entaurs represent an ancient, magical—possibly fey—cross between elven or human stock and various equines. They come in various sizes and shapes; their equine lower bodies can be slender and deer-like, or, more commonly, horse or zebra-like. They are man-shaped above the waist, but their color here is no more uniform than below, varying from the palest colors to deep brown.

Centaurs seem to have inherited both a tendency to be herbivorous (though at need they can eat meat) and a generally moral nature from their parent races. Though there are exceptions, most centaurs find themselves far more attuned to their surroundings than men, and certainly more so than the dark races. It is therefore quite unsurprising that they seem especially suited to professions such as rangers and druids.

warves are relatively short, stocky, and powerfully-built creatures. Long-lived and extremely sturdy, they are as well-known for their hardiness as for their cantankerous personalities. Their thick, stout frames lend them poor dexterity, but high strength and stamina. Some of the most renowned warriors and paladins have been dwarven; their inherent stubbornness allows even those with a less martial bent to go berserk.

Dwarves average just under four feet in height, with thick, fur-covered torsos and limbs and generally dusky complexions. Male and female dwarves alike proudly wear and take pride in their beards.

nomes, distant relatives of dwarves, are one of the most diminutive races found on the Surface, smaller even than hobbits. The most distinctive feature of a gnome is his enormous nose; the size of a gnome's nose is a matter of status among his fellows, and one is proud to boast of having the largest. Gnomes tend to have brownish skin and pale hair, though this can vary; their eyes may be any hue.

Gnomes have fairly strong racial ties to nature and tend to live in rural or woodland communities when among their own people, though some groups, clearly closer to their dwarven cousins, eschew the woods in favor of caves. Those gnomes who leave their settlements to adventure often follow the path of the ranger, drawn to explore the wild places of the world.

Unlike dwarves, gnomes are a fairly magical race, almost as imbued with mystical power as elves. They are more specialized, however, than the elves, concentrating on the illusory arts of the shadowmage. As with most races, they also have clerics who can wield holy magics granted by the Gods.

he half-elves are an oft-hated race by their mother races, the elves and the humans. Though humans tolerate the half-elves more than elves, they are considered outcasts to the realms, bastards at best and half-men at worst. Half-elves resemble elves more than humans, with delicate features and distinctly elven eyes and ears. They also, however, have much that comes from their human heritage, and are often better built and stockier than elves, and occasionally have facial hair.

Though there may be a few exceptions, half-elves seem to have inherited a moral nature and a longer life span than humans as well as other qualities generally associated with the elven race. They are more in harmony with the land they live on than most men, making them adept rangers and druids, while their dexterity allows others to follow the path of the cutpurse.

alf-giants, as the name suggests, are the result of breeding between humans and the giant races, and combine the varied coloring of humans with the sheer size and ferocity of true giants. These brutes are the tallest and most muscular of all the Surface races, exhibiting astounding strength and endurance, but their mental gifts are far more limited; half-giants are slow of wit and low in finesse, preferring violent action to negotiation or thought. Half-giants are found in a variety of climates, but chiefly in the hot deserts of the west, near the great city of Teron.

Due to their considerable physical prowess and lack of mental talent, it should not be surprising that almost all half-giants follow the path of arms, becoming warriors or barbarians. Half-giants are the most restricted in class options of all the Surface races, but make up for it by being devastating fighters.

igh elves are among the oldest of the races of the Surface, with a long and rich history and culture, although their numbers, power, and influence have been in decline in recent centuries with the rise of humankind on the Surface. Physically, high elves tend to be more slender than humans, with characteristic pointed ears and slightly slanted eyes. They are usually more dextrous, but somewhat lacking in strength and toughness compared to humankind. They are mostly pale of skin but have a variety of hair and eye colors.

