Spirehelm is a collaborative retro-inspired dark fantasy project.

In a realm of magic, danger and mystery, heroism is the only hope against the growing darkness…

What is a Realm Event?

Realm Events are focused community world building events where we all focus on a single topic.

You as a member of the community get to develop the lore and design of SpireHelm within a set of parameters.

You can submit your creations and writings and the submission that best fits the vibes and world of SpireHelm gets chosen to be canonized and will be used by the community as a foundation.

Goals of this Realm Event

Make a foundation that clarifies and distinguishes the different peoples of SpireHelm, so that you or anyone else can know how to write or create characters and groups within the setting.

Design the racial makeup of the Kingdom and the more “civilized” peoples of the Wuldlunds

DO NOT come up with an entirely new take on traditional fantasy races.

If elves in spirehelm are tiny talking snakes, we might as well use a different word altogether.

As a retro-inspired project, we want to pull from the most important expectations that people have in fantasy.

DO come up with cultures, and a unique flavor to “OUR” traditional races.

If our elves and dwarves feel identical to Lord of the Rings or Dungeons and Dragons, we might as well not have Spirehelm at all. We want people to be able to identify our races as unique EVEN if they are similar in fundamental ways to their counterparts in other settings.

This is the real challenge of design. It probably won’t be easy but we can figure it out.

DO come up with one or two NEW fantasy races unique to SpireHelm

If you think there is a missing trope or theme that would benefit Spirehelm, don’t try to fit it into an existing race, and instead, make a new one! Creative freedom is yours, just remember that this is a collaborative project with many newcomers. Don’t gatekeep new races behind mountains of lore and history if it must be entirely understood in order to write about them.

Readers should come away from your submission with the answer to the question:

What is being a ____ in Spirehelm about?

Submission Format

Submissions will be made in the form of a google doc or PDF sent to the submission form at the bottom of this page. Please include the following sections in your work.

1 – Title

Clarify which race you chose and if there is an alternative name or flair of some kind, include that here.

2 – Credit

However you and any other contributors would like to be credited

3 – Description

Word count maximum: 400

What would a newcomer to Spirehelm NEED TO KNOW in order to portray this group correctly.

This would be an outsider or archivist description of the races.

Consider:

What they are
What fantasy they fill
Visual description
Brief overview of characteristics and culture

4 – Fiction

Word count Maximum: 800

A reason to care about the description and race in general

Should highlight what is most important to them.

This would likely be in the form of “in world” writings or scenes, poems or otherwise.

Could be a collection of two or three separate entries if helpful.

These would likely be collected records for the archive.

Consider one or two of these:

Struggles

Their traditions

Their culture
Habits
History
Day to day life
Myth from ages past, or how they came to be

5 – Sketches and Concept Art (optional)

You may include any commissioned or personal art that you have made for them.

6 – Mood Board (optional)

You may include found art that you think helps illustrate the feel of your race.

You may also include this art in other sections of your submission as you see fit.

Submission Limits

You are limited to 1 Spirefolk submission and 1 Wuldlunder submission per account as a primary contributor.

You do not have to work on multiple if you don’t want to.

If you have worked in groups, each person in that group counts as a different email or account. So if a group of three people works on 6 separate races (3 spirefolk and 3 wuldlunders) You could submit all of them, just submit each one under a primary contributor.

As always, collaboration is encouraged.

Races of the Realm

Apart from Humans who remain the most prosperous and widespread people of the realm, and other races who are rare, mysterious, or elusive, the realm is home to a few races that share culture, trade, and community with each other, wether peacefully or not. These 6 are the races you will be writing about in the realm event.

Spirefolk

People of the kingdom that participate in widespread trade, government, and community within the Valanholds and the Great City.

Myth from ages past tells of calamity, destruction, and death. As humans spread through the realm they encountered the remains of these people in small groups who recounted their legend. As time passed, they have flourished with civilization. Though they may have differences in culture and opinions, they maintain enough peace to participate in civilized culture.

A big goal for this group is to carve out what differentiates these races from humans. Culture, History, Craft, Passions. These can clash with the cultures of humans, giving room for tension and intrigue in stories.

Elves:

Themes: Long lived, Wise, Dextrous, magical, woods, trees

Lifespan: ~ 200

Dwarves:

Themes: Tough, magical, Mountainous, Industrial

Lifespan: ~ 100

Halflings:

Themes: Peaceful, Delightsome, Small

Lifespan: ~ 80

New Spirehelm Race:

Themes: ???

Lifespan: < 200

The freedom is yours. What other race could exist in the realm?

Wuldlunders

Other groups of peoples who live in the Wuldlunds or generally outside the walls of the kingdom. Though they may interact, or participate on a small scale, the bulk of their peoples live apart from Spirehelm itself.

As with most things outside of civilization, many a spirefolk are skeptical at best of the peoples from the wilds.

A big goal for these submissions is to create an atmosphere for tension, conflict, or intrigue with the spirefolk.

Orcs:

Themes: Tough, tribal, barbaric, strong, primarily antagonistic toward Spirefolk

Lifespan: < 150

Community Race:

Creative freedom is yours, what other wild peoples could exist in the Wuldlunds?..

Themes: ???

Lifespan: < 200

Keep In Mind

Submissions will be open until

November 6th, 2026

If you’re stuck, feel free to reach out in the community discord, there are plenty of friendly members happy to help there.

If you’re not sure which direction to go with themes, refer to the mantra at the very top of this page: