People of the Mythic Age details the ancestries and cultures most common and important in the continent. Uncommon Heritage is a sort of supplement to that chapter, offering more ancestries and cultures to be found across Alzhrin.
Ancestries
Carassen
The carassen are travellers from a distant outer realm called Falnimar. They are reptilian in appearance; their lower body has four clawed legs and a long tail, while their upper body is humanoid. Falnimar is hot and dry, so many carassen are uncomfortable in Ordos until they've had a year or so to adapt to the wetter clime. They tend not to talk much about their former home, except for wistful comments about missing the wind, but they are usually rather gentle, in contrast to their somewhat fearsome appearance.
Carassen are generally 8-9 feet tall and about six feet long, not counting the tail. A carassen's tail is generally another 2-3 feet in length. They are built very densely, typically weighing 400-500 pounds. Their scales are usually brownish-red with striations suggestive of the exposed rock layers seen in the plateaus of the High Plains, which were explained to me as being camouflage in their home plane.
Though most of them are not inclined to use them as such, their claws and tail can be used quite devastatingly in combat. More practically, their claws are an excellent aid to climbing and navigating uneven terrain. Carassen are naturally resistant to hot weather, and have a biology which lets them go long periods without water. As natives of an outer realm, carassen who come to Zindu must carry some of their local physics with them. Since they were not the strongest embodiment of Falnimar, this tends to have minor effects—they make a room feel uncomfortably warm and dry after remaining in it for about an hour.
Carassen on Zindu are often legends, but unlike most planar denizens they lack a metaphor rating. I suspect they somehow have "traded in" one for the other, though I have no idea how such a thing could be possible.
Dvergar
Often called "dwarves" by humans, this ancestry is primarily subterranean. These are the people who created the Underweb, though its extraplanar hazards were an unplanned side effect. Most dvergar still live in the safe regions of the Underweb, and the passages still usable for cross-continental transit are maintained and defended by dvergar. Dvergar are also common in the Hellfurnaces and a small number of them have come to live on the surface.
Dwarves are smaller than humans, tending towards 3-4 feet in height. Coming from the depths of the earth, they are very pale unless they've lived on the surface for several generations. Their hair is usually black, as their heat-vision doesn't distinguish between colour in the same way that we do. Their eyes are a strange colour. They have no pupil and the whole thing is a kind of iridescently-sheened white. I'm told that to people with greater than human visual acuity they take on wondrous colours, however.
The dvergar are natural dimensionalists, which is likely how they were able to conceive and construct the Underweb in the first place. An individual dwarf's dimensional power is significantly weaker than that powering the Underweb and they can generally only teleport a few metres. As I alluded to earlier, dvergar also can see heat signatures as though warm objects gave off a form of light; this allows them to operate perfectly in darkness.
Dvergar have the normal amount of legends. Their history suggests that in the days of their empire this was much higher, but many legendary bloodlines were cut short when the Underweb fell. Dvergar are the only people I've encountered who attribute legends to being a property passed on along bloodlines.
Faeries
This is a broad category for folk from a strange otherworld. This other plane seems to intersect our own world in the west of Alzhrin, creating the mist-shrouded lands of Fazil. Most of the faeries in the world now come from this region, rather than coming directly from whatever plane they originated in. Faeries interact with mortal languages in a strange way such that their speech, though I'm sure it's being done in their own tongue, is heard in the language of whoever is doing the listening. As such the names I have put down here for their bloodlines are not what they're natively called but the way that name automatically translates to our ears.
Blade
These faeries are slightly larger than humans with the strength and toughness to match. Out in the world they tend to be seen as unpersonable and combative.
Mask
These faeries are artisans of supernatural skill. Though they can't craft properly magical items, the things they can make sometimes contain unexpected properties. Mask seem insubstantial, including their clothing, and the ornate masks they wear are the only definitely real part of them.
Shadow
These faeries are made out of living darkness (considerably more of a shadow influence than the shadow-wrought, below). They are able to weave semi-real objects out of shadows.
