Elemental Terata

"Monstrous" spirit folk with elemental powers.

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Akh

Spirit folk who protect the gates of death. People of the Beyond.

• Lifespan: 2,000 years

• Diet: Mortal fare influenced by the animal features they bear

• Habitat: Tropical deserts and river valleys or the Beyond

• Socioeconomic Status: Oppressed

On Shem, akhs appear to be humans with animal heads or other features. They take on different animal features every time their soul incarnates, but the commonest form among them is 7' tall with the bodies of humans and the heads of snakes. Other common animals include jackals, lions, bulls, vultures, ostriches, wolves, wild dogs, falcons, baboons, rams, and hawks, though any animal native to the central regions of the world are possible. In the Beyond, they appear to be white lights that guide the dead to through the afterlife.

Akhs can phase through solid matter once per year. They can return to the Beyond without dying. They use meditation to achieve this, sending their souls without their bodies, but still finding physical form.

Akhs can send undead if they are not in the Beyond, see souls while in the Beyond or not, and guide any souls in the Beyond to their destination if need be. They are powerful psychopomps in the Beyond. They can protect the souls of the Dead there by touching them and giving them part of their own soul. They have special knives made of mictlanium for fighting enemies of the souls of the Dead (or of akhs). They have the ability to calm the souls of the Dead in the Beyond with their touch as well.

Every akh has powers associated with their animal features. For example, snake-headed akhs have a deadly poisonous bite. They have keen senses of smell and kinesthetics. They sometimes have the ability to control snakes with their voices. Hawk-headed akhs have keen eyesight, sharp voices, and the ability to sense the finest of movements. And so on.

Their respect for the dead is what the world knows them for, and this is a significant part of their culture, but it must be taken in context - they respect the dead because of their reverence for life. Death is simply the defining moment of a life and a profound moment of transition, as they can attest, to what comes next.

The number four is considered auspicious among akhs. They try to incorporate it into their daily lives - four meals a day, never doing something for more than four hours at a time (work, rest, play, etc.), having four windows and four doors within a house, having four sets of certain household items, and so on. Communities are laid out in four-by-four grids.

Akhs have strict rules about which hand can be used for what purpose - left hands are for actions and right hands are for reactions. In multiple akh cultures, cleanliness is highly valued, and appearances are important. There is a cultural preference for being well-groomed, clean-shaven, and for wearing make up (for all genders). Clothing was usually linen or other simple cloths, undyed, and fashion was important. However, there were no class- or gender-based rules about clothing among them - anyone can wear what they want, including going nude. Children wear nothing until they reach puberty. In general, clothing is considered a symbol of wealth.

Children are raised by their parents until they are about seven or eight years old, at which time they are taken under the wing of a specific parent, often the one who shares their gender but not always. Whatever occupation their parent has, they are trained in. If their occupation requires intensive learning, the child is sent to a school.

All akh cultures have some version of the game senet and other sports and games are common parts of their daily lives. Wrestling, racing, hunting, archery, sailing, water-jousting (jousting in rowboats), and swimming are very common activities. Children are taught to swim from a very young age. While hunting is popular leisure, it is also sometimes part of their survival. At the heart of most akh homes is their gardens. They give birth in their gardens, burying the placenta there, believing that this will draw their souls back to their homes when they die. They tend their home gardens carefully

On the moons, they are usually there as refugees, slaves, or visitors seeking something from their religion - or they are there to gather souls. They are feared by ruling classes and often subjugated.

PRO 8 ATH 8 STR 8 AWA 8 WIL 12 PRS 8 STH 8

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Forest Folk

Antlered folk who protect and embody the forest.

• Lifespan : 1,000 years

• Diet: Meat-heavy mortal fare

• Habitat: Forests

• Socioeconomic Status: Oppressed

Forest folk appear to be 9’ tall beings with antlers. They are covered in greenish black fur, have eyes white as clouds, sharp fangs, hooved feet, and clawed hands.

Forest folk are able to speak to the plants of the forest they were born in or have attuned to (needing at least a year and a day there). They can see in the dark.

If they kill someone for being a threat to their forest, they can fuse the body of their victim into a tree, feeding the tree and the forest, and thus themselves. When they do this, the blood of the victim is absorbed and gives the tree the ability to attack enemies of the forest.

