Batfolk

 


Batfolk

7 HP, 9 STR, 10 DEX, 14 WIL, claws (d6)

  • Nocturnal, bat-like humanoids with poor eyesight and incredible hearing.
  • Capable of "seeing" anything nearby by echolocation.
  • Love music.

A first experience with one of the Batfolk can be quite startling. Most often, one finds themself making their way through the dark only to walk face first into them without warning. Long arms and claws carry them steadily and silently through the dark, and huge, sensitive ears give them a form of sight that their eyes no longer provide. So sensitive is their hearing, in fact, that they can even see around corners simply by making a low clicking from their throats. Their short legs are terminated in knobby feet that are just as dextrous as their hands.

Despite their offputting appearance, however, the Batfolk are generally quite sociable. Their incredible auditory gifts make them quite adept at picking up the nuances of spoken language, and they have a particular love for music. Though they might be wary of strangers at first, once they are certain that you mean them no harm they make for eager acquintances--chatting jovially in croaking, clicking voices. Should you find yourself in their home caverns, you may even be so fortunate as to witness one of their choirs, hanging from the ceiling and combining voices and bells in complex harmony. If you should offend them, on the other hand, you will find them to be extremely effective hunters in the dark...

Commentary

I have several times alluded to my boredom with standard fantasy races. In large part this is because elves and dwarves very frequently devolve into "pretty much just humans--but short, or with pointy ears". Effectively, they quickly become merely a "skin" on humans, rather than an interesting contrast. I imagine this is because in many games people are eager to play as these species, yet find it difficult to roleplay as anything other than "just another kind of human". (Or find it offensive to imagine that "basically humans but with pointy ears" would be so culturally monolithic.)

Sapient animal beings make it a little easier to sidestep these problems entirely--especially in Cairn, where no promise of playing as non-humans is made in the first place. With their decidedly inhuman fundamentals, you get plenty of wiggle room to lean into the physical characteristics that make them weird and wonderful and different, and to explore how those fundamental differences encourage variety in culture and temperament.

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