Vulpine fluff, unedited for now

Right, Tempest Fanatic was promised that I’d write some fluff for his race, the Vulpines, and so finally I’m going to actually write up there back ground.  Now I wanted to base them on the Volsci people of pre Roman Italy, but there is very little known about there culture and customs, so I just made up a lot of the details. The Volsci were a nearby tribe who constantly harassed the Roman when they are a small regional power.  So I am using what elements of there culture I could find (if anybody has any good sites about them, let me know) and make the rest up.  Bear in mind, this is the Vulpine’s in my game, where they are trapped between a rather hard savaged land, and a powerful expansionist empire.  Also based it off the fox perception in tales, and the expression “A fox many know many little things, a hedgehog will know one big thing”

            The Vulpines are a hill tribe, but unlike most, they are not nomadic.  Instead, their civilization is a stationary one, with large communities being set up when they can.   However they are often mistaken for nomadic, because they are forced to wander in order to find good land to set up their communities.  Thus small bands of Vulpines are often found moving through their hills or swamps in order to find a suitable place to build.  More confusion is caused due to the nature of their villages.  With the exception of their grand temples, all of the houses are not build out of stone, but are instead tents, or made of wood, or even tree houses, as the Vulpines make a conscious effort to not disturb the environment around them, and try their level best to avoid conflict.  The society is highly communal, with the entire society dedicated to helping each other out, but there is a strong society hierarchy within the community, based very much around how much attention an individual can gain himself.  While officially, there are only three social levels within society, Druid, Warrior, and Citizen respectfully (some societies keep slaves, through only the richest and most decedent, as slaves can’t be obtain in a large enough number to be used for anything other than showing off wealth), in reality, a Vulpine’s position is assured not by their birth or position so much as their ability to call attention to themselves.  Vulpine society is a constant popularity fight, as every indivisual tires to draw attention to themselves in order to make a splash and establish themselves in society, as truly popular Vulpines are able to direct and take charge of the community and act with impunity.  A Vulpin who has establish himself as a social kingpin can decide when the society moves, goes to war, or makes treaties, simply by “suggesting” a certain idea, which there many friends and partitions will take up the cause until it becomes reality.  The only counter to these cults of personality are the Druids, who’s word is law and can at any time override any “community decision”.  Only the most daring and influence Vulpin will challenge a Druid’s veto, and those that do will often find themselves in trouble, often finding their lands stormed upon, their animals rowdy, or, in some of the more shadowy communities, simply “disappear”.

            Vulpines are thus constantly trying to draw attention to themselves and make a splash in their communities.  Great care is taken by ambitious Vulpines to try to attract as much attention as possible to their every action in order to advance up the social ladder, however Vulpines at the top will in turn take great care to try to nip any possible threats in the bud and will try their best to limit the acclaim of lesser Vulpines, often trying to arrange a way to steal other’s credit entirely. In short, Vulpine society is a constant popularity contest, as each individual tries to stay in the public eye so as to increase there personal prestige.  Thus, the Vulpine views on art, writing, poetry, and philosophy are dictated more on how they get attention of the public and keep it.  Thus, a young wealthy Vulpines will learn to play music, and will show off his talents at a party, but most will not learn professionally, nor bother with pieces that are too obscure or complicated to bring positive acclaim, but will instead learn simply for the ability to show off that they are talented.  Singers and poets will produce based on what will get the crowds attention and, if the community is wealthy enough to have a music industry, money.  Dancing is never pursued as an art form, merely as a way to make an impression.  The average Vulpine will know plenty of tidbits about various interesting facts but will mostly focus upon showing off before anything else.  However, Vulpines’ aren’t necessarily shallow, for all of there pretensions, they are a vibrant people, but the view social class as an elaborate game to be played rather than real interactions, (Vulpines are much more honest with the nuclear family), but they find this “game” endlessly amusing, through, unlike humans, Vulpines don’t take it as seriously, as the real details of the community are taken care of by the druids.

