Races

Dwarves

The stout and proud dwarves of Exandria build insular societies, and most every dwarf in Tal’Dorei hails from Kraghammer or is descended from those who did. The mountainous stronghold still stands as the central heart of dwarven society, and many of the most celebrated heroes (and villains) of dwarvenkind hail from these fire-warmed halls. Mountain and hill dwarves alike can be found in the many cities and locales of Tal’Dorei, but only hill dwarves make a habit of staying out long, let alone making aboveground settlements of their own. If drawn to more dangerous pursuits, many dwarves turn to mercenary work, wandering the southern end of the Bladeshimmer Shoreline to scavenge lost treasures, or even beyond the Stormcrest Mountains to mark a new life outside the politics of the realm within the Mornset Countryside.

Mountain Dwarves More than any other trait, mountain dwarves are known for their stubbornness. As the saying goes, “the dwarves are as unmoving as the mountain they sit under.” Beyond the simple stereotypes of brusqueness, arrogance, and pigheadedness, mountain dwarves are complex people. As the majority culture in Kraghammer, mountain dwarves are shaped by a long history of suspicion. For centuries, new peoples and new ideas in Kraghammer meant danger. They spelled the death of monarchs and incursion by dark, subterranean agents. The only time dwarves proudly opened their arms to a new people, Warren Drassig led all Tal’Dorei into the greatest war since the Age of Arcanum. In the mind of a dwarf, this suspicion is perfectly justified—though

people used to the immigrant culture of Tal’Dorei may find this outlook distressingly xenophobic, and even cruel.

Hill Dwarves Some dwarves felt confined within their subterranean halls, and sought to move their families into the open lands of the Dividing Plains. These people of the foothills abandoned their elders’ teachings of caution and worry, and in exchange found new friends, new business opportunities, spiritual enlightenment, and even arcane knowledge within the human-majority cities of Emon, Kymal, and Westruun. Very few ever set foot within the Verdant Expanse, however, knowing the animosity that the elves of Syngorn hold for those born beneath the mountain. Even so, the rare expatriate dwarf has found kinship within elven homesteads, though they are never fully trusted by the Wardens.

Duergar Fires flare from the darkness and hammers ring in the deep, alerting wary travelers of the underworld to the presence of the duergar. The lightless depths beneath the Cliffkeep Mountains are the tyrannical realm of the gray dwarves, driven by a burning hatred for their kin of the mountains. One question plagues the dwarven historians of Kraghammer’s House Thunderbrand about the dark dwarves: What drove them into the depths in the first place? The only time a duergar prince was captured in battle, he only managed to rasp “The six… we are the six,” before succumbing to his wounds. The prevailing theory among dwarven historians is that there was once a sixth noble house of Kraghammer that fled or were cast out, but the dwarven archives—the library that contains the most comprehensive histories of the North anywhere in the world—give no mention of a sixth noble house breaking off from Kraghammer.

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Elves

The elves were the first people of this land. They were the fey descendants who first named their homeland Gwessar, centuries before humans gave it the name Tal’Dorei. The common origin of most elves lies within the wooded lands of the Verdant Expanse, and many elves—wood elves and high elves alike—still call the great forest their home. Though the city of Syngorn is a wondrous thing, many a young elf takes to the road to see what else the world has to offer. This curiosity is considered foolish, and those who leave the comfort of Syngorn for this reason rarely return to open arms. Thankfully, the cities of the Republic of Tal’Dorei are welcoming to such wanderers, and some elven families have called these places home for many long generations.

Wood Elves Hunting across the many Syngornian outposts, most wood elves find their survival skills keenly matched for the wilds of the forest. Wood elves have a long history of dutifully protecting their homeland, and their people make up much of the Verdant Guard that patrols Syngorn and defends the forest around it. Of the elven races, wood elves are typically more venturesome than their kin and prone to bouts of wanderlust, making them ideal adventurers. For guardelves, this manifests as a longing to be stationed in more remote garrisons, such as the Emerald Outpost. This penchant for exploration has led to the spread of wood elf civilization far beyond the Verdant Expanse. South of the Stormcrest Mountains lies the massive jungle of Rifenmist, and within roost the nomadic Orroyen tribes, wandering wardens of the jungle primarily led by a bloodline of primal wood elves who embrace their animalistic nature. Rarely do these elves wander from their jungle home except to trade with the other denizens of the peninsula. But rumors speak of a rare few of these elves who leave their jungle home to see the wider world. In the frigid north of the Cliffkeep Mountains, under the prismatic glow of the Moonweaver’s Ribbons, are the Elvenpeaks. The city atop the spires is Lyrengorn, and the wood elves who make their home beneath Lyrengorn’s pines are known best for riding through the wintry skies on wyvernback. Every year, a few people from across Tal’Dorei travel to the Elvenpeaks to watch their skyswimmers shape the mysterious northern lights.

