Extinct Races

Aloria has beheld many Races over the millennia of civilizations that have risen and fallen across the many diverse lands. Some have reigned long while others have reigned for a very short time, but all of these civilizations have left some level of impact on the world.

Ancient Extinct Races

Seraph

The Seraph were an all-powerful civilization within Aloria with many wondrous constructs and powers at their fingertips. Their architecture ranged from great complexes and high towers to long-sealed vaults, all built with white stones and minerals such as Seraphalo and marble. They also made use of extensive wall murals that revealed their many acts and communions with animals, energies, and each other. While no Seraph remains have ever been discovered, their murals clearly show them to be tall and slim beings with narrow eyes, some form of pointed ears, and simple robed clothing. Little else is known about this society as their sites are often guarded by powerful Construct creatures which defend the ancient ruins that somehow generate the energies to form them.

Second Civilization Race

The Second Civilization Race is curiously the most mysterious of all the extinct Races in Aloria, as there is very little evidence of their existence. The only indication of their presence comes in the form of scattered ruins across the east of Aloria, often made of dark-toned stone and rarely more advanced than a few columns and walls. There is no evidence of the Second Civilization's physical appearance as their ruins possess limited art and decoration.

Third Civilization Race

The Third Civilization Race is certainly less mysterious than the Second Civilization Race, but their ruins are equally as rare as their predecessors'. Their only known remains are located on the lethal jungle island of Solangeria, where they are protected by the savage Temple Orphans and other dangers. While these ruins have rarely been explored, it is clear they were a sophisticated people. They built grand temples, walls, and at least one large multi-limbed statue (likely a religious figure) using Lazurite tiling to decorate them. As a result, many assume that the people of the Third Civilization had multiple limbs (two sets of arms), but this is not confirmed in any of their ruins. As a result, until proper research is done, only the barest speculations can be made about their appearance or any other details of their lives.

Meraic

The Meraic, also known as the Fourth Civilization, are possibly more well known than the Seraph due to their unique history. They were an advanced society that greatly expanded their empire from the south of Aloria. They were great engineers, building fantastical devices of crystal and metal that are barely understood even all these millennia later. However, they were as flawed as those that came before them. Their Race turned to Magic even as their scholars tried to warn them of the impending doom such an act might bring. In defiance, these scholars prepared for the worst, and this cult of preparation gripped a large portion of their population. A network of Vaults and tunnels were built across their empire, but in the end, nothing could truly save them. The Void invaded and above ground, the Meraic people came to an end, while those who survived underground underwent a transformation into the Maraya of the modern-day. It is known that the Meraic had at least two subraces that were transformed into the El- and Ka-Maraya respectively due to time and Magic. What limited artwork exists of the ancient Race is hidden by the transformed survivors, but largely shows blue-skinned and head-crested beings with great height. Some theorize this might just be a depiction of the Ka-Maraya, as the rarer and higher-up of the two subraces, but like most information on the Meraic, it is open to debate and skepticism.

Old Extinct Races

Volphilia

The Volphilia are possibly one of the most alien Races to ever inhabit Aloria. Discovered shortly after Altalar ships reached Talamoor and headed north, into the southern lands of the Regalian Archipelago, these explorers came upon the Volphilia in various small colonies known as Edenna dotted around what is now the region of Mandu. Initial interactions were unnerving to the Altalar, who found the Race too foreign to enslave, but also difficult to combat due to strange characteristics native to the people. Ultimately, the Altalar left, later founding Solleria. However, when Altalar returned in force to Mandu around 1800 BC, intent on using their greatly expanded powers to bring some Volphilia with them willingly or unwillingly, they found all Edenna abandoned, overgrown with natural life, and no sign of the strange people. The sole remnant of their kind was the disturbing site found near the remains of Edenna Rossas, known as the Cave of Statues, in which dozens of statues of Volphilia, rendered in extreme detail from white marble, were found alongside similar artwork of dozens of others, some Ailor, Altalar, and even some of other Races. They were also each perfectly ringed by unknown flowers, which had spread inward and grown up their surface. The Altalar left, and never returned, the Edenna eventually fading from the map while the Cave of Statues grew in infamy, being actively feared by what few colonists the Regalians have sent there. The Volphilia were of equal height to the Altalar, but often hunched themselves forward, with hands drawn behind their pale, near-translucent bodies. Their faces had no features, instead being smooth ovals of wrinkled skin and faint patterns of pale purple or pale blue. The sole feature that remained were ears, but while these were pointed, their broader structure was connected to the species' head and led to a seamless blend against the skull. The final feature of note was their most distinct, a third "limb" which was prehensile, extremely thin, and emerged from their upper backs to hover around them. The end of this "limb" held their only eye, a throbbing sphere of shifting colors which was said to be entrancing, surrounded by three fleshy digits which could shield the eye, though it also had a lid for this purpose.

