The Races (by Delta Tao) There are many different peoples in the world of Clan Lord. While the races have different looks and characteristics, the difference between individuals is much greater than the difference between races. And while many races are inclined toward separatism from the others, the circumstances of exile have largely caused communities to form without regard to race. Humans Humans encompass a variety of shapes, sizes and colors that is almost as diverse as the races are from each other. Contrast the brutish Nordislanders of the north, the olive skinned folk of the inner lands, and the dark-skinned mountain folk of the Sword of the World mountains. Humans are far and away the most numerous of the races, and there exist humans who excel in any given category of expertise. Only the Thoom live as happily with other races as do the Humans, and none are so well-known for travel and trade. Dwarves Dwarves are short, squat, and powerfully built. They are well known for short patience, hard drinking, and fierce loyalty. Though primarily thought of as an underground race, Dwarves have contributed much more than mining. The pragmatic wisdom of dwarven priests makes them popular with those looking for advice, and Dwarven engineers are even more in demand. All Dwarves belong to one of 11 Families. There are rumors of Dwarves that escaped the armies of Emperor Mobius, now living deep under the Sword of the World mountains. Ghorak Zo Ghorak Zo are the largest and the most aggressive of the races. Their strong warrior tradition sneers at mysticism and defense, believing that the best way to deal with an enemy is to kill it before it kills you. They first appeared on the Western Continent only 300 years ago. An entire army of them emerged from the Sword of the World mountains to wage war on the Ascendancy. Their success was cut short only by Emperor Mobius's indestructible army of Dark Sentinels. Stories say that the Zo used magical gates, long thought to be destroyed, to come to this continent. Mobius tried to locate these gates so that he might use them for his own purposes, but the retreating Ghorak Zo destroyed them. The Emperor then charged the Zo remaining on the continent with the defense of the Ascendancy. Since then, they have acted as an addition to the Ascendancy forces. The human city of Mountain's Reach was given to the Ghorak Zo by the Emperor for them to make their home in -- the humans protested angrily, but were forced to bow to the will of the Ascendancy. Zo average around seven feet tall, and have brown leathery skin and dark hair. Their great strength and agility makes them a match for any of the races in combat. Sylvan Most Sylvan (also commonly called "elves") that interact with other races are Grey Elves -- not so much a separate race, but a distinction for those that have adopted many human ways. More rare are the "Deep Elves," who avoid interracial contact altogether. Grey Elves have coexisted with other races for centuries, but still prefer rural settings to cities. Sylvan look like short, thin humans. Halflings Halflings have an odd way of escaping notice, until, somehow, one of them rises up to change the history of the world by an innocent-seeming action. For example, Jumblie Short-toe's obsession with food kept him from delivering the Unification Decree to "the People," and may have prevented a third Unification War. The People Other races often call them Cats, but this proud race refer to themselves only as "The People." They range from five to six feet tall, have a long tail, and are covered with short, dense fur. The patterns of color on their hair is important, at least to the People back on the continent under the Ascendancy. The different markings denote the class and the social status that the person is most likely to take in life. The People's nation is in the northwestern valleys, and resisted the first two Human Unification Wars with relative ease. It was the might of Mobius' vast armies that eventually crushed the People's nation. Since then, the People have always struggled to find a way to remove themselves from his rule. The contributions of the People have been great and varied. Though their society is rigid, feudal, and dynastic, they are famed for their art and dance. Thoom The sailors and philosophers of the world, the Thoom intermingle freely with the other races. The Thoom, named for the noise they make when they inflate their throat sacs, average about five feet in height and have large, widely-spaced eyes. Their skin is slack and wrinkled and is usually dark brown or green. Thoom have always participated quite a bit in the establishments of learning. In early history they were bloodlessly conquered during the first Human Unification. Many Thoom are scholars or sailors. The Darshak Theocracy (by Delta Tao) This is a summary written by Hulapop the Thoom before his disappearance. My friends in exile have suggested that I write down my knowledge about the Darshak Theocracy. The Theocracy got its start on the continent of Shan-Deral a century before the dawn of the Ascendancy. Almost entirely composed of humans, this cult promised its members the secrets to eternal life and great power. Many humans, jealous of the much longer-lived races, wanted to believe in the cult's teachings, and joined up. Each follower of the Cult was subjected whereby to a magical process in which a portion of his spirit was drained from his bodies and used to enhance the power of the higher ranking members of the Cult. Members of the Cult subjected to this process became, depending on the level of spirit drain, enervated, homicidal, apathetic or so completely devoid of spirit that they walked around in a sort of living death. The draining of this spirit was is said to be accomplished through the use of tainted Moonstones identified by their deep violet color. Whether they created these stones or discovered them somewhere was never learned is unknown. The Cult's leaders used the various states of their followers to their advantage by using the homicidal members as assassins, the apathetic ones as slaves and the "walking corpses" as warriors unaffected by pain and fear. The isolated nature of the races' nations became a boon for the Cult of Darshak -- by the