Humankind is superstitious and hardy, found on every corner of the continent and braving many kinds of terrain. They are an incredibly divided, varied, and rather bizarre people, and sometimes catch the interest of the fae themselves—even, occasionally, the reclusive nephilim. Much of Invernier’s trade and politics has traditionally revolved around the ancient human capitals founded by the Nine Sisters, though in the modern era only four of the nine remain standing.

The varied and eccentric human cultures of the world tend to revolve around agriculture, farming, and livestock, especially in rural areas, while the urban regions place emphasis on money and government. Humans have a long and rich history of expression through art and writing, something largely unique to their species, and place an unusual emphasis on complex and varied social structures and relationships, a trait that has rubbed off on the fae after the last few thousand years of sharing a continent.

In terms of appearance, humans generally fall between five to six-and-a-half feet in height, with an enormous variety of builds, skin colors, hair colors, and eye colors. Generally, humans of the Isle of Fire have darker skin tones, while those of Redemption and the various mountains surrounding the Horns of the World are lighter. In the rest of Invernier, due to the consolidation of the continent under the Nine Sisters, different skin tones and racial features tend to be intermixed.

The elves are an eerie people native to the dark and wild parts of the world. No fans of direct sunlight, they generally build their settlements underground, where the sun can’t intrude, or occasionally within thick and shadowy forests. Their subterranean kingdoms are centers for mining, smithing, and jewelry, and elfkind has a reputation for being rather greedy and material. While the elven kingdoms generally keep to themselves, solitary, wandering elves are not uncommon, especially in the west, where elven culture is more lax than in other regions.

Elven settlements fall under the absolute rule of an alfking, though the alfking generally avoids interfering with day-to-day matters, leaving most of the actual management of the settlement to the thanes. Elf cultures tend to revolve around mining, blacksmithing, and the hunting of wild animals around their settlement. Most elves, even within the elf-kingdoms, prefer to keep to themselves.

There are four major elf-kingdoms—Gestalt in the southwest, Magdalene, in the southeast, Morfin in the northeast, and Sin Sinder in the northwest. Gestalt and Magdalene are most similar to human societies (despite Magdalene’s reputation as an archetypal alien faerie kingdom in the woods) while Sin Sinder and Morfin are the most isolationist.’ Gestalt interacts with humans in the most up front way, and despite its bloody history with and lingering distrust of goblinkind, they have much better relations with goblins compared to other elven kingdoms.

Elves are gaunt, greyish-skinned, spindly beings, with long limbs, long fingers, pointed ears, and entirely black eyes with maybe only the tiniest corners of white visible. They can see keenly in the dark, and their hair lacks pigmentation, appearing almost exclusively in black, gray, or white. They generally fall between four-and-a-half to a little under six feet in height.

Goblins have long been the subjects of slavery, cruelty, and oppression. During the first thousand or so years of recorded history on Invernier, goblins fell under mass enslavement by elves and nephilim, who used them as labor in their mines and cities. During the unrest caused by the Nine Sisters’ ascendance, however, the goblins enslaved in the Fosterling Mountains staged a mass revolt, slaughtering and driving off the elves who had long dominated the mountains, and establishing the free country of Patriness in the far southwest.

In a cunning and highly political ploy, the first king of Patriness established strong diplomatic and financial ties with humans shortly after the country was founded, which allowed the goblins to remain independent and avoid vengeance from the western elves. Though it never occurred in the lifetime of the Sisters who had cooperated with goblin empowerment movements, in the last two thousand years the enslavement of goblinkind has largely died out, though prejudices remain—in some places stronger than in others—all across Invernier.

Their culture tends to emphasize solidarity within the immediate community, and hard, practical living. Many goblins, especially those from Patriness and its surrounding areas, seek employment as merchants, diplomats, negotiations, and other professions requiring the use of charisma and fast thinking. Goblins in general have a reputation for cunning and silver tongues, though are also known for being highly distrusting towars magic.

Goblins tend to have gold, tawny, or brass-colored skin, with pointed ears and thick, dark-colored hair. Goblin eyes are usually some shade of yellow, gold, orange, or amber, and occasionally dark and muddy brown. Their teeth tend to be rather sharp, with large, pronounced canines, though height and build across different goblins can vary dramatically, almost as much as with humans, ranging from as short as four-and-a-half to well over six feet tall. Generally, however, the majority of goblins are on the short side, with about 5 feet being the average height.

Most goblins live in the southwest, in Patriness, Andrea’s Fault, the Tempesta, and Quishan. There are also many goblins in Primaveira and Milos, though humans of the southeast tend to have a less benevolent disposition towards goblinkind.

Where the isolated elves are solitary and alien, the isolated carnelians are quiet and peaceful, and prefer privacy over all else. The spiderfolk of Invernier have never engaged in nation-building the way other races have; instead, their people are scattered all across the continent in small, hidden villages. They feel an immense affinity for water, and are found most commonly by lakes, rivers, and the coast. Many are sailors, fishers, and shipwrights.

