced work is. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history.
Spirit & Apex
Spirit Start 3 (+2 growth) | Apex Start 9 (+2 growth)
Innate Trait Adjustments
+2 Charisma, +1 Wit | -2 Constitution, -2 Toughness, -1 Courage
Starting ATTR Floor
Artistry (ART) 2, Intellect (INT) 1
Innate Aptitude
Chromatic Shift | shifts the intensity of natural coloring at will, fading into shadow or blending into a crowd; +2 to Stealth and Deceit rolls made to avoid notice.
Innate Inaptitude
-2 to social rolls building lasting trust; the same shifting unpredictability that lets an Imperial blend in leaves outsiders unsure their loyalties and appearance won't change too.
Lifespan: Immortal, begins adventuring later and retires later than most races (see Starting Age and Retirement Age below, and Time, pg. 4)
Starting Age: 100 | Retirement Age: 140 (see Time, pg. 4)
Favored Classes
Magic User (Magic) +4 / Path: Illusionist +4 / Branch: Metamorphiser +6
Favored Companions
1. Fellowship, a Standard humanoid companion who blends into a crowd alongside an Imperial. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
2. Pet, a Standard-sized companion that shifts its coloring to match an Imperial's surroundings. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike.
Leshy (Tredeki, Goliath Size)
Massive, emerald-eyed beings from the frontiers of Tredeki, with bark-textured hide and vine-entwined hair-crests. They govern themselves under a strict tribal code of wilderness supremacy, the land is sacred, and those who cannot survive it have no authority over it.
Leshy measure status by survival, not lineage or wealth, a Leshy who has weathered the harshest seasons of Tredeki commands more respect in their tribe than one born into any title.
A Leshy steps off Tredeki without a currency anyone else recognizes, and the same directness that commands respect in the wild reads as outright hostility in a city, no Leshy holds rank or title once they've left their tribe's land behind.
Native Planet
Tredeki
Cultural Armaments
A Leshy is already armored, bark hide granting protection before anything is strapped over it, so Leshy work is cut away rather than built up, leaving hide and vine-crests exposed and working. They wear Imperial Techmat when they wear anything manufactured at all, and they cut it down to suit, which Imperials consider vandalism. Telluric, and cut away rather than built up, a Leshy arriving already armoured. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history.
Innate Trait Adjustments
+2 Toughness, +2 Intuition, +1 Constitution, +1 Piety | -2 Charisma, -2 Deceit, -2 Knowledge
Starting ATTR Floor
VIG 2, PHY 2, Wisdom (WIS) 1
Innate Aptitude
Bark hide grants +3 natural Armor Scr. before armor is applied.
+2 to all wilderness survival, tracking, and foraging rolls.
Immune to natural poisons and toxins native to Tredeki.
Vine-crests allow passive communication with plant life, detect growth patterns, recent disturbance, or hidden paths.
Innate Inaptitude
Laser-credit systems only, Leshy do not recognize or use universal coin currency. Transactions off Tredeki require an intermediary.
-3 to all social rolls in urban or heavily structured environments, their tribal directness reads as aggression.
Cannot hold civic, political, or legal titles outside of Tredeki.
Lifespan: ~800 years (Mortal)
Starting Age: 200 | Retirement Age: 240 (see Time, pg. 4)
Favored Classes
Druid (Nature) +4 / Path: Hyborian +4 / Branch: Metamorpher +6
Shaman +5
Barbarian +5
Favored Companions
1. Pet, a Standard-sized companion drawn from Tredeki's wilderness alongside a Leshy. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
2. Guardian, a Goliath-sized companion that helps a Leshy hold their tribe's land. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike.
Miceling
Micelings are natural contortionists, twisting and folding themselves through gaps and crawlspaces no bigger than a fist, spaces built to keep every other race out.
Miceling accounts are kept in the gaps, scratched where nothing larger could reach to scratch them, which is why so much survives and so little of it is legible. Their forebears held that a people who cannot hold a door should keep their record somewhere no door is needed, and the practice outlasted every hall it was hidden in.
Micelings have sharp senses both above and below ground, rarely losing their way, they have an uncanny knack for finding the way out of a maze, ruin, or collapsed tunnel, and even seem to puzzle out riddles and traps faster than expected (ask the GM for a hint). They have Dark Vision and speak both Common and Burrowing Animal, their native tongue.
Built to fold through gaps no bigger than a fist, Micelings are fragile in the open, a solid hit lands harder on them than it would most other races, and there's nowhere to wedge themselves out of the way in a straight fight.
Native Planet
Zailister
Cultural Armaments
Micelings need to fold through gaps no bigger than a fist, which rules out almost everything. Their armament is soft-jointed and shed-able, built to be abandoned in a crawlspace and recovered later rather than to be fought in. Telluric, soft-jointed, and made to be abandoned. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history.
Spirit & Apex
Spirit Start 2 (+0 growth) | Apex Start 3 (+0 growth)
Innate Trait Adjustments
+3 Willpower, +2 Dexterity, +1 Wit
Starting ATTR Floor
ART 2, INT 3
Innate Aptitude
Fistgap Squeeze | folds and twists through gaps and crawlspaces no bigger than a fist; +2 to escape and infiltration rolls in tight spaces.
Tunnelwise | rarely loses their way below or above ground; +2 to rolls made finding a path out of a maze, ruin, or collapsed tunnel, and to solving riddles and traps.
Innate Inaptitude
-2 to Toughness-based rolls absorbing a solid hit; a Miceling's small frame takes harder damage than most other races from the same blow.
-2 to all rolls made in a straight, open fight with nowhere to wedge out of the way.
Lifespan: ~60 years (Mortal)
Starting Age: 15 | Retirement Age: 55 (see Time, pg. 4)
Favored Classes
Strategist (Rogue) +4 / Path: Rogue +4 / Branch: Shroud +6
Magic User +5
Marksman +5
Favored Companions
1. Pet, a Tiny burrowing companion that fits the same fist-sized gaps a Miceling does. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
2. Fellowship, a Small humanoid companion who navigates tunnels and ruins alongside a Miceling. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike.
