Dragonlance

Auraks are special agents of the Queen of Darkness. They can move among other races undetected. They are the rarest and most powerful of all draconians, and have an arsenal of attacks and defenses to choose from. Auraks cannot fly, but move swiftly on foot and can occasionally teleport up to 60 yards away.
Auraks have very acute senses, with infravision and the ability to detect hidden and invisible creatures within 40 yards. They can also see through illusions.
Auraks have several natural defenses that can be invoked at will. They can become invisible at will. They can take on the shape of any animal their size several times in one day. They have a natural resistance to magic. Finally, auraks can perfectly imitate the appearance and voice of any humanoid they have seen. They can retain this form for about 10 minutes, and use it thrice per day. The widespread rumors that auraks smell of sulfur are merely wishful thinking. Unfortunately, the Dark Queen’s spies can be detected neither by sight nor smell.
Auraks have a variety of offensive attacks. They generate bursts of energy from each hand, and can hit enemies within arms’ length. Alternately, auraks can attack with their claws and teeth. In addition, they can exhale a huge, noxious cloud of gas. Victims caught in the cloud suffer chemical burns and are temporarily blinded.
Auraks use magic spells and an innate ability for mystical attacks. Each day, an aurak can cast up to eight spells, including such effects as shocking grasp, an electrical jolt delivered to those he touches; blink, which allows him to pop randomly and instantly from one location to another within a room; and wall of fire, which creates a blazing curtain of flame. Mind control is the auraks’ most insidious power, as it allows the aurak to direct another creature’s body as though it were his own.
When an aurak suffers a mortal wound, the escaping magical energy causes him to burst into green flames and enter a fighting frenzy, wildly attacking all around him. Like a leaking helium balloon, his body shrinks into a whizzing ball of green lightning, and finally explodes in a shower of magical force.

Ability Score Increase - Your Intelligence score increases by 2.
Damage Resistance - You have resistance to fire damage.
Draconian Magic - You know the fire bolt and mage hand cantrips. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast hold person once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. When you reach 5th level, you can cast the lighning bolt spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for these spells.
Death throes (petrification) - When you die, your body explodes in a blast of magical energy. Each creature within 5 feet of you must make a DC 16 Dexterity saving throw, taking 14 (4d6) force damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

Weak of mind and character, baaz appear as men with scaly, patterned skin. Small wings, which baaz often cover with cloaks or other clothes, protrude from their shoulder bones. Although the facial appearance of each baaz is as distinct as any man’s, many of these draconians have doglike snouts. Baaz often masquerade as humans through the use of masks and bulky clothing. The most “human” appearing baaz are usually employed as spies.
Baaz were created by injecting a hardening liquid into ripening dragon eggs. When alive, baaz remain fleshlike, despite the hardened liquid in their bodies. However, when the creatures are killed, they turn to a substance similar to stone-trapping whatever weapon dealt the final blow until the stone crumbles to dust a few minutes later.
Baaz are the smallest and most plentiful draconians. They are especially sadistic when drunk. They prefer to use easily concealed weapons when ambushing their prey. In pitched battles they favor long swords and spears.

Wings - You have bat-like wings sprouting from your shoulder blades. You can´t fly, but you can glide. You negate any damage from a fall of any height and you can travel horizontally up to four times the vertical distance descended.
Damage Resistance - You have resistance to fire and lightning damage.
Surprisingly Tough - You have advantage on saving throws against sleeping effects.
Death throes (petrification) - After you fail your third death saving throw and die, you turn into stone. If anyone hits you while you are making your Death saving throws and you die, you turn into stone and she must make a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw or her weapon will stuck in your death-stoney-body. Your body crumbles to dust after 1d4 turns. Anyone can retry the Dexterity Saving Throw and free a stucked weapon with one action.

These warped dragon offspring are typically 6 to 6½ feet tall. They are covered with bronzehued scales. The scales are small and fishlike on the draconian’s face, hands, and feet, but are about the size of a copper piece on the remainder of the body. Although limited in flying ability, bozaks have learned to glide indefinitely in strong winds. They prefer gliding at night, when they are safer from the eyes of humans.
When killed, a bozak’s flesh becomes dry and brittle, turning to dust. The bones begin to vibrate, and finally they explode.
Bozaks are the most cautious of the draconians, serving as special forces and commanders for their Dark Queen. Their caution is reflected in their preference for magic and missile (shot or thrown) weapons over hand-to-hand combat. They prefer such spells as burning hands, which allows the creature to shoot flames from its fingertips, and web, which builds a sticky mass of spiderweb-like strands to trap victims.

Ability Score Increase - Your Strength score increases by 1.
Wings - You have bat-like wings sprouting from your shoulder blades. You can´t fly, but you can glide. You negate any damage from a fall of any height and you can travel horizontally up to four times the vertical distance descended.
Damage Resistance - You have resistance to lightning damage.
Draconian Magic - You know the true strike cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast burning hands spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for these spells.
Death throes (explosive bones) - When you die, your scaly flesh shrivels and crumbles from your bones in a cloud of dust and the bones immediately explode. Each creature within 10 feet of you must make a DC 14 Dexterity saving throw, taking 7 (2d6) bludgeoning damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

Kapaks sport a short mane that hangs down to one side of their mouths. Their large, leathery wings make them fair at gliding. They disdain clothes, as worthless trappings of humans. However, they have been known to wear trophies of their kills - necklaces, bracers, and other shiny objects.
Kapaks are generally ignorant, ill-mannered, famished, and witless. They are best-suited to a military lifestyle, where their movements and actions are directed by more intelligent draconians, such as baaz or bozaks. A force of kapak foot soldiers is dangerous, swift, and surprisingly strong. They prefer close fighting, where their venomous saliva and curving claws work to best effect.
Kapaks serve as skirmishers and assassins in the Dark Queen’s army. They are notorious for their venomous bite. Before entering combat, they often lick their weapons to coat them with poisonous saliva. As the poison evaporates from a weapon rapidly, it is not uncommon to see a fighter pause in his attack for another lick. When a kapak is slain, its body dissolves into a pool of acid.

Ability Score Increase - Your Dexterity score increases by 1.
Wings - You have bat-like wings sprouting from your shoulder blades. You can´t fly, but you can glide. You negate any damage from a fall of any height and you can travel horizontally up to four times the vertical distance descended.
Damage Resistance - You have resistance to acid and poison damage.
Dragon Army spy - You have proficiency in the Stealth skill.
Death throes (explosive bones) - When you die your body instantly dissolves into a 5 foot radius pool of acid. Any creature who starts its turn in the area takes 1d6 acid damage. The acid evaporates in 1d6 rounds. All armor, weapons, and items you carried suffer damage from the acid as well.

Sivaks are the largest and sturdiest draconians. They are the elite forces of the dragonarmies, shock troops wielding mighty flails and two-handed swords. Even so, like kapaks, they need direction. Their small minds have trouble concocting long-range plans and elaborate tactics. Birthed from the eggs of ragons, sivaks gleam like polished coins. Their eyes are dark, however, as black as their corrupt souls. Their great strength makes them accomplished fliers, and when they take wing during the day, the brilliance of their scales is dazzling.
The most devastating ability of the sivaks is their mastery of shapechanging. They can assume the form and voice of someone they have just killed. Sivaks delight in masquerading as their victims. They can change back to their normal form at will, but cannot regain a humanoid form until they kill again. This shapechanging ability allows sivaks to function well as spies.
Gruesomely, if it is slain by a humanoid, a sivak shapechanges into a replica of its killer. It retains this death shape for 3 days before the walking corpse bursts into flames and is reduced to black soot. If a sivak is killed by a monster or giant, the draconian corpse bursts into flames immediately.

Ability Score Increase - our Strength score increases by 1.
Flight - You have a flying speed of 30 feet.
Damage Resistance - You have resistance to cold damage.
Steal appearance - When you slay a medium humanoid, you can take the form of your victim. Your voice and appearance exactly match to those of your victim. However you do not gain any memories, experience or spell use of your victim. You may changes back to your normal shape, but after doing so may not polymorph again without finding another victim.
Death throes (explosive bones) - When you die, your body immediately changes shape, assuming the form of the humanoid being that killed you. This death shape lasts for three days, and then the entire body decomposes into black soot. If your killer is a large creature or greater, not humanoid or if you were a female sivak, your body instead burst into flame. Each creature within 10 feet of you must make a DC 17 Dexterity saving throw, taking 7 (2d6) fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

Other races accuse dwarves of miserly greed. Dwarves see themselves quite differently. Dwarves believe their hard work and drive make them worthy of riches. Those who would disagree are lazy and jealous. Among themselves, dwarves consider dogged work and opulent wealth to be two of life’s greatest pleasures. For these things, and for drink and history and song, dwarves harbor a passionate love. Around big folk (or elven folk), dwarves hide this passion, and therefore seem inscrutable, coarse, and oddly reticent.
Dwarven distaste for stealth and petty trickery drastically reduces the number of dwarven thieves on Ansalon. When dwarves turn to thievery, they tend to do so openly; dwarven thugs take what they want by force rather than stealth. Dark dwarves commonly become highwaymen and muggers. Dwarves also work as skilled fences for the black market.
All dwarves but Theiwar fear and dislike magic; they are a deeply nonmagical race. No non-Theiwar dwarves are mages. Any enchanted artifact of dwarven make, such as the Hammer of Kharas, is powered by Reorx, not sorcery. Dwarven priests frequently bless or even enchant items with Reorx’s power.

Passion Dwarven tempers can flare like a forge or smolder like embers. Despite their drab clothes and pessimism, they are passionate folk. They live intensely, with little patience for contemplation or idleness. Their work is joyful; their play is serious. They are roused by grand, earthy music rife with percussion and deep-bellied horns. But a tender oboe, harp, or pipe can bring them to their knees. A dwarven chorus, whether on battlefield or in mead hall, sings at the top of its lungs.
Comfort Although dwarves are not greedy, they like their creature comforts. “A good chair may outlast a good friend,” says one dwarven proverb. Their industry and cleverness win for them many comforts and much money. And they indulge themselves.
With a lifespan that runs into multiple centuries, dwarves are natural-born collectors. They ornament their dwellings with tapestries, carvings, and statuary. They do not wear ornamentation except for heirlooms or medals.
Hard Work Dwarven children learn about responsibility at a young age. This training in self-discipline takes years, with responsibility building incrementally. Work becomes instinctual, and therefore, is rarely performed with complaints. Dwarves lose themselves in their work for weeks or months until the task is completed, then binge for a few weeks to celebrate their success. When dwarves work, they never slack off or delay; they achieve constant, focussed motion. Dwarves never retire; they only take up simpler work as they mature.
Isolation Dwarves tend to be suspicious of races other than their own, including other dwarf races. They turn inward to their clan or their work rather than outward to the politics and deeds of the world.
Dwarves recognize their own sheltered lifestyle; they cherish bittersweet memories of a happier world gone by. Although they exercise great control over their own labors, they see the march of history as something beyond their influence. In the face of international calamities, dwarves often say “these things happen!’ They rarely take setbacks personally, making them tenacious survivors. Dwarves see themselves as Reorx’s custodians, maintaining the past in the present.

