Midgard heroes handbook pdf download free

This audiobook is dedicated to exploring the gods and goddesses that the Nordic people worshiped. You will discover: A description and explanation of the Norse mythological gods and goddesses, and which tribe the gods mentioned belonged to An introduction to the Nordic pagan belief systems, and the multifaceted ways in which their religious practices were incorporated into their daily lives Popular Nordic sagas, a description of what sagas were, and examples of the most important sagas within the Norse culture An explanation of the most revered Norse rituals and celebrations, and how their beliefs left their impression on religious practices that are still held by Christianity today The Nordic people had many heroes of myth and legend, and you will be introduced to both stories of myth and living, breathing Viking heroes that were revered.

Norse mythology is intricate and complex, and the ideals behind their mythological beliefs were often intertwined with real life events. This audiobook will examine how both myth and fact contributed to the culture and traditions of the Nordic people, and how these influences and stories continue to live on throughout the centuries! The entries in this book document the work-to-date of this approach on the pre-modern Nordic world mainly the Viking Age and the Middle Ages, but including as well both earlier and later periods.

Given that Memory Studies is an ever expanding critical strategy, the approximately eighty contributors in this volume also discuss the potential for future research in this area. Topics covered range from texts to performance to visual and other aspects of material culture, all approached from within an interdisciplinary framework. International specialists, coming from such relevant fields as archaeology, mythology, history of religion, folklore, history, law, art, literature, philology, language, and mediality, offer assessments on the relevance of Memory Studies to their disciplines and show it at work in case studies.

Finally, this handbook demonstrates the various levels of culture where memory had a critical impact in the pre-modern North and how deeply embedded the role of memory is in the material itself. The essays in Myths, Legends, and Heroes include an examination of the theme of sibling rivalry, an analysis of Christ's unusual ride into hell as found in both Old Norse and Old English, a discussion of Beowulf's swimming prowess and an analysis of the poetry in Snorri Sturluson's Edda.

And much more! Match wits with Baba Yaga, cross swords with minotaur corsairs, and travel the Shadow Roads to the glittering courts of the fey. There's no better time to be a Midgardian hero! A Game of Shifting Dangers The Shadow Fey arrive and turn the city upside down--and their ambassador demands that the player characters explain themselves for interfering in a legitimate assassination!

So begins the looking-glass adventure that takes 7th to 10th level adventurers to the Realm of Shadows. Demon lovers and dangerous liaisons for those who seek them Jealous rivals, a quick-play dueling system, and the King and Queen of Shadows A Status system to track player character prestige--and new Status powers!

Enter the world of shadows, and play the 5th Edition of the world's first roleplaying game on a whole new level! More than pages of real action and adventure by designers Wolfgang Baur and Dan Dillon. Immediate kin might be the only source of solace for a dhampir raised by a mortal family. Driven away by the unconscious or superstitious derision of their peers, families containing a dhampir can easily become clannish and reclusive.

They learn to keep the world at a distance to protect themselves and their loved ones. Dhampirs who grow up in this situation commonly strike out on their own after reaching maturity, both out of a need to find connection to the greater world and to spare their family the burden of their presence.

Conversely, some dhampirs are born into bloodlines that deliberately cultivate their tainted nature. A true vampire patron, usually the one who originally began the line, oversees these bloodlines. Such a bloodline holds its lineage in the highest regard.

There is no doubt among its members that theirs is a superior stock and upbringing, and that greatness is their due. The majority of outright evil dhampirs arise from cultivated bloodlines. They quickly become true monsters, seeing the fear of the living world as envy of their station. Larger cities include dhampirs sprinkled among the population as the half-dead blend in and find their niche, relying on their innate charm.

Some dhampirs choose to band together for safety, camaraderie, and understanding. These groups are nomadic, traveling from town to town and making their living off the land. Such a band adheres to a loose set of guidelines called the Walking Crow edicts.

These groups rarely find warm welcome with outsiders, but they are tolerated because the Crows develop diverse adventuring skills by necessity. Despite their trepidation, villagers can resolve threats to their homes by hiring a band of Crows to handle the problem for them. They suffer from a troubled upbringing and intrinsic corruption that gnaws at civilized thoughts and behavior.

The truth of their heritage weighs on them. Many experience disturbing urges to consume blood or to control others. They shun 14 the light and find safety and comfort in darkness. Many dhampirs use this struggle as fuel to action. Good dhampirs are horrified by their own corrupted existence and dedicate themselves to living in opposition to it.

