Species

A broad kind of people sharing an inheritable continuity, whether biological, metaphysical, or constructed; in ordinary speech the word is people. See What Makes a People.

Overview

This directory contains species-facing documents for The Decachord.

These pages tell what each people is in body, branch, and history, and how it came to share Caeldon with the others.

The shelf covers Caeldon's oldest major peoples, the far-side peoples, the water-world peoples, and the medieval bridge peoples. The Dwarves and Elves reach deepest into time, through hold and grove, branch and rivalry. Humans are the young, mixed, quick-spreading people of the cradle. Orcs, Halflings, and Gnomes hold the far side: harsh roads, sheltered folds, and difficult coasts. The Thaluren come back from the sea to spawn in rivers the Kavari already live in. The medieval bridge peoples, Goblins, Kobolds, Giants, Trolls, Ogres, and the Wrought, fill the ruins, road margins, underworks, colossal roads, wounded crossings, heavy frontier camps, and old machines in between.

Branch and Civilization Scan

This table is a short planning layer, not a full taxonomy. It tracks how each known species currently handles branches, lineages, lifeways, design lineages, historical forms, and civilizations.

The historical and lost forms column is a list of seeds: names for forms that may later be developed or found to be lost, not established canon. A name there is canon only where a species page develops it.

Species	Tempo	Living Branches, Lifeways, or Design Lineages	Possible Historical or Lost Forms (Seeds)	Civilization or Order Pattern
Elves	Very slow	Wood Elves, Thorn Elves, High Elves, Dark Elves	Verdant Proto-Elven Lineages, Elder Root-Kin, Roothollow Threshold Elves	Strong branch-civilization alignment through Rootcrown, Thornbound, Crownbough, and Gloamroot orders
Dwarves	Slow	Ironspine Dwarves, Stonewake Dwarves, Highhold or Gatehold Dwarves as soft lifeways	Lithic Ancestor Lines, Burdened Deep Forms, Old Seam-Kin, Lost Pressure Holds	Hold-worlds, compacts, and deep polities; the hold matters more than the branch
Giants	Very slow	Highline Giants, Terrace Giants, Burden-Road Giants	Upland Colossi, Horizon Shrine Lines, Lowland Colossal Kin, Broken Road Houses	Remnant custodial houses, with the extinct Upland Colossal Civilization as the major anchor
Humans	Fast	Regional peoples, not branches: Confluence, Headwater, Serathic, Frontier or Mixed-March	Early Transition-Zone Populations, Confluence Baseline, Lost Corridor Peoples, Deep-Contact Enclaves	Civilizations and regions matter more than biological branches
Halflings	Moderate-fast	Foldward, Leeward, Edgefold or Outfold	Early Shelter-Pocket Halflings, Dryfold Halflings, Overgrown Orchard-Kin, Roadfold Halflings	Commons, measure orders, orchard communities, and market communities
Gnomes	Moderate	Gaugeward, Tidelace, Chainwake or Island	Early Inlet Gnomes, Fogbelt Gnomes, Drowned Harbour Kin, Outer-Isle Gnomes	Leagues, calibration orders, pilotage traditions, and harbour compacts
Orcs	Moderate-fast	Windscar, Rimward, High-Scar, Open-Steppe or Far-Route	Early Harsh-Land Orcs, Broken Route Kindreds, Storm-Shelf Orcs, Basin-Refuge Orcs	Pacts, escort orders, kin-holding, and route confederacies
Reedfolk	Moderate-fast	Floodplain, Marsh-Reed, Shoalway, Estuary	Old Channel Reedfolk, Drowned Reed Cities, Cutbank Houses, Salt-Reed Kin, Inland Fen Reedfolk	Floodkeeper Houses, shoal leagues, and estuary shrine confederacies
Thaluren	Slow-moderate	Tidebound, Blightward, Open-Run, Outer-Route	Old Run-Lines, Closed-Water Branches, Failed Alternate Runs, Deep-Reef Thaluren	Returning Concord, Blightward Keepers, and Open-Run Concords
Kavari	Moderate	Bankright, Gravelbraid, Pool-Kin, Coldrun	Old Tributary Kavari, Silted Pool-Kin, Cutbank Kavari, Springline Kavari	Bankright Circles, nursery custodies, and gathering circles
Goblins	Fast	Ruin-Warren, Market-Shadow, Road-Margin, Underwall, Hobgoblin Compacts	Old March Goblins, Collapsed Fort Goblins, Canal-Shadow Goblins, Battlefield Goblins, Lost Warrant Goblins	Warrens, compacts, market households, route families, and Hobgoblin warrant compacts held at a lord's pleasure
Kobolds	Fast	Mine-Edge, Drain-Warren, Ruin-Under, Deep-Service, Vent-Kin	Old Service-Kin, Collapsed Warren Lines, Patron-Bound Kobolds, Surface-Settled Kobolds, Heat-Vent Kobolds	Underhouse compacts, service leagues, and ruin-warren networks
Trolls	Moderate, distorted	Bridge-Keeper, Ravine, Scarwood, Stonebreak, Woundfield	Old Failed-Mending Kin, Burn-Scar Lines, Sealed Crossing Houses, Overmended Woundland Clans	Crossing houses, woundland camps, bridge-oath families, and ravine houses that take their due
Ogres	Moderate	Hearth-Burden, Stonehaul, Timberbelt, Floodgate, Roadcamp, Siege-Scar	Old Threshold Ogres, Hunger-Band Ogres, Chain-Camp Ogres, High Burden Ogres, Ash-Camp Ogres	Camp-custom, burden houses, work-bands, and labour pacts
The Wrought	Non-biological	Forgeframe, Mineframe, Fieldframe, Civicframe, Alchemic, Warframe	First Predecessor-Frames, Pattern-Bound Frames, Broken Warframes, Estate-Bound Frames, Uncertified Frames	Repair houses, recognition orders, sanctuary workshops, and free frame compacts

Timeline Reading

The branch scan should be read as a medieval visible layer sitting on top of older historical spans, not as a claim that every listed form developed at the same time. The broad method is shared with the Timeline Layering and Parallelism Framework.

