the Mortal Peoples and the Demiurges - part 2

part 1

Only 5 years after part 1(!) comes part 2, detailing the mortal peoples themselves. This is not very detailed, which is fitting as, for the most part, the mortal peoples are extinct or on their way to extinction, with only a handful that survive in enough numbers to have the average person know about them.

So, without further ado, here's a list of the 22 mortal peoples:

Illidraen

One of the original two-and-twenty mortal peoples, and the children of the Demiurge Allaishada. Winged and normally of alabaster skin, dark hair and feathered wings, they are likened to angels by the ignorant and those who would deify them, though they are far from perfect – both physically or morally.
    They are beings of compassion so pronounced that they must resort to asceticism and meditation to control their emotions. Due to their natures and longevity, they tend to devote their lives to single pursuits, which they perfect, becoming experts in their chosen fields. They claim to find solace and comfort in the repetition of the known, giving them a respite from their psyches, which are quickly overstimulated by others.
    Though often regarded as angelic, ancient sources describe them as possessing an otherworldly, almost grotesque beauty that unsettled the other mortal peoples, possibly contributing to their isolation.
    The Illidraen were whittled to near-extinction during the War of Scourging that led to the fading between the Fourth and Fifth Ages, and the remnants of the species dispersed early in the Fifth Age, living out the end of their people’s days as solitary eremites in forgotten temples and ruins. To many, they are indeed extinct though scholars maintain that scattered individuals have survived, their natural longevity and asceticism a bulwark against death and decay. Aside from a curious outlier, in the form of the Tirodaeshi nomads of eastern Llachatul, illidraen are unable to bear offspring with other mortal peoples.

Serapis

One of the original two-and-twenty mortal peoples, and the children of the DEMIURGE Ashterath, the serapis are reptilian humanoids who, edged on by the excesses of Ashterath, became sadistic barbarians, a scourge to the other mortal peoples. They were cursed by the Demiurge Talantehut to be servants to the sun and crawl in the hot earth on their stomachs as punishment for their crimes.
    Their tongue is the closest of any living creature to that wrought originally by the Demiurges for the first mortal peoples (before the cataclysm of the Bridge of Eternities separated them into different nations). Little is known of their original form or culture, only that their deeply rooted malefic nature earned them the scorn of Talantehut, who changed their form and that of their descendants forevermore.
    They are relatively common in the sun-drenched parts of Elyden – such as the deserts of Sammaea, and they are considered the rulers of the land of Hoggotha Isz, which surrounds the World's Crown Mountains – though little remains of any culture save base primitive tribal structures. A more civilised offshoot of the serapis, known as lacer, are known to exist. They once had many kingdoms in the heart of Sammaea in the Fourth Age, though the War of Scourging left them almost extinct, with only a few enclaves left along the borders of eastern Lidea.

Ifirmians

One of the original two-and-twenty mortal peoples, and the children of the Demiurge Duruthilhotep, and the first mortal people to ever shape the Firmament. They are now known as the immortal guardians of the True Meniscus, named after the eponymous continent. They are the most proficient Firmamentists in Elyden and are thought to be the closest in design to the original immortals, whose gestation was interrupted by the creations of the Demiurges, resulting in the birth of the imperfect mortal peoples.
    They are a slender people, tall, and of long tapering heads, and they are not want to communicate with others without dire need. They are rarely seen outside of the lands surrounding the Meniscus and are thought extinct by most insular people, though the scholars of Meniscea know better.

