𝐈. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 (𝐀𝐥𝐩𝐡𝐚)

Eighty-five years before the present day, the Mokhenian port-city of Zagrad thrives along Nimoria’s southeastern coast, its harbors alive with trade, ambition, but also quiet unease. Ships from distant shores dock beside colonial vessels; while diplomats, merchants, and foreign spies all move beneath the same lantern-lit streets oblivious to one another. Life is tense, but stable... for now.

Beyond the city walls, Xeval watches closely. The Viceroy's agents bury deep into the city's foundations, trading smiles for leverage, favors for obedience, and secrets for surrender. Here, words are sharper than steel: treaties, favors, secrets, and betrayals shape the fate of nations as much as blades ever can.

Yet something far more dangerous stirs unseen.

Rifts have begun to appear too close to another near the city outskirts...far too many...far too quickly. Spells misfire. Magic flickers. The world itself feels… strained. To the southwest, the Wound of the World hovers ominously, an ancient scar upon the sky long thought slumbering. But those who dare to look closely can see it now; its fractures branching, creeping, spreading. But why?

Something...has begun to unravel.

In Zagrad, you are not heroes of prophecy. You are negotiators, enforcers, scholars, opportunists, and survivors caught at the crossroads of politics and something...catastrophic, yet what you do here... will echo forward through history.

Welcome to the Alpha,

History has its eyes on you now.

Kalmet (Humans)

Humans are a widely distributed Kalmenid ancestry believed to share common origins with Orcs, Dwarves, and Halflings, despite vast cultural and physical divergence. Originating from the continent of Kalmet, humans continue to migrate across Yoren, making them one of the most widespread peoples.

They are upright, bipedal sophonts with adaptable physiques and dexterous hands, suited to a wide range of roles. Humans display exceptional diversity in height, features, and skin, hair, and eye tones, often reflecting the climates and regions they come from.

Height Range: 163 cm - 180 cm
Lifespan: 70 - 100 years
Popular Cultures:

Eituhel (Elves)

Descended from exiled fey ancestors, Eituhel are agile forest wanderers with pointed ears and vestigial, flightless wings. Once skybound, they adapted to life beneath the canopies.

They mature like humans but age slowly after 25, recover through roosting torpor instead of sleep, and rarely die of old age. Lean and largely androgynous, elves display wide coloration and occasional lepidopteran traits such as antennae or patterned wings used for protection and expression. Their temperament is often dictated by what season type they are born and their diet is mostly vegetarian, favoring fruits, herbs, and nectar.

Height Range: 170 cm - 243 cm
Lifespan: 200 - 300 years
Popular Cultures:

Anden (Dwarves)

_placeholder

Stone-shaped and mountain-born, the Anden trace their origins to the highlands and caverns of Vedua, where volcanic lands and harsh storms forged their short, stocky builds and dense hair. Highly dexterous climbers and skilled generalists, they are famed for craftsmanship without being bound to it.

Communal by nature and historically merit-driven, modern Anden societies favor technocratic leadership led by proven experts. Adaptable omnivores, they thrive underground, in highlands, or even at sea, wherever stone or skill can carry them.

Height Range: 116cm - 152cm
Lifespan: 80 - 130 years
Popular Cultures:

Art is a place holder until our team creates it! This art is not our own

Heroska (Orcs)

One of the more prominent features of the Héroska is their tusks, whose purpose has generally been agreed to have developed to their current extent due to sexual selection, though some speculate this may have gotten its start to assist in the shaving of tree bark for consumption. This earlier, heavier reliance on plant matter is still exhibited today in their robust jaws and temporal muscles and their more prominent sagittal crest for improved muscle attachment.

Hair color among the Héroska is predominantly dark, with black being the most widespread, followed closely by deep browns. Hair texture varies from coarse and straight to thick, tightly coiled curls, frequently growing heavier along the scalp and nape while thinning across the temples with age. Facial hair is common in many populations and follows similar coloration, though streaks of grey or ash-white often appear earlier than in humans, particularly in individuals exposed to prolonged stress or harsh climates.

Height Range: 175cm - 220cm
Lifespan: 80 - 100 years
Popular Cultures:

Claduhan (Goblins)

Claduhan are fey-descended burrowfolk. Small, nimble, and highly adaptive, they favor underground colonies and hidden settlements, using camouflage, heightened senses, and close family bonds to endure hostile environments.

Their societies are matriarchal and communal, prioritizing cooperation over individuality, with most goblins living and traveling in packs. Stealthy omnivores with a strong preference for meat, goblins are known for scavenging, clever tool use, and thriving where others rarely look.

Height Range: 91cm - 127cm
Lifespan: 40 - 60 years
Popular Cultures:

Floren (Halflings)

^{Art is a place holder until our team creates it! This art is not our own}

The Floren are a small-statured offshoot of the Esteran branch of Kalmenids, shaped by millennia of life across the Sarnevalian archipelago. Agile, barefoot sailors and foragers, they are renowned swimmers, divers, and master boatwrights, with sharp senses and a deep bond to sea and forest alike.

Floren societies favor kinship, cooperation, and shared labor over hierarchy, and many youths build and sail their first vessel as a rite of passage. Omnivorous and highly adaptable, they are exceptional fishers and botanists, able to safely use herbs and flora that are unfamiliar or dangerous to others.

Height Range: 81cm – 100 cm
Lifespan: 60 - 110 years
Popular Cultures:

Istania (Tieflings)

Istania are not born of natural evolution, but of catastrophe. They descend from Kalmenid and Wyrdborn survivors of The First Shattering, which tore open the veil between worlds, warping flesh and soul alike and leaving their bloodline forever marked by crystallized magic.

