Neanderthal Racial TraitsEdit
- +2 Strength, +2 Constitution, -2 Dexterity, -2 Intelligence. Neanderthals are strong and hardy, but are hampered by slow intellects and reflexes
- Medium: As Medium creatures, neanderthals have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
- Neanderthal base land speed is 30 feet.
- Primitive Weapon Mastery (Ex): Neanderthals have a +1 racial bonus on attack rolls made with the following weapons: bolas, club, dart, greatclub, goad, harpoon, iuak, javelin, longspear, quarterstaff, ritiik, shortbow, shortspear, sling, spear, sigliin, throwing axe, tigerskull club.
- +2 racial bonus on Listen Spot, and Survival checks. Neanderthals have excellent senses and know how to get along in the wild with ease.
- Climate Tolerant (Ex): Neanderthals suffer little harm from enviornmental extremes of heat or cold. They do not have to make fortitude saves in extreme enviornments between -20 and 140 degrees Ferenheit (severe cold to severe heat). This ability does not provide any protection from fire or cold damage. This ability counts as if a neanderthal had the Cold Endurance feat for puposes of filfilling prerequisites for other feats of prestige classes.
- Human Blood: For all effects related to race, a neanderthal is considered a human. Neanderthals are just as vulnerable to special effects that affect humans as humans are, and they can use magic items that are only usable by humans.
- Illiteracy: Neanderthals do not automatically know how to read and write. A neanderthal must spend 2 skill points to gain the ability to read and write all languages he is able to speak. He does not automatically gain this skill when taking a nonbarbarian character class, with the exception of the wizard class
- Automatic Languages: Common
- Bonus Languages: Dwarven, Giant, and Orc. Neanderthals are familiar with the languages of giants and orcs, for these two groups are common enemies that vie for competing land with them. Likewise, their penchant for dwelling in caves and underground ruins often puts them in contact with dwarves.
- Favored Class: Barbarian
Neanderthals are savage and brutal, reflections of the feral deities who created them. They react with suspicion or open hostility toward unknown developments, since they learn early on in childhood that the unknown is something to fear. If youunderstand the enemy, you have nothing to fear, for you know what needs to be done to overcome him. Yet among friends, neanderthals are much more relaxed and sociable, and enjoy dancing, singing, tale-telling, feasting, and other pasttimes involving large numbers of people.
Nanderthals are hairy and thickly built, with long arms and barrel chests. Their heads are a bit larger than a human's, with a sloping brow and a prodigious jaw filled with large strong, teeth capable of cracking bones. They often adorn their skin with crude tattoos and war paint, either to afford themselves camouflage in natural enviornments or to strike fear into their enemies. Scars are often held to be marks of honor and esteemed in neanderthal society, and are openly displayed both to honor the fallen enemy and to increase that person's prestige in the eyes of his kin. Neanderthals are towering figures often standing between 7 and 7 1/2 feet tall and weighing about 350 pounds. They reach adulthood at the age of 14 and live about 65 years.
Neanderthals have traditionally had poor relations with other races. Orcs, forst folk, and similar savage races treat them the same way as they treat humans--as enemies at best and as food at worst. Yet the neanderthals cannot look to the civilized societies for aid, for such societies often displace neanderthals from their homelands in their relentless pursuit to colonize and settle new lands. The neanderthals never give up their homelands gently, and the history of neanderthals and civilization is a long, bloody tale of warfare and slaughter. Those few societies that understand and honor the neanderthals' traditions and hunting grounds are still regarded with suspicion; the neanderthals have been tricked and deluded far too many times for them to openly accept offers of friendship and trade.
Neanderthals lead simple lives and are at one with the natural world. Good and evil, law and chaos have little interest to neanderthals, and they prefer to react to new situations based on similar previous encounters. they have little interest in expanding their territories, but at the same time defend their homes with a ferocity equaled by few orc tribes. While they may be bound by longstanding ancestral traditions and religions that are viewed as laws of a sort, these traditions are highly mutable and prone to change when each generation comes to power.
Neanderthals usually live in large groups consisting of six to ten extended families. These are known as clans. A single neanderthal clan usually dwells in a large cave network with numberous small entrances and one large main entrance, in which feasts and ceremonies are often held. Where large caverns like this are unavailable, neanderthals settle in abandoned ruins or in the lee of large rock formations if no other shelter is available; they do not build their own shelters.