Valthas

One of the original Two-and-Twenty mortal peoples, and the children of the Demiurge Talantehut. They were once very similar to humans, and worshipped Talantehut with a devotion and fervour unmatched by most other mortal peoples. Ultimately, they were victims of circumstance and suffered from their mother’s eventual negligence.
    Talantehut was chosen against her will to become a force of balance amongst her siblings. This led her to abandon her previous desires and duties, amongst them the care of her children, who she loved deeply. The valthas suffered terribly without her aegis and dwindled. It would have been terrible for any of the mortal peoples to suffer that fate, but the valthas were stricken by such grief that their civilisations crumbled. Through their mother’s long slow neglect they became corrupted into something baser; wretched things without passion or hope or love. They became achromatic; creatures alive but without life, much like their mother eventually did. Today they dwell in dark forgotten places of the world that are shunned by other mortals, where they live in a fugue state, undying yet without the spark of life.
    Many physical laws that affect the mortal peoplees do not apply to the valthas, which seem to be caught between worlds. They live for centuries, though are largely unchanging in this time, studying the passage of the sun and stars and the slow change in their courses that are imperceptible to other mortals. Their spirits do not migrate from their bodies to the otherworld upon death, and today they are the only mortal people whose individuals all leave behind soulstones without fail.
    Though they have no nations, they can be found across Sammaea in isolated areas, and they are believed to wander into tainted lands and dreamscapes without suffering negative effects, giving them some succour from the curious eyes of other mortals. A notable region that was once populated by valthas is the Umbra Sokhar, where they created the Godheads.

Dvergai

One of the original two-and-twenty mortal peoples, and the children of the Demiurge Synchthonith. They are a short, stocky, and technologically aware people who are native to lands north of the Inner Sea, originally centred around the Rhaecha Mountains, though are rarely seen in the open due to their sensitivity to light.
    Their lands and clades were wiped out millennia past by human expansion in the Fourth and early Fifth Ages, and now they are restricted to enclaves and ghettoes in various other nations and regions, though they claim the small nation of Chthyrid as their own. They are also found in some numbers within the Korachani empire, where they have become an essential part of its industries, working as slaves and technologists in its many manufactories.  The Steel Cataract – the largest dam in Korachan – was mostly built by dvergai hands.
    Their pale skin and large black eyes are sensitive to light, so when they are seen close to and above ground they are almost always covered in thick leather suits and tinted goggles; the accoutrements of their trade. They show little affinity for the Firmament or the Atramenta, though have a racial understanding of the latter and its applications within technarcana, and their seemingly innate affinity for engineering is legendary.
    Though they maintain few open ties to their ancestry, a few ancient temples have been discovered by Imperial explorers, hewn from deep caverns, though all are eons old and lie abandoned.
    Mulls are descended from ancient unions between dvergai and humans and are today more numerous than the dvergai themselves, with various small nations and city-states under their control.

Lhaus

One of the original Two-and-Twenty mortal peoples, and the children of the Demiurge Ialdabaoth. Their original forms were unassuming, standing around 5-ft. tall and with dark skin and hair, and slender frames. They have large pale eyes and indistinct noses, though their main distinguishing features are their hands and feet, which only have four digits each, with two thumbs and 2 fingers on each hand.
    The lhaus adopted their father’s obsession with seeking eternal life and became acolytes of the art of klados. They became consumed with this obsession with klados, becoming a changed people, their goal of prolonged life achieved yet not without its costs. Those with the purpose and means to, created artificial bodies known as iterants in which they would transfer their spirit upon the death of their mortal vessels as a means of achieving prolonged life, or a semblance of it, at least. Each such iteration would strip away a layer of the individual’s personality and encase its spirit in a new body of porcelain-like skin and sinewy muscles. Iteration by iteration, the individual would become lost beneath the iterant, until little of the original person remained.
    By the early days of the Third Age, the leaders and upper echelons of lhaus society had become so embroiled in maintaining the mysteries of klados that their society broke down. The tribes’ lesser social classes were unable to follow the costly pursuits of their masters and began a diaspora across Elyden, where they slowly dwindled without the protection of their father, and they eventually died out, though not before sharing their surgical knowledge with various other mortals.
    Those amongst them who achieved false immortality through the art of klados became miserable secular creatures, their time spent researching better ways of maintaining their longevity, ruling over legions of slaves, followers, and retainers whose sole purpose was to serve their rulers. Their solitary city-states warred against each other in the pursuit of the resources needed for their timeless compulsions.
    By the latter days of the Third Age, the lhaus had been reduced to a few mirthless totalitarian city-states, hidden from the rest of the world to the north west of Kharhardontis. The memory of their tribe was almost lost by the dawn of the Fourth Age and it was only the actions of the aggressive lhaus city-state of Thamaaz and its ruler, Leontoeida, Lord of the Clades, in the Fourth Age (c. -4500 RM), who scoured the lands around his city for miles around, searching for further secrets to immortality.
    As the War of Scouring consumed Elyden the clades hid themselves away and took little further part in world events, surviving the Fading of the Fourth Age. They emerged to search for more resources but the increase of the Shadow in the Desert forced them back into isolation as the rest of Elyden rebuilt.
    The art of klados survived in Thracian legends and the Yothshammanei Tablets, which were found in c. 750 RM in a temple in the north east of the Daened Sulrach that is believed to be a mortuary complex to the wasted iterant of an unnamed Clade Lord.
    Today, the lhaus survive in corrupted form in the small nation of Khalhat, in the north west of Sammaea. They are an insular people and trade little with the outside world, using human mediators to buy the resources they need to continue their obsessive search for immortality. They maintain an army of iterant-like creants, known as the Porcelain Phalanx, which guards their lands from incursion.

