Races

This page describes the most common sentient races on Terra, known as the great races, or Mankind. Each of the great races is host to its own culture, setting them apart from others in many different ways. While certain great races have predilections to being certain ways, due to the mixing of cultures, heritage, and other possible ways imaginable on Terra, it is certainly possible that one person can still match another in 99% of fields. More important than their bonuses is the great races' values and themes in how they can associate to your character.

Aulin

 * Also known as: humans, landwalkers, monkeys (derog.)

Commonly called humans, the aulin are the most populous greater race to walk Terra since ancient times. Believed to be the first living men, many other great races can trace their origins back to the ancient aulin, the explorers from which they evolved or were born. Due to their history having a mix of roots all over Terra, aulin lend from different cultures, which results in widely diverse appearance. As a common countenance in Terra, most humans set the standard for average height and build, as well as basic anatomical features.

With such a long history stretching back to the before-times, aulin can be noted for their tendency to have exceptionally healthy auraflow that has stood the test of time. However, in general, the aulin are all-rounders at everything, and don't significantly prevail or fall in certain areas notably as in other great races - they are capable of doing everything. They are known in particular for their versatility and capacity to adapt, borne of necessity. Though known for their ability to pursue any task, it can be noted many great inventors, martial artists, and mages are of aulin origin.

Domans

 * Also known as: giants.

With huge physiques and the strength of titans, the doman people were genetic relatives of the aulin bred by their unknown masters for laborers and conquerors. Indeed, there was once a time when the domans were enslaved and placed in bonds. But resisting against the chains once placed upon their kind lead to their eventual liberation. Though the lust for war remained an instinct, the vast majority of domans turned their back on their history to stand for freedom and peace. Contrary to their often-fierce appearance, many Domans have a very tranquil disposition, and favor to use their excess in raw strength and durable bodies to protect their allies.

Domans have a very diverse appearance depending on heritage, ranging from the healthy aulin-like skin colors to more exotic shades, as well as different features that once set them apart to their masters. Out of the great races, they are on average the tallest, with adults ranging from 7 feet to 9 feet in height - sometimes even taller. Their physiques are more often than not musclebound, and remain undoubtedly the most physically powerful of the great races. As domans value their earned freedom, many can be found as traveling guardians or sailors and navigators in Azur Limina today, with Ossyra having a large population of doman migrants.

Linneans

 * Also known as: beastmen, feralfolk (derog.)

One of the most populated of the great races, the beastmen are not a single race but instead refer to all of the countless varieties of aulin with features of the animal-kin. The first beastmen were created by the Antecedents by recombining DNA of ancient lifeforms, especially those found in the central realm of Al Masca, when faced with the threat of the eikon Nidhogg's landslides and other events. To bring them away from the border of extinction, they catalogued these fauna, but in the process made them into chimeric lifeforms in the image of the aulin, who came to stride the lands as the other great races would. Thus born were the beastmen.

Ancient beastmen possessed enhanced attributes based on their component animals, including their primal instincts, and the primal hold over aura that only non-sapient animals held, such as the ability to exhibit aura through roars and other sounds, and their tendency to live in nature. Over time, they became greatly tied to music. In ancient times, tribes of beastmen would often war with each other for the purpose of food. However, in modern days, beastmen have made the distinction of refusing to eat other sapient beings, instead feeding on normal animals in the case of carnivorous beastmen. Some beastmen, wanting to distance from their primal heritage and bestial image, have taken to calling themselves the Linneans.

Beastman lineage and features vary widely, and like the other great races, they have mixed between other people such as the aulin and domans to result in a diverse appearance among their kin. Some more closely resemble humanoids, where others more closely resemble animals. Beastmen originated from Al Masca, but have spread all over the world in time, with Ossyra and Jiusyu noted for their slightly higher percentage of beastmen.

Drakin

 * Also known as: draconians, dran.

