When I ran a very short Plague Dogs campaign (just one adventure) before the pandemic, I used the normal D&D races. There were elves and gnomes and half-orcs and tieflings. It worked pretty well, to be honest, but I started thinking about how I could use different character origins to tell a story of the setting.

I decided it would be interesting to tie each origin (the word I'm using instead of race or species) to one of the demon types (fiend, fey, aberration, undead). Each origin would be either directly connected to a demonic type, have a close history with a demonic type, or be under threat by a demonic type.

Here's what I came up with. Thank you to Heroforge for the pictures, and you can be sure I'll be doing a lengthier post on each origin with more description and mechanics.

Humans

Humans are still the default, and most populous, race. In the cosmology of the setting, they are the progeny of the god Taiel. Legend tells that Taiel cut their hand fighting their enemy Xeno, and everywhere their blood fell, it spawned a nation of humans.

Humans are not native to Taielis, but they have occupied all five of the isles. I like the idea of the human inhabitants coming from two major areas of the world, and so having two different languages and two different cultures. Even though there will be a Common (called "Talis"), characters who speak one of the two other human languages may gain advantage or get special treatment by those who align themselves to those cultures.

Demonic Influence: Fiends! One of the human aspects (what I'm calling subraces) is going to be Corrupted; basically, my tiefling. Sometimes someone is born with a demonic countenance due to the influence of Xeno's children- if they survive infanthood, they are known as Corrupted!

Giants

For some reason, I knew I wanted giants in this setting. I just like giants- they're fun!

The giants of Taielis (called "roquedain," or people of the stone, in their own language) are the original inhabitants of the Five Isles. They are magically aligned with stone, and can even speak to the stone. They are much reduced from the size they were many generations back. Giants of legend were twenty or thirthy feet tall; current giants are anywhere from just a measly 6 to 10 feet tall.

Demonic Influence: Undead. Long ago, the giants were conquered by an undead empire called the Lich Crown. They eventually freed themselves in a rebellion, with the help of the Mortal Church of Taiel and a mysterious people called Enlanders, but during their enslavement they lost their mighty cities, great height, and legendary works of art. Some giants are still obsessed with the powers of undead, and seek out control of necromancy.

Ylkin

Animal people are also fun, so I wanted some of them, but with a tragic twist!

Ylkin (pronounced ILL-kin) are animals cursed by fey. They are born as normal animals, but they become more and more human as they grow, gaining human consciousness, an upright posture, hands, and a voice. They are rejected both by their animal families and by human societies. Many ylkin get jobs in distant outposts, or join the Mortal Church of Taiel as servants or Plague Dogs.

Ylkin can have a variety of animal origins. Most come from mammal families, such as bears, boars, or rabbits, but there are also reptilian, avian, and even some rare aquatic ylkin!

Demonic Influence: Fey! I see fey as the least evil of the demons, but most tricksy. I like the idea of an dryad cursing a porcupine that was chewing at her tree into producing an ylkin.

Enlander

Enlanders are my answer to halflings, elves, dwarves, and gnomes. They live in deep underground cities, but came to the surface of Taiel for the first time in alliance with the giants to war against the Lich Crown. They can be medium (but slight) or small. They look mostly human, but have black eyes with luminous irises and an overall mysterious air.

Mechanically, enlanders will have a mix of nature and psionic abilities. They are filling the "outsider" niche, with strange powers and esoteric knowledge. Enlanders are also immortal, though they can only remember their lives within the last 100 years or so.

Demonic Influence: Aberrations! A powerful cult of Enlanders unlocked the ability to remember their whole lives, but this led to them going mad and worshiping aberrations. The natural psionic abilities of enlanders also attracts aberrations, especially those who want to eat those delicious immortal brains!

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