Yeti

Legendary anthropomorphic ape people who are immune to the cold.

Basics

• Taxonomic Order: TheFolk

• Alignment: Aetherial

• Energy: Hvittdogg

• Lifespan: 400 years

• Diet: Meat-heavy mortal fare

• Habitat: Mountains

Origins

Legends of secretive beings in the high mountains, amidst the snow, come to life.

Description

Yetis stand between 5’ and 15’ tall. They are ape-like but stand upright. They have sharp teeth and larger than proportional feet and longer than proportional arms. Their fur can be brown, reddish brown, grey, black, white, or in rare cases, green.

Procreation

Yetis reproduce sexually with one another. They can reproduce with similarly sized and shaped spirit folk, wherein the offspring will be the same species as the birthing parent. They cannot reproduce outside their species without supernatural intervention.

Powers

Yetis are heavily resistant to the cold because they can regulate their body temperatures through releasing or storing heat via their fur. They can walk on snow, climb sheer cliffsides, and jump extraordinary distances in the mountains. Their whistling can start and stop snowslides. They are always stronger in the colder months or deep in the night.

Migration

If they migrate to warmer areas, their temperature regulation works the same - they can survive in high heat despite their fur. They do often develop a musk in warmer areas. Regardless, they still have greater strength when it is cooler out.

Weaknesses

Brown aether will sicken and kill them.

Nations

There are many yeti nations around the world, most living in remote places:

• Agogwe: 4’ to 5’ tall yetis in eastern Taggarus with russet-colored fur.

• Almas: black-furred yetis of western Dabusen [Caucusus] who have sharp toes.

• Amomongo: yetis in Vada’dar in northeastern Dabusen.

• Barmanou: yetis in western Highreach, in Kesarah.

• Chuchunya: yetis in southern Dabusen [Siberian]. They are 6’ to 7’ tall and have dark fur. They have short tails.

• Chuti: the original nation, living in the highest places of Highreach. They are about 8’ tall.

• Esti Captaki: yetis in Dunmarsh in western Palhur. They stand 5’ to 7’ tall and have mottled hair that is reddish brown. They are known to have a powerful odor.

• Hibagon: yetis in Tenzanai in Dabusen. They are 5’ tall yetis with black or brown fur and white hands and feet. They have deeply tanned faces.

• Joogabinna: yetis in the southern Island Bridge. They stand 6’ to 12’ tall. They are known for having wide, flat noses. They have white hair on their heads but many different fur colors, and they are said to have their feet on backwards.

• Kalanoro: yetis of Basuri in Taggarus. Kalanoro are about 5’ tall and have legs on backwards. Their eyes glow red. They have sharp claws. They practice arts that allow them to leave their bodies behind, and they have a distinct whining tone to their voices.

• Mande Barung: yetis of Vimala.

• Mawas: sometimes called “orang mawas”, the Mawas are yetis of northeastern Dabusen, mostly in Gamayaran and Tunvoh, who stand 10’ tall. They have black fur.

• Nittaewo: yetis of Javada in northern Dabusen; they are unusually short - 3’ to 4’ tall - and covered in reddish fur.

• Nyalmo: the 15’ tall black yetis of Highreach who are known for their xenophobic seclusion.

• Rang Shim Bombo: the 5’ tall reddish brown yetis of the lower slopes of Highreach.

• Sasquatch: yetis of western Palhur, usually with brown fur, known for having a strong odor. They are probably more well-known even than the original yetis.

• Sisimito: yetis of central Palhur. Their fur is black or brown, and they stand over 6’ in height. They have four fingers on each hand.

• Yeren: Unbulese yetis who stand over 6’ tall. They have tawny fur, which is very long on their heads, where it is more reddish black. They have distended eyes and arms that go down to their knees. Some don’t have knees or have backward-facing feet. They are known for their distinctive laughter.

Culture

The Chuti dwell in the highest parts of Highreach, which they call Mthposacha. Their homeland is a series of city-states atop the highest peaks, snow-covered secret cities known as Nyen Ga Med Pa'i, an autonomous protectorate in northern Unbul.

In the highest mountains, they craft cities of ice, stone, and bone. They form walkways between peaks of solid ice that only they have the sure-footing to walk, and they build solid-stone dome houses with windows of thin, clear ice. They form great statues from rock and bone that are said to capture heat, glowing frosty blue, and the walls around their cities are carved straight into the mountains.

Each city is ruled by a dmag 'khrug dpon po, a war-leader, and a nang dpon po, or home-leader. The latter administers the daily business of the city; the former leads the warriors and hunters and takes over in times of conflict. War-leaders are chosen by the hunters and warriors, home-leaders are chosen by the religious and esoteric figures. Home-leaders are tasked with meting out rations for the whole community. They are effectively quartermasters.

