The Worldstrip

This is a downtime project I'm working on when I have no inspiration for my primary ones: It's a weird sci-fantasy setting where all races and classes have been generated from Seventh Sanctum and other generators: basicaly I saw what http://matt-landofnod.blogspot.com.es/p/pars-fortuna.html?m=1 this gentleman did and decided to try too.
I'll eventually write some OGL inspired rules to actually play it but ATM I'm only writing setting information to keep my inner storyteller in shape.
Without further ado:

The Worldstrip
It's a moebius strip shaped predatory universe in a multiverse of indeterminate size: it feeds off other universes to fight entropy, integrating part of their constituents (for instance a continent from a planet, or a "worldplate" from an universe with directional gravity) into It's structure and thus being in turn colonized by their inhabitants.
It can only "digest" parts of those universes that are somewhat alike to it, in the sense that they have compatible laws of physics, and it rarely eats more than a small portion of each individual prey.
In the end of the day, a metacosmic bottom feeder.
There's a long, pseudoscientifically pedantic explanation to how people from other universes can actually live there but It's beyond the scope of this brief resume.
The game concentrates on those parts of the strip being colonized by extrauniversal civilizations.

Gods: Gods are what happens when the Worldstrip eats a naked singularity. It can't digest it directly so it links a particulary promising "mortal" to it to go forth and work "miracles" (thus transforming it in something it can process). Reactions to this vary.

Magic: Magic is the name the ignorants gives to the Cosmic (or extradimensional) Sciences, that is to the study of the Multiverse's laws of physics. Of course those laws are valid in each and every universe the multiverse contains BUT the inhabitants of most universes never get a chance to study them because they lack a multiversal perspective (that is: They don't know What to look out for). Once in the Worldstrip, however, things change.

Fractals: they are a theme in this setting. Whole universes behave like bacterias in a petri dish, so What does this tell you about the bacterias in your petri dish?
Repetitions and cycles are also a theme: part of a planet gets absorbed, the scared inhabitants adapt to their new situation, conflict arises and eventually they either relocate to another region of the worldstrip and start anew or get digested.

Two races I've generated and What I did with them:

"Pixies" the main antagonists.

The delicate-looking race (non-elven) They are fair-haired and have large ears. They exist in symbiosis with another species. They can change genders under certain conditions. The only kind of magic they can do is "summoning" magic. They are extremely prudish. They worship a single hermaphroditic deity. They believe the powers that be are intimately involved in their lives. Most religious observation is ritualized and distant. They exist as servants to another race.

Their god is:
This peace-loving god of lies and truth takes the form of a middle aged hermafrodite of It's race. It is short and has a graceful build. It's deep-set eyes are violet. It has pale skin. It's outfit is that of a musician or entertainer, incorporates bizarre designs, and it is mostly cream-colored in color. It carries a disc wich is both a supertech weapon and an halo. It has a "pixie" symbionte like all members of It's species. It was the individual who signed the submission treaty with the pixies once they invaded It's race's universe due to their hubristic extradimensional experiments. It's help was crucial in making everyone accept the new status quo and so now It's awarded a measure of indipendence and authority by It's masters. It created a semi-confucian filosophy for It's people to follow that regulates their relationship with their symbiontes: it has an inquisition to police misbehaviour and officiates the most important religious cerimonies in It's honor itself. Alignment LN.

They serve...
The race of "Pixies". Their magical practices tend to focus on demonology and trasmutation. Under stress, they undergo distinct personality changes (they revert to bestial demonic behaviour under stress). They have pointed ears. They have no legs, rather they emerge from their slaves's chest like horrible parasites. They shed their integument as they grow. They can change genders under certain conditions. Their hearing acts as a kind of sonar. They serve a race of enemy gods. They came from another dimension and descended from "Demons".
They want to conquer the worldstrip.
Since both races can "change their gender" they reproduce in tandem with their slaves so that one is allways born already in symbiosis with a slave. Through their alteration Magic they have complete control over their hosts body and biological functions.

The "Pixies" (Urugshad) and their servants (Eliian).
Description: the typical Urugshad-Eliian pair appears as a tall humanoid figure of indeterminate sex with long ears whose lobes reach his shoulders, pale, hairless and vaguelly sickly looking but otherwise majestic and regal, garbed in fine silks and jewels and wielding a variety of Magic objects and weapons. From his chest emerges the head, shoulders, arms and upper torso of a grotesquely deformed dwarfish being, It's long pointed ears allmost touching It's host's, his wide grinning mouth full of yellowish pointed teeth, It's nose but a cavity full of complexely-arranged small holes and cervices and It's hands sporting wicked looking claws. It too is grab in jewels and fine clothes.
They are surrounded by slaves of various status, from lobotomized warrior eunuchs as bodyguards to decently dressed personal attendants and finely dressed counselors, themselves showing off their own magical arsenal.

Story and details:
The Eliian were an advanced civilization wich discovered the multiversal sciences ("Magic") without any previous multiversal contact. Certainly a Great accomplishment but dangerous Because nobody warned them about the inherent risks in dimensional travel (usually It's the "Guardinals" who reach developed races and teach them how to behave in the multiverse without embarassing themselves or dying, but in this case They were otherwise occupied); so without Gods in the multiversal sense to protect them nor the slightest idea of what they were doing, they started exploring.
In one of their early exploration missions they met the Urugshads: They were degenerate barbarians surviving on a few worlds of an universe eaten by entropy; the Eliian decided to try and uplift them to use their obviously advanced biological magic to their advantage. The attempt backfired, bad. Despite never having reached the level of Daevas, despite still not being exactly "demons" themselves (but very close to make the passage) and despite never having discovered the "summoning" multiversal sciences (that allow for multiversal travel, the only sciences the Eliians commanded) their civilization was still milions of years older than the Eliians's by their universe's count of time and they had numerous awful powers at their disposal, Not to mention techniques of societal manipulation and prediction against wich the Eliians had no defense. The Eliians were overrun and found themselves being "uplifted" to serve their new lords's whims rather than the opposite. Each Eliian was "bestowed" with a Urugshad symbionte wich used It's meta biological adaptations to adapt to the new way of life (sacrificing indipendent locomotion, never their forte, in exchange for absolute control over their host's biology). It's not to say that the deal was universally bad for the Eliians: they obtained longer lives, a virtually total immunity from diseases, the capacity to adapt their biology and shape to each universe they visited and (potentially at least) Great physical might and mental power, as long as they submit to their symbionte.
Each Urugshad-Eliian pair has two divided minds that however muddle at the borders due to shared neural pathways: the more the symbiosis lasts the more unified (in the sense of thinking in tandem and predicting each other's thoughts) the two creatures are ;and most Eliians are born allready in symbiosys due to the reproduction-bending of the Urugshad so by the end of adolescence they're basically one with their slaver, but some personality traits, preferences and passions tend to survive indefinitelly. The Eliian is technically the subservient party in the symbiotic relationship but in time they learn how to Suggest and mold their boss's courses of action. As long as there's no desire of indipendence the Urugshad tolerate this behaviour and often find it usefull, as If their host's brain was a secundary one of their own they can count on to double check their decisions, intuitions And so on. The Eliians on their part by now see their subjugation as the way things are and rarely desire indipendence, rather arguing with their hosts when they disagree with them on a course of action, often on the "how" to do some thing rather than on what they are to do. Some are their host's dirty conscience.
Generaly speaking the Eliians are by now perfectly on board with their bosses's plans, are evil themselves and while the Urugshad's methods cause them some distaste some times they agree with them on the desiderability of multiversal domination and enjoy their status as privileged, high level slaves. Like Samuel L Jackson in Django they'd rather enjoy their privileges than fight for freedom and will react with amused superiority towards those who will offer them freedom ("what does a monkey such as you know about True Freedom? You CALL me a slave and yet you're slave to your emotions and to the base chemical reactions of your brain, a tyranny from wich the Urugshad freed us long ago... now lie down and DIE as the VERMIN you are!" Imagine the last sentence being spoken by the Eliian and his Urugshad master at the same time).

