This is a submission to include the more beastial humanoids from the ARG, as playable PC races including:
Catfolk - Maew (pronounced my, is Thai for cat)
Foxfolk (Kitsune)
Monkeyfolk (Varanas)
Snakefolk (Nagaji)
Frogfolk (Gripplis)
Ratfolk - Spha (pronounced su fa', is Thai for rat)
Roughly 4,000 miles east southeast from where Venza now stands, deep in the steamy jungles beyond the mysterious lake (or maybe that's a snowcapped mountain range?) There stands an ancient wall of moss-covered wood, earth and stone more than 100' high. Long ago while adventurous missionaries were exploring the farthest reaches of the land, to find new peoples and force their religious beliefs on them, they came upon it. Covered in scratches from the ground to about eight feet up, this colossal structure stretched away into the stifling closeness of the never ending green as far as they could see, both to the north and the south.
Traveling along the divide in the world for more than 60 miles, a huge gate loomed out of the quickly approaching dusk. Intricately carved with crude tools, or maybe even claws, the yawning mouth of an enormous cat's head glared blankly out into the trees with slit eyes of some unidentifiable yellow stone. The doors inside looked to have barely withstood a savage attack at some point in the past, but whoever caused the damage must be long dead by now. So with quite a bit of work, the missionaries finished dismantling one of the monstrous gates enough to make there way beyond where they made camp for the night. This realm would become known in time to the western kingdoms as - The Beastlands.
The missionaries awake with catlike children staring into their faces and rummaging through the camp. Wide eyed and curious, these catfolk wear simple clothing and carry weapons fashioned from the surrounding landscape. When the humans begin to speak, the ears of all the catfolk swivle around to focus on the sound. Then they too begin to converse amongst themselves, but in a purring language of soft chuffs, growls and mews. They all seem very young, and some point ecstatically towards the broken gate, while others point emphatically towards the jungle, all the while carrying on in the foreign tongue, with more than a few hisses thrown into the mix.
After a while a decision is made, and the missionaries are coaxed through hand gestures to pack up their camp and come with the cat children. A few of the youngest take the hands of the humans while smiling proudly, pulling them down hidden paths through the dripping foliage. The children are so familiar with the jungle that it puts the visitors somewhat at ease. As the day wore on, the jungle began to thin slightly and structures could be seen up in the trees. The children stop at the edge of the village and send off the oldest of them to the largest hut. These cat people were going about more or less normal, every day tasks like hauling water and mending clothes. That is until they start to notice the group of hairless monkeys surrounded by their smiling children.
From the largest hut steps a heavily muscled cat man with orange and black and white striped long braided hair and beard. He carries an ornate staff with a white crystal on top, which he gently taps into the ground as he circles the band, studying their strange garments and faces. Then the lead missionary bows and begins to speak in his chattering devil language, in clam and polite tones. Raising a multi-colored eyebrow as the oldest smiling boy nods his confirmation, the elder holds up a fur covered hand for the man to stop and pulls some items from inside his robe. Drawing a symbol in the dirt with his staff, the elder tigerman casts a spell of some kind as he sprinkles the glyph with powders while intoning a few growling couples.
And with that single act, they were speaking the same language. The catfolk were called the Maew, none had ever seen the missionaries type of people before, and the missionaries would be taken to The Grand Ziggurat to formally introduce themselves to the Maew and state their reason for breaking the ancient gates. The child escort was bustled away to be replaced by warriors who growled and roared whenever they weren't obeyed, some of which sported massive claws at the ends of fingers and toes. All of the members of the village had the same orange, black and white striped hair over their slightly tanned skin, which worked very well as camoflage when they moved beneath the stippled sunlight that only sporadically broke through the dense jungle canopy.
During the weeks of travel they passed through many other villages where the catfolk had all black or white fur, or grey and yellow spots, and even a mixed village with calico multi coloring. There were villages of other fantasic humanoid creatures as well, from slimy frogfolk and scaley snakefolk around the marshes they skirted, to sly foxfolk, ratfolk and chattering monkeyfolk as the jungle gave way to a more temperate forest as they traveled north. Their guards/captors told them the names of the various peoples as they traveled, and the humans tried to teach the locals a bit of the common tongue as they passed through. The trees started to change too, as the familiar oaks, pines and spruce gave way to collossal trees with red bark that stretched hundreds of feet strait into the sky and were as big around as large buildings. These were without a doubt, the trees that the wall had been built from, and here was where a deep and solid shadow began behind yet another wall. Here they were passed off to scale armored serpentine guards, who never even blinked.