Hunters, called rnyed, are the most honored and elite members of the community. They gain special dispensations, extra meat, larger homes, and so on. Warriors, called rdzis, have a special place in society, second only to the leaders and to the hunters. They also get special dispensations. After the warriors and hunters are the religious and magical members of the community (see below). Then there are the artisans and healers. Then the gatherers who find food and water (usually gathering snow to melt). Then finally everyone else.

All food collected via hunt or gathering is stored communally and shared out by the home-leader on an as-needed basis, with any extras going to those who are most honored.

Children are raised by their extended families. Grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins are an automatic part of the family and take part in caring for young yetis. They are taught from a very early age to hunt, fight, and scavenge for food, to build and shape with ice, stone, and bone, and to make weapons and tools from the materials around them. Those who excel at hunting are, by age nine, taken in by the hunters. Those who excel at fighting are, by age nine, taken in by the warriors. Gatherers take in gatherers, artisans take in builders and weaponsmakers, and so on.

By age 17, they are tested five times over the course of the coldest months, then, on a moonless night, sent into the wilderness to fend for themselves. If they do not return by dawn, hunters go out and find them, bring them back, and they become commoners. If they return on their own, how they return marks them. If they return with a prey animal, they are hunters. They know this beforehand and go out to hunt. If they return marked with blood, they are warriors. They know this beforehand and go out to fight. If they return with spiritual or esoteric markings, they become religious or esoteric figures. If they return with gathered foods or materials, they become gatherers. If they return with tools they made or healing medicines, they become an artisan or a healer. Then, they are considered adults.

It is rare that anyone dies during these tests, but if they do, they are honored with a special burial pyre - all other burials are sky burials - and their families receive extra rations for the year.

As adults, they are expected to play their part in the community with life-or-death seriousness, for in truth, the harsh climate makes it so. However, they do not spend all of their time in work. There is plenty of time for rest (necessary for survival) and play. They commonly play games, including sports involving long-jumping and climbing races are popular. Hide-and-seek is used as a way to teach children how to hunt.

They keep mastiffs as pets and for practical purposes. Though hunting is their primary source of food, they keep asses and yaks as pack animals. They hunt the goas, kiangs, bharals, pikas, geese, red deer, hares, tahrs, takins, argalis, wolves, and bears. Animal skins, antlers, horns, teeth and claws, and other features are used as ornamentations, and bones are used in all kinds of works. Gatherers (sgrug) collect nuts, berries, fruits, pinecones, herbs, and so on, but mostly, they bring back snow and ice to melt for water.

Art among the Chuti is largely sculptures, dolls, paintings, and drawings. They love to carve into ice; the impermanence is considered an important part of the art.

Every year, the Chuti celebrate five special festivals. The first is Mtha’mjug to celebrate the start of a new year and the end of the cold months. Mtha’mjug is celebrated with a feast and climbing games. The winner of the climbing games is given a bigger home (if possible) and extra rations all year-round. The second is Dro Po, celebrated at the end of the flooding season (usually the end of summer). This is celebrated with ceremonies to honor the year’s dead, gathering of the remains from the sky burials, and rituals that place those remains with their families. The third is Dang Po Gangs, or First Snow, celebrated at the first post-summer snow. This is celebrated with a special hunt in which every able and willing yeti is involved (there is no shame in not participating). During this hunt, if a lower-ranking yeti succeeds in taking down a formidable prey - especially a bear or wolf - they are considered for recruitment to the hunters. Afterward, everyone feasts. The fourth is Dkyil La Ston Ka, the autumnal equinox, celebrated with community-wide feasts and special songs. And the fifth and last is Dkyil La Dgun Ka, celebrated on the winter solstice, with an all-night storytelling game in which they try to scare each other on the longest night.

National Cultures

Other yeti nations have variations on this original culture:

• Agogwe: the Agogwe are a hunter-gatherer nation in southeastern Taggarus who are known for their ability to take on large game with skill. They keep baboons as pets and keep cool in the hottest weather. They are reclusive.

• Almas: the Almas live throughout western Ladrya and the mountains of western Dabusen in general. They are nomadic and feared as warriors. They place warriors above hunters in their culture, but otherwise, they are very similar to the Chuti. They are known for their strength.

• Amomongo: the Amomongo are hunter-gatherers in Vada’dar who live near volcanoes. They are known for their fearlessness but often stereotyped as foolish. A local story tells of their being tricked by a firefly; they do have a cultural superstition against fireflies. They have a ritual of bravery in which they climb the side of a volcano as high as possible to bring back obsidian for weaponry.

