Why Are There Three Nations of Bird-Folk in Presterjho? (Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition)

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The Location of the Nations

    Across Tilruur's eastern border lie a total of four nations, though one accounts for the majority of its length.  In the northeast, the buffalo minotaurs share two very short borders with the mountainous realms of the ӑӑrākòcrááá.  Both then bloom forth to the west, widening and extending towards the coast (though neither meets it).  Zǎǎrsàhwááákn'ìì-nāān'-Òòhthír (pronounced /zaː˦˩ɾsa̤˨waːː˦kniː˨naː˧n̪o̤ː˨θi˦ɾ/) sits humped in the north, its entire southern border resting upon the back of T'yííílgěhsh-nāān'-Òòhthír, which crooks to the south halfway down its length to meet the land where the animals talk.  Buun et Ati-Bexaacu (pronounced /buːnɛtʌtibɛɖaːħu/) is tucked in between Zǎǎrsàhwááákn'ìì-nāān'-Òòhthír and the shore, sharing no border at all with the other nation of the bird-folk.

    The Holbytlano colony of Habatlas borders Buun et Ati-Bexaacu to the southeast and Zǎǎrsàhwááákn'ìì-nāān'-Òòhthír to the east.  The tiny border between Zǎǎrsàhwááákn'ìì-nāān'-Òòhthír and the nation of Doresain, home to dwarf and ghoul monks, prevents T'yííílgěhsh-nāān'-Òòhthír from quite connecting with the halfling colonists.  Doresain does share the entirety of T'yííílgěhsh-nāān'-Òòhthír's eastern border, however.

    The northern border of the region of Presterjho runs along that of Tilruur, Zǎǎrsàhwááákn'ìì-nāān'-Òòhthír, and Buun et Ati-Bexaacu.

The Origins of the Ӑӑrākòcrááá

    In very ancient times, the northern land of Taweret ~ considered not part of Presterjho at all, but of Scarhas ~ was not ruled by the giff who rule it today, nor by the sphinxes they killed to achieve their liberty and sovereignty.  Instead, it was ruled by the aven race, both those with the head of ibises and those whose heads were like the hawk.  In ages past, they fell beneath the heavy razor-tipped paws and binding riddles of the sphinxes, and as they did so, a conspiracy of ibis-headed aven gathered beyond the southern borders of their nation with a fanatic urge to preserve their culture's knowledge.  The hawk-headed aven were too proud to follow them to the northeastern corner of Presterjho, just along the shore of a storm-abating gulf, and wasted themselves in an obviously lost war.  

    After taking some decades to establish themselves, the ibis-headed aven performed a great and grand ritual to resurrect the other half of their race within themselves.  Several ibis-headed mothers of all genders gave the eggs they were incubating, and others gave their own bodies, to be transformed into this lost nobility.  The result of this ritual was not as they expected, flooding the subjects with avian energy instead of changing what was there into a different form.  Both hawk and ibis struggled to shape each body, birthing the ӑӑrākòcrááá, beings whose entire body was avian, rather than just the head; moreover, it was an awkward mix of the two animals that lacked the grace of either. This new nation of Buun et Ati-Bexaacu drove the race they had created from their lands for the shame of being both, driving them into the mountains whither the aven couldn't follow as quickly or easily.

The Heavenly Treasure Chest

    Once, the ӑӑrākòcrááá were ruled by a queen, and one among their number, the queen Thèhbāā thought her queendom rich and powerful.  However, one day a rhonian merchant called Tamrin told her about the wisdom of the the orange dragon Ay'lonit, the Shadow King of the eponymous city-state.  He also described the beautiful great temple that Ay'lonit had built to house his Shadow Brides.

    Queen Thèhbāā decided to visit the Shadow King and arrived with an abundance of gifts.  Her purpose was to try and corner him with difficult questions all of which Ay'lonit answered to her satisfaction.  She stayed a while before returning to her queendom, and though little is said of how rare she herself was, she is known to be one of only two women to have become a Shadow Bride and not spent her life as an enforcer of Ay'lonit's will and a priestess of his divinity.  Upon her return, she discovered that she was pregnant with the First Orange Dragon's child.  A handsome, if strange-looking, boy was born, and she named him Néhnēlíhk.

    When Néhnēlíhk grew up he wanted to know who his father was and was told that it was the Shadow King.  Néhnēlíhk wanted to meet his father and went to Ay'lonit for a visit.  Upon his return from the Dragon Cities, he was accompanied by extra servants and other dragonborn, of which one was a Shadow Bride herself.  The Shadow Bride stole the greatest prize in Ay'lonit's hoard ~ the Heavenly Treasure Chest he had looted in an ancient assault upon the Heavens themselves ~ and exchanged it for a replica Ay'lonit had gifted his son.  She only told Néhnēlíhk about this once they had left Ay'lonit.  Shadow King also found out that the Chest was stolen and chased after Néhnēlíhk, but could not overtake him.  Néhnēlíhk kept the Heavenly Treasure Chest in a special place; legend has it that this was the Church of Diwad in Kìhr-Sǎǎǎd'āāhl, which like all ӑӑrākòcrááá buildings had been carved from the top to the bottom all in a single piece from the mountain.  Ӑӑrākòcrááá architects know nought of masonry or of joining.

The Schism Among the Ӑӑrākòcrááá

    In this special place, the ӑӑrākòcrááá kept the Heavenly Treasure Chest on display, arrogant in their unintentional acquisition.  They bid people come from many distances to view what they proclaimed to be the reclamation of a prize stolen from the Heavens by a flagrant villain.  Even after Ay'lonit sent his armies, Shadow Wives at its head astride his orange-scaled children and soldiers marching lockstep behind the racing chariots, to reclaim the Chest, the ӑӑrākòcrááá did this.  They also showered gifts upon the buffalo minotaurs who had helped them deflect the Shadow King's vengeful attack.