They become priests who venerate gods of light, or they vow to destroy all undead who perpetuate their misery. Others are broken by their turmoil. They lash out at the world in a rage of bloodlust and hatred. Many evil dhampirs turn to worship of demons and other gods of darkness and pain, seeking to conquer and subjugate their mortal peers. Surnames follow a similar pattern. Dhampirs might use the family name of their mortal relatives, or they might adopt the family name of a powerful vampire as a badge of office.

Undead Resistance. You have advantage on saving throws against disease, and you have resistance against necrotic damage. You can speak, read, and write Common. The dwarves of the three realms are distinct in their culture, strengths, and style. Dhampirs reach maturity at the same age as humans, but their lifespans are much longer. They can live up to years before death finally claims them. Your Charisma score increases by 2, and your Dexterity score increases by 1.

Most dhampirs are neutral, but some are driven toward evil by the bitterness and suspicion their parentage thrusts upon them. A few turn toward good in defiance of their nature. Dhampirs are about as tall as humans but are slighter of build. Thanks to your undead ancestry, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions.

You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. Dark Thirst. You can bite as an unarmed strike against an incapacitated creature or one you have grappled. Your feeding deals necrotic damage equal to your Charisma modifier minimum of 1 , and if your target takes damage you regain one spent hit die. You can regain a number of spent hit dice with this trait equal to your Constitution modifier per long rest minimum of 1.

The Northlands dwarves are keepers of the old ways and the old gods, smiths and warriors, farmers and traders, stout and strong and able to down a barrel of ale at one sitting. They keep busy fighting the giants or the werewolves and worgs in the North, but sometimes the Northern dwarves take to the sea in their longships and raid the coasts, from Vidim through the Donnermark and Krakova to northern Dornig territories, but passing over the magocracy of Allain.

Northlands dwarves have the traits of mountain dwarves. Predatory Charm. As an action, you can magically beguile the mind of a creature that you can see within 30 feet. For 1 hour, you have advantage on Charisma checks made against the target. If you or any of your allies attack or damage the target, this effect ends.

When the effect ends, the target feels repulsed by you and becomes hostile toward you until the next dawn, during which time it becomes immune to this effect. You can use this trait once, and regain the ability to do so when you finish a short or long rest. None of these are beyond the grasp of a cantonal smith. The cantonal dwarves serve no kings, but rule themselves. They often serve as mercenaries in the Seven Cities, among the Princes of Dornig, and even against the Mharoti Empire, side by side with the Magdar knights.

Cantonal dwarves have the traits of hill dwarves. In the desert heat the Southern dwarves shave their heads and wrap their beards tightly in gold or copper wire; sometimes these beards are forked or braided as well. They serve a male mask of Rava they call Ptah, and they build clockwork bodies they call shabti, or servants.

Their skin is dark, and— when not shorn—their hair runs to pure black, gold, or red. Southern dwarves are alchemists and mystics, with a deep hatred of dragons and the Mharoti Empire. They have served the King of Nuria Natal faithfully as bodyguards and as his heavy infantry for centuries, and as engineers who build his temples, city walls, and step pyramids.

Your Intelligence score increases by 1. Dwarven Mysticism. Both of these are purely optional elements of the setting. If you choose to include gunpowder, only characters with a connection to the cantons have access to proper guns, powder, and related materials, or to teachers who can train them in their proper use. Airships occupy a similar position. The dwarves built a few in the canton of Templeforge.

The vessels are delicate and expensive, so only a handful of cantons actually have an airship of their own. Most are used only for carrying high-value cargo or for urgent military matters. They were not the first settlers of the forests and fields, but they taught humans and dwarves and others the arts arcane and the art of civilization.

The empire they founded at Thorn and in the Arbonesse, which later spread as far east as Sephaya and south to Valera, was a wonder for the ages. Its magical roads, its slim towers, and its speedy and lethal armies maintained an age of peace that lasted until a few centuries ago. Now the elves are in retreat, and a splintered race. True elves are rarely seen, and are confined to three groups: the windrunner elves of the Rothenian steppes, who are so few in number and so reclusive that they may as well be myth; the shadow fey of the Realm of Shadow, who are discussed separately below; and the reclusive river elves of the Arbonesse, who are the strongest and wisest of the three groups.

The river elves sometimes exile one of their number to wander the world for a time a span defined in decades , but RACES otherwise, the other races rarely see the elves who built so many castles, roads, and cities throughout Midgard.

