mewlips - cannibalistic monsters living in cellars
the mewlips are small, harfoot-sized humanoids with sickly green coloured saggy skin, lots of warts and random clumps of greasy hair growing from their bodies
nearly the entirety of their race lives in the abandoned and forgotten cellar and dungeons of the castles of cozzon, and it's not clear whether they're descendants of some race that used to live there before the castles were built or if they have naturally evolved within the castles, which would explain their perfect adaptation to living in castle dungeons
one theory states that they're the descendants of homunculi that were created by cozzon's wizards to build the castles and then exterminated when the task was done, except for a very small group that hid in a deep cellar and preserved a deep hatred for the humans living up above
still others theorise that when the builders of the castles of cozzon were digging the cellars, they accidentally unearthed a cavern where the ancestors of the mewlips lived and from which they spread across the castle dungeons throughout cozzon
whatever their origin, by this point the mewlips have spread so far and wide across the castle dungeons that according to some estimates they now outnumber the humans in cozzon
whenever an old cellar gets abandoned or forgotten, the mewlips immediately move in, and in many cases they deliberately drive the humans away by scaring them away, poisoning their food supplies or stealing their children
they're very cowardly, so they always act in secrecy, from the shadows, never revealing themselves
over the centuries, they dug and built a huge number of secret tunnels, caves and hidden doors within the walls of the castles of cozzon that allow them to move around almost freely across the castles and get nearly anywhere undetected, the humans do their best to find mewlip tunnels and destroy them, but every destroyed tunnel is immediately replaced by two new ones
the mewlips are lazy and don't like working, so they steal most of their food and tools from the humans above and customise them slightly to fit their size, making spears from forks and capes from tablecloths
humans are also their favourite meal, they tend to snatch away any drunks or tramps who happen to fall asleep in an empty corridor, but they definitely prefer children and will often attempt to trick them into coming with them into their cellars, only to become their meal
they have domesticated giant rats and use them as their mounts of choice, the mewlip knights riding rabid rats and dressed in armour made from stolen tableware are surprisingly dangerous opponents due to their mastery of dirty tactics and trickery
some rats are bred to reach truly gigantic size, those are used to collapse walls and corridors in conflicts with human exterminators trying to drive the mewlips away
like the rats, they also domesticated cockroaches, they use trained giant cockroaches as beasts of burden and also use their chitinous shells for armour
the mewlips are very hard to catch because their skin secretes natural slime like that of a hagfish, and this slime also makes most blunt weapons slide off of their skin
they're fascinated with bones and decorate everything with them, making their shantytowns look like ossuaries
the mewlip society is controlled by osteomancers who use bones to read the future, they can also create fearsome bone golems and even control the skeletons within their enemies like rod puppets
they're very spiteful and like to hurt others just for fun, only their laziness and cowardice prevent them from being more of a danger
their survival instinct is through the roof, the mewlips are always eager to betray their companions and generally stoop down to anything to ensure their own survival
although they don't have any better use for it than simply sitting and counting it, the mewlips steal love stealing and hoarding gold items

ushabti - half-undead clay creatures maintaining the necropolises
ushabti are an ancient race native to kashur that was evidently enslaved by the the ancient lords of kashur and tasked with maintaining the countless tombs and necropolises of this land as well as tending to the dead
however, there's also a theory that the ushabti were not enslaved, but instead made a pact with the humans and maintain the tombs in exchange for some favour that the humans long since forgot about, but the ushabti still remember
finally, some people believe that there was neither a contract nor enslavement and the ushabti tend to the necropolises for their own, inscrutable goals, but the truth may never be found out, because the ushabti are extremely taciturn and ignore most attempts to talk to them
they inhabit the necropolises of kashur, living in their small, minimalist houses resembling crypts and spending nearly all of their time cleaning and dusting off every surface
they're extremely single-minded and impossible to distract while they're busy with their task, and they will not abandon their task until it's done perfectly
their stubbornness and single-mindedness goal are legendary, an ushabti is absolutely unstoppable if he decided to do something, making them some of the most dangerous assassins
