Races & Monsters

Civilized nonhuman races are quite rare, to the point that many consider them to be purely mythical. Monstrous races, on the other hand, are a disturbingly common threat.

Dwarves
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Dwarves are known as master craftsmen, particularly in the arts of smithing and stonework. A few dwarven settlements are known to exist in certain remote mountain ranges, and while they do occasionally have contact with humans, they're generally quite reclusive.

Elves
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There hasn't been a reliably documented encounter between humans and elves in centuries. Legends tell of a time when elves were more common, dealing frequently with humans, but these days some believe them to be extinct altogether. Elves are commonly believed to have retreated into the forests, hiding from humans for their own inscrutable reasons. They are often spoken of with fear and suspicion as bogeymen of the wild places, using their powerful innate grasp of magic to hide themselves from human eyes and snatch unwary travellers away, never to be heard from again.

Goblinoids
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By far the most common nonhumans, the goblinoid hordes are a constant threat. They seem to have endless numbers, springing up without warning or explanation on a fairly regular basis. They possess an inexplicable hatred for humans, typically attacking on sight. Attempts to communicate with goblinoids have so far universally met with abysmal failure. Captured goblinoid prisoners are stubbornly uncommunicative, only biding their time until they can escape and attempt to kill their captors, and diplomatic envoys are greeted with a flurry of arrows, rocks, and spears. Thus, though the goblinoids do possess a spoken language, no human has managed to spend enough time among them to learn it. All goblinoids are humanoids standing to roughly a man's waist, though they usually appear shorter due to their stooped stature, and possess grotesque features. While their technology is primitive and their behavior typically quite reckless, they are nonetheless dangerously cunning.
	Goblins: By far the most common goblinoid, goblins are basically hairless, with large, pointed ears and noses and needlelike teeth. They have been found in most every environment, and often work together with other monstrous races in mounting raids and sieges against humans. Bizarrely, while their weapons, armor, and tools are generally quite primitive, they appear to have mastered the ability to make incendiary and explosive alchemical substances, which they relish using.
	Kobolds: Kobolds are tunneling goblinoids covered in short, wiry fur, typically black or dark brown. They are more heavily muscled than typical goblins, with bigger, fanglike teeth. Their ears are very small, and their noses flat and somewhat doglike. Their eyes are quite large, and they seem to have exceptional night vision. They seldom venture above ground, and when they do it's nearly always at night. Kobolds excel at trapmaking, peppering their tunnels with cleverly-disguised hazards of all kinds.
	Grindylows: Grindylows are amphibious goblinoids, vaguely froglike in appearance. Their skin is smooth, gray-green, and slimy. Their limbs are long and wiry, with webbed fingers and toes. They are less aggressive than other goblinoids, rarely venturing far from water, but no less malevolent. They delight in ambushing humans at the water's edge, dragging them in deeper where they can attempt to drown them.

Orcs
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Like goblins, orcs are grotesque humanoids with an inexplicable hatred for humans. Unlike goblins, they're organized, disciplined, and big. A typical orc is roughly equivalent in stature to an exceptionally tall and heavily-muscled human. They often ally with the goblinoids, using the considerable numbers of the hordes as a weapon against their enemies. Unlike goblinoids, which adamantly refuse to cooperate with humans under any circumstances, orcs have been known to occasionally join forces with rogue humans to attack larger human settlements. While no human has ever managed to directly acquire goblinoid cooperation, clever ne'er-do-wells with an axe to grind have been known to gain the help of goblinoids by way of orc intermediaries in the past.

Ogres
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Ogres are like orcs, but at least twice as big and half as smart. A lone ogre can easily demolish a village if not stopped by adventurers or a disciplined militia, and orcs often employ them in their armies as equal parts siege weaponry and heavy infantry.

Trolls
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Trolls stand roughly between the size of an ogre and an orc, though their build is typically thinner and more wiry. Their hands end in vicious claws, and their faces are long and pointed, vaguely snoutlike. They are by far the cleverest of the more common monstrous races, and are often mages. They are especially feared for their rapid healing, capable of closing gaping wounds in the span of a few seconds, but any adventurer worth his salt knows that fire, acid, or light-elemental magic will remedy that.