Ar'Ima

Mythologized as the cyclops in most Ailor coastal folklore, the Ar'Ima were a species of one-eyed humanoids native to the eastern islands off the coastline of Etosil which would one day hold the Szabadok. Their origin is unknown, but their unique appearance as well as coastal location soon attracted much attention from the Allorn Empire. Like most contact with foreign Races in their earliest times, the Altalar were friendly, but the Ar'Ima suffered at the hands of slavers far earlier than other groups. Whether it was their easily raided homeland, or some other reason, before even the Floundering, the Ar'Ima were entirely taken from Etosil. They also went extinct earliest out of all the Altalar slave peoples to face such a fate, their population of approximately 30,000 narrowed to a few dozen by the end of the Floundering. Their main visual trait, of a single, large eye in their heads, was enhanced by both men and women having black, thick heads of hair that clearly frames this large pupil. Their single eye could also come in a range of exotic colors. While many myths would later claim they were the size of Giants, the Ar'Ima were merely tall, standing at seven feet on average and likely towering over the Ailor slaves who originally interacted with them.

Nasha

The Nasha were a Race native to the distant Sundial Isles of the Far West. They appeared to be shy or at least overly cautious creatures as they actively chose not to engage with the Altalar for some time. Eventually, the Race allowed themselves to be isolated to a single island, but in the end, this did not save them from later Altalar enslavement. They were described in the works of Vyasa Vyana (the only surviving author from the pre-Floundering period) as “gliding through the foliage as nature’s wind might,” “marked by scales and slender features with sincerity of thought,” and “able to vanish at will into the bounty of Estel.” They were also reportedly shorter than the Altalar and had a dark green color to their scales and eyes. They died out during the Cataclysm, already limited in number, but are memorialized in Suvial Altalar thought as being closely tied to Estel. It is also believed by some that the proto-Suvial (the first colonists from the Allorn Empire to the Sundial Isles) were heavily influenced by Nashan culture. Their loss is seen as a symptom of the corruption of the Void and the Altalar way of life by the natives of the Sundial Lands (though the Suvial often ignore their own role in bringing the Race to extinction).

Mazo

The Mazo were found during the Consolidation within a chain of underground caves in the eastern half of the Alexandros Mountain Chain. The Altalar who found them reported their crude state of being and general disinclination to approach the Altalar. Eventually, communication was established with an “Elder” who asked to be left alone. The Altalar then left, and the creatures were left alone for centuries until the Grandening. The Race was reportedly quite stout but well built despite their light weight. They also possessed wings attached to their arms and could use them to fly, while their faces were very similar to that of bats. They had grey skin and were covered in black fur. When the Altalar enslaved them, they discovered an unfortunate fact: the Race only lived for at most, twenty years. They also subsisted on raw meat, lacking the taste for anything cooked, and so other slaves around them were forced to watch the creatures eat raw flesh and saw their maws dirtied with dried blood. This gave rise to the myths of giant, blood-draining bats that later became part of Daendroque superstitions. The Altalar ultimately worked the Mazo to death within around a century, though reports of a few members surviving in the depths of their home cave system remained until the Cataclysm. It was then that the mountains above folded in or separated, likely obliterating the species deep underground as the world changed. At the very least, it destroyed their settlements, and the caves that first held them now hold a variety of other hostile life forms, guarding whatever remains of the Race exist.

