My Fantasy RPG World, Feedback and Ideas appreciated

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wendigo

Wendigo transformation is a variant of cannibal sickness that afflicts orcs.

Wendigo often band together in small clans hiding in plain sight among regular orc tribes or they travel in all-wendigo tribes. A great many wendigo are loners.

The first transformation to occur is in the the senses. Orcs becoming wendigo gain improved hearing, improved night vision, and an improved sense of smell. Late in their transformation, wendigo can see perfectly in absolute darkness but have their vision somewhat impaired in bright light.

Wendigo usually increase in strength and speed as their transformation progress. Most gain in stealth skills but this is more from practice than physical transformation. As orcs transform, they tend to have their arms and legs grow longer and lengthier and their overall appearance becomes more gaunt. They will usually grow white or grey fur and develop owl-like talons. Some develop needle like fangs. Some develop antlers or horns.

Early stage wendigo do not have constant regeneration but they can heal wounds much faster for a short window immediately after eating mortal flesh.

Full regeneration powers come later to wendigo which have full hearts of ice.

Hearts Of Ice

Early on, orcs lose their empathy for others. They also gradually lose their sense of humor and gradually lose any sense of joy in anything other than eating.

Eventually they even lose their ability to enjoy food that is not mortal flesh. They can eat normal food to sustain themselves, they just won't enjoy it.

At some point during their transformation, wendigo radiate cold. Wendigo with very advanced transformation can weaponize their aura of cold either enhancing their brawling attacks or even breathing ice on opponents.

The icier a wendigo gets, the more resilient their bodies are against physical damage but this increases their vulnerability to fire. Very advanced wendigo are pained but not outright wounded by daylight and warmth.

Wendigo never stay in areas of perpetually warm climates, naturally preferring to live in cold climates. Wendigo living in areas with pronounced seasons usually evolve the ability to hibernate during the warm periods of the year.

At the final stage, a wendigo's heart literally turns into a chunk of ice and lose the ability to draw any metaphorical warmth from companionship and they become lone monsters,
physically and mentally unrecognizable as the orcs they once were.


Wendigo with ice hearts are near indestructible except to fire. If their bodies are slain, their icy heart will eventually regrow a new body.

To orcs, this is common knowledge, so they always throw the hearts of any slain wendigo into a large bonfire. Very few humans and elves are aware of this, so many have unknowingly allowed defeated wendigo to live.

Transmission & Vectors
Wendigo are orcs who develop an addiction to mortal flesh. Like a human ogre, a orc wendigo can pass his curse onto his or her offspring.

There are whole tribes of wendigo. Some male wendigo will seek to capture and enslave non-wendigo females as breeding stock. Others prefer to mate with female wendigo. The largest wendigo tribes do both.

Second, third generation, and fourth generation wendigo develop their powers faster and stronger than first generation wendigo.

A second generation wendigo might be able to impersonate a normal orc in poor lighting or by wearing extra thick clothing, but a third or fourth generation wendigo will never pass as a normal orc.

Fourth generation wendigo are rare. Fifth generation wendigo are unheard of. A wendigo whose heart has fully transformed into ice has zero sex drive, so they cannot bear or sire children.

Prevention
The best way to not get cannibal sickness is to not engage in cannibalism. The same goes for wendigo transformation. An orc that doesn't eat mortal flesh will never turn into a wendigo. The more mortal flesh a orc eats, the more likely his or her transformation is, especially if they are eating the flesh of other orcs.
Cultural Reception
Most Scarterran mortals teach their young that it is better to starve to death rather than to eat the flesh of mortals.

Orcs teach their young that one must only engage in eating mortal flesh when facing starvation and immediately refrain from it when other food becomes available though orcs should die before eating the flesh of orcs.

That is the official rule, but a lot of hungry orcs break the guidelines both eating mortal flesh when other food is available eating orc flesh when desperate.

Orcs realize that cannibalism leads to wendigo transformation, but one cannibalistic indulgence is definitely not going to create a wendigo. Two or three probably won't create a wendigo. Orcs know there is a line somewhere but they don't know exactly where the line is and some live dangerously.

Because cannibalism is slightly less taboo among orcs than it is among other mortal races, wendigo are proportionally more common that ogres and other cannibal mutants. Orcs are less likely to immediately kill or exile cannibals in their midst than humans are.

Conversely, orcs tend to live in relatively small and tight-knit tribal units. It is difficult for a wendigo to hide his or her physical transformation. Once an orc begins manifesting visible wendigo traits, the tribe will assuredly be after them with spears and fire.

Unless the wendigo usurp the tribal leaders first...

(sidebar 1)
What About Half-Orcs?
If orc cannibals become wendigo and human cannibals become ogres, what about half-orcs?

Half-orc cannibals become utterly terrifying.

In early stages, they resemble common wendigo but they never stop growing. The more mortal flesh they consume, the bigger they get. The bigger they get, the more insatiable they become, eventually making them a threat to ogres and wendigo alike.

Because of this, even wendigo tribes that keep non-cannibal women slaves as breeding stock almost never take human women captive and ogre tribes likewise almost never take orc women captive.

Fortunately half-orcs are sterile, otherwise giant wendigo might consume the entire frozen north.

(sidebar 2)

Type
Supernatural
Parent
Cannibal Sickness
Origin
Mutated
Cycle
Chronic, Acquired & Congenital
Rarity
Rare
Affected Species

• orcs

 

Only the uncool ones.

Here is a Youtube animator's take on the Rusalka of Slavic folklore.



Here is my take.

According to legend, an elven prince in the Second Age once had an illicit affair with a beautiful peasant maiden named Rusalika. She became pregnant and Rusalika was eager to share the good news with her lover as soon as she found out. They met at their favorite spot in a beautiful meadow by a river.


To Rusalika’s surprise and dismay, her lover was not happy about this and did not want the scandal of him fathering a bastard be known in his court. He pretended to embrace her, but instead carried her to the river and coldly drowned her. He lashed rocks to her corpse to make it sink and left her there.


Rusalika came back as a vengeance driven ghost. Versions of the stories differ on what she did next. Some story tellers say she never saw her former lover ever again. Some say she eventually managed to drown him. Others say she drowned his pregnant high born wife. Others say she slew his sole heir generations later.


Regardless of the details of her former lover, Rusalika’s desire for vengeance was never sated and she drowned many people, more often than not men.

Many centuries later ghosts of young drowned women who followed in Rusalika’s footsteps. Some say that Rusalika trained other young female ghosts in her power set. Others believe that drowned ghosts have somehow accessed the universal memory of Rusalika’s story and reenact it over and over again. These ghost women are now known as the Rusalka.

It is rumored that Rusalika herself was never destroyed and never made peace with her death. If this is the case she is easily one of the most powerful ghosts in Scarterra assuming she hasn’t evolved/devolved into a new type of creature.

Now for the crunch. Essentially I wanted to test my ghost creation guidelines. The number one determiner of a ghost's power is their Willpower. Most traits in my system are 1-5 but Willpower is 1-10. As important Willpower is for living people, it's much more important for dead people because their powers and attributes are directly tied to their Willpower more than anything else.

Lesser Rusalka
Willpower 4

Spoiler: RPG Stats

Dexterity 3, Strength 0/3, Stamina 3, Appearance 4, Charisma 2, Manipulation 3, Intelligence 2, Perception 2, Wits 2
Abilities: Alertness 3, Animal Ken 2, Athletics 1, Brawl 2, Dodge 2, Empathy 2, Subterfuge 2, Intimidation 2, Stealth 2

Common Ghost powers
Animal Manipulation: Rusalka can calm animals and communicate with them.

Embodiment: Rusalka can appear to mortals as beautiful, inconspicuous or ugly and can speak to mortals).

Memory Manipulation: Rusalka can spend a Willpower point and roll Manipulation + Subterfuge to manipulate a mortal’s emotions or Appearance + Subterfuge if the manipulation is based on seduction.

Telekinesis: (Ghost can move small objects or touch things lightly. In a Rusalka’s case this is often seductive tickling).

Uncommon Power: Telekinesis: (ghost can spend Willpower point to move objects in short bursts akin to a feat of Strength of Check).

Handicaps: Conjuration (leaves wet foot prints and small puddles around when moving)

Memory Manipulation (ghost has forgotten most aspects of her life not related to her death by drowning).

Intermediate Rusalka
Willpower 6

Spoiler: RPG stats

Dexterity 4, Strength 0/4, Stamina 4, Appearance 5, Charisma 3, Manipulation 4, Intelligence 2, Perception 3, Wits 3
Abilities: Alertness 3, Animal Ken 3, Athletics 2, Brawl 3, Dodge 3, Empathy 3, Enigmas 1, Expression 1, Hearth Wisdom 1, Legerdemain 2, Subterfuge 3, Intimidation 3, Stealth 2

Common Ghost powers
Animal Manipulation: Rusalka can calm animals and communicate with them.

Embodiment: Rusalka can appear to mortals as beautiful, inconspicuous or ugly and can speak to mortals).

Fate Manipulation: Rusalka has a sixth sense for danger to herself and others in her vicinity rolling Perception + Alertness)

Memory Manipulation: Rusalka can spend a Willpower point and roll Manipulation + Subterfuge to manipulate a mortal’s emotions or Appearance + Subterfuge if the manipulation is based on seduction.

Telekinesis: (Ghost can move small objects or touch things lightly. In a Rusalka’s case this is often seductive tickling).

Uncommon Powers: Embodiment: Rusalka can change her appearance and roll Manipulation + Subterfuge to look and sound like specific people

Telekinesis: Rusalka can spend Willpower point to move objects in short bursts akin to a feat of Strength of Check.

Rare Power: Embodiment: Rusalka can spend a temporary Willpower point to become solid, looking like a normal human and touching and being touched like a normal human.

Handicaps: Conjuration Rusalka leaves wet foot prints and small puddles around when moving

Memory Manipulation Rusalka has forgotten most aspects of her life not related to her death by drowning.

Mobility: Rusalka cannot travel more than a mile or two away from a body of water

Greater Rusalka
Willpower 8

Spoiler: RPG Stats

Dexterity 4, Strength 0/5, Stamina 4, Appearance 5, Charisma 3, Manipulation 4, Intelligence 3, Perception 3, Wits 3
Abilities: Alertness 4, Animal Ken 3, Athletics 3, Brawl 4, Dodge 3, Empathy 4, Enigmas 2, Expression 2, Hearth Wisdom 2, Legerdemain 2, Subterfuge 4, Intimidation 4, Stealth 3
Advanced Ability: Lip Reading 2

Common Ghost powers

Animal Manipulation: Rusalka can calm animals and communicate with them.

