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RacesHumansEarth’s governments have begun working together—or at least have formed tenuous truces—to study portals to other worlds. The new worlds are yielding great natural resources, technology, science, medicine, and profits. The worlds with the most immediate benefits get the most attention and support from Earth.

The humans on Amaranth are one of the less funded groups. Colonists are trying to make a living, entrepreneurs are looking for new business opportunities, scientists are studying the world’s “magic,” and the military is acting as provisional government.

The military has limited resources, so they are highly restricted. Soldiers are instructed to take extra care with their weapons, ammunition, and gear, as fresh supplies from Earth are regularly delayed in favor of supporting colonies on other worlds. In the meantime, humans are trying to find ways to replicate their own technology with Amaranth’s natural resources.

So far, the military has only been granted resources to fight land wars. They have a handful of tanks and other vehicles, but don’t expect to receive any planes or battleships anytime soon, if ever.
Elves
Elves are the most prominent people on Amaranth. They can be found all over the world, regardless of environment. They have skin and hair colors from all over the spectrum, and their pointed ears different in size, length, and angle.
In general, elven societies are matriarchal. Some areas have and do male leadership, but they are curious exceptions. Gender equality varies from place to place.
Elves have been the primary people to deal with the new humans, and overall they’ve gotten along well. Some elves worry about being too trusting with the newcomers, and some humans have similar worries about elves. Regardless, both platonic and romantic relationships are springing up at an increasing rate.
Dwarves
Dwarves are known for their mountain homes, usually in temperate climates with easy access of lumber. Non-dwarves tend to stereotype them as strict and humorless. While they are strict in following laws and rules, they do have a sense of humor. However, dwarven humor is based on sarcasm and keeping a straight face. They also have a great love for creative insults, which they use both in jest and in earnest. Some dwarves even make a living as “vulgarians,” comedians who specialize in insults. One has to spend years with dwarves to really understand when they’re joking.
Dwarves value knowledge above all else. No dwarven city is complete without a library, and no dwarven city is great without a university. Their greatest university (which houses their greatest library) is carved into the stone of the mountain itself. Hundreds of thousands of books are available, open for public use (with preference for students and faculty).
Non-dwarves should know that dwarven libraries permit corporal punishment. If a dwarf librarian catches a patron mistreating a book, there will be hell to pay.
Gnomes
Gnomes are typically only found when they want to be found. They grow no more than 3’, and are probably the quickest beings of Amaranth. Every gnome also possesses the ability to turn completely invisible, though they have to stand perfectly still to do so.
Gnomes are masters of ingenuity. They love to acquire technology of other peoples, breaking inventions down to their base parts and finding new uses for them, if not outright improving on the original device itself. The elves have warned the humans not to let their technology fall into gnomish hands, fearing devastating warfare. Human leaders debate this, however, with some believing that gnomish aid would greatly help the humans’ limited resources.
Orcs
Brutish thugs originally created by a mad magician, orcs now spawn wherever evil magic is in rich supply. They form simple tribes, but they immediately fall in line for an evil sorcerer. By and large, they value nothing but violent, deadly combat.
Curiously, exceptions have sprung up. Some orcs have been born seemingly more intelligent than their siblings, and quickly leave their tribe to settle elsewhere. These orcs are highly wary of outsiders, as the vast majority of orcs have convinced everyone else on Amaranth that every orc is a deadly threat.
Apemen
Apemen are the closest thing Amaranth has to humans. They live in the jungles. They are covered in body hair and walk hunched over, if not on all fours. They are only slightly more intelligent than the lizardmen, and are capable of building simple shelters, making fire, and crafting tools and weapons from wood and stone. Clothing, if any, is made from animal pelts and skins.

They do have a sense of community with each other, but disagreements inevitably turn into fights until someone submits or dies. No one has ever successfully communicated with them, as every apeman attacks any stranger that enters their domain.
Lizardmen
Bipedal lizards of minimal intelligence. They are brutal and quick to anger, with squabbles usually turning into fights to the death. They reproduce quickly and age even quicker, growing from infant to adult in a single year. Mates are taken through domination by either gender, with the female typically killing the male in the process.
Related to the lizardmen are the snakemen, whom the lizardmen worship. They are highly intelligent and cunning. They’re rarely seen on the surface, preferring to remain in their underground cities and palaces. Snakemen seem to have some sort of control over the lizardmen, and since their leadership results in lizardmen creating great works of construction and art, it’s believed that the snakemen’s influence is supernatural.
Pigmen
Pigmen are largely farmers, and rarely travel away from home except for trade. They know countless tricks to produce great amounts of food, amply taking care of their massive appetites.

