Overview of Races

Each race hails from different worlds that collided together long ago in a great cataclysm. Each unique race has its own niche derived from mythology, but unique enough that using words like "Elf" and "Dwarf" would be a descriptive disservice. Instead, please take these races for what they all are: a) creative attempts at balancing different play styles through mythological concepts, and b) pilgrims of the new world.

Note! These races are in order of Most Common to Least Common--This is purely for demographical as well as sociopolitical purposes. These races can be found everywhere in the world and are not going extinct.

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Taran

Before the destruction of the Taran’s original home, they thought themselves the only race in existence. Upon meeting the new races, far older and advanced than they, Tarans were the first to go out and seek to cultivate bonds with their new neighbors. From what they learned, they improved; from what they improved they shared, whether by trade or conquest.
Through this pattern, and by the blessing that a majority of the Taran's world and people survived, Tarans became the connective tissue between all races, their language becoming universal. As such, Tarans were then given the honor of naming the world, Tara, where from they derived their new race’s name, Taran, leaving their old name behind.

Racial Characteristics

Age: Tarans reach maturity from between 13 to 18 years old, and live anywhere from 70 to 110 years.
Height / Weight: Tarans have a height range from 5"0 to 6"0, with 5"5 being most common. Weight is usually upwards of 100lbs.
Sub-race: None.
Appearance: Click here for Pinterest Board for Taran appearance
Score Bonus: Choose any one score and add +2 to it
Language: Common, and 2 other languages.
Racial Ability: These do not count against your abilities known. You gain the following:

Not Like This (energy): You can spend your reaction to give you and your allies a bonus to a save check called for by the GM. This bonus us equal to +1 per friendly ally nearby .
Hearts As One (passive): When you attack a hostile target, you can add +1 damage per friendly ally also engaged with the same hostile target.
Filled with Determination (passive): When using resolve die, you keep any used die that Passed or Crit Passed the check.

Myrrdin

Desert dwellers, sand sleds, shrines to the sun, moon, and stars, and crumbling empires--these are the legacy of the Myrrdin, a mourning and long-lived people. Solemn and careful in their dealings with other races, they sometimes appear cold or altogether mysterious. Their long memories and thousand year lives give them a patient and slow perspective.
What they lack in speed they make up for in wisdom and magical prowess, the two of which radiating off this race, though the latter more literally. However, this power contaminates them and bleeds into the world around them, either creating barren deserts or lush jungles as a result of their magic. Thus, most Myrrdins stay secluded to their deserts.
Myrrdin make memorable heroes and adventurers, though their lives are sometimes cut short. With their corruption emanating from them, they slowly can physically affect the world around them, even the people. A Myrrdin who befriends a company will offer to sap the dark of the soul from their company but at the cost of themselves. Though admirable, it usually ends with the Myrrdin turning to stone or turning into monster. It is believed that is why there are so many known Myrrdin heroes with all these statues to go around.

Racial Characteristics

Age: Myrrdin reach maturity at 70, and live for 1000 years.
Height / Weight: Myrrdin stand around 5”8 on average, with 6”2 being their tallest and 5”4 being their smallest. Myrrdin are lithe and weight around 125lbs.
Sub-race: Choose between Haeel, Leyad, and Seren
Appearance: Click here for Pinterest Board for Myrrdin appearance
Score Bonus: Add +2 to Spirit Attribute
Language: Low Kulnic, High Kulnic, and Common
Racial Ability: These do not count against your abilities known. You gain the following:

