Golenti (GOH-len-TEE)
The People of the Stone
The Golenti are a race of short, stocky humanoids hailing traditionally from the hills and mountains of Omath. They are seen by the rest of the world as stoic, stern craftsmen and warriors, without humor and paranoid, distrustful of outsiders. While the latter is true of most Golenti, their cultures are rich and vivid and rarely seen by outsiders.
Basic Information
Anatomy
Golenti are bipedal Humanoids with two arms. Similar to Humans in appearance, the Golenti are shorter and broader in stature. Golenti have round eyes, a lower and larger cranium than humans[tooltip]Interestingly, no appreciable variance in intelligence is found despite the smaller skull[/tooltip], larger browridge and nose, broader and thicker rib cage, and thicker joints. Their forearms are shorter than those of humans, as are their lower legs, leaving Golenti to stand roughly four feet (1.21 meters) in height. Golenti musculature appears to be tighter and thicker than that of humans.
Due to a larger torso, the Golenti lungs are considered larger by volume than that of humans, occupying 15% more of their body volume; the respiratory system contains various membranes and hairs that act as filtration specific to subterranean gasses and extracts oxygen from them. The Golenti heart is also larger and stronger than that of a human.
Genetics and Reproduction
Golenti reproduce sexually, with two distinct genders (male and female). The female Golenti carries the fetus for an average gestation of 12 months, though anything above 10 months is generally viable outside the womb.
Growth Rate & Stages
Golenti adolescence is between 25 and 40 years of age. Adulthood starts at 40 years.
Ecology and Habitats
Golenti are most at home in the stone and soil, found in the mountains and hills throughout Solia. Golenti tend to sculpt and carve the spaces of their habitat into ordered, structured settlements and edifices.
Certain subspecies of Golenti have adapted to surface life, including those adapted to riverine and maritime Golenti, which are to be discussed elsewhere.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Golenti are omnivores, subsiting on a mixed diet of meat and vegetation. In their predominant habitat, Golenti hunt for and farm meat-producing animals and cultivate various large fungi.
Additional Information
Social Structure
Golenti live in structured, rigid settlements and communities, typically overseen by rule of a council. Golenti tend to dismiss the idea of a single individual holding positions of power. While rare, individual rulers do exist, though mostly in limited or ceremonial roles.
Facial characteristics
Golenti have very stout, square features. Broad noses, dense bone structure, and square jaws are dominant features for most.
Male and female Golenti both pride themselves on the long length of their hair, and men often decorate their beards with a variety of clasps and intricate braids. Clean-shavenness on a male Golenti is a sure sign of madness, or worse — no one familiar with their race trusts a beardless Golenti man.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
Golenti are located throughout Solia, often in some of the harshest extremes where other civilized races cannot settle.
Average Intelligence
Golenti are thoughtful and imaginative, willing to experiment, if always keen to refine and perfect a new technique or product before moving on to the next one. Golenti have achieved feats of metallurgy, stonework, and engineering that have consistently outpaced the technological advances of other races, though some races have used magic to supplement and perfect their own creations to achieve the same ends through mystical rather than mundane means. They are also a race typified by stubborn courage and dedication to seeing tasks through to completion, whatever the risks.
While it is said that Golenti are not venturesome or inventive, it would be more accurate to say that they maintain a focus on and dedication to each task they undertake and every change they adopt, vetting such changes thoroughly before adopting them wholeheartedly. When faced with new circumstances and new needs, they react by applying tried and true tools and techniques systematically, using existing methods whenever possible rather than trying to invent novel solutions for every situation. If necessity requires, however, they throw themselves with equal vigor into developing the next perfect procedure for demolishing the obstacles that get in their way. Once their desired goal is obtained, they focus on consolidating each new piece of territory or conceptual advance. Golenti thus rarely overextend themselves, but they also may miss opportunities to seize the initiative and maximize the advantages they create.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Golenti can see up to 60 feet / 18.288 meters in absolute darkness due to the presence of partially-inverted rods in the eye, much like that of the Nuaira, Nuaan, Oroka. It is to be noted that Golenti are exceptionally keen in regards to stonework. Even those Golenti removed from subterranean habitats show the attunment to stone: Golenti have an uncanny knack for noticing unusual stonework within ten feet (3.048 meters) without actively looking for them.