High Elves Within the city of Syngorn itself, many high elves focus their crafts on culture and learning, weaving magics with grace and aplomb. It is understood that protection of their home is key to their continued prosperity, so many elves walk abroad to the Emerald Outpost to watch over relations with the neighboring civilizations. The high elves are so named for their innate magical knowledge; a blessing they attribute to their supreme deity, the Archeart. Many high elves become highly religious sorcerers, exploring their latent powers through their faith. Others still develop their arcane skill by seeking admission to the Alabaster Lyceum in Emon, where they can study the theory of magic in a controlled environment.

Drow Few elves wish to be associated with their degenerate, subterranean cousins—while many humanoids call them dark elves, the elves of Syngorn instead call them drow. In times long past, the drow were a wise, beautiful people with long, silvery hair and skin of ash. But their society grew decadent and cruel, and their leaders fell to the alluring whispers of the Betrayer God known as the Spider Queen, and they allied with their venomous mistress against elves and their deity the Archeart in the Calamity. When the Spider Queen was defeated, the drow were driven from the surface world and forced to rebuild their empire in the deep tunnels places. The whispers of Oblivion reached the ears of the drow nobility as their servitors struggled to stave away the aberrations that encircled their cities. The dark elves are a people on the brink of destruction. Neighbors slaughter one another in the streets of their cities as they succumb to paranoia. When aberrations can take any form—or fool the mind into seeing any form— who can be trusted? Unable to stop their citizens from mass rioting, the drow elite have grown ever more authoritarian, commanding their royal guards to keep order by violently suppressing their people. Amid the chaos, the drow have begun undergoing stark physical changes. Some drow commoners have willingly offered themselves to the aberrations to end their suffering, transforming into white-eyed, shapeshifting doppelgangers. Some drow nobles have fallen entirely into devotion to the Spider Queen, and have willingly sought the Blood of the Spider Queen to become driders in her service. Drow rarely come to the surface, for most are too proud to return defeated to the sun-drenched lands of the Archeart, even to escape the madness of the underworld. Nevertheless, some still choose this dishonorable path. If any ever sought refuge in Syngorn, they were killed by the Verdant Guard before they reached its gates. Most dark elf refugees live in secret in the cities of Emon, Kymal, and Westruun, hoping to live the rest of their lives in peace. A sizeable group of refugees made it to the elven enclave of Lyrengorn in the northern Cliffkeep Mountains and live with the wood elves there in peace. Adventuring drow harbor a violent hatred of aberrations, and some leave the Spider Queen’s faith to become paladins in service of the Dawnfather, trading their affinity to the dark for a hope in the light of the sun.

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Halflings

Halflings are the hillfolk of Tal’Dorei, and have lived as farmers in the Dividing Plains and the foothills of the Cliffkeeps for many generations—some since the end of the Calamity. After surviving such harrowing times, halflings began to wish for a simpler, happier life away from such dark deeds and higher purpose. Centuries have passed, and contentment and peace have become the core of halfling culture. Wanderlust nevertheless simmers beneath many a halfling’s contented demeanor, and as the empire of Drassig pushed eastward, halfling communities found themselves swept up in the evolving new age. When the Scattered War engulfed the continent, halfling society was fractured: the Stoutheart Clan supported fighting against Drassig, while the Lightfoot Clan prefered staying at home and waiting for this war to blow over. Halflings across the realm aligned themselves with one of the two clans—but in the end, even the Lightfoots supported Zan Tal’Dorei’s rebellion against Trist Drassig. After the war, many halflings returned to their farms, but others began to assimilate with the human townships that now dotted the land. Adventuring halflings, regardless of their allegiance, found the need to seek their potential too strong to ignore. This has led to many an outstanding halfling hero striking out into the world and marking their place in the local history books as champions, leaders, and even notorious criminals. The Mornset Countryside has become a new home for halflings who seek the older ways, though the price for this untethered life is proximity to dangerous wilds, and it’s common for farmers here to be forced to take up arms and learn to defend their land fiercely.

