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Rules • Themes • Bestiary • Religion • Races • Guilds • Families • Arlinac City • Maps • Adventures • Stories |
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Races Table of Contents
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In Guilddom Adventures Made Easy the races provide helpful stereotyping for NPCs. Cooperative storytelling in a fictional world is not easy! In real life we can make many reasonable guesses about a person's job and skills by their appearance. (For example, age and clothing generally distinguish college students, lawyers, soldiers, and delivery men.) The real-world cues do not transfer to a fictional setting so stereotypes about intelligent fantasy races take their place: when a PC meets a new NPC the player then has at least a few informed guesses about what kind of person the PC is meeting, to take the place of the knowledge of appearances learned by someone who grew up in the setting. |
Most of the inhabitants of Arlinac City are Therions.
Therions value peace and quiet more than any other intelligent race. Most have no desire to amass wealth or social influence, seeing these as distractions from the peaceful contentment and addictive delight of caring for family and pets.
Therions use tattoos to identify clan and family, and piercings (primarily earrings and nose rings) to identify meritorious deeds. Piercings are decorated with short ribbons whose colors describe the meritorious deeds in more detail.
In the fantasy frontier setting of Guilddom Adventures Made Easy Therions often act as the everyman: individuals who constitute the bulk of society, most of whom go about their business with little desire for excitement or heroics. They look like real-life people. Many lack their race's special ability.
Now and then a Therion may instead act as the stereotypical wise hermit: able to survive alone, sought out for advice, and likely to cause trouble or be a magnet for trouble while offering aid to the protagonist.
Some Therions have the ability to change their shape into the shape of an animal they touch. This skill is called therianthropy.
To use therianthropy, a Therion sacrifices his or her own energy: when a Therion touches an animal to assume that form, the Therion looses all but 2 of his or her FP and becomes exhausted. (Wealthy Therions drink a healing potion that works over the span of several turns before using therianthropy, so they quickly regain the lost FP.)
Not all Therions can use therianthropy. About one-quarter never develop the ability. Over half only develop a lesser version that works with a single type of animal (birds, rodents, etc.) rather than all animals.
When using an animal's form the Therion changes to the animal's size and mass. The Therion's clothing and possessions are unaffected by the change: typically these are previously stored or hidden to avoid leaving behind an awkward and vulnerable pile of items. An exception are the Therion's tattoos and piercings, which are enough part of a Therion's body that they disappear when a shape change happens and reappear when the Therion reverts to his or her true form.
Note that a Therion is either in his or her natural humanoid form or in the form of an animal; there is no possible "halfway" form of a bipedal monster as seen in traditional werewolf movies. The change is physical, not illusionary.
A Therion using an animal's shape retains its own intelligence, mind, and memories but also gains the animal's abilities in perception, movement, and (if applicable) fighting with tooth, beak, or claw. However, these innate animal abilities are unpracticed unless the Therion has previous experience in a similar form. Therefore, although Therions can take the shape of animals who are strangers to them, most Therions befriend one or more animals as pets since this provides easy opportunities for repeated practice in adopting the pets' forms.
A Therion cannot change into an animal with greater mass than the Therion's natural form. A Therion that is already exhausted (at 2 or fewer FP) cannot use therianthropy. The animal touched must be also awake (but the animal may be exhausted, for the therianthropy does not fatigue the animal).
Therianthropy only works with a "normal" animal. A Therion cannoy copy the form of an animal by touching another Therion already using therianthropy. Nor can a Therion copy the shape of an intelligent creature or a humanoid. A Therion may take the shape of monster but doing so is obviously dangerous because of the need to touch an awake monster. A Therion using a monster's shape does not gain the monster's special abilities (breathing fire, teleportation, etc.)
Many folk tales warn about staying too long in an animal's form. After a few days the Therion's own intelligence and personality will begin to dwindle, being replaced by the animal's. In these stories, a Therion stuck in an animal's form is called a Snag.
A Therion in an animal's form will revert to his or her own form if killed, but does not automatically change back if unconscious or asleep.
Therions can live 80 to 100 years and slowly gain vitality as they age. They normally form monogamous marriages and have several children.
Within Therion society, the decade of a Therion's age is important: individuals are expected to socialize with members of their own decade, and defer to "elders" of older decades.
Therions are gregarious prefer to live in large towns or cities. Many of these are deep inside large forests, but Therions live equally well in settlements outside of forests along rivers or roads.
Nearly all Therion settlements are walled for protection from invading Kobalts and other dangers. A walled Therion settlement is quite resistant to being beseiged since its inhabitants can bring in food and harass the attackers by assuming the forms of birds or other flying animals. Those few Therion settlements without walls are built up in the trees and a set of caged animals at ground level allow only Therions to travel up to the trees' heights.
Therions consider animal breeding and training to be an artistic endeavor far more worthy than workmanship with unloving materials. Therions also enjoy storytelling, theatre, poetry, music, and dance.
Therions dress simply and seldom wear jewelry.
In their fondness for pets, some Therions have learned how to breed animals and even monsters. Those who do so consider it an art, but most other Therions view this activity with distrust or abhorrence.
Therions do not create enchanted items.
Therions believe that this world has troubles so that individuals can build and leave behind a significant legacy. Usually this legacy is measured in heroic deeds or scholarship, not physical wealth.
The religion of Therions contains countless "wisdom stories". Most of these stories describe the Age of Animals: sometimes with what is believed to be historical accuracy and sometimes fictitiously. The general theme of the stories is the duty of Therions to preserve the legacy of the intelligent animals. Therions become animals and pass along wisdom stories from generation to generation, to remember the lessons learned during the Age of Animals now that no intelligent animals remain.
Most Therion names are built of a single-syllable root.
Their names start with a single hard consonant. Any consonant can work but the most common are B, G, L, M, N, P, R, S, W, or Z (because a name starting with D, F, J, V, or Z is considered too sound too Dweorgish and a name starting with C, K, QU, or T is considered to sound too Kobaltish.)
The initial consonant is followed by any vowel sound. The vowel is then followed by any single consonant, consonant blend, or digraph.
Finally, the suffix -A is used for feminine names. (The name Barl is masculine, and Barla is feminine.)
Therions use honorifics that precede their names, such as Lord, Lady, Elder, or Guild Leader.
When a single name is not sufficient in clarity, a Therion's parents are referenced. (For example, Barl son of Rild and Sushyaya.)
Therions have no typical style as warriors, except for training with bows and crossbows in time of war. They tend to be proficient with spears and nets but often this skill is used to capture animals rather than in combat against humanoid opponents.
Typical Thereon armor is Hard Leather on the torso, either Hard or Soft Leather on the limbs, and a Soft Leather hat. Metal armor is normally avoided because of its bulk and the care it takes to prevent it from rusting when worn outside extensively.
Therions tend to have more experience than average in the skills and skill specializations of Throw/Ensnare and Shoot/Fire.
Ogres are large, muscular humanoids who live to eat and prefer the flesh of other intelligent creatures. Many Ogres are unable to control this desire to eat members of the intelligent races, which is known as the Ogre's Hunger.