Pigmen are wholly aware that they are delicious. Every community sees to it that every individual knows how to defend him or herself, often using farming equipment as weapons. They have detailed legends of an ancient race of crabmen, who were wiped out by savages devouring their legs.
Fiends
No one knows where fiends come from, yet they exist. In general, they are humanoids, and many have a combination of horns, tails, and wings.
They are widely mistrusted and considered evil, something many fiends themselves consider accurate. Fiends largely live alone or in small groups, but rumor has it that they have a great underground city. There are examples of fiends living among other peoples and even making great neighbors. Unfortunately, many fiends feign friendship to lure in victims.
The most popular (for lack of a better term) fiend is the succubus. Succubi resemble hauntingly beautiful women, seducing victims and stealing their life during acts of intimacy. While most Amaranthans have caught on to their ploys, humans have not, and many a shriveled human corpse has been found with a wide grin on its face.
Demons
These abominations live in the hidden places of the world. Surviving witnesses have describe them in wildly different forms, from bipedal bulls to globs of flesh covered in screaming mouths to mists of chilling shadow.
Many scholars have attempted to study them, only to come back completely insane. It’s widely believed that these scholars tried speaking with the demons, and whatever they heard or saw utterly destroyed their minds.
One mildly popular theory is that only a single demon exists in the world, appearing whenever, wherever, and as whatever it pleases.
Demons are feared by all, even by fiends.

Magic
Magic takes a lot of strength and willpower, so much so that even a spell like healing a grievous injury can kill the unprepared spellcaster (and probably the recipient as well). Even trained mages require heavy preparation and lots of rest afterward. A simple spell like mending a cleanly broken bone will require a few hours of rest, whereas calling fire on a host of enemies will need months, if not years of recovery.

Some mages make pacts with powerful fiends to lighten the restrictions on magic, though always at a terrible price to the body and soul. It's rumored that some of the most powerful dark sorcerers consorted with demons.

Amaranth races are all inherently magical to some extent, forming a sort of "link" between them all. Many spells and spell-like abilities rely on this link, leaving humans immune to a good deal of them. Humanity, eff yeah.
Amaranth races can innately sense the presence of magic. Humans cannot. However, dogs can. Dogs are also new to Amaranth, and elves are typically scared to death of them.
Simple magic items are very common in Amaranth, typically offering utility such as lighting and putting out candles or entertainment by playing a simple tune. Use of these items doesn’t require the recuperation needed for spells. For the most part, these items are used through the innate magical abilities of Amaranthans, so humans cannot use them.
Great magical items exist, but are incredibly rare. Magic swords, protective runes, and curative fountains are hidden away all over the world. Some of them may be used by humans (weapons, for instance), but those humans will still be unable to sense the magic being used. For instance, if an elf and a human both have runes that protect them from fire when held in their hand, the elf will immediately feel the rune’s protection. The human will feel no different, yet both the elf and human can walk through fire completely unharmed.

Religion
Religion in Amaranth varies from people to people and person to person. For the most part, Amaranthans are more spiritual than religious, not really worshiping but celebrating the world itself. Most believe in a concept of deity, though specifics such as form, activity, and number vary widely.
Humans have brought their own religions with them, and some humans and Amaranthans have begun adopting various faiths from one another.
As humans have elves and other races of Amaranth in their mythology, so too does Amaranth have myths about humans. Some humans and Amaranthans believe they might have all come from a single divine creator.

Random Tidbits-Demons are vulnerable to physical weapons, though they're generally too fast to get hit in the first place. They'll have a lot more trouble dodging bullets, but no one will know that until they muster the courage to go looking for one and shooting it.

-The human military put out a video regarding the tactics of succubi and how to recognize them. However, the film was a bit too detailed about the wiles of a succubus, and soldier/succubus incidents increased. The video was discontinued, but troops keep circulating it amongst themselves.
The filmmaker ultimately became a succubus victim, himself.

-Private Carl Perkins claims to have visited an underground elven city. He describes the elven residents as having dark complexions and white hair, which isn't unheard of, as some of the elves near the human colony look like that. However, Perkins also insists that the women's dress consisted of neon-colored leotards and leg warmers, with perms as the most popular hairstyle. He swears that one elf's singing voice was exactly like Pat Benatar's.
Private Perkins has been recommended for psychological evaluation.

