Races

• Orcs and the Green
• Minotaurs
• Spirit folk

Orcs and the Green

Orcs are elemental beings of The Green, the primal force of life, growth, instinct, and vitality. Every orc is born with an innate connection to The Green, regardless of which deity they ultimately choose to worship. Orcs are free to worship any god. Likewise, non-orcs may worship the Orc Gods and be welcomed by them in the afterlife. Orc religion emphasizes living fully rather than seeking a greater purpose. Purpose is found through action, courage, kinship, and embracing life. Orcs do not generally struggle with existential questions or “finding themselves.” They already know who they are. Death is not feared. A life lived in accordance with The Green is considered a successful life, regardless of how long it lasts. Orcs will defend their homes and people without hesitation, willingly fighting to the death if necessary. Celebrations, feasts, drinking, hunting, wrestling, storytelling, and friendly competition are all considered expressions of The Green. Strength is respected, but so are craftsmanship, hospitality, courage, and raising a strong community. Orcs see little distinction between work and worship; living well is itself an act of devotion. An orc’s worth is measured more by how they lived than by what they possessed.

Summoning Orcs

• Summoned orcs are real individuals temporarily called through their connection to The Green.
• A successful summoning brings willing warriors ready for battle.
• A weak or imperfect summoning may simply pull in whoever is nearby.
• Low-quality summons may arrive carrying mugs, food, hunting gear, or tools because they were interrupted during everyday life.
• If no immediate danger exists, summoned orcs will often begin socializing—drinking, cooking, wrestling, telling stories, or making camp.
• If combat begins, they readily join the fight without complaint, viewing it as simply another part of living.

Cultural Themes

• Live boldly.
• Face hardship willingly.
• Protect your people.
• Celebrate victories.
• Share food and drink.
• Leave behind stories worth telling.
• Honor The Green by living, not merely surviving.

Minotaurs

Minotaurs in my setting are a seafaring race. They are based upon Caribbean culture and they are heavily influenced by voodoo culture religiously.

They worship loa which are basically spirits that are similar to deities but working different ways that are ill-defined.

Their main source of income on their Island is water crystals, tourism and the ships they build. The ships themselves are the best in the world. Up to this point that most people know of there are probably better ships that you can get, but on average these ships outrank others. The military uses these ships for sea ​dominance. Even having a smaller population they're able to effectively work as shock troopers who are amphibious. They also work to clear out other ships and collecting enemy ships is a huge honor for them.

They really get really big into druidism and this is how they maintain growing trees. They maintain their land heavily and make their trees grow faster. So you have druidism and voodoo that have taken place. Other than that, magic isn't looked down upon here. The Minotaur are fairly benevolent to outsiders they they don't really have any mortal enemies, but they are looked down upon by the kingdom as a whole and then in a more political way as most different territories within the kingdom are ruled by humans or elves and the more humanoid style races.

This is an island nation so it is fairly complex and different Islands. May have different sub-governors who have different rules there.

Spirit folk

The spirit folk hell from a completely different archipelago that is not part of this Kingdom. However, within the setting they do, they have set up a small colony within the whispering Islands, which is interesting as most colonies and empires that happen here shut down. It has a high flow of magic and therefore most colonies can't survive. Given that though the players will be encountering these fairly samurai themed creatures, they all have different types. They're related to elements very similar to the genasi.

They work in a very specific way. The water elemental ones are very similar to kappa. These are like human style kappa. The fire Spirit folk are similar to Oni. The wind ones are similar to Fox people and the earth ones are going to be similar to, I haven't really decided yet, but I'm thinking tanuki. Of course there are outliers within this and these outliers will have different features. The Spirit folk can interbreed too which will cause them to produce different features and sometimes produce different yokai in general to the four that are listed there.

The funny thing about this is this area is also going to be very heavily leaning into iajutsu which is sword drawing. That means that I'm going to make it available as a skill to pick up here with items and some swords and weapons here will give that feat and if the people wish to I'm going to let them recruit from this race. If you are a player reading this, that's fine. You might spoil it a little for yourself knowing this and that's fine. If you read this before the second game that we have on October 3rd I believe is the going day here. Then just know that these people are going to be a group that you run into. They are friendlyish. They're kind of untrusting and they have a larger Island, but they're going to be an Asian themed group.