In the fantasy frontier setting of Guilddom Adventures Made Easy Ogres often act as stereotypical Western desperados: loners who are tough, dangerous, quick to take offense, willing to take or earn money illegally, slow to forgive a grudge, and sometimes torn between wanting to be left alone and wanting to be famous and feared.
Ogres are able to change their form to resemble any humanoid, a skill known as semblancy.
To use semblancy, an Ogre must drain a touched humanoid's energy: the humanoid looses all its FP and collapses, unconscious.
As with therianthropy, semblancy is an actual physical change, not an illusion. It does not affect the ogre's clothing and is limited to forms smaller than the ogre's natural form. Killing the Ogre will cause it to revert to its natural form, but not knocking it unconscious or making it sleep.
A victim of semblancy is unusually exhausted and often sleeps for 12-24 hours before waking. Semblancy is most effective when an Ogre touches someone healthy and rested; the more the target is already injured or fatigued then the greater the chance that semblancy will not work.
Ogres also have the ability to "store" ruthlessness: calming themselves when angry and agitated to later release a raging fit of silent cunning or berserk fury.
Some Ogres are female, but not very many. Ogres very seldom have children and do not die of old age.
Ogres progress through three different lifecycle categories as they age.
Young Ogres are "Tusked Ogres". They cannot disguise themselves effectively since any humanoid form they adopt retains the large tusks they have instead of lower cuspid teeth. They are normally outcasts from Ogre society who must survive on their own in the Wilder-ness until adulthood. Ogres believe they age more quickly if they kill intelligent creatures and eat them. When Tusked Ogres meet they may temporarily partner together, but even then will consider the other a threat and a potential meal (and source of coveted age). Tusked Ogres spend much time practicing their combat skills: unarmed, with a few favorite melee weapons, and with ranged weapons. Unknown to non-Ogres, if a Tusked Ogre is fed by an intelligent creature then the Tusked Ogre must obey that creature's commands until the next full moon; this is the source of the similar false rumor about Kobalts. Tusked Ogres grow to a size of roughly 50 kilograms.
When an Ogre is mature it loses its tusks and grows horns, which also are retained when using semblancy. The "Horned Ogre" often tries to blend in to city life. Horned Ogres have developed numerous tricks for hiding their horns, ranging from finding jobs that allow hats or helmets (guards, tavern bouncers, etc.) or using semblancy to have tiny horns under curly hair. Some Horned Ogres even work in partnership with evil members of the other intelligent races: the partner befriends people while clearly not an Ogre, then the Ogre wears the appearance of the partner but with a hat or helmet as he or she waits for the right moment to attack the partner's new "friends", and finally the Ogre and his or her partner share the spoils. Horned Ogres grow to a size of roughly 200 kilograms.
When an Ogre is old enough it changes into a "Grand Ogre". Ogres believe this final change is the result of a blessing from Gnash; it may only be due to old age. Grand Ogres are rare. They lack tusks or horns, and their natural size can be up to 400 kilograms. Some Grand Ogres maintain a staff of Tusked Ogres they control by feeding. As a group, the Grand Ogres try to keep secret this ability to control Tusked Ogres so only they can make use of it.
Some Grand Ogres progress to a fourth stage after they die: this is valued in Ogre society as a great honor for the family. The dead Ogre's devotion to Gnash is rewarded by its spirit turning into a Horror, an incorporeal creature of shadow that can possess people to continue a legacy of ruthlessness.
Encountering an actual Horror is extremely rare, for there are very few Grand Ogres and only some become Horrors. However, the concept of a Horror can more often affect an adventure. A serial killer might be a madman who has falsely convinced himself that the motivation for his crimes is that he is possessed by a Horror. An influential guild leader might be framed for a crime in such a way that people falsely suspect she is possessed by a Horror. A Grand Ogre must be stopped before he earns the reward of becoming a Horror after his death: the hero's work is to both prevent a crime and limit that Ogre's evils to his mortal days.
Ogres are thought to be almost always solitary, with no known natural habitat. Some live alone in the Wilder-ness. Most of the Ogres so far discovered were hidden among the population of large towns and cities, disguised as their previous victims and preying off the city's inhabitants.
In at least once instance an Ogre has infiltrated the government of a city, gaining great reputation as he listened for reports of greedy lords who became ruthless, whom he would then kidnap and dedicate to Gnash.
Ogres usually own many sets of clothing and wear little or no armor, to allow the most freedom in disguising themselves.
Ogres do not create enchanted items.
Ogres worship an evil Power named Gnash that somehow "feeds" upon acts of ruthlessness.
To members of the other intelligent races, Ogre names sound only like unintelligble shouts and snarls. Of course, most people, both Ogres and non-Ogres, who meet an Ogre never learn its real name.
As warriors, Ogres tend to wear as much armor as their disguise allows and prefer a combination of a blunt melee weapon and a ranged weapon. However, for Ogres "art" only refers to proficiency with weapons, so Ogres are usually expert with many kinds.
Ogres tend to have more experience than average in the skills and skill specializations of Lift/Smash and Wilderness/Escape.
A Ogre that is exceptional in a characteristic is usually exceptional in Brawn.
Dweorgs are short, stout humanoids with phenomenal endurance who are skilled at mining and all kinds of metal use.
In the fantasy frontier setting of Guilddom Adventures Made Easy Dweorgs often act as stereotypical Edo-period samurai: individuals deeply committed to the local clan cheif, following a code of honor and service that makes perfect sense to them but is easily misunderstood by outsiders as absurdly violent and impractically reckless.
Dweorgs are able to sacrifice their own morale to imbue unfinished objects they craft with extra sturdiness and keenness, a process and result both called tempering. A tool or weapon with tempering grants a +1 bonus to the appropriate skill when used. The Dweorg who did the tempering becomes gruff and grim, and will be stuck in that depression for several days.
Note that tempering is an excellence of material and craftsmanship and there is no enchantment. Therefore tempered tools or weapons are not vulnerable to effects that remove enchantments from items.
Most Dweorgs use tempering only to enhance a cherished family heirloom or prized personal artistic creation. However, during times of war a great number of tempered weapons are forged. Also, most groups of Dweorgs learned to use tempering on the walls of their underground settlements: a tempered wall increased security because it became too hard for most burrowing animals to dig through and also became immune to Transmutery.
In ages past the Dweorgs knew how to use a more potent form of tempering to create even more powerful weapons and tools. These artifacts are known as Sthelmi and are now highly prized Dweorgish treasures.
Dweorgs are also able to hike or march quickly without becoming fatigued, and can carry almost their own weight without becoming fatigued.
Dweorgs live to be one hundred and sixty years old. They progress through four different forty-year lifecycle stages. They do not change much in size but their beards grow longer, their skin becomes more wrinkled, and their bones become denser.
