Humans
Humans are ambitious and adaptable, their cultures defined by a drive to impose their own order on the world. From the expansionist empire of the Ibunese and the industrial theocracy of the Bethunians, to the fractured confederation of the Askarans, every branch of their people is shaped by a fervent belief in their own way of life. They are the great builders of the modern age: of nations, of technologies, and of ideologies. Their drive, often violent and unpredictable, has made them the most dominant force in Dheghom.
Askarans
The appearance of Askarans varies greatly across their vast, northern homeland. Those from the coastal regions often have skin with a coppery hue, dark, straight hair, and features adapted to the cold, including epicanthic folds. In the interior boreal forests and near the mountains, fairer skin and lighter hair colors are more common. A stocky, resilient build is common throughout the north, with leaner frames more prevalent in the south. Still, hair and eye color vary widely across the tribal confederation, reflecting a long history of adaptation to their specific ancestral lands.
Culture and History
Askarans do not identify as Askaran. Your identity is that of your tribe, and your tribe's world is defined by the enemy at its border. If you are of the Tvarash, you are raised on guerrilla tactics to fight the Bethunian regulars along the Khadir Sea. If you are of the coastal Shalvarin, you learn to watch the sea for the sails of slavers. If you are in the vast Tamala Kanana Forest, your enemy is Kimara or Keld. Your tribe's ability to survive their inherited, regional conflict is the source of your pride and the whole of your existence.
This hyper-local focus, however, is the instrument of your people's collective decline. In the neutral city of Jarah, the tribal leaders bicker, but there is no true unity, because your problems are not their problems. The southern tribes, bleeding against Bethune's industrial war machine, receive no aid from the northern tribes who see the Oni as the greater danger. The coastal peoples, drained by slavers, cannot spare warriors for the skirmishes against Keld. You are a nation of expert survivors, each tribe a master of its own small war, yet this very expertise ensures you will be dismantled piece by piece, unable to see the fire consuming the entire forest for the blaze burning at your own door.
Names
Masculine Names: Adesh, Brijesh, Devak, Harish, Ishan, Kailash, Nirav, Rajan
Feminine Names: Aditi, Bina, Devika, Isha, Kavita, Meera, Priya, Sunita
Family Names: Chaudhari, Gupta, Joshi, Mehta, Mishra, Patel, Sharma, Singh
Avenarian
The Avenarians are a tall and powerfully built people, shaped by life under a subtropical sun. Skin tones typically range from a warm bronze to deep brown, and their hair is most often dark and thick, ranging from wavy to tightly coiled. Their features are often broad and expressive, a testament to their Oskaran ancestry blended with millennia of life on the Anterran coasts.
Culture and History
To be an Avenarian is to be a guardian of a history that has been mythologized, taught that your people chose honor over the corruption of a fallen world. Your culture is built on that myth, of the great migration from a war-torn continent to a new home where your traditions could be preserved. And that myth manifests in the enduring belief that your alliance with the ancient Aos Sí is a reflection of your honor while your war against the Fomorians serves as proof of your righteous place in the world.
This veneration of this myth, however, is also a forgotten culture wherein you cling to empty rituals for gods whose names are lost to time. Your embrace of the Aos Sí's stand against technology has crippled you against your physically superior foe, the Fomorians, forcing you to pay for your ideals with the blood of your children generation after generation. And the reality is that your Aos Sí allies are a fading power using you as a living shield against their own enemies. You are a people proudly defending a history twisted by idealism, slowly being ground to dust in a war you cannot win.
Names
Masculine Names: Anarawd, Bleddyn, Caradoc, Dylan, Gethin, Iolo, Macsen, Rhodri
Feminine Names: Angharad, Bronwen, Carys, Eira, Nia, Morwenna, Olwen, Seren
Family Names: Bevan, Griffith, Lloyd, Morgan, Powell, Pritchard, Yorath, Wynn
Bethunians
The Bethunian populace is diverse, but their appearance is often defined by their region and social class. Those from the rural southern plains and coastal regions tend to be hardier, with skin tones ranging from fair to ruddy. In the industrial cities like Bellegrad, the difference is evident: the nobility are healthy and robust, while generations of factory laborers are often pale and gaunt from malnutrition and smog. Across the nation, a wide variety of hair and eye colors can be found, reflecting a long history of blended peoples.
Culture and History
To be a Bethunian is to be taught that your capacity for suffering is a virtue. You are raised in a theocratic state where recurring plagues are framed as the result of unlawful magic and constant war are tests of faith in your protector, the God King. Your society's industrial might and military strength are presented as the rewards for this piety, and you are expected to be an obedient and productive cog in this holy machine.
This promise of salvation, however, is a lie that holds the state together. The reality of Bethune is a society where feuding nobles leverage your faith as a tool of control and industrial barons exploit your labor for their own profit. The plagues are suspiciously constant, and the Plague Wardens who enforce quarantines act more like a secret police, while a hum of heretical doubt festers among the masses: that your god is not your savior, but your tormentor.
Names
Masculine Names: Abram, Benedict, Elias, Gideon, Laurence, Orson, Sterling, Warren
Feminine Names: Agnes, Edith, Mildred, Rosamund, Sibyl, Thea, Ursula, Winifred
Family Names: Ashdun, Fletcher, Graves, Miller, Oakes, Rivers, Smith, Wright
Ibunese
As a vast, expansionist empire, the Ibunese display a wide spectrum of physical traits. While the old noble lines of the cold northern heartlands often have fair skin and dark hair, the broader populace reflects the empire's reach, with skin tones ranging from olive to deep brown. Features vary significantly by province, with many Ibunese bearing the ancestral traits of the countless peoples integrated into the empire over centuries of conquest.
