Lab Arc Wiki

The frontier is a muddled melting pot of racial tensions and conflicts, many of them originating from the politics of the countries best known for their various people. Many assumptions are drawn about individual politics and behaviors based on their racial origins, not all of them made in error.

Most humans living in the frontier hail from Franzia or the New Franzian colony, and are strong proponents of personal choice and freedom. Other major settlements of human habitation include Archeria and Orcha, and in some cases Espana. It is said that humans are everybody's second best friend because of their knack for working with others to achieve mutual goals, which makes them also everyone's second worst enemy because they can easily become an opponent as well. The humans of Espana, in particular, tend to be among the most dangerous as they have become willing to accept the might-makes-right philosophy and can commit shocking acts of brutality in the pursuit of their goals.

Most of the elves living in the frontier are Inglesh, and believe in a fairly rigid system of classes and castes within the areas they govern. They are the people who are most strongly focused on 'civilizing' the frontiers - and everywhere else, for that matter - but they also tend to treat everyone non-elven as vaguely inferior, with only the purest and most dignified strains of elven blood eligible for governance of their territories and colonies. Their colonial stretch has been divided amongst various noble houses. They believe that it is the duty of the lesser races to serve their superiors, and are attempting to educate them into a life of willing servitude.

Most of the dwarves in the frontier hail from Espana, and believe that the frontier is an area ripe for conquest and exploitation of mineral resources; they are actively searching for mining deposits and are prone to remove obstructive settlements of natives by force. However, a fair number of dwarves hail from Itila, and are actually quite friendly; they often provide diplomatic intervention with their more warlike kin. Some dwarves from Aleman and Orcha are also occasionally seen, although this is rare.

Most dragonborn in the frontier hail from Espana or the Scarlet Archipelago, and they are generally as tough as they come. They are tough combatants who focus on physical strength, and are commonly front-line fighters in engagements with natives, capable of matching their ferocity and fervor.

The majority population of Itila, gnomes still inhabit much of the former Itilan colonies annexed by Ingle during their southward push, as well as Little Itila, the Isle of Gnomia, and other regions. They are typically welcomed due to their artistic vision and engineering skills, although their habit of making everything for gnomish comfort can be problematic in trades with larger peoples. They prefer trade and negotiation to warfare, but can make quite deadly weapons of war when provoked.

Peaceloving and mostly sedentary, halflings are a rare sight in the new frontier due to having established longheld family traditions and homes within Itila and Aleman. Occasionally, a particularly enterprising halfling trader becomes a colonial in order to set up shop in a place of unexplored opportunity.

Wanderkin are a common sight in the frontier, due to their innate desire to travel and explore new lands and experience new things. These diminutive elfin people seldom set up a permanent homestead or adopt a single cultural heritage, however, either in the Old World or the New World, though New Franzia is a common point of arrival for those who want to learn most about all the opportunity the new land has to offer.

Little is known about the tabaxi of the Cat Paw Islands, as they are seldom seen away from their homeland. Those few who have been seen are often servants of the Inglesh, receiving education in the wider world in exchange for their work.

The goblinoid tribes of the Western Territories are demihuman figures with skin tones in various shades of green and brown, and occupy much of the plainlands and forests of the Western Territories. They have been actively resisting the incursion of colonialism into their homeland with mixed success, as the Inglesh consider them savages that need to be educated and the Espanish see them as potential workers to be converted. They get along best with the Franzians and Itilans, as neither is actively attempting to enslave them.

The orcish tribes of the Western Territories live in the rockier regions where crystals have been discovered, and are becoming newly acquainted to the expansionistic nature of the colonials. They are generally unfriendly but not overtly hostile unless the newcomers actively wage war on them, although they have been in active conflict with the Espanish in particular and as such have learned a sharp distrust of large groups of dwarves or dragonborn.

While not every mingling of races is interfertile, some populations are capable of interbreeding. Humans seem capable of breeding with most human-sized races, and elves seem capable of breeding with most demihuman-sized races, interestingly enough. Goblin-elf hybrids in particular are known as goblinelles, and occupy a position of servitude in New Inglesh society. Humans and halflings can interbreed, resulting in a somewhat diminutive human derogatorily referred to as a quarterling.