THE PEOPLES OF GAIANA

Humans were considered the prime work of God. He fashioned them in His own image, and set them upon Gaiana to populate the earth and rule it. He blessed humans with a gift that only the dragons before them carried: the gift of magic. The human population spread out over Gaiana, moving onto plains, valleys, and even a few into the mountains. Quickly the human clans began to form kingdoms, and nations were built in only a few years, thanks to the use of magic, the Creator's gift. However, many humans began to feel superiority over the Aroninn, the dragons, and their half-breed Rythan spawn. Soon the other races were enslaved and forced to build the great monuments, palaces, and cities attributed to the power of the human race. By using magic, humans were crippling the very world the Creator had made them to protect. Until the great Dragon Lord Edgarth, using his power to assume a human form, arose from his mountainous home in the so-called Forbidden Realm of Highrock, along with a massive Rythan and dragon army. The brutal force lay waste to the human realms of Highrock and Anvis, freeing more of their enslaved brothers and their Aroninn friends. The Aroninn wished no part of the war, and immediately settled in the forest of Landuur, thus forming the Aroninn nation.

For almost a hundred years the dragons and Rythans rebuilt the human nations, allowing the innocents that were not in power the chance for a new life. Until the armies from the east washed up on their shores. For many, many years the humans and the dragonkin fought back and forth, in the west, in the east, and upon the seas.

Then Lord Edgarth made a decision. He would spare the humans, but forever shield their race from the power and blessing that is magic. He and a small contingent of soldiers washed upon a forgotten island. There Edgarth sapped all of his power to create a barrier between humans and the knowledge of magic. He embodied this shield in a great dragon statue, and popular belief says that statue is Edgarth himself. His soldiers, in reverence for their patriarch, crafted a giant temple on the site, and dedicated their lives and their childrens' lives to protecting that which slept deep inside the temple's sanctuary.

Tall, thin human-like people with fair skin and long dark hair. Expert woodsmen and weaponsmiths. Welcomed and revered among the human kingdoms. However, very few Aroninn live outside the forests and plains of Landuur. The Aroninn possess little physical strength, but agility and flexibility make them valuable warriors. Excellent with cross-and-longbows, and they carry slender tempered dirks made of a blue steel that is nearly indestructible. Other than that, little is known about this strange race.

The offspring of humans and dragons. A tall, large race, the Rythans are looked at as monsters. They are vicious warriors dedicated to their clans and families. Rythans could be mistaken for humans, if not for their thick, tough, brown skin, small claws where a human's fingernails usually are, and their red eyes with a reptile's vertical pupils.

Rythans, contrary to human belief, don't attack human settlements unless they are threatened. They live in large clans, usually in mountainous caverns. However, one or two clans have been noted to create a vast system of tunnels underground where they make their homes. Rythan weapons are considered, unlike the rest of the race, to be prime. Their swords, staves, and maces are manufactured with the highest of standards, yet few ever see them until it is too late.

Long believed extinct, these guardians of Gaiana were said to have held an amazing size and power. However, it was common knowledge that dragons could channel their essence into a human form, allowing them to interbreed with the other races, thus allowing them to spread their lore and power. At the end of the Great War, those dragons that did not die assumed a Rythan form and went to live with the clans.