Ranoc - Races Unique to the Setting (Mostly)

     This is the third of the posts about the races in my fantasy setting, this time covering the three races that are (for the most part) unique to the setting, and which contributed to my conversion of the setting away from its D&D roots.
     I originally came up with the Aeralons back in high school, or maybe even middle school, in the '80s.  Imagine my surprise when I discovered later that they had a counterpart in GURPS Classic: Fantasy Folk!  Over time, I've adjusted the racial template in repeated attempts to fit them closer to my vision of them.
     Orfs came from an interesting idea: If Humans can interbreed with both Elves and Orcs, what would an Elf-Orc hybrid race be like?  Of course, many D&D-ites I spoke with asked me, "aren't those just Humans?"  BORING!  So were born the Orfs (the name is a contraction of "Orc" and "Elf".  Because I have Elves and Orcs inhabiting vastly different locales - sub-tropical forests and northern fjords, respectively - I made it so that Orfs are incredibly rare in the world.
     Vulptens have had a more interesting evolution.  They actually began as Gnolls, D&D's hyena-people.  After I realized that what I was coming up with wasn't really hyena-ish, I started fiddling with the phenotype.  At first I started with wolves, but that didn't quite fit; "Wolfen" types were far too common.  After running through an online thesaurus for words similar to "canine", the word "vulpine" popped up.  Then things just clicked; foxes!

Aeralons

36 points

Average Height: 5' 4".
Average Weight: 115 lbs.
Age of Maturity: 16 years.
Average Lifespan: 80 years.

Attribute Modifiers: DX +1 [20].
Advantages: Acute Vision 2 [4]; Flight (Temporary Disadvantage: Vulnerability to Crushing Damage (Damage Modifier ×3), -45%; Winged, -25%) [12]; Temperature Tolerance 1 [1].
Quirks: Proud [-1].

     Aeralons are a proud people, winged warrior folk that live in villages high up in the Wyrmspire, Occam's Wall, and Barrier Mountain ranges. Their own legends claim they are descended from tribal, mountain-dwelling humans who, millennia ago, aided Galsus the sky god when he walked the world. In exchange for their aid, he granted the entire tribe the ability to fly via large, feathered wings.
     Lending credence to their origins as a human offshoot is the Aeralon ability to interbreed with humans.  The offspring of a human and an Aeralon will always take after their mother; if the mother is an Aeralon, then the offspring will be an Aeralon.

Psychology
     Much like the people themselves, Aeralon society evolved from that of a human one. They maintain many of the customs of the original human tribe they are descended from. They still live primarily in tribes, the number of which has never been calculated due to their remote domiciles.
     The tribes live in caverns high up in the mountains, and many of these villages are considered part of a nearby nation; for instance, the tribes that inhabit the northern Wyrmspire Mountains are said to be part of Ered-Dûm, while the tribes that live near the corner of the Occam's Wall and Barrier Mountains are considered part of Iturnum. Among their own kind, they are a matriarchal society, led by the priestesses who select a chieftain every five years from the men of the tribe. While the chieftain is often the best war leader, this is not always the case; during a period of peace and prosperity, the chieftain will be chosen from among the older and wiser elders.
    Occasionally, a lone adventurer or family of Aeralons will descend from the mountains to live among their human forebears. Due to their nature, they make excellent scouts and trackers.

Combat
     Against ground-based opponents, Aeralons use bows and crossbows while staying out of range of similar ground-based weapons. Many of them also carry javelins and spears. Against aerial opponents, whether other Aeralon tribes or against the aerial cavalries of the human nations, Aeralons tend to employ similar tactics. At present, Aeralons don't use muskets for several reasons. First, most muskets have long barrels, making them unwieldy while carried airborne. Second, the smoke and noise from the powder going off hurt their eyes and ears. Finally, the "kick" of the musket tends to throw them backwards while flying. Despite this, the carbines and dragoon pistols carried by Marach's aerial cavalry intrigues them.
     Aeralons tend to wear light armor, if they wear any at all; at most, a metal breastplate and mail coverings on the limbs. Most go unarmored, even when facing large numbers of opponents.


