A race of animalblooded people who appear as animalistic humanoids: tail/ears only, anthropomorphic, and anything at all in between. Each different "clan" has their own way of doing things and their own animal they resemble, though the most known one are the Redtails.
---| Redtails are vulpine creatures and big on various martial arts and grappling and tend to look down on people who use weapons. Even so, they tend to be fairly mild-mannered and at the least coldly polite to those who haven't earned their friendship. Various individual style-schools and belt levels are a major part of their culture, alongside the celebration of spring and a "good luck guard" celebration at the coming of winter. Their legend says that the fox that was their origin was particularly sly and tricked Lalrynth three times total. As such, the number "three" tends to be fairly popular in what they do. Their overall style mimics that of Japanese styles.
--| Graytails are lupine creatures and big on weapon use. They tend to run hot in emotions; whether it's joy, anger, hatred, or passion, they're always the loudest and most open of the lot. They tend to put a lot of emphasis on actual weapon usage and upkeep, which unsurprisingly leads into forging being a large part of their culture. They don't tend to have many celebrations as such, instead preferring friendly tournaments, but one they always celebrate is the beginning of winter, as that's when a major graytail hero ended a demon king. Alongside weaponry, dyeing is a major part of graytail culture, and a lot of graytails walk around with unnaturally-colored streaks in their hair and fur; some even go so far as to completely dye all of it rather than just streak or highlight it. Graytails believe that their wolf ancestor was a hunting companion to Lalrynth. Their overall style resembles a more European medieval style, much like in Robin Hood-era stories or settings.
--| Furtails are feline creatures that tend to stress mobility and agility over all else. They are often very playful, or at least know how to appear so, and are one of the most manipulative races around. Their fighting styles tend to revolve around never getting hit, either by being too fast to hit or taking down the enemy before they can manage to hit you, and they put as much emphasis on a good set of claws as a good dagger -- that is to say, preferring neither. Furtails are almost constantly partying, always trying to find something to celebrate and preferring to be surrounded by nice things, though what actually IS a nice thing varies from furtail to furtail; some count objects, others would prefer to collect friends, and still others consider a lover better than all else. Above all else, furtails are known for their pride, and anything they see as bruising it is attacked in some way, whether with words or claws. Furtails also believe that their ancestor was a hunting companion of Lalrynth, and that she was made into their race when she died of a wound protecting the goddess. Their overall style and culture mimics that of Chinese/China, and the non-furry ones tend to have pale or light skin.
--| Shortails are ursine creatures that are always built large and thick. Their main belief is that "a good defense is the best offense," and they tend to focus on being able to take hits and wear down opponents rather than rely on overwhelming power. They tend to be fairly calm and even-tempered; it's hard to get a shortail genuinely mad, and they mostly shrug or laugh off insults and slights. However, if you do manage to genuinely anger one, be warned: angry shortails are vengeful and violent, and they don't forget or forgive very easily. Each shortail has its own subject or action that will press its' "berserk button," so there's no way to know what can be done or not be done to avoid angering them. Thankfully, if an insult wasn't intentional, most shortails are willing to forgive as long as it doesn't happen again; otherwise, they're almost impossible to satisfy. Of all the races, shortails are most understanding and caring about half-breeds or orphans and often pick them up, meaning that their villages or outposts tend to be a mixture of a little of everything. They believe that their patron was an old bear who foolishly challenged Lalrynth to a test of strength, but willingly surrendered when he was bested, and was thus used to give birth to their race as a reward for his good sportsmanship. Shortails don't have any one overall style because of that, and the race as a whole tends to appear as a cultural-mix in most everything they do, though shortails tend towards tan or darker skin colors.
