Gurg

Race type: Demi-Humans

Lifespan: 45-60 years

Average height: 1.3 – 1.35m (both males and females)

Beginner Friendly Race: this race is common in Kiern Vale, and is considered appropriate for players who are new in Melestra.

Gurg are relatively small demi-humans, reaching an average height of 1.35m. Their skin is smooth, often slightly moist and almost mucus. The skin tone ranges from slightly bluish-green to light golden-greenish or deeper green. Their body is somewhat plump, with short, stout legs, terminating in toes that are proportionately longer and more flexible than those of humans. The hands are more similar to human hands (aside from the color), although the fingers tend to be a somewhat longer in proportion to their bodies. The body scent is distinctive and strong, resembling the scent of certain swamp plants – though it can significantly vary between different individuals.

The typical Gurg head is round, with relatively large and slightly pointed ears; the eyes are larger than those of humans, with a wide range of colors – from black and brown to green and blue, and sometimes even shades of orange and yellow. The eyes are protected with a moisty and crusty eye-crumb that can be pulled from above. The nose tends to be large and bulbous in shape, and the mouth is relatively wide. The teeth are similar to human teeth, albeit a bit small; the tongue is long and frequently bluish in color.

The hair of most Gurg, both males and females, tends to be long, tangled and loose; most commonly its colored black, but it can range through black-blue or black-green, to deep green or blue.

The most stereotypical Gurg attribute is their shrill voice, often described by other races as nasal and sycophantic – reinforcing their stereotypical characterization as cowardly vermin, traitorous and dishonest, who creep in the edge of settlements of other races, and practice thievery, dubious trades and even more nefarious activities.

The Gurg, however, believe their vocal qualities are superior, in ways that none of the larger, crude-eared races cannot appreciate – especially when it comes to the courting melodies, or their traditional, wonderful moon-choirs.

Gurg are vulnerable to extreme dryness, and feel strong need for at least some of their skin to remain exposed to air. Therefore, most of them despise garments that cover the entire body, such as plate armor or full robes. Instead, they prefer typical Gurg attire, which consisting of short pants and a crude X-like undershirt or vest, woven out of coarse fabric made of swamp plants, or else some simple fabric obtained from other races. Those “Gurg Garments” had long become a mocking catchphrase among many humans and other races (“Have you seen Thirnild’s dress? Very fashionable, just like a Gurg’s undershirt!”)

Many Gurg forgo shoes, relying on their tough and strong toes to handle any contact with the ground. If forced, they will reluctantly wear very simple sandals.

Origin and culture

Scholars believe the Gurg are not a natural race, but a breed created over 1500 years ago, in magical experiments conducted by the great Ogre mages of the Ur-Naarum empire, an era when the students of the legendary Wizard-Emperors created many wonders: from rare magical stones to deadly monsters which were used in the royal arena. It is rumored that the Ogre mages meant to create a race of submissive servants, too weak to pose any danger to them – a task in which they largely succeeded. The Ogres treated their newly created servants with extreme cruelty. Among other practices, they killed any Gurg showing any magical affinity. Consequently, up to this day, very few Gurg have the ability to become pure spellcasters, especially mages.

With the slow decline of the ancient Ogre empire, many Gurg fled their former masters or found themselves without ‘owners’. Then, they began to spread in the various regions of Melestra, seeking safe settlements, as far as possible from Ogre lands. As time passed, Gurg established small communities in lands dominated by humans and other races preferentially layering in sites bordering open water sources or swamps. Other Gurg preferred layering in the outskirts of the sprawling human cities, in impoverished slums, the ramshackle dwelling sprawling around large marketplaces, and so forth.

Most Gurg dwell in communities led by a large elder female, called “The Great Egg mother”.

The rule of the Great Egg mother is absolute, enough to claim any Gurg males she fancies, or drive out any Gurg who raises her ire. She is the center of the traditional “Moon Choir”, and has the last world on any dealing with other races. Most of the community members are obliged to turn over to her of the lion's share of any income they earn from work, barter or adventuring.

The Great Egg mother is the only female permitted to lay eggs, usually many dozens at once. However, only few of those eggs are fertile, greenish-brown or greenish-purple with an elliptic shape. The rest are infertile and in the size of a small bead, though it can bear many strong, distinctive colors. Their shells can later serve various purposes in the Gurg community: essences which are used in the brewing of a powerful tea unique to their race; material for dyes, and even children’s toys and lucky charms. Gurg believe that wearing a charm made from an infertile egg which was laid in the same clutch as the egg from which the amulet wearer emerged, it will bring him special good luck. The typical Gurg does not know who is father was, and it is considered utterly unimportant.

