Dhogem

The Dhogem, an intelligent, humanoid race thought to have evolved over time from moles, live almost exclusively underground congregating into one of a few major ecological systems that lie beneath The Dragonlands. For the most part, they are a merit-based, egalitarian people who tend to exalt those most qualified into positions of leadership and power; though there are some exceptions. The lands of The Deeps are divided into the following major areas: The Great Chasm, The Serpent's Vaults, The Great Ford, the Sea of Madness, the The Fungal Consortium, and The Flameblossom Grotto.Other minor areas include Shadowhold, the Frozen Ruins, and the Eternal Hegemony of Resplendent Order, and other intelligent creatures dwell within The Deeps as well.
Much of dhogem culture, goods, crafts, artwork, even cuisine is based around the harvest and consumption of the dangerous creatures that thrive in the dark, underground of Ticonderos, stepped in ancient, unstable magics. The dhogem also traded and even taught their trades freely with those Dragonscarred settlements that dwelled in valleys and hillsides nearest to caves and mines where they might naturally encounter the dhogem.
While the dhogem were a hardy people, strongly resistant to the corrupting effects that infused the monsters’ bodies they so liberally worked with, over time, those human communities that had spent generations mingling their traditions with the dhogem became afflicted with unpredictable mutations that could cripple an entire village’s livelihood or grant wild, supernatural powers.
The dhogem, though driven underground by the Dragonlord decades ago, and loathe to deal with humans again, find themselves facing disaster. A surge of malevolence seems to have taken place somewhere in the bowels of the earth and horrors like they’ve never seen ravage their lands. In the Great Chasm where the powerful Rock Wyrm once reigned, new apex predators clash constantly for supremacy. Perhaps worse, a quickly growing number of the dhogem themselves have become corrupted, changed into servants to an unseen power that seeks freedom from its prison, vengeance on its captors, and domination over everything else. And so, dhogem pour to the surface by the thousands seeking refuge from this fresh hell. Some have even made it so far as Coldhearth upon the Dragon's Tail where, save for very rare, individual circumstances, the Dhogem have made contact with the Oreiad for the first time in thousands of years.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Bipedal humanoids with arms, legs, feet, hands, and heads very similar to humans but with environmental and ancestral adaptations to their underground environment from their long, long distant ancestors who descended, it is believed, from moles. As such, compared to the human Dragonscarred on the surface, the Dhogem have thicker hair, much more durable nails, flatter and wider noses, broader chests, shoulders, and backs, as well as larger arms and hands.

Ecology and Habitats

Dhogem dwell in underground communities that, despite their unique construction and biome adaptations, are surprisingly similar to the human Dragonscarred civilizations on Ticonderos' surface.

Additional Information

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Better sense of smell than humans with minor to exceptional "tremorsense," communicated to their nervous system by the thin hairs all over their bodies, hair in the same sparseness and texture as that of human body hair only, in Dhogem biology, attached to nerve endings much more sensitive to vibrations and changes in pressure.

Civilization and Culture

Culture and Cultural Heritage

The Dhogem worship a variety of gods and goddesses and revere an additional host of cosmic entities and other strange, even dark, powers. But all of these spring from the more foundational beliefs of their ancient ancestors, the most basic principle among them being that Life is Magic. This singular tenet can be found in practice throughout modern Dhogem society in all facets of their daily lives and is derived from their oldest creation myths.
While the religious Dhogem of The Great Chasm may worship different deities than those of The Serpent's Vaults, their worship can all be traced back to the Stone Tapestry, a series of carvings and cave drawings found in the deep caverns northwest of the Sea of Ice that depicts what theologians describe as a tale of cosmic struggle, a tug of war if you will, an endless cycle of death and rebirth in which a world of darkness and its pantheon of demons and devils struggles in vain against the might of a Shining Force who crossed the Sea of Severance through the Wurm Holes of Urgmyr and his ilk to defeat these dark ones and establish a new world, a world of light. This Shining Force then stopped up the Holes with warm, glowing orbs of light in which they incubate their children, those beings that will someday become new gods and goddesses for the Dhogem to worship. It is believed that when all of the Void Children have been born from these chambers, the demons and devils will return through the Holes and wage war with the Shining Force and yet another world will be shaped from the remnants of the battle, one fit only for demons and devils and their hellspawn. Thus, life on Ticonderos is owed to the victory of the Shining Force over darkness, and the world they created.
Much more can be said about the Stone Tapestry and its myths of creation, about the Eldar Wurms that burrow Holes through the Sea of Severance, and of course, about the Shining Force and the gods and goddesses (and Void Children) that make it up, but for now, I want to talk more about that colloquial truism, Life is Magic. Dhogem society is based around a kind of "necromancy" - to use a word borrowed from our society, a word used by the humans on the surface of Ticonderos to speak of death magic. Dhogem are keenly attuned to the magic that is Life itself, this magic runs deep through the bowels of the earth, into the roots of the trees on the surface and the great fungal systems in The Deeps, and it runs through the veins of all living creatures. There is power in the blood and marrow of the ecosystems within The Deeps, and the Dhogem have harnessed this power for centuries, using their unique practices to preserve, reuse, and repurpose that living magic from the bodies of the dead. Powerful tools, weapons, and other items are created from sinew, hide, shell, and bone inheriting the properties of the creatures they were harvested from. A smith's hammer is cast from the chitin of many fire beetles to bestow it with flames that help the hammer to shape metal. A suit of scale mail shaped from the still living hide of a fearsome szaszilisq is grafted to its wearer in a symbiotic relationship, the wearer allowing the armor to live on, the armor allowing its wearer to breathe torrents of lightning. Even carving mundane things from bones, like chairs or spoons, is done with a reverence and care reserved in Dhogem society for magical rituals. In this way, even the most secular of Dhogem communities are suffused with this spirituality, this tug of war between life and death, this notion that Life is Magic.
There are some sects deep within the Dhogem religious communities, not secretive per se, just not widespread or well-known, who believe Ticonderos itself is dead, who attribute even the gathering of resources such as water, gemstones, and ores with the same magic the rest of Dhghemon would to harvesting blood and bones from the creatures of The Deeps. Perhaps there are those among even these sects who secretly comtemplate and scheme in the aim of bringing their world "back to life." One is left to wonder, if Ticonderos is dead, what would bringing her back to life mean for the rest of the things living on and within her?

Scientific Name

Talpa Sapien

Origin/Ancestry

Underticonterran