Aleria was a relatively peaceful place until some greedy miners dug too deep looking for bigger and more valuable lifestones.  They accidently unleashed the dark elves along with many other dangerous monsters in the event know as Depths of Peril.

Since that time there has been four Great Wars in Aleria.  In the Fourth Great War, Aleria was overrun and conquered by the forces of evil but without an enemy left standing to fight, the evil alliances quickly fell and turned on each other in a war over the spoils of victory.

Now the land of Aleria is swarming with all sorts of dangerous monsters.

Brute

     Hairy, two-headed, mammoth-men, brutes are related to giants. Each head controls a different arm, yet they are extremely efficient wielding multiple weapons. Brutes live in small tribes. Having one head is seen as a weakness, and any babies born with this deformity are immediately killed, usually by the mother.

Wisp

     Wisps are devious, evil balls of electricity. Many have fallen victim to the attraction of their sparkly light, and were lured to their death. No one knows where this menace arose, but it is certain they enjoy baiting their insidious trap.

Plaguebringer

     A giant, diseased beetle, the plaguebringer spits poison and hatches its young in the face of danger. When attacked, it stays back, spitting out young to defend it. It’s normally found in caves, but during wars, it will venture aboveground to feast on the dead.

Plaguebringer Larva

     Spawned off of the plaguebringer in times of danger, the plaguebringer larva are strong, long-limbed, and determined to kill.

Skeleton

     Zombies without flesh are skeletons. They were either raised after losing their flesh or their flesh has completely rotted off their bones. The magic of necromancy protects the skeleton from decay, although time and weather will still have an effect. Ciglio discovered a way to create archer versions who shoot balls of magical energy. After the Fourth Great War, orcs became dire enemies.

Lurker

     Giant carnivorous worms of various sizes, lurkers live underground and emerge to hunt. They prefer the freedom of movement desert sand offers, but have been know to venture into neighboring forests and grasslands.

Ghost

     Ghosts are spirits who remain behind after their body dies. Some are corrupted into violent killers who hate the living. They are hard to see and run from. The God Mortus, who reveres death, uses the hate within a dying person to create the incorporeal killers.

Tower

     Evil enchanted construct created by dark mages, towers protect their territories, wielding one of the different types of elemental magic. The most notable use of towers was during the Third Great War when they protected Dorlin’s castle from crusading armies long enough to outlast the west’s enthusiasm for war.

Changeling

     Like chameleons, changelings can take the form of any race and large animals as a visual disguise to close in on its prey. Animals can detect the difference in smell, but people must rely on the fact that changelings can’t speak. Up close, the changeling is a formidable opponent.

Kodiak

     Kodiak are a low-level sentient race evolved from bears. They are typically loners, and fiercely territorial due to hunters. Their moods are unpredictable, and can change from calm to violent in the blink of an eye. Their fur is a highly prized commodity, but it is very rare for a hunting party to return alive unless no kodiak were spotted. The fur is lightweight and keeps the wearer immune to freezing weather.

Totem

     A Totem is an enchanted construct giving elemental powers to a nearby chosen group. The powers can be used by specific individuals or entire races depending on the wishes of the totem’s creator. They are generally used for defense because of the lengthy process required to create them.

Dimensional Gate

     A magical portal, dimensional gates transport monsters from random places to its location, protecting itself and feeding on the death the monsters cause. Dark Mages use them to evade pursuers, destroy enemies, and as traps.

Horror

     The horror resembles a large brain on tentacles. They are extremely smart and adept at all elemental magic. They think of themselves as creatures of the mind, and consider other small-brained people inferior. They never considered conquering all of Aleria because they would find controlling the small-brains on that large of a scale extremely tedious and boring.

Amorph

     Like worms, amorphs are not simple to kill. Since they are made of earth, when split, smaller versions of the first live on, searching for warm bodies to crush and absorb. They eat by enveloping their food and dissolving the tissue. As they move, the bones will settle to the bottom of the mass and then be expelled.

Drake

     Large, carnivorous, winged lizards, drakes resemble very small dragons. Like dragons, drake families have various elemental properties. Their skin color can be red, blue, green, and purple while their breath corresponds with fire, ice, poison, or lightning.

