Races of Rega: Metal and Monsters (Worldbuilding Episode 9)
Welcome back once again to Of Gods and Gamemasters, and to my Worldbuilding series, starting from the pantheon of gods, with “Gods: Filing Off the Serial Numbers” and moving through the ages from the struggle of Creation to the start of the game. Last episode was “Races of Rega: Mortals and Men” , even though it was suppoed to cover all the races...because it got long. We have the full spectrum left to cover, from the metallic skinned Spartoi to the twisted Kobaloi.
When it comes to the species of Rega, it all comes back to the gods, as you might expect. We discussed that a bit in Gods: Filing off the Serial Numbers, and some of it is clarified in the final descriptions and myths in Gods of Rega, but we're going to be a bit more clear here...and explain my reasoning as we go.
We covered humans, and elves, and dwarves, and halflings, with their 'subraces' which are more like ethnicities and cultures, many of which exist to ongoing interbreeeding between the species. Yes, I know species is defined by the ability to interbreed or not, but even in real science that's super flexible.
As a reminder, the main ethnicity of Rega is a mixed one, in origin, but now is distinct. A mixture of what in our world, we would term African, Middle-Eastern, Southwest Asian, and Mediterranean ethnicities, giving us a deep brown people with variable features and anime hair and eyes...due to also breeding with gods, celestials, dwarves, elves, and halflings. This occurred due to a 3000 year egalitarian and cosmopolitan empire following the rules of real gods, who made very clear that they required their followers to avoid shallow bigotry.
So today we're going to cover one of the more rare races of Rega, the Spartoi, who kind of fill the big strong warlike race archetype, the Kobaloi or goblinfolk, twisted by the blood of Invidia (but not 'always evil' by any means) the planetouched races and how they fit in this world, and then probably the dragonkin: dragons, dragonborn, and kobolds. So it's going to be another long one.
First, the Spartoi. They were made last, of the sapient races, as a response to the existence of the chromatic dragons and their spawn, and the threat that posed to the mortal races. They were crafted, quite literally, from the teeth of the metallic dragons by Ignia, just as she and her father made the metallic dragons to counter the chromatic threat. There are five ethnicities of Spartoi, one for each of the major metallic kinds. Unlike most worlds, there seems to be a bit more prestige actually attached to being bronze than gold, btw, because the Bronze are more closely associated with Saevios, even though they are slightly less powerful than gold. Usually.
All of the Spartoi are larger than humans, upwards of 6 and a half feet and upwards of 260 pounds. They resemble physically perfect specimens, almost always, like statues, made of the metal that their draconic forebear embodied. So, starting from the Bronzetooth, we have (literally) bronze skinned, beautiful humanoids, often very well muscled, but in the soft Greco-Roman ideal of musculature. They live, except when doing their gods given duties of protecting mortal settlements from the servants of Invidia and the Dark Three (which they are free to ignore, but few choose to), on or near the coasts, and breathe both air and water. They, like other spartoi, have large powerful builds, are resistant to dragon's breath and dragon fear, and likewise resistant to the element their forebears breathe. They all are as resistant to being put out of the fight as half orcs are in other worlds. Bronzetooth tend to be fierce and wild, like the storms and seas they love.
The silvertooth, who live in high hills and mountains, as a bulwark against the reds and their spawn most specifically, as well as against the white dragons of the north, are known for their capabilities of command. Their subrace has the ability of forceful presence. They are often more beautiful even than other Spartoi, with shining silver skin and silver-blue eyes. They re known for dignity, grace, and compassion, most favored by Caela and Lunos.
The coppertooth, like their draconic forebears, are quirky and full of humor. If Vulpos favors Spartoi, it's these. They live in the low rolling hills that border the mountains, and in the green forests, often living close by hill dwarves, lightfoot and stout halflings, or the wood and high elves. Their subtype's unique ability allows them to root themselves to the earth, and be very hard to move indeed.
The brasstooth are found in the arid, desert lands and high steppes, but also the rolling plains. They are, perhaps, the most common. They are friendly, talkative, and as peaceful as they can manage..but do not mistake peacefulness for harmlessness or weakness. They move faster across the plains and desert than other folks, and can go longer without water.
The goldtooth are exceedingly rare, and many folk of Rega go their whole life without meeting one, but they are said to be among the greatest of their kind, with both magic and might beyond their kin. They have no fixed favored environ, and seem to seclude themselves from others most of the time, for reasons they have not divulged. Rumour says they have the abilities of all the other types!
The spartoi, as a whole, have a gods given duty of protecting the mortal races from evil. They can choose to lay that burden down, so there are spartoi who farm, or are merchants...but they are exceedingly rare. Most accept the charge of the gods, and take adventuring classes, most commonly paladin, followed by ranger, followed by barbarian (often zealot). The people of the successor states generally revere and admire Spartoi, and are pleased to see them.
