Dao

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Dao are one of the Earthen races created in the Dawn Era by the primordial Storrralk. This Tier 1 Creationist advanced upon his earlier work with the earth elementals, giving them a more refined form, greater dexterity, and the ability to multi-task more readily.

Dao are also classified as a sub-race of the genies; the others being the efreet, djinn, jann, and the marid. The efreet are the only ones friendly with the dao, the others being outright hostile to each other.

Dao dislike servitude more than any of the other types of genies, and even more prone to exact revenge against their enslaver (c.f. Tinnanguth).

Dao are some of the best miners, stonemasons, and engineers in all the realm and perhaps the multi-verse. This comes from their innate abilities to manipulate the earth, and claws that can dig through earth and rock with ease.

The only good thing that comes from a dead dao are its claws. If done early enough before the dead dao solidifies into stone, they can be extracted and used in morning stars, spiked clubs, or serrating on a blade.

- Gundîm, elderaunt weapon smith of Lamprophyre - "Dao Claws"

Some dao are also master engineers and much sought after for their knowledge of geometry, mathematics, and construction. Most of the designs for building fortifications after the development of cannons came from the dao. They were the first to build sloped walls and earthen ramparts for deflecting and reducing the damage from cannonballs.

On Bal-Kriav, dao were employed by the Tinnanguth to build grandiose cities, vast networks of tunnels and mines, aqueducts, and fortifications. Tinnanguth brought the dao to this realm as slaves, so this empire is responsible for the large dao population on Bal-Kriav. Since the time of Tinnanguth, they have put "lesser" Earthen to work in vast building projects, great canals to funnel the Mud Flow, and in the construction of their enormous cities. Dao engineers were also used in the building of the jeweled city of Alatáriël and the design and oversight of the Groarnfer Plan and the Gruggvein Plan.