Lich

     Liches are uncommon because the ways to become a lich are very unpleasant. The most common type of lich are necromancers who've transformed themselves through necromancy into undead wizards. They are very powerful and hard to kill. Unlike the first group, this second kind of lich does not choose to become the living dead. They were zombies who have lost their master, but their trapped soul chooses to remain behind. This type of lich starts out weak, but gains a different kind of innate magic from the strands of necromancy remaining in the flesh.

Stalker

     Proud and cunning, these cat-like people live in nomadic tribes and enjoy the hunt. They take no more than needed, but will defend their territory with zest. Relationships with other races are always shaky, but unlike other monsters, they have had good relations with the western peoples from time to time. After the saurian destroyed an entire stalker clan, they became hated enemies along with their allies, the naga.

     Ancient, savage predators, raptors are six-legged reptiles. They can adapt to any environment containing large game. Their population used to be small and cautious before being bred by the saurian and used as aggressive war mounts.

Styrac

     Styracs are large herbivores, temperamental and dangerous. This reptile has been hunted for its enormous horns or for the head as a trophy. Styracs defend themselves by ramming potential threats.

Hulk

     A big, tusked armor-plated beast, the hulk evolved underground. Hulks are viscous and will kill and eat anything. Underground races fear them, even the dark elves. They’re solitary creatures except when breeding, preferring a large territory in which to hunt.

Stories: Draaien and the Ring (minor appearance)

Scavenger

     The four-legged scavenger consumes meat, fresh or rotten, it cares not. Scavengers undergo metamorphosis with every large meal, becoming stronger, larger and more dangerous than ever. Legend whispers of an age where large packs of these monsters destroyed entire townships within the Krieg Kingdom.

Elementals

     The Goddess Erillin gave her most devoted worshipers the knowledge to create fire, ice, and lightning elementals. It requires elemental energy and a sacrificial life to create these angry monsters. However, if the caster isn’t strong enough to control the elemental, it will destroy him.

     The lizard-men known as saurian migrated to the more desolate areas in their vast underground world to survive the dark elves’ campaign to destroy or enslave all neighboring races. They are masters of lightning, wielding the awesome power without fear. Saurian became strong and viscous before escaping the underground confinement with many other monsters when the search for large lifestones led prospectors too deep, to a long forgotten prison. They adapted quickly to life aboveground and found a new enemy, stalkers, as well as an ally, the naga.

Naga

     The God Din punished a tribe of wicked humans by striking the ground where they lived, creating the desert. The tribe’s lake turned to acid, and the humans became snake-men. They forgot they were ever human, but never forgot the ruin Din wreaked on their homeland. They formed a bond with a goddess, allowing a new profession of priests who could poison as easily as heal.

Giant Spider

     The dark elves’ experiments to create an army of giant spiders went awry. They succeeded in transforming their size, but failed to control them. Pitching battles between giant spiders and giant scorpions, the dark elves bred aggressive and lethal strains. In the process, the two monsters became great enemies.
     Giant Spiders escaped underground confinement with many other monsters when the search for large lifestones led prospectors too deep, to a long forgotten prison. Many giant spiders took over Hinterland Forest. The poisonous creatures use webs to slow prey.

Sentinel

     Magically created stone beings, sentinels are used as guards. They were created by lumen as a means of physical protection through magic, and comprise much of the lumen militia. Although sentinels are slow with limited intelligence and capable of only the simplest of commands, they are very strong and difficult to harm. They aren’t inherently good or evil, and never balk at their orders. Whether it’s killing the harmless or facing certain destruction, they obey.

Dark Elves (not in game)

     In a forgotten time the elves were one diverse, surface dwelling race. A question of the heir to the throne divided the empire in two. After an unprecedented betrayal and a murder that shook the foundation of elven society at its core, those involved and their supporters were banished from the surface of Aleria. Chased by elementals, this group found a loophole in what was meant to be a death sentence. They fled underground and sealed themselves off from the world above.
     Generations passed down bitter hatred for the other elves, but they forgot who did the dispelling. They began to believe they sent the others away. They became dark elves, adapting to the darkness around them. The Goddess Valta found them and nurtured their anger, feeding on their violence and hatred.
     Dark elves have no limits of morality. Twisting magic, they attempted creating legions of monsters to hunt down the others, the banished elves. When prospectors dug into dark elf territory looking for large lifestones, the dark elves discovered a new world they had forgotten, ripe for the taking.