Mentally, high elves are highly gifted. Most high elves are keenly intelligent, and the greatest among them easily transcend any human in intellectual capacity. High elves were the teachers and mentors of the high men, the first forebears of humans, and to a lesser extent of some of the common human strains. They maintain a usually close relationship with dwarves, although not without occasional disagreement or conflict, and similarly with their wood elf cousins; although certain high elves may sneer at the wood elves' comparative lack of culture, overall their two kindreds are close allies, especially in view of the ongoing threat from the third elven kindred, the drow of the Underdark. High elves have their share of bigots just as any other race, but overall tend to be the most cosmopolitan of the elven kindreds, equally at home in the forests beloved by their wood elven kin, or in cities, whether of their own building or that of their dwarf and high man allies.

High elves are among the most magical of the Surface races, outclassed in the sorcerous arts only by sprites. High elves make talented mages and clerics, and occasionally also druids—though not as frequently as their wood elven kin—and have some more limited talent in the illusory magics of the shadowmage profession. Despite their comparatively low strength and constitution, their high dexterity enables them to develop some talent as warriors, at least with ranged weapons and certain mêlée weapons—their general preferences are for swords and spears rather than the less elegant bludgeoning weapons. Occasionally, as with wood elves or half-elves, a high elf may be drawn to the thieving arts; such folk are usually renegades or outcasts, unwelcome in high elven society.

igh men are the elder race of humans, precursors to the common mass of humanity that covers much of the Surface world today. Once masters of a mighty civilization and close allies to the elven and dwarven kindreds, today high men are a race in retreat, their culture a shadow of its former greatness and their numbers steadily dwindling as common humans spread and intermarriage blurs the old racial divisions.

Physically, high men tend to be slightly taller and more muscular than common humans, this physique yielding them notable strength and endurance at the cost of slightly reduced agility. In coloring, high men generally have light skin and dark hair, though intermarriage with both the newer humans and the elf races can vary this. Culturally, high men have a strong affinity toward good, probably to some extent a product of elven influence on the early years of their development, and are quite magic-oriented. The noble paladins, so rare among other races, are more numerous among this people than any other. High man culture holds little room for stealth or duplicity, and none at all for evil, leaving the classes of shadowmage, thief, and antipaladin forbidden, though some of the most terrible inquisitors known have been fallen high man paladins.

obbits are a wee folk, only ranging between three and four feet in stature. Their hair tends to be curly, with the same colors found among humans. In fact, excepting their feet, hobbits are quite similar in appearance to humans, just on a smaller scale. On the top of each foot grows a curly mass of hair, and no hobbit will wear shoes or boots of any kind, instead ornamenting their toes with a variety of rings. Fortunately, they have developed extraordinarily tough feet and can walk over rocky ground with ease.

Hobbits are a friendly and easygoing people, valuing good conversation second only to a good meal. As a result, most hobbits have a bit of a pot belly, but their society as a whole feels a round belly is a mark of dignity. They are very friendly and tend to be very helpful, and can almost always be found wearing a smile. They are usually wary of strangers at first, but once they relax they will happily chat for hours. There is little or no magic about them, except whatever enchantment helps them to disappear quietly and quickly in the woods, utilizing an innate affinity for both nature and the earth. As a result, they choose to live in happy valleys and rolling hillsides, away from the bustle of a big city, making comfortable homes out of cozy burrows in the earth. While adventurers among their kind are rare, hobbits are a very strong-willed people, who, when forced to fight, can do so with surprising intensity and vigor.

umans are by far the most populous race in all the Surface realms. They are versatile, hard-working creatures who excel at just about any task they put their hand to. Humans are also a diverse race, encompassing a greater variety of sizes, shapes and colors than most other races. Most are omnivorous, but some are herbivores by choice. The latter points to the many different beliefs of humans—they have the potential to do enormous good or vilest evil. They do, however, have a choice—they are not inherently driven by base desires or instincts.

As a race, humans are clever and can easily adapt to just about any environment. They are also good students, able to develop a multitude of useful skills. As a result, humans can choose just about any profession.

