Ammutseba
2015-01-30, 11:43 PM
Heyo. I've been brewing up a setting, and I'll eventually shimmy on over to World-Building with it. Right now, I've got a fluff block for one of the races just about done up, I think. The setting is a bit silly and (I hear) a bit grimdark. Basically, it's about the survivors of mortal-kind ~45 years after several elder evils crash the party and accidentally keep one another from just plain destroying everything. Sort of like if your house survives the Storm of the Century, and you emerge a couple days later to see some very large trees precariously tented over it, with the obvious signs that if one of them goes, they all go. And for some horrible reason, you have to keep living there.
What I have for you now is a work in progress. I can make changes if need be, I'd like to hear your thoughts, and I'm happy to share my inspirational sources about these folks. I did some basic reading on the Far Realm, delved into blots, then started with derro as the base creature, and modified them thematically with qualities of the uvuudaum. On racial traits, I'm looking toward derro and the uvuudaum for my water and flour, of course, but also toward the killoren, the dragonborn and the elan for my yeast and other doughy goodnesses. My target is on the stronger side of LA +0.
The savade are a relatively new race, born first from within marrow of the Qdza Cyst from derro pilgrims living under the gleeful, maniacal rule of Yibhothome, the cerebrotic blot’s uvuudaum overlord. In recent years the bizarre savade have expanded beyond their progenitorial blot and out into other blots. Despite that Astlara’s Vast End is less than fifty years past, the savade claim that their kind trace lineages within Qdza back several generations. It is possible, perhaps even probable, that time is even less reliable within the marrow of a blot than elsewhere on Astlara, but for now it is only the word of Yibhothome and the savade that even the most learned sages can go by.
The savade are bizarre, insane creatures with a deep-seated tendency toward cruelty. Their culture is barbaric, basing the assignment of power on a complex (or perhaps nonsense) structure of heritage, displays of strength, and inborn power. Even within Qdza and other blots, they form tribal groups each with their own hierarchies of status, and these tribes often war amongst themselves for supremacy and the greatest of Yibhothome’s favor.
Only in recent years have the savade gained the ability and relative sanity required to work with other races for mutual benefit; older generations are incapable. If it is more subtle than this, outsiders can generally understand that in savade culture, the strong rule, and the stronger rule them. Some savade are naturally psionic, an inborn status which seeds these individuals for a life of strength above the common rabble.
Savade appear stocky and solid, but are small. Most stand around three feet tall, and weigh about 90 pounds. A savade’s skin is pale, blue-white, with amorphous masses that shift and move slowly, as if forever searching for a means of escape. Their bulging eyes are white, silver, or tan in color, with no differentiation between one part of the eye and another, and bristly, iron-gray hair sprouts from their head, neck and shoulders nearly like a mane, but rarely grows more than a few inches long. Most savade are covered in spiraling, swirling dark tattoos over most of their bodies; individuals use these to identify another savade’s tribe of origin.
Signs of benign mutations abound a savade’s body. For most, their moving flesh is abnormally thick, one of their eyes dominates more of their face than the other, a bony bulge rests perpetually around their ribs, and their hands may sport additional fingers or thumbs. For others, the signs of a vestigial wing or two might be visible beneath the skin on their back, their neck may be elongated and tentacle-like, or any number of other mild growths may be apparent. Although these mutant qualities normally have no mechanical effect for the savade, one can harness the roiling, insane energies of the Far Realm within them, with effort, and make a single mutation more viable for a short time.
Here's what I'd like to know. Looking at this fluff, would you want to know more about these little guys, or maybe want to play as one? If so, what did you like? If not, what's my hook missing?
What I have for you now is a work in progress. I can make changes if need be, I'd like to hear your thoughts, and I'm happy to share my inspirational sources about these folks. I did some basic reading on the Far Realm, delved into blots, then started with derro as the base creature, and modified them thematically with qualities of the uvuudaum. On racial traits, I'm looking toward derro and the uvuudaum for my water and flour, of course, but also toward the killoren, the dragonborn and the elan for my yeast and other doughy goodnesses. My target is on the stronger side of LA +0.
The savade are a relatively new race, born first from within marrow of the Qdza Cyst from derro pilgrims living under the gleeful, maniacal rule of Yibhothome, the cerebrotic blot’s uvuudaum overlord. In recent years the bizarre savade have expanded beyond their progenitorial blot and out into other blots. Despite that Astlara’s Vast End is less than fifty years past, the savade claim that their kind trace lineages within Qdza back several generations. It is possible, perhaps even probable, that time is even less reliable within the marrow of a blot than elsewhere on Astlara, but for now it is only the word of Yibhothome and the savade that even the most learned sages can go by.
The savade are bizarre, insane creatures with a deep-seated tendency toward cruelty. Their culture is barbaric, basing the assignment of power on a complex (or perhaps nonsense) structure of heritage, displays of strength, and inborn power. Even within Qdza and other blots, they form tribal groups each with their own hierarchies of status, and these tribes often war amongst themselves for supremacy and the greatest of Yibhothome’s favor.
Only in recent years have the savade gained the ability and relative sanity required to work with other races for mutual benefit; older generations are incapable. If it is more subtle than this, outsiders can generally understand that in savade culture, the strong rule, and the stronger rule them. Some savade are naturally psionic, an inborn status which seeds these individuals for a life of strength above the common rabble.
Savade appear stocky and solid, but are small. Most stand around three feet tall, and weigh about 90 pounds. A savade’s skin is pale, blue-white, with amorphous masses that shift and move slowly, as if forever searching for a means of escape. Their bulging eyes are white, silver, or tan in color, with no differentiation between one part of the eye and another, and bristly, iron-gray hair sprouts from their head, neck and shoulders nearly like a mane, but rarely grows more than a few inches long. Most savade are covered in spiraling, swirling dark tattoos over most of their bodies; individuals use these to identify another savade’s tribe of origin.
Signs of benign mutations abound a savade’s body. For most, their moving flesh is abnormally thick, one of their eyes dominates more of their face than the other, a bony bulge rests perpetually around their ribs, and their hands may sport additional fingers or thumbs. For others, the signs of a vestigial wing or two might be visible beneath the skin on their back, their neck may be elongated and tentacle-like, or any number of other mild growths may be apparent. Although these mutant qualities normally have no mechanical effect for the savade, one can harness the roiling, insane energies of the Far Realm within them, with effort, and make a single mutation more viable for a short time.
Here's what I'd like to know. Looking at this fluff, would you want to know more about these little guys, or maybe want to play as one? If so, what did you like? If not, what's my hook missing?