The races of the Player’s Guide are not the only races that exist and can be played as in Eden. Below is the lore regarding some other races that are more exotic and rare, but just as playable as the basic races or as NPCs.
•Naekara (Nay-kah-rah): Goodly wind spirits that walk among men, the Naekara are Muikara who have given up the sky to live among the mortal races.
Like Muikara, they are white-skinned, gold or indigo-eyed humanoids with long pale, earthen or green hair with white feathers interspersed within. Their slender, hairless bodies have wing-like protrusions coming from the hips, which are smaller in a Naekara than in a Muikara. Unlike the Muikara, Naekara’s arms are strictly humanoid, rather than wing-like. Their feet end in talons with dulled claws. Naekara tend to wear conservative, regal clothing. Their human-like faces tend to be oval-shaped or round-shaped and with high cheekbones.
Naekara become so after a long existence as Muikara. Having had their fill of the skies, they shed their wings (except for the vestigial ones on their hips) and live the rest of their lives among the mortals. In this form, Naekara have a definite lifespan – they will die, and they have to cope with the consequence of their decision.
But much more of the world becomes free to them. A life among mortals means a release from the spiritual balance of the world. The power they have lost gives them a freedom and clarity of mind that is almost confounding. Naekara can seem convoluted in expression, because they seem to have so much more to say and feel in mortality than they did as spirits. However, Naekara tend towards goodness and have a nobility to them that is reminiscent of their former selves.
Naekara can reproduce with mortals, producing either mortals or, astoundingly, full-fledged Muikara spirit children, or, more astoundingly, mortal-born Naekara. The latter two do not hatch from eggs as Muikara normally would, but are instead born as a mortal would.
As they live their new lives, Naekara slowly forget much of what transpired in their spirit life. It is no longer relevant to them. Naekara who are born so grow from children to adults, but Naekara who shed their Muikara wings are already adult in form, even though they begin counting their new mortal years again for age. This can confuse government programs and societal norms.
-Common Professions: None; often vagrants
-Names: Gender-less spirit names, such as Buito, Yaema, Vuku, Asoso.
-Lifespan: Fade away after roughly 80 to 95 years with a few physical changes
•Biaur (Bay-ur): Humanoid earthen spirits, Biaur are creatures born in caverns and are said to have been formed of clay and mud. The artist must have been quite talented, for Biaur are quite majestic in appearance.
Biaur are akin to people with brown, blue-gray or brown-grey skin. Their faces look like any other person’s would in shape, but males tend to have thicker eyebrow ridges than other race’s males, and females have dark under-eyes and lips. Their bodies are typically slender, but some male Biaur can be larger. They have long hair, usually a colorful color like that of their gemstones. Their eyes are dark and have a glint to them. Biaur have no visible ears – in their place sprout large shards of a gemstone or mineral material. Similar shards grow intermittently from their heads, like crests or spines parallel in orientation to their heads, interspersed with the hair.
Their skins have a unique feature in that they can react to metals and gemstones, absorbing them. A Biaur inherits small gems from its parents which it uses to decorate its body. Female Biaur tend to wear their gems on their necks, shoulders and wrists like jewelry. Males tend to wear them on their faces, stomachs or arms. These jewels serve as decoration and the patterns they are placed in are something inherent to each Biaur.
Biaur once lived mostly underground, but have since come into the light, and inhabit forests or human villages. It is said that a terrible evil which lurks underground drove them to escape. They fought against it and after its defeat, their underground society was left ruined. How true this is nobody quite knows – the Biaur appeared to mortal society at the same time as other spirits began to, and by then they had already spent quite some time on the surface.
They like to remain near the center of Adel, where they can travel to Noshiki or search underground caves for jewels. To take a Biaur bride, she must be presented with jewels by her prospective husband. Despite being spirits, Biaur have many such mortal-like traditions. Biaur rarely wear anything on their heads that could cover their hair and shards.
-Common Professions: Merchants, mage academics, appraisers
-Names: Short humanoid names like Nall, Fern or Karl.
-Lifespan: 90-100 years, few physical changes save discoloration of hair and gems
•Ruayni (Rue-ah-neh): Magical humanoids with flame-like essence motes floating about them, the Ruayni are at best mischievous and at worst malicious. They are said to have originated from the essences of ancient artifacts. They are shards of a great power taken form. Ruayni are rare but easy to spot despite their very humanoid appearance due to the presence of the motes and the heavy essence around them.
Ruayni have an strangely ethereal beauty to them that is difficult to approach. Their hair and eyes can be of any number of colors and heterochromia is common. Males of the race are even rarer than already-rare females, making them incredibly more valuable. Ruayni exude empathic magic that grants anyone around them increased ability. Wizards like to seek Ruayni out because of this and form bonds with them – the Ruayni is another little edge to anyone looking to perfect an ability.