All dwarves see farther into the infrared than humans do, essentially allowing them to see in the dark. Hill dwarves tend toward obstinacy; they remain above ground due to stubbornness rather than lack of suitable mountains to delve. Their coarse manners, crude aspirations, and conspicuousness to non-dwarves rile their underground fellows. Even so, hill dwarves partake of a savage nobility and rugged independence that the pasty-skinned earth-dwellers secretly admire. The persistent complaining of hill dwarves is generally calculated to disguise a pleasant and gentle nature.
Mountain dwarves have enough problems underground to keep them from venturing into the world beyond. The classes and clans in each community create dangerous splits that have occasionally resulted in civil war. Such tensions keep the dwarves busy whenever they are away from their forges and looms. Unless a problem directly affects them, mountain dwarves will ignore it. Of course, appeals to higher dwarven nature can soften the aloof facade and force a dwarf to undertake most any worthwhile quest.

Dwarves believe they were Reorx’s last and best creations, made in the god’s image. Reorx, they say, learned from each creation until he achieved the perfect form-dwarves. Although others on Krynn foolishly believe that dwarves are deviations created by the Graystone, such folk don’t live in dwarvish skin. If they did, they would know how patently false this lie is. The notion that dwarves share blood with kender and gnomes is utter blasphemy. Such ideas start wars.
The first great dwarven kingdom lives now only in legend. Kal-Thax, or “Cold Forge,” was a land extending from Karthay into the plains of Istar. Dwarves fleeing the Graystone began delving Kal-Thax in 4100 PC and didn’t stop digging until 3900 PC. A century later, the dwarves abandoned their tunnels, moving south to lands richer in mineral wealth. The migration splintered, and during the next century, small colonies of dwarves delved underground villages in nearly every mountain of Ansalon.
The next great kingdom of the dwarves arose at Thoradin, “New Hope,” which was delved between 3150 and 3000 PC. As their tunnels deepened, the miners unearthed the magical dragonstones. Their careless disposal of these stones brought about the Second Dragon War. In 2640 PC, the dwarves closed Thoradin’s gates in shame.
The “New Best Hope,” Thorbardin, rose in the distant Kharolis mountains. The city had reached grand proportions by 2600 PC. Its influence spread northward until it clashed with Ergoth’s southward expansion in 2189 PC. Tensions between the dwarves and Ergoth led to the War of the Mountain from 2128 to 2073 PC.
Exhausted from the prolonged Kinslayer War with Silvanesti, Ergoth negotiated a peace. In 2073 PC, the Swordsheath Scroll set a buffer between Ergoth and Thorbardin by creating the new nation of Qualinesti for disaffected Silvanesti elves. Dwarves forged the hammer of Kharas in 2072 PC as a gift to Ergoth to reinforce the Swordsheath peace.
Much to everyone’s surprise, the Qualinesti elves became fast allies of Thorbardin. As a symbol of elven, human, and dwarven unity, the three races built the fortress of Pax Tharkas in the pass between Thorbardin and Qualinesti.
With two centuries of international involvement drawing to a close, the dwarven kingdoms turned their attention inward. This isolation brought great suffering for dwarves in the Cataclysm. Thorbardin was nearly devastated.
Thorbardin had become heavily dependent upon Abanasinia, Pax Tharkas, Qualinesti, and Xak Tsaroth for food. In addition to numerous mountain dwarf cities below ground, Thorbardin had to feed many hill dwarf settlements above ground, outside the mountain gates.
The Cataclysm decimated Thorbardin’s trade routes and sources of food. Duncan, king of Thorbardin, checked the granaries and food reserves. The kingdom could not hope to feed all its people. Reasoning that those above ground could scavenge while those below could not, Duncan reluctantly closed Thorbardin to the outside world. The hill dwarves had to fend for themselves.
But the Cataclysm brought hill dwarves flocking to Thorbardin for safety. The gates remained shut. None heeded their pleas. This cold-hearted action - or inaction - on Thorbardin’s part became known as the Great Betrayal. It split the Neidar forever from the Hylar and sparked hatred between hill and mountain dwarves. The Klar, hill dwarves trapped inside at the time of the Cataclysm, went insane trying to claw their way free. In 39 AC, Neidar allied themselves with humans in an attempt to retake Thorbardin. This was the Dwarfgate War. It ended in failure.
The mountain dwarves blamed humans for the Cataclysm and severed all ties with the outside world. This isolation intensified the internal strife of Thorbardin. Aftershocks of the Cataclysm had caved in the highways that linked the cities. Dwarven families were further separated by class pride. Common miners and laborers broke from the elite architects and engineers, turning their hands to dark and hateful deeds. Thorbardin quickly became a hollow city, where a once-great culture loomed larger than the present civilization.
To this day, most dwarf kingdoms remain closed to the outside world. The hatred between the hill dwarves and the underground dwarves still remains high.

Dwarves have always been divided into clans. Each clan is led by a thane - the clan ruler and representative to the Council of Thanes. The Council of Thanes is the ruling body for all dwarves upon Ansalon. Traditionally, the council has had nine thrones. Currently, only six thanes serve upon the Council: Hornfel of the Hylar, Realgar of the Theiwar, Rance of the Daergar, Gneiss of the Daewar, Tufa of the Klar, and Highbulp of the Aghar. The throne of the Neidar has been vacant since the Dwarfgate Wars in 39 AC. The eighth throne belongs to the Kingdom of the Dead - the nation of ancestors long past. This throne is perpetually empty. The ninth throne is that of the High King over all Dwarves. It has been vacant since the time of Duncan. A mysterious dwarven race called the Zakhar has never held a throne in the Council of Thanes.

Each of the following groups is considered a separate race.
Hylar This is the oldest and noblest dwarven race. Most of the great dwarven kings have been Hylar. The Hylar traditionally occupy the best accommodations a nation can provide and are great craftsmen.
Daewar This clan, loyal to the Hylar, has produced many of its own important heroes over the years. The Daewar fight fiercely; they led the defense of Thorbardin in the Dwarfgate War. In addition to battle, the Daewar champion public safety and public works.
Neidar hese hill dwarves lived outside Thorbardin during the Cataclysm. They no longer have representation on the Council of Thanes - a situation many hill dwarves would like to remedy.
Klar These hill dwarves were trapped in the collapsing tunnels of Thorbardin during the Cataclysm, After a week and a half of clawing, they pulled themselves out. Many Klar have been unstable or insane ever since. Following the Dwarfgate War, the Klar were deprived of property and were subjugated to slavery because of their alleged sympathy with the Neidar. (In fact, many Klar fought with berserk bravery on the Hylar side.) Now they serve the wealthy dwarves of Thorbardin in menial roles. They seek a leader to deliver them.
Theiwar These strange, degenerate dwarves hate light: it nauseates them. Theiwar are dark dwarves. In their lightless caverns, they dream of world conquest and domination. Theiwar consider themselves the highest of the dwarven races. They work to topple the Council of Thanes and seize control, even by civil war if they must.
Unlike any other race of dwarves, Theiwar love magic; most of their leaders have spell-casting abilities. They use their magic to attack creatures that live in the light.
They passionately distrust outsiders and kill them if given the slightest chance. Their devious and shrewd natures provide them many such chances.
Theiwar have exaggerated, repulsive features: bulging and watery eyes, white or yellow skin and hair, and wiry bodies, which they drape in black, loose clothing.
Daergar These dark dwarves split from the Theiwar several centuries ago. Their culture has spread far and grown powerful. They exceed even their Theiwar cousins in murder, torture, and thievery. Their leader, the most powerful warrior of the Daergar kingdom, wins his post by slaying all opponents in a bloody spectacle.
Daergar are hot-tempered, brutal, and utterly without honor on the battlefield. They never grant mercy.
Daergar have light-brown skin and smooth cheeks. Their hair is black or gray, their eyes deep brown or violet. They are somewhat stockier than other dwarves.
Aghar The gully dwarves are described in their own section, following this one. They are represented in the Council by the Highbulp, a much-beloved genius among his people. Although his seat on the Council grants him great dignity, he often sleeps through meetings.
Zakhar These strange dwarves occupy the ruins of Thoradin. They call themselves Zakhar, or “cursed people” because they were infected by a terrible mold that almost decimated them. They call their land Zhakar, or “cursed place” because of its ruined halls. They work with slow diligence to rebuild their kingdom, intending to make it as powerful as Thorbardin.
The Zakhar have never held a throne on the Council of Thanes.
Kingdom of the Dead The old dwarven saying, “More of our kind dwell among the dead than among the living,” demonstrates the dwarven veneration of the dead. Dwarves consider the Kingdom of the Dead the 8th dwarven kingdom.
Although the dead rarely enter into votes taken in the Council of Thanes, they continually enter the minds of the dwarves. Dwarves use various divinations - some real, some imagined - to converse with their ancestors.
The High King The High King rules all dwarves of Ansalon. The Council of Thanes chooses this ruler, who is then ordained by the people. The High King may come from any clan. Legends foretell the next ruler shall be the one bearing the lost Hammer of Kharas—the magical artifact used to forge dragonlances. Currently, the throne of the High King stands vacant.

Although dwarves cannot match gnomish ingenuity, in metalworking and mining crafts dwarves are peerless. Dwarves are the armorers and weaponsmiths of Krynn. They also engineer the great war-machines: catapults, rams, and siege towers - weighty juggernauts all.
On an individual scale dwarves prefer to use weapons and armor made specifically for their stature. Dwarven hammers, battle axes, and swords are heavy, thick tools, counterweighted at the tip to lend weight to their swing. Only dwarves and creatures of great brawn can use dwarf-fitted weapons without penalty. Others often fail to even lift them!
As dwarves revere tradition, and battle training is among those traditions handed down from father to son, each race has its own favorite weapons and styles of armor, from flails to spears to crossbows; from chain to plate to studded leather. The Zakhar favor the most uncommon weapons, including a razor-edged slasher mace, a sickle hook that can be thrown like a dagger, and a blowgun, which fires barbed darts. Zakhar warriors wear beetle carapace beneath padded robes.
One distinctively dwarven tool is the gapper, a six-foot long flat, metal bar with metal cuffs and thumbscrews at each end. Dwarven explorers often carry these bars for vaulting awkwardly high (for dwarves) barriers and sliding down holes. A group with gappers can link them end-to-end to form a chasm bridge.

