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Unique Races of Mystara

Aranea

Origin: Mystara

Rulers of Herath on the Savage Coast of Mystara, the Aranea are a race of shapeshifting giant spiders with a powerful affinity for magic.

The Dreaded: On Mystara, the aranea are the source of many terrifying stories and legendarily evil. These stories are actually an In-Universe Old Shame to the aranea of the present day, who are... well, not nice but far from anywhere near that monstrous. It's one of the reasons they hide their existence.
Eyes Are Mental: It's frequently noted that aranea in spider form can be distinguished from "normal" giant spiders by their eerily human-like eyes. Which says something about the kind of world that Mystara is where this is worth noting.
Giant Spider: At four feet long and two feet wide, an aranea may be on the small scale of this as far as D&D goes, but that's still pretty healthy by real-world standards.
The Magocracy: Aranea value intelligence and, especially, magic, so the most powerful mages rule their society. On Mystara, Herath is even formally titled "The Magocracy of Herath" for emphasis. In Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, it was stated that all aranea Non Player Characters should have the spellcasting abilities of 3rd level wizards, whilst in 3e, they're born with the spellcasting prowess of a 3rd level sorcerer.
Man Bites Man: Aranea still possess toxic venom glands, and can deliver lethally poisoned bites in combat if forced to.
My Brain Is Big: In their spider form, aranea possess a distinctively engorged, hunch-like growth on their thorax, which holds their enlarged brain.
Our Liches Are Different: There are two different kinds of aranea, born out of experiments in adapting the lich transformation ritual to themselves. Yeshom are a case of Gone Horribly Right, having transformed into inky Blob Monster versions of themselves who have driven absolutely insane — which is the last thing you want in a creature that can render you Deader than Dead with a mere touch; even a Wish spell can't restore you to life! The less-homicidally crazy Arashaeem are weaker than the standard lich, but retain their shapeshifting abilities, looking like zombified versions of their former selves. They still hunger for flesh, and can weave silk impregnated with a paralytic venom.
Our Werebeasts Are Different: Aranea are formally considered a kind of shapeshifter, and so are vulnerable to special attacks that specifically target shapeshifters. However, they have certain unique elements that particularly distinguish them.
- Firstly, they're "werebeast type" shapeshifters; this means they have a singular "human" form they develop at birth as well as a beast form, and can switch only between those forms. Further, they're triple-changers, with "human", "hybrid" and "beast" forms, in contrast to some werebeasts, who only have the human and beast forms.
- Secondly, they're "beastweres"; intelligent beasts that have the ability to assume human form, instead of the more conventional "human that turns into a beast". This is a small grouping of shapeshifters in D&D lore.
- Finally, their most unique trait is that their "human" form is not set by species. The "human form" of an aranea can actually be any Small or Medium humanoid, including not just humans, dwarves and elves, but also monstrous races like orcs, goblins, gnolls, and lizardfolk. And "human forms" don't run in families, so the child of two aranea with elven forms could be born with a gnollish form. This trait is completely unique to aranea; no other werebeast in D&D has this trait.
Primal Fear: Being spiders who live in forest environments and spin their cities out of their silk, aranea do not like fire much. They have no particular weakness to it, but it scares them immensely; aranea almost never learn fire-based spells.
Properly Paranoid: Those anti-aranea bigots planning on hunting them down with the handy "Identify Species" spell will find it doesn't work. Because the aranea created that spell, and made sure to make themselves exempt from its effects before disseminating it to the world.
Retired Monster: The ancient aranea did some terrible things, like when they unintentionally reduced the wallara from a mighty civilization to scattered, wandering bands of Stone Age primitives, but they never actually meant to do any harm. The typical aranea alignment is Neutral, and they mostly just want to be left alone.
Super-Intelligence: Downplayed, but, in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, their minimum Intelligence score was 12 — for comparison, the human average was between 8 and 10 Intelligence.

Tortle

A race of humanoid tortoises, who originated in the setting of Mystara.

Absurdly Sharp Claws: Tortles have a set of claws that they can use as a natural weapon.
Armor Is Useless: More like not necessary for them, as they have a Natural Armor Class that's the same as Splint Armor, and they can use a shield to give them a boost. That being said, since they can't wear armor, this means that they can't wear splint equivilents of Adamantine, Mariner, or the enhanced protection types of armor. However, a clever Game Master might homebrew in some sort of magical amulet or tattoo to give a tortle character these same benefits.
Full-Frontal Assault: Official depictions of tortles have them go without much in the way of clothes. Also, they don't wear armor, as their bodies are ill-suited to it. Then again, with a natural Armor Class that's the same as Splint Armor (17 in 5e), without the drawbacks of needing the strength to wear it, or having disadvantages on Stealth Checks, why would a tortle want to wear armor anyway? Although this means that they can't wear the special equivalents, but a clever Game Master can homebrew in an amulet or tattoo to give a tortle these benefits.
Portmanteau: Tortle is a mashup of tortoise and turtle.
Sturdy and Steady Turtles: Tortles are bipedal turtles who are strong and wise. Their shells are a naturally tough armor and they can hide in their shell for more durability.
We Are as Mayflies: Unlike real-life turtles and tortoises, tortles have very short lifespans, averaging 50 years.

Phanaton

A race of patagia-equipped sapient ringtailed lemurs, which first debuted on the Savage Coast of Mystara and then spread to the rest of the D&D multiverse, predominantly Greyhawk, via their colonies on the Isle of Dread. They live a primitive lifestyle as hunter-gatherers with a Stone Age level of technology.

Fantastic Racism: Phanatons love to eat bugs, and regard giant spiders as a delicacy. Aranea are a race of sapient giant spiders. Needless to say, the two hate each other, striving to kill (and preferably eat) each other wherever they possibly can.
Intelligent Gerbil: Aside from their prehensile digits, phanatons actually don't look humanoid in the slightest.
Mix-and-Match Critters: In-universe, phanatons are actually described as a mishmash of raccoon (the head and tail), monkey (body shape, four limbs ending in prehensile appendages), and flying squirrel (patagia—flaps of skin linking each arm and leg that act as primitive gliding wings). The first two elements were probably more because few people knew what a ringtailed lemur was at the time when they were made, with "raccoon-monkey" being a fairly accurate description, but even then, the fact they have patagia still qualifies them.

Lupin

Origin: Mystara

A canid race native to Mystara, where they inhabit various regions, particularly the faux-French kingdom of Renardie. First introduced in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1e modules X2: Castle Amber and X9: Savage Coast, they were heavily fleshed out in Dragon, appearing in volumes #179 and #181 for 1st edition, #237 for 2nd edition, and #325 for 3rd edition. They also appeared in the official publications of Champions of Mystara for AD&D 1e, and Red Steel and Savage Coast of Mystara for AD&D 2e.

Beast Man: The lupins of AD&D were a vast array of humanoid canids, lupines and vulpines all capable of interbreeding freely and many resembling distinct breeds of dog, including dachshunds, beagles, pit-bulls, chow-chows, dalmatians, shar-pei, basset hounds, bloodhounds and that's a short list.
Berserk Button: Lupins hate werewolves, and use their natural ability to detect them in order to be skilled werewolf hunters. This is especially prevalent amongst the "tribal" lupins of 3e.
Fantasy Counterpart Culture:
- The Renardie lupins are essentially France, as seen through the eyes of swashbuckling stories like The Three Musketeers.
- The 3e "tribal" lupins are basically Great Plains Native Americans, if the Native Americans rode giant wolves instead of horses and hunted werewolves.
Hobbits: The Fennec breed of lupins in AD&D 2e were essentially the lupin equivalent to halflings, complete with preternatural luck.
Interspecies Romance: One of their rumored origins is that they are the result of crossbreeding between either hutaakans^notenon-evil necromantic jackal-folk and gnolls, or humans and gnolls.
Fantastic Foxes: In 2nd edition, Dragon #237 introduced no fewer than three fox-based lupin subraces: the druidic Foxfolk, the flamboyant swashbuckling Renardois Folk, and the desert-dwelling, preternaturally lucky Fennecs.
Noble Wolf: The Tribal Lupins of 3e embody this to the T, and this may be why lupins were retconned into all being wolf-like in appearance in 3rd edition. Subverted by the actual wolvenfolk of AD&D 2e, who were spiritually connected to the local god of death and had an association with necromancy.
Resurrective Immortality: The wolvenfolk subrace in AD&D had a unique ability to come back from the dead on their own if they could pass a Constitution saving throw. However, this cost them two levels and forcibly shifted their alignment one step towards Lawful Evil; if they had no levels, or were already Lawful Evil in alignment, then they were truly dead. And to take this into Blessed with Suck territory, ordinary resurrection spells don't work on them.
Retcon: 3rd edition retconned out the diverse array of canid forms that lupins could take and portrayed them exclusively as humanoid wolves.
Underground Monkey: The list of canid, lupine and vulpine races covered by the Dragon #237 depiction of the race is beyond ridiculous.
Spell My Name With An S: Their kingdom has been titled both "Renardy" and "Renardie" across various appearances.

