Editing The World of Aarn (section)

==The Godtouched Races==
The magic-capable races of Aarn are the lone survivors of ancient bloody wars of genocide. The Gods created each race by splicing together the aspects of various animals, granting the resulting creation sentience and magic, then seeing how long the race survived. The gods were arguably quite poor at creating these races, as there were once thousands of them, and all but 30 are extinct. It is likely the gods didn't know what they were doing. Godtouched races include, but are not limited to:

===Humans===
A godtouched race created just 8500 years ago, humans are created from the animals known as giants. Most of the civilized races that survived the wars of the gods had at least some giant in them, so a god decided to see what would happen when a godtouched race made entirely from giant stock. The humans promptly took over the world, then turned an entire continent into a swath of pulverized islands in a magical cacatlysm. Despite their rocky start, humans are still the dominant race of Aarn, and in charge of most of the different civilizations.

===Ardlins===
Ardlins are a race created not 75 years ago by the goddess of procrastination, who couldn't decide if she wanted velociraptor goblins or velociraptor lizardmen. So she settled on using all three. Ardlins have a high technological aptitude, but do not yet have the culture or education to take advantage of this trait. Ardlins are shunned and hunted because no race wishes to see them become the next "Humans." Now that the ardlins are creating a niche for themselves, the goddess of procrastination is starting to be seen as the goddess of plucky resolve.

===Valdrex===
The Valdrex are a race of insects whose individuals have no egos, created by the goddess of domination and conquest. Hundreds of thousands of years ago, the Valdrex "won" the war of the gods by killing two gods, and nearly destroying the planet in the process. They have never quite lived this down. Since then, Valdrex have become more careful, and seek to dominate the planet through slavery and economics. As a modern merchant race, they garb themselves in robes that make themselves appear humanoid, for diplomatic purposes.

===Spirit Animals===
This race is composed of sentient animals with ornery personalities. Originally created by the god of education and curiosity, the spirit animals rebelled against him when he ordered that they reveal the secrets they learned to the world. Spirit Animals have the special ability to become spirits upon death, avoiding the afterlife entirely. They may then steal the bodies of other races. Those possessed by spirit animals have infiltrated Human society, and the souls of bunnies, foxes and squirrels actually control Aarn's international banking system.

===Merfolk===
The Merfolk are an aquatic race that shuns the use of all magic. Instead, merfolk use biotechnology, including mile long eel battleships, laser-firing lamprey wrist-guards, and jellyfish bubble-cities. The Merfolk are literally ruled by their god, Occus, and have perpetrated campaigns of genocide against all other aquatic godtouched races. Only the water dragons survived.