Athdraki

Athdraki are the leading demi-human race of Israidius, a strong race that is loyal, proud, duty driven and highly intelligent. They are fierce people that make dangerous enemies if crossed and great allies if their trust is earned. They are the prominent race of Israidius, being those that follow under the Great Lord, or as commonly referred to on Calamia the Lord of Demons, Gornaz, and before him Jeremas.

Physically the Athdraki are human like in appearance, with athletic bodies, from thick and bulky to thin and sculpted, that come in many fleshy tones, from pale alabaster to dark ebony. There is not one Athdraki that has ever been over weight, for their metabolism is extremely high. All Athdraki have exotic features, like sharp features, colored metallic shaded hair that always grows straight and smooth and unusual colored eyes. These colors depend on the family line, for a child will always share their hair and eye color traits with one of their parents... the color will rarely be random. (Example: A blue haired Athdraki and a red haired Athdraki will only have a blue or red haired child. Same goes for eye color.) Their eyes are never large, and are almost always almond shaped or oval shaped and sharp. Athdraki possess dark vision, being able to see in the dark far better than a dwarf and nearly rivaling that of vampires. An average Athdraki stands between 5' 7” and 7” tall. They can interbreed with humans, but no other race, yet they have a difficult time conceiving, having a low birth rate, even with humans.

The Athdraki have a secondary form, their favored hybrid form, where they change into the physical representation of a Gothic gargoyle, only with scaly hide. This form usually takes on some characteristics of their hair and eyes, like their scales being similar to their hair shade or their eye color. In this form they have no hair, only spikes, plates, barbs and horns. Their bodies enlarge, their height increases, ranging in height up to 15', and their physique becomes extremely muscled and hard, their thick hide in this state being nearly impenetrable by normal weapons, thus the reason why they wear hardly any armor. Most Athdraki have a pair of horns on their head, all in different styles, shapes and sizes, and most commonly black, though they have been other shades.

In this form they are large and demonic looking, with sharp teeth, clawed hands, and their feet shaped like a dragon's, walking on the pads of their feet and having long taloned claws tipping their toes. On their back sprout wings, different in styles, but all smooth with thick leathery skin covering them.

Most Athdraki prefer to remain in their hybrid form, finding that their main appearance is too similar to that of their hated enemies, the humans, and only use it for spying or blending in. Some are permanently encased in their weaker human-like form because the Demon Lord locked them in it, and they are unable to turn back to their hybrid form. It is not known how long an Athdraki can live, but the demon princess Nakhti has been recorded in human histories for well over two thousand years.

Hudrakes

Hudrakes are the result of sexual mingling with Athdraki and Humans. These beings are rare in their own right given the Athdraki’s stand against the humans as a whole, and also the Athdraki’s low birth rate.

Although these children do not gain a hybrid form nor wings they do inherit all physical traits from their Athdraki parent’s human-like form, with hair, eyes and build being almost exactly the same, dominating over the human parent's features. They also gain their high metabolism, fierce determination and dominating personalities. Another benefit is that they gain a slight form of dark vision. This form of vision allows them to see the outlines of objects in the dark, but no details. Hudrakes are quick learners and excel in almost any profession they wish. They tend to blend well into human society, but can often cause questions or warrant odd glances because of their unusual metallic hair and eye shades.

Hudrakes can live up to about four hundred years of age. They age typical for a human child during their youth, but as they reach maturity, around twenty, their aging process begins to lengthen, making them age far slower than their human relatives.