Before we get to the Kobaloi, I'm gonna take a minute to talk about planetouched characters in Rega. They don't have separate societies, or races, or any of that. And they aren't all blah crossed with human. Any of the species of Rega can be descended from gods, elementals, fiends, celestials, etc. Genasi, aasimar, tiefling...these are all templates and modifications to the base races. So you might be, for instance, a city dwarf fire genasi descended from Ignia...or a human noble tiefling who sadly has the blood of the snake-devils of Interitus in their veins. Most such bloodlines are very well known, at least in the case of aasimar and genasi, because folk are justifiably proud to claim descent from the goda and their servants. In the Successor states, tielfling blood is often hidden as best it can be...but in Vyzantos the opposite holds true, and tielflings are revered while the others are scorned. I will point out that once again, none of these are inherently good or evil, but it is hard to shake the reputation of literally deific or anti-deific bloodlines. If there is bias and racism in Rega, it is there: a bias against those descended from or twisted by the Dark Gods, not any actual race or ethnicity. It still isn't fair, and the gods do try to discourage it. The reverse, again, applies in Vyzantos, a bias against those beings favored by the bright gods.
And now, the Kobaloi. The goblinfolk. They aren't species, really, though they do breed true, What they are is an ongoing tragedy, members of the other races intentionally twisted in form and function by the Dark Three, using the Blood of Invidia. First amongst them come the serpentfolk, whom we discussed when we spoke of the elves, former protectors of the swamp. One of the saddest stories of this evil-plagued world. But the others are not much better, if at all. The goblins, halfings taken from all the other lineages and warped via magic, torture, and the blood of Invidia into similar subtypes of goblin, subterranean, woodland, hill, city..they plague all terrains, usually inverting the halfling virtues and abilities, bringing fear, despair, and ill fortune. Twisted in body and mind, still exceptional goblins reject evil and fight for good despite being hated, as do each of the following.
Hobgoblins are the tough and disciplined former dwarves, twisted to the will of Interitus to be his commanders and battlefield engineers. Again, they come in the varieties of their 'parent' race: hill, mountain, deep, and city. They forge the hordes of Kobaloi into an effective fighting force to throw against the servants of the bright gods anf all the mortal races, that the world might be unmade, for the love of Invidia who died, that she might live again...
Bugbears are twisted far indeed, kobaloi made into mockeries of themselves, instead of beautiful and smooth, they are ugly and hairy things (one can be beautiful and hairy. These are not.) Their instinct to protect is twisted to murder, their straightforeard honor twisted to stealth and malice. Like the others, they vary...but their subtypes resemble the original less. Aquatic bugbears, wet-furred, scaled and slimy, strike from ambush at the waters edge, colored like the verdigris of tarnish on bronze. Desert bugbears lurch from below the sands, dulled brass fur and skin shedding dust like rain. Mountain bugbears with their grey stony growths amongst charcoal fur, leaping down the mountainside. Hill bugbears, with green fur like a fungal growth over copper skins, lurching from the undergrowth or standing from their hidden blinds. Rage drives them.
There are many other creatures twisted by the blood of Invidia. But the last of the true Kobaloi are the most insidious. Twisted from humanity...they do not show a single mark of their corruption outwardly, and unlike the serpentfolk, it is not magic that hides it. Instead, these plagueborn, as they are called, bear their deviance on the inside, both in terms of their evil, and in terms of their adapted biology. The plagueborn were modified more carefully, more scientifically, at the mehest of Metus, and it shows. Even if one of them were to turn against the dark...they still cannot help but carry and foster disease and terror everywhere they go, so what few good folk of this kind exist live as hermits, far from anyone they might accidentally harm. Those that choose to serve Metus, of course, go happily into the human cities, and very many live amongst them. Necromancy is their most common calling.
Finally, the dragonspawn. We already know, by this point, that the true dragons were crafted from the corpse of Invidia by the Dark Three, and the metallics crafted to counter them. But many more varieties have risen, as they are the most mutative of the Invidian creatures, those that have the most Invidian blood. Their blood, indeed, causes others to mutate, often toward a draconic form. Some say the lizardfolk began this way, though those are usually neutral in the great conflicts. But the kobolds, and the chromatic dragonborn (there are no metallic dragonborn in this setting) are literally the spawn of the dragons themselves, born from unfertilized eggs laid by the dragon queens. See my article, an Alternative Ecology of Dragons, linked in the description, for a clearer explanation of the process. At their base, dragonborn and kobolds are servitor races to the chromatic dragons, though as free willed creatures, some rebel, and some are even heroic, though they do face great suspicion and discrimination in the Successor States due to the actions of their still serving kin.
I hope this has been enlightening and interesting, giving you ideas of how I put the races together, and how you could figure out the way species form and interact in your own worlds. I think, next time, I'll address classes, subclasses, and occupations that may be unique to the Successor States, and how I came to them. Thanks for your attention!
