At the dawn of this world, the gods came together to make the races.  They agreed upon many things and set out to make peoples that would be similar and compatible, but distinct – each with their own racial talents.

Most of the races were made by gods in similar ways with similar paradigms, but the gods of the Onk and the other “inhuman” races… either misunderstood the agreement or they just decided to do things their own way.

Most of the races have a special ability that allows them to transform some outside category of substance (plant matter for Fe; animal matter for Worg; rocks, metal, gems, and earth for the Diggers; foodstuff for humans; and so-on) but the Onk’s special talents allow them to ingest and derive nutritional sustenance from anything: carrion, rotten plants, tree leaves, and even rocks or soil, depending on the specific type of Onk.

The Onk also do not visually match the “humanoid” mold, with their tusks and horns and overly broad and long faces and their mottled skins.

This visual difference, combined with their stark cultural differences, have served to isolate the Onk from the “civilized” races, who mostly see them as inhuman, violent monsters that eat carrion and garbage.   This is all a great misunderstanding.

The Onk have their own sophisticated art, culture, and education systems.   They even have universities and doctoral-level programs that could easily compete with humanity’s greatest schools. Their culture, which appears purely warlike and violent to an outsider, is deeply merit- and honor-based.  They are inherently honest, and far more transparent to each other and to those that are willing to look.

The Onk look upon human culture with disdain, with the lies we immerse ourselves in. There are many Onkish jokes about our belief that walls and laws will “protect us from each other,” our belief in some inherent justice to the world, a human’s role and position being determined by lineage, and a human father’s “ownership” of his wife and children.

Property is tracked through matrilineal lines, since women choose whom to mate with based on who is the best or strongest or smartest in their community at that time.

Just because someone was best or strongest or smartest last year, doesn’t mean they still are.  The men are constantly competing and challenging themselves and each other.  Acts of greatness are temporary and must be maintained and continued in order to be remain valuable.  Their inherent honesty and transparency create genuine effort at self improvement when given opportunities to learn and grow.  Bragging and overt attempts at gaining merit for its own sake are looked down upon, and are generally seen as signs of deeper weakness.  Acts of conniving or treachery have long-term consequences, and can permanently ruin a reputation (and any chance of wealth or influence.)

Influence _is_ wealth among the Onk.  Something gifted is more valuable than something taken.  Since nutritional sustenance requires far less societal effort, their economy is very different.  With the need for food and water fundamentally solved, then esteem and social belonging become more of a focus.  Using Maslow’s heirarchy of needs, the Onk’s core foundation is built upon just shelter, sleep, and sex, followed by health and security, then social belonging and esteem.  In Onk culture, self actualization and transcendence lead to improved esteem which leads to improved social belonging and also improves the quality and availability of shelter and sex.

It is worth noting that, since a female might mate with a few different males when she’s in heat and since mothers have children in litters, then each child might each come from a different father.  Everyone knows who their mother is, but it’s not usually easy to identify an individual’s male progenitor.  There are matchmakers who specialize in tracking family lines using a combination of careful comparison of genetic features, spirit guides, and, ultimately, their sense of smell.

“Father” in the Onkish tongue translates more like “Sensei.”   It is culturally encouraged for a male to teach and mentor the young.  Being a great teacher is something that one can earn esteem for, and something many seek to excel at.

Women are not excluded from learning or practicing the warrior ways, but they often have more to lose and less to gain.   Essentially, if they choose to play the game, they’re doing it for the sake of their enjoyment of the game and to increase their merit, and not because they’re trying to impress potential mates.  Or maybe they are, but they’re trying to impress potential mates of a different sort.

Wealth and property are primarily owned and inherited among matrilineal lines.  Any Onk can lay claim to their own possessions, but land, structures, supplies, heirlooms, and long-term items of wealth are typically controlled by the matriarchs of each family, sometimes a whole clutch of sisters and cousins who hold authority by mutual esteem of their clans.

An individual Onk’s personal possessions are distributed by according to the decisions of the matriarchs of their clan, although the matriarchs usually obey the last known wishes of the deceased.

All Onk are protected and provided for by their families so long as they don’t disparage the family honor.

Like the combative males, female Onk have their own competitions and struggles for merit and influence.  Their esteem in the eyes of their mothers and aunts have a large effect on their authority within the clans as they grow older and gain more responsibility.   They also have their competitions with each other, vying for gifts and attentions from the men they find appealing.

The Onk economy centers mostly around shelter and security, since food and water are a non-issue.  In regions where the Onk are less likely to be driven off their land by humans, they are able to establish permanent towns and cities, building out of wood and stone as well as they can without assistance from the Fe and the Diggers.  Their lack of access to the Diggers means their access to high quality metal tools is limited, which limits what they can accomplish with wood and stone.  They have some limited metallurgy (effectively equivalent to what humans would have if they didn’t trade with the Diggers: bronze age or early iron age) and they’ve learned to cut, grind and shape wood and stone with the tools they do have access to.

In regions where they are unable to remain settled in towns, they rely on tents made from wool, hair, and other cloth.  They tan leather on their own, or trade on occasion with the Worg for their superior leather and bone goods.

It is also worth noting that the Onk, especially the Boarish Onk, are afflicted with aggressive ambition in much the same way as humanity, something that most of the other races are generally immune to.  Unfortunately, the Onk are at a technological disadvantage to humanity, and despite the Onk’s superior skills and experience at warfare, will usually lose any direct conflict with human armies.   If the Onk were more willing to steal weapons and technology from humans, diggers, and fe, then the scales would likely tip the other direction.

So, the Onk are usually pushed back to places where the other races cannot or do not want to live, where food is hard to grow, where there isn’t enough clean water, or other places where agriculture is too difficult to be worthwhile.   It is only their aggressive ambition to expand that drives them to explore and attempt to occupy spaces where they would come into contact with human civilization.

Different kinds of Onk

• The Boarish
  • tusks and flat, front-facing noses
  • omnivorous (meat, plants, mud)
  • mature quickly, very quick learners, relatively short lifespans (25 year max expectancy, but walking in days, independent in 2-3 years, wizened at 15-20, breed annually in litters of 3-6)  (lifespan is subject to reconsideration, and may be changed.)
• The Ruminants:
  • Boavish
    • large stature, forward facing horns, flat teeth
    • herbivorous (plants, trees, grass)
    • (cattle/common, buffalo, bison, ox)
    • subtype: Aegish, smaller stature with rear facing horns: gazelle, antelope, impala
    • lifespan: 40-60 year max expectancy, independent in 5-10 years, breed at human rates but twins and triplets are common.
  • Goavish
    • smaller stature, rear facing horns, sometimes curling into spiral
    • (goats and sheep)
    • eats plants, dirt, rocks
    • lifespan: 40-60 year max expectancy, independent in 5-10 years, breed at human rates but twins and triplets are common.
  • Cervish
    • several kinds, of different size and stature
    • antlers, annual growth
    • increasing stature: deer (80kg), caribou (100kg), elk (220kg), moose (400kg)
    • herbivorous (plants, trees, grass)
    • lifespan: 40-60 year max expectancy, independent in 5-10 years, breed at human rates but twins and triplets are common.
• The Equis
  • larger stature, no horns, actual horse-like heads?
    • sometimes one horn, centered on head or on tip of nose (rhino/unicorn)
  • herbivorous (plants, trees, grass)
  • sub-group: the Glashtyn (aquatic)
  • lifespan: 40-60 year max expectancy, independent in 5-10 years, breed at human rates.