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consolidated:races:wen:start

WEN

Overview

The Wen are a human sub-group up cavemen, native to the mountains south of Sakhar and the jungles of Port Elizabeth. Their tribes stretch from Finaroka, across the continent as far as Port Elizabeth, and into the Telidan mountain spine. While some Wen| have moved into towns a cities, many still live in small semi-nomadic family groups and follow a traditional hunter-gather lifestyle.

Wen conform to this racial build. However, this is an effect of their situation, rather than innate ability difference, and those who were born in a town or city conform to the normal Human build temple. It is one or the other - no mix and match.

Core Philosophy

They follow a simple nature loving green faith, with naturalistic deities along with a demon, Varen, who will punish them if they abuse the natural world, or intercede for them in times of need. The Wen are expected to live from the fruits of the land, and should live in harmony with their surroundings. For Example: Taking whole plants (including trees) is ok - so long as they are taken singly and the immediate locality given a chance to recover before another plant is taken out. EG single trees are OK - logging operations are not. Farming is questionable, large-scale commercial enterprises, set up to generate money, are seen as bad.

Details of the Wen culture and religion can be found here

Tribal Wen

Wen are semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers, who live in family groups in caves and caverns, and can move about a fixed 'family' territory as the seasons change. They wear simple skin and fur clothing and use very simple weapons, as they hunt whatever local game they can find, and know where to find edible fruits and plants. They use fires for cooking, but see fire as a sacred gift from their gods, that is not to be abused; they brew a simple fruit 'beer' and celebrate with drummed music and simple dances. Should they need to fight, they have throwing spears but use clubs, stone axes or stone hammers in hand-to-hand combat.

Classes and Skills

Wen are usually warriors or fighters, with the occasional barbarian or ranger. All Wen are trained to weapons, and every adult will be a warrior (there are no commoners, adepts, experts or aristocrats). Leaders and heroes will be Fighters, Rangers or Barbarians.

Spell casting Wen are extremely rare and are usually Sorcerer or Shaman . Both classes are seen to be 'touched by the gods' and are treated with fearful respect. They often live isolated lives away from any specific family group, but generally in walking distance of more than one family, and serve as healers, prophets and seers to the whole community. They are known to make images, deep in dark caves, of natural phenomena, such as animals, trees, sun and moon.

Every Wen has Survival as a skill, at least one member of each family will have Cooking, Brewing or Perform:Percussion.

Weapons & Armour

All tribal Wen are familiar with the following weapons. I have used 'standard' equivalents, rather than giving them specific stone age names, which makes it easier to work out how something works between systems. It also means that PCs should recognize the weapon for what it is. Note that some of the weapons are fragile and will be damaged on a natural 1.

Tribal Wen Weapons

  • Mere club (Fragile) - small stone club
  • Club – normal wooden club
  • Light Mace (Fragile) – think stone hand axe
  • Morning Star (Fragile) – think stone axe
  • Spear (Fragile) - with stone spear point
  • Javelin (Fragile) - with fire hardened point
  • Sling – normal sling with sling stones. Sling stones do d3 damage.
  • Atlatl – normal atlatl and darts

Tribal Wen Armour

  • Padded Armour - made from bits of leather and fur, to provide basic protection.
  • Shield (Small Wooden) - made from withies into round, basketwork, shields.

Wen Characters

Wen are usually warriors or fighters, with the occasional barbarian or ranger. Spell casting Wen are usually Sorcerer or Shaman , and are extremely rare.

Wen are defined by their character classes; they do not have racial hit dice.

consolidated/races/wen/start.txt · Last modified: by johnb