Neanderthal (Glaciera)
Neanderthals are built for endurance over speed, heavy-boned, broad-shouldered, and built to take a hit rather than dodge one. Generations surviving Glaciera's brutal mountain cold left them practical and plainspoken, more interested in what works than what's clever.
The Neanderthal keep the oldest burials in Essentia and count that, not any hall or holding, as the beginning of their people. Their accounts record who was laid down, with what, and by whom, and go no further. A people who have measured themselves in what they carried through rather than what they built come out plainspoken, unhurried, and very hard to move.
Cold that would drop another race in their tracks barely slows a Neanderthal down, and that same hardiness holds against nearly anything else thrown at them, fire, frost, acid, lightning barely faze a Neanderthal where they'd stagger someone else outright.
All that raw endurance comes at the cost of finesse, Neanderthals are slow to pick up anything that calls for precision or subtlety, and a delicate task takes them noticeably longer than it would almost any other race.
Native Planet
Zailister
Cultural Armaments
Neanderthal work is heavy-boned like its wearers, built to take a hit rather than avoid one, hide and bone over a frame that hardly needs the help. Close cousin to Primal work, and old enough that the resemblance may not be coincidence. Telluric, hide and bone, and close cousin to the oldest Telluric work there is. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history.
Spirit & Apex
Spirit Start 8 (+2 growth) | Apex Start 3 (+1 growth)
Innate Trait Adjustments
+2 Strength, +2 Toughness, +1 Constitution | -2 Agility, -1 Charisma, -1 Wit
Starting ATTR Floor
PHY 2
Innate Aptitude
Cold-Forged | cold that would drop another race in their tracks barely slows a Neanderthal down; +2 to resist fire, frost, acid, and lightning hazards that would stagger most other races outright.
Innate Inaptitude
-2 to all rolls requiring precision or subtlety; a delicate task takes a Neanderthal noticeably longer than it would almost any other race.
Lifespan: ~60 years (Mortal)
Starting Age: 15 | Retirement Age: 55 (see Time, pg. 4)
Favored Classes
Barbarian (Warrior) +4 / Path: Mountaineer +4 / Branch: Predator +6
Warrior +5
Favored Companions
1. Guardian, a Small companion that fights alongside a Neanderthal in Glaciera's cold. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
2. Draft, a Small working animal bred to endure the same mountain cold. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike.
Ogre (Playable in Starter Set)
Towering and muscular, ogres are known for their immense strength and ferocity in battle.
Ogre accounts are settlements rather than histories. A clan holds what it holds because a name in its line took it and no name since has lost it, and the recitation is short because everything that was lost is simply left out. An Ogre asked about their forebears will answer with ground, never with deeds.
Ogres live by a simple, brutal logic: the strongest takes what it wants, and the rest get out of the way. Most outsiders read this as simple-mindedness, but ogre clans run on a surprisingly rigid code of strength-earned respect.
An Ogre's hands are built for crushing, not crafting, delicate work like lockpicking or fine jewelry is a near-impossible ask, and most strangers who haven't already seen an Ogre's strength up close tend to keep their distance regardless of how it's meant.
Native Planet
Zailister
Cultural Armaments
Ogres wear whatever is large enough and stops what needs stopping, and the honest answer is that most of it is taken. Sets are assembled rather than made, oversized human and dwarven plate re-strapped by hand, and a well-matched Ogre harness marks a warrior who has won a great deal. Telluric by origin, though rarely the Ogre's own, since a taken set carries whatever Variant it was made as. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history.
Spirit & Apex
Spirit Start 3 (+4 growth) | Apex Start 11 (+3 growth)
Innate Trait Adjustments
+3 Strength | -5 Wit
Starting ATTR Floor
PHY 3
Innate Aptitude
NPCs (Small or Standard size) may hesitate, flee, or comply without a roll in intimidation situations, at GM discretion.
+2 Armor Score (Armor Scr.) from hide, applied before armor.
+2 to hunt and forage rolls in wilderness.
Innate Profession: Carpenter. Begins with Apprentice-LVL expertise.
Innate Inaptitude
-3 to all precision hand work. Cannot practice delicate crafting professions.
Requires 2x food and water daily. Missing a day triggers Endurance penalties.
-2 to social rolls (non-intimidation) with races unaccustomed to their presence.
Lifespan: ~100 years (Mortal)
Starting Age: 25 | Retirement Age: 65 (see Time, pg. 4)
Favored Classes
Barbarian (Warrior) +4 / Path: Destroyer +4 / Branch: Mauler +6
Favored Companions
1. Guardian, a Goliath-sized companion that backs an Ogre's strength in a fight. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
2. Draft, a Standard-sized working animal that hauls what an Ogre's hands cannot. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike.
Omnè (Omne Malum, Small Size)
The oldest known human development in Essentia, an ancient sub-human civilization that settled on planet Omne Malum, Omnè in short, long before recorded history. So far from Adoria that magic never took root, they built their survival entirely through technology. As the dying star Tawdry Dwarf deteriorates, the conditions it once sustained across planets 8 through 13 have collapsed into hostile atmospheres and environmental decay. On Omnè, this forced the population into sealed pressure suits outside pressurized habitats, and accelerated a desperate technological arms race, including the construction of a synthetic planet and surrounding protection barrier, an emergency world that filters the encroaching gases and is built to break orbit and carry them clear of Tawdry once it begins to die. It is this slow extinction that drove the Omnè into the invasion of Zailister. See Tawdry Dwarf & Beyond for more.
Omnè troubleshooting starts and ends with hard data, faced with a sealed door or a failing system, they'll run a diagnostic before they'd ever think to pray.
Magic simply never took root in an Omnè, not a spark of it, suit or no suit, and step outside a pressurized habitat without that suit sealed and their body starts failing fast; put them anywhere wild and unbuilt and they're badly out of their depth.
Native Planet
Omne Malum
Cultural Armaments
The TAA family, TABA, TAW and TAG, is Omnè work and the oldest continuous manufacturing tradition in Essentia. A world that developed without magic had to build every advantage it has, and every other culture has since tried to copy the result. It carries a cost premium wherever it is sold. Advanced, manufactured, and the oldest continuous Advanced tradition in Essentia. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history.