What are they doing on the stripworld?
Where most inhabitants of the stripword arrived unwillingly when part of their world was consumed by it, The Urugshad came willingly with the express purpouse to conquer it, hijack it and use It to further their expansion and exploration across the multiverse. Why do they want this You ask? The Urugshad's partially demonic nature compells them to try and trick entropy to survive, and to dream an impossible world wich won't decay just like Demons do in their crepuscolar universes. Also the Urugshad's gods compel them and forever hunger for potential energy: It's either doing this or becoming themselves dinner.
The efforts to colonize the stripworld comprise but a fraction of the Urugshad's attempt at multiversal domination: only part of their enormous strenght is being used to subjugate the people of the stripworld. It's important to note that the Urugshad's contingent is still blocked in the stripworld by It's enormous multiversal gravity at least untill their mission's completion: It's an example of their determination to reach their ultimate goal.

Culture and Fashion:
Both Urugshad and Eliians appreciate and often pratiche the fine arts of painting, music, artistic torture and poetry and discuss the latest offerings of their famous artists amongst themselves in their free time. Tastes vary from the photorealistic and verism to abstract representation of emotional states and stream of consciousness and cacofonies of tortured screams. They have little patience for message fiction and opinionated political art because to them it defeats the whole point of artistic expression.
Despite being evil powerfull creatures hell bent for universal domination when in private they can be sensitive and empathic and show this mainly trough their art.
They also appreciate rhetoric and dialectic flourishes and often indulge in debates amongst themselves or interrogate their slaves on fine points of metaphysical philosophy and then berate them when they answer unsatisfactorily.
Socialy they like the platitudes of aristocracy and refinement but are prone to rude externation of emotion and degenerate behaviour. The traditional family is virtually unknown amongst them, long time commitments and decency and chastity old superstitious uses unworthy of their enlightened selves.
The children are wards of the community wich provides for their education; and only the best Urugshad- Eliian pairs survive their school years. They're all expected to be proficient with transmutation and conjuration magic by their adulthood and at least somewhat cognizable with demonology (wich, being an extremelly theoretical and complex discipline, is about as well loved and well understood amongst their students as trigonometry amongst ours). They're also expected to understand a Great variety or earthly sciences, history, rhetoric, martial arts. Once adults, they're given a well paying "entry" job in the administrative or military sector, with many elves and humans below them as servants and adjuvants since the beginning. Some, the most intellectually gifted, are sent to the university as researchers, one of the most prestigious position they can aspire to, second only to the status of Lord Planner. To be a Lord Planner is to be one of the few "pairs" admitted to the Inner Council wich sets the long term goals of the Urugshad Egemony on the worldstrip.
The Urugshad's economy is capitalistic but since they don't recognize family and all children are raised by the community they don't have the concept of heredity so each young adult must pass his first working years paying back for his education, and only the best manage to end up completelly debt free (since they accrue more debt while working to pay off the former). This is considered an incentive for good behaviour since you can be stripped of Everything you own by the state (or at least by the central bank) at a moment's notice; and a demonstration of excellence when the last dime of their debt is finally paid. The Urugshads live on to the next generations with their gruesome works, Not with progeny.
This said, despite their clearly dictatorial tendencies, the Urugshads are too pragmátic in their worldview and too efficient in their outlook to censor each other for "improper" thoughts or theories. Whatever works works and You can think and say whatever You want as long as You do your job.

Politics: On The Urugshad's side their society is an administrative republic wich works through direct democracy: everyone has a position in the government hierarchy, everyone votes on everything their "Office" does, everyone checks with the actual situation the orders coming from the Lord Planners, applying and following them as efficient.
Everyone else in their society is a slave owned by the Urugshads (either as a whole or personaly) integrated in a complex caste society in wich merit and abnegation give rights, better jobs, better treatment and even honor and riches. The best of the best are adopted as honorary Urugshads and, second only to their masters, can access many of the administrative roles normally precluded to them. The slaves are kept competing with one another (and each group with other groups at all levels) so as to not bother their masters. Despite this, there's at least one slave-born Lord Planner on the Stripworld.

Who The Urugshads serve exactly:
There are creatures wich manage to survive in entropy ridden worlds to the extreme limit of death: they do so through slowing down their vital mechanisms and their technological activity almost to an halt but never really stopping them: by their metric life goes on as usual but an external observer would realize their entropic torpor and the hellish hopelessness of their existance. Universes in these conditions are cold and barren anyway, and the one way to prolong their existance is to absorb other universe's energy through vampiric means. These are the creatures commonly known as demons, the loathsome progeny of the corpses of stars. The Urugshad, having been very close to completing the transition to demonhood themselves, were contacted by some of the most unhealthy of these fellows and offered a deal: they feed the Demons and they will inherit the multiverse untill the deed is done. Initially powerless to move between universes themselves, the Urugshad couldn't satisfy the contract but when the Eliians came they offered them their chance on a silver platter: everything according to plan.
The Urugshad fear their demon masters, they're the only thing they are afraid of: they know the whole plan boils down to "serve the Hungry Ones, be eaten last!" but they see very few alternatives to this final outcome; so they'll work to conquer the multiverse and to feed it to them. S L O W L Y. They figure the longer it takes the more they'll have to think of an alternative If there even is one.
The Guardinals offered them alternatives, but they were kicked out amongst maddened desperate laughter. Their "Multiversal Singularity" is a pipe dream, a despicable vision of "oneness" in wich obviously they don't even believe themselves or They'd be jumping around the multiverse eager to make everyone join the club rather than moving at their usual glacial place. No,If It's either being dinner or the waiter they'd much rather be the waiter.

That's it for tonight, I'll post more tomorrow.

This time I won't post what I generated because the post would be overly long. Suffice to say that I generated some races with "three arms" and hereby decided they had triradial symmetry.

The Alchemists or "Ouon"

The Ouon were absorbed by the stripworld en masse relatively recently, about 3 hundreds years ago, when a multiversal calamity attracted various predatorial universes to their own dying world.
Their world was a place of only three fundamental forces, since gravity there was a function of electromagnetism rather than a force in itself, and the number three came up again and again in their physical and metaphysical investigations.

