Aetolia Races: All 24 Playable Races

Your race is the first real decision you make about your character in Aetolia. It shapes your three racial skills, frames your appearance, and anchors your roleplay in centuries of cultural baggage. It is not a small choice. But it is also not a final one. You can reincarnate, and as long as you are still a newbie, the next race is one command away.

Below is a guide to all 24. If you already know which race you want, jump to its page. If not, read on.

Why your race choice matters (and where it doesn’t)

Any race in Aetolia can play any class. Race shapes lore and roleplay, not the mechanics you can pick. A Vampire Templar is forbidden by the class lore, not the race lore. A Mhun Carnifex is unusual but not blocked. A Seyda Indorani is rare but valid.

What race actually changes in Aetolia:

• Three racial skills. Each race learns one skill at level 1, one at level 31, and one at level 61. They range from passive perks (Mhun Tremor Sense for underground awareness, Human Blood Reserves for sustain) to active abilities (Xoran Fire Breathing, Atavian Flight, Horkval Leap).
• Appearance and identity. A Troll stands seven feet tall. A Gnome stands four. A Horkval has a carapace where you would expect skin. Other characters react to what they see, and your roleplay starts in their reaction.
• Cultural alignment. Most Aetolia races carry a centuries-long political history that pulls them toward one of the four city-states: Bloodloch (Shadow, vampire-led), Enorian (Spirit, devoted), Spinesreach (Shadow, scholarly), or Duiran (Spirit, wild). The alignment is cultural, not mechanical. Your character can defy it or embrace it.
• Religious texture. Several races (Mhun, Arborean, Seyda) have deeply developed religious traditions that other characters will recognise. Lean into one of those if you want roleplay handed to you from day one.

What race does not change in Aetolia: which class you can pick, which city you can join, which guild accepts you, or your long-term combat ceiling. The class you pick and the time you put in will shape your character far more than your starting race.

After you pick your race, you also pick a statpack: one of twelve named distributions that sets your five base stats (Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Constitution, Wisdom). Stats are not tied to race in Aetolia. The two systems work independently, and you can mix any race with any statpack. Run `STATPACKS` in-game to see the full list.

The 24 races of Sapience

Listed alphabetically. Click any race name to read its full page.

Arborean

The Arborean are tree-folk, with bodies of bark and fused root, created by Yanai the Earthmother in an age beyond memory. The world forgot them over the long centuries they were gone, and they only returned when Yanai herself did. Their bark comes in a wide range of colours, from ruddy redwood to dark mahogany to the pale hues and green tones of young oak, and the oldest of them grow moss, lichen, and small ecosystems in the grain. They are genderless, and they hold life sacred, children most of all. Death does not frighten them; they see it as one more part of the turning seasons, and some still feel out of place in a world that carried on without them.

Arqeshi

The Arqeshi were Nazetu once, until they were cleansed of Chakrasul’s Corruption. Now they serve the Light, though they kept the build of their old kin, tall and strong, and the same pull toward the sea. Chakrasul is gone from the world now, but the corruption she bred into the bloodline did not die with her, and the Arqeshi still fight the temptations that surface in their sleep. The unconverted Nazetu exiled them for turning, so the Arqeshi live scattered, most of them in the southeast, keeping the old culture even as their faith sets them apart from it.

Atavians

Atavians descend from the birdlike Atav, and they look almost human, apart from their wings: large, feathered, and coloured to match their hair, skin, and eyes. They are slight and delicate, and they are masters of the air. Much of the continent still distrusts them, clinging to old stereotypes that portray Atavians as licentious and dishonest. They have little unified culture of their own, having drifted far from the Atav, and many have surrendered their heritage just to win acceptance.

Djeirani

The Djeirani owe their existence and their intelligence to Llazuth, a spider demon, and they live deep beneath the earth. Adapted from arachnids long ago, they tolerate poison, sense the faintest vibration, and see well in the dark. Colour decides everything in their society: the closer a Djeirani’s black skin and amethyst eyes are to the ideal, the higher their caste. Their culture fuses beauty with death. Their swordplay is all dancelike footwork and distracting flourishes, and the blades themselves are ornamental, studded with jewels.

Dwarves

Stout, clannish mountain folk who came out of the Vashnar peaks epochs ago. They were once the Hlugna, and “Dwarf” began as a mockery before they made it their own name. Clan divisions still run deep, and so does a split in their faith between the gods Dhar and Ivoln. Across all of it, Dwarves share a love of fine craft and a fondness for home, hearth, and celebration.

Gnomes

Small, sharp-witted, and ancient, the Gnomes branched off the old Zao Sazi stock, the same line that produced Kobolds, Imps, and Pixies. For centuries they stayed close to home in Gorshire, farming, raising geese and sheep, and using their cleverness for magic. Their enchanters are well known, and the Gorshire University has a reputation across the continent. Gnomes are stubborn and resistant to change, and only recently have they begun letting their young leave the valley at all.

