Unaligned Spirit Folk

Fey beings from legends and stories with inherent unaligned powers.

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Gnome

Legendary, underground-dwelling devisers of systems.

• Lifespan: 80 - 120 years

• Diet: Aromatic mortal fare

• Habitat: Subterranean

• Socioeconomic Status: Oppressed

Gnomes appear to be 3’ to 4’ tall beings with large, hairy noses and ears. Their skin and hair color comes in a wide variety of hues. Their skin is often spotty or piebald, and their hair often sticks out. Their eyes kinda bug out. Their voices are often high-pitched.

Gnomes have an innate understanding of systems. How things interact and interconnect. If they observe patterns for longer than a few hours, they will be able to tell how things connect and correlate.

They can only do this for systems they can observe; therefore, they cannot understand the system of how atoms work without microscopes capable of letting them see them, nor can they understand the whole of the universe without powerful technology or magic.

Gnomes are compelled to put their knowledge of how things come together to use. Therefore, they often create devices or experiments, and these are often pushed to limits that cause disastrous results. They are immune to the consequences of these results if and only if they come to such disasters unintentionally and in the course of seeking understanding of greater systems.

Gez culture is about understanding how the world, as a system, works. In pursuit of this understanding, the gnomes of Shem experiment with machines, which they believe replicate the ways of the world.

Gnomish food is extremely aromatic. They love strong flavors. Spices, herbs, and alliums are very common. Capers are their favorite. Smelly cheeses and yogurts, soups, and fermented foods are very common. They pickle everything. Their music is rhythmic and complicated with time signatures that almost no one can replicate without their mechanical instruments. Their theatricals and radio entertainments are scientific and intricate, and their other art works are avant garde.

There are many gnomes in the region. They are among the oppressed and exploited for their technological skills. They are viewed also as nuissances.

PRO 8 ATH 9 STR 6 AWA 10 WIL 8 PRS 7 STH 9

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Vaettir

Legendary beings of mortal law.

• Lifespan : 1,000 years
• Diet: Offerings
• Habitat: Temperate to subarctic
• Socioeconomic Status: Oppressed

Vættir appear to be broad-shouldered anthropomorphic figures who stand about 4’ tall. They are similar to gnomes and dvergars, but they are broader and have animalistic features in their faces. Most have goat-, cat-, fish-, deer-, lizard-, or dolphin-like features in their faces.

Empowered by ancient laws (though not Divine ones), vættir are bound to rules that give them powers and have great consequences if broken.

Individually, they have the ability to vanish twice daily, calm or panic animals twice weekly, shatter or mend objects twice monthly, exert extra strength (+9 for 30 seconds) twice yearly, and bind a mortal to the laws of the vættir twice in their lifetimes.

The rules that dictate the powers of a vættir:

• A vættir cannot be washed in warm liquid. This will cause their magic to be weakened or taken away for up to seven weeks.
• A vættir may not use or suffer the likeness of a dragon on any structure, vehicle, or statue within their community, lest their strength be lost until the likeness is removed.
• A vættir must remain in their domains (earth, mountain, forest, sea, lake, or house) and shall not move to a new location without performing the proper rituals of protection, lest they lose all of their powers, which derive from the laws of the domain.
• A vættir must exchange gifts with visitors and neighbors at certain times of the year, lest they lose their connection to their domains, causing terrible things to happen as the protections fade.
• A vættir dwells in a domain - an earthen area such as a mound or hill, a great mountain, a forest, the sea, a lake, or a home belonging to another kind of mortal - and may place protections upon it, usually for prosperity and health. There is a limit to their protections, of course, but they are generally able to provide adequate protection to be worth the offerings they require.

If they fail to live by their rules, the protections will weaken, and bad things will begin to happen within a week: livestock will sicken, crops will wilt, children will go missing, fields will fallow, adults will grow ill, objects may vanish. If they follow the rules meticulously, the opposite tends to be true: livestock remain healthy, crops and fields yield good harvest, children remain safe, objects are found easily, and adults remain hale.

Vættir must exchange gifts eight times per year:

• The first day of the year
• On the two equinoxes
• On the two solstices
• On Samhain
• On the first day of harvest
• On their birthday

The vættir are offered porridge with butter, apples and pears (preferably sliced into eight pieces), mulled wine, cider, warm bread, a fresh slaughtered pig, and so on are examples of offerings, but any offering of food or drink made politely will be accepted, so long as it is not poisonous to the vættir. Respect and politeness in offerings is of the utmost in importance. In exchange for these offerings, the vættir provides a song that promises protections, except on their birthdays, when they would instead perform chores around the house or do minor services for those making the offerings.

