Tuskin
by hughpierre
Basic Information
Anatomy
Skull
The cranium sat on a shortened neck and was composed honeycombed cavities and a flattened back that spread out in arches to protect the brain in every direction.Limbs
The arms tend to be long while the legs are short and broad legs to support their weight.Feet
Padded circular feet with five toenails.Genetics and Reproduction
Sexual Maturity
Tuskin may have reached sexual maturity at age nine.Deformities
It is not fully clear why, but as the giants were in decline, they were plagued with countless birth defects that staggered their progression.
Birth Mutations
Unusual changes in almost any part the body started affecting every birth that happened to coinside with the Kean's arrival.Late Age Cancers
Far along in their growth, elders developed lymph nodes that spread throughout the body.Growth Rate & Stages
Childhood
As children, tuskin were the size of the grown men who tended to them.Middle Age
Adulthood started at 18 years. From then on, the trajectory of a tuskin life is unknown.Elder
As tuskin mature, their hair darkens and sparser, but dense concentrations of hair and bristles remain on the end of the back, the chin, genitals and the areas around the eyes and ear openings.Additional Information
Social Structure
With as limited an understanding we have, several inferrences can be made from the elkin tales on how the tuskin might have viewed themselves.
Watchers
Tuskin guards or warriors of a senior rank who oversaw the Bad Step and Slopes before half of it crashed into the Cold Swamp.Foresters
Tuskin colonists or wanderers of the valley floor who may have also acted in some agricultural role.Diggers
Tuskin earth movers who created an extensive web of tunnels underground and the piles mounds above it.Facial characteristics
Eyes
Eyesight was generally poor due to being small within the head and of limited mobility.Tusks
Modified teeth that jut out from a socket in the skull with an enamel cap.Ears
Ear flaps that had thick bases with thin tipsNose
A fusion of the nose and upper lip elongated to become a muscular and versatile appendage.Geographic Origin and Distribution
Bad Step
Mountain Blood
It is the ancient nursery of the Tuskin. A former home of Step Folks' ancestors and current home for the Caverns. The rocks of the deeper interior are solid masses of hot-rocks which raise the temperature to unbearable levels the deeper one ventures. During the era of giants, the broods of giants and the giants' brood were kept under the mountain for safety. It might be that the cave system was pre-made by ancient volcanoes and later enlarged and expanded.Valley Floor
Pike Woods
Before people came to take over the valley, the rolling plains were covered in humongous crown trees (now extinct) which would penetrate the dragons upon their landing. The tuskin apparently worshiped these trees in some fashion or used them in some ceremonies of state, religion or simply as a common resource.Civilization and Culture
Average Technological Level
Archery
Ranged warfare was apparently awarded higher prestige in tuskin culture than melee combat. The arrows they fired from pikewood bows were as large as a man and travelled incredible distances.Dragon Mounting
It is supposed that the tuskin were giant enough to capture and wrangle the feather dragons into mounts for war and hauling.Talud-Tablero
Consists of an inward-sloping surface called the talud, with a structure perpendicular to the ground sitting upon the slope called the tablero. To maintain the ingrained angles, those panels rest on crushed boulders, with gravel and sand filled in-between to form a solid, sturdy mass.Major Language Groups and Dialects
Etchings
Parts of the Mountain Blood's walls are covered with white and graying scratches of an undecipherable tone.Common Etiquette Rules
Belly Greeting
A show or respect of submission among tuskin, where one member exposes and protrudes their stomach towards another.Common Dress Code
Shadow Armour
Tuskin are said to have worn 'shadows' as armour for battle.It is not certain just what this means, but a common guess is that it came from a giant predecessor of the banshee.
Culture and Cultural Heritage
Standing Tombs
The tuskin encase their dead in coarse, limey gravel that is shaped into the dead's external visage. The result is a heavy pillar shaped like the real tuskin it contains. The pillar tomb is then put to stand at a place of importance depending on the importance of the deceased.Common Myths and Legends
Cosmic Egg
A tuskin belief in a cosmic commonality that suggests that every individual of every species (plants and animals) are all one individual.Colour Corruption
The 'corruption' refers to the introduction of strange alien species into the tuskin's environment that had adverse effects on the native species.Interspecies Relations and Assumptions
Human
Descendants
ElkinThe step folk who inherented the size claimed from being blood kin to the giants.
Gardeners
Valley people who entered the pike woods to labour for tuskin colonists.
Taulli
A warrior culture under the shadow of very tall men with an many stories of their origin.
Foreign Relations
Tyr/YateiA people mixed group of tribes furthest away from Eeat and fearful of the Keans. Cloud Clans
The most dominate tribe of people at the time to be in-contact the Keans.
Hornkin
The ivory giants ruled over the now "Valley of Man" and were in constant contention with the Keans of Eeat. Surviving oral traditions and portrayals on the walls tell of keanian exploits deep into tuskin territory through what we would know of Mais and Mist in long missions into the valley interior.
EXTINCT
Alternate Names
Ivory Giants
Ivory Giants
Lifespan
60 - 70 years
Average Height
12 feet
Average Weight
10 - 19 stones
Average Length
30 feet
Average Physique
Thickly Built
Body Tint, Colouring and Marking
Grey and Wrinkly
Geographic Distribution
| STR | (Choose the lowest roll as modifier) |
|---|---|
| CON | |
| DEX | |
| INT | |
| WIS | |
| CHA | |
| Armour | 2d6 |
| HP | 3d6+6 ([min+max]/2) |
| Speed | 2d10+10 ft |
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