• Barmanou: the Barmanou of western Highreach are known for their elaborate animal-skin clothing. They are often stereotyped as raping women of other species, but this is just blatant racism. They value religion over even hunting and fighting.

• Chuchunya: the Chuchunya wear heavy animal pelts, hunt the taiga, steppes, and mountains, and are fiercely territorial. They are often accused of being cannibals.

• Esti Captaki: the Esti Captaki dwell in the deep swamps and avoid other mortal species. They prefer to tend the swamps and hunt in peace. Their foul odor is a result of the hot climate and the smells of the swamp.

• Hibagon: as yetis in Tenzanai, they are fully integrated into yokai / oni culture.

• Joogabinna: the Jooabinna are strongly connected to the Dreamtime and often bring messages from it. They hunt at night.

• Kalanoro: the Kalanoro are a powerful nation in Basuri. They have a deep spiritual connection and use many esoteric arts. They are known for protecting other mortal species in the wilderness, using arts to project their consciousnesses away from their bodies, frightening loggers, rescuing abused children, offering healing, using clairvoyance, and sending dream messages.

• Mande Barung: the Mande Barung are assimilated into broader Vimalan culture.

• Mawas: the Mawas are known more as fishers than hunters. They keep orchards as well. They gather wild yams, hunt with stone axes, and ambush invaders. They are extremely fast and known for their nudity.

• Nittaewo: the Nittaewo live in small groups. They sleep in the wild, in caves or in tree-branches. They build nests of leaves and branches, even, and they eat raw game (disemboweling them and eating their guts). They avoid using tool, using their claws instead. They know the languages of birds.

• Nyalmo: the remote villages of the Nyalmo are like a brutal mirror of the Chuti, where survival is more difficult and outsiders are deeply feared.

• Rang Shim Bombo: the Rang Shim Bombo are assimilated into Unbulese society.

• Sasquatch: see Sasquatch Culture.

• Sisimito: the Sisimito live in the mountains of central Palhur where they sleep in caves, eat wild berries and other fruits, and protect their territory from loggers and companies. They are often accused of cannibalism, rape, kidnapping, or other violence, though they are pacificists unless provoked. They are known to be clumsy, and they have cultural fear of dogs, fire, and large bodies of water. They are not good hunters, but a culture of gatherers.

• Yeren: Yerens are users of blood magic. They have dark purple blood, and they can sing like a bird. They are known for their ability to sense birth or death. They are also raiders who would strike at cities for food or supplies when times were tough.

Esoterica

Yetis are beings of hvittdogg. They are its most potent wielders. Their voices make the snows fall. Among the Chuti, the esotericist ranking is led by the gangs gzhas gtong, or snowsingers.

Yetis can wield all other forms of aether, but ma’dhahabi, lahab al’qalb, prasinofos, and ikehua lyua pele are rare, while tmakikan, tykva vlast, kazaddarean, nzwara murazvo, and lunar aether are very common. They can wield all other energies, but infernal powers are rare amongst the Chuti, though other yeti nations use them more often. Other commonly used energies include b’qar, fuinneamh, d’qiarsea, oalkhaylaoataa, poioumenon, fate, various ambrosial powers, mijjit, tutelary energy, kutsegula, arcane shadow, dream energy, and ancestral memory.

Religion

The Chuti worship Dgun Kha A Ma, the Winter Baaless. They believe that the winter makes them stronger both individually and culturally, and they pay homage to the Winter Mother as a huntress, bringer of strength, and protectrix. Within their cities, they have a ranking of religious figures, and within that ranking is a specific structure of faith leaders and workers:

• The bla ma mo are priestesses who lead everyone in religious rites, especially during the coldest months. They are the highest ranked.

• The gna' snga mo are shamans, conduits to the ancestors, who are ranked second to the bla ma mo.

• The rtsa gangs are essentially druids - nature priests who channel elemental spirits - and they live outside the cities to protect the wilderness. They are ranked second, but they rarely live amongst other yetis.

• The skad cha bshad are those that predict winter storms on behalf of the baaless. They are ranked fourth.

• The gra pa are monks, hermetic faithful who live in special domes outside the cities to study and tend certain tasks. They are ranked fifth. When they travel into town, they are honored.

• The grang mo lam stun are spiritual guides (gurus) who teach the ways of the seasonal cycles. They are ranked sixth.

• The bla ma are priests / clerics who perform rites. They are ranked seventh. They are the common workers of the religious rank.

Gender

Yetis have a gender system that is associated with the rankings in their communities. The genders are as follows:

• Gzhan dag: a masculine form allowed to show weakness. Leaders and hunters are the only ones allowed this.

