Brainstorming Darkroot Races

Treeland Races Overview: The organized, sentient people of Treeland. All of them have strong buildings and industry, not the same as simple tribal creatures.

Minotaurs: Big horns, bull-like people. Wield large axes or hammers. Possibly symbolize Wrath, charging headfirst and taking things personally. However, they also like to build mazes.

Humans

Humans: Humans are blank slates, and can choose what to do far more than the other races. They take many different stances, however many end up as knights for semi-opposing orders.

Order of Necromancers Normalizing Death: A necromantic order. They do not fear death, and do not believe in throwing the dead away from society. They live in their graveyards, tombs, and crypts, being as close to death as they are with life. They care for their dead, both in spirit and physically.

One of the biggest organizations of humans.

Death Knights: Using necromantic rituals and tools, they have become practically immortal and evil. Sealed within their armor, they cannot leave it without risking death, and it depends on how long they have gone without leeching life. When they have fed, they look almost human, and when nearing the end, they resemble shriveled, walking corpses. Their weapons can leech life as they attack and inflict wounds, and using their armor, they can forcibly absorb life from a weakened foe, leaving them a mere husk of what they were, which is then often reanimated under said knight's command.

Grave Knights/ Coffin Bearers: These strange men are armored and use coffins as protection. They wear the main coffin on their back as protection, using the heavy lid as a shield, and a war shovel as their main weapon.

Gnolls

Gnolls: Only the hardiest scavengers can eek out a living wandering the tree, and these do so. Hyena based, they are strongly matriarchal, the women often growing twice or thrice as tall as the men. They have a mishmash of gear, scavenged from all parts of the Tree's domain.

They do not stay in one place for long, and several scattered packs pick through trash and refuse of the land, but always wish to get fresh meat to harvest.

Essentially wild versions of the Meenlocks, showing off their ability to collect weapons and armor as well and somewhat levelling with the horde as better areas, better gear, stronger Gnoll fighters.

Lizardfolk

Lizardfolk: They exist here. What they do is a question. Possibly miners, tunneling into the rich rock the Tree has grown over.

Some might tame wyverns and turn themselves into wyvern riders. One of the heroes, maybe even the lizardfolk hero, is a Wyvern Rider.

Wyvern Riders: This is a large subsect of Lizardfolk, who live with giant dragonlike beings called wyverns. They live in huge rocky outcroppings and survey large swathes of area from a dragon's eye view.

Sacrifices: The Lizardfolk maintain large temples where they capture other species, focusing on humans, to either sacrifice to their gods or turn into new Lizardfolk... somehow.

Trees of life: The Lizardfolk find themselves connected to a specific set of fog trees, making sure they are well cared for. The Lizardfolk might be creations of said trees, shaped to be humanoid and mobile.

Dwarves

Dwarves: They create beer, live underground, have Egyptian style clothing and armor, and grow beards. They live underground due to being in a scorching hot desert. They mostly cling to massive water sources.

They make a thick beer broth to energize and intoxicate themselves. Bread was a mistake in the brewing process. Hell, basically everything was made from beer making accidents.

Mead Hall: A simple area where Dwarves gather to drink mead in vast quantities. There is one tower relic here, hence why the Rootlord and his Meenlocks will pay a visit here.

Dwarven Beer Deity: A Deity or group of them focused around the brewing and consuming of alcohol. Probably says alcohol is a gift from the gods. It has a dark side, probably some demons or bad things representing getting wasted and hangovers.

Dwarf Units

Miner: .

Crossbowman: .

Bomber/ Bomb Thrower: .

Flamer: .

Brewmaster: .

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Elves

Elves: Gloomy tree people. Technically walking trees who look incredibly humanoid. Tend to live by one tree their entire lives.

They live in tune with nature, growing massive forests and trees. They tend to live in abodes constructed around trees for several generations. They are fairly long lived, possibly even growing into new trees when they die, though they also have extensive catacombs.

Rock Giants

Rock Crab Magma Giants: Large, foreboding giants seemingly carved from rock, with glowing eyes, a rocky body, and a hunger for rocks themselves. They often dig tunnels and mine, however they also are used as heavy soldiers and guards. They have some crab like characteristics, most notably a sort of shell. Some higher up ones develop a large horn on their head, potentially for ramming and shows of dominance. When newly born, they require a lot of rock in their formative years to develop the rockier outer shell the adults enjoy. For this, they often find themselves travelling, alone or with family or friends. They are part worm, developing their outer shell over their lives and often a sign of long life and wisdom. Rock shining and rock care are an important part of their culture, often crafting elaborate sculptures out of rock.

Rock Giants have a solid biology. They have a wide head, with 4 eyes in total, two on each side of what is a middle head crest. Some rock giants keep a smooth, rocky head crest, while others develop a large horn. This outer shell takes years to develop, however, and is an easy indication of how old one is based on the thickness of the rock. They often will roam a bit, finding which rocks taste the best, but can subsist on normal food or even lava itself. They also have some crystal growths in them. They grow large and strong, but not as dexterous as the smaller beings.

Despite their hunger for rocks, they also care for rocks. Rock smoothing and shaping is a decent part of their culture, taking pride in slowly shaping rocks. They also have developed a love for bowling, forming rocks specifically for it. However, being that their bowling balls are often huge compared to humans and their foes, bowling away their enemies is a well-known tactic, although the potential damage to the bowling ball limits this tactic. Instead of bowling balls, they often use large 2-handed weapons that value strength, such as hammers and maces.

They tend to speak in low rumbles. Their native language is the language of the earth, rumbling through the dirt and rock almost as easily as through the air.

Rock Giant Rock Star: He has exaggerated shoulder pads, a large set of sunglasses secured to his face, and some kind of somewhat scrapped together musical performance gear. He plays a large electric guitar with the main power source on his back. The guitar is frighteningly out of place, with rock music being likely far in the future. However, this former hero doesn't care, and plays it anyway. He blasts away rock and enemies with killer guitar moves and exploding amps. His guitar is heavily reinforced, based on an old weapon with the guitar parts attached. He can slam it down like a hammer to produce a shockwave.

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