--| Feathertails are avian creatures that are always built lithe and light, and always have wings attached to their shoulder-blades that are the proper size to allow the individual flight. Feathertails tend to be somewhat snobbish and somewhat vain, making them a fairly unpopular sub-species of the Wildtail race. Their entire culture revolves around being the most attractive or the most useful, which leads to some very interesting contests being back to back; festivals might have a beauty contest and a fighting tournament right next to each other, with both being equally important! In their culture, an ugly feathertail that can bench-press a shortail is just as attractive as a feathertail with unmatched beauty. As long as there's something top-notch to pass down, regardless of what it actually is, an individual is considered "one of the best" and ends up sought after. Surprisingly, of all the Wildtails, feathertails are the sub-species that is the least prone to having multiple mates; a feathertail tends to find one special person and stick with them forever. Though there have been cases of feathertails with multiple mates, it's never been at the same time and always because one mate slighted the other. Because of this "mating for life" ideal in their heads, feathertails look down even more so on those who sleep around or have multiple interests while being surprisingly supportive and caring with those who only ever had one or who were slighted by one. After all, if the lessers mimic them in important ways like that, then there may be hope for them after all! Surprisingly, despite their vanity and snobbish ways, feathertails don't actually care about race all that much in terms of actual mates or children: if someone is top-notch enough to beat your own race, then their blood needs to get circulating in the feathertail race! Feathertails believe that their patron was a wild, gigantic, and majestic bird that Lalrynth trapped, but couldn't bring herself to kill for his beauty, so she instead befriended him and made the feathertails from him once he died of natural causes. Their culture tends to have an overall "desert"/Persian sort of resemblance, with a stress on open-air buildings (built on higher terrain) and very light clothes so as not to hamper their flying. They also tend towards tan skin colors that don't range very light or very dark.
For all Wildtails, their patrol goddess is Lalrynth, a goddess of the hunt. Their "origin legend" says that, no matter how the goddess met their patron, every single part of the patron's body -- from nose to blood -- was used to create the first few of their race. Besides the animal and its methods/relationship being different, the legend is completely the same otherwise. While a vast majority of Wildtails worship her exclusively because of this, it's not completely unheard of for Wildtails to serve another patron on the side, and though it's rare and met with some skepticism, it doesn't have any actual stigma attached to it. A Wildtail completely abandoning Lalrynth for another, on the other hand, is met with shock, horror, anger, and disgust, and is so rare that it almost is unheard of.
Character-creation wise, their hair and fur color will always match. The natural color must at least be a color that a real one of their race has, though the player is welcome to get creative with the pattern to the fur/hair. Their eye color, on the other hand, can be anything the player wants as long as it is a singular color (for normal eyes) or two separate colors (for heterochromia). No "rainbow eyes" here.
A long-lived race that many believe is the first race that appeared in the world. Once the most numerous race in the world, that honor has since gone to the humans, although there is no shortage of elves to be found. Whether living as nomads or in spaces of the forest, the long life granted to them gives them a sense of perspective. They tend to be hard to anger, easy to forgive, and actively mingle with other races, both romantically and platonically. However, on the flip side, if an elf is truly offended and the offender doesn't take steps to make amends, that elf can nurse a grudge for a very long time, and this race is nothing if not patient.
Elves are rarely ever together in a romantic way, and "pure blood" elves likely haven't existed for a long time. For some reason, the "mixed blood" rarely ever affects the child of an elf; beyond perhaps some colors to hair, skin, or eyes that they inherit from their non-elven parent, the child themselves is completely elven in every other way, including life-span. Because of this, there's no such thing as "half-elves." Occasionally, an elf's child may be the reverse of the usual -- completely their other parent's race with some (cosmetic only) elven traits such as coloration. These children have no chance of producing an elf child, though thanks to them, having elven blood in ancestry isn't unheard of -- though it is fairly rare that the elven blood is prominent enough to actually be useful.
Elves tend to worship Lalrynth, though a few do convert to other deities. Overall, they tend to be very open and accepting of other gods and don't mind hearing about them even if they themselves worship another.
Character creation wise, elves tend to have earthy colors for their eyes and hair and have sharply pointed ears. They also tend to run either much taller or much shorter than the humans.
Originally a sub-species of Wildtail, the bat-like Darkrunners have since become considered their own race, mostly because of the noticeable differences that have come through some strange quirk of God or Fate. Darkrunners have a small tail, large ears, and bat-like wings coming from their shoulder-blades. The wings can vary in size: some have them large enough to fly, others have them so small they look like accessories. The ears can also vary in design, either being human-like or bat-like ears resembling a typical Wildtail, though the human-type of ears will always be unnaturally long and mildly pointed. Along with this, Darkrunners have sharp fangs that are easily noticeable in their mouths, though only a very select few Darkrunners actually drink blood -- and even then, it's only by lapping it. Darkrunners are never anthropomorphic; the only fur they might have would be on their ears or their tails. They also can't grow beards, though their hair can grow to fairly long lengths.
