Races & Peoples of Loryn

In Loryn, what is remembered, exists. Peoples aren’t biology in funny hats; they are cultures and bodies shaped by memory, song, and stone. This page groups the mortal civilisations and the non-human or altered peoples your stories will meet.

Mortal Civilisations

Not “races” in the genetic sense; these are the three great cultures defined by how they hold memory.

Thalyssi

City-state scholars who weaponise archives; some elites engrave ledger-veins for quick recall.

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  • Gift: documentary precision in ritual and law.
  • Cost: forgery scars are a social death.
  • Hook: curators want Llyra’s song sealed or stolen.

Korrvaini

Empire of Lineage; bone-beads carry ancestor chains that stiffen courage on campaign.

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  • Gift: unshakeable cohesion when the chain holds.
  • Cost: prove a gap, crack an empire.
  • Hook: a young heir travels with a missing bead.

Veyrni

Storm Archipelago; leadership remembered by consensus; sailors stitch soundmarks into skin and sail.

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  • Gift: long-reach chant relays across water.
  • Cost: federations split over omens and songs.
  • Hook: our Storm-Marked courier can sing a message past a gale.

Non-human & Altered Peoples

Each born of memory’s laws. Clear silhouettes; gifts and costs baked into the world’s metaphysics.

Stonewrought

Quarried folk with slate skin and hairline script; they recall perfectly what is inscribed.

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  • Gift: self-repair by re-carving; near-perfect recall of carved memory.
  • Cost: erosion erases identity; tampering rewrites them.
  • Hook: a scribe defects to keep Llyra’s name true.

Echofolk

Stabilised survivors of the Rot; cast two shadows; can tune to the most shared version of events.

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  • Gift: peel lies apart in council; sense consensus memory.
  • Cost: identity drift if a town rewrites them.
  • Hook: propaganda courts them; they want a life.

Namesworn

Oath-bound mortals scarred with True Names; borrow a fragment of what the Name governs.

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  • Gift: river-names grant endurance; hearth-names steady morale; etc.
  • Cost: overwrite can subsume the self.
  • Hook: a Curator’s agent bears a dangerous shard-name.

Blinkborn

Veil-touched from blink districts; freckles like starmaps; reflections lag a heartbeat.

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  • Gift: step into a place’s remembered layout for heartbeats.
  • Cost: if forgotten in panic, they may slip and not return.
  • Hook: prized by Veyrn crews, feared by Korrvain temples.

Tide-Marked

Storm-kin tuned to waterborne memory; salt-silver irises; tattooed soundmarks.

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  • Gift: carry chants across waves; feel currents in crowds.
  • Cost: land-sickness far from moving water.
  • Hook: perfect courier; terrible courtier.

God-shard Bearers

Rare hosts for a grain of an erased god-name; reality edits ripple subtly around them.

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  • Gift: small domain-specific edits to reality.
  • Cost: the Veil notices; so do things that want out.
  • Hook: one antagonist or tragic ally can tilt a whole arc.

Notes & Glossary

Terminology appears across world pages for consistency.

  • Veil: living lattice of remembrance sealing gods; fraying in patches.
  • Rot: corruption born of false or clashing memories; spawns half-real hazards.
  • Weavers: bind memory into objects, places, oaths.
  • True Names: invite return; older names carry heavier cost.