Races of Kyrell

Races of Kyrell

Kyrell is home to a wide variety of peoples, each with their own history, culture, and place in the world. This document provides a brief overview of each race and links to the full standalone article for each. All races use Variant Human Traits (PHB p.31) for humans, and PHB entries as noted for other races, with Kyrell-specific modifications detailed in the individual articles.

All races in Kyrell use the Variant Human Traits rule (PHB p.31) for humans. For other races, use the PHB entry noted in each article unless a Kyrell-specific modification is listed.

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Core Races

Dwarves (The Thwarch)

Born from the stone itself in the same act of creation that raised Kyrell's mountains, the Thwarch are the world's master craftsmen and its most enduring warriors. Their five-Clan hierarchy -- Adamant, Mithril, Gold, Silver, and Copper -- governs every aspect of dwarven life, from who fights to who keeps the records. Clan Sunbone are their surface-dwelling kin, descended from those sent out of the deep holds generations ago and never formally welcomed back.

Full article: Dwarves of Kyrell (The Thwarch)

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Elves (The Halvaen -- High Elves)

This entry covers High Elves only. Wild Elves are described below.

The Halvaen are among the oldest peoples in Kyrell, born from the trees at the founding of the world, and they have not forgotten it. Their House system and the Sun King govern the sealed Elysor Reaches. Their true tongue, Elysorian, is never taught to outsiders under any circumstances. They do not die of old age -- they grow weary and sleep within the Life Tree, to be reborn as their own descendants.

Full article: High Elves of Kyrell (The Halvaen)

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Wild Elves

The other branch of the elvish family -- the ones who walk the edges of the forest rather than its interior. Wild Elves are the face the Elysor Reaches show to the world, running the border patrols that have kept the Reaches sealed since the Sun King Aelindrath closed them three centuries ago. Their spoken-only language, the Wind, has no written form by design. They are shorter and harder than their High Elven kin, and they prize scars and tattoos that Halvaen flesh cannot hold.

Full article: Wild Elves of Kyrell

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Gnomes

The companion race to the dwarves, present at the same moment of creation. Where dwarves build and fight and accumulate, gnomes record and organize and advise. Their record-halls are embedded in every significant dwarven hold and most major human cities. Their patron is Quorath, the Keeper of the Celestial Record, whose mandate is not just to preserve knowledge but to create it. Rock Gnomes live in the deep holds alongside dwarves; Forest Gnomes live on the surface, often in human cities.

Full article: Gnomes of Kyrell

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Half-Elves

Not a recent development -- a people, one that has been present since the Vennite period and has its own traditions, its own networks, and its own understanding of what it means to stand between two worlds. Most half-elves today were born of two half-elven parents. The Weohstan human subrace descends from early half-elven ancestry. A half-elf raised among the Halvaen is given a name beginning with an apostrophe -- the personal name standing alone, without an ancestral prefix.

Full article: Half-Elves of Kyrell

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Half-Orcs

The children of two peoples who have reason to be wary of each other, claimed by neither side with consistency, and defined by what they have built from that circumstance. Thundarak's temples are the one Settled Lands institution with a formal mandate to take in half-orc infants and care for them -- not from charity but from the god's interest in strength applied to righteous ends. The Eastern Tribes are the most consistently welcoming community on the continent.

Full article: Half-Orcs of Kyrell

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Halflings

The companions the elves brought with them when they emerged from the trees -- homebodies with a reputation for going nowhere that is undermined by how often they turn up in unexpected places. Halfling culture is organized around the good life: good food, good relationships, good mental engagement, and the freedom to make the choices that produce all of those things. Their patron, Halveron, demands absolute opposition to slavery and forbids threats or intimidation of any kind.

Full article: Halflings of Kyrell

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Humans

The most numerous people in Kyrell, present across all four of Dracomere's major cultural traditions. All humans use Variant Human Traits (PHB p.31). The four subraces each have their own full article.

