Vran

Vrans are a race of nearly extinct humanoids  inhabiting the Continent.

Physical features
Typical vran is tall, bipedal, covered with scales and hairless. They are characterized by large ruby-red eyes covering about half of their face which allow them infravision: an ability to see heat sources even in absolute darkness. They have venomous fangs which can be used to make their weapon toxic. A typical vran woman is distinguished from a man by voice timbre and being slightly less tall.

Vran lifelength is similar to that of human, but their metabolism is so different to those of mammalian humanoids so that medics of other races have to study it whole years in order to operate on them. It appears that there is also an entirely separate sub-race called ‘vran warriors’, more akin to reptilian ancestors due to smaller eyes and large tall, who are sometimes shown on vran monuments.

Some Nordlings believe that vrans or at least a caste of them have an ability of polymorphism and imposter highly positioned human individuals like Emhyr var Emreis, but it isn't known for sure.

Mental traits
Vran mind is cool-headed, much less emotional than of other humanoids. Members of the race are startled by human passion for cruelty, it is also alleged however that they lacks of compassion. Vrans do not possess any magical abilities as well, but individuals who manage to master it can possess great power, allowing them to manipulate time and space in some way.

Casual and warfare clothing and weapons
Vrans prefer dark greens, especially on their cloaks, and solar-themed jewelry. They prefer to fight horseback, wearing gambesons encrusted with iron plates and leather helmets with steel nosepieces dividing their eyes. They wield short spears with wide spearheads, swords with bizarre quillons, bardiches and guisarmes. Their mounts wear green caparisons.

Language
Vrans have their own language, resembling Russian and Sumerian from Earth. Many aphorisms contributed to vrans and translated to Latin are popular in academic society.

History
Not much is known about the vrans due to so few of them being around anymore. According to some theories, they are a product of the Conjunction of the Spheres, but it was never proven nor disproved and the ancient elven chronicles contain no mention of the vrans. Others believe they're one of the ancient races of the lands, dating back thousands of years before humans settled into the area.

Their original motherland lies east of the Blue Mountains but by the 13th century, due to persecution by humans, in particular Kreve's followers who considered all non-humans demons, most of the vrans that lived in Riverdell, Upper Sodden, and Lyria retreated to the east, back to the Blue Mountains, or were contained in reservations together with werebbubbs and hunted down if they tried to leave them.

Under Loc Muinne some of their remains can be found, though different groups have differing ideas on what happened. For many humans, as the bones show indications of cuts from swords, they believe the vrans and the elves had fought, with the vrans losing. However, many elves state that when they found the ancient vran city, all that remained were their skeletons and ghosts. Supposedly, climate change many years ago caused an ice age, killing off most of their food supply and forcing them to descend into the warmer lowlands. Here, they encountered the earliest human settlements and their diseases, for which the vrans had no resistance to, and eventually succumbed to it.

Now, very few vrans remain in the world, with some living on reservations with werebbubbs.

Notable vrans

 * The Operator
 * The Guardian
 * Dziega