Description:
They're creatures based on a triple rather than double axial symmetry: where a 3D human body is bisected by a 2D sagittal axis, and is roughly symmetrical on the two sides, a 3D Ouon body is trisected by three 2D sagittal axes into three roughly symmetrical sections each with an "eye", an "ear", an "arm" a "leg" and so on. Their shoulders are triangular, And so their pelvises (and If You were to look at them from above you'd notice that they form a rough six pointed star) ; their spines feature a tripartite locking system of vertebrae. Each hand has three fingers and each foot three toes (two and a "base" like with pre-hooved mammalians). They each have a respiratory and vocalizing orifice, a drinking orifice and a eating orifice on their faces; and then two expulsory orifices (one for urine and the other for feces) and reproductive organs in their pubic regions. Their hearth has six chambers, with the two intermediate ones lending strenght to the other four and their roughly human sized brain is divided in three lobes rather than two (and has higher demands for oxigen). They have three lungs wich can partially collapse and get back to function to regulate O2 concentration in the blood. Due to their structure they have Great difficulty in bending their backs like a human would but can do so in a variety of directions that wouldn't be possible for a human to imitate: as a result they tend to Sit in stolls or puffs, lowering themselves upon them and they either lower themselves by kneeling their legs or use utensils to grab things laying low on the ground. This still served them adeguatelly in the course of their evolution since their diet is mainly frugivurous and the few animals they hunted were of similar size to them. They're often hairless but the Mercury caste has sensitive overgrowths of skin similar to feathers around their body that make them sensitive to electric discarges in the air and the Iron caste has bony outgrowths on their torso and ribs.
They tipicaly wear either long vests or robes and circular hats or "working clothes" composed of pants, protective vests and headgear with glasses and respirators. They usually have bags full of complex instruments with them and often at least a crystaldagger or a Volter for self defense. Some are armed with various polearms that double as energy emitters and wear complex ceramic armour. They live between 100 and 120 years without longevity treatments.

The Past: their universe was in the process of being unraveled due to huge energy discharges caused by a failed experiment with multiversal sciences: it was a 4d string that flowed on itself with a directional universal gravity caused by the periódical attraction and repulsion of It's two Chargerd poles and an attempt at extradimensional travel altered the normal cycle of attraction and repulsión between the two causing the destruction of milions of worldplates and the death of bilions.
As If this wasn't enought, various predatory universes came attracted by the energy discharged and cannibalized it quickly and efficently.
One of the universes so attracted was the worldstrip wich rapidly ate a few milions worldplates some of wich survived the process. Since then the Ouon have been rebuilding their civilization in the worldstrip, although limited by the virtual extinction of their ruling Castes (Gold and Silver), the remaining population however adapted to the new circumstances.

Technology and Society: The Ouon were an early adopters of the multiversal sciences in their homeworld, only having problems with the Conjuration ones due to the original make-up of their native universe. As such they are notably more advanced than most races currently on the worldstrip and their enclaves are marvels of magical might to other people. They're particulary adept in alchemy, that lets them imbue regular materials with extradimensional proprieties. Amongst the most noticeable applications of the possibilities Open by alchemy are bellic in nature: the Ouon possess direct energy weapons called Volters avaible in "rifle" and "handgun" variety: they overheat easily in the worldstrip due to differing physical laws but with a modicum of attention they're still extremelly efficient weapons [infinite ammo but can only shoot once every two rounds without risking overheating, one shot per round but recharges as free action. Hits as touch attack, 1d8 critX3 damage the gun 2d6 the rifle]. When needing some extra punch, they tend to use plasma or railgun tier weaponry but their industrial capability is limited today. Other Ouon technology includes "anti-gravity" vessels (more like ignore gravity vessels since there was no such thing properly so called in their universe) advanced medicine and surgery and much more. Socially They're organized on a Caste basis: Everyone is born in the "lead" caste and works his way up the hierarchy in his formative years, in a roughly meritocratic way (although they still have family ties so It's common for the sons of the privileged to join their parents' caste). Induction in a certain caste requires "adoption" by a member of said caste who then administers his new protegé with the hormones necessary for his physical transition through transfusions and ritualized injections of various bodily fluids better left unnamed. This Mentor can't be related to the newly initiated (it would basically be considered incest) and these rules contributed to the virtual disappearance of the highest Castes. Those who can't excel during their formation or can't find anyone to adopt them remain in the Lead caste and are treated as Parias. Once the six castes were considered as of equal importance but different specialization and roles but This was allways more propaganda than fact: The Silver and the Gold were the de facto economic, religious and political élite and everyone else's role was subordinate to theirs. Sulphur and Mercury did jobs that were considered of lesser ritual purity than the others (merchants, travelers, farmers, leatherworkers, surgeons, undertakers, conscripted soldiers, artists), Iron and Copper were "middle class" (professional soldiers, lawyers, police officers, engineers, lab workers) and gold and silver were the purest (internal medicine phisicians, researchers, politicians, priests, judges, philosopher; often more than one at a time due to their excellent educations).
Today the near extinction of the higher castes and the dificulties inherent in repopulating them Made Ouon society more equalitarian since the surviving four castes each took over some Gold and Silver roles: the Mercury caste took over everything to do with law and commerce, the Sulphur caste took over the totality of Medicine and Biology, the Iron Caste took over the spiritual and administrative duties and the Copper caste took over research and philosophy. Politically they are now all ruled by a representative senate in wich all castes have equal weight.

Culture: Each Caste has a stereotype of behaviour and preferences to wich individuals adhere with varying entusiasm and ability: Mercury castes are expected to be pratical but fair merchants and capitalists, and to value personal accomplishments and initiative over conformity; and objective law and pratical solutions over personal preferences and issues of principle. Contrairwise the Iron castes are expected to be disciplined and brotherly amongst themselves, to fight for what is right and just and to work hard towards common, ambitious goals. The Sulphurs are stereotipically the most carnal amongst the castes, centered in thight family units (not necessarily single-caste ones) and in contact with nature and It's boundless plenty: farmers and surgeons are both sulphur. The Coppers are expected to be Planners and thinkers more than doers, to debate courses of action amongst each other at lenght and think about solutions in the abstract wich then the more pratical Castes will implement to their terms.
This style of government is generally efficient and serves the needs of the Ouon but many of them would go back to the old times of the Golds being in charge. Economically they are capitalists with relatively little intervention of the government in the economy but the "castes" work like syndacates/guilds and there's a certain amount of welfare state.

Religion: the alchemists follow a deistic philosophy rather than a True religion and give to the "gods" amongst themselves only the kind of respect and veneration reserved to heroes, saints and great statesmen: to an human from Earth their spirituality and way of life would seem very Taoist and Hindu, but they would also note the influence that the emergenze of the scientific method has had on their culture.
Substantially they start by assuming a duality of forces at the Basis of nature, and the Balance between those two forces as the ideal "good". They also however postulate the primacy of observation and experimentation over introspection, wich is still pratiched however expecially as karma yoga or something similar to reach an understanding of nature and of It's balance. It could be called experimental taoism. Their ideas applied to politics lead to a caste society, since some persons are observably better at some jobs than others on the basis of pragmatic psicológical analisys.

Art: They love singing and dancing but consider art in itself to be a low Caste occupation so there are few full time artists and many hobbists who can play an instrument or two or paint a decent portait but little more. Where their artistic expression gives It's best is in "art pieces" wich serve a porpouse beside being art: their architecture for instance is splendid.

