Characters from Arginet may be ‘ordinary’ humans, fay, or wights. Any of these may start out having connections to one of the three political factions.
The great majority of Arginese are ordinary humans. They are sometimes known as ‘untouched’ to distinguish them from the fay, although this is considered a patronising term by some.
Some people show a sufficiently strong affinity to one of the elements that it actually changes their appearance and psyche. These remarkable few are known as the fay or spirit-touched.
It has long been observed that the proportion of fay is high in Arginet and especially so in the nobility. Indeed, in past ages it was believed that the touch was hereditary, and the noble houses obsessively recorded their bloodlines in an attempt to keep it to themselves.
The last century saw this disproven by Reformist-minded scholars. It is now known that the touch comes from the actions of an individual. Long devotion to the philosophy of an element, contact with its spirits, and actions aligned with its principles can, in time, bring about a transformation in which a person becomes suffused with the energies of a particular element. This can occur at any point in a person’s life although it is extremely rare before adolescence.
In most respects fay are no different from other humans, but the markings on their skin make them instantly recognisable. Their temperament also leans strongly towards that exhibited by spirits of their element, and those spirits will tend to regard them as one of their own - while spirits of the opposing two elements are likely to be suspicious of or even hostile towards them.
Since the Breaking began, scattered cases have been observed of recently deceased ancestor spirits returning to their bodies and reanimating them as wights. This has caused considerable distress to many of the living, partly because of the trauma of seeing the dead walking but in large part because of the very awkward legal implications. More than one noble house has been thrown into chaos when the incumbent to the title died and then returned before their heir could inherit...
It is easy to distinguish a wight by their appearance - even being dead for a short time is bad for one’s looks, and that goes double if the death was violent. They are tenacious and can keep body and soul together even in the face of quite horrific injuries. However, they cannot bind other spirits to themselves.
Arginese society is a long way from adjusting to the existence of wights. Most people view them with revulsion, confusion, or pity, seeing them as horrific and unnatural monsters or as tragic figures sundered from the spirit world. The priesthood have mostly advocated a neutral approach, allowing that wights are a fairly unsettling sight but reminding the layfolk that they are possessed of (or by) the spirits of revered ancestors. A few, especially within the Reformist faction, are more accommodating, seeing them as fellow underdogs and hence potential allies - whether the wights like it or not.
Since the Breaking, unstable rifts to other planes have formed across Arginet and beyond, and through them all manner of creatures have entered the world. Not least of these are humans. Exiled from their own planes, they have must make new lives in a strange and unfamiliar world.
Though these people are tremendously diverse some common strands have emerged. Offworlders - as they are generally known - have said that their old lives feel like half-remembered dreams. Some strong ideas remain, like people they cared for, but places, events, and details all blur and merge.
This effect makes it difficult to learn much of the worlds they once knew: they may appear in Arginet with vague impressions of a terrible war they were fleeing, or a life of unyielding order, or a bucolic paradise they wandered away from and can never return to.
As well as competent fighters and promising (though amnesiac) scholars, a number of offworlders have been found who know magic. So far, however, none have arrived with an understanding of the spirits, and none are fay. Different groups have drawn different conclusions from this, and hope that any future discoveries will back up their own agendas...