The People

Metamor City is home to 15 million people, and they are a stunningly diverse crowd. The most common races are as follows, with their percentages of the overall population in parentheses:

Uncursed Humans (25%): Sometimes called “mundanes” or “mundies” by the other races. Humans come in a variety of subtypes, including the fair-skinned Kitchlanders; the pale, red-haired Sathmorans; the olive-skinned and dark-haired Sonngefilders; the almond-eyed Hanese and Yamatoans; and the dark-skinned and curly-haired Irombians. Most of the humans in Metamor City are Kitchlanders or Sathmorans, but members of the other subtypes aren’t uncommon. Not all humans are as mundane as they look; about 1 in 5 has enough magical talent to become a mage, and a small but growing percentage have telepathy or other psionic powers. Some others have the blood of Outsiders in their ancestry, and gain magical powers from it; these people are called the Plane-touched.

Androgynes (20%): These people look like normal humans, but the Curse of Metamor has changed them into attractive members of the opposite sex. They can still return to their born sex when they wish to, but they can only spend a limited time in that form before returning to their new shape. Androgynes tend to be vibrant, passionate people who believe in living each moment to the fullest.

Theriomorphs (18%): These people have been Cursed to take on the form of an animal. Most of the time theriomorphs live in a humanoid form that has some characteristics of whatever animal they were changed into; they can take on full human form for brief periods of time, but most of them don’t like to do so because they will have to pay for it by spending an equal amount of time in a full animal form. There are thousands of different kinds of theriomorphs, and those who share the same animal template usually tend to stick together with others of their own kind.

Lutins and Breed (14%): Lutins are a short, hardy and green-skinned race that hails from the harsh, cold land of Inu Lutinaka. They are a spiritual people with a deep connection to nature, but they can also be violent, greedy and superstitious. Most of the lutins living in the City are young males looking for fame and riches, but more often than not they end up working in low-paid blue collar jobs or joining the gangs that haunt the City at ground level. Sometimes lutins mate with humans, producing the taller and stronger hybrids known as the Breed.

Outsiders (10%): Some of the creatures that live in the material world aren’t native to it; their ancestors came from the Nine Heavens, the Nine Hells, the Dreamlands, or even stranger places. These outsiders may be good, evil, or something in between — but they’re here, and they’re staying. The most powerful outsiders are the nine Aedra Lords and the nine Daedra Lords, fallen deities who are now forced to walk the earth like mortals.

Silvaan (5%): The descendants of human-Elf hybrids, the Silvaan have worked hard to develop their own cultural identity and earn the respect of their parent races. Most Silvaan are tireless crusaders for social justice; they are compassionate toward those in need and enthusiastic about working for a better world, but they can sometimes come off as abrasive and self-righteous toward those who don’t share in their crusades.

Pedomorphs (4%): The rarest of the three varieties of Cursed humans, pedomorphs are condemned to spend their entire lives in the form of a child. They can age themselves into roughly their mid-teens, but pushing it further than that will eventually cause them to revert back to the form of a toddler. The only people who take this Curse are those who are terrified of aging or those who are paying homage to heroic ancestors who bore this Curse.

Vampires (2%): While they make up only a small percentage of the City’s population, these blood-sucking undead wield a great deal of social, economic and political power. The Vampire Queen has used her children to create a worldwide corporate empire, providing a wide variety of services both legal and illicit. All vampires are bound into a rigid hierachy of dominance and submission, from the newest Childe all the way up to the Vampire Queen herself. While they are not necessarily evil, vampires are usually selfish and decadent. They form uncontrollable telepathic bonds with the people they feed on, and sometimes this can drive them insane.

Elves (1%): Natives of the eastern realm of Quenardya, Elves are a tall, beautiful race for whom wizardry comes as naturally as walking. Most of them prefer to stay close to the forests of their homeland, but sometimes the younger Elves become restless and set out to see the rest of the world. They are a wise and even-tempered people with a deep connection to nature, but they sometimes come across as proud and condescending in their dealings with the shorter-lived races.

Other (2%): Some of the inhabitants of Metamor City don’t fall into any of the usual categories. They may be dragons in disguise, or Faeries exiled from the Dreamlands, or merfolk using magic to exchange their tails for legs. The only sure thing about life in Metamor City is that there’s never a shortage of surprises…

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