Grecht

The bat-like Grecht inhabit the Dehkay Plateau, high above the icy reaches of the northern tundra. Lithe and thin, stark black to slate-grey, they are well-suited to the high, thin atmosphere of their homeland. Wing-flaps of skin connect their arms to their bodies, giving them limited flight, enough to soar. Those Grecht who reside on the continent of Sapience tend to hail from the Siroccian mountains or one of its cities, and they have slowly begun to assimilate into its culture.

Grook

Grook are amphibious, froglike folk, scattered across the continent after the Horkval destroyed their island home of Ulangi. With no homeland left, they settled in the cities, where their high literacy and scholarship made them valued in the city-states and centers of learning. Grook prize education above almost everything, and that includes the study of magic and mysticism. They vary widely in height. Their skin runs green, brown, or grey, often in some combination.

Harpies

The Harpies scattered across Sapience when their island home of Polyargos was destroyed. They are loud, cunning avian humanoids and cousins to the Atavians, both descended from the Atav, though Harpies look far more bird-like: talons, a beaked nose, feathers. They organize into flocks led by the strongest and most cunning, with alliances that shift constantly and respect that goes to the loudest and most assertive. Harpies are female or non-binary; they nest and lay eggs, and they live by raiding and noise.

Horkval

The Horkval are an insectoid people, cooperative and disciplined, and they have grown powerful in Aetolia. Their chitin gives them natural armor no other mortal race can match, and their strong legs carry them to places others cannot reach. Bred for teamwork inside the hive, those who leave it tend to become fiercely individualistic. All that armored biology comes at a cost, though: the Horkval struggle with magic.

Humans

Humans originated in the southwest and spread quickly across the continent, and they are now its most numerous and influential race. They are short-lived next to the other races, and they have long favored risky work as traders, mercenaries, and criminals. The Ankyrean Order favored them at its peak. Their numbers grew then and stayed high for centuries after the Order fell. They vary widely in looks, lighter-skinned in the north and darker-skinned in the south.

Imps

Imps are the favored race of Khepri, the dead Goddess of Mischief, created as her servants to spread mischief, trickery, and chaos across the continent. They were nomadic at first, then entered the central region of Sehal, warred with the native Pixies, and won, founding a royal Imp line in the process. The race is regarded as high-strung and mischievous, and also dangerously clever and unrelentingly vicious. They are remarkably short, with horns, tiny tails, and vestigial wings, and their colouration varies considerably.

Twelve down, twelve to go. If something here has already hooked you, pick that race and start playing. You can reincarnate later if you change your mind.

Kelki

Sleek and smooth-skinned, the Kelki are a fishlike people and the favored race of Slyphe, the formless sea god. They were once the most populous race in the east, until Ankyrean experiments cut their numbers and forced them back into the Beryl Sea. When their great city of Kelsys fell to the rising Kerrithrim, the survivors scattered along the eastern coast, and most now live in Mournhold. Their scales come in shades of grey and blue.

Kobolds

Kobolds are small, canine humanoids, children of Khepri the Trickster, kin to the Goblins and prototypes to her favored Imps. They were driven from their homeland early for being seen as inferior, and later served as mercenaries to the dark mages of the Indoron Empire, where they developed their lasting skill in spellcraft. Working alongside the Goblins, they are expert stonecutters, gemcutters, and tinkerers. They build for practical results over appearance.

Mhun

The Mhun are long-suffering survivors of countless conflicts and regimes in Aetolia’s southwest. They stand shorter than Humans and taller than Dwarves, dark of skin, eye, and hair, and they have grown adaptable, frugal, and cunning. Originally from the Mhojave desert, they fell under Bloodloch’s influence for a long time before their exodus to the Siroccian mountains, where their homeland now lies. Religion is central to them, built on seven Spirits whose true nature has only recently come to light.

Minotaurs

Minotaurs were once dull, dying beasts, until the god Severn took pity and granted them cunning in exchange for their loyalty. Most still worship him, and the Minotaurs of old Sterion are more attuned to Shadow than any other race. They are brash, stubborn, and quick to fight, but far sharper than their size suggests and very pragmatic. Some feel an older urge toward the wilds instead.

Nazetu

Slimy-skinned, broad, and foul-smelling, the Nazetu were created by Chakrasul as agents of corruption and decay. They first came to Sapience in a failed invasion of Ashtan, and the ones who stayed have grown apart from their island origins. Their faith still centers on Chakrasul, their Mother and creator. Most live along the eastern coast, with the largest, mostly assimilated, community in Bloodloch.

