The Races of Kyron's World

All of the Species standards are held up for comparison against the Humans of Earth.

Freni-kyn

Pronounced Fren-i-kin. The people of this petite race, measuring no higher than 5’5”, are born with varying degrees of personal illusion abilities. Their living hair, which is never cut, throws off gentle sparks of color, like a dandelion loosing its seeds upon the world. Their cat-like pupils enable them to see great distances, even in reduced lighting. Though their noses are not as sensitive as a Sharpra’s, they are more sensitive to smell than all the other races. Their coloration is predominantly human in type, but there are some few individuals with a rare gene that produces blue, purple, or green skin. Their ears raise or lower, accordion fashion,—often in accordance with how interested they are in hearing something—and are pleated along the outside edges.

These fun loving entertainers, who used illusions to awe their audiences Before Betrayal, were nearly wiped out during the Rage Wars. This led to the restructuring of their entire society around their natural ability to cast personal illusions. The species became official camp followers, with bodies genetically manipulated for the job. This drastic shift—so that only those who excelled in this form of entertainment were allowed to mate or given political influence—caused their bodies to mutate with the passage of time.

Lacking emotional closeness with others, a driving need to fill this emptiness with unending sexual partners became prevalent. With birthrates climbing at an alarming rate, their council sought means to control who gave birth, and when. This led to more genetic manipulation and the curse of the Preral sickness, a mating cycle much like the heat of a common cat. One other unfortunate result of the mutation is a slight reduction of their lifespan and the early maturing of their children, which now occurs at the age of fifteen. While the uneducated believe this is a cultural decision, the Frevellian scholars have confirmed that it is indeed a medical condition. Due to both cultural interaction and the mutations, Freni-Kyns are the living physical standard of the People’s preferred beauty.

Frevell

Pronounced Fruh-vel. This slim species, reaching a minimum of 6 feet tall, is well known for their intellect, though some scholars argue that this intelligence is due to living at least 150 years. After coming of age at 40-ish, they take a turn as negotiators for the other races, using their superior knowledge to help them govern the lands. Their sensitive ears are long and pointed, between 4 and 6 inches, but remain close to the head. Skin tones run the gamut of normal human coloration but hair colors can include dark shades of blue or green. Their straight eyebrows slant upward at the outer edges, as do their elongated eyes.

Without the muscular stature to ensure their survival during the wars, the Frevells withdrew to distant secluded cities, securing them through both mechanical and magical devices, and dedicated themselves to regulating their own people. Over time, their laws multiplied, becoming so redundant as to be useless, a dagger to their own throats. While in the past they had been inventors, now, after exchanging creativity for law and order, they are lawyers.

It became impossible for them to accomplish anything of significance. Society stagnated, technology drew to a crawl and was lost, and a people once known for its ingenious conceptual inventions left off creating. With one exception: their knowledge of genetics played a heavy hand in the inbreeding techniques adopted by the M’hakru and Freni-Kyn.

Glidarth

Pronounced Glid-arth. Though the people of earth might be tempted to associate this species with that of angels or fairies, they are, in fact, closer to human, and the only known self-aware winged creatures of Kyron’s Worlde. Their leathern wings are often enhanced with inked designs, both temporary and permanent, sometimes creating the visual illusion of colorful kites dipping and soaring in the breeze. The same feather-weight bone structure that helps them take flight was mistakenly thought to mean fragility early in the Rage Wars, however their bones are stronger than human standard.

Some of this species boast the rare gene that produces backward sweeping temple feathers, but this trait is seldom seen by the other races as those born with it are of noble birth. Like the Frevell, their ears are long and pointed but lay closer to the head, pointing backwards, rather than upwards towards the sky. Coloration for this group is that of normal Human standards with no known exceptions.

These free-spirited traders and metal-smiths refused to give metals to the other races after dismemberment of their wings became prevalent among the warring factions. Withdrawing to the fortified isolation of their mountaintop megatropolis, they turned in upon themselves. From the restriction of their freedom sprung such deep sorrow, that they sought fixated comfort in eating. Gluttony further restricted the use of their wings, leading, in turn, to overwhelming urges towards self-mutilation and suicide.

Despite childhood fairytales, often hailing from Before Betrayal, the typical modern Glidarthians is rotund, including the ones who retain the ability to fly. In the recent years of uneasy peace, when Glidarthians are seen, they are frequently in the capacity of messenger to the other races. Their tall jump-towers, at least 4-5 stories high, have sprung up across Llayentia, creating a safe network of places to launch into the air from, and are outfitted with a pulley elevator system. If there is a steampunk group of people in Kyron’s Worlde, their love of gadgets, metal, and aviator style clothing would qualify the Glidarthians for that title more than any other race.

H'euman

Pronounced Hew-man. As their name implies, these are the Humans of Kyron’s Worlde, with all of earth’s variation in height, weight, and coloration. The spelling is an adaptation created by the M’hakru scholars who first discovered them.

They are the mutts of society, often hiding traces of other races, along with their various abilities, within their own bodies. After the Day of Betrayal, the H’eumans multiplied and warred and imbibed in the perversions infecting all the races, accepting every sordid atrocity, until their towns became as varied as the individual races.

Some few, outraged at the barbarism, left for isolated areas; creating pockets of strange ingrown societies based around the principles of science, religion, technology, or magic; each specialized group recklessly pursuing their field of interest without regard for the consequences. The alarming results of their experimentation can be seen throughout the lands, and it is not unusual for mutations to abound, and be revered, in these communities.