Vættir are bound to their own rules, which they are taught from a young age. They do not have to follow the rules until they understand them or until they reach the age of seven, whichever comes first. They dwell in small hollows under the ground or in shallow caves under the water, often under trees or houses or large rocks.

Each vættir family is headed by the parents, who share duties around the home and the domain. All vættir are expected to learn domestic skills, fighting, hunting, gardening, and more, for they never know which tasks the rules may require of them.

A vættir child is considered an adult by the age of 21, at which time they are tested by their family on the rules. If they do not pass the test, they are punished with a birch stick to the head and given a week to correct. They do this every week until they pass or run away. If they run away, they violate their own rules and die within a year and a day unless they find some supernatural means to survive.

As an adult, a vættir is expected to find their own domain and start a new family elsewhere, though in places where there are not many other vættir, they may remain with their original family for a long time. Their adulthood is spent taking on tasks and seeking someone to build a new family with. If they must find a new domain and not take one over, they must also make friends with the local mortals and share with them the laws, which the vættir learns from the domain itself after staying there for a fortnight.

Vættir make friends by making offerings, usually of food, and doing small tasks around the land, water, or house.

The main differences between national cultures is what kinds of spots they live in, the offerings they prefer, and their relationship with local mortals:

• Landvættir: they dwell in burrows and hollows under mounds; they tend goats and prefer offerings that can be shared with their herds (apples are a favorite); they mostly work with farmers and ranchers and try to be good protectors of the livestock and crops. If things go sour, they are quick to be driven off. They have a mischievous streak that sometimes gets them in trouble.
• Fjallvættir: they dwell in mountain caves near small towns or passes; they protect bridges and roads and keep them clean; they engage with travelers and locals alike; they prefer offerings of warm foods. If things go sour, they get blamed for avalanches and missing travelers, but this tends to enhance the locals’ desire to keep good relations. They tend to be very serious folk.
• Sjóvættir: they dwell in caves next to or under the sea; they protect sailors and fishers; they engage with locals from nearby fishing communities; they prefer offerings of fresh fruit and vegetables. If things go sour, they get blamed for shipwrecks, poor fishing seasons, and bad storms. They tend to be equally loved and feared. They tend to be jovial and like a good, bawdy song.
• Skogvættir: they dwell in great hollows within trees; they protect travelers and rangers and others in the forest, as well as the forest itself; they engage with the locals and travelers and also the animals of the wood; they prefer offerings of freshly butchered domestic animals such as pigs, for they will not hunt in their own wood. They tend to be respected greatly by the locals. They tend to be quick-witted and love riddles.
• Vatnavættir: they dwell in caves near or under lakes, rivers, and ponds; they protect travelers on rivers or those who live near lakes and ponds; they are often blamed for local drownings. They are feared and disliked. They prefer offerings of fresh fruits and cold meats. They tend to be a little romantic and love their stories.
• Húsvættir: they dwell under homes, usually in farming communities or small towns; they protect those who dwell in the homes; they do tasks around the house and protect from fires and illness; they usually have very good relations with those in the house and are considered part of the family. They prefer offerings of buttered porridge and warm bread. They are very serious about the rules of the house.

What is always made clear between vættir and those they dwell with or near is that they are not slaves. If ever there is not an equal exchange of gifts and services, they will exact payment or make clear the consequences. Furthermore, consequences are made clear beforehand, and if no agreement can be reached, the vættir will either relocate (after casting appropriate spells) or force the mortals to leave, depending on who has ownership. The laws follow the vættir.

Most in the empires are slaves brought from other parts of the world or their descendants.

PRO 8 ATH 9 STR 7 AWA 8 WIL 9 PRS 8 STH 9

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Wearg

NPC Only.

Urban legends.