Wild
These faeries are natural shapeshifters. While they each possess a unique humanoid form, they tend to prefer spending most of their time in an animal shape.
Wind
These faeries are tiny and winged, barely a foot tall. According to wind faeries, they control the weather.
Farasha
These ethereal aliens are best described as mothfolk. Newly-descended farasha stand nearly eight feet tall but several years in the gravity of our world shrinks them to a modest five feet. Despite this shrinking farasha remain sparse and light, as though made out of a rarer matter than we are. Farasha are humanoid, though they possess four arms and a pair of wings. Their bodies are covered in a light fuzz which they insist is not fur. Their faces are distinctly insectoid with large, multifaceted eyes and a nectar-drinking proboscis in place of a mouth. They have long antennae which are sometimes feather-shaped.
Farasha are fast and frail, likely due to their strange composition. They can fly and their antennae give them strange extrasensory abilities—from what I can tell, they can navigate unerringly and have a sense for magical phenomena.
Farasha have a higher than normal incidence of legends, though I can't tell if it is simply that it is usually legends who come down to our world.
Goblin
These folk are superficially similar to the virglas, except that they're about half the height—they rarely reach four feet tall. They come from another world, but not one floating out in the Void. They somehow originate from a material world like ours drifting freely through the Chromatic Chaos. I've only heard this world referred to as the "Goblin Green", but I figure that must be a translation of the term they use in native languages of that world.
A majority of goblins—though certainly not all of them—congregate in Hap'knil enclaves with virglas, who they feel a great kinship for. Some goblins even tell tales that their "tall cousins" share an origin with them on their Goblin Green.
Unlike other travellers to Alzhrin, goblins never become legends. Instead, they have special chaos-infused materials, the five inchoate metals. They use these in a strange facsimile of engineering that allows them to produce rare equipment that allows them to compete with legends and the powerful monsters of the Mythic Age.
Greychild
There was a major event hundreds of years ago (frustratingly, I can't track down an exact date) which is called the sea-cataclysm. A brief explanation appears under the Rydel culture, below, but it did influence several ancestries and cultures and the greychildren are one of them. Our own geological records are clear about the existence, some time in the deep past, of cetacean creatures. Here in the Mythic Age I've discovered what happened to them. During the sea-cataclysm all cetaceans in the world were transformed into the greychildren. Though legend asserts that this affected all cetaceans in the whole world, it seems plausible that it was simply all of them in the seas around Alzhrin.
Greychildren are humanoids with tough, hairless skin. Their skin is usually grey, but there are some with black and white patterns instead. They suffer under a curse which prevents them from entering or crossing salt water.
Greychildren have several capabilities which I presume to be inherited from their cetacean forebears. They have an excellent sense of direction and can navigate through a form of high-frequency sound. Though they rarely have the chance to use it, I am told that they can hold their breath much longer than humans. Many greychildren can weaponise their sonic navigation, creating a burst of loud sound which deafens those nearby.
Greychildren are rarely legends. I suspect, but am not certain, that this has to do with the curse they are under, as the same is true of Rydel.
Ideologue
Though modern definitions of ideologue assume a human baseline, my observations in the Mythic Age indicate that any ancestry can have ideologue varieties. An ideologue is a person (non-sapient creatures which exhibit planar influences are described using different terminology) who has some influence from one of the outer realms. This tends to display itself in a number of ways, though there is generally some consistency among a given variety of ideologue. Ideologues not only have physical traits which make their otherworldly influence obvious, but frequently some manner of magical or extraordinary capabilities as well. As with all things here, these planar expressions are more potent in the Mythic Age than they are in my native time.
Origins of ideologues are varied, and I believe sometimes more based in myth than fact. Some are said to come from physical coupling between mortals and planar beings. Others come from outer realm conjunctions, celestial events, or magical surges. Some seem to appear completely randomly and I can only presume that one of the planar origin events occurred some time in the past, mysteriously refusing to manifest until several generations later.