Carnelians were especially affected by the early years of the efernight, losing hundreds of colonies across the continent. King Masbeth gave considerable aid to them during this period. However, Masbeth has a tendency to reach out to the Quishani colonies quite often for shipwrights and sailors, and as a result many carnelians who prefer their privacy have moved further west, while the ones who remain in public colonies have a reputation for being distinctly un-carnelian due to their cooperation with humans. Redemption, on the other hand, offered assistance without the kind of interference that Masbeth became known for, and as a result there are many carnelian colonies in the distant north.

Carnelians are tall, lithe, and generally have very similar heights, usually in the range of six feet to a little under six and a half. They are distinctly spider-like in appearance and movement, earning the nickname of ‘spiderfolk,’ and are covered almost entirely by smooth black armor of segmented chitin that grows from their flesh. Only their lower jaw is totally exposed, revealing dark, colorless lips whose corners split into two, like forks in a road, giving their mouth a sort of stretched-out X shape.

The exposed skin of their lower face and around their joints is not dissimilar from humans, and can come in several tones. Carnelian arms and legs have three joints rather than the two of humans, goblins, and elves, and their fingers are long and end in sharp talons.

Carnelian’s have long, pronounced fangs that slide out more visibly the wider their mouth is opened. Though untrue, most rural humans hold that carnelians are people-eaters. Carnelians are, however, exclusively meat eaters.

One of the most reclusive fae races, the nephilim are tall and mighty masters or architecture and engineering. Their cultures have produced strange and ingenious technology coveted by all other races, though they themselves are extremely dismissive, if not hostile, to all magic beyond their own unique style. Generally, architecture and engineering are held in high regard by nephilim, who appreciate the hard and practical arts. They do, however, often have soft spots for the recreational art other races sometimes take part in, especially the human painters and elven jewelers. Their magic and technology involves a kind of living cement, some halfway point between plant and stone, which they freely sculpt into fabulous shapes and structures. The nine great human cities were actually made from a kind of magic uniquely invented by the Sisters based on the nephilim Genosia, and the Sisters are largely disliked by nephilim for corrupting their sacred art (though, of course, during the time of the Sisters, the nephilim people payed great tributes and honors to the nine queens).

The supposed birthplace of the nephilim is on the Isle of Three, where their most ancient city, the fortress of Asir, is also located. Most nephilim have retreated to their homeland since the fall of Oolasheene one hundred years ago, and their people have become increasingly rare on Invernier. No outsiders are allowed within the walls of the nephilim cities, so it's unknown how they have handled the recent disasters of the Age of the Widow.

The woken bodies of the departed. Most see them as monsters, or made-up children’s stories, though they are just as sentient and emotional as any human or fae.

Undead are born in countless ways, but they all share certain traits. Brought back, their skin becomes ashy and cold, but loses any traces of serious rotting, while their faces gain a rather starved, skeletal look. Their eyes burn up into white mist, and the empty black sockets gain pale dots of light, presumably for seeing, though the science and magic of undeath is poorly researched.

Each individual undead is said to have the potential for greatness deep inside them. This is often dismissed as rumor, however, and in many places the undead are treated as wild beasts. Julieta, youngest of the Nine Sisters, grew sympathetic to the plight of the undead, and championed their rights as individuals worthy of kindness and respect. This led her into conflict with one of her own siblings, Desdemona, and sparked a military and political conflict that eventually ended in Julieta’s death at her sister’s hands.

There are some who hold fast to Julieta’s belief, later shared by her sisters Miranda, Cordelise, and Viola, that the undead must be treated as equals. Others think she as delusional, and even more feel that, while her heart was in the right place, her involvement with the undead led to many calamities among the Sisters, and that these schisms, and Julieta’s death, were entirely the fault of the undead.

It is unknown if there are any undead colonies or significant undead populations anywhere in the world, and they are generally known to be wandering pilgrims.

An ancient, powerful race, born from the very bones of Invernier itself. Dragons are covered in scaled, metallic armor, with wings that stir up tempests and breath that scalds like fire. They grow incredibly large, though the fables are not very exact—the size of a dragon is expressed less through numbers and more through metaphors. They are not a fae race, and have enormous lifespans, though are, presumably, mortal.

Deep magic surrounds any sort of interaction with a dragon, from combat challenges to simple bartering. The clash between a brave knight and a cunning dragon, a cunning dragon facilitating the ascension of a mighty lord—these are images and tropes woven into the public consciousness of Invernier.

Dragons, however, are a rare sight these days. Most would say they’ve died out, though the few remaining members of the Wise would tell you the dragons have gone far north to the mountains beyond Aránmore and the furthest reaches of Sinderband. It is unknown if they will ever return.