Horg by David Pasco

HORG (singular or plural), the very mention of the names sends shivers down the spines of both children and seasoned adventurers alike, and with good reason.

EVOLUTION: The horg may be classified as a human subspecies, having originated from human ancestors prior to the Great Cataclysm (c. 0 AGM). It is believed that post-cataclysm humans from the eastern steppes were forced to seek drastic measures to survive, and after generations of bitter cold, under the greater moon and with a scarcity of vegetation, two distinct subspecies developed: the diminutive bogren and the horg.

PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES: In the horg, evolution favored many inhuman attributes. The endless night of the dark hemisphere resulted in a dearth of plant life, forcing the horg to becoming exclusively carnivorous. Standing between ten and thirteen feet tall and weighing nearly 500 kg at maturity, the horg towers over humans and half-men alike. A drastic increase in size helped the horg to efficiently hunt and kill large prey, and a frightening set of tusks fend off other aggressors. Due to the horg’s fearsome nature, most of Aenya’s predators do not consider the horg prey, regardless of numbers. Its large size and a coat of fur also protect against the unceasing winter of the dark hemisphere. Large green eyes illuminate for low light vision, a common trait among dark hemisphere dwellers, and brighten with phosphorous whenever the beast is enraged, discouraging even intelligent hunters. Fortunately, most of the horg’s human-like intelligence has been lost to the ages. They retain the ability to use crude weapons, like clubs and throwing rocks, but the ability to make fire or anything more sophisticated is beyond them. There have been a number of scattered reports of horg possessing horns, wrapped around the sides of their head like a crown. However, the lack of any such specimen having been captured or killed makes these claims dubious, relegating them to the realm of myth, like the tale of how the Dark God Skullgrin transformed the worst and most savage of humans into horg so that they might revel in the slaughter of their kin; in retrospect, this may not be so far from the truth, considering the role evolution can play in transforming one species into another.

BEHAVIOR: Horg are solitary creatures by nature. This makes mating between them a rare occurrence. The species can go between 30 and 50 years between mating, and in their brief adolescence, the beasts have been known to be targeted by more intelligent enemies. Despite the rarity of offspring reaching maturity, their numbers are maintained due to long lifespans of up to 250 years and an accelerated healing and immune system. In an ironic twist of fate, the horg’s smaller, much less physically imposing cousins, the bogren, have managed to use this enhanced healing to their benefit. Using a crude form of surgery, bogrens manipulate horg like marionettes from strings attached to the horg’s exposed brain, allowing bogrens to use horg as weapons of war.

HISTORY: In recent history, horg have been used as siege engines on the tundra under the Pewter Mountains during the annual invasion of Northendell. Many men-at-arms have perished at the hands of the horg. On the Plains of Narth, an entire Krat’ battalion, led by the brilliant tactician Captain Dantes, was decimated by bogren armies, due, in part, to the bogren’s use of the horg.

Thelana kills a horg on the Plains of Narth

Merquid by David Pasco

Merquid (singular or plural), otherwise known as gill, or waterlings to the avian people, are relatively benign, reclusive creatures. It is thought they are the oldest intelligent species on Aenya. Tales of sailors encountering merquid can be found among the most ancient of Hedonian and Shemseliniharan texts, featuring prominently in the Ages of Aenya and among the myths and lore of coastal cities and villages. Before the Great Cataclysm, merquid dominated the planet, living in ocean-vast cities that have since become desert. What remains of their species is now concentrated along the coasts and depths of the One Sea.

PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES: Merquid are amphibious anthropoids, but despite their humanoid like appearance, differ biologically in significant ways, and having evolved independently, are of no relation to humans or other humanoid species. Their hide consists of a waxy membrane not dissimilar to a jellyfish, reinforced by chitinous, fish like scales. The torso narrows much more than a human, so that a fully grown adult, at 5′ in height, measures from shoulder to shoulder like a ten year old boy, tapering to a waist half that width. This shape allows the merquid to glide effortlessly through the water, but on land serves as a disadvantage; being top heavy and unaccustomed to bipedal movement, merquid move slowly and awkwardly on land. While merquid possess both gills and mammalian-type lungs, allowing them to breathe in and out of water, their tender membranes dry quickly. A merquid can die of bodily “thirst” after a single day without moisture. While benign in appearance, merquid can become terrifying when threatened or hunting prey. With a set of retractable teeth, much like an angler fish in appearance, and barbed claws and wide glossy eyes the size of teacups, a distressed merquid can give any sailor pause. Depending on the region of the Sea from which they spawn, merquid may differ in size, color and with regards to the shape and location of their fins, as might types of shark. While these other groups, or schools, are thought to be of another species, this is a misconception, owing to the fact that a majority of merquid are encountered by fishermen in and around the coast of Sarnath, and little to nothing is known of their kind from lesser explored parts of the Sea.