Innate Trait Adjustments
+2 Knowledge, +1 Wit | -2 Piety, -1 Strength, -2 Intuition
Starting ATTR Floor
INT 1, WIS 2
Innate Aptitude
+3 to all technology, engineering, and crafting rolls.
Pressure suit grants passive resistance to environmental hazards (gas, toxin, extreme temperature).
+2 to Knowledge-based skill checks.
Innate Inaptitude
Cannot cast magic, no affinity whatsoever. Magic items can still be used.
Pressure suit must be equipped in all non-pressurized environments or Constitution drops by 2 per turn.
-3 to all nature, wilderness, and foraging rolls.
Starting Age and Retirement Age vary by subtype (see Time, pg. 4).
Lifespan: Varies (Mortal or Immortal depending on subtype)
Favored Classes
Tyrant (Warrior) +4 / Path: Demolisher +4 / Branch: Rampager +6
Marksman +5
Magic User +5
Warrior +5
Witch +5
Favored Companions
1. Mechanical, a Standard-sized constructed companion built by Omnè engineering. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
2. Fellowship, a Standard humanoid companion who shares a sealed habitat alongside an Omnè. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike.
Orcus
The Orcus dwell deep beneath the heights of the Tantalizing Mountains in the Grimhold region of Nivis, Zailister's largest continent. Subterranean dwellers who long ago retreated from the sun into deep cavern kingdoms, the Orcus trace their name and lineage to old funerary rites and broken oaths, said to be the cursed inheritors of those who swore false vows over the dead. Generations underground have left their skin pale and sunken, and they carry an old, instinctive hatred of bards and everything they stand for. Humans, Elves, and Dwarves call them "Orcus" | a slanderous outsider's term with no root in Orcus history, used to lump them in with savage stock; no Orcus answers to it without taking offense.
Humans, both settlers and of Noble forces, have claimed and fortified the land east of the range and work the mountains as miners, making expeditions there extremely dangerous | miners are frequent targets of Orcus ambushes and raids. Because the humans and nobility in the area are heavily fortified, the Orcus spend most of their time deep under the range, surfacing mainly at the northernmost and highest peaks, where the cliffs are battered by the waves of the Umbra Sea. War has broken out between the Orcus and the human settlers before, and it will again, once both sides have licked their wounds and resupplied.
An Orcus moving through pitch-black tunnels reads the stone the way a sighted creature reads a room, and that same old curse leaves them with an unsettling knack for knowing the moment someone's spoken word becomes a lie | a broken oath rings as loud to an Orcus as a shout in an empty cave.
Drag an Orcus out under open sky for too long and that pale, sunken skin starts working against them fast, while the mere sound of a lute or a bard's voice raised in song is enough to set their temper instantly and dangerously short.
Native Planet
Zailister
Cultural Armaments
Orcus armament is grave-iron and salvaged human steel, hooded against a sun their skin cannot take and deliberately open at the ear so Stonesense is never sealed away. That opening is the culture's trade-off, and against a bard it costs them dearly. Telluric, grave-iron and salvage being a world's own metal worked without charge or element. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history.
Spirit & Apex
Spirit Start 7 (+3 growth) | Apex Start 3 (+2 growth)
Innate Trait Adjustments
+2 Strength, +2 Constitution | -2 Charisma, -2 Piety
Starting ATTR Floor
PHY 2
Innate Aptitude
Stonesense | navigate and sense movement through solid rock and tunnels without light; immune to underground darkness penalties.
Oathsense | instinctively senses when a sworn vow or promise has just been broken nearby; +2 to Insight rolls involving lies tied to oaths or promises.
+2 to all rolls made in enclosed, underground, or mining environments.
Innate Inaptitude
Sunlight sensitivity | -2 to all rolls during extended exposure to direct sunlight; Stonesense bonuses do not function outdoors.
Cannot resist provoked aggression toward Bards | must pass a Composure check to avoid attacking a Bard on sight.
-2 to all social rolls with parties aware of the Orcus's cursed lineage.
Lifespan: ~180 years (Mortal)
Starting Age: 45 | Retirement Age: 85 (see Time, pg. 4)
Favored Classes
Tyrant (Warrior) +4 / Path: Berserker +4 / Branch: Fury +6
Doom Knight +5
Shaman +5
Warlock +5
Favored Companions
1. Theowarg, a Standard-sized wolf-boar hybrid draft/mount bred for war. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
2. Tunnelmole, a Small burrowing pet that sniffs out ore veins and tunnel collapses before they happen. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike.
Ossein (Hexagonum, Standard Size, Undead)
The Ossein died and kept going, and they will tell you the second part is the only part that matters. Skin still covers them, drawn so tight to the frame that every joint reads through it, but it never rotted and it never sloughed, which is the line they draw between themselves and everything else walking Hexagonum. They are not wraiths. They will correct you on that.
Ossein accounts open at a death, always, and the death is given as the first entry rather than the last. Everything an Ossein was before it is recorded in the past tense by the same Ossein still standing there, and they hold that a people who have already been through the worst of it owe the living no particular deference on the subject.
An Ossein thinks fast, remembers everything, and has read more than you have. Necromancy on Hexagonum is not a forbidden art, it is a trade with a guild, and the Ossein hold the deepest end of it.
They take what a world offers and give it nothing back. An Ossein will strip a seam to the rock, waste most of what comes out of it, and still burn a season making sure nobody else gets near the rest.
Native Planet
Hexagonum
Cultural Armaments
Nothing an Ossein wears is dull. Bone, iron, silver, gold, red steel, all of it polished and all of it dark, because a finish that throws light is a finish that gives you away. Their work is Malign, Telluric craft with the curse worked in at the forge. They spend the rarest material they own on a piece and then wear it through a swamp without a second thought, since the making was the point and the keeping never was. Malign, Telluric craft with the curse worked in at the forge and never lifted out. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history.
