Khutchteier

Practicioners of special exercises that invoke oalkhaylaoataa, allowing them to perform incredible feats of strength.

Impossibility

To achieve the impossible, one must start small. To be a khutchteier, a warrior who achieves nearly impossible feats, one must start as a child. The point is to try, to attempt the impossible repeatedly, no matter how futile. In the striving for the impossible, one achieves great things.

Training

In the Ladryan culture where these warriors were first developed, training consists of six stages:

• Salkhiny uraldaan: children are encouraged to try to outrun the wind.
• Tülkhekh tatakh: young adults are encouraged to try to pull or push laden wagons.
• Khüreelegdsen: new warriors face a melee with multiple warriors attacking at once.
• Gar khöliig butsaaj: arm, leg, back - specific exercises trying to use muscles in those areas to do anything that is physically impossible. Given the danger of damaging muscles, this is always left to mature warriors.
• Mori örgökh: elite warriors are then encouraged to try lifting wild horses.
• Süülchiin tulaan: the final stage of training is combat against vastly more powerful warriors.

Feats

The point in these exercises is not to succeed, but to strive. It is to keep trying the impossible until you achieve the near impossible. If you try to outrun the wind, you will end up outrunning running horses. If you try to pull a wagon too heavy for you to pull, you may succeed in pulling something else extremely heavy. Regardless of what the achievement is, the act of achieving it is called a gaviyaa ("feat"; pl. er zorig). And this act is what unleashes oalkhaylaoataa. Usually, those who achieve something nearly impossible do not recognize the energy as it manifests - it is not visible to the naked eye, for it manifests within the person who achieved the feat.

The minimum point difference to qualify as a feat is 6 points - i.e., the difficulty must be 6 above one's pertinent score. If lifting a boulder is a 19 difficulty and one has a 13 STR, for instance. This feat is only a feat if done without the use of karma. It must also be done without any supernatural support (including points provided by previous feats), help from others, or bonuses from cleverness or machinery. It must be raw strength used to lift the boulder, for example. The feat can also only be something done via the action of the khutchteier. In combat, this means that the to-hit rolls can end up as a feat, but the damage rolls do not unless done without weapons or armor. The khutchteier may perform a feat of punching an armored knight in the chest and killing him due to raw strength, but if they use a sword, it only counts as a feat if the hit is extremely difficult. In the combat example, no bonuses can be used for sneaking up on the enemy for it to count. It must be raw PRO vs. PRO. However, called shots (taking penalties) can alter the difficulty such that it qualifies as a feat. Furthermore, injuries, illnesses, and other penalties may help qualify something as a feat, but only if these were acquired without the intention of creating such circumstances. Self-damage negates the development of oalkhaylaoataa.

Inner Strength

To recognize the development of oalkhaylaoataa inside oneself, one must be trained to know oneself, one's own limitations. If you know your limitations, you know when you have exceeded them, and therefore, you can recognize when those limits have been broken or changed. And in those moments, a person may capture the energy unleshed within oneself and wield it. Khuthcteiers are trained to recognize this and apply this power to their body, mind, and perceptions.

Growth

When a feat is achieved, a khutchteier has a limited amount of time - about 6 seconds - to capture the oalkhaylaoataa unleashed (Wathites are born with an innate sense that allows them to do this and with bodies that alter dramatically when this is done, but most mortals do not have these powers). Some feats produce more energy than others depending on how difficult they were, but the most they produce is 3 points of energy. These points can be directed by a well-trained khutchteier to body, mind, or perception - STR, ATH, PRO, WIL, or specific senses. These bonuses can be applied in whole (all 3 points in one place) or in part (one point to three different stats, 2 in one place and 1 in another, etc.), and they are usually temporary. Permanent changes are only possible through extreme feats.

Difference	Points	Duration
6	1	1 round
7	2	1 round
8	2	2 rounds
9	3	2 rounds
10+	3	3 rounds

Zorilgo

To gain points via oalkhaylaoataa permanently, a khutchteier must perform a feat that is more than 10 points in difficulty greater than their score. In other words, impossible within the game mechanics. They must do this without karma or supernatural support. To do this, a khutchteier strives always for the impossible, no matter the circumstances. Part of their training is the ingraining in them that the impossible will eventually happen if they keep fighting for it. Each khutchteier, when they perform their first feat, is ritually initiated as a khutchteier, a warrior of great strength, and given a zorilgo, a purpose. Their zorilgo varies - it can be that they are told they must strive to be a warrior so tough no blade will cut their flesh or that they will be a warrior so strong they can carry a wild horse 500 miles or that they will be a warrior so powerful that they can cut through ten men at once. The zorilgo always relates to their might as warriors.

