Species of Kudahn

Summarized from the work of Dean Oratio Duun, Tulár School for Natural Philosophy

Humans (Umani)

Overview

Humans are a highly varied and adaptable race and can be found in all corners of Kudahn in a myriad of cultures and societies. They have a remarkable ability to interbreed with nearly all other sentient species are found in most nations excepting Ysgr and the Ko’lantani

Dispersal

Most common in central Kudahn but widely dispersed continent-wide.

Relations

Initial human settlements found the “New Races”: goblins and orcs well established on the continent. Relations were initially amicable, but over centuries competition, disease, and migration patterns pushed native goblinoids into the margins. After the cataclysm known as “the Undoing” and the Ysgr conquests, human populations and settlements ar ehtought to have been massivley reduced.

Cultures

Human societies resist generalization; they span democracies to tyrannies, polytheists to atheists, liberated to authoritarian. Their only constants are adaptability, resourcefulness, and historically high birth rates—now finally slowing.

History

An active discourse surrounds the most ancient of the “Old Species” (humans, halflings, elves, dwarves, and gnomes) with humans generally considered the most likley contender but halflings finding wide support as well. The importance of answering such questions is primarily fueled by the widely accepted theory of species divergence: a postulated divergence of all the “old Species” as descendents of one mother species which was rapidly altered and dispersed during the cataclysmic “Undoing”. Scholarly consensus places the arrival of humans roughly twenty-thousand years ago.

Elves (Ko’lantani)

Overview

The elves are a tall, lithe, and powerfully built species which has undergone large social changes through time and has a complex relationship with humans.

Dispersal

Elves can be found in urban settings and intermixed with other aoecies but most are found in forested enclaves which keep to themselves for better or worse.

History

After the Cataclysm, the Ko’lantani are thought to be among the first of the “Old Races” to re-establish society, giving them the longest time to develop distinct, physiologies, cultures, and ways of life and their penchant for isolation only contributes to their uniqueness. their langauge is ranked amongt the most complex and difficult to learn and outsiders often deacribe interactions with elves as “alien” or “uncanny”.

Relations

Despite their cultural distance from others the elves have classically maintained strong alliances with orcs and goblins. Relationships with humans however, are much more complicated. Although many elven groups maintain close toes to human settlements the aggression and wars between Doran and the elves have conteibuted to a deepening rift between the two races.

Cultures

Elven society remains isolated, insular, tribal and deeply tied to nature, with arch-druids guiding groups up to 10,000. Their spirituality centers on primordial gods and two major avatars: Illūs, the personification of elven-kind, and K’naru, the spirit of the wilds. Though rarely united, elven clerics travel broadly to maintain cultural continuity across scattered tribes.

Dwarves (Gūndan)

Overview

Although dwarves are highly physically diverse, they are primarily broken into two major sub-species of surface and subsurface dwellers. Surface dwellers are characterized by larger and taller frames, dark features and hairy bodies wheras the subsurface sub-species are much smaller and slighter and have skin eyes and hair so pale as to be near-translucent, Despite thier physical differences the Dwarves are a highly ordered, communal, and disciplined people that produce the continent’s finest engineers, architects, masons, warriors, and athletes. Individualism is often discouraged in favor of shared purpose, and dwarves judge themselves harshly through the quality of their craft. Their technologies and techniques are unmatched, though their conservatism often slows adoption of new innovations.

Dispersal

Dwarves are largley found in the mountainous country of Zidan which runs North to South along the Spine of Uros for hundreds of miles.

Relations

Dwarves tend towards highly rational but peaceful relations with other species. Many Dwarves swear oaths of non-violence though there are a small but vocal group whihc endorse the use of force to restor balance when necessary. Their Primary nation of Zidan has enjoyed an uninterupted neutral and peaceful position for thousands of years.

Cultures

The Culture of Dwarves is quite rigid and considered oppressive by crritics. Many dwarves practice the same craft their entire life but pride themsleves on their work however mundance. This is supported by a cultural norm of honoring and honoring all positions and societal niches. Personal realtionships are often quite deep as well with bonded pairs remaining to gether for a century or more. Dwarves highly ordered culture makes them a natural fit for technological innovation and dwarven-made mechanical devices are used the world over. Dwarves are also responsible for the majority of advances in mathematics, natural phiosophy, and even lingustics having created the widely used Gundan-made script.

History

Dwarves seem to be a product of the Cataclysm in and appear a few thousand years after —

Gnomes (Gnomi)

A subspecies of dwarf which has become distinctive enough to warrant its own discussion. Gnomes are universally much smaller and slighter, longer-haired, and culturaly very different from their dwarven ancestors. Gnomish culture is dramatically more expressive and rejects what they view as dwarven rigidity. Gnomish societies prize liberty, creativity, and merit above all else. Their neighborhoods—often embedded inside greater dwarven or human cities—are hubs of mathematics, banking, construction, invention, art, and scientific rigor.

Dispersal

Gnomes are concentrated in the southern part of the Spine of Uros and have particularly large populations in the Eastern borders of the states of Gazu and the independent city state of Ulungatun at the southern tip of Kudahn.

Relations

Gnomes have good relations with most other Species and Cultures with a notable exception being animosity built through the many years of war with Doran and the states of Gazu. Gnomish mixture of obsessive focus and flamboyant expression makes them natural collaborators with goblins, with whom they often live (though they cannot produce offspring). Gnomes can interbreed with humans, dwarves, and halflings, adding to their cosmopolitan reputation.

Halflings (Kudi)

A small-statured people of debated origin—possibly derived from gnomes, dwarves, or humans—halflings maintain strong cultural identity despite few independent settlements. Curious, clever, and intuitively attuned to the world, halflings seem alsmot innately gifted in subtle magics and form a major part of the scholars and magic-users in Tadros and throughout the world. Though thier cosmopolitan distribution and adaptability makes them hard to generalize, halflings cherish hospitality, food, storytelling, and craftsmanship. Many of the greatest chefs, vintners, musicians, and artisan-guilds across Khūdan are halfling-run. Though they dislike war, halflings are surprisingly resilient and longer-lived than most humans, and when threatened, they fight with unexpected ferocity. They readily integrate into human, gnomish, or dwarven societies.

Orcs (Gr)

Among the first inhabitants of Khūdan, orcs (alongside goblins) form the core of what scholars call the “New Races.” Orcs are primarily loacated in the arctic nation of Ysgr with secondary population centers in Munar, northern Doran, the states of Gazu and the Aongh. Orcs prefer self-governed, fortified settlements, thriving in tundra, desert, jungle, or sea. Their culture is strongly traditional, emphasizing family, honor, legacy, and the Four Primordials. Renowned as warriors, knights, samurai, and mercenaries, orcs were instrumental in halting Andor’s expansion and play a vital role in naval traditions—many captains consider an orcless ship doomed. Physically imposing, thick-haired, and often tattooed with achievements deemed worthy by master-artists, they blend martial, spiritual, and communal values.

Goblins (Yagu Urak)

Small, wiry, and astonishingly diverse and physically resilient, goblins have the widest cultural and climatic diversity of any people in Khūdan—from sophisticated city-states with libraries and schools to feral nomadic tribes with no written history. Fossil evidence suggests goblins were the first intelligent inhabitants of the continent, and are likley the progenitors of orcs. Goblin art is wild, expressive, and unpredictable; goblin tactics even more so, making any fight with them dangerously inventive. Though pushed into harsher lands by human expansion, goblins have also integrated into nearly every society with surprising ease. Resourcefulness and creativity are their defining traits.