Spirit & Apex
Spirit Start 9 (+3 growth) | Apex Start 5 (+2 growth)
Innate Trait Adjustments
+2 Knowledge, +2 Willpower, +1 Deceit, +1 Warded | -3 Constitution, -2 Charisma, -1 Intuition
Starting ATTR Floor
INT 2, RES 1, WIS 1
Innate Aptitude
Undying | an Ossein does not eat, drink, breathe, or sleep, and takes no penalty from starvation, thirst, suffocation, or exhaustion. They do not Rest, and begin each day with the Vitality their Spirit regeneration returned overnight.
Sees in full darkness at any distance a living eye could see in daylight.
+3 to all necromancy rolls, and +2 to Knowledge rolls made on the dead, whatever killed them, and how long ago.
Innate Inaptitude
Any Armament of another culture that drops to an Ossein arrives as a Weapon Scrip or an Armor Scrip rather than the piece itself (see Cultural Armaments & Rarity, Appendix). A Scrip carries the piece's Rank, Grade and Quality and nothing else. It cannot be equipped, Enhanced, or Salvaged, and is traded to an Assayer for an Armament of the same Rank and part. Equipment, Gear and Items are unaffected.
An Ossein may act while the party Rests. The Player tells the GM what their Character does and it is noted.
-2 to Charisma rolls with any living creature that knows what they are.
-3 to all nature, wilderness, and foraging rolls.
Lifespan: Undying (does not age)
Starting Age: 40 | Retirement Age: 80 (see Time, pg. 4)
Favored Classes
Warlock +5
Witch +5
Magic User +5
Favored Companions
1. Undead, a Standard-sized companion raised rather than bonded. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike.
Pinkling
Pinklings are unmistakable for their pink-hued skin and an even harder to mistake reputation, wherever something has gone missing or someone's been fooled, a Pinkling is usually involved, and rarely caught.
Pinkling accounts consist entirely of first meetings. Nothing that happened after is thought worth keeping, since a Pinkling's second meeting with anyone is held to be a matter of public record already, told by the other party and told badly. Their forebears set the practice, and the practice has cost every generation since the benefit of the doubt.
A Pinkling can talk their way past nearly anyone once, spinning a lie convincing enough that even a suspicious mark tends to believe it the first time around.
A Pinkling's reputation eventually catches up with them, word travels, and once a town's heard enough stories, even their best lie struggles to land with anyone who's heard the name before.
Native Planet
Zailister
Cultural Armaments
Pinkling armament is whatever was not being watched closely enough. Rarely matched, frequently someone else's, and worn with a confidence that discourages questions about the provenance. Telluric as often as not, though a Pinkling rarely knows which Variant a set was before it was theirs. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history.
Spirit & Apex
Spirit Start 7 (+1 growth) | Apex Start 3 (+1 growth)
Innate Trait Adjustments
+2 Deceit, +1 Agility | -1 Strength, -4 Toughness, -3 Piety
Starting ATTR Floor
ART 2, PHY 1
Innate Aptitude
First Mark | talks their way past nearly anyone the first time; +2 to Deceit rolls made spinning a lie on a mark with no prior reputation against them.
Innate Inaptitude
-2 to social rolls in any town or with any mark who has already heard a Pinkling's name; their reputation for trickery follows and undercuts even their best lie.
Lifespan: ~120 years (Mortal)
Starting Age: 30 | Retirement Age: 70 (see Time, pg. 4)
Favored Classes
Warlock (Magic) +4 / Path: Grimlock +4 / Branch: Changeling +6
Favored Companions
1. Pet, a Tiny companion that slips through town unnoticed alongside a Pinkling. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
2. Fellowship, a Small humanoid companion who helps a Pinkling work a con. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike.
Primal (Ignis, Standard Size)
A prehistoric, tribal people who never adopted metal tools or written language, relying instead on stone, bone, and instinct passed down hunter to hunter across generations on Ignis's ash fields. Tall and lean, built with wiry, corded muscle rather than bulk, with nutmeg-toned skin and coarse, ash-grayed hair worn in tight braids or shaved close to keep it out of a fight, a Primal is easy to pick out of a crowd by their tattoos alone, ash-ink worked into deep charcoal-black lines across the arms, chest, and scalp. They live in scattered bands between the wandering fire elementals and golems that call the world home, reading omens in their movements rather than fearing them. Every scar and kill earns a tattoo, worked into the skin with ash-ink and a bone needle, the most sacred marks are placed where the wearer will never see them, on the back of the skull, meant only for whoever stands behind them.
Despite their close physical resemblance to humans, Primal are their own distinct race.
A Primal reads a trail the way others read a page, a bent stalk of ash-grass or a scuffed print tells them everything they need to know about what passed and how long ago.
None of that instinct carries over to a written page, a Primal raised without letters struggles with anything that isn't spoken, remembered, or carved.
Primal ways predate the recorded history of every other race on Essentia, theirs is the oldest continuously practiced way of life among humanoids, unbroken since before any other people kept records.
Native Planet
Ignis
Cultural Armaments
Primal Armor is bone, stone and hide worked by hand, built to absorb impact rather than turn an edge, and it is the oldest tradition covered here by a long way. Where others borrowed, Ignis stayed put, and most Half Medium and Half Heavy layering anywhere in Essentia can be traced back to it. Telluric, bone and stone and hide, and the oldest Telluric work in Essentia by a long way. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history.
Innate Trait Adjustments
+2 Strength, +1 Intuition, +1 Courage | -2 Wit, -1 Charisma, -1 Piety
Starting ATTR Floor
Fortitude (FRT) 1, VIG 1, PHY 2
Innate Aptitude
Trophy-Marked | after defeating a foe of Rare rank or higher in single combat, may ritually tattoo the kill onto their body; each trophy tattoo grants a permanent +1 CHA (intimidation) rolls, uncapped.
+2 to tracking and trail-reading rolls.
Reads the movements of elementals and constructs as omens rather than threats, +2 to rolls made to predict or avoid their behavior.
Innate Inaptitude
-3 to all rolls involving reading or written language; a Primal raised without letters cannot make use of written material without aid.
