Beastmen

Definition

It is difficult to describe exactly what a beastman is, in terms of race. While considered one of the Lesser Races, such as goblins or halflings, beastmen do not have one common ancestry. Predominantly the cross of beasts and humans (thus the name), this disorder can be found in the children of any race. It is known that all who have given birth to beastmen have ancestors who came into contact with a Dom-Bur of similar shape. Many have taken this to mean that the Dom-Bur are cursed, diseased, and should be avoided at all costs.
Some are not so sure about this assessment, as they have ancestors who have come into contact with the Dom-Bur on many occasions and have yet to experience any mutations. The science of what caused bestial children to be born is still in its own infancy. There are an incredibly large number of beastman genotypes, each being formed from coming into contact with a host Dom-Bur.
For example, there are the porcine Homme Chochon of Orleon, the furry goblinoid Poplins of Equinox, or the Inkunzi bull men of Kumba to name only a few. All cultures on the face of Urdun have had to ask themselves what to do with beastmen.
In this article I will document the two most populous and successful genotypes of bestial kind: the Satyrs and Rhajpat.

The Satyrs

Origins

The most successful of all beastmen are the satyrs. As one of the earliest known bestial genotypes, they appeared during the Dust Age. The modern satyrs tell a story of a tribe of Natuthians who came into conflict with the Great Goat of the Desert. A massive Dom-Bur, called Vozgu stood in their path and refused to allow them passage into his green pastures. The story tells of a young man who stood alone against the giant and slew him single handedly, saving his people and allowing them to enter the green pastures. They say Vozgu cursed the men with his dying breath, that they would become as his own children, so that the green pastures would always be his. The people were changed that day, and all their descendants became Satyrs.

Saari and Slavery

In the temperate lands north of Saaribhia, the satyrs expanded. Their Natuthian relatives had long since died off, and all that remained of their people were satyrs. This was noticed by the Saari across the mountains from them. They were experiencing a golden age, and came from the cliffs and seas to take the satyrs as slaves.
Satyrs are not as endurant as most humans are, and so they made for poor laborers. However, satyrs are incredibly fast, and can easily outrun any man. The Saari began to use these slaves as messengers. The thick jungles of Saaribhia were until recently only traversable by boat. Howevever the currents are strong, and paddling upstream is tiring work. So many Satyrs were made to run the riverbanks, carrying messages and smaller parcels with them.

The Norien Empire

When the Elves of Norien conquered the Saari, they were quite fond of how efficient the Satyr messaging system worked in rough terrain. The elves continued the practice, and began to build elven cities in the old homelands of the Satyrs. Old Norien was fond of the isthmus that ran from Doranon to Kumba, and built a large city, called Athrad, there to become the backbone of trade and information for their empire. The Satyr runners were based and bred there, only to be shipped to other parts of the Empire. These runners became transcontinental mail men. And while many did run, due to the lack of supervision, they had few places to run to. Anything that was not owned by the Empire was full of wild men, savage orcs, and all manner of creatures that would see the Satyrs devoured. Slavery was the much safer option.
The War of Ghouls saw this messenger system change. The elves's main advantage over Sarko'Anar and his hordes of ghouls was their mobility. As the south began to fall, elven generals began to equip the satyrs to help them fight. These glorified mailmen were now one of the last hopes the elves had for superiority in an infantry based victory. They would use their detailed knowledge of the Empire's territory to their advantage and strike the ghouls in the most strategic locations. Ambush tactics served the satyrs well, but time was not on the side of those who stood against the ghouls. Their massive armies continued to creep into the north, and the Satyrs were forced to give them ground.
As the elves grew more and more desperate for manpower, the satyrs were trained to make and maintain their own equipment. The secret of bronze forging was a tightly kept elven secret, and would prove to be a mistake for the elves in the long run. This is because, after the war of ghouls ended, the Satyrs had a new identity for themselves as strong warriors. While not terribly numerous, they were intelligent and well trained.

Utopian Rebellion

Marsep, a well respected leader amongst the satyr fighters, had a philosophical concept that he referred to as the Utopia. This idea was that a perfect world can be achieved through the cooperation of all people. Slaves would not need to exist if everyone was equal and had a high quality of life. This concept was very popular amongst the satyrs. They wished to rule their ancestral lands themselves, free of elven rule, so that they could all experience this Utopian dream.
As the major port that shipped elven tin to the northern stretches of the empire, Athrad was the main target of Marsep. He united the satyrs together and hit the city from both sides. As their messengers were the ones openly attacking them, it was a long time before the elves in Ta'Norie even knew their empire was crumbling. Marsep used this to his advantage, and laid seige to the east and west of Athrad. With the elves cooped up behind their walls, they were easily able to take the defenseless territory around the central hub. Eventually, the elves were able to sneak a ship out and warned the emperor, but it was too late. The city fell before reinforcements could arrive. The Satyrs equipped themselves in elven bronze and held their new land against their elven overlords, becoming a free people. With no tin being shipped north, the Norien empire lost its bronze advantage over its people. With dwindled numbers, an unhappy populace, and no bronze weapons the empire fell. Marsep had killed the greatest empire to ever grace the world in one battle.
It was no question as to who should become king of the Satyrs. Marsep was crowned and the land was named Utopia. The city of Athrad had its elven riches stripped and divided amongst the people. Athrad was renamed Panerus, the city of satyrs, and it became the capital of Utopia.
Panerus continued its tradition of being the backbone of trade between the east and west. Dividing the elven riches amongst themselves allowed numerous satyrs to start ventures as business owners, a stark contrast to the slavery they once knew. The satyrs became increasingly wealthy, and the merchants began to divide the territory to consolidate power. King Marsep worked tirelessly attempting to keep an air of equality in his kingdom.
Stress normally leads to an early death, but not so for Marsep the Ageless. For generations he continued to rule as king. Though no one knew for sure, it was said that the king had been taking some of Sarko'Anar's Breath of Life, nothing else sustains a person in such a way for so long. As he continued to keep the wealthy merchants and nobles under control, they forgot their love for their king. Marsep survived poisonings, assassins, and one day decided he had grown tired of his people. After nearly three hundred years of trying to keep his experiment from failing, Marsep removed his crown and wandered into the western wilderness, to live amongst the equally endless Ainar.

