Alrighty folks, I got a question about 'harem MC' in a message last night and an assertion that this ruins the story. I'll address it in two parts, it's valid enough, and as before I'm not disagreeing with it. We are all flawed, this thing is an evolving project, it's not perfect.
Anyways, no more biographies from your boy.
Tyr has a harem, and it will expand in the future. No, these women are not 'throwing themselves at him' - and I honestly do not believe it's all random and contrived. You might see why, or you might have even guessed why he falls into this situations he does.
This is going to be me rambling for a while (again) so as before I'll organize it into categories.
1. His looks / spiritual presence
First, Tyr is exceptionally handsome among humans - and unlike the other primus' he doesn't scare demi's / other races. Nonhuman races do not serve directly under primus' because pretty much everyone except for a few races (Anu/dwarves/halflings, for example, are immune) feel intensely uncomfortable around a primus. Orcs are hit or miss, Jura is half human so she doesn't feel much of anything, but a full blooded orc would find it hard to breathe around someone like Jartor. Nephilim are made to scour imperfect life from the universe, the great lawnmower of the gods to reset the balance and kill anything that progresses along an inappropriate path compared to the 'plan' the order has for the world.
Orcs are orik, which was pretty obvious, except the genetically engineered warrior cast of that (presumably ;)) extinct race that managed not to go mad or degenerate like the tuskers Tyr fought in their city about 9000 chapters ago.
It's not something they can control, other humans have devolved from the original nephilim and regressed into a state so frail and weak that they are comparable to apes - hence the linkage and the theory of 'evolution'. Which does not exist in this universe, humans did not evolve from apes, apes degenerated from humans and became part of the 'dao' which ensures primate life will exist in the world. So it does, animals evolve, but our consideration of humans evolving from apes in Africa (or whatever) is a falsehood. We were born divine killing machines and only after losing grace could 'we' - humans - regress.
Only primus' contain a direct link to the original nephilim, albeit muddied, but kept active through some unknown practices (not very kosher ones, by the way). In this case being their shard, which is a piece of a god, starting to slowly possess them until their original personalities are devoured by it. Some are more aggressive than others, Jartor's own shard hates him - for example, but would be by any measure a 'good person'. We have met this shard, remember how I said these things can become their own individuals? Jartor holds the power, but the shard can go off and do whatever it wants, for all he cares.
Tyr is not wholly human, he is a hybrid of Jartor - and 'something' else. An end-point to a project undertaken by several figures in the world (Jartor) in an attempt to create the strongest primus. He didn't, the project was a complete failure for Tyr but a wild success for others who were bred from magical bloodlines predicated around the development of very powerful prime elements. Summarized, these 'people' (who do come up later, Hastur is one of them) - want to complete Solomon's great labors.
That being: Bring back the nephilim (or a new superhuman derivative, as that's quite literally impossible. Nephilim are the children of the high ones, and their shards are extremely powerful. They (the shards / pieces of 'dead' gods) exist in the children resultant from this project, something that has evolved through the centuries, this is effectively a eugenics project. IE: It's slightly allegorical to the 'Aryan' race, though you should note - Jartor has no idea what a nephilim even is, not really. He knows, through the prism of this world that is kept in a perpetual state of stagnation only forced to progress via the black books, but he doesn't know what a nephilim is. In some ways, Tyr is more educated on these matters than his own father, even Ragnar - who is currently trying to figure out what they are in the literal sense.
'Different textbooks', so to speak - they are just ignorant.
Remember, not a primus, nephilim are given a choice and not bound to one single dao (Jartor's being strength and Octavian's being Mountain, for example). Primus' are more like nephilim saints rather than true nephilim, they possess very little in the way of free will. Either their shards cause them pain when the host acts in a way that doesn't cultivate them, or they are simply aware they will be killed or punished otherwise if they stray from 'the way'. That rule of law mentioned that primus' must observe at all possible times.
Anyways, rambling aside, Tyr does not cause these people discomfort. He does the exact opposite, and now that we know his aspect we can surmise he is constantly projecting it on others. That thing that Daito recognized as 'extro-empathy', sharing or taking emotions, is his aspect - it is not a separate power. At first, it was too weak to do much of anything, but after his many travels it has become enough to the point where being around him is practically a drug.