The youngest Dweorgs are "youth" and live deep underground in high-ceilinged cavern complexes. Dweorgs do not discuss with others what their early life is like, except that in involves both "sweatwork" (crafting, smithing, mining, warfare) and "smilework" (playing, solving problems, inventing). Since female Dweorgs are never seen, many suppose they either stay in these deep caverns and/or never age beyond the "youth" stage.
On his fortieth birthday a Dweorg becomes a "raider". Raiders still live underground, but not as deep and in cavern complexes that include both vast halls and small rooms. The raiding Dweorgs get food for their own use and that of the deeper-dwelling youth. Dweorgs do farm mushrooms underground but these are supplemented with fruit and meat raided from the orchards, poultry farms, and ranches of the other intelligent races. Yet raids are not only a means of acquiring food: raids are also a culturally important source of esteem for successful raiders. A Dweorg raider can gain important honor by fighting impressively or committing effective acts of precision theft. Similarly, being forced to flee or hide is a great source of shame. Dweorg raiders who are not directly part of a specific raid may involve themselves by betting on the successes of those who are directly participating or by helping prepare and equip those who directly participate. After a raid, the clan chief is responsible for archiving all the raiders' heroic deeds so these will never be forgotten. A raider who consistently fails to accrue honor becomes shunned and will no longer be invited to participate in raids; henceforth he only supports the clan by hunting small animals or by gathering wild fruits, vegetables, and nuts.
On his eightieth birthday, at his physical prime, a Dweorg becomes an "artist". Artists stop raiding and no longer live with their clan. They move aboveground and build a workshop-home, usually a free-standing cottage but sometimes a dwelling built inside a shallow cave or within the base of a large tree. A few move to a city: all the Dweorgs in any city, including Arlinac, are of the artist age. As artists a Dweorg seeks to perfect one or more metalworking skills and thus create works of art that will be treasured forever. An artist may study alone, join a commune, or participate in a city guild. Artists sometimes retain a bit of their former raiding mentality; city Dweorgs suffer from a stereotype of occasionally sabotaging or stealing from a business rival (even though in cities any rival would most often be another Dweorg artist). Although Dweorgs do not consider the work of a merchant as art a few city Dweorgs give up metalworking for trade. Since Dweorgs may have large families, a group of brothers occasionally will immigrate to a city together.
On his one hundred and twentieth birthday, a Dweorg becomes an "elder". Elders return to the deep caverns to raise the youth. Although they are only very rarely seen by non-Dweorgs, very old Dweorgs are clearly treated with great respect in Dweorg society. They have no special powers but do have a greater chance of owning or carrying interesting or powerful things. The oldest Dweorg in a clan is the clan chief who settles disputes, archives the historical records of that settlement, and authorizes warfare.
A Dweorg secret is that once or twice in a century an entire clan will go to war. Usually an army is formed to conquer a Kobalt settlement, but occasionally that of another intelligent race, including but most rarely another Dweorg clan. A war begins when a clan chief declares that his clan has amassed enough honor. Fighting in a war is the highest possible honor among Dweorgs, and only the raiders, artists, and elders with the most personal honor may participate in the fighting. The rest of the clan serves by supplying the warriors.
Some clans of Dweorgs delight in flying and build all sorts of flying contraptions; their raiders are especially dangerous. These clans tend to also use kites and fireworks at nearly all celebrations.
Dweorgs are equally comfortable living aboveground or underground.
Dweorgs that do not live in cities among the other intelligent races live in clan-sized groups. Clans usually relate peacefully, but may feud.
Most Dweorgs dress similarly: shirt, knee-length pants, tall boots, thick belt, and either a tabard in clan colors or a heavy leather apron if the latter is appropriate for their work. Dweorgs do not wear hats, except when armored, in which case their metal helmets cover less than the helms worn by Kobalts and Bergtrolls.
Dweorg art focuses on metalworking. They most prize heavy yet finely wrought sculptures of precious metals, decorated with gems. Instead of painting they create intricate inlaid murals of precious metals and gems on a darker iron background; their pottery is similarly decorative metal containers rather than clay or wood objects. Tool making is also considered an art form, although tools are usually not inlaid, gilded, or bejeweled. Dweorgs do not consider weaving an art form but are proficient at weaving and sewing for utilitarian purposes. They do very little theatre or dance but love ballads, and more than any other intelligent race enjoy singing, memorizing, and composing long rhyming adventure stories set to a simple yet catchy melody.
Dweorg jewelry also uses the themes of jewels and carving on an iron background, but has far more cultural importance than any other Dweorgish art form. Associated with each Dweorg lineage is a pattern of color and inlay that not only identifies members of that lineage but also establishes a pincipal virtue for that family. Dweorgs will speak of their jewelry "requiring" or "demanding" acts of bravery, generosity, loyalty, courtesy, or so forth. Although most Dweorgs attempt to behave virtuously by all of their own standards, a violation of their jewelry's principal virtue is completely unthinkable and would require ritual exile or suicide to atone for the deep loss of family honor. These jewelry-determined virtues also remain equally significant when dealing with members of the other intelligent races; for example, a Dweorg merchant may normally depart from honesty or loyalty when relating to Therions or Bergtrolls but still be willing to give his life in battle to defend one because "selfless valor" is his jewelry-determined virtue.
The only Enchantments created by Dweorgs are their tempered tools and weapons. Most such items, and all that have been created recently, simply aid the appropriate skill check with a +1 bonus. These are tools or weapons that are exceptionally crafted but have no real enchantment.
However, the Dweorgs of old used a more powerful version of tempering that really could create enchantments. These items, called Sthelmi not only grant a +1 bonus to the appropriate skill checks but further augment that skill.
There are sixteen kinds of Sthelmi, one for each skill, for they grant a new ability to whomever uses them, enhancing a skill's use far beyond what is naturally possible. The new ability grows in potency as the individual uses more than one Sthelmi for that skill. For example, using a legendary hammer and anvil together works better than using either alone. (This differs from Skill Specializations, whose Talent Levels increase with experience.)
The following chart lists the abilities corresponding to each skill. The number for each blank corresponds to how many of that kind of Sthelmi are used.
| Skill | Sthelmi Ability |
|---|---|
| Hack/Slash | This round your attack works at a distance of ___ meters |
| Lift/Smash | This round you brace yourself so the first ___ blows that hit you cannot stun or paralyze |
| Throw/Ensnare | This round your first attack has a ___-eighths chance of paralyzing one of your opponent's limbs |
| Shoot/Fire | This round your first attack has a ___-eighths extra chance of stunning |
| Bargain/Appraise | ? |
| Perception/Track | You walk on leaves, snow, glass, etc. as if your weight was ___×10% reduced |
| Social/Etiquette | All intelligent humanoids have a ___-eighths chance of ignoring you unless you attract attention |
| Wilderness/Escape | This round you may climb up any surface as if it had hand and foot holds at ___×10% speed |
| Block/Dodge | This round you hold a "sanctuary pose" and cannot be moved or harmed until you neglect ___ FP of damage |
| Leap/Tumble | This round you may run up walls (you cannot stop running while on a wall), gaining up to ___ meters height |
| Ride/Pilot | Riding causes no increase in attack difficulty ___ of every ten rounds |
| Sneak/Hide | Each minute your first ___ quiet actions make no noise at all |
| Alchemy | Attempts at alchemy can use materials costing ___×10% less than usual |
| Chemstry | Failed attempts at chemstry have a ___-eigths less chance of ruining the materials |
| Machinery | Successful attempts at machinery keep working ___ extra hours |
| Transmutery | Transmutery can now work at a distance of ___ meters |
Yes, Sthelmi put "wire fu" behaviors into the GAME setting. These are not your father's Dwarves.