however, it's extremely difficult to hire an ushabti as an assassin, or hire one in general, because they take almost no interest in material goods and have almost no ambitions or aspirations in life
they genuinely love doing boring and repetitive jobs for the entirety of their lives, nothing brings them more comfort and satisfaction
they're not very fond of talking or socialising, keeping silent most of the time and only replying yes or no to most questions
ushabti anatomy is unique in that they're half living, half undead
they're born and spend their early years fully alive, but most of their organism ages extremely rapidly and dies after a short period of time, except for the brain, the blood vessels and the stomach
however, the dead parts of an ushabti are immediately reanimated to undeath by a special necromantic glad that each one of them possesses
being mostly undead gives the ushabti some advantages, they stop feeling pain, can repair their injuries and never grow tired, but they still retain their living brains, sensory organs and the organs necessary to maintain the brain functioning
to cover up their undead parts that eventually start decomposing, the ushabti cover themselves entirely in clay, which they even sculpt to resemble clothes, because they don't wear any clothes other than this clay
they also etch protective runes and logograms on their clay that give them magical protection from physical damage and the elements
ushabti have natural necromantic powers, the same gland that allows them to animate their own dead bodies also allows them to raise minor undead minions for themselves
nearly every ushabti has several skeleton or ghost helpers, the helpers in question mostly being animal skeletons or ghosts

hrebiks - mysterious city-dwelling race
hrebiks have always lived in landael in huge numbers, definitely surpassing the giant city's human population, though nobody knows for sure where they came from - according to the city chronicles, they have lived there starting from day one
they're very small hattifattener-like humanoids, though a more accurate description is nearly impossible due to the fact that they're always on the move, impossible to catch and tend to wear weird clothes than obscure their shape
every single building and street has numerous hrebik-holes used for them to travel around, chasing their inscrutable goals, each time a new building is erected, they quickly riddle them with their holes and tunnels
the hrebik tunnels seem to defy space and time, researchers who crawled into a hrebik hole often crawled out before they crawled in, or aged considerably while they've only been in the tunnel for couple of hours, or crawled out impossibly far from where they crawled in, sometimes even at the other end of the world
many of those brave individuals that explored a hrebik hole told completely outrageous stories about what they've seen there, most people agree that these stories are either fabrication or spending time in a hrebik hole drives one insane, though there are very few people who would dare check if these stories are true
nobody has ever seen a static hrebik, they're constantly on the move, usually rushing somewhere only they know where, across the streets, atop the roofs, balconies and cornices, never stopping for a second
due to their reluctance to talk or answer any questions, nobody can tell what their goals, are but they don't seem to hurt anyone or interfere with people's business, so they're tolerated
moreover, it appears that they often fix derelict buildings and perform minimal repair, mostly in the cases overlooked by the humans, making many citizens of landael theorise that the city would have fallen apart long ago if it wasn't for the hrebiks
nobody has ever seen a hrebik talk, so it's unclear how they communicate, if at all, though it's been theorised that they have some form of telepathy or hivemind
while they share the city with humans, they ignore all of its laws completely, which has infuriated many a burgermeiser of landael, there's been attempts to jail them, but the hrebiks are nearly impossible to catch, always appearing to their pursuers closer or farther than they actually are, or appearing extremely blurry as if seen through a dirty lense
even in those rare cases when the city guard managed to capture a hrebik, they escaped any confinement with ease like professional escape artists
one burgermeister even attempted to exterminate the hrebiks, but his attempt resulted in him accidentally burning half of the city
their refusal to talk to the humans or interact with them as well as their extremely primitive behaviour has led many people to believe that they're not a sentient race, but a species of animals, yet they're dressed in elaborate, weird costumes that were definitely crafted by an advanced civilisation and use a variety of baffling tools from time to time which allow them to fly short distances, make impossibly tall jumps or burrow through any solid object, which led the researchers to conclude that the hrebiks are at least as intelligent as humans, albeit extremely mysterious
in some exceptional cases, hrebiks may join groups of adventurers or travellers for their own mysterious reasons which they never disclose because they never talk

prolds - a symbiosis between sentient penguins and sentient walruses