Description
body div#devskin0 hr { }

RacesHumansEarth’s governments have begun working together—or at least have formed tenuous truces—to study portals to other worlds. The new worlds are yielding great natural resources, technology, science, medicine, and profits. The worlds with the most immediate benefits get the most attention and support from Earth.

The humans on Amaranth are one of the less funded groups. Colonists are trying to make a living, entrepreneurs are looking for new business opportunities, scientists are studying the world’s “magic,” and the military is acting as provisional government.

The military has limited resources, so they are highly restricted. Soldiers are instructed to take extra care with their weapons, ammunition, and gear, as fresh supplies from Earth are regularly delayed in favor of supporting colonies on other worlds. In the meantime, humans are trying to find ways to replicate their own technology with Amaranth’s natural resources.

So far, the military has only been granted resources to fight land wars. They have a handful of tanks and other vehicles, but don’t expect to receive any planes or battleships anytime soon, if ever.
Elves
Elves are the most prominent people on Amaranth. They can be found all over the world, regardless of environment. They have skin and hair colors from all over the spectrum, and their pointed ears different in size, length, and angle.
In general, elven societies are matriarchal. Some areas have and do male leadership, but they are curious exceptions. Gender equality varies from place to place.
Elves have been the primary people to deal with the new humans, and overall they’ve gotten along well. Some elves worry about being too trusting with the newcomers, and some humans have similar worries about elves. Regardless, both platonic and romantic relationships are springing up at an increasing rate.
Dwarves
Dwarves are known for their mountain homes, usually in temperate climates with easy access of lumber. Non-dwarves tend to stereotype them as strict and humorless. While they are strict in following laws and rules, they do have a sense of humor. However, dwarven humor is based on sarcasm and keeping a straight face. They also have a great love for creative insults, which they use both in jest and in earnest. Some dwarves even make a living as “vulgarians,” comedians who specialize in insults. One has to spend years with dwarves to really understand when they’re joking.
Dwarves value knowledge above all else. No dwarven city is complete without a library, and no dwarven city is great without a university. Their greatest university (which houses their greatest library) is carved into the stone of the mountain itself. Hundreds of thousands of books are available, open for public use (with preference for students and faculty).
Non-dwarves should know that dwarven libraries permit corporal punishment. If a dwarf librarian catches a patron mistreating a book, there will be hell to pay.
Gnomes
Gnomes are typically only found when they want to be found. They grow no more than 3’, and are probably the quickest beings of Amaranth. Every gnome also possesses the ability to turn completely invisible, though they have to stand perfectly still to do so.
Gnomes are masters of ingenuity. They love to acquire technology of other peoples, breaking inventions down to their base parts and finding new uses for them, if not outright improving on the original device itself. The elves have warned the humans not to let their technology fall into gnomish hands, fearing devastating warfare. Human leaders debate this, however, with some believing that gnomish aid would greatly help the humans’ limited resources.
Orcs
Brutish thugs originally created by a mad magician, orcs now spawn wherever evil magic is in rich supply. They form simple tribes, but they immediately fall in line for an evil sorcerer. By and large, they value nothing but violent, deadly combat.
Curiously, exceptions have sprung up. Some orcs have been born seemingly more intelligent than their siblings, and quickly leave their tribe to settle elsewhere. These orcs are highly wary of outsiders, as the vast majority of orcs have convinced everyone else on Amaranth that every orc is a deadly threat.
Apemen
Apemen are the closest thing Amaranth has to humans. They live in the jungles. They are covered in body hair and walk hunched over, if not on all fours. They are only slightly more intelligent than the lizardmen, and are capable of building simple shelters, making fire, and crafting tools and weapons from wood and stone. Clothing, if any, is made from animal pelts and skins.

They do have a sense of community with each other, but disagreements inevitably turn into fights until someone submits or dies. No one has ever successfully communicated with them, as every apeman attacks any stranger that enters their domain.
Lizardmen
Bipedal lizards of minimal intelligence. They are brutal and quick to anger, with squabbles usually turning into fights to the death. They reproduce quickly and age even quicker, growing from infant to adult in a single year. Mates are taken through domination by either gender, with the female typically killing the male in the process.
Related to the lizardmen are the snakemen, whom the lizardmen worship. They are highly intelligent and cunning. They’re rarely seen on the surface, preferring to remain in their underground cities and palaces. Snakemen seem to have some sort of control over the lizardmen, and since their leadership results in lizardmen creating great works of construction and art, it’s believed that the snakemen’s influence is supernatural.
Pigmen
Pigmen are largely farmers, and rarely travel away from home except for trade. They know countless tricks to produce great amounts of food, amply taking care of their massive appetites.