 In order to keep this society actually functional, most of the “real” responsibility within the community is given to the warrior and druid class.  The warrior “class” isn’t just any Vulpline who can fight, which is most of the population, but instead professionally trained Vulpine who’s are committed to making sure that the society actually works, and maintaining the order.  Technically speaking, professional warriors, called shield maidens, as they are all female, are apart from the elaborate social structure of the Vulpines, through they have no official authority apart from that granted to them by the Druids, in reality, they act as enforcers of the Druid’s will.  The real masters of the society, through they would prefer not to have to deal with the political intrigues are the Druid/priests, who manage the great temples and try to keep the Vulpine race focused upon the importance of nature worship.  And for all of their foolishness, the Vulpines are deeply committed to the worship of nature, through rumors exist of Vulpines settlements that have departed the worship of nature and have embraced a fully decedent society, through other speak of society where the druids have taken a more active role in controlling society, often mentioned along with rumors of human sacrifice and cruel rites.  The Druids generally however, work to keep the society in check, and all major decisions will need their support, but otherwise focus mostly upon their religion and trying to help maintain the society. 

Due to their urban nature, Vulpines are somewhat reluctantly accepted, earning a well-earned reputation as charmers, as well as tricksters.  But Vulpines do generally attempt to stay on good terms with those who live near by, but they are perfectly willing to fight to protect their land, surrounded as they are by hostile forces.  However, Vulpines are know to try to nip off chunks of enemy land that they use for building community and farming, as their own lands tend to be hard places to set up farms.  Vulpines dislike straight out war with any fraction, preferring instead to raid and harass larger border nations, and will often unite with other fractions when they do go to war.  For example, if a neighboring human kingdom comes into conflict with a Vulpine tribe, the local tribe will send diplomats to all of the local groups in the area to try to pit them against their enemy before attacking themselves.  Vulpines prefer to attack nations who are already weak and struggling, as their small populations and generally peaceful life style mean they aren’t disposed to straight fight with well-organized foes.  However they are dangerous threat if riled and Vulpine raiders can be a plague upon a society for decades if they aren’t stopped.  Vulpines prefer not to go to war against foes who haven’t actually wronged them, or are generally good societies, but if they feel that the community has offended them or mistreated them, and they will have no compunctions about raiding and harassing the outlying settlements.  The tactics of the Vulpines differ from tribe to tribe, the mostly Good tribes will reserve their wraith to enemy solders or theft rather than murder or pillaging, the neutral ones will fight those who resist but otherwise leave the native alone, focusing mostly on taking land, and obtaining food, while evil tribes will try to destroy as many communities as possible until their enemy has had enough and tries to come to terms.  As a rule, Vulpines have no interest in excessive cruelty, even the evil ones, and focus instead on “getting the job done”. However, their raiding tactics, coupled with the fact that they have no problem about allying themselves with gnolls or goblins, lead to Vulpines being lumped with he former as nothing more than “demi human pests” to be exterminated, which has led to intense human/Vulpine tensions.  Vulpines do unite with gobliniod races, but in all honesty, they tend to unite with any race if it will help them in times of war, they aren’t particularly prejudice against any non Vulpine.  They refuse to unite with any race that they feel is “disrespecting nature” however, which normally leads to conflict with both humans, and orcs (and occasionally gnomes).  The only race Vulpines seem to generally like better than others are halfings, due to there witty and urban nature, through halfings have commented upon being disturbed by the Vulpines obsession with social standing.  Vulpines hate Kenders, finding them, as one ArchDruid put it “really annoying…just annoying little buggers.”, and will often try to lead them away from their settlements using what-ever means possible.  Otherwise, Vulpines try to stay on good terms with everyone in the area.  