    Nothing would convince the ӑӑrākòcrááá to abate this arrogance, though many tried with reasoned argument and magical appeal to the Heavens.  It wasn't until a foreign prince in love with the Rabbit King of the Moon he had met in his dreams chose the Heavenly Treasure Chest as his way to bend the Heavens to his besotted will that the ӑӑrākòcrááá began to see a problem.  This foreign prince visited Kìhr-Sǎǎǎd'āāhl on a diplomatic mission and, under the protective cover of a moonless night, crept into the display room where the Chest was.  With careful incantation and deft fingers, he stole from the chest three pyramids, one of Power, one of Courage, and one of Wisdom, and then fled with all his ministers before the sun could reveal his perfidy.

    As the rosy eye of dawn watched, the ӑӑrākòcrááá opened the Heavenly Treasure Chest to show its contents to the world.  Instead, they showed that they had lost these sacred things that had come under their protection.  Ashamed, they hid the Chest and its remaining contents somewhere they would not reveal, and began in earnest to discuss how best they could protect the Heavenly Treasure Chest.  As a first effort, the queen declared that only an elderly monk would be allowed to see and take care of the Chest.  This monk would not ever leave the small yard that surrounds whichever chapel held the prize, and they are expected to name their successor on their deathbed. 

    Two factions developed among the bird-folk, eventually cleaving the nation into two and forcing mass migrations in every direction as one country became two.  The faction that became the nation of T'yííílgěhsh-nāān'-Òòhthír insisted that only through the purity of virtue could the Chest be kept safe.  After all, they reasoned, the treasures it contained came from the Heavens and only Heavenly behavior could protect it.  Zǎǎrsàhwááákn'ìì-nāān'-Òòhthír came to house the other group, who saw value and use in vice and sin, calling them "Fearsome Protectors".  Only they, claimed this second group, could do what was needed and be as intimidating as necessary to protect the Chest, if the fiends could be mastered and conquered and tricked into doing so.

    Both nations pursue lives of vigorous and honorable discipline, one to purge themselves of all negativity and the other to bend it to a virtuous will tempered all the stronger by temptation.  They share a long border.

Never Trust an Aven from Buun et Ati-Bexaacu

    The nation of Buun et Ati-Bexaacu was founded out of a dedication to the ultimate value of knowledge above all other values and out of a desperation to preserve that knowledge in the face of a conquering obfuscation.  It is because of this marriage of virtues that few trust the aven of this small nation.  Their reputation for using any tactic to gain knowledge they have not tucked away in the massive library-tombs buried in the mountains to the north and south of its central desert is well-earned.  Trickery, gambling, con games, and even outright theft are all quite appropriate in the eyes of the aven, if they win some scrap of unarchived knowledge.  This perfidy has bred distrust of the aven throughout Presterjho.

    Among the aven, there is an archetype called in their language sebaytili, a kind of rakish poet and diviner.  Sebaytiliu travel the lands, engaging in adventure after adventure, scrape after scrape, collecting stories and knowledge and not a few secrets along the way.  One of the most famous is the whip-wielding Yendna Djehanis, star of many a grand and exciting tale.  When possible, a sebaytili acquires a written copy of the knowledge they snatch from the clutches of oblivion to bring back to those library-tombs and musea, as well as building it into their poetry as densely as possible.  

    Neither the record nor its continuance in verse are hidden away from curious eyes; quite the opposite, in fact.  The eagerness with which the aven share the knowledge they hoard has done much to temper the viciousness of the prejudices spread about them.  That's not why they do it, of course.  Knowledge is not knowledge if it is not known; the less it is known, the less it is knowledge.  Though Buun et Ati-Bexaacu is perfectly willing to use force to protect what it holds, it prefers to trade access and education for their safety.

    Buunki poetry comes in several forms, composed by means of interlocking formulae of two different sorts.  The first, the wataad, comes in a few different types differentiated by the length of their verses and their meter.  Buunki meter is qualitative, rather than quantitative (that is: it works like English poetry, based on the stress put on the syllables, rather than Latin poetry, based on how long it takes to pronounce a syllable).  "Abundant" poetry (the oldest type) has a pattern of twelve syllables in three feet: the first two feet featuring an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable that then gives way to either a single stressed syllable or two unstressed, with the last syllable stressed.  In order to maintain the twelve syllables per verse, between the two variable syllables, one must be of each variation.  The last foot of the meter is an unstressed syllable followed by two stressed syllables.

    The most common wataad is "long" poetry, with fourteen syllables in four feet: one consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed and then a syllable of either type, followed by a foot of the same plus a stressed syllable at the end, then a third foot matching the first, and a final foot of four syllables alternating stressed and unstressed.  On the other hand, "swift" poetry has only two feet:  the first consisting of two syllables of any stress followed by an unstressed and then a stressed, and the second of an unstressed syllable between two stressed syllables.  

    "Dance-song" is marked by three feet of an unstressed and a stressed syllable followed by a syllable of either type, with a final syllable of an unstressed and a stressed syllable.  The meter of "milk-shaking-song" is quite variable; its first foot starts off with either a stressed syllable or two unstressed syllables followed by an unstressed syllable between two stressed, and its second foot also starts with two unstressed or one stressed but then quickly ends with a stressed syllable.  "Grinding-songs" put a foot of three syllables (one of either kind followed by an unstressed and then a stressed) between two feet with the same pattern plus an additional stressed syllable at the end of each.  "Children-songs" have a simple pattern of two feet, each putting two stressed syllables between an unstressed one before and one of either stress after.  The final type is "livestock-songs", with a single foot in each line, of the same pattern as the feet in "abundant" poetry.

    As can be seen in the names themselves, the first three wataandi are considered more literary, while the latter five are considered more popular or folk.  These patterns are then paired with a pattern of alliteration and rhyme, called a sabaab, which also determines how many verses are present in a given poem.  There are seven sabaanbi: elegy, praise, romance, diatribe, gloating, battle, and guidance.  The result is that Buunki poetry effectively has an exhaustive list of 56 different poetic forms, each highly structured, for the poet to utilize.