-2 to social rolls in structured, formal, or bureaucratic settings.
Lifespan: ~70 years (Mortal)
Starting Age: 18 | Retirement Age: 58 (see Time, pg. 4)
Favored Classes
Barbarian (Warrior) +4 / Path: Mountaineer +4 / Branch: Beast Master +6
Shaman +5
Favored Companions
1. Pet, a Small companion bonded through the hunt alongside a Primal. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
2. Guardian, a Goliath-sized companion that fights alongside a Primal's band. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike.
Ratkin
Ratkin are good back-stabbers, both literally and figuratively, sneaking past a guard or sneaking into someone's confidence come just as naturally to them, and either one usually ends the same way for whoever let them get close.
Ratkin accounts are kept below the settlements they concern, in tunnel and cistern, and record the ways in rather than the people. Their forebears held that a city is only its openings and that whoever writes the openings down has the city, which has never once been believed by anyone the Ratkin have tried to explain it to.
Ratkin see clearly in total darkness and move with practiced ease through sewers, tunnels, and crypts, their senses sharpening underground, making them some of the best dungeon crawlers around. They have Dark Vision and speak both Common and Rodent, their native tongue.
Ratkin earn deep distrust everywhere they go before they've said a word, their reputation for treachery follows them into every new town, and it takes real effort to convince anyone otherwise.
Native Planet
Zailister
Cultural Armaments
Ratkin gear is built for the approach and the exit, not the middle, soft-soled, low-profile, and shed fast if the exit needs to be faster. A Ratkin in heavy plate has misjudged the job. Telluric, low-profile, and shed faster than it is worn. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history.
Spirit & Apex
Spirit Start 2 (+1 growth) | Apex Start 7 (+1 growth)
Innate Trait Adjustments
+2 Agility, +2 Dexterity, +1 Wit | -3 Willpower, -3 Charisma
Starting ATTR Floor
ART 2, INT 1, PHY 2
Innate Aptitude
Dark Vision | sees clearly in total darkness; moves with practiced ease through sewers, tunnels, and crypts. +2 to Stealth rolls made underground.
+2 to Deceit rolls made sneaking into someone's confidence.
Innate Inaptitude
-2 to all social rolls on first meeting; a Ratkin's reputation for treachery follows them into every new town before they've said a word.
Lifespan: ~50 years (Mortal)
Starting Age: 12 | Retirement Age: 52 (see Time, pg. 4)
Favored Classes
Witch (Mystic) +4 / Path: BrewMaster +4 / Branch: Shrew +6
Marksman +5
Favored Companions
1. Pet, a Tiny rodent companion at home in sewers and tunnels alongside Ratkin. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
2. Guardian, a Small companion that watches a Ratkin's back in the dungeon dark. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike.
Skrath (Tredeki, Standard Size)
Wiry, fast-moving reptilian humanoids native to the frontiers of Tredeki, sharing the planet with the Leshy but operating nothing like them. Where the Leshy govern through structure and reverence for the land, the Skrath run in loose packs with no formal hierarchy, leadership is earned in the moment and changes fast. Their defining trait is rapid cellular regeneration, wounds that would sideline most races close on a Skrath within minutes. They live short, violent lives and seem fine with it. The Leshy consider them reckless. The Skrath consider the Leshy insufferably slow.
Skrath accounts are never finished and are not meant to be. A line is handed on mid-sentence, the receiving Skrath continues it, and a line brought to a proper close is held to belong to a people who have stopped. Their forebears kept it that way deliberately, which is the reason no Skrath has ever accepted a title, a title being an ending someone else has written for you.
A Skrath's wounds rarely slow them down for more than a few minutes, and the pack rarely waits around for the slow ones to catch up.
Outside Tredeki, a Skrath's lack of formal rank or title leaves most strangers unsure how to treat them, and a Skrath who tries to claim authority somewhere structured rarely finds anyone willing to recognize it.
Native Planet
Tredeki
Cultural Armaments
Skrath armament is almost nothing, and deliberately. Wounds close on a Skrath within minutes, so weight and coverage cost more than they return, and a pack that does not wait for the slow does not wait for the armored either. Claws serve where a weapon would, and what little they wear is scavenged, rarely matched, and never mended. Telluric and almost absent, a Skrath closing its own wounds faster than plate would spare them. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history.
Innate Trait Adjustments
+2 Agility, +2 Constitution, +1 Toughness | -2 Knowledge, -2 Charisma, -2 Piety
Starting ATTR Floor
PHY 2
Innate Aptitude
Rapid regeneration, recover 2 Vitality per round in and out of combat.
Natural weapons (claws, bite) deal +2 unarmed damage.
+2 to all tracking, ambush, and close-quarters combat rolls.
Pack instinct, +1 to all rolls when at least two allies are within melee range.
Innate Inaptitude
Cannot hold titles, ranks, or civic roles, no structured authority is recognized.
-3 to all social rolls outside of Tredeki.
Cannot use heavy armor, too restrictive for their movement style.
No affinity for magic study or formal learning.
Lifespan: ~40 years (Mortal)
Starting Age: 10 | Retirement Age: 50 (see Time, pg. 4)
Favored Classes
Barbarian +5 | Cimmerian +7 | Berserker +9
Shaman +5
Marksman +5
Favored Companions
1. Stormstrider, a Goliath-sized giant feathered plains runner, storm-sensing and built for Tredeki's frontiers. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
2. Guardian, a Standard-sized companion that runs with a Skrath's pack. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike.
Troll (Common)
The Common Troll is a highly adaptable and versatile race, known for their exceptional resilience and resourcefulness. They possess a sturdy build with thick, leathery skin that provides natural protection, making them resilient in a variety of environments, from lush forests and swamps to mountainous regions.
Troll accounts are not written and never have been, they are counted, recited by one Troll to another in a fixed order that admits no shortening. The oldest of them holds that Trolls were made before the sun was set in its course and were not remade after, which is offered among them as the reason a Troll endures what it endures and the reason open light has never sat easily on any of their kind.
