Harem Knights: Races

Angels

Angels (Aen-jel) are representatives of higher powers usually, and the only definitive evidence that there are any such things as "Gods". Even then, they tend to be infuriatingly ambiguous about their origins, allegiances, and powers at times.

Chironen/Batpeople

Chironen (Chir-On-in), until the dawn of /tg/ have primarily been a nomadic race, living on subsistence. They came from across the Elven lands from some place far to the east. They speak of horrors that drove them away, and their appearance (at least in any form of mass) in the western lands occured shortly before, or after, the Elves began cutting ties with everyone around them and became incredibly hostile to Trespassers in their lands.

Chironen are incredibly dextrous and light humanoids with muscles far more powerful than their size would give them credit for. They have only 4 limbs, a pair of legs and their membranous wings. The struts between the membranes are actually their fingers, of which there are four, with an opposable thumb claw which is double jointed, giving them a surprising level of manipulatory power with it. Their toes, likewise, are slightly longer, and contain an extra knuckle than human toes ontop of being tipped with slightly rough claws. The muscles in their toes, feet, and legs are impossibly strong, capable of holding onto cavern ceilings or branches while they sleep. They usually have long hair, most of which grows down the back of their neck and onto the space where their shoulders and neck meet, forming a kind of mane/ruff around their throats from their long strands of hair. Chironen skin tone is in all the natural human shades, but they tend towards the darker skintones. Finally, they have large ears, which often peak out from their long tresses and bangs (which almost universally cover their eyes)

Contrary to popular belief, there is not much difference between the eye structure of a Chironen and that of a Human. Chironen eyes are, however, not suited for the dark. Their echolocation abilities, projected whenever they talk, are more than capable of making up for this, especially in large groups as Chironen ears are sensitive enough to pick up not only the echos of their own voices, but tell who projected the other echos they are listening too, turning a colony into an echolocation network of sorts. Chironen, by nature, are a nocturnal race, and much prefer the dark of night to the light of day (which is unusual given their skin pigmentation). This leads to their eyes being exceedingly night adapted, to the point where anything but dim lights is literally painful to a night-adapted Chironen. During the day, many Chironen wear elasticy, gauzy, black circles of cloth, called dark-bands, around their heads and over their eyes to help them see. The size and positioning of their ears prevent them from using human sunglasses. Over time, Chironen can become adapted to daylight conditions, though usually they always prefer to wear the dark-bands. Chironen young, born and raised to be awake during daylight hours, have no troubles seeing during the day time, and usually do not wear dark-bands.

Chironen have since lived a nomadic existence, migrating north and south given the season in small colonies, the largest of which has never exceeded 50 members, and only one of those in recorded history has done that. "Migratory" Chironen tend to wear minimalist clothing, if any at all, given their lack of materials available to /tg/ and while they have more manipulatory abilities than one might guess at first glance, the membranes between their arms and torso preclude most normal clothing. This is the cause for their migratory habits in most of the world. When a colony is unable to get south quickly enough, it usually hunts for a nearby cavern, and huddles together in hibernation. It should be noted that Chironen have a particularly bad reputation amongst humans, due to the fact that large Colonies, when in danger of dieing to exposure during winter, will raid human settlements for food to fatten up quickly for the winter before hibernating.

Chironen society is one of incredible closeness. Due to the lack of sight and color in their normal conditions, Chironen rely not only on sound, but touch, taste, and smell to transfer information. This leads your average Chironen to having no concept (or only a vague one) of "Personal Space" as something that is always there. Chironen understand that sometimes everyone needs a little space, or doesn't want to be touched, but they see this as the exception, not the rule. An early problem early on with /TG/ Chironen relations was a misunderstanding of this. Amongst Chironen, there is nothing sexual about touching, licking, or cuddling a person when it is not in an intimate, or sexual spot. Kissing, sex, and other sexual actions retain the same conotiations (A Chironen may lick your cheek, hands, or neck, but never your lips or other intimate areas such as breasts or genitals unless you are in a relationship). Given that things that Outerrealmers considered incredibly intimate, and usually only to be shared amongst members of the opposite sex (or same sex if you swung that way), this lead to many hilarious early on encounters with Chironen who didn't have a concept of gender, or even age, boundaries in this context.