    All of this, in addition to the presence of the Holbytlano colony just across the border, has made Buun et At-Bexaacu the favored refuge of gnomes from Aoqina who hope to leave their life behind for whatever reason.  Gnomish criminals, malcontents, and outcasts have found a welcoming home aming the aven.

Game Mechanics

Orange dragonborn deal and are resistant to fire damage, but their breath weapon works differently from other dragonborn's.  The amount of damage is the same, but it takes the form of what is essentially a very sticky, oily loogy which can be spat upon any target within 60 feet as a ranged attack.  If the attack fails, randomly determine a square within 5 feet of the target for it to land.  Nothing else happens this round, or the next, but upon the start of the dragonborn's next turn, the loogy explodes, causing standard breath weapon damage to anyone within a 5-foot radius.  If it's stuck to someone, they don't get a saving throw to avoid the effects.  

Of course, those dragonborn in T'yííílgěhsh-nāān'-Òòhthír and Zǎǎrsàhwááákn'ìì-nāān'-Òòhthír are also born of an aarakocran heritage.  To represent that heritage, give them the following racial traits:
Awkward Foot-Claws.  Your base walking speed is 25 feet, rather than 30 feet.
Winged.  You have a flying speed of 30 feet while you aren’t wearing heavy armor.

Aarakocra-born aasimar represent their own particular subrace of aasimar, with the following traits:
Ability Score Increase.  Your Dexterity score increases by 1.
Awkward Foot-Claws.  Your base walking speed is 25 feet, rather than 30 feet.
Day Hunter.  You lack the Darkvision trait common to most aasimar.
Winged.  You have a flying speed of 30 feet while you aren’t wearing heavy armor.

Tieflings born among the aarakocra likewise constitute a subrace of tiefling, with the following traits:
Ability Score Increase.  Your Wisdom score increases by 1.
Awkward Foot-Claws.  Your base walking speed is 25 feet, rather than 30 feet.
Winged.  You have a flying speed of 30 feet while you aren’t wearing heavy armor.

The classes most associated with Buun et Ati-Bexaacu are:

• Archivist artificer
• Bard in the college of lore
• Bard in the college of whispers
• Knowledge cleric
• Rune knight fighter
• Timeless monumental fighter
• Lingering soul with a calling of the spirit guardian
• Monk on the way of the cobalt soul
• Graverobber rogue
• Phantom rogue
• Researcher rogue
• Thief rogue
• Trapsetter rogue
• Runechild sorcerer
• Warlock of the accursed archive
• Warlord of the eternal citadel
• Abjurer wizard
• Diviner wizard
• Lore master wizard
• Onomancer wizard
• Order of scribes wizard
• Ritualist wizard
• Ruin warden wizard

The classes most associated with T'yííílgěhsh-nāān'-Òòhthír are:

• Elder Sign cleric
• Life cleric
• Light cleric
• Peace cleric
• Protection cleric
• Zeal cleric
• Mystery warrior fighter
• Monk on the way of mercy
• Monk on the way of tranquility
• Monk on the way of the sun soul
• Monk on the way of the watchful gate
• Noble from a lineage of myth
• Paladin who took an oath of devotion
• Paladin who took an oath of supremacy
• Paladin who took an oath of the watchers
• Inquisitive rogue
• Divine soul sorcerer
• Warlock of the celestial
• Abjurer wizard
• Theurge wizard

The classes most associated with Zǎǎrsàhwááákn'ìì-nāān'-Òòhthír are:

• Bard in the college of whispers
• Blood hunter of the profane soul
• Elder Sign cleric
• Trickery cleric
• Twilight cleric
• Druid in the circle of rue
• Haunted fighter
• Mystery warrior fighter
• Monk on the way of the black star
• Monk on the way of shadow
• Monk on the way of the watchful gate
• Bloody hands paladin
• Paladin who took an oath of avarice
• Paladin who took an oath of judgment
• Paladin who took an oath of supremacy
• Paladin who took an oath of treachery
• Paladin who took an oath of the watchers
• Assassin rogue
• Inquisitive rogue
• Thief rogue
• Warlock of the fiend
• Abjurer wizard

Scattered Notes on the Buffalo Minotaur Nation of Tilruur, in Presterjho (Dungeons & Dragons 5e)

    As always, my heart belongs to my patrons, including Keeper, Ferny, Dave, and Darius.  They got to see this post, and every post I make, earlier than everyone else.  It would be abso luvverli if you joined them on my Patreon, kicking in a dollar a month, or five or ten or 200 :-D  One of my vows is to tithe my Patreon income to other creators (so literally 10% of my income goes right back out), and I've got my eye on a few I'd love to send some money.  Please help me support other amazing patrons? 

    If you want to be my friend, go check out my Linktree ~ it has directions to all of my social medias!  (I just recently got into TikTok!  See you there!)

    Some friends of mine from the kink world recently became intrigued with the idea of playing my sensual psychedelic mythopoeia D&D setting, and became really intrigued by the region of Presterjho.  I've split my setting, which has about 7 continents, into several regions, each of which contains exactly 20 realms (though many realms are further subdivided, just like in real life "Spain" meant something, but there were actually like half a dozen independent kingdoms there).  I wanted to do that so someone stuck for an idea, with analysis paralysis, or whose brain/neurology makes making decisions difficult, could just roll a d20 and have somewhere to start.

    Anyway, Presterjho is the region where I wanted to mix in a lot of In Nomine (two RPGs that go well together!) and other bits of angelology, demonology, etc.  To be sure, our extraplanar morality exemplars show up everywhere, but they're especially focused in Presterjho.  The only problem being that I'dn't really gotten much further than that in fleshing out Presterjho! >.< So I hastily started doing a bunch of design work before our first session (which was the day before yesterday).  Here's the first bit that came to me; there's much more to follow, I promise!