Some of the largest and most prominent cities and nations of the Surface world are inhabited solely or mainly by humans, and many other nations include at least some human component. This is not to say that humans dominate the Surface—certainly not in the way that the drow dominate the Underdark—but, united, they can exert considerable influence on events of the world. Sadly, the human species is rarely united: rivalries and even open conflicts between tribes, nations, or cities are more widespread among them than among many other Surface races such as dwarves or elves.

Humans may occasionally be found also as slaves in the Underdark, captured by drow on their infrequent raids against the Surface world. This is uncommon, since humans are not preferred as slaves by the dark elves due to their comparatively short lifespans, and do not have the history of conflict with the drow that the dwarves and Surface elves do. Those humans who do exist as slaves in Aluhryn or other cities of the Underdark have had their spirits thoroughly broken and cannot be played as player characters.

hether lizard-men are a naturally evolved race of intelligent lizards or the result of a mad god's experiment is unclear. What is clear is that these bipedal lizards have entrenched themselves deeply in the ecology of the Surface, carving out niches in swamps, jungles, and other wetlands. Lizard-men are possessed of both fearful strength and frightening speed, making them efficient and skillful warriors and thieves. They lack the refined intelligence required to work intricate magic, but do have a certain affinity for their gods, allowing them to employ clerical prayers with some degree of effectiveness.

Lizard-men average about six feet in height. Their head, backs, and limbs are covered with fine scales approximately a quarter inch across. These are tough and help protect them from attack. Coloration of the scales varies greatly—varieties include dusty brown, yellowish green, olive green, and forest green.

A lizard-man's chest and stomach is fleshy, not scaled, and is generally a slightly lighter shade than the rest of his body. Their heads are flat and contain thick eye ridges to help protect their highly sensitive eyes, which have a second set of translucent eyelids to protect their vision in bright light.

inotaurs are a bestial race of half-human, half-bull appearance. Their heads are bovine, with powerful goring horns, while their bodies appear human, though more powerfully muscled than most humans and covered in coarse hair, usually dark-colored. Minotaurs are found in a variety of environments and climates. Tales abound of minotaurs inhabiting strange subterranean labyrinths.

Minotaurs are very strong and tough, but a little clumsy. Their mental capabilities are less impressive; they are generally known as among the least wise and intelligent of the races, though due to their physical prowess few would say so to a minotaur's face. However, their senses are surprisingly sharp: hearing, smell, and above all, sight. Minotaurs can see further, and with greater accuracy, even than elves, although they lack the elven ability to see into the infrared spectrum.

uls are the result of the coupling of a dwarf and human. Muls have existed since their two parent races first came into contact with each other, but have never been common. They tend to stand as tall as their human parent, but retain the build and proportions of a dwarf, weighing an average of three hundred pounds, all muscle. Due to the limited compatibility between the two races, all muls are hairless and genderless.

The personalities of most muls usually reflect their dwarvish parent. They tend to live apart from their progenitors because of the inherent biases most races have against their half-breed nature. Muls have, over the time of their self-imposed exiles, become gruff and tend toward violent reactions, living out their lives in hatred and spite. One of the major inheritances from their dwarven heritage is that they are tenacious fighters with stamina for battle matching that of a dwarf on occasion.

he sahuagin are a brutal race of predatory fish-men. These ruthless beings dwell in intricate caves in the sides of large crevasses in the floor of the Dragon Sea. Sahuagin raid villages on shore and ships at sea for food and supplies. They kill for fun and eat anything they can take down. Sahuagin males have been known to eat their own young as hatchlings due to deformity or other ailment.