When they achieve a feat that is related to their zorilgo - they resist a blade that should have cut them, they carry a wild horse 10 miles, they cut through two men at once - this gaviyaa is part of their zorilgo, and the points gained from this may be applied permanently to one of their stats. They may only apply 1 permanent point at a time, no matter how many points they have access to.

Shine Zevseg

"New arms" - shine zevseg - is the term used when a khutchteier transforms their body via feats. This is only possible when they achieve their zorilgo fully. When this happens, instead of points, they gain the opportunity to transform themselves physically. Most ask for a third strong arm, hence the name, but many have asked for other things, such as a second heart, new legs than can jump further, etc. They cannot ask for biological forms their species does not have - i.e., a human cannot gain wings, a goblin cannot gain gills, a crystal folk cannot gain flesh, etc.

Inventory

There are only two implements that khutchteiers have found that allow them to penalize themselves and still achieve feats: leaden braces and horse-hide blindfolds.

Leaden Braces

A khutchteier may, as an older child, start wearing leaden braces that make it harder for them to run, as part of their training. They only do this until they are of-age.

Horse-Hide Blindfolds

Those who are newly made warriors but have not achieved a feat may start using a horse-hide blindfold during combat training and not be barred from achieving feats.

Weaponry

Due to their strength training, khutchteiers favor heavier weapons:

• Maces: extremely heavy, spiked maces, sometimes with chained heads, are used, often from horseback.
• Axes: heavy battle axes are favored in foot-combat.
• Great swords: great swords are used as back up weapons, usually strapped across their backs.
• Lances: riders use heavy, heavy lances made of thick metal.
• Warhammers: warhammers are sometimes used in place of maces.
• Polearms: huge polearms are favored by some, especially those who enjoy fighting multiple targets.

Armor

Khutchteiers wear lighter armor, usually leather or hide armor, as a point of pride of their own personal toughness. Some ignore armor all-together, and some rare khutchteiers even fight naked.

Variations

Within Ladryan society, there are these variations:

• Chiregch: those who specialize in pulling heavy things, often taking on roles as "mortal oxen", whose endurance is extreme.
• Edgeegch: some khutchteiers specialize in an ancient and very difficult art of drawing their oalkhaylaoataa out of their bodies and sending it to others in order to heal or support them in combat. These combat medic-khutchteiers are trained from a very young age to do this, cutting themselves after performing a feat to capture their blood and transfer it to another. They are extremely rare.
• Güigch: a khutchteier who specializes in running or other athletic feats that allow them to rely on speed in combat.
• Kheruulch: a khutchteier who goes into organized crime and works as an extortionist, gangster, brute, or other strong-arm servant of a criminal group.
• Örgögch: a khutchteier who specializes in lifting extremely heavy things so that they can wield huge weaponry.
• Gülkhegch: a khutchteier who specializes in pushing very heavy things so that they can rely on their arm strength in battle.
• Zuzaan aris: a khutchteier who specializes in having extremely tough flesh so that they do not need armor.

In other cultures, these vairations exist:

• In southern Ranu, some slavers have used the same skills as khutchteiers to overwhelm their victims. These are called valitsema.
• Others in southern Ranu focus on being runners, having found that they can run for much longer if they tap into their feats as they happen. This is the origin of marathonists on Shem.
• In New Wath, women-warriors who specialize in capturing feats in defense of women are called baszak.
• In Merukis and parts of Jesenay and Ansulym, some sex workers, informally called megs, use oalkhaylaoataa after performing impressive sexual feats.

Similar Occupations

Other occupations who wield oalkhaylaoataa:

• Bashtimen: a scholar who performs feats of research.
• Boekh: wrestlers who wield the energy through feats of bodily strength.
• Diarch: the dual rulers of New Wath who win their place through ritual challenges of their might.
• Gar Talagch: a Ladryan boekh who has sold out and uses their powers in entertainment settings.
• Heavy Gunner: warriors who use extremely large guns, using feats to empower themselves in doing so.
• Rahip: a warrior-priest of New Wath.
• Seaskimmer: a reiver who uses feats instead of gemtkhereg.
• Strongman: a circus performer who uses oalkhaylaoataa to perform for crowds.
• Toho'taaqa: a cougar-warrior zoanthrope.

Societal Role

Khutchteiers are honored warriors among their people. They are part of an elite warrior class that is favored by their rulers. In other cultures, they are often seen as brutal horrors to be feared or as favored slave-soldiers. Many major empires have tried to unlock the secrets to creating khutchteiers among their own armies, but replicating it in such a structured way often fails to create the right conditions for the creation of oalkhaylaoataa. They are demonized by those who face them in battle.

Skills

Some common skills include

• Riding
• Farming
• Hunting
• Tactics
• Meditation
• First aid
• Smithing

Stats

Modifiers from base of nation/species:

PRO +4
ATH +4
STR +8
AWA / Perceptions +2
WIL +1
STH -1
PRS -2