High Races
Einheldren culture, at least among the High Elves, is consumed with the pursuit of all things enlightening. In their perverse subjugation of the "low peoples" the Einheldren in turn relieved all need for their people to work, beyond their military of course, and so their society has become in equal parts exceedingly educated, hedonistically passionate, and morally grey. While not all elves prescribe the ideas of racial superiority and right-to-dominate that drives the politics of their race, most Einheldren care little, if at all, for the plight of those that serve them. After all, why should they? The low peoples are fed, clothed, and housed, and seem to enjoy providing for their simple lives and their simple families. No, most Einheldren pay little heed to the outside world, and those that do typically do so only with disdain and hate, as they face the Free Peoples on the battlefield. Those that are called into service in the defense of their Dominion typically devote their lives to perfecting the military arts.
The Einheldren follow the deity Elis'al, the Life-Giver. |
What little is known of the Dreiheldren, of the Dark Elves, to the outside races has caused them to become widely feared by all of the Free Peoples. Responsible for the creation of necromancy, the warlock arts, and the birth of the tieflings, the Dreiheldren are the corrupted cousins of the High Elves. Living in deep subterranean labyrinths, which often warred with the Dwarven Holds in times of old, these twisted elves conduct wicked experiments, seeking ever new ways of spreading their races' domination of the world.
The Dreiheldren follow a deity known as the Mother of Night. |
Sylheldren culture is as different from that of their cousins as any of the Free Peoples'. The secretive wood elves rarely leave their forest home, those that do often become Pathfinders of the Vanguard out of disdain for their Highborne cousins. That is not to say the Wood Elves do not have their own highly stratified society; due to an ancient system of castes, many elves live their lives in the service of their self-declared betters. They defend the Forbidden Forest with arrow and magic, steel and sorcery, and very rarely allow outsiders to step into their magical home. They are the great line of defense against the Beastmen hordes, often conducing raids against them to keep the creatures in check. When not on the war path, the Sylheldren elves devote their lives to the cultivation of their forest homes, to the art of story-crafting and song-writing, and to a myriad of other artistic endeavors. Their harmony with the wood means they never need to work hard to acquire the food they need, but often Great Hunts will be conducted to thin over-full herds.
The Sylheldren elves are also devotees of Ilya, the twin sister of Elis'al that the Einheldren consider to be blasphemous. |
Free Peoples
Human society in the Free State is widely egalitarian, and highly militarized. Every citizen is required to serve the military in some capacity for at least five years, from nineteen to twenty-four. Women and men have been expected to fight in the defense of their Kings, and now the Free State, in equal measure since the beginning of mankind, and that has bred a society where men and women are widely afforded the same opportunities. Despite being at war almost constantly since their appearance in the world, human culture in Alscium is defined by its ability to meld all the disparate parts of those cultures around them, the poetry of the elves, the cuisine of the halflings, the work ethic of the dwarves, and incorporate them into their own ways of life. This melting-pot of a society has allowed the Free State to grow quickly, incorporating all the disparate peoples into one unified, shared culture.
The humans of Alscium are typically devotees of the Triumverate; Ashal the Mother, Tyr the Great Angel, and Ersu, Knower-of-All. |
The dwarves of Alscium are a proud, ancient people, but are few in number due to their devastating wars against the Einheldren so long ago. They have bitter feuds between the different clans, and only put them aside because they are forced to by the necessity of stopping the Einheldren. Dwarven society is a bit stricter in its idea of gender roles, but that does not stop dwarven women from muscling their way up the ladder to become Huskarls, bodyguard of Theigns, or even Theigns themselves. The dwarves pride themselves on being early-to-bed, early-to-rise, healthy, wealthy, and wise; they are consummate professionals in all that they do. "If you need a job done right, hire a dwarf," they like to say.
Dwarves follow their parental ancestor gods, Thorun and Freiya. |
Sometimes demeaned as peddlers and gypsies, the gnomes of Alscium have long been a somewhat un-trusted group, even among their fellow Free Peoples. This is due to the fact that, in truth, they do have a poor knack for over-promising and under-delivering when talking about their myriad inventions. That doesn't stop them from being the best tinkerers and inventors in all of Alscium, though, even if a fair number of them no longer have eyebrows or hair. They are perfect scientists, never stopping their brainstorming and inventing and experimenting and hypothesizing. Gnomes are known for being wily, and it is well known they can find their way out of any contract with a loophole, but have proven themselves to be invaluable in sabotaging and undermining Einheldren authority throughout Alscium.
Gnomes don't believe in any gods. They think they're for simpletons. |
Tieflings are a tragic race, doomed to walk the Plane Below after death due to the machinations of the Dreiheldren. Born from the fusing of a demon with a human body, the Tieflings fight, to varying degrees, deep-seated destructive urges. Most, in turn, have turned to practicing the dark arts against those who damned them, acting as the most effective and dangerous spellcasters at the disposal of the Scarlet Vanguard. Due to their nature as beings of darkness, Tieflings have recorded some of the most staggeringly haunting pieces of poetry, prose, and visual arts that exist in Alscium. Even the most stone-hearted of people have difficulty when faced with the true anguish of the tieflings as expressed in their work.
Tieflings believe only in the coming of the Hell after Death. |
Halflings are the perennial children of Alscium, despite living to well over one-hundred and fifty. They are a playful, carefree race that has been a thorn in the side of the Einheldren since the very beginning. Hating nothing more than being looked down on because of their size, halflings are a fiercely independent people that have struck back in small ways (a poisoning here, an ankle-stabbing there) since the first Einheldren expansions. They are natural pranksters and tricksters, and often find themselves in sticky situations due to their propensity to take shiny things first and ask questions later.
Halflings follow Loreth, the Trickster. |