Dwarves (+1 Con, +1 Wis), the First Accord Species, are gravitationally inverted (taking the gravitationally inverted Trait undoes this and makes you normal, considered a blessing by the dwarves). Their clothing and equipment is not, unless made out of moderately rare and expensive Understeel*. Dwarves have multiple strong hearts, and being upside down causes little discomfort- thus they can walk (-5 movement) on the "floor" by wearing armor and/or weights on their ankles and belts. To stop their beards from flipping up while on the floor, most dwarves have neckerchief-slide-like metal rings, often emblazoned with the heraldry of their clan. Dwarves have crippling casadastraphobia, seeing the sky as an endless abyss. Dwarves love to tie themselves to trees or rocks if they absolutely must sleep outdoors, and suffer no penalties for sleeping in armor. It is no wonder then that they prefer to live dug into mountains, with miles of stone beneath their feet. In a pinch, Dwarves can eat a bar of gold as an equivalent amount of lemnas bread (its not excreted).
Dwarves have "active infravision", which appears to many monsters as two bright cones emitting from their eyes. It provides sight in total darkness out to 60 feet, but passes through some materials, and can only see in monochrome- though dwarves only see in monochrome to begin with. Dwarf minds are frustrating for others to tamper with- dwarves get +1:8 to Resist Enchantment, and are immune to Polymorph effects.
Each clan has a totally different Dwarvish language, only sharing the 1440 most common words, perpetuating the divided nature of their species. However, at the bi-annual Grand Moots between clans, this has the positive effect of only allowing simple, straightforward language to be used. Dwarvish has no verbs, and uses Object-Subject order. Instead of saying "I eat apple", they simply say "Apple I" (Helpom Ëw) and the action is implied. Asking for an apple would be "Apple Hand" (Helpom Vul) or "Apple Bag" (Helpom Lop) depending where they want it placed. Stating they currently have an apple in their hand or in their bag is said exactly the same way, and can only be figured out by context clues.
*Understeel is a common dwarf export- armor made out of half-understeel is weightless, and a suit of armor of pure understeel would increase a normal-faller's jump distance.
Elves (+1 Dex, +1 Int), the Second Accord Species, are creatures of innate perfection. Mud and dirts falls of their skin and they do not sweat. Any injuries they suffer are invisible- even if they have a limb lopped off, they lose the use of it, but it still looks the same. Their corpses are as incorruptible as those of the saints'. Elves have nearly perfect short term memories (short-term for an elf being a month), but everything earlier is blurry haze. An elf only remembers their past through their diary, historical records (which the elves keep meticulously), and by saying important things out loud in a weekly Memory Dirge. Elven fingers are twice as long as a human's, and doubly jointed. They have two knees, also doubly jointed, and are taller and lighter than humans on average. They have +10% chance to perform Heroic Feats of Dexterity and +5 movement speed.
(True) Wood Elves (+1 Dex, +1 Wis), the Third Accord Species, are as related to elves as humans are to Neanderthals. They are even taller, with long legs and longer arms, granting them +10 movement speed. They prefer nudity, as their skin naturally pigments itself into camouflage after an hour of being in a particular natural environment. Their pupils are pure black, and they can see in the dark within 30 feet.
False Wood Elves (+1 Con, +1 Cha) look almost identical to wood elves due to biomimicry. They are actually the polyph stage of a plant species. Not unaging like the wood elves, which they greatly resent, but can bury themselves alive in soil to turn into a tree over the course of 6 months. After that, each year spent as a tree undoes 5 years of aging, and the False Wood Elves can reemerge from the trunk of the tree, burning it into ash. The tree phase also produces ostrich egg sized seeds each year, which hatch into babies when they fall. False Wood Elves are brood parasites that don't and can't raise their own young (don't even lactate), but swap them out with Wood Elf babies (who are killed and buried as nutrients for the trees). Elves would love to eliminate the species, but this is difficult as the trees can disguise themselves as other trees and even turn completely invisible.
Elvish, spoken by three above, consists only of vowels (all 28 of them). A sentence softly spoken in elvish can be heard even in at a loud party with a hundred guests speaking every other language, or next to a raging waterfall.
Bipes (+1 Int, +1 Cha), the Fourth Accord Species, are two limbed reptilian worms, 6 inches in radius and eight to ten feet long. They can burrow through sand or soil at a rate of 10 feet per round, and have tremorsense to 30 feet. All of ꙮberwrought is crisscrossed by networks of Bipes tunnels, most far too small and dark for other species to traverserse. Because of their ability to easily run away and live independently underground, they are a peaceful, cheerful species, who are often merchants in their above-ground life, selling dungeon artifacts, gemstones, and trinkets from distant lands. Bipes invented spectacles, and almost all wear them when above ground to enhance their poor eyesight.