Sahuagin typically have deep green or blue scales and black fins. They have large, lidless, yellow or red eyes and webbed fingers and toes that end in vicious claws. There is little way for an outsider to discern the sex of a sahuagin, though females tend to be slightly smaller.

atyrs are a race of half-man, half-goat bipeds. Carefree, fun-loving children of nature, satyrs' heads, torso, and arms are human, while they have the hind legs of a goat. Their heads are adorned by a pair of short, sharp horns poking through their thick hair. Satyrs' skin tone ranges from nut-brown to fair to bright red; their hair and furred legs range from deep brown to red. Their hooves and horns are typically black. Satyrs are exclusively male, and most wear beards.

Bands of satyrs frolic in the forests, frequently playing flutes and dancing joyously. These happy creatures are known to have a good relationship with their centaur cousins. They also spend a lot of time chasing comely dryads and wood nymphs. Satyrs are the epitome of nature's carefree ways.

Satyrs' empathy with nature makes them among the wisest of the races. They are also very graceful and agile, and able to strike their opponents with uncanny speed, whether with fist, weapon, or hoof.

prites are the smallest and weakest of all the Surface races, but the most mentally and magically gifted, outclassing even the elves. More than any other race, they truly deserve the label of faerie that the drow of the Underdark use as a generalization for all Surface races, being no more than a foot in height with gossamer wings protruding from their backs. Sprites are usually pale of skin—though not always—and can have just about any hair and eye color imaginable.

Sprites are not a numerous species, due to both a low birth rate and their physical frailty. The only region in the Surface world where they are found in great number is the Faerie Kingdom. However, many sprites are possessed of a powerful curiosity and wanderlust, and thus leave Faerie to travel the world. Sprites are poor physical fighters, being too weak of musculature to deal out much damage to an enemy and lacking the endurance to take much damage in return, but their excellent dexterity—matched on the Surface only by hobbits—together with their wings give them a heightened ability to dodge enemy blows. All sprites are expert fliers and indeed will more often fly than walk, especially outside of Faerie, as most outland structures are made for much larger creatures.

Sprites are renowned as the most intelligent and intellectual of all the races, Surface and Underdark alike. No other race matches their intellectual accomplishments, though the high elves and gnomes of the Surface and the drow of the Underdark all share second place. This long-lived people also tend to demonstrate the wisdom that comes with great age and experience, unlike the more impetuous elves. Sprites are an inherently magical race and almost all sprites have at least some spell-casting aptitude. They are usually inclined toward good, although neutral and even rare evil sprites are also known.

ritons are merfolk, denizens of the seas, but able to venture forth upon land at need. They are a proud, prickly, easily-offended people, but for all that, are generally aligned toward the powers of good, and are staunch foes of the vile sahuagin. Neutral and evil tritons are known, but comparatively rare, and usually exiled from triton society upon discovery.

Physically, tritons are of similar height to humans and elves, but very different in anatomy and coloring, as one might expect from a race that spends much of its time in the oceans. They are bipedal like humans, but both legs are finned to aid in their swimming, and scaled, usually in a silver or blue shade, occasionally green. Above the waist, tritons more closely resemble well-muscled humans, often with long hair and elaborately curled beards.

Tritons' superior musculature enables them to do well as warriors. They are also more magically gifted than many of the other, more exotic races, and can become powerful mages. The most wise and devout of goodly tritons may find great power as pious clerics or noble paladins.

ood elves are a reclusive breed of elves that have isolated themselves from their cousins, preferring the natural surroundings of forest land or wilderness to more populated areas. Short but solidly built, they average five feet three inches and a hundred forty pounds, have slightly pointed ears and sharply tilted eyes, and significantly greater strength than other elves due to their lifestyle of hunting and gathering food for their families.

Wood elves have adapted to their outdoor lifestyle well, their skin having a slightly darker complexion than other elves. They are a simple, nature-loving race at heart, but are by no means helpless treehuggers. Although generally peaceful, they will protect themselves fiercely if threatened, and are unafraid to kill should it prove necessary.

Due to their love of the land, they are well-suited to the ranger and druid classes, but are allowed a wide choice of others due to their varied skills and abilities.