Orfs

30 points

Average Height: 5' 6".
Average Weight: 165 lbs.
Age of Maturity: 9 years.
Average Lifespan: 55 years.

Attribute Adjustments: ST +1 [10]; DX +1 [20]; IQ -1 [-20].
Secondary Characteristic Adjustments: Will +1 [5], Per +2 [10].
Advantages: DR 1 (Tough Skin, -40%) [3]; Longevity [2]; Rapid Healing [5]; Teeth (Sharp Teeth) [1]; Ultrahearing [5].
Disadvantages: Short Lifespan 1 [-10].
Quirks: Bloody Mess [-1].

     Orfs are a rarity on Ranoc, a half-breed race that has one elf parent and one orc parent. It is unknown whether orfs will breed true like the half-elves and half-orcs have; they are so rare that no two orfs who are not related have ever been seen at the same time.
     Orfs have many of the traits of their elven and orcish parents. They are slender, like elves, but strong and wiry, with thick, leathery skin. They have sharp teeth, although they lack the fangs of their orc parents. Their slightly pointed ears enable them to hear sounds in frequencies above those of most other races. They heal rapidly from wounds, and are longer-lived than their orc parents, although nowhere near as long-lived as the elves. They reach maturity at 9 years of age, like their orc parents, and while they reach old age at around 45 like their orc parents, their elven blood prevents them from succumbing to old age as quickly; some orfs have been known to reach the age of 90, nearly as old as their human cousins.


Psychology
     If there was one word that accurately describes an orf, it would be "outcast".  Orfs are painfully aware that they don't really fit in anywhere, so many leave their homeland to try and find a home of their own.  Most have grown up painfully aware that they don't fit into their parents' worlds; those raised by elves are seen as being exceptionally hasty, lacking the elves' trademark patience, while those raised by orcs are seen as being "weak", and have to be twice as ferocious just to be accepted.
     Because of their unique hybrid nature, orfs seem to be the epitome of graceful brutality.  Their elven nature gives them a natural grace, while their orcish nature gives them a brutality and aggression that seems unrivaled.  All known orfs, save one, have channeled their aggression into the combative arts; watching an orf in combat has been likened to orchestrated mayhem.


Vulptens

55 points

Average Height: 6'.
Average Weight: 420 lbs.
Age of Maturity: 16 years.
Average Lifespan: 70 years.

Attribute Adjustments: ST +5 [50]; IQ -1 [-20]; HT +1 [10].
Secondary Characteristic Adjustments: Will +1 [5]; Per +1 [5].
Advantages: Acute Hearing 3 [6]; DR 1 (Tough Skin, -40%) [3]; Night Vision 7 [7].
Perks: Fur [1].
Disadvantages: Colorblindness [-10]; Extra Sleep -1 [-2].

     Vulptens are humanoids of canine stock, physically resembling foxes who stand on their hind legs, although with a more humanoid stance and proportions. Their faces have the snouts and ears of their canine heritage, and their fur comes in shades of white, brown, black, red, gray, and tan.
     Multiple births are the rule rather than the exception for vulptens. The usual mix of males to females is three to two; vulpten women have been known to give birth to as many as ten cubs at once.

Psychology
     Vulptens are the last of the so-called "monster" races on Ophari to have adopted the trappings of civilization. As such, they are still learning the ropes, so to speak, and have evolved a society that fits their species quite well.
     At the center of the vulpten civilization is the family unit. As many as four generations of vulptens have been known to live under one roof. A vulpten town consists of as many as sixty or seventy unrelated families.
     Vulptenish society is matriarchal; the eldest female heads the family. When vulptens marry – and they marry for life, although some vulpten females have been known to marry more than one male at a time – the couple is expected to move in with the bride's family, at least until they gain a permanent residence of their own. However, only one couple in twenty ever moves out on their own. When the family matriarch passes on, the eldest daughter inherits the family estate, and the other sisters move on with their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren to another estate nearby.
     Vulptens have a reputation for being lazy and shiftless, interested only in hunting, foraging, and fighting. However, vulptens have proven to be hard working craftsmen and farmers. They still tend to be hunters, but are consummate conservationists who kill only what they need to survive and always try to use even the minutest portion of their kill.