Most Dweorgs are devoted to Speleoth, expressing this by offering donations to his temples of cherished art: tools, weapons, murals, and containers finely wrought and exquisitely decorated.
Most masculine Dweorgish names are built of a two-syllable root.
All masculine Dweorgish names start with a single consonant: D, F, J, V, or Z. This is often the first letter of a consonant blend or digraph: DR, DW, DZ, FS, FW, FZ, JR, JW, VM, VN, VR, VW, VZ, ZM, ZN, or ZR.
The center of a masculine Dweorgish name is a digraph surrounded by two single vowels. The most common digraphs are GH, KH, KM, KTH, LD, LN, LTH, ND, NTH, RD, RG, RS, TH, and ZH.
The name ends with a concluding consonant, which is sometimes doubled for reasons relating to clan identity.
Examples of masculine Dweorgish names are Dralnok, Fonther, Jrendill, Vrukthud, and Zirgaf.
Nothing is known about feminine Dweorgish names.
As warriors, Dweorgs tend to wear scale or chain armor and use large hammers and picks as weapons. Dweorgs are the only race that has experience using explosives in combat.
Dweorgs tend to have more experience than average in Machinery and Block/Dodge.
A Dweorg that is exceptional in a characteristic is usually exceptional in Build.
Kobalts are an intelligent race of ill-tempered humanoids with blue, leathery skin, long pointy ears, dark eyes, and sharp teeth. They are smaller than the other intelligent races, never more than a meter tall.
Kobalts prefer to live nocturnally. They have keen night vision.
In the fantasy frontier setting of Guilddom Adventures Made Easy the Kobalts act as the stereotypical violent criminal: individuals who are vicious, dangerous, evil and incapable of repentance, and eventually captured or killed.
Kobalts have the ability to drain the morale of a nearby enemy for an few hours, an ability they call sapping. A sapped enemy suffers a -1 penalty on normal skill checks, increased to a -2 penalty for competitive skill checks. Kobalts can each use this sapping ability once per hour. (Someone who is sapped suffers no additional penalties if sapped again, but will stay demoralized longer.)
Furthermore, sapping removes any enchantments from all items carried or near the person being sapped.
Kobolts heal from wounds rapidly, recovering 1 FP per hour no matter what the source of damage.
Most fantasy settings are described as either "high magic" or "low magic", referring to whether there are many or few permanently enchanted items. The setting for GAME is neither: enchanted items might be common if the GM desires, but these enchantments should be understood as temporary because Kobalts are common foes. Note that tempered items and Vigor's gifts are not vulnerable to sapping.
Because Kobalts are a vicious and argumentative race whose wounds heal rapidly their extremities often bear the signs of many past scuffles: missing fingers, torn ears, broken noses, and scarred skin. These wounds and an increasingly vile disposition make them appear more and more grotesque as they age.
Kobalts can progress through five distinct social stages. Young Kobalts are a pale, almost pastel blue and are called Workers. Workers are given all the laborious jobs and are treated harshly even by their mothers. They are not allowed to leave their dwelling or to use weapons or armor. They have short tempers but seem subdued and calm compared to older Kobalts.
Once they have grown larger and their color has darkened they become Hunters who hunt for food and join the military. The goal of a Hunter is to take a member of one of the other intelligent races prisoner, which promotes them socially to the role of Warrior.
The more prisoners a Warrior acquires the greater his status in Kobalt society. Prisoners may be male (used for slave labor) or female (kept as unwilling concubines safely hidden from other male Kobalts). The Warriors with the largest number of prisoners and thus the most social influence are Captains that command a platoon of 64 Warriors. By successful intrigue a Captain can attain the highest social rank by becoming the current Ancestor of his Superfamily.
Kobalts live both underground and above ground, apparently equally at home in cavern-complexes or buildings. Because Bergtrolls patrol most of the continent's mountains most Kobalts live in or under forests.
Kobalts prefer to steal homes than dig or build homes themselves, and do not care well for their dwellings. Since the damage done while capturing the site gets augmented by months or years of neglected maintenance, most Kobalts live in dirty, broken, worn dwellings.
Kobalts live in large groups called Superfamilies. Each Superfamily is strictly ruled by a monarch called the Ancestor, who is the only male in the group allowed to breed. All the Kobalts in a Superfamily consider their Ancestor to be their great-grandfather (irrelevant of the difference in ages) even when this is not literally true; when a new Kobalt becomes a Superfamily's Ancestor the rest of the group immediately modifies their family identity for all practical and emotional purposes.
Unlike all other humanoid races, Kobalts have four digits on their hands and feet. Their mathematics is based on eight instead of ten. For example, the army of a Superfamily is considered full when it has 512 (=83) members.
Kobalts are carnivores who usually only eat freshly hunted meat. They will hunt wild animals but prefer the ease of preying on livestock raised by others. They also cannibalize those they slay in combat. A popular rumor teaches that anyone who feeds a Kobalt gains its obedience to every verbal command, but no one can recall ever meeting a person with a Kobalt slave.
Male Kobalts are skilled at woodworking, weapon crafting, and engineering. They also have developed (or perhaps stolen from the Dweorgs) a rudimentary skill with explosive powders. Female Kobalts work at skinning and leatherworking, and also make extra meat into jerky to save for days when no fresh meat is available. Kobalts are the only race to consider leatherworking an art: not only is almost all Kobalt clothing leather but most Kobalt clothing contains at least a few artistically decorated or woven leather components.
Kobalts do not create enchanted items.
According to Kobalt history the race is in its third era. During the first era Kobalts lived in small clans led by leaders who ruled not by lineage but simply by amassing a following. These clans spent most of their time fighting each other. This era ended when an unusually powerful and charismatic Kobalt named Tirkiltz Snarspite rallied together all of the clan leaders through a desire to create racial pride. A Kobalt legend states that Snarspite had heard a Bergtroll call the Kobalt race "a despicable body that eats its own hand", and he vowed to put and end to Kobalts fighting (and eating) each other. Through the force of his personality and his skillful leadership he succeeded in structuring Kobalt society into Superfamilies that were large enough to successfully attack the settlements of Therions, Dweorgs, Bergtrolls, and Gremlins.
The second era of Kobalt society stretched from the time of Tirkiltz Snarspite to the Day of Undead. That year, on the night of the winter equinox, a large number of dead Kobalts became Undead. If an explanation for this has been discovered, it is a Kobalt secret. The Day of Undead caused trouble to all of the intelligent races, but was of course especially traumatic for Kobalt settlements. Kobalt society was thrown into chaos until a new charismatic leader, Hackit Fangrim, led the purification of Kobalt territory and again established the political balance of the Superfamilies.
In the current and third era Kobalts only war against the other intelligent races. Although Ancestors live lives of intrigue and corruption there is never war between Superfamilies. The largest remembered organized Kobalt military force fought sixty years ago, when three Superfamilies even allied together and combined their armies in a nearly successful attempt to conquer Arlinac Mountain.
Most masculine Kobalt names are built of a two-syllable root.
All masculine Kobalt names start with a single consonant: C, K, QU, or T. This initial consonant is followed by any vowel.
The center of a masculine Kobalt name is a digraph, very short I/Y sound (sometimes written with an apostrophe), and other consonant. The result is almost a consonant blend. Most common are CR, CT, LT, TR, ST, TR, or TZ followed by K, L, N, R, S, or T.
The name ends with a concluding digraph: CK, KS, TH, TK, TS, or TZ.
Examples of masculine Kobalt names are Caltikts, Kestintz, Quitz'sth, and Tocryntz.
Nothing is known about feminine Kobalt names.
Kobalts use ancestral titles (Father, Mother, Grandfather, Grandmother) to show respect for other Kobalts, as well as normally to describe their families. The title "Great-Grandfather" is reserved for the current Ancestor of the Superfamily.
Some Kobalt families use surnames.
As warriors, Kobalts tend to wear hard leather armor. For missile weapons they use crossbows or devices that launch harpoons using springs (either small hand-held versions or larger ones like wheelbarrows). At melee range they fight with claws and teeth, or with a variety of weapons.
Kobalts tend to have more experience than average in the skills and skill specializations of Hack/Slash and Perception/Track.
Kobalts are very rarely exceptional in any characteristic but usually travel in groups and benefit from this in their skill rolls.
Pixies are a strange race who change size and gender as they mature. They serve the Griffin, although just what this means is difficult to understand.
Pixies love children, will play with a child for hours, and are very distracted by seeing or meeting an unfamiliar child.
Pixies are naturally nocturnal, but if they live near children will become diurnal to be awake when the children are playing. This change takes several weeks, so there are many stories of homes with a new Pixie enduring hardship because the Pixie wakes up the children (or sometimes only the youngest child) frequently during the night with music, sing-song, or tossing toys into the crib.
Pixies have an ancient emnity towards the Mer and the Unseemly.
In the fantasy frontier setting of Guilddom Adventures Made Easy Pixies mock traditional gender roles: the woman busy with domestic chores and the man who only lounges when home.
Pixies are able to sacrifice their own wealth to the Griffin to gain the physical features of animals or monsters. They call this ability monstrosity.
Female Pixies desire the wings of a butterfly or dragonfly wings, or the ears and tail of a rodent. Male Pixies desire the legs and feet of a goat, deer, or some other jumping animal, or the heads of a bull, lion, crocodile, or some other strong animal.
Pixies are also almost immune to discomfort or harm caused by cold or heat. They never develop frostbite and are even substantially fireproof.
Female Pixies
Pixies do not age normally.
Newly "born" Pixies hatch from a nut from a special nut tree. All Pixies are born as tiny females, about a centimeter tall.
Female Pixies gradually undergo a lifecycle change as travel far from their birth place. The farther they travel from their birthplace the larger they grow, and the more masculine their features become. Eventually, with enough distance, they change into male Pixies.
Most female Pixies find the idea of becoming a male repulsive, and avoid traveling. Because life has extra challenges for someone so tiny, these Pixies often seek work in the home of a Therion. Female pixies that live in a Therion home (or, much more rarely, the home of a Bergtroll or Dweorg who lives above ground) see no conflict with the ways they serve the Griffin and their domestic assistance to their landlord.
A few female Pixies are eager to become male and so travel as much as possible. These are often mocked as "having seven league boots".
All female Pixies are industrius and hard-working. They enjoy setting small goals and crossing items off a to-do list.
Female Pixies enjoy using monstrosity to acquire animal features, but sometimes have strange tates in what is considered beautiful (again due to information gleaned through local gossip and peer pressure).
Male Pixies
Male Pixies no longer physically change because they go farther from their birthplace. They retain the height and facial features they had when they became male. Usually this means male Pixies are about two feet tall and have somewhat androgynous faces. However, any changes due to monstrosity disappear during the gender change.
Once male, a Pixie continues to age unusually. But it is simply any distance traveled that ages a male Pixie. To stay young, most male Pixies are lazy and sit around all day.
Male Pixies will, however, travel a reasonable distance to be near female Pixie(s). The tolerance and affection female Pixies show towards these freeloading and often rude males is enigmatic to non-Pixies, especially considering how female Pixies always speak of masculinity as inferior.
Male Pixies are incredibly strong for their size, and will fight fiercely if attacked. They will even shed their reluctance to travel to organize into an army if Mer or Unseemly are nearby.
As male Pixies they age they become gnarled and even more strong. Their skin becomes slightly wood-like, and if they have not used monstrosity to change their head they grow long white beards and hair.
When a male Pixie has aged so much his beard touches the ground, he dies. From where he is buried (a Pixie would say "planted") a nut tree quickly grows in a single year. The tree's first crop of nuts (typically in the tree's second year) hatch into newborn Pixies; afterwards it is a normal nut tree. Most male Pixies want to be planted in a yard or park near where they lived, but some desire to be a tree far away, by the seashore, or a waterfall, or high in the mountains.
Pixies avoid showing affection except in extreme circumstances. Female and male Pixies never show affection to each other; non-Pixies are unsure if Pixie reproduction even involves physical contact between females and males. But a few stories share that a very aged male Pixie may give a farewell kiss to the Therion(s) whose home or yard he has lived in, to express a lifetime of thanks for kind hospitality, and a female Pixie may kiss a Therion who saves her life.
Most female Pixies live with in a Therion home. The details of this partnership very from place to place, based upon what a female Pixie has heard from other Pixies about how such arrangements are properly made.
Usually the Pixie helps with domestic chores in exchange for food and clothing, and occasional respectful gifts of a special dessert or some brightly colored ribbon. However, in some locations female Pixies only help with gardening, and in certain locations to give a special gift to a Pixie is perceived as a serious insult and would cause the Pixie to seek a new home. The female Pixies in Arlinac City believe they should each have a small room of their own; they are quite proud of their rooms even if most are windowless sections of an attic or basement.
A Therion who enjoys the domestic or gardening help of having a female Pixie in the home often also suffers the imposition of one or more male Pixies loafing about in the dwelling or yard. Usually the help of the female Pixie, and the future promise of a nut tree, is enough to make Pixies welcomed in Therion settlements.
Legends tell of some Pixies living in the forest in settlements only comprised of Pixies. These "Tree Folk" wear little or no clothing and use monstrosity much more than their urban cousins.