Pigmen are wholly aware that they are delicious. Every community sees to it that every individual knows how to defend him or herself, often using farming equipment as weapons. They have detailed legends of an ancient race of crabmen, who were wiped out by savages devouring their legs.
Fiends
No one knows where fiends come from, yet they exist. In general, they are humanoids, and many have a combination of horns, tails, and wings.
They are widely mistrusted and considered evil, something many fiends themselves consider accurate. Fiends largely live alone or in small groups, but rumor has it that they have a great underground city. There are examples of fiends living among other peoples and even making great neighbors. Unfortunately, many fiends feign friendship to lure in victims.
The most popular (for lack of a better term) fiend is the succubus. Succubi resemble hauntingly beautiful women, seducing victims and stealing their life during acts of intimacy. While most Amaranthans have caught on to their ploys, humans have not, and many a shriveled human corpse has been found with a wide grin on its face.
Demons
These abominations live in the hidden places of the world. Surviving witnesses have describe them in wildly different forms, from bipedal bulls to globs of flesh covered in screaming mouths to mists of chilling shadow.
Many scholars have attempted to study them, only to come back completely insane. It’s widely believed that these scholars tried speaking with the demons, and whatever they heard or saw utterly destroyed their minds.
One mildly popular theory is that only a single demon exists in the world, appearing whenever, wherever, and as whatever it pleases.
Demons are feared by all, even by fiends.

Magic
Magic takes a lot of strength and willpower, so much so that even a spell like healing a grievous injury can kill the unprepared spellcaster (and probably the recipient as well). Even trained mages require heavy preparation and lots of rest afterward. A simple spell like mending a cleanly broken bone will require a few hours of rest, whereas calling fire on a host of enemies will need months, if not years of recovery.

Some mages make pacts with powerful fiends to lighten the restrictions on magic, though always at a terrible price to the body and soul. It's rumored that some of the most powerful dark sorcerers consorted with demons.

Amaranth races are all inherently magical to some extent, forming a sort of "link" between them all. Many spells and spell-like abilities rely on this link, leaving humans immune to a good deal of them. Humanity, eff yeah.
Amaranth races can innately sense the presence of magic. Humans cannot. However, dogs can. Dogs are also new to Amaranth, and elves are typically scared to death of them.
Simple magic items are very common in Amaranth, typically offering utility such as lighting and putting out candles or entertainment by playing a simple tune. Use of these items doesn’t require the recuperation needed for spells. For the most part, these items are used through the innate magical abilities of Amaranthans, so humans cannot use them.
Great magical items exist, but are incredibly rare. Magic swords, protective runes, and curative fountains are hidden away all over the world. Some of them may be used by humans (weapons, for instance), but those humans will still be unable to sense the magic being used. For instance, if an elf and a human both have runes that protect them from fire when held in their hand, the elf will immediately feel the rune’s protection. The human will feel no different, yet both the elf and human can walk through fire completely unharmed.

Religion
Religion in Amaranth varies from people to people and person to person. For the most part, Amaranthans are more spiritual than religious, not really worshiping but celebrating the world itself. Most believe in a concept of deity, though specifics such as form, activity, and number vary widely.
Humans have brought their own religions with them, and some humans and Amaranthans have begun adopting various faiths from one another.
As humans have elves and other races of Amaranth in their mythology, so too does Amaranth have myths about humans. Some humans and Amaranthans believe they might have all come from a single divine creator.

Random Tidbits-Demons are vulnerable to physical weapons, though they're generally too fast to get hit in the first place. They'll have a lot more trouble dodging bullets, but no one will know that until they muster the courage to go looking for one and shooting it.

-The human military put out a video regarding the tactics of succubi and how to recognize them. However, the film was a bit too detailed about the wiles of a succubus, and soldier/succubus incidents increased. The video was discontinued, but troops keep circulating it amongst themselves.
The filmmaker ultimately became a succubus victim, himself.

-Private Carl Perkins claims to have visited an underground elven city. He describes the elven residents as having dark complexions and white hair, which isn't unheard of, as some of the elves near the human colony look like that. However, Perkins also insists that the women's dress consisted of neon-colored leotards and leg warmers, with perms as the most popular hairstyle. He swears that one elf's singing voice was exactly like Pat Benatar's.
Private Perkins has been recommended for psychological evaluation.