Plagi

One of the original two-and-twenty mortal peoples, and the children of the Demiurge Rachanael. Of jet-black skin and red eyes, the plagi were a powerful and populous people, having one of the largest empires of early mortals through the machinations of their sire Rachanael. They were gifted the flint and glass fortress of Hastanal Daggash by Rachanael, which became the centre of their empire. Their territories grew from there, though they remained centred around the gargantuan dry basin that makes up what is now the wasted land of Kharkharadontis.
    Considered by others to be children of the Atramenta, they were in truth far from immune to its effects and survived its corruption largely due to the aegis of Rachanael and his scions, as well as their own skill in protecting themselves.
    The so-called Dragon Wars between the plagi and the serapis ended with the Avatar of Light – Sillamé punishing them. The plagi empire was sundered and they dwindled after this time, with Rachanael abandoning them for the humans, whose dominance of Elyden was on the rise.
    Now at the mercy of the Atramenta, their bodies became prone to corruption. To escape its effects, many amongst them left Kharkharadontis in a great exodus that saw them travelling south, where they would become lost to imperial annals; and to the north and north east to the Daened Sulrach and Umbra Sokhar, where their breeding with humans would dilute the plagi into what later become known as the etheri nomads.
    The few that remain in their homeland haunt the more ‘hospitable’ areas of Kharkharadontis (if such a term can be used), a bitterness consuming them. The Archpotentate Malichar’s arrival to Daekyn in 212 rm saw the remaining plagi join him in his travels where they sojourned in Nyala before aiding him in the construction of the leaden throne, upon which the newly-liberated rachanael would be interred, becoming known as the undying machine. With that deed was a new chapter started in the long history of the plagi, and the descendants of these companions of malichar became known as demiurnes – keepers of the leaden throne, and loyal followers of the undying machine. Following millennia of breeding with humans, mulls and dvergai, they are no longer true plagi.
    Despite the loyalty of the demiurnes, Rachanael would continue in his patronage of the humans, who now make up the majority of his worshippers.
    What few true plagi remain do so in isolation or distant lands, inhabiting the near-mythical metropolis of Kharakhara, their sorcerer-kings protecting them from the full foulness of the atramenta there.