Nala in particular would feel alive and ecstatic when she's around him. Abaddon is very old, and must sleep for long periods in an effort to keep himself busy (warring on other worlds) - but if he remained at Tyr's side permanently he would no longer be at risk of going insane like so many of his (??? spooky but it should be pretty obvious) unknown race do.
I wanted to keep it in character, but I also wanted to keep some continuity for his 'powers'. Which are significantly weaker than a normal aspect but have some very dangerous effects. I expand on this later, a LOT. It doesn't make people like him, offhand, but through proximity to the others they have become unaccustomed to being away from him for long. He cannot control it, just in the way primus' can't control orcs feeling pain around them as 'imperfect life'. Nephilim are manufactured apex predators, everything is prey to them, even gods. Which, as I said before, is why primus' and gods are not quite on the same page as one another. Gods exist to serve nephilim on most worlds, NOT the other way around.
Tyr is a bit different. This comes out very soon (5 chapters at most) - he is a paladin of one god in particular. For now. That's why he can't die, and YES - his mana core IS still damaged from the events that happened in his youth (this gets a chapter SOON) - and it will be somewhat important later on. Somewhat. Tyr does not care if he dies or not, he is chasing a high and putting himself on the impossible path of wanting people to love and worship him in his own twisted way. He hates it, his personality isn't one for 'friends' let alone worshipers, but his aspect and experiences with others that have been kind to him after a life of being abused and hated by everyone around him.
He was bullied, beaten, abused, even tortured once by Jartor to make his aspect come out. It did, but nobody ever knew it until now, the realization that they'd created a creature out of the boy that is far too dangerous to be left alive. But again, Jartor is not evil, and he does love his son. More than anything else in the world, Jartor knows what he has done and wears his sins like a suit of armor. This will be VERY important in a brief interaction a few chapters from now.
Also, keep in mind, I've read some comments / messages about character inconsistency. If I didn't make it clear enough, Tyr is mentally ill - more than that - he is insane. I started wanting to write him as a sociopath but I gravitated away because of the very bad reputation modern media gives sociopaths. They aren't evil people. Neither is Tyr, but he is borderline schizophrenic / psychotic. He has PTSD, he watched his mom get killed in front of him, was beaten hundreds of times by his physically abusive father for being a 'disappointment', and has a great deal in the way of repressed memories. Which do come back, albeit slowly.
Consider the fact that Tiber was instructed to train Tyr to hunt and kill grown men at the age of 14. 14! Do you know what I was doing at 14? I didn't even know what hentai was, I was pure and unadulterated by the greatest sin of all mankind. Tyr, however, was a manufactured monster created by his own father to hunt down and kill Signe's killers - something his own shard would not allow him to do. Revenge is a weakness (of the mind), and Jartor is forced to be strong in the way Alexandros is forced to ensure others remain free. So you could think about it as 'Jartor is evil', he's not, he's certainly not good - though. No man is, remember? Not even a primus, every single one of them (except for Ragnar, arguably) is a terrible, awful person. Something Tyr is starting to find out, he can smell sin, and primus' are full of it. Like back at the bridge before Ellemar's tower - he can literally SMELL evil deeds on people. All of the cardinal sins from wrath to fear to envy, which is obvious hypocrisy, because Tyr is a born glutton. For everything.
To the point where he mutilates himself out of interest to see to the extent of his powers to regrow, even flaying his own skin, which you might remember from his chapters with Iscari in the past. Tyr sees the entire world in shades of blacks and white, the only color comes from his bonding with people who love and have faith in him. And this isn't ONLY in love (this is important) - they can hate him but any kind of conscious thought is still a thought. This made him who he was before, and will make him who he will be in the future - and the world will be far worse off for it - but like everything else, he doesn't care. All he cares about is himself, and by extension, the people around him that make him feel good and see in colors.
He literally sees in black and white, he is colorblind and the only reason he can tell green from red, etcetera, is because like colorblind people in our world - you can learn to distinguish shades. To him, it's gray, or washed out and pale, he's just learned via Tiber's instruction to tell them apart. This has something to do with the race he is 'half' of, his hybrid nature. And based on interactions, you might be able to guess, but I do answer it directly later (around chapter 310 ish, which I am still working on).