Ochil

The Ochil are a unique case for an Altalar slave people, in that they were already somewhat sophisticated when the Altalar found them living in far northwestern Daendroc, on the Ollean Peninsula. They, too, were left alone in the end like the Mazo, but they seemed quickly taken with Altalar society and entered it freely, though rarely, for the next few centuries. But during the Grandening, the Race was fully enslaved, and their peaceful community was eliminated. The Ochil had very distinct features that are still known today, though they were quite humanoid in general. They had skin colors from bright pink to pale purple, with vibrant yellow or grey eyes and similar tones to their often long hair on both women and men. This same tone to their eyes and hair also affected the smattering of freckle-like dots along their nose and on both upper cheekbones. Their faces also featured supposedly prehensile small head crests on either side of their temples, which helped them push their hair back out of their face. They also had excessively slim, delicate limbs and were highly experienced in the art of love, while also unable to reproduce with any other Race save their own. This made them highly sought after, either as dancers or sophisticated household servants. This also made them a target for other slaves when, in the months after the Cataclysm, they revolted and freed themselves from their master’s servitude. The chaos of this time killed what few Ochil remained, and the Race is considered extinct. They are curiously also supposedly the source for Maize in Aloria today, as Altalar speak of the “Corn Culture” that was attached to the Race, with the Altalar taking the plant with them when they left after their initial visits.

Forest People

Little is concretely known of the so called Forest People, once native to the large island of Veløya found in the west of Essalonia which is today inhabited by a number of Velheim nations. Ancient Velheim myths described them as thin and tall, with a whispered language hard to hear. Their name came from both a supposed passing visual similarity to trees, with foliage for hair, and bark for armor over green skin, but also for supposedly turning into trees when they died. Details are vague on when or how, but conflicts between them and the Proto-Velheim who began to colonize the island ultimately saw the Forest People retreat, and then vanish, never to be seen again following the year 200 BC. While the Forest People are viewed as a pure myth in the minds of most today, those who have traveled to Veløya, especially Arlora, know otherwise. Regional underground ruins, great catacomb networks of precisely balanced natural rocks in addition to carved iconography, do suggest a people native to the land before the Velheim given the stark visual differences between the design language and build locations of the two groups. The Forest People have also grown more notable since the Bone Horror Crisis, as intelligence gathered after the event revealed it was supposedly from the heart of the People's ancient subterranean network, which sits below the Arloran capital city, that King Gulbrand I of Arlora recovered magical secrets capable of summoning the false image of Estel. But if the Forest People were as the ancient Velheim claimed they were, why they would hold such knowledge is beyond modern comprehension.

Drovv

The Drovv are just as mysterious as the most ancient Races of Aloria but suffered an even worse fate as they have left behind almost no proper ruins or knowledge about themselves. All that is known is what the Sihndar speak of them, and much of that is mythologized. The Sihndar speak of the Drovv as a wise Race with long necks who lived in the northern reaches of Aloria as a client state conquered by the Allorn Empire at the end of the Awakening. The Drovv barely fought back and agreed to send tribute south, but they demanded their right to continue an ancient role: as the guardians of the world. They apparently knew exactly what the Void Cycle was (how is unclear), and the Altalar were only too happy to let them involve themselves in such a strange, diverting task. Their warriors were unskilled in Magic and instead were prone to using physical force and weapons for rapid attacks against their foes. Some Altalar came to idolize the Drovv, and, in the final years of the Allorn Empire, a large part of the military-inclined Cult of Dronnal went north to learn from them. Few got the chance, as the Fifth Void Invasion opened right on top of Drovv land and so they were slaughtered. Their last act was to warn the Allorn Empire of the coming doom, though others contend it was more likely fleeing Altalar from the fringes of their territory who delivered this news to distant Daen. No Drovv bodily remains exist today, though the Sihndar honor their teachers, not through artistic praise but action, and so their image only exists in limited Sihndar Hold records or orally from the eldest members of Sihndar society.