Chironen currently fill a niche as cartographers, night scouts, sappers, and architects in /tg/ society. Their echolocative abilities allowing them to excel in all of these areas.

Dragons

Dragons, at least in the new world, are not quite like how we imagined them in the old one. They are capable of three forms, their normal dragonish one, the giant 6 limbed, fire (or occasionally another element) breathing monster, a humanoid one, and there is also the hybrid form where they are human with heavy dragon characteristics. A few dragons with excellent control over their transformative abilities are able to pick and chose which characteristics they keep in this form.

The ability to breath an element is a sign of maturation.

Dragons are a diverse bunch, both in shape, color, and personality. Dragons seem to maintain the basic "scaled with 6 limbs" but reports of feathers, furred, and stranger dragons have been made before, and a few even confirmed. General reptilian appearances, with 4 legs and 2 wings, seems to be the only commonality amongst dragons physiologically.

Dragons, psychologically, are equally diverse. The only commonality shared is the desire for a "Hoard". This hoard, usually imagined as a massive pile of valuable and precious metals, gems, and objects, can be virtually anything, though obviously this is limited somewhat. A 'horde of babes' is not likely to be maintained by your usual cave dwelling dragon. A Dragon who has a desire to collect some unusual type of horde, often still collects the stereotypical gold and gem pile, though not for the same reasons. A "Precious shinies" Dragon (seemingly the most common) will simply keep it, like a magpie, rarely, if ever, dolling out so much as a grain of gold. A Dragon who is not of this inclination, will instead willingly, and wildly, spend their accumulated treasures in the attempt to build up their desired horde. One dragon of fame, after terrorizing the lands of the Caliph of Serridan (may His soup forever be free of fish bones), used their accumulated riches to build a garden that contained every flower and bloom known to the scholars of the world, and jealously guarded it against intrusion or cutting by anyone else.

Dwarves

Dwarves are short, stout, well built mountain folk. While other underground dwelling races live deep beneath the earth, dwarves tend to build directly into mountains, rarely going far below the bases of their mountains in their diggings, at least in terms of living space, for mining, there are few places a dwarf will not go.

Dwarves are built low and tough, a TALL dwarf will clock in at about 5 feet, and that is considered freakish. Most dwarves are at about chest height (~4 foot) to your average human. Contrary to popular belief, dwarves are not universally bearded, and their women tend to be as well shaved as your average human woman.

Dwarven sexuality is hard to quantify. While looks -do- play a role in how they choose who they are attracted to, as does personality, these two facets play a MUCH smaller role in their attraction than it does in other races. No, what a dwarf looks for in a mate is ABILITY. A dwarf who is a master of his craft is considered to be a stud by all of his fellows, and rather than inviting a partner back to the bed room, they are far more likely to invite them to their private workshop.

Dwarven society places massive importance upon tradition, loyalty, and the APPEARANCE of honor. You can be a backstabbing scum bag, but if no one can prove it, you'll only be disliked. God help you if it is ever proven that you are a treacherous snake, dwarves tend to lynch one another over that. But above all, most important to all dwarves, is the ability to get shit done. Proficiency in a craft is not based upon how you do it, but that you get it done as efficiently and cost effectively as possible, to the maximum result. In this end, Dwarves have found a surprising amount of admiration for the Outerrealmers of /TG/ given our industrial/digital age take upon most tasks, and is possibly the reason behind the alliance between /TG/ and the Ranges.

Elves

Elves are a race of magically, and craftsmanship adept humanoids with pointed ears and a few biological anomalies. They are divided into a strict caste based society, with everyone's position incredibly, and irrevocably defined from birth, and reinforced constantly both biologically and culturally. Historical accounts of Elvish society, kept by some human monasteries and dwarven holds, state that this was not always the case, but that it happened several centuries ago, around the same time the Chironen appeared in the western lands.

All Elves are bound to their caste, something decided upon their birth, and only tangentially related to their family lines. In fact, elves apparently place far less value on family units than other races do, instead raising children communally amongst their appropriate caste. While this is the "official" line, the truth is that it is something apparently newly imposed, at least as far as the long lived elves are concerned. "Adoption" of children is quite common, and in the lower castes, at least, almost universal, creating surrogate family units whenever possible. Luckily, since genetics plays some role in what caste a person is likely to be, it is not as common as one might expect for a mother or father to be separated from their child.

A built in mechanism against rebellion seems to be the "Berserk" effect that occurs in elves when someone of higher rank than them is killed in their presence, with the violence increasing exponentially the larger the gap in "Dominance". In recorded cases, entire villages have devolved into cannibalistic blood baths when the lord of them died violently before a large crowd. It is suspected that this was the primary cause of the necessity of the massacre in late 1AA during the counter attack upon the elves that had been preying upon /TG/.

More information on the elves is currently unavailable. It is known they have large cities further into their realm, but penetrating the patrols is nearly impossible. The higher castes seem to be trained into being nearly sociopathic, yet loyal to the central state and the caste system above all else. The lower down into the castes you go, the more capable of "free thought" an elf becomes, though they are less capable of "independent thought". That is to say, Higher castes are able to act on their own initiative more often, but seem to be less capable of questioning orders given by those higher up, while those lower down are less able to act on their own, and more capable of accepting new kinds of thought, as well as questioning orders. This part seems to be, primarily, cultural and only reinforced by the pheremonal controls of male elves, and tends to disappear the moment an elf of sufficiently low dominance is removed from elven society.

The Elves are further divided into High and Low varieties.

High Elves

approximately six inches taller then Low Elves, and have an olfactory organ at the base of the spine that compels Low Elves to follow their commands. This effect can be resisted, however, should the Low Elf in question be aware of it.

Low Elves

Making up the vast bulk of Elvish society, and 100% of female elves found to date, these elves either do not have the organ mentioned above, or have it in a severely stunted state.

Goblins

Goblins are a race of slightly reptilian, short, humanoids with a technical bent. Contrary to popular belief, Goblins are not related to Orkind in any way, shape, or form. Physiologically, they are smooth skinned, but have scale like patterns and calluses on places where the bones are shallow against the skin. They have short stubby tails protruding from their rears. Their eyes are usually monochrome with a single snake like slit pupil, though there are exceptions. All Goblins retains a love of gadgetry (though not on the scale of the gnomes) but more than that, a love of alchemy, chemistry, and herbology. Their skin tons have a very, very, very, wide range, but by far the most common range is grey to green (though reports of red, blue, human skin tones, and every other color imaginable have been made, though how much of this is alchemical trickery and how much is natural is unclear).

Goblins, unlike every other race on the planet, seem to have come from else where, another world entirely, only tangentially connected to this one. Goblins are, by far, the most common opponent faced by adventurers going into the dungeons that spontaneously appear. Given that there is no species quite like Goblins anywhere else in the world, and almost no records of them being created, migrating here, or anything else amongst the dwarves, felim, or humans (not even myths or legends), it can only be assumed that those of Goblins populating the new world are those who left the dungeons that brought them here before the dungeons were closed.

Goblins are divided into three races, Gobbos, Kobolds, and Gremlins.

Goblins

Unlike their wilder, dungeon dwelling cousins, or the tribes of their kind far to the south. Gobbos are incredibly civilized, organizing themselves into merchant bands known as Caravans that travel between settlements. They peddle trinkets, potions, and small gadgetry at each location.

Gobbos rarely, if ever, take off the dark black robes and hoods they wear constantly, nor the white masks carved with different faces, each face representing a different emotion or action or idea. Gobbos only remove this clothing in the presence of someone they truly trust, and is usually something reserved between mates. It is unclear how Gobbos are capable of drinking and eating through their masks, though they seem to do so effortlessly.

Gobbos, far more than their cousins, the Kobolds, are masters of alchemy and medicine, and they adore modifying their bodies, though it is rare when you see a gobbo that is radically different from the standard Goblin template. Gobbos tend to be strangely proportioned for their size, which is at about waist height to a human. Gobbo males are often thickly muscled, even if they are of a scholarly bent, and very, very, fit. Gobbo females are impossibly curvy, to the point where some even have trouble retaining their balance. Gobbos do not state whether this is NATURAL for them, or the result of alchemical manipulation of their forms, though they seem to accord respect in equality to how heavily modified a fellow Gobbo's body is, and to these Gobbos who are almost comically proportioned, a great deal of respect is given.