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EE

Next the Vulpins

I'm just finishing up the fluff for the homebrew given to me by tempus fanatic, which i'm having alot of fun with. If anybody else wants to have their home brew permanently put here, let me know
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EE

First homebrew/briefly aligniment system

Apparently the place I went to for a short vacation has computer access, and so while I don’t have my various other works, I can write a short piece. I was lurking on Order of the Stick forums, and I noticed an interesting alignment discussion about a party who accidentally kills orc non combatants unknowingly in the middle of the raid. Now, most Alignment discussions tend to boil down to lots of mudthrowing and insults, but this one was actually, shockingly civil and maturely handled, the presence of Tempus Fanatic, Fixer, and hamishspence most likely was a major factor in that, cause they are awesome. But the debate quickly diverted onto the idea of how to properly handle generally evil races like orcs and non combatants. The Book of Exalted Deeds says that killing noncombatants is clearly evil unless they are posing a direct threat, like actively attacking you, and says that a good adventurers should try their best to remake the society after destroying it in a good image. A daunting prospect, but hey, good is never easy. Anyways, the question arose of how many orcs within a society would be evil, and the consequences of judging creatures based upon their alignment. Now, D&D makes it clear that you can’t kill a creature based upon its Aligniment, being evil isn’t a crime, its when you’re evil and doing something hurtful that its bad. For example, the Viking raiders are most likely evil, but that doesn’t justify just going into their homes and murdering the whole lot, same with various corrupt businessmen. You can kill or hurt them to prevent them from hurting others, but only if they are actively doing something evil. Killing a band of orcs who are living in there own land hunting is far different from say, killing a band of orcish raiders, even if both are evil. Now, within D&D, aligniments are presented within different context, such as “Usually Chaotic Evil” means that there is still a sizable non CE population within the creature’s demographic, opposed to “Always Chaotic Evil” which means something about the race of creatures themselves makes them inclined to evil, like demons or devils. In 2nd edition, evil races, like drow or orcs (opposed to evil creatures, like demons or devils) were still almost entirely evil, with very rare exceptions. That’s why Drizzt in R.A. Salvator’s books seems like one of the rare exceptions, which seems odd when in “modern” Forgotten Realms, IE, 3.5, non evil drown are quite common, cause Drizzt was invented earlier. However in 3E, a greater distinction was made. Some races are Often evil, some are usually evil, and some are always evil ect. Basically, I’ve changed this within my games, to cover more ground, but the system itself is sound. So I suppose, my first homebrew, sorry if it is unimpressive.
Basically, when it comes to determining a creature’s alignment, and how much of the population follows the conventional one, this is how I do it. I’m using Chaotic evil as the example for this case
1) Frequently Chaotic Evil. The creature/group has no physical/magical ties towards the evil alignment and the culture isn’t especially disposed to cruelty or brutality, they do have cultural predisposition to evil. About 40% of the group is evil, with the rest of the alignments being greatly mixed. For example, the British Army in the America revolution, would frequently be Lawful Evil, as many acts were tolerated at the time that aren’t today (slavery, mistreating women, cruelty towards non whites, killing natives) not to mention various evil acts against the Americans (I know most of those were exaggerated, Boston Massacre being the most famous example, but there were some) so the army would be generally Lawful Evil (lawful because well, the British Army). But there was plenty of room for other moral views within the ranks, many good or neutral. Its just the most common percent, but not the majority of the population. A chaotic evil example might be, but I’m not an expert on the culture, the Gaelic tribes before the Romans took over, while the warriors would lead brutal raids, and the world was unlawful, the civilians were pretty content to stay home and try to keep the family alive (I don’t know if they had slavery or evil customs like sacrifice).
2) Commonly chaotic evil. The race is still not magically inclined to evil, but the culture is very much given to evil, but it isn’t so prevalent that every single member would be evil. Maybe 50-60% of the population is a single alignment, with the rest being a mix of moralities and ethics. For example, I’d say Ancient Rome, at least before the time of Marius and Sculla, would be commonly Lawful evil. Slavery was legal, women were treated badly, conquered people’s were oppressed and the roman’s were infamously brutal when they took over an area (the sack of Carthage for example, through many Romans objected to this). However, while the slave owners and many of the solders would be evil, along with many of the average citizens but, many people were just content to be left alone to do there own thing. Even some ethical people who wanted to reform the system, most likely after reading a bit too much Greek poetry, but they would be few and far between among the Romans at least. But still, people who try to help the poor existed, as well as those who worked for the betterment of the common man. A Chaotic Evil example might be the Vikings, who’s raiders and slavers were very cruel (through not total monsters), but the people at home and the non combatants would be more focused on just bettering there lives.