Religion and Warfare in Tilruur

    Highly aggressive and hostile to outsiders to the point of being called "the Black Death" or "widowmakers" by the other races of Esgode, the buffalo minotaurs of Tilruur focus their veneration first on Li'akhim (the faras* archangel of the War) and less so on the other archangels of the War Faction, including Ardynel (kruv** archangel of Sanctuary), Diwad (the klam*** archangel of Stone), and Svildei (the klam archangel of Scars).  The missing Leiru (the klam archangel of Purity) and Surual (the klam archangel of the Sword) are given this reverence only begrudgingly, as Li'akhim was General of the Hosts of Heaven before he was deemed guilty of the sin of pride and replaced with Leiru, whose disappearance passed the title on to Surual.  Among their kind it is often said, “When Li'akhim bellows, none survive—not even the warrior whose horns he rides.”  The other archangels receive some light reverence in Tilruur, as befits their important, but lesser, function.  Tilruuri neyú ("people of Tilruur") recognize the value of the Peace Faction, but leave it to the softer, simpler peoples to venerate them. 

    Tilruuryál warriors and berserkers are famed for their speed and prowess in battle, as well as their distinctive crystal swords; they are also the only minotaurs known to practice wizardry, particularly the magics of  chronurgy and illusion. The Tilruuri neyú are also known for their vanity; they consider other minotaurs to be ugly savages.  That the Hemeya Sea is no longer the Hemeya Mountains which housed their ancestors in Stihaar and Khamirolstiin is proof enough of this.

    There is no word for "surprised" in their tongue.  After the Heavenly Treasure Chest came to the mountainous aarakocra nation of T'yííílgěhsh-nāān'-Òòhthír (pronounced /t̪jiːː˦lgɛ̤˦˩ʃnaː˧n̪o̤ː˨θi˦ɾ/, the city-state of Ay'lonit sent some of its lord's offspring to reclaim it.  Ancient alliances brought the Tilruur neyú to its defense.  All thought the minotaurs' stand hopeless, for orange-scaled wings kept the dragons far from their blades while allowing them to rain explosions upon Tilruur.  Ornate pipes rose to minotaur lips, and when the Tilruuri neyú began to play, the dragons could not help but fall from the sky to squash the obnoxious noise.  This war-music tradition continues to this day.

 The Origins of Tilruur

    In the ancient times, far away from the modern nation of Tilruur in the sunken empire of Stihaar, the minotaur princess Mwinyalem is said to have aspired to the throne.  The legends tell us that she was rebuffed.  She claimed, however, that she had received the sovereignty from the gods, and the arguments she made from sacred texts were as strong as those her opponents made from the same texts.  Mwinyalem, feeling a need for further proof, embarked on a long and complicated practice of prayer, ritual, and sacrifice, submitting herself to the skeptical oversight of her opponents' mothers.  They it was who confirmed that the gods themselves had given Mwinyalem a response at the culmination of all her efforts, that the empire would be given unto her if she sacrificed as a burnt offering upon the altar-on-the-peak of Mount Ayirom whatever came out of the sea when she called.  As a pilgrim, Mwinyalem travelled to the shore and bellowed forth a summoning call.  It was her own son Gheli who left the water for the sand in reply. 

    Gheli was Mwinyalem's second son, but the first by her husband.  She was of quite advanced age already when she bore her elder son, Shama ~ 85 years old ~ and her husband Zharairekst was 12 years her senior.  Long had they thought themselves too old to have children, and long had they mourned the calves they had no chance to suckle.  Then Zharairekst had the idea to hire a foreign priest, skilled in the prayers and rites appropriate to this matter.  Zeni was his name, a haw-headed aven from Taweret, and he prayed, and he sacrificed, and he laid with Mwinyalem, and Shama was born as a result, to much joy and not a little jealousy on Zharairekst's part.  Sixteen years later was the miraculous birth of Gheli, and it was indeed this unforeseen and impossible blessing that led Mwinyalem to desire the throne.  

    It was not many years later that Zharairekst saw Shama mocking the younger Gheli, at a time when it seemed Mwinyalem's ambitions might succeed.  Upset at the idea that Gheli might have to share his imperial inheritance with his half-brother, he implored Mwinyalem to banish both Shama and Zeni, intimating that they were purrah (unclean) by not being fully minotaur.  Sadly, Mwinyalem bowed to her husband's desires, and cast them out into the wilderness wherein Shama became a legendary slinger, greater than any in Stihaar, and founded his own nation.  But that nation was not Tilruur.

    Famed throughout the empire for his strength and his skill and the brutal trickery of his ways, Gheli was nonetheless dutiful and went without question on the journey with his mother to Mount Ayirom.  He helped her cut the wood and prepare the fire, and, though he was mightily surprised and wary, willingly let himself be bound upon the altar.  Or at least, this is the story Mwinyalem told.  A story which concluded with an angel from the Heavens appearing before her to tell her it was a test.  She did make a sacrifice upon that altar-on-the-peak, but it was of a large wolf she said this angel revealed.

    This story did not satisfy her political opponents who rose in a riot and seized Gheli, tearing and chopping him until every piece of him was small enough to be flattened by their hooves.  Mwinyalem finally fled, travelling south to Esgode, where she raised an army.  Stihaar's crags rang with the army after many years, and Mwinyalem claimed her revenge.  But victory tasted bitter and soour upon her tongue, like dwarfin dinner, and so she asked only for a yearly tribute of seven minotaur daughters and seven minotaur sons, all yet to pass through the rotes of adulthood.  This the mothers of Stihaar did, often coercing these tributes from the calves of Khamirolstiin.

    And from these tributes and an ambitious mother's realization that there are things of greater value than power, Tilruur grew.