Embodiment: Rusalka can appear to mortals as beautiful, inconspicuous or ugly and can speak to mortals).

Fate Manipulation: Rusalka has a sixth sense for danger to herself and others in her vicinity rolling Perception + Alertness

Lifeforce Manipulation: Rusalka can dull pain in a mortal and/or inflict a mortal with a debilitating but temporary illness.

Memory Manipulation: Rusalka can spend a Willpower point and roll Manipulation + Subterfuge to manipulate a mortal’s emotions or Appearance + Subterfuge if the manipulation is based on seduction.

Telekinesis: Ghost can move small objects or touch things lightly. In a Rusalka’s case this is often seductive tickling.

Uncommon Powers: Embodiment: Rusalka can change her appearance and roll Manipulation + Subterfuge to look and sound like specific people

Memory Manipulation: Rusalka can spend a temporary Willpower point and roll Manipulation + Subterfuge to implant hypnotic suggestions or remove short term memories.

Telekinesis: Rusalka can spend Willpower point to move objects in short bursts akin to a feat of Strength of Check.

Rare Power: Embodiment: Rusalka can spend a temporary Willpower point to become solid, looking like a normal human and touching and being touched like a normal human.

Memory Manipulation: Rusalka can read surface thoughts or unearth intense memories. She can spend a temporary Willpower to attack a mortal by flooding their mind with the Rusalka’s own bad experiences or dredging up the mortal’s worst life experiences.

Handicaps: Conjuration: Rusalka leaves wet foot prints and small puddles around when moving

Memory Manipulation: Rusalka has forgotten most aspects of her life not related to her death by drowning).

Mobility: Rusalka cannot travel more than a mile or two away from a body of water)

EDIT: Been hearing noises, thought my imagination was playing tricks on me because I have been looking up ghost stories alone in a dark house, but then a mahrlect mouse walked across the room.

 

I have created a new article for ogres though a lot of it overlaps with my article on cannibal sickness, you can read the ogre article by clicking one of the two dozen+ hyperlinks below.


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the ONE time ogres were welcomed

No one would have guessed that drinking human blood and eating human flesh were mutually exclusive, but they seem to be. It turns out ogres and vampires are natural enemies.

Summary
During the time of Vladimir the Conqueror , it was discovered that ogres cannot be turned into vampires. The process always simply kills them.

Beyond this, ogre blood tastes foul to vampires and most vampires cannot stomach it. Add to this and ogres seem highly resistant to vampire mind control, at least the mesmerizing power of Vladimir's lineage.

Ogres cannot eat the flesh of vampires without becoming violently ill and as a result, many can instinctively recognize vampires by seeing or smelling signs of a bad meal. Thus an ogre or ogress can metaphorically or literally smell out a vampire pretending to be an ordinary human.

Just because vampires and ogres cannot eat each other doesn't mean that they cannot fight with swords and axes. They did. Most ogres are strong and tough fighters, so they are useful in the armies and militias of the unscrupulous or the desperate and during the Vampire Wars, many were desperate.

Once a grand coalition formed in opposition to Vladomir's new empire, many (though by no means all) of Vladomir's opponents chose to tolerate or even welcome ogres in their midst as they made very effective vampire hunters.

Vladomir's army had a lot of ordinary humans in its ranks so in the aftermath of any battle there were usually plenty of human corpses for ogres to fill their bellies with.

Friction was inevitable. On rare occasions ogres would get hungry and betray their human allies. On common occasions, humans would preemptively betray their ogre allies the second an ogre looked at them the wrong way.

After Vladomir's death, even though there were still other vampires left to fight, most human military commanders hid the news of Vladomir's death from their ogre troops and quietly arranged for the ogres to be slain en masse. Very few ogres escaped this post war purge.

Some claim the human on ogre fighting at this time provided enough chaos to allow some of Vladomir's lieutenants to go underground but anyone who espouses this opinion too loudly is branded an ogre sympathizer.

Historical Basis
Ogres do have a wide variety of advantages in fighting vampires that untainted humans do not have and because of this, ogres were briefly given greater acceptance during the Vampire Wars.

Most scholars and priests claim the tales of ogres battling vampires were greatly exaggerated. Many commoners and minstrels claim these tales were covered up and played down.

Spread
Most Scarterrans living in West Colassia are aware of this historical anomaly but is considered mildly taboo to discuss this in polite society.

The stories about it are mostly tavern tales or ghost stories to fascinate and frighten children.

Outside of West Colassia, this legend is generally only known by Scarterrans who make a serious point of studying ogres and vampires.

Variations & Mutation
According to some legends, a tiny handful human (anti)heroes chose to partake in cannibalism and deliberately become ogres to become more effective vampire hunters.

After Vladomir's death, supposedly these heroes voluntarily submitted to execution for their crime of cannibalism.

Cultural Reception
1800+ years after Vladomir's death means a lot of stories of the great war between ogres and vampires was forgotten

.During the so called Vampire Wars, most military leaders willing to work with ogres did not want to admit that they were working with ogres so there are very few original source written documents corroborating who worked with ogres and to what extent.

Generally the priests and priestesses of the various Nonagons try to squash retelling of this legend not wanting anything to even remotely encourage tolerating ogres. Mostly stories of ogres and vampires are told in taverns late at night and given the nature of tavern tales, the original facts are lost to exaggeration and fabrication.

A few ogres like to tell tales about the heroic ogres of yesteryear but most aren't aware of this historical anomaly. In any event, the idea of unbroken family line of ogres stretching back 1800 years is so far fetched it would be laughable if the idea wasn't so frightening.

Many modern ogres are not aware that they can detect vampires and just think that certain mortals smell foul tasting. Actually, some ordinary humans are lucky enough to be born with a smell that repulses predators. Of course during the Vampire Wars, this got some unlucky innocents killed.

Most vampires do remember the trouble ogres once caused them. Few modern vampires are old enough to remember the time of Vladimir but their sires usually educate their childer about the threat ogres represent.

When possible, many vampires like to frame ogres for the death of their victims as cover and symbolic revenge or simple pragmatism. If inquisitors are busy hunting ogres, they are not looking for vampires' day time lairs.
In Art
Typically most nobles and clergy view the idea of talking about ogres and vampires battling it out beneath them but many low born love to revel in these stories, so you are not likely to find many paintings or sculptures depicting great ogre heroes.

A few popular bawdy songs commemorate ogres and vampires fighting in lewd fashion.

A few festivals have stylistic combat between actors in over the top gaudy costumes pretending to be ogres and vampires in plays catering to commoners.

(sidebar)
What About Non-Ogre Cannibals?

Vladimir the Conqueror wanted to conquer the human race, then he would worry about the others.

As much as possible he avoided conflict with elves, dwarves, orcs, and pretty much all other mortals. Vladimir instructed his minions to slay anyone who got in their way regardless of race, but not to pursue non-human adversaries especially relentlessly. They were also forbidden from turning non-humans into vampires without Valdimir's permission.

Because of Vladimir's policy, most non-human tribes and nations chose to remain neutral in the Vampire Wars. This means that the wendigo, skopen and other local varieties of mutant cannibals had no real incentive to fight vampires either, just ogres who were still technically human.

It is not even clear if non-ogre cannibal mutants have any resistance to vampires or not.

 

My bad, I meant to write ogres cannot be turned into vampires. I'm not good at catching my own typos if spell check misses them.

Vlad is a great antagonist.

It dawned on me that the Vampire Wars might be a more interesting novel setting than the year 1837. One of my biggest problems writing things longer pieces than short stories is my gold fish like attention span pushing me to want to start new things.

I'll finish A Cobbler's Journey and then I'll see if I want to create a novelization about the Vampire Wars. The Vampire Wars have reluctant temporary alliances and a bunch of intrigue and betrayals. I can throw in some gratuitous sex scenes with good looking bisexual vampires and then HBO might pick it up for a series.

There certainly would be a lot of factions. The human nations and tribes had to put aside preexisting enmities to join forces against the vampires and Vlad had to deal with rival vampire bloodlines and periodic challenges by ambitious members of his own bloodline.

 

That's a good idea. I've also thought about doing something similar to this for the Great East Colassian War.

I took your advice and moved a lot of the information from this article into other articles. My article on the Second Unmaking has gone down from roughly 16000 words to be about 9500 words now. My goal is to get it to down to roughly 7000 words.

I haven't deleted anything, I moved the information to other articles. Moving the bit on goblins during the Second Unmaking into my main goblins article, etc.

Of course I realize now my goblin and kobold articles were among the first things I ever wrote for Scarterra so I probably need to revise them to get them up to date but I can only deal with old stuff for so long before I crave going to new territory.

Time for some brainstorming. So far I have three cannibal mutant types documented on Scarterra.

Human cannibals gradually transform into "ogres". Human laws and norms are staunchly anti-cannibalism but humans are so common in Scarterra, by extension, ogres can be found on every major land mass.

Tengku cannibals gradually transform into "vultures". Tengku society is also anti-cannibalism and tengku are not very numerous but due to tengku living on the outskirts of society and generally being nomadic or semi-nomadic, a Tengku "vulture" can escape detection a very long time.

Orc cannibals gradually transform into "wendigo". Whereas most societies view cannibalism as gravely serious taboo, orc tribe generally view cannibalism as a moderate taboo at best. They produce proportionally more mutant cannibals compared to their relatively small population.



I know I want to call elf cannibal mutants "skopen" I haven't figured out what they look like or what their common powers are.

Elf cannibals were very common during the Second Unmaking and the Little Unmaking because elves were numerous at these times and food was scarce. So a lot of elves occasionally partook in cannibalism and some of them became Skopen.

Now in the Feudal Era, elves are not as numerous and the four elf nations are all in very food rich environments.

I don't know if Skopen are still going to be a problem or if they are going to be an ugly historical foot note for elves.



Gnome cannibal mutants are probably going to greatly resemble Gollum from Lord of the Rings. My friend Eron12 suggested whatever name I give them should have a silent consonant because you know, gnomes.

I may or may not give gnome mutants magical or psychic power because they are still pretty small. They should not be able to easily take down humanoid prey using raw physical force as is the case with ogres and wendigo.

Gnomes don't have large caloric requirements and they are community focused so they would view cannibalism of any mortal race as a serious taboo. It is unlikely that many gnomes would indulge in cannibalism, but that doesn't mean it will never happen. Gnome cannibal mutants would probably be among the rarest seen.


Eron also suggested that dwarf cannibals resemble the Morlocks from HG Well's book The Time Machine but I should probably change the name.

I'm not sure I want to change the name. The Time Machine was written in 1895. I think it's public domain, so I should be able to keep the name without any legal issues. Essentially any piece of art that predates Mickey Mouse is probably in the public domain because the laws were changed specifically for Disney and this has held all art created after 1928 held hostage by copyright since then.