Irradiated Magics (passive): You are an inherently magical being, knowing three spells from either one or various Schools of Magic which do not otherwise count against your spells known (when taken with other magical abilities). Magic is so woven into you that upon a failed cast, you can force its success by taking a point of corruption; however, upon a critically failed cast, the spell fails, and you take the point of corruption, regardless.
Soul Stone (passive): As an instantaneous free action made before any effect occurs on your turn, you can turn to stone, gaining the solidified status effects. You can do this at any time, but you must specify how long you will take the status effect, and it must be a minimum of 6 sections, or one turn in combat. During this time, you are otherwise completely helpless and have 5 hit points, and 10 defense. If you lose all of your health in this form at any time, your character die. Additionally, when your character dies, you can use this ability to turn to stone as your very last and only action. Any target touching you makes a physical save or otherwise turns to stone as well, remaining conscious and aware but solidified as well, for eternity unless the effect is removed.
Life Overflowing (energy) - Haeel: As a reaction when you receive healing, you can heal above max health; this gives you temporary health. You can only have as many temporary health as is equal to your Luck Modifier.
Dreamspeak (energy) - Leyad: Spend an energy and you enter into a meditative state and gains the asleep Status Effect. When in this state, you may enter into the dreams of anyone whose names you know and converse freely; the target is lucid dreaming when you are around and can force you out of its mind at anytime. If the target is not asleep or dead—you are not aware of which; if the target is not yet asleep, they will receive this message when they fall asleep. If they are dead, your message echos into the dreams of those within a mile radius.
Cosmic Reserves (energy) - Seren: As a reaction to making any check, you can spend an energy to be able to add +1 per any points of corruption you have accumulated to said check.

Subracial Descriptions

Haeel: Children of the Stained Glass Sun, they are natural healers and natural leaders. They take an active role in the Myrrdin community and are the most often seen interacting with those outside their own race. These Myrrdin have ivory to golden skin tones, with radiant eyes and richly saturated hair colors.

Leyad: Children of the Black Velvet Moon, they are adept diplomats and savant magicians. While the roles they take within Myrrdin society are less visible, this makes them much more able to maneuver within various social groups. These Myrrdin have pale blue to ebony skin tones, with dark eyes and hair, with even their nails sometimes being a dark purple.
Seren: Allmother and Allfather of the Myrrdin, Serens are often arbiters and gatekeepers of their people. A Seren, no matter where they go or what they do within Myrrdin society, is always respected. These Myrrdin however, often have the plainest appearance, with muted colors and fairly Taran-esque appearance. The most notable feature are their heterochromatic eyes.

The Gol

Only monsters are rumored to live in the mountains, high places where not even Tarans tread without care, high above where one can breathe, gazing down upon the surrounding villages. It is thought that only those that seek isolation would live in a hollow world. The Gols, monstrous in countenance--with tusks, fangs, horns, and claws--certainly seek isolation.
When they lived upon their old world, they were Golem or “Giant but Lesser”, picked on by races far larger than they, squashed underfoot and marginalized. When their world came apart and they spun across the void to land finally in Tara, they renamed themselves Gol, finally free and no longer beholden to their oppressors.The Gol prefer now to keep themselves cloistered away, not only because of their monstrous appearance, but because they have no reason for contact, outside sheer curiosity.
They are self sufficient with tribes of people, sometimes small towns located under the earth, in mountains or burrows. Those that are pulled out of their barrows are “Moragol” or Edge Giants who make a living above ground, while “Duergol” are Sleeping Giants who live under in the black earth. Those that do become adventurers may do so to help their faltering town, to fight against an overarching threat, or preserve the natural order of their world. Rare is The Gol who seeks fame and fortune.

Racial Characteristics

Age: The Gol reach maturity at age 18, and live for 150 years.
Height / Weight: The Gols' height averages 6”0, with the Tallest being 7”0 and the shortest being 5”5. They weight anywhere around 225lbs.
Sub-race: Choose between Moragol and Duergol
Appearance: Click here for Pinterest Board for The Gol appearance
Score Bonus: Add +2 to Mind Attribute
Language: Malcantese, Common
Racial Ability: These do not count against your abilities known. You gain the following:

Bestial Tongues (energy): You can speak to animals, and give a command to a friendly beast. you gain +2 success when influencing friendly beasts.
Sturdy Folk (passive): You have advantage on saves against status effects such as Weakened, Trapped, Solidified, or Prone.
Stonesight (energy) - Deurgol: You can "see" regardless of light available. Your tongue can taste from afar and sense nearby life around you with uncanny precision, and so long as your feet are on the ground, you can feel even faint tremors in the ground which gives you the ability to detect creatures from where you are and the zone you are in to creatures far away in adjacent zones; tremors will never tell you what the creature is, but it gives where the creature is moving, if they are awake or asleep, and general heaviness and size.
No Mountain too High (energy) - Moragol: You do well under pressure when against environmental hazards; you have advantage on checks when dealing with them, and are resistant to incoming damage from them.

