The Garuk Beastmen

In this world blessed by the almighty gods, there are untold dangers lurking in the forests and hills of even the most civilized areas. Bandits, orcs, goblinoids, undead, and monsters aplenty roam and prey on the weak, inflicting unspeakable evil upon the average person. However, there is one that many argue is the most unsettling, and terrifying of them all. They are the howling tide of braying madness, the avalanche of muscle and claw, and the booming of cloven hooves: they are the Garuk, or simply the Beastmen.
Their origins are not known, as they have always been in the world, according to the oldest records ever penned. While it is known that they reproduce sexually, it is fiercely debated the myriad of other ways they could have come to be. Some have tried to claim these creatures are the result of mortals laying with animals (though this is mostly just to insinuate that some city or group are hedonists and not truly believed), and others believe they are the result of mutation from arcane energies. Others still believe they are the twisted love child of the arch devils Lillith and Baphomet (in the most literal sense). The most curious thing of all, however, is that perhaps some or all of these are true, and yet they are not as horrifying as the true revelation of how a Garuk comes to be: it is a state of mind. All mortals have the capability of turning into this horrid creature from but a state of being. Perhaps the first Garuk were cultists that followed this philosophy: to shed the visage of civility granted by the gods and embrace the call of the beast. TO give in to their only desires of killing and fornicating. To grow fangs and slake their endless hunger on the flesh of the civilized.
Garuk come in many varieties, but all are mutated and warped humanoid beast hybrids. The most common forms being goats, wolves, and apes. Black, viscous blood courses through their veins, and they are bestial in every sense of the word. Their only concern in their horrid lives is to kill, eat, and rut. However, while many scholars would love to say that they are completely mindless, it is with immense sadness that one must realize that they have a society, albeit a simplistic and horrid one. They are found in wandering herds or tribes, led by a Chieftain sometimes referred to as a Beastlord. They are hulking, towering figures of muscle and death (and most beastmen are quite tall indeed). Furthermore, they typically have strange witches and shamans act as advisors and attendants to their whims, but for the rest of the tribe what the beastlord says is the law. However, the beastlord must always be able to fight off those seeking to usurp him, and for when this does happen, large hedonistic feasts are held for the victor that last throughout the night. Much of one's societal standing is determined by the size of one's horns, as the weakest beastmen are those the same height as a human man and with mostly short nubs for horns.
There is no love in their society. Infant beastmen are made to fend for themselves for the most part, and countless die either due to adults or even other young beasts. They learn to kill, fight, eat, and all they need to live on their own. When fully mature (and they mature quickly) they are all eager to prove themselves in the favored pastime of the Garuk: raid and pillage. Some isolated villages have reportedly tried to placate local Garuk tribes with sacrifices or offerings of strange alcohol, but none know if these work for if they don't, the Garuk rarely leave anyone alive to tell. Villages all over the world know the deep-rooted fear of hearing the howling braying that heralds an attack of these beastmen. They kill and devour all in their way, and capture and enslave those they don't to eat later, use for blood rituals, or keep them as slaves for labor and whatever unspeakable torments the beastmen delight in. What's even worse, is that though they are a minority, some mortals become cultists worshiping the beastmen and their "gods". Some may be captured slaves simply broken by madness, but shockingly most come from outside, and even more shocking some are accepted into the tribe, being able to join them against all reason and sanity.
What makes the Garuk Beastmen so terrifying, is not only what they represent, but just how they are. They are beings of pure animalistic hate, lust, and hunger. They don't often retreat, and their entire society is built solely on the perpetuation of raiding and pillaging. While goblinoids and orcs of the barbarian clans are vile indeed, there is at least some form of society to them, as cruel as it may be. For the beastmen however, there is nothing but the pack, the only advanced thing seemingly being some god like beings they worship. However, it's debatable if they even know they are worshiping these gods, or if they are simply just flailing about in madness. The drums of flayed skin they beat upon are the sound of many sleepless nights road wardens are awakened by. The drums of hate and hunger, as if the very sound is speaking: we are coming, and we are going to get you.

Alternative Names

Garuk Blood, The Mutated Hordes, The Dark Beast-Folk, The Beasts