 The Land and Governance of Tilruur

    The land of Tilruur is littered with illusions and temporal strangenesses that make it navigate; this is its passive defense, more impregnable than walls.  Its people organize themselves as a confederation of herds, held together by their shared relations to a core herd of related women and their children who make decisions for the nation as a whole by voting among themselves to come to a communal decision.  Around that core of highly sexually desired women revolve three types of herds: ones composed of subordinate males, herds that mix higher-ranking men and lower-ranking women, and elder herds composed entirely of old and disabled minotaurs.  A fourth type of herd develops in the dry season, as unmarried men form bachelor herds that engage in sport and raiding.  Buffalo minotaur calves remain with their mother longer than most mortal races, though mothers tend to show a marked preference for their youngest child.

 The Bodies and Cuisine of the Tilruuri Neyú

    The most characteristic feature of the buffalo minotaur are their horns: their bases fuse, forming a continuous bone shield across the top of the head referred to as a "boss".  From this boss, the horns diverge downwards before smoothly curving upwards and outwards.  Some minotaur's horns also curve inwards and/or backwards.  Upon further examination, however, they have a quite different build, with a longer torso and shorter, thicker arms and legs.  They carry their head low upon their shoulders, giving them a slight hunched look.  

    Black or dark brown fur coats their body, thickening with age; older males tend to develop white circles in the hide on their face, especially around their eyes.  A reddish tint to a buffalo minotaur's hide is associated with femininity in their culture.  They grow the hair on their heads long and often style it in elaborate braids. 

    Their vegetarian diet consists primarily of tall, coarse grasses, which they eat using their remarkably dextrous and powerful tongue and wide incisors to break down.  Races without these traits can find Tilruuryál cuisine hard to eat, tough, and over-textured, even despite the Tilruuryál predilection for preparing them in soups and stews.  Dishes often include yams, potatoes, beans, lentils, and other vegetables, as well.  Tilruuryál cuisine has a distinctive taste to go with its texture, the result of a culturally significant spice mix including powdered dried okra.  A soft white salty cheese made from goat or camel milk is a common ingredient.  Unlike many other white cheeses, salt is added directly to the milk, before rennet is added.

    The national dish is often considered to be asrik (grass pancake), though adiis (grass porridge) is quite popular as well.  Balls of ground beans resembling falafel are also common, as well as a spinach stew made with peanut butter.  Desserts of izadnam (fried grass-flour pastry) and fulfu (sweet peanut stew) are prized.  Meals are often accompanied by cups of coffee, hibiscus tea, a shockingly strong millet wine, or an even stronger date gin.  Buffalo minotaur have gritty, creaking voices that lend themselves well to grunts, punctuated with the occasional explosive grunt, honk, or rumbling growl.

Game Mechanics

    Buffalo minotaurs use the racial traits of the minotaur from Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica, with one change.  They lack the Imposing Presence trait, but make up for it by having a base walking speed of 40 feet.  The classes most associated with Tilruur include:

• Barbarian on the path of the berserker
• Barbarian on the path of the juggernaut
• Barbarian on the path of the zealot
• Bard in the college of harbingers
• Bard in the college of valor
  
• Strength cleric
• Trickery cleric
• War cleric
• Zeal cleric
  
• Echo knight fighter
• Noble in a lineage of war 
• Bloody hands paladin
• Paladin who's taken an oath of glory
• Warlock of the celestial
• Warlock of the Warrior-Saint
• Chronurgist wizard
• Illusionist wizard
• War mage wizard
  

 

*  Often known as the "Most High", the mifaras are a choir of angels closely connected with truth.  They know whether things said to them are true or false, and speaking falsehood tears at their nature, possibly causing them to fall.  Six serpentine eyes mark them, regardless of what type of angel they are.
**  The mikruv are a choir of angels dedicated to guarding their charges, the locations of which they always know.  Betrayal rends the soul of these golden-haloed angels, possibly damning them.
***  Miklam did not exist before the rebellion of the fiends.  Angels of other choirs took on their dark and desperate honor in order to lead the war against the Hells, their form drenching itself in shadow.  Their eyes easily pluck knowledge of others' integrity from a mere glance.

Boanerges's character sheet 1/3 (Fantasy Friday #6)

Boanerges, “The Unseen Heart of the Flame”
Cismale CN/CG ifrit vigilante (splintersoul, zealot of Awi) 3

History: The origins of the roving army known as the Sulxonmo (“The Fifty”, in the Dzena-drif language) stretch back a century and more. The Bonfire Queen of the ifrit theocratic kingdom Rashab at the time, Alfonyath of Astwera, claimed her newborn son was the rightful heir of the Presterjho nation of Cusulu. Naturally enough, perhaps, Sehjic (the Bykeg of Cusulu) disputed this claim. A cold war developed; Alfonyath hinted at invading Cusulu to make it a protectorate of Rashab, but delayed while sending a series of adventurers to search for the Great Erolamadu, a magical ivory scimitar and symbol of her office.

Nothing turned up before Bonfire Queen Alsonyath died and was succeeded by her niece Oramir of Astwera. Hoping to establish dominance and end the decades of hostility, Bykeg Sehjic demanded Oramir re-establish an ancient tradition of sending 50 common and 50 noble ifrit virgins to Cusulu in tribute, a tradition Alfonyath had defied from very early on in her reign. As Oramir seemed to consider giving into these demands, Alfonyath’s son Matamor of Astwera grew angrier and angrier, incensed that what he considered his rightful birthright would be frittered away by his peace-loving cousin. He began to gather a horde of disaffected ifrit and form them into an army of preening, vain, daring warriors. Their tactics were founded upon the intimidatory potential of excessive (and loud) shows of skill and confidence; in short, they were swashbucklers with whacking sticks. He named them the Sulxonmo in mockery of the tribute demanded by Cusulu and allowed his rage to pull him into leading them in more and more despicable ways. Such as the forced recruiting (as in, kidnapping) of children to serve as soldiers.

