52. Everything you need to know about Kenku begins and ends at voices.
With their natural talent for mimicry, these small avians are often depicted as tricksters and deceivers. Many demihumans take offense when their voice, a core of their identity, is duplicated by the Kenku's agile throat. What many do not realize is a fundamental difference in belief; to Kenku, voices are not individual.
Verbal communication is more than simply words, it is tone, syntax, resonance, pitch, volume, all these elements come together into a single sound. Just as the same song played by a stringed instrument will not be the same music as the song played by a woodwind, two voices speaking the same words have very different meanings. Yet while most beings are limited to a single voice, a Kenku's mimicry allows them to speak in any way they wish.
No specific Kenku has his own unique, owned speech pattern. Every fledgling learns to mimic tens or hundreds of different voices, each of which has purpose and meaning unto its own. Whenever speaking, the Kenku choose whatever voice is most fitting, as determined by meaning, location, audience, and intention. These voices are given individual purpose; the Voice of Authority's deep bass has completely different meaning than the calm, quiet Voice of Reason or the slightly-nasal tenor of the Voice of Sarcasm. Yet no individual owns a single voice, and when the speaker falls silent, the voice is unused, and anyone may take it up.
Kenku society is built around the oral tradition, with intricate history passed down perfectly through the generations, and great respect held for masters of wind and word, musicians, bards, orators. Moreover, they follow flock behavior; a group speaks as one when dealing with outsiders, and individuals are taught to work as a chorus, sharing a single voice and purpose. This mentality makes them natural at teamwork, but often burdens them with a dire need for self-expression. Kenku identify one another visually, and therefore tend towards items such as jewelry, clothing, and body art as a means of setting themselves apart. It also helps that, since these items are always "in use", they are constantly considered owned and kept.
Which, by the by, is worth mentioning; Kenku see property as limited by what you are using at any given time. If you possess a tool and put it to use, it is yours, just as a speaker is in full command of whatever voice he is using. But once you stop speaking, or place the tool down, it is no longer possessed, and anyone may take up that element and use it to their ends. Idle or unused materials, tools, wealth, or property are considered free and unbound, hence their reputation for thieves and squatters. It is important to realize, however, that the Kenku are not foolish; they know very well that other races feel just a wee bit differently. And though the larger folk may be foolishly wasteful and covetous, better to avoid trouble and refrain from taking what is logically free and unclaimed property if it would invite hostility. Of course, that only applies if the item wouldn't go unnoticed, and a little bit of crafty thinking goes a long way...
Beyond simple, day-to-day concerns, some mystically-inclined Kenku revere Voices as philosophical entities with will and purpose of their own. In their doctrine, speech is a holy act, channeling the Voice to conduct its work. Each Voice has its own grand design, and endless arguments arise over the exact manner in which each can be spoken, for what aim. Ritual debates are held to contest the will of the Voices, and gifted speakers command utmost respect. There are plenty, however, who scoff at such notions, and even a few who actively oppose the old traditions, using Voices in manners for which they are unsuited, such as speaking nonsense in the Voice of Reason.
Nonetheless, many cultural nuances originating in mysticism persist today. It is considered taboo, for example, for two individuals to use the same Voice when they are arguing against one another. Likewise, although lying occurs just as frequently as any other society, Kenku despise hypocrisy, and speaking in a Voice that implies conviction while acting in a contrary manner is sure to draw reproach. It is also common practice to hold major decisions within complete darkness; a cavern, a sealed room, etc, thus allowing all to speak freely in whatever Voice they wish, able to do so with anonymity.
This is amazing! Holy **** I'm using that.
......so much win.
More sex and gender equality and racial equality shouldn't even be an argument--it should simply be an assumption for any RPG that wants to stay relevant in the 21st century.
A Gnome never suspends disbelief, as such. To understand why that is, and indeed to understand the Gnome, you must first understand the nature of the Gnomish mind, and how it differs from that of a Human.
Firstly, the Gnomes naturally compartmentalize, and partition their minds. A gnome's emotions do affect their logical processes, because the two are kept separate from one another in that person's mind. Further, when a gnome is engaged in a philosophical debate, for instance, all "parts of his or her mind not engaged in that activity are essentially closed off.
