Races
Ten peoples live in the March. Your race nudges your stats up or down, sets how much health you can have, and gives you one perk. It matters less than your profession: any race can follow any path. Pick the one whose story you like.
Human
The Marchfolk of Thornwick and the river towns: stubborn, practical and found everywhere.
The Marchfolk built Thornwick on the edge of a dead kingdom and have held it for three hundred years by sheer refusal to leave. They light the lanterns every night, bury their dead deep, and do not go onto the moors after dark.
Strength +5 Constitution +5 Logic +5 Intuition +5
Size: medium · Most health: 150 · Quick study: Absorbs experience 10% faster.
Elf
Long-lived folk of the Silverbough forest who remember the world before the moors.
The elves of Silverbough fought beside King Corvane's enemies in the Withering and have watched the grey creep toward their trees ever since. Twenty years ago they sealed their gate against the rot. The few who still walk the King's Road are exiles, envoys, or both.
Strength -5 Constitution -10 Dexterity +10 Agility +10 Discipline -10 Aura +10 Influence +5
Size: medium · Most health: 130 · Starsight: Sees clearly in dim places.
Half-elf
Children of two peoples, welcome in both and at home in neither.
Most half-elves in the March are children of the old alliance, born in the years when Silverbough's gate still stood open. They carry two names and two sets of grudges, and are better than anyone at getting elves and humans to talk.
Constitution -5 Dexterity +5 Agility +5 Aura +5 Influence +5
Size: medium · Most health: 140 · Adaptable: Gains one extra training point of each kind per level.
Dwarf
Deep-delvers of the Ironroot Halls beneath the eastern peaks.
The deep-delvers of the Ironroot Halls trade iron for grain and keep their oaths the way other folk keep gold. Since last spring's rockslide cut the east road, the dwarves stranded in the March have been restless, poor, and very interested in anyone who carries a pick.
Strength +10 Constitution +15 Dexterity -5 Agility -10 Discipline +10 Aura -10 Wisdom +5 Influence -10
Size: medium · Most health: 170 · Stone-blooded: Resists poison and disease.
Halfling
Small, quick and always hungry hill-dwellers of the Mossdown.
The hill-folk of the Mossdown live in snug burrows among the hedges, and have lately had to share their hills with goblins who are not snug, tidy, or welcome. A halfling's pantry is sacred; a halfling's grudge against a goblin is more sacred still.
Strength -15 Constitution +5 Dexterity +10 Agility +15 Discipline -5 Intuition +5
Size: small · Most health: 120 · Slippery: Hard to grapple, trip or knock down.
Gnome
Clever, restless tinkerers of the warren-towns.
No one is quite sure where the warren-towns are, and gnomes prefer it that way. They turn up in Thornwick with clockwork, questions and a habit of taking apart things that were working fine.
Strength -15 Constitution -5 Dexterity +5 Agility +5 Aura +5 Logic +10 Intuition +10
Size: small · Most health: 110 · Tinker's touch: Bonus to using magic items.
Duskborn
Elves who went beneath the Greyveil centuries ago and came back changed.
When the champions of the gods went down beneath the barrow to seal the Hollow King, elves went with them. They came back months later, grey-skinned and silver-eyed, and would not say what they had seen. Their children are the Duskborn: elves who see in the dark and feel the cold beneath the moors as a kind of homesickness.
Constitution -5 Dexterity +10 Agility +10 Discipline -5 Aura +5 Intuition +10 Wisdom -5 Influence -10
Size: medium · Most health: 130 · Shadowkin: Bonus to hiding and stalking.
Grendari
Towering hill-folk descended from the old stone giants of the north.
Descended from the stone giants of the northern peaks, the Grendari are slow to anger, slower to forget, and twice the height of anyone who has annoyed them. Many came south as caravan guards and stayed for the ale.
Strength +15 Constitution +10 Dexterity -5 Agility -10 Aura -5 Logic -5 Intuition -5
Size: large · Most health: 200 · Mighty frame: Carries far more weight.
Saltborn
Descendants of the sea-reavers who once raided these coasts; fierce and hardy.
Their ancestors were the sea-reavers who burned these coasts, until Kaelith's storms broke their fleets and they settled at Saltmere to fish instead. They still pray to the Stormcaller before every voyage, and still have a reaver's opinion of anyone who wrecks a ship for profit.
Strength +10 Constitution +10 Agility +5 Logic -10 Wisdom -5 Influence -10
Size: medium · Most health: 180 · Blood-fury: A burst of strength when badly wounded.
Vesperi
Moth-winged refugees who fled a dying realm beyond the night sky.
Forty years ago, on the Night of Falling Stars, the Vesperi came down out of the dark on moth wings, fleeing a realm beyond the night sky that had gone out like a snuffed candle. Many settled in Thornwick, drawn by the lanterns. They do not like to talk about what put out their sky.
Strength -10 Constitution -10 Dexterity +5 Agility +10 Aura +5 Intuition +5 Influence +5
Size: medium · Most health: 120 · Glide: Falls safely and darts away from danger.