Culture and History
To be an Ibunese is to be an architect of the civilized world. You are raised with the core belief that your empire's supremacy is a fact of nature, and that its expansion is a moral duty to bring order to the lesser, barbarian peoples. Your history of conquest, fueled by the invention of the firearm and a state religion that denies the gods of your enemies, is presented as undeniable proof of this manifest destiny.
The price for this grand design, however, is paid in the lives of its citizens. The common Ibunese is an instrument of the state, whether as a soldier sent to die in a foreign swamp, or a laborer whose family is consumed by the factories that arm the legions. You are taught to despise the savage Ogre, yet you are forced to march alongside him as a slave-soldier. You are told your gods are transcendent, yet you face the visceral magic of your enemies with nothing but cold steel and the hollow echo of a faith your empire has already killed.
Names
Masculine Names: Aitor, Ander, Gorka, Iker, Imanol, Iñigo, Patxi, Unai
Feminine Names: Ainara, Amaia, Arantxa, Edurne, Iratxe, Leire, Nekane, Uxue
Clan Names: Agirre, Elizondo, Etxeberria, Goikoetxea, Ibarra, Larrinaga, Urrutia, Zabala
Marcians
Living on the temperate, forested coasts of northern Anterra, Marcians typically have fair skin that is often weathered by the sea winds, but a range of complexions can be found. Hair color is notably varied, from blonde and red to shades of brown and black. They often have sharp features with high cheekbones, though the appearances of those from the mountainous eastern border can differ significantly from those along the western coasts.
Culture and History
To be a Marcian is to be born in the shadow of an empire that no longer exists, taught to revere a glorious past that has no bearing on your actual life. Your ancestors founded the great city of Bellegrad, but you live in the crumbling tenements of Kavesk, your nation's ancient but fading capital. You are raised on the state-enforced narrative of your people's enduring greatness and inevitable resurgence, a myth promoted by the Dvoryanstvo.
The reality of your life, however, is that of industrial servitude and the quiet humiliation under the heel of a nation that is slowly crushing you. You are told you are the heir to a great legacy, but you are treated as a child and a slave. Your family is consumed by the debt-fueled factories required to maintain the illusion of power, and you are forced to pay lip service to a memory of an imperial destiny long since extinguished. The truth is that Bellegrad is not your rival; it is your superior, and your people are fed into machines of war and progress so your leaders can grow fat on a long-dead dream.
Names
Masculine Names: Andriy, Borys, Danylo, Kyrylo, Leonid, Maksym, Pavlo, Viktor
Feminine Names: Daryna, Halyna, Lidiya, Lyudmyla, Nataliya, Olena, Svitlana, Zoryana
Family Names: Barabash, Fedorov, Marchenko, Petrenko, Savchenko, Tkachuk, Vasylenko, Zaytsev
Human Traits
Creature Type: Humanoid Size: Medium (about 5–7 feet tall) Speed: 30 feet
As a Human, you have these special traits:
Industrious. You gain proficiency in one artisan's tool of your choice.
Inspired. When you roll a 20 on the d20 of a D20 Test, you gain Advantage on your next D20 Test. This benefit can trigger a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a Short or Long Rest.
Human Lineage. You are part of a lineage that grants you unique abilities. Choose one of the following options:
Askaran (Mystic Spirit). Choose Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma as your spellcasting ability for this trait when you select this lineage. You know the Minor Illusion cantrip. Additionally, you learn the Silent Image spell. You can cast Silent Image without expending a spell slot a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest. You can also cast this spell using any spell slots you have of the appropriate level.
Avenarian (Resilient Spirit). When you are forced to make a saving throw for which you are not proficient, you can choose to gain advantage on that roll. You can use this trait a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest.
Bethunian (Unbreakable Spirit). You have Advantage on saving throws against magical effects a number of times per day equal to your Proficiency Bonus. You regain all uses of this trait after a Long Rest.
Ibunese (Innovative Spirit). As a Utilize action, you can assemble and deploy this shield in an unoccupied 5-foot square space on the ground within 5 feet of you. The shield is a solid barrier providing three-quarters cover to a creature benefiting from it.
The shield has an Armor Class equal to 11 + your Proficiency Bonus and hit points equal to 10 times your Proficiency Bonus. As an inanimate object, the shield is immune to poison and psychic damage. It automatically fails Strength and Dexterity saving throws and is immune to effects that require other saves.
The shield lasts for 8 hours, until it is reduced to 0 hit points (at which point it is destroyed), or until you dismantle it (which takes an action). You can have only one Deployable Shield active at a time; creating a new one while another is active causes the previous shield to collapse into unusable components. You can use this trait to create a Deployable Shield once, and you regain the ability to do so when you finish a Long Rest.
Marcian (Adaptable Spirit). When you gain the Bloodied condition and you do not have the Unconscious condition, you can choose to take a Reaction to gain temporary hit points equal to 1d8 + your proficiency bonus. Once you use this trait, you cannot use it again until you finish a Short Rest or Long Rest.