Conceptualized, my idea for how Tyr's eyes work was that when he sees someone who has an established opinion of him - in this case that is typically someone who loves him (like Iscari who's emotion is powerful enough to do it) - he sees in splashes of watercolor.
Imagine living your life seeing this:
Tree in the Mist' Photographic Print | Art.com [https://imgc.artprintimages.com/img/print/tree-in-the-mist_u-l-q10way50.jpg?artPerspective=n]
To this (when in proximity to people that care about him):
[https://watercolorpainting.com/staging/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/easy-watercolor-techniques-painting-japanese-flowers-within-5-minutes_FEATURED-IMAGE-750x533.png]
I've never liked the 'power of friendship' trope, Tyr both enjoys and fears this influence others have on him. That is why he left Alexis back in Haran and chased her off. In his mind, he is worthless, a toxic cancer that will hurt everything around him. And quite literally, he is, Tyr will never be the objective hero of this story, but people might THINK he is. Because this world is not black and white.
Summary: He is very handsome and his spiritual presence makes people feel better involuntarily. There are people that I've met like that, I know a few who give off 'good vibes', that's Tyr. Even though he's a murderous psychopath with absolutely no consideration for remorse.
Jura's people are like that, the orcs, they don't care for a council bureaucratic justice system and simply kill bad people.
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2. HE IS RICH
This doesn't need much in the way of exposition, but I'll explain regardless.
Ella, with the help of Alexis, has been managing their finances and growing them through a collection of channels. This includes his link to Anu, the only 'human' permitted to trade with them. Ba'al (Valkan's father / chieftain) knows exactly what Tyr is, and helps him as much as he possibly can. He is the one that sent Valkan to help Tyr as well, again.
Currently, he is worth well over 100,000 sovereigns (Harani currency), which makes him one of the richest men on the planet. Because Ella is a genius, and Alexis is as well - both are insanely talented at basically everything. The exact opposite of Tyr who is only really good at one or two things (killing anything that threatens his peace, or runeforging).
He has a trading company called the Rabbit's Foot (he is Tyr, from his POV he would never care about this, the fact that he has money is good enough). I will not be writing much about this for the foreseeable future, it just exists. Also keep in mind that Tyr is Ebonfist, (Astal / Signe's family) being one of the most powerful clan of trade magnates in the world. Ella is just that cracked at business, an exceptional administrator addicted to the idea of providing for her child, going so far as to work 14 hour days.
She and Tythas are dating on the low key. Her husband is dead (we think) - Tyr hung him from a post outside Amistad and she is aware of this face. Ella no longer cares, she is a ruthless person with only one goal in mind, and he was a deadbeat piece of shit who continually went off. I wrote a chapter about this but did not release it - he was party to a bank robbery that Tyr crashed back during his student days. In the final release, I might include it, I'm not sure.
Note that those artifacts and relics kept by Sigi are the literal dragon balls, infinity gauntlet, and the master sword. Among others, remember that she's a world traveling mercenary, containing powerful objects on a world of their own. Pop culture references inside, his vault currently contains weapons, some of which don't work in their universe, some that could effortlessly erase his planet. This will never be important, they are all gone now - removed - and was meant to be a cute callback to series I like. But it is true that she does contain relics of great power and hide them away. Again, not that important, just a segue or reference. He won't be using them, if that wasn't clear enough, and that would - as the kids say - not be very poggers if he did.
To Octavian in particular, Tyr's power is concerning (last chapter) but it's not the end of the world. However, his economic dominance and business savvy ways are. This will be explained in a future chapter. Tyr possesses a secret monopoly on many industries, courtesy of Ella and Alexis both, (their money, too, technically) - and people THINK that it's him doing it. It's not. His life is and always will be defined by misunderstanding.
3. HE'S STRONG
Again with the misunderstandings. Lernin (the Red Dragon headmaster) honestly believes Tyr is the primus of magic, or perhaps even a god based on his connection with Abaddon who normally doesn't deal with humans. This is a side-effect of shaper magic, Tyr's semi-unique system that leads to all sort of suppositions about him. His constant flaunting of the law and forbidden magic does become important later, too, I didn't forget. He is not forgiven for his very literal crimes.