Unlike the three common great races, the term drakin refers not to a people with one common ancestor, but instead is a term for mankind that were consciously changed by the Elder Dragons, kin eikons which first created the creatures known as dragons in their image, and would later directly or indirectly cause the creation of drakin, men with draconic features. They possess pointed ears, curved horns, and patterns of scales and markings that point to their tribal lineage. Their heritage has lead to unique abilities; giving them greater durability and regeneration than the aulin, with their hard scales allowing them to take hits that would kill any normal man. They are the second least populous great race on Terra.


 * Keepers of the Tide: Created after the founding of Nanyue, Shenlong granted her tideborn the "the hard scales of the serpent, the sleek fangs of the naga, and the wisdom of the sea mammalians", making them superior landwalking hunters that could fall much greater beasts with their cunning and forward-minded nature. During the Nanyue Calamity, the tideborn's important cultural relic, the Heart of Yue, was destroyed. Those who survived this disaster discarded their old traditions, denouncing the Eikons and burning old alliances. Arrogant and powerful trailblazers, the Keepers of the Tide are hardy and lithe. However, their auratic potential is the most abysmally low of all races, preventing them from manipulating aura due to Shenlong's conscious choice. As many people of Nanyue have distant, distant heritage from the tideborn, this trait has remained on the continent to the point where it is common among many, resulting in an ability to use things such as magic.
 * Wyrmhearted: Forged in fire - in a very literal sense - by the eikon Typhon, the Wyrmhearted are a prideful, resilient tribe of Drakin, whose origins can be traced to the Five Hour War in the founding times of the nation of Lasair. Their bodies have an extreme tolerance for heat, and while their flesh can still burn, the scaled sections of their skin are completely fireproof. Those aforementioned scales cover their limbs completely; from their hands to their shoulders and from their feet to their hips, tending to be varying deep shades of red; crimson, maroon and burgundy, with the occasional rosy cerise. Their horns extend outward at upwards 45-degree angles from either side of their head just above the ears, curving forwards, and the digits of all four limbs end in claws - the ones on their fingers retractable. While many with thinner scales, differing horns, and the like exist all across Terra by the present-day, those in the main Lasairian Wyrmhearted clans tend to be almost exactly as described above, and those who are are ever-proud of their heritage as descendants of the soldiers who fought under the red and gold banner of the Saint-King.
 * Children of the Summit: Spawned from the shards of the Burrowing Serpents, descendants of the titanic eikon Nidhogg, the Summit Walkers were born from long years of metamorphic rock-melting sparked by the flames of aura, transforming their molten forms into scute-spined warriors with the toughest skin and scales of any drakin. Adapting to most climates, the Children of the Summit are a hardy people that are one with the earth below. However, the few tribes that celebrate the Burrowing Serpents make themselves home at the mountainous peaks of Errans Spine, where preference for wintry gales and lapping winds roughly 300 meters in the air precede the dry, arid regions in the surrounding area. ((UNDER CONSTRUCTION))

Astras
Named so as they were thought to be torn from the stars, the astras, the rarest of all races, are not so much as a great race as they are a term for a set of unique existences set apart by their association with auratic charge. Their history is poorly understood by today's scholars, and astras are an uncommon, often dangerous, sight. Though, there are instances of more aulin-like astras. Sometimes seen as hedonistic or flighty, astras are greatly associated with the growing problem of the aura taint, and face prejudice, resulting in many of them adopting an independent attitude where they go at things on their own.


 * Demons: Eons ago when Satan began his rebellion against Yahweh he created the first Primordial Demons from the desecrated bodies and souls of angels. When they had died the first demons were the creatures that emerged from their corpses. They are one of if not the most diverse of the races found on Terra as a demon could appear as almost anything, a similarity they all share however is their ability to utilize Sin, as it was vital in their creation as well as their souls all descending to the realm of Hell after they die. When they first emerged they were but savage beasts but at some point in their evolution a few ancestors broke off from that strain and became sentient, both types of demons now exist to this day. Though not all of them are beasts they do retain a more violent nature than many of the other races due to their history as former bio-weapons and retain some memory of times before their true births, often leading to many issues in mental stability. though there are many exceptions to this as with any other race and it could be argued that such things have given way to the many branching philosophies that the devils created for themselves.


 * Angels: