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An Analysis of the Peoples of Urak

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1An Analysis of the Peoples of Urak Empty An Analysis of the Peoples of Urak Wed May 04, 2011 3:56 pm

Highwayman

Highwayman
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An Analysis of the Peoples of Urak
In studying the histories, religions, and world facts of Urak, I have made a few discoveries. These discoveries I hope to share here in an effort to help us better understand the world of Urak. This brief analysis will look at the world of Urak during the time of the Second Rising of Balkoth and his armies of death.
It would seem that, rather obviously, the most prevalent race of sentient beings in the world of Urak is humans; and the least is the lesser Air Giants (excluding the greater giants of all the elemental races. From now on, all comments about giants will reference the lesser giants, unless otherwise noted)
In looking through the limited information we have on Urak we find that the elemental faiths are followed by much fewer numbers than the arcane races; the newer arcane races having larger followings of the more prevalent (and yes newer to the face of Urak) races in the world. Meanwhile, the older and much rarer races ascribe to the more ancient religions of water, fire, earth and air.
As such, let us start by looking at the older religions.
The first faith we will look at is water.
The followers of water are mostly composed of the great and legendary sea beasts of the watery realms; these being the vicious and beautiful sea serpents, the legendary boat swallowing krakens, the sea cave dwelling mythical arachnids of the water faith and other creatures of the sea.
It would seem that sightings of these beasts while not common, is not the rarest of occurrences, as sailors still offer gifts to hopefully appease these beast-granting that there is a very real fear of them. And as such, there must be at least a handful of recorded events of sightings and encounters. Therefore, it can be determined that the followers of water are still alive, though what they are doing during the imminent hostile takeover of the world by the forces of Balkoth remains to be seen.
The other followers of water are humans, the Viantha, an Amazonian race of women who worship water, are more often seen than the beasts of the watery domain, but per analysis, less in actual number. Therefore, it would seem that the actual earthly domains of the people of water must be limited, perhaps a few small settlements, and by chance a medium sized actual city, composed of, it would seem, all humans belonging to the distinct culture of the Viantha, and perhaps a few allies who might wander through.
The next faith we will examine is that of fire.
The main followers of fire are the lesser fire giants. Unlike the air giants, who have never been seen in living memory, no such description of the fire giants is given; except that they like to live in red mountains and are the most powerful followers of fire. It would seem that fire giants have been seen by others in the world, though in not liking to leave their warm homes are nowhere near the most common beings to traverse the planet.
The other and most likely more prevalent followers of Fire are the red dwarves. They live in the warm roots of volcanic mountains, and when battles are looming appear in great numbers to hawk their wares. Since there seems to be a number of hostile actions taking place throughout Urak, and the history of the red dwarves seems to be entangled in the actual creation of the faith of Death, it would seem that dwarves are being seen more and more throughout the world. Though there is no doubt that the sighting of a dwarf by any common man was never anything for alarm, with dwarves more than likely being the second most common race in Urak.
There does seem to be at least a small group fo humans that follow fire, but it would seem they are not the dearest of the faith's followers, being second to the fire giants; it seems these beings are much akin to the people's of Chaos, having only deviated slightly to follow an older, nay ancient religion with similar traits.
The other followers of the fire faith are those beings of bed time stories. Dragons, imps, and balrogs.
Dragons, it seems are one of the more rare creatures of the world, with sightings of them obviously occurring, and striking fear into the hearts of all that behold them when they do. It has been rumored that Balkoth called forth dragons during his last onslaught of Urak, it would thus seem that the hostile nature of dragons is confirmed, and that dragon sightings will, if they have not already, increased as the forces of Balkoth continue their campaigns of death.
Imps, while it would be assumed are not near as rare as dragons, are obviously creatures that are not seen very often at all, if they were, why would they only be the things of bedtime stories? Imps, the dark cousins of elves, it can be assumed are not as common as fire dwarves, but are more likely than not, one of the more common followers of fire; although, they, like their elven cousins, seem quite adept at remaining hidden in the world.
The most elusive and rarely seen followers of fire are the balrogs; demon like creatures that can only be pressed into service by blackmail or threat of death. As they hate the world of mortals, it can be assumed that the balrogs live apart from the remaining followers of fire; perhaps deep in the wilderness or in the depths of volcanoes where most other mortals would never dare to go.
Of the peoples of the earth faith:
The followers of earth are hard to number, with many of their followers ascribing to a variety of the ‘newer’ races of Urak. These races being humans, halflings, dwarves, elves, gnomes,
It can be assumed that the followers of earth live spread throughout much of the world, wherever the earth is readily accessible, and that there are villages and settlements of earth followers in many places throughout Urak.
Since earth is such an open faith, reasoning that earth provides the basis of survival for all, many different people can be assumed to follow the faith, coming to it from a variety of backgrounds. Humans and dwarves are the most common followers of earth; although, it can be assumed that there are more dwarven, than human followers in total, and that as dwarves are not commonly seen on a day to day basis, that there are not huge numbers of human followers of this race, though there is still a significant number. It can be guessed, given the dwarven affinity for the earth, and mining, that any dwarven settlement or city, while a portion of it may be above ground, an equal, if not larger portion, exists beneath the topsoil.
Gnomes are even lesser in number than dwarves and live in underground homes of their own creation.
Halflings live apart from the others, in their own small settlements (think The Shire in Lord of the Rings) where they are dedicated to a more simple style of life of farming and the like.
In any of the larger Earthen settlements, it can easily be guessed that there is a variety of the different followers of earth, including elves. Elves, while mostly it would seem, where created of air, and as such not be too fond of Earth, now are the followers of Life and her counterpart Death. Those elves that had in fact fallen to the temptations of the Death faith and then lived to escape it’s clutches, would more likely than not be shunned by the world at large; not so by the more open minded followers of Earth, who took them in, allowing them to utilize their quick and vicious skills in the defense of the faith.
Earth is also followed by a variety of golems and shamblers, beings made directly of earth with no life, but the life of earth magic in them. These beings are not common, but their exact number cannot be counted as they reside hidden in the muddy bogs and gardens of the earth people, tangles of plants and mud, waiting to be called forth when needed.
Like Fire and Air, there are lesser giants of Earth; these giants however are large and rare and are rarely spotted roaming the wildest wilds of Urak.
In regard to those rare followers of the Air faith:
The followers of Air, it would seem, are the most rare and elusive of all peoples in Urak. While at least rumored sightings of all the past mentioned beings exist, there are no actual sightings of the Air giants in recorded history. These giants live on windswept and snowy mountain tops, mountains that the most people of Urak fear to traverse for fears of being lost or destroyed by the weather gods.
The other followers of Air are the legendary ice drakes, willow wisps, eagles, fairies, and elves.
The ice drakes, like the dragons, are known to exist, though they are very rarely seen; when they are seen, fear and death (and frostbite) are often left in their wake.
Willow Wisps for some reason are also followers of Air; though they are known to reside in swamplands and other dark places, where they are rumored to lure unwary travellers from their paths and for a lack of a better word ‘destroy’ them. Perhaps it is because in some way, willow wisps are composed of magic and air. Regardless, Willow Wisps are very rarely seen, for when they are their subjects do not live to tell the tale; it can be assumed that on occasion weary travellers do fall prey to these creatures, though not as often as it might seem lost travellers actually should. It is however stated that Willow Wisps actually do reside in the mountains with the Air giants.
Eagles, glide through the air high above the world, coming to rest in a variety of places. It cannot be said that eagles, like any other bird is rare in any way; but as a sentient follower of Air, it might be that there are certain eagles (like in Lord of the Rings) who are a wee bit more intelligent than the average garden variety mouse eating bird of prey. It is unknown how many of these eagles exist or where they reside; although it can be assumed that they live high in the mountains with the other followers of Air.
Fae, or Fairies, are quite possibly the only living beings who have actually seen Air giants, as we can see from there, Fairies are not a anywhere near common species in the world of Urak; again being the stuff of childhood stories. The Fairies live high up in the mountains surrounding the towers of the larger followers of Air, the Air giants, and the few humans that attempt to follow the faith. It is plausible to guess then, that the fairy people, like legend would hold are quite small (being enlarged in the game for size/combat related purposes) (most likely smaller than elves but larger than gnomes, as there are recorded elven fairy cross breeds) and reside together in groups; as such the actual number of fairies is unknown, but given the world are again one of the more rare and least seen inhabitants there.
While the largest amounts of elves follow the faith of life, and now death, they were originally created by the greater Air giants, and at least some of these elves still follow their original Faith. They too reside in the tallest mountains of Urak, perhaps in the biggest of the actual Air settlements.
This brings me to the end of my analysis of the peoples of the elemental faiths. We now move over to the more common faiths, the arcane faiths: Order, Chaos, Life, and Death.
