Races
"Races of Eärwa"

Men

With the possible exception of the Sranc, the dominant race of Eärwa .

Emwama

The indigenous Men of Eärwa, who were slaves of the Nonmen for millennia. They were, along with their surviving inhuman masters, massacred by the invading Five Tribes of Men following the Breaking of the Gates . The Emwama spoke a tongue related to Thoti-Eännorean, the ancient root language of all Men. Other than this, very little is known of them.

The Five Tribes of Men

The five broader cultural and racial groups that migrated into the Eärwan subcontinent at the beginning of the Second Age . These are commonly known as the Norsirai, the Ketyai, the Satyothi, the Scylvendi, and the Xiuhianni. The current human population of Eärwa descends from these five and interbreeding between them. - The typically blond-haired, light-eyed, fair-skinned race predominantly concentrated in the northern Three Seas. Their language group is known as Vasnosri. Although they mostly live on the northern fringes of the Three Seas, they were once the dominant race of Men and ruled all the lands north to the Yimaleti Mountains.
- The typically dark-haired, brown-eyed, olive-skinned race predominantly concentrated in the southern, western, and eastern Three Seas. Their language group is known as Kenqetic. The Ketyai are the largest race of Men and currently the dominant civilization.
- The black-skinned, black-haired but green-eyed race predominantly concentrated in the southwestern nation of Zeüm and the southern extremities of the Three Seas.
- The dark-haired, pale-eyed, and fair-skinned race predominantly concentrated in the Jiünati Steppe.  Their language group is known as Skaaric. The Scylvendi are pastoral nomads and very isolated from the other human cultures.
- The black-haired, olive-skinned race that still dwells beyond the Great Kayarsus , who, according to The Chronicle of the Tusk, refused to follow the other four tribes into Eärwa. Some of the Ketyai on the eastern fringes of the Three Seas have some racial characteristics of Xiuhianni, as they overlap.

History

At one time the pre-eminent race of Eärwa, but now much reduced. The Nonmen call themselves ji’cûnû roi, “the People of Dawn,” for reasons they can no longer remember. (They call Men j’ala roi, “the People of Summer,” because they burn so hot and pass so quickly.) The Chronicle of the Tusk, which records the coming of Men to Eärwa, generally refers to Nonmen as Oserukki, the “Not Us.” In the Book of Tribes, the Prophet Angeshraël alternately refers to them as “the Accursed Ones” and “the sodomite Kings of Eärwa,” and he incites the Four Nations of Men to embark on a holy war of extermination. Even after four millennia, this xenocidal mission remains a part of the Inrithi holy canon. According to the Tusk, the Nonmen are anathema: Hearken, for this the God has said, “These False Men offend Me; blot out all mark of their Passing.”

Accomplishments

But Cûnuroi civilization was ancient even before these words were carved into the Tusk. While the Halaroi, Men, wandered the world dressed in skins and wielding weapons of stone, the Cûnuroi had invented writing and mathematics, astrology and geometry, sorcery and philosophy. They dredged mountains hollow for the galleries of their High Mansions. They traded and warred with one another. They subdued all Eärwa, enslaving the Emwama, the soft-hearted Men who dwelt in Eärwa in those early days.

Decline

Their decline is the result of three different catastrophic events. The first, and most significant, was the so-called Womb-Plague. In the hope of achieving immortality, the Nonmen (specifically, the great Cu’jara Cinmoi) allowed the Inchoroi to live among them as their physicians. The Nonmen did in fact attain immortality, and the Inchoroi, claiming their work done, retired back to the Incû-Holoinas. The plague struck shortly after, almost killing males and uniformly killing all females. The Nonmen call this tragic event the Nasamorgas, the “Death of Birth.”

Cûno-Inchoroi Wars and Near-Extinction

The following Cûno-Inchoroi Wars further sapped their strength, so that by the time the first Tribes of Men invaded, the Nonmen had not the numbers or, some say, the will to resist their advance. Within the course of a few generations they were nearly exterminated. Only the Mansions of Ishoriöl and Cil-Aujas survived. See Cûno-Inchoroi Wars .

Inchoroi

“People of Emptiness” (Ihrimsû). A mysterious and obscene race that, according to legend, descended from the void in the Incû-Holoinas. Very little is known about them, aside from their apparently limitless capacity for cruelty and their malignant obsession with the carnal. See Cûno-Inchoroi Wars . The Ichoroi speak an undeciphered tongue, which the Nonmen call Cincûl’hisa , or “the Gasp of Many Reeds.” According to the Isûphiryas , communication between the Cûnuroi and the Inchoroi was impossible until the latter “birthed mouths” and began speaking Cûnuroi tongues.

Sranc

The violent, inhuman creatures first created by the Inchoroi as instruments of war against the Nonmen. According to the Isûphiryas, the Sranc are one of the “Weapon Races” created by the Inchoroi to prosecute their war of extermination against the Nonmen and their Emwama slaves. The motivations of the Sranc seem to be as base as imaginable, in that they seem to find sexual gratification in acts of violence. There are innumerable accounts of the indiscriminate rape of men, women, children, and even corpses. They seem to know nothing of mercy or honour, and though they do take prisoners, very few are known to have survived captivity, which is said to be savage beyond imagining. They reproduce rapidly. Though no outward physical differences are readily visible, female Sranc seem to have roles identical to those of male Sranc. Apparently, a great number of Sranc in various stages of pregnancy were observed in battle over the course of the Apocalypse. Though generally inferior to Men in individual combat, they are ideal logistically, as they are able to live for sustained periods on little more than grubs and insects. Survivors recount tales of vast tracts of ground overturned and rooted by passing Sranc hordes. Under the command of the No-God they are utterly fearless, and seem to strike with unerring control and coordination. Typically, Sranc stand no higher than the average caste-menial’s shoulder. Their skin is devoid of pigment, and despite the refined—to the point of repulsiveness—beauty of their faces, their physiognomy is bestial (though hairless), with pinched shoulders and deep, almond-shaped breasts. They are exceedingly fast across both open and broken terrain, and their sheer viciousness is said to compensate for their slight stature. Mandate scholars are prone to make dire warnings about the present numbers of Sranc in Eärwa. Apparently the ancient Norsirai had reduced the Sranc, pressing them to the margins of Eärwa, and the No-God was still able to summon hosts that reportedly blackened the horizon. Now Sranc dominate half the continent.

Wracu

Also known as Dragons. Immense, fire-spitting, winged reptilian monstrosities created by the Inchoroi during the ancient Cûno-Inchoroi Wars to destroy the Nonmen Quya, then subsequently wielded by the No-God during the Apocalypse. Very few are thought to have survived.

Citations

All citations, unless otherwise specifies, are from the "Encyclopedic Glossary" at the end of The Thousandfold Thought (Prince of Nothing, Book 3) ====