Aftermath of the Experiment

Having lived long past several generations of his own descendants, noone knew who should be king. All of the nobles claimed to be of the line of Marsep. The most powerful of merchants at the time knew exactly how to settle this argument without causing a civil war. They would sell Marsepian Seals to noble families. This seal would show that you are indeed of the the line of Marsep. After every family had bought a Marsepian seal, they began to purchase more seals. The more Marsepian seals a family possessed, the more pure they were in the royal bloodline. The merchants had successfully figured out how to charge rent to the noble class of the wealthiest nation on Urdun.
With their unmatched riches, the nobility almost always has to come to the merchants for financial assistance. Let it be known that the merchants rule in Utopia. They have used this vast wealth to complete one of the greatest wonders of engineering, the Panerus Canal. Stretching for miles and miles, the deep waters of the canal have allowed naval passage from the North Sea into the Sea of Wrath. Panerus now controls all trade North to South, and East to West. Their riches have swelled to such a glut, that the world envies their hordes of gold. Ever since, Panerus has become the melting pot of the world and remains so to this day.

The Rhajpat

Dismal Beginnings

If the Satyrs are the luckiest people to ever grace the planet, the Rhajpat may be considered to polar opposite. At the end of the Dust Age, the Saari experienced a golden age of their own. During this time they build large cities with intricate sewer systems. As they are tend to do, rats roam their subterranean halls, and have apparently become pack to slumbering Hen-o'dem. In those sewers, gigantic rat men would wake from their slumber to raid and consume the unsuspecting populous.
The Saari king would have these monsters executed, but in their absence they have cursed the Saari just as the Satyrs. They began to have children with rodentile features. They were disgusting to look upon, and they were cast into the southern mountains. In the dark depths of these caves these creatures, who were now called Rhajpat, they dug. The Rhajpat would wander the wild jungle in search of freedoms, and occasionally to enact vengeance against the Saari people.
Even after the Norien Empire conquered the Saari, the Rhajpat were granted no freedoms. In order to appease health concerns, the Rhajpat banishment was kept in effect. Elven policing allowed Saari villages to be safe from raiding ratmen, and the Saari became a very productive member of the Empire. They even began to enjoy having elven overlords. However the Great Ghoul War changed everything. The ghouls had made ghost towns of many once great cities. The elves and men that lived there were slaughtered or evacuated to the north. Those who remained in Saaribhia immediately felt betrayed by their leadership. Even after the war was over, and the elven governors were reinstated, there were not enough elven soldiers to police the jungles.

Revenge

The Rhajpat saw the weakened state their old enemy was in, and made the most of it. They would brave into urban centers and take on much larger targets than before. The cities were still weak from Ghoulish occupation, barely reconstructed before the Rhajpat hit them in force. They would take all the food, valuables, and women they could and return to their mountain home. The Saari were furious and decided that if they elves could no longer protect them, they would protect themselves. The jungle peoples rebelled and reinstated a king of the old line. Saaribhia was a sovereign nation again.
The new king made vengeance a top priority, and he lead a large army to the southern mountains in order to pay the Rhajpat back for all he misery they had wrought. What the king was met with was a labyrinthine maze of subterranean tunnels. The Rhajpat had not simply cut nasty holes in the floors, but had made a culture of their own. Similar to the dwarves they had made kingdoms out of their mountains. These dwellings were easy to defend, and the Saari were forced to retreat. These two lands have remained in a stalemate for centuries. The Rhajpat have crowned a king of their own, yet Saaribhati's ruler claims the mountains and all wealth within it to be his.

Do not look behind

The Rhajpat have attempted to branch out from their unfortunate roots. They have set up trade with the men of Perisnio, have very friendly relations with the Satyrs of Utopia, and have started to sail the coasts, congregating in major port towns. In these cities they like to form homogeneous districts, colloquially referred to as "Ratburgs"
Everywhere they go, the Rhajpat face adversity. But they are a determined and hard working people and fate will eventually smile on them.