A few years into his agitations, Matamor had a revelation of a dream in which a child rode a white horse under a banner made of a fishing net, wielding the Great Erolamadu. Born to a wealthy fisherman and his dancer wife, Boanerges was a child of but 35 years at the time. In fact, on his 35th birthday, he went fishing with his own cousin, an ifrit by the name of Logadé, in the Negdal Fields of northern Rashab. After being pulled into the water by a large fish, Logadé found an ivory scimitar, beautifully carved. When they returned, Boanerges watched as his cousin played with the other children of the village, miraculously not wounding them when he struck them with the blade. Everyone he struck, however, began to act like the legends of the zombies people talked about existing in far countries.

Several months later, Boanerges was captured by the Fifty in a raid led by Matamor himself, who recognized the child from his dream. A quick and threatening interview later revealed the location of the Great Erolamadu and its bearer Logadé. Once the Sulxonmo tracked down and kidnapped the boy, Matamor told Boanerges that he had to kill his own, beloved cousin in order to be initiated into the horde. When Boanerges refused, he was told that the alternative was death. When he still refused, Matamor sighed a heavy sigh and hit him with the Erolamadu. The domination effect brought the intended effect, and Boanerges became a member of the Sulxonmo covered in the blood of his own kin.

Religion and Boanerges (Fantasy Friday #4)

When we get to determining the proficiencies Boanerges gets as a splintersoul zealot vigilante, the time comes to finally determine his patron. Alignment matters here, too ~ vigilantes can have two alignments next to each other, zealots have alignment restrictions like clerics, and splintersouls qualify for class features and things if only one (not both) alignments does. I’m fairly strongly attached to him as CG/CN in a predominantly CE society, which (I realize now) changes who I’ve been thinking his archangel is.

Presterjho’s pantheon, as it were, is modeled on that of one of my favorite not-quite-obscure RPGs, In Nomine, Steve Jackson Game’s complete redesign of a French angels-and-demons game. So far, as I’ve been digging into the details of Boanerges, I’ve been assuming that he would follow Telakh, the hola archangel of Faith (equivalent to Khalid in In Nomine). But Telakh is staunchly lawful! Back to the drawing board . . . Gebhuri, naifo archangel of Fire (Gabriel) is something of a chaotic counterpart to Telakh, the burning ecstasy of faith as opposed to the rigid discipline thereof. But I’m feeling like Boanerges’s patron should be more neutral good. For one, this gives the splintersoul splintered identity some oomph, but on another, it reinforces the “sneaky redeemer” aspect of Boanerges, which I fear is getting lost. Let’s see, the list of neutral good archangels is:

Dhanebsonhi, kruv archangel of Dreams
Khashamsorof, kruv archangel of Children
Nanahoy, hola archangel of Lightning
Yorethil, faras archangel of Revelation
Themnoth, yaim archangel of the Voice
Newosli, kruv archangel of Flowers
Sennao, wekyosthet archangel of the Ocean
Awi, yaim archangel of Destiny
Razal, rogigyos archangel of Death

That’s 9 out of the 22 most popular archangels in Presterjho, easily the most common alignment thereamong.

Let’s see . . . I want a focus on redemption and converting folk to the cause of good, yeah? So we can immediately rule out Nanahoy, Yorethil, Themnoth, Sennao, and Razal, as they’re all more concerned with other things. That leaves Dhanebsohni, Khashamsorof, Newosli, and Awi. As much as I really enjoy making unusual servitors of Children in In Nomine, I think I’ll have Boanerges serve the very mysterious Awi, whose focus is entirely on ensuring that the world turns out for the better. It also makes Boanerges quite cosmopolitan, as he comes from Not-CentralAfrica and follows a religion from neighboring Presterjho shaded by the atheistic Jedi-like worship of Time centered in Scarhas (Destiny and Fate replace the Light and Dark Sides in that religion).

Awi believes that the use of weapons leads to rash actions, and that rash actions tend to fulfill Fate far more often than Destiny. Accordingly, his favored weapon is the unarmed strike, and Boanerges gets Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat.

Social talents available to Boanerges at 1st level are somewhat disappointing, actually. I think you’re expected to take renown, but that would dilute the theme of his discomfort at having to stuff his normally huge and flamboyant personality into a small and subtle secret identity, of intimidating bluster struggling towards compassionate persuasion. I consider gossip collector for a hot second, but it feels kinda tacked-on, not hitting any particular element of his character or background. I decide to go with social grace finally. We’ll choose Intimidate, to further the contrast (and cuz it’s Boanerges’s highest mental skill).

Zealot replaces vigilante specialization with an inquisitor’s inquisition, the choice of which is ridiculously easy: Boanerges benefits from the Redemption inquisition. Awi chose him as their agent specifically to seed goodness within an evil horde. The vigilante talent at 2nd level isn’t so easy. I consider the channel energy zealot talent, but that still seems like an “overwhelming presence” thing. Harsh judgment? It does allow the judgment of purity, which is awfully tempting when surrounded by inherently magical beings like ifrits. Magical familiarity, on the other hand, is within Awi’s purview, as he is the most arcane of the archangels, and also the most associated with time. I wonder if there are any good time-related cantrips to give Boanerges? Shadow’s speed and shadow’s sight seem like good, solid, boring workhorse talents, while steely resolve makes some sense for a servant of Awi, I suppose. Team player, on the other hand, seems appropriate enough to join harsh judgment (purity) and magical familiarity as the front-runners. A quick glance at the list of cantrips reveals nothing I want for Boanerges. Let’s go with harsh judgment (purity). And splintersoul requires us to take an early quick change talent at 3rd level (the earliness costs us unshakable, too).

When in his vigilante identity ~ which I realize I really should name . . . . how about, like, the Unseen Heart of the Flame? ~ Boanerges possesses a moderate aura of good. He can also cast spells like an inquisitor as the Unseen Heart. Or would, if his wisdom was higher >.< 5 points is a lot to ask for, but I wonder if we can’t make up for it with a magical item? The answer, sadly, is hell no ~ even the smallest boost of a +2 costs 4000 gp, and at 3rd level, Boanerges only has 3000.