Ideologues as a whole tend to have a higher rate of legends than average, though it is not universal as in the case of the jotunkin.
Aladroi
Aladroi have a distant connection to elemental energies and have varying appearances and capabilities depending on what element they descend from. I have met five types of aladroi, though there is a distinct possibility that others exist. There is some debate among planar scholars of this Age as to the number of Elemental Reaches, and if this debate is grounded in serious scholarship there may also exist other forms of elemental ideologue.
Earth aladroi tend to be short and stocky, though they are always heavier than they look regardless of their build. They tend to have brown or grey skin and hair with eyes that twinkle like gemstones.
Earth aladroi are usually unnaturally tough, sometimes able to shrug off swords and bullets with their stony skin. They can usually see in the dark through perception of some mysterious radiation and sometimes manifest control over the earth itself. I have met some that swim through dirt like it was water and others who can convince the ground around them to shift and slide, causing people to trip or stumble.
Fire aladroi have hair and skin of orange, red, or yellow, if their hair is not actually a flame. Their eyes tend to either blaze brightly or smoulder.
Fire aladroi are generally fireproof. They can often see an object's heat signatures and are comfortable in brightness that I find blinding. Some of them can shoot fire at people. I know this Age is more dangerous than my native one, and there are sorceries which grant even more destructive power, but I can't emphasise enough how terrifying it is to have someone suddenly scream and launch fire from their hands.
Metal aladroi usually have shiny, metallic skin. One with a shade reminiscent of one of the seven orderly metals is considered lucky or blessed. Their hair is often metallic as well, both in colour and with a wiry texture. Sometimes it will have a white or yellow streak, as though it were a stroke of lightning.
Metal aladroi are generally resistant to harm. I have heard stories of individuals for whom metal weapons would pass through as though they were insubstantial. Sometimes they can control metal, keeping their own blades sharp, warping the weapons or armour of others, or pulling it around like an inductor. Some have the ability to channel electricity.
Water aladroi tend towards blue-green shades of skin and hair. Some, but not all, have visible gills on their neck. A few I've met have had subtly scaled skin.
Water aladroi can breathe underwater and can usually see even in the deepest seas, though I'm not sure that this is actual vision and not an extreme sensitivity to water currents. Many of them can control water and rarely they seem to be able to actually create it from nothing.
Wood aladroi tend to have brown skin and green hair, though sometimes they will have blue or white skin or hair in shades of purple or pink, reminiscent of flowers. Often their hair moves slightly, as if in a breeze or a leaf turning towards the sun. They tend to be tall and lithe, but some are stocky and smaller.
Wood aladroi often have some control over plants, ranging from the subtle to the gross. Sometimes they can toughen their skin against blows or summon the wind.
Chromageno
These ideologues carry the primal influences of the Chromatic Chaos. Befitting such origins, they are wildly different from each other in appearance. Some are all one colour, some are many, some are colour-shifting. Probably due to a stabilising influence of our own world, they are almost always human-shaped. That being said, occasionally their chaos-gifts will manifest themselves as a physical difference.
Chromageno usually carry a colour-based ability similar to those exhibited by chromavores. Many also have one or more chaos-gifts, which are too varied for me to describe in detail here.
Chronicler
These ideologues carry the blood of angels in them. The story they tell about themselves is that while the gods maintain the world through the angels, the angels need mortal assistance to help them observe the status of creation. Chroniclers don't differ much from their mortal ancestry, but they have angelic sigils on their skin—some have few, some many.
The primary purpose of chroniclers is to observe, not influence. As such their powers are about perception, stealth, and survival. Not every chronicler has the same gifts, since not every angel has the same responsibilities.
Mirrorbound
These ideologues are connected to the mirror worlds. Unsettlingly, they don't seem to be from any of the actual other worlds but the mirror-corridors between them. Furthermore, I wasn't expecting to see any of these folk in this Age, as it is generally accepted that the mirror worlds were a consequence of the terrible violence of the Doom Wars. This is a matter for more exploration, but at the time of this writing I don't have an explanation. Mirrorbound tend to be reflective and some look like they're plated in mirrors.