He saved the republic, fought Hastur and lived (Hastur COULD, right now by the way, kill Tyr). A bit of a contradiction from what I've explained previously. 'Kill' being banish, but Hastur loves Tyr more than his own children and believes he is the strongest primus of all time. Hastur has been helping Tyr throughout the story, despite being the very obvious 'villain' (from Tyr's POV promising to kill him). Forcing Tyr into situations where he is forced to grow and thrive.
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This makes some sense later, I explain their connection. Remember, Hastur is Cortus. Or rather, he is primus Cortus' shard, separated from the main body and his aspect after Cortus died.
From a humans perspective, Tyr is very talented regardless of him meeting the expectations of a primus. Many believe he was faking his lack of power all along and was actually insanely gifted. Gifted for another human, that is, a great many of them no longer consider him a true primus, or believe it's in title only.
He is weak because of his blood, but that won't be true forever. From here on out Tyr will begin advancing at an incredible pace, unlike previous chapters where he was somewhat unremarkable. But as I said before, this isn't a power scaling experience. Tyr was, and always will be strong, he is the main character and 'oh, you've been bamboozled haha!' Batman style storytelling has never been my thing. This is a jumbled attempt at a coming of age story centered around a damaged character with a dark past of his own. Others make him who he is.
4. He is, or was, a primus
People practically worship the primus', second to only the gods.
5. Arranged marriages (the harem question)
His marriages to Sigi, Astrid, and Alex are arranged, and forced. The only one to agree to the betrothal wholeheartedly is Sigi, though she has some reservations about this. Tyr is a stepping stone to her, a way to reclaim her lost homeland, eventually. Alex is in love with Tyr and always has been / will be, but she is angered by what he's become.
Alex views him as her best friend, brother, and closest companion from the past. They are, including Iscari, all childhood friends. Tyr is a piece of shit though, arguably, and Alexis consistently takes this personally. Their dynamic moving forward is unknown as of yet, she still hasn't forgiven him but this is resolved (sort of) very shortly.
Astrid is... Complex in a way some of the others are not. She loves Tyr, like a friend, but mostly she sees who he is and projects her old self onto him. She was a very sickly girl as a youth, and bullied, as the daughter of a primus she didn't make many friends as a child and yet everyone was afraid of her / subordinate. Tyr was not. She does not 'love him' in the romantic sense, but she does see him as a suitable partner considering nobody can criticize her with her husband being a primus. Unlike the others, she never cared who he was, her own father and brother were primus' and she doesn't view that as anything insanely remarkable.
She (Astrid) is obsessed with the idea of becoming a warrior like her mother. She is bored of court politics and while not written as a feminist (Oresund is a very gender liberal nation) - she absolutely hates the idea of being a housewife. Through contact, she's determined that Tyr isn't the kind of person to make her be one, which is good. Her ambition is to kill someone. Yes, she too has some mental issues that she needs to work on (but won't).
Jura is the only person who liked Tyr from the start in a pure and honest way. To her, obviously, she is his hero. Tyr bought them all and then freed them. 'Bought', by being sure the person who owned them was aware of who he was, and if there was a disagreement, he'd kill them all. In lieu with his promise to Samson, to not suffer the slaver. Again, Tyr is very strong and dominates people in his own way, but he loves Samson, Tiber, and his 'brothers' beyond the concept of 'love'. There is a great deal of platonic care there, even if he doesn't show it, I didn't write him to be a considerate person. He is the exact opposite.
With that being said, he dominates people spiritually, but they define him. Jura has another misunderstanding about Tyr being a literal and practical angel (his interactions with grown men vs. small children. Freeing the slaves (her FAMILY)) etc. She is all bluster, but she is in love with him wholeheartedly. A sheltered girl with no knowledge about what the real world is like latching onto him and considering Tyr her savior.
Tyr, again, is flawed. He cares about her, might even love her, but he freed them to keep an oath and at least initially would not have cared whatsoever if they'd died. Now, however, forced to confront loss again - it's a bit different. Girshan doesn't trust him at all, but Yana is also in love with him. Because AGAIN, these are people raised from the age of 5 (or earlier) as slaves, no compassion given to them except by their fellow slaves who were all much older. Gladiators (like Girshan) or old men (Abrath - Abe, the Telurian.)