Lightfoot The Lightfoot Clan dissolved into its many component families after the war, but the spirit of the Lightfoots still survives. They look out for number one first, and are more prone to running away from conflicts than meeting the oncoming storm with courage. Yet within the Lightfoot spirit there is a contradiction; for all their love of the comforts of home, there is a certain unquenchable hunger to explore. Most adventuring halflings are Lightfoots who have given into this compulsion.

Stout The Stoutheart Clan also dissolved in the wake of the Scattered War, and its ideals and identity have not survived in the same way as the Lightfoots’ have. Halflings who display the same brash personality as the Stouthearts of old are merely described as stout, and in certain communities, that is a very great honor. Even stoutness that is all bluster—like a halfling shouting “Fight me!” at a creature more than three times its size—is respected if it can be molded into true courage. Stout halflings tend to surprise humans who know of their kind from experiences with meek Lightfoot homebodies, and can be truly cunning diplomats when using this surprise to their advantage. Seeker Assum Emring, for instance, is proud to claim that his first meeting with Sovereign Uriel Tal’Dorei II shocked the sovereign so greatly he was very nearly arrested—but was offered a position on the Sovereign’s staff the very next day.

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Humans

While dwarves, elves, and halflings laid early claim to these lands by surviving the Calamity, the humans who journeyed across the Ozmit Sea from Issylra quickly created the most widespread civilization on Tal’Dorei. Diverse in skills and quick to populate, their cities rose and spread to the eastern shores, eventually growing into their strong and just nation, though their missteps along the way have often been nothing short of catastrophic. Human adventurers can hail from anywhere in Tal’Dorei, though most call the lands connected by the Silvercut Roadway their home: the Bladeshimmer Shoreline, the Dividing Plains, and the Lucidian Coast.

Humans living along the Silvercut provide the infrastructure for trade across the continent, and as such are often involved in some form of craft, business, or production. Should they be more industrious with their pursuits, the capital city of Emon is a chaotic, multicultural hub of potential greatness. Due to the open trade routes between Issylra, Marquet, and Tal’Dorei, humans often relocate between the lands in search of their fortune, so there is quite a variety of cultural background among such large cities. Beyond the cities, dozens of human-made outposts lie on the fringe of the wilderness. Outlanders, explorers, and hermits take refuge here from the hectic day-to-day of city life, but still find danger enough in the wilderness to keep them on their toes.

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Dragonborn

Dragonborn of Exandria have lived in near isolation for ages, keeping to the lands of Wildemount to guard their culture, their secrets, and their rites from the opportunistic human kingdoms that rule most of that land. Yet, following the rise of Tal’Dorei, the new sovereign extended the open hand of diplomacy to the small nation of Draconia, and dragonborn were transformed from a myth to a people one could see every day walking the streets of Emon. All dragonborn, draconian and ravenite alike, can be of any scale color.

Draconians The Draconian dragonborn stemmed from a bloodline that developed a tail at birth. Claiming stronger traits and finer intelligence, they enslaved their tailless “ravenite” brethren, and kept them in servitude within Draconia and below, working the mines and caves of the Dreemoth Ravine. Untrusting of outsiders by nature, Draconian citizens held an aloof and elitist air throughout their interactions with the other races of the world, and attempts to build an alliance were stymied by pride and misunderstanding until the destruction of Draconia at the hand of the Chroma Conclave. Surviving draconians have since scattered across the world, many still in shock over the loss of their homeland and trying to acclimate to a world where they have no social standing.

Ravenites The Chroma Conclave’s destruction of Draconia allowed the ravenites to break the bonds of abuse and slavery, allowing them to set out upon the path to self-determination. Many ravenites now venture into the world with eyes filled with wonder, wishing to see all there is to see beyond the rock and chains that marked much of their existence. Few ravenites can resist jeering at their old oppressors when they meet, and the draconians must decide how they will respond: with grace and the spirit of reconciliation, or with resentment and bile?

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Gnomes

Gnomes and gnomish culture are relatively uncommon in Tal’Dorei. Although humans and rock gnomes both hail from Issylra, most gnomes never had the chance or desire to leave their homeland. Some did migrate over during the Age of Arcanum and endured the Calamity within the deep caverns of the Cliffkeep Mountains, rebuilding their home for a time as the rock gnome village of Wittebak. Others traveled into the Dividing Plains and found a home among the eastward-bound pioneers. Their short stature has always proved a social hindrance in the lands of the tall folk. While gnomes fight for respect within human communities, they can prove themselves through deeds, or humor, among their taller neighbors.

