The Mother of Mountains Character in Scarterra | World Anvil

The Mother of Mountains

Patli (a.k.a. Mother of Mountains)

Dwarf society is fairly rigid and hidebound and most are content with this. A few dwarves find ways to remain a part of their society without completely divorcing from it including dwarf rangers and certain minority religions.   Other dwarves who don't fit in with polite society expatriate themselves. Others choose to become criminals.   A few gnome nonconformists become criminals and there are many gnomes living in dwarf lands, both Meckelorn gnomes and Stahlheimer gnomes are part of their respective societies. Given that dwarves are a xenophobic lot, even if they mostly trust gnomes they still watch them closely. After all gnomes are known for their silver tongues, while rare, it's not unheard for a gnome's silver tongues to be forked, metaphorically speaking.   Dwarves tolerate tengku merchants in their territories but these resident aliens much breathing room. Fairly or not, the crow folk are often the first people to be suspected of criminal activity.   Kalazotz are generally the last people dwarves would expect. They are family oriented, honest, and often a little timid. Whether they view kalazotz as valued allies, useful servants, or persistent annoyances, most dwarves take the bat folk for granted.   What would suspect an elderly kalazotz to be running a large criminal organization.   Her birth name is Patli, but she rarely uses it. The kalazotz crime matriarch goes by the alias the Mother of Mountains, a grandiose name few dwarves would think to associate with a kalazotz. Most who hear the name assume she is a dwarf or a gnome and that's exactly how she prefers it.   Since Meckelorner dwarves rarely give kalazotz laborers a second glance, the Mother of Mountains uses them to smuggle clandestine messages and various small contraband goods.   Larger contraband items are moved by the gong farmers or poop porters. In the land of Meckelorn, many poop porters are kalazotz and dwarves and non-dwarves alike give them a wide berth for obvious olfactory reasons.   Not wanting to be reliant one system, she utilizes couriers and smugglers from a wide variety of lowly professions, not just gong farmers.   Her main business is brokering deals for forged guild certifications, but she also brokers deals with fences and reagents and poisons smugglers. She doesn't commonly deal with murder or beatings for hire, but she certainly knows how to hire muscle when the situations calls for it.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Her real name is Patli and she was born to a family of gong farmers.  She resented her lot in life and believed kalazotz were mistreated by the dwarf majority.   She decided from a young age she wanted to make something of herself and was not afraid to take some harsh actions to do it.  Quickly realizing petty theft was a high risk for low reward, she used her position as a gong farmer to sneak looks at people's personal letters and correspondences while emptying their chamber pots or quietly lingering longer than necessary to overhear choice snippets of conversation.   Armed with secrets as her currency, she bought her way into the good graces of some illegal guilds and then used blackmail, bribery, or poison to eliminate or subjugate dwarf or gnome criminals who stood in the way of her ascension.

Education

Fully literate and multilingual, her main talent is an organizer though she has a good understanding of many herbal remedies and poisons. While she is not a spell casters, she knows a lot about reagents and can appraise their value easily.   While she usually delegates this to underlings, she is a talented forger herself.
Alignment
Neutral Evil
Current Location
Species
Year of Birth
1791 CE 47 Years old
Children
Gender
female
Known Languages
Zocatec, Dwarven, Common ElementalsOrcish, Elven


Cover image: Comissioned Kalazotz Art (smaller version) by Diana Rahfoth

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