003 Sylvan Races

Fe – long lived, graceful humanoids
  • Based on cats, feline
    • slit-pupil eyes, pointed ears
    • excellent night vision, optimized for motion
    • limited color vision, worse than worg
    • good sense of smell
    • nine lives: long lived (nine human lifespans)
    • refined features, sharp teeth
  • racial advantage: easily transform, strengthen and reshape wood/plants with fire and water
    • can make wood/moss glow for long periods of time without being consumed
    • can make a good bow and full set of arrows as quickly as a human can make dinner (assuming infrastructure is in place — humans have milled grain, stockpiles of seasonal vegetables and spices, etc — the Fe have similar preparatory needs.  The better the supplies, the better the end product.  Compare a campfire dinner to a four course meal at a restaurant.)
    • can fashion rope, string, cloth, etc very easily
    • It’s based on learned technique and skill (in place of humanity’s cooking, alchemy, herbalism)
  • able to make: maple wine, rose wine, honeysuckle liquor, etc
  • mostly eat raw meat, but love food made by humans
Worg – shapeshifting, strong humanoids
  • Based on wolves, canines
  • racial advantage: transforming leather, bone, and other animal products.
    • can do amazing things with urine (scent-based literature and art?)
    • advanced skill: Changing Self
    • also advanced: altering other living flesh
    • Transform their own shape with fire (painful, localized, but effective) and water (full immersion) and, to a lesser extent, can transform the flesh of others.
      • heal wounds with fire (imagine: Worg coming at you with a hot brand saying, “Would you rather bleed to death?”)
      • grow claws with fire
      • change features with fire, precision improves with skill
      • fully immerse in water to change from humanoid to wolf
        • mass remains consistent, so 140-170 lbs = very large wolf / relatively small person
        • Very difficult to do, something that might be a cultural coming of age tradition in some tribes, but not something that’s done regularly or, for that matter, taught to all Worg.
  • Culture and diet are further detailed on their own page.
Ur – Giant, incredibly strong humanoids
  • based on bears, ursine
  • Solitary by nature.  Don’t see value in humans.  Not interested in what the other races have to offer, except maybe the Hob.
  • round ears, giant in stature, furry, omnivorous
  • Racial talent:
    • Change landscapes: direct rivers, carve caves, move boulders, ride glaciers, build dams, landscape, cultivate vast trees, increased fertility of soil, increased production of fruit and seeds, lure fish to spawn
Hob – small humanoids
  • based on raccoons
  • round ears, small in stature, fond of facial hair and whiskers, with full-black/brown eyes with no white, very similar to the Diggers.
  • Social by family units
  • Scrounges, layabouts, and bandits, the Hob prefer to live among or adjacent to more productive folk, so as to “share the load” (or offload some of life’s daily effort onto others.)
  • Racial talent:
    • Cleaning and sterilization. This, amusingly enough, translates to a talent for laundry and decorating.
    • Advanced skills allow for softening, hardening, and mending.  A bed made or tended to by a Hob is the most comfortable bed you will ever find.  Interestingly enough, some Hob have also figured out how to harden their own flesh, making them quite durable and hardy little folk.