Mirrorbound usually can reflect focused light-beams that would burn a human. Sometimes they also seem to reflect temperature itself and also cannot be harmed by rays of magical fire and ice. They also may possess strange and terrible mirror-powers, such as fracturing light-beams around themselves and making it hard to see clearly or firing powerful rays of light from their own eyes to blind others.
Nasnas
These ideologues carry the influence of the highly magical jinn. There are six types of nasnas, based on the six types of jinn most commonly seen in the world.
The masrig were created by the influence of marids. Like their ancestors they have natural affinity towards elemental magic, especially the wild magic of storms.
The matra carry the influence of ghuls. They have an affinity for death and can resist some killing magics.
The qural are influenced by qirri. They don't have any particular magical affinity, but they are skilled at stealth and observation.
The sahar are the rarest, as they have the influence of ifrit. Their magical affinity applies towards any style and sahar often practice several types of magic.
The shifa are descended from jann. They have an affinity for healing.
The tabie are descended from hinn. They often have some animalistic features and have a natural affinity for shamanism.
Shadow-Wrought
These ideologues have a connection to the shadow realm. They tend to have pale or grey skin and grey or black hair. They frequently look as though they are standing in the shade, wherever they happen to be.
Shadow-wrought tend to manifest powers based on shadows and darkness. They tend to resist cold magic and environments. While they usually need to breathe, I heard a legend about one who had travelled to an airless outer realm and survived just fine, apparently drawing some kind of air analogue from the surrounding void. They can all see perfectly in darkness, though I'm at a loss as to explain how. It doesn't seem to use any of the radiations employed by other alternate visual modes. Some of them can teleport between regions of darkness, presumably stepping through the realm of shadow that connects them. Some can turn into shadows themselves.
Minotaur
These folk are tall, broad humanoids covered with a light fur and bearing horned heads. Their faces carry a slightly bovine muzzle and they have cloven hooves on their feet. Fur colour ranges from white to black to shades of brown and tan, with deep reds being an uncommon occurrence.
Minotaurs have a natural sense for the space around them, which they attribute to a sort of astral sight. This gives them an unerring sense of direction and a sensitivity to dimensional magic in their vicinity.
Minotaurs are often legends, and it is said that they can perform a journey in their dreams to achieve such a state.
Ratfolk
These small humanoids look just like a rat that was grown to three feet in height. Having come through otherworldly connections in the Underweb they seem most comfortable remaining underground, either as an Undercaverner or in the Hellfurnaces of Balsteinn.
Ratfolk are very dextrous, having both a natural intuition for stealth and an adeptness for technology. Some of the best engineers in the Hellfurnaces are ratfolk and when they come to the surface they are prized for these skills.
Ratfolk have the normal quantity of legends.
Rydel
These folk are nearly human, though they labour under an ancient curse that bans them from salt water. Like greychildren, this curse originates from the sea-cataclysm. They are most commonly drawn from the Jami ethnicity, although for reasons that I assume are mostly related to interbreeding the Rydel curse sometimes is found among other human ethnicities.
Rydel are largely defined by the curse they possess, though they also have some other subtle abilities. Most notably, the kilesthar (sand-fiends of the Khanos desert, see Denizens of the Mythic Age) avoid them. I can't tell if this is some special ward they possess, some ancient agreement that was made, or a strange whim of the kilesthar. I also am not sure if this applies to all fiends or not. Even in the Mythic Age, otherworldly denizens rarely manifest physically in the world, so the Rydel that I asked didn't know. They also seem to have an uncanny sense of direction and an intuition for river currents. They claim it's a side effect of the curse, but I suspect it may simply be cultural knowledge they pass on.
Like greychildren, Rydel are rarely legends.