Giganri

One of the original two-and-twenty mortal peoples, and the children of the Demiurge Urakabarameel. The giganri, alongside humans, have changed the least since their creation so long ago. They are sometimes referred to as goliaths in Korachan, and giants by nations farther east, which have had even less contact with them over the years.  They are insular, though individuals can be found scattered in other non-giganri lands, though they are not that common in the Inner Sea Region. Far more common are their corrupted descendants, the oghurs, who are thought to be descendants corrupted by Atramental exposure in mythic history.
    They stand roughly 10-ft. tall, though their arms and legs are proportionately longer than those of humans, giving them a somewhat lanky gait. Despite this, they are prodigiously strong of both body and mind, with their culture placing a great deal of importance in asceticism and martial perfection and moderation. Their skin is cold and rough to the touch like the granite and marble from which legend (falsely) claims they were shaped. Likewise, their skin can range in colour from alabaster-white to obsidian-black and a myriad of other colours in-between.
    Giganri tend to be morose and quiet beings, likely to be considered slow by other peoples due to their reticence in speaking. Little is known of the culture save their extreme asceticism and their devotion to the philosophies of alchemy and gnosticism, lending them a mystical air. It is believed that giganri do not have souls in the commonly understood sense, leaving behind soulstones upon death. This has caused many scholars to call them more primordial beings than other mortals, though those with regular contact with them would know otherwise.
    They are a people of many castes, which were at one time divided by the colour of their skin.  An ancient revolution ended that practice though they continue to adhere to a rigidly hierarchal culture. For instance, the nigred, is known for its outgoing personality, which is at odds with the norm for giganri. They are often found as travellers or diplomats working in foreign nations. The maramari are an off-white colour with green veins and they are the most silent and morose of all giganri, being pensive and slow to action. The karnous are red-brown and stand taller than others. The aurae are a merchant caste with no fixed ethnicity. The alteth are pale-skinned, and make up the majority of the population of gnoth, which is their largest-known concentration in Elyden.
    They are amongst the more populous of mortal peoples, after the conspicuous dominance of humans and sundry others, and they are common in the west of Llachatul, where their nation of Gnoth is located. Nestled behind the sprawling Black Mountains, the nation has escaped the attentions of the Inner Sea for centuries.

the Forgotten

One of the original Two-and-Twenty mortal peoples, and the children of the Demiurge Abufihamat (later known as Baphomet). Once a prosperous civilisation, they eventually became oppressed to the point of desperation by Abufihamat. A few amongst them began to secretly worship a corruption of Abufihamat that they named Baphomet, whose tenets espoused wanton excess, lust, and greed - all things they desired under the yoke of Abufihamat.
    These heretics were persecuted and slain by the true followers of Abufihamat, though by then the cults’ roots had set in deep and its tenets slowly spread across Elyden, bypassing borders.
    Abufihamat was punished alongside the rest of the Demiurges for their hubris and fell from grace, greatly weakened. That, coupled with a tribe that eventually abandoned them for the blameless excesses offered by Baphomet, destroyed Abufihamat, who was replaced by the upstart false idol Baphomet.
    Baphomet ignored its children and instead sought the embrace of alien tribes, who it bribed with gold and fecund capriform idols. Growing weak and sickly from their excesses, the children of Abufihamat were allowed to dwindle, surviving only in small numbers that scattered across Elyden in bitterness to be forgotten.
    The handful of Baphomet’s true descendants that remain are now warped by millennia of bitterness into strange alien beings, with lanky bodies, long digitigrade limbs, and elongated faces with equine and insect features. They live on the fringes of society, in places shunned by civilisation – marshes, wastelands, corrupted places, and barren lands far from the gaze of other mortals, and especially humans, who they utterly hate.
    Known only as the Forgotten, they remain now as simple hunter-gatherers, sullen, aloof and xenophobic, living in large communal tents, as they once did under the auspices of Abufihamat.

Vapulim

One of the original Two-and-Twenty Mortal people and children of the Demiurge Arimaspi. Though Arimaspi is known to have created the most sentient creatures amongst all the Demiurges, his true children, meaning those that originated from the seven seeds sown by The Shaper, are the vapulim.
    They stand around 7-ft. tall and are bulky, yet of graceful movement, with humanoid features that have echoes of feline and avian. Their necks, backs and arms are covered in a thick mane of feathers, with colours differing wildly based on region and ancestry.
    Never a populous people, they were nevertheless common in the savannahs of the ancient world, though their culture lessened in scope and influence as Arimaspi prioritised the creation of new life over leading his children, to which he felt no strong affinity. He came to favour the aiklahs and eelyouhns in particular, learning too late that his weakening body and mind were due to the waning devotion of the vapulim, by which time the damage had been caused and they had already dwindled to near-extinction. He attempted to atone for his neglect, by searching for the vapulim, but they forsook him entirely.
    They were believed extinct for most of the Fifth Age, thought a relatively large number were found to remain in the nation of Datepha on the island of Isea in the Far Hemisphere. They are naturally adept and do not suffer the actions of fools, and any semblance of sentimentality was bred out of them over millennia of struggling to survive without the aegis of their father. Despite this, they are loyal to a fault and maintain close-knit groups of friends and family.

