Quote:
I recently started a new campaign set in Ongus with a plot involving Volucreth.
SNIP...
This is all really interesting. "My" Volucreth are quite different, yet the same in some ways. My gameworld is not Legend, so in the summary below I've attempted to 'translate' world information into the closest Legend equivalent.
The Volucreth are fundamentally alien to humans. Our last common ancestor died out 300 million years ago, so our minds and theirs just don't work the same way. Even if we could learn their language, or they ours, we wouldn't be able to communicate any but the most rudimentary concepts, because our frames of reference are so different.
The volucreth heartland is a huge tropical island near in the centre of the great southern lake that feeds the Mungoda river. Volucreth have a sophisticated material civilisation, and live in great stone buildings, but also in bower towns among the dense jungle of their island.
They are both highly social and highly independent, and their behaviour with each other is baffling to humans, with respect and harshness to their fellows applied seemingly at random. For the most part they seem to lack tenderness and compassion to any noticable degree yet they treat their young (who hatch from eggs in enormous broods, and which are cared for communally) with great care. There is almost no noticable difference between male and female Volucreth, either in behaviour or appearance, and both care equally for their young.Young volucreth are little more than beasts and only develop higher intelligence after several years of life. Volucreth live for many decades and are immune to most diseases that afflict humans, but suffer from several unique to their own race, including a bizarre form of lycanthropy that turns them into something similar to a griffin.
Volucreth tend to be highly strung, excitable and volatile. I've realised in writing this you can get a sense of their fractious demeanor (as I used to portray it) by studying the Earl of Lemongrab from Adventure Time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stNDDaSysyQThey are not inclined to ritual or spirituality but treat magic and mysticism rather like a form of mathematics or engineering, both of which they excel at.
Physically, volucreth are huge and strong, but surprisingly nimble; they have hollow bones and very efficient circulatory and respiratory systems, and can run for hours or fight for extended periods without growing tired. They have keen eyesight but a poor sense of smell.
Volucreth have never visited the lands of the true faith, but fourteen years ago a naked volucreth, near to death (perhaps a shipwreck or escaped prisoner), was captured by slavers in northern Mungoda and eventually sold to Grand Master of the knights Capellar, where after some time he was presented to the King of Chaubrette as a coronation gift. After living in the king's menagerie for a few months, the wretched creature, which simply sat in its cage unmoving, and barely eating, wasted away and died without ever giving even the slightest indication of what was going on in its mind.
There's more, but that is enough for today...
Cheers,
-Kyle