To round off the explanation of the four primes, I leave you with the biggest oddity in the world – the tallis. This race was created by Destruction with the essence of fire embodied within them (and by me to fill a niche left by the lack of the small humanoid races – gnomes and dwarves.) They are the only one of the primes that stands out as different. Line a human, an orc, an elf, and a tallis side by side and you’ll see a human, a dust-skinned, tough human, a slender, darker-skinned human, and a dragon.

The Tallis

Tallis is an old dragon-tongue term that means “worker.” Indeed, this race is an industrious and hard-working one. They were created as an affront to nature itself, a way for the beings on the planet to always know they had a creator, and that nature and natural evolution did not make them. They are somewhat shorter than humans, also much lighter. They also appear to be human-shaped dragons. They walk on two feet, have scales, claws, a long tail that can serve as a third limb due to its prehensile nature, a snout filled with sharp teeth, and a pair of wing-like flaps on the sides of their heads for protection of their ear-canals. They are actually mammals, with breasts, hair, warm-blood, live birth, milk production, and the specialized inner ear bones – but all draconic creatures and dragons in Dramoth Gilead are mammals anyway so that’s not unusual.

Tallis do not know much magic. There is a group of dedicated warrior-priests who have focused on learning the magic of draconic seals – emblems and patterns given to them by the eight elder dragons. The torgaruna (as they are called) wander the continents in search of the homes of the eight dragons. When they receive the blessings of the elders, they are given the knowledge of their particular seals. These unusual patterns are difficult to reproduce properly, so only the torgaruna are able to use it. Instead of magic, the vast majority of tallis work wonders of science instead. They’ve mastered the control of steam powered devices – their city of Sedurka is a technological wonderland. This technological marvel is seen as bizarre to the other races, and they don’t trust the tallis devices without there being a tallis to fix them. Some say the tallis are capable of doing anything, and they just might be.

Tallis culture is designed around learning and application and study. They are run by a number of council-members elected from the heads of the guilds. Each tallis is put in school from the time they are very young and taught all subjects to help them along. When they reach the age of 13, they are sent to a master to learn their ways, and then after their apprenticeship is over, they are put into one of the many guilds. Their art is unusual, formed by twisting and beating metal. It does not resemble any normal structures – drawing from the abstract and the ideological rather than the concrete and story-based artistry. While most tallis cannot be bothered with ritual worship, the majority at least pay some respect to the elder dragons. The torgaruna are the priesthood of the elder dragons, and even they do not ritualize their worship.

Socially, a tallis is not really interested in any sort of limit to their strengths. Male or female, rich or poor, able or not, a tallis strives for excellence, and the greatest of the tallis are those that rose through adversity to become guild leaders or council members. They pay high respect to their parents – their surnames made from the first few syllables of their parents’ names as well as the last syllable from their parents’ birth place. Other races see the tallis as highly energetic, a bit too imaginative, and kind of dangerous – but they respect their knowledge and their abilities. Tallis enjoy the company of other races, always willing to listen and hear everything that they say and know.

And with that, the four primes are done. There are a few other races in the world I’ll get to another time, but for now I’m going to explain a few minor details about the world, then in depth about the cities.