Siethin

One of the original Two-and-Twenty Mortal peoples, and the children of the Demiurge Neith, thought to have their origins in what are now the great Forest-kingdoms of Malan. Their homeland is thought to have been a great plain on which the light of the Ivory Moon shone brightly, empowering them. Many scholars believe that they were antitheses of the keratin.
    Contemporary Third Age accounts claim they were beings of two worlds, trapped between the Material Plane and the Otherworld, being particularly sensitive to the fluctuations of the latter, with individuals having rudimentary abilities similar to those of animists, while those who trained in the field became masters of the art, surpassing the skills of any other mortal shaper. Little else is known of them, and they are thought to have died out by the Fading of the Fourth Age, though rumours persist that some survive deep in Malan to this day.

Shie

One of the original Two-and-Twenty Mortal peoples, and the children of the Demiurge Sybaris. They are mostly known for their second pair of lesser ventral arms, which, while lacking in strength, are nimble and capable of wielding tools and are often used to display an individual shie’s jewellery. Their skin ranges greatly in colour, from russet to tan and brown to near black, with various shades and tints in between, often bearing patches and patterns, and they are often tattooed or ritually scarred. Their features are striking and are considered exotic and alluring by most other mortals.
    They are not as sensitive to physical and sensory stimuli as the other mortal peoples, which has led many to follow their mother’s path into hedonism and epicureanism, with many who are able to, becoming libertines or bohemians. They also have a keen eye for colour (seeing a wider spectrum than, say, human) and composition, as well as an appreciation for the arts that surpasses that of most other mortals. They have two sets of vocal cords, giving them a wider vocal range than other mortals, as well as the capability to produce harmonious droning sounds. Their necks are wide and they speak in low tones, taking long breaths.
    Never a numerous people, they scattered early on, stricken by wanderlust, and were perhaps the first people to encounter all of the other mortals, becoming minorities in great cities. They can be found in small numbers across Elyden to this day, where they work as entertainers and musicians – their secondary limbs allowing them to play specialised instruments, such as the zirol harp, and the thitar, amongst others. Most other peoples find them physically attractive, which has led to them being exploited across Elyden.
    They rarely feature in major events in history, which appears to have been by design, and few records exist that link them to any wars or other conflicts and were it not for their presence in many imperial cities it is unlikely that we would even know about them at all.

Catachis

One of the original Two-and-twenty Mortal peoples, and the children of the Demiurge Dopellanich. They are thought by most to now be functionally extinct, though memories of them live on in the rare congenital defect that results in geminates. Indeed, it is only through corroborated records, including various sources of the Mythologia Elyden that they are even known about today.
    The ancient histories of Elyden describe them, much like their Demiurge parent, as dualistic beings. Twin births were the norm, so-much-so that their culture revolved around the sacred bond between siblings, who in many respects were regarded as a single person sundered between two bodies. Pair bonding – both platonic and sexual – between siblings was common. Conjoined births were less common, yet celebrated. Such siblings were considered to have been chosen by Dopellanich, an honour that bestowed a measure of prestige upon their families, which allowed them to be inducted into a prestigious priestly-caste if they so-wished.
    Conjoined twins usually took the form of a symmetrical four-armed body (one pair smaller than the other, below it, often considered vestigial and bedecked in jewels amongst the wealthy) and a single head with two faces, one facing left, the other right.
    Contrary to twin births, single births were pitied and considered as weak. Such unfortunates tended to live hollow lives of ridicule, and were often forced into self-imposed exile, which often saw them travelling to human lands, where they could easily blend in due to their physical similarity. There were slight differences though – their craniums were slightly larger, their fingers long and delicate.
    Little is known of their history, but they are considered to be extinct today, though the geminates of Varu are thought to be descended from unions between ancient catachis and humans.