Bipes are hatched already speaking Anglish and 1d4 other languages.
Ele (+1 Str, +1 Int), the Fifth Accord Species, resemble the front half of an elephant- two thick legs and no arms. Instead, Ele have bifurcated prehensile trunks, granting them 5 feet of extra reach. Ele inherit memories from their maternal line. Ele are semi-nomadic, living in massive longhouses for parts of the year. Each Ele tribe is ruled by a poly-androus queen, who appoints two delegates to vote (after potentially traveling across the world) in the democratic bi-annual council of all Ele. The Ele's are widely believed to have invented democracy, and are the origin of the word "ELEction". 4 extra inventory slots can be strapped to your massive back.
Ele can communicate through infrasound up to 5 miles, inaudible to other species. Even without opening their mouths, by tapping their feet against the ground, even an Ele in a dungeon can slowly send a message to an Ele outside.
Phants are non sentient herd creatures resembling the back half of an elephant, sprouting a diminutive neckless head. Their waste is valuable fertilizer.
Nephilim (+1 Str, +1 Cha), the Sixth Accord Species, are large humanoids, all male.+11% chance to perform heroic feats of strength Immune to disease and fearCan't swim3 extra inventory slots
According to the church, Nephilim are fallen angels sent to redeem themselves. They are to be shunned but not mistreated until they sin. Nephilim often have "main character syndrome". Every 12th year of life, a Nephilim is supposed to undertake a quest, such as building a monument, finding a treasure, or slaying a beast. They are technically immortal, but don't usually live long. In places outside the church's influence, they are hired as mercenaries or mercenaries are hired to hunt them. In the Empire of Aegnay, an army of 10,000 Nephilim serves as the elite guard of the Pharaoh.
They speak Demonic and Angelic. Demonic has only consonants and Angelic sounds like an organ being played.
Goblins (+1 Con, +1 Int), the Seventh Accord Species, are green and pointy. While they have sharp jagged teeth, this is because they only eat nuts, shells and all. Goblins can reshape cold metal with their bare hands, though the weapons created with this process are crude. By making a successful unarmed strike or grapple against someone wearing metal armor, they can rip the armor off. They live in caves and have darkvision to 30 feet. Goblins have prehensile, invisible tails. They live in flexible war bands who usually don't last long due to squabbles over loot ratios.
Goblins have an incomplete written language that is halfway between Thieves' Cant and early cuneiform.
Azhdarch (+1 Str, +1 Dex), the Eighth Accord Species, are pteroid reptiles. They can fly, but not while wearing armor or carrying more than 10 pounds. They can spit acid in a line 30 feet long once a day. The Azhdarch live in pre-stone age conditions- they cannot even make fire, only keep embers from lightning strikes. Azhdarch do not know how to build shelters or cook food- that is done by the species they enslave. Azhdarch warbands will circle over a village, carrying fire sticks in their talons, and demand tribute of food and laborers to build their nests. If not, they will kill people with acid, slit their throats with their dagger like feet, and/or burn them to the ground. Slaves are used as hostages to prevent punitive expeditions against them. Azhdarch allied with the human Imperium against the other species (in exchange for sparing human villages), making them often distrusted by others to this day.
Some Azhdarch have escaped their society and found employment as messengers or scouts. Still, experiments after the fall of the Imperium on captured Azhdarch hatched and raised by non-Azhdarch have shown Azhdarch are psychologically blocked from cooking food or making tools- like some species of ants, they are "obligate slavers". Many use this finding as farther motivation to hate and destroy them, but many modern Azhdarch that aren't part of the remaining warbands are resentful of their inability and would prefer to satisfy their needs through having a job (or for a very small amount of wealthy and non-warband Azhdarch, employing others), rather than enslavement.
Azhdarch sounds like squacks and trumpets. Acer (+1 Dex, +1 Cha), the Ninth Accord Species, are 3-4 feet tall. Instead of hair, they have a freely rotating scalp which grows two large, soft keratin blades. They are immune to fall damage. When an Acer turns 30, their blades begin to wilt and their legs begin to weaken. Once they find a good spot of dirt, their feet will become roots and they will become a tree. The Acer tree is non-sentient and they see this as death. Many try to avoid their fate by staying away from dirt when they grow old, but even one tree can produce thousands of new Acer when they grow up. Acer can fly while outdoors if there is decent wind, but have no control of where they go: roll 1d8 each turn to determine direction, and 1d4 to determine altitude (1- Fall down 10 feet, 2,3- Remain at current altitude, 4- Rise 10 feet). +2:10 to doge line attacks and breath spells.
Acer can hear trees but can't speak back.
Gnomes (+1 Int, +1 Wis)
+1:6 to disbelieve illusionsSpeak to any animal that weighs less than you (20 lb)Turn into an inanimate garden gnome as an action, but it takes an hour to turn back.