M'hakru

Pronounced Mah-hawk-rew. This species is of average to short human height, rarely reaching over 6 feet tall, with stout, muscular forms. Supernatural speed, their most predominant inborn trait, sets them apart from other races and was initially used for defensive purposes against animals.

At birth, their children’s long pointed ears are surgically altered to point forward, beginning a lifetime of brutal body modification. As they mature, these same ears are often outfitted with metal sheaths and serve as close combat weapons.

Their coloration runs the gamut of a normal human but their eyes resemble birds of prey and their hands sport six fingers. Their goth-like preference for short or shaved hair, piercings, and lots of black leather straps and buckles, all serve a protective or defensive purpose in battle.

Once altruistic nature-lovers, this sturdy race turned to the art of war when their king was slain on the Day of Betrayal and their forest cities invaded during the Rage Wars. Because this is now all they know and respect, they are almost obsessive in the meticulous care of their weapons and armor. The deliberate inbreeding as mercenaries had the unexpected liability of instilling cruelty into the bloodlines, leading to widespread physical abuse, even among their own people. In addition to their natural musk odor, which the other races find intrusive, most of this race refuses to bathe, believing that the stench adds to the fear factor during battle.

One other physical difference is worthy of note due to its effect on the history of Llayentia. The male’s sexual organ is barbed and the female cannot be impregnated without that abrasion. Though to the M’hakru female this is not painful, a male of this race must trim his barbs in order to interact in a non-aggressive sexual manner with the other races. The use of their sexual organ as a weapon was outlawed by the M’hakru government when all the other races aligned against the M’hakru due to the atrocity of the rape war crimes.

During the early years of the Rage Wars, they wiped out all enemies in their path, including non-combative elders and children, earning a nickname they proudly wore, The Death Bringers. After years of warring, they began hiring out as mercenaries to the other races, waging their battles for them. Eventually, without the ability to do the most menial of labor, they turned to capturing their opponents as slaves; tying the very people they sought to eliminate to their survival.

Sharpra

Pronounced Sharp-ruh. These shape-shifters share their ability with a few other creatures of Kyron’s Worlde, but not with the werewolves of earth’s lore. Wolf-like in their loyalty to each other and the pack, but not in appearance, they have complete control of when, where, and how they shift. Though born with shape-shifting abilities, that skill must be honed like any natural talent. Especially if they desire to imitate, and blend in with, other races or become spies. It is rumored that the male is endowed with two penises and the female a corresponding set of vaginas. But, due to their unwillingness to take mates outside of their own species, this fact is unconfirmed among the other races. Perhaps it is just as well that these facts are not commonly known, as there would surely be a degree of penis envy.

Their bodies are Amazonian in stature and covered with a fine down of hair. A 3 inch long ruff of hair runs along the top of their shoulders and another ruff extends from the nape of their neck to the base of their spine, ending in a point. Their hair coloration is banded, or ombré, similar to a bear or wolf coat, with guard hairs often growing in darker than the rest of the hair. Among Sharpras, the more definition the banding has, the greater the desirability. Like some animals, they spend a portion of each year molting.

At the start of the Rage Wars, these shape-shifters—already natural hunters—became barbaric tribalists, warring amongst themselves as well as with anyone who dared approach their villages. After incessant in-fighting dangerously reduced their numbers, tribal leaders enacted laws to stop this spiraling, downward decline. They agreed to turn their warriors’ aggression outwards, shape-shifting into similitudes of the other races in order to infiltrate the rest of the lands. Instead of warring with each other, they used stealth and deception to expose valuable information and use that information for the good of the whole Sharpra race.

The tribal leader’s success in unifying the Sharpra and creating loyalty within the tribe was soon renowned among the lands. Now it is almost unknown for a Sharpra to aid another race, though they seem to move among them without malice when not engaged in active war. Loyalty to their own people has become the single most driving force in their behavior, causing supernatural ties with their mates. These ties are so strong that should a spouse die, the other falls into a coma, joining their mate within death’s cold embrace mere days later.

Watrelk

Pronounced Wuh-trelk. This race is best known for its ability to spend extended lengths of time underwater. In fact, their lungs have the ability to filter oxygen from water for a half hour at a time, though few of Llayentia’s scholars know this. Due to their affinity for water, both male and female Watrelk prefer loose flowing clothing while out of the water.

Their ears boast double points which they often decorate with water gleaned treasures; strands of pearls, coral, shaped shells. They have predominant, high cheekbones but this is not their most extraordinary facial feature.

Their eyes shift color according to their mood, as do the patterns surrounding their eyes. They have no control of this and it serves no known purpose, but some scholars speculate that it is used as a ward, or camouflage, underwater.

Their skin coloration is predominantly human-like, with some pale green, or light blue, but some few are born a brilliant chartreuse or fuchsia. The bright coloration is always accompanied by a keen psychic ability and is taken as a sign of Kyron’s favor. This person is often given the ruling scepter, along with all the power that goes with it.

After the start of the Rage Wars, this reclusive water-dwelling people shut down the water lanes and their overseas trade, refusing passage to outsiders, and closing themselves off further from the other races. Their land-bound cities, abandoned for the safety of the ocean, became islands of interconnecting watercraft; a motley mass of boats, ships, and rafts. Eventually the other races built their own vessels, provoking a splintering within Watrelk society. Out of this disagreement, the Watrelk Pirates were birthed; a vicious group of killers, who, determined to jealously protect their seas from invasion, turned to trafficking in slavery and drugs, finding allies in the M’hakru and others of low honor.