time word of the teachings had reached the other races, the Darshak activities had already grown to have a vast following. The Thoom, who had the most contact with the human nations, tried to warn the other races to meet the potential threat. The human nations up to this point had never managed to stay allied enough to pose a threat to the other races' nations, but as the Cult worked its way to power in several of the Human kingdoms the threat of a unified Humanity became more real. The Dwarves were content in their mountain fortresses, and the People were much too distant to care. Only the Elves Sylvan and Halflings heeded the warnings of the Thoom. The elves, however, had few warriors, and the Halflings, while eager to help, were not eager to leave their homes. A decade after the founding of the Cult of Darshak, several kingdoms under direction of the Cult attacked neighboring lands that had been resisting the Cult's infiltration. They were successful at every turn. After several years, the Cult controlled seven of the eleven human kingdoms, and was turning its attentions to the last of the unaligned human kingdoms. This is where the Emperor Mobius made his mark on history. The true history of Mobius is not known. What is known is that a young human male, skilled in the arts of the Mind, led somehow acquired an army of large magical constructs -- the Sentinels. Backed by the armies of the 4 remaining unaligned kingdoms, against the Darshak Cult's army in the year now known as Year One of the Ascendancy. Mobius used his the human armies to distract the main body of the Cult's force while his constructs chewed through the army's rear elements. The casualties were incredibly high on both sides, but when the battle was over, Mobius' Dark Sentinels were untouched. In the wake of the battle, Mobius had the leaders of the Cult rounded up and exiled to the desolate Islands of Gathner, stating that he was sickened of by all the killing he had witnessed in his life. The destruction of caused by the war left gave Mobius the opportunities that led him to form the Ascendancy and declare himself Emperor. Not much was heard from the islands of Gathner until five years ago, when raiding vessels started to appear off the shore of Shan-Deral. These vessels raids were odd in the fact that in their raids they seemed to value people more then than goods. Whole villages were found empty, except for the dead bodies corpses of the very young and old. Unable to convince the Emperor of the any danger, the nations of the Ascendancy formed a small navy of merchant vessels and other small ships to patrol the waters of the Eastern Shore of Shan-Deral. Scrying seemed to indicate that the vessels raiders were originating from the islands of Gathner, and scout vessels were sent there to investigate. None of the vessels returned, but Thoom mystics picked up detected Mind-Casts from the Otalla the Mystic, a survivor who had managed to make it ashore. She confirmed that the vessels were coming from the descendents of the people that Mobius had exiled there. Otalla avoided detection for several weeks, relaying information about the Darshaks until her transmissions abruptly ended. The priesthood that controls has the real power in the Darshak Theocracy. The next caste down is the "citizen," which makes up the rest of the society, except slaves. All real work in the society is done by the slave caste, who are drained of their minds and spirits. The most disturbing news was that the Theocracy had has learned to create and control the lesser forms of Undine. There was also some information that implies the original founders of the Theocracy might still be alive hundreds of years later as powerful Undine. Since then, all attempts to get the Emperor to act on the threat of the Theocracy have been futile and the Theocracy continues to expand its influences. There is evidence of a Darshak outpost here on the Lok' Groton island chain, which I hope to investigate more fully. The History of the World (by Delta Tao) The known world consists of a single continent, usually referred to as Shan Deral, the Western Continent, or the Ascendancy. The Lok' Groton islands, where characters begin, are two weeks east of Shan Deral by ship. Historians believe there to be another continent far to the east of the islands. A great exodus was said to have happened where all the people of the Eastern Continent fled away from it, perhaps landing on the Western Continent and the island chain.  The nations of Shan Deral are all ruled by the Emperor (sometimes quietly referred to as "the Mad Emperor") Mobius. Mobius rules what he calls "The Ascendancy," which is a collection of rulers of the individual nations. Many nations chafe under his rule but are loathe to see their armies destroyed by the Emperor's indestructible Dark Sentinels. Several hundred years ago, when the Emperor conquered Shan Deral, he established the Compact of the Ascendancy. The Emperor stated in this Compact that all nations will cease behavior that would jeopardize the Ascendancy's stability and well-being. To this end he created a group named "The Defenders of the Compact" who would enforce this Compact. The highest ranking members of the Defenders are the Inquisitors. Trained in both magical and scholarly arts, they travel the continent enacting the Emperor's will. When the Ascendancy began, some nations benefited from the Emperor's policies, and many thought the Utopia the Emperor promised was inevitable. Over time, however, the Emperor became more and more withdrawn and self-absorbed. His word and the Compact were law, and the Inquisitors ruthlessly enforced the law to the letter.  One of the more interesting parts of the Compact made killing another member of the Ascendancy the highest crime. This limited the Inquisitors' options for dealing with those they saw as a threat to the Compact. The policy they decided upon was to exile criminals. As the centuries went by, the list of crimes worthy of exile grew. It became clear that the Emperor's vision of Utopia was a society of stagnation, where no new ideas are sought and where the status quo is mandatory. Many of the people that the Emperor exiled, in addition to thieves and scoundrels, were brilliant scholars and mystics.