the prolds are one of the more unique races of the world in that it's a symbiotic race comprised of two completely different races living in tight symbiosis - small, hyperintelligent avian humanoids resembling penguins and hulking walrus-like pinnipeds with marsupial pouches where they carry the penguins
however, these two see each other as mere aspects of the same race and don't even have separate words for their respective species, collectively calling themselves the prolds
indeed, their symbiotic existence predates their culture and their status as a developed race, their history started when tribes of their relatively primitive ancestors first formed a symbiotic relationship, with the walruses carrying the penguins in their pouches and protecting them in exchange for the leadership and primitive psychic powers that the penguins possessed
such specialisation allowed them to evolve much faster and more efficiently, the penguins were getting smarter and more psychically powerful while their limbs nearly atrophied, whereas the walruses developed formidable physical abilities in place of intelligence
their cooperation proved to be extremely fruitful, and soon they managed to eradicate or drive away their natural enemies and settle the coves and cliffs of laroten
centuries of mutual evolution eventually made the two species vitally dependant on each other as well as eroded any perception that they were two distinct races, not just aspects of a single race
the two components of a prold only ever part ways to mate with their own species, and then unite again
when a penguin and a walrus are born, they're immediately united by a telepathic link that gives them a sort of a shared conscience - they don't just communicate, they share the same thoughts
if this link is ever severed, for instance, by the untimely death of one of the partners, the other one quickly dies as well
in their symbiosis, the penguins are the brain, they do the thinking and make the decisions, which they're extremely good at, thanks to their impressive intelligence, they also tend to wield formidable psychic powers
the walruses are the brawn, they follow the commands of the penguins and protect them, using their unmatched physical strength and endurance
but they're more than just brute force, they're also extremely skilful due to their need to serve as the hands of the penguins, their flippers are very evolved and capable of performing very delicate tasks
in spite of their strange appearance and lifestyle, the prolds do have a complex and highly developed culture
they're organised into trusts, which are a mixture of a clan and a company, and specialise in fishing and fresh water production
they use their magic to purify seawater, freeze it into icebergs and then transport it wherever it is that it's needed, and a lot of regions of the world have huge problems with drinkable water
most of their cities are also located on artificial icebergs that drift relatively freely in the sea, their ports on the firm land serve as little more than large marketplaces
the penguins are very uppity and arrogant, like stereotypical victorian snobs, they tend to use a lot of really obscure and sophisticated vocabulary in their speech, even if the clarity suffers massively because of this
they're not afraid to talk down to anyone, knowing that their walrus would protect them if things get out of control
they tend to hatch napoleonic plans and harebrained schemes that end up going nowhere because of how preposterous they really are
the walruses come across as dim-witted brutes, but they seldom speak, usually allowing the penguins do the talking, they're more predisposed to action than talking
while the penguins usually wear posh clothes, the walruses prefer heavy suits of armour to better fulfil their role as bodyguards

boscals - paranoid voodoo dolls living in knitted villages in the swamps
boscals look pretty much identical to walking, living voodoo dolls made from burlap with button eyes, but this image is deceiving - what appears to be their bodies are in fact their suits that allow their soft, morphable bodies to keep a humanoid shape
in fact, these creatures are molluscs that originated in the sea and were driven to the surface, namely the bayolo peninsula, by the undine expansion that destroyed their natural habitat
while adapting to living on the surface, they quickly discovered knitting full body suits for themselves as a sure way to stabilise their bodies and preventing most physical damage
in general, they're unchallenged masters of knitting and weaving, able to weave all sorts of wondrous fabrics with curious properties
instead of armour, they weave kevlar suits and capes, and their weapons are all woven as well, for instance, whips and lassos
they don't build their houses, but instead knit them from special building yarn, resulting in structures that are well-ventilated and nearly fireproof
another one of their inventions is the surgical yarn which works like qrillith, allowing any grafts stitched to the body with it to assimilate and become a part of it, many boscal warriors use it to stitch tentacles or horns to themselves, increasing their combat capabilities