Giants

For most Ailor, Giants are myths of the Velheim or the fables of Ceardia. However, they were very much real, even if there is a great deal of mystery surrounding them. When or where they came into being is unknown, as some claim they came from a now-lost continent, destroyed by the Cataclysm, or were perhaps originally from Ceardia but migrated east up through Essalonia into The North Belt, where they are last considered to have lived. While their common description as “giant Ailor” is rather broad, it is also all that can be certain. Altalar records were just as vague, and while Ailor myths give them very Ailor qualities, surroundings, even names, most suspect that they had below-normal intelligence. They also could clearly mate with Ailor, as there are some particularly tall Ailor who claim to trace their lineage back to the Giants, both in myth and in history. It is also suspected that another offshoot of Giants are Ogres, the crude near-humans of tall heights from The North Belt. What ultimately happened to the Giants is unknown, but it is generally assumed they died out some years before the Cataclysm.

Avarr

The Avarr, also known as the Rakhvvar, Terror People, or Terror Birds, were an ancient avian Race of unknown origin that resided in Guldar at the same time as the Eronidas. Relations between the two were never good, and Eronidas society is very avian-phobic in the modern day, with a negative view on many bird species because of the savage nature of the Avarr. The Avarr were immense, easily standing at eight or nine feet tall, with brilliant flame-colored plumage and great physical strength. They considered themselves superior to the Eronidas, and evidence is rife in Eronidas tales of them sacrificing captive Eronidas alive in honor of an avian god, considered to be Yazgar among the Eronidas divinity. The fall, and ultimate extinction, of the Avarr on the moral plane was not known until the Maquixtl traveled to Guldar, finding the ruins of their nation. While most believe that the Eronidas, or the toxic gasses which now cloud the continent, are to blame for the death of the Avarr, the Maquixtl themselves believe it to be the fault of the Allorn Empire, though no records exist of any large fleet, invasion, or attack being made against the fiery people. The Avarr do still survive, but in a mutilated form, their souls held in strange devices known as Soul Lockets and frequently engaged with by the Maquixtl who now develop and grow overtop of the ruins of the Avarr people. Unfortunately, these souls lack memories of their past lives, barely able to remember their own name, and are instead driven by their personalities. Ultimately, it is likely that the mysteries of the Avarr’s fall will remain as such until such a time that the Marquixtl accept outside inquiry, and provide evidence for their own beliefs on how the avian Race fell.

Recent Extinct Races

Raav

The Raav were a Race who once inhabited the western reaches of mainland Rokhara and had extensive contact with the Altalar before their extinction at the hands of the Kathar. Early contact with this corvid-based bird people was peaceful, and while Altalar slavers soon made efforts to capture members of the Race, their position high in the mountains in addition to protection beneath the wings of powerful Rokha, titan birds worshiped by the Raav who gave Rokhara its name, warded off these efforts. As the Allorn Empire began to experience contractions in its power, the Altalar ultimately decided that Rokhara’s mainland, known as Ellar-Rokhara, was too difficult to raid, resulting in the Raav surviving for many years to come. However, this ended with the arrival of the newly born Kathar. The purge of the Skynests, the great mountain cities of the Raav, lasted less than a decade, with the Raav supposedly summoning “wind demons” to their aid, while the Rokha also swooped down to battle the tide of Kathar. However, this ultimately proved futile, and the Raav were the first of Rokhara’s Races to fall, slaughtered alongside many of the titan birds. The great Skynests were obliterated, and the remains of the bird Race were converted into an array of wearables for the Kathar elite of that era. Nothing remains but modern artwork and stories of their people’s fall, in addition to those prized feather and bone outfits kept safe in many a deep elite’s vault.