Irkalla

One of the original Two-and-Twenty Mortal peoples, and the children of the Demiurge Nergaal. Little is known of these mortals, save the tantalising clues left behind on subterranean monoliths in the land of Irkalla, itself once an island, off the south western coast of present-day Cuth.
    They had a debased culture in which the sick and dying were viewed as blessed by Nergaal, commanding positions of respect and authority. Conversely, the strong were broken of their will and used as slaves. At the centre of irkalla culture was a pervasive sun cult that forced its people underground. Where other sun cults worshipped the sun and bathed in its light, the irkalla feared it and its destructive nature – drought, plague, war, heat – and lived underground out of reverence of its raw power.
    Many of these traits were reborn millennia later in the land of Karkauth(now Cuth), with the rediscovery of the religious artifact known as the Hand of Nergaal in 2236 RM.

Irothani

One of the original Two-and-Twenty Mortal peoples, and the children of the Demiurge Nyarloth. They were similar in build to humans though their skin was of a bluish tint, with red ridges down their backs and eyes that glowed as though with an inner light. Like their father they were masters of technarcana and were renowned for two materials that made them unique amongst the mortals – a quicksilver-like liquid that through shaping and the applications of magnetism could become rigid and take on one of various forms that it ‘remembered’; and an artificial bone-like substance that was grown, and was the basis for much of their engineering. Some such artifacts are sometimes excavated in the Porphyri peninsula today, commanding mighty prices.
    Little is known of the early years of the irothani people, but by the Third Age they had grown into a populous and technologically advanced culture that dominated Eastern Sammaea, in what was known as Kathar Byaat.
    The lands of Kathar Byaat suffered towards the end of the Third Age, first when Nyarloth became afflicted by a terrible wasting disease, and again when he was slain by his brother Rachanael while the two were attempting to craft a Soul-Engine to save Nyarloth. Though Nyarloth’s body had expired, his essence remained, interred within the Soul-Engine that became known as the Parymesia. Over time many irothani came to worship the Engine rather than the Demiurge's essence. This left Nyarloth weakened and in a state of torpor within the Engine. The irothani rulers, known as Septs, knew the error of this idolatry and tried to persuade the people that their god was the spirit in the machine and not the machine itself, but few would listen.
    This schism led to a civil war that decimated the irothani, bringing to an end one of the largest and most long-lived mortal empires in Elyden. They later scattered and dwindled, eventually disappearing after mingling with the humans that had spread to their old lands. Indeed, the people that today inhabit the Porphyri peninsula are believed to be the descendants of such distant unions.

Aithar

One of the original Two-and-Twenty Mortal peoples, and the children of the Demiurge Malachai. The aithar were bird-like mortals with feathered arms and digitigrade hind legs.
    They suffered the consequences for their fathers’ sins of apathy and ennui, growing hollow, grey and apathetic themselves. This in turn led to the weakening of their sire, which caused them to grow weaker still until Malachai eventually fell into a deep torpor, making him the first Demiurge to ‘die’.
    Without his aegis and guidance, the aithar dwindled and degenerated as the other mortals spread across Elyden, learning of their world. Their territories waned until all that was left was a decrepit land in which cowered their degenerate descendants – the al akhi. They survive today in the region of Stolas, where they unknowingly worship craven idols of their Demiurge father as he slowly rots away beneath them.

Humans

One of the original Two-and-Twenty Mortal peoples, and the children of the Demiurge Avraham the Pale King. Humans are unique in that they are the only mortal people that can freely breed with other Mortal peoples, leading to many various half-breeds and creatures (like mulls for instance). None truly know the origins of this trait, though it is believed to lie within the nature of their father, Avraham.
    Humans were abandoned by Avraham following the appearance of the Azor (descendants of unions between humans and his self-born scion Azer), whom he regarded far more highly as superior creatures. Humans were later adopted by the Demiurge Rachanael, who had by then forsaken his own children, the plagi, and went on to spread across Elyden, where they would proliferate, far outnumbering any of the other mortals. By the Fifth Age.

