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Please note that much or all of this page is currently in what we are calling “Bullet Draft” format, i.e. it’s not been fully written out but we’ve listed the ideas we’re working with in bullet-list form. We will be fleshing these out further and turning them into proper paragraph prose at some point in the coming year, but we wanted to put the lore out for players to read before the first event, even if it’s not as polished as we’d like it. Any sections here that are in bullet list format are not final and are subject to change, though hopefully only small adjustments will be needed between this and the final version.

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Demographics

• Human: ~41%
• Dwarf: ~36%
• Elf: ~7%
• Summer fae: ~4%
• Winter fae: ~4%
• Autumn fae: ~2%
• Spring fae: ~6%

Lineages

Humans

• Humans are a large minority in the Empire, making up around two of every five Vauldans.
• They were the dominant Lineage at the start of the Empire, but over time and turmoil they have declined in total percentage.
• Despite this, more humans than any other Lineage have held the Throne, over the years.

Dwarves

• Dwarves are just behind humans in how much of the Empire’s population they make up, totalling just a bit more than seven in every twenty Vauldans.
• The Dwarven population of the Empire primarily originates from the Kingdom of Malokron in modern-day Hammerhall and the Vein.
• When Malokron shattered in a terrible civil war near the end of the First Millenium, some of the Dwarven Clans moved south and successfully conquered the Empire, though they chose to place their leader upon the Throne rather than replace the Imperial system.
• Ever since that early conquest, Dwarves have been an integral part of the Imperial Service, acting as Governors, bureaucrats, and generals of the Legions.
• Traces of Dwarven culture are pervasive throughout the Empire, especially in the capital of Vauldis and the mountainous Provinces of Hammerhall and the Vein.
• Many non-Dwarves have a few Dwarven ancestors buried somewhere in their family trees, and so it’s not terribly uncommon (particularly in old Vauldan families) for a Dwarf to be born to non-Dwarven parents.
• Dwarves are seen by Vauldans as having a knack for leadership and for warfare, a holdover from the days centuries ago when Dwarves were one of the dominant Lineages in the Empire’s upper classes and military hierarchy.

Elves

• Elves make up a bit more than one out of every twenty Vauldans.
• The Elves of the Empire are primarily High and Ashen Elves.
• Many of the Empire’s High Elves are descendants of the Elves who fled the Tomarran Steppe along with the Dwarves during the First Dwarven Diaspora; they integrated into the Empire and the Kingdom of Malokron as lawyers and bureaucrats, and have formed a solid core of administrators in the Imperial bureaucracy ever since.
• Though High Elves can be found throughout Vauldan society in modern times, their ethnic history lends them a certain preconception of having the ear of power.
• The Ashen Elves were the native Elven sublineage of the Amethran Plain, though their small numbers made it so that they have not made as much of a mark on Imperial history or culture as High Elves have.
• Though the reasons for this aren’t entirely clear, the Ashen Elves of the Vauldan Empire have frequently ended up as crafters and Fabricae, though this is apparently less a conscious tradition and more a consistent bit of statistical happenstance.

Fae

• Fae make up only about three in twenty Vauldans.
• Spring Fae are the most common, as many Spring Fae have emigrated from the Cerulean Isles into the Empire over the last millennia since the reforms of the Seven Sages made emotional outbursts into a societal taboo in the League.
• They often fall into the role of caretakers and entertainers in the Empire, helping those around them and using their effervescent personalities to brighten the day of their otherwise rather rough and stolid Vauldan country-folk.
• Autumn Fae are the least common; there were fewer of them present in the Amethran Plain after the Godswar, and for one reason or another they have tended not to immigrate into the Empire over the three millennia since.
• Autumn Fae are heavily overrepresented in the Legions; Vauldan Orcs in particular treat a tour in the Legions as a rite of passage, and many Autumn Fae of the Empire treasure the memories they made and bonds they forged during their time serving in the Empire’s armed forces.
• Summer Fae make up a bit less than one in twenty Vauldans, and have a reputation in the Empire for being the driving force behind many of the greatest commercial enterprises in the nation.
• The number of Summer Fae who are actually Commercios is actually not terribly large, but the remarkable success and prosperity of a few such individuals every generation has led to them being associated with money and trade.
• There are about as many Winter Fae as there are Summer Fae in the Empire, a bit less than one in twenty.
• Many of them end up as Incantari or mystics of some sort, and it’s not uncommon to find them in the support staff of the Legions, either.