All Darkrunners are oracles: through various methods, they can actually see the future (sometimes clear, sometimes foggy) as it currently stands from their point in time. As time is fluid, not static, repeated divining is all but necessary to make sure the prediction stays accurate depending on the changes people make. Because of this, Darkrunners are often found as important people in places that can afford or tolerate them.
Unfortunately, the divining comes with a price. The goddess that gives this race its ability from birth, Eslora, is absolutely insane. As such, all Darkrunners have at least one major insanity problem that can vary widely from individual to individual. As well, Darkrunners can rarely convert away from Eslora; most who try either find themselves tormented with horrifying but unclear visions (so nothing can be done about them) until they either die, kill themselves, or go so far insane they're no longer sentient. There have been individuals who've managed to detach themselves enough to become sane, though the price is losing their divining abilities -- one that most are willing to pay.
Character creation wise, a player can choose to have either bat-like ears or human-like ears. As well, the hair color will always match any other hair or fur they have. Eye-color must either be some unnatural-in-humans color (such as purple or red, though white is acceptable) or a color that a real bat has. The player has to choose what method their Darkrunner uses to predict the future as well as how their insanity manifests itself. Most anything is acceptable, though the GM may choose to veto some things. They may also, if they wish, choose to play a "sane" Darkrunner, but as these are rare, there can only be one per group.
A "race" of any sentient "robotic" or golem-esque construction. They can vary immensely, considering they can be constructed by anyone, though the most common are types that look like one of the other races but for some telling physical signs (Quote from Cave Story, as an example). There are plenty that look completely inhuman or don't bother to hide it, but there are none yet that actually can pass for any other race without intensive disguising.
The Selatron patron god is Hephirin, a forge-god who was said to make the first of their kind as an assistant to test out the weapons he made.
Because this "race" is made up of all sentient constructs, there is not any one pattern or culture that they adhere to, and selatrons tend to vary very wildly from individual to individual.
A race that is sometime mistaken for Redtails, Kasurin are foxes with multiple tails (between 2 and 13) that can transform themselves into any form they wish down to the last detail and are incapable of dying of old age. The drawback is that, as they "borrow" the faces of others, they must always keep a mask with a stylized version of their face somewhere on their body (though it can be concealed in fur/under clothes, it must always be somewhere on them). They can also only replicate what they can see or are shown and can't deviate from what they're shown, though they can alter it depending on if what they're shown was changed (if they're copying a girl and told she cut her hair, they can immediately "cut" their hair to match, for instance, but they can't make themselves taller or bigger than what they know). The only except to this is gender: a Kasurin only needs to know the gender of who they're copying in order to be able to replicate sexual organs, rather than having to see it themselves. Very young Kasurin will always have the mask on their face until they learn their powers a bit better. Kasurin can also manifest their ears/tail at will in any form.
For the purposes of interacting with other races, Kasurin will often seek out newly deceased and "imprint" an appearance as their "humanoid" one to use regularly when interacting with people. This imprinted appearance becomes one they can transform into at any time and can stay in for as long as they need; as well, this imprinted appearance does not come with a mask on their person. Furthermore, the imprinted appearance can be altered in mild ways as much as they please (hair length, streaks in hair, color of the eyes, tweaks to the body's build, etc.), and many Kasurin do as many alters as they can in order to "hide" themselves better. The imprinted form's gender will always match the Kasurin's real gender, even if it has to change to do so (for instance, a female Kasurin imprinting an appearance from a male will still be female in all forms and ways when changed). Imprinting is somewhat of a horrific process, requiring a Kasurin to devour the very soul of the person they're attempting to imprint to themselves; this is why Kasurin usually seek out newly dead. In addition, Kasurin can only have a single imprinted appearance at any time: to get another, they must discard the one they already have through a painful process of regurgitating tissue and blood for a couple of hours.