Aghar are proud, long-suffering survivors. Beneath a cheerful and hapless appearance beats a tenacious heart. The Aghar have survived, even thrived, in conditions that would kill any other dwarf. Those who accuse Aghar of treachery and stupidity are listening to their noses instead of their hearts.
Gully dwarves have crude and primitive societies. They live in hovels and ramshackle huts near sewers, dumps, gulleys, rivers, or swamps. They dwell in family units; any given area holds only enough resources for small family groups to survive. Children learn from hard knocks or from their parents; Aghar have no formal education.
Gully dwarves are incapable of the focussed mental effort required to wield magic. They are superstitious, fascinated by showy legerdemain, but powerful spells frighten them. They hold magical items in disdain because such magic comes from their persecutors. They do, however, have the faith needed to perform clerical miracles.
As thieves, Aghar work best as cat burglars. They cannot rob others through strength or wit. Aghar might, however, gang up and sap a lone traveler.

Religion Aghar believe Reorx, patron deity of all dwarves, has abandoned them. Gully dwarves therefore appeal to the spirits of departed ancestors to protect them from harm and ensure their survival. Aghar universally believe that inanimate objects hold great power granted by the ancestral spirits. Possession of such objects grants the spirits’ power to the owner.
The most powerful items, say the wisest gully dwarves, are those that seem to do nothing at all: old bones, fruit, chunks of colorful rock, and so forth. Aghar examine items for a long time before declaring them holy; not just any rock, stick or bone will do. Other races interpret this as more gully dwarf stupidity. Gully dwarves consider this proof of their strong faith.
Survival Individually, gully dwarves are harder to kill than cockroaches. Survival is the chief virtue in their minds: to live is to win, to die is to lose. Consequently, they have raised groveling to an art form; they spill sensitive information at the slightest threat. Most Aghar (wisely) run from violence unless their homes are at stake. Other races brand such behavior as shameless cowardice and treachery. Gully dwarves see no shame, cowardice, or treachery in survival.
Even so, Aghar do not work at surviving. They do not plan for the future, but rather, run from the past.
Pride Despite their glaring faults, gully dwarves take themselves seriously. Continual escapes from disaster imbue them with a sense of rugged pride. Because they never receive help from other races, they assume they don’t need help.
Innumeracy Gullytalk, the recently discovered language of gully dwarves, has no word for numbers greater than two. In gullytalk, “one” is singularity, “two” is plurality. The constant poverty of gully dwarves negates the need for any greater differentiation. They have no money to count, no possessions to value, and nothing to sell.
Cheerfulness Despite heinous persecutions, gully dwarves maintain a hopeful outlook. They have determined, defiant spirits and a relentless cheerfulness. Persecutions past only point out the insignificance of present troubles. Hope is the foundation of survival.
Clannishness Although apparently cowardly, gully dwarves never sell out a friend. If a non-Aghar wins their trust, gully dwarves treat their new fellow well. Often, such friendships include the most important advice an Aghar can impart: when the time is right to flee from a present danger.
Cunning intelligence is routinely underestimated by the so-called “intelligent races.” This slight does not offend gully dwarves; being underestimated allows them great latitudes for behavior, and the chance to surprise their foes. Gully dwarves, especially the kings and adventurers, play the fool only to manipulate true fools.
Gluttony Because they often live on so little, gully dwarves delight in abundance. They gorge themselves one day, knowing they will face famine the next. This insatiable appetite extends beyond food; Aghar love huge swathes of bright cloth, a surplus of rope or leather, or just about any goods in large quantities.
Gullytalk Despite longstanding prejudices to the contrary, gully dwarves are not imbeciles. They speak in broken and halting sentences because Common is not their native tongue. In fact, Aghar speech, which is ugly, convoluted, and incomprehensible to non-Aghar, makes perfect sense among gully dwarves: they are speaking gullytalk.
Gullytalk is not a formal language, but a patois that shifts constantly and has a genius for borrowed terms. Aghar who live near elves chatter in what sounds like broken elvish, those who live near dwarves seem to speak pidgin dwarvish, and so forth. Gully dwarves love to invent new words, and new ways to use and abuse them. Gullytalk evolves so rapidly scholars cannot study it. Not even brilliant non-Aghar can speak gullytalk, except with the aid of magic.
When two groups of gully dwarves meet, their dialects fuse after a few days, creating another hybrid patois. In addition to constantly redefining words, gullytalk continually remakes the basic grammatical rules of language. Thus, gullytalk cannot and should not be written down: the symbols would cease to have meaning within a month of their being penned!

Gully dwarves have an extensive oral tradition of their origins and history. Although the history of no two gully dwarf clans agree, the colorful narratives are ends in themselves. Gully dwarves, however, take them very seriously. The true origin of the Aghar follows.
Gully dwarves are fertile crossbreeds of outcast dwarves and outcast humans. They appeared at the time of the Graystone. The hybrid unfortunately lacked the best traits of both parents.
Noting these deficiencies, humans and dwarves banned further intermarriages. The crossbreeds were driven out of their own clans, particularly by the dwarves, who regarded them as a blight. The new race proclaimed itself the Aghar, “the anguished,” and learned to survive on the refuse of civilized folk. They were also called “Muckers” or “Dumpmen.” Humans christened them gully dwarves, due to their low and squalid station. To this day, the Aghar feel betrayed by their forbears, and have little love for either humans or dwarves.
The Cataclysm that doomed the world saved the gully dwarves. Destruction of Ansalon’s high civilizations created dozens of ruined cities where the gully dwarves could dwell. Soon once-mighty cities like Xak Tsaroth became havens for the Aghar. Undisturbed by their tormenters, the Aghar established their own culture, such as it is.

Gully dwarf tools are usually scavenged or makeshift affairs. Aghar have no skill in crafting useful items. However, given time, a gully dwarf can usually coax one more use out of a device that others would consider spent.
Gully dwarves are also master improvisers: they can turn a broken pot into a serviceable helmet, a nail and some boards into a rat trap, or a scrap of metal and a string into an alarm.
Street fighters, Aghar willingly kick, bite and use dirty tricks to insure victory. In weapons, they favor clubs, knives, daggers, hand axes and saps, although a few have learned to use slings.

Elves see farther into the infrared wavelengths of the spectrum than humans do, giving them the ability to see in the darkness - they call it elvensight. They embrace all forms of magic. While the civilized elves, Silvanesti and Qualinesti, share many cultural advances, disputes over land or politics can make them bitter enemies, as the Qualinesti exodus proves. Kagonesti, Dargonesti, and Dimernesti are labeled barbarians by their cousins; they clash with anyone not of their tribes. Despite their differences, all elves share some common philosophies:

Shaping - Elves believe in the perfectibility of nature; if they shape the world, its beauty will shine forth. Of course, they also believe themselves the creatures most capable of directing this shaping. They see Ansalon as a garden in need of tending and see themselves as the gardeners. Their fierce territorialism arises from this intense involvement in their lands. Elven protectiveness often makes them close their kingdoms to strangers, the way mothers protect their children from viruses by preventing them from playing with their friends. Most elves grow bitterly homesick when removed from their lands.
Foresigh - Elves live for centuries and plan accordingly. Rather than glorifying or dwelling on the past, they look to the future. Their long lifespans and patient pursuit of goals sometimes make them seem cold, uncaring, or arrogant to shorter-lived races. In fact, elves deliberately maintain a distance from other races, wanting to avoid the inevitable grief of watching generation upon generation of these mortals die.
Pride - Elves, conscious of their race’s achievements, take offense easily. Few other races appreciate the elven gift of civilization, their role as the chosen of the gods, and their clear cultural superiority. Elves don’t despise other races, but they are painfully aware of their shortcomings.
Elves also see other races’ attempts at art as crude and transient. Because elven crafts attain high standards that allow them to withstand the ravages of time, elves point out shoddy craftsmanship whenever they find it. Tools and clothes made by other races cannot last the centuries of an elf’s life.
Hedonism - Elves rarely brood over the past or deny themselves their appetites. Although they are capable of scrimping and sacrificing, toiling for irksome days as dwarves do, elves refuse to do so. If difficult work presents itself, elves engage it joyfully. Despite (or because of) their long lives, elves seize each day as a rare gift.
Elves do feel sorrow, loss, and regret, but they don’t savor or dwell on these emotions. They spend life looking forward to the next day, the next joke, and the next new friend. Even elven lives are too short for drudgery.
Trade - From the age of accountability into adulthood, an elf must enter his family’s guild and learn a trade. Elves generally do not think of this as limiting. They see skills as generational, handed down from father to son.

Silvanesti - are a proud, arrogant, and stoic folk with little use for other races, including other elves. They idealize racial purity. They are intolerant of “inferior” races and customs.
The long years-before the recent War of the Lance-that Silvanesti was a safe, settled, empire stratified the crafts and tasks into a rigid system of castes, or Houses. At the top of the system is House Royal, the descendants of Silvanos. Beneath this house are craftsmen and guild houses, such as House Mystic, House Gardener, and House Woodshaper. House Protector, also known as the Wildrunners, serves as the army of Silvanesti. The lowest guild is House Servitor, which includes apprentices, foreign traders, indentured servants, and slaves. No one marries outside his or her guild without permission, and permission is rarely granted.
Silvanesti rarely communicate with the outside world, finding it far too transient for their liking. They also rarely marry outside their own realms. Silvanesti have endured for over 3,000 years, and have become set in their ways. Silvanesti abhor contact with humans or other races. Even their relationship with the Qualinesti is strained.
Qualinesti - are more sociable and tolerant than Silvanesti; they frequently and happily deal with other races. They do, however, share some of the Silvanesti’s prejudice against interracial marriages.
Qualinesti society is far less structured than that of Silvanesti. The Qualinesti are ruled by a Speaker of the Suns who must be a blood relative of Kith-Kanan, the elven leader who established Qualinesti. Speakers are thus also blood relations of Silvanos. The Thalas-Enthia, or senate, is appointed to represent the various guilds and communities of Qualinesti. The Thalas-Enthia brings its recommendations to the Speaker of the Suns, who makes all final determinations.
Kagonesti, Dargonesti, and Dimernesti - work to achieve harmony with nature for a full, happy life. They are fiercely proud folk, hot-tempered and passionate. While these barbarians do not initiate wars or attack strangers, they are by no means pacifists.
Kagonesti have no permanent settlements. Their villages are temporary structures of animal hide and light wood. They use the boughs of living trees for construction and camouflage. Each village is home to a tribe of several interrelated families. The tribe centers around the chief-the oldest and wisest member-who makes all decisions for the tribe.
Kagonesti have an animistic view of the cosmos: they believe that everything is alive and deserves respect. This respect extends especially to the dead, who are dressed in finery and set afloat upon funeral canoes.
The lifestyles of the two sea-elf races are wrapped in mystery, as few land elves have visited their homelands beneath the waves. It is known both races have the ability to shapechange, Dargonesti taking on the form of dolphins, and Dimernesti becoming sea otters. Rumors suggest that sea elves are weakened in strength when they leave the water.

