Ancestries of Aroka

For the majority of Aroka's recorded history, Anthropes have been the dominant sapients of Aroka. In the earlier segments of history, references to ancestries distinct from Anthropes are sparsely recorded, suggesting that they are the remnants of a people that preceded the Anthropes with there being occasional reports of such peoples being encountered deep within the wilderness. These other peoples are often referred to as Ancients and are considered extinct or at least gravely endangered in the modern era.

This Anthrope dominance shifted after the First Firefall, the War of Ashes, and the Age of Ice. When the Anthropes returned to the thawing surface and entered the Age of Reclamation, they found two new ancestries along with a host of creatures that, while sharing a resemblance to many of the creatures common on Aroka during the Age of Ascension, were distinctly different. These two new ancestries were the Dryn and the Varyn. Additionally, small populations of beings considered to be remerged Ancients, or at least the long lost decedents of Ancients, have also emerged. These are often called the Reclaimers as their culture and history suggests that their connection to the Ancients may be stronger than hypothesized.

Ancients

While little is known of these peoples, most reports suggest that the only shared feature between the half dozen proposed sub-ancestries is that they all possess six limbs. There seems to be diversity as to what these limbs constitute, with some being a mixture of arms, legs, and even wings, though the scarcity of reports and unreliability of the narrators makes this difficult to asses the truth of. A distinction that is agreed upon is that Ancients are not to be confused with Sect, which is a sub-ancestry of Anthrope.

Anthropes

Anthropes predominantly defined by being bipedal sapient variants of animals found throughout The World of Aroka. They are divided into sub-ancestries called based on a variety of similarities, with some focused on their species, such as Cat-Kin, Hare-Kin, and Turtle-Kin, while others focus on an shared environment, feature, or mannerism, such as Deep-Folk, Feather-Folk, and Prowl-Folk. These classifications leave a lot of room for interpretation and have countless exceptions, so how exactly it is applied will vary from areas and communities.

An interesting facet of Anthropes is that there are no recorded instances of one dying of old age. For most of history, this was though to be just due to how dangerous life on Aroka was, preventing anyone from living long enough to enter old age as they had observed many animals of Aroka do. However, as the world became more civilized and the fight for daily survival became a memory of the past, it became clear that Anthropes seemed to stop aging after reaching full maturity. Even at the end of the Age of Ascension, individuals that had lived for millennia seemed no closer to death than those that had only lived for only a couple of decades.

This did not prevent time from taking its toll on the long-lived, however. Accidents, battles, and sicknesses still left a scar on their biology, which, if accumulated enough, could lead to a death due to health complications. This resulted in those that lived very safe and uneventful lives to be effectively immortal while those that did not or were unable to secure I life of safety dying at much younger ages. After the First Firefall, the world once again became one in which everyone had to fight daily for survival and the exceptionally long-lived became a true rarity.

Anthrope-Beast

Just as Kin is used to loosely group Anthropes of a shared species and Folk does the same for Anthropes that share an environment, feature, or mannerism, Beast is used to describe rare instances where there is a mix between the purely animalistic variant of the creature and the bipedal sapient variant. This can range from a creature with the intellectual capabilities of a sapient Anthrope to an Anthrope that is more animalistic than the majority of its counterparts. Such cases most often occur among smaller tribes where cooperation is crucial for daily survival, leading to the creation of communities where the Anthropes and their animal counterparts live and work together, leading to the occasional creation of a Beast of the corresponding Anthrope, such as Cat-Beast, Hare-Beast, or Turtle-Beast.

Some scholars suggest that this phenomena was more common in the earlier portions of history, but that the rise of civilization led to dominance of pure Anthropes, allowing them to drift genetically from their more animalistic counterparts to the point where interbreeding is rarely successful in the modern era.

Sect

Sect are a sub-ancestry of Anthropes that are the sapient variants of arachnids, bugs, insects, and other similar creatures. Unlike the rest of the Anthropes, they are not limited to having only four limbs or being bipedal and will often have six or eight limbs based on their ancestry, though they still often have a somewhat upright posture. This category includes Beetle-Kin, Scorpion-Kin, and Spider-Kin. Sect typically make up the majority of Deep-Folk as they often live underground, whether due to it being their natural habitat or due to choosing to live beneath the earth to avoided conflict with surface Anthropes.

Bryd

Bryd are not very well defined beyond that they don't fit into any of Anthrope Kins. In most cases, they are the offspring of Anthropes from different Kins and inherited enough features of each to not fit in with either. This is a rare occurrence as it is not common for Anthropes of different Kins to produce offspring, even less so with an Anthrope and a non-Anthrope. Depending on the society, these individuals can be revered as exceptional individuals destined for greatness, just another member of the community, or a bad omen that must be cast out or risk the wellness of the group. with the first and last of these being far more common. This results in most Bryds having unique lives, whether for better or worse.

Dryn

At the dawn of the Age of Reclamation, when the Anthropes emerged from the earth onto a thawing world, the Dryn were one of the two new ancestries they encountered. Where they came from is unknown, but some of their tribes' earliest historic records seem to begin near the end of the Age of Ice, documenting how small communities woke up to frozen world that nearly pushed them to extinction.

While also bipedal and sapient, Dryn do not possess any dominant animalistic features. While many sub-ancestries of Dryn have fangs, claws, and even some fur, they lack any features that would allow them to be mistaken as Anthropes. Their faces are also notably flatter than most Anthropes, not possessing any beaks, bills, muzzles, or snouts, nor do they have digitigrade legs like many Anthropes.

Ahedyn

There is one exception to the Dryn that is often overlooked. Ahedyn are very similar to Dryn and are often mistaken as Dryn even by those that know that there are records of them existing on Aroka long before the modern era. While there is variety among Ahedyn just as there are among Dryn, the one distinguishing feature in all cases is that Ahedyn possess digitigrade legs, though this characteristic is so minimized in some Ahedyn sub-ancestries that most would not notice it if they weren't told to look for it. This puts these people in an odd position where they can potentially blend into Dryn societies, but this is not a common occurrence as most Ahedyn live in reclusive communities deep in the wilderness.

Varyn

The other ancestry that was unheard of prior to the Age of Ice are the Varyn. These beings a truly mysterious, having been reported to take on numerous shapes and sizes, so much so that some question whether or not grouping all of them together under one ancestry is inaccurate. The only commonalities between then reported encounters is that they are scaled and possess strange, seemingly magical abilities. This does lead many to mistake them a Lizard-Folk of Scale-Kin, allowing them to live without issue in those communities, though they still often end up being somewhat of a misfit. In any case, there are very few reports of Varyn being encountered in groups of more than two, with the majority of them seemingly traveling alone. They also seem to never stay in the same place for long, stopping only briefly communities just long enough to ask some questions and then depart.

Others

Any beings that do not fit into any of the other categories are called Others. These individuals are few and far between, leading all but the most knowledgeable to not even be aware of their existence. The majority of accounts of considered mere exaggeration or outright fabrication, but for those that have traveled enough of the world or at least taken the time to compile the stories of those that have, it seems that there is some element of truth to most of these stories, suggesting that Aroka is home to far stranger beings than most are aware of.