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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 eight intelligent 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. (However, in a settlement as large as Arlinac City there are quite a few exceptions who do covet wealth and power.)
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.
Therions get their name from the Greek word therion, the root of the word therianthropy.
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 have 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 that is already exhausted (at 2 or fewer FP) cannot use therianthropy. The animal touched must be 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.
Most Therions are not able to use therianthropy until the second half of their second decade.
Therions are gregarious and prefer to live in large villages or towns. 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. Most seldom wear jewelry aside from their ribboned piercings, although in Arlinac City the influences of Bergtrolls and Dweorgs have made jewelry more commonplace.
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 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.
Therion religious traditions emphasize telling "wisdom stories". There are many such stories, most of which describe the First and Second Ages when animals were larger and intelligent. Some of these stories are believed to be historically accurate, while others are recognized as fiction. The general theme of the stories is the duty of Therions to preserve the legacy of the intelligent animals: to remember the lessons learned during the First and Second Ages even though those intelligent animals are gone.
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 Susha.)
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.
Ogres are intelligent manipulators as well as devourers. Ogres appear in adventures not only as disguised assassins and kidnappers, but as apparently helpful advisors and friends of influential people who subtly encourage moral decay.
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 that masquerade as humans are very traditional, especially the Japanese oni and Gloranthan ogres.
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.
Within the game mechanices, two die rolls happen.
- To use semblancy, an Ogre must touch the humanoid and roll less than or equal to the humanoid's FP on one die. (A fully rested and healthy humanoid will always be affected by semblancy.)
- An Ogre that enters a fit of ruthlessness may temporarily exchange 4 FP with a skill attempt modifier of 1. For example, an Ogre desiring cunning may reduce his FP by 4 to gain +1 on die rolls. An Ogre desiring berserk strength may increase his FP by 4 while suffering a -1 on die rolls. This ability usually lasts one minute (12 combat turns).
Note that semblancy is almost the opposite of therianthropy. Therions give up their own energy to copy the form of an animal. Ogres take somoene else's energy to copy their form.
Some Ogres are female, but not very many. Ogres very seldom have children and do not die of old age.
Ogres progress through three (sometimes four) different lifecycle categories as they age. Ogres believe they age more quickly if they kill intelligent creatures and eat them.
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. 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". 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 spirit turns into a Horror, an incorporeal creature of shadow that can possess people to continue a legacy of ruthlessness.
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.
Ogres usually own many sets of clothing and wear little or no armor, to allow the most freedom in disguising themselves.
Most Ogres worship Gnash. They listen for reports of greedy and ruthless individuals, whom they sacrifice on special alters so that Gnash can "feeds" upon the victim's ruthlessness.
Ogres believe that dedication to Gnash is what earns some Grand Ogres the ability to become Horrors.
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 chief, 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.
The word dweorg is Old English, based on the Norse dvergar. An old form of the more modern dwarf is used to emphasize that these are not based on the dwarves of Middle Earth as so often happens in role-playing games.
Dweorgs are able to sacrifice their own morale to imbue unfinished objects they craft with extra sturdiness and keenness, a process called tempering. A tool or weapon made using 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 only allows unusual excellence of material and craftsmanship: there is no magic or enchantment involved. Therefore tempered tools or weapons are not vulnerable to effects that remove enchantments from items.
Most Dweorgs use tempering rarely: to create their personal tools of their trade, to enhance a cherished family heirloom, or to elevate a prized personal artistic creation. However, during times of war a great number of tempered weapons are forged.
Dweorgs know how to use tempering on the walls of their underground settlements. A tempered wall increases security: it becomes too hard for most burrowing animals to dig through, and also immune to Transmutery. Since tempering all of a settlement's important walls takes much time and effort, clans of Dwerogs seldom change where they live (as opposed to Kobalts, who often abandon one cavern-complex to live in another with a more stragic location).
In ages past, 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. Dweorg artists seek 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 business rivals (including other Dweorg artists). Although Dweorgs do not consider "artistic" the work of a merchant, 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. Elders are very rarely seen by non-Dweorgs. Elders are treated with great respect in Dweorg society, and although they have no special powers they 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 the attacked settlement is 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 those 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 jewelry follows themes of jewels and carving on an iron background. It is the most cultural important 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 cultural importance of Dweorg jewelry is taken from the Emblem Men of Jack Vance's Planet of Adventure.