HISTORY: While next to nothing is known of their history, merquid once congregated along the coasts of the One Sea, building strange monuments of coral. But with the rise of human settlements, violence against the species became common. At Sarnath, upon which the city of Hedonia was founded, merquid were hunted down and burned, and as the species is relatively peaceful and soft bodied, they had no recourse but to return to the depths. For this reason, it is believed, merquid avoid confrontations with humans to this day.

Xandr vs. the Merquid by Tazio Bettin

CULTURE: Owing to their alien minds, comprehension of merquid culture may be nigh impossible, which might explain the many misunderstandings and resentments between human and merquid over the ages. Among their many oddities, there is no concept of action or use of any verbs in the merquid language. Everything in their society can be described as simply a state of “being.” Their perception of time may also differ. Vocal sounds are made through a number of water-filled cavities in their skulls, making their language impossible for others to learn or speak, but varies enough so that merquid can mimic any sound to communicate with any species. Females lay spherical eggs the size of melons, which are often mistaken for giant pearls due to their color and texture. Every year, tens of thousands of eggs are produced. Males move them into protective coral houses, known as pods, while fending off predators. After only thirty days, eggs from the same pod hatch simultaneously. Newborns swarm among the females without any affinity for the biological parent. Merquid exist solely for the community, without any concept of marriage or family. In defense of their offspring, however, they are aggressive and violent, and will not think twice before giving their lives to preserve the species as a whole. Though rare, merquid may go rogue, separating themselves from their schools to travel the Sea. Encounters with humans have resulted in limited trade and emulation of human habits. While land fabrics typically disintegrate in salt water after time, merquid have developed aquatic alternatives, using shell, pearl and seaweeds with which to adorn themselves.

TECHNOLOGY: Merquid use primitive tools made of shell, coral and barbs from urchins and mollusks. Much of their technology is based on a type of symbiosis with other aquatic species. While their relationship with other living organisms remains a mystery, merquid have been known to manipulate massive crustacean and cephalopods to their purposes.

RELIGION: Even less is known of merquid religion, if one exists as humans perceive it. According to the High Priests of Hedonia, merquid worship an enormous squid known as Gulgola, which may or may not refer to Tsunamis, a monster described by Omeos, a Hedonian poet.  

I looked out across the waters

and there came Tsunamis

mightiest of the depth’s demons

that with flailing arms,

shook the seas,

and split beams of ships,

and made cities fall

—Omeos, Hedonian poet

Xandr vs. Purple Death Adder by Alexey Lipatov

Septhera (plural), otherwise known as snake men, reptile-kin or lizardfolk, are a long extinct race that ruled over Aenya approximately twenty thousand years ago, or 10,000—9000 BGM (Before the Greater Moon). They are infamous for having enslaved the early race of man or protohuman. Traces of their civilization have been mostly lost beneath the sands of the Dead Zones. However, Shess, a prominent city now in ruins, can be found far to the west of the Great White Flat. Descendants of the Septhera are rumored to exist. Remarkably adaptable, these “snake spawn” alter their skin, much like a chameleon, to take on a more human appearance. Despised by the native races of Aenya, these progeny of the Septhera live in hiding as nomadic merchant traders, though some are hired as assassins due to their stealth and face changing ability.

HISTORY: With little material evidence, what is known of Septheran history is conjecture, pieced together by pictographs found on ruin walls and fragments from the Ages of Aenya, the lost tome of Zo historian, Eldin. Despite the lack of knowledge, Septheran history is of crucial importance, as their past is inseparable from that of early man. The history of the Septhera is, in essence, the history of Aenya.

