Orc

Of all unreal, the Orc has become the most feared and hated. They are a mockery of mankind and a dark reminder of humanity’s war-ridden history. They are the bestial side of man, unbound by reason or empathy; nightmares of the id made real.

They do not know pain, they do not feel fear, they never show mercy. Their only ambition is to kill and devour men. They will continue to take life until the very life is hacked from them.

Orcs appear as bestial mockeries of men with blood red colored skin. They have large muscular bodies and pronounced jaws with sharp teeth. Their noses are often wide and eyes yellow with animal-like pupils. Most orcs are male, but females are spotted regularly; not that it matters as unreal beings are incapable of sexually reproduction.

The average newborn orc generally weighs 220 lbs and is 6 feet in height. Older orcs weighing close to 500 pounds and 8 feet in height have been encountered.

Orcs are incapable of making their own equipment and will use whatever they can scavenge as weapons, resorting to simple wooden clubs if necessary.

Orcs never stop growing as they age, their size dependent upon how much they have managed to eat. Larger orcs have had the longest time to scavenge and steal weapons and armor, and are generally the best equipped.

Orcs have no language of their own, nor do they understand communication. They do sometimes mimic what they hear, repeating the last words or phrases of previous victims.

Ecology

Orcs are spawned in earth baptized by the blood of combat. The size of the battle is not indicative of the likelihood of orc spawning; it is the ferocity of the fight which is key. The more anger, hatred, and bloodlust permeating a conflict, the greater the chance orcs will rise from the field.

Orcs form about a foot underground in an elastic mucus membrane that surrounds their body. Their growth is rapid and they will be fully developed within 12 to 24 hours. They then break from the earth as fully formed adults. From there they will immediately look to arm themselves and seek out their first victim.

As unreal, they are not true biological creatures and can safely ignore many limitations real creatures possess. While they do have internal organs, they are mere mimicry of human ones and not functional. They are unaffected by most poisons or diseases, do not get physically exhausted, and never sleep. While their heart does beat and blood pumps through their veins, both serves no vital function. They do need to breathe to stay active, but lack of air will not kill them; they will enter suspended animation until exposed to air again.

Orcs have an instinctive craving of humans flesh. It is the only food they will eat. Devouring humans enables them to grow in size and strength. Likewise, if they go too long without eating, they will diminish. An orc that does not eat for a month will die.

Orcs have no concept of family or empathy. They see no distinction between the elderly or children, men or woman. All are food.

They only camaraderie they may feel is towards other orcs. They will group up with other orcs from the same battlefields and display the military and combat tactics of those that fought and died there.

When orcs die they will melt into dust and slime and return to the earth.

Half-orc

Sometimes, for reasons unknown, an orc can become quasi-real. It is an extremely rare event. Some think its exposure to certain magics. Others believe it is when the connection between the orc and Aedra is severed.

A half-orc physically looks the same as any other orc, but possesses a sense of identity and self-determination. Where before they were driven by only by instinct, they can now think and feel as any other human.

Half-orcs have the capacity to learn, and, if given the chance, will quickly pick up the language of the region.

Biologically, the half-orc will undergo a painful process that transforms them into a normal creature, requiring food, water, and air. They become susceptible to disease and poison as well, and require 8 hours of sleep day. Sexual reproduction is still impossible.

Troll

Trolls are a type of unreal creature linked to geographical formations such as hills, mountains, and large rocks

Their appearance can vary greatly, but overall they resemble caricatures of humans, their facial proportion exaggerated, sometimes almost comically. They are generally hunched, thickly built, covered in fur or hair, and often sporting tails.

Skin and hair color are earth tones, and older trolls will often have a rock like appearance including patches of moss and lichen.

A troll grows in size as it ages, with mountain trolls as large as giants in their natural form. Those that have the ability to shape change will often reveal themselves in a smaller form to deceive enemies and give them a false sense of security.