Other Dweorg fine arts also focus on metalworking, and again follow themes of jewels and carving on an iron background. Dweorgs 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. Most tempered tools and weapons (and all that have been created recently) simply aid the appropriate skill check with a +1 bonus. These tools or weapons are exceptionally crafted but have magic or enchantment.
The Dweorgs of old used a more powerful version of tempering that did 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. 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 when constructing machinery 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 | You can detect and identify other Sthelmi within ___ meters |
| 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% walking 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 twelve combat turns |
| Sneak/Hide | Each minute (twelve combat turns) 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 ___ times as many hours |
| Transmutery | Transmutery can now work at a distance of ___ meters |
Note that Sthelmi allow Dweorgs (or other characters who obtain Sthelmi) to move and fight like fictional protagonists of Chinese Wuxia literature by adding the mythical elements of wushu recently brought to worldwide attention by "wire fu" films.
The sport of "park running" is a tribute to Parkour and free running.
A popular Dweorgish activity in Arlinac City is "Park Running", which involves racing acrobatically along a predetermined route that connects two or more of the city's parks. Racers are allowed to throw or wield blunt objects to slow down competitors. Dweorgs that own certain Sthelmi have an advantage when Park Running. The sport is tolerated by all guilds and noble families, in part because the Dweorgs that participate always make generous financial compensation for any damage done to property. Because of the seriousness with which Dweorgs participate in and wager on Park Running, many non-Dweorgs of Arlinac City hypothesize that sport is an aboveground version of a traditional underground pasttime.
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: they compose and memorize long, rhyming adventure stories set to a simple yet catchy melody.
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 crime family: a violent, vicious and highly organized group that is usually too dangerous for a lone protagonist to attack directly and impossible to infiltrate in disguise, yet whose individual members and crimes can be opposed successfully.
In early Medieval European mythology there was only one underground humanoid, dangerous to miners, whose name and nature varied from region to region but was based on the Greek koba'los (rogue) and the German kofewalt (room spirit). Modern concepts of kobold, goblin, hobgoblin, orc, knocker, bluecap, coblynau and perhaps even pixy and brownie all branch from this ancient root.
The metal cobalt is named after the kobold, and the color "cobalt blue" is the reason my Kobalts are blue.
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 and 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 any items carried or near the person being sapped. This affects alchemy, transmutery, Bergtroll musing-enchantments, enchanted items from the Enchanted Forest, and some gifts from the Powers. It does not affect technological items such as golems and chems, machinery, or Dweorg tempered tools and Sthelmi, nor the gifts of Vigor.
Most fantasy settings are described as either "high magic" or "low magic", referring to whether there are many or few enchanted items. The setting for GAME is neither: enchanted items might be common if the GM desires, but most enchantments are expected to be temporary because Kobalts are common foes.
Note that sapping is almost the opposite of tempering. Dweorgs give up their own morale to create items that boost skill attempts. Kobalts lower somoene else's morale to hinder skill attempts.
Kobolts heal from wounds rapidly, recovering 1 FP per hour no matter what the source of damage.
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 many 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.
According to Kobalt history the race is in its third era. During the First Kobalt Era, all 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 Kobalt Era 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 of Kobalt society, 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 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. Most live symbiotically in the settlements of Therions.
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.
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 lounges around at home.
Historically, pixies were different from elves, a fact Wikipedia briefly describes. The name pixy is used (among the many words for household fairies and elves) because of its appropriate connotations: not especially good or evil, fond of children, enjoying music and dance, helping with housework, and in temperament both eager to please and easy to please.
Pixies are able to cooperate to accomplish a laborious task much more quickly than logically possible. They call this ability laboritry. Laboritry can only be used to create a gift or perform a service for a non-Pixy. Each Pixy is only able participate in laboritry once per month.
The more Pixies cooperate, the larger the effect. As examples: three Pixies could use laboritry to sweep every room in a castle in an hour; a dozen Pixies could use laboritry to mend every piece of clothing in that castle overnight; a hundred Pixies could use laboritry to build a castle in one day.