Unlike the elemental faiths, which were born of the creation of the world, and whose followers were created by the greater giants of those specific faiths, the followers of the arcane faiths all were created by others, and at some point in the lost histories began to follow these newer faiths.
Let us first look at the followers of the faith of Life, the arcane faith most closely related to the elemental faiths.
The followers of this faith are composed mainly of elves, and given that the traitors to this faith (Death) are also elves, we can assume that elves are not exactly a species one would put into the rare category of species on the planet. Much like the dwarves it can be guessed that while most people do not see elves every day, the sighting of elves or dwarves was nothing to be surprised at.
The elves live in the green forests and beautiful hilly plains surrounding it; dedicated to life, their homes are the actual trees, and it impossible to tell if there is a city hidden within the forest or perhaps if the forest is the actual city. There are obviously other elven settlements throughout the land, scattered in other woods.
The other followers of Life, dryads and unicorns, also reside in the woods and plains of Urak; though they are seen even less than the elves. The dryads it would seem rarely if ever leave their sacred woods, and unicorns; well unicorns are the stuff of legends spoken of as a sought after jewel that is always just out of reach.
We now turn to the darkest of all the faiths of Urak: Death.
The followers of Death are drawn from all races and faiths of Urak. They are the darkest of the dark and those who strive to something greater than their mere meager lives could allow them before turning to the destruction of others.
Most of the followers of death seem to be composed of humans and elves; the elves having turned away from their light following faith to the darkest, and the humans having come to claim glory and to fulfill their bloodlust. The human followers of death are rare in comparison to their more viscous comrades-the dark elves.
The followers of death having recently come out of hiding from their homes throughout the world, have now built at least one large and dark city and several other settlements; most likely on the backs of now dead slaves. Since we have already determined that humans and elves are some of the most common peoples on the face of Urak, we can determine that the followers of Death are quite numerous. This is not even to mention the countless undead risen from the corpses of all sorts of others who have fallen before the death hordes. These mindless undead now roam freely across Urak, armies continually growing in size as they grow in power.
Other followers of death are composed of untold manners of winged creatures, including bats. The most fearsome followers of death, however, are the rumored vampires; rare creatures that live by draining the life out of others. They have become more frequently sighted as the armies of death grow stronger.
And now we come to the last two faiths of Urak; the two composed mainly of the most common race of the land. As we look over the previous races and faiths we can see that the elves of death are numerous. We also know that the elves and dwarves number less than the humans. We also know that the followers of the arcane faiths are greater in number than the followers of the elemental faiths. Knowing these things it is quite obvious to see that the faiths with the largest followings and as such the largest holdings in the lands of Urak belong to the peoples of Chaos and Order. However, the peoples of Chaos are unordered (obviously) and as such hold much less than the peoples of Order. The followers of Order, therefore, hold the largest sway in the lands of Urak; and are second in side of followings only to the ever growing followers of Death.
The followers of Order build large organized cities, villages and outposts throughout Urak, bringing order to the wilds of Urak. There are also a few none human followers of this faith, white stags-rare majestic male deer that are occasionally seen throughout the world, and gargoyles, magical beings carved from stone that can become animated in order to serve the cause of Order.
Chaos:
The human followers of Chaos are brutish, strong, and faithful to their own. They live in small tribes, some travelling throughout the years, others settling and establishing themselves in rough villages and towns. Some of the barbarians even establishing themselves in large rowdy cities (think Tortuga from Pirates of the Caribbean on crack).
There are others followers of the Chaos faith, though they are not common. Deep in the mountains live small bands of goblins and the occasional ogre. Sightings of these volatile Chaos followers are rare most likely because they tend to eat anyone who crosses their paths.
Even more rare than the goblins and ogres of Chaos are the few Cyclopes that still roam Urak, spreading devastation in their wake.
And now I come to the end of my analysis of the peoples and their faiths. In addition to them, there are the random peoples living throughout Urak that ascribe to no faith, but simply live where it is of most comfort to themselves.
And finally, adding to these, there are the now more frequent bands of orcs and their ilk, zombies and wild animals that traverse the lands of Urak; not as followers of Chaos, but as greedy followers of nothing but their own greed. The numbers of these beings cannot be calculated as their numbers ebb and flow with the tides of the happenings of the world of Urak.
Faiths in order of their size of followers
Death
Order
Earth
Chaos
Life
Water
Fire
Air

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