Dwarf cannibalism is an interesting case. Dwarves have a strong sense of honor and most would prefer to starve to death before engaging in cannibalism, but they also live in a very food poor environment so the temptation is ever present.

Ogres that breed with ogres usually stop producing children after the fourth generation. Wendigo always stop producing viable children after the fourth generation.

Vultures and gnome mutants are so rare that they don't have many opportunities to breed.

I'm thinking of making Morlocks an exception because Scarnoctis could use a clear bad guy race.

Perhaps a pocket of Morlocks of dwarf cannibals during the Second Unmaking kept breeding and breeding to the point where 3000+ years later most Morlocks no longer remotely physically resemble the dwarves the evolved from.

Though Morlocks are still maintain the dwarf aptitude for stone and metalwork.

If anyone never read or watched The Time Machine, I will just say that the Morlocks of HG Wells were man-eating monsters who hated bright light and lived underground crafting steampunk hellscapes.


My thought is that goblins only have a taboo against eating goblin flesh, and it is a moderate taboo at best. They have zero taboo against eating mortal flesh from non-goblins.

That said, goblins seem resistant to Cannibal Sickness relative to other mortals. They have to eat a lot of mortal flesh to transform. Most goblins are not strong or cunning enough to bring down enough mortals to get that much mortal flesh.

When they do finally mutate, they will probably physically resemble D&D Bugbears, which are essentially ogres that are a bit goblinish.

The term "bugbears" refers to very old legends so it is public domain but I think it may be trademarked to have Bugbears with goblinoid traits so I will probably call them something different. For now I will call them goblin ogres.

Goblin clans tribes are usually ruled by the strongest and/or most cunning and ruthless goblin. A goblin ogre could probably easily take over a clan. Holding onto the clan leadership is going to be difficult.

A goblin ogre in charge of a clan of ordinary goblins is invariably going to direct his minions to start hunting humans and other mortals to eat.

A very successful clan like this would probably share the meat and then you would find a clan entirely of goblin ogres, but this would be rare. The thing about humans and other mortals in Scarterra is that they can and will defend themselves.

As soon as a group of goblins led by a goblin ogre faces a major defeat the ordinary goblins are probably going to try to overthrow their goblin ogre chief or if they don't fancy their chances, they are likely to become deserters.

Another thing that will keep the number of goblin ogres in check is that a goblin ogre chief that has not been able to direct his minions to bring in fresh manflesh, they are probably going to start eating goblins. Not random goblins, goblins that have committed "crimes" against the chief. Goblin chiefs are notorious for having self-serving definitions of what is a "crime" and goblin ogres are as bad or worse. Again this would lead to betrayal or desert against a goblin ogre chief or a very strong and cunning ogre chief could just end up eating his entire clan.

 

A friend recently suggested "gnarl" as a base line, I'm thinking Gnarnytas (based on old Norse for eat), or Gnarlgorkies (loosely based on Russian for biter). Or maybe Gnarlocks or Gnarleks (nonsense but it kind sounds like Marhlect).

 

Here's a draft I have for Skin Changer Witches.

Skin Changer witches are a condition that transcends all of Scarterra's mutants. An ogre can be a skin changer, a wendigo can be a skin changer, a skopen can be a skin changer, etc.

I will probably want to revise this later after I made articles for more cannibal mutants and after any constructive criticisms or clever addendums you guys come up with.

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Skinchanger witches

"We don't tell stories about witches eating naughty children simply for the entertainment value, nor simply to frighten our children and grandchildren into being slightly less naughty.

Scarterra actually does have witches lurking in the dark that wish to devour children."
-Valdix, elderly gnome farmer

Technically females are skin changer witches and males are skin changer warlocks, but in the common vernacular, "skin changer witch" or just "skin changer" is the generic unisex term.

A skin changer is a mortal arcane spell caster that acquires Cannibal Sickness or a person with Cannibal Sickness who later acquires spell casting ability.

A skin changer witch will seek to increase her mystic power and physical might by eating specific types of mortal flesh.

"There is strength in numbers and we are happy to increase the size of our family with fresh blood. But never accept a skin changer witch into your family. No matter humble they initially appear, whether it's an ogre an ogress, the witch will always try to take the family over and then lead it to ruin."
-Ragnut, ogre mercenary

"If a skin changer wants something, best give them what they want, so they move on quickly. They have great power and are not to be tested. If they cannot get the power they want from other prey, they will seek to eat the icy hearts of other wendigo."
-Murbol wendigo wise woman

Skin changer witches can and do cast magic from any school of magic they train in but the majority of them specialize in Transmutation magic hence why they are called Skin Changers.

Along those lines, while most of those with Cannibal Sickness develop useful mutations slowly and seemingly at random, skin changers develop useful physical mutations relatively quickly and with some deliberation.

Skin Changers with Divination magic might cast a spell to determine their targets, but most use non-arcane methods of divination such as dream interpretation, astrology, or mediation, among other methods. Haruspication is very common, but they usually use mortals and not beasts.

Sometimes the divined target makes sense. A skin changer might seek to eat the flesh of several kalazotz to grow wings, but often the divine meal has no obvious bearing on what the skin changer is trying to do such as seeking the flesh of an unmarried male high born dwarf to gain increased power with Conjuration magic.

Two practices make skin changers especially reviled. The first is that when a skin changer is not pursuing the target of a particular divination, the skin changer is probably seeking the flesh of children to eat. This is generally believed to increase a skin changer's overall vitality and to stave off aging.

"As delicious as it may be to eat the flesh of the young and tender, it is a practice best avoided. You might be able to get away abducting an runaway orphan that will never be missed, but most of the time, a missing child is big news. Nothing brings out temple inquisitors, royal soldiers, and free lance adventurers champing at the bit faster than missing children.

This is why for all their vaunted power, skin changer witches bring ruin on every ogre clan they join."
-Ragnut, ogre mercenary

The second practice that makes skin changer witches especially hated above and beyond other cannibals is that they play with their food. A lot of them practice torture on their victims and unlike most regular ogres and their ilk, skin changers will often start eating their prey while they are alive rather than killing their meals first (because their divinations told them this was necessary).Many skin changers will choose to let their victims walk away as living amputees providing grisly mouthpieces to a skin changers were it not that eating tongues was so popular (because their divinations told them this was necessary).

"There are not many magic healers in Scarterra who can regrow amputated body parts but there are some.

If our order is lucky enough to have a such healers we will send them out far and wide to heal those in need and we pay special heed to the still living victims of skin changers.

Righteous anger is a powerful weapon. We require nothing from those we heal, but we always ask if they wish to join our order for training and over half agree. Many of the most enthusiastic and effective warriors for justice were former amputees."
-Daana of Meraland, Defender of the Hearth

"Damn the witches! You always destroy your enemies and leave no sign behind of your meals. Do not leave your enemies alive to seek revenge and do not leave evidence or witnesses to let your enemies find you."
-Ragnut, ogre mercenary

Skin Changers Relationship With The Nine

"In rare cases, legendarily rare cases, ogres have been led to redemption. I'm all about showing mercy to lowly, but Skin changer witches are beyond the remotest possibility of redemption. The only mercy they are worthy of is a quick death."
-Zajac, Fumayan Lantern

"Eating mortal flesh is akin to what Turoch did so cannibalism is a sin against all of the Nine, wise Korus included. We Stewards know that cannibals are unnatural and must always be expunged like the weeds they are.

Skin changers are no more or less repugnant than other ogres, they are simply more powerful."
-Green Reverend Brynn, Steward of the Gift

"I am not the biggest fan of feudal lords and ladies telling others what to do but I am very much in favor of anti-cannibalism laws.

Our Dark Mother may encourage her followers to do harsh but necessary things, but She does not approve Skin changer witches. This is a foul and unnatural short cut to gaining mystical power which is not only distasteful, but it is anathema to our ideals of spreading magic through dedication and hard work."
-Carcelli Arcane Priestess of Greymoria

"Whatever helps you sleep at night, girl. I'm not even sure you believe what you just said.

If you ever stepped outside the Nonagon Plaza and experienced the real world, you would quickly learn that a lot that there are a lot of children eaters among the Children.

Sure, most skin changers do not worship any of the Nine at all, but of those that do, most bow to Greymoria. Unfortunately, the second most commonly worshiped deity by skin changers is Maylar.

I am not going to lie and say that the Testers are free of cannibals, witches, or cannibal witches. I will simply say that if any of these heretics trespass on my territory, I will kill them."
-Ujarek, Herder of Men

Sorcerers, Wizards, And Warlocks
"Sometimes by luck or ambition, a young man or woman born into an ogre family will become a sorcerer, wizard, or warlock, thus becoming a skin changer witch by definition. This is exceedingly rare.

In the vast majority of cases with skin changers we encounter were ordinary mages who sought to become cannibals rather than ordinary cannibals who sought to become mages. Whatever their origins, skin changers desire personal power above all else."
-Daana of Meraland, Defender of the Hearth

"If you need evidence that sorcerers and sorceresses are superior to all other mages, you needn't look further than the skin changer witches. It is all but unheard of for sorcerers to engage in such depravity.

Not having a proper birthright for magic, it is the wizards and warlocks that seek to engage in cannibalism in order to increase their ill-gotten stolen power."
-Gwendolyn ap Numaness, Queen of Swynfaredia.

"Witches and warlocks already struggle to maintain their pacts. This is responsibility enough. Only a fool of the highest caliber would seek to be tied in servitude to both a mystic pact and be shackled to a perverse hunger.

Regardless of what our detractors say, most warlocks are not fools. Sorcerers who take their power for granted or wizards motivated by their bottomless ambition, these are the ones who seek to become skin changers most often."

-Casmir, Fae Warlock

"Most skin changer witches are sorcerers or warlocks. Becoming a skin changer is a short cut to power. To become a wizard, one must work and study hard to gain power, so we are not likely to seek short cuts, at least not despicably amoral short cuts."
-Marek, court wizard for the Duchy of Wiern

 

The changeling idea is a good idea. Though skin changers probably eat more children they produce, so it would be pretty rare for them to leave an ogre baby behind, usually they would leave nothing. I'll think about implementing that.

Anyway, here is my article on skopen, loosely based on the Old Norse language, skopen are an entirely Scalenex original creation.


Go to Scarterra Homepage
skopen

"You ask, child, why we still speak of the skopen when they are long gone? We tell stories about the ancient skopen so we never forget this dark chapter of our history and make sure never to repeat it. Unlike the humans and @orcs which seem to constantly produce ogres and wendigo with every generation."
-Nambra Jocan, wood elf huntress

"Indeed, Nambra speaks wisely. The skopen are no more, and if one did show up, we would surely protect you."
-Elwin Daexina, skopen masquerading as a normal wood elf hunter

The proper name for an elves afflicted with Cannibal Sickness is skotadpein (singular and plural), but it is commonly shortened to "skopen" (singular and plural). Pretty much only stodgy scroll heads still use the term "skotadpein."