The Golenti sense of smell and hearing are less acute than that of humans, though not to their detriment.
Civilization and Culture
Naming Traditions
Golenti names typically reflect their affinity for mining, gems, and metalworking. They often carry the names of their local or racial legends or find inspiration in the cadence of their language.
Beauty Ideals
Golenti take pride in their hair: the longer their hair the more experience and honor they hold. Therefore, longer hair (and beards on men) the more attractive a mate the individual is.
In addition, strong musculature and body definition are desirable traits, as they signify the ability to be a strong, hard worker.
Average Technological Level
Golenti are some of the most technologically advanced people in Solia, maintaining Industrial level societies that utilize steam and coal engines, enclosed plumbing and mechanical pumps, and motorized transportation.
Culture and Cultural Heritage
Golenti culture is typically matriarchal and focused around the concept of the Blood Hearth, being the fire that is fueled by lineage and tradition.
Common Customs, Traditions and Rituals
Funerary Rites
The Golenti will entomb their dead in ornate stone mausoleums, often with artifacts or possessions dear to the deceased. It is believed that they will ascend to the afterlife, and take with them that which was held dear as a method of showing their worth. The exception to this is the Riverhand Golenti, who commit their dead to the waters by wrapping them in funerary cloth and weighing down the corpse to sink to the depths so that the spirit can drift into their next life. Settlements maintain specific immersion locations well downstream from their banks, so as not to risk contaminating their water source.History
In the early years, there existed only the Human and the Nuaira. The humans were still a primitive, tribal people, though they were showing signs of rapid evolution. Those humans in the mountainous Golen Steppes of what is now Dunmaerik were the first to show signs of evolving to fit their surroundings. As they progressed further into the caves of their homeland, in search of the precious metals sought after by the Nuaira, they began to take on shorter stature, growing thick-limbed and coarse, thick hair to warm them in the bowels of the earth. Within ten generations, the Golenti had become something else completely.
Over time, their evolution continued: their eyes grew accustomed to the dark and narrow tunnels of their caves, their bodies grew hardier and stronger, and even their language evolved into something all their own, taking on a cadence and solid structure, just like the stone around them.
The surface world continued around them, but the Golenti continued turning inward. Even as the Nuaira retreated and the Ezirandi pushed outward to seize every piece of land they set their eyes upon, as the horse nomads of the Haladri grew a nation at the base of the Golen Steppes, the Golenti continued into the stone, toward greater treasures and greater understanding.
Creation Myth
The Golenti tell of their creation differently than the surface races. In the beginning, there was only the stone upon the land. From this stone was carved the First, a proud specimen and the quintessential paragon of the Golenti way. Among the factions of the Golenti people, there is little common ground regarding the First, as each of the races claims they are the true descendants and the others are but weaker offshoots of the bloodline. This theological debate has been at the center of numerous civil wars within the Stonelands, leaving the proud people divided and scattered. From the stone, the First carved a husband (or wife; by some accounts, the First was a man). The First and the Second were said to have labored for one-hundred times one-hundred years, sculpting the first generation of the Golenti, instilling in them the traits that have come to represent their race. From the first generation, all the Golenti peoples spawned, falling into blood hearths and clan homes that eventually gave rise to the kingdoms and nations that would be called the Stonelands.
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A typical Golenti
Scientific Name
Reference Race: Dwarf
Origin/Ancestry
Proto-human Dunmaer
Lifespan
250-500 Years
Average Height
3'11" - 4'5" (1.14 - 1.34 meters)
Average Weight
164 – 206 lbs (74.3891 - 93.44 kg)
Average Physique
Most Golenti have wide, compact bodies that account for their burly appearance.
Body Tint, Colouring and Marking
Golenti typically have rough, sturdy skin with earth-tone coloring, ranging from browns and tans to dark grey.
Related Myths
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