the pinnacle of their weaving techniques are their magical tapestries that can be entered to reveal pocket dimension-like worlds where everything is knitted from yarn
their signature ability lies in establishing a super powerful empathic link with any target of their choosing, the link can be established at eye contact and makes the target feel and experience everything the boscal is experiencing
the boscals feel no pain and suffer no structural damage from piercing wounds due to their physiology, so their favourite combat tactic is to establish an empathic link with an enemy and then pierce themselves with pin-like spears, like a giant living voodoo doll; the enemy is then killed by numerous empathically transmitted piercing wounds
the masters of these empathic techniques can even control the movement of their targets like ragdolls
although they've been living on the surface for centuries, they still need very wet air to feel cofortable, so they settle in the dampest swamps of bayolo, usually shrouded by impenetrable fog, making their knitted villages very hard to locate
every boscal grows up with the feeling that the life is unfair and that their race deserves much better than living in foetid swamp villages, so they tend to grow up very frustrated, neurotic and accumulate very serious anger management issues
it's very easy to piss off a boscal, and very dangerous as well due to their psychic powers, and they hardly ever make friends with the other races due to their wrong perception that everyone is out to steal their secrets of magical weaving
they are extremely paranoid, distrustful and always look for ulterior motives in everyone
partly because of their paranoia, they're very prone to crafting and believing in the wildest conspiracy theories
they're very reluctant to use their real names, crafting fake personae whenever they contact the outside world, use lots of codewords and cyphers in their speech (without alerting anyone what exactly the cyphers are) and really love using fake moustaches, bad wigs and other similar nonsense to avoid being recognised

nibelungs - gold-obsessed reptilian dwarves
nobody is quite sure how the merchants of quozum got their gold in the first place, but the truth is that they started out as a marauding shakhrab tribe that captured the kingdom of proverbially rich dwarves called the nibelungs and stole their gold from them, scattering their race across the world
the naturally treacherous nature of the nibelungs ensured that a lot of their clans betrayed their kin and joined the conquerors, in fact, it's quite likely that only their treachery allowed the shakhrab raiders to conquer the nibelung kingdom in the first place
while the descendants of these traitors still live in quozum along with humans and hold positions of power, the majority of their race was exiled and is now living in hidden subterranean villages everywhere where there's gold to obtain
their exile and the loss of their gold drove the nibelungs crazy, they're now obsessed with making their fortune back and will stoop down to any method to increase their wealth, from banal stealing to contraband, swindling and fraud
they feel slighted by the humans and think that it's their right to obtain human riches in the same fashion
they're not very numerous or skilled at war, so they hardly ever act in the open, creating mafias, secret societies and thief guilds and running them from the shadows, diverting attention from themselves and masquerading as humans when they have to
most of the secret criminal organisations created and nurtured by the nibelungs have no idea that they're being used by a vicious inhuman race
some nibelungs go one step further and secretly weasel their ways into the human elite, becoming advicers of the human leaders and subtly manipulating them from behind the curtains to do their bidding
very few in the world are actually aware of the existence of the nibelungs, they used their subtle influence to convince everybody that they don't exist and everybody who claims that they do is a paranoid madman
while not particularly physically strong, they're the ultimate masters of conspiracy and manipulation, every single nibelung has hypnosis and mind-reading abilities, and many of them are capable to plant thoughts into the minds of their enemies or enter their dreams and influence them from there
not just their greed, but also their appearance suggests their relation to the dwarrows - they're twice shorter than a human and stockily built, but they also have a lot of serpentine features - snake eyes and togues, scaly skin and plume-like beards, they hiss when they speak and emit sulphurous smoke from their nostrils when they're irritated (which is most of the time)
their difficult past made them lose their conscience, they never regret their actions no matter how vile they are and can always come up with a justification for anything evil that they do
they honestly consider themselves to be the good guys and are very proud of even the most underhanded of their acts
the nibelungs are so secretive that it's often said that the only way to meet one is to make him want to meet you, which happens very rarely, because the nibelungs prefer to act through their unwitting minions without getting their own hands dirty

thraxes - renaissance triceratops men who make living dolls
