Ravenite

The ravenites is a nation of tailless dragonborn, formerly enslaved by the dragonkin from Kethesk, called themselves draconblood. The ravenites were freed with the destruction of Draconia by Vorugal, only to find themselves serving the ancient white dragon instead. A few months later, ravenites helped Vox Machina kill him, commemorate the dead, and sailed in search of the new life elswere in Wildemount or Tal'Dorei.

Description
Ravenites look very much like dragons in humanoid form, though they lack wings, and a tail. Some sources also believe they proud their distinguished hearty physique of dragonborn race, but the physical diffirences are rather genetically determined, arbitrarily granting a dragonborn with a tail or depriving of one.

History
The dragonborn of Exandria are a people of unknown origin, surrounded by countless myths explaning their ancestral creation. One particularly pervasive tale states that dragonblood were created by the Scaled Tyrant and the Platinum Dragon during the Calamity, serving as loyal soldiers who eventually earned their freedom.

Dragonborn-ravenite civilization originated in Wildemount isolated from the outside world in the city-state of Draconia located in the Dreemoth Ravine. After the Calamity, a dragonkin city of Kethesk wrathful gods laid it to rest on the southern side of the ravine. Foreign dragonkin, fleeing the to Draconia, forged an alliance with native residents. The colonizing dragonborn, who called themselves draconbloods, worked with the native dragonborn, they called ravenites, to build a society that could withstand the dangers of Xhorhas.

With the ravenites as a labor force, the dragonborn harvested the massive brumestone crystals, and lifted the new city of Draconia began, as a series of floating islands. However, Draconia swiftly descended into corruption and bigotry, and the draconblood ruling class betrayed and enslaved their ravenite kin.

The draconblood installed a strict caste system and forced the tailless ravenite dragonborn to mine their gold and gemstones in the ravine below, ensuring their dominance in the region. Many Draconian citizens disagreed with the oppression of their brethren and fought for generations to overturn the laws that kept them enslaved.

In 810 PD, Chroma Conclave destroyed the floating city-state. Surviving ravenites enjoyed a brief moment of freedom before the ancient white dragon Vorugal claimed the ruins and the surrounding ravine as his new lair. The ravenites were freshly bound by fear under their new overlord, whose presence plunged the ravine into an endless winter. The chaos of the attack caught off guard the draconblood civilization, opening up an opportunity for the ravenite slaves to rise up and drive their former masters from the Dreemoth Ravine.

Campaign One: Vox Machina
Vox Machina first met the ravenite communities in the ruins of Draconia. Disguising themselves as dragonborn with tails, as they didn't know whether the ravenites worked for Vorugal or not, caused a conflict with the ravenites, as they mistook them for the Draconians who had enslaved them. After droping the disguise and some convincing, Skork took them to the chieftain, the leader of the ravenites named Tooma. Upon learning learning that, since the fall of Draconia, the ravenites had been serving the white dragon, Vox Machina convinced them to work together and kill Vorugal.

After the trip to Ank'Harel, Vox Machina came back to the ruins of Draconia, commiting to their agreement with dragonborn. Alothoug the ravenites initiated the ruse that led Vorugal into Vox Machina's ambush, they arrived too late to take part in the battle, stating that they lacked the means of quickly transporting themselves from the staging area to the ambush site. The group allowed them to harvest parts of Vorugal's corpse, and on their part, dragonborn allowed Vox Machina to keep some of the dragon's hoard, which consisted largely of Draconian and ravenite plunder.

Those champions who were lost in the struggle were immortalized in statues left among the ruins of Draconia, the most famous of whom is the hero Tiberius Stormwind. He gave his life to defend ravenites from the ire of Vorugal, the white dragon of the Chroma Conclave. His statue and surrounding shrine are a place of pilgrimage for ravenite historians. With Draconia sundered, the no-longer enslaved ravenites greatly outnumbered their previous masters, claimed their freedom, and punished the surviving draconbloods.

Resettlement
A number of ravenites sought refuge in the Dwendalian Empire after Draconia was destroyed. The Empire gave them a place to stay and be processed in what is now the tent city of Talonstadt. Others fled east towards the Lotusden Greenwood and, along with the Lotusden halflings, founded Charis. The majority of ravenites however stayed within the Dreemoth Ravine and founded a new city at its southern end, known as Xarzith Kitril.

Society
In Draconia, those with tails were called draconians or draconbloods, for they were seen as closer in form and power to true dragons. Those without tails were given the name of ravenites and enslaved. Although around twenty five years passed since the fall of Draconia and the caste system dissolution, the ravenites still frequantly viewed as a subrace of dragonblood race.

Menagerie Coast
Many of the ravenites who travel to the Menagerie Coast are merchants or wealthy generals or politicians on vacation. As such, a lot of tailless dragonborn who wanders through the cities of the Clovis Concord are mistaken well settled, wealthy individuals, leaving them a frequent target for outlaw assault.

Dwendalian Empire
Following the fall of Vorugal, a number of ravenites have journeyed to the Dwendalian Empire, but found a colder reception than was given their former masters, the draconbloods. The empire had no desire to grant a shelter to revolutionaries, and would have turned the ravenites away had the Cerberus Assembly not intervened. For reasons unknown, the Assembly created the shantytown of Talonstadt for displaced ravenites, allowing them to trade labor for lodging there.

Tal'Dorei
The ravenites found a new home in the cities and the icy north of the continent, enjoying their freedom and privileges of equality. However, most ravenite children grew up poor, either in slum towns at the edges of cities like Emon and Westruun, or helping their parents laboriously carve out rural lives in the Dividing Plains or Cliffkeep Mountains.

In Tal'Dorei, it's apparent that the differences between the ravenites and the draconians have nothing to do with bloodline or draconic power. Those differences are cultural, and rooted in a past whose conflicts still haven't been resolved. The oppression that existed in Draconia remains largely unknown within Tal'Dorei as of 836 PD, and outside of major cities such as Emon, dragonblood rarely see another of their kind.

Campaign One: Vox Machina
PC
 * Gern Blanston, a blue ravetite wizard played by Chris Hardwick.

NPC
 * Tooma, the chieftain of ravenites
 * Skork, the chieftain's right hand
 * Korsa, the stonemason erected a statue for Tiberius Stormwind.
 * Tofor Brotoras, a silver ravenite paladin of Bahamut and a member of the Tal'Dorei Council.
 * Treev Bonebreaker: a bronze ravenite. Inkeeper of the Debt's Respite tavern and a member of the mercenary group known as the Scarbearers.
 * Bertholt, a brass revenite, serving the Darrington family.

Campaign Two: The Mighty Nein
NPC
 * Durmas, a black ravenite, serving as the main stablehand in Alfield.

Other

 * Druvis Koothalok, a trained combatant in draconblood gladiatorial games, after the fall of Draconia becoming a champion for the downtrodden people of Xarzith Kitril.

Behind the scenes
Both Critical Role: Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting and Explorer's Guide to Wildemount establish the ravenites as a subrace of dragonborn, granting them an incresing speed, widom, constitution, and an ability to make a vengeful strike if the opponent misses their. On the contary, Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn veiws the ravenites only as a social class, doesn't highlighting any distingishing phisical or mental differences from other members of the dragonborn race.