Earth ethnicity

Earth ethnicity transcends race and species. Most mortals and many beasts that live in areas saturated with the elemental energy of earth develop at least some physical or spiritual earthy traits. A mortal or beast with lots of inherent essence of the elemental energy of earth can pass these traits to his or her offspring even if the child is born well away from any location exposed to the elemental energy of earth.

The "essence of earth" is more figurative than literal because anywhere that supports animal life needs to has ground or sea floor beneath. Just because an area has solid ground does not mean that an area has a significant amount of earth in a metaphysical sense.

Where Can They Be Found?

Earth elemental energy is most prevalent, not just on land, but on land that is landlocked as in far from the coast. Earth elemental energy is moderately more prevailent in areas with rich plant life than areas with relative sparse plant life. Earth elemental energies tend to accumulate disproportionately in people who live off the land, aka farmers. Since farming is by far the most common profession in Scarterra, earthy people are pretty common.
What Scarterrans call "earth essence", Scaraquans call "rocky essence." merfolk and other Scaraquans that hail from close to the sea floor are likely to manifest a rocky essence. This is most prevalent near major landmasses where the water is especially shallow, especially in the Inner Ocean.
Any magic font saturated with the elemental energy of earth is likely to either have rich mineral resources or be near rich mineral resources be they precious metals or crystals, including rarified crystals such as haber crystals.
Gem stones in Scarterra usually come from the Nine and their spirits rather than from the elemental essence of earth, so fonts of earth elemental energy rarely have much gemstones, especially rare and valuable gems. Some earthy individuals have eye colors that resemble metals, but no earthy individuals have gem-like eyes.

Basic Physical Traits

Human and demihumans with strong earthy traits tend to have brown or grey skins of varying shades from fairly light shades like the pictures above to very dark browns and greys. Hair tends to be straight and somewhat coarse, usually dark or medium brown or black, but sometimes hair is a bit more sandy in color, especially if the people are living in an area that is literally sandy.

Comissioned male Mediteranean Satyr by Zeta Gardner

Bendek by Eron12 on Hero Forge

A slim majority of earthy people have brown eyes with variant light, dark, and greenish shades of brown all possible. More than a few have green or black eyes. Least common of all are the "mineral eyes”, gold, silver, copper etc. Metallic eyes are considered favorable and are loosely associated with the upper classes.

Tihalt by Eron12 using Hero Forge

Cregor Redshaft by Eron12 with Hero Forge

Earthy people tend be to be well muscled but somewhat short, in other words “stout.” Since the dwarves literally emerged from a large stone, almost all dwarves have major earthy traits and most have dominant or at least co-dominant earthy traits.

As they age, wrinkles set in fairly young and older earthy people are considered to be “craggy.” While wrinkles are very pronounced relative to other elemental types, earthy people tend to avoid muscle deterioration though they may complain about aches and pains or creaky joints more than most. Earthy people are slow to go gray slower to have their hair thin relative to other elemental essences. Once they start to lose pigment in their hair, they tend to lose pigment in their skin too.

Anja Deorac by Eron12 with Hero Forge

Psychology And Stereotypes

Mortals have free will and their personalities are shaped by life experiences as much as their birth traits, but there nevertheless tendencies and stereotypes associated with earthy people. Earthy people are considered grounded and practical but also a bit boring. Earthy people commonly are usually considered hard working and industrious. Most earth people are fairly stoic and not likely to make emotional outbursts. That doesn’t mean they don’t feel, they just tend to prefer to keep their emotions to themselves. When earthy people are pushed to the edge, it is often a rare and terrifying event like an earthquake or mudslide, metaphorically speaking.

It is said that earthy people people don’t change their mind easily. On the plus side they are often loyal and steadfast, but on the downside they can be frustratingly stubborn and slow to adapt to new things.

Ragani portrait by Eron12 using Hero Forge

Earthy people are often said to be touched by Hallisan, Korus, and Korus Mortals born under their Zodiac signs are likely to manifest slightly more physical and mental attributes of earthy people than their parent cultures.

Mixed Race Earthy People

A majority of the time, "mixed element" mortals meet in the middle. Earthy people are known for being stoic and emotionless whereas the other three elemental archtypes are said to be quite emotional in some way. Mixed race earth people tend to moderate both extremes.

Physically, the earthy browns and greys are somewhat muted by the coloration of the other elements but the earthy skin tone tends to show more than the other elements, though more often than that, earthy hair is displaced by the other element’s hair type.
(Brigid happens to have dominant earth traits and strong secondary fiery traits tinting her hair and skin, with a splash of watery from her mother manifesting in for her right eye and somewhat wavy hair)

Brigid's second portrait by Eron12 with Hero Forge

Eye colors of mixed-earth mortals tend to be darker shades of the other element type’s version of “normal”. A minority of earthy people have gold, coppery, or silvery eyes. A minority of airy people have gold or silvery eyes. A minority of water people have silvery eyes, and a minority of fiery people have coppery eyes. All this thrown together means metallic eyes are somewhat more common with mixed element people than more mono-element people.
Sometimes a mixed element mortal mixed and matched. An earth/water hybrid might have a distinctive earth body type and skin tone but very distinctive watery hair and eyes. Body types of most mixed earth mortals tend to be “normal” so to speak.