All forest folk have different powers depending on the kind of forest they live in:

• Bloodwood Forest: no powers - they become cythreulig.

• Bluebell Wood: they can make flowers grow and refresh people.

• Boreal: they are immune to cold.

• Broadleaf: they can make their skin hard as bark.

• Cloud Forest: they can teleport within clouds.

• Cypress Forest: they can walk on water.

• Evergreen: they do not experience senescence before they die of old age.

• Faeriewood Forest: they can see into the dreams of those who sleep in their forest.

• Genesis Forest: they can unleash elemental magic that harms destroyers.

• Hemiboreal: they are resistant to cold.

• Jungle: they can become invisible.

• Laurisilva: they have higher AWA than average.

• Light Forest: they can see further than others.

• Lunar Forest: reflective fur coat.

• Montane Forest: they are skilled climbers.

• Needleleaf: they can make their skin rough like pinecones.

• Night Forest: they can speak to shadows.

• Petrified Forest: they can make their skin hard like stone.

• Pine Barrens: they are immune to acid.

• Rainbow Forest: they can empower others with a touch.

• Rainforest: they can speak to animals.

• Riparian Forest: they can breathe underwater.

• Sallowwood Forest: no powers - they become cythreulig.

• Silverwood Forest: they can heal with their blood.

• Skywood Forest: they can walk on clouds.

• Sparse Woodland: they are faster than average.

• Subterranean Forest: they have cave sense.

• Taiga: they can teleport to other taigas.

• Thorn Forest: no powers - they become cythreulig.

• Tugay: they can go longer without water.

• Voidwood Forest: they are resistant to esoteric powers.

• Woodland: they have better hearing than average.

Forest folk are protectors of the forests and thus make that a central part of their culture. They are allies of the native nations, but they keep to themselves. They are very good hunters and trackers, and they live in harmony with the forest. The colonizers hate and demonize them.

PRO 9 ATH 9 STR 11 AWA 9 WIL 9 PRS 8 STH 8

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Giant

NPC only

Huge spirit folk made vast by harvest magic.

• Lifespan : 70-120 years
• Diet: Vast quantities of mortal fare
• Habitat: Pastoral lands
• Socioeconomic Status: Privileged oppressed

Giants stand anywhere from 10’ to over 20’. They have a vast range of appearances, varying by legends of giants in their area, but they tend to range the gamut of human appearances, just bigger. The commonest giants stand 16’ tall.

Giants have supernaturally powerful bodies with great strength, above average agility, slightly quicker healing speed, resistance to gastrointestinal diseases, resistance to senescence, sharper taste, proprioception, and balance, and, of course, great size. They can use nimusti exercises to alter their bodies (gaining more strength, speed, or resistance, or even growing new arms or legs in rare cases). They have a knack for farming that gives them innate senses into the needs of livestock and crops.

Giants can sense a turn in the weather up to a week ahead of time (usually about a day). During harvest season, they have +3 STR, ATH, and AWA. During fallow season, they have -1 STR, ATH, and AWA. This is based on where they are at the time. Many giants in one place can cause a confluence of harvest aether that can make the weather alter drastically if the giants are outside of their homelands.

During a times of scarcity, elder giants can multiply the food at the table by sacrificing some of their harvest magic, weakening themselves for the betterment of the community.

The harvest magic within giants imbues their bodies with supernatural size, strength, agility, regenerative properties, constitution, and capabilities. They are resistant to gastrointestinal diseases and heal slightly faster than average for human/humanoid bodies. Harvest magic also makes certain senses more intense: taste, proprioception, and balance. They age the same rate as humans, but they weather it better, only being affected by senescence, on average, after 80 years. Because harvest magic is inherent to giants' bodies, they can alter their bodies through will power alone, albeit through a long process, by doing special diets and exercises called nimusti, which consist of seasonal changes to diet, special foods called wisawek (special grains, spices, and milk), and running eight miles every morning, doing 400 crunches every week, and lifting at least 500 lbs. five times every day.

Giants are master farmers. A giant has an innate understanding of what crops and livestock need to thrive. A family of giants can produce enough food for a whole country if left to their own devices. Commonly, giants powers of harvest magic allow them to produce more than average. They run large, efficient, and vibrant farms.