Dragons
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Mercifully quite rare, dragons are more force of nature than monster. Most know of them only from legend -- enormous reptilian beasts with batlike wings and impenetrable scales, breathing fire and ravaging huge swathes of countryside with impunity. It's said that they horde valuables they find in their rampages, and many a foolhardy adventurer has disappeared into a purported dragon's lair, never to be heard from again.

Undead
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Sometimes, the deceased may arise as unnatural abominations, spreading terror and blight. Undead may arise spontaneously (the causes and mechanisms of which are the subject of much debate and superstition), or be created as the result of foul and blasphemous magic. Regardless of origin or type, all undead are extremely vulnerable to light-elemental magic. The undead come in several varieties, the most common of which are as follows:
	Ghosts: Disembodied souls of the dead that have not passed on to the next life. They may possess any of number of various supernatural powers, and range in personality from fairly benign to deathly malevolent. However, all ghosts, even those that aren't outwardly malevolent, are believed to bring misfortune, causing dangerous accidents and outbreaks of disease simply by their presence. Ghosts are commonly believed to arise from those who died in particularly traumatic or unusual circumstances, and thus have some grudge or regret that prevents them from passing on to the next life.

	Zombies: Shambling, mindless corpses, nearly always created by foul magic. They are typically very strong and relentless, but quite slow and clumsy.

	Skeletons: Only ever the product of necromancy, animated skeletons are much more nimble than fleshy zombies, though no more intelligent. They're also generally not as durable, though the lack of flesh makes many forms of attack considerably less effective than they would otherwise be.

	Ghouls: Rotting corpses reeking of decay, ghouls have a savage, animalistic posture and an insatiable hunger for human flesh. Though they superficially resemble zombies, they are significantly faster and more nimble, and usually possess intelligence and even some of the memories of the deceased. Ghouls may be created by very skilled necromancers, but more often arise spontaneously. It is commonly believed that those who become ghouls committed cannibalism in life.

	Vampires: Unlike most undead, vampires generally show little outward sign of their deceased status beyond being unusually pale and thin. They are purely nocturnal, emerging from their graves at night to feed on human blood and returning by dawn to sleep through the day, appearing as corpses. They possess superhuman strength and agility, as well as the ability to shapeshift into the form of various animals or even a diffuse cloud. Some claim they also have the ability to mesmerize humans with their voice and gaze, helping them to covertly subdue prey. They are repulsed by garlic and holy symbols, and cannot enter a dwelling unless given permission by one of its inhabitants, nor can they cross running water. It is said that the only way to kill a vampire is by driving a wooden stake through its heart, then decapitating it and leaving the head, mouth stuffed with garlic, in the sun, at which point it will turn to ash. Vampires most often arise spontaneously, but rumours tell of a ritual that some perform to deliberately become vampires as a way to cheat death.

	Wights: At first glance, wights may be mistaken for zombies or ghouls, but in fact are far more dangerous. Like ghouls, wights are quite strong and agile. They're also quite intelligent, possessing most if not all of the memories of the deceased. Wights also typically possess various supernatural abilities, such as shapeshifting, weather control, and the ability to bestow curses and drain life energy. They are also extremely tough, requiring considerable skill and valor to defeat. Wights nearly always are found in tombs where the deceased was buried with various valuables from life, and are extremely covetous. While they venture out regularly to prey upon the living, they always return to their tomb to ensure that nobody takes their possessions. It is believed that this consuming avarice is the driving force behind a wight's reanimation. Whether this is true or not, it is certainly the case that wights only ever arise spontaneously, never as a result of deliberate necromancy.

	Liches: The most powerful of necromancers attain a sort of twisted immortality by turning themselves into undead. Liches retain their full intelligence, memory, and magical capabilities, though their flesh gradually deteriorates until they are little more than a skeleton. The dark energies that suffuse a lich and sustain its twisted existence are anathema to the living, draining vitality and inducing terror in those that get close. A lich secures its unlife by binding its soul into an item, called a phylactery, which it guards jealously. As long as the phylactery remains intact, the lich cannot be permanently destroyed.