Once very common, after some major purges in the Red Era, skopen are now all but unheard of in modern times, or so elves would like outsiders to think.

Transmission & Vectors
Transmission & Vectors
Like others with Cannibal Sickness, skopen pass a taint on to their offspring.

Most ogres and wendigo are eager to indoctrinate their children in the family practice and will feed their children mortal flesh almost as soon as they are weaned. Skopen are different.

Many skopen choose not to raise their sons and daughters as skopen. Other skopen avoid reproducing altogether.

A child of a skopen who has never tasted mortal flesh is going to probably be a bit wiry and agile for an elf and have somewhat above average senses which can be a plus. Such a child is going to probably be skittish and have trouble adapting to slow time relative to average elves which is a social handicap, but on the whole a child with "skopen taint" can probably lead a more or less normal life, most likely completely ignorant of his or her heritage.

Note, such a child growing up might have a morbid curiosity for wondering what mortal flesh tastes like and if as an adult they engage in cannibalism even once, they are probably going to go full skopen.
Symptoms
Relative to ogres, wendigo and other mutant cannibals, skopen symptoms are far less obvious to casual observers meaning that skopen can often hide in plain sight easier than other cannibals.

Because the physical changes of skopen are so subtle, in ancient times when skopen were more common, a lot of innocent elves were put to death for the crime of cannibalism because their physical appearance was slightly different from the elf norm.

In a way, skopen are elfier than normal elves. Relative to humans, elves have greater speed, agility, and more acute senses. Relative to normal elves, skopen have greater speed, agility and more acute senses.

Skopen that have been skopen a very long time do gain some body mass, but this is much less pronounced than with ogres. The change is subtle enough that a skopen could masquerade a normal elf who simply exercises a lot.

Skopen are more durable than normal elves, but this is hard to see until the skopen survives a wound which would kill or cripple a normal elf, but this could still be written off as a normal elf with dumb luck.

Skopen that have been skopen a long time, have somewhat larger ears and larger noses than normal elves. They also have unsettling stares, also colloquially known as "crazy eyes." That said, a large minority of non-cannibal elves manifest these traits.

A skopen's senses get sharper as they get older becoming supernaturally good at detecting mild sensory stimuli. A few even have hearing that is so good they can mimic the sonar of a bat or kalazotz letting them function perfectly in total darkness.

The downside is that skopen are vulnerable to sensory overload, often being stunned by unexpected loud noises, bright flashes, or pungent odors. Again this is something that normal elves occasionally suffer from giving a skopen plausible deniability (as long as they don't demonstrate anything supernatural to onlookers like having sonar).

A lot of skopen find employment as warriors because they are so fast, agile, and accurate with their strikes. To normal elves, this is very impressive but plausible.

More experienced skopen can move with obvious supernatural speeds for short bursts moving so fast as to appear to be a blur. No ordinary elf witnessing this can rationalize that what he is seeing is normal which is why skopen normally only use this power when moving in for the kill.

While it seems that skopen only gain beneficial physical mutations and no baneful mutations, skopen do suffer a terrible downside: madness.

Any Scarterran that regularly consumed mortal flesh can easily fall into madness but for a skopen, madness is certain.

Normal elves smoothly transition between "slow time" and "fast time" as circumstances require. Skopen rapidly lose their ability to enjoy or properly process slow time and often develop nervous twitches. They often tap their feet impatiently during slow moments and otherwise show psychological signs of boredom common to humans but rare among elves.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Different skopen have different forms of madness based on their life experiences and personality but it is fairly common for skopen to develop split personalities and it is extremely common for skopen to experience hallucinations. Often skopen believe they hear the voices of former victims whispering at them.

Sometimes skopen are driven to suicide or the indirect suicide of engaging in highly risky behavior.

Treatment
Much like with ogres, Purification magic can temporarily suppress an skopen's unholy appetite but to cure Cannibal Sickness an afflicted needs to have genuine remorse, be subjected to Purification ●●●●●, and then go on a lengthy and dangerous quest while resisting the urge to eat mortal flesh the whole time.

While it is rare for an ogre to be redeemed, it is all but unheard of for a Skopen to be cured in this fashion.

The regimen to cure Cannibal Sickness was developed by humans in the Third Age. In the Second Age and early Third Age, most elves would choose to "treat" skopen by giving them an arrow in the neck. If a modern elf encounters a skopen, he or she will probably choose to use the old school treatment.


Prevention
The best way to not get Cannibal Sickness is to not engage in cannibalism. The same goes for skopen transformation. An elf that doesn't eat mortal flesh will never turn into an skopen. The more mortal flesh an elf eats, the more likely his or her transformation is, especially if they are eating the flesh of other elves.

History
During the Second Age when elves were the dominant race on Scarterra, cannibalism was considered a severe taboo and a criminal act among nearly every tribe and nation.

But with so many millions of elves in the world, inevitably some of them fell to practice of cannibalism either out of perversion or desperation for food. Skotadpein were rare but were fairly well documented and they were aggressively hunted.

During the Second Unmaking with most farms in ruins and harsh winters causing game to be scarce, unprecedented numbers of elves had to turn to cannibalism simply to survive. It was at this time that the term "Skotadpein" fell out of favor and "skopen" became the normal word used.

Sometimes bands of survivors were willing to turn a blind eye to cannibalism in their midst but other times elves and skopen warred on each other even as the Void demons and Faceless remained a threat.

After the Unmaking drew to a close, food was still relatively scarce for the era nicknamed the The Little Unmaking. Entire intergenerational families of skopen were fairly well entrenched.

At the start of the Third Age there were over a dozen different elf tribes but by the Feudal Era, there are only four.

A lot of these tribes fought each other or the emerging humans as there was an attempt worldwide to purge Skopen from the elven ranks. Also, a lot of innocent elves were put to death by humans or other elf groups on spurious accusations of being skopen.

Humans were often especially bad at recognizing the symptoms of skopen and some didn't care, retroactively saying "oh yeah, they were all skopen" to justify acts of genocide.

That is not to say every lesser elf tribe was wiped out by fighting skopen or on accusations of being skopen. Once it became clear that they were living in a human world, a lot of the smaller tribes chose to assimilate into the wood elves, dark elves, or grey elves, and these groups were happy to take in some new blood. A few elf tribes got along with the humans very well (wink wink) and the end result was full humans with very mild elfin features.

Since the start of the Feudal Era, skopen are all but gone. The four remaining elf nations generally live in food rich environments. In the unlikely event they face a famine, all the elf nations have back up plans in place. If dark elves or grey elves face temporary food problems, they can cut the food rations of their human slaves or peasants, respectively.

If wood elves or sea elves face temporary food problems, they can increase the intensity of their foraging actions and turn to edible but poor tasting local flora and fauna that they usually turn their noses up at.

Cultural Reception
Most modern elves claim skopen are a thing of the ancient past and that skopen no longer exist at all.

Once in a while, elf societies produce the occasional serial killer or psychopath that indulges in cannibalism for the sheer perverse thrill of it, but this is usually swept under the rug.

Grey elves and wood elves usually take it completely for granted that skopen are unwanted relics of the past. They are far too civilized and moral now to produce skopen.

Once in a while these elf societies will accidentally produce a sociopathic serial killer that is also a skopen. Not only are skopen's mutations subtle, it makes it even harder to identify a skopen pretending to be a normal elf because no one is looking for skopen.

If a skopen's dark activities are exposed, elven authority figures will often execute the skopen as a murderer but will willfully ignore evidence of cannibalism in order to save face or out of true denial because everyone knows skopen are long gone.

The dark elves are slightly less naïve about the threat of skopen in their midst, at least among themselves. They would never admit the presence of skopen to outsiders.

A few sadistic slave owners take delight in eating the flesh of disobedient slaves. When exposed, dark elf nobles will often arrange "accidents" for these skopen. Some have gone as far as to "accidentally" give the skopen's slaves access to weapons while also slipping a mild poison to the skopen to slow them down a bit. The authorities will then execute the treacherous slaves and sweep the whole affair under the rug.

Dark elf society values magical prowess greatly. Some dark elf mages opt to become skin changer witches as a means of personal advancement.

According to Kahdisterian law, this is not only maleficium but this is a capital offense.

As long as the witches are useful agents, dark elf leaders will willingly turn a blind eye to the depredations of skin changers in their midst, but the second they have a public failure or their appetites become a liability, the skin changers are exposed for what they are and executed.

Though it is not unheard of for very cunning dark elf skin changers to hide their extra-cirricular cannibalism entirely and these individuals can advance very far politically...until they eventually become too arrogant and make a crucial mistake which given their incipient madness, is inevitable.

Among sea elves, skopen might not exist at all.

Sea elves are pretty good at finding food even in lean times and their small population is so tight knit it would be near impossible for a sea elf to engage in cannibalism clandestinely.

The sea elf dialect of Elven has completely forgotten the words "skopen" and "skotadpein" and they now use the terms Mermish word for "cannibal" if the subject comes up at all.

(sidebar)
What About Half-Elves?
half-human half-elves that contract Cannibal Sickness are essentially a coin flip whether they manifest traits of ogres or skopen.

A half-elf cannibal that was raised by humans is 75% likely to manifest ogre traits rather than skopen traits, even if the half-elf never met an actual ogre.

Likewise a half-elf cannibal that was raised by elves is 75% likely to manifest skopen traits rather than ogre traits, even if the half-elf never met an actual skopen.

A second generation half-elf cannibal with one cannibal parent and one normal parent is 95% likely to manifest the mutations of the cannibal parent and 5% likely to manifest the hypothetical mutations of the non-cannibal parent.

In the unlikely event a half-elf mule engages in cannibalism, the end result is anyone's guess. The mutations could come from either, both or neither side of the mule's heritage.

All the problems that normal half-elves have fitting in are magnified nine times over for half-elf cannibals. Almost every half-elf cannibal is a loner.

The Half-elf run city state of Apseldia is not self-sufficient and relies heavily on food imports. If the port city was ever blockaded, famine would be sure to follow.

A few civilian and religious leaders have quietly made contingency plans for policing cannibalism should this occur.

What About Satyrs?
Whether or not satyrs and elves care to admit it, the goat folk are technically an offshoot of elvenkind.

Physically the mutations that satyr cannibals develop are essentially identical to regular skopen. They gain enhanced senses and enhanced dexterity and speed.