The elves sprang into being from chaos as embodiments of Good. They stood tall and stately, like the trees from which they were formed.
Elves believe they were the firstborn of the world. When first awakened during the Age of Dreams, elves lay scattered across the land like stars across the sky. The passage of the Graystone altered some land elves into sea elves-the Dimernesti and Dargonesti. Both developed cultures independent of main elven histories. They live even now in distant obscurity and peace, though trade exists between elves of the land and those of the sea.
The land elves sought peace with the world, yet peace was not always possible to achieve. Silvanos, a powerful elven warrior and a great traveler, wandered the deep woods all across Ansalon, visiting the scattered clans. He proposed the building of a great elven nation.
Silvanos convened the first Sinthal-Elish (Council of the High Ones). There, many households and clans swore allegiance to Silvanos and the fledgling Silvanesti. But once construction was started, dragons awoke in the world. They objected to the location the elves had chosen. The contest became the first Dragon War.
After the elven victory and the second Sinthal-Elish, Silvanos built Silvanost in the former dragon woods. He granted lands to all the elves, establishing the kingdom of Silvanesti along the lines of the fallen ogre civilizations.
The Ergothian Empire began to encroach on the borders of Silvanesti and Thorbardin under Silvanos’ son Sithel. In time, marriages between Wildrunner elves and humans occurred.
While hunting in the borderlands with his twin sons Sitahs and Kith-Kanan, Sithel was killed. Some say the human arrow that slew him found its mark by accident. Others say humans killed Sithel to remove barriers to their expansion. Whatever the case, the Kinslayer War resulted.
The Silvanesti-based Wildrunners tried to drive the humans back. But the mixed marriages of the region meant that loyalties were not always obvious. Many elves who had married humans sided with Ergoth. Younger son Kith-Kanan thus led Silvanesti’s western forces against their own kin. After more than 40 years, the war ended in a truce.
By this time, the western high elves had grown tired of the rigid caste system of Silvanesti. They declared their independence, tempting civil war.
In secret negotiations with Ergoth, Sithas solved several problems simultaneously. In 2073 PC, the Swordsheath Scroll was signed and the nation of Qualinesti was formed, both as a buffer between the former antagonists, and as a place where the dissenters could establish their own nation.
Kith-Kanan recognized his twin’s decree as exile, but could find no other hope for his people. Kith-Kanan established his kingdom and never returned east.
Following the formation of Qualinesti, the Silvanesti remained in self-imposed isolation until King Lorac Caladon established a flourishing trade with the northern empire of Istar. In time, the Cataclysm again sealed the borders of Silvanesti and the elves withdrew from the rest of the world.
Silvanesti elves blamed the arrogant lstarian Kingpriest, and thus humans, for abusing the elven gift of civilization and precipitating the Cataclysm. This feeling has only reinforced their distrust of humans. That their own isolationism made them equally responsible, they ignore.
The Qualinesti also suffered from the Cataclysm. Other races have often raided them for food and riches. Their dreams of shaping cities other than their glorious capital are all but forgotten as they struggle simply to maintain what they already hold.

The elven people are not an overly inventive race, given more to artistic endeavors than to mechanical ones. However, the quality of their craftsmanship is undeniable. Millennia spent attending to perfection allow elves to surpass even dwarves in the quality of certain weapons, including the forked arrowhead—razor-sharp, Y-shaped heads used for cutting ropes and banners, and shooting small birds-and the singing arrowhead, a hollow metal bulb fitted onto a normal point, that gives a piercing shriek when fired. Singing arrowheads may also be adapted as fire arrows.
Elven armor is renowned for its resiliency and light weight. Leather-based armor is favored by common land elves, while nobles prefer high-quality elven scale or chain mail. Kagqnesti warriors wear hide armor. Sea elves substitute sharkskin for leather armor and use special scale mail that does not rust and allows free movement.
Several items of elven clothing deserve note. None of these items is ever sold, though they may be given to non-elves as gifts. Neutral gray or mottled elven cloaks blend into the woods, camouflaging the wearer and making him nearly undetectable when standing still. Soft elven boots of bugbear hide allow wearers to move silently. The rare firebane cloak is treated with heat-absorbing oils from the elathas plant. This cloak makes the wearer nearly undetectable in forests and completely invisible to elvensight (which perceives the heat-producing infrared spectrum). If drawn tightly about the wearer, a firebane cloak grants some protection against fire as well.

All gnomes share a few common traits:
Fast-Talk Gnomes speak intensely and rapidly, running words together in unending sentences. Gnomes can simultaneously speak and listen carefully. If two gnomes meet, each babbles at the other, often answering questions later in their dialogue as part of the same continuous sentence. Gnomes have learned to speak slowly around other races, in a sometimes condescending and irritating fashion. Gnomes consider other folk, who are incapable of keeping up with their rapid speech, a bit slow-witted. If frightened, startled, or depressed, gnomes clip sentences.
Gnomes rarely provide sufficient explanation of any topic unless pinned down with direct questions. This oversight occurs because they assume a gnomish degree of general knowledge. An uncurious visitor may be led past ten wonders of Mount Nevermind, being told, “Don’t step on that”, “Mind the gap”, and “Duck.” Gnomes have 34 ways to say “Look out,” each detailing a direction and intensity of danger.
Bluntness Gnomes lack social graces that other races take for granted. They are always eager to talk shop, compare notes, and work on their projects; in all their hurry and bustle, they often forget to be polite. Their joy in their work gives them less energy for polite gestures, careful requests, or compliments. They brusquely steamroll people’s feelings. Gnomes don’t mind this among themselves, but when they start ordering other races around, problems arise.
Technocracy Gnomes place great faith in their machines; some gnomes even believe that the machines need a tinker’s fervent faith to work. Further, gnomes believe in constantly improving their machines. Why trust a task to a single lever, even if it performs efficiently? What if the lever should fail? By replacing the lever with a vast complication of dials and gadgets, the tinker minimizes a total shutdown from the failure of one part. Simplicity is, after all, for simpletons.
Up with Gnomes! Although gnomes have enormous national pride, they rarely boast. Their history shows gnomes at the center of the drama of gods and mortals. Gnome histories drip with entertaining, gnomocentric arrogance. Gnome children learn that gnomes forged the Dragonlances, their flying machines battled the dragons, and they were aided by the Companions of the Lance only in the final victory. Each year, more historical texts claim these facts, and these facts thus become more historical.
Education Gnomes are scholastic pack-rats: they know something about everything, but cannot discriminate between useful and useless information. The most irrelevant small-talk can awaken epiphany. Careful questioning of a gnomish sage can unearth amazing gems of insight. No field of study is too obscure for a gnome. Flash Gnomes prefer style over substance. A gnomish illusionist’s show is a marvel of color, timing, imagination, and staging. Gnomes know how to make a splash, how to draw a crowd’s attention, and how to make an entrance.
When tinkering, a gnome will take a simple machine like a pulley and build on it until it is a nightmare of ropes, bells, whistles, and bellows that accomplishes the same task but does so more loudly and more elaborately. Their machines become bigger, better, and more prone to dramatic and exciting catastrophes. This is Progress.
Living Quarters Gnomes are homebodies, rarely wandering away from their warrens and projects. They dwell away from the blundering world of big folk and protect their villages with enchantments and charms. The villages themselves are loud, garish towns of continual noise and motion. Most gnomes never leave their native villages; those who do dislike the suspicious whispers of birds and crickets.
Tinker gnomes live in huge subterranean colonies of tunnels in secluded mountain ranges. The largest gnomish settlement is in Mount Nevermind. A metropolis of 59,000 has dwelt in the dormant volcano for millennia.
Mount Nevermind The city of Mount Nevermind is built into the rock surrounding the central shaft of a volcano. Mount Nevermind bustles. Citizens scuttle, whistles blow, mechanical cars roll, gnomes fly (catapults called gnomeflingers offer rapid travel from the Inner Hall to the 35 different city levels). Hundreds of staircases, ramps, pulley elevators, and ladders span the levels. Steam-powered cars mounted on rails encircle the city, providing fast transport on individual levels. The whole place is choked with smoke and sound and flashes.
Gnomes in industry may develop industrial diseases. Mild respiratory ailments and eye infections are common, but clear up with a few days in fresh air. Industrial accidents, noise, visual pollution, and other work-related problems can disable a gnome, sometimes leading to early retirement from active pursuits.
Life Quests Gnomes are born tinkers and “scientists;” an individual chooses an area of specialization depending on his driving interests. When young, each gnome chooses a Life Quest, which is approved by the Guild subcommittee to which his or her family belongs. A gnome who chooses to study screws spends decades experimenting with thread sizes, metals, screwdriver types, and so forth. Rarely does a committee formally declare a Life Quest completed. Completion of a Life Quest means the gnome has performed so well that all that could possibly be known about the subject is now known. If a Life Quest is completed, the gnome’s soul and those of his forefathers are guaranteed a place beside Reorx in the hereafter.
Life Quests are highly specific and related to a technological device or process. Sometimes, unusual magical devices are studied to develop technological means of replacing them.
Names Each gnome has three names. A gnome’s true name recounts the gnome’s entire family tree, extending back to creation. This history comprises a single, enormous word that can easily fill a large book. The complete names of every gnome born on Sancrist appear in a volume in the Genealogy Guild in the main library at Mount Nevermind.
Though each gnome knows his complete name (or at least the first few thousand syllables), most gnomes use a shortened form of address that takes merely half a minute to recite. This shorter name lists the highlights of the gnome’s ancestor’s lives. Humans use even shorter names: the first one or two syllables of a particular gnome’s name. Gnomes find this abbreviated name undignified, but endure it all the same.
Occupations Gnomes make passable fighters and quickfingered thieves. Thieving gnomes, however, are sometimes betrayed by their penchant for showmanship. Most prefer the direct sham and sting to sneaking and lifting. Those with a magical bent direct their talents for sleight of hand and showmanship to the study of illusion spells. In fact, no gnome practices generalist magic. Many gnomes deal in finely detailed crafts like jewelry. Their vision is more sensitive to infrared than the human sense, so gnomes can see in the dark.