It's a VERY shallow relationship between them, predicated on a lie. This isn't a cardboard cut out dynamic for any of them, each character has their own motivations and Jura/Yana in particular are just taken by Tyr. A very handsome, strong, rich man with a 'good heart' - from their perspective. Yana is the cat girl, by the way, the panther beastkin and niece of Girshan (we don't know this yet, but I decided not to write their dynamic into so many words, so now you know). She is not aware they are of familiar relations, also irrelevant but if you were curious - now you know.
Nala, however, as explained - only ever wanted to use Tyr. This is pretty simple, though she is not a bad person. Nala is not a fighter or combatant, her ultimate wish is to give her people souls and she'd be willing to do most anything to facilitate that. The mycelians have souls, Tyr created the mycelians, and she knows it. She wants him to 'fix' her children, but doesn't care much about herself. However, she and Tyr are not married, nor have they had any relations at all besides spooning. Very comfortable around one another, and that's the extent of it. This is platonic.
Kirk loves Tyr like family, just as he did with Benny. They are married, so he's got to count, husband and husband, but maxxid (giant crab people) do not ascribe to conventional gender standards. They are gender amorphic, not fluid - they literally do not care. The awakened maxxid, that is, Kirk could technically lay eggs and fertilize them himself if he wanted to have children. He is the last remaining awakened spawn of the leader of all maxxid and something of a 'prince'. To him, Tyr is the only full blooded human who isn't completely irredeemable. As you might imagine, a nation of crab people would have different values than human beings. Tyr is very efficient, he doesn't waste or litter, and doesn't harm younglings - or chase benefits. This isn't a misunderstanding, Kirk knows Tyr perhaps better than anyone else (even Iscari) and now that Benny is gone - Tyr is his new best-friend of sorts.
He (Kirk) found Tyr's dropping of the boat in the ocean very touching. After all, from Kirk's perspective, Tyr taught other people wavespeak so he could have more friends.
Lina is not a love interest. Tyr hates her. She likes Tyr well enough, herself, but is aware that he made the mycelians that killed so many people.
Notably, Tyr is not 'straight'. I'm not one for writing erotic scenes or anything like that, and I never will, he likes the people who feel good and is only sexually dominant if they want it. He becomes what other people need him to be, that's his whole schtick. His 'lust' for pleasures of the flesh is transient, it is what it is, he is not a sexually charged individual though he is still weak to his more human base needs. Including, and primarily, a need to be nurtured.
Orpheus, the goddess of fate, was married to Tyr in the way gods and goddesses might be bonded. 'Married'. She is in the process of attempting to manipulate him, in tandem with what I said about gods earlier. Tyr hates them, and blames from for everything that had gone wrong in his life including the boy in Amistad.
As a segue, Tyr loves children because they are pure and wants to be around them for that reason. Not romantic, obviously, I want to state that very clearly because someone commented on the Stella chapters being 'weird'. No. Tyr's primary want, and need, is to have children of his own to experience their light in the same way he does Iscari. He wants children more than anything, but he is terrified at what kind of father he would make for.
Beyond 'romance options' - character exposition
Brenn is currently angry with Tyr. He is a paladin of Vestia, the lady of the hearth and warmth, and he was intensely disappointed with Tyr's cowardice and refusal to face the women. He loves (platonically) everyone around him, a 'good' person, and wants to see them happy, something Tyr is standing in the way of.
Iscari is obsessed with finding a solution to Tyr's infirmity, and continues to labor on. Tyr, flawed, doesn't really care - but Iscari accepts that and still does his best. Iscari loves Tyr romantically, and the opposite would be true if Tyr was even remotely normal. We don't know where this will take us just yet.
Micah sees Tyr as a savior figure, and is aware of their relation. This will become important later, Micah is simple on the surface but knows a lot more than he's letting on. And is a very haunted character.
Tythas could go either way, he watched his whole family die, and for whatever reason, Hastur (who helped the Brotherhood conquer Amateus) did not kill him. Letting him live. He was on the run for many years before Tyr found him, sort of an early mentor figure for the younger man. To summarize, he is just vibing, but like Brenn he cares a great deal about the others and stays to protect them. He likes single mothers (like Ella) because he values the tenacity it takes to raise a child alone. He is an orphan, just like Brenn and Micah.
