The Farkember

 

This time we look at a race that has been mentioned in earlier blog posts but deserves their own entry; the Farkember of the wilds of the west.  They are an idea that has existed in my mind for about as long as the beginnings of Gal Hadre itself though not necessarily as part of this setting.  Much of that time they have largely simmered rather than being actively developed.

The Farkember are tauric creatures, fusions of man and beast like centaurs, though in the case of the Farkember, with wolf bodies instead of horse bodies.  The ideas of other types of tauric creatures first began after I got a copy of Savage Species a D&D 3.0 supplement that added a lot of options for modifying and building new monsters.  One of the things it included was a template for building tauric creatures from two existing monsters.  I experimented with many ideas based on that concept, at some point I still want to develop ideas I have for tauric versions of all the classic D&D species.

So the Farkember are fusions of wolf and man scaled off of the man rather than the wolf with a healthy dose of savagery from the wolf side.  Their fur and hair are always the same colour and can be any colour of wolf fur you find in the real world though their two ethnic groups tend towards different fur colours.  Many wear their hair shoulder length or longer.  Some tribes use tattoos or ritual scars.  They are believed by many to be the creations of magic rather than the gods, though some tribes claim that they are the favoured children of Falhon, the wild wolf.

The two ethnic groups of Farkember are known to people from Gal Hadre as the Northern Tribes and Southern Tribes, they almost certainly have their own names for the two groups but scholars of the Kingdoms of Gal Hadre have never learned them.  The northern tribes tend towards lighter skin tones and fur, while the southern tribes have a more tanned, mediterranean look and darker furs.

It is not uncommon to find Farkember wearing no clothes, but they generally have a covering over their human part, most commonly furs from other creatures they have hunted or cloth they have stolen in raids on other species.  They frequently wear charms created by their shamans that at least sometimes are actually useful at protecting them from magical attacks.  In  groups they frequently make use of packs that fit onto the back of their wolf lower halves.  Much of these packs cannot be reached by the Farkember that is wearing the pack.

It is rare to find them living intermixed with other sentient species, though they will conquer or ally with them, most frequently humans and Trollkin who are the other common species in the wilds of the west.  Even when they have conquered people however they tend to live apart; the closest they come is separate parts of the same community.

They live in tribes that generally have between 300 and 5000 members and they are often semi-nomadic, moving their camp seasonally.  The largest tribes maintain several different camps throughout their territory.  They can be found in plains, forests and hilly areas, but avoid mountainous or swampy regions.  Many of the tribes maintain large herds of animals which they use for food and clothes, when they kill an animal from their herd, all parts of the animal are used for something.  Like humans they use and keep dogs, though theirs tend to be much closer to feral wolves than human ones.

Farkember seem to avoid boats unless they are sizable ships even though with practice they can become reasonably skilled swimmers.  This is perhaps part of the reason they are uncommon everywhere outside of the wilds of the west.  This doesn’t mean most rivers will be a barrier to them, as they can easily ford a 3 foot deep river and finding such spots outside of the spring runoff is usually easy.

Most of their adults have at least some skill as warriors and they generally favour two handed weapons, using the momentum they can build on the move to end fights with a very limited number of strikes.  Those that work as scouts and hunters tend to favour spears, bows and smaller weapons.  Few of them wear much armour, the belief that they feel like the loss in speed is not worth the increased protection.

Nearly all tribes are led by shamans, their wielders of dragon magics.  About 1 in 200 Farkember will demonstrate at least some ability with magic and usually any other shamans will be apprentices of the tribe leader.  In cases where the leader of a tribe dies and has multiple apprentices of similar skill it will usually be solved violently, with the loser or losers killed or driven away.  Some of these losers try to find a smaller tribe they can take over, others become mercenaries, leading many in Gal Hadre to believe that more of their number are mages than is accurate.

Priests in Farkember tribes form their own group that is somewhat apart from the rest of the tribe.  This is true for tribes that worship the gods and those who worship the neverborn.  Those who worship the gods tend to focus on Falhon, the wild wolf, Celesta, the huntress, Nemus the forest god and Tanmuk, the war god.  They are likely the sentient species with the most members who serve the neverborn, which is more common among the northern tribes than the southern.

Most of the Farkember found outside of the wilds of the west are mercenaries and guards of various kinds.  It is rare to find more than a few of them in any one place.  They can earn a relatively good living as they can charge far more than the average warrior for their services.

What do you think of the Farkember?  Are there any species I have already covered that you want to see more details about?