File: jayose/Jayose Library: Races of Yliakum.txt

The land of Yliakum is a melting pot of races with different cultures and origins, mixed and integrated by living together over the centuries. Racial suspicion and hostility are completely unknown, given the high levels of interracial marriage. Nevertheless, with the exception of the ynnwn, children of mixed parentage are considered pure members of one race. An individual will have a prevailing race that determines its physical characteristics. In other words, if someone has a lemur father and an elf mother, he will possess the physical characteristics of either an elf or a lemur, and therefore ’belong’ to one race or to the other. The race of the children is seemingly random, so it is entirely possible for such parents to have children of both races.

The origin of Yliakum’s civilization is lost in the fog of the past. The only known fact is that the place where Yliakum resides has existed before the arrival of the first colonist. The first inhabitants found a strange but good environment in which to build a new society. All the races arrived in Yliakum in approximately the same time period, give or take a few years, as we can learn from the records that our ancestors have written. The cause of this coincidence was an earthquake that moved the surface of the planet, creating new tunnels and caverns. These tunnels were eventually explored by the inhabitants of the surface and some of them, covering a very great distance, were discovered to connect to the Stone Labyrinths that are in turn connected to Yliakum. Shortly thereafter, some other races came to Yliakum through portals. The name of the land, ’Yliakum,’ was derived from the only inscription found in the Stone Labyrinths that the colonists were able to translate. Nevertheless, the races have since been able to get together quite well, and racism is not tolerated by the Octarchy.