Wearg

Urban legends and underworld lore come to life. Plural: wearga.

Basics

• Taxonomic Order: TheFolk

• Alignment: Shebvic

• Energy: Gemtkhereg

• Lifespan: 200 years

• Diet: Refuse

• Habitat: Sewers and the fringes of communities.

Origins

Wearga formed from the urban legends and superstitions of many mortal species.

Description

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.

Procreation

Wearga reproduce with one another sexually. They cannot reproduce outside of their species without supernatural intervention.

Powers

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.

Rhyming

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.

Glamour

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.

Vanishing

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.

Weaknesses

Wearga cannot enter a person’s garden or yard if there is a mark forbidding them written on a legal notice.

Nations

Wearga exist on the fringes of any culture that has large cities or farming communities that have urban legends. They are drawn to these places, and thus, they fit into many different nations. Their own, singular nation is the original, starting in the Dhunnic regions of Jesenya.

Culture

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.

Children are raised by their families, which are close-knit, and are taught by their families the family’s Cants and crafts. They are considered adults at age 17, when their green skin turns colors and their black eyes become fiery instead. As adults, they take up one of the clan crafts or roles, usually beggars, gatherers, artisans of some sort, or information brokers. Their art works are often word-based and deeply involved in the Cant - usually poets and singers - and their penchant for keeping stray animals has led them to have a vibrant variety of animals as pets.

National Cultures

Wearga fit into the fringes of so many cultures, it is impossible to list them all. Notable populations exist in the largest cities of Vimala, Tir Na Nog, Talune, Galdun, Ledea, Idangar, Malhuin, Jesumein, the Golden Empire, various parts of Mahad, Wuordon, Harkanheim, Endruin, and some places in western Taggarus.

Esoterica

Wearga are beings of gemtkhereg, having an innate knowledge of basic Cant. They are known also for using arcane shadow, fey energy, menab’e, mashoaab, kakraohy, poioumenon, kutsegula, tutelary energy, flux, and emotional resonance. They can wield any esoteric energy, though they prefer unaligned ones or poioumenonic ones.

Religion

The wearga adapt to the local religions of the areas they live in, but they all honor in their personal legends and superstitions Dryht-Cwén, a goddess who they say taught them the Cant. Their religion is informal and rooted as much in habits and old tales than anything else. They do not usually have a structured religious organization in their cultures or subcultures.

Gender

Wearga’s genders vary by region, but because they are mostly within patriarchal societies, they mostly recognize officially the two most common genders. Indeed, local legends often cast them as men, so there are more men within their culture than not. But because there are legends that go beyond binary genders, and because they are usually on the fringes of society, they are more receptive to genders outside the binary.

Economy

They are gatherers and beggars, trading trinkets and castoffs for anything they need to survive. They mostly live on the fringes of feudal or capitalist societies.

Military

Wearga have no formal militaries, though they are sometimes recruited as shock troops, spies, or assassins for larger ones. They do have some warriors in their societies that prefer metallic claw weapons or hook hands.

Language

Their language is based on Anglo-Saxon or Old English.

Occupations

Some common occupations include beggar, gatherer, storyteller, poet, singer, dancer, animal wrangler, caretaker, and elder.

Outside View

Wearga are viewed as pests, beggars, thieves, and vermin by most major cultures.

Notables

• Birene, Wearg Manifest, Aeonian, She-Bear Legend of the Setlrada Sewers

Estimated Populations

• Setlrada: 1 million

• Other: 5 million

Sample Stats

PRO 8
ATH 9 Jumping 15
STR 9
AWA 9
WIL 8
PRS 9
STH 13