"The mountain does not rise by mercy, nor does it fall by regret. We were born of fire and stone — and we will return to it before we bow."

— Elder Fangbrood Arh'Zakhan

📎 Quick Reference

🧠 Overview

🎨 Physical Traits

What do they generally look like? Common features, exceptions, quirks?

• Height: 6'5" – 7'0" (196–213 cm)
• Build: Muscular, powerful; visibly strong even when resting
• Complexion: Ranging from grey, bronze and copper to muted earthy tones, and common skin colors from ivory to deep brown.
• Eyes: Vibrant and capable of glowing. Gold, orange, emerald, cobalt and more. Usually matches the color of their magic
• Hair: Usually dark shades like black, dark brown, deep red but can also be silver or grey.
• Distinct Features:
• Horns or antlers
• Scale patterns on shoulders, back and forearms
• Tails, claws, fangs, pointed ears
• Sometimes smells faintly of stone, smoke, brimstone or earth, especially after shifting

⚔️ Racial Strengths

(Optional — for roleplay flavor only, not stats)

• Dense bones, thick muscles and scaled skin gives them exceptional durability to injury, fatigue and extreme environments
• Danhilians have natural resistance to raw elemental magic—especially ones their affinity matches. (E.g. a lightning wyvern danhilian will have a massive resistance to lightning elemental magic)
• Danhilians have the endurance of wyverns, allowing them to exert themselves longer than other races before being stopped by exhaustion. This allows them to fight, march or build for days without significant rest
• Outside of full wyvern form, Danhilians can instinctively enhance parts of their body during moments of stress or in battle. (E.g. hardening skin into scale-like armor)

🎭 Cultural Identity

The Danhilians of Caer’dan are fierce and proud. They value strength, wisdom and honor. Their society is meritocratic—rather than status being determined by birthright, it is determined by strength through trials and achievements, as well as age, size and power.

Despite their beastly forms, Danhilians are extremely civil, intelligent and take pride in culture, metalcraft, and architecture. Their cities are carved directly into mountainsides and cliffs. They are structured, artistic, and have innovative engineering to solve problems

Danhilians are not just brutes. Despite their physical might, they value knowledge, music, storytelling and law. They are more likely to settle conflict through debate and diplomacy than brute force.

Males tend to be larger than females, but females are usually fiercer and more protective. There is no patriarchy or monarchy, and any gender of Danhilian is as likely to be among the different ranks of power. Any power can be unseated, including the Goldfang, supposing that the challenger is strong enough. Those who are challenged, and lose either die in battle or become “Stonefallen.” These formal challenges are based out of honor and respect and is not very common. These challenges are witnessed by elder.

See below for the structure of Danhilian society.

🌍 Region of Origin

The Danhilians come from Caer’dan, a mountainous northern region flecked with ancient fortresses, caves and the Caer’dan mountain range, the “Spine of Caer’dan”. Even before the Malvigo D’arim, its landscape was uninhabitable by humans, with its treacherous cliffs, narrow passes, unpredictable paths and unfriendly environment. Caer’dan is extremely hot in the summers and dangerously cold in winter. The mountains have forged the Danhilians into resilient, strong and prideful beasts.

📖 History

The Danhilians are Children of Hladamor. They are the first race of the Hladari, created to be the dark Arcanum’s thesis in endurance and power. They are a race created to be instinct and intellect—contemplative predators. Hladamor created the Danhilians with the intention of creating the ultimate being. They were to be forged in fire—and the uninhabitable mountains of Caer’dan were the crucible. Although they looked like beasts, they are sapient, willful creatures—wyverns with the intellect of man, able to take on a human form for diplomacy and convenience.

In the early ages, the Danhilians were very isolated, focused on surviving the harsh environment as they hollowed out the mountains and carved their fortresses from cliff walls. It was Hladamor’s intention that they would be created stronger through the hardships of surviving the mountains, and he was right. It made them hardy, resilient and created a race of intelligent, powerful creatures. However, Hladamor’s success in designing a race of strength made them fiercely independent—too independent to control and too strong to make obey. The Danhilians were meant to be his monument to endurance, to be indomitable, and they were.