This is fortunate for the gnome, because as one Gnomish sage wrote, "The minds of my people are not quiet things. They do not move at a steady pace, but rather speeds toward a goal as a falcon dives upon his prey. If not for the capacity to wall away mental processes, one from another, our race would be marked by a screaming, chaotic madness, as each mind was filled with innumerable voices, all buzzing and shouting for attention in a rushing torrent unmatched by even the busiest of human metropolises. Only by quieting all but the salient mental processes can a Gnome ever find peace within himself. It is in that focused concentration that is found our greatest strength, and it is that constant struggle that ever threatens to destroy us."
Second, the two greatest avenues of achievement, in the estimation of a Gnome, are the pursuit of truth, and the defense of one's people. This lust for Truth creates a second dichotomy in the heart and mind of the Gnomish people, as they are perhaps the world's greatest masters of illusion, and some of the most stalwart patrons of the Arts.
Third, nearly every Gnome is possessed, to some degree, of what is known as eidetic memory. This means that a Gnome can call up, in detail, memories of even obscure information, events or stimulae, even if only encountered in passing. Almost as if each Gnome has a vast, ever growing library tucked away inside their minds, collecting every thing they experience. The degree of depth and retention varies from Gnome to Gnome, with some going to great lengths to improve thier "inner library", and others focusing on other pursuits.
Now, with those facts explained, one can address the Gnomish approach to life, art, and the question of suspention of disbelief. When a Gnome sits down to enjoy a performance, or read a tale, or similar pursuit, he first does two things. One, he sets his mind into a state of acceptance. This means that if the storyteller informs him that the story takes place in a world wherein there is no magic, and great technological wonders have taken it's place, and that said world is inhabited only by humans, and non sapient beasts of various kinds(like earth), the gnome accepts that such a world exists, and that the story being told is a true story from that world. There is no disconnect, for the duration of the telling of the story each listener, and indeed the story teller him or herself, literally believes, without question, that the story is true.
When the story is done, the experience remains, but the belief is set aside. A gnome who enjoyed the story, or has some other reason to analized it, will later spend some time in reflection of the experience, reliving it, but from a more detached view, studying all the intracacies of the story itself, the devices used by the speaker, the tonation and inflection with which the story was told, etc. In this way, the listener can thoroughly enjoy the experience, and yet later disect the story, hopefully finding some grain of Truth, or wisdom in what he finds.
In the same way, Gnomes are capable of astonishing depth of emotion. In fact, nearly every aspect of Gnomish life is pursued with great intensity and focus.
For these reasons, Bards are among the most celebrated members of Gnomish societies. True masters of the craft are capable of evoking such strong emotional responses that even non Gnomish listeners are reduced to tears in spite of themselves. Through the use of such powerful evocations, Bards are able to allow thier listeners to experience something like Divine manifestations of a given concept or emotion, and are thus considered as something akin to Sacred intermediaries between mortals and Greater Truth. This closeness to pure Forms (read, Plato), and the Gnomish abillity to examine the experience in detail later, inform their approach to all forms of Art, including invention, which has been called "the art of mechanical creation."
For instance, a Gnomish poet may compose a sonet concerning the love between a man and a woman in a given circumstance. In this poem he will "convince" himself that he is that man, and that he exists in the circumstances which inform the poem. Only then will he set about composition, although the process is not as mechanical as may sound. When he is finished, the reader, or listener, will go through a similar process, literally feeling the emotions described or invoked, hopefully to the edification of all parties.
It should come as no suprise, that it is very rare for any Gnome to pursue any live of work which does not involve the pursuit of Truth, whether through art, science, philosophy or some other means, unless it is necessary either for the protection of his or her people, or for the livelyhood of him/herself or his/her family. As such, nearly all Gnomish Wizards are either protectors of their people, carreer adventurers with magical talent, or considered very eccentric by their own people. The study of Wizardry for the purpose of gaining more arcane power is not considered a worthwhile pursuit by most Gnomes, and by and large Gnomes have a low opinion of how much such study can teach you about the Truth of the universe, beyond what is already known to nearly every scholar.