Pixies are also almost immune to discomfort or harm caused by cold or heat. They never develop frostbite and are substantially fireproof.
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, with butterfly-like wings.
Female Pixies gradually undergo a lifecycle change as travel away from their birth place. The farther they travel from their birthplace the larger they grow and the more masculine their features become. The wings also change: first elongating, then becoming transparent like dragonfly wings, and finally falling off. Eventually, with enough distance, the female Pixy changes into a male Pixie.
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 are faithful helpers and industrious housekeepers, and can be selective when choosing a home. Most female Pixies pefer Therion homes, but a very few pick the home of a Bergtroll or Dweorg who lives above ground. Therions pay Female Pixies with food, cloth, ribbon, and time with their children. Female Pixies approach their domestic work by breaking down tasks into small pieces: they enjoy setting small goals and crossing items off a to-do list.
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".
Male Pixies no longer physically change when traveling 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.
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 one or more female Pixie. 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 such behavior is required to defend the settlement in which they live.
As male Pixies they age they become gnarled and even stronger. Their skin becomes slightly wood-like. Their head grows long, white beards and hair.
When a male Pixie has aged so much that 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) yields on a few nuts, all of which 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 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 a windowless section 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 laboritry 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.
Male Pixies have invented many games and mental puzzles to occupy their time while sedentary. The most widely played game, Board of Battle Hammer Craft, involves storytelling using brass miniatures, hand-drawn maps, and dice.
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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 few 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 amphibious humanoids. Mer have gills in addition to lungs, so they can breathe water as well as air. When breathing air they are humanoid; when breathing water their bodies change from the waist down: their hips and legs become like the tail of a large eel.
Mer have pointed teeth, webbing between their fingers, and widely varying height. Their skin is a pale, minty, yet bright green: the color of ocean water over a reef or a lake with the smallest amount of algae. Adult males are hairless 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 treasure hunters, or 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.
In the fantasy frontier setting of Guilddom Adventures Made Easy the Mer act as the stereotypical violent criminal acting alone or in a small gang: predatory, well-armed, incapable of repentance, and eventually captured or killed.
These Mer are obviously a kind of mermaid/merman. Different cultures have widely varying mermaids/mermen: in some Greek stories they are blended with the sirens; in most Arabic stories they are always humanoid. Common themes are few, but include a knowledge of arts or medicine unknown to humans, and danger when met from either intentional aggression against mariners or unintentional perils for kidnapped visitors to underwater cities.
Mer are also able to sacrifice other people's wealth to hoard luck. They call this ability fortunosity.
To use fortunosity, a Mer must have wealth that more properly belongs to someone else: valuables stolen, plundered or unearthed. The Mer displays these before another Mer in an elaborate ritual. At the ritual's conclusion the wealth vanishes and the Mer performing fortunosity gains one or more rerolls.
The number of rerolls gained through fortunosity is roughly one per 100 coins of wealth (roughly two months' unskilled wages). Each reroll will individually expire in a month's time: the Mer must use it before then or it is gone. Mer can instinctively feel their fortunosity state: it requires no effort for a Mer to mentally keep track of how many rerolls he or she has remaining and when each will expire.
The second Mer who witnesses the fortunosity ritual must be awake but does not actively participate. Evil or outcast Mer can perform fortunosity in front of a chained captive. Because fortunosity requires another Mer's presence, Mer who leave Mer society to travel as pirates, bandits, or treasure hunters always work in small groups.
The word fortunosity pokes fun at how the English word "fortune" describes both wealth and luck.
Fortunosity adds an element of unpredictability to an encounter with a lone Mer. The PC cannot estimate how dangerous a Mer is by studying his or her weapons, armor, and physical stature.
A GM who is careful not to abuse the plot device can have an NPC Mer make use of rerolls to subdue or escape from the PC. Classic "heroic opera" pulp stories and films are full of villains who use some trick to capture the protagonist, or to slip away to return and fight another day. Indeed, having some trick prepared often justifies why the villain does not kill the hero or heroine, or why the villain refuses to delegate and must be personally present at the scene of the crime.
Note that fortunosity is almost the opposite of laboritry. Pixies voluntarily do great work to give wealth to someone else. Mer take somoene else's wealth to empower themselves.