the thraxes look more or less like humanoid triceratopses, but their brutal appearance belies one of the most elitist and refined races in the world
they live in relative isolation atop the unreachable plateaus of karakda and use curious flying machines like leonardo da vinci's aerial screw helicopters and plane-sized ornithopters to venture beyond their cities
although they're hulking giants, they possess probably the most intricate and sophisticated culture in the world right after the dragons
there are myriads of obscure traditions, codes of conduct and symbols that one must know to be able to navigate the thrax society without looking like a barbarian or offending people
for a thrax, every conversation is a small battle of wits, they are expected to put deeper double meaning into every phrase they utter, even when talking about something mundane like the weather
they also outright love debating and arguing, mostly to practice and show off their impressive rhetoric skills and erudition, although their eagerness to argue and question everything makes them appear very contrarian
the thrax society is extremely libertine, and while for some of them it merely means an emphasis on free thinking, most others come across as immoral, and quite a few as outright perverts
the thraxes like excessive decorations, intricate detail and lots of wood and stone carvings everywhere
their fashion is like renaissance fashion, with an abundance of layers, slashes, embroidery, ruffs and other forms of intricate ornamentation
they also tend to overuse cosmetics, going as far as making some of them appear like clowns to the outsiders, and the amounts of perfume they use can drive those of lesser noses to suffocation
the thraxes are extremely elitist and snobbish, they look down on every other race and culture and only see the others as amusing barbarians
in the best case scenario, they find the brutality of the other races adorable, in the worst case, appalling
they tend to be very uppity, self-confident and full of themselves, but hide these traits behind a mask of impeccable court manners and sharp wit
their signature technology is making living puppets with a combination of clockwork and magic, these living puppets function as servants and soldiers to the thraxes and present shows during the peacetime
they vary wildly in the complexity, from primitive ball-joint dolls only capable of a few primitive robotic motions to entire puppet dragons that can fly and breathe fire, the more complex of those puppets cannot function autonomously and need a puppeteer to steer them
the thraxes eagerly sell their puppets to other races, confident that they would never be able to reverse engineer them and discover the secret of making living puppets
the legends tell that many centuries ago, the puppets used to be even more complex and extravagant, but eventually they desired to become real living creatures and rebelled against their creators
although the rebellion was eventually suppressed, the thraxes destroyed the schematics for building complex, self-aware puppets, opting to only make more primitive ones from then on out of fear of another rebellion

rakshasas - predator-like dudes living in the sand
the rakshasas are a formidable sight to behold, they're much taller than humans, have dark blue skin, four arms and boar-like tusks protruding from their mouths
uniquely for any sentient race, they live in the sand like other races do on the land or in the ocean
their settlements can be found wherever there's sand, but their biggest cities and the cradle of their culture lie in the great black desert of kazram
instead of a nose, they have special gills in their necks that extract oxygen from sand and allow them to breathe in the sand
consequently, they can't breathe outside sand, so whenever they get to the surface they have to put on rebreather-like apparata that pump sand into their gills through special tubes
their bodies produce a natural field that turns sand around them into quicksand, allowing the rakshasas to move through masses of sand effortlessly as if it was water
vision is completely useless in their natural habitat, so the rakshasas are blind, only possessing thermal vision that allows them to see objects based on their temperature
not many animals can live in sand, so the rakshasas have bred and trained giant sandworms for all purposes from livestock to war beasts
with their four arms, the rakshasas are known to be expert artisans and sculptors as evident from their equipment, and their cities are said to be breathtakingly beautiful, but, unfortunately, no outsider can ever visit them because they're buried under hundreds of metres of sand
glass is the most readily available material for a race living in sand, and the rakshasas have become adept at using it, creating glass that is harder than steel and making their weapons and armour from it
rakshasas are adrenaline junkies and thrill seekers, they're addicted to extreme sports and making risky bets, the majority of them dies not in battle or from disease, but instead while risking their lives for adrenaline
their favourite pastime is hunting, and they find that there's no better prey than other sentient races, so they hunt any unfortunates living on the surface of their deserts whenever the chance presents itself, emerging unexpectedly from under the sand and submerging back when things get too hot to handle