Unlike more specialized trolls, the Common Troll excels in many roles, whether as skilled hunters, cunning foragers, or resourceful craftsmen. Their intelligence and Adaptability allow them to learn new skills quickly, making them flexible allies and formidable opponents. With a strong sense of community and an unyielding spirit, the Common Troll thrives in diverse settings, turning their natural toughness and versatility into powerful assets.
Jack of all trades cuts both ways, a Common Troll rarely masters any one skill the way a specialist would, and it shows whenever true expertise is what the moment calls for.
Native Planet
Zailister
Cultural Armaments
Common Troll work is the most adaptable armament of any Goliath people, made to be repaired from whatever the ground offers. Nothing matched, nothing precious, and nothing that cannot be replaced by evening. Trolls regenerate; their armor is expected to be the part that does not. Telluric, and the least precious Telluric work in Essentia by design. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history.
Spirit & Apex
Spirit Start 10 (+5 growth) | Apex Start 1 (+3 growth)
Innate Trait Adjustments
+2 Toughness, +1 Constitution | -2 Wit, -2 Charisma, -1 Deceit
Starting ATTR Floor
PHY 2
Innate Aptitude
Jack of All Trades | learns new skills quickly across varied terrain; +2 to rolls made when adapting to an unfamiliar task or environment for the first time.
Innate Inaptitude
-2 to all rolls requiring true mastery or specialization; a Common Troll rarely outperforms a dedicated specialist at their own craft.
Lifespan: ~200 years (Mortal)
Starting Age: 50 | Retirement Age: 90 (see Time, pg. 4)
Favored Classes
Fighter (Warrior) +4 / Path: Juggernaut +4 / Branch: Rumbler +6
Tyrant +5
Favored Companions
1. Guardian, a Goliath-sized companion that fights alongside a Common Troll in any terrain. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
2. Draft, a Standard-sized working animal suited to a Common Troll's adaptable lifestyle. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike.
Troll Kinborns
Same size as the base race. Only what differs from it is listed; anything left blank is as above.
| Kinborn | Cultural Armaments | Innate Trait Adjustments | Starting ATTR Floor | Innate Aptitude | Innate Inaptitude | Favored Classes | Favored Companions | Lifespan and Age |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Troll (Bridge) | Bridge Trolls armor for the choke point, not the field. Heavy on the front and shoulders and almost nothing behind, built by people who fight where the width of a bridge means nothing can flank them. Salvaged town steel, taken in tolls and in fights. Telluric, weighted to the front because a crossing is only ever approached from one side. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history. | +2 Wit, +1 Deceit | -2 Strength, -2 Agility | ART 1, Intellect (INT) 2 | Riddlewise | perfectly at home in cramped, low-ceilinged spaces; +2 to Wit rolls made to solve riddles, puzzles, or word-traps. | -2 to all rolls made in open sunlight or wide, unobstructed terrain; a Bridge Troll grows edgy and exposed without a tight space nearby. | Barbarian (Warrior) +4 / Path: Destroyer +4 / Branch: Bloodrager +6 | 1. Pet, a Small companion at home in the cramped dark beneath a bridge. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep. 2. Fellowship, a Standard humanoid companion who shares a Bridge Troll's toll and territory. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep. Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike. | Lifespan: ~180 years (Mortal) Starting Age: 45 | Retirement Age: 85 (see Time, pg. 4) |
Bridge Trolls dwell near cities and towns, making their homes beneath the bridges they use as both shelter and choke point, with the water below serving as a steady source of food and resources. They're as well known for cornering unwary travelers with riddles and tolls as they are for the threats they pose outright. Bridge Trolls keep the counting in its oldest form, as an exchange, one asking and one answering until the answering fails. Their accounts hold that their forebears took the crossings because a crossing is where a question must be answered before passage is given, and that a toll taken in coin rather than in answer is a debased form of the old right. Years spent in the cramped dark beneath bridges and culverts have left Bridge Trolls perfectly at home where most people can't even stand up straight, and there isn't a riddle, puzzle, or word-trap they haven't already heard some version of. Years spent in the dark under a bridge leave a Bridge Troll badly suited to open sunlight and wide horizons, too much open space leaves them edgy and exposed in a way no riddle can talk them out of. | ||||||||
| Troll (Mountain) | Mountain Troll work is cold-country first and martial second, thick hide layered over an already thick hide, weighted for footing on ice rather than for a duel. What metal there is sits low, where a fall does the damage. Telluric, hide over hide, with the metal kept where the cold cannot reach skin. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history. | +2 Toughness, +1 Warded | -2 Wit, -2 Deceit, -1 Piety | PHY 2, RES 1 | Sure Foot | scales sheer cliffs and crosses ice and scree without losing footing; +2 to climbing and balance rolls in mountainous terrain. | -2 to all social and negotiation rolls; a Mountain Troll sees little point in talking out what could simply be thrown off a cliff. | Barbarian (Warrior) +4 / Path: Mountaineer +4 / Branch: Beast Master +6 | 1. Guardian, a Goliath-sized companion that helps a Mountain Troll defend their peak. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep. 2. Draft, a Standard-sized working animal bred for sure footing on sheer cliffs and ice. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep. Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike. | Lifespan: ~250 years (Mortal) Starting Age: 62 | Retirement Age: 102 (see Time, pg. 4) |
Mountain Trolls are cold-hardened climbers who make their homes at elevations where little else survives, their thick hides shrugging off frost and falling rock alike. They guard their peaks fiercely, treating any intrusion as a threat to be driven off or buried in snow. Mountain Trolls hold that their forebears went up rather than be counted with the rest, and their line is recited at height, in the open, where the reciting is hardest. What the lowland halls settle by asking and answering, the Mountain halls hold was always meant to be settled by who was still standing at the top of it. Climbers swap stories about Mountain Trolls scaling sheer cliffs and crossing ice and scree without ever slowing down or losing their footing, terrain that would stop most climbers cold. All that time spent alone on exposed peaks left Mountain Trolls poor company and worse diplomats, they don't see much point in talking a problem out when it could just be thrown off a cliff. | ||||||||
