Back room whispers and stories
During the Great War, Glaudrim Wyrmkin and Great Wyrms transformed themselves to other forms and bred with many of the creatures and sentient beings of Mendia. Many of these crossbreeds produced viable offspring. Today, the descendants of those crossbreeds are the Dragon Blooded.
Most Humans, Elves, and Dwarves view Dragon Blooded with distrust, believing they have ties to the fanatical and secretive Guardians of Mendia, an organization that once sought to return the Glaudrim to power and eliminate the Dwarves.
Dragon Blooded usually to have broad features and dark hair and eyes. They are often tall and solidly built. Most take care to keep their finger and toe nails carefully trimmed, as they tend to grow into points.
While the main Guardian organization was destroyed during the City Wars, like a foul weed, the organization's beliefs and practices grow back in isolated communities and back alleys in major cities. Small cells operate in secret, sowing distrust between the races and working to destroy those who show signs of what the Guardians call Outsider taint. Dwarves are frequent targets of Guardian attacks, as are the Outsider Born, the Sky Marked, and Void Touched. Like most Mendians, Guardian members view Werekin and those Marked by the Sea with distrust or hostility. However, they seek to recruit Dragon Blooded. In the Guardian's twisted world view, the Glaudrim are the rightful rulers of Mendia.
Southshore is geographically isolated, but that's not the only reason few people travel there. The community is insular and unwelcoming because centuries ago the inhabitants made their peace with the Sahuagin that inhabit the Green Sea. They sacrificed children to the Scaled Eye, Sekah, and received the foul blessing of the Endless Depth.
Some of the first cultists used their gifts to make pilgrimages to the great temple in Shesh Sekah. They came back... changed, and those changes affected their children, and their children's children unto the current generation. It is common knowledge that the Sahuagin worship Sekah as a god, but the Human and Elven Cult of the Scaled Eye is a dark secret enforced by cult assassins.
The Sahuagin are deadly foes that hate all surface dwellers, and most people, particularly those that live on the coasts of the Green Sea view the Marked as their allies, never to be trusted.
The Outsiders treated their slaves as experimental subjects, and some of these trials involved breeding Humans, Elves, and Dwarves with other races. They found Humans the best subjects for these tests - Dwarves could not breed with Humans or Elves, and only Humans could breed with Outsiders.
The Outsider Born are descendants of these cross-breed experiments. The views of Humans and Elves toward the Outsider Born vary. Some are indifferent; others view them with distaste or distrust. The Guardians of Mendia believe the tainted should be destroyed. Dwarves take a more pragmatic approach. Their history is a long tale of slavery, and most accepted long ago that the facts of the past cannot be changed.
Singularity touches those born during Discordant Conjunctions with cursed power. The Sky Marked feel the movements of earth and sky, and some believe they can predict the future. Many people belive the Sky Marked harmless, but a vocal few hold that they are agents of chaos who cause earthquakes and tidal waves. Guardians hold the Sky Marked are yet another manifestation of secret Outsider influence.
The Outsiders performed many experiments on their slaves. One such experiment produced the Void Touched, people who incorporated the Void element into their physical makeup. Void Touched can negate elemental energy around them by an act of will, drawing fire, ice, lightning. and earth magic into the void they contain. Void Touched cannot affect metal or arcane energy. The act of voiding energy is controlled (sometimes). Absorbing/voiding energy is extremely draining. The more energy one redirects the greater the risk to the Void Touched.
Most people think the Void Touched are slightly freakish remnants of the Great War, but since their abilites only affect themselves, they are generally accepted. The main exception here is the Guardians of Mendia, who believe the Void Touched are impurities that should be removed.
Werekin are shape shifters who can take the form of specific animals. Some believe they were created by the Outsiders, who performed many experiments on their slaves, but lore suggests older origins. Werekin traits pass from parent to child, but those attacked by shape changed Werekin can also become tainted by the curse. Dwarves have a particular distrust of Werekin and are immune to the curse. There are no Werekin on Thornwalde. Human and Elven reactions range from open hostility to distrust.