Sugohfen
Sugohfen are, broadly speaking, lizard-people (though some bloodlines are more like amphibian-people). When I first saw a sugohfen I thought they were somehow a holdover from the Draconic Age. As far as I have been able to determine that is not the case. They are simply travellers from another world. Sugohfen vary in size from 3-4 feet in height up to 7, largely dependent on bloodline. Sugohfen bloodlines fall into three main categories: aziran, gelifan, and kiroccon.
Sugohfen have a slightly lower incidence of heroes than the usual, but not as poor as the cursed Rydel or greychildren.
Aziran are like crocodiles or monitor lizards. They are large, six to seven feet in height, and thickly scaled. They have the most threatening claws and teeth of any sugohfen bloodline. They are also the physically toughest due to their scales and dense musculature.
Gelifan are like geckos. They are about the same size as humans and have smooth skin. They have exceptional climbing ability and are well-adapted to warmer environments, possessing a level of resistance to heat and flame.
Kiroccon are like chameleons or bearded dragons. They are small, three to four feet tall, and scaly. Most of them can change their colouration. Strangely, the kiroccon are well-adapted to cold environments, unlike the reptiles of our world.
Ygrell
The ygrell are fugitives from the outer realm of Gourem. Gourem's consciousness embodies as a sort of malevolent ooze entity which created the ygrell as servants. Those who have made it to Zindu have escaped the control of this entity, allegedly, and now seek to find their own path through life.
Ygrell are humanoid from the waist up and like a snake below. Their humanoid body is about human-sized, while their snake tail tends to be 5-6 feet long. Ygrell are generally hairless, but some have grown a head of hair as an aesthetic choice, though it is not clear to me how they managed to do so. Ygrell body patterns are often green or yellow, in stripes or spots or streaks, while their chest and stomach area may often be white.
Ygrell have a litheness and strength that matches their apparent serpentine influence. They also carry an unfortunate susceptibility to magic that controls or alters their will, apparently as a lingering effect of their origins. Their local physics is weak, manifesting as a sense of unease and being watched which also tends to interfere with certain psychic powers.
Like the carassen, local ygrell have somehow "exchanged" their usual metaphor rating for the ability to become legends.
Zafaril
These sea spirits are near-surface dwellers. They are a mix of body types, distinct from the other ancestries of this Age. From the head to the waist they are similar to humans, though much slimmer and heavily finned. Below this humanoid waist is a long, sinuous tail similar to an eel's. Zafaril don't have hair and their smooth skin is sometimes scaled. Their skin patterns, and the layout and shape of their fins, varies heavily and these variations tend to run along family lines.
Zafaril are amphibious. Though they can breathe both air and water, their mobility on land is clumsy and uncomfortable so most of them prefer to avoid it. Most zafaril have the ability to generate current inside their bodies, though the strength of electricity they can channel varies. While most of their skin patterns serve as camouflage in the proper environment, some zafaril are able to change the colouration of their skin deliberately to camouflage themselves wherever they happen to be.
Zafaril have a fairly high number of legends. Their explanation for this is "necessity".
Zhagun
These elves are nature spirits, said to arise in places where humanity has left imprints of the Prime Element on the natural world. They look much like Shutein-ethnicity humans, but with the willowy build and pointed ears often associated with elvenkind. They seemingly have no connection to the other elves of this age, despite sharing many traits common to both of them which leads me to label them as another type of "elf".
Like other elves, zhagun don't sleep and say they live forever. Their strong connection with the land around them gives an excellent sense of distance and direction and allows them to move more quickly and easily in their native environment than humans can.
Zhagun have more legends than the average, but I think that has to do with their long lifespan.
Cultures
Balai
The zhagun maintain a small, quiet culture in Anathos which doesn't build cities or impose on the "essence of forest", as they call it.
Balai people dress in simple clothes of a variety of colours. Their culture is one of peace, so only those who leave the forest use weapons and armour. In times of trouble they can usually rely on Shutein or Vasrimr to protect them. The people of Balai speak Zatal, though many of them also speak one or more Chi'ar dialects.