A predisposition to sin is the cornerstone of all Ruayni. Ruayni, good, evil or none of the two, are always seeking pleasure in whatever way their bodies are programmed to like it. Some Ruayni are passionate lovers, seeking ever more romantic thrill; others barbarous killers; others greedy or haughty glory seekers. It is hard to break a Ruayni out of their predisposed habit. Why this occurs is unknown – it could be that most artifacts on Eden are inherently evil and the essence they exude follows thus.
Spirit-creatures that they are, their births are strange and linked to the flaming motes of essence that follow them around. These behave precisely the same way Ainyu’s motes do, and so Ruayni cannot have children. When they die, their motes form a new Ruayni – the same cycle Ainyu follow. Their motes whisper abhorrent things when they are touched by a person and are like burning black, green or purple candle-fires, rather than the soft, warm motes of an Ainyu.
Ruayni are favorite companions not only for Wizards but for Clerics or Paladins of mostly-evil deities, though good-aligned Clerics can try to “rehabilitate them.” The rare Ruayni that can truly behave itself (or is very good at pretending to) tends to accompany martial characters as helpful casters.
-Common Professions: Companion to another; bandit, mercenary or seducer.
-Names: Regal names like Renault, Satella or Beatrice.
-Lifespan: Unknown; usually die of violence, disease or suicide. Whether they age significantly or not is also unknown.
•Nwako (New-ah-koe): When the flames of an Apekar die out, it is said that a person is left behind, a fierce person with dark, brown or grey skin, red eyes and hair, with a wispy tail of smoke and rings of black gas around its wrists, neck and ankles. Rare as Nwako are, all of this is true.
Much like a Naekara, a Nwako is the result of a noble spirit deciding to live among the mortal realm. An Apekar puts out its own flame and chooses mortality. It’s days since then are numbered. Like Naekara, Nwako are wanderers, leaving their territories and trying to live among the world and see as much of it as possible before death.
Aside from their smoke rings and tail, they are pretty inconspicuous, but their fiery attitudes and passionate zeal make them stand out. Nwako have a firmer hold on their old lives and personalities, but being territorial, firmly grounded creatures, they are unlikely to know much of the outside world.
Nwako can reproduce with mortals much like Naekara can.
Fierce hunters, Nwako are prized members of rural communities where their skills can be put to good use. They are less at home in urban areas of civilization, and prefer the open, natural spaces to them. Their temper tends to get them in trouble, as they are even easier to offend than Damakran are.
-Common Professions: Hunters; vagrants
-Names: Short spirit names like Yuf, Khaz and Nwt.
-Lifespan: 70-80 years with a few physical changes.
•Nyoka (Neo-kah): When the dragons bargained with the Spirits for protection, many believed that Dragons as a race would never regain their glory. The Dragonborn, the closest to a draconic lineage that they had been able to forge outside their own race, were nearly wiped out and their own numbers no better. They began to look outside their own race for potential heirs – one of these couplings produced offspring.
The Nyoka are spirit-humanoid descendants of dragons. Their bodies have wings, tails and horns that differ depending on their draconic lineage. They have scales in patches around their bodies – often at the neck, wrists, shoulders, chest, back, elbows and knees. Their wings have the largest concentration of scales. Nyoka often wrap their wings around themselves like capes. They retain a more humanoid appearance than Dragonborn, with faces and bodies more strict to natural norms, with skin colors in the human palette, and brown, dark or gold eyes.
Nyoka can reproduce with each other and with other fertile mortal races like the Iomadi and nearly always produce another Nyoka. These Nyoka, depending on the parent, may take on additional odd traits, such as fluffy ears from a Iomadi or colored skin from an Athirua. Their draconic heritage seems dominant in every such coupling, thereby achieving the wishes of the ancient dragons. Even should dragons die, Nyoka may continue into the future.
Their demeanor is decidedly draconic – Nyoka are arrogant, and the world is beneath their notice. They flirt and toy with others, taking nothing seriously until forced to. They seek challenge and thrill foremost. Nyoka are rarely humbled by defeat or humiliation and difficult to force to submit to another’s orders. They enjoy bossing others around.
-Common Professions: Mercenaries, Wizards, Armed Forces
-Names: Any sort of name, often something convoluted but impressive-sounding.
-Lifespan: 85-100 years with some physical changes towards the later years
•Simulant: (As word): Simulants were an experiment by forces unknown to devise a monstrous soldier and assassin that could infiltrate human communities. It is unknown from how long ago the Simulants existed, but what is known is that their masters appear to be long gone or in hiding, defeated perhaps in some secret war by a hidden enemy. The Simulants now live confused, but relatively peaceful, existences within society.
The Simulant is by all appearances a humanoid, but their insides are very telling – coils of tentacles and tough purplish muscle form their innards, with only a few recognizable (and for the most part, external) humanoid organs. Simulants are like living artifice. Their innards compose of number of tentacular masses, beginning with the cranial cavity and stretching down from there.