What earth mixes with the end result is usually pretty strong but not suffering any particular weaknesses in their ability to move and act, but more than a few Scarterrans consider mixed earth people to be unattractive, especially water/earth men and women who are sometimes are sometimes derogatively called “Mud People.” Though this is not a universal opinion as watery/earthy are very common and few are brave enough to cast insults at Mud People when they are surrounded by them. And a few "Mud People" are quite beautiful. The more polite term for "Mud People" is "River People" (or "Lake People", "Swamp People").

comissioned portrait of Aleesia the Satyr by Zeta Gardner

Among Scaraquans, everyone is watery by default. That literally goes without saying. So an "rocky" Scaraquan is what a Scarterran would considered a water/earth hybrid.

Mixed race earth people combine the creative energies of the other elements with a solid earthy singular focus though this sometimes mean they are sometimes so focused on that one thing that they lack other skills. For instance you might have a freakishly brilliant swordsman that doesn’t have a head for tactics and strategy. If you want the leading sage on a particular topic, you probably should look for an earthy sage though a few earthy sages are well rounded and versatile.

Who Are They?

The areas most suffused with earthy energy tend to be fertile and well suited for agriculture, so earthy people are very common on every continent, particularly in the temperate landlocked interiors of the continents. This where you find the earthiest people on Scarterra.

Both West Colassia and East Colassia are large mostly landlocked continents. East Colassia has a lot of fire energy saturating the center so the earthiest people in Scarterra are usually West Colassian while East Colassia has a lot of people with co-dominant earthy/fiery essences.
Speaking of co-dominant traits, mixed element earthy people are not especially hard to find, be they earthy/water, earthy/fiery, or earthy/airy.
Mortals growing on the coast and living off the sea tend to be watery, but mortals living near but not on coastline (a very common occurrence) often have co-dominant earthy and watery traits or dominant earthy traits with strong secondary water traits. Mortals in or near deserts tend to have mixed earthy and fiery traits. People living in moderately cool inland areas or moderately high elevations tend to develop a mix of earthy and airy traits.
There are more Scarterrans with primary earthy traits or pronounced secondary earthy traits than there are Scarterrans without them. The interiors of West Colassia has a fairly large population of humans with primary earthy traits and minor almost negligible traits in the other three elements. The interiors of Penarchia and Umera have a reasonable sized population of earthy humans with few if any other recognizable traits.
humans with co-dominant earthy and watery traits or nearly co-dominant earthy and watery traits are pretty common making up the plurality if not an outright majority of Umera which has a lot of rich farmland crisscrossed by many rivers. In West Colassia the land of Fumaya is very far from the oceans but is dotted with many lakes so the people tend to be of mixed earthy/watery heritage.e. West Colassia also has a strong minority of mixed earthy/watery people living in a band across the south central coast. Given that Penarchia has a lot of mountainous and rocky terrain creating peninsulas and other landmarks jutting right against the sea, these regions also produce a lot of mixed earthy/watery people. Most swamp dwellers also develop mixed earthy/watery traits such as the region in East Colassia nicknamed Marshlandia.
Any landlocked area with an arid climate is likely to produced earthy/fiery people. Those living in or near the savannah dwellers of East Colassia often have co-dominant earthy and fiery traits while those living in the desert itself have dominant fiery traits with pronounced earthy secondary traits. There is a similar situation in the interior of Khemarok though that region is sparsely populated indeed.
Mixed earthy airy people tend pop up at high elevations and any landlocked area that has a fairly cold climate. This situation is most common in West Colassia in The World Seam Mountains and The Great Colassian Tundra.
Pretty much all dwarves have predominantly earthy traits with a few secondary traits. The Mondarian dwarves are the most divergent with co-dominant earth, fire, and water traits.

Gnomes tend to grow to resemble the physical traits of the population they are assimilating with but they are biased towards dominant earthy traits with secondary water traits.

Elves are arguably the least earthy of all the so called civilized races. Wood elves are fairly earthy being primarily from a landlocked forest, but dark elves are moderately earthy at best, and grey elves rarely demonstrate any noticeable earthy traits at all.
Most orcs have predominantly airy traits, but orcs that dwell primarily in Scarnoctis tend to develop more earthy traits. Subterranean orcs are shorter and stockier, more muscular but slower than mainstream orcs. Rather than the light grey skin of most orcs, Scarnoctan orcs tend to have very dark grey skin tones, almost black.

Earthy beasts

by Me with Midjourney

Earthy animals tend to be large and strong if a bit a slow in both senses of the word "slow."
Among most domesticated animals, earthy traits are considered highly desirable, especially among cattle. Earthy oxen are especially good at pulling plows and wagons while earthy heifers' have a lot of edible meat on their bones.
Pigs are frequently bred for their size above all else, meaning earthy pigs are often kept as breeding stock while less earthy pigs quickly become bacon.
Among horses and dogs, earthy traits are somewhat less desirable. Earthy horses and dogs are fairly docile and not likely to kick or bite their owner, but they are slow to train, so many breeders choose to cross breed earthy horses and dogs with other elements to make them a bit more clever.

Parent ethnicities

• elemental ethnicity in mortals

Related Locations

• Scarterra