Balai culture is entirely anarchic. They don't have leaders, instead allowing the flow of Prime Element through themselves to dictate how they should each approach life.
Balai culture doesn't worship any gods, instead revering the spiritual concept of the forest. According to their cosmological views, the world was at first only forest. After the gods made humanity, the Prime Element in humans mixed with the energy of forest and from this combination the zhagun were born.
Fazil
Fazil is a strange, mist-shrouded land west of Ordos. It's inhabited primarily by faeries, whose strange otherworld crosses our world in that area, and mortals generally find it difficult to travel through or live in due to the way physics seems to melt in the face of shifting dream-logic.
Fazil culture seems to be based on the concept of one's Word. Not in a linguistic sense, as with the jotunkin, but in a sort of intent-based way. They divide themselves into a number of houses, with there being both noble and common houses which carry different sorts of esoteric responsibilities.
The cosmology of the faeries is nearly incomprehensible. From what I could gather, they view their native otherworld as the dreams of the world (not, they will specify, the dreams of its people). Faeries speak a special feytongue which translates itself into the language of whoever hears it, and they assert the same thing happens with any mortal language they hear. Lacking this capability, mortals living in Fazil have adopted the Vorgine language of neighbouring Ordos.
Deities of Fazil are strange, barely anthropomorphised things, and seem likely to be planar lords of the crossing otherworld. The few I was able to learn about, which I presume makes them either the most prominent or most conceptually accessible, are Stern Breeze of the Western Reach, Unfiltered Starlight, and A Compromise with Thunder. If they have domains over which they exert their influence, in the manner of mortal deities, I have no idea what they could be.
Hap'knil
These small enclaves are scattered about Alzhrin, but occur most commonly in the deserts of Khanos. Founded by goblins, they are mostly inhabited by that ancestry and virglas. They are, for the most part, absurdly well-defended science labs. Goblin engineers are the "rulers" of Hap'knil labs, if such a term can be applied to these chaotic enclaves. They mostly pursue their whims (or, as they say, "intuition") in performing experiments with the five inchoate metals or other things they found interesting once arriving in our world. The goblins seem to love virglas, out of a combination of what seems to be ancestral kinship and the fact that their near-invulnerability makes them excellent test subjects for wielding experimental weapons. The Hap'knil speak Orch, which is frustratingly difficult for a non-native speaker to learn. It is described as a "universal dialect" of the myriad languages on the goblin homeworld, adopted so that the many Hap'knil enclaves can send letters to each other.
Hap'knil goblins come from a world outside the Void, floating deep in the Chromatic Chaos. Their cosmological views are simple: it used to all be chaos, then the gods of creation came along and messed that all up. I'm unclear who these "gods of creation" are, but since the stories indicate they created the worlds of the Void as some big mistake, it is likely that this is an otherworldly name for the demiurges.
Hap'knil religion is a strange thing. It seems that mastery of some strange goblin magic (which they have fortunately not brought with them) allows them to ascend themselves to a level of godhood. One of their kind, the Godblin (this must be some kind of mistranslation), became so mighty that they were even able to slay one of the gods of creation. Allegedly.
Ordos
Ordos is a nation in the west of the Rivermarch, on the edge of Alzhrin. Though there is more land further west, Ordos lies in the region that's considered the wild border of the continent beyond which explorers rarely return from. Ordos is settled by immigrants from the outer realms. Though most of the Ordosans are ideologues, tauroid carassen and naga-like ygrell are also common residents.
Ordos struggles to have a single, unifying identity. Many Ordosans continue to carry the ways and stylings of the outer realm from which they hail. Others adopt, completely or in part, the culture of other Ordosans from different realms or from a mortal culture here on Zindu. As such, Ordosans are a patchwork of clothing styles, weapon choices, and cultural behaviours.
Though they usually speak the language or languages of the realms they came from, Ordosans have also developed a sort of mixed trade language called Vorgine.