Keratin

One of the original Two-and-Twenty Mortal peoples, and the children of the Demiurge Kharani. They have many physical differences to humans, with the most distinctive being their lack of eyes. Instead, their upper face is a large bony ridge that grows as the keratin ages, eventually curving backwards like an elaborate crest. The crests are sexually dysmorphic, with males having larger ones, though all individuals are known to decorate their crests in dull psychoactive pigments that the other mortals cannot see, but which keratins view as a kaleidoscope of colours. Males average around 6-ft. tall and weigh 180 – 190 lbs., with powerful bodies and skin that ranges from pale grey to dark brown, with various shades of red and purple in between.
    Keratins are intrinsically linked with the Blood Moon Arakhame, which was created by Kharani. Ancient Sammaean legends claim that the moon was intended to be the eventual home of the Immortals that had been bequeathed to Kharani, which, through the hubris of the Demiurges were born prematurely, becoming the keratin. Specifically, the first seven keratins were born when Kharani was shaping the Blood Moon, an act that forged an eternal link between mortal and satellite. Their moods are tied to the phases of the Blood Moon, and they are laconic during the phase of the new moon, and tense during the phase of the full moon, making them quick to anger and passionate, difficult for them to control their emotions.
    They are skilled with their hands – something that they commonly apply to the crafting of weapons, tools and architecture, such as cenotaphs and triumphal arches. Their ancient cultures traditionally revolved around a stratocracy or kratocracy, with the strong ruling the weak, commonly under a militaristic regime.
    Though a strong and united people, keratins were relatively few in number, particularly when compared with humans. Their numbers were whittled down from fighting in countless battles during the War of Scourging, during which they fought on both sides as loyal troops and mercenaries alike.
    Today, most keratins remain in the north of Sammaea, particularly in Karakhas and Khuraur, and other cities of the Twin empires, where they often serve as mercenaries and craftspeople.

Deruweid

One of the original Two-and-Twenty Mortal peoples, and the children of the Demiurge Achaiah. They are tall, standing between 7 – 9 ft., with their skin undergoing a slow transition throughout their long lives, which can last up to 200 – 300 years. The young have malleable greyish-green skin that flakes at the joints like sloughing birch. As they grow older their skin appears to calcify, becoming darker and tougher, like gnarly bark. Hairless, they are an ascetic people, without clothing or known cities; aloof and xenophobic, living the last of their declining days in the shadow of their Demiurge mother in the deepest reaches of the Old Forest.
    The deruweids were abandoned by their mother Achaiah in an early age and never received the guidance and leadership that the other Mortal peoples received, and they remained backwards as a result. Even after their abandonment they continued to crave her attentions, travelling around Elyden in her wake, but she was ever fickle, unable to provide the children with the love they required.
    Following her transformation into the immortal Tree of Agen, the deruweids were left broken, filled with bitterness and self-blame at her death, ever grasping for the beauty that had once radiated from her, yet never able to achieve it. Their shamen tried to shape their bodies in her image, and the practice slowly came to permeate their whole culture, leaving them an empty people obsessed with recapturing that which had been denied them.
    This practice of bodily mutilation to mirror their Demiurge mother became slowly corrupted into meaningless scarification that left them monstrous beings. They lost themselves to their fleshy vices, forgetting the source of their self-mutilation and forgetting their mother, moving deeper into the forests away from the light and the rest of Elyden, where they became known as sidhe: dark mirrors of the dwindling deruweids.
    There remained pockets of uncorrupted deruweids scattered across Elyden that had never returned to the Tree of Agen, who in the ensuing years found their way back home, where they rediscovered their old mother transformed. There, they devoted their remaining days to maintaining her, slowly shaping their bodies in her image. This caste of deruweid is outnumbered by the sidhe, though what remains of them now is unknown.