Subracial Descriptions

Moragol: These Gol live above ground, occupying the role of topside trade for their deep-earth cousins. Most live very quiet and peaceful lives with the earth around them, though some tribes have splintered off for the sake of conquest. Moragol, while still monstrous in appearance, often take measures to blend in to the dominant overland races; some will have their horns, claws, and tusks filed down, though this is a not seen as necessary.
Deurgol: Living deep beneath earth, the Duergol take great pride in their intricate and vast tunnels and cities. Purists of their own race, they have mixed feelings about their topside cousins; as much of their racial history has been that of avoiding sight to survive, the Duergol prefer a private and at least enclosed life. Those that do end up leaving do so sparingly and with a great amount of familial discouragement.

Rook

Rooks survived their world’s collapse due to divine intervention; however, their own god did not save them; instead, another took pity on them. The death of this deity--leader of the Myrrdin pantheon and the resulting hatred from the Myrrdin people--marked the Rooks forevermore as omens of ill-fate.
This truth has then shaped the Rook people, who put no stock in personal faith or the cruel world around them. They value skill and those closest to them, creating tightly knit communities who rarely stray far from their kin.
Rook that become heroes or adventurers often do so as a way to rally their people, give them heroes and paragons to believe in, or inspire their race to once more include the other race around them, for, as these heroes would say, it is a cruel fate to live in constant fear of the world.

Racial Characteristics

Age: Rooks mature around age 50, but live until 350 years old.
Height / Weight: Height ranges from 5"2 to 6"5, and can weight anywhere from 90 to 200lbs depending on Sub-Race.
Sub-race: Choose between Faun, Taura, Gnawal
Appearance: Click here for Pinterest Board for Rook appearance
Score Bonus: Add +2 to Heart Attribute
Language: Common, Malcantese and either Low & High Kulnic or Silbar
Racial Ability: These do not count against your abilities known. You gain the following:

Nature's Mimic (energy): You can exactly mimic the natural sounds of the world. All targets that hear you make a mental save and are otherwise fooled into believing the sound is real. Narrative speaking, this is a sound you must have heard before.
Shifty Thing (passive): You can disengage as a free action once per round.
Best of Both Worlds (energy) - Faun: Due to your animal nature, you have a deep seeded sense of self-preservation. As such, you always know when you are being watched, followed, or if you have been lied to (but not when).
Instinctual Grace (energy) - Taura: As a reaction, you can spend an energy and double your quick action and give yourself advantage on agility checks.
Earthmeld (energy) - Gnawal: As a quick action, You can meld into the very surface of unworked earth, stone, wood, and plant and move within connected portions of unworked material but only as a Complex Action, which no longer guarantees that you can move out of a zone depending on the object you occupy. If an object is already occupied, you cannot enter into it. While in this state, all perception checks fail unless done by hearing, which are still at disadvantage. However, you are aware but cannot see all life otherwise engaged distance from you. Any life you perceive is understood by you as simply there; you can't know what they are doing (ex: how they are moving or even breathing). The only way anyone can find you while in this state is if they touch the surface you are currently in. Otherwise, you cannot be detected, and can spend as much time in this state as you so please.

Subracial Descriptions

Faun: The least animal-like of the Rook, they maintain subtler or small features; some are simply hairier, while other have animal-like ears, tails, or longer nails. Faun often get along best with other race, which is helpful as they are the most common Rook. Conversely, Faun are generally the least liked by other Rooks as Faun are stereotyped as the least "in tune" with their inner natures and surroundings.
Taura: half-humanoid and half beast, some of the most common Taura variants are Satyrs, Centaurs, and Minotaurs. With the most variety of shapes the Taura take on, they are seen as the epitome of what it means to be a Rook--to take on the attributes of one's surroundings and become one with it.
Gnawal: When stories tell of talking beasts or civilized animals that walk on their hind legs, they most likely refer to the Gnawal. While deeply respected within Rook culture, these are the most hated and most feared of the Rooks by outsiders; they are often stereotyped to be "more animalistic" than their fellow Rooks. Due to societal pressures and various questionable hunting accidents, a great many Gnawals cut themselves off from Rook hubs and take to living as hermits or cloistering in tightly knit Gnawal communities.

Simmias

Simmias lost their god, The Larva Machina, during the cataclysm. It now drifts dormant in the Ether, so the tale goes, and the Simmias, without any sign of its return, began to create a collective consciousness of all their people, a back-up of their minds, known as The Archive.
Some have taken to worshiping the Archive, but elder Simmias believe that this is a false god, no creator of theirs, only an echo chamber of the desire to once more be whole; however, the worshipers believe their god is dead and that the Simmias should attempt to recreate the Larva Machina through unanimous singularity. This division created the Assimiants, worshipers of the Archive, and Diametron, seekers of the Larva Machina.
Simmias are rare among adventuring parties and even rarer heroes as their goals are purely as a result of their reaction to the disappearance of the Larva Machina. Those that do become adventurers are those seeking a) unique perspectives and experience that could grow the Archive or b) new technology to resurrect the Larva Machina. Those Simmias that put these goals out of their mind are considered defective, as they think individualistically, though these have become more common.

Racial Characteristics

Age: Simmias do not have a childhood, and cease function at 300 years old.
Height / Weight:
Sub-race: Choose between Assimiant and Diametron
Appearance: Click here for Pinterest Board for Simmias appearance
Score Bonus:Add +2 to Mind Attribute
Language: Logematrian and Common
Racial Ability: These do not count against your abilities known. You gain the following:

I’m In (energy): As a quick action, you can interface with non-sentient machines in order to gain knowledge, to manipulate their systems to open doors or to disable defenses (up to GM discretion). The Simmias makes an Interface check against a Test value designated by the GM.
The Screen Watches (passive): You remain vigilant while sleeping. Anything below or equal to a 4 Sneak is noticeable to you.
Archivist (energy) - Asimmiant: When rolling a Knowledge check, you roll with advantage--accessing the age old Archives the Assimiant use to restore the Larva Machina.
Chameleon (energy) - Diametron: You can change your appearance whenever you spend an energy to do so. Additionally, When sneaking, you can expend one energy to add +2 Success to the roll, rendering your skin chameleon-like to attempt to camouflage you.

Subracial Descriptions

Assimiant: Those that seek to assimilate themselves and others into The Archive try desperately to create no sense of physical difference between one unit and the other. When one does, however, disguise themselves to infiltrate other races for the sake of knowledge or even power, they will take on the appearance of the most average or plain as to fit in with the overall image of the race.
Diametron: Those that believe the Larva Machina is outside the confines of primeval Simmias understanding care little for their appearance to match with others. They are whirling gears and wires, a humanoidesque, exposed metal skeleton. Any decorations come from a developed personal preference, or even just stemming from a desire to keep one's innards safer.

Dracovian

Dracovians are firstborn of the cosmos, where all other life thus derived and then differed--so they believe. They are a proud race who put forth all their heart into the world around them in all that they do and all challenges they seek to overcome.
Dragon-like both in appearance and aptitude, they are a nomadic people who lay claim to ancestral land which is said to have been given to a clan by their particular ancestral dragon. As such, they guard their land and its secrets fiercely. However, there are those tribes left unclaimed by their draconic ancestor or with their land destroyed in the destruction of their original world. These clans often wander aimlessly or into the kingdoms of other race, who are usually welcoming due to the Dracovian’s emphasis on merit.
Dracovians that become heroes or adventurers are usually on a self-imposed pilgrimage or who seek to right the evils of the world. Whether this is done selfishly to increase one’s renown or as a way to give back to their community, a Dracovian will take great pride in their quest; as the phrase goes, “It is a dead Dracovian that leaves a task undone”.