Kasurin have no patron god, because the race as a whole are cursed and all gods reject them for it. Instead, they have a demon that comes for every one of them when they die. Long ago, the first large family of the Kasurin captured the first real family of a race only known as the "Yseral." The Yseral, who were supposedly a race of spider-like creatures, ended up tormented and tortured by the Kasurin's family, until they were killed off one by one. The last remaining of that family, Yseral (who lent her name to the race), absorbed the souls of her fallen family and became a demon, attacking and devouring almost all of the Kasurin. She left only the children and infants alone, but cast a powerful curse on them to cause them to suffer for all time: if they didn't completely devour the body of a sentient creature, either another race or their own race, at least once a year, then come their birthday past the one-year mark, Yseral would come and devour them. In addition, any death would deliver their soul to her regardless of what they had done so that they could be tortured eternally.
All Kasurin believe there's some way to break the curse, but as of yet, there hasn't been a single lead to it. The only clue they have were Yseral's last words: "Can you feel our pain, our sorrow? Even if you were to die... you cannot break our hatred."
Character creation wise, a Kasurin's real form must be based off a real fox, but the fur patterns/colors can be swapped around as the player pleases (a fennec fox body style with a red fox fur appearance, for instance) and the size itself can vary between a small dog and a large dragon (though the latter is very rare and only for very powerful Kasurin). Their imprinted form must match the rules of the race the form is taken from, with exceptions to account for alterations.
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Fantasy Races Example
WILDTAILS
---| Redtails are vulpine creatures and big on various martial arts and grappling and tend to look down on people who use weapons. Even so, they tend to be fairly mild-mannered and at the least coldly polite to those who haven't earned their friendship. Various individual style-schools and belt levels are a major part of their culture, alongside the celebration of spring and a "good luck guard" celebration at the coming of winter. Their legend says that the fox that was their origin was particularly sly and tricked Lalrynth three times total. As such, the number "three" tends to be fairly popular in what they do. Their overall style mimics that of Japanese styles.
--| Graytails are lupine creatures and big on weapon use. They tend to run hot in emotions; whether it's joy, anger, hatred, or passion, they're always the loudest and most open of the lot. They tend to put a lot of emphasis on actual weapon usage and upkeep, which unsurprisingly leads into forging being a large part of their culture. They don't tend to have many celebrations as such, instead preferring friendly tournaments, but one they always celebrate is the beginning of winter, as that's when a major graytail hero ended a demon king. Alongside weaponry, dyeing is a major part of graytail culture, and a lot of graytails walk around with unnaturally-colored streaks in their hair and fur; some even go so far as to completely dye all of it rather than just streak or highlight it. Graytails believe that their wolf ancestor was a hunting companion to Lalrynth. Their overall style resembles a more European medieval style, much like in Robin Hood-era stories or settings.
--| Furtails are feline creatures that tend to stress mobility and agility over all else. They are often very playful, or at least know how to appear so, and are one of the most manipulative races around. Their fighting styles tend to revolve around never getting hit, either by being too fast to hit or taking down the enemy before they can manage to hit you, and they put as much emphasis on a good set of claws as a good dagger -- that is to say, preferring neither. Furtails are almost constantly partying, always trying to find something to celebrate and preferring to be surrounded by nice things, though what actually IS a nice thing varies from furtail to furtail; some count objects, others would prefer to collect friends, and still others consider a lover better than all else. Above all else, furtails are known for their pride, and anything they see as bruising it is attacked in some way, whether with words or claws. Furtails also believe that their ancestor was a hunting companion of Lalrynth, and that she was made into their race when she died of a wound protecting the goddess. Their overall style and culture mimics that of Chinese/China, and the non-furry ones tend to have pale or light skin.
--| Shortails are ursine creatures that are always built large and thick. Their main belief is that "a good defense is the best offense," and they tend to focus on being able to take hits and wear down opponents rather than rely on overwhelming power. They tend to be fairly calm and even-tempered; it's hard to get a shortail genuinely mad, and they mostly shrug or laugh off insults and slights. However, if you do manage to genuinely anger one, be warned: angry shortails are vengeful and violent, and they don't forget or forgive very easily. Each shortail has its own subject or action that will press its' "berserk button," so there's no way to know what can be done or not be done to avoid angering them. Thankfully, if an insult wasn't intentional, most shortails are willing to forgive as long as it doesn't happen again; otherwise, they're almost impossible to satisfy. Of all the races, shortails are most understanding and caring about half-breeds or orphans and often pick them up, meaning that their villages or outposts tend to be a mixture of a little of everything. They believe that their patron was an old bear who foolishly challenged Lalrynth to a test of strength, but willingly surrendered when he was bested, and was thus used to give birth to their race as a reward for his good sportsmanship. Shortails don't have any one overall style because of that, and the race as a whole tends to appear as a cultural-mix in most everything they do, though shortails tend towards tan or darker skin colors.