I know a lot of players out there would say that I’ve made catastrophically suboptimal choices when building Boanerges, but I like to think that Awi had this exact process in mind by choosing him. Boanerges is meant to seed goodness within his horde, and the process of doing so is meant to build within him the wisdom that Awi so prizes. The plans of an archangel, let alone a yaim archangel (the yaim are not like other angels ~ they are direct emanations of the divine), are fractal, complicated, and multifaceted. In terms of planning for the future, Boanerges should be all caught up in terms of spellcasting by 7th level (with his 4th-level ability increase going to Wisdom, and a headband of inspired wisdom +4 costing 16,000 gp).

OK, maybe not from Prester . . . (Fantasy Friday #3)

Thinking about the charau-ka as a possible race for Boanerges brings the jungliest region of this continent to mind. It occurs to me that an elemental theme could work well there, drawing on images of the rainforest as a place of nature at its most intense and individual (as opposed to the, like, unitary image of powerful nature that comes with places like mountains, the arctic, and oceans). That as-yet-unnamed region, analogous to Central Africa in geohistorical placement, shares a border with Prester in the middle of the continent. If I place Boanerges just on one side or the other of that border, they can be a member of a swashbuckly force of evil ifrit, perhaps based on something like Boko Haram or God’s Army. I like that idea! OK, Boanerges is now officially an ifrit.

Looking at the race description, I note already that there’s a base trait I wanna replace with an alternate trait ~ as a vigilante, even if Boanerges is a zealot and a divine spellcaster, the fire affinity trait helps him out all of not at all. Fire in the blood (which gives him a morsel of access to fast healing when he takes fire damage) would replace fire affinity not only ably, but in line with some of Boanerges’s themes, I daresay. Hypnotic (which boosts an ifrit’s ability to fascinate) is a little tempting, as a reference to the swashbuckling element. But Boanerges, again, would probably gain spellcasting through the zealot archetype, and I dunno how many inquisitor spells cause fascination. Nor do I actually know yet if Boanerges will take the zealot archetype. And the same arguments apply to the boons given by his Celestial Obedience to his yet-unchosen archangel. Fire in the blood it is!

As for their gender, making them female would seem to play into old Victorian ideas of the woman as the civilizing force (an idea that pops up unfortunately in too many Second Wave feminisms). Similarly, making them trans or nonbinary in any way would seem to underscore too much the dual nature of Boanerges ~ another trope that can lead to icky things. An agender Boanerges is more tempting, gives them more texture to their psyche, but in the end has, I think, the same problems. I guess cismale is the best option for Boanerges.

Choosing his race also lets us determine Boanerges’s age, height, and weight. I’m gonna call vigilante a self-taught class so we roll 60+6d6 for his age, getting 76 as his age. That makes him a little young for an ifrit vigilante (average age would be 81), which I think is appropriate for his character. He’s tall, though, living up to his personality, as a 2d8 roll of 14 tells us that he’s 6’4” and a 2d8x5 roll of 40 gives us a weight of 150 pounds. I think he’s actually come out pretty skinny, though his charisma makes him seem larger than he actually is.

I also note that there are several racial feats available to ifrits. Blistering Feint, which makes the ifrit better at feinting when using a fiery weapon and does damage with the feint as well, is especially noteworthy ~ although we’ve already chosen Boanerges’s 1st-level feat (Celestial Obedience, recall), I’d wanna pick up Combat Expertise at 3rd level, Improved Feint at 5th, and Blistering Feint itself at 7th (assuming the redeemer theme in Boanerges doesn’t cause me to grab any feats in between all these). Firesight (which improves visibility in smoky conditions) and the Scorching Weapons feat tree (which lets you make your weapon fiery) are tempting; maybe if there’s ever a chance for Boanerges to pick up a bonus feat.

Oh, wait. Celestial Obedience requires Knowledge (planes) 3; it can’t be taken until 3rd level. OK, I’ll create Boanerges at level 3, then, and have him take Combat Expertise at level 1. Except he’s obviously not smart enough >.<

Vigilantes have a Hit Die of d8, so rolling 2d8+8+9 gives Boanerges 28 hit points. 6 skill points per level gives us 21 skill points. Knowing that we want Boanerges to have Celestial Obedience, we immediately spend 3 of those on Knowledge (planes), which is a cross-class skill. Cross-referencing the vigilante skill list with the barbarian list (in order to reflect Bonerges’s evil horde origin), we find that Acrobatics, Climb, Craft, Intimidate, Perception, Ride, Survival, and Swim are on both lists. Let’s drop Craft and Swim out of that list out of hand as being inappropriate for Boanerges’s cultural origins, leaving a total of 6 skills. Intimidate definitely gets the full 3 skill ranks and Acrobatics, too, as both are central to the tactics of the ifrit horde that birthed Boanerges. That’s 12 points left. If we give Perception, Ride, and Survival 2 points each (all of them are basic, universal skills in the region and the horde), we’re left with 6 more skill points. I’m thinking that I want Boanerges to qualify for the mystery cultist prestige class at 8th level, so I need to make sure that Knowledge (religion) (another cross-class skill) gets the full 3 ranks. And we’ll use the last 3 skill points to give Boanerges the ability to protect his secret goodytwoshoes identity, with a rank each in Bluff, Disguise, and Stealth. Yeah, that’s pretty low ~ Boanerges was raised to be flashy and big and eye-catching, not subtle and quiet and unseen!

Gawds! I’m making so many mistakes with Boanerges >.< Zealot, which I think I am in fact taking along with splintersoul, swaps out a few class skills for Knowledge (religion) and Spellcraft. More importantly, it reduces the skill points per level to 4! My 21 points get reduced a full 6 points to 15 ~ I’ll take a point out of the various general-ed skills I gave Boanerges (Perception, Ride, Survival, Bluff, Disguise, and Stealth).