Among Pixies, "art" consists almost entirely of music and dance. Most Pixies enjoy learning to play many different instruments. They have many traditional styles of dance, including dances for lines, partners, and dancing alone.
Male Pixies also consider brewing and distilling to be arts. Pixies are most famous for their mushroom wines.
Pixies do not create enchanted items.
It is not clear to non-Pixies how Pixies serve the Griffin. Neither do non-Pixies ever get a chance to see where or how Pixies offer their wealth to the Griffin in exchange for monstrosity.
Pixies name themselves after types of plants or parts of plants. Females prefer flower names; males prefer names from bushes or trees.
Male Pixies are fearless warriors. Very often the act of going to war has enough travel to age them mortally: they perceive it far more honorable to die in combat than to survive the war with only a few days or weeks of steps remaining.
Pixies use any type of weapon, provided it is small enough for them. They almonst never wear armor.
A couple legends describe wars between Pixies and Mer, and tell of an entire of grove of nut trees flowing into battle on behalf of the "Tree Folk" Pixies.
Pixies tend to have more experience than average in the skills and skill specializations of Leap/Tumble and Sneak/Hide.
A Pixie that is exceptional in a characteristic is usually exceptional in Balance.
The Mer are a race of humanoids who can change their bodies, from the waist down, into the tails of fish or eels. They have gills in addition to lungs, and can breathe water as well as air.
Mer have pointed teeth, webbing between their fingers, and widely varying height. Adult males are bald except for a beard like fine seaweed. Adult females have hairless faces and long scalp hair like fine seaweed. The bones of an Mer are very light as well as incredibly durable, allowing the creatures to swim quickly when in the water as well as move more easily when on land.
Most Mer live underwater and never have contact with members of the other intelligent races. Those Mer that are encountered by non-Mer are usually pirates and bandits seeking to raid and steal.
Mer have sweet voices that can lure unsuspecting members of the other intelligent races. This ability is hypnotic, not magical.
The Mer serve a being called the Lamia. Like the Mer, she is able to change her lower body. Unlike them, she changes her legs into a snake's body and tail.
In the fantasy frontier setting of Guilddom Adventures Made Easy the Mer are ruthless raiders with no hope of redemption or reconciliation.
The Mer's changing of their lower bodies is their most obvious ability.
Mer are also able to sacrifice other people's wealth to the Lamia to gain a magical wooden figurine that, when commanded by its owner, turns into a trap or a monstrous pet. They call this ability cenotaphy.
The figurines, called cenotaphs, in some way resemble the person or people whose stolen wealth was sacrified. For example, weapons and armor looted from fallen warriors could become a cenotaph that could be commanded to change into a fighting monster; the power of the monster would depend upon the amount of wealth sacrified. A cenotaph commemorating a miserly merchant could become a trap useful for guarding gold or gems.
All cenotaphs have similar size. Some have a shape that provides a hint about what they turn into, while others have a shape with no correlation to their power. Thus the workings of a cenotaph can only be discovered by seeing it in use.
Cenotaphs change because of an appropriate mental command. Most non-Mer who use a cenotaph find it helps to say or shout something aloud to create a suitably intense thought of command.
Except for those in raiding parties, Mer are not warlike and only midly aggressive. Most Mer only use cenotaphy once, using the "donations" of willing relatives as part of a arrival-of-adulthood ritual.
Cenotaphs serve two purposes.
Foremost they add an element of unpredictability to the GAME setting. The PC is seldom sure if an NPC who appears to abe alone is not carrying a guardian. A GM who is careful not to abuse the plot device can have an NPC use a cenotaph to escape from the PC, surely to return and fight another day.
Also, there is a certain subpopulation of children who are inexplicably fond of adventures involving collecting portable monster pets. A GM with such a player is encouraged to create rules for cenotaph combat that distinguishes it from the normal skill-based combat of NPCs.
The Mer are a secretive race. They are known to reproduce, like fish, using eggs. But how they form families, raise children, or grow up is unknown.
Mer children are never seen by members of the other intelligent races. Only extremely rarely do Mer women joing a pirate or bandit party.
Mer underwater cities have a beauty and splendor generously described in Mer ballads and stories. Occasionally a non-Mer hears these while a captive of a pirate or bandit group.
The Mer are great net fishers, and all Mer settlements contain schools of domesticated fish. The mer eat primarily seafood. Some Mer who live near where rivers join the sea also domesticate fowl.
The Mer do no mining and make little use of precious metals.
Mer art involves creating beauty and narrative from common materials and focuses on pottery, sculpture, cooking and weaving. All Mer are proficient with a variety of tools and considered themselves crafters. Mer building focuses on transmutery.
The only enchanted items created by the Mer are the cenotaphs they receive from the Lamia.
Among enchanted items, only among cenotaphs (and such cenotaphs are very rare) is found the power of summoning creatures.
Because the Mer feel disdain towards accumulating personal treasure or using rare materials in art, it is sometimes suspected that they view looting and sacrificing the wealth of others as a noble act that purifies the world.
Mer are temperamental and can be unexpectedly agressive. Like the sea and rivers they inhabit, they have seen much, but can be moody, sensitive, and unpredictable.
Many Mer are mischievous and often cruel. Mer bred very quickly and believed the world has troubles because everyone is competing to fill it.
The Mer worship the Lamia as well as serve her, but what this means is not something prisoners of the Mer live to report.
Mer men, when working as pirates or bandits, use the names of tools or weapons. A tall Mer man might be nicknamed "Trident" or "Spear"; a short Mer man might be nicknamed "Dagger" or "Awl"; a fat Mer man might be nicknamed "Spade" or "Axe".
In combat the Mer usually wear no armor and use nets, spears, and crossbows.
Mer tend to have more experience than average in the skills and skill specializations of Transmutery and Ride/Pilot.
Bergtrolls are humanoids with mouse-like tails who live under or above the mountains of Theralin.
Bergtrolls enter adulthood at a similar size to adult Therions, although they grow to be much larger. They are quite similar to Therions in appearance, and many Therions tales tell of Bergtrolls who hide their tails and pass as Therions amidst Therions society.
In the fantasy frontier setting of Guilddom Adventures Made Easy Bergtrolls act as the stereotypical wealthy: individuals who spend their time amid luxury and fancy, looking down upon those who must devote each day to sustenance and survival.
Bergtrolls can enter a meditative trance that allows them to create artistic works with magical properties, a skill called musing. To use musing a Bergtroll must sacrifice of his or her own age: the bergtroll will age a year or more, with more age drained to create a more powerful enchantment.
Bergtrolls only rarely have children. They age slowly and never die of old age. Bergtrolls tend to double in weight (and almost double in height) every 80 years. Thus, for practical reasons a Bergtroll settlement is home to only Bergtrolls differing by no more than 160 years in age. A Bergtroll who outgrows one settlement will move to a physically larger one. The largest known Bergtroll was 561 years old and almost 13 meters tall (having reached seven 80-year "doubling birthdays"). Bergtrolls of this stature are probably the source of tales of giants in the mountains.