while they're undoubtedly extremely cruel in treating their fellow sentient beings like big game prey, they're extremely sportsmanlike about their hunting, they follow a very strict code of honour, often imposing handicaps on themselves to make the hunt fair
when impressed or outplayed by their intended prey, they are known to show gratitude for great entertainment, which they express either in services or in valuable gifts, such as their amazing glass weapons
their cruelty and heartlessness also doesn't prevent them from dealing with the surface dwellers, they're generally quite eager to deal with anyone as their only true passion in life is excitement and new experiences
the only race they will never be cordial with are the sphynxes, there's a lot of ancient hatred between the two

pongals - five separate guys that form a single person
defying all expectation of what constitutes a single person, one pongal consists of five seemingly separate humanoids that nonetheless form a single entity together
the members of a pongal look vaguely like really small humanoid sharks, about the size of a cat
they're always born together in quintuplets and function as a single person from the moment of their birth, all members of a pongal are identical to each other and they always dress the same, meaning it's impossible to distinguish between them
while they don't have a true hivemind or telepathic abilities, they essentially share the same personality, goals and mentality and always act as a cohesive whole, like cogs in the same mechanism
all five pongals are empathically connected, every single one of them feels the pain inflicted on one of the brothers, and if one of them dies, the rest do as well
speaking to a pongal is weird to a person unfamiliar with them because it's impossible to speak to just one of the brothers: they all finish each other's sentences
they feel very sorry for the races that aren't constantly surrounded by four brothers, thinking that they must feel extremely lonely and miserable
due to their small size and need to always stay together, the pongals spend nearly all of their time aboard the small amphibious ships that they construct themselves
each one of those ships is a unique custom item that every pongal builds on achieving adulthood, all of them have wheels to travel on land and can sail in the water as well, and some of them even have foldable wings that allow them to fly
they're loaded with all of the treasures and trash a pongal has collected over its lifetime and outfitted with several cannons which are quite deadly in spite of their small size
the pongal ships are relatively small, about the size of a waggon, allowing them to roll around even in urban environments, although entering buildings generally poses a problem
the pongal only ever leaves its ship for mating or when in immediate danger, it grows attached to the ship like a hermit crab to its shell and even comes to consider it as the sixth brother
a single pongal ship is a completely self-sufficient unit, explaining why the pongals never form settlements or stable communities, preferring to sail the land on their own, fishing for lemmings and running trade routes
the pongals are rather greedy and like gold, but their main motivation is their love for adventure and discovering new things, that's why they're often found extremely far from their homeland of erkem

kappas - extremely competitive river dwellers
the kappas are small salamander like green-skinned humanoids with turtle like shells and beaks
often believed to be a species distantly related to the vodyanoys, the kappas live in lakes and rivers as well, and their highest concentration is to be found in the numerous water bodies of the moerga peninsula
the most curious feature of a kappa is its sara, a large indentation on the top of its head that needs to be constantly filled with water in order for their metabolism to function
if this indentation is ever emptied, the kappa metabolism starts malfunctioning, their movements slow down to a halt and eventually they get paralysed
in order to prevent this from happening, kappas generally wear large bamboo helmets whenever they stray far away from water, or they generally keep to their rivers
they're an incredibly competitive bunch, constantly striving to prove themselves the best or at least better than the others and challenging each other to different kinds of competition, mostly physical, because the kappas are not very smart at all
in spite of their size, they're extremely strong, able to bend metal poles with their bare hands, which makes them the ultimate masters of wrestling: they can easily win a wrestling match with an opponent several times their size
getting tired of constantly wrestling with the people of their own village, they often wander away looking for strangers to compete with
unfortunately, a stranger has very few chances of winning a wrestling match with a kappa, so it's in their best interest to persuade it to armwrestle instead, or, better still, play riddles or something like this