Rakasta

Origin: Mystara

A race of feline humanoids native to Mystara, where they have both a kingdom of their own on the planet itself, called Bellayne, and a separate culture on the moon, called Myoshima. They first appeared in the modules X1: Isle of Dread and X2: Castle Amber, then went on to appear in Dragon #181, Champions of Mystara, Red Steel, the Savage Coast of Mystara, and Dragon #247.

Cat Folk: They're humanoid cats. Much like lupins, their AD&D 2e Dragon appearance presents them with a massive array of subraces based on different kinds of cats, from cave lions and sabertooths to cheetahs, jaguars, pumas, leopards, tigers, and so forth, all the way down to house cats. Even obscure species like snow & cloud leopards, servals, caracals and lynxes show up
Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Bellayne is extremely British, in contrast to the very French neighboring lupin kingdom of Renardie, whilst Myoshima is blatantly Japanese.
Lunarians: Myoshima are explicitly a culture on the moon.

Diabolus

Origin: Mystara

Refugees from the Realm of Nightmares, the Diaboli are fiendish-looking but benign beings who believe in the principles of benevolent anarchy and find humans as frightening-looking as humans find them. The diabolus mindset is naturally aligned towards the chaotic; their society exists in what is essentially anarchy because they believe that as no one government style is provably better than the rest, then it's best to just not have anything to do with the hassle of government whatsoever. The diabolus society, such as it is, holds together mostly through strong customs and traditions that have proven repeatedly to be helpful, and a strong sense of fair play; the guiding philosophy of the diaboli can be summed up as "do what thou wilt, but harm none", the foundational "great truth" that unites their people and which provides the roots from which all taboos, traditions, and customs ultimately grow.

Appearing as a monster in Basic Dungeons & Dragons, they received a playable writeup in Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition courtesy of Dragon.

Beware My Stinger Tail: A diabolus' tail ends in a barbed stinger which injects a nauseating venom.
Big Red Devil: Diaboli look like stereotypical fiends; goat-like legs, whip-like tail with a barbed stinger, stubby horns on their forehead and forked tongues. The big difference is that their skin is purple (or blue, in their AD&D incarnation), not red. They're also divided into three "subraces" divided based on how hairy they are: one species grows hair much like any human does, whilst a second, known as the "hirsute diabolus", has more pronounced hair-growth, with coarse, goat-like fur adorning their legs; the third, known simply as "bare diaboli", sprouts absolutely no hair at all, with even the women lacking so much as a strand upon their head or anywhere else. This difference is literally only skin deep and there's no greater divisions between the subraces.
Dark Is Not Evil: Diaboli may look like stereotypical fiends, but they're very friendly, open-minded and accepting; their typical racial alignment is Chaotic Good.
Horned Humanoid: Downplayed; diaboli have horns, yeah, but they're thumb-sized, vestigial nubs.

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Unique Races of Mystara

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