Out of all the cultures in the Mythic Age, Ordosans are most likely to worship one of the planar lords instead of the gods of Zindu.
Other Worlds
Many ancestries, especially ones listed above, come from another planet or plane of existence. This entry serves as a catch-all culture for any character from another world, one which doesn't have any cultural entries of its own yet. (See Mechanical Concerns for the specifics on cultural benefits.)
Rydel
The Rydel riverfolk are, perhaps, more of a cursed subset of humans than a physical ancestry. Here I will detail what the Rydel are like as a culture, supplementary to the ancestry entry in the previous section. The Rydel grew as an offshoot of Jami culture and so much of the information there regarding practises and cosmology apply here as well.
The Rydel split from the Jami in an event centuries ago that everybody refers to as the "sea-cataclysm". The Rydel have the most complete stories about this event, as by their own admission they caused it. A group of Jami (those who became the Rydel) decided to continue the work of the demiurge Somnos and dock Zindu against one of the Islands Between (which one nobody seems to know any more). The interaction of strange outer-realm physics with our own normal rules of reality were catastrophic. The Rydel were cursed off the sea. All cetaceans (so the story goes) in the entire world were cast out of the oceans and transformed into greychildren. Some records indicate that this was also the event that lead to the destruction of the Kaiyumba civilisation and the creation of the Khanos desert, though it is possible that was due to some earlier magical catastrophe.
Rydel society is largely solitary. They travel the rivers of Khanos on boats ferrying travellers and only sometimes gather in groups. When they share a boat long-term it's usually a family or a small group of close friends who work out an internal hierarchy, if necessary, as such groups always do.
Rydel tend to dress in long robes. They're most commonly brown but some wear them in other dark shades. They usually don't wear armour and fight with either a long staff or short sword. Rydel speak a dialect of Elnor, though they are often also fluent in Valen and Fyx.
Shifts in culture over the past several centuries have given the Rydel new deities, distinct from the Jami. The most prominent are Hef, the Far-Runner, god of steady wind and sky; Temzis Raftbane, goddess of rivers and treacherous currents; Kafal, Dark Blade of the East, He Who Breathes the Sandstorm, god of sand and dangerous weather; Girrik, Who Destroys the Sky, deity of sun, summer, and the devastating flame; Kimitar, the Endless River, goddess of time and inevitability; Milak Speargaze, Who Is Born of Sand, god of dying and catastrophe; and Fulyrin Seamother, goddess of new life, taboo, and curses.
Undercaverns
Mostly occupied by dvergar, "Undercaverns" refers to the people living in the mostly-safe regions of the Underweb. While much of the 'Web has been lost to dimensionally egregious horrors, the dwarven tradition of Wayguards helps keep small stretches safe for habitation and travel.
Undercavern society is split into two main areas, military and trade. A cavern has two leaders, a mayor who is elected by vote of the merchants and local caravanners and a general determined by vote of the soldiers. Both positions are subject to a vote of no confidence from either part of society if they are seen to be failing in their duties. Ley lines barely function in the Underweb, when present at all. Caverners therefore must get supplies from surface ley lines and transport them to wherever things are needed, explaining why they have such a strong focus on trade and transportation.
Dvergar weavers have a method of making threads out of planar fabric and these designs are fashionable in Undercavern garb. A lot of caverners wear light armour, even non-warriors, due to the dangers of the Underweb. Caverner soldiers focus on a defensive style of combat. The standard Wayguard unit is a number of soldiers up front forming a shield wall with a couple soldiers in the back firing over the wall with magic or a special clockwork firearm called the resonant rifle. When pressed, shield-bearing soldiers will fight with small hand-weapons. Caverners speak a sort of creole trade language called Barris, drawn from major languages of the surface cultures of Alzhrin. Though they don't have the same linguistic mastery as the jotunkin, having this broad creole as a native language does seem to make it easier for caverners to learn one of the surface languages and most caverners at least are also conversational in the languages of nearby surface cultures.