--| Feathertails are avian creatures that are always built lithe and light, and always have wings attached to their shoulder-blades that are the proper size to allow the individual flight. Feathertails tend to be somewhat snobbish and somewhat vain, making them a fairly unpopular sub-species of the Wildtail race. Their entire culture revolves around being the most attractive or the most useful, which leads to some very interesting contests being back to back; festivals might have a beauty contest and a fighting tournament right next to each other, with both being equally important! In their culture, an ugly feathertail that can bench-press a shortail is just as attractive as a feathertail with unmatched beauty. As long as there's something top-notch to pass down, regardless of what it actually is, an individual is considered "one of the best" and ends up sought after. Surprisingly, of all the Wildtails, feathertails are the sub-species that is the least prone to having multiple mates; a feathertail tends to find one special person and stick with them forever. Though there have been cases of feathertails with multiple mates, it's never been at the same time and always because one mate slighted the other. Because of this "mating for life" ideal in their heads, feathertails look down even more so on those who sleep around or have multiple interests while being surprisingly supportive and caring with those who only ever had one or who were slighted by one. After all, if the lessers mimic them in important ways like that, then there may be hope for them after all! Surprisingly, despite their vanity and snobbish ways, feathertails don't actually care about race all that much in terms of actual mates or children: if someone is top-notch enough to beat your own race, then their blood needs to get circulating in the feathertail race! Feathertails believe that their patron was a wild, gigantic, and majestic bird that Lalrynth trapped, but couldn't bring herself to kill for his beauty, so she instead befriended him and made the feathertails from him once he died of natural causes. Their culture tends to have an overall "desert"/Persian sort of resemblance, with a stress on open-air buildings (built on higher terrain) and very light clothes so as not to hamper their flying. They also tend towards tan skin colors that don't range very light or very dark.
For all Wildtails, their patrol goddess is Lalrynth, a goddess of the hunt. Their "origin legend" says that, no matter how the goddess met their patron, every single part of the patron's body -- from nose to blood -- was used to create the first few of their race. Besides the animal and its methods/relationship being different, the legend is completely the same otherwise. While a vast majority of Wildtails worship her exclusively because of this, it's not completely unheard of for Wildtails to serve another patron on the side, and though it's rare and met with some skepticism, it doesn't have any actual stigma attached to it. A Wildtail completely abandoning Lalrynth for another, on the other hand, is met with shock, horror, anger, and disgust, and is so rare that it almost is unheard of.
Character-creation wise, their hair and fur color will always match. The natural color must at least be a color that a real one of their race has, though the player is welcome to get creative with the pattern to the fur/hair. Their eye color, on the other hand, can be anything the player wants as long as it is a singular color (for normal eyes) or two separate colors (for heterochromia). No "rainbow eyes" here.
ELVES
Elves are rarely ever together in a romantic way, and "pure blood" elves likely haven't existed for a long time. For some reason, the "mixed blood" rarely ever affects the child of an elf; beyond perhaps some colors to hair, skin, or eyes that they inherit from their non-elven parent, the child themselves is completely elven in every other way, including life-span. Because of this, there's no such thing as "half-elves." Occasionally, an elf's child may be the reverse of the usual -- completely their other parent's race with some (cosmetic only) elven traits such as coloration. These children have no chance of producing an elf child, though thanks to them, having elven blood in ancestry isn't unheard of -- though it is fairly rare that the elven blood is prominent enough to actually be useful.
Elves tend to worship Lalrynth, though a few do convert to other deities. Overall, they tend to be very open and accepting of other gods and don't mind hearing about them even if they themselves worship another.