Humanoid in form but unmistakably altered, tieflings bear horns, tails, prismatic eyes, and crystalline Echo marks tied to elemental gemstone affinities. Lacking a single shared culture, they are shaped by caution toward magic, favoring martial discipline or nullification arts, and stand as living remnants of magic made flesh.

Height Range: 157cm - 182cm
Lifespan: 60 - 110 years
Popular Cultures:

Therianids (Beastfolk)

_{placeholder (wip)}

Therianids are fully sapient humanoids descended from animals altered by ancient magical resonance between the Wyrd and the Aria. They retain animal traits; fur, scales, feathers, tails, or vestigial wings, but think, speak, and form cultures like any other people.

They are highly diverse, broadly categorized into Mammalian, Reptilian, Amphibian, Piscian, and Avian lineages, with wide variation in appearance and society. Found across Yoren, Beastfolk are defined less by their form than by their communities, traditions, and choices.

Height Range: 81cm - 220cm
Lifespan: 70 - 100 years
Popular Cultures:

Vistora (Myconids)

The Vistora are a rare fungal ancestry born in the hidden Undergrowth, where Myconids long thrived in darkness and decay. Some later rose to the surface, becoming Selphins; sun-touched, plant-symbiotic kin shaped by light and bloom.

Spore-born and slow to mature, Vistora sense and communicate through spores and live roughly a century after leaving their mycelial roots. Myconids tend toward isolation, while Selphins more readily engage with surface societies. Valued for medicine, cultivation, and their understanding of natural cycles, Vistora stand between fungus, plant, and person.

Height Range: 91 cm - 152 cm
Lifespan: 70 - 100 years
Popular Cultures:

Halfbloods (Hybrids)

_placeholder

Art is a place holder until our team creates it! This is just some meme shit

Hybrids can only occur between ancestries that share the Chord-of-Form, the metaphysical structure governing mortal biology. This limits true hybrids to Humans, Orcs, Dwarves, Halflings, Elves, Goblins, Beastfolk and Tieflings.

Beastfolk, though once mundane animals, were reshaped by Fey influence and now follow a compatible Chord. Tieflings are mortals altered by arcane catastrophe rather than a true species; because their Chord remains intact, they may hybridize with any Kalmenid or Fey lineage.

Beings without the specific version of Chord-of-Form such as Vistora and constructs cannot produce hybrids.

Over generations, the Chord naturally stabilizes hybrid lines, favoring a single dominant form while preserving minor outward traits.

Seishin

The Seishin are the combined people who have escaped the hands of the Tian Empire during the Great Exile, or the Erai-tsuihō (偉い追放), meshing together through their shared disdain for the imperialists. Originating from Koushima, the island of equilibrium, those who joined the Koujin leading the exile traversed the dangerous waters with them until they reached the new world of Nimoria, bearing plans to start a new age of harmony.

Together, they established the settlement of Shinryoku (新緑), a place meant to symbolize their rebirth as a people and their bountiful harvests moving forward. They vowed to promote the importance of harmony and respect within themselves and the universe, creating a culture where self-expression is only often seen through the controlled medium of art, theater, and literature.

Khanid

The khánids are one of the oldest cultures on the continent, shaped by millennia of war, conflict, and destruction. Settled around the Khánid Sea, the clans have been central to both the history and trade of Nimoria, shaping it multiple times throughout the past.

The people are defined by their rigid clan systems, separating themselves into six different clans. Throughout the pasttheir united or warring states shaped history itself. Each clan is led by a single family, whose head member is called "Gróf", or, in common, a small king. Each of the clans has a home region in the historical borders of Mókhenor, lands that now remain in ruin.

Nowadays, the clans gather in the cramped city of Mókhenor, Leidenvail. Their conflicts and grudges are bubbling over the surface daily, but even so, all are united in their shared goal to retake their homelands.

Sarnevalians

_placeholder

The Sarnevalians are a resilient, seafaring culture shaped by centuries of exile, trade, and cultural intermingling. Originating from the lost merchant city of Xantho Empori in the Nevalo region of Esternia, they survived destruction and displacement during the Cinderfall War, wandering the seas aboard the Ark Nevalion for generations before resettling the Sarnevalian Archipelago.

Their society is defined by maritime life, trade diplomacy, and spiritual balance, guided by devotion to the Tidemother Saranaë. Having formed through the blending of many peoples, Sarnevalian culture places little emphasis on ancestry-based prejudice. Belonging is determined by shared customs, mutual obligation, and participation in communal life rather than blood alone.

Today, Sarnevalia stands as a major maritime trade power whose influence reaches far beyond its archipelago, including the distant colonial port of Port Ramu in Nimoria.

Kerinya

_placeholder

The Kerinya of Xeval trace their roots to the Kerinya region of Eriat far to the east. They’re known for a culture that prizes martial display as much as learned debate, with the Tamur (nobility) and Ramiza Krita (clergy) shaping public life. Their mountainous homeland, marked by hot dry summers and mild wet winters, bred a hard practicality: wasting little, stretching everything.

Kerinyan identity was also built, not just inherited. It emerged from the forced meeting of two peoples after political unification, and their prestige tongue reflects that, a deliberately elevated creole used for administration and status. That inherited duality still shows up everywhere: in competing institutions, split authority, and the constant push and pull between tradition and adaptation.

Their faith, Axtar Rami, is the closest thing to common ground: a nontheistic tradition focused on preserving knowledge through art and record. Fire sits at the center of its symbolism, not as a god but as a force that changes societies by gathering people into warmth, food, story, and song, even if old divisions and quiet ignorance linger at the edges.