In Grimmloch, your essence finds form—your true self freed from the mortal cage that held you through endless waking. All your life you heard tales of magic, adventure, fairy tales, horrors and heroes. One evening you pass through the Gates of Horn and Ivory to dream...
Choosing Your Race
What might your true form be if it was unfettered by the drum and drone of science and industrialism? Unashamed of that which was amoral, gluttonous or carnal? Undefeated by the endless subjugation of your spirit; "too old", "too poor", "too small", "too strange"?
The Delvers are those whose buried skill shapes stone into memory. The Fair Folk are the unseen grace that finally steps into light. The Gigaliths are strength unbroken by smallness. The Bane-Touched are the poets who find beauty in shadow. The Beastkin are instinct that refused to be civilized. The Wrought-Born are visions that outgrew their mortal hands.
Tribal/Clannish Races
👤 Mannkyn — "Humanity itself is already enough to bear wonder and terror"
Examples: Various human cultures, werewolves, swan maidens, berserkers
You are humanity unbound from the narrow confines of daily survival—free to explore every corner of experience, every shade of emotion, every possibility that beats within a human heart. Here you can be warrior and poet, lover and builder, sage and wanderer, all the roles that call to your soul. You can feel the weight of a sword in your hand, compose verses that stir hearts, taste wine made from grapes you planted yourself.
What makes this different: Standard human appearance with no supernatural features, organized into cultural groups and settlements. Some Mannkyn possess shapeshifting abilities, taking beast forms during transformation.
✨ Fair Folk — "Of light and shadow, peril and beauty entwined"
Examples: Alfar, Sidhe, Valkyrie, Drangue, Nephilim
You have always known you were meant for something finer than the life you were given. Here, you move with the inhuman grace that was always yours by right, speak with honeyed words that finally match the poetry in your soul, and carry yourself with the poise of ages. Whether your refinement burns bright like starfire or cuts deep like winter's edge, you embody the elegance that was always your true inheritance. You are the figure who would enter the room and change everything simply by arriving.
What makes this different: Human-sized demi-god beings existing between mortal and divine realms, often with pointed ears or otherworldly beauty that marks them as something beyond mundane.
⚒️ Delvers — "Clever folk of stone and soil with mighty pride"
Examples: Dwarves, gnomes, halflings, dvergr
Here, finally, your hands can shape something that matters—forging steel that will never break, carving stone that will stand for centuries, growing gardens that will feed multitudes long after you're gone. You are no longer just another replaceable worker in someone else's machine. Here you inherit the secrets of true craft, the patient arts that create things meant to outlast kingdoms. Where others see mere rock, you see the cathedral you'll leave behind.
What makes this different: Smaller than human races that typically live in organized communities with distinct cultural traditions centered around craft mastery and enduring legacy.
⛰️ Gigaliths — "Wilder than mountains, stronger than storms"
Examples: Giants, trolls, ogres, cyclops
You are too much in every possible way—too loud, too strong, too passionate, too everything for any smaller form to contain. Your laughter shakes foundations, your anger moves mountains, your joy lights up horizons. When you love, forests feel it; when you rage, stones tremble; when you weep, rivers change course. You cannot whisper, cannot hide, cannot be anything less than magnificent and overwhelming. Your very existence is an act of defiance against a world that expects everyone to fit into neat, manageable spaces.
What makes this different: Larger than human beings, often with exaggerated features, living in loose tribal structures. Their sheer size and presence affect everything around them.
🐾 Beastkin — "Of fur and fang, where wisdom walks on paws and claws"
Examples: Cat Sìth, Cú Sìth, Selkies, Púca, Minotaur
You chose this form because in it, you are finally free. Free from human expectations, from social masks, from the exhausting pretense of civilization's rules. Here, wrapped in fur or feathers or scales, you can be honest in ways human skin never allowed. Your emotions are pure and unfiltered, your instincts unashamed, your joy boundless as a wolf's howl or a cat's purr. You have traded humanity's complications for something infinitely more authentic—a self that needs no apology, no explanation, no justification.
What makes this different: Animals wise with speech and story, from fairy tale forests and fables. They form their own communities based on their animal nature and folkloric traditions.
Solo/Individual Races
🌳 Land-Wights — "The bound folk, keepers of grove and glen"
Examples: Dryads, rusalka, nymphs, leshy, vodyanoy
You are desire given form, passion flowing like water, beauty wild as storm-bent trees. Your laughter can make flowers bloom or hearts break, your dance can summon rain or madness, your touch can heal or intoxicate beyond reason. You embody everything civilization tries to tame—the untamed joy of moonlit revels, the dangerous allure of deep waters, the intoxicating freedom of running barefoot through midnight forests. You are nature's most seductive secret, the wild calling that makes mortals abandon everything they thought they wanted.