Gra-rassör

The strangest of all Rokhara’s native Races, the Gra-rassör or “Gorgers” as they are known in Common, came from the great plains in Rokhara’s south. However, they all congregated in a single settlement known as the City of Consumption, a vast complex of marble structures with a river at its side, surrounded by agricultural lands. The Race had two subspecies, the An-Gra, and the Ol-Gra. The Ol-Gra were slimmer of form and smaller, doing the manual labor of the Gra-rassör people as a whole, and serving the An-Gra. These larger, taller beings ate voraciously, consuming anything organic placed before them, so long as it was prepared in a certain way and set on opalescent serving trays. In return, the An-Gra excreted a sort of pale pink liquid which, when drunk, provided sheer bliss and boundless energy to any who tasted it. The Race’s visual features are largely lost to the modern world, for they supposedly dressed in uniform gray body shrouds, while white mask-helmets, studded with small black or opalescent stones, denoted their caste in society and hid their faces. They only removed these vestments when engaged in romantic encounters. Despite these difficulties, mentions in Kathar texts from their surprisingly long war with the city and its strange people suggest the Race’s body had tendrils, and that the pink liquid was excreted from a special gland along the An-Gra’s neck. Ultimately, the Gra-rassör were rendered extinct around 25 AC, their great City of Consumption razed to the ground and the last of the pink liquid used by the Kathar in celebration for their victory. The tattered rags that were left of the Race’s soft, masking body shrouds were taken and kept by many a Kathar elite family, similar to the remains of the Raav, while Gra helmet-masks were shattered, and lost to the ages.

Col’kärrab

The Col’kärrab were the longest enemy of the Kathar in their long conquest of Rokhara. This insectoid species, taking on the form of heavily armored beetle people, existed in six Towers, or main settlements, whose clusters of ultra-dense earth and stone columns rose above the surrounding landscape. Similar to the Raav, they were capable of flight, and so generally avoided Altalar enslavement efforts by first, flying into their column homes, and if that failed, proceeding down into a tunnel network beneath each Tower. Many Altalar in the Allorn settlements dotted throughout what were then the Sunbright Isles, and are now called the Shadow Isles, eventually learned to get along well with the Col’kärrab in the area. Sadly, this did not save the insect Race. The Vermilion Tower of the Isles fell to the Kathar in a matter of months, with the Alabaster Tower falling alongside the Ravv in their defeat. The remaining four Towers, Titian, Cattleya, Smalt and Damask, fought an ultimately losing war for nearly half a century against the Kathar before ultimately succumbing to their power. Their shells were transformed into gleaming trophies, while the Towers were annihilated, and the underground tunnel networks extensively explored but overall, destroyed or heavily renovated. Ironically, this led the Kathar to discover remains of the Maraya Vault network, and ultimately, to release the Haat-Maraya a few decades later. Records indicate that while definitely not tied to the Maraya Race, or even the Meraic, the Col’kärrab instead worshiped these beings as the “Before-Formers”, which would only add to the view of many outsiders that the Maraya had insect characteristics.

Sorvaar & Fuvrattaam

The Sorvaar and Fuvrattam are an unfortunate point of education for the Regalian Empire and the wider modern world on the effects of isolated peoples encountering others for the first time. Recently discovered by a Regalian expedition sent into the Southern Unknown, the Sorvaar were a species of reptilian humanoids who also manifested traits from canines and felines in the form of saber teeth, pointed ears, and light patterned fur in areas of their body along with their scales while the Fuvrattam were a species of short bird people with thin, narrow legs, and wings which had morphed to serve as grasping limbs. Further information about these Races though was lost when disease broke out, and swept both small island populations. Determined to have been brought by the Regalians, their miasma foreign to the island ecologies they traveled to, efforts were made by these explorers to save the locals, to no avail. They ultimately sought to flee after several months of effort. Later, when this group finally retruend to the Empire late in 309 AC, a new group was sent to investigate the report, only to find, and then likely fully exterminate, what little was left of the Fuvrattam people. While the true expanse of these populations was unknown, and if they are truly extinct, a question mark, further exploration to the area has been expressly forbayed by State powers intent on not causing anymore undue suffering.

Trivia

• The bones of extinct Races in many areas of the world are believed by many to be almost impossible to find now thanks to the Bone Horror Crisis. If any did exist in the first place, it is highly likely that they are but shards now, or lost among the thousands of other normal body parts that made up (and still make up) Bone Horrors across Aloria.

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Accreditation
Writers HydraLana Processors AlphaInsomnia, FireFan96	Last Editor HydraLana on 06/1/2022.

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