Trolls will speak the language common to a region; the older they are they better their fluency. Very old trolls may speak several languages, including ones long since dead.

Ecology

Aedra does not have tectonic plates and would therefore not form mountains through tectonic forces. Instead, hills and mountains are the byproduct of one the more common type of unreal creatures that spawn on the planet, trolls.

It is believed trolls are manifestation of Aedra’s dreams of the dwarven race. While dwarves find such theories insulting, they two bear striking resemblances and habitats.

When a troll is born, a small mound of earth will rise from the ground which shall be forever more the troll’s home. As the troll ages, this mound will grow in size, starting as a small knoll and eventually growing into a tall mountain. Between 50-80 years the mound will have become a hill and after another 750-1500 years the hill will become a mountain.

It is unknown how high a troll’s mountain can grow. Trolls first appeared in the Third Age, four to five thousand years ago, and those that have survived predation still exist today.

As trolls age they gain magical powers. These abilities seem to be linked to the type of stone and earth their hill or mountain is made of. Known examples of powers are invisibility, weather control, shape changing, illusions, stone shaping, and stone meld.

A troll in contact with his hill or mountain is almost impossible to destroy. While they can suffer from physical assault, the very earth will be drawn up through the troll’s body to regenerate it of any damage. This ability is lost the instant the troll loses contact. Troll hunters that know of this weakness will go to great lengths to trick a troll from their mountain in order to destroy it.

When a troll is destroyed, its hill or mountains will cease to grow. Its appearance will become boulder strewn and eroded. Trees wither away to be replaced with weeds and small shrubs. If the troll is destroyed quickly after it first forms, its mound will flatten out leaving only a small impression in the earth.

Relations with trolls vary. Most trolls tend to avoid humans, but some have grown quite fond of them. Those that are hostile will generally be hunted and slain, if possible, and if not, will given a wide berth.

It is rumored that troll mountains contain a large core of valuable metals or gemstones, the so-called ‘heart of the mountain.’ Miners seeking such a load will invariably have to deal with the troll first. If such a treasure does exist, no one that has found it has made it public knowledge.

Hun Corsair

The corsairs of the Hun Archipelago are renown and feared pirates that have been raiding the surrounding region for over 150 years. They are a constant menace to merchant vessels in the Dun, Cardinal, and Redshang seas.

The majority of Hun corsairs are tribal-run operations, with captains often being the head matriarch or patriarch. These families spend the majority of year as fishermen and local traders, and resort to piracy only during the winter seasons or when their primary trade has gone poorly.

A small minority of Hun pirates are not Hun themselves. In all cultures there are individuals unwilling to abide by the rules anf piracy can have an appeal to such misfits. Some are on the run from the law, others seek to escape the bounds of their restrictive societies. Huns corsairs have many democratic traditions, and regardless race, nationality, or gender, anyone showing the necessary temperament and skill will be treated fairly.

Some of the most famous captains of the Hun were outsiders that had earned the respect and loyalty of their Hun crew: the Barbar sisters, Captain Black, and Captain Ro Endan to name a few.

During times of depression, or political upheaval (such as when a new king is chosen) clan leaders will summon the tribes to form massive armadas of ships to wage war on nearby nations. These fleets will number in the hundreds and sometimes even thousands.

In such numbers, the Hun corsairs will scourge the coastlines plundering towns and villages, and enslaving all those not killed in battle. Slaves not held for ransom will be auctioned in Baatar or sold to Achean antimages.

Huns armament and ships vary greatly.

Small tribes will have nothing more than small fishing vessels and large rowing boats. Boarders little more than fisherman armed with whatever weapons they have on hand. They rely on surprise and numbers to overcome defenders.

Larger tribes may have galleys or xebecs with well equipped crews capable of harassing the larger merchant fleets.

Regardless the chance of victory, Hun corsairs will hesitate to commit their forces against well defended opponents. Their shipmates are often close friends or family, and it is only when they are truly desperate that they will engage in battles likely to have heavy casualties.