Mentally they are slightly different. All skopen eventually go mad. Satyr skopen's madness nearly always takes a sexually perverse form.

Satyrs believe strongly in vigilante justice, and they get enough bad press for their normal peccadillos, that they take no chances with cannibals. Most satyrs are brutally murdered by their own people at the slightest hint of cannibalism.

 

After a very long hiatus, I'm finally going to run another session of my RPG soon. It's going to be espionage heavy. Here is one thing that will be involved.

Maybe Kormatin's player will be able to put one to good use. If not, it still sets a good tone. I got a mystery or two in reserve, but the whole session might be like a visit to Q's workshop, since no fewer than five institutions are going to offer material support to Kormatin's spy busting mission.



Smearing Scroll Cases

Magic scrolls with saved spells are extremely common in Scarterra.

Magic scroll cases are far less common, but they are known and used for counter-espionage.

Essentially if an an unauthorized person tries to pull a scroll out of such an enchanted scroll case, the document, map, or diagram will be unusable meaning this can thwart pickpockets hoping for written secrets.

Also, an agent about to be captured can use a Smearing Scroll Case to destroy her scrolls at any time by quickly yanking them out of the case.

Mechanics & Inner Workings
Any magical or mundane can be put into a Smearing Ink Scroll Case with no problem, but removing scrolls from such a case is more difficult.

A code phrase can nullify the magic of a Smearing Scroll Case for about a minute allowing papers to be removed. If someone removes the papers without uttering the code phrase, the writing will be illegibly smudged meaning the enemy spy cannot read the document.

Magic scrolls have their magic destroyed by this process as well making them unreadable. Smearing Scroll Cases have a 1% or 5% of catching on fire when they destroy a magical scroll.

A divinely enchanted scroll case has a 1% chance of catching on fire when destroying a divine scroll. An arcanely enchanted scroll case has a 1% chance of catching on fire when destroying an arcane scroll.

Either has a 5% chance of catching on fire when destroying magical scrolls of the "opposite" type.

Unfortunately, Smearing Scroll Cases are relatively easy to circumvent with magic. Arcane mages with Abjuration can temporarily nullify a Smearing Scroll Case smearing effect with a Dispel Magic spell. Theurgists and favored souls can temporarily nullify a Smearing Scroll Case smearing effect with Purification magic. Both are relative commonly available magic.

The key to a Smearing Scroll Case is that the spy or thief stealing the documents is not expecting the scroll case to be magically boobytrapped in that matter or the carrier of the documents willingly triggers the case before the documents are lost.
History
Ancient Scarterrans may or may not have employed a similar counter espionage tool in distant past, but if they did, this secret was lost.

The first documented use in the current era was in the Second Swynfaredian Civil War when a small number of spies for the winning side used them successfully to protect clandestine messages.

By the time of the Third Swynfaredian Civil War, pretty much every political faction in Swynfaredia had access to Smearing Scroll Cases. This also meant that most every sorcerer and sorceress knew how to spot and thwart Smearing Scroll Cases which drastically reduced their use.

Suddenly no one really wanted these magic items and there were now hundreds of them sitting in storehouses collecting dust.

The Swynfaredian black marketers came to the conclusion that since Smearing Scroll Cases are very effective when not expected, but nearly completely useless when they are expected, that they could thus sell these items to distant lands that had never heard of them before.

Now that Fumaya is in a cold war with Swynfaredia, the Fumayans have quietly created a few Smearing Scroll case gambling that that the Swynfaredians would never expect this ploy from them.

 

Super eager to actually run an RPG game tomorrow after a long hiatus. At the moment I'm still running solo adventures for Kormatin the holy warrior of Khemra and buster of spies and hunter of evil mages who is having adventures in southern Fumaya.

There is another adventure technically part of the same campaign, Svetlana the half-orc, Neshik the gnome, and Aranil the elf are having adventures in the northern Fumaya.

Once scheduling issues allow us all to meet at the same time, either Kormatin is going to go north or the other three adventurers are going to go south.

In the north, Fumaya has brigands, monsters, and orcs.

In the south, Fumaya, a nation of about a million people is being threatened by Swynfaredia, a nation of about five and half million people.

Swynfaredia has existed as a nation for 897 years. Queen Gwyndolyn would love to officially annex a large portion of land on the 900th anniversary of Swynfaredia's royal charter, thus cementing herself in history as one of the greatest monarchs Swynfaredia has ever seen.

It's not just ego. The various noble houses that make up Swynfaredia are at each other's throats in a Byzantine mess of intrigue that would make a good HBO show if I added more nude scenes. Queen Gwyndolyn is hoping that giving the nobles an external foe will get them to stop trying to kill each other, or at least get them to stop trying to kill their rightful queen.

Swynfaredian soldiers have been violating the border and doing a lot of saber rattling while also sending in spies but she hasn't declared war yet. The Queen is hoping that she can provoke the Fumayans to respond aggressively to her provocations and then let her propaganda spin doctors spread tales of "Fumayans making unprovoked attacks on innocent Swynfaredians!" or I suppose she can take a play out of Vladimir Putin's playbook and she wants to rid Fumaya of Nazis.

So far, Kormatin, the player character has thwarted three Swynfaredian espionage without killing anyone. He also thwarted an evil cult not related to Swynfaredia with minimal bloodshed. Now he is kind of famous and King Henryk of Fumaya is going to officially make him his royal investigator with a big fancy royal writ that basically says "If you assist Kormatin's investigation, you assist your king. If you refuse to let Kormatin investigate your land, you are refusing your king."

Once this happens, Kormatin is going to be flooded with NPCs offering him assistance. Some of them are genuine patriots who want to assist Kormatin in defending the realm. Some of them are going to be criminals and traitors that want to look like they are on Kormatin's side so he doesn't dig up the skeletons in their closet.

As Kormatin expands his social network with new friends and new frienemies, we might be able to stretch the roleplaying dialogue out for several hours and fill the entire session with talking, or we might wrap up all the basics in 30 minutes. Roleplaying dialogue depends on whether we are in "the zone" or not."

Also, Kormatin the bastard has recently met a half-sister who revealed to him that his mystery father is a Swynfaredian noble named Rohdri ap Gruffyl and (based on his track record with other women) that Gruffyl probably used a mental enchantment to essentially rape his mother. So Kormatin is gathering information on House Gruffyl so he can try to kill Rohdri.

Anyway, Rohdri has sire A LOT of bastard children, and if they manifest, sorcery he will try to collect them later. So far all of Rohdri's bastard children who are sorcerers and sorceresses have Rohdri's heterocromia (it means both eyes are different colors). Kormatin appears to be the only bastard child that has the heterocromia but no sorcery.

I have many ongoing intrigues that Kormatin can potentially investigate, but the hard part is the first clue. The one that alerts Kormatin/Kormatin's player "I want to investigate this anomally."

Now he has more resources to investigate with than he did before BUT now he has a reputation so the bad guys are going to take steps to hide their dirty laundry when he's around. I put a spoiler box up in case Kormatin's player visits this thread.

I listed the intrigues in rough order of earth shattering-ness.

Spoiler: Ongoing intrigues

Spoiler: Rohdri's evil scheme

The grand scheme of Rohdri and his entire house is figure out an artificial means to play with genetics.

If a sorceress and a sorcerer have a baby, there is about a 50% chance that the child will be a sorcerer/sorceress. If a sorcerer/sorceress and a normie have a child, there will be about a 20% chance that the child will develop sorcery.

Long before Rohdri was even born, the leaders of House Gruffyl decided, "the factors that make a child a sorcerer or a squib are not random, they are just beyond our understanding. If we understood how to breed sorcerers consistently, our house would rule Swynfaredia!"

Rohdri isn't siring bastards just for the fun of it (though he is a lecherous sleezeball). He is taking notes on the astrological signs of the women he sleeps with and astrological signs on the days his children are conceived and other notes and details about how his children are conceived with the hope of figuring out a way to boost the number of sorcerers born.

If hypothetically, Kormatin kills Rohdri without exposing House Gruffyl's sorcery eugenics plan to sunlight, Rohdri's heirs will just pick up where he left off (though they probably wouldn't sire so many bastards).

Right now they are collecting demographic information from Fumayan peasants near the Swynfaredian peasant. If war breaks out, no one will question if a few peasants disappear. House Gruffyl is hoping to use the peasants as test subjects for means of breeding sorcerers.

Spoiler: Lion King story in the Duchy of Toe

About a year ago, the Duke Muffasa (actual name pending) of Toe (Palbuc) died in a hunting accident, however it turns out he was set up to die by his brother Scar (actual name pending). Now, the new Duke Simba (Vern Palbuc) just recently turned sixteen.

Uncle Scar is plotting to kill Simba so can become Duke of Palbuc, but he cannot do it if it's traced back to him. He is feeding Simba bad advice.

"Sixteen is young, but you are still a man. To win the respect of your men, you must be prepared to lead from the front lines."

"Sixteen is still so young, it is way too early to think about getting married and producing an heir. You have plenty of time to worry about this later."

Uncle Scar is hoping to stage Simba's death and make it look like Swynfaredians did it or better yet, goad Simba into facing the Swynfaredians in battle.

As of yet, I'm not sure how Uncle Scar can accidentally leave a clue behind that Kormatin might stumble over. I might have to wait till Kormatin unites with the other PCs before using this story arc.

Spoiler: Intrigue in Fumaya's Arch

Last session and the session before that, Kormatin busted up a cult of Decadents secretly led by the Duke's youngest daughter Felijca. He had help from the duke's youngest son Tacitus. While Tacitus was innocent of the Decadent plot, he is balancing his own scheme.

He discovered that his ten year old cousin Pallavi is a budding sorceress. He quietly murdered every servant who knew or suspected she was a sorceress and arranged to adopt Pallavi as a fosterling. Hypothetically, if Swynfaredia annexed Fumaya, they could try to cement the legitimacy of the marriage by marrying a Swynfaredian noble to a Fumayan noble and Swynfaredia law says only sorcerers and sorceresses can hold legal titles. Hypothetically this would make Pallavi a very valuable political chess piece and hypothetically Tacitus could figuratively or literally sell his cousin for either a cushy government job in Swynfaredia or simply a large pile of gold.

Also, the Duke of Heel has a VIP Swynfaredian prisoner right now being given honored guest/hostage status. That means Tacitus as a ranking Swynfaredian noble he can conspire with right in his castle.

It is nearly impossible for Kormatin to accidentally trip over this scheme. First off, he is friends with Tacitus. Second off, Kormatin arrested the Duke's daughter so he is keeping his distance from the Duchy, just in case Duke Garland Wiern is holding a grudge against Kormatin for this. I guess the best story hook would be if the Duke's oldest son, the good natured but dim witted Lord Bohdan stumbles on to his brother's traitorous plan and reaches out to Kormatin.