unfortunately, the kappas are very sore losers and will insist on continuing the competition until they win, but even if you lose, the kappa may suspect that you're losing on purpose to get rid of it and insist on going on
kappas are obsessed with politeness, sometimes they get stuck in a chat for hours because they can't stop exchanging pleasantries and bowing to each other
they will also show the highest degree of courtesy to any outsider they meet in any circumstances, even when trying to kill him: in fact, they will always bring their deepest apologies to the person they're trying to kill and express their regret
they also keep their oaths and promises to their last breath, this is how cunning farmers sometimes trick kappas into becoming their servants and irrigating their fields
kappa culture is not very deep or sophisticated, they make nearly all of their tools from bamboo and scoff at the notion of using other materials, explaining that they're for the wimps and true men can survive using only bamboo
kappas have no talent for magic nor are they smart enough to develop and learn spells, but instead their very muscles are magical
by flexing different groups of muscles like a bodybuilder they can cast primitive spells, most of which deal with

wandjina - electrically charged weather dependent guys
the wandjina resemble ancient astronauts in their apperance and live in the great caves and grottoes of erkem
instead of food, water and oxygen, they only need electricity to live, their bodies are constantly electrified and very dangerous to touch without any protection
any weapons that they hold are also naturally electrified, making them extremely dangerous opponents in close combat
any action they take, any damage they take or any spell that they cast drains their charge, and once a wandjina is completely discharged, it turns into an immobile statue that can be brought back to life by charging it again
they dig large ponds in their villages and populate them with electric eels to charge themselves, but they much prefer getting charged with a real lightning: it fills them with extreme strength, inspiration and clarity of mind for a short while
they are uniquely attuned to the weather and change their personalities entirely based on the current weather: when the sun is shining, they're cheerful and industrious, when it's raining, they turn grumpy, petty and lazy, and when it storms, they get really angry and begin looking for a fight
their entire history is subjected to the weather patterns, they started a great war of conquest when erkem was lashed by storms several centuries ago, and the dry climate that dominates the region now made them placid and firendly, though still suspicious of foreigners
because the weather plays such an important place in their society, they're ruled by an elite caste of meteorologists who have learned to predict the weather with great certainty by analysing the flight of birds, the behaviour of insects and hundreds of other obscure omens
they use giant ground eels as their mounts and beasts of burden, the most noble and expensive of which can breathe electricity
instead of building their houses from conventional materials, they build them from magically bound clouds that never get dispelled and make bridges and viaducts from rainbows that can be walked on
while the wandjina have relatively poor eyesight compared to most races, they can actually see electromagnetic fields very vividly, and this is the main reason why foreigners can never hope to master their language - they communicate not only by sound, but also by changing the shape and intensity of the electromagnetic fields they generate
they can also communicate over huge distances with radiowaves like if using a two-way radio, this is how everyone in the community is always aware of what everyone else is doing, making it impossible to ambush or split their forces
the wandjina have no genders, instead, they have charges: one gender is negatively charged, while the other one os positively charged
the positive wandjina build houses, make tools and practice medicine, while the negative ones hunt, guard the settlements and go to war

ningens - pathological liar whale men
the ningens are large, whale-like humanoids with the tail of a whale and the upper body of a whaleman
they're another marine race, mostly found in the waters around the pirate isle of garta but also elsewhere
they settle in silt pits at the bottom of the ocean and breed large manatees for food and leather
the ningens are very fond of falconry-type hunting, but instead of falcons, they use pet barracudas
the ningens are pathological liars, they are physically incapable of telling the truth: either they exaggerate or bend the facts a little or spin grandiose and outrageous lies, you can be sure never to trust a word they say
amongst the ningens, telling lies is considered an art and a sport, and they often gather for competitions of telling outrageous stories and tall tales
they especially delight in fooling the gullible strangers who aren't aware of the ningen dishonesty, not out of malice or ulterior motives, but just to hone their art of telling lies to perfection
although almost everything the ningens say is pure fabrication, their strange racial magic allows them to sometimes turn their lies into reality
doing it puts a terrible physical and psychological strain on a ningen, and they're rumoured to only be able to do it several times in their entire lifetime
the ningen penchant for lying even spreads to their architecture: all ningen houses have majestic faux facades that make them look like palaces, while the houses behind them tend to be modest huts, much smaller than the facade
as a race of tricksters, they're disliked by almost every other marine race, particularly the judgemental undines, but few dare mess with them thanks to their powerful ability to make lies come true
in battle, they especially favour trick weapons, such as those that can suddenly transform into another weapon, like a hammer transforming into a flail with a hidden chain or a sword that transforms into a spear with a telescopic hilt

gorgons - snake-haired guys obsessed with beauty
the gorgons are the indigenous dwellers of iqrid, scaly humanoids with vaguely reptilian features and snake-like appendages growing on their heads where hair should be
they are obsessed with beauty and aesthetics, which they see as the only thing in the world truly worth striving for
the gorgons are the first race to have discovered plastic surgery and to have mastered it, plastic surgery is almost considered an absolute necessity in their society
they're also extremely proficient with cosmetics and have created numerous kinds of magically enchanted cosmetics that allow to alter the facial features of anyone they're applied to
many gorgons travel the world in search of new interesting fashion trends, which they then bring back to their own lands and introduce into the ever evolving gorgon fashion
because of their impeccable fashion sense, gorgons are often employed as fashion designers by the monarchs and powerful merchants around the world
they're as outraged by ugliness as they're mesmerised by beauty, ugliness may incite such a rage in the gorgons that they may declare a war on a country to demolish a single city they found ugly
their attitude towards a person is entirely determined by his looks: to a good-looking person, they're kind and friendly, but to those who don't look so good they're disdainful, arrogant and outright mean
the gorgons hate old age because natural beauty fades with age, they keep it at bay for as long as possible with cosmetics and plastic surgery, but when it no longer helps, the old gorgons are forcibly petrified to preserve them forever beautiful as statues
as a result, the gorgons have no graveyards, but instead they have large greek temple-like statue halls where the young come to admire the beauty of the old generations
not all gorgons agree to the idea of being petrified while still young, they tend to run away and hide from their own people, these fugitives are extremely hated and despised in the gorgon society, because it's though that they give their entire race a bad reputation with their ugliness
the gorgons have domesticated gorgonopsids and other mammal-like reptiles and use them as pets, livestock and war beasts

scyllas - fire-loving octopus mermaids
scyllas resemble red-skinned humanoids above waist, and below waste they have a set of cephalopod-like tentacles
extremely fond of heat, they tend to settle around the fissures on the ocean floor where the lava flows into the ocean, providing a convenient light and heat source so far away from the sun
they're even known to create lava fissures by breaking the ocean floor with directed explosions when they found new settlements
making the most use of their habitat, they build their houses from basalt that the lava hardens into and their tools from obsidian
when away from their fissure settlements, they use gas torches to create fire, and fire generally has a very important role in their culture in spite of them living strictly underwater
they use fire-enchanted swords and tridents that burn magically even underwater
the water in their domain is always scalding hot, almost approaching the boiling point, making it extremely uncomfortable for most creatures of the sea except giant squids that squirt napalm instead of ink, the scyllas often use them as their mounts
they're extremely hot-headed and temperamental, always acting first and thinking second, if ever, always guided by emotions and not reason
the scyllas are very expansionist, they tend to have a lot of children so they keep taking over the ocean floor by creating new fissures and underwater volcanoes to sustain their colonies, their expansion is constantly causing earthquakes and tsunamis that wreck the surface, but the scyllas are too proud and egoistic to ever give this much thought
in course of their constant expansion, they have exterminated two other marine races and taken over much of the coastline of cydon and the adjacent seas
as a society of very prideful and hot-headed individuals, the scyllas have developed a very elaborate duel codex and duel each other to the death for any perceived slight, the constant duels also help a lot in keeping the overpopulation under control
their most famous invention is the magma submarine which can be submerged in a volcano, swim around in the molten mantle without being melted and surface in another volcano, such submarines are theorised to be able to cross even the stream of ouroboros