 

 

Antimage

Antimages are humans that have devoted their lives to the progress of science, the destruction of magic, and the eradication of all non-human races. They are divided into three ranks: apprentices, adepts, and masters.

Apprentices are taken from the general population, either from the slaves they buy or occasionally individuals their spies recruit from other lands. Antimages seek out psychopathic individuals with strong inclinations towards science and then indoctrinate them with their xenophobic ideology. They are generally used for low level missions and kept in check with promises of greater rewards. They will usually be entrusted with a minor technological device to assist them in their goals.

From the ranks of apprentices, Master choose the more promising and further their training until they are considered Adepts. Antimage adepts are the field commanders for their forces generally the highest ranking members that can be found outside Achean territory. They can be dangerous individuals to face. Adepts sports technological upgrades to their body, enabling them to perform superhuman acts, and will be equipped with various high tech weaponry. They almost always have a personal guard, human or otherwise.

At the top are the Antimage masters. They are the immortal leaders of their movement, each an original colonist from the dead world of Istoval. They are empowered by the most powerful of scientific advances which have not only kept them alive for thousands of years, but given them immense destructive capabilities. Each master is unique and enhanced in a different method.

Antimage masters reside deep in protected fortresses in the jungles of Achea, where they spend their time plotting the downfall of the magic kingdoms of the West while simultaneously frustrating similar plans of their peers. Each is protected by lesser antimages and their armies of beastmen mutants.

History

During the Fourth Age, the Antimages of the East had dominated Aedra until being beaten back by Ascendant forces. But who were they, where did they come from, and why did they possess such powerful and destructive technology?

When the elves came to Istoval and rescued humanity from the gods, its inhabitants were embroiled in an endless worldwide war, enslaved by a group of fascist leaders. Once upon the Ark and freed from bondage, most of humanity quickly discarded these brutal ideologies, but a small group of human did not.

They called themselves Traditionalists. They were engineers, chemist, physicist, and biologist and had all held high political positions back home. Life in the Ark, among the peaceful Archons and other strange races was intolerable. So intolerable, they chose to sleep the entirety of the Ark’s voyage to Aedra in cryogenic chambers. They conjectured the Archons would sooner or later find a new world for humanity to settle, and at that time, they would emerge and rebuild the new world in the image of the old. However, things did not go as planned.

To their dismay,  the Archons did not find separate world for each race, but instead chose Aedrea to become the new home for all of mankind.  The Traditionalists knew they could not compete with all the different races with their strange  magics, so they hid their intentions and waited for a chance to strike.

The Fourth Age, with its upheaval and diminishing of magic, was that chance. The Traditionalist established their own small empires and began a brutal campaign of racial cleansing. The other races of mankind: dwarves, halfling, gnomes, and many others, went into hiding or fled to the West. However, the primary targets of their initial campaigns were wizards. For this unrelenting pursuit of all those that could wield magic, Traditionalists were dubbed Antimages.

Quickly the Antimage old animosities returned. Ideologies of ethnic superiority rekindled and various factions organized with the Antimage leadership. Humanity divided into four ethnocentric nations: dark skinned humans on the island nation of Numia, asiatic humans in Canton, caucasians in the regions of Vindr, and arabic/indic humans in the region now known as Baatar.  Aedra was plunged into a world war.  The new world had begun to mimic the old.

But this war was short lived as psionically endowed humans from the west, calling themselves the Ascendants, ended the Antimage rule and pushed them into the Dead Magics of the Achea to the West, where they remain still today.

For hundreds of years they have kept quiet in their dark jungles and the rest of the world has been content to leave it at that. There are rumors of strange creatures being spotted along the Achean borders, and it is a known fact Baatari and Hun slavers often transports their goods into Achean territory. Beyond that nothing else is known and most would prefer to keep it that way.