Homebrew Amseiran - Ifrir Species Details
I. Physical Characteristics
Physically, we Ifrir are marked by our variability. This is hardly surprising, considering the shattered origins from which we descend. Height ranges widely, from just over four feet to nearly seven, and our builds follow no clear pattern. Some are broad-shouldered and resilient, others lean and wiry. There is no archetype, no standard by which we measure ourselves.
Facial features are equally inconsistent. Some of us bear the tapering ears of what might once have been elves. Others have stronger jaws or subtle tusks that hint at orcish lineage. These traits are rarely remarked upon. They are seen less as signs of ancestry and more as incidental curiosities, like freckles or hairlines.
Our eyes come in every conceivable colour, with some children born with differing eye colours in each. In certain rural provinces, such children are treated with a kind of wary reverence, rumored to have “one eye in the world and one in the beyond.” I’ve yet to find proof of any such second sight, though the superstition persists. Skin tones span from pale to deep and carry undertones in cool, warm, or even unusual hues such as dusty greys, mossy browns, or coppery golds that are difficult to trace to any single origin.
Hair is no less varied, seen in curls, coils, waves, or straight lines. Colours range from stark white to jet black, with everything in between. One might walk a single street in Ardenport and pass twenty Ifrir, no two alike.
II. The Myth of Continuity
Some cling to the idea that Ifrir culture is a natural evolution, a blend of old traditions carried forward. That is wishful thinking. The truth as I see it is more abrupt: the dragons erased our past, and we’ve spent lifetimes improvising a present.
The Saints broke the draconic regime, and in the two centuries they ruled, they rebuilt what they could. They fostered knowledge, and ushered in their golden age. But when they vanished and took their magic with them. The following four hundred years were marked by civil war, not cultural renaissance. What little we had constructed, crumbled once more. This time however, it was brought low by our own hands.
The result is a civilisation shaped more by interruption than inheritance. Guilds have replaced bloodlines. Territory has replaced ancestry. What we call “Ifrir society” is a scaffold. Efficient, functional, but ultimately built over the ruins of something unrecognisable. Though I suppose all cultures are.
III. Culture Without Foundation
Ifrir culture, such as it is, has no true anchor. What we call tradition is largely reconstructed rather than preserved from those that came before. Largely invented in the wake of catastrophes that have befallen our ancestors.
Storytelling remains central. In the absence of records, tales fill the gaps. Stories of the Saints, the downfall of the dragons, the endless wars, and the scattered triumphs of mortalkind. These accounts are not wholly consistent from one territory to another. They are mutable, reshaped over generations to fit the teller’s voice or the listener’s need. No one seems to mind though. Truth, in this context, is less important than continuity.
Festivals vary across the five territories, but nearly all share certain themes: seasonal turning points, commemorations of Saintly deeds, and civic or guild-based milestones. The most widely observed is Honourcrest, our day to honour all that the Dragons took from us, though its tone shifts dramatically from place to place. In the capital, it is a spectacle of pageantry. In the northern provinces, it is a day of solemnity and silence. In some southern cities, it has become little more than an excuse for commerce and indulgence.
In place of kin-based identity, we tend toward structure through guilds. These are more than professional bodies. They are social groups, political alliances, and often surrogate families. One’s guild can determine where one lives, who one marries, and how one is seen in the wider world. Merit within a guild is valued above ancestry. Those who rise do so by skill, cunning, or sheer persistence. Bloodline matters little to most in civilised society, though there are those whom I don’t deem worthy of my penmanship that might disagree with that.
IV. The Present Tension
Ifrinn today is a land balanced between five provinces, five territories. Four are ruled by noble houses. One is held by our much beloved King Ulric Florian. He seems to hold the territories together better than others before him despite his relatively young age.
In the last century, the engine of Ifrir progress began to churn with the might of industry. Steam, black powder, metallurgy, city planning, and mechanical invention have taken us further than we thought possible after the dark times of the Mortal Wars.
Fifty years ago however, the belief in the rampant industrialists was shaken.
Magic began to return. Slowly. Unreliably. But undeniably. Not the divine brilliance of the Saints, but something cruder. Rough, emergent, unpredictable at first, but those with the mind and talent for it began to understand its complexities. Or at the very least, they claim to.
Industry and magic coexist for now, but uneasily. The inevitable collision of these opposing ideals have begun to define the future of Amseir. And what we Ifrir choose to become in this coming age of conflict will shape not just our identity, but whether we have one at all.
Amseiran - Ifrir Traits
The traits of the Ifrir are wide and varied, due to their mixed heritages from many of Mortalkind.Ancestral Melting Pot
Born from the crucible of draconic oppression, you retain many of the traits that once separated your ancestral races from one another.
Gain a Feat. Your pool of Feats include all racial options from the ancestor races of Human, Elf, Dwarf, Gnome, Halfling and Orc.
Ability Score Increase
Choose an ability score to increase by 2, and an ability score to increase by 1.
If you gain more than one increase, you can’t apply those increases to the same ability score, and you can’t increase a score above 20.
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