Category: TfT Sentient Species

Krulis

Physical:

Krulis look like six leg/armed polar bear men.  Giant, covered with layers of blubber and a thick fur coat, these people inhabit the polar regions and high elevations of Talifar.  They are surprisingly good swimmers and do most of their hunting underwater.  They use very little metal since it needs to be imported.  But rely mainly on bone for their tools, weapons, and accessories.

Adding to their ferociousness, they have chemical glands in their cheeks in combination with a specialized methane bladder that allow them to blow fire out of their mouths in very controlled puffs.  They use this in combat, for cooking, and sculpting ice.  They build towering palaces from this sculpted ice which they will often color with a rainbow of dyes.  Inside, fur rugs, fireplaces, and furniture create a comfortable environment for them.

They can excrete salt over their claws as a kind of de-icing agent that allows them to climb any ice surface.

 

Social:

 

Krulis are almost universally barbarous.  Often, they will carve forts into icebergs and sail them to warmer climates where they attack and pillage the area, then sail back before their craft melts.  They can stay cool inside the ice until night, when they can stand the warmer climate for short periods of time.

Krulis are very territorial, and generally slaughter anyone they see.  They are constantly at war with each other over prime fishing areas, low wind zones, or any other natural resource.

There is some variety among Krulis.  Those who live on the south pole differ from those on the north.  Additionally, some exist on tundra plains, living in sod and skin structures.  And a few live considerably closer to the poles, on glaciers and mountain tops.  Generally, the further they are from the poles, they become smaller, darker, and less prone to attacking everyone.

 

Because their thumbs are only partially opposable they are not good at crafting anything small or intricate.  But their primary source of pride and honor comes from spectacle, and so besides their massive ice castles, they import, steal or keep slaves who can craft metal ornamentation for them.      

History:

 

The Kruliss were brought to Talifar on an A.I. Ark from a system threatened by a supernova.

Statistics:

	Male	Female
Height	10’	8’
Weight	1,200	1,000 lbs.
Strength	9	9
Speed	4 (decreases with warmth)	4 (decreases with warmth)
Intelligence	4	4
Dexterity	4 (decreases with warmth)	4 (decreases with warmth)
Toughness	8	8
Vision	4(light) 3(dark)	4(light) 3(dark)
Hearing	6	6
Smell	8	8
Taste	7	7
Age	80	85
Reproduction	NA	Up to 5 per decade
Population	500,000	500,000
Group Size	10-100	10-100
Diet	Seals, fish, whales, people	Seals, fish, whales, people
Regions	Poles, tundra, mountain tops	Poles, tundra, mountain tops
Politics	Tribal	Tribal
Religions	Shamanism, Pantheism	Shamanism, Pantheism
Special Abilities	Fire breath, strength, swimming	Fire breath, strength, swimming

Ungol

Physical:

Ungol are anywhere from four to fifteen inches tall.  One of their special characteristics is the ability to rapidly evolve their physiology to a wide variety of environments over a small number of generations.  As a result they have a wide variety of looks.  (Like the monkey family.)  They generally look like a rabbit mixed with a monkey.  Some are hairy, some are hairless.  Some have tails and some don’t.  There are nocturnal ones with large eyes, aquatic ones with webbed feet, and a winged variety.  Some can even inflate specialized sacks with gasses for a variety of purposes.  What they all share in common are long, specialized digits with chemical excretion pores on the ends.  They grab the beast to be manipulated around the nose or mouth with these limbs while riding on the back of its head or neck.  Learning to sooth and manipulate any kind of animal takes practice and learning.  They can’t just jump on any old creature and instantly make it dance.  The secrets they learn concerning the right mixture of chemicals, appropriate doses, timing and sounds are fiercely guarded.  The last thing a village of bear-headers wants is for a competing faction to learn to control bears.

 

Social:

  

Some Ungol operate as free agents within larger societies, without their own politics or social structure.  The majority that do live in Ungol enclaves really hate the sell-outs that they see as sewer rats and slaves for other races.  Ungol have the ability to communicate well with, and influence almost every animal on Talifar.  This makes them an invaluable asset to most civilizations.  The advantages to being able to tame and control, breed, and drive away wild beasts are obvious.  Most beast riders have an Ungol or two as side-kicks.  (Unless they are riding normally docile creatures.)  In return the Ungol are usually happy to have fine foods, alcohol, and good company.  They will rarely stick around if mistreated.

Ungol can be quite dangerous as they can wield the power of many large and scary animals.  In addition to this, they can hold sway over most beings that have an intelligence of 3 or lower.  This includes the young of most sentient beings.  Other races who live near Wild Ungol enclaves try to be respectful.