The only major deity gnomes recognize is Reorx. Though religious services and priests among them are rare, gnomes still respect Reorx and know (unlike many others in post-Cataclysm Ansalon) that he exists. To them, Reorx is, of course, a gnome who loves building, creating, inventing, and tinkering. Some philosophers even declare that the universe is Reorx’s machine-the sun and moons of Krynn are cogs in the world-gadget.
Although most gnomes revere Reorx, a small cult follows Shinare, goddess of industry. Members of this group attend services every sixth day. This group uses inventions such as the steelgrabber (an offering machine) and the organizer (a huge musical instrument that loudly duplicates any instrument on Krynn). At their services, the followers of Shinare petition her to inspire smoothly functioning machines. Heaven knows they need them.

Gnomes - inventive, skillful, and enthusiastic - were the favored children of Reorx. Reorx forged the Graystone and imbued it with light and power. In about 3500 PC, he consigned the stone to the First King, gnomoi Aldinanachru. Aldinanachru placed it in the tower of Lunias atop Mount Garath on Taladas. Around 3100 PC, a gnomoi guard was tricked into releasing it, unleashing magical havoc upon Krynn as the stone drifted west. Reorx sent the largest clan of the gnomes to regain the enchanted stone.
The Graystone drifted across the Northern Courrain Ocean and the gnomes followed it in a fleet. They landed on the eastern shores of Ansalon and hurried after their quarry on foot. A mortal king imprisoned the stone in what would later be called the tower of Gargath. He would not relinquish it to the gnomes. They attacked and, in the ensuing battle, the Graystone of Gargath escaped. It transmogrified the gnomes there into dwarves and kender. The rest of the clan chased the stone west to Sancrist Isle.
There, most gnomes gave up the chase. They would not risk another dangerous sea voyage. Some few built ships and sailed west out of sight. Many other gnomoi clans migrated west to Sancrist; only a few remained on the continent.
Two notable events occurred after the Graystone’s escape. The first was the arrival of the Knights of Solamnia on Sancrist. As a result, gnomes have allied themselves with Solamnia and become important trade partners to it.
The second major event was the Cataclysm, which enlarged the size of Sancrist’s mountainous northern half, where most gnomes lived. Many gnomes died in landslides and collapsing tunnels. But over all, the seismic activity increased the available living space.

Gnome proverbs can take one to two days to recite, depending on their seriousness. Other races, on hearing (one of) these proverbs, pointed out that proverbs are more memorable when short and to the point.
Impressed, the gnomes convened a Proverb Committee. After months of deliberation, this committee distilled the three critical gnomish proverbs to their potent and poignant essence:
“Never.”
“A gear.”
“Hydrodynamics.”
The last, especially, brings tears to the eyes of older gnomes.

Tinker gnomes possess greater technology than all the races of Krynn combined. Gnomes have mastered steam engines and coiled springs. They use steam-powered ships, clockwork timepieces, and ore-refining plants for high-grade steel, as well as mundane objects like screws, pulleys, drive shafts, toothed gears, music boxes, and mechanical toys. Some legends even tell that the ancient kingdoms of Krynn had clockwork golems of gnomish design.
The gnomish attention to style and delicate craftsmanship results in inventions that border on the magical: miniature castles with mechanized knights and fire-breathing dragons, “bang-bugs” that sit quietly on the floor before exploding and flying away, folding-paper umbrellas, bubble-bath soap, spectacles, and gnomeflingers, to name a few. Projects in the works include the silent, folding, automatically repeating crossbow; the net-throwing arrow; and the spring-loaded, blade-throwing, two-handed sword. The archives of Mount Nevermind brim with ill-fated inventions, awaiting a gnome willing to develop them further.
Sadly, gnomish mental distraction and fascination with detail tend to undercut their technology. Anything gnomish machines can do, magic can often do more cheaply, quickly, and efficiently. Generally speaking, gnomes who invent items exert as much effort, risk as much danger, and experience as much success as wizards who perform spell research.

When attacked, gnomes defend with whatever is handy: screwdrivers, hammers, frying pans, stools, flaming parchment, inventions, and so forth. If they are fighting a prepared battle, they use the regular assortment of weapons: light crossbows, slings, short bows, darts, and throwing axes at a distance, or footman’s maces, short swords, warhammers, and gnome picks in melee (hand-to-hand).
What’s a gnome pick?
A gnome pick is a 4-1/2’ hammer with a sturdy head balanced by a curved fluke used to pierce armor. A spike juts off the top of the hammerhead. Gnomes often add strange devices to improve their picks: hot coal chambers (which burn off the wooden haft in a surprisingly short while), whirling chains (which are likely to spin the gnome around and cause him to involuntarily attack all in a 2’ radius), and springloaded pincers (which do plenty of extra damage but tend to disarm the gnome wielding them).
Gnomes also field-test specially engineered war machines. A typical example is the belcher.
Belchers are gnomish cannons disguised to look like statues of dragons, gargoyles, or roses. Belchers use smoke powder to catapult canisters of deadly materials. These cannons weigh over a ton and must be based on either a sturdy wagon or a pivoting turntable for aiming. Only targets directly in front of the barrel or between its minimum arc range (30 yards) and maximum arc range (360 yards) can be hit.
Belcher canisters carry various payloads, including acid, chains, cinders, foam, naphtha, oil, and even water. Their likelihood of explosion increases with every firing, and doubles when, in the interests of science, the gnomes experiment with double payloads.

Gnomes wear all types of armor, including piecemeal amalgams of plate, chain, scale, brigandine, and studded hide, and whatever else is handy. Standard armor fare is a leather apron. Workman’s leather contains numerous pouches, pockets, loops and straps for tools and repair materials.

The half-elves are considered "untrue elves" by all the other elven societies. They have no true history of their own but borrow it from their parentage.
The Kinslayer Wars were brought about, in part, due to the intermarriage of elves and humans in that region. During that time, half-elves in human society were considered a great blessing and brought honor to the human household. The elves, particularly the race-conscious Silvanesti, were revolted by these interracial marriages.
After the Cataclysm, there came a time of barbarism during which many elven towns were plundered and ransacked by human hordes. Many half-elves were engendered during this period of rapine and violence. The Silvanesti elves cast them from society as they would Dark Elves. Only the Qualinesti took them in and gave them a home, although even they were cold and sometimes cruel to these unfortunates.
It was, interestingly enough, one of these bastard half-elves who was partly responsible for the ultimate victory of the Whitestone Forces over the Dragonarmies. Tanis of Qualinost, who later married the Princess Laurana of Qualinesti, proved the worth of his unique race.

Raised in an atmosphere of shame, learn insecurity and uncertainty. Some few grow anti-social. Others trust strangers but have difficulty establishing true and lasting friendships. Many are natural leaders, but few feel worthy of a leader’s responsibility. Regardless of their disposition, all half-elves are loners: brooding, quiet, and struggling with self-doubt. They may overcompensate for their insecurity by performing acts of death-defying bravado.
No society or community on Ansalon consists solely of halfelves. Although some half-elves learn trades, most drift from place to place. The Qualinesti grudgingly provide a home for half-elves. Among the Qualinesti, half-elves are treated coldly, but not totally ostracized.

The half-elf is an outcast from the societies of both his parents. There is no society that consists solely of half-elves as they are primarily loners. If there is a home for a half-elf, it is in Qualinesti, where they are treated coldly but at least they have a place in the society.

lrda have withdrawn from the world, for they feel it does not welcome them anymore. Although they harbor no animosity toward the current races of Krynn, they consider humans and demihumans fragile, flighty, and transient folk who are hopelessly enslaved by their emotions. Many living lrda remember the Cataclysm and its lessons, but most living humans and demihumans were not even born until two centuries after the Cataclysm. Understandably, Irda believe that the world belongs to alien folk now. However, those lrda who travel amidst the current folk of Krynn are often surprised by the rich variety and hearty nature of the people.
Although lrda harbor no animosity toward Krynn’s other races, the feeling is not reciprocated. Humans still tell tales of the wicked and oppressive ogres who once enslaved them. These tales describe beasts who surpass even modern ogres in evil and depravity. Demihumans hate lrda because they share ogre blood. Other ogres hate lrda because they betrayed their evil natures. And every race distrusts lrda because of their shapechanging ability. Legends abound of lrda “child stealers,” who assume the shape of a child’s parent only to swallow him whole.
The absurdity of such stories does nothing to discount their effect in the minds of humans and demihumans. Some human prophecies even claim that lrda are harbingers of a second Cataclysm. Obviously, lrda shapeshifting skills come in handy for disguise when among the hostile folk of Ansalon. Even with their abilities, however, lrda are cautious and fearful.
lrda are completely undeserving of their reputation. Unlike their evil ogre kin, lrda have chosen the path of good. Because the gods of Evil sponsored them in creation, however, the lrda struggle with the vestiges of evil within them. Non-lrda often interpret this inner struggle as arrogance or antagonism. It is, in fact the opposite. lrda are peace-loving and gentle folk who retreat from combat and avoid offending others.
The royal line of the lrda stretches back unbroken to the Age of Dreams and lgraine himself. lrda pride themselves on their heritage and treat each other with respect and honor. A king or queen rules the island, and the court of nobility extends to even the most common of the Irda. This arrangement makes for happy citizens and stable monarchies.
lrda dwellings are as simple and elegant as their clothing. They do not build houses, but live in smooth, dry caves during inclement seasons and warm, lush valleys in the summer. They decorate their dwelling places with dried flowers and stalks and carefully avoid fouling their environments. lrda seek to live in harmony with nature, refusing to wear or eat any products derived from animals, whether or not removing the product caused pain.
Their island home itself, part of the Dragon Isle chain, is protected by various magics. One permanent spell upon the island makes it appear merely a flat stretch of open sea. Not even lrda can find the island except when the moon Solinari is in high sanction. Then, the homeland calls to them, directing their ships into harbor. If a ship does not reach the island before Solinari’s high sanction ends, it often becomes hopelessly lost at sea.
lrda refer to their mystic book, the lrdanaith, in all matters of history and faith. Only lrda have even seen or held this book, and no non-lrda even knows of its existence. In addition to the lrdanaith, lrda have an extensive oral history.