Gobbos are most commonly sighted type of Goblins in the northern lands, and the only nonhuman even barely tolerated by humanity. This is for a number of reasons. Goblins are master apothecaries and alchemists, and 3 generations back, the heir to the kingdom was deathly ill. No one amount of prayer, healing, or medicine was able to cure him. In desperation, the King began calling to those outside humanity for help (besides the hated elves). Dwarven runes did nothing, nor Halfling cookery, Felim shamanism, or Gnomish invention. Finally, a goblin caravan arrived in the capital, and with it was the oldest and wisest (or so the goblin claimed) of their kind. Over the next few weeks, he had adventurers gather the rarest of ingredients, and after a month, concocted a substance that cured the heir, who later became king. So ecstatic at the revival of his son, the King at the time offered the goblins anything they wanted. The price was not as high as he might have thought, not half his kingdom, not riches untold, no. They simply asked that each of their caravans be given a contract, a writ of trade and pass, to move unmolested through human lands, and peddle their trade in human settlements.

Goblins are still discriminated against, in their gypsy like caravans, but by law, they are protected and subject to the king's laws, and there is many a plague stricken town that would not have survived if not for a timely passing of a gobbo caravan. This, combined with the fact Gobbos tend to camp outside of a settlement and keep to themselves, has lead to a grudging tolerance of their presence in most towns.

Kobolds

Kobolds, by and large, are what adventurers face in most dungeons or around them. Kobolds show none of the modesty nor alchemical manipulation that Gobbos display, and share not even the basic tolerance displayed by humans towards Gobbos, not by a long shot. Kobolds are tinkers beyond compare, and passable alchemists. Many magical items found in dungeons, at least the minor ones, are of Kobold make, and you will never find a race more adept at placing and hiding traps of all sorts. Kobolds are masters of ambushes, and if evidence in deep dungeons is to be believed, were once the dominant species of some very powerful, and magical nation. It is possible that the mysterious magical items found in the depths of most dungeons were made by the Kobolds of old.

Kobolds follow the standard Goblin template in appearance, and universally, whether they are members of nomadic tribes (particularly common to the Desert of 1000 Sands, the Knoll Wastes and Orc lands) despise their Gobbo cousins. Calling them race-traitors and claming that they are dishonoring the ancient ways.

Kobolds seem to worship magic, in all it's forms, and at the same time, abhor "technology" as they put it. The devices of the gnomes and even dwarves, to them, are wretched things, and the few cases where a Kobold has been exposed to something as advanced as say, a cellphone or laptop, and were told how it worked, has resulted in the Kobold going into a panic. There is little explanation for this.

Gremlins

Out of all the Goblins, the Gremlins are the most alien and insane. While Gobbos disdain advanced technology (usually anything that is steam driven or more advanced), and Kobolds despise it, the Gremlin is defined by his paradoxical fascination of what he hates. Gremlins are found most commonly in the Dwarven Reaches and in Gnomish lands. They form strange, half tribes of half insane members, modifying themselves with a combination of magical tinkering and alchemy that is far more unstable than that practiced by either the Kobolds or the Gobbos. They attack, raid, and whenever they can, subvert any form of technology they can find. Most often they break it, but occasionally they "hack" it into something it was never supposed to do, usually involved in killing any "tech lovers" the Gremlins can get at, or damaging anything else technological around them.

Halflings

Halflings are short, waist high at most, humanoids of slight build (similar to gnomes and humans in proportions). Some say they’re related to the Gnomes, but if they are, they don’t act it. Usually content with staying in their dwellings and working their fields, wanderlust is a rarity at best, prosecuted at worst. Still, noble folk with noble aims, even if Mirthterrahs seems to be encroaching on their hobbit holes. While not tinkers, nor warriors, and certainly not adventurers, there are few races who can match their skill in two areas: Cooking, and Agriculture. For emphasis, Halflings figured out the 3 field system about 2 generations into discovering agriculture in the first place. Halflings also keep meticulous records of weather patterns, star movements, and other meteorlogical phenomena for the purposes of their fields and crafts. The shire is such a productive area of farm land, that it produces almost as much produce as half of all of Mirthterrah's provicines put together.

Orkind

High Orcs

Greyish skinned and live in the mountains.

Savage Orcs

Live in coastal regions and are in a way the average Orc as they are in the middle on just about everything between the High Orcs and the Orks.

Orks

Big strong and dumb, they live in the southern plains.

Telidron

War Angels of Ter the Orc god of war, Ter. They tend to be around seven and a half feet tall. They have four eyes and six arms.