Spoiler: New crime syndicate in town

Before Kormatin's solo adventure began, the other three PCs had a long story arc removing the criminal syndicate formed by the metamorph Etch from Fumaya's capital city of King's Lake.

A new batch of criminals are trying to fill the underworld power vacuum and have moved into King's Lake. But there is a twist. The new criminals are only pretending to be money hungry thugs. They are actually moles affiliated with the Swynfaredian Children hoping to set up some useful agents in Fumaya's capital. Might make some of the criminals ogres or even make the leader a skin changer witch just for funsies.

Spoiler: The Deorac situation

Roughly 150 years ago, Swynfardia annexed the smaller nation of Talama. Most of the Talaman royal family (the Deoracs) were killed but a couple of them fled to Fumaya and married into the Fumayan nobility. The Fumayan nobles with Deorac blood are among the most anti-Swynfaredian Fumayans that can be found. They know that if Fumaya is conquered, anyone with a drop of Deorac blood is probably going to be rounded up and executed.

Unless you know, a Swynaredian spy assassinated them before the war actually began...

Spoiler: Who is this Kormatin?

Rohdri has heard rumors of a holy warrior of Khemra with hetercromia like him capturing sorcerer spies, and he just so happens to be a bastard son of a Fumayan noblewoman he had an affair with long ago. Perhaps he is curious enough to send one of his loyal bastards to gather intelligence on this "Kormatin."

Spoiler: Reagent poachers in Toe

When sorcerers go to war, there is great demand for reagents. The Swynfaredian Children have sneaked into the Duchy of Toe and are quietly poaching reagents from poorly secured forests near the border. One of these forests is in the territory of Kormatin's father-in-law. This is a simple story but it would allow me to introduce Kormatin's mother, step dad, and half-sibling into the campaign.

 

You should consider starting a free World Anvil Account (Freeman tier). I pay good money for advanced World Anvil features (Grand Master tier).

At Grand Master, I can have up to 100 worlds. I have four. Hypothetically, if I created a fifth world called "Scarterra for D&D 5th edition", or something similar. I could then make Bowser co-author.

Then Bowser could access most of my Grand Master features (most important of which is "no ads") when writing things in "Scarterra for D&D 5th edition" and it would not cost him a cent.

Alternatively I could create a table of contents subheading in my page "Scarterra for D&D 5th edition" and give you writes as "an advanced author" on my main Scarterra page. That would give the right to create articles on my main page but it would not allow you to edit articles I created.

 

Frog goblins are probably the most numerous goblin offshoot because they can live almost anywhere. I don't know if I ever posted jumping goblins.

Frog goblins are essentially "water goblins" and jumping goblins are essentially "air goblins." Soon, I will create variants of "earth goblins" and "fire goblins." Earth goblins are likely to resemble old pre-Tolkien goblin legends, they live underground and scheme for gold. They are probably going to be the future of goblinkind. I like the idea that they are not only bigger and stronger than normal goblins, but also more patient and intelligent.

I don't know if you read the Artemis Fowl novels, but fire goblins are probably going to greatly resemble the goblins of that setting. They breath fire and are pretty resilient but they are quite dumb and have zero impulse control. A few fire goblins dwell near volcanic vents and areas where other mortals cannot survive. Elsewhere, fire goblins don't last long because they tend to pick fights with everyone or else they find themselves tricked into a subservient position of clever bad guys, such as perhaps earth goblins.

I even have vague ideas for goblin variants that are not directly connected to the four elements.

In the mean time, here is another variant of mutant cannibals. Here is my article on jormangers. I'm still polishing my article on morlocks but if you want to see what I got so far, you can click on one of the hyperlinks


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jormangers (jore-main-ger)

In the Dwarven language, "jormangers" refers to anyone with Cannibal Sickness. In the Common language (and this article), "jormangers" refer to dwarves with the sickness.

Most dwarves would rather die than engage in eating mortal flesh. Most does not mean all

Dwarves prefer to live in the mountains and underground caverns which are not especially food rich environments. Regardless of whether they are Stahlheimer dwarves, Meckelorner dwarves, or Penarchian dwarves, wasting food among dwarves is literally a criminal offense. Among Mondarian dwarves, food is somewhat more plentiful but being wasteful is still taboo.

Jormangers may try to impersonate ordinary dwarves or they may live solitary existances in the wilderenss or they may seek out other Jormanger to form ad hoc clans. It's anyone's guess based on a jormanger's original personality and his or her particular circumstances.

When fighting enemies or prey, jormanger prefer to use cunning ambushes and trickery over pure brute force though they are by no means weak or cowardly.
Transmission & Vectors
Jormangers are dwarves who develop an addiction to mortal flesh. Like a human ogre, a dwarf jormanger can pass his/her curse onto his/her offspring. Dwarf family honor is very strong. Even if a dwarf jormanger cannot defeat his own addiction, many choose to remain child-less so as not to spread their taint to their family. That said, some jormangers are lonely and ashamed and want to spread the jormanger condition, so they can have a greater sense of family. These jormangers try to have lots of children.

Second, third generation, and fourth generation jormangers develop their powers faster and stronger than first generation Jormangers. Fifth generation jormangers are essentially morlocks, effectively a new species entirely.

A second generation jormanger could probably impersonate a normal dwarf indefinitely if she stayed underground and avoided sunlight. A third generation jormanger might be able to impersonate a normal dwarf for a short period of time, if he stayed underground, wore thick clothing and figuratively and literally kept his distance. Jormangers impersonating normal dwarves take on professions that keep them away from the main hustle and bustle of mainstream dwarf society. If they are trying to mingle in human society, they will invariably seek nocturnal jobs such as night watchmen or shepherds or goatherds taking night duty.

Fourth generation jormangers have no chance of dealing with normal dwarves even for a very brief duration and their only hope for long term survival is to be adopted by a clan of morlocks.
Symptoms
Jormangers very quickly have their night vision improve. Most Jormangers can see perfectly in darkness within less than two decades of contracting Cannibal Sickness.

As a jormangers' night vision improves, he or she is increasingly pained and disoriented by bright light. Whatever their original eye color, greyish red becomes their new normal.

This light sensitivity has a small upside. It comes with perfect celestial attunement. Even if they stay underground indefinitely, most jormanger exactly when sun rise and sunset are down to the minute and they always know what phase the moon in.

Jormanger's sense of smell and hearing gradually increases though not as dramatically as their change of vision.

Dwarves are usually very comfortable underground but Jormangers underground senses are enhanced. They never get lost. A jormanger can be knocked unconscious, a dumped a hundred miles away into somewhere unfamiliar and be able to find his way back to a familoar tunnel.

When above ground, jormangers can intuitively sense the direction and approximate distance of the nearest entrance to Scarnoctis.Jormangers can hold their breath longer than normal dwarves. Very mutated jormangers or second and third generation jormanger require much less oxygen than normal dwarves.

A small number of advanced jormanger are amphibious with mutable lungs and can turn their lungs into gills and visa versa but this process of transformation takes about ten minutes and leaves the jormanger very vulnerable during the transition.

Jormangers' skin gradually get paler over time as their condition advances. Their hair becomes paler and flaxen. Most second and subsequent generation jormangers have white hair. Advanced jormangers often grow a thicker hide which provides a small level of natural armor.

In advanced jormanger stages, beards get sparser and more patchy while at the same time, body hair increases. Most third and subsequent generation dwarves cannot grow beards at all.

It is common but far from universal for jormangers to gradually develop great climbing ability allowing them to scale walls and ceilings like spiders.

Late stage jormangers gradually develop sharper, pointier teeth, though very few of them can effectively use their bite to attack enemies and prey in combat.

Jormanger retain a normal dwarves' strong constitution. A small number of advanced jormanger develop truly supernatural resistance to toxins and poisons.

Unlike ogres and wendigo, it is uncommon for jormanger develop supernatural strength, but dwarves are usually pretty strong to begin with therefore jormanger are usually pretty strong. A small number of jormanger develop enhanced dexterity.

Those adventurers and mercenaries who make it a point to hunt down mutant cannibals have noticed something disturbing about jormanger. Jormangers are disturbingly sane and rational.

It is very common for those Cannibal Sickness to be afflicted with some form of madness. Skopen and vultures pretty much always go mad, while ogres and wendigo have a slow but steady mental degeneration. Jormangers don't take perverse thrill in eating mortal flesh and they don't relish the fear of their victims, they simply act.

Jormangers are no more or less prone to mental issues than regular dwarves and like regular dwarves, jormanger are pretty good at hiding their innermost shortcomings through a façade of stoicism.

Jormangers also tend to have strong wills and relative to other cannibal mutants, they can show greater restraint. A jormanger impersonating a regular dwarf can usually refrain from eating "long pig" longer than an ogre impersonating a regular human can.
Treatment
Much like with ogres, Purification magic can temporarily suppress an Jormanger's unholy appetite but to cure Cannibal Sickness an afflicted needs to have genuine remorse, be subjected to Purification ●●●●●, and then go on a lengthy and dangerous quest while resisting the urge to eat mortal flesh the whole time.

This has only happened four or five times in recorded history. Dwarves have little tolerance for deviation from their culture norms, and they are not known for their mercy. If they treat non-traditionalist dwarves with disdain, imagine how they treat cannibals.

Most dwarves prefer to "treat" their cannibals by separating their heads from their bodies. Every Jormanger that was successfully redeemed was saved by one or more very brave and compassionate kalazotz.
Prevention
The best way to not get Cannibal Sickness is to not engage in cannibalism. The same goes for jormanger's transformation. An dwarf that doesn't eat mortal flesh will never turn into a jormanger. The more mortal flesh a dwarf eats, the more likely his or her transformation is, especially if they are eating the flesh of other dwarves.
History
Dwarves make the claim that jormangers did not exist at all until the Second Unmaking. Whether or not this is true, it is almost impossible to prove or disprove this.

A lot of dwarves survived the early days and weeks of the unmaking hiding behind their barred fortresses. Eventually their food stores ran low. A few dwarves roamed the surface of Scarterra looking for food but most dwarves remained underground where there were far fewer Void demons and undead but less food.

Some survivors resorted to cannibalism and became jormangers. At the start of the Third Age during the period known as the The Little Unmaking, while the elves were trying to purge skopen from their ranks, the dwarves likewise struggled against the newly formed jormanger clans.

The untainted dwarves claimed victory over the Jormanger but they didn't realized that they failed to kill them all. The jormanger clans were not wiped out, they were figuratively and literally driven deep underground becoming the first morlocks.
Cultural Reception
Dwarf honor leads many dwarves to pretend to outsiders that jormangers don't exist anymore in order to save face. Dwarf pragmatism forces many dwarves to acknowledge that starvation condition can and do create jormangers in modern times. Most dwarves reluctantly admit to outsiders that jormangers are rare, but they do exist.