When Hladamor’s ambitions shifted toward conquest—gathering the Hladari to march on the Etharim in the Malvigo D’arim—he expected his most powerful creation to answer the call.

The Danhilians stood divided. Most of the Danhilians saw no honor in Hladamor’s war and believed it to be a perversion of their purpose. It wasn’t a test of might, it was a tantrum; greed, vitriol and bitterness. There was nothing to gain from it, as far as they were concerned.

Hladamor was furious. Not because they disobeyed him, but because they revealed a flaw in his design. He had made them too strong, honed them too well with his philosophy of hardship, and they would not follow him down a path he had not earned.

However, a handful of them saw it as the final crucible—a chance to prove that the fires of suffering had made them strong. Two Fangbroods, Vaelrhaz and Zharukk, believed that the Malvigo D’arim was a sacred trial—a proving ground. They believed that the war would cull the weak and create an unbreakable age of only the strongest. Four clans loyal to these Fangbroods followed: Korravhal, Sylak’thar, Varkozh, and Druvakkar.

This internal split of ideals led to the Shattering of the Fangbrood, a brutal civil battle isolated within Caer’dan. Entire peaks were destroyed in combat between drakes of unimaginable power. It was during this conflict that Zharukk, one of the Fangbroods in favor of the war, challenged and killed the Goldfang, Virrik the Red. There was nothing left to debate, no other Danhilian capable or willing to challenge Zharukk.

Although several years late, the Danhilians did eventually join the Hladari armies. However, they were fractured and disunited, their numbers far fewer than expected. Many of their powerful elders and ancients were killed in the Shattering, leaving mostly fledglings and young wyverns to fight in the war.

The loss of the Malvigo D’arim devastated the Danhilians. Their population was halved. Their unity was shattered and their pride was deeply wounded. Those that remained either retreated back to Caer’dan and declared isolation or were among those enslaved or taken prisoner by the Etharim. They remained this way until the establishment of the Nova Mir Empire, where the newly crowned Emperor, Lucien Benedict, decalred the Aureate Trials, marking what would later become known as the Age of Judgement. After the Pact of Reclamation, 22 years later, non-combatant Danhilians were freed, granting them the chance to swear loyalty to the Empire and Ethestes. Amnesty was offered to those who aided in building Farus or contributed to the wellbeing of society.

Some of the freed Danhilians fled home to Caer’dan as soon as they could, but others did their best to integrate to this new world. Many adopted Etharim culture and customs, changing their names, swearing oaths of loyalty to the Empire and Ethestes, and some even joined the military, clergy or Crownreach Charter to prove their commitment to peace.

🧬 Racial Affinity / Unique Trait

Danhilians are a proud race of wyverns. They are massive, powerful creatures who posses the innate ability to take on a human form for the sake of diplomacy, civility and coexistence. When they are in their wyvern form, they boast immense physical strength, natural flight, devastating elemental breath weapons and thick, near impenetrable scale-plated hides which are resistant to both magic and physical damage. In human form, they retain these strengths in much subtler ways, like enhanced endurance and minor elemental traits such as fire-warmed skin or stone-hardened fists.

Shifting between forms is painful and exhausting, requiring magic, stamina and focus, however maintaining either form comes at no cost. In wyvern form, Danhilians can range from horse-sized to fortress-sized, depending on how powerful they are both magically and physically. The more Sahan within themselves, the bigger and more powerful they are.

At such great sizes, both in wyvern form and human form, Danhilians are powerful but vulnerable and slow, especially in unstable environments. As big as they are in either form makes them easy targets and their attacks are massive and devastating but if evaded, they’re not easy to quickly redirect. Being airborne gives some advantage but their wings can be damaged to keep them grounded.

🎲 Trivia

Fun or strange facts that give this race extra character. Use bullets or toggles.

• Danhilians get quite offended at being confused with the dragon, a mythical creature with four legs and two wings that is unable to take human form.
• Horns are polished, painted and decorated for courtship. Danhilian suitors with carve their horns with family crests, victories, paint marks and attach metal rings in order to impress a potential mate
• Danhilians think human expressions are exaggerated. Since wyvern faces aren’t as expressive, Caer’dan Danhilians often find human facial expressions to be overly dramatic and sometimes unintentionally comedic.