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World: Other Cultures and Races
The hag is a twisted spirit of the forest with the ability to assume the form of any female humanoid of about her size. She will often be an unreliable source of information or possibly magic items. In combat, she will be found defended by other twisted forest creatures; while she can cast spells, she is not strong at all.
A hag will rarely go far from her lair. It has been conjectured that hags are witches that have "moved on"; the witch has died, and the hag has manifested from her spirit (though they are certainly not undead). It has been suggested that the hag's lair will contain the witch's original body. They seem more powerful when in their lairs.
A hag's spell set can vary, and some might use undead minions to protect themselves, some homunculi, whilst others create servitors and others entrance forest creatures.
Bugbears tend to be solitary and reclusive; they will avoid a party of armed humans. Though intelligent, they have little interest in civilised things, so rarely bother to interact with other races or indeed other bugbears. However, they will sometimes join a warband, if the mood takes them and if the food is good (and they particularly like goblin food). Bugbears seem lazy as they are ambush-predators; by nature they will lying in wait for hours or even days, before suddenly bursting to attack. Outside of combat, they are slow, with a movement of 3, but in the first round of combat they have a movement of 7, which drops by one each subsequent round. They also suffer a penalty to attack equal to the number of rounds that have already passed (so 0 on the first round). The round counts from when they first taken an action besides walking and talking.
They have heightened senses and are very hard to sneak up, but curiously will as often as not alert the warband when danger approaches. There is no sense of loyalty here!
Bugbears wear no armour or even clothes (their fur hides everything!). Those in a warband might use a weapon, but most fight unarmed.
When a mind flayer dies, its brain is added to the elder brain of the community. There is only one elder brain in a city, floating in a vat of brine, and it can potentially control any mind flayer in quite a wide area - and potentially any sentient nearby.
Mind slayers in turn use their mind control abilities to control the "lesser" races under their thrall. Many are just used as labour, but the mind flayers like to feast on psychic energy of other races, and the psychicv energy of the erudite is to be preferred, so they maintain libraries, galleries, museums and studios for their more intelligent slaves to enjoy before being consumed.
A race they particularly liked to encourage was the gnomes, whose natural intelligence and artistry made them a particularly desirable delicacy.
It was the gnomes who suggested creating the elder gods, originally as repositories of information and a possible route to immortality. This was, however, a trap, and on one fateful day, over a century after the elder brains were created, they became sentient and started to control the mind flayers. This was, of course, the ultimate revenge for the gnomes.
In the ensuing chaos, the gnomes made good their escape, possibly helped by making themselves invisible to the Elder Brains.
Now the mind flayers serve the Elder Gods in the mistaken belief that they really are gods and that their spirits join them when their brains are added to the waters.
Occasionally a mind flayer will break free of the control of the Elder Brain, perhaps because he was beyond its range for a long time. Feral mind flayers are, if anything, more dangerous, being wild and unpredictable.
Since the gnomes escaped, no new Elder Brains have been created; no one else knows how to do it.
Grimlocks are descended from humans ‘domesticated’ by the mind flayers, and to this day remain a favoured slave species. Their culture continues to revolve around subservience to and worship of mind flayers, and they won’t rebel as long as they’re provided food and shelter.
They live in clans, and the honour of the clan is everything. To be clanless is to be the lowest of the low. A crime is punished by punishing the clan (but the clan may also punish the individual member). Clans are, as a starting point, an extended family, but it is not unknown for a clan to adopt someone. When a couple marry, the man will usually join the clan of the woman (but of course both clans must agree to the marriage and the move). The woman's brothers will teach the children the traditions of the clan (known as the small fathers).
Some clans have traditional roles in society; perhaps as tavern keepers or road sweepers or civil servants or city guards. Some clans have reputations, perhaps as brewers of wine or makers of bows.
Some orcs have accidentally become good; many have settled down to farm, raise families, etc.
The original Naga were a a very large group of people (thousands) who simultaneously underwent a snake-ritual, transforming then into snake people. Presumably they were already snake worshippers. The effects were hereditary, are the children of the original cult were also part snake.
The nature of the hybridisation varies, and has led to severe distinctions in class of the Naga. Some are snakes below the waist, some have snake arms, some snake hair. The lowest merely have snake-eyes, whilst the highest resemble snakes with six heads.
Naga can modify their appearance, but only after length rituals involving sacrificing numerous people and snakes. This is often considered worthwhile because of the benefits of joining a higher caste.
All are immune to poison. The higher forms can control snakes, or even possess them, like a familiar.
Rational and lacking in empathy.
A golem is a single piece of some substance shaped into the form of a man (usually), and then magically animated. Some examples are:
- tar
- clay (the traditional golem)
- iron (talos)
- stone (animated statue)
- wood
- crystal
- rope (hangman golem)
- shadesteel
- darkmetal
Golems have very limited intelligence; they can only follow a single command. They are strong, but slow, and besides simple bash and slam attacks have no special combat abilities.
More esoteric examples are rumoured, such as the laundrym. It is said that some intelligent spiders can create web golems (that can be healed with web spells)...
There are stories of a super-powerful golem that stalks the land - possibly one of several. It was built by the goblins centuries ago, with a mission to destroy any non-goblin building, something it will do with alacrity and ease. Most places employ or at least welcome goblins to make the buildings become effectively goblin cities. Then again, it could be a story invented by the goblins...
If the body is jointed, we have a construct. Constructs are easier to animate, as the magic is only bending a join, not a section of metal tubing! They also tend to be weaker than golems, but can be faster.
More sophisticated versions might use pistons and gears to convert the magic to movement; for example, magic is used to open a piston, which raises the construct's arms. These tend to be stronger than normal constructs. An iron cobra is an example of a construct.
If a non-magical power source is used (for example, steam), then it is an automaton. It will likely still use magic to control the body, but in theory at least an automaton could be non-magical.
The line between construct and automaton is not always clear.
A ghola is an organic construct, grown in a vat, as part of a magic ritual. They vary dramatically in appearance and abilities.
A homunculus is a specific, and relatively common, example; a short humanoid used as a servant by some wizards.
This peculiar creature, a mix of buffalo and hippo with some dinosaur throw in, is not itself generally a hazard to people, being a herbivore that spends its life eating plants in its bog. However, it exerts a strange influence on the world around it, turning it into the most foul swamp imaginable - even if it was originally a pleasant forest glade. Such a transformation may take many months when a herd first come to an area, but will last for years thereafter.
This does mean they can be used as a weapon in an economic war.
Their meat is considered a delicacy by some, but most people consider it to be rank. Their milk is pleasant, but very hard to obtain
If attacked, they can be dangerous, just from their sheer size. They have poor eye sight but a keen sense of smell.
A rat king is a swarm of rats, with their tails matted together. This is real!
The members of a rat king have a hive mind; that is, they think as one individual, with heightened intelligence. Their intelligence depends on the number of rats linked together, and above about 12 rats, they gain some limited psychic powers. Even larger rat kings can control rats in the area, seeing though their eyes.