How do i play one? Be aloof, be pedantic, be low level obsessed with your job even If It's menial and low caste. Stop every once in a while to meditate pensivelly, get completelly absorbed in a small menial task or debate with your peers. When menaced, bring the pain, destroy your opponents methodically.

Worldstrip Humans:
The term "human" as used in the worldstrip defines the inhabitants of an universe with the same physical laws as ours from a planet similar to ours. The term itself originated from those people meeting in the worldstrip, noticing they were more similar to each other than to anyone else And thus reaching an "entente" of sorts: humans prefer to trade and organize diplomátic relations with other humans when possible. Human as a term is obviously a translation of a term in Tilion, a Sural language chosen for It's exactness, wich litteraly would mean "people of carbon" since every member of the "club" has a biochemistry based on Carbon, and that's "rare" in itself. Humans come from a variety of backgrounds, worship a variety of gods and talk an absurd variety of languages but all are noted for an affinity for the energetic multiversal sciences (evocation spells) sometimes complemented with others, and for the ambition that is their blessing and their curse. Some notable human cultures:

Insect-Tribes (Ikthyick) culture:
Coming from an earthlike world, their whole continent was consumed by the worldstrip.
They tend to be short, black or brown haired, copper skinned. Being still "primitives" to most other humans's standards they tend towards manual labour and therefore muscular builds.
As a culture they depend on the migratory patterns, populations and reproductive cycle of their mainstock in much a similar manner to native americans in our world. However their mainstock consists of various species of giant bugs (with some patience for the taxonomy) that live in their land, a continent of about the size of Australia that alternates pluvial tropical jungles in the north with an arid southern bushland with a few fertile regions irrigated by rivers.

Antiquely they were segregated in tribes each with an animal "patron" from wich they took inspiration and resources: the bee and ant tribes lived by the rivers and forrested plains competing for resources and building primitive cities out of clay in imitation to anthills and beehives; the locust and wasp tribes were horseback raiders from the bushlands, the butterfly tribes were nomads entertainers and merchants in silk, the mysterious and possibly cannibalistic spider tribe tended to their jungles and traded in giant-spiderweb clothes and armours and the beetle tribes,alone knowing the secrets of metalwork, lived in fortified hills and city states; and sold their swords as mercenaries.
Their lives proceeded in ordely fashion,appropriate to their simple-minded totems, with regular raids from wasps and locusts, manned with the excess population of the arid bushlands, keeping the teeming numbers of the bees and ants in check while the other tribes offered much needed services to all four but were blamed and punished by the winning side of each generation's war for having helped their enemy thus keeping their populations and power in check too. These cycles were so regular they were likened to seasons, and "great raid season" came about every 10 years, a few months more or less. Basicaly as soon as the excess population from the new generation sired before last great raid season could ride off into the sunset.

A few years before the stripworld abducted their continent, however, there was a particulary harsh summer that drove more and more locusts out of their lands seeking booty, upsetting the normal cycle of war and rebuilding: in turn the bees and ants's harvest was limited too due to the drought so the booty was poor, And this drove a horde of hungry refugees of all four tribes trying to raid the spiders, butterflies and beetles for whatever they had. Their civilization seemed to the brink of collapse but then a solution was proposed through collaboration rather than mutual assured destruction and so the Ithyick as a confederacy of tribal nations were born. Initially the collaboration was meant to last until the end of the crisis but then the worldstrip came and a new much longer-term crisis started.

Today the insect tribes show an United face to the world and Great efficiency in adapting methodically to the new circumstances. While still relativelly weak in magic and technologically backwards, they managed to scare off the pixies coming to enslave them and to build a Florid commercial Empire in silk, chitine weapons and armour, spiderweb artifacts and pottery. Their merchants are shrewd and always on the lookout for good buisness, and for this reason the blackmarket for otherwise illegal goods and drugs is florid in their lands. An insect-tribe merchant is an adventurer's best friend since they buy without asking questions and sell to Fair prices.

Their warriors are famed for their efficient chitine and spiderweb armours (the spiderweb is like a mail armour wore below the chitine plate armour) wich offer kevlar like protection against projectile weapons and a fair protection against melee weapons without sacrificing mobility and speed. They also rapidly modernized their weaponry with Beetle metalworking and Ant complex nanoceramics, while also adopting firearms. Finally They were quick to integrate Ant, Beetle and Bee fornations with Wasp and Locust cavalry and military traditions and spider and butterfly skirmish tactics. This all contributes to make them militarily powerfull expecially when defending their lands or when hired as mercenaries, another notable export They're famous for. As a matter of fact despite their unification and military alliance They're still far from being a nation-state able to efficiently project power outward but They're getting to it.

As a consequence of their disunion, the power in their lands is no longer concentrated in the politicians and administrators (who still keep up appearences) but in the richest plutocrats, mercenary overlords, mob bosses and plantation owners who effectively stepped in the power vacuum caused by their various crises, with the politicians still unable to reign them in. This is wreacking havock with their traditional lifestyle.

Some Gods

This heroic god of lawmakers and horators takes the form of a young man with the head of a wasp. He is inhumanly tall and has an angular build. His round eyes are yellow. He is usually portrayed as wearing a weird suit of armor made from the skin of a dead god. It's Zazta, God of the Wasps, he wears the chitinous carapace of the demon Lord he slayed.

This god of soldiers takes the form of a mature man with the head of an ant. He is very tall and has a broad-shouldered build. His round eyes are peach-colored. His outfit is that of a fighter. Tokrach, the orderly God of war of the ants. The ants love to fight in formation and he teaches them almost suicidal discipline.

This god of law, the harvest and record-keeping takes the form of a young man with the head of ant. He is very short and has an angular build. His droopy eyes are green. His outfit is that of a diviner. He carries a prayer wheel. He can cause anyone to speak the truth. Kitkot is basically the ants's chief-god, having ousted the old mother goddess Kiitek, who is still worshipped but only when referenced in his son's rituals.

This nosy goddess of thieves takes the form of an adult woman with the head of a grasshopper. She has a graceful build. She is usually portrayed as wearing a severe outfit that is mostly yellow in color, and which incorporates bizarre designs, hypnotic patterns wich make eyes unfocus. She also wears a bracelet. She carries a rope. Zaze embodies the most amicable aspects of Locust culture, she teaches her protegees how to survive and scrap by in the harsh bushlands, how to rob their enemies living off their lands and escape repercursions. Her brother Kaz is a more traditional strenght god and is a "Green man" like figure that embodies both the untameable forces of nature, famine (being perpetually hungry) and the fighting spirit of It's people. He wears a suit of armour made of scraps of various traditional ant and bee armour and wields a flail wich is also considered a fallic symbol.

This goddess of education takes the form of an older woman with the head of a spider. She is very short and has a lean build. Her large eyes are red. She is usually portrayed as wearing an attractive suit of armor that is mostly black in color. She also wears an armband and sewing implements. She can impart or take away knowledge. Phad of the needle mythically taught her protegees the art of sewing and embodies the Conservation aspects of the Spider [to the spider tribe Spiders are the perfect life form since they can build (webs), conserve (their prey in cocoons) or destroy (with their poison)] so her devore lles are expected to conserve and remember the traditions of the tribes so that they won't lose their way, and to serve as undertakers mummifying the recently dead and preserving the corpses in giant spider web cocoons they sew themselves.
Her beautifull and deadly sister Shala is the poisoner, her Brother Duul is the builder.

Sural, The People of Embers:

The most succesfull and numerous of the human cultures in the worldstrip originate from an isolated and ultimately irrelevant world of a likewise irrelevant universe similar to our own. Their world was a fiery place of volcanoes and arid badlands with few fertile and rich areas separated by wilderness, monsters and uncompromising wheater. Civilization nevertheless thrived on it in splendid and technologically advanced oasis-cities built by the shores of the few lakes, rivers and seas. The inhabitants of this world were a strong and smart stock, strenghtened by the harshness of their lands and made rich but never decadent by It's gifts of mineral wealth and geothermal energy. They were tall, dark skinned, Gray haired and white eyed engines for survival, industry, engineering. Hard work. When the Sural lands were absorbed by the worldstrip, their homeworld was deprived of one of It's main centers of commerce and culture and suffered the kind of crisis we'd suffer If Great Britain disappeared overnight (with the corresponding natural disaster wich follow extrauniversal absorbtion to boot). Determined to make the best of their new situation and confident of their strenght... the Sural were rapidly conquered by the Urugshad and enslaved like chattel.

Their enslavement lasted centuries and by all means still isn't over for most of them. The Urugshad found them usefull for their unmistakeable talent for energy manipulation, in particular heath, and taught their slaves the Multiversal sciences necessary to make them productive and not a iota more. Most of them became factory-slaves toiling inhumane hours to sustain the Urugshad War machine and their expensive, technologically advanced infrastructures but some found their way up the slave-hierarchy becoming low level bureaucrats and counselors and some unlucky others were recruited for the Urugshad's experiments in biological tampering: most other races of humans in the worldstrip were originaly of Sural stock. Eventually, some of them managed to flee the factories, build isolated communities and organize their revenge wich came with the sudden razing and destruction of some of the biggest Urugshad industrial complexes, the freedom of all slaves there and generaly an hard blow wich slowed Urugshad plans of expansion of years on the timetable.
This act alone made the Guardinals notice the Sural.

Politics and economics: the free kingom of Sural occupies an otherwise nondescript strip of land far from the main Urugshad holdings. It is organized as a constitutional monarchy in exile wich counts amongst It's objevtives the liberation of all Sural land under urugshad control, the reinstatement of the old dynasty to power (the functions of the traditional monarchs are for now executed by a Steward since the old King's family is still mostly hostage of the Urugshad) and generaly the elimination of the Urugshad threat from the stripworld.
They will trade and Open diplomátic relations with everyone who opposes the Urugshad and They will honor requests for aid from people being attacked by the Urugshad despite not being their match militarily.

They quickly became a industrial and Magical powerhouse through sheer hate and determination and want to see their revenge to It's end. They export more than they import and guarantee freedom of expression and enterprise and high living standards to their subjects. They however are limited by the necessities of an eternal war economy and must stomp down,specifically, those calling for a foolish peace as their arguments might demoralize the popolus involved in the war effort. So You can do and say everything You want as long as You hate the Urugshad and won't mind occasional power shortages and rationalizations of goods to see them defeated in the end. The current Steward is Shold Gaab Erion the Third, Duke Woldan; a middle aged veteran who makes the government apparatus work as smooth as a disciplined army and punishes corruption and inefficiency as treason.

Culture, religion and art:
The Sural have a rich musical tradition and it isn't rare for them to learn how to play an instrument and play it for their family or religious congregation at evening, as a bonding activity. They also love reading and discuss the latest offerings of their writers at lenght amongst themselves, usually while sipping delicious spiced tea.
Their new circumstances as ex slaves and the perpetual war they're fighting with an unimaginably superior enemy made it so that now fighting pratiches are also important social events: people go to public parks to train in martial arts together and visit shooting ranges when dating.

Their adoption of the multiversal sciences also changed their society bringing forth new forms of art and sports and nudging them towards new ways of development: for instance; heath manipulation being widely taught today metalworking is not just a job but an hobby You can pick It up easily to make, for instance, interesting iron sculptures bare handed. One of their gods is Gogga the farmer:

This god of farming takes the form of a teenage boy with the head of a monkey (more specifically a farmer-monkey of their old land: an animal wich would plant seeds and stockpile food in It's subterrean nests; domesticated long ago by the Sural but now extinct) He is very tall and has a wide-chested build. His narrow eyes are beige. He is usually portrayed as wearing a weird costume made from growing plants.
...But the "new gods" as they call them couldn't sobstitute their old traditional religion, and were instead integrated into It as heroes and saints. Their traditional beliefs center around a Great Fire, an explosion at the beginning of time wich scorched the void; burning the spaceless into space, the timeless into time and the lifeless into life. Some of this fire still burns (the Sun, the Stars) giving out living warmth. This fire, says tradition, was lighted up by God and still carries His love and Warmth. It is the coldness of night wich is associated with evil and hell and just as cold is the absence of warmth, evil is the absence of Good and death the absence of life. To live eternally is to be kin to God (basically they just lack Revelation... perhaps they'll find It in the worldstrip?). Philosophicaly they're rigurous tomists and rationalists.

Continuation to last post.
Mutations: During the dominion of the Urugshad over them they were used to produce many mutations wich now inhabit the stripworld alongside the original stock. Here are some:
The Surimal: derived by breeding Sural nobles to create a caste of high level workers, counseling slaves and in administrators; the experiment failed. The Urugshad were succesfull in shifting their magical aptitude from physical energy manipulation to metaphysical energy manipulation (the domain of passion, Enchantment) but they couldn't adapt their nervous system to fully control their new aptitude, only succeeding in enhancing their intelligence. So the Urugshad obtained genius aestetes and horndogs rather than cool and collected genius bureaucrats when the effects of their creations's mind Magic influenced their own nervous system. They were to be exterminated but most managed to flee and the Urugshad saw the utility in them in their ability to flee so decided to keep some as taskmasters and pleasure-slaves.
Physically They're very much like the mainstock but more beautifull and elegant and less roughed up by hard work. Also their hairs are blonde rather than ash-grey and their eyes wider. In time,since they descend from nobility, they developed a byzantine system of manners to regulate their behaviour amongst each other and love to give each other Noble titles that only they appear to take seriously but in reality are more of a complex joke to the other races's expense. They either live in small and secluded, If refined, communities and manors on the outskirts of the Free Kingdom or as travelers amongst other people. Wichever their lifestyle they are famous for their libertine uses, their intriguing diaries-slash-erotic books (that enjoy notable editorial success all over the Stripworld) and the libraries They keep in their secured holdings, full of pieces of arts and rare texts wich betray a more serious side to their personality. Their main god is Solorin, ex Prince-regent of the Kingdom of Sural and first prototype of their kind.

This god of fire takes the form of a young man with the traits of an owl, of an owl or of a young Surimal man. He is very tall and has an overmuscled build. His large eyes are white. He is usually portrayed as wearing an uncomplicated uniform, which incorporates spiral designs. He carries a satchel of books.
He was both an artist and a scholar during his brief human life and amongst the most Noble, kind and impeccably behaved of people. He had however a glaring weakness for beautifull women. It is said that it was his genes wich imprinted all Surimal with their aptitudes but an Urugshad genetist say that this theory is bullshit and that's all a coincidence.
The laws of the free Kingdom say it would be illegal for him to ascend back to the throne because he technically "died" when becoming a god and kingship lasts untill death. He is perfectly fine with this and would rather counsel his new people and fuck all nubile beautifull goddesses he can put his hands on, while of course working to defeat the Urugshad.

The Sumt: after the failure of the Surimal attempt, the Urugshad decided to try and just specialize the Sural into their role thus creating the Sumt that now have been given lands of their own under the Urugshad protectorate because they proved themselves obedient and disciplined. Where the Sural only have talent for heath manipulation They show talent for all energy magic and they far exceed in utility (And thus status) their mainstock still under Urugshad control. Having many things in common with Sural and Surimal, they are famous for their industries, their exports and their houses of tollerance. They are "Vichy" Sural with ash coloured skin and blonde hairs and their limited control of all elements makes them excellent metallurgistsm and slaves. The Sural passionately hate and secretly fear the Sumt who consider themselves an improved version of their predecessors and are often even crueler than the Urugshad with the occasional "rebel" Sural Prisoners since they honestly adore their masters and wish to show themselves as the loyal slaves they are.

In case You were wondering these are the human races I rolled in seventhsanctum:

The "human" Races. (They all come from universes and planets similar to ours: spherical worlds, suns, gravity etc)

The race of humans. They are dark-skinned and yellow-haired. They reproduce quickly. They are well-known for their libraries and erotic literature. Their government is a feudal system (rather,they love to give each other titles and then take them seriously).
They were created as part of a breeding experiment that went horribly wrong. (By the Pixies. They wanted colonizers and workers, they got aestethes, artists and pick-up artists, they serve their masters as entertainers, but many escaped since, as failed experiments, nobody really cares If they stick around or not).

The race of humans. They are black-skinned and gray-haired. Their magical practices focus exclusively on fire magic. Their language is maddeningly complex. Once slaves, they overthrew their masters and rule their realm now. A great destiny awaits them, yet they know it not.
(The original stock of the previous, the gods want to use them to defeat pixies and basiliscs).

The race of humans. They are dusky-skinned and gold-haired. They are naturally good at metallurgy. They are famous for their fantastic spices and houses of ill repute. Their magical practices tend to focus on elemental magic. Their government is a dictatorship. They control a poor country that is prone to earthquakes.
(Another deviation from the previous)

The race of humans. They are dark-haired and have yellow eyes. They have an affinity for great plains. The only kind of magic they can do is mind magic. Their government is corrupt. The god that created them in turn abandoned them. (Mind Magic is the only one You can learn without the "gods").

The race of humans. They have tentacles instead of hair. They can discharge energy as a natural weapon. Their government is a theocracy that is efficient. Once slaves, they overthrew their masters and rule their realm now (Again slaves to the pixies, allies of the alchemists).

The race of humans. They are dusky-skinned and blue-haired. They are exceptionally good at summoning magic. Their government is a meritocracy. They were created as part of a breeding experiment that went horribly wrong: as better hosts to the pixies. The advantages proved minimal. They were discarded and now wander the worldstrip.

The race of humans. They are noted for their warriors and smugglers. Their government is a plutocracy that is corrupt. They control an empire that is known as a home for monstrous creatures. (Insect-tribes, very indipendently minded but lawfull alignment, they created a six-nations like confederation and rule huge strips of land).

The race of humans.They are green-skinned and have cold-colored eyes.
They have excellent hearing. They are well-known for their houses of ill repute and for their armor. They are unswervingly practical. They worship a conflict-ridden pantheon of gods and goddesses. They believe the powers that be are generally distant and uninvolved in their lives. Most religious observation is personal and intimate. Their government is a bureaucracy that is efficient. They exist as servants to another race. A great doom awaits them, and they know it not. (Still vassals to the pixies and by now their main army: their survival is of no concern to their masters).

There's still some to cover.
Feel free to give me some feedback If you care to.

People of the Songs, The Vadti: those races that aren't taught the multiversal sciences by their gods must be taught by other races who attained them since It's almost impossible to understand extradimensional physics without either having experimented it or having it expained slowly and attendibly by someone who did.
Some rare peoples manage it but usually They fall prey to multiversal predators, Demons and other nasty fellows. The Vadti are the rare exception, and even them were only spared due to the particularly internal focus of the Sciences they discovered. Averange of height and stature, they are recognizable for their hairs (allways black, kept long in ponytails for men and kept long and flowing for women) and their eyes (allways yellow like an animal's).

They are usually pale, the men shave religiously (having a beard is the height of barbarity) and they usually dress humbly, even the nobles (You know one of them is a real badass when he dares to wear a cerimonial ring: that's something only Kings and bishops ever do).
In their universe they lived as nomads in a cold but otherwise hospitable northen continent in a nondescript pretty earthlike world: their few settlements were intended more as trading spots than as actual cityes and the one exception to this rule were the Monks who stably settled secluded mountain monasteries and tended to the idols of their gods, accepting offerings from those who came to visit them. These monks were neutral in the very common tribal struggles and offered sanctuary to those fleeing from them. Nobody dared challenge their rights Because at the time It was considered taboo to harm them and because they were the first who mastered mind-magic in their universe. When their lands were absorbed by the Worldstrip they suffered immensly at first because many of the monasteries were destroyed in the cataclisms that allways follow universe absorbtion. However in the long run This proved a blessing because, pressed by the coming Urugshad, the remaining monks abandoned their abodes and took to teach the terrible power of mind magic to their people rather than keeping it for themselves. The Urugshad were taken aback by this development and sued for a lasting peace with the Vadti, whose society however had then to face cataclismic religious and political changes.

Today every Vadti is taught the rudiments of their Arts during youth, the clergy completely reformed becoming more of a religious university system than anything else and the Vadti, to the disappointment of the Chief goddes of their new pantheon, abandoned nomadic living in favour of a system of allied city states and chiefdoms ruled by either hereditary nobility or elected city councils. Each member state, bishrophic and chiefdom sends It's representatives to the Golden Curia, a governing body wich is hosted by each of the biggest cities in turn each year (at the cost of not being represented in the assembly for that year). Very few Vadti nations are excluded from the Golden Curia either by their own choice or for having been cast out by the other members and thus condemned to irrelevacy or conquest. The Golden Curia can elect an High King to handle crises but rarely does because while the title is expessly defined as non-hereditary in their constitution and meant to only last a maximum of ten years it also doesn't actually say how to prevent the High King from keeping power or just change the constitution, because once he's there he has absolute executive powers.

The idea of writing down a constitution was given to the Vadti by the Sural, who are amongst their best allies and trading partners.
Mind Magic and the Songs.
To understand the Vadti power is necessary to understand the concept of Worldsongs. The Vadti explain the creation of the multiverse through religious analogy: an universe is to them like a song being sung by an everpresent universal mind wich describes the universe itself and defines ,recursively, the nature of the mind singing it. Gods are like "notes" in the Worldsong, their existance functions as the metaphysical building block for everything else.

If It is so, the old Vadti monks said, it is possible to listen and understand the worldsong by cultivating silence.
Once attained this, one can sing in turn and change his own mind and perceptions first, then others's, then finally the very structure of the universe. While their metaphors are imprecise, they are correct in most respects: each universe is defined by an underlying consciousness wich defines the very boundaries of said universe and It's laws. After all from the multiversal point of view, universes behave very much like bacterias and viruses would, and those do have an, altough primitive, consciousness wich lets them escape danger, seek nourishment and so on.

Culture and lifestyle: the old monasteries are dead, now everyone is a "monk". The Vadti are a silent and contemplative people who work hard every day and cultivate silence in themselves. They are very collected and quiet, often comunicating with sign language, fasting weekly and doing voluntary work to help the sick and needy in their communities. The rich are expected to use part of their money to help the community, the poor are expected to work hard and show gratitude to anyone helping them by kneeling profusely and if their benefactor wears one, kissing rings. This lifestyle is very stressfull so people tend to be rowdy and loud for special occasions, alcoholism is a públic plague and secret thyrsts are common. The Vadti who wish to vent a little in a constructive way tend to become musicians or dancers. Those who reach an equilibrium between their ascetic tendences and their passions often become their best magicians.

The Muistal, people of shock and wave.
Being descended from monkey-like marine mammals with more in common with electric eels than anyone is confortable with admitting should disqualify You from being part of the "human" club.
Should.

However despite the clear differences, the Muistal have more in common with humans than with any other people on the worldstrip, are similar to humans physically, psychicaly and at least somewhat capable of interbreeding with them (thus being arguably of the same species) and so They were adopted into the club.

Their world was more than 90% water and primarily comprised of archipelagoes with a couple bigger continents, comparable to Australia in size. While unable to actually breath underwater, the Muistal used their unique capabilities to develop their coastal waters with kelp and algae "plantations", flocks of domesticated pseudo-dolphins for meat and leather and seafood "farming" areas wich allowed them to sustain populations far in excess to what the size of their countries would suggest. Of course living space was still limited and the construction of "floating cities" and palafittae near the coast was only a stopgap so their world was one of constant war for expansion. The conquerors usually either exiled or exterminated the conquered so there was a big sub-society of maritime nomads (basically fleets of pirates hopping from coast to coast to either trade or raze) and many a "ghost island" whose history dripped with the blood of thousands and where strange superstitious stories circulated.

The Worldstrip chose to absorb a particulary run down part of the ocean, where many hungry nomads ran rampant and the price of survival was often expensive: this might well have "saved" the history of the Muscal on the Worldstrip because when the Urugshad came for them they didn't find confused civilized people but hardened cutthroats.
They could use cutthroats. But could they tame them? Turns out, not for long because once the Muscal got acclimated to the strange new oceans of the Worldstrip they were capable of securing their indipendence.

Description: tall and slender, they have tentacles (without suckers but with many sensory organs) instead of hairs, a complexion of very light shade of azure and toned muscules obtained by manning ships. They appreciate tatoos as rites of passage and visible signs of attainment. They are rowdy and undisciplined in general but extremely devout towards the Blessed Spirits of those who died by drowing or were massacred in the Dead Islands. They have the natural ability to discharge electricity with a touch for self defense, wich makes them the best energy manipulators amongst the humans, allready gifted for this kind of magic, due to their innate understanding of concepts it normally takes years to teach.

Technology and culture.
They are relatively backwards technologically except for some fields in wich they excel due to their unique talents and the excentricities of their world. In particular they make extensive use of their capacity to naturally emit energy for cheap lighting (through piezoactive cristals) and selective activation of (rudimentary) electronic devices, and their talent for exploiting the resources of the sea with limited ecological impact is unmatched. Culturaly they are superstitious and their society is generally ritualized more for a fear of reprisal from the angry spirits than anything else. This is particulary clear in conversations about controversial topics: some opinions are taboo for them and their sense of spiritual correctness won't even allow them to consider them. In some cases this is misunderstood as piousness or as a strong sense of morality, but the list of taboo opinions and behaviours comprends things that, other than being simply silly, have nothing to do with their religion: for instance it is taboo to them to collect sand from a beach, to kill an Albatros with a crossbow while at sea (but not in any other circumstance or with any other weapon) or to pet a cat. It is also taboo to "be judgmental" (wich can mean litteraly anything and is used to win arguments without actually arguing the point) and to "be divisive" (again, anyone who doesn't agree with You can be accused of doing so just to be divisive). In short they're very philosophically backwards.
They appreciate the arts but have little patience for literature and sculpture and complex architecture are often beyond their means.

Politics: A few of them are "Tenders to the sleeping" and live in the Ghost Islands. Every year or so the fleets unite to hold counsel and in these counsels the Tenders keep the peace, give the right of speech and decide the priorities of the community for the next year. This is about the extent of their government structure. The Tenders to the sleeping never set foot on a ship by sacred taboo, and the regular Muscals are forbidden to land in the Ghost Island when there's no council, thus the tenders remain completely neutral and dependable during the councils, If nothing else Because It's difficult for the would be corruptor and corrupted to actually meet. The actually inhabited islands in their territory work more or less as free city states would but obey the directives of the Tenders when they do reach them. Apparently not doing so would full their islands with angry ghosts and zombies.

Creepy Gods: the althoug brief period of enslavement under the Urugshad was critical for their culture in one particular respect: the Urugshad explained to the Muscal about their Gods, and in doing so taught them actual, True fear. Even today after their liberation, some Muscal worship the Urugshad gods, appeasing them and praying to them so they'll be spared the Final Onslaught of the Forgotten Gods, or perhaps to be awarded some small measure of power. Little do they know that at best they can hope to be eaten first.
These cults of the Forgotten Gods are secret and exclusive things that the Tenders to the Sleeping actívely hunt down (directly or through proxies) for the security of everyone.
This said the cultists are easily recognizable If one knows what to look for: they either disdain lesser taboos (since they shun the blessed spirits) or follow even stricter ones to appease the gods the one way they know how.

Ulde, the Graspers. A certain permutation of the human animic code transcribes for the archetypes responsible for the multiversal sciences of Tempospatial alteration rather than for those of direct energy manipulation (the two are strongly linked anyway and talent for one is directly proportional with capacity for developing the other on a gaussian graph that describes number of people in a sample population for talent for magic amongst humans, see Kurlack the Despoiler et all "Metacosmic self-awareness and direct energy manipulation amongst Humans" Metanature 06/446448 op. cit.).

Conscious of This fact the Urugshad used the vast population sample of humans at their disposal to breed and psychically reconfigure for the desired trait of talent in the Summoning sciences in a new population of people. The Ulde ("graspers") were to complement or sobstitute the Eliians as hosts of the Urugshad thus widening their options. The result was a complete failure: the same animic traits that code for talent for summoning in humans also code for the Ill defined characteristic know as "Determination" that humans possess so it was ascertained that the resulting Ulde were unfit as slaves (they would have been able in principle to take control of their host!) and,since the Urugshad remembered the fiasco of the Surimal, They were discarded in a isolated sector of the worldstrip under Urugshad control and quickly forgotten.
This was a mistake: while the multiversal gravity of the worldstrip made it impossible for them to leave for another universe, they would have no problem to just leave for another portion of it and that's just what they did, and contacted the other free humans.

Those, however, mistrusted the Ulde when they met (this was clearly some Urugshad ploy!) so they were treated coldly and with no little suspicion and, eventually, sent away.

The Ulde found however a faithfull ally in the Ouon who gave them land where to live and awarded them special treatment since the Ouon castes wich could use Conjuration are mostly extinct. Since then the Ulde have acted as intermediaries between the Ouon and the humans with relative success and are in the process of organizing an anti-Urugshad alliance. This might or might not have been the Urugshad plan all along.

Description and politics:
The Ulde are médium height and size humans with immediately recognizable blue hairs, Fair to dusky skin and red eyes (vulnerable to direct sunlight, they often wear shades). They are mostly culturaly assimilated in the Ouon due to their lack of native culture but they haven't joined their caste society rather organizing themselves as a free republic federated to the Ouon government. So they have their own government but send emissaries to the Ouon to decide a rough common line in politics in the áreas that affect both (mainly research funds, big infrastructure building etc). They are still not very numerous and primarily live in the Oolima city state, in the wild surroundings and in Ouon and human lands as hired professionals and ambassadors.

Culture and science : the Ulde pride themselves of their rationality and general distrust for fleeting vain things in favour of hard truth and the scientific method. As such they see most art as a distraction and the religion of most gods in the worldstrip as idolatrous nonsense, rather being deistic or agnostic.

Technologically they have adapted some Ouon discoveries to human use and are in the process of advancing research in the Summoning sciences with the hope to leave the worldstrip and go searching for external help. Magicaly besides their innate talent for conjuration they show traces of the general human predisposition towards direct energy manipulation wich they use mainly to power and use complex devices and weapons.
They still haven't raised any God.

The Nogai, the Swordarm.
If there's a pleople who can simply be defined as a "warrior race" amongst the people of the worldstrip, that's the Nogai horde. In their world They were a menace, a creepy presence just out of the reach of most maps, wich emerged from their despoiled lands only to kill and raze. Far from being simple barbarians, however, They choose their lifestyle after trying to build a lasting civilization just didn't work for them: their philosophers and matematicians themselves determined that,game theory on one hand and brutal statistic on the other, it was a safer bet for survival to just be the biggest, meanest bully in the yard and to take what others built rather than build themselves. They were methodical, disciplined, pratical barbarians that perfectly knew what They were doing, and used the central position of their desertic lands in the continent it was on to full advantage, "cycling" razing victims so as to give them time to recover and rebuild (things that would then be stolen years later) seeding suspicion amongst allies as to never face threatening coalitions and making travels prohibitively dangerous on most of the continent (so they wouldn't be counterattacked on two sides: nobody dared to send ambassadors to far away lands searching for allies against the Nogai).
It's easy for us to see how this lifestyle was dependent on the low technology level of their world and how sooner or later realiable sea travel and better weapons would have destroyed their civilization.
What we would fail to consider is that it was apparent to them too: for this reason they burned schools and temples and kidnapped scholars: it was an explicit survival strategy. Theirs was a constant race not only to allways stay ahead but to constantly keep everyone else down.
Their philosophers's plan was to eventually conquer some places to obtain access to the sea and extend their operations to the whole planet. A whole world kept in perpetual poverty, ignorance and abject terror just to feed their civilization and keep It fed. Even from the bronze age, they were good candidates for eventual demonhood.
It might have been a wonderfull thing for their world when their lands were absorbed but the respite is to be short living If they have anything to say about it.
The Urugshad didn't "conquer" them. They joined willingly when they Heard their plans: they found them to be a more refined and multiversal version of their own so they embraced their status as slave allies to the Urugshad, If nothing else to join the winning team and allways stay ahead.
And who knows, Perhaps the slaves might grow to be the masters some day.

Description: tall and muscular, strong and disciplined. Their hairs are often dark but their eyes range from deep Green to cerulean, and their skin is green. In their world humans long ago came to a symbiotic relationship with a particular species of lichen wich lives on their skin and benefits them with photosynthesis and protection against sickness and atmospheric conditions. Due to this they rarely wear much except jewels or their fearfull ceramic armours, one of their most advanced native technologies, born of necessity due to their land's poverty of minerals. Now they have the wealth of the Urugshad egemony behind them and thus a veritable arsenal of sickening weapons but choose to use their native techniques as much as possible, since their dominion was based on them. With their new status as prized pets and domesticated warriors to powerfull overlords they can often been seen wearing extravagant jewelry and very little else, walking around in their idle hours, enjoying beer and laughter and the humiliation of their enemies while others toil.
Life is Good for them, the vicious bastards!

Culture: they join total discipline with absolute degeneracy of costumes. In their homeworld they saw warrying and razing as full time jobs to be done professionaly and efficiently but beyond that they didn't really care what anyone was up to when not pillaging. They brought this behaviour with them on the worldstrip. The family unit is a rough guideline to them, and so most women are single mothers who rapidly grow to despise their unfaithfull lovers, their ingrate sons and generaly their lot in life. Religion is a personal thing to them, so they end up being fractured in a thousand cults wich can barely avoid violence. Their new gods are abashedly and unashamedly worshipped as actual divinities and they expect to be on pain of horrible death. In general the philosopher kings of the Nogai were very thorough in designing their "perfect" society on the external point of view but were permissive on Morals and interal politics; something that perhaps they would have grown to regret dearly. On the artistic side there's very little space for beauty and art in their society: their philosophers condemned art as impratical and their cities are dull and gray. Lately however they took an interest bordering with fascination with the Sural culture, music and uses since (even though their lifestyle and culture are completelly different, bordering on the unintelligible) the Sural represent to them something they had never met before: an actual challenge. Actually worthy enemies. In time this might be the crack that breaks them.

Role: they basically took the role of the Urugshad standing army. Every man and most women are expected to be proficient with a large array of weapons and to serve in the military for at least ten years (unless They join a particular cult of some favoured god who needs worshippers and soldiers of his own: in this case they are trained by the temple and fight under the god's commands). Then they are usually either given an officer rank or semi-free status and an administrative job. Some rare Nogai are chosen to be bodyguards to important Urugshad, or sent to study in the universities If they show a particular talent for magic. Their culture has come to be completely assimilated in their masters's and they Ill need to do most menial or specialized jobs: there are other, lower class, slaves to do them.

Magic: Despite their talent for energy manipulation, their passion is Demonology. It has probably something to do with their affinity for the cold equations the demons formulated to survive entropic extinction, but they're culturaly fond of memorizing the long matematical mantras that make the air itself cry in impotent fury while the power of Demons is unleashed. Their enemies aren't fried by energy discarges, they're eaten alive by invisible monsters.

How do i play them? Be an enthusiastic assassin who laughs at the mere concept of fighting fair. Take hostages, murder civilians, use children as lures to trap idiot do gooders. Then drown your tortured conscience in whores, alcool and drugs. Constantly vie for promotion, particulary through political assassination. Might DOES make right and you're the mightiest, inferior only to your Urugshad boss. For now.