What makes this different: Guardians of natural locations who protect their specific domain (tree, spring, forest), regardless of whether they're benevolent or hostile. They rarely form communities, bound to their territories.
🧚 Hearth & Hedge-Fey — "The little mysteries that help or hinder"
Examples: Brownies, pixies, sprites, domovoi, leprechauns
You are magic in miniature, wonder compressed into a form small enough to hide in teacups or ride on sparrows' backs. Your size belies your power—you can bless a household or curse it with equal ease, turn milk sour with a frown or make bread rise with a smile. You slip through keyholes, dance on moonbeams, and see the world from angles that larger folk never imagine. What you lack in stature, you possess in cunning, magic, and the ancient knowledge that the smallest things often matter most.
What makes this different: Smaller than human fey creatures, often winged, living in small villages at or just beyond the hedge or directly within mortal homes—under stoves, in attics, behind hearths.
🧌 Trick-Fiends — "Wicked creatures of claw and cunning"
Examples: Goblins, bugbears, redcaps, kobolds, boggarts
You are chaos with a grin, mischief with razor-sharp teeth. Where others see rules, you see suggestions meant to be broken. Your laughter echoes from shadows as plans crumble, your claws leave marks on carefully ordered lives, your cunning turns strength against itself. You are the whisper that suggests the terrible idea, the shadow that steals what cannot be replaced, the gleeful cackle that follows in disaster's wake. Others call you wicked—you call it honest. The world is your playground, and everyone else is just playing your game.
What makes this different: Smaller than human creatures with sharp features and mischievous nature, operating alone or in temporary gangs rather than civilizations. They thrive on chaos and clever schemes.
💀 Bane-Touched — "Death's own children, risen wrong"
Examples: Vampires, liches, wraiths, draugr, banshees
You have always been drawn to what others flee from—the elegant decay of abandoned places, the haunting beauty of graveyards at midnight, the profound romance of eternal sorrow. In death's embrace, you have found not horror but home. Here, wrapped in shadows and moonlight, you are finally beautiful in the way you always knew you could be. Your pale skin is porcelain perfection, your eternal hunger is exquisite longing, your otherworldly nature is the gothic dream made real. While others chase shallow sunlight, you have claimed the deeper beauty that lives in darkness.
What makes this different: Undead or death-touched beings, existing outside normal social structures due to their nature. They walk the line between life and death.
🧜 Chimerics — "When two halves make more than a whole"
Examples: Centaurs, mermaids, fauns, satyrs, lamia
You refuse to choose between mind and instinct, between civilization and wildness, between the rational and the primal. Here, you can be both the philosopher and the beast, the scholar and the hunter, the lover and the predator. Your human consciousness guides decisions while your animal nature powers them—thinking with human complexity but moving with untamed grace. You are the synthesis of everything society tells you must be kept separate. Why settle for being only human or only wild when you can transcend both limitations and become something magnificently, impossibly complete?
What makes this different: Beings with major body sections from completely different creatures (half human/half horse, half woman/half fish), fundamentally impossible anatomical combinations that create unique perspectives.
💂 Wrought-Born — "Stitched and carved, brought to life by magic"
Examples: Golems, gargoyles, pinocchio, ragdolls, snow maidens
Every thread, every carved line, every molded curve was placed with intention—you are not an accident of biology but a deliberate act of creation. In this form, you finally understand what it means to be wanted, to be made with purpose, to exist because someone dreamed you into being. Your wooden heart was carved by loving hands, your cloth soul stitched with care, your clay thoughts shaped by hope itself. You are not random—you are chosen, crafted, meant to be. In a world that made you feel like a mistake, you have become a masterpiece.
What makes this different: Artificially created or animated beings, lacking natural reproduction and thus no racial communities. Each is a unique creation with their own origin story.
Why Nine Categories?
These nine categories provide the framework for you to explore the dozens of different cultural stories of giants, fairies, elves, goblins, dwarves, beast-kin, shapeshifters and undead in your own way. The joy of folklore is that each new story that was told grew or changed, so instead of narrow interpretation of one version we offer you a canvas on which to explore.
You play a human from Valdara who grew up with folklore—tales of brownies, dryads, selkies whispered at the hearth. One night you dream into Grimmloch and discover every story was true. These beings are real. Now you choose which form your spirit takes in the dreamworld. The categories follow authentic folklore traditions, where form reveals essence rather than providing mechanical advantages.