Elven bards say that elves were the first to waken upon Krynn. But elven bards lie. First awoke the ogres. They breathed in the primal dawn, bathing themselves in its virgin light. First to rise from the ground, ogres became the masters of creation. And they were beautiful. The lrdanaith, a mystical book known only to Irda, teaches the following truths of creation.
When the gods created Krynn, they formed creatures in their own image. The gods of Good created elves and taught them Goodness. The gods of Neutrality created beasts and taught them Neutrality. The gods of Evil created ogres - creatures of great beauty and strength-and taught them Evil. A fourth type of creature, the Maran humans, partook of none of these alignments. The High God fashioned them from the stars and gave them free will.
First, the ogres awoke. They rubbed the sand of endless sleep from their eyes and spread out across the continents. They chose mountain heights for their homes, lofty places from which their lords could survey the lands. The ogres thus became the lords of creation. The elves, second to awake, chose to live in the forests, for the folk were slender and tall like the gentle trees. They became Silvanesti. The animals awoke third and spread throughout the world. They became the creatures of every land. When at last the Maran rose from sleep, all the best lands were taken. They settled in what was left: barren plains, rugged mountains, icy glaciers, deserts wastes, and tossing seas. They became barbarians.
According to their evil natures, ogres established a realm of tyranny. The strict laws of their land enriched and empowered their king and punished disobedience with death. Once the king gained absolute control over his folk, he sought for minions elsewhere to dominate. The elves and their goodness proved too repulsive to rule. The animals were too feral and stupid to know they were being ruled. But the Marans - short-lived and shallow-brained-could make excellent slaves. Seeing this, the ogres hunted down the barbarian humans, catching them in broad nets. Thus, the humans became slaves in ogre mines.
reat advantage over the ogres: free will. One day, a mine collapsed, killing many slaves and trapping Everlyn, the beautiful daughter of the ogre overlord Igraine. lgraine ordered the slaves out of the caves, anxious not to lose any more of his property.
A slave named Eadamm refused the order, and instead led other slaves to rescue Igraine’s daughter. When Eadamm emerged with Everlyn, lgraine knew he must by law kill Eadamm for his disobedience. But lgraine admired the slave’s choice, and learned in that day of free will.
Instead of sentencing Eadamm to immediate death, lgraine fulfilled the letter of the law by sentencing the human to “death at my whim.” Thus, Eadamm could continue to live, for lgraine never developed the whim that would call for the execution to be carried out. Eadamm, grateful for his reprieve, marshalled the slaves to double their output for Igraine.
lgraine soon became richest and most powerful ogre in the region. By allowing his slaves even more freedom, he doubled their output again. But given some freedom, humans always want more. This love of, and demand for, freedom spread through the ranks of human slaves until revolts broke out all across the nation.
Seeing this, the other ogres quickly realized the danger of Igraine’s leniency. “lgraine’s Heresy” they called it-a weakness that would lead the ogre state into destruction and degeneracy. lgraine pleaded his case before the Grand Council, but the rulers labeled him insane. He barely escaped with his life. Before fleeing the city, lgraine struck the chains of all his slaves and pronounced them free. He also encouraged all of his friends and family (who had learned to share his lenient views) to do the same. Eadamm then led a slave revolt that decimated the ogre forces. Thus, the Ogre Wars of the Age of Dreams began.
Eadamm led his folk into the wilderness, where they harried ogre civilization for 6 years. At last, the ogres captured the rebel. They hamstrung him and paraded him about for 6 days, one day for each of the years he evaded their forces. Then, before a packed coliseum, the ogres drew and quartered him.
The crowd consisted almost entirely of slaves, who were brought to witness Eadamm’s death as warning against further rebellions. The slaves did not take the message to heart. They rebelled, massacring every last ogre in the coliseum.
Meanwhile, lgraine and his followers fled to safety. They reached an isle north of Ansalon and there set up a homeland. In time, the evil ogres who were left behind grew misshapen and horrible, their appearance matching the corruption in their hearts. Their intellects and charms vanished also. They became stupid brutes, with only their vestigial cunning to testify to their former power.
Meanwhile, the lrda (as Igraine’s folk called themselves) remained hidden away from the world. The evil ogres never ceased to look for their traitorous brothers. Takhisis herself hunted them in rage for betraying her worship. Even the men who had been freed by lgraine forgot his role in their liberation. The humans cast themselves as the sole leaders of the rebellion, and included the lrda with the rest of the ogre oppressors. Friendless and hopeless in the world, the lrda resigned themselves to their inevitable deaths.
Mishakal, the Healing Hand, saw the plight of the lrda folk.
As they slept one night, her healing hand passed through them, granting their bodies the power to change. She blessed the lrda with the power to take the form of any humanoid creature of Krynn, becoming one with their enemies. This talent saved the lrda time and again as they harbored away from the hostile world.
However, lrda isolation did come to an end. The Cataclysm revealed to Takhisis where her rebels dwelt. She mustered her armies and, in the War of the Lance, sent a huge force to eradicate her former servants. The Irda, who had been studying magic for millennia, staved off annihilation. However, Takhisis enslaved many lrda and took them to the mainland. Now, the remaining lrda tentatively seek ties with the folk of Ansalon to find and free their enslaved companions.

The lrda are not a technologically-oriented race. Their most common weapons are vine bolas with hook-shaped stones, cluster balls of clay imbedded with poison thorns, and powder bombs created from hollowed eggs.
However, lrda use these weapons only when in a tight spot. They prefer to rely upon their innate shapechanging ability and their propensity for magic. Their research into magic is unparalleled, making even the knowledge contained in the Towers of High Sorcery seem minuscule by comparison. Almost every lrda studies magic. They wield it naturally. Unlike most races, who must immerse themselves to the exclusion of all else in order to grasp magic’s complex principies, lrda often develop proficiency in other disciplines as well. They consider magic the best of tools.

The Irda are a peaceful race who mean no harm to the world at large. They only wish to gather their lost children, those Irda captured by the Dragonarmies during the War of the Lance, back to the hidden isle of the Irda.
The Irda's biggest difficulty is the superstitions that men have developed about them over the years. Tales are told of the terrible, ancient ogres who would return one day to bring death and destruction. Irda who have been discovered are almost always hunted by the populace. Evil beings who try to ally with the Irda soon find out that the Irda are good and try to destroy them as well.

The Irda have been ruled by an unbroken chain of royal lineage since the beginning of the world. Except for the Irdanaiath, they keep no historical records. The balance of their writings contains reflections on their conditions and general observations on natural sciences and the arts. The Irda live on an island some distance north of Ansalon. It is here that they have sheltered from a barbaric and unsympathetic svorld.
Their life of pastoral bliss was, however, upset by the Cataclysm. With the reappearance of dragons in Krynn, the Irda's home was soon discovered by the servants of the Queen of Darkness. The Queen had been much aggrieved by the loss of the Irda in the beginning of the world. She now sought to destroy them. The battle was fought by titanic magical forces and the Dark Queen's attack was eventually repelled, but not before many Irda were captured and taken to Ansalon.
When the War of the Lance ended, many of the surviving captives were freed. Those Irda now wander the land in disguise trying to find their way back to their homeland. They are usually alone, but occasionally small groups of two to 10 Irda are found traveling the lands of Ansalon. Families are sometimes encountered; the parents' fondest wish is to find a way to their island home, if not for themselves, then at least for their children.
The relative security of their island enabled the Irda to hone their magical skills to a fine art. Combat skills, however, are uncommon among them.
A variety ofmagics protect their island from being found, but the wandering Irda can hear the telepathic call of their homeland during High Sanction for Solinari. During these times they can find their way across the sea to their home (but only if they have the means to cross the sea). Unfortunately the journey lasts far longer than the duration of High Sanction and few lost Irda ever return to their homeland on their own.

Mountain, plains, and ice barbarians are proud, grim traditionalists. They deeply respect nature, granting every creature, plant, object, and place its due. These barbarians cast a suspicious eye toward “civilized” humans and their usurious lifestyles. Barbarians rarely place trust in such folk: until a city-dweller proves himself noble and honorable, he is considered lower than an animal. This distrust of civilized humans creates a similar distrust of mages and magic. Because wizards corrupt nature and turn it to their own ends, barbarians categorize mages among the most profane creatures in the world.

Humans, the final creation of the gods, were left with little homeland. Elves had claimed the forests and ogres had taken the mountains. Only the vast plains of Ansalon remained. The humans wandered out upon the plains, establishing a nomadic existence of hunting and gathering. They lived thus for years before ogres descended from the mountains and rounded up humans to serve as slaves.
For generations, humans labored in ogrish mines. They paid in sweat and blood for ogre luxuries, always too weary and divided to rebel. One ogre, Igraine, granted his slaves limited freedoms after they risked their lives to save his daughter. The hope of freedom spread like a plague through the mountains. Riots began. Ogres, angry at Igraine, pursued him from the city. Igraine’s slaves fought fiercely for their liberator, holding off the ogre army. After a bloody and horrific battle, the humans and lgraine escaped.
The humans scattered to the corners of the world and learned to extract a living from the land. Some built cities in the fashion of the ogre cities they fled. The descendants of these people are today known as commoners. Others believed that cities were the root of slavery, bondage, and depravity. Such folk chose to wander, snubbing the corruption of civilization. Their descendants, the barbarian clans, wander to this day.
Some wanderers returned to the mountains, others felt the pull of the tundra lands far south. Still more fled into the desert, certain that the ogres would somehow seek revenge. The last group desired only to return to their ancestral homeland on the plains. Thus, human barbarian tribes live in most every terrain upon Ansalon.
The sea barbarians have an entirely different history. Their ancestors arose as mariners of once-mighty Istar. The Cataclysm destroyed the heart-city of their shipping business and dispersed the mariners throughout the world. Since the zero hour, mariners have led a somewhat nomadic existence. They rarely settle permanently; the urge to travel fills their blood.

Barbarian weapons are made of plentiful materials and double as common tools. For example, plains barbarians use bows and bolas both for hunting and as weaponry. Likewise, the bear claws of mountain barbarians help in scaling cliffs as well as in war. In addition to these unique weapons, barbarians commonly use spears, long and short swords, daggers, and clubs.
To outsiders, barbarian weapons range from quaint to clumsy to downright incomprehensible. Where to grip a barbarian weapon and how to use it to best advantage are lessons handed down only within the tribes. Barbarian fighters commonly wear fur and leather or studded-leather armor. They carry medium-sized wooden shields.
Some ingenious barbarian devices include ice flasks, hollowed bones which contain salt water, ash, and oil and are kept warm beneath one’s furs. The flask breaks on impact, soaking the victim, who freezes until donning warm clothes. Additionally, the oil may be ignited with fire to inflict further damage.
Frostreavers are heavy battle axes of very dense ice. Only Revered Clerics of the Ice Folk can craft them. A frostreaver takes one month to create, using thanoi oil and files to thin and harden the ice. In a land where metal is scarce and temperatures are frigid, frostreavers are an inspired adaptation.
The fang is a modification of the gaffhook, a tool used for hauling fish into a boat. A fang is an iron rod with a spike on one end and a hooked blade below. The heavy rod can land a bashing blow and the spike or hook can pierce armor easily. This sea barbarian invention may also be used to trip foes or as an aid in climbing rigging.