Racial Characteristics

Age: Dracovians hatch, reach maturity at 10 and live for 100 years. Most die by the age of 75.
Height / Weight: Dracovians have an average height of 5"6, and average weight of 175lbs.
Sub-race: Choose between Scissorwing, Kingfisher, and Viperfang
Appearance: Click here for Pinterest Board for Dracovian appearance
Score Bonus: Add +2 to Body Attribute
Language: Common, Firespeech, and Trademan's Knots
Racial Ability: These do not count against your abilities known. You gain the following:

Homeward Bound (energy*): You always and know exactly where your home is and what most direct path to take to get there. And, by expending an energy as a free action, you can exactly trace your steps to the last place you were when you woke up for the day, and the most direct path to take to get there.
Firebreath (energy): You can exhale fire. Roll a 1d10 to determine the number of targets you hit. Damage you do is equal to your fitness modifier. when you roll to hit, your variables of success determine how many targets you hit. On Crit pass, you hit all targets and do double damage; on pass, you hit all targets and do full damage; on half pass, you hit half (rounded down) targets for full damage; on fail, you hit one targets for full damage; on crit fail, you hit any and all flammable objects (not including PCs or NPCs) for full damage.
Poison Spit (passive) - Viperfang: Your viper fangs point forward and launch a vat of poison to nearby targets. The target makes a saving throw and on fail, they take the Weakened status effect and take 3 damage. On half-pass, they just take the 3 damage.
Fearsome Gusts (passive) - Scissorwing: You can fly, and when you do so, you automatically succeed any checks to move into other zones so long as there is no effect to hinder or stop you.
Adaptive Aquatics (passive) - Kingfisher: You can breathe underwater and swim just as well as any fish. When underwater, you can use your quick action to move to the next zone without making an agility check so long as there is no effect to hinder or stop you.

Subracial Descriptions

Scissorwing: Scissorwings are graceful and feathered Dracovians, known both for their wings, crest feathers, and their aerial strategy.
Kingfisher: Finned and bearing adaptable gills, Kingfishers are stoutly built and masters of the ocean tide, river currents, and lakes alike.
Viperfang: Their necks are hooded and their scales are vivid. Long-limbed and sharp witted, Viperfangs are poisonous cousins with their long snake-like fangs.

Vespid

A stranger among others, Vespids are metamorphosing bug people, who were born into a hive mind they later destroyed and are now young to consciousness and freewill. However, much to the chagrin of bug-fearing persons, Vespids are amicable with all race, akin to the Taran. Valuing thought, creation, and new experiences, Vespids have become somewhat of a social butterfly to the other races.
Vespids, though a rare people to this day, can be found just about anywhere, but not for very long, as their interest in learning new things rarely results in cultivated skills, but instead assimilated knowledge. In fact, Vespids prefer a day spent in this fashion, learning the stories behind a race, playing music, and creating stories.
As adventures, Vespids are often treasure and trophy seekers, be that in jewels, coin, or for material to create a song or story later. They will bring what they have experienced to other races and Vespids, swapping stories and boasting of treasure, because it was their experience, including something they did, and they grew then in the world because they wanted to.

Racial Characteristics

Age: Vespids hatch and reach maturity by 7 years old and live for 50 years
Height / Weight: Vespids reach anywhere from 4"0 to 6"5 depending on their chosen form. However, they are fairly lightweight and weight around 75lbs but up to 150lbs.
Sub-race: None; Vespids remain "Vespid" even if metamorphosized.
Appearance: Click here for Pinterest Board for Vespid appearance
Score Bonus: Add +2 to Body Attribute
Language: Common and Xnoisaqu
Racial Ability: These do not count against your abilities known. You gain the following:

Strength of the Colony (passive): You can walk along vertical and upside-down services with absolutely no trouble (should there be no effect to otherwise stop or hinder you). Additionally, You cannot die from fall damage or being crushed. If you are reduced to zero health by these, you come back up to 1 health.
Mindspeak (energy): You touch the hands of all you wish to communicate with to create a telepathic link between yourself and willing creatures equal to your Expertise Score. This lasts until you dismiss this.
Dost Thou Even Hoist?(energy): You can expend one energy as part of your action, you can auto-pass Force skill checks when attempting to move or lift an object more than five times your size. When moving or lifting the object, you may only move into another zone as part of your complex action. Additionally, you may only keep the object lifted for five rounds. At the end of the fifth round, should your player character still be holding the object, your strength fails and the object falls on you, giving you the Trapped status effect until the start of your next turn, when you can make a physical save to escape the consequences of your actions.

