Ancestries — Inkbright

The Ancestries · Fey-touched folk of the salons and circuits

Brannochs

Brannochs are stocky caprine folk with curved horns, tufted cheek-fleece, and long ears. They once spoke a language that shaped reality by naming it, and they still hunt its fragments through their salons, translation guilds, and archives.

Play a brannoch if you want a legacy of a lost language that shaped reality, and the fragments that still bind.

Hallmarks

Curved hornsElongated muzzleTufted cheek-fleeceLong earsCloven hooves

Inherent

Fleet-footed

When a chase or scramble begins, you can find a turn of pace and hold it until the dust settles.

Expressed

Gift of Tongues

Study lets you converse in whatever you have heard, and an exact word can coax a truth from a thing.

The Ancestries · Scaled aristocrats of the banking houses

Drakes

Drakes are tall, scaled folk with elongated muzzles, ridged brows, and flexible neck frills. Their great houses finance empires and keep archives of debts that stretch back generations, and among them a favour given becomes a favour owed.

Play a drake if you want a legacy of great banking houses, and the debts you inherit along with your name.

Hallmarks

Flexible neck frillsCranial spinesRidged browsProminent fangsClawed hands

Inherent

Scaled

Your hide takes the edge off a solid blow, so a fight wears you down more slowly.

Expressed

Prestation

Canny at the market, you make each purse go a little further whenever the party stops to resupply.

The Ancestries · Forge-made folk of the mountain citadels

Dwarves

Dwarves are stocky, broad-shouldered folk with stepped brow-nose ridges, deep-set eyes, and iron bones. Traditional dwarves are made in homeland forges that no one remembers lighting, each one shaped for a purpose; away from the homelands, dwarves are born.

Play a dwarf if you want a legacy of forges no one remembers lighting, and a purpose you were made for.

Hallmarks

Stepped brow-nose ridgeHeavy brows over deep-set eyesBeards on every dwarf, wild or plaitedWeathered skin

Inherent

Stonegut

Gravel and rust can feed you when the stores run out, and tainted fare sits easily with you.

Expressed

Forgemark

Knowing the smithies and their customs, you can find finer dwarven arms and armour than the party could otherwise reach.

The Ancestries · Ancient folk of the fading mageocracies

Elves

Elves are tall, lithe folk with long pointed ears, high cheekbones, and slender hands. They kept their history in living memory, but each generation now lives shorter than the last, and no one knows why.

Play an elf if you want a legacy of centuries held in living memory, and a people whose lives grow shorter each generation.

Hallmarks

Long pointed earsHigh cheekbonesAngular featuresSlender digitsLong limbs

Inherent

Spellborn

Sorcery aimed squarely at you lands with less force than its caster intended.

Expressed

Arcanic

Trained senses tell you when enchantment wakes or slumbers around you, and with effort you can trace its source.

The Ancestries · Restless inventors of the high places

Gnomes

Gnomes are small folk with beak-like noses flushed rosy red, soft feathered hair, and wide eyes. Each gnomish nation formed around a Great Work too vast to finish, and each gnome keeps a collection that is their autobiography in objects.

Play a gnome if you want a legacy of vast projects no one will finish, and a collection of your own to leave behind.

Hallmarks

Beak-like red noseDowny, feathered hairWide eyesNimble hands

Inherent

Featherfall

When you fall from a roof or get thrown across a room, you pick yourself up with only bruises.

Expressed

Quick-witted

Years of puzzling things out steady your wits when a lie or a horror tries to shake them loose.

The Ancestries · Sharp-dealing survivors of the warrens

Goblins

Goblins are small, wiry folk with large pointed ears, sharp teeth, and bright eyes of amber, chartreuse, or gold. They open the Night Markets when the surface markets close, and they work in crews bound by loyalty rather than kinship.

Play a goblin if you want a legacy of an ancient debt whose terms were lost, and the people who share every risk with you.

Hallmarks

Large pointed earsSharp teethBright amber, chartreuse, or golden eyesVivid skin, jade-green to ember-redLong limbs

Inherent

Keen-eared

You catch the whisper behind a door and the footstep on the stair before your companions turn their heads.

Expressed

Sharpwit

Bargaining has taught you to look past a generous offer and see what the other side gets out of it.

The Ancestries · Living statuary of the ateliers and atheneums

Gorgons

Gorgons are stone given breath, with gem-like eyes that rarely blink and hair in rigid coils. They build city-states of deliberate beauty and sit as arbiters, and every gorgon one day finds a crack that will not heal.