| Troll (Sand) | Sand Trolls wear as little as survival allows, loose and light-coloured, cut to shed heat that would kill other races. Coverage is a liability in the deep desert, and a Sand Troll in heavy plate is a Sand Troll a long way from home. Telluric and minimal, coverage being the thing most likely to kill its wearer. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history. | +2 Constitution, +1 Deceit | -2 Wit, -2 Charisma, -1 Willpower | ART 1, PHY 2 | Dune Walker | moves through open desert with unsettling ease, vanishing from sight long before being noticed; +2 to Stealth and survival rolls in arid terrain. | -2 to all rolls made in cold climates; a hard freeze leaves a Sand Troll sluggish and slow to react. | Shaman (Mystic) +4 / Path: Ritualist +4 / Branch: Runecrafter +6 | 1. Pet, a Small desert creature that shadows a Sand Troll across the dunes. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep. 2. Guardian, a Goliath-sized companion that helps a Sand Troll watch the open desert. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep. Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike. | Lifespan: ~180 years (Mortal) Starting Age: 45 | Retirement Age: 85 (see Time, pg. 4) |
Sand Trolls have adapted to the harshest deserts, their leathery hides shedding heat that would scorch other races, their senses tuned to the smallest shift in dune or wind. They move through open desert with unsettling ease, vanishing from sight long before anyone realizes they were being watched. Sand Troll accounts hold that their forebears followed the heat out past the last standing stone and lost the counting somewhere in the crossing. What they keep now is reconstructed, argued over, and shorter every generation, and a Sand Troll will tell you the loss was the price of getting out, paid willingly. Caravans crossing the dunes swear a Sand Troll can walk for days on a single waterskin and disappear into open ground with nothing to hide behind. A Sand Troll's body is built to shed heat, not hold it, cold climates sap their stamina fast, and a hard freeze can leave one sluggish and slow to react. | ||||||||
| Troll (Village) | Village Trolls carry the only Troll armament made to a pattern, because a people guarding one community can afford to standardise. Solid, matched, maintained between seasons, and often gifted or paid for by the village it defends. Telluric, and the only Troll work made to a repeatable pattern. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history. | +2 Toughness, +1 Piety | -2 Deceit, -2 Wit, -1 Agility | PHY 2, WIS 1 | Watchful Guardian | notices trouble approaching their home long before anyone else does; +2 to Intuition rolls made while within their bonded community. | -2 to all rolls when pulled away from their community for an extended time; a Village Troll grows anxious, distracted, and noticeably less sharp. | Doom Knight (Warrior) +4 / Path: Death Guard +4 / Branch: Dread Knight +6 Fighter +5 | 1. Guardian, a Goliath-sized companion that helps a Village Troll watch over their community. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep. 2. Fellowship, a Standard humanoid companion who shares the duty of protecting the village. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep. Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike. | — |
Village Trolls have set aside the solitary, territorial instincts common to their kind in favor of guarding a single community, often one that has come to depend on them as much as fear them. They take their role seriously, treating every villager as something worth protecting. Village Trolls broke with the counting entirely, holding that a line recited between two Trolls is worth less than a line recited to a village that will still be standing to hear it again. Their accounts are kept by the settlements rather than by the Trolls, which their solitary kin regard as having given the inheritance away. Nothing slips past a Village Troll on watch, they seem to notice trouble approaching their home long before anyone else does. A Village Troll's whole identity is wrapped up in the place they guard, pull one away from their community for too long and they grow anxious, distracted, and noticeably less sharp. | ||||||||
Snow Dwarf
Snow Dwarves carved their halls into the same icy peaks as their Arctic cousins, but lean harder into raw endurance than magic or craft, content to outlast a storm rather than out-think it.
Snow Dwarf accounts are the shortest their kin keep, and deliberately so. Where other halls lengthened their lines with the works of each name, the Snow halls record only that each name endured its winters and passed the hall on intact. Nothing is claimed beyond outlasting, and among them nothing further needs claiming.
A Snow Dwarf can march or labor through blizzard conditions that would exhaust or injure other races, shrugging off cold and fatigue that should slow them down.
Snow Dwarves lean so hard on raw endurance that magic and fine craft never really took root for them, spellwork and delicate trades come slower and harder to a Snow Dwarf than to nearly any other race.
Native Planet
Zailister
Cultural Armaments
Snow Dwarves lean on endurance where their Arctic cousins lean on craft, so their armament is plainer, heavier and worn longer between repairs. Function to the point of severity. Telluric, plainer than their kin's and worn far longer between repairs. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history.
Spirit & Apex
Spirit Start 7 (+2 growth) | Apex Start 3 (+2 growth)
Innate Trait Adjustments
+1 Constitution, +1 Resistance (cold), +1 Toughness | -2 Charisma, -2 Agility, -1 Intuition
Starting ATTR Floor
Physique (PHY) 1, RES 1
Innate Aptitude
Endure the Storm | marches or labors through blizzard conditions without exhaustion or injury; +2 to Endurance rolls in extreme cold.
Innate Inaptitude
-2 to all rolls involving spellwork or delicate trades; magic and fine craft come slower and harder to a Snow Dwarf than to nearly any other race.
Lifespan: ~400 years (Mortal)
Starting Age: 100 | Retirement Age: 140 (see Time, pg. 4)
Favored Classes
Barbarian +5 | Mountaineer +7 | Amazon +9
Witch +5
Favored Companions
1. Draft, a Small working animal that hauls supplies through blizzard conditions. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
2. Guardian, a Small companion that helps a Snow Dwarf outlast a storm. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike.
Sylvan
Sylvan live deeper in the wild than their Common Elf kin, rarely settling anywhere long enough to be called a town, their dwellings are little more than the trees and hollows they pass through on a given season.
Of Fae lineage, however distant, descended from Tenue, through the Veilwood, into Zailister, same as Elves (see Fae, above).
A Sylvan can hold a quiet conversation with the forest itself, sensing the mood of nearby plants and animals and reading subtle warnings, a storm coming, a predator near, long before anyone else notices.