River elves have the traits of high elves. The first is a birth name given by parents, the second is a common name adopted by the elf upon maturity, and the last is a lineage name, akin to a family name among the humans but taken from a list of a few hundred great heroes of the Elflands known as the Wild Hunt, who harried the demons back to their hells. Elves with the same lineage name might not be related at all, which leads to confusion among humans.

Elves reveal their birth names to their own kind and trusted friends, and their common name to all others. By Dornig law, only individuals with clear elven heritage are allowed to take an elven lineage name. Some of these geneologists are very creative.

Many devote themselves to civil service, others to their gods. Some dedicate their extraordinarily long lives to the pursuit of knowledge. A few, naturally, seek out lives of adventure. The gearforged are an artificial race. More importantly, its members are created one at a time and come from a vast array of backgrounds. Each is as distinctive in appearance as other people are.

Some entities spend a fortune on these new bodies, while others scrape together anything that will work—especially if the subject is aging or ill.

All gearforged are made in humanoid shape. The vast majority fall into one of two styles: those that are roughly human-sized, with articulated joints, hands, feet, and crystal lens eyes; and a version made by dwarves that mirrors their shorter, stouter body shape. Gearforged mechanisms are more than mechanical, because gearforged are machines with souls.

Their arms and legs are driven by everwound springs. Speakers of Machine Speech claim that the Clockwork Oracle of the Free City of Zobeck speaks in this form, and that their speech is faster and purer than any language of flesh-and-blood races. These elements reside in a shell of iron, brass, and steel. Everwound Springs. A broken everwound spring results in the loss of function in that digit or limb. Soul Gem. The mind of a gearforged creature is as sharp as that of any flesh-and-blood soul, but it is more portable.

The animating, vital principle of a gearforged—its will, its personality, its mind—are retained in a soul gem. Its destruction means the death of that gearforged. Memory Gears. The memory of a gearforged for all the days after its creation lives in the memory gears.

Older gearforged have many such gears, and the material component for the magic to create them requires one new gear for every 10 years of life.

Installing a used memory gear into a new or existing gearforged requires a new soulforging and at least one week before the recipient can interpret and understand the memories. Others adopt a new name, drawing on any culture they admire.

And a few take on an aspirational name representing a virtue they hope to embody, such as Courage, Noble, Faithful, Endurance, or Truth. Two different ability scores of your choice increase by 1.

The soul inhabiting a gearforged can be any age. As long as its new body is kept in good repair, there is no known limit to how long it can function.

No single alignment typifies gearforged. Gearforged are as tall as either dwarves or humans, but they weigh between and pounds. You are of the humanoid gearforged type. Constructed Body. Your consciousness and soul reside within a soul gem to animate your mechanical body. As such, you are a living creature with some of the benefits and drawbacks of a construct. While performing this maintenance, you are aware of your surroundings but you have disadvantage on Wisdom Perception checks.

All exhaustion gained this way disappears after your next long rest. Instead, a successful DC 10 Intelligence check or a mending cantrip is needed. Flesh of Steel. You are immune to disease, poison damage, and the poisoned condition. Solid Construction. If you are killed but your soul gem and memory gears are still intact, you can be restored to life if your body is repaired and soulforging is cast on it again. If your body was destroyed but your soul gem and memory tapes are intact, they can be implanted into a new body at the standard cost 10, gp.

The only other magic capable of bringing you back from the dead is a wish spell, which restores you fully. You can speak, read, and write Machine Speech and Common. The Ritual of Soulforging The ultimate act in creating a gearforged is casting the soulforging ritual.

The spell is available to wizards and clerics. It must be found in written form and copied into the spellbook. Clerics can prepare the spell only if they worship a god of smithing, crafting, or a similar portfolio. The subject must make a DC 14 Charisma saving throw. Gnolls with leadership skills or who tire of sharing the fruits of their labors frequently break off from the pack alone or in small groups to fend for themselves.

Sometimes a male gnoll foolishly announces that he believes males are more fit to lead, and necessarily sets out on his own until he can find a new pack or the controversy is forgotten. Gnolls who possess the will to face danger make excellent adventurers. Gnoll Names. Gnolls reach adulthood at age 12, and they live short and brutal lives. The rare examples that die of old age experience only around 70 summers. You can maintain the spell, allowing the subject to repeat the saving throw at the end of each of your turns, with the same consequence to you for each failure.