Ogres

Ogres are huge and grey as stone, created by the Goddess of Corruption alongside their Orc cousins. They started as cave-dwellers who preyed on travelers, and a dark empire later used them as shock troops. Even so, many Ogres are deeply religious, with a special reverence for the earth and a part in worship across the pantheon. Their men record their lives in ritual scars, with the designs carried down through families.

Orcs

Green-skinned and tusked, the Orcs were another creation of the Goddess of Corruption, kin to the Ogres and more distant cousins to the Trolls. They were nomadic hunters before they joined the Ogres to take Dun Valley, where they showed their cunning for war early on. A dark empire later enslaved them as soldiers. The reputation for corruption and fear stuck, though conversion to the Light has tempered it in some. They have a long record of military innovation, and like the Ogres, their men mark their coming of age with scars.

Rajamala

Rajamala are upright, striped tiger-folk from the Itzatl Rainforest. They descend from Farsai, a once-great empire brought down by the Dark Empire, internal corruption, and the malign power of Ati, and most now trace their line to immigrants across the continent or to Saluria, the last native Rajamala village in the Itzatl. They look much like bipedal tigers, with bifurcated eyes and fur that runs tawny, red, and brown under dark streaks.

Seyda

The Seyda are fox-folk created by Lleis, the Lady of Renewal, and they were long thought all but extinct. Their numbers recovered when their ancestral village of Vimuna returned, freed from the magical stasis the sorcerer Morvaethe had held it in for millennia. The Seyda who came back remember their old lives only in fragments, and their ages were rewritten to fit the modern era. Their goddess no longer walks among them, but their faith endures, built on community and the cycle of the seasons. They are the newest race in Aetolia.

Trolls

Trolls come from the frigid northlands: powerfully built, leathery-skinned, and famously stubborn. They are close kin to the Orcs and Ogres, and their skin runs most often to grey, green, or brown, though some are paler, darker, or redder. Their appetite is boundless, which fuels their legendary powers of regeneration. Troll culture places little value on learning, so most take up martial, mercenary, or criminal work. Many also speak a nonstandard dialect of Aetolian, which leads the other races to write them off as unintelligent and easily fooled.

Tsol’aa

Tsol’aa are lithe, pointy-eared, and long-lived, close to human in shape, with brown skin in varying hues and eyes that range from dark brown through hazel to green. Only a couple thousand remain, most of them within the Duiran Council and the rest living elsewhere or wandering the land. The grand majority of the race died when a Dreikathi weapon destroyed the Aalen forest. The same weapon then spread an infection that killed many Tsol’aa who came to help their kin. Since that loss, their culture has turned closed and inward, built on a reverence for nature and the worship of Life and the dead Goddess Lleis.

Xoran

Xoran are bipedal reptilians from the eastern reaches of Sapience, and they were the foremost warriors of the early southeast. They are versatile and powerful, and remarkably varied in size and colour: every shade of the rainbow is within reach, and more. Alone among the races, they can breathe fire, the trait they are best known for. Today they can be found all across the continent.

How to choose your race

The honest answer: pick the one whose story you want to live in.

Race in Aetolia matters less than people new to the game tend to think. The three racial skills are real but modest, and your statpack matters at least as much for your numbers. There is no race that locks you out of high-level play, no race that is objectively best, and no race-class combination that is forbidden. A few practical notes:

• You can reincarnate. While you are still a newbie, you can reincarnate as many times as you want at no cost. After that, you get one free reincarnation, and additional ones can be purchased. Your first pick is not your last pick.
• Roleplay first, stats second. Aetolia’s races carry deep cultural and religious traditions. A Mhun character can build their whole arc around faith, oppression, and the long road back to power. A Seyda can play a refugee from time itself. An Arborean can play something that simply does not think like other races. If that texture interests you, lean in. If not, pick something closer to the human baseline.
• Stats come from statpacks, not races. After you pick a race, you choose a statpack that sets your five base stats (Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Constitution, Wisdom). The two choices are independent. You are not locked into any stat distribution by your race.
• Gender across races. No race is strictly male-locked or female-locked in Aetolia. Harpies are predominantly female and non-binary, with trans-male Harpies being rare. Arboreans are genderless by biology. Every other race is open to any gender.
• Tekal at level 99. When your character reaches level 99, they become Tekal, and their mortal race becomes their Heritage. It is far away when you are starting out, but it is a real mechanic, and it means your race is not even forever in the very long game.

If you cannot decide, the safe defaults are Human (least friction, most familiar) or Mhun (deep lore, plays well in any role, real religious roleplay available). Both let you focus on learning the game rather than learning your race’s quirks. The new-player guide walks through statpacks, classes, and the first hour in-game.

Frequently Asked Questions