• Kha phye ba: a feminine form allowed to remove their external biological indicators of gender (i.e., breast removal) via ritual. Leaders, hunters, and warriors may assert this gender.

• Sgo rgyag: a neutral form allowed to hide all features. Leaders, hunters, warriors, and the religious / esotericist rank may assert this.

• Mdzes po: a neutral form allowed to wear ornamentation of any gender all at once. Leaders, hunters, warriors, religious / esotericist, and artisan / healer ranks may assert this.

• Gnyis ka: a form that blends male and female in how they present. Leaders, hunters, warriors, religious / esotericist, artisan / healer, and gatherer ranks may assert this.

• Bud med (female) and pha lags (male): the two common patriarchal binary genders. All ranks may assert these.

Sex is considered a fun activity that anyone of appropriate age may engage in, consensually. There is no practice of marriage, but romantic coupling is not uncommon.

Economy

Yetis have a barter system in an early form of class society.

Military

Yeti warriors are called rdzis. They are known for their ferocity, speed, strength, and use of the terrain. Among the Chuti, the rdzis are known for their use of bone, stone, and ice weapons, and their wearing of animal hides as armor. They are the cause of many avalanches to keep invaders away.

Language

The Chuti language is based on Tibetan.

Trade

Those who trade with the Chuti trade various goods not found among the peaks for food, furs, and guidance through the mountains.

Occupations

The commonest roles among the Chuti are as follows:

• Am chi: healers.

• Bkyon: artisans.

• Bla ma: priests.

• Bla ma mo: priestesses.

• Dmag ‘khrug dpon po: war-leaders.

• Gangs gzhas gtong: snowsingers.

• Gna' snga mo: shamans.

• Gra pa: monks.

• Grang mo lam stun: gurus.

• Nang dpon po: home-leaders.

• Rdzag to: lowest rank. Commoners.

• Rdzis: warriors.

• Rnyed: hunters.

• Rtsa gangs: snow druids.

• Sgrug: gatherers.

• Ska cha bshad: predictors of winter storms. Prophets.

Outside View

Because yetis keep to themselves, they are often named by other local mortals with terms that describe them as animalistic. Some common terms include the following:

• Abominable snowman: slur used by outsiders to speak of yetis from Highreach.

• Bigfoot: slur used to describe sasquatches.

• Bun manchi: “jungle man”, a term used by mortals in Highreach for those yetis dwelling in the forests.

• Dzu-teh: “cattle bear”, used to refer to the Rang Shim Bombo in Highreach.

• Ebu gogo: “grandfather who eats people”, derogatory term in Gamayaran accusing yetis of cannibalism.

• Hantu jarang gigi: “snaggle-toothed ghost”, derogatory term for the Mawas used by locals.

• Kang admi: “snow man”, used for white yetis. Derogatory.

• Michê: “man-bear”, a term used by mortals in Highreach. Derogatory.

• Migoi or mi-go: “wild man”, a term used by mortals in Highreach. Derogatory.

• Mirka: “wild man”, used for the Nyalmo.

• Momo: a western Palhuric derogatory term, sometimes “Momo the Monster”, for female sasquatches.

• Mono grande: “big monkey”, a derogatory term used in colonized eastern Palhur.

• Orang Dalam: alternative name for the Mawas. Non-derogatory.

• Orang pendek or hantu pendek: “short people” or “short ghost”, a derogatory term used for Mawas children.

• Skunk ape: derogatory terminology used for the Esti Capcaki in Dunmarsh by outsiders.

• Xueren: Unbulese term for yetis, meaning “snow man”.

• Yowie or yahoo: derogatory term for the Joogabinna. Non-derogatory terms sometimes used include the doolaga, ghindaring, gulaga, jimbra , jurrawarra, myngawin, noocoonah, pangkarlanguand, puttikan, thoolagal, tjangara, wawee, and yahweh.

Notables

• Rmo Lags Gangs, Mother of the Snows, Yeti Manifest, Aeonian

Estimated Populations

• Agogwe: 100,000

• Almas: 50,000

• Amomongo: 100,000

• Barmanou: 200,000

• Chuchunya: 20,000

• Chuti: 1 million

• Esti Captaki: 100,000

• Hibagon: 25,000

• Joogabinna: 50,000

• Kalanoro: 10,000

• Mande Barung: 100,000

• Mawas: 200,000

• Nittaewo: 50,000

• Nyalmo: 50,000

• Rang Shim Bombo: 1 million

• Sasquatch: 1 million

• Sisimito: 10,000

• Yeren: 500,000

• Other: 500,000

Sample Stats

PRO 10
ATH 9 Climbing 15 Jumping 15
STR 15
AWA 9
WIL 8
PRS 7
STH 7