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Catfolk - Maew (pronounced my, is Thai for cat)
Foxfolk (Kitsune)
Monkeyfolk (Varanas)
Snakefolk (Nagaji)
Frogfolk (Gripplis)
Ratfolk - Spha (pronounced su fa', is Thai for rat)
Roughly 4,000 miles east southeast from where Venza now stands, deep in the steamy jungles beyond the mysterious lake (or maybe that's a snowcapped mountain range?) There stands an ancient wall of moss-covered wood, earth and stone more than 100' high. Long ago while adventurous missionaries were exploring the farthest reaches of the land, to find new peoples and force their religious beliefs on them, they came upon it. Covered in scratches from the ground to about eight feet up, this colossal structure stretched away into the stifling closeness of the never ending green as far as they could see, both to the north and the south.
Traveling along the divide in the world for more than 60 miles, a huge gate loomed out of the quickly approaching dusk. Intricately carved with crude tools, or maybe even claws, the yawning mouth of an enormous cat's head glared blankly out into the trees with slit eyes of some unidentifiable yellow stone. The doors inside looked to have barely withstood a savage attack at some point in the past, but whoever caused the damage must be long dead by now. So with quite a bit of work, the missionaries finished dismantling one of the monstrous gates enough to make there way beyond where they made camp for the night. This realm would become known in time to the western kingdoms as - The Beastlands.
The missionaries awake with catlike children staring into their faces and rummaging through the camp. Wide eyed and curious, these catfolk wear simple clothing and carry weapons fashioned from the surrounding landscape. When the humans begin to speak, the ears of all the catfolk swivle around to focus on the sound. Then they too begin to converse amongst themselves, but in a purring language of soft chuffs, growls and mews. They all seem very young, and some point ecstatically towards the broken gate, while others point emphatically towards the jungle, all the while carrying on in the foreign tongue, with more than a few hisses thrown into the mix.
After a while a decision is made, and the missionaries are coaxed through hand gestures to pack up their camp and come with the cat children. A few of the youngest take the hands of the humans while smiling proudly, pulling them down hidden paths through the dripping foliage. The children are so familiar with the jungle that it puts the visitors somewhat at ease. As the day wore on, the jungle began to thin slightly and structures could be seen up in the trees. The children stop at the edge of the village and send off the oldest of them to the largest hut. These cat people were going about more or less normal, every day tasks like hauling water and mending clothes. That is until they start to notice the group of hairless monkeys surrounded by their smiling children.
From the largest hut steps a heavily muscled cat man with orange and black and white striped long braided hair and beard. He carries an ornate staff with a white crystal on top, which he gently taps into the ground as he circles the band, studying their strange garments and faces. Then the lead missionary bows and begins to speak in his chattering devil language, in clam and polite tones. Raising a multi-colored eyebrow as the oldest smiling boy nods his confirmation, the elder holds up a fur covered hand for the man to stop and pulls some items from inside his robe. Drawing a symbol in the dirt with his staff, the elder tigerman casts a spell of some kind as he sprinkles the glyph with powders while intoning a few growling couples.
And with that single act, they were speaking the same language. The catfolk were called the Maew, none had ever seen the missionaries type of people before, and the missionaries would be taken to The Grand Ziggurat to formally introduce themselves to the Maew and state their reason for breaking the ancient gates. The child escort was bustled away to be replaced by warriors who growled and roared whenever they weren't obeyed, some of which sported massive claws at the ends of fingers and toes. All of the members of the village had the same orange, black and white striped hair over their slightly tanned skin, which worked very well as camoflage when they moved beneath the stippled sunlight that only sporadically broke through the dense jungle canopy.
During the weeks of travel they passed through many other villages where the catfolk had all black or white fur, or grey and yellow spots, and even a mixed village with calico multi coloring. There were villages of other fantasic humanoid creatures as well, from slimy frogfolk and scaley snakefolk around the marshes they skirted, to sly foxfolk, ratfolk and chattering monkeyfolk as the jungle gave way to a more temperate forest as they traveled north. Their guards/captors told them the names of the various peoples as they traveled, and the humans tried to teach the locals a bit of the common tongue as they passed through. The trees started to change too, as the familiar oaks, pines and spruce gave way to collossal trees with red bark that stretched hundreds of feet strait into the sky and were as big around as large buildings. These were without a doubt, the trees that the wall had been built from, and here was where a deep and solid shadow began behind yet another wall. Here they were passed off to scale armored serpentine guards, who never even blinked.
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