Undercavern cosmology and mythology have a lot to do with the dangers of hubris and empire. The dvergar deities granted them life and dimensional power, which they then took to establish dominance across the world. Their legends tell that they had a successful empire beneath all Alzhrin; sometimes it is said that they extended the Underweb across the whole world. Several centuries ago their emperor overreached, seeking to spread the empire to the outer realms, and the portals of the Underweb stretched too far and snapped. Horrors from strange outer realms and beyond surged through these planar wounds and overtook most of the Underweb. What remains is a gradually-diminishing hold against this otherworldly tide.
Most of the original dvergar deities have been abandoned, as the power and imperial designs they brought to society have been seen to lead to their downfall. The only remaining one still worshipped by caverners is Guor Telgan, bound heart of the earth, god of stability and protection. Many caverners also worship deities drawn from the surface cultures nearby.
Ver'kamel
This mostly-minotaur culture is spread across the plateaus of the High Plains. The minotaurs are furry and resistant to cold and thus typically clad themselves only in a skirt or wide pants. Other Ver'kamel may replicate this dress, but many find the chill air of the Plains to be wearing on them and will wear a heavy jacket. The Ver'kamel tend to imprint complex knotwork patterns on their bodies—minotaurs dye them into their fur, while other ancestries apply them as tattoos. It is said that these patterns are maps to an individual's astral space, and the story is that they can guide a person through their dreams to become a legend.
Ver'kamel speak Hadao, which contains a musical shorthand used to communicate across the plateaus with didgeridoos and taiko drums. A minotaur's lung capacity allows them to play long, droning passages continuously for nearly an hour.
Ver'kamel martial artists mostly fight with handstaves, in a style reminiscent of their drumming techniques. They also use, mostly in community defence against flying or burrowing denizens, a special weapon called a burn gun. This long-barrelled weapon draws inspiration from the sun, loading alchemical cartridges to fire a stream of flame.
Ver'kamel religion is centred around the sun and its glorious power. Their culture makes heavy use of a type of shaman rarely seen in other lands, a shaman of the White that draws on solar energy. These shamans serve the role of priests in their religion, drawing blessings and resources down from the sky to benefit their people. While the sun serves the role of primary divinity, it is also seen as being supported by the Uncountable, a whole heavenly family represented by the stars in the sky. Shamans of the White are unable to access the power of the Uncountable, since the destructive forces of the Black stand in between their light and Zindu.
Zafaros
The Zafaros are almost exclusively zafaril, largely because of this culture's location. The Zafaros live in cave systems in the islands of Tembel, below the surface of the sea. While other people are not specifically excluded, one basically needs to be able to breathe underwater to successfully integrate.
Zafaros society is stratified into three groups: hunters, warriors, and noncombatants. Though it is obvious that the skills of noncombatants are essential to the survival of the commune, hunters and warriors are accorded all the glory. Zafaros society organises itself into small communes, with a number of them around each island depending on its size and if it is settled by Jami. Each commune is ruled by a hunter, who takes primary responsibility for organising the defence of the commune. The hunter remains in charge until killed in battle or they choose to step down, typically in recognition that another hunter would serve the community better.
Zafaros fight with spears or tridents. They have an unspoken agreement with the Jami to help protect them from the various hazards and terrors found beneath the sea. They have their own language of Olidos, but many of them also speak Elnor.
According to Zafaros belief, the world used to be boundless sea. Then, after unmeasurable aeons of perfection, the demiurges imposed land and sky and limits, destroying this wonderful existence. At the same time, the pure unfettered spirits of sea were bound into physical form as the zafaril.
Zafaros religion has two major deities: Wy'less, the Firstborn, deity of sea; and Zet & Han, the Twins of Fate, gods of life and death. Though lore suggests they manifest separately, the Zafaros consider them to be two facets of the same deity. Zafaros also have shamans of the Blue, a rarely-seen discipline that channels the power of the sea.