Many different sorts of people inhabit the Great Island Chain, from lakefaring elves to forest-dwelling leshy to your standard old human pirates. These are but a few.
To a human, the sea may seem unchanging, but to an elf, there is no greater chaos than the ocean on which they live. Elves are native to Magellan, living in towns on coasts or floating on the sea. Their six-century lifespans give them plenty of time to see and appreciate how the waters wear away at the world. Having the longest lives, elves recall how the Four Quarters were before Merlin, and often share their sentiments of displeasure with the Lord of Magic's rule. Magellan is the one place untouched by Stere primarily thanks to the elves. If you like anarchism, sailing, or ranged combat, consider playing an elf.
Tinkers, magi, artists, and entrepreneurs, gnomes have long pushed frontiers forward. The steam cannon, the airship, and modern refrigeration are all gnomish inventions, using a mixture of gadgetry and magic to improve everybody's lives. Under Merlin, gnomish tinkers' guilds have seen a huge uptick of funding and importance, leading to something of a Sterian technological revolution. Sterian airships are of only the highest quality, and their guards are equipped with self-maintaining gear. If you want to believe in the goodness of Lord Merlin and hold a pretty high-class job that you are now fired from because you got arrested, consider playing a gnome.
Some people just want a slow and quiet life. Some people want an exciting life. And halflings want both at the same time. Halflings are the heart of Bastion, the hospitality that keeps the quarter safe and welcoming even in these troubling times. They're generally nice folk, caring more for good food and good neighbors than politics and revolutions, but when the time comes, they'll grab their pitchforks and protect their comfortable lives with everything they've got. If your idea of a good time is a lazy summer day, or you want to be the heart of the party, consider playing a halfling.
Despite their short lives, humans get a lot done. Perhaps the greatest pride of a human is sharing the same ancestry as Lord Merlin, and thereby, the same destiny for greatness. Humans are often pressured into being spellcasters in their homes in Stere, but can fill any role; the 'runaway human mercenary' is something of a stereotype in seedier ports. Their versatility makes them excellent assistants to any master, and while it doesn't come with a lot of glory, there is something to be said for the guy who filed the papers of the inventor of horse-pulled wagons. If you want to be pressured by your ancestral ties, fighting to fulfill or reject them, consider playing a human.
The world's quietest whispers speak of spirits, beings that command energy and matter and were made by gods. Such things are blasphemy under the One Rule, but Sterian education has yet to find another explanation for the leshy. Leshy are supposedly nature spirits that inhabit physical vessels, invited by druidic rituals. They have little need for food or shelter, don't age, and are often happy to just sit around under the sun... or perhaps cause mischief for the people who don't believe in their existence. If you want to be a living problem, or an ancient wise spirit, consider playing a leshy.
Working a shipyard takes muscle, and working with elves takes disrespect for The Man. Orcs have both in spades. They idolize those who withstand hardship in their culture, seeing scars, muscles, and tattoos as attractive signs of honor, like Rio does. They're also one of the few people left who openly worship a deity other than Merlin: Feng, God of the Grave. To an orc, death is the final challenge to overcome, and pain is weakness leaving the body. If you want to play a beefcake, a rebel, or just someone of humble rural origins, consider playing an orc.
The last of the spiritual folk, strix were once considered a holy kind, as their wings brought them ever-closer to the heavens. Now, though, such notions have been firmly dispelled by Lord Merlin, and the strix respect that... publicly, anyway. Privately, in their Strigifor mountain homes, the Strix maintain shrines to long-forgotten gods, offering prayer that one day, the fighting and hurting will stop. Strix often travel as secret missionaries, spreading the rumors of those they still worship. If you want to play as a religious refugee, or someone with secrets to keep, or you want to suck up to the GM, consider playing a strix.
Once large, sentient spiders, now large sentient spiders who are good at masking, the anadi have lived in mountain caves longer than anybody remembers. They learned innate magic to turn themselves into more appealing humanoid forms, and treat their true forms as something private and intimate. They stay mostly uninvolved in politics, both because people generally don't accept the policies of spiders and because they're primarily pacifistic and current government rule...disagrees. If you want to play a kind-hearted horror whose trust needs to be earned, consider playing an anadi.
There is a single truth about vishkanya that they don't often elaborate on: they come from the land below. At first, they invaded the Sea of Clouds for resources, but a defected soldier brokered a peace deal between them and the then-mayor of Stere. As the cloud layer thickened, the vishkanya were trapped in the sky, and tales of their homeland have become suppressed myths. Now, they return to their roots, hunting and fighting to survive, always one step ahead of those who would see their otherworldliness as a threat. If you want to play as an outsider, or explore the secrets beneath the Sea, consider playing a vishkanya.
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Art by Alena Aenami.