Kender of all ages share a childlike nature: curious, fearless, irrepressible, independent, lazy, taunting, and irresponsible with others’ possessions.
Curiosity: Kender are curious about absolutely everything. They are natural explorers. They rifle the contents of locked cupboards and delve into deep caverns. “Anywhere a rat can go, two kender will be,” quips a human proverb. Very little escapes a kender’s notice. Kender study every detail in a room, no matter how often they have been there.
This curiosity extends especially to unusual things. Kender love magic items and rare creatures (chimeras, centaurs, unicorns, and dragons topping the list). Gadgets-especially gnomish gadgets-also catch kender eyes. Kender seek beauty in all things: they might prefer an old tarnished coin to a gleaming, newly minted one merely because the tarnished one is unique.
Fearlessness: Kender are often fearless. They cannot grasp their own mortality and thus feel invincible. This fearlessness combines with kender wonder to wash away any dread they may feel (and any common sense they may have). Kender fearlessness does not, however, equate to stupidity. In moments of danger, kender battle bravely while others cower behind. And kender rarely let their fearlessness endanger anyone but themselves.
Some tales suggest that kender can actually be frightened. Even so, these tales describe such monumental catastrophes that few kender have survived to be questioned about their feelings.
Irrepressibility: Not many people on Ansalon can shut a kender up or tie one down. Full of youthful energy, kender dread boredom and seek excitement, entertainment, and fun. Fun for a kender may mean spending hours watching an industrious ant climb over various obstacles. Sadly, though, risky undertakings hold at least as much allure for kender as safe ones. While other party members grimly gird themselves to follow a grueling trail with near-certain death at its end, a kender flippantly chooses to come “just for the fun of it.”
Independence: Kender believe in the rights and freedoms of the individual. Kender nations have no real rulers because they prefer the freedom of anarchy. They resent being ordered about, and would rather do what they want, when they want. Demanding something of a kender only results in loud complaints, reluctant work, and taunts. But kender willingly volunteer for any task, as long as it is interesting.
Although they demand freedom of choice, kender often fail to consider the consequences of their actions. A kender’s impulsive action may back him into a corner from which his comrades must save him. “I guess I shouldn’t have opened that barricaded door with the warnings on it, huh?” Entire parties bristle when a kender utters that awful syllable, “Oops!”
Compassion: Kender make lifelong friends. They offer undying (though distracted) devotion and self-sacrifice to their companions. They always aid those who are hurt and they happily share their meager bounty with the less fortunate. The wounding of a dear friend sends kender into paroxysms of grief so plaintive that it can soften even the hardest heart.
Their big-hearted enthusiasm makes kender easily hurt by indifference or cutting remarks from friends. However, they quickly forgive and forget, and this endearing trait makes them extremely difficult to dislike.
Dreaming Laziness: Dwarves say that kender are “goodfor-nothing, lazy doorknobs.” True, a kender performing drudgery is like a hobgoblin dancing: it looks and feels unnatural. Kender, however, are among the most industrious creatures of Ansalon-as long as they remain curious about their task. Work for work’s sake is boring, tedious, and stodgy. Beautiful fields, clever dormice, and antic chipmunks are another matter entirely. Kender love dreams better than realities, and daydreams best of all.
They thrive on stories and storytelling. True stories are routinely modified to make them spectacular, fascinating, and satisfying. But kender willingly listen to any story, no matter how poorly (truthfully) rendered it is. Kender also love music and dance. They have added chimes, bells, and whistles to all of their daily tools. Whether pounding nails into a barn roof or facing down a black dragon, kender always keep their beloved music close at hand.
Taunting: Kender, like human children, possess a calculating sense of insult. Their intense curiosity wins for them all sorts of shocking insights into a creature’s private life. These insights become weapons in moments of wrath. Kender lash out not only to injure an enemy’s pride, but to drive him to irrational behavior. An opponent’s lapses in judgment following a kender taunt often allow the kender to land a killing blow.
Handling: Kender are oblivious to matters of ownership. If a kender needs something that another person is not using, the kender will innocently borrow the item and put it to use. Curious kender often pick up items for closer examination, then distractedly forget to put them back.
Although dwarves cannot distinguish this action (called “handling”) from theft, handlers and thieves differ drastically. First of all, thieves steal for personal gain, but handlers take things due to curiosity and distraction. When a handler’s curiosity shifts to a new item, he often loses the one he just picked up. Secondly, a thief always takes the most valuable item but a handler always takes the most interesting one. A handler will prefer a glittering shard of glass to a bagful of dull silver ore. Finally, thieves steal maliciously, knowing they break moral and governmental laws; but handlers take things innocently, unaware the rules governing property would make their actions malicious.
Although kender handlers demonstrate common thieving skills like lock picking, they are not thieves. Handlers take quick offense at accusations to the contrary. Even if caught in the act of handling, they have (and believe) many excuses:
• “I guess I found it somewhere.”
• “You must have dropped it!’
• “I forgot I had it.”
• “I was keeping it safe for you!’
• “You said you didn’t want it anymore.”
• “This looks just like yours, doesn’t it?”
• “Maybe it fell into my pocket.”
Kender live in quaint, pastoral villages and towns within the forests of Krynn. Maybe this is so they can climb the trees, play tag among the boughs or just laze in the shade. Their homes are a variety of incomplete structures: tree-houses, terraced decks, spacious huts, snug little burrows, and tree hollows. All dwellings blend beautifully with their environment. Looking upon a kender city, one sees only bountiful woodlands, winter squash and grape vines, raspberry bushes, and blossoming fruit trees. On closer examination, the city gate-perhaps a passage between sentinel oaks where a footbridge spans a creek-becomes clear. Hedges and gullies form the city’s defenses and vines mask the porticoed buildings from view. Twisting stairs, rope ladders, and ropeways link the rooftops to each other and to the ground.
Kender have small immediate families with 2 or 3 children. For all the noise and fuss in a kender house, one would think there were dozens of children. Most kender happily stay at home, close to playmates. Sometime around age 20, kender are overwhelmed by a desire to wander and see the world. They travel for years, enjoying the mysteries of Krynn, before their wanderlust runs out and they settle down. Some kender draw maps of their journeys, maps that become fairly trustworthy and very detailed after they fiddle with them for years. After wanderlust, kender become rooted in one place until death.
The sedentary nature of aged kender and young kender allows kender societies to crop up. Kender call their society an omnigarchy: rulership by everyone. They do whatever they please, so long as they do not harm each other. Kender value individuality and thus have no desire to force their opinions on others. Despite their blatant lack of law, common threats bring kender into quick cooperation. With little preparation, kender nations can field a formidable army.
Occasionally, the kender submit themselves to a ruler who seems interesting at the time. They have had kings, khans, warlords, councils, judges, and priestlords, many of whom have not been kender and all of whom have fallen from power within a month’s time.

The lessons of history stand firm: kender (like dwarves) arose when gnomes were transformed by the potent and unrestrainable magic of the Graystone of Gargath. All written histories agree on this fact.
Even so, a splinter group of scholars in Palanthus questions whether this derivation is accurate. They note the vast dissimilarities between gnomes (and dwarves) on the one hand and kender on the other. Kender are not industrious; they do not tinker or invent; they have no beards; they cannot focus on tasks at hand; they are not stout and stocky; they do not dwell underground; they do not have rounded ears.
Scholars who have enumerated these contrasts go on to say that kender share many traits with elves. They joyfully embrace life; they disregard work and time; they love woodlands and nature; they look for beauty in all things; they have pointed ears and no beards. Their capstone of evidence: the kender progenitor Balif was a close confidant of the great elf Silvanos, and even swore allegiance to Silvanos at the first Sinthal-Elish, several hundred years before the Graystone.
The scholars who have marshalled these arguments believe that kender arose when the Graystone transformed elves, not gnomes. This charge cannot be made lightly, for it flies in the face of every recorded history, especially that of Astinus’s Iconochronos. Most scholars still support the histories as they stand, but the splinter scholars gain support daily.
Both sides agree, however, that the earliest known kender hero was Balif, a confidant of Silvanos. Balif fought in the Second Dragon War (often called the first because it was the first to involve all the peoples of Krynn), and established the kender nation Balifor. He died in 2750 PC.
A second kender nation appeared in northwestern Ansalon in 2600 PC. An entire clan of kender became trapped on the first floating citadel, which drifted northwest and crashed against the spine of the Sentinel Mountains. The kender named their new land Hylo after its citadel, which was high and then low, and after its high mountains and low plains. In 2200 PC Ergoth arose and forcibly annexed Hylo. The Rose Rebellion of 1800 PC returned the kender’s independence.
The Cataclysm struck Hylo hard. All the kender settlements along the bay were swept under by tidal waves and the city of Hylo itself became a port town. The eastern half of the nation disappeared and the western half clung to the newly formed isle of Northern Ergoth.
The Cataclysm also decimated the land of Balifor, turning it into a desert waste. The kender left their homeland to barbaric desert nomads and migrated north. They founded a small forest city on the edge of a human ruin (now called simply “the Ruins” by the kender who explore it). Some kender believe the Ruins are the remains of one of the missing Towers of High Sorcery.
After the Cataclysm, many kender refused to return to settled life, preferring to wander. Recently, the kender folk were mustered for war by one kender of note: Kronin Thistleknot. This charismatic leader is a powerful hunter-turned-warrior. He organized the resistance to the dragonarmy threat.

Before the Cataclysm, certain kender could work miracles as priests of the gods. These kender priests never built places of worship, preferring to praise their gods beneath the open vault of the heavens.
In post-Cataclysm Ansalon, kender priests had all but vanished. During the War of the Lance, one kender lass purportedly encountered a true priest and received her own Medallion of Faith from him. She in turn studied and began attracting followers. The kender priesthood has been on the rise ever since.
Although kender recognize all the gods (as well as some nature spirits, eldritch beings, and potted plants), they hold four in highest regard: Branchala, Chislev, Mishakal, and Gilean. Kender generally consider Reorx a grumbling but benevolent grandfather, but do not praise him highly. Seacoast kender set Habbakuk high in their pantheons.