Stories: Depths of Peril

Torva

     Torva are the cousin of orcs, descending from a recessive trait that causes them to be smaller and more vicious than orcs. Unlike orcs, they had the ability to band together with a great deal less internal strife, and they mastered fire magic. In the Battle of Hellsink, the orcs killed and ran off the torvas, fearing their growing numbers and power. To cover their escape, torvas used fire magic to turn the orcs’ wolves against them, and accidentally created hellhounds.
     Torvas prefer warm climates, and are especially fond of the jungle environments where they fled from the orcs.

Hellhound

     Torva used fire magic to turn the Orcs’ wolves against them in Battle of Hellsink, but the magic did more than expected. It created hell hounds, a breed of demon dogs that roam the desert in packs. Attempts to domesticate this fire loving animal have ended in disaster, usually accompanied by rampant wildfires. 

Stories: Fire Scrape

Giant Scorpion

     The dark elves’ experiments to create an army of giant scorpions went awry. They succeeded in transforming their size, but failed to control them. Pitching battles between giant scorpions and giant spiders, the dark elves bred aggressive and lethal strains. In the process, the two monsters became great enemies.
     Giant Scorpions escaped underground confinement with many other monsters when the search for large lifestones led prospectors too deep, to a long forgotten prison. Scorpion venom slows prey. Being of a similar construct, scorpids can control scorpions.

Scorpid

     The dark elves’ experiments to create an army of scorpion-men using Akrep, a slave race, succeeded, but keeping half-breed slaves went out of fashion. A few scorpid, some with hands and some with pinchers, fled from the extermination and survived. This vicious race escaped underground confinement with many other monsters when the search for large lifestones led prospectors too deep, to a long forgotten prison. They can control scorpions.

Stories: Forgotten Cave

Death Knight

     One of the lost human kingdoms, Huszar, created death knights from volunteers to protect their territory from encroaching saurian, a race new to aboveground, but the Huszar didn’t know how the magic twisted the souls of the knights. Eventually, the death knights broke the magical control and turned on their keepers, destroying the kingdom. Since this time, other human kingdoms are suspicious of magic and barely tolerate its practice, but they don’t remember the cause of this cultural attitude.

Imp

     A small jungle creature, imps live in groups consisting of a mother, female daughters called Little Sisters, and males called Little Men. The mother thinks of herself as a Sister. She leads her tribe, and battles neighboring Sisters to increase her territory and survive. The females are larger and smarter than the males. Daughters must eventually kill their mothers or be driven off to begin their own tribe. Smart, ruthless, and instinctual, imps are a dangerous race for any jungle travelers. Imps were considered dangerous animals until an event that happened during the building of Allure Academy, proving imps capable of communication.

Stories: In the Eye

Orc

     When a necromancer tried to raise elves that weren’t quiet dead using a powerful and tricky ring, the magic was perverted. Instead of elven zombies, the necromancer ended up with orcs. They ripped the necromancer to pieces before drifting east, to the mountains. Orcs have violent and unpredictable temperaments, and their success in war usually relies on overwhelming the enemy. They are generally too disorganized to cause trouble outside of their territories. 
     A recessive type of orc had less trouble banding together. The fire-magic wielding torva threatened to take control causing the Battle of Hellsink. The orcs killed all of the torva who didn’t flee their mountain home. 
     During the Fourth Great War, orcs found a leader who could unite them, Draaien the Grimp. They cooperated with other races to destroy the west, but before they finished the job, the vast army began fighting itself. Zombies and skeletons became their hated enemies.

Stories: Draaien and the Ring

Zombie

     Zombies come in several forms. A kept zombie is a corpse raised by a necromancer. Few know that the magic used to create these undead also trap their soul inside the body. The soul has almost no control over the body.
     When the necromancer dies, the soul is usually released, but the animated body remains as a wild zombie, using their claws and teeth as weapons. They are faster than kept zombies.
     The last condition of a zombie is very rare. On occasion, the soul enjoys the vile acts the body is forced to commit, and purposely clings to the body when the magical bond breaks with the necromancer’s death. The soul gains complete control of the body, becoming a lich. Liches are more commonly created by a long process of rituals and magic a necromancer chooses to undergo for the reward of immortality.
     After the Fourth Great War, orcs became dire enemies.

Stories: Double Edge, Zombie Deadfall, Necromancer