Ranoc - Defining the Races

     Way back in 2001 or 2002, when I first started work on my Ranoc Muskets-and-Magery Renaissance Fantasy setting, it was a bog-standard D&D3.X setting, with all of the usual conceits and cliches that entails.  Back then, I worked out places for the usual D&D races, treating them with the same effective blandness about the races that D&D at the time was known for: Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Halflings, Gnomes, Half-Elves, and Half-Orcs.

     As time went on, I began to consider changes to the setting.  D&D was dropped in favor of GURPS as D&D at the time was increasingly unable to meet my growing designs on the setting.  The first blow to Ranoc being a D&D world was, of course, the really poor handling of firearms in D&D and D20 games in general.  The second blow was the inflexibility of the races; I wanted to introduce a race that was essentially a winged human, but D&D at the time called for a serious level adjustment, which essentially ensured that no one would want to play one!  The same went with Centaurs and Minotaurs as playable races; in fact, those were even worse with their level adjustments!  And when I had an idea for an Elf-Orc hybrid race, many D&D-ites were just "aren't those just Humans?"  I facepalmed greatly.

     (The third blow was the insistence on using Vancian magic, which I was growing increasingly annoyed with.)

     So I switched to GURPS, where the only "penalty" for various races was having a proportionately larger point cost, but overall effectiveness compared to other races wasn't hindered by "levels".

     Then I began to give twists to the various races, to differentiate them in some manner from the "classical" D&D races.

     I started with the primary D&D races, of course, which are admittedly taken from Tolkien, who himself used a lot of Celtic and Norse background.  From Dungeons & Dragons, I worked with Elves, Dwarves, Halflings, Orcs, Half-Elves, Half-Orcs, Goblins, Hobgoblins, Kobolds, Centaurs, Minotaurs, Ogres, and Lizardfolk, renaming the latter to "Mohani".  From GURPS Classic Fantasy Folk, I borrowed the Winged Folk, renaming them "Aeralons".  And from my own brain, I added Orfs, the afore-mentioned Orc-Elf hybrid race, and a canine race that eventually settled on the name "Vulptens", which began as a kind of hyena people but ended up as being based off vulpine (fox) stock.  I originally had Drow and Gnomes in the setting, but over time I dropped those races as not fitting the setting; Drow were removed because Ranoc does not have anything resembling an "Underdark" or worldwide network of subterranean caverns; and Gnomes were removed because for all intents and purposes Halflings filled the same general niche.

     Of course, Humans are the most common and widespread race in the world, dominating the continent that is essentially my Eurasia counterpart.

     For the Elves, I began with removing the inherently superior eyesight that's been known since Tolkien; my Elves are all about the ears.  Ultrasonic and Subsonic Hearing, with the option to purchase Parabolic and Discriminatory Hearing,  I also made them mortal, though extremely long-lived with an average lifespan of 600 years, tossing in mythology that indicated that they may have been immortal at one point, with uncertainty as to whether that is the actual truth.  For their native environment, I decided to keep them in the forests of the world, but moved the majority to a sub-tropical island-continent, roughly analogous to our mythical Atlantis.  They tend to be patient, and rather Machiavellian in regards to long-term thinking, more than capable of making short-term sacrifices for a long-term two-hundred-years-down-the-line goal.

     Dwarves have changed the least.  I went back to Tolkien, indicating that even Dwarf women sport beards.  I never understood the need for Dwarves to sport Scottish accents; my Dwarves have accents that are closer to German and Austrian, with provisions for Norse accents.  They are still naturally inclined toward being miners and craftsmen.  The biggest change with Dwarves is their natural habitat; while they still prefer mountainous abodes, they do not live in tunnels and caverns.  Instead, Ranocian Dwarves build vertically on the sides of mountains, with mechanical elevators and dozens of high-level walkways between buildings.