The Mer are a secretive race. Most live their entire life in an elaborate city deep underwater. They are known to reproduce, like fish, using eggs. They have many children. But how they form families, raise their children, or grow up is unknown.
Mer children are never seen by members of the other intelligent races. Only extremely rarely do Mer women leave their underwater cities.
Most scholars believe that Mer society contains a majority of peaceful members and an active, aggressive minority. The peaceful Mer only use fortunosity once, sacrificing the "donations" of willing relatives as part of a arrival-of-adulthood ritual. The aggressive Mer use fortunosity as often as possible and fight viciously to claim and hold positions of authority in Mer society. However, even the normally peaceful Mer are temperamental: like the oceans and seas they inhabit, they can be moody, sensitive, and unpredictable.
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 and strange vegetables grown in underwater gardens. Some Mer who live near where rivers join the sea also domesticate fowl.
The Mer do no mining. They make little use of precious metals.
Mer art involves creating beauty and narrative from common materials. It focuses on pottery, sculpture, cooking and weaving. All Mer are proficient with a variety of tools and considered themselves crafters. Mer building focuses on alchemy.
Mer feel disdain towards accumulating personal treasure or using rare materials in art. Perhaps they view the sacrificing of wealth as a noble act that purifies the world?
Mer bred very quickly and believed the world has troubles because everyone is competing to fill it.
Mer men, when outside Mer society, 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. Their rerolls help compensate for their lack of metal weapons and armor.
Mer tend to have more experience than average in the skills and skill specializations of Alchemy 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.
These Bergtrolls are loosely based on the huldra and bergtroll of Scandinavian folklore. They look human (except for a tail), are expert crafters, and live elegantly in underground castles. A few, rarely met, are gigantic. Removed are the trolls' beguiling of captives (this has been altered into the Bergtrolls themselves being captivated by artistic fads) and the kidnapping or exchanging of infants.
The artistic skill and haughtiness of these Bergtrolls is also inspired by the Ska of Jack Vance's Lyonesse Trilogy.
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. To limit the power of the item (and thus lose less age) many Bergtrolls create items that have a limited number of uses, or can only be used once per day or week.
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. The louder it is played, the farther its range. |
| Tidy Cap | A small hat that keeps dust and dirt off the wearer's clothes. It does not clean clothes that are already soiled. Unfortunately, the Bergtroll who created its enchantment forgot to enable the cap to keep itself clean. |
| Lava Bakers | A two-piece set of an apron and oven mitt (decorated with embroidered tulips sewn with plantinum threads) 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. If its wearer attempts such a lie, the hatpins strike. |
| Somnambulist Harp | This harp causes sleeping people to sleepwalk and talk. It is usually 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. It has caused two floods, which were immortalized in two dozen comic ballads. Its current location is unknown but the subject of much speculation. |
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 the probable source of stories 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 Bergtrolls of other dwellings. 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.
Away from Arlinac City, Bergtrolls are the only race that domesticates livestock. Most Bergtroll 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. Around Arlinac City a significant portion of the Therion farmers have observed and copies Bergtroll habits of animal husbandry.
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. The Bergtrolls of Arlinac City similarly (and usually correctly) see themselves as the pillars of the city's artistic endeavors.
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.
Bergtrolls value gems and jewels. Most are hoarded in castle treasure vaults, but some are made into elaborate and delicate jewelry. Bergtrolls also value precious metals, both for jewelry and to make gold, silver, or platinum threads for the embroidery in their elegant clothing.
Religious activity in Bergtroll society is part of their artistic culture. Instead of worshipping the Divine Beings or Powers, 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 imitate or identify with the appropriate Muse to optimally create each art form. Even though Bergtrolls do not believe these Muses are real creatures, Bergtrolls 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 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 lose 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 their strict legal codes and unwavering senses 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" (saying their true name was avoided) were a minor nuisance, a source of trouble avoidable by anyone with enough caution and knowledge.
Then, a few generations ago, all the Seemly Ones united in an enormous war against the other intelligent races. The war was named the "Trooping War" because of how the Unseemly marched in formation.
