Mongrelman
All peoples have their misery, but few can claim as much as those who called themselves mongrelmen. Their very nature was a curse inflicted on them. Their existence was one of pain and loss and rejection. Few tales of the Twin Worlds are sadder than that of the mongrelmen.
Basic Information
Anatomy
Mongrelmen were a hideous amalgamation of various other beings. Each one was warped in their own individual way, but none were able to truly hide the deformities with which they were cursed.
Occasionally, a mongrelman might receive some minor benefit from these artless additions, such as sharp claws. However, they never received benefits from the nature of any creature whose parts they had, such as a troll's regeneration.
Genetics and Reproduction
It is unknown by scholars if they were even capable of reproduction. It is believed by many that they were not due to their magical origin. Others conclude that they were, citing other magical hybrids, such as griffons or owlbears as proof.
This debate is largely academic, however. Their sheer ugliness and rejection by society made any reproduction unlikely. They considered their condition a curse, making them also unwilling to pass it on to a second generation.
Civilization and Culture
History
These sad creatures were the result of the experiments of Velsarra Til'vere. As she began working to improve those around her, she started by transforming her victims over and over and testing their capabilities. Most died from the strain, but those who lived were forever changed.
Velsarra was so single-minded that she cared nothing for the results of her failed experiments. When she could gain no more utility from them, she simply dumped them into the Whiteriver sewers, alive or dead.
Most stayed in those sewers, trying to stay out of sight as much out of shame as out of a lack of acceptance. They mostly stayed alone, trying to scrape together as much as they could for mere survival. All of this changed when one of their own, an adventurer named Onder went to Velsarra with the hopes for a cure.
She realized her earlier mistake in allowing her failures to live. She ordered her more successful experiments, the verbeeg to kill him. When he escaped, they were ordered to exterminate any mongrelman they saw.
A great many were killed, but Onder united those that remained. After a duel between Velsarra and Onder's companion, Ratagar of Rall, the woman barely escaped with her life. She then ran into the gathered mob of mongrelmen, and offered them a cure in exchange for their aid in her escape. They showed no mercy.
After the death of their creator, they mostly remained together except for Onder. They fled back into the sewers, but created something akin to a community there. Life was hard, but they had something they hadn't had since their transformation: they had a home.
Surprisingly for them, Onder had been working on a far better home. He used his tremendous wealth to create a secluded community where they could live in peace. He even saw to that their basic needs would be provided by a discrete delivery of supplies. They all left in a mass exodus to live in the town that was made for them, but when the first caravan came, the town was gone as if it had never existed at all.
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