Gnomes have a great deal of respect for Dwarves, since the believe, rightly, that Dwarven craftsmen constantly pursue the truest form of whatever object it is that they are crafting, which is considered a truly Noble pursuit. While they're penchant for mischief makes them similar to many other Fey races, they are often more at home amongst humans, dwarves, and halflings. In the case of humans, they are often so adaptable that they seem most able to keep up with the Gnomish habit of switching mindsets, seemingly at a whim. With halflings, the carefree but practical attitude of most halflings has something of a calming effect on many Gnomes, allowing them to relax, and "get out of their own head" more than is normally the case.
A final note on Gnomes which may aid the traveller in one's dealings abroad: To the Gnomish mind, intellectual stubbornness is the very height of absurdity. To refuse to change one's mind in light of objectively convincing logic, or evidence, is seen as below even the intellect of a child. If a gnome is proven wrong, he or she immediately accepts this, and re-considers their stance on the subject. As a result, Gnomes can tend to be insulted by another person's refusal to do the same, but will very, very rarely hold someone to a past statement if they seem to have changed their minds.
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Garl's glittery, gold belt buckle that's a long post. :D
More sex and gender equality and racial equality shouldn't even be an argument--it should simply be an assumption for any RPG that wants to stay relevant in the 21st century.
While responding to another thread, I just realized I never gave a nod to my take on the Changeling (which I may expand to the Shifter, now that I think about it). "Changeling" isn't a race. It's a medical condition that only afflicts humans. An infant may exhibit changeling symptoms which can lead to unsuspecting parents thinking their child has been kidnapped. A sage, healer, or some such knowledgeable person can often make the diagnosis, however. Some parents abandon the child, sometimes to the care of a church, sometimes to the wild (which I have now decided is the root of Shifters as Changleings who have only learned limitied shapeshifting abilities due to their feral upbringing, if they survived at all). Some embrace the child the gods have given them. A family with a changeling-afflicted child might meet scorn or pity, or both.
If two Changelings (or Shifters) have a child, there is a 75% chance the child will also be afflicted.
While responding to another thread, I just realized I never gave a nod to my take on the Changeling (which I may expand to the Shifter, now that I think about it). "Changeling" isn't a race. It's a medical condition that only afflicts humans. An infant may exhibit changeling symptoms which can lead to unsuspecting parents thinking their child has been kidnapped. A sage, healer, or some such knowledgeable person can often make the diagnosis, however. Some parents abandon the child, sometimes to the care of a church, sometimes to the wild (which I have now decided is the root of Shifters as Changleings who have only learned limitied shapeshifting abilities due to their feral upbringing, if they survived at all). Some embrace the child the gods have given them. A family with a changeling-afflicted child might meet scorn or pity, or both.
If two Changelings (or Shifters) have a child, there is a 75% chance the child will also be afflicted.
I like this (though it's really more a biology thing than the behavioural/mentality/sociology bent of the thread). Let's call it #53 for clarity's sake. I dig that being a shifter isn't just a heritage, it's kind of lycanthropy light. The only change I'd make for my game is that two afflicted parents have a 100% chance of having an afflicted child (while allowing for random immunities and genetic throwbacks for individual character options); that way there's still a 'race' that's perceived as shifter or changeling, but most don't realize that they're actually merely afflicted members of other races.
(I employ zie/zie/zir as a gender-neutral counterpart to he/him/his. Just a heads-up.)
Essentials definitely isn't for me as a player, and I feel that its design and implementation bear serious flaws which fill me with concern for the future of D&D, but I've come to the conclusion that it isn't going to destroy the game that I want to play. Indeed, I think that I could probably run a game for players using Essentials characters without it being much of a problem at all. Time will tell, I suppose.
Cool. I went with the 75% chance because in the RW, two parents with dwarfism have a chance to have a child who does not have dwarfism. Don;t know what the chance was. To much RW leeching though, eh?
54. Halflings are not immune to fear, contrary to popular beleif. However, it is taboo to show fear. If a halfling shows fear then he has shamed himself and his family. If a halfling is afraid and does not hid it he becomes a 'homebody' and is not permitted to touch another halfling until he has done some heroic act, lest his cowardice spread and infect the entire tribe. To call a halfling a homebody is a grave insult
Going out of your way to break the game and then complaining that it is broken is like beating a wall with a sledge hammer for an hour and then claiming its a bad wall.
55. Even the stoutest, most tacit dwarf can't resist a good advertising jingle. For a bonny lass's
Warmest grin
You'll need thick whiskers
On your chin!
Dwarvenshave
Kidding aside, with their resistance to aging, strong personalities, and curvaceous builds, many dwarven women are not unaccustomed to the amorous advances of human men. Their comparably short lives make such tristes limited affairs, generally, but it's not unheard of. To capture the fancy of a dwarven maid, it requires strength of character, determination, and persistance. Some facial hair can't hurt.
Hmm, it's a bit drifting from the original premise of the thread, but as long as we're doing "slightly alternate fluff interpretations of existing mechanics," here's mine for Tieflings:
56. Tieflings were never humans, contrary to what some believe. Well, okay, some have a bit of human in them now, perhaps, but that's only because every child of a Tiefling ends up Tiefling. Back in the day, though, before their cultist leaders made the pact that transformed their race, they were simply Turathi, which was a race unto itself at the time.
There aren't any left, though -- every Turathi in the world was transformed at the same time. Unless there was a colony on another plane which had descendents... naah, surely not. Well, if you ever run into something that looks almost like a Tiefling, but with blueish or purple hair, and human-like skin and eyes, you may start to wonder. (Odd, judging by the old sculptures and drawings, they've always had horns. That bit didn't come from the infernals at all.)
57 - My homebrew setting of Zurvan (which has strong Iranian/Zoroastrian influences) makes fairly significant (though non-mechanical) changes to some of the standard races. The deva are probably one of the closest to the 'standard' fluff, but I think the bit about what happens to their souls after death makes them seem quite 'inhuman'...
Deva are mortal fragments of the divine, formed from the shattered remnants of the gods and angels destroyed in the Dawn War, when Bishar and his dark twin, Angrah, fought for the love of the goddess Naryanath and mastery over the world she had birthed. Appalled at the carnage, Naryanath spurned both gods and banished them beyond the boundaries of the world. But the blood shed in that conflict did not merely soak into the earth. From each place on Zurvan where the divine essence fell, deva were born, a race of immortals bound forever to the mortal world.
Though an individual deva may appear superficially male or female, they are sexless beings, with a divine beauty that transcends gender. Tall and statuesque of build, their flawless skin is silver, gold or the cold, pure white of marble. Deva have no hair on their heads, faces or bodies. Whether at rest or in furious motion, they retain a calm stillness about them, but their eyes constantly burn with divine fire.
Deva do not age. Unless slain by accident or malice, they exist unchanging forever. When a deva is slain, its immortal spirit does not journey across the Desolation of Saurva1 as do the souls of mortals, but remains dormant in its body for a period that may be as short as a few hours or as long as a year, dreaming of its past lives, sorting memories to preserve those that are most valuable and discard those that cause pain. During this time, the body does not decay. However, if the body is desecrated, the soul within can be traumatised or even permanently deranged. Hundreds of lifetimes of joy and sorrow, of atrocities witnessed and loved ones lost, can easily destroy a deva soul’s equilibrium if this process of memory-sorting is disrupted. Once the soul has achieved some sort of acceptance, it vanishes from its spent body, which dissolves into nothingness, and is reborn in a new form at one of the sacred sites where the blood of gods was spilt.
The belief that a deva who turns to evil is reborn as a rakshasa is held by some deva, dismissed as a foolish myth by others, and generally unknown to non-deva.
Deva rarely pay much heed to those gods who have arisen in the millennia since the Dawn War2, but many worship Naryanath or the Lost God, Bishar, and a few deva of darker temperament worship Angrah.
1 - The Desolation of Saurva is Zurvan's version of the Shadowfell, although it and the Forest of Veils (the Feywild) are located at the edges of the natural world, rather than being truly separate planes.
2 - All gods of Zurvan other than the three named here are actually ascended mortals who became gods only after the Dawn War. Bishar is/was the god of cosmic order, Angrah the god of chaos and Naryanath the divine personification of the mortal world (and therefore the mother of mortals and of the primal spirits).