The Seemly Ones won many victories in that war. But the war concluded with the Seemly Ones being nearly exterminated. The survivors have since been called the "Unseemly".
The Unseemly are physically tall and radiant. Until old age they are lovely of face, but when old their features become hideous. However, almost all Unseemly maintain a constant illusionary disguise, so they appear to be handsome or beautiful Therions.
Occasionally trouble is still 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. The Unseemly are practiced at working from the shadows to sow confusion and discord.
In the fantasy frontier setting of Guilddom Adventures Made Easy the Unseemly fill the roles of criminal mastermind (including some mad scientists). Also, the PC and his or her foes may find puzzles and power through exploring the secrets of this nearly-extinct civilization.
The Unseemly are drawn from the fairy stories of many cultures, emphasizing what is common among older, traditional tales. The Unseemly are corporeal, tall and radiant, wingless, and nearly human in appearance. They live underground below mounds, barrows, or small hills. They kidnap both infants and adults. They use illusion (especially to improve their own appearances, and counterfeit gold) and archery. They are strong at dusk, weak and dawn, and can be repelled with cold iron or stale food.
Nothing in this description of the Unseemly mentions changelings. A GM may include or ignore this complicated aspect of fairy lore.
Scotting Fairies have traditional classifications. The word Unseemly is a word play on the term "Unseelie Court" and the common practice of referring to fairies by nicknames. The name Trooping Wars is a play on "Trooping fairies".
The Unseemly are able to create illusions by draining time from members of the other intelligent races. This ability is called chronistry. The victim must be asleep or unconscious. The Unseemly decides upon an illusion to create before initiating chronistry: the illusion's duration equals the amount of time drained from the victim. Chronistry also keeps the victim in a deep and dreamless sleep, a trance in which the victim ages slowly and needs no nourishment.
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 disturbing jewelry that would turn into dust at the next sunrise.
Less commonly, an Unseemly would steal babies and use chronistry on them all the way to adulthood. When finally awake, these "tall babes" would be mature in body but still a newborn in mind. They would either remain in the Unseemly settlement permanently as servants, or be returned to their homes decades after their parents' generation had died of old age.
The Unseemly are immune to poison and disease. They are hurt by contact with iron, and have a phobic dislike of stale food. The Unseemly are notably stronger at dusk and dawn, and try to do most of their work then.
Note that chronistry is almost the opposite of musing. Bergtrolls voluntarily sacrifice their own age to truly enhance artwork. Unseemly take somoene else's age to create illusionary beauty.
Unseemly have few children. Most births are twins. Children develop quickly: an Unseemly is fully mature at a dozen years of age.
Once mature, the passage of time does not age an Unseemly. Instead, it physically ages as more and more lies are believed about it. These lies must be "facts" someone else cares about and for which no one knows the truth.
Long ago the first Seemly Ones enjoyed eternal youth by kept nothing secret--with no truths hidden, the Unseemly could all remain young forever. However, the Unseemly now desire old age more than youth and use illusion and guile to create lies whenever possible.
Older Unseemly become ugly, bent, and physically frail--but also develop impressive strength of mind. They can focus their thoughts so well they gain a resistance to distraction, interruption, and hypnosis. The total of an Unseemly's FP and focus skill is always eight: an old Unseemly gains focus skill over the years as its FP decline.
Before the Trooping War the Seemly Ones lived in large settlements under barrows, mounds, and small hills, often deep inside large forests. The interiors of these settlements were decorated by illusion much more than crafted items. Those who visited these places before the war were only shown a few faniciful and illusionary hours of entertainment before being put to sleep as victims of chronistry.
Since the Trooping War the Unseemly are often hunted, and thus very secretive about their dwellings. Few if any still live in the traditional large settlements under small hills. The Unseemly take especially great care to keep the location of their dwellings secret when they lure home a befuddled visitor.
Unseemly settlements, even abandoned ones, will invigorate nearby wild animals but sicken nearby domesticated animals.
Unseemly art is enignmatic because the Unseemly enhance their appearance and dwellings with illusion.
The Unseemly value Transmutery, and view it as the highest form of art.
No one knows why the Seemly Ones "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 tend to have more experience than average in the skills and skill specializations of Transmutery and Ride/Pilot.