Boanerges of Prester is born (Fantasy Friday #2)

Nurture is the first area the character received training or which they put effort into improving. The adult (cuz it’s strength 5) black dragon here picks up the themes of the Spirit card ~ cunning, sneakiness, and lies. It appears that it was one of those random things which exert so much force on our lives that led this character to their class. They didn’t set out to become a vigilante; chance pushed them down this path. Nurture gives its token to Dexterity.

I think I’ll name the character Boanerges, or something like that; they remind me of those two somehow. They have all the force of a lightning bolt, funneled into a subtle fight for minds and souls in order to save their own infected one.

The Red Dragon 10 in Dexterity steals Strength’s two tokens, furthering the theme of constrained force, I suppose. I think Boanerges was raised to be a soldier, a vain and venereal bravo filled with a dark panache, but a chance encounter in a military raid brought them to the side of the angels. Literally. But one soldier against an army, let alone the nation that sent them, is a losing proposition. So Boanerges turned to shadier methods to spread the word.

Strength, in its turn, steals two tokens from Intelligence as it is also an adult Red Dragon. Panache was glorified and fostered in the army’s ranks, but questions weren’t. Venal tastes were catered to, pointless pleasures and decadent diversons employed to keep the bravos from rebelling. A third adult Red Dragon lurks in Intelligence’s land, stealing two tokens from Wisdom. Armies like this one present a paradox: it does everything it can to restrict the exercise of intelligence, which means that a piercing mind is the only thing that allows promotion.

An old bronze dragon in Wisdom gives its token to Dexterity. Constraining the thunderous force of Boanerges’s personality into clandestine activities breeds skill, but discernment has a tendency to disappear into discomfort. Planning is replaced by quick wits. As Boanerges’s angelic master pushed them away from their chaotic life into one of discipline and honor, their heuristic, social, and behavioral skills prove less and less useful, more and more foolish, even when drawn upon in the appropriate situations. But it also pushes them to become damn good at what they do.

The old Gold Dragon in Charisma passes two of its four tokens to Constitution. Recently, Boanerges had to take a severe beating in order to cover for a fellow bravo they had managed to convert to the way of good after months of work. This act of self-sacrificing nobility left them humbled but even more resilient than before. Significantly more resilient, as the Dracolich in Constitution (the last card in the reading) steals a token from all the evil dragons in the spread: Strength, Dexterity, and Intelligence.

Constitution ends up with a freakin’ 14 tokens! That’s one more than the 13 needed for a 17 Constitution. According to the article, I take that token and apply it to the next highest score. But Dexterity would be in the situation, as it has exactly enough for a high Dex. I should skip the tie between Intelligence and Charisma and apply the token to Strength. However, it makes more sense for this character to give it to Charisma, I think, so I’ma do that. Boanerges’s ability scores come out to
Strength 11 [1 point]
Dexterity 15 [7 points]
Constitution 17 [13 points]
Intelligence 12 [2 points]
Wisdom 9 [-1 point]
Charisma 13 [3 points]

OK, I seem to have chosen a class and even an initial feat for Boanerges, so lemme backtack a bit and consider a class. The region of my campaign world in which celestials are the biggest deal religiously is roughly equivalent (in geographical and geohistorical relation to other regions, at least) to Eastern Africa. Ethiopia and the like. While I always try to do all the research and include actual elements from a variety of real-world and literary sources, I am by no means an Africa scholar, and this region is in no ways intended to actually represent East Africa. As a nod to the ancient, questionable European legends that inspired me to make this region the angelic one, I’ve named it Prester.

My world-creation has been focused on Aoqina (roughly, Europe) and Scarhas (roughly, the Middle East) so far, so I’m not yet certain what the racial makeup of the area is like. Elfs exist all across the surface of the world, and dwarfs can easily pop up anywhere. Halflings are an Aoqinan race, but they’ve been around a helluva long time, so they’ve spread. Gnomes came into existence on the border between Aoqina and Scarhas, as dwarfin sailors bred with merbunnies (descendants of outcast anthropomorphic rabbits from the moon) in the Hemaya Sea, but that was also a long time ago. Now, gnomes range far and wide. Gnomes gave rise to gnolls in Aoqina a decent time ago by breeding with trolls OD&D style, so they’ve had time to spread, but they’re prolly pretty exotic by the time you hit the equivalent of, say, western China or of the Congo Basin (though more headed south from Aoqina than any other direction). Humans are the leavings of a uselessly successful gnollish magickal experiment. They sought to remove all that was obedient from them to ensure their everlasting freedom, but that left only an unintelligent animal: the hyena. The intelligent humans were the obedient bits they discarded, and are pretty young as a race, so are unlikely to be found in significant numbers outside of the three regions bordering the Voda Sea (Aoqina, Scarhas, and my equivalent of the Maghreb/North Africa).

So, Prester’s population of standard races, to summarize:
Dwarfs: Possible, but somewhat unlikely
Elfs: As common as elfs ever get
Gnomes: Uncommon
Halflings: Common, but a minority
Humans: Rare
Orcs: Absent

I also note that a full quarter of the Three-Dragon Ante spread is red dragons ~ this suggests maybe a direction to start looking beyond the standard seven races. Red dragons live in warm mountains, I wonder what comes up on www.pfsrd.com with that ecology . . . . Naw, nothing useful comes from that search. I consider ifrit (I don’t think I want an elemental theme to races in Presterjho), kobold (possible, draconic, but a little small for the sheer force of personality I’m imagining), tiefling (currently the front-runner, but a little on-the-nose), kuru (tied with tiefling, currently), I keep coming back to the goblinoids but their homes are on an entirely different continent. The charau-ka are interesting, with tactics based on intimidation and exuberance which could blend in the swashbuckly elements I’m imagining.