Dwarf societies of all stripes are brutal and uncompromising policing their ranks for potential cannibals and slaying those found guilty without hesitation or remorse.

If an exposed jormanger tries to evade justice by traveling to non-dwarven lands, dwarf lords and ladies will send adventuring parties to hunt the fugitives down.While it is true that first and second generation Jormanger are quite rare, morlocks are technically jormangers and there thousands of them.

Some learned dwarf scholars suspect a link between jormangers and morlocks. A few dwarf warriors and adventurers that had fought against both Jormangers and morlocks suspect that these two groups are linked.

Dwarves who have deduced that morlocks are the descendants of ancient jormangers are hesitant to share this theory with other dwarves. Dwarves won't admit this connection at all to outsiders. Even if they suspect otherwise, most dwarves publicly claim morlocks are some new monstrous race created by Greymoria, Maylar, Phidas, or possibly the Demon Lords.Dwarves and morlocks view each other as enemies, but whether out of deep seated fear or deep seated shame, both sides usually try to avoid direct confrontation when possible.

Morlocks will sometimes adopt jormangers, but only if they show that they are strong and cunning enough to make it on their own a good while first.

Unlike some ogre and wendigo clans which have horrifying and rapacious recruitment policies for new "family", morlocks only recruit jormanger, they don't manufacture them. There is no known case of a morlock trying to force or trick an untainted dwarf into becoming a jormanger.

(sidebar)

What About Man-Dwarves?
Man-dwarves that contract Cannibal Sickness will pick up an assortment of jormanger and ogre traits.

Man dwarfs are already large, strong and tough, jogres are huge, nearly unbeatable in toe-to-to fight.

Despite this, jogres don't last very long. In a lot of ways they pick up the least useful traits of jormangers and ogres. In most cases it is difficult for a jogre to be adopted by a ogre tribe or jormanger clan and if they are adopted, they will probably be treated poorly, like a rabid dog only unleashed during extreme situations.

Underground, growing to a huge size is a liability. Even assuming they can find tunnels large enough to skulk in, jogres rarely develop the perfect underground senses that jormangers develop so they can easily get lost making them a liability to jormanger clans.

Above ground, jogres suffer from the same light sensitivity that afflicts jormangers making them a liability to ogre tribes.

Jogres require considerable more food than ogres or jormangers, and they rarely have a jormanger's mental stability or natural restraint, so they often attract a lot of unwelcome attention very quickly.

 

We had a good session. It was on action but high on character interaction and roleplaying. Up to this point, Kormatin has gotten very little treasure so now he is a famous and respected investigator. Allied interest groups have been supplying him with resources and also provided him with info dumps. Lots of info dumps, but we did via in-character roleplaying to keep it from being dull.

We had fun, but we agreed the next session should have lots of action and I already have a plan to start the next session with a bang which should be in early June. Summary is here.

One thing mildly surprising, if Kormatin's player was especially interested in a dwarf character I intended as a throwaway character but they got along well so I expanded on him, starting with a name Nuldrun Dragonbane.

But in the mean time, I better get back to gratuitously world building not likely to come up in this campaign anytime soon....

Though hypothetically, if I get my second Scarterran RPG campaign up and running, morlocks may be a recurring antagonist race. I have yet to flesh out their RPG stats, but no, morlocks will never be a PC eligible race.

Personally I noticed that morlocks fill a similar story niche to derro. Both morlocks and derro are degenerate and evil genetic mockeries of dwarves that are hostile to almost all outsiders.

But morlocks and are cold and calculating emotional-less predators and derro are unhinged highly emotional madmen that rely on their magical prowess to defeat enemies.

My derro are markedly different from D&D derro, but I don't know if copyright lawyers would agree if I tried to monetize Scarterra.

Maybe Scarnoctis is big enough for derro and morlocks, but if I cannot have both, I will choose morlocks.

Scalenex Note: I don't have to copy and paste articles from World Anvil onto Lustria-Online, I could just post the link, but L-O has a much better spell checker and I swear my spelling ability degrades every year.

In the second grade, I was the best speller in class hands down. What happened? What happened!?!

morlocks

"I have fought many dangerous foes over my career but none of my memories keep me awake at night like the morlocks.

These hairy beasts growl and snarl as monstrously as they look, but behind the growls, I hear them speak our mother tongue."
-Sarfen "the Cavedelver" of the Red Shaft Clan, retired adventurer.

Morlocks are a degenerate offshoot of regular dwarves, the result of generations of jormangers breeding exclusively with other and evolutionary and elemental forces gradually shaping their culture and physiology.

Like the jormangers they evolved from, morlocks crave eating mortal flesh, are pained by bright light, have excellent underground senses (including a perfect sense of direction), are amazing climbers, and have perfect celestial attunement to the movements of the sun and the moon (even when underground).Morlocks are genetically more stable than first, second, and third generation jormangers, so they do not often manifest random mutations, helpful or baneful. They tend to get the standard morlock package.

Morlocks are largely unrecognizable as an offshoot of dwarves. Most morlocks are at least vaguely aware of their shared history, some dwarves suspect a connection between their races, but most others have not made the connection.

Morlocks are beardless and have weak chins. Apart from their constitution and stature, they do not physically resemble the dwarves they once called kin.

Morlocks do not possess any vestige of dwarven honor, only a perverted version of dwarven pragmatism. They do have a vague sense of kinship with other morlocks but their relations do not greatly resemble the clan structures of dwarves. While morlocks support their extended family, they have no real sense of clan honor and do not normally extend filial piety to their ancestors.

Morlocks, like the dwarves they once were, are very good at working with metal and stone. Their building skills are generally turned to horrifying ends engineering sophisticated traps both to subdue or kill prey and to defend their lairs.

Morlocks tend to keep to their own kind, but they are willing to work with others surprisingly often. Assuming a Scarnoctis race is okay trading with a race as vile as morlocks, the morlocks can be a great supplier of weapons, armor, traps, and cages.
Basic Information
Anatomy
Morlocks are stocky muscular humanoids with pale skin, flaxen hair on their bodies and heads, brutish faces with weak chins, pointy teeth, and little to no facial hair.

Grey reddish eyes and white hair are the morlock norm, but centuries of evolutionary change have created some cosmetic differences by clan and region.

Genetics And Reproduction
Morlocks have an even male-to-female ratio and reproduce with the same basic process most humanoids use.

Morlock pregnancies lasts about a year. Roughly 99% of the time, births are singular and roughly 1% of the time twins are born. Infants are typically weaned in about four years.

A typical Morlock female will have between six and ten children over her lifetime depending on what the attrition rate for her clan is.
Growth Rate & Stages
Morlocks mature and age slightly faster than dwarves.

Morlock children can largely fend for themselves in basic tasks around age ten. Morlocks tend to enter adolescence around age 20.They are considered full adults after about 35 years old and they tend to start dying of old age around 240 years old with a few lucky individuals making it to 280 years old.

Ecology And Habitats
Given that morlocks are pained by sunlight, most live primarily underground. A few clans will occasionally venture onto the surface at night, but many stay underground full time and never venture above ground at all.

Morlocks prefer isolated and defensible underground warrens but they are obligate carnivores so they need to have sources of prey nearby.

Many morlock clans are nomadic or semi-nomadic so as not to exhaust a single area of prey.
Dietary Needs And Habits
Morlocks are obligate carnivores. They can eat plants and fungi in survival situations but it makes them uncomfortable if not outright sick.

Morlocks can eat any meat, but they prefer to eat mortal flesh and dwarf flesh is a special delicacy. Morlocks are remorseless about feeding on mortals but they are also pragmatic. They might prefer eating human flesh than a clutch of rabbits, but they know the rabbits rarely have kinsmen eager to violently avenge them. Most morlocks eat more animal flesh than mortal flesh over the course of their lives.

Morlocks will restrain themselves from hunting mortal flesh when they believe they cannot easily handle the potential reprisals preferring to abduct people unlikely to missed and unlikely to be avenged.

If a mortal stumbles into morlock territory, that mortal is destined to be served up at breakfast, but when morlocks go into other mortals' territory, they don't start abducting prey until they have thoroughly scouted them out and assessed their enemies' strengths and weaknesses.

Additional Information
Perception And Sensory Capabilities
Morlocks have keen senses of hearing and smell. They can see perfectly in darkness but they are pained and disoriented in bright light, especially sunlight. Morlocks are less bothered by fire than other sources of light, and have zero problems using fire to cook their meat or heat their forges.

Morlocks usually cook their food but they eat their meat fairly rare compared to civilized mortals.
Beauty Ideals
Dwarf men pride their beards and dwarf women like to sport long carefully woven braids. Morlocks cannot grow beards or braids.

Morlocks of both sexes tend to take pride in their manes of silky hair and their back hair which would disgust most outsiders if they ever witnessed morlock mating rituals. Both sexes use the volume of a potential mate's hair as their first physical indicator of attractiveness.
Gender Ideals
A majority of morlock clan leaders and war party leaders are male, but morlocks on the whole are much more egalitarian than the dwarves they descended with morlock men and women serving in any societal role they are qualified for without social stigma.

Much like dwarves, morlock society prioritizes defending women and children before prioritizing defending the men, but morlocks expect their women to hold their own and not be helpless damsels.
Courtship Ideals
Morlocks usually mate for life. At periodic intervals, morlock clans visit courtship sites. Wide caverns with varied and unusual rock formations. (Remember that morlocks can scale walls and ceilings very well).

The females adolescents then run into rock formations and after a head start, the males follow and whichever female they catch is their betrothed life mate.

This is less chauvinistic than it sounds. Females are nearly always faster runners than males and females are generally considerably much more agile climbers.

A female's attitude toward the particular male chasing her determines how fast she runs. Morlock sense of smell is potent and even a female cannot see the males nearest her, she knows exactly who they are.

If a male doesn't catch anyone or a female is not caught, they can participate in the next courtship ritual, but males and females don't get a third chance to find a mate. They are literally branded as unworthy of having a life mate and treated as second class clan members.

This mating process is intended to weed weak morlocks out of the gene pool.

Average Technological Level
Somewhat hampered by a severe lack of timber and other surface world based supplies, morlocks nevertheless have technological parity with ordinary dwarves.

Their traps are among the most sophisticated and deadly in all of Scarnoctis. Typically traps are designed to nonlethally maim a target's legs, so they cannot flee but do not immediately die. The traps also make just enough noise to alert morlocks when they are sprung.