Common features of giant farms are large, colorful livestock. Blue or pink oxen, golden or red cattle, amber or blue sheep, blue or yellow goats, red or blue chickens, amber or pink ducks, rainbow geese, snow white or golden pigs, and red and white bees are commonly kept. Because of nourishing, they are usually larger than average, though they are not specifically supernatural species. Crops raised by giants tend to be imbued with more nourishing power than average crops - and more flavor.

Giants are known for reshaping the landscapes around them. In the hill lands of their home nation, they create incredible terraces, rivulets, ponds, and even woods and canyons to grow crops and raise livestock in.

The original giants dwell in western Palhur and are called the Kiwihla. There are many other giant nations around the world:

Nations by Size

Giant nations come in different sizes.

Big (10'-13')

• Ama-ron, legendary giants who wield the power of stories
• Chahnameed, giants who like to play tricks and eat huge meals
• Famangomadan, giants known for their use of blood magic
• Goliath, giants who known for feats of strength beyond their size
• Ispolin, giants who protect fragments of Divine Law
• Maero, giants of the Southern Island Bridge who drink baleblood
• Neringa, giants who are known for their cruel wielding of torture
• Tsul'kalu, giants of the forests known for their wisdom
• Velikan, giants who live in swamps and wield plague magic

Large (13'-16')

• Caligorante, giants who bring misfortune with them
• Hewiixi, giants who create fine alcohols
• Hrimthur, giants who live in ice
• Humbaba, giants who draw power from the sun
• Kiwihla, the original giants, great gentle farmers of the plains northwest of the colonies
• Kua Fu, giants who are traders and merchants
• Patagon, giants in cold deserts who worship the moons
• Puntan, giants in the Southern Island Bridge who use complex math in their farming

Huge (16'-20')

• Cormoran, giants who wield the winds and live on clouds
• Dasamahayodha, giants who wield boundary magic to build great walls
• Gawr, giants of the imperial core who live in the mountains and fight against the oppressors there, uniting farm workers to do it
• Goegmagot, giants of the impieral core who are part of the ruling classes there, working as massive slavers
• Jentil, giants who are great smiths and metalworkers
• Starkad, giants known for their vast houses and protection thereof
• Si-Te-Cah, giants who live on giant rafts in lakes and rivers near the colonies
• Titan, giants who have power over the storms
• Uriaș, giants who value the truth

Massive (20'+)

• A-senee-ki-wakw, local giants who live in the mountains and have stony skin
• Daidarabotchi, giants who value love above all else
• Fomorian, fey giants who wield mollesse and serve the Unseelie and Unkindly Courts
• Inugpasugssuk, nearby giants who wield psionic powers in the deep ice
• Jenu, hairy giants who wield body magic
• Jotunn, giants who maintain the status quo
• Surtr, giants who wield flame in the mountains
• Toell, giants who are great warriors
• Ysbaddaden, giants who contain paradox

Giants among the Kiwihla live in farming communities, focused on extended families. The eldest giants have places of respect, but they earn this by sacrificing part of themselves in hard times. Giant children are nourished by their mothers till they are weaned, then they are taken care of by the community at large until they are strong enough to work. Everyone is expected to pitch in to work on the farm. Children have special tasks which combine meeting the needs of the community and teaching them new skills. When a giant is about 10 years old, they are given the opportunity to visit other farms in the community and stay there for a time to meet new people and learn other skills to bring back to their home farm.

Giants are considered adults when they have their last growth spurt, usually between the ages of 17 and 20, and meet their maximum height. They know when this is because they will grow rapidly in height for six months, then stop, usually gaining the last two feet in height during this time. Rarely, a giant will not naturally hit this growth spurt. In some communities, an elder giant will sacrifice some harvest magic to help the young giant along. Others will engage in numisti exercises to reach it, though this takes years and is very painful. Still others simply accept that they will not have their spurt, and some find it much later in life. Those giants who never have a final growth spurt are usually considered special wards of the farm. In the more conservative farms, they are not allowed to be married and must work harder to earn their place. In less conservative farms, they are treated as revered members of the farm and given special treatment because of it.