The subject is now a gearforged. It loses all of its previous racial traits and gains gearfoged traits. If the spellcaster dies during a soulforging, the subject also dies and its soul becomes a wraith. Up to four other spellcasters of at least 5th level can assist you in casting soulforging. In the event of a failed saving throw, the spellcaster and each assistant take damage.

As a product of a culture that values laziness, selfishness, and dominance, most gnolls are evil. On top of that, an unpredictable existence, where every day could be the last, usually leads to a chaotic view of the world. With that said, there are always exceptions to every norm. Gnoll females are taller and more powerfully built than their male counterparts. The former range from 7 to 8 feet and usually weigh more than pounds, while the latter average 6 inches and 30 pounds less.

You cannot discern color in darkness, only shades of gray. You have advantage on Wisdom Perception checks that rely on smell. Although gnolls are cowardly at heart, they like to disguise their fears by abusing others. You have disadvantage on saving throws against being frightened. On the other hand, whenever you make a Charisma Intimidation check for dealing with obviously smaller or weaker targets, you are considered proficient in the Intimidation skill and add double your proficiency bonus to the check, instead of your normal proficiency bonus.

Live to Fight Another Day. When you take the Disengage action, your base walking speed is increased by 10 feet. Gnoll Weapon Training. You have proficiency with the spear, shortbow, longbow, light crossbow, and heavy crossbow. You can speak, read, and write Southern and Gnollish. Gnollish words sound almost like growls for the uninitiated, and gnolls tend to use scents and small gestures to convey subtle meanings.

Two gnolls speaking can almost seem like dogs barking at each other to a casual observer. Whenever you make a Charisma Persuasion check for dealing with obviously bigger or more powerful targets, you are considered proficient in the Persuasion skill and add double your proficiency bonus to the check, instead of your normal proficiency bonus. Although not, strictly speaking, different races, gnolls from the civilized lands live in an environment so different from their savage brethren that they are considered separate subraces.

Savage Gnolls Civilized Gnolls 20 As a civilized gnoll, you are well-fed and enjoy the comforts that your primitive cousins can only dream of. You were valued as a mercenary, a temple guard, or simply a thug due to both your inherent toughness and your desire to please those that are in charge. As a savage gnoll, you are in touch with your animal side and understand the ways of nature. Your tribe has been raiding the desert or the plains for generations, and you know the land in which you live like the back of your hand.

Whenever you make a Wisdom Survival check for gathering food or locating water, you are considered proficient in the Survival skill and add double your proficiency bonus to the check, instead of your normal proficiency bonus RACES GNOMES As a gnome of the Niemheims, you bear the mark of a bargain made long before your birth.

You hail from the nine Great Cities, which aspire to greatness among the trees of the Wormwood. Surely that faint whiff of brimstone that haunts your steps is not your fault! You have stayed safe in your forest, shrouded from the gaze of Baba Yaga and her daughters.

In your youth, you saw bloody sacrifices made to devils; sometimes unwary travelers and sometimes kin, but all offered to the eleven hells at the point of a blade. You yearn to see the world beyond the trees. It calls to you, and it terrifies you. How can you walk freely on the roads of Midgard when Grandmother wishes to eat your feet? What have you made from the mushrooms and rooty soil of the forest that will aid you? A hat, made of redcaps and small growing plants is your safety.

If you leave and risk the ancient ire of Baba Yaga, remember—never remove your living headpiece and never let the plants woven into its brim go thirsty.

They are drawn to arcane magic and make excellent sorcerers and warlocks. In addition to standard gnomish traits, their dealings with devils and their confinement to the Wormwood give them two additional traits. Bewildering Bargainers.

You know how to lie, deceive, and intimidate with great aplomb. Your Charisma score increases by 1 and you have advantage on Persuasion checks. Known in Hell. You speak the infernal tongue and are proficient in the Arcana skill. To stay hidden from the eyes of Baba Yaga, the gnomes of Niemheim made a bargain with a powerful devil. A few hopeful gnomes posit that as long as the Wormwood remains above them, they remain safe. With that in mind, they craft calfskin caps with living vestiges of the forest growing from the brim.

Mushrooms, small plants, a bird's nest, and other elements of the Wormwood sprout from the cap, and continue to grow so long as they are tended to. A Niemheim Gnome may graft the miniature forest onto the surface of any helm or hat including magical ones. Should the hat be destroyed, the gnome has one week to return to the Wormwood before Baba Yaga begins her pursuit.