If the morlocks suspect their prey has access to magical healing, they will adjust traps to make them lethal, using crushing skulls. Morlocks don't like to eat meat off the face much and unlike goblins and other underground maneaters, they are too pragmatic to display skull trophies.

Major Language Groups And Dialects
Morlocks speak a there own dialect of Dwarven. Most dwarves can understand the morlock dialect but morlock dialect sounds unnatural and disturbing to their ears. They have a few hundred words that diverge from the Dwarven language, mostly different words for morlocky things like different types of prey and different types of traps.

Even if they wanted to, morlocks cannot impersonate the vocal intonation of an ordinary dwarves. At best they can sound like a normal dwarf that was just punched in the throat. That said, morlocks have zero trouble understanding normal dwarves talking.

Morlock dialect involves a bit of snarling and growling for punctuation. Morlock can produce deep low sonic rumbles that reverberate very far underground to communicate very simple ideas to other morlocks over long distances. Things that can be conveyed are along the lines of "FLEE" "ATTACK" "REST" and "FOLLOW."

Outsiders cannot translate these subsonic reverberations but they know something is happening and that the sound is coming from a living creature.

Most morlocks rarely make a serious effort to learn other languages, but a few of the more mercenary minded morlock clans are an exception to the rule, and few highly intelligent individual morlocks in every clan find they have a surprising knack for languages.

Morlock skin changer witches can learn a language magically by ceremonially eating the brains of native speakers of different languages. In forward thinking clans, the skin changers teach what they learn to their fellows.

Common Dress Code
Like everything else morlocks craft, morlock clothing and armor is functional, not pretty.

Normally morlocks dress minimally, with just enough clothes to not be nude because I want them to keep the monstrous look but I never ever want to see a picture of a naked warlock.

Morlocks are hairy and hot blooded enough that they can exist comfortably in cool environments with minimal clothing though if temperatures become cold enough to create ice and snow, morlocks need to dress in layers, which are usually patchworks of fur from previous animal prey.

More often than not, morlocks prefer lighter armors, preferring to stay relatively mobile.

Morlocks usually craft their armor to fit specific individuals. It is a mild taboo for a morlock to wear another morlock's armor.

Because their armor is so perfectly form fitting, morlock armor does not clank or rattle much meaning the morlocks are effectively stealth warriors even when armored.

Culture And Cultural Heritage
Morlocks, like the dwarves they descended from, are clever and prodigious builders and crafters.

Centuries of (de)evolution have killed the morlock sense of aesthetics. Dwarf artisans take pride in things that are beautiful to the eye while retaining their functionality, but morlock crafts are always purely functional.

A morlock clan that adopts younger jormangers as outside breeding stock might occasionally produce crafter with a glimmer of an aesthetic eye. Morlocks do not shun these "artistic" morlocks but they don't celebrate them either.

Morlocks do like to sing, though it is radically different from what most other mortals consider "singing". Morlocks enjoy deep harmonious rumbling in tandem as a sort of bonding ritual with their clan mates.

Common Customs, Traditions And Rituals
Most morlock clans develop their own unique traditions and rituals, but while some of these traditions might superficially resemble religious ceremonies, most morlocks are not very pious and give the Nine very little thought. Many morlocks cannot even name them all.

Rumors that morlocks worship Turoch and widely practice their own form of Infernalism seem to be just that, rumors.

History
A lot of dwarves survived the early days and weeks of the Unmaking by hiding inside their barred fortresses. Eventually their food stores ran low. A few dwarves roamed the surface of Scarterra looking for food but most dwarves remained underground where there were far fewer Void demons and undead but less food.

Some survivors resorted to cannibalism and became Jormangers. At the start of the Third Age during the period known as the The Little Unmaking, while the elves were trying to purge skopen from their ranks, the dwarves likewise struggled against the newly formed jormanger clans.

The untainted dwarves claimed victory over the jormangers but they didn't realized that they failed to kill them all. The jormanger clans were not wiped out, they were figuratively and literally driven deep underground.

The emerging morlock clans evolved physiologically and socially. There were many disparate morlock clans scattered about Scarnoctis. Most ranged fairly far, at least in the early days of the Third Age so this led to most isolated groups of morlocks meeting each other and occasionally trading news, cultural practices, and marriage partners creating a loose global morlock culture of sorts.
Interspecies Relations And Assumptions
Most morlocks vaguely understand that their ancestors were once normal dwarves. Most dwarves are in denial about this, even among themselves though they know in their hearts that they are connected to morlocks in some way.

To morlocks, most other species are prey. You don't socialize with your food and you don't let them learn details about you that let them fight back.

Morlocks clans are pragmatic and clever enough that they will negotiate with other mortals when it suits their needs, especially nonhumanoids who usually don't taste very good and are also not instinctively repulsed by a race that routinely feeds on other mortal races.

Many clans have working relationships with individual ocumati when their territories are near each other. Eye monster flesh tastes awful, so morlocks have little incentive to fight them, and most ocumati likewise have better things to do than pick fights with morlock clans.

Likewise, morlocks cannot eat delvers and delvers likewise have no beef with them. Morlocks are prodigious metalworkers and since delvers love to eat refined metal, morlocks can barter metal to delvers for their services as tunnelers.

A few so called "rancher clans" have set up dark symbiotic relationships with some humanoids. They clandestinely provide "aid" to mortal groups giving them free supplies and "safe" places to live keeping all external threats away...save the morlcoks themselves.

The morlocks will periodically visit their "ranches" and disappear individuals to feast on, much like the relationship between Eloi and Morlocks in H.G. Well The Time Machine though on a smaller, less industrial scale.

These arrangements rarely last especially long, but it's a proverbial Holy Grail that many morlock clans aspire to create even if they can never reach it.

 

A few weeks ago, I have vowed to write some Scarterran short stories, just to get to ball moving.

A few days ago, I was metaphorically kissed by a muse and I started writing a Scarterran short story. Apparently the muse that kissed me is a morbid goth chick. I have decided to put a NSFW 18+ filter on it. I put the "Scar" in Scarterra. It is not explicitly graphic, but it is the darkest thing I have ever written.

Maybe it is not necessary for me to have put an 18+ filter on it, but I also wanted to see what happens if I put a 18+ filter on something.

I'm not sure if it can be viewed without logging on to World Anvil and disabling the 18+ filter. Scolenex refuses to create a world anvil account so only visits as a guest and said he could not access the story. Though Scolenex is not extremely tech savvy, so maybe there is a way a guest can view the story.

Here is the direct link to my ~650 word short story. Otherwise, if you go to the table of Contents for the new category "Fiction" and the subcategory "Dark fiction" you can reach it there.

Spoiler: The Wrath of Jacawn

Long ago in the Red Era when the mighty Fakhari’s tower looked down on the rest of Scarterra, there was a Fakhari governor named Jacawn who presided over a powerful Fakhari province. Now the province has since turned to dust though at the time it was prosperous and wealthy.


Jacawn was a blessed man, he had great wealth and power and he famously beautiful daughter named Fatine who he loved more than anything else. She was said to embody the four elements evenly within her manifesting the most pleasing aesthetic traits of fire, earth, water, and air.


Many lords and princes sought Fatine’s hand in marriage and they offered Jacawn great gifts for the privilege of marrying her: mountains of silks, thousands of gold coins, ship loads of spices. Jacawn politely met every suitor and introduced them to Fatine, but Jacawn turned them all down.


While Jacawn had the legal right to marry Fatine to anyone he chose, but he swore to the Nine that he would only marry Fatine to a man whom she loved, and Fatine had rejected every suitor. Jacawn was secretly relieved, for he too believed none of the suiters were worthy of his daughter.


A Fakhari lord named Chevell petitioned for Fatine’s three times and was rejected three times though each time he returned with even greater treasure offered to Fatine and her father.


After three rejections, Chevell decided not to take no for an answer. He used some of his great wealth to hire mercenaries skilled with magics and the blade. While Jacawn was away on business in another province, Chevell attacked Jacawn’s palace. With his small army of mercenaries, he easily overwhelmed the guards, breached the palace and absconded with Fatine.


He took her into his bed by force, several times, and Fatine never stopped trying to fight him.


Jacawn wasted no resources trying to save his daughter and invaded Chevell’s land, putting everything to the torch, but he was too late. Chevell had already fled with Fatine. Before Jacawn could catch up with them, Fatine scratched Chevell deep across the face and in a fit of rage, Chevell threw her against the wall head first and accidentally killed her.


It was said he was still staring at her cooling body in disbelief when Jacawn’s men found him.



Chevell was imprisoned in Jacawn’s tallest tower. When Jacawn faced Chevell. Chevell defiantly said.


“I suppose you will torture me to death now.”


Jacawn ordered Chevell’s manhood be removed with a serrated dagger. Before he could bleed out, a magical healer completely regenerated the lost organ. Then Chevell’s arm was chopped off with an axe. Before he could bleed out, a magical healer completely restored his arm. Then he was bled dry with a hundred tiny stab wounds and fully healed again just before the point of death. That day he was afflicted with nine mutilations, and each time he was fully restored by magic (save for the scratch on his face) and given a bath to clean off the blood, so he could be tortured again.


Spitting defiance, Chevell asked, “Are you ready to kill me now or do you need to torture me some more a bit?”


Jacawn just smiled cruelly and said, “Since you have taken my daughter, I have been pained every day. Today you felt my pain. Tomorrow you will feel my pain again.”


The next day, Chevell was torture to the brink of death nine more times and magically healed every time. This was repeated every day for nine years, though Chevell was given a reprieve during the five-day Month of Nike out of respect for the Nine.


Chevell’s birthday also fell within the Month of Nike and Jacawn was said to personally deliver him a fine cake every year though every year Chevell chose not to eat any of the cake.


After nine years of torture, Jacawn allowed Chevell to die, though Jacawn’s pain had not yet healed and never would.

I will try to make the next couple of stories less grim. They are going to be set in the Feudal Era. My general plan is that Scarterra Red Era stories are going to lean towards Song of Ice and Fire in tone and Scarterra's Feudal Era stories are going to lean more towards Tolkien.

And the above story emphasizes how I want to use the Fakhari, they were mysterious, powerful, larger than life, and very controversial in their actions and the legends about the Fakhari sound and feel like allegories.

I have added two new entries to my Scarterran Idiom thread.

"Chevell treatment": (1) to use magical healing as a tool of torture (2) turning anything good into something bad.

"Wrath of Jacawn": An act of extreme vengeance.

Here is a toned down cliff notes version of the Wrath of Jacawn that also covers the cultural ramifications of this story in Scarterra.

It just so happens that one of Kormatin's tentative allies, Ujarek, in the last RPG session turned over a prisoner to him that got a little bit of the Chevell treatment.