Races and Origins

Playable Races in Sea of Trees

Human

Humans living in The Territories are physically identical to humans on Earth. A thousand years of settlement in The Eastern Coast has introduced new variations to the population there. Most of these variations are minor or cosmetic and confer no practical benefits to their bearers-- alterations like unusual hair or skin color are even commonplace in some societies, especially those in remote frontier towns.

Humans originating from the Territories, along with much of the population of the Coast, follow the same general conventions as Earth humans: they are on average between five and six feet in height, with a life expectancy just under a century (this figure can vary wildly depending on your place of residence).

The people of the Eastern Coast tend to be a few inches taller than their Territorial brethren, and have a significantly broader spectrum of hair, skin, and eye colors to go along with it. Minor, cosmetic alterations such as animal-like eyes or ears are uncommon, but represent the fine line that divides humanity from the more significantly mutated Treetouched.

Humans on Qarna speak one or more of the six languages of the Eastern Territories, with many variations in between.

Treetouched

Rarely, exposure to magic causes spontaneous and extreme physical mutation in place of or alongside symptoms of magic sickness. Victims can manifest any number of inhuman physical traits such as claws, gills, modified skin, or multiple limbs or heads. People who exhibit such mutations are known as the Treetouched, and they constitute a heavily marginalized population of the Coast, shunned in most societies.

Treetouched are often relegated to life in ghettos far from main population centers and have few or no rights. They are actively exploited for labor, especially those whose mutations confer physical advantages or protection from work hazards too dangerous for normal humans. The village of Tailfeather near Ashimachi is an example of a proverbial 'leper colony' where the Treetouched residents are forced to do work for businesses in the capital city, and where the punishment for attempted escape is death.

Treetouched are also the only slave population regularly exported from the Coast, for reasons highlighted in the paragraph above.

Not all cultures revile the Treetouched, and not all Treetouched are equally despised. Societies that practice the Dreamswallowers faith actually consider such mutations highly desirable, and the Treetouched enjoy special privileges among such populations. Individuals whose mutations can be hidden pass easily as normal humans, and sometimes communities which shun the Treetouched as a whole will make exceptions for those with subtle or aesthetically pleasing alterations, keeping them as servants and slaves.

Kansujian, a city-state long suspected of unregulated human trafficking, is rumored to host underground brothels which cater specifically to clients who find specific mutations attractive.

Ilian

A warm-blooded race of bipedal lizard men, the Ilians hail from the mysterious lands on the western half of Qarna. They come to the Eastern Coast through the coastal settlement of Xinyuan, and decrease sharply in population the further north one travels. Well-adapted for life in the Coast, Ilians are an egg-laying species with long limbs and sturdy claws suitable for climbing trees.

Their bodies are covered in articulated scales which can be flared outward to help dissipate heat or express emotion, and which come in colors ranging from emerald green to dull red. Their eyes come in shades of yellow, orange, and green, and they often display decorative crests or wattles in starkly different colors from their base scales.

Ilians are a recent introduction to the Eastern Coast and few if any were born there - those that emigrated from the west have either been driven from their homes or seek asylum from prosecution in their homelands.

The remaining infrastructure of these destroyed settlements houses great works of magic beyond the comprehension of most mortals: technologies which the surviving Ilians can maintain to a certain degree but which simply cannot be restored to working order in the case of a complete breakdown. As such, their familiarity with magic can vary wildly - from competent casters to barbaric tribes who barely speak a recognizable language. In all cases, the Ilians' culture focuses heavily on the former glory of the Magocracy and a yearning to return to such prestige.

Their native tongues are incomprehensible to residents of the Eastern world, and are placed under the blanket term "Ilish" by said residents.

Player characters created as the Ilian race must take the Claws and Unusual Hide Supernatural Merits listed in the Exalted Third Edition corebook, and are allowed to do so even in campaigns where the Storyteller expressly forbids other characters of other races from taking Supernatural Merits. Ilians' starting language is Ilish, and the aforementioned languages of the Eastern Territories must be purchased as other characters do.

Demon

Most humans who die from exposure to magic suffer a series of escalating symptoms and perish when their bodies can no longer sustain operations. Old tales from the earliest days of the Coast, however, recount a handful of cases in which a particularly sinister or depraved individual perished in the Sea only to rise again as a twisted incarnation of their former self.

Far removed from the Judeo-Christian Earth notion of a demon, these beings are in essence dark gods who came into existence when a human who led a wicked life drew a large number of wisps with his contemptible thoughts and died in an area with a high concentration of magic. Many demons were murderers and rapists in their past life, but not all of them are so stereotypically malevolent-- the one common factor among all demons is a strong leaning toward indifference to the well-being of men. Like gods, demons desire worship, and require a form of belief to sustain them or else they will eventually wither away into nothing.

Unrestricted by soulstones due to their origin, demons are drawn to large pockets of civilization but can move of their own accord. While demons posed a huge threat to early Coastal societies, the large influx of adventurers looking to make a name for themselves - along with the presence of the Shielded Faith in every city-state - saw their numbers steadily decline as the centuries passed. Only the most cunning demons survived from the ancient times, with most these days of relatively weak power.

To encounter a demon is a rare occurrence indeed, with most people of the Coast familiar with them through local legends. Some sorcerers intentionally summon them out of the Sea and bind them into their service; since they depend on some form of worship to survive, entering contracts holds great appeal for demons.

In the case of NPCs, these demons follow the rules of demons in the Exalted corebook and can be summoned with aptitude in the appropriate circles of sorcery. As player characters, members of this race follow the rules of the Infernal Exalted and are free from the narrative consequences of a "lack of belief."

Djinn

The djinn are in some sense the opposite of demons: like demons, the djinn began as human beings, and like demons the djinn are a result of a human body, wisps, and magic intersecting under the right circumstances. Djinn, however, observe no real moral objective or allegiance and simply are. Equipped with corporeal forms of a supernatural nature and a human mind, it is plainly obvious they're no longer human: possessing multiple bestial features, or having a body made of crystal or purple smoke are examples of the forms a djinn might take.

It is unknown whether the djinn are the result of godly interference, sorcerous experimentation, or human endeavor - but the few that humans have encountered have proven nigh unkillable and unrestricted by the perils of existence in the Sea.

Djinn are mostly intended to be used by storytellers as a deus ex machina, rather than as discrete characters. If a player wishes to create a djinni, the character must have at least one obvious Supernatural Merit and can be rolled as any type of Exalted except for Solar or Infernal, with appropriate cosmetic flavoring.

Narratively, the application of a djinni's Supernatural Merit differs from that of a Treetouched in that a Treetouched is a human with an outlandish characteristic whereas a djinni may be entirely alien with a single recognizable characteristic. For balance purposes, player character djinn are not immune to magic sickness.

Good examples of the djinni in the base lore of SoT are the Saints of the Reef, members of the Chosen of the Reef (see 'Denominations'), who have braved a deep zone and came away from the experience permanently and drastically altered.

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Character Origins in Sea of Trees

The Eastern Territories

The people of the six Eastern Territories live in a mundane world without magic, in nations that range from democratic republics to feudal kingdoms and which have stood for thousands of years in some cases. To travel to the Coast and experience the magic therein firsthand is a dream held by many but achievable by only a select few due to the rarity of adaptations that allow humans to survive exposure to magical energy. Every new adventurer stepping into the Coast for the first time must have his or her spirit vessels "activated," a process which must be handled carefully with potentially lethal consequences.

For those whom the universe deems worthy, plunging headlong into the Coast and experiencing real magic for the first time is a sublime experience: the realization of a fantasy common to all humans in every reality; with fame, fortune, and boundless discoveries waiting on the horizon for those brave enough to take those first steps.

The Eastern Coast

First settled in LN 1, over 1,200 years before our story begins, the Eastern Coast is a span of magic-infused wilderness that stretches some 8,000 kilometers (5,000 miles) from top to bottom. Eight city-states have been established throughout the expanse, each fairly self-contained and with little interaction for the most part. Frontier towns and villages do exist in the remotest regions of the Coast, but some 99% of humans in the Sea hail from one of the city-states.

Those born in the Sea come with a functioning set of spirit vessels at birth, and are intimately familiar with the existence and dangers of magic. It's also likely that they've encountered at least one individual from every culture in the Coast, which would give them some perspective on what the general populace of each city-state might be like.

The West

Little is known of the Western lands beyond the gatherings of a few early Yunhainese expeditions which saw nothing but an empty landscape dotted with ruins. Even the small population of Ilians residing in the Eastern Coast have little familiarity with their own history beyond what is taught in the oral tradition of their cultural religion: that they once served an advanced race of beings called the Magi and that at some point a Great Ruin swept across their lands, depriving them of the Magi and the glory of their homes. What is known is that the few civilizations to the West are aggressively territorial-- and deeply prejudiced against the Ilians.

Other Worlds

The Worldwalkers are a recent phenomenon on the Coast: individuals supposedly wrested away from their homeworlds in their teenage years or adulthood and either transported to or born again on the Coast. Since there is no magic in the Territories, Worldwalkers never appear there - but there have been cases in which they have left the Coast to explore or conduct business.

This origin borrows heavily from genres of fiction such as the Japanese isekai or Russian popadantsy which each have their own set of conventions and cliches to work with in constructing a backstory.

The possibilities are technically limitless when it comes to a Worldwalker's world of origin: they may be from a mundane Earth, an advanced spacefaring population, or a medieval or tribal setting with or without magic. They could be brought to Qarna through a botched sorcerous working, by the old Gods of the Sea, or even without any reason at all. They can be rolled as any type of Exalt or as Heroic Mortals, with any rules (or lack thereof) that the storyteller agrees to.

Note that a Worldwalker who comes from modern-day Earth may be better educated than most of the population of the Coast, and more "genre savvy" if they spent a lot of time watching works of fiction in the aforementioned genres. A Worldwalker character, like an Ilian, should take their native language as their starting tongue and either have to learn a new language through RP or else purchase languages in the standard fashion in character creation.

Storyteller's note: Carefully consider whether you want to allow your players to select races other than Human. By and large members of other races have the potential to garner a great degree of suspicion and even fear in most city-states due to their looks alone. On the flip side of that coin, there is great value in stories where you root for the underdog, or where a group of exiles become the champions of the people who discriminated against them.