The so-called elfmarked are the result of unions between elves and humans. Elven blood running through their veins ties the elfmarked to the realms of the fey; some trace their lineage back to the great elves of ages long ago. The elfmarked are spread throughout the kingdoms of Midgard.

They mingle with humans and other races in cosmopolitan cities and rustic villages, the latent power in their blood always whispering in their subtly pointed ears.

Elfmarked use half-elf traits. Wild thyme and the smoke from a hundred campfires is carried on it. Listen for the old songs sung with too much wine and a quiet sadness beneath. Kariv is the name of your people, and you are nomads of the Rothenian plain. The hoof and the wheel are your destiny. Your pony, sash, and blade have accompanied you at each step, as has your love for laughter, for drink, and for games of chance.

Some call your people cursed, and perhaps they are, for they have no homes but the saddle and the caravan. If you tarry too long in one place, you grow barren and joyless. The colorful silks you wear turn gray and dull, your thoughts turn cloudy, and wolves lurk beyond the low light of your campfire. Kariv humans of the Rothenian Plain are spirited and fierce.

They make superior fighters and bards. Warriors, Dancers, Lovers. Kariv humans are strong, lithe, and passionate. Raise your Strength, Dexterity, and Charisma scores by 1 each.

You have proficiency in Performance and Survival. You have advantage on Charisma checks if your last two long rests were taken at least a mile apart. Otherwise, you have disadvantage on Charisma checks. Enslaved long ago by reaver dwarves, kobolds quickly carved a niche for themselves as miners, scouts, and tinkerers: small enough to be useful, and also small enough to be dismissed as a threat.

At first they were tolerated, then largely ignored. Their scaly skin and keen night vision as well as their dextrous claws and sensitive snouts make them quick to sense danger, and their clawed feet move them out of danger with cowardly speed.

They are great miners, good gearsmiths, and modest alchemists, and they have a curiosity about the world that frequently gets them into trouble. They are merchants to both the surface world and the world beneath it, with their greatest cities hidden deep below the earth. Their enemies are the diabolical gnomes, the dwarves, and any other mining races that seek dominance of dark, rich territories.

The kobold King of Kings rules from Harkesh, the capital of the Dragon Empire, where kobolds form a large middle class known as the kobaldi. Some even own human and dwarven slaves. Here, kobolds carry themselves upright, see themselves as naturally superior to the hairy races, and swagger about their business.

Mharoti kobolds loudly demand the respect of others and greatly disconcert those accustomed to the paranoid and sniveling kobolds found in the rest of Midgard. That same sniveling still goes on, but the kobaldi reserve it for their dragon masters.

Few kobolds become adventurers, and most of those who do have either offended a kobold king and been exiled from the mines as punishment or have lost many or all of their clutch-mates so they leave home to grieve and to find new friends.

Kobolds are deeply enamored of their tools. Some kobolds spend a great deal of effort improving them. Some believe this decorative urge is an instinctual defense against theft. One category of tool deserves special note: traps.

Kobolds create simple, deadly traps and wildly impractical ones as a hobby. Few kobolds leave home without string, springs, simple latches, and other bits and pieces that can be quickly fashioned into triggers for traps.

Kobolds are closely allied with and related to dragonkin, drakes, and dragons. The kobold kings and there are ohso-many kobold kings, since no kobold ruler is satisfied with being merely a chieftain admire dragons as the greatest sources of wisdom, power, and proper behavior. These words are difficult, if not impossible, for other races to duplicate, so kobolds who go out into the world usually adopt another, simpler name.

These can be anything the kobold likes the sound of, and often come from another culture; some kobolds are partial to dwarven names, for example, mainly for ironic reasons. Alternatively, they can take descriptive labels, usually with an incongruous gravitas or a ridiculous implication of power, such as Worldshaker, Thor Giantslayer, or Spinecrusher. Your Dexterity score increases by 2 and your Intelligence score increases by 1.

Kobolds reach maturity at age 10, and can live to nearly Kobolds are organized and tend toward law, particularly those who practice a trade. Whether they lean toward good or evil depends on their draconic lineage.

Kobolds stand between 3 and 4 feet tall, and weigh around 40 pounds. Your size is Small. You can apply this bonus to one attack per round. Sunlight Sensitivity. You have disadvantage on attack rolls and on Wisdom Perception checks that rely on sight when you, the target of your attack, or whatever you are trying to perceive is in bright