Even though they do not die of old age, Bergtrolls strive act as young adults, and to remain young as long as possible. (Within Arlinac City some respected adult Bergtrolls even continue to use the childhood versions of their names.)
Bergtrolls always live under or on mountains. They believe living elsewhere would slowly and fatally weaken their constitutions.
An underground Bergtroll dwelling consists of a single passage down to an enormous cavern in which is built a castle of elaborate and fanciful architecture. Each such dwelling is called a "kingdom" since it is ruled by a monarch who swears no allegiance to any Bergtroll of another dwelling. An aboveground Bergtroll settlement is also centered around a castle (even more elegant and airy than those underground) but will also include a small village and its surrounding farmland and pastureland. Bergtrolls are the only race that domesticates livestock, and most families living aboveground raise poultry and own a few sheep and/or goats. A comparatively smaller number of Bergtrolls work on ranches to raise horses, cattle, llamas, and/or camels.
Some Bergtrolls live in harmony with Therions and allow them into their towns or cities. In these places the Bergtrolls often create what they consider an oasis of high culture with an art museum, sculpture garden, and castle-like mansion.
All Bergtrolls consider themselves artists. Most art of Bergtrolls is focused on what they call the "solid arts" of painting, pottery, sculpture, architecture, candle making, metalworking, and weaving, although some Bergtrolls are fond of the "airborne arts" of poetry, music, and theatre. According to Bergtroll legends that appear in much of their art, Bergtrolls were once the only intelligent race and they lived everywhere in peace and health, but after a great catastrophe they moved to the mountains.
Bergtrolls do value gems and jewels but hoard these in castle treasure vaults rather than wear jewelry or decorate with gems. They only value precious metals through their pride in their elegant clothing, which often uses gold, silver, or platinum threads in its embroidery.
With musing a Bergtroll can create any sort of enchantment, as long as it is fitting the topic or theme of the work of art being constructed.
A few pieces of enchanted art are famous in Arlinac. These include:
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Tuning Flute | When played, this small flute tunes other nearby musical instruments. The more melodious the tune, the better the flute tunes other instruments. |
| Tidy Cap | A small hat that keeps dust and dirt off the wearer's clothes. It does not clean clothes that are already soiled. |
| Lava Bakers | A two-piece set of an apron and oven mitt that protect the wearer from all heat and burns. |
| Warm-mitts | These soft, woolen mittens make the wearer completely immune to cold and nearly irresistible to cats. |
| Merchant Hat | This ornate hat prohibits the wearer from lying when talking to anyone holding a bag of coins. |
| Somnambulist Harp | This harp causes sleeping people to sleepwalk and talk. It is used along with a sleep potion for entertainment at parties, similar to a hypnotist's act. |
| Drunkard's Delight | This infamous wine bottle never empties. Its current location is unknown but the subject of much speculation. |
| Animal-Mummy Cloths | A roll of cloth that forms the hollow shape of an animal when tossed into the air. This hollow, cloth animal cannot obey commands, but always fights against other Animal-Mummy Cloths it sees. Using these, or betting upon the outcome of a fight, is a popular party entertainment. |
Religious activity in Bergtroll society is part of their artistic culture. Instead of worshipping a deity or deities the Bergtrolls have personified the "Muses" granting inspiration and skill of each art form and developed a rich tradition of meditative activities (involving thought, breathing, and movement) believed to help the artist create each art form optimally through imitating or identifying with the appropriate Muse. Even though Bergtrolls do not believe these Muses are real creatures they act so much as if the Muses are real that a casual observer would think the actions or artistic creation were genuine religious worship.
Bergtrolls tend to excel at whatever they attempt and often act with a confidence that members of the other intelligent races find haughty. Bergtrolls are also easily affected by fads and temptations. In Bergtroll society it is more honorable to be an "Outsider" with perfected self-control and independent rationality of opinion, but many Bergtrolls succumb to their natures and become "Insiders" who are part of the homogenous crowd. Insiders are believed to loose access to the Muses, becoming fit for only farm or ranch labor instead of art.
Bergtroll society is equally comfortable with violence as with luxury. Bergtrolls are known for having a very strict legal code and sense of justice. When prompted, Bergtrolls will leave their settlements to fight as an army.
Female Bergtroll names are built from three parts.
Their first part is a four-letter palindrome, consonant-vowel-vowel-consonant. An apostrophe is usually used to prevent the ending consonant from blurring into the rest of the name.
The second part is any consonant followed by the letter R to create a consonant blend.
The third part is another four-letter palindrome, this time vowel-consonant-consonant-vowel.
Thus examples of female Bergtroll names include are Leel'tranna, Saas'hrilli, Moomtrevve, and Niinkroddo.
Male Bergtroll names are similar, except the initial two letters and final two letters are removed so there are no palindromes. Male Bergtroll names are usually written without any apostrophe.
Thus examples of male Bergtroll names include are Eltran, Ashril, Omtrev, and Inkrod.
A highly respected Bergtroll has his or her name prefixed by the syllable OO'-. For example, Oo'Leel'tranna or Oo'Eltran.
Bergtroll children are commonly referred to by "youth names". For girls, the first two letters and the last consonant are used, followed by the suffix -Y. Thus Miim'truxxu would be called Mixy when young. For boys, the first two letters and final two letters are used, so a young Imtrux would be called Imux.
Bergtrolls have no typical style as warriors, except for fighting with beautiful skill and finesse.
Bergtrolls tend to have more experience than average in the skills and skill specializations of Bargain/Appraise and Social/Etiquette.
A Bergtroll that is exceptional in a characteristic is usually exceptional in Brains.
For most of history the "Seemly Ones" or "People of the Hills" (saying their true name was avoided) were a minor nuisance, a source of trouble avoidable by anyone with enough caution and knowledge.
Then, 190 years ago, all the Seemly Ones united in an enormous war against the other intelligent races. The Unseemly were nearly exterminated. The war was named the "Trooping War" because the Unseemly called themselves the "Trooping Folk" while at war.
Since the change the "Seemly Ones" have been called the Unseemly.
Physically the Unseemly are Tall and radiant. Their features are naturally homely or ugly, but are always enhanced by illusion.
Trouble is still occasionally caused by one of the few surviving Unseemly. However, when this happens the interference of the Unseemly is seldom discovered. The surviving Unseemly have taken to extreme secrecy while competing in games that use members the other intelligent races as pawns; they are now practiced at working from the shadows to sow confusion and discord.
In the fantasy frontier setting of Guilddom Adventures Made Easy the Unseemly act as the source of miscellaneous magic and mysteries. The PC and his or her foes will gain puzzles and power through discovering the secrets of a this nearly-extinct civilization.
Note that the flexibility of Unseemly chronistry to create any kind of enchantment allows chronistry to be the "why not?" excuse for the setting's magical items. If an item's existence helps the GM create an adventure, then it can simply exist as something the Unseemly created.
The Unseemly are able to drain time from members of the other intelligent races to create enchantments of all sorts, especially illusions. They call this ability chronistry. The victim must be unconscious.