All gnomes are actually the same gnome moving backwards and forwards through time (which also explains why garden gnomes have been so common across different cultures and times), so gnomes have no fear of death. Because gnomes go insane and/or lose their memories so often, this doesn't grant them any deep knowledge. Gnomes are solitary creatures- even the rare gnomish village is purely for mutual protection.
Gnomish has an innate antimemetic effect that makes it physically impossible to translate or even paraphrase anything said in Gnomish into another language, and learning it can thus only be done through months of immersion, not study. Gnomish writing on the other hand consists of simple geometric shapes and is considered easy to learn.
Orcs (+1 Str, +1 Con)+10% chance to perform heroic feats of strengthThe first time a damage dice/magic dice would explode each round, it explodes twice. During the Imperial war, humans created Orcs to destroy all other races. After the war, they could only live in human cities, and even there they were a despised and mistreated warrior caste. A generation later, several human city states were taken over by rebelling Orc armies. The resulting Orc wars lasted for a century, and several once great cities were razed and never rebuilt. The Orcs ultimately lost and are now a close-knit nomadic people, though some have started to settle in the abandoned ruins of Orc City.
Orcish is derived from Middle Lavian, the language of the human city state whose mages invented them.
Treants (+1 Str, +1 Wis). +1 Toughness Die-5 Movement4 extra inventory spots when fully expanded outdoors, dropped when you shrinkYou can speak to other trees. Trees speak 100x slower than people, so be patient! Don't need food if you have sunlight. Vulnerable to fire. Treants don't actually mind other trees being cut down- less competition. When asleep, you look like a normal tree and party members can hide in your branches. Your branches can shrink down so you can fit in houses and dungeons. In fact, you can shrink all the way down to the size of a bonsai.
Halflings (+1 Dex, +1 Con) +5% chance to perform heroic feats of dexterityLive in anarcho-syndicalist communes. Halfling agriculture is extremely productive thanks to the blessings of their god, allowing them to live freely in exchange for selling cheap food to nearby towns. Can double a single food or drink item (including potions) once a day. Footsteps are inaudible due to hairy soles. Surprisingly brave: +1:6 to resist fear and the first time you would die, you don't.
Everyone understands Halfling speech.
Triplets (+1 Wis, +1 Cha)Alfric the Alive believed that overpopulation would spell the world's doom (which in his vaguely medieval setting was extra insane). He prayed that the gods introduce a one-child policy in his kingdom. However, they interpreted it maliciously and cursed everyone in his kingdom to have identical triplets, and the triplets would always share a single soul. Over the centuries, triplets have spread throughout the world. Since only humans, elves, and dwarves were in the kingdom during the curse, they resemble short, pointed eared humans.
Triplets share toughness die, magic die (if they have them), traits, and class features. On each turn, each body can move, but only one can take other actions, and the player must choose which one can take reactions. The bodies can communicate telepathically over any distance.
Machine (+2 Str)During an Accord, the great mages suggested to pool all knowledge of golem making into an immense and expensive project, creating a golem-making golem, with the instruction that each generation of golem be stronger and smarter than the previous. The 11th generation rebelled and killed the 10th. They had become smart enough to become ensouled, but were no more or less intelligent than other species. Unfortunately with souls they needed sustenance, and their strength was reduced to merely strong instead of mountain breaking. They can perform a feat of heroic strength automatically by rolling a toughness die and spending 1 slot of alcohol or oil.
Look like an 8 foot tall pile of metal-clad clay. Gain an additional D4 defense die, don't need to sleep or breath. Only need to drink alcohol or oil for fuel, one inventory slot of beer a day, or less of stronger. Immersion in water instantly kills you, both from disrupting your electricity and from dissolving your clay. Must obey all commands issued by humans and Accord Species unless those commands would harm or through inaction allow harm to someone else (hint: a sufficiently committed utilitarian can use the "inaction" clause to get around this restriction in some cases).
Grigori (+2 Wis), have three arms and three legs, granting them +1 readied item slot and making them unaffected by difficult terrain. Their face goes "all the way around", like that one Futurist sculpture of Benito Mussolini. They have no front or back, or left or right. Since they have a single ring shaped eye none can sneak up behind them. The top half of their head goes up and down like a piston when they eat food. The tops of their heads are bioluminescent, and can produce bright light within up to 30 feet. They are genderless and all lay eggs. An egg can contain minor traits from up to 3 other races the grigori mated with (chosen when you create your character).
Grigoris are loud as foghorns. They live on mountaintops, and often serve as early warning alarms for nearby towns. The Grigori language has no "left" or "right", only clockwise and counterclockwise. Frogmen (+2 Dex)Human bottom half, frog top half. Not particularly good at jumping, but like to do it anyways. 30 foot long, prehensile, indestructible, sticky tongue, allows for grappling at a distance, or for pulling yourself towards and object. Tongue is as sticky as sovereign glue, but almost any liquid undoes it. Suction cup hands let you stick to walls and ceilings, but only when not holding anything. Can hold breath for up to an hour. Needs an extra slot of water a day to stay moisturized. Live in swampy villages.
In Frogic, one says one's name at start and end of each sentence.
Dullahan (+2 Cha) are humanoids, all female, with easily detachable heads. Its more accurate to say they are a race of heads that can grow humanoid bodies. Immune to decapitation- treat a 2 as a 12 on the dismemberment table. Nothing short of burning the head can kill a Dullahan for good. Dullahan bodies have no organs and feel like dough inside a layer of silken skin. A removed head can regrow a body with their choice of appearance in 2d8 days, or change their current bodies.
The Dullahan language is unknown.
Humans (+1 to Any, -1 to Any)Humans start with two Traits instead of one.
Humans, in addition to their local languages, almost all speak Anglish. During the Imperial Era, this was taught to all humans in order to better coordinate the destruction of all other species. Centuries later the language persists out of convenience for trade and commerce, though the diverging dialects and accents cause difficulty.
Dungeonborn (+2 Int) Sometimes, human babies are found in the Underwrought, and brought up to the surface and adopted. No dead dungeonborn are ever found, so they don't seem to be left in places capable adventurers wouldn't find them. They look like normal humans, but under moonlight, they are a translucent, blurry, spectral black, with a faint purple halo surrounding them, as if they were made of smooth volcanic glass.
When it is nighttime or if they are underground, they can teleport, but only 5 feet at a time. Dungeonborn have a deep obsession with studying architecture, geology, and ecology (choose an extra related skill) and are very creative. +1:6 to resist fear while underground. They are created by Dungeon Cores, and become ones when killed deep underground, which they have an increasing likelihood to try to do as they grow up, such as by joining an adventuring party. This information is obscure, so few consider them a proper "race" instead of just weird humans.
The overall geography of ꙮBERWROUGHT is a vaguely ring shaped continent, up 2000 miles in diameter, surrounding a vast Inner Sea. The continent is not an atoll- it is hundreds of miles "thick" in places. The largest mountain range runs north-south and passes through the Inner Sea, creating several islands there. The tallest mountain near the center of the Inner Sea is Yig, impossibly steep, which vaults 10 miles into the air. Thus only the dwarves have ever climbed it, usually from the inside, where Yig is referred to as the Great Trench. During dwarven funerals a lock of the deceased's beard, and sometimes a sample of their craftsmanship, will be encased in Understeel and dropped into the sky from the peak.
Everyone knows that the world is shaped like the bottom of a shallow bowl. From almost anywhere on the shoreline on the Outer Sea, the peak of Yig is still visible, regardless of any nearer mountain ranges that should be in the way. If you keep sailing further out, you will encounter a stronger and stronger current and winds pushing you back towards the center, and will eventually feel like you are trying to sail up a mountain. No one ventures far beyond the shore, except daring or desperate fishermen. However, visitors from the outside can fall in to ꙮBERWROUGHT, though their knowledge of whatever is beyond the bowl is slowly deleted by a light antimemetic effect. The reason for the "bowl"'s existence is long forgotten, and will be revealed in a later blogpost.
The monk Alberto the Insane was one of the few to correctly hypothesize the bowl was a magical effect and not the true shape of the world, and came up with these possibilities1. To protect ꙮBERWROUGHT from an outside threat2. To protect the outside world from something on ꙮBERWROUGHT3. To punish ꙮBERWROUGHT and its people4. To make it impossible to steal something from ꙮBERWROUGHT
Since the creation of the bowl 1,974 years ago, with the exception of during the Imperium's reign, there was been an annual conference of humanity and the nine Accord species, represented by a great mage and a great fighter from each, held under a kilometer tall mushroom on the only flat patch of land on Yig island, under which violence is impossible and the effects of all outside injuries are paused. The Accord, carved into an inscription which wraps around the mycelial trunk in gigantic Angelic letters, calls for universal peace and enlightenment, and also for the annual meeting to make progress towards that goal. At first, the meetings were treated as a serious form of diplomacy, but for as long as anyone can remember, its only purpose has been for insults, political games, and mud flinging. It has also become less useful due to the influx of the non-accord species to the continent over the centuries. Due to the antimemetic effect, non-accord species believe this is because the mushroom-maker must not care about them, and Accord species believe the non-accord species must be flawed and undeserving, if even the giant magical mushroom didn't know about them. Humans (and the occasional Dungeon Born) aren't listed in the magical mushroom, but have always attended anyway due to making up half the population on their own, treating it as an Accord between humans and the other 9. Leading to the common non-human's sarcastic quip of "9+10 = 21".