Simulants are born as insect-like parasites vomited by any Simulant, either male or female, upon reaching sexual maturity. Simulants, oddly enough, can reproduce sexually with other races, but do not produce Simulants except by spreading the Simulant parasites. The Simulant has no responsibility over its parasite offspring.
The parasites live as insects until they can borrow into a fresh corpse, using their transformational powers to repair and change the new body into a unique humanoid. Depending on the body, a Simulant imago (the adult phase with a humanoid body) might not look much like an adult at all – and it will forever look that way except for its ability to change shapes. If the instar does not find a body to inhabit, it dies without reaching any sort of imago phase.
Simulants are mostly unemotional. Their laughter is somewhat hollow and their sentiments coldly logical – they help others because society expects it, they smile because people find it nice, they hold back their murderous tendencies because they do not wish to be murdered. Many Simulants do not engage in spirit worship, but some have, as a means of fitting in better with the world.
Simulants are individuals and do possess thoughts and ambitions, though theirs are usually humble, such as “survive” or “find company”. Simulants do find lovers and spouses, typically scholars and casters, or the odd peasant fascinated by their otherworldly nature. Simulants tend to reside in the center portions of Adel, as Andaliel is uncomfortably cold to them and Vedaria uncomfortably hot.
-Common Professions: Any low-class job; assassin, mercenary, spy.
-Names: Usually numbered or named after complex mathematical shapes.
-Lifespan: As parasite, up to 3-4 months. Born fully adult from parasite, lifespan unknown, does not age. Usually commits suicide after the death of a loved one.
•Anpe: (Ahn-peh): Said to be an off-shoot of Cuporo, despite their generally larger size than the “small” races, Anpe are considered on the physical level of halflings.
They are large faeries, one could say, or perhaps small adults, with earthy colored or green skin, hair and eyes, bodies thin, light and evenly proportioned for their size. They resemble humans with some insect traits. Their arms and legs end in bug-like clawed hands and feet, and they can bend them to leap very high, or stridulate them to make noises. Anpe can mimic any kind of noise with their stridulation. They have antennae and good senses.
On their backs, they have smooth elytra which open to reveal membranous wings they use for flight. The overall construction of the Anpe prevents it from flying too high or fighting while in flight, but they are nonetheless of good grace in their movements. They typically wear light, backless and shoulder-less (and often sleeveless) clothing when expected to be decent – they would prefer nudity, but society has its own ideas about that.
Like Cuporo, Anpe reproduce fairly quickly and are rather fertile with a number of races (including ones not so small), so they are fairly common in wilderness areas. They dislike regimented urban living, but due to their usefulness as scouts and ability to overcome certain natural obstacles with grace unmatched, a good number can also be found as sellswords in large cities.
Like Cuporo, Anpe might grow vines and leaves from their skin and head, but these are considered even luckier, which might have unscrupulous people overpowering Anpe to pluck leaves from them. Such mischief is a worrisome matter to Anpe and they tend to pluck their own leaves because of it.
-Common Professions: Scout, fruit picker, laborer.
-Names: Simple names often derived from flowers, seasons, colors.
-Lifespan: Adulthood at 10, lives around 80 years. Does not age significantly after adulthood.
•Ubiani (Oo-bah-knee): When a creature or spirit dies, its essence leaves its body to rejoin the eternal flow that permeates all things in Eden. A truly aberrant, violent, wicked or horrific death can trigger a strange reaction – the creature’s body dies but its essence rejoins nothing. It remains in the body.
Ubiani are undead by no will of their own. They are spontaneously reanimated corpses of (most commonly) murder victims or suicides. They are known as half-ghosts, because of their fleshy bodies maintained by their corrupted essence, and their ability to vanish from sight or otherwise move ghost-like and surreptitiously. Ubiani retain the appearance of whatever they were like before, but lose all of their old earthly abilities.
Though Ubiani bodies behave quite like Inaw, with an ability to force themselves to take on aspects of a living body such as a blush of life or self-repair of damage, there is one wound or scar associated with their demise that remains on them forever. This mark represents what they used to be and what they are.
The greatest wish of an Ubiani is to die, but they are wary of death. They have learned, the hard way, that not all deaths are equal. An Ubiani seeks only the death which will free it from the world and allow it to finally rest in peace. Some Ubiani do not, however – they languish upon the world, fearing death, fearing whatever existence comes after their time as Ubiani. A small minority care not one way or another. They let karma do what it wishes with them. After all, it already did so once.
Ubiani commonly forget many things about their old life, remembering only certain choice bits at random. Communities generally treat Ubiani depending on how much of their old memory is left – they might go back to business as usual, or they might have to treat the Ubiani as an entirely different person. Families have a difficult process of coping with a family member becoming an Ubiani, especially if it was a result of suicide. Like Inaw, Ubiani are treated as victims of circumstance by the law and by most communities.
-Common Professions: Depends.
-Names: Varies.
-Lifespan: Unknown.