     Halflings haven't changed that much, I'm sad to say, mostly because while I'm trying to make sure they're not from The Shire, I'm currently failing.  They are small, about three feet tall on average, nimble, dexterous, and able to land on their feet after falls that would leave Humans out of breath.  They are also hard-working folk, to the point of working themselves into exhaustion.

     Orcs are short-lived brutal cousins of Humans who hail from the northern mountainous Scandinatia-expy region.  This lends them to being quite akin to Vikings, spending a lot of time raiding the southern nations while expanding outward due to short gestation periods and a tendency toward multiple births, leading to a mindset of "life is cheap, so earn renown or be forgotten".  These same tendencies make them prized shock troops elsewhere.
     For Goblins, I decided to take a page from Peter Jackson's Fellowship of the Ring adaptation, giving them Clinging, enabling them to climb on walls and ceilings.  They're roughly the same size as Halflings, and for a major twist I integrated them into Human civilization.  In addition, I gave them a slick secretion that they can use to help get through tight spaces.
     Hobgoblins were a little trickier, and I admit I'm still not fully satisfied with them.  At present, they dominate the breadbasket region in a military dictatorship, which was granted to them in an effort to "civilize" them by one of the ancient empires in times past.  They share the secretion of their goblin kin, but are larger and have a natural ability to blend into their surroundings.
     Half-Elves and Half-Orcs have bred true; the third hybrid race, Orfs, the Orc-Elf hybrid, are currently very rare, so rare that no two that aren't related have ever been seen in the same place.  The bulk of the Half-Elves originated in the southern portions of the European-expy region, while the bulk of Half-Orcs hail from the northern regions.  All three can be found throughout the western Eurasian-expy continent. One nation was founded by Half-Elves and Half-Orcs fleeing discrimination in their home nations, and have a nation which has taken reverse discrimination to its inevitable extreme, being prejudiced against the three parent races.
     Centaurs I haven't changed much,.  I've kept them in the grassy plains areas, in keeping with their mythological roots as tales of Scythian horsemen from the steppes reaching the Aegean.
     With Minotaurs, I decided to make them the quintessential "gentle giants", making them vegetarian with severe cases of wanderlust.
     Ogres are little more than dumb animals that can speak. They are in wide demand as menial labor slaves.  I suspect that they won't see much use as PCs, but some players might one day surprise me; I would love to see someone play a Ranoc Ogre at some point.
     Kobolds, I decided, were a bit more reptilian than their D&D counterparts.  My Kobolds hiss, not bark, and have sharp claws and teeth to match their scales.  I made them jungle-dwellers, not subterranean, and are not commonly evil.  As a race, they are fascinated by magic; unlike D&D Kobolds, Ranocian Kobolds are not related to dragons.  I gave them a nation in the northern jungles of my Africa-expy continent, noting that two prior nations had risen and fallen over time.
     Also in my Africa-expy continent's jungles are an adaptation of the Lizardfolk, whom I have renamed Mohani.  Mohani live in nomadic tribes and tend to eschew most of the trappings of civilization, believing that "civilization" means "separate from nature."  They are not only carnivorous but cannibalistic, eating their fallen enemies (and allies), and not always ritually.
     Aeralons are a winged race of Human descent, the origins of which are lost to antiquity but which has been attributed to one of the sky gods.  They tend to share space with Dwarves, also residing in mountainous abodes.  Aeralons have wings coming from their shoulderblades which give them the ability to fly, but are otherwise indistinguishable from Humans.  A child of a Human and an Aeralon will always take after the mother rather than the father.
     Finally, my canine race, the Vulptens, are still undergoing an evolution.  They began as Gnolls in D&D, and transitioned to wolfen stock when I realized that hyena-people weren't working out, before ultimately settling on vulpine stock.  In this particular case, it was changing the name and then changing the race, rather than deciding on a name that reflected the species.

     Details on the various races, including racial packages, will come later.