A Sylvan's whole life is tuned to the wild, open forest, long stretches indoors or in built-up cities leave them restless and noticeably duller in their senses than they are under open sky.
Native Planet
Zailister
Cultural Armaments
Sylvan live too far out to resupply, so their armament is cured hide worked quiet and repaired from the forest itself. Leather and studded work is theirs, and it travels better than anything a settled people makes. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history.
Spirit & Apex
Spirit Start 2 (+1 growth) | Apex Start 8 (+1 growth)
Innate Trait Adjustments
+3 Agility | -3 Strength, -1 Toughness, -1 Deceit
Starting ATTR Floor
PHY 3
Innate Aptitude
Wildtouch | senses the mood of nearby plants and animals, reading subtle warnings of storms or predators before anyone else notices.
Innate Inaptitude
-2 to all rolls made indoors or in built-up cities; a Sylvan grows restless and noticeably duller in their senses away from open sky.
Lifespan: Immortal, begins adventuring later and retires later than most races (see Starting Age and Retirement Age below).
Starting Age: 100 | Retirement Age: 140 (see Time, pg. 4)
Favored Classes
Druid (Nature) +4 / Path: Hyborian +4 / Branch: Rager +6
Barbarian +5
Witch +5
Favored Companions
1. Pet, a Small songbird at home under the open sky a Sylvan needs. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
2. Guardian, a Standard-sized companion that watches over a Sylvan's open forest. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike.
Wood Elf
Wood Elves keep to the deep canopy and undergrowth, smaller and quieter than their Common Elf kin, content to let a forest hide them rather than relying on open confrontation.
Wood Elf accounts are never spoken above a certain volume, and the oldest of them are not spoken at all but walked, a route through standing timber that carries the whole of what is remembered. Their forebears went smaller and quieter than their kin on purpose, holding that a people the forest will hide does not need a people's other defences.
Like all Elves, of Fae lineage, descended from Tenue, through the Veilwood, into Zailister (see Fae, above).
A Wood Elf moves through dense brush and forest canopy without snagging a branch or breaking a twig, vanishing into foliage that would slow or expose anyone else.
A Wood Elf's whole skillset assumes cover and canopy, caught in open ground or built-up city streets with nowhere to disappear into, they're noticeably less sure-footed and far easier to spot than they're used to.
Native Planet
Zailister
Cultural Armaments
Wood Elves let the forest do the hiding, so their armament is lighter and quieter even than Sylvan work, mottled to the canopy and made from it. The smallest and least martial of the elven traditions. Telluric, mottled to the canopy and made out of it. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history.
Spirit & Apex
Spirit Start 6 (+1 growth) | Apex Start 3 (+1 growth)
Innate Trait Adjustments
+2 Agility, +1 Wit | -2 Strength, -2 Toughness, -1 Constitution
Starting ATTR Floor
INT 1, PHY 2
Innate Aptitude
Canopy Step | moves through dense brush and forest canopy without snagging a branch or breaking a twig; +2 to Stealth rolls made in foliage and undergrowth.
Innate Inaptitude
-2 to all rolls made in open ground or built-up city streets; a Wood Elf's whole skillset assumes cover and canopy that isn't there.
Lifespan: Immortal, begins adventuring later and retires later than most races (see Starting Age and Retirement Age below, and Time, pg. 4)
Starting Age: 100 | Retirement Age: 140 (see Time, pg. 4)
Favored Classes
Marksman (Ranger) +4 / Path: Ranger +4 / Branch: Wood Warden +6
Favored Companions
1. Pet, a Tiny songbird that nests in the deep canopy alongside a Wood Elf. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
2. Fellowship, a Small humanoid companion who moves through the undergrowth alongside a Wood Elf. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike.
Yawnie
Yawnies move and speak slowly by nature, but mistaking that for weakness comes at a cost, their patience runs deep, and little seems to rattle or hurry them once they've settled into stillness.
Yawnie accounts are the longest any people keeps and are almost never heard to the end. Nothing is compressed and nothing is dropped, on the reasoning that a thing hurried through was not understood, and their forebears are held to have decided very early that they would rather arrive late at a true account than early at a serviceable one.
A Yawnie can hold absolute stillness for hours at a stretch, becoming nearly impossible to spot by sight or motion alike as long as they don't choose to move.
A Yawnie simply doesn't have another gear to shift into, no spell, talent, or emergency ever makes them move faster than a walk, and anything that demands a snap decision under pressure tends to catch them flat-footed.
Native Planet
Zailister
Cultural Armaments
Yawnie work is slow-made and made once, heavy, patient and unhurried in every line, by a people who see no reason to rush a thing that has to last. Little rattles a Yawnie, and their armament is built on the same assumption. Telluric, slow-made, and made once. See Cultural Armaments, and refer to the Tomes of Essentia for the full history.
Spirit & Apex
Spirit Start 2 (+1 growth) | Apex Start 8 (+1 growth)
Innate Trait Adjustments
+2 Focus | -2 Agility, -2 Strength, -1 Knowledge
Starting ATTR Floor
INT 2
Innate Aptitude
Crawl speed: 5 ft. (flat, ignores standard 1/4x penalty).
Climb speed: 5 ft. (flat, ignores standard 1/2x penalty).
Swing: +10 ft. bonus on top of standard swing speed.
Innate Inaptitude
Cannot Sprint, Run/Dash, or otherwise exceed normal Walk speed under any circumstance, no ability, talent, or magic overrides this cap.
-2 to all rolls requiring urgency or quick reaction under time pressure.
Lifespan: 300+ years (Mortal, slow metabolism)
Starting Age: 75 | Retirement Age: 115 (see Time, pg. 4)
Favored Classes
Druid (Nature) +4 / Path: Dreamcryer +4 / Branch: Lorekeeper +6
Marksman +5
Favored Companions
1. Pet, a Tiny companion as unhurried and patient as a Yawnie. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
2. Draft, a Small working animal that matches a Yawnie's slow, steady pace. Bond in half the time, -25% upkeep.
Refer to Specific Companion Cards for default Races they dislike.