Magnus, the son of Lernin (the headmaster) is half Agoron - half Hjemlander. That being from the Krieg, where Lernin is from. He doesn't really care and sees all of this as juvenile. Tyr is his friend, one of 'the boys', but he could also go either way. He is mostly solitary and his primary ambition is to become as strong as possible.
So basically... Micah, Magnus, Brenn, and Tythas in this dynamic are Tyr's platonic friends, who's only concern is ensuring the man lives righteously and is in good health.
Mikhail and Fennic both, unlike the others, are just a few dudes with a job. They feel as anyone else does, good and young again in Tyr's presence, but they are just mercenaries beyond the familial relationship with Tyr. Mikhail is the son of Tretha - Tyr's sister, making him the mans cousin. Neither know this, and they never will.
Fennic and Samson alike view Tyr as a god. 'Ooni', that word Samson called Tyr once, means 'god' in the Yoruba African pantheon. It's a bit alliterative, but I'm not that creative if I'm being honest. It's a reference, African mythology doesn't get a lot of attention but their gods have always interested me even more so than the Greek epics. For one, Tyr arrived at his execution and picked him up off the stockade, and for the other - Tyr is the source of his freedom. Samson is one of the most famous warriors in Agoron, the southern continent, but he lost a war of succession against a neighboring warlord and war sold into slavery. Allegory for the slave trade in our own history and why 'black people' are so rare in this story.
With that being said, no, these are not token characters. I did, in fact, get a question about racial representation. I straight up do not care about racial representation, I'll say that. However, with respect to my lack of qualifications as a 'good writer', I promise that's not the case regardless. I didn't even think about it.
No country on this world of mine is 'white' or 'black' or anything else.
The clans (Daito, Goroshi, Lina's mother) are Chinese. Taoism and Daoism are prevalent in the story and I was greatly inspired by classical Chinese literature. Varinn, as well, though notable - he is a white man, they accept him because in a world of monsters nobody give much of a shit about race. How would that even make sense?
Regardless....
Baccia is very obviously based on Almohad Spain, or Hispanic. Islamic Spain. Baccian's would be dark skinned and dusky, there is no 'Caucasian' in this world.
Haran would be white, I guess, and Lyra (the republic) is Celtic inspired (sort of) but the terrain and culture is also inspired by Azerbaijan. Mountainous regions in the Caucuses, all of that. I mean, think about it, this is a fantasy world with inhuman races - what does race matter? But I'll entertain you, if you let me. I'd be happy to.
Oresund is classical Norse, somewhat. So, sure, they are white.
Haran, as well, is western fantasy European. However, 'east' Haran (Arendal) is Scythian / Mongolian inspired - they are not a homogenous cultural nation. They do not care about race, everything is merit. And the 'mongolian' horse lords in the east of the country are prided as some of their most valuable citizens. Along the coast (Karth region) - you'd see darker skinned people more in line with Mayan's (not Hispanic, actual Mayan's).
Kriegstad and Amistad both are inspired by the medieval Germanic regions. So, again, 'white'.
Milano is inspired by French Italy, the border Mediterranean regions. Arguably not classical Caucasian, darker skinned people are very common here.
Varia is vaguely 'Roman' and North African (at the south). They conquered everyone around them before running into Haran, who were lunatic naked berserkers at the time and stopped their conquest. Lucian is light skinned (the Saint himself), but he comes from a culture inspired by old Algeria / pre- colonization Carthage.
Orcs are Native American's. Roughly inspired by, at least, but not their outlook on life necessarily. They are a proud, noble, and excessively cleanly people. I used the name 'orc', and 'orik' as a derivative, but they are not bloodthirsty villains. The problem is that modern human cultures in this world could not possibly understand their concept of purity in honor. For example, two armies march out into the middle of nowhere and whoever wins - wins. They refuse to burn towns or harm noncombatants, etc. A warrior is a warrior, to them, they do not kill innocents - and for the most part they absolutely hate humans for what has been done to them.
Anu are a unique creation of mine, to be honest. I don't know of any derivative cultures that could be considered an inspiration to them. They are very large, flat faced race of giants with hairy bodies sporting all sorts of colors. Sasquatch, maybe, but they aren't wrinkly. I... Guess? Perhaps Sumerian, but their architecture would appear super-modern. Concrete bunkers and massive spires, they are exceptionally advanced from a technological perspective. Pacifists by nature, they just want to be left alone. Far stronger on average than a normal human, Valkan himself possesses enough strength of limb to flip a carriage effortlessly. Punch through a building, etc.