Aeons ago, before history was recorded, when humans and halfmen shared many characteristics, there existed a civilization beyond this world, that shone among the stars like a pale dot against the sun. This world was wet, warm and tropical. Massive reptilian creatures, called saurians, dominated its landscape, and of these, two became self-aware. The first were the Xexaz, but so little is known of them that they are referred by Eldin as the Forgotten. Xexaz were large, slow moving, and deeply curious about the nature of existence. But as they focused their acumen on their ever expanding understanding of the universe, their bodies deteriorated, and the lesser race, which valued strength, came to wage war against the elder. Stealing technologies they could not replicate or comprehend, the Septhera soon dominated the planet, and in doing so, doomed themselves to extinction. What they did not know was that their sun was expanding, and had been expanding for untold aeons. Only the Xexaz knew to keep the sun from scorching their world, but as the Septhera had slaughtered them to the last, intent on driving the elder race to extinction, their only recourse was escape. In a massive ship, called the Ark, the Septhera gathered those of royal blood and their servants, along with the giant saurians they most valued for meat and labor, and set to the stars in search of a new home.

When the Ark landed upon Aenya c. twenty millenniums ago, the Septhera found a primitive world, far different than what is known today. Only the merquid, who dwelt in vast coral cities spanning planet-wide bodies of water called oceans, could contest them, but being elusive creatures, the merquid paid the newcomers little mind. The protohumans on the land, however, were simple hunters and gatherers. They did not wear clothes or build shelters, but knew to make fire and bury their dead, and use farming tools like the spade and the hoe, and weapons like the spear and the atlatl. Primitive and scattered, the protohumans were no match for the Septhera, who were physically stronger and faster, and armed with steel. For centuries, men and women were herded like livestock, forced to do labor, fight for entertainment, and at times, used as food. It was not until a man known as Batal, who was made to battle a Septheran prince, did the protohuman revolt en masse. Martyring himself to defeat the greatest of their race, Batal proved humans capable of overthrowing their masters. Once organized, the Septhera were overwhelmed by superior numbers, and when the last of their kind, their Pharaoh, was slain, the newly united race declared that they were, “free from slavery and death,” calling the new age, The Age of Life, and themselves the Zo, a word meaning “Life.”

Septhera by David Pasco

PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES: The Septhera vary in appearance greatly, but all have scales, elongated and flexible necks that can turn in a complete circle and move independently from the torso, and tails between half and double the length of the body. Females stand between 5′ and 6′, while males can grow up to 8′ with neck extended. In hue, Septhera can be utterly black, green, red, purple or multicolored. Fangs can grow from 3″ to 9″. Stripes, ovals and diamond patterns along the arms, legs and tail are common among females, the more colorful, the more attractive to a male. Though smaller, females are just as agile and deadly. Septheran royals can be identified by their hoods, a membrane that expands from the head and neck, and are the only of their kin to produce natural venom. Death by venom, which is known as the “purple death,” is quick and painful. Bony ridges and hard scaly protrusions define the lesser castes. While clothing is unknown to the species, Septhera adorn themselves in elaborate ornaments of gold, whether bangles, necklaces, or tattoo like plating implanted directly onto their scales. Their weapons are finely wrought and deadly works of steel, curved like their teeth, which include daggers, scythes, sickles, khopeshes, and the moon blade, named for the waning crescent of the moon. Physically, Septhera are stronger and faster than humans; they are also ambidextrous and can jump from a standing position up to 15′. Despite these advantages, their lack of imagination and inability to organize served their downfall.

CULTURE: Females abandon their eggs in sand. A Septheran comes into the world alone and fights for survival from birth. For this reason, they are physiologically incapable of compassion or mercy, or of even understanding the suffering of others. Mating between Septhera is a brief and often violent affair, and it is not uncommon for males to be killed in the process. Their only respect is for power and so their society revolves around a power hierarchy. The lowest caste are workers and slavers, followed by warriors, with royals at the top. Status is attained by killing someone of equal or higher status, which is why those of the royal caste must continually prove themselves worthy in battle. This is why, it is thought, when a lowly human (Batal) managed to slay a royal and prince in battle, the social hierarchy was thrown into chaos.