• Weohstan: Taller than average, with golden-blond hair and fair skin marking their elvish heritage. The Weohstannuk Empire was built on their name. The confidence has outlasted the empire. Full article: Weohstan Humans of Kyrell
• Kajiman: Natives of the island of Kajima and its Shogunate. Defined by the Vareth -- the complete code of conduct that governs every tier of the hierarchy. The monk tradition that the continent knows is a subset of the tenshari curriculum. Those without a lord are called Mureven, and they are the Kajiman most often encountered abroad. Full article: Kajiman Humans of Kyrell (The Shogunate)
• Southron: Natives of the southern coastlands and the Coastal Confederacy. Natural sailors and traders, organized around reputation rather than law, with Saltmere as the effective center of their world. Full article: Southron Humans of Kyrell
• Eastern Tribesmen: Nomadic peoples of the eastern plains, organized around animal totems and the annual Moot at Ironmeet. The most consistently open community in Kyrell for outsiders who prove their worth. Full article: Eastern Tribesmen of Kyrell

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New Races

Minotaurs

A warrior people whose social structure is organized around physical capability and the constant demonstration of it. Males govern through the challenge system; females occupy the priestly and intellectual leadership that requires continuity the warrior culture cannot sustain. Both sexes carry horns. The priesthood maintains a historical record going back further than most written archives, and remembers which Settled Lands factions tried to move into the Grasslands after the Weohstannuk collapse. They have not forgotten.

Full article: Minotaurs of Kyrell

Minotaur Racial Traits (5e):

• Ability Score Increase: Strength +2, Constitution +1
• Age: Minotaurs reach adulthood at 17 and live up to 150 years.
• Size: Medium
• Speed: 30 feet
• Horns: Your horns are a natural melee weapon, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with them, you deal piercing damage equal to 1d6 + your Strength modifier.
• Goring Rush: When you use the Dash action, you can make one melee attack with your horns as a bonus action.
• Hammering Horns: When you use the Attack action to make a melee attack, you can attempt to shove a creature with your horns as a bonus action (not the attack itself). The target must be no more than one size larger than you. If you move at least 10 feet straight toward the target immediately before the bonus action, it must succeed on a Strength saving throw (DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength modifier) or be knocked prone.
• Imposing Presence: You have proficiency in Intimidation. You may use your Strength modifier instead of Charisma for Intimidation checks.
• Natural Cunning: You have advantage on Perception checks that rely on smell. You cannot be magically made to lose your way or become lost, even by spells such as maze.
• Hafted Weapon Training: You have proficiency with all polearms and spears.
• Languages: Common and Tarrun. You may learn Dwarvish, Gnomish, Barric (spoken only), or Elvish as additional languages if your Intelligence score is 11 or higher.

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Wild Elves

See the Core Races section above. Full article: Wild Elves of Kyrell

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Velkhrun (Crawlers)

Descendants of Drow who fled an Underdark empire and have been on the surface long enough to adapt -- physically, if not culturally. They call themselves shadow walkers. The Settled Lands calls them Crawlers. They use the word themselves, in dark humor. Their worship of Shathahn, an Abyssal power that is not quite a god, places them outside the theological frameworks of every other people in Kyrell. Some are raiders. A significant number have established themselves in Saltmere and other cosmopolitan ports, where their particular skills in the marginal spaces of society have proven professionally valuable.

Full article: Velkhrun of Kyrell (The Crawlers)

Velkhrun Racial Traits (5e): As Drow (PHB p.24), with the following modification:

Sunlight Sensitivity (Reduced): When in bright sunlight, Velkhrun have disadvantage on Perception checks that rely on sight only -- not on attack rolls or ability checks.

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Orcs

Displaced from their ancestral territories by the Spirit Dragon Wars, orc culture carries that history as a living grievance rather than a founding myth -- the cities built where orc territory used to be are still standing. Their dual governance of War Chief and Lore Keeper balances action and context through clan council. Their shamanic practice operates outside the Orders' licensing framework by mutual, unspoken agreement.

Full article: Orcs of Kyrell

Orc Racial Traits (5e):

• Ability Score Increase: Strength +2, Constitution +1
• Age: Orcs reach adulthood at 14 and live to around 75.
• Size: Medium
• Speed: 30 feet
• Darkvision: 60 feet
• Aggressive: As a bonus action, you can move up to your speed toward a hostile creature you can see or hear. You must end this move closer to the enemy than you started.
• Powerful Build: You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.
• Primal Intuition: You have proficiency in two of the following skills of your choice: Animal Handling, Insight, Intimidation, Medicine, Nature, Perception, Survival.
• Languages: Common and Barric (Orc).

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Goblinoids (The Kethric)

The goblinoid peoples -- goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears -- call themselves the Kethric: those who remained. They were displaced by the same Spirit Dragon Wars that scattered the orcs, and the bitterness left by the High Elves' designation of them as particular enemies has been maintained by institutional inertia longer than the original conflict warrants. Each of the three peoples has developed distinct cultural responses to displacement.

Full article: Goblinoids of Kyrell (The Kethric)

• Goblins: Racial Traits as per PHB Goblin.
• Hobgoblins: Racial Traits as per PHB Hobgoblin.
• Bugbears: Racial Traits as per PHB Bugbear.