The Racez

Humanz:

The first of the humanoidz racez, humanz emerged at an age when magicz was mild and peaceful. The flow of manaz that filled Zestria was subtle by today’s standards, however, hidden behind this apparent stillness was a power incredible enough to create life. Humanz always had an affinity towards working the landz, raising animalz and building towns, so it comes as no surprise that they would favor the Grasslands as their territory.

The humanz are clever creatures, they created coinage for trading, invented the first wagons and built the first castles, all so they could further explore the continent and claim its riches as their own. With that also came a sense of belonging, humanz organize in social groups and let their cultural origins dictate much of how they behave, to them following a leader and helping your people is extremely important.

Unfortunately from the spirit of humanz progress also comes greed and violence; at the same rate in which humanz help their own they also take from others, making war a common occurrence throughout the landz. Humanz are the most common race of the realm for a simple reason: they are very good at what they do, be it helping or harming.

Elvez:

Centuries ago there was an alliance dedicated to the study of magicz in Zestria, they were called “The Council of Five ''. The council would travel the landz to meet with expert magicians of all kinds to both learn from them and also to teach whatever they could, in time they grew in fame and all of the realm knew of them and their achievements.

Since this story is ancient, names have been forgotten and all that remains are titles, the five were: The Pearl Sage, The Dusk Witch, The Moon Sorcerer, The Sun Mage and The Oathbreaker. Although the fifth didn’t always carry this title, through his careless actions he brought dishonor and shame to his name.

The whole council had vowed to never wield dark magicz, since it was a source of corruption and destruction. But the Oathbreaker was a greedy soul, when he saw his own techniques being overshadowed by his colleagues he decided to stake everything against them. The fifth gave in to the temptations of dark magicz and became mad with power, and powerful he was…

Through the use of the forbidden spells the Oathbreaker went from the weakest of the five to being powerful enough to fight all four of them at once; the remaining four however devised a plan to defeat him. During the battle the council was teleported to the Dragon Aerie where the four magicians called upon the aid of the dragonz, and with joined forces were able to destroy the Oathbreaker and his foul magicz.

When the dust from the battle settled the now Council of Four looked around and saw themselves changed, their manaz had seeped into their skin turning them into exotic long-eared humanoidz. They were the first elvez to walk the landz of Zestria and all their descendants would bear a talent for magic and a desire to protect the realm, although slowly that tradition seems to be fading away and some elvez are even dabbling in the forbidden arts of dark magicz.

Orcz:

The orcz are the youngest of all the racez of Zestria, as they were never actually meant to be a people and were in fact created through the use of magic to be weapons of war. When Melgor the Black Sun began his first campaigns to conquer the landz of Zestria he was extremely successful but soon he realized that his military strategies wouldn’t be enough if he wished to conquer the whole realm, so much of the overlord’s time was wasted when his armies needed to rest, so many retreats could be avoided if his soldiers were stronger and sturdier.

So the Dark Emperor had a most devilish idea, if he could create soldiers strong enough to endure days of battle he would crush his enemies easily, and could conquer Zestria at a rate once thought impossible. Through the use of dark magicz the Black Sun created the first Orcz warbands from the humanz which inhabited Mandoss Crag, deeming them a strong and resilient people and worthy of becoming his elite soldiers.

Orcz would remain most of their early history as slaves to the whims of the emperor, which controlled their minds through magical binds. However, when the rebellion against Melgor started a most astute technomancer saw a breach in the emperor’s defenses, the one they called Etherman met with the strongest of the Emperor’s Warlords: Urzog.

Warlord Urzog was a terrifying warrior, but also a man of very simple mind and heart, so when the technomancer undid the magical restraints that controlled his mind Urzog was quick to side with the rebellion. During the Emperor’s last stand against the rebels it was the duo of Urzog and Etherman which dealt the final blow against the tyrant and freed all orcz.

Free to roam the landz but carrying a heritage of war and savagery the orcz became the most sought out mercenaries of Zestria, but some others retired to lead peaceful lives in tranquil landz.