Ancestries of Golarion

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Valeros, a human.

There are many ancestries of Golarion whose traits, heritages, and lineages represent differentiated species, and whose cultures and backgrounds differentiate them as peoples in fundamental ways.

Ancestries are sometimes referred to as races, though the term is more limiting in scope to biological differences.

Ancestries

For a list of all ancestries and heritages described on PathfinderWiki, see the Ancestries and heritages category.

Just a few of the myriad ancestries on Golarion include:

• Dwarves
• Elves
• Gnomes
• Goblins
• Halflings
• Humans
• Leshies
• Orcs
• Catfolk, or amurruns
• Hobgoblins
• Kholo
• Kobolds
• Lizardfolk, or iruxis
• Ratfolk, or ysoki
• Tengu
• Tripkees

Heritages

A hellspawn nephilim monk.

See also: Category:Versatile heritages

Heritages represent often biological differentiation within an ancestry or the intersection between ancestries, other species, or even planes. This includes descendants of multiple ancestries, or being of mixed ancestry. Members of many different ancestries can even share a versatile heritage, such as the magic of void energy or planar energy that can supernaturally influence the blood any type of creature.

Examples of versatile heritages include:

• Aiuvarins, who are descended from elves
• Beastkin, who are descended from werecreatures or rare primal magic
• Changelings, who are descended from hags
• Dhampirs, who are descended from vampires and vampiric magic
• Dragonbloods, who are descended from dragons and draconic magic
• Dromaars, who are descended from orcs
• Hungerseed, who are descended from oni
• Planar scions, who are tied to the magic of other planes and outsiders
  • Duskwalkers, who are tied to the Boneyard and its psychopomp guardians
  • Geniekin, or elemental planar scions, who are descended from the Elemental Planes and their elemental inhabitants such as genies
  • Nephilim, who are descended from one or multiple of certain Outer Planes and their inhabitants such as celestials, fiends, and monitors
• Reflections, magically created duplicates of other people

Further groups within a heritage can also be described in terms of lineage, such as how descent from angels, archons, or azatas can produce an angelkin, lawbringer, or musetouched nephilim.

Ethnicities

For a list of human ethnicities described on PathfinderWiki, see the Human category. Similarly, ethnicities of other ancestries can be found within their respective ancestry categories.

An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people who identify with each other on the basis of perceived shared attributes. Those attributes tend to be more often socially constructed, such as by shared traditions, history, or social treatment, rather than the differences between ancestries or species.

References

Ancestries are a core part of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and are detailed in Player Core and GM Core. Paizo has also published several major related sourcebooks, including Ancestry Guide, Inner Sea Races, and Bastards of Golarion.