Character creation wise, elves tend to have earthy colors for their eyes and hair and have sharply pointed ears. They also tend to run either much taller or much shorter than the humans.
DARKRUNNERS
All Darkrunners are oracles: through various methods, they can actually see the future (sometimes clear, sometimes foggy) as it currently stands from their point in time. As time is fluid, not static, repeated divining is all but necessary to make sure the prediction stays accurate depending on the changes people make. Because of this, Darkrunners are often found as important people in places that can afford or tolerate them.
Unfortunately, the divining comes with a price. The goddess that gives this race its ability from birth, Eslora, is absolutely insane. As such, all Darkrunners have at least one major insanity problem that can vary widely from individual to individual. As well, Darkrunners can rarely convert away from Eslora; most who try either find themselves tormented with horrifying but unclear visions (so nothing can be done about them) until they either die, kill themselves, or go so far insane they're no longer sentient. There have been individuals who've managed to detach themselves enough to become sane, though the price is losing their divining abilities -- one that most are willing to pay.
Character creation wise, a player can choose to have either bat-like ears or human-like ears. As well, the hair color will always match any other hair or fur they have. Eye-color must either be some unnatural-in-humans color (such as purple or red, though white is acceptable) or a color that a real bat has. The player has to choose what method their Darkrunner uses to predict the future as well as how their insanity manifests itself. Most anything is acceptable, though the GM may choose to veto some things. They may also, if they wish, choose to play a "sane" Darkrunner, but as these are rare, there can only be one per group.
SELATRON
The Selatron patron god is Hephirin, a forge-god who was said to make the first of their kind as an assistant to test out the weapons he made.
Because this "race" is made up of all sentient constructs, there is not any one pattern or culture that they adhere to, and selatrons tend to vary very wildly from individual to individual.
KASURIN
For the purposes of interacting with other races, Kasurin will often seek out newly deceased and "imprint" an appearance as their "humanoid" one to use regularly when interacting with people. This imprinted appearance becomes one they can transform into at any time and can stay in for as long as they need; as well, this imprinted appearance does not come with a mask on their person. Furthermore, the imprinted appearance can be altered in mild ways as much as they please (hair length, streaks in hair, color of the eyes, tweaks to the body's build, etc.), and many Kasurin do as many alters as they can in order to "hide" themselves better. The imprinted form's gender will always match the Kasurin's real gender, even if it has to change to do so (for instance, a female Kasurin imprinting an appearance from a male will still be female in all forms and ways when changed). Imprinting is somewhat of a horrific process, requiring a Kasurin to devour the very soul of the person they're attempting to imprint to themselves; this is why Kasurin usually seek out newly dead. In addition, Kasurin can only have a single imprinted appearance at any time: to get another, they must discard the one they already have through a painful process of regurgitating tissue and blood for a couple of hours.
Kasurin have no patron god, because the race as a whole are cursed and all gods reject them for it. Instead, they have a demon that comes for every one of them when they die. Long ago, the first large family of the Kasurin captured the first real family of a race only known as the "Yseral." The Yseral, who were supposedly a race of spider-like creatures, ended up tormented and tortured by the Kasurin's family, until they were killed off one by one. The last remaining of that family, Yseral (who lent her name to the race), absorbed the souls of her fallen family and became a demon, attacking and devouring almost all of the Kasurin. She left only the children and infants alone, but cast a powerful curse on them to cause them to suffer for all time: if they didn't completely devour the body of a sentient creature, either another race or their own race, at least once a year, then come their birthday past the one-year mark, Yseral would come and devour them. In addition, any death would deliver their soul to her regardless of what they had done so that they could be tortured eternally.
All Kasurin believe there's some way to break the curse, but as of yet, there hasn't been a single lead to it. The only clue they have were Yseral's last words: "Can you feel our pain, our sorrow? Even if you were to die... you cannot break our hatred."
Character creation wise, a Kasurin's real form must be based off a real fox, but the fur patterns/colors can be swapped around as the player pleases (a fennec fox body style with a red fox fur appearance, for instance) and the size itself can vary between a small dog and a large dragon (though the latter is very rare and only for very powerful Kasurin). Their imprinted form must match the rules of the race the form is taken from, with exceptions to account for alterations.