Ropohaii

One of the original Two-and-Twenty Mortal peoples, and the children of the Demiurge Vorropohaiah.
    The ropohaii were an industrious people, though afflicted by the same uncertainties that crippled their Demiurge father. Paranoid and covetous, they spent more time constructing and defending their temple-forts than they did increasing their lands and peoples. Shackled by their fathers’ fears, they were driven underground into the realm of their own creation that became known as the Prison Carceri, and the land above eventually forgot about them.
    They undertake an arduous multi-generational pilgrimage akin to the Shadow March of the Church of the Undying Machine, albeit on a grander scale, where pilgrimages of tens of thousands circumnavigate the depths of the Prison Carceri on their way to the Temple of Vorropohaiah, where the body of their father is maintained in state beneath the city of Pandaemonia. There the truly faithful sacrifice themselves to him in a form of communion, where the god consumes the body of the follower. This is thought to be an extreme form of the andromachy that’s common to all the Demiurges; with perhaps the ropohaii having dwindled so much in spiritual stature that more than just devotion is not enough to sustain Vorropohaiah.
    They are possibly the second most numerous Mortals after humans, but their labyrinthine home remains largely unexplored by surface dwellers, so the full extent of their culture and spread can only guessed at. Anecdotal accounts of mortals who have visited Carceri speak of expansive chambers the size of nations, and a thriving civilisation that reveres Vorropohaiah as fervently as the people of the Inner Sea Region worship Rachanael, but the truth remains elusive
    Few accounts exist of the ropohaii above ground, and what records are known depict them as misbegotten sun-starved wretches who skulk under the cover of darkness, their bodies hidden beneath pus-soaked bandages. Though in some regions (particularly Vârr), there exists a pariah caste, known as Periapatetics, who are thought to be descendants from the ancient union between ropohaii and humans, whose people sometimes venture to the surface.

Merills

One of the original Two-and-Twenty Mortal peoples, and the children of the Demiurge Shibboleth, and the only known aquatic mortals. Physically, they have squamous features, with humanoid upper bodies and piscine tails, with notably no legs. Their faces are notable for being hairless and having large black eyes, and perhaps most famously – long barbels hanging from their chins.
    Merills also differ from the other mortal peoples in that they are asexual, with seven known lines of lineage – each descended from one of the first seven individuals of their tribe. Of them only one lineage exists in numbers enough to study as all other lines have since dwindled through corruption and inbreeding: for the ‘torrent’ that once sustained them is now gone.
    Though few in number, they are most well-known amongst other peoples for their genetic memory, where a newly spawned merill inherits the memories of all its direct ancestors, all the way back to one of the original seven merills. As a result, merills are brimming with discordant memories and experiences which are not their own, though have little empathy, particularly with other mortals. They are beings of emotion, though unlike keratin and illdraen it is not a personal passion, but an echo of their many ancestors’ lives – pain, suffering, love, loss, death, and so on. As merills age, many find themselves unable to differentiate between their own thoughts and memories inherited across the aeons. This leaves many merills suffering from a personality disorder that is misinterpreted as madness by other peoples. This disorder becomes exponentially worse with each new generation, which carries the burden of those who came before them, and many scholars think that merills become little more than gibbering beasts.
    Merills are linked to the river Shibboleth in many ways. They each undertake a long coming-of-age ritual by going upstream to the rivers’ main source, where they immerse themselves in its waters. This somehow causes them to reach sexual maturity (Some scholars think this is due to an unknown chemical in the water or some other effect that causes a metabolic change in them), though the proliferation of humans around the river sees fewer and fewer merills complete this arduous ritual.
    Merills communicate through intense speech in which intonation and inflection are as important, if not more so, than the words themselves and they can often speak in stream of consciousness, rendering their speech, even that uttered in the common tongues, difficult for other mortals to understand. Very little else is known about them, though as Elyden's seas retreat, soapstone ruins that hint to ancient submerged metropolises have begun to appear in the middle of once-submerged seas, built on volcanic atolls. Such settlements are invariably deserted and most contact with merills is now either during the pilgrimage along the Shibboleth (though even that has lessened of late) and in coastal raids along the south western coast of Sammaea.

Rarevas

One of the original Two-and-Twenty Mortal peoples, and the children of the stillborn Demiurge Ryhassharauch.
    Assuming that the current school of theory is correct and a twenty-second Demiurge does indeed exist, the rarevas were cursed before their conception due to the catatonic state of their demiurge parent. The rarevas are an argument for the existence of the so far unseen yet purported twenty-second Demiurge and are used as proof against those scholars who still deny the existence of the stillborn Demiurge.
     Legends claim that only seven exist: in a fugue state between life and death, unable to die or reproduce. The stench of vinegar and rotting flesh surrounds their mummified grey bodies and Kharkharadontid fables claim they keep their umbilical cords as necklaces in memory of their unknown god.
    Of all the mortal peoples the least is known about the rarevas and their existence remains uncertain. Though some explorers claim to have found the land of their conception, reports are conflicting, and the seven catatonic beings themselves remain undiscovered.