Editing New Jhelom (section)

==Races==

===Humanity===
A widespread race, due to the wide-spread influence of New Jhelom

; The Elemental Blood Lines : There's been a lot of talk of these Elemental Bloodlines. But here's the lowdown as best as I can get on the Noble Houses.
: The Elemental Bloodlines are not just of mortals descended from Elemental Folk like the Djinn, Iffrite, Angels, and true Elementals, no, some of these high beings are amongst the houses, though hidden, bound, or secretive of their true natures. It is known the Vizier is truly human though.

* House of Sky - No need to explain here. With House of Sky in dominance due to the Vizier, this is by far the biggest House. 
* House of Wind - Nearly Extinct. Entirely controlled by the House of Sky.
* House of Fire - Low Strength, grudgingly loyal to House of Sky
* House of Stone - Middling Strength, keep to themselves, loyal to House of Sky.
* House of Sand - In forced imprisonment somewhere, a form of "house arrest".
* House of Lightning - Low Strength - Underwent exodus to the Western Continent to avoid the wrath of the House of Sky. But at least one family is still in the Empire, causing trouble for the Vizier. 
* House of Water - Almost entire obliterated by the House of Sky. It's tributaries of Rain and Ocean collapsed back into the main House. But the Princess of Waters in the Republic of Gold seeks to rebuild the house and re-create Rain and Ocean.
* House of Glass - Middling Strength, loyal to the House of Sky, held on a tight leash.
* House of Wood - Status unknown. Fled New Jhelom a while ago. Said to have been headed for the Southern Continent.
* House of Metal - The bulk of this House went down into the Well and fled. The Vizier is said to keep a few of them in his dungeon as prisoners and is trying to get information from them.
* House of Flowers - Low Strength. Submissive to the House of Sky. The Vizier's Mistress if of the House of Flowers.
* House of Stars - Entirely Unknown. Even suggesting that such a house exists leads to investigation and imprisonment by the Vizier's men.

* They say that the descendents of the Elemental of Glass are kept locked in the Palace Dungeon. They say the last Elemental of Wind is in a glass orb owned by the Vizier. They say the descendents of the Elementals of Fire can light their hands aflame with strange Martial Arts. They say the Princess of Waters has four Wives - a Wife of River, a Wife of Lake, a Wife of Pond and a Wife of Tides. They say that the structures out in the desert are the tombs of the Descendents of the Elementals of Sand - and that they still move down there. They say the Descendents of the Elementals of Wood all left long ago. They say the Descendents of the Elementals of Metal went underground. Who can tell what is the truth?
* Searching for the Descendents of the Elementals of Lightning will only lead to trouble. Even mentioned the Descendents of the Elementals of the Stars, especially their supposed gift for oracle, will likely lead you to the dungeons.
* Hmm. Strange rumours. But the Descendents of the Elementals of Stone are still alright I think - I mean, I thought they were those strange figures in those hoods that come to market from the Spire Islands? Right?
* Blue Feathers are, by law, something only members of the royal House of Sky are permitted to wear with their garb. Their servants may wear a single blue feather, but only those of the House of Sky are permitted to drape themselves in them. Others may use them on other forms of decoration, to declare loyalty or just because it looks nice.

; The Nostos :

; The Arkhans :

* I have seen the Arkhans in the marketplace! They are indeed tall, and ask after their Wind God. Surely they do not refer to the Vizier's Eye of Wind?

===The Murder Born===

; The Chasatha : An entirely female Race that looks to be women with the lower half of snake, and some other snake-like features. They come from the Isles of Smoke. The Chasatha trade gems to New Jhelom with excellent properties for making magical artifacts. The Chathasa trade these for beautiful human slavegirls. The Chathasa actually devour these maidens whole and living. This foul deed apparently lets the Chathasa maintain a youthful sheen for all their lives, and an extended lifespan. It's rumoured that if they do not do this at least sometimes, they become more and more snakelike, until finally regressing into actual serpents. Generally only the more human-ish Chathasa trade at the Capital. The Chathasa also taught humans the arts of Assassination. The Chasatha are said to be descendents of the First Assassin. Their bite can kill, agonize or subvert men. But if they try to eat a man, their throats seize up and they die. 

* The Chasatha from the Isles of Smoke are all demons. They are like women, but half snake. They look alluring, but their fangs can poison men - leading to death, agony or submission. They come in their Shrouded Ships to trade sometime - they demand beautiful slave girls, which they exchange for their rare gems (invaluable for mages). But the dark truth is that they devour these hapless maidens, swallowing them whole and alive, like the snakes they are. The darker truth is the reason for this - the tales of Chasatha immortality is true, and this is how they maintain it. But they say that a Chasatha cannot eat a maiden who bests her in a competition of music or dance. How these are judged, I do not know.
* The Chasatha were the first to teach the Empire the Art of Silent Death. The Assassins of today trace their arts back to them.
* I heard the flesh of men is poisonous to the Chasatha. The flesh of a man will cause their throat to constrict and choke them. This is a valuable clue if you ever find yourself fighting one.
* The Chasatha are the only ones able to enter the terrible bejeweled city due to their relation to the first assassin... who is their father. The city, it is said, once was the center of the world, but was tainted as the cursed immortal slayer plied his trade, and mastered every method of slaughter, turning the Isles of Smoke into a charnel house of horror over many centuries... his sons became the Perched, his daughters became the Chasatha... who share no love for one another barring horrible, incestuous mating sessions held once a century.

; The Perchers : An entirely Male Race that pollutes the empty streets of the Isles of Smoke, that look hideous and twisted. They occasionally mate with the Chathasa, but aside from that the Chathasa avoid them.They are said to be descendents of the First Assassin. The blood of women is like acid to them.

* The Perched have grown strange on the Isles of Smoke, and they are said to have gained a semblance of sentience. Their hideous dialect spills from their crooked maws as bubbling pitch, marring the gemstones people risk all to acquire.
*: Such gems are said to whisper to their owners the secrets of the Isle of Smoke's former masters.
* Just as the Chasatha die if the flesh of men reaches their throat, so does the blood of women scorch the Perched, even in small amounts.
* For this reason, when the Perched find or capture a living woman, they pierce her from afar with crude javelins, or bring her to bay with cruel snares, the better to keep her in their lightless vaults for sport.
*: Some say they breed these women to captured men, before devouring them, and raise the babes in blindness to be slaves and servant caste. In place of these children's eyes, they place gems coated in their caustic, defiling pitch, and though they cannot "see" after the fashion of mortal men, their silent, uncanny prowess unnerves those who set foot on the Isles.
*: They are silent for their tongues are cut out, and offered to the barghests.

===The Faekin===
* I have heard that the knife-ears are somehow related to the Pale Folk. How, I do not know.

; The Pale Folk : Friendlier relatives of the Knife-Ears, but reclusive to the extreme. Often appear in fairytales, helping the righteous.

* Under the ground, in large caverns, live the Pale Folk - Elven like people, with strange technologies. But in certain areas of their caverns, they can see the water leaking in, and know the crab people seek to destroy them.

; The Knife Ears : Marauders in dark ships that skim the surface of the ocean. They come for your blood.

* The black ships of the knife-ears can be glimpsed on the fringes of the Empire, on occasion, raiding coastal settlements not for food nor supplies, but children.
*: Little is known of this enigmatic people, save the darkness of their ships and their deeds, the tallness of their stature and the distinctly pointed shape of their ears.
*: Rumors amongst witnesses whisper that the black ships of the tallfolk do not sail the ocean so much as glide above it, silent.
* The Knife-Ears come from the south, but no one can tell much about where they come from aside from that. 

===The Crab Men===
The most widespread race, they live under the ocean in vast cities. Every 500 years they are driven to land to spawn and replenish their numbers. Their civilization was said to have been grand, but fell to madness.