3) Often Chaotic Evil. The population worships an evil Deity, and has strong cultural connections to evil, but they aren’t supernaturally compelled to do evil, nor is there society rigid enough that evil is forced upon them. The About 70% percent of the population. Spanish conquerors of America would be a good example of often Neutral Evil, as they are actively engaged in oppression, rape and genocide, through not every single one was actively engaged or even supported the regime, they certainly weren’t complaining.
4) Usually chaotic evil. The society is generally evil by nature, actively worshipping an evil god, involved as a race in evil schemes, or has customs/practices that make everyone involved evil. While the race isn’t magically compelled to be evil, and a child stolen from that culture and raised on its own is no more inclined to be evil than any other race, and small communities can exist who follow a different ethical code, as well as those within the main society who’s ethics different from the rest. 85% of the race would be this alignment. Drow in D&D are the prime example, not inherently evil, but strongly culturally evil, Aztecs and Nazi Germany might be real life examples of always Neutral Evil.
5) Always Chaotic evil. This group has some sort of connection, of a supernatural nature to evil, which compels them towards evil inherently. There very nature is made up as evil, and thus, unlike all of the other examples, it is more ok to assume evil first (through murder is still murder). 99.5% of this race is Chaotic Evil, and that tiny amount left is mostly some other form of evil or neutral. Now, while they are supernaturally inclided towards evil, it isn’t totally irredeemable. No real life examples obviously, but a D&D example would be the Dragonspawn of Tiamant, or Lichs/Vampires, creatures who’s nature is evil, and often turn towards evil, but still have the possibility of free will. While there very nature is abhorrent, there is a absurdly remote chance of redemption. Within my games, it pretty much assumed that these guys are evil, thus the murder rules are a little more hazy, but that really depends how these creatures are played in your games. And if one of them does do something to demonstrate that he is the exception then murder is still evil. Dragons are lumped into this category, but that is a rule that even core D&D doesn’t seem to take seriously, so I always put them in the “Usually” or “Often” evil category.
6) Always Chaotic Evil/Evil Subtype- These creatures are evil. There very nature is evil. They are spawned out of pure evil. Evil is inherent in their very existence, they are beings who’s mere existence is an evil action. Simply thinking about good deeds goes against there very nature, violates the very purpose of their existence, threatens the very nature of their being. These creatures, quite simply, have no souls, and are abominations who quite simply…must be purged. Demons, Devils, Daomons, and other such beings are literally, the literal manifestation of evil within the universe, who’s very existence is a violation of all that is good and holy about the world, and make up the realms of Hell, the Abyss and other absurdly evil planes. As of such, these beings are not protected by the same rules as other evil beings. Killing them is always justified, simply because there existence is an evil act. Torturing them for information, such as pouring holy water on them til they talk, is permissibly as is using other wise “Dishonorable” methods, like special poisons or mind control (the latter is a separate alignment issue). The only rule is that the good person in question should not torture them for his own personal enjoyment, simply to get the job done, and must be sure it is in fact a fiend. However, there existence is an abomination, so anything goes. There are two exceptions to this rule, however slight. One is that special spells/items exist that can change the alignment of a being, now matter what it is, and thus force it to be good. However, the creature is still evil, just acting against its will, but even so, it will detect as good, so then different story. The final exception to this rule is, that, by the rules of the system they are 100% evil, but sometimes the nature of the universe has glitches, and a non Chaotic evil one might appear, but these absurdly rare creatures make up less than .1 percent of the population, and most of those would be some other form of evil. However these absurdly rare examples are fluxes, mistakes, freaks within the system, who somehow possess free will. Should a paladin learn of the creatures special existence, then he is obligated to treat the creature like any other good being, but killing such a being unknowingly is not an evil act, cause it is a flux in the system, and even if the creature is good, its existence is still evil.
7) Finally, Evil Subtype, without Always evil Alignment. These creatures are magically drawn to be evil, but are only slightly more likely to be evil than an normal person in that category. These creatures are normally half Fiends of some sort.
So first homebrew yeah. Insert self mocking statement here
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