• Lifespan : 200 years
• Diet: Detritus
• Habitat: Fringes of society
• Socioeconomic Status: Oppressed

Wearga are shapeshifters and glamourers, and therefore, they take on different appearances, often fueled by local urban legends or superstitions. Their natural form varies somewhat between regions, but common features include being taller than the average mortal in the area, clawed hands, fiery or pitch black eyes, faces with bulbous features, hairiness or hairlessness, green skin (which they grow out of by age 17), clamminess of the skin, red right hands, and a penchant for extravagant clothing. Particularly, they are most known for wearing black cloaks, hook hands, wide-brimmed hats or helmets, and tight-fitting white clothing made from oilskin.

Wearga have many powers, some of which vary by region or culture due to the different urban legends and superstitions around them. They adapt to what is claimed of them, though there must be a cultural consensus for it to affect them, and they must be aware of it, usually arising via the next generation.

Among their commonest powers are the ability to mimic and throw sounds, to move objects without touching them, and to create illusory lights in the distance.

All wearga have the power to breathe blue and white flames and to leap significant distances (it is said they can clear a wall of 12’ in height from a standstill). Most have a very strong grip.

All wearga speak the rhyming Cant that is used by pilferers and other criminals. It is said that this was their original language. They are born knowing several basic spells in the Cant:

• A rhyme that steals the senses of others, allowing them to either see through that person’s senses or to use their senses to amplify their own. If they do not reverse the rhyme, the person is left senseless and eventually comatose.
• A rhyme that allows them to steal a soul, though only from someone who is already dying. They rarely use this extremely powerful rhyme, for they cannot do much with the soul other than trade it away to less pleasant powers, but it developed for them as a means of keeping the souls of their own people from being taken by said powers. As such they have funerary rites where they take the soul of their own dead and usher it into a special container.
• A rhyme that allows them to invoke the teleport from one crossroads to another (within five leagues).
• A rhyme that allows them hear when their name is called within five leagues and appear there. They often have names common to the areas where they lived (i.e., “Jack” or “John”).
• A rhyme that involves glamouring or invisibility (see below). While they are glamoured or invisible, their laughter unnerves people if they wish it to.

Wearga use glamours to alter their appearance. Like many Cants, it also relies upon them “hooding” (see Pilferers under Occupations), but they have glamours specific to the region they dwell in, fitting urban legends and superstitions of the area. Some common ones include the following:

• Terrifying, often demonic appearances, so frightening people swoon because of it.
• Animalesque forms, such as frog- or goat-people.
• Appearing as if they are clothing moving without a body.
• Appearing only as a silhouette.
• Heighten versions of their natural appearance.

They can also use their glamour Cant to become entirely invisible, though this does not last long - usually just long enough for them to get far enough away to escape notice. They can do this at any time, but it lasts longer at twilight or dawn.

The original wearg culture developed as spirits took the form of local urban legends and superstitions, taking solid form and living among the people of the city of Setlrada, the sprawling capital of the area. At first, they were welcomed as another fey curiosity, but eventually, their reflection of that societies’ anxieties about crime led to their being pushed to the fringes. Most ended up in the sewers or other out-of-the-way spaces of cities.

They live in complex clans, inter-connected families led by an elder or elders. They are a society of gatherers, taking food and trinkets from mainstream society, often working as beggars. Because they are forced to the fringes of society, they engage in thieving to survive, but there are other places where they are better integrated or allowed to live on their own freely without having to do so.

As castoffs from society, they have sympathy for other misfits and often take in runaways, lost pets, and other outsiders, giving them an undeserved reputation as kidnappers. They have cultural traditions of sharing with others, and this includes children, meaning that they will share treats and trinkets with them, which is often misconstrued. They also have traditions of showing mercy to those who are in pain or deep suffering, using their rare soul-gathering power to take the souls of people dying in the streets or those who commit suicide in the out-of-the-way spaces they dwell in. They consider this a means of protecting these suicides from more dangerous powers.

Their preference for non-confrontational defenses of their territories means that they engage in activities like sneak attacks, poison traps, and ambushes, giving them a reputation for ankle-slicing, gas attacks, and causing crashes. The few among them who specialize in combat often wear metallic claws.

Living on the fringes, they often do not have their own vehicles, and so they resort often to hitchhiking. This has given them an eerie reputation as well, as they often vanish to get away quickly after a ride with someone.

Their habit in rural areas of creating crop circles and tipping over cows, however, is pure mischief and has not redeemable explanation. Sometimes, they do like to cause trouble.

PRO 8 ATH 13 Jumping 22 STR 7 AWA 9 WIL 8 PRS 9 STH 13