Other Gurg females in the community can suffer the iron hand of the Great Egg mother, especially if they are strong willed and independent. Laying fertile eggs is a crime resulting in immediate banishment. For this reason, many of the Gurg adventures or wandering merchants are young females, seeking to make their own way to wealth, power and connections, that might enable them to one day found a community of their own, and become Great Egg mothers themselves.

Some Gurg, however, have grown tired of traditional community life, and wish for no Egg Mother to rule over them. Those individuals tend to live within human or demi-human settlements either on their own or in small groups. Sometimes, a male and a female even imitate the monogamous couples typical of human societies. Such Gurg who even (heaven forbid!) know who their father was, are often scorned by community Gurg, and called with derogatory terms like “Daddy’s egg” or “City egg”.

Religion and values

The Gurg are pragmatic beings, accustomed to looking from below and try to survive. Most of them have no religion or any high regard for divine entities. Instead, they highly value luck, and sometimes even tend to anthropomorphize it (“Granma luck”). Gurg are fond of various lucky charms of many different types. Any self-respecting Gurg tends to carry at least three or four charms at all times.

Though many Gurg actually work for a living, from the weaving of crude fabrics and ropes, brewing potions, cooking and so on, they are nonetheless looked down by most other races; Still, their presence at the outskirts of human settlements or nearby pools and swamps is usually tolerated, and even humans who despise them are quick to visit their rude stalls when in need of various Gurg-made items.

The Gurg, notwithstanding their inferior social and material position in human society, firmly believe that it is they who are the most intelligent race, precisely because they know how abase themselves and bend with the wind when necessary. They can thereby survive storms that will break the overly proud and tall races. Gurg view En’miri and Mistweavers as tasteless and arrogant, often cruel and dangerous (though it is both challenging and amusing to deceive and make a laugh out of them). They value the Far’lil slightly higher, mainly due to their connection with nature and down to earth approach; and they fear the Ralg’kril and their tendency to erupt from the scorching fires in which they came.

Gurg reserve their greatest hatred and loathing to the Ogres – though it will never prevent them from flattering Ogres and crawling at their feet to survive or turn a profit - if possible, they will get their revenge later, with interest.

Language

While some Gurg will pretend that they have some mysterious secret language, Gurg everywhere have adapted the language of their larger neighbors. Their ancestors probably spoke a broken low dialect of Ogre language; nowadays, most Gurg speak a pidgin which is a mix of low En’mirin with remnants of broken Ogre language and additional words from here and there, combined into strange highly tonal speech. For game purposes, the mother tongue of a Gurg character can be referred as low En’mirin.

Gurg Names

Personal Gurg names are almost always composed of two syllables, each of them containing three letters (and rarely four, with a double stop the beginning like “Krig”). The usual syllable will contain a vowel of “I” or “U” in its middle. Commonly used letters are “K”, “G”, and “M”.

Example: Rik, Rig, Yuk, Mug, Kik, Kim.

Male names will be composed of two different syllables, like: Rikmuk, Yukrig, Mugyug.
Female names are composed of two identical syllables, like: Rikrik, Yukyuk, Kimkin.

Surnames and Titles:

When speaking with a Great Egg Mother, it is advised to use the title “Gru” after her name (“Mugmug Gru”)

Most Gurg – aside from a few Egg mothers or individuals trying to mimic the En’miri do not have a family name. The only relevant affiliation group is the clan or community they belong to, which is referred to with the prefix “Gak”. For example: a Gurg named Rukyug from the Krig clan which living in the still water near the city of En’mirlor, can be addressed as “Rukyug Gak-Krig”

Engurg

A strange and dangerous mutation, which appeared few decades ago in the western continent of Narlirdrea. An evil tribe of human sorcerers named Gar-Engul had probably refined ancient Ogre magic, and used it to create a horde of mongrels that look like overgrown Gurg (1.4-1.5m tall), with more robust bodies than the usual Gurg, and lacking the stereotypical Gurg timidness.

Their skin is grey, and their faces appear distorted and often suffer from various rashes and tumors.

The Engurg were created to serve as ruthless soldiers, brutal, usually obedient, but prone to horrendous sadistic outbursts. While some primal, crude version were known at least a century ago, the Engurg legions were first used in the war which devastated the Mistweavers kingdom.
Engurg are considered a distorted race, entirely vile and unredeemable, and therefore are not suitable for use as player characters.

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Created and edited by Gideon Orbach (2017) © All rights reserved. Commercial use and/or any profit-making purpose is strictly prohibited without explicit permission from the creator, in writing and in advance. Noncommercial/personal use with no profit aim is allowed (and even recommended!)