Play a gorgon if you want a legacy of exacting craft and impartial judgement, and a flaw you must one day hide or gild.

Hallmarks

Stone skin, marble to basaltGem-like eyes that rarely blinkCoiled stone hairVeins of gold, silver, or copper

Inherent

Stoneskin

When you are one blow from falling, your hands and aim stay as steady as when you began.

Expressed

Petrifying

Laying a practised grip on a foe, you can stiffen their limbs and hold them fast where they stand.

The Ancestries · Pathfinders of the hollow places beneath the world

Govari

Govari are broad, powerful folk with heavy shoulders, thick manes on the males, and tufted tails. They once served as guides and wardens in a labyrinth beneath the world, and though it grew too hostile to live in, they still know where the doors are.

Play a govar if you want a legacy of guiding others through a home you can walk but never live in.

Hallmarks

Thick mane on the males, sleek femalesBroad, mobile earsShort, dense furTufted tail

Inherent

Bellow

Your full-throated shout can rattle a foe and throw them off their stride.

Expressed

Lionheart

Discipline lets you hold to your own course when a voice or a spell tries to turn you from it.

The Ancestries · Hearth-keepers of the communes

Halflings

Halflings are round-faced folk with bright eyes, large rounded ears, and thick-soled feet. They keep the Hearthfast, the old compact that no one eats until everyone eats, and set an empty place for each wanderer who does not come back.

Play a halfling if you want a legacy of shared tables, and a wanderer's road that most walk and some never leave.

Hallmarks

Round cheeksSnub, upturned noseLarge rounded ears, often red at the tipsThick-soled feet

Inherent

Fairweather

A good night's sleep tends to put you in better spirits, and fortune seems to notice.

Expressed

Hearthfast

Over a meal, you are practised at winning people over and talking a quarrel down.

The Ancestries · Builders of the empire

Humans

Humans come in every height, build, and colouring, and live in every climate. Their laws and roads run through every nation, and now and then one of their children wakes up as something else.

Play a human if you want a legacy of a world made in your image, and a reckoning with who paid for it.

Hallmarks

Varied skin tonesEvery hair textureUpright postureDexterous hands

Inherent

Tireless

Even a brief halt lets you gather your nerve, and you return to the task with more of it.

Expressed

Plucky

Facing a larger crowd or a stronger foe, you have learned to carry on as though the odds were even.

The Ancestries · Tinkers who bond with the places they tend

Kobolds

Kobolds are small, wiry folk with large flared ears, twitching noses, and thick, wild hair. They keep forges, mines, and households running, and pass tools and knowledge along the Chain, a web of mutual aid that spans the empire.

Play a kobold if you want a legacy of open workshops, and something in the deep stone that knocks back.

Hallmarks

Flared, ridged earsTwitching noseThick, wild hairClever, clawed handsMottled skin

Inherent

Rocknock

Tremors in the ground beneath your feet tell you where a creature stands, however quietly it waits.

Expressed

Craft Bonds

Seized gears and broken mechanisms are old acquaintances, and you have a knack for coaxing them into motion again.

The Ancestries · Horned advocates of the chanceries and legations

Nefani

Nefani are lean, sharp-featured folk with curving horns, ink-dark skin, and eyes that glow faintly in dim light. They have made themselves essential to the empire's courts, guilds, and embassies, and suspicion still follows them into every room.

Play a nefan if you want a legacy of law, mastered because it was used against your people.

Hallmarks

Curving horns, unique to eachInk-like skinEyes that glow amber or copperLean, sinewy build

Inherent

Dauntless

When a monster looms or the uncanny presses in, you are slow to give ground.

Expressed

Legalese

Fine print holds few surprises for you, and you can bend a negotiation towards terms that suit you.

The Ancestries · Bark-skinned guardians of Palladium's groves

Nuthari

Nuthari are living wood given human form, with root-tangled hair and branch-like fingers. When they press an ear to the World Tree, they hear a heartbeat that has been growing fainter.

Play a nuthar if you want a legacy of tending something vast and slow, and the chance to save it.

Hallmarks

Bark skin with grain and knotsRoot-tangle or vine hairBranch-like fingersCarved, mobile face

Inherent

Sleepless

While the camp sleeps, you keep the watch, and the weariness that grinds others down passes you by.

Expressed

Rootless

Recovery rarely finds you idle, and you have learned to squeeze one extra task out of each halt.

The Ancestries · Big-hearted hosts who cannot bear to be alone.