Lesídhe

The Lesídhe are rare to even hear about in Tara. They hail from Silverglass and are sometimes colloquially referred to as greenfolk due to their plant-like appearance--dawning the characteristics of trees, flowers, or mushrooms. Otherworldly, androgynous, and resplendent, they strike awe into those who are lucky enough to meet one.
It is a point of pride that each caste of the Lesídhe--Bheudico, Sprigent, and Mycos--represents both a virtue, a flaw, and a part of the cycle of life; it is akin to a true name they bear in secret and make it their life mission to learn and develop both from and with it. For this reason, the Lesídhe remain the most hospitable of the races that have graced Tara; As such, when Tarans tell their children of fairy folk, of the creatures that guide the purehearted and kind through the woods or shelter lost children, they speak of the Lesídhe.
When a Lesídhe decides to become a hero, they are often driven to preserve a way of life they hold dear or something they see as beautiful; it could be as simple as shielding one's own community from hardship; or a Lesídhe might see the ease of tranquil life as beautiful thus swearing their life to defend this virtue. While not all Lesídhe are built for fighting, this has never deterred them. Glad-hearted, they are merry and eager adventurers.

Racial Characteristics

Age: Lesídhe awaken as a sprout and reach maturity at age 15 and live for 75 years.
Height / Weight: Lesídhe reach a variable height depending on their sub-race: Bheudico range anywhere from 4"5 to 6"0, weighing typically around 75lbs due to their lithe frames; Sprigents reach 5"0 to 8"5, typically weighing 200lbs to 450lbs due to their sheer bulk; and the tiny Mycos can be as tall as 2"5 to 4"0 and consequently weight a minimum 30lbs to a maximum 100lbs for the stouter sprung.
Sub-race: Choose between Bheudico, Sprigents, and Mycos
Appearance: Click here for Pinterest Board for Lesídhe appearance
Score Bonus: Add +2 to Spirit Attribute
Language: Common, Oghama, and Sylfege
Racial Ability: These do not count against your abilities known. You gain the following:

Treespeak (energy): You can speak to plants, and give a command to a friendly plant monster types. you gain +2 Success when influencing friendly plant monster types.
Natural Camouflage (passive): You gain advantage to stealth checks. This increases to a double advantage Success when hiding in areas with dense foliage, or muddy water, rain, snow, or mist.
Elder Photosynthesis (energy*) - Sprigent: When in sunlight, you may heal hit points equal to your Speciality Score per one energy you spend. At any time when at full health, you can choose to illuminate an area with bioluminescence, ending the effect at any time you so choose or when you are no longer at full health.
Youth Everlasting (passive) - Bheudico: You are of the Elderblood and live for 500 years. You do not physically age after you reach adulthood at 20 years old.
Spore Cloud (energy) - Mycos: When hit and take damage, you may use your reaction to release a cloud of spores to those engaged with you. Any within the cloud gains the Suffocating status effect. Any damage taken during this time is considered Toxic damage. This status effect ends one turn after the target exits the range of the spore cloud. You are unaffected by your spore cloud. Any attack rolls done within the spore cloud are done with disadvantage.

Subracial Descriptions

Bheudico: Taking on the visage of flowing plants, the Bheudico are known best for their vibrancy, both in appearance and in personality. Their heads made of the flower they mimic, either dawned as a mane or headscarf-like blossom. Their frames are lithe and supple, with skin ranging in color and pattern from that of succulents to the richer hues of shrubs. Their extremedies taper into dully colored fingers or toes--respectively, which act as their roots.
Sprigents: The wisdom and splendor of trees belongs to the Sprigents, known best for their mask-like faces, their branch-like horns, and their leaf-like hair; the latter is a sign of prestige and pride among the Spriggents, who will even take on beards just to gloat. While perhaps the most plant-like, they appear the most humanoid, as their lumbering body is better able to support varying humanoid shapes.
Mycos: What is short in stature is never short on personality. Bearing the aspect of Mushrooms, the Mycos have hat-like caps of variable sizes, shapes, and color that cover the Mycos's beady eyes, stout legs, and seemingly boneless noodle-arms. Beyond this it can be difficult to pin the Mycos down, as their appearance and proportions can vary so widely. Nonetheless, these features make the Mycos the most commonly depicted Lesídhe.