Historically, chronistry was most commonly done by luring members of the other intelligent races to visit an Unseemly settlement, where the visitor was given treated to splendid entertainment before being offered drugged food to put them to sleep. Chronistry then caused the visitor to enter a suspended state for three to five years: the visitor would awaken outside to discover the rest of the world had experienced those years go by, with pockets full of gold coins or ornate jewelry that would turn into dust at the next sunrise.
Less commonly, an Unseemly would steal babies and use chronistry to age them to adulthood. Some of these "tall babes" would remain in the Unseemly settlement permanently as a servant. Others would be returned to their homes, mature in body but still a newborn in mind.
Enchanted items created with chronistry are decorated with runes, and thus identifiable as Unseemly artifacts.
The Unseemly are immune to poison and disease. They are hurt by contact with iron, and have a phobic dislike of stale food.
Chronistry can be extended if the GM desires. What if the runes created by chronistry could be studied and duplicated by members of other races? However, without chronistry there is only one other way to activate the rune by infusing it with someone else's time: a sacrifical death. This makes the setting much darker and more dangerous, for evil cults will create more and better enchanted items than the heroes and heroines attempting to stop the cultists.
No one knows what life is like within an Unseemly settlement, epecially after the Trooping War. Even those who visited the Unseemly before the war were only shown a few faniciful and illusionary hours of entertainment.
Older Unseemly become physically frail but develop impressive strength of mind. They gain a new skill: Hypnosis. The total of an Unseemly's FP and skill with Hypnosis is always eight.
It is known that an Unseemly's age is tied to how many lies are believed about it. These must be "facts" someone else cares about and for which no one knows the truth. Initially this was an opportunity of eternal youth: if a Seemly One kept nothing secret then he or she could remain young forever. However, the Unseemly now desire Hypnosis more than youth and use illusion and guile to create as many lies as possible.
The Unseemly live in settlements under barrows, mounds, and small hills, often deep inside large forests. These settlements are decorated by illusion much more than crafted items.
The Unseemly are very secretive about their dwellings and keep the location secret from members the other intelligent races, especially when they lure confused visitors into their realms.
According to some stories, an Unseemly settlement will invigorate nearby wild animals but sicken nearby domesticated animals.
Unseemly art is enignmatic because the Unseemly enhance their appearance and dwellings with illusion. Sometimes when an Unseemly is killed the illusion disguising it vanishes.
Enchanted items created by the Unseemly have interesting and often multiple properties and are almost always unique. Their materials reflect how the Unseemly do no metal use or animal husbandry, Most items are tools, pottery, garments, or sculptures. Often the effects of the enchantment are more memorable than practical.
During the Trooping War many, many more enchanted items were created by the Unseemly than in all previous years combined. (The Unseemly primarily used blunt weapons. When members of the other armies were defeated, the short time to bleed to death was very often sufficient to use chronistry.) The result is a recent surge in the number and variety of enchanted items.
The enchanted items created by the Unseemly are too varied to list, but here is a sampling of ideas:
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Sleepshells | A set of jewelry that features seashells. Each piece causes any humanoid wearing it to feel vigorous (1 extra FP). But each piece also causes the wearer to immediately fall asleep after doing a certain action. Laughing, sneezing, and running are common actions to trigger the effect. |
| The Big Kiss | This long, heavy spear slowly exudes a red goo. When thrown, if it hits a humanoid target it will always strike the target's mouth. It has been known to bounce and strike its thrower. |
| Vampire Fangs | These wooden teeth fit in any size mouth. They allow the wearer to survive without food, only by drinking. But they also cause the wearer to suffer the loss of one FP each minute when in bright sunlight. |
| Shrink Cloak | This cloak shrinks whomever wears it and all of their worn or carried clothes and equipment. To reverse the effect, put it on inside-out. When shrunk, the wearer has only 3 fatigue points. Someone shrunk is stuck if the now-tiny cloak gets damaged and ruined. |
| Bag O' Bugs | This bag of small, harmless insects never empties. For many years it was owned by an unethical exterminator to generate business. |
| Pet Rock | This rock flies back to its owner at great speed if called. Two "command words" make it function: one claims ownership and the other recalls it. Both command words are usually words that happen frequently in normal conversation. |
| Lantern Marbles | These large marbles glow for two hours after being soaked in lantern oil. Then they become normal marbles, except for one variety that explodes. |
| Focus Circlet | This silver circlet cannot be removed once worn. Any time the wearer is looking at only one person, that person glows with a faint red aura visible to everyone. |
| Fearless Cloak | This cloak makes the wearer immune to fear, except that the wearer becomes paralyzed by fear when he or she sees another person wearing a cloak. |
| Emotion Monacle | This monacle enables the wearer to see colored glows identifying strong emotions. However, the wearer becomes completely emotionless, as well as extremely apathetic and lethargic. |
| Toy Boats | These small, wooden statues of boats (coracle, larger rowboat, small barge, or small sailboat) grow to be a full size boat when tossed into a river, lake, or ocean. For every hour of use there is a cummulative 10% chance that the enlarged boat will revert to its small size, dumping the current cargo into the water. |
| Flame Guardian Tiles | These stone tiles create an aggressive, fiery creature each time it is stepped on by a humanoid. |
| Palsy Net | This small net looks nonthreatening but causes paralysis for 10 minutes to any humanoid limb or digit it successfully ensnares. Be careful not to get your fingers caught in it when putting it away. |
| Little Hush | A wooden whistle that creates a sphere of silence of five meter radius while blown (this effect will not extend through walls or water). Note that the person using it is can blow slowly but must eventually take a breath, at which time the effect ends. |
No one knows why the Unseemly "went bad" and started the Trooping War. A powerful and mischievous invidivual might slowly become malicious and cruel over time, but what could quickly change an entire race?
Regarding the few Unseemly who survived the Trooping War, who can say how twisted they are? They are untrusted and stay hidden.
Most Unseemly names are built of a two-syllable root.
Their name root starts with a soft consonant: H, M, N, W, WH, X, or Y. That syllable concludes with the vowel sound EH, IH, or O.
The second syllable begins with the consonant B or L, or more rarely the same consonants that start an Unseemly name root. The vowel in the second syllable is AH, OH, or UH.
Until adulthood, the final vowel is omitted.
Finally, a feminine name has the suffix -Y added after dropping the previously terminal H.
Thus example Unseemly names include: Hox, Xehb, and Nihwy for children, and Yehlah, Wohuh, and Mahloy for adults.
However, only rarely do Unseemly use their true names. Normally they only know each other by positive-sounding adverb nicknames (Gracefully, Goodly, Nicely, Quickly, etc.)
As warriors, the Unseemly tend to use blunt melee weapons disguised by illusion to look like graceful and jeweled rapiers and dagers. They wear any type of armor.
The Unseemly are notably stronger at dusk and dawn, and try to do most of their work then.
The Unseemly tend to have more experience than average in the skills and skill specializations of Alchemy and Ride/Pilot.