Ogres

Ogres are large, solid folk with heavy frames, expressive faces, and blunt tusks curving up from the jaw. Their halls are called heartholds, neutral ground where the host's word is law, and an ogre kept from company too long begins to curdle.

Play an ogre if you want a legacy of open doors, and a warmth that needs somewhere to go.

Hallmarks

Broad, blunt tusksExpressive featuresThick, often curly hairFreckles and sun-marks

Inherent

Sun-kissed

Daylight suits you, and under a cloudless sky you tend to give your best.

Expressed

Gregarious

First meetings go well for you, and you know how to impress a room and lead it.

The Ancestries · Pack-bonded folk of the long road and the settled city

Orcs

Orcs are broad, powerful folk with short tusks, weathered skin, and ritual scars or tattoos. Their bands follow inherited routes across the seasons or settle in cities, and each one keeps its heroes alive in song.

Play an orc if you want a legacy of deeds worth remembering, and people to stand beside you.

Hallmarks

Short, outward-curving tusksWeathered, leathery skinRitual scars and tattoosThick hair, rarely a full beard

Inherent

Final Stand

At your last gasp, a killing blow lands a little softer on you than it should.

Expressed

Pack-bonded

Habit and attention let you feel where each of your companions is, even when they slip out of sight.

The Ancestries · Star-children of the night courts

Sidhari

Sidhari are tall, graceful folk with night-coloured skin scattered with constellations, and hair like spun metal. They are born of falling stars, each named for a star at birth, and their light dims as they age.

Play a sidhar if you want a legacy of a brilliance that will not last, and a choice between the night and the day.

Hallmarks

Star-flecked skinMetallic hairEyes that glow in darknessRounded, tipped ears

Inherent

Nightglow

Whenever you choose, you can fill a room with light, though it makes you the first thing enemies see.

Expressed

Star-gazer

Reading the clear sky after dusk, you know the exact hour and the way back to places seen beneath it.

The Ancestries · Singers who fear the call of deep water.

Sirens

Sirens are sleek, scale-patterned folk with finned ears, webbed feet, and voices that carry across water. They bless voyages and calm storms, and every siren hears a melody that grows clearer with age, until they must answer it.

Play a siren if you want a legacy of harmony held together against the pull of the sea.

Hallmarks

Broad or swept-back ear finsScale patches on cheeks and forearmsWebbed feetMarbled foam-white patterns

Inherent

Aquatic

Below the surface you breathe as easily as in the air, and you swim at a running pace.

Expressed

Melodic

With a hummed tune, you can bring a wary but peaceable listener to treat you as a friend.

The Ancestries · Neath-dwellers of the forgotten districts

Spriggans

Spriggans are slight, quick-footed folk with large luminous eyes, light fur, and thistledown hair. They escaped their old masters and found a city beneath the cities, where favours owed matter more than coin.

Play a spriggan if you want a legacy of freedom won from fey service, and doors that open only for those who know how to see them.

Hallmarks

Large luminous eyes, amber to pale greenLight fur in muted tonesThistledown hair that moves without windLong, dexterous fingers

Inherent

Willow-flex

Rope or a wrestler's hold keeps you until you twist and wriggle your way out of it.

Expressed

Neathwalk

Indoors or in the streets, you soon find the back way out and the panel that sits wrong.

The Ancestries · Guardians of the mountain holds and border fortresses

Tharns

Tharns are towering figures of stone and metal, with ore seams in their skin and fissures where their power strains against its shell. They were made to break things, and the best of them turn that discipline to craft.

Play a tharn if you want a legacy of a strength you must hold in check, and cracks that show when you fail.

Hallmarks

Stony skinMetallic ore seamsFissuresBroad brow ridgesCoarse, lichen-textured hair

Inherent

Hulking

Sheer bulk lets you take more punishment than most before you go down.

Expressed

Craft Traditions

Your teachers prized main force at the workbench, and they taught you to shoot with a hunter's patience.

The Ancestries · Pattern-marked dwellers of the threshold places

Trolls

Trolls are tall, long-limbed folk with small tusks, large pointed ears, and crystalline lines that glow in dim light. They keep sagas that change with each telling, build halls where rival parties can meet, and answer direct questions with riddles.

Play a troll if you want a legacy of markings someone made before you were born, and stories that stay true as they change.

Hallmarks

Crystalline skin patterns that glow in dim lightSmall tusksLarge pointed earsArms that reach past the knee

Inherent

Regeneration

Each time you stop to catch your breath, cuts start closing on their own and bruises fade.

Expressed

Riddle-tongue

You are practised at the plausible lie and the remark that sends a listener's attention elsewhere.