* The waters around the islands are infested with a malevolent race of crab people, who construct vast underwater cities that span the known globe - but noone who ever witnesses them performing an attack or sees their cities lives. The crab people are long lived and small in number, but spawn once every 500 years in an orgy of violence, magic and crab lust. That time is fast approaching.
* The Crabs worship a beast known as the Kraken. God, demon, or elemental spawn. None know, but they have only come to worship it recently. 

===The Undead===
Effectively their own race, they live in Thanati with a few humans they raise. The Undead have a rigid caste system, with the blood dependent vampires at the bottom. 

* The Empire has an interesting alliance with the Dead. A Caste Based nation of the dead, ruled by the Thanati, undead liches with mouths sewn shut, beautiful clothes and skin like preserved leather. The living are a minority, usually raised on farms, snuffed out and re-raised as zombies. Some are reared by the Thanati to be welcomed into undead society when they come of age. The few free-born living survive doing work too dangerous or complex for the semi-sentient zombies. There are thousands of the undead, with vampires at the bottom of the ladder - starving junkies in shanty towns, begging the living for just a sip of their precious fluids.
*: At need, the Thanati send their forces to the glittering desert, or to chastise those who bother their benefactors.
* I heard the Vizier will deal with the Undead because the Elementals have no Dominion over Death.

; Liches, "Thanati" :

; Mummies :

; Zombies :

; Vampires :

===The Gorii===
A short, green race who used to be the dominant race on land, until the humans who would found Old Jhelom destroyed their nation and corrupted them to savages.

* The Empire has not always been the only dominant power in the region.
*: In ancient times, the Gorii Dominion held sway over a vast swathe of what is currently the Empire of New Jhelom. The Gorii were a proud, green-skinned race of short stature.
*: A relationship of trade between the two Empires quickly became a relationship of total and complete war.
*: The First, Second, and Third Gorii Wars cost the Empire dearly. It was not until the Great Curse that the Empire won out.
*: It is said the sorcerers of the Empire cast a great corruption upon the Gorii race, killing most and routing what remained. The Gorii Last Stand was not well documented, save that it ended in the destruction of the Dominion's capital, Gobii, and the salting of its fields.
*: It is said their modern descendants bear the corruption still, and are little more than half-intelligent monsters, dancing about fires in caves and occasionally raiding villages.

===Other Races===
; The Teis :
* The Teis are magical being that float around try to maintain the world.
* The Teis are actually what's left over from the Elementals who have been devoured by demons. Motes of magical power drifting through the world, trying to influence and protect it from the oncoming darkness. 

; River Folk (Working Name) :

* There is an entire vast civilization of tiny aquatic humanoids, who live all up and down the bottom of the Urz River.

; Cliff Flyers/Leathery Racers :
* A routine surge of leathery fliers, approximately a meter across, must be culled. These fliers nest in cliffs, racing throughout to mate before leaving to search for anything they can find to eat, being an omnivorous horde.
* These "cliff flyers" or "leathery racers", as the people often call them, are the brood of a great, winged abomination that nests in the cliffs on one of the smaller isles. the waters around the island are said to be cursed, as ships that approach too near vanish, or else have their decks painted with blood - abandoned. Rare survivors rave about winged shadows that come in the night.
*: Its progeny bring a tithe of prey to it, and it slowly grows too large for its home.
*: Mad cultusts worship this being, and small settlements near the cursed island are slowly becoming abandoned under dark circumstances.
** These 'Leathery Racers" are related to the Perched, the creatures that stalk the empty streets of the Isles of Smoke, where the Chasatha sneak by to purloin the valuable gems.

; The Shadow Minds :
* The shadow minds
*: Some children born are born empty.
*: These children become hosts to the things that animate the barghests, and sometimes the things that give men nightmares; these children have no substance to anchor their souls. They become vessels for the Things That Wait.
*: Subversive, silent, and crafty, these beings haunt the Western Continent. They are subjects of the Serpent, but not connected to it - they are merely fragments of its will that scraped off when it made a rupture from Beyond the Stars.
*: Black fragments of Unself enter most Hollow children, and they become shadow minds. Leaders of cults or cannibal monsters, the shadow minds are true monsters - the appearance of humanity wrapped around a darkness from beyond the sky.