Most kender implements serve as weapons, tools of one’s profession, and musical instruments. Kender like to add personal touches to every tool, such as whistles, notches for tying bundles, and bright talismans of feather and fur.
All kender possess a makeshift set of lockpicking tools, wires, files, old keys, hardened leather placards, and beeswax.
For armor, most kender use only small shields, furs, padded armor, or leather armor. A rare few have been known to wear ring, studded, or chain mail, but companions say they were not well at the time.
Kender fight with intuition and grace. Their specialized weapon/tools are deadly in the hands of kender, but clumsy in the hands of others.
Kender tools are commonly constructed of a flexible ironwood haft with leather, catgut, and metal adornment. The heavy “-pak” and “-ak” tools (like the polpak or battak) are frequently used by males, and the lighter “-pik” and “-ik” (like the whippik or bollik) are in general favored by females. Hoopaks and whippiks find the most use, so they are described here.
The hoopak (sling-staff) is the most common of kender tools. This S’, ironwood staff has a short spike attached to its tip, which doubles as a spear or bo stick. The staff’s other end is forked and (commonly) laced with gut. A stone may be flung by either planting the blade end of the hoopak in the earth and bending the staff back to sling the stone, or whirling the hoopak overhead as a traditional sling-staff. This tool acts like a bullroar when whirled in the air, creating a low thrumming sound. Its uses include:
- throwing as a spear,
- striking as a staff,
- shooting or slinging stones,
- prying with the blade,
- picking apples with the gut, and
- whirling as a bullroarer.
The whippik (whip-bow) is a thin wand of ironwood that holds a short length of looped catgut on its end. It looks much like a riding whip. The whippik is the most popular tool among female kender. Short darts may be fired from this whip bow. With additional lengths of gut and various hooks, grapples, and snares the whippik performs various functions:
- shooting darts,
- whipping or scourging enemies,
- snaring game,
- hanging criminals,
- fishing, and
- serving as a stringed instrument.

Minotaurs are an honor-bound race. They believe strongly in preserving their honor and emerging victorious in the struggle for dominance in Krynn. Their brutish visages belie the keen minds within; many are smarter than the average human.
Oddly, of all the many races of Krynn, minotaurs are most like a diminutive folk-the dwarves. Both races value honor, strength, family, hard work, and the superiority of their race.
Honor: Without honor, minotaurs feel they have no life. They live by a rigid code, developed over the years in response to many hardships. They allow no exceptions to the letter of the code. A minotaur abides by his word, no matter how painful the consequences might be. Only in cases where the security of the entire race hangs in the balance might a typical minotaur even consider breaking his word. Naturally, minotaurs do not lightly pledge such oaths.
Even the brigand minotaurs of Kothas and Mithas consider honor the highest virtue. Anyone who questions the honor of a minotaur, even an outlaw, has offered him a grievous insult—and is likely to be repaid with a gaffhook in the throat.
Strength: Minotaurs adhere strictly to the rule of might: Might makes right. They believe any problems they have can be solved with strength, cunning, and skill. The rule of might finds clear expression in the arena, where all minotaur legal cases are settled. If a defendant can remain alive in the arena against the champions of the minotaurs, he has have proven himself innocent.
Minotaurs also believe very strongly in competition. Competition allows one to measure oneself against other minotaurs and against lesser beings.
Family: Families are the building blocks of minotaur society, especially on Taladas. There, family plays a much stronger role than anywhere else on Krynn. Without a line of parentage, an individual minotaur is cut off from the noble and glorious history of the species. Without a family, an individual has no source of honor and pride-the meat and drink of minotaur existence.
Each minotaur family represents the whole family of minotaurs throughout Krynn. Each family therefore safeguards the precious core of minotaur history and honor. Any just minotaur would die for his family, as for his nation.
Superiority: Originally descended from the high ogrish races of Taladas, minotaurs see themselves as the heirs apparent to the world of Krynn. The other races of the world are weak and riddled with dishonorable folk-a fallow field waiting to be cropped by Krynn’s master race. The minotaurs will stop at nothing to conquer that which they believe to be theirs. Minotaurs, like most other races, believe themselves to be the chosen of the gods.
On Ansalon, minotaurs live in a sea-based culture on the two islands of Mithas and Kothas. Built on the rule of might, these lands are led by an emperor in Nethosak, capital of Mithas. The emperor’s advisors are the Supreme Circle, a body of the eight most vicious and powerful minotaurs in all the land. Each member of the Circle has won his or her post by personal combat in the circus. They each serve a life term, which they defend by combat. Life terms usually last five to six years.
Because Ansalonian minotaurs care little about architecture and aesthetics, their cities and towns are squalid. Most buildings are made of mud and rough planking. The streets between the buildings are dirt or gravel. Only the arena and circus have any grandeur about them, built of masoned granite and ringed with lofty seats. The rest of a town has only the taverns on each corner to commend it. (Minotaurs love strong drink and good fights.)
On Taladas, minotaur civilization is another matter altogether. It covers roughly one-fourth of the continent. The League of Minotaurs rules southern Hosk, enlisting the aid of other races in the area to create the marvels of a truly advanced civilization. The League may well be the most advanced civilization on all of Krynn. The League’s power in Taladas only increases with each decade. Its Emperor, Ambeoutin Xl (named after the famed deliverer of the Ansalonian minotaurs across the sea), wields absolute power.

The violence of the minotaur race has its roots in their creation. Legends say the minotaurs were created when the Graystone escaped its bonds and spun crazily across the world. As it shrieked over villages of high ogre folk on the now-lost continent of Taladas, some people underwent a painful transformation. They awoke in the morning as minotaurs.
When these hapless man-beasts sought help from their ogrish brethren, they found enslavement instead. Eventually, the story goes, the minotaurs broke free, sailing crude ships to Ansalon to begin anew. However, they did not leave Taladas without exacting a price. They drenched the earth with the blood of ogres the night they left, devastating the lands and lives of their former masters.
The voyage to Ansalon was a fantastic one, in the exaggerated style that ancient tales often have. The minotaurs encountered fierce storms and vicious sea creatures. Fully one-quarter of their number were lost to the ocean. At long last, they reached the land of Ansalon. Abandoning their vessels on the beach, they began to build a new life for themselves.
Unfortunately, the new country did not improve their lot. Inward expansion of the minotaur colonies soon ran afoul of the Kal-Thax empire of dwarves. Like the ogres before them, the dwarves enslaved the man-beasts, becoming task masters rather than friends. Battalions of dwarves marched east toward the coastal towns of the minotaurs, slaughtering those who would not enter slavery peacefully.
For centuries, the minotaurs endured this brutal captivity. Resentment and hatred burned ever hotter in their breasts. The minotaur hero Ambeoutin began to circulate among his people in secret, mustering them to revolt. With the aid of a wizard and an artifact from the Ogre Wars, Ambeoutin led his people in a revolt that overthrew the dwarves and destroyed their Empire.
And so, sometime around 1600 PC, every last dwarf in Kal-Thax died at the hands of the slaves. No word of the utter destruction of the dwarven civilization escaped until long after the minotaurs had returned to the coast. When dwarven explorers came searching for the ancient and abandoned city of Kal-Thax, they could not even find the gates, for ivy had engulfed them. To this day, Kal-Thax’s disappearance remains a mystery to the dwarves of Ansalon.
Once back on the coast, the minotaurs established a kingdom of raiders and farmers, learning to wrest what they needed from the land and from others. They acclaimed Ambeoutin their king, and he founded their society upon honor. No minotaur would ever be enslaved again unless he broke his word or the minotaur code of honor. And because honor is strength, all questions of honor would be settled in the arena.
In time, Ambeoutin sired twin children. These two, Mithas and Kothas, learned of kingship and battle at their father’s knee. When the time came for the arena battle to decide which would become ruler after their father, they proved to be so evenly matched that neither could gain victory over the other. Eventually, after a day and a night of fighting, the judges declared the match a draw. In 1560 PC, the minotaur kingdom of Ambeoutin was divided into two separate countries, each named after one of the twins.
These nations existed peacefully for 1500 years, learning the arts of seafaring and of agriculture. They became highly proficient in both, and their civilizations grew. The minotaurs created a code of laws to give flesh to Ambeoutin’s skeletal decree that all must live by honor. Slowly minotaur culture began to approach the heights of its glory.
Again, though, they ran afoul of another realm. This time, the lstarian Empire in its heyday verged onto minotaur lands. The minotaurs were no match for the endless hordes of humans that overran them. Again, the minotaurs were bound in chains. These new oppressors were far worse taskmasters than the dwarves, because the lstarians believed themselves righteous in their acts. They considered minotaurs abominations of the gods’ creatures. Thousands were hunted down and slain in the name of Good. Self-righteous and ruthless and cruel were the Istarians, so crushing that the minotaurs could never stage a successful rebellion.
The doom of lstar was the salvation of the minotaurs. When the fiery mountain of the Cataclysm struck down Istar, the minotaurs on the eastern coasts no longer faced slavers or bounty hunters. The gods even separated the two kingdoms of Mithas and Kothas from Ansalon, making them islands safe from the oppressors. Minotaurs perceived the Cataclysm as a sign from the gods of the minotaurs’ future glory. Now, part of the minotaur code of honor is to fill Krynn with their folk, to flourish even amidst the annihilation of others.

As a race built upon violence and brutality, minotaurs make excellent fighters. They are trained in the arenas from youth for strength, cunning, and Intelligence. Common weapons include double-bladed battle axes, large flails, short swords, and whips. Those with great strength have even been known to wield two broad swords, one in each great fist. In addition to these common weapons, minotaurs have created and mastered a variety of bizarre weapons for the arena.
Minotaur weapons are huge and heavy. Non-minotaurs must have exceptional strength even to heft them. Some examples are the sanguine, a 7’ long gladiator weapon that has a serrated spearhead at each end, and a small buckler with a razor-edged crescent at its middle. In the hands of a master the sanguine can be used one-or two-handed to parry attacks, trip foes, fight multiple foes, or slash, bludgeon, or pierce foes. It cannot be thrown. The tessto is a 6’-long studded club with a loop of rope at its hilt. A cunning master can use the tessto defensively by spinning it around its center like a baton, and using its loop to snag feet, hands, and heads.

Minotaur’s thick hides grant them a natural protection from attack. Because they value bravery in battle, minotaurs rarely deign to wear armor more protective than leather. Nobles occasionally wear splint armor or breastplates fashioned of lizard hide or beetle carapace. Minotaur fighters almost always refuse to use shields, leaving their hands free to wield twohanded weapons.