Giants love festivals, feasts, and celebrations. Every year sees major seasonal festivals: rebirth season (the start of the year), spring (celebrating the thriving life), midsummer (celebrating the hardest part of the work), harvest (the most important festival), and midwinter (the worst of it is over, light is returning). These seasonal festivals bring giants from all over together, usually regionally and not just within one farming community. Every giants' life is marked by special feasts at certain times of their life: birth feast, worker feast (when they start working), exchange feast (when they go off to stay at a different farm), return feast (when they come back to their home farm), the growth feast (the end of their final growth spurt and their ascent into adulthood), marriage feast, first child feast (combined with the child's birth feast), first grandchild feast (combined with the child's birth feast and parents' first child feast), elder feast (marking their retirement from work at the age of 60 or in times of debilitation by injury or disease), and their wake.

Every farm has special feasts unique to them as well. These usually celebrate historical milestones, new ideas, changes to the farm, successes or special achievements, or special guests. Hospitality is sacred and important to giants, and anyone who violates the laws of hospitality is outcast from the farm.

A giants' farmhouse will always feature a massive kitchen and dining area - sometimes these are separate buildings each. Outdoor stoves are often built for festivals, and at the end of the festival, when the massive stoves are still hot, giants will skate up and down the stove tops in special races.

Giants who are not farmers are rare, but those who leave farms for independent life often find themselves working on the fringes of communities meeting certain needs like logging, trading, fishing, or hunting. Within giant communities, the law is handled by the community council and certain giants specially recognized from each family as agents of the council who act as enforcers in times of need.

By size:

• Big PRO 8 ATH 11 STR 18 AWA 8 WIL 8 PRS 8 STH 4
• Large PRO 8 ATH 11 STR 21 AWA 8 WIL 8 PRS 8 STH 4
• Huge PRO 8 ATH 11 STR 24 AWA 8 WIL 8 PRS 8 STH 4
• Massive PRO 8 ATH 11 STR 27 AWA 8 WIL 8 PRS 8 STH 4

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Kopash

Worm-like beings of the sublunar realm.

• Lifespan: 80 years
• Diet: Stone and dust, crystal and ice
• Habitat: Sublunarian caves and caverns
• Socioeconomic Status: Native or Oppressed

Kopashes have the lower bodies of worms, the upper bodies of humans, with worm-like necks, and heads that have a pinched look, focusing in on a mouth that opens in all directions, and no discernible eyes. Their hands are clawed, and their hair is sparse and wiry. They have grey and white skin with black hair. Their worm tails are studded with blue lunar crystals. They are about 10' long, but "stand" about 6' tall with their tails sliding along the ground.

Kopashes have the ability to consume stone, dust, crystal, and other hard materials others could not. Their claws are designed for digging. They can shriek to use echolocation, and they can sense movement all around them within 100'. They never get lost under the lunar surface. They do not need air to breathe, but they can breathe it if it is present. They are immune to cold and heat. They are susceptible to radiation.

Kopashes live in warrens under the lunar surface of every moon. There is a different nation of kopashes on each moon, with the Grey Moon kopashes generally agreed to be the original. They each have their own customs and cultures, but there are some commonalities: a mostly egalitarian society with slightly more reverence and support for the diggers than others, shared resources, a focus on crafting with stone and crystal, and legends about what lurks deeper down. Each has stories of vast worms in outer space.

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

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Magma Folk

Folk made of molten rock.

• Lifespan: 100 years
• Diet: Stone and rock
• Habitat: Anywhere with magma or lava
• Socioeconomic Status: Native or Oppressed

Magma folk are 7' tall hominid beings made of magma. Their faces ripple with the molten rock, but they are mostly consistent, with discernible facial features. They have no hair or flesh, only magma. Their hands and feet are disproportionately large for their bodies.

Magma folk are immune to heat. They can control their own body temperatures, making themselves capable of interacting in low-temperature settings, but still very warm for anyone near them. If they do this for too long, they will freeze solid, so they must spend at least an hour per day at full temperature or begin suffering penalties to ATH. If they hit 0 ATH, they are frozen solid as statues. At full temperature, everyone within 10' of them is affected by the heat; within 20', they face the heat at 4/5 temperature; at 30' at 3/4; at 40' at 2/3; at 50', 1/2; and they would be safe at 60'. Full temperature is 2,600 degrees (F).