Surrounding their clan's home are their hunting grounds. A clan's hunting grounds. A clan's hunting grounds usually cover as much terrain as a person can walk in a half-day's travel, since the hunters of neanderthal society prefer to return to their homes at night after a day spend in the wild. The borders of these hunting grounds are often marked with crude fetishes made of skin, bone, and trophies taken from vanquished enemies.
Although neanderthals do not form civilized societies, their religion beliefs often rival those of civilizaion in complexity. Each clan adheres to specific beliefs that are handed down via oral tradition and cave paintings through the generations. Most neanderthals do not normally worship actual deities; rather, they are taught by their spiritual leaders (usually druids or sorcerers) about their clan's particular beliefs.
Some clans believe that all living creatures are part of the spiritual world, and that for each animal and each plant there exists a spiritual ideal. These are commonly held to be paragon examples of such creatures, real and physical and flesh, yet embodying all that their specific breed represents in the real world.
Other clans participate in a form of ancestor worship, in which the bodies of the dead are buried in the frozen ground and marked with a complex series of cairns and other stones placed along lines of power (real or imagined) connecting the bodies of the dead. These clans believe that the spirits of their ancestors watch over them, protect them, and judge them in death, either allowing them entrance into the world or forcing them into the frozen depths of the underworld.
Fire is also often worshiped by neanderthal clans. While all neanderthals are taught the secrets of making fire when they are old enough to hold a piece of flint and steel, the actual physical qualities of fire are still mysterious and powerful in neanderthal society. Most neanderthal caverns have a central bonfire chamber that is never allowed to go out; it's natural that some of them would start viewing this "eternal fire" as divine in nature.
A few clans actually worship specific deities, usually their savage creator deities. Neanderthals most often rever Telchur, Thrym, Ulutiu, and Vatun. More rarely, neanderthal clans are convered to the worship of civilized dieties by clerics or missionaries from other races that have somehow gained the trust and admiration of the clan. When this cleric or missionary dies, the clan continues to worship the deity, often building elaborate fetishes or crude alters at which to worship or perform sacrifices. Over the generations, these cults often become uite altered from the original source so that multiple clans who may techincally be worshiping the same deity do so in wildly different ways.
In any case, religion is important in neanderthal society, for it provides a framework for them to explain everything in the world and their lives that they do not understand.
Although long ago, the original neanderthals had little need of language, today thier rich oral traditions make language an important part of society. For the most part, neanderthals speaka crude form of Common that can be understood (with a bit of concentration) by anyone who speaks the language. Neanderthals are generally illiterate, and prefer to use pictures and drawings to preserve concepts and stories.
Neanderthals have simple names, yet they attribute great power to them. Names are typically guttural and savage sounding. A neanderthal's given name is jealously guarded secret known only to his most trusted friends and the other members of his clan. To outsiders, a neanderthal typically refers to himself by his class or profession in the clan along with his clan's name. For example, a hunter might introduce himself as a hunter of the Elk Clan.
Male Names: Artok, Becksor, Brulak, Garthak, Kalak, Llurg, Murak, Orick, Ralagh, Thogart, Torak, Urak.
Female Names: Ayah, Bahgra, Cirah, Drelli, Durana, Illka, Kara, Lana, Magala, Neruh, Onsi, Orli, Svelani, Zura.
Clan Names: Clan names are typically named after the predominant animal in the region; Bear Clan, Branta Clan, Elk Clan, Mammoth Clan, Raven Clan, Tiger Clan, and Wolf Clan are excellent examples. Rarely a clan may take the name of a particularly powerful local menacy, such as Dragon Clan, Spider Clan, or Yeti Clan.
It's rare, but sometimes a lone neanderthal, disillusioned with life among his tribe or forced by a more tragic history to strike out on his own, stumbles upon a more civilized society. These encounters are usually brutal and short, but in some cases, a neanderthal learns to adapt to the newly encountered settlement, and often becomes a well-liked and valued member of the community, if only for his penchent for telling engaging stories of the wild. These neanderthals often become adventurers, and take quite naturally to the adventuring lifestyle.