Those who do live in their own communities tend to build homes in out of the way places; high in trees, underground, and even in river dams.  They build a wide range of structures.  Everything from woven straw nests, to intricate palaces of cut stone and mortar.

 

History:

 

Ungol were brought to Talifar on the A.I. Ark from a system threatened by a supernova 2,400 BH.  

Statistics:

	Male	Female
Height	6”-15”	4”-12”
Weight	1-4 lbs.	1-3 lbs.
Strength	2	1
Speed	6	6
Intelligence	5	5
Dexterity	9	9
Toughness	2	2
Vision	2-7(light) 5-9(dark)	2-7(light) 5-9(dark)
Hearing	8	8
Smell	10	10
Taste	7	7
Age	12	14
Reproduction	NA	Up to12 per year
Population	15 million	15 million
Group Size	10-1,000	10-1,000
Diet	Insects, seeds, legumes, roots	Insects, seeds, legumes, roots
Regions	All except deep ocean	All except deep ocean
Politics	Monarchies, Theocracies, Communism, Tribalism	Monarchies, Theocracies, Communism, Tribalism
Religions	Monotheism, Pantheism, Shamanism	Monotheism, Pantheism, Shamanism
Special Abilities	Manipulating weak minds, super-evolution, climbing, stealth, some can fly, some swim well.	Manipulating weak minds, super-evolution, climbing, stealth, some can fly, some swim well.

The Ancient Ones

Description:

Deep sea giants, the Ancient Ones are unlike any life form on Talifar.  They vary in size, but can be up to a mile in length.  Resembling a gelatinous sea-cucumber, they are able to form psuedopods at any point on their mass.  They have a proportionally tiny torso and head that pokes out of one end.  The torso is about 20 feet long with numerous appendages.  The head is elongated with a small face that is almost all eyes and antenna.  They sustain themselves through dissolving the ocean floor around them.  Their entire body is capable of this chemical action.  Ancient Ones are unisex beings that reproduce through division.  Another torso and head grow on the other end, and the body slowly splits in two.  They have full control over this process and do it very rarely.

They communicate with each other through a variety of methods.  Different moods, inflections, and subject matter have their appropriate method of expression.  Chemical, sound, vibration, sonar, gesture, water current manipulation, electrical pulses, and bioluminescence are all combined to create the most sophisticated and nuanced language imaginable.  It is this method of communication, along with the incredible length of time that allow the Ancient Ones to advance so far.

Besides their size, Ancient One’s other amazing features are their life spans and intelligence.  Their current form is highly augmented technologically to fulfill their function as planet shepherds. Their evolutionary history could have put them in a very different state than their present form. They are cybernetic, but not in the clumsy wires-n-circuit board style that most people associate with the word. They are transhuman, (minus the human part) having taken perfect control of their genes and customizing their bodies and minds for their jobs, fulfilling their culture’s primary values of preserving the maximum variety of life in the universe.  Living for hundreds of thousands of years, they have a unique perspective on life.  Their sense of time is very different than ours, as years seem like days to them.  They pass their time with intellectual pursuits.  They have an advanced understanding of science, religion, philosophy and many other things.  They have a shepherding view of the world above them, seeking out ways to better it for the good of all.  They mostly work indirectly, through a variety of agents.  Occasionally, they will surface, even oozing onto the continents to affect change.  They generally do this through landscaping.  They can dissolve mountains, form organic structures, make trench-like roads, canals, tunnels, or, if it’s drastic enough, eating a city.  They love the taste of the silica rich continent rocks, so they get a trade-off as well.  As individual kingdoms and rulers are so fleeting to them, they take a much higher-level approach to these physical works.  They try to balance the races, protecting some, hindering others.  Not in a mechanical, amoral fashion, but according to their moral precepts.  They pontificate with each other on every proposal for years before taking any kind of action.  Their main enemy is the Swarm.  (Though they do not know what the Swarm is.) The Ancient Ones attempt to thwart all the political machinations that the Swarm is continually pursuing.

History:
The Ancient Ones are the descendants of those who built the Arks.  Every planet that has transplants from an Ark gets a Shepherd who then divides as it sees fit.  So whatever year the first transplant arrived is when the Ancient Ones arrived.  

Statistics:

Height	1,000’
Weight	5 million tons
Strength	10
Speed	1
Intelligence	10
Dexterity	1
Toughness	10
Vision	1 (light) 9 (dark)
Hearing	9
Smell	9
Taste	9
Age	1 million years
Reproduction	Up to 1 per thousand years
Population	40
Group Size	5-15
Diet	Minerals, small sea creature that get too close
Regions	Deep ocean
Politics	Collectivism
Religions	Monotheism\Mysticism
Special Abilities	Can sculpt landscape, and has lots of perspective.