On the moons, there are magma folk near the core of the Grey and Green Moons, and near some volcanoes on the Green Moon. These live in remote, isolated egalitarian cultures. Some are there from Shem as either refugees or slaves, and those enslaved are often encased in special magical manacles that allow others to control their temperature.

PRO 9 ATH 8 STR 11 AWA 8 WIL 8 PRS 7 STH 6

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Mgeli

Wolf-headed hunter folk.

• Lifespan : 200 years
• Diet: Meat-heavy mortal fare
• Habitat: Forests, mountains, and grasslands
• Socioeconomic Status: Oppressed

Wolf-headed hunting folk. They stand about 6' tall and have fur-covered bodies. They have lupine fur, tails, and heads, but they are otherwise human in appearance.

Mgelis have supernatural hunting abilities. They have keen senses of smell and hearing, and they can howl to communicate over vast distances. They can see in the dark, and they have the ability to bond with others in their "pack" that allows them to communicate silently and see through each other's eyes. The other members of their pack must also be mgelis.

If they violate one of the laws of the hunt, they lose one of their powers. If they lose all of their powers, they die.

The rules of the hunt are to never kill a pregnant animal, to never kill a child animal unless it is in unhealable pain, to never kill a breeding adult, to never kill more than is needed for the pack, to never use poison, to never over-hunt an area, and to never leave an animal with a debilitating injury.

They live in nomadic, egalitarian tribes. They honor the hunt as a force of nature. They are protectors of their territories, which they tend closely.

Local mgelis are popular among the native nations.

In the colonies, they are stereotyped as aloof, murderous, and animalistic, and they are extremely oppressed.

PRO 9 ATH 9 STR 10 AWA 9 Smell/Hear 10 WIL 8 PRS 8 STH 9

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Netopir

Bat-like beings living on the cliffs of the lunar rupes and rilles.

• Lifespan: 120 years
• Diet: Insect-heavy lunar diet
• Habitat: Lunar cliffs and slopes
• Socioeconomic Status: Native or Oppressed

Netopiriji look like anthropomorphic bats with black, grey, silver, and blue flesh and fur, six sets of eyes, and a singular antenna sticking out of their foreheads. They are about 4' tall.

Netopiriji can echolocate. They sleep for turns at a time and are awake for turns at a time. They are immune to cold, resistant to radiation, and do not need air to breathe, though it does not hurt them. They dislike high air pressure, as it slows them down. If they are clinging to a cliff, wall, or other vertical structure, they are nearly invisible. While in this position, they can curl up and turn to stone to protect themselves as well.

Netopiriji live in communities on the lunar rima and rupes, on the cliffsides, in close-knit extended families led by matriarchs known as a dama. The dama are usually elders, but not always - in some families, they are elected, some they are simply the oldest woman or non-man, and in some families, they are selected via some form of contest, such as climbing, gathering, hunting, or crafting. Netopiriji are skilled at stone work, making homes out of the cliffsides, and at working with textiles. They like to have very colorful "inside" clothing and clothing that matches the lunar stone and dirt outside (so they can easily hide). When the world is new above (thus their moon is full), they gather and sing.

PRO 9 ATH 10 Flight 12 STR 6 AWA 9 WIL 8 PRS 7 STH 9

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Utakan

“Monstrous” folk of glaciers and tundra.

• Lifespan : 200 years

• Diet: Meat-heavy mortal fare

• Habitat: Tundras and glaciers

• Socioeconomic Status: Oppressed

Utakans are 7’ to 8’ tall beings with white and blue flesh, hair like thin ice crystals on their heads (but none on their white bodies), and huge black claws. Their faces are apelike with dark blue skin. They have disproportionately long arms that run along the ground.

Utakans are immune to the cold. Their shaggy ice crystal hair shimmers in moonlight and makes them hard to see on snowy fields or icy glaciers. Their claws are good for climbing on ice. They can see temperature, and they can unleash a blast of icy air with their breath. If they scream, they can cause snowslides or split glaciers.

Utakans live in sprawling clans in the coldest parts of the world, cousin to yetis and friends to animal folk in the polar areas. They are protectors of the tundras, and they are feared by colonizers who seek to destroy or despoil their homes.

PRO 9 ATH 8 STR 12 AWA 8 WIL 8 PRS 7 STH 7 In Snow 9

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