The deepest spans belong to species stabilization and broad ancestry fields: Elven, Dwarven, and Giant histories reach farthest back, while Human, water-world, far-side, and medieval bridge peoples generally enter history later, through settlement, conquest, contact, and war. The Wrought do not follow biological divergence at all; their history is one of design lineage, labour, repair, flight, and acceptance.

For now, most historical forms in the scan should remain broad span markers rather than exact dated entries. They become full timeline documents only when they explain a founding, merger, disappearance, lasting status line, ruin, contact zone, or medieval successor order.

Civilization Coverage Matrix

This matrix is a planning guide for the next civilization pass. It tracks whether each species is already covered by a civilization document, a species-document lifeway, an elder remnant anchor, or a future order that still needs naming.

Species or Group	Current Coverage Anchor	Coverage State	Best Next Artefact
Elves	Rootcrown, Thornbound, Crownbough, and Gloamroot civilizations	Strong coverage through named branch-civilization alignment	Later polish and internal differentiation, not new core anchors
Dwarves	Ironspine Holds and Stonewake Compact	Strong coverage through the hold-world and a deep civilization within it	Later hold-cluster detail where needed
Giants	Upland colossal inheritance plus remnant houses	Historically anchored, but living remnant orders remain mostly species-doc level	One small remnant-order seed if Giant medieval agency needs more weight
Humans	Confluence Marches and Serathic League	Strong regional-civilizational coverage, deliberately young beside older peoples	Later regional civilizations within these only where the map demands them
Halflings	Foldward Commons	Adequate first far-side civilization anchor	Later orchard, fold, or market-order detail inside existing anchors
Gnomes	Gaugeward Leagues	Adequate first far-side civilization anchor	Later pilotage or calibration-order detail inside existing anchors
Orcs	Windscar Pacts	Adequate first far-side civilization anchor	Later route, escort, or basin-edge successor orders if needed
Reedfolk	Floodkeeper Houses	Adequate lower-river civilization anchor	Later shoal or estuary confederacy only if Reedfolk need more independent public weight
Thaluren	Returning Concord, Blightward Keepers, and Open-Run Concords	Strong oceanic-return coverage, though the parent Concord still needs firmer dating later	Clarify Returning Concord timing before adding more Thaluren orders
Kavari	Bankright Circles	Adequate freshwater resident civilization anchor	Later nursery or tributary sub-orders inside the Bankright frame
Goblins	The Iron Compacts, warrens, market households, and route families	Named civilization now exists in the Hobgoblin Iron Compacts; not every Goblin pattern needs a civilization document	Later local warrant or warren detail only if a region needs it
Kobolds	The Underhouse Compacts, service leagues, and ruin-warren networks	Named civilization now exists; coverage remains non-territorial and underwork focused	Later local underhouse detail only if a region needs it
Trolls	The Crossing-Oath Houses, crossing houses, and woundland compacts	Named civilization now exists; coverage remains non-territorial and focused on crossing oaths	Later local crossing-house detail only if a region needs it
Ogres	The Hearth-Weight Compacts, burden houses, camp-custom, and labour pacts	Named civilization now exists; coverage remains non-territorial and focused on labour custom	Later local burden-house detail only if a region needs it
The Wrought	The Mending Orders, repair houses, sanctuary workshops, and free frame compacts	Named civilization now exists; design-lineage coverage remains non-territorial	Later warframe release or civicframe fellowship only if needed
Vanished elder civilizations	Archive-Law, Ash-Furnace, Upland Colossal, and Sepulchre-Kin worlds	Strong as elder civilizational strata, not yet tied to living species one-to-one	Keep as planetary inheritance unless a surviving people or remnant order is approved

Species-Group Timing Notes

Group	Timing Emphasis
Ancient stabilizers	Elves and Dwarves have the clearest deep-time branch histories. Their living medieval forms should be read through old stabilization, first heartlands, major secondary divergences, and later civilizational hardening.
Elder remnants	Giants point backwards to a vanished public-scale civilization. Their living identities are medieval remnant lines and custodial lifeways, while their strongest civilizational weight belongs to the older Upland Colossal world.
Human and lower-river consolidators	Humans and Reedfolk should be read through emergence, settlement, river order, and later corridor power in the cradle. Their branch histories matter most where they explain regional mixture, absorption, who counts as whose, and lower-river conflict.
Far-side founders	Orcs, Halflings, and Gnomes are best read through far-side heartlands, first named orders, and secondary formations. Their historical branches should usually explain old routes, sheltered folds, lost harbour worlds, and successor institutions rather than separate biological peoples.
Far-side water peoples	Thaluren branch history follows return-water, run-line, sanctuary, blight, and redirection. Its timing is strongest where spawning custom and damaged returns create later custodies and concords.
Medieval bridge peoples	Goblins, Kobolds, Trolls, and Ogres should mostly be timed through ruined works, contact margins, frontier labour, crossing oaths, local compacts, and medieval social visibility.
Constructed peoples	The Wrought follow design-lineage timing: predecessor frames, pattern-bound use, broken or obsolete lines, the hunted first-awakened, recognition orders, and the slow hardening of repair custom.

In the Writers’ Guide

How Magic Works FoundationsThe First Law, Lifeforce, Bodies and Affinity, The Ways of Casting
What Makes a People FoundationsKinds of People
Glossary Foundations