Teluria (Abe's home) is Greek inspired, old Athens, not Sparta. Enlightened and reasoned, not very militaristic.
Maxxid (Kirk, crab people) culture is not really attributable to any human culture in history. However, if I had to give them an aesthetic it would be Polynesian. They live alongside the a Siren people (maybe mermaids???) demi-humans who are Polynesian shapeshifters of a sort.
Ashkaari territory, which I haven't gotten into and might never, is Aztec inspired. Sort of. It's complicated, I might write more about the lands southeast of Saorsa but I'm not sure just yet. Honestly, ask me to, and I'll give a whole bio on every country in this world.
Trafalgar, Sigi's home nation, was a mixing pot of human races. She is white skinned, in complexion, but she is not 'white'. Her character model, if I ever painted it (I won't, but feel free) is Norse, very tall and statuesque. I have never been of the opinion that Scandinavian people were 'white' in the classical sense. Modern race consideration is ridiculous, and I do actually have a dual masters in Anthropology so this does (technically) come from a so-called 'expert'. You're telling me that someone from SICILY belongs to the same culture as a guy from FINLAND? No. That is not the case.
Race is irrelevant, love everyone, I've traveled to over 19 countries in my life and I have never been to one where the people weren't worth loving. Man is man, what race you are does not matter, I love you. Except for the damn French!
(This is a joke, thanks for French fries and Jeanne Claud. I know he's Belgian, but let's be real here.)
Agoron is Africa, the Western Continent is split between Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese, etc. They are Asian's, but not all clans are Japanese (like Daito's). Most are Chinese in inspiration, as is their spiritual outlook on the world. Assyria is 'sort of' the Middle Easter, there is a Kemet which is Egypt, but they don't communicate with the northern continent. In any case, you could view Assyria as the rough equivalent to the Damascus sheikhs, or whatever.
Amateus is somewhat akin to Atlantis. They were dark skinned. Tythas, an Amatean, has the complexion of a modern day Egyptian, too, but his darkness magic makes him pale.
Haran is... Again, I'm not really sure. Inspired by Russia / Germania, perhaps.
Kael, by the way, is of Assyrian (Middle Eastern) heritage, hence his name that doesn't obey biblical conventions (Haran) or neo Roman conventions (Varia).
Honestly, I can't believe I'm even writing this, but I am, and it was indeed a fair question. Representation IS important, we all need character we can relate to.
Magnus, Samson, Solomon, all of these characters are black. Solomon was south Agoronian, let's say Somalia Yoruba, and Samson is inland African inspired. Jungles and mountains. Both were inspired by men I've met in my life. Magnus is mulatto, but that's not a world in this world, he is Agoronian and while he had disagreements with his father - he wholeheartedly loves his mother (still alive).
Alexis Goldmane has sultry, almond eyes, semi-Asian we'll say.
I mean, Astrid has pink hair... Her looks would be Slavic though, similar to Sigi.
Nala has bronze skin. Let's call her Native American, as well, a wholesome collective in care of the friend and neighbor.
Daito, Goroshi, and Lina are Asian. With Daito himself being transgendered, in his own complex way.
Iscari... You'll see. Italian in appearance, Roman era, with aquiline nose just like his father.
Jartor is massive, muscular, beaded, etc. Russian, Novgorod period. Slavic, too, in a way.
Tyr is white, very, very pale. Even his hair is white, he is a very handsome Scandinavian man by appearance courtesy of his mothers blood - he looks like both of his parents. He, however, is not human. Hence the point being moot in my opinion.
Gerald (Archmage from Lyra) is darker skinned. As is his daughter, Rose.
Telurians have red skin. Orcs, green. Kijin are pale but this is not consistent, you'll see. Sinean's, like Yana and Girshan, and Ajax, are relatively white but cat people aren't 'Caucasian'. Comparatively, most of Saorsan descent (Nala) would be of darker shin tones.
Aashkari are as dark as chocolate.
Brenn is German. Micah is Harani (green eyes, curly hair).
Anyways, if you're still reading - I appreciate you. PS: I eat ass.
Keep enjoying the story.... Or else........