Rock Gnomes Rock gnomes prize cleverness over all other traits, and their cultural desire to explain natural phenomena culminated in the gnomish city of Wittebak—the most technologically advanced city in Tal’Dorei. Yet it did not last. Wittebak was destroyed by giants centuries ago, and the rock gnomes fled across the Cliffkeep Mountains in search of sanctuary. Many refugees found homes in Kraghammer, and are striving to recreate the centuries of innovation lost in the destruction of Wittebak. Kymal has also become a center of rock gnome population, and many enjoy figuring out clever ways to rig its many gambling halls, or practice applying new pocket-picking techniques on their occasional wealthy patrons. Forest Gnomes

Forest gnomes are not native to Tal’Dorei, but unlike rock gnomes, they are believed to hail from the Feywild, much like the elves. A half-dozen small forest gnome communities exist within the Verdant Expanse, hidden from the prying eyes of elves and human explorers. Forest gnomes are more than happy to help their rock gnomish kin in their search to understand how nature works and how to manipulate it. Knowledge is not as important as wisdom in forest gnome culture, but they are keenly aware that the rock gnomes’ science can protect the natural world in ways that they could not. Not all forest gnomes are as close to their fey identity as those of the Verdant Expanse. Some more worldly clans have spread to other forests across Tal’Dorei. Most notably, the Trickfoot clan has made the the Bramblewood outside of Westruun their home for generations, along with several other families. These distant clans are more practical than their fey kin and less uptight than their distant, rocky cousins, giving them a curious personality perfect for the life of a traveling adventurer.

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Goliaths

Most folk of giant blood ignore the political nonsense of the smaller folk. As the old goliath saying goes: “Only people with little strength like to talk.” Goliaths are of giant ancestry—however distantly—and keep many of the old stone giant traditions. As goliaths keep no written history, it’s unclear why they are so small compared to their massive stone giant cousins, but it is undeniable that the two races are somehow related. Living in small, solitary villages along the Cliffkeep and Stormcrest mountain ranges, goliath communities maintain Chapter 1: Campaigns in Tal'Dorei 27 tal’dorei campaign guide an advanced hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Some have ventured down into the Dividing Plains to roam as nomadic raiders, taking what they wish from the unprotected few, but the sundering of the Herd of Storms (see the Gazetteer of Tal’Dorei chapter) sent many wandering without purpose—quite a few have turned to mercenary work along the Lucidian Coast to regain their sense of belonging.

Others are sought for their unrivaled might and find a home in bandit clans that ravage the Ruins of O’Noa or the outskirts of Stilben. A small number of goliaths have been taken under the wing of the wealthy elite and given advanced study within Emon; some out of charity, others for these nobles’ own cruel amusement.

Most other people of Tal’Dorei meet goliaths not with animosity, but with curiosity. Many people of Westruun are still apprehensive about dealing with goliaths because of Kevdak and the Herd of Storms’ brief occupation of their city, but they are doing their best to work through their instinctive fears.

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Half-Elves

Humans adore half-elven children. To them, it is not only a great honor for a family to join their bloodline with that of an elf, but it is also a point of patriotic pride, demonstrating the strength of the bond between Syngorn and Tal’Dorei.

Yet for as long as the humans of Tal’Dorei have loved their mixed-race children, the elves of Syngorn have looked on them with contempt. They are called half-breeds, halfbloods, or “ill-born.” They carry the shame of impurity and the mark of lessened potential by diluting their superior, magical elven blood with that of humanity. That a half-elf had no choice in the matter of their birth is irrelevant; they are reviled all the same.

Few half-elves find prominence in Syngorn. Many half-elven adventurers are wanderers not by choice, but because are driven out from the forest by their peers. These adventurers are often untrusting of others because of their trauma, especially if they were cast out at a young age.

Half-elf vagabonds typically find a home within the cities of Tal’Dorei, where acceptance and even praise for their nature is much more common. A surprising number make their home within the sunless depths of Kraghammer, finding kinship with the dwarves in their mutual dislike of elven society. Others still settle in the free lands of the Rifenmist Peninsula, among wild folk who don’t care what’s in your blood, so long as you can heft a hatchet.

Half-Orcs

Humans do not care for half-orc children. In their eyes, half-orcs are ugly, stupid, and destructive by nature—and ultimately no different from their bloodthirsty orc parent. Orcs have no love for their half-human progeny, either. To an orc, a half-orc is weak, their lust for slaughter dulled by the emotions and compassion of humanity.

Unloved by both parents, half-orcs must find ways to survive in a world that cares nothing for them. They are passionate, driven, and eager to prove themselves—and it is not uncommon for half-orcs to make trouble within the city slum or orcish chasm they call home. Living in such opposition, many half-orcs feel the urge to show their worth through action, and exemplary half-orc heroes have risen throughout history, renowned for their bravery and valor. The honor heaped upon half-orc heroes of the Scattered War and more recent conflicts has helped calm tensions in Tal’Dorei’s larger and more accepting cities, but the outlying settlements still meet half-orcs with disrespect and even open violence. As such, most half-orcs beyond Emon are still found living on the outskirts of human colonies and villages.

Some half-orcs reject humanity, having seen its ugliest side. These half-orcs see both halves of their lineage as equally monstrous; one side is just better at hiding it. They wander the wilds with the primal herds of barbaric hunters, like the Rivermaw of the Dividing Plains, using their brawn to earn respect amongst their leaders. A tribe of rough-andtumble warriors called the Icewalkers patrols where the northern edge of the Cliffkeep Mountains meet the Neverfields, hunting the beasts that dwell there. And some choose to live among the orcs, hardened and desensitized by their bestial family’s abuse. 28 Chapter 1: Campaigns in Tal'Dorei tal’dorei campaign guide As the orcs did not walk upon Exandria until after the Calamity, half-orcs are youngest of the “civilized” mortal races. They have no civilizations of their own, and most are born of human and orc parents. Many half-orcs can go their entire lives meeting only two or three other half-orcs, and very few sire children together. Discussion of parentage is a deadly taboo and a source of great trauma among halforcs—many were born from an orcish mother who captured a human man on a raid for pleasure. A rare few, however, are told stories by their human parent about being saved by an orc during a raid and fleeing into the mountains to hide. In stories like these, the compassionate orc rarely survives long enough to see the birth of their child.

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Genasi

Exandria’s lands are rife with elemental power. Primordial energy constantly flows into the world from elemental rifts across the land, and such powerful primal powers occasionally influence or alter the nature of their surroundings. This is also true of some who have spent years in proximity to such a source of power, and of those who travel the outer planes long enough to find the seed of elemental power take root within their blood. These planetouched folk now harbor the potential to give birth to genasi, people born with facets of the element that altered their parents—though genasi of the same element can also give birth to genasi children.

Though genasi still bear features resembling their parents’ race, they have clearly become something else entirely. Their facial features are augmented with elemental traces and subtle abilities manifest with adolescence, becoming alien and something new altogether. While such people are rare within Tal’Dorei, they are most common among the Ashari due to their elemental destiny. Those who risk living among common society often are met with stares, ridicule, or dubious curiosity.

Each of the four genasi elements have one race most commonly associated with them, though unusual combinations of parent races and genasi elements exist. The most common parents for air genasi are halflings; for earth genasi are dwarves; for fire genasi are tieflings; and for water genasi are humans.

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Tieflings

Those who bear the mark of Hell are first met with mistrust, then curiosity—and in the more rural areas of Tal’Dorei, fear. Countless scholars have delved through thousands of years of Issylran history in search of the origin of tieflings, to little avail. The most complete extant answer is that, during the Age of Arcanum, a cabal of power-hungry Issylran warlocks consorted with dark entities, and many these unions resulted in children neither wholly human nor fiend. These children denied their ash-blackened fate and traveled across the world in hopes of defining themselves through their deeds, not their nature.

The first tieflings to walk on Tal’Dorei sailed from Issylra during the Age of Arcanum, fleeing religious zealots who believed their very existence was an abomination. Most tieflings in Tal’Dorei refused to fight during the Calamity—when a people have seen so much evil from all kinds of people and even the gods, a certain nihilism inevitably takes hold. In the centuries after the Divergence, tieflings who had grown weary of gods and demons rejoiced; in a way, the gods’ imprisonment had freed them from their cursed past.

When Warren Drassig and his sons conquered the elven lands of Gwessar, the tieflings of the continent rose in near unanimous rebellion against the tyrant. They had seen his kind before, they knew his methods, and they knew others would suffer like they once did. The fear and apprehension that surrounded tieflings diminished some when the other people of Tal’Dorei fought alongside them, but the tension never fully faded.

As such, most tieflings stick to the more studied and diverse cities like Emon and Westruun. Kymal and Stilben are not devoid of tieflings, and many there gleefully embrace their fiendish ancestry, finding their calling in foul deeds and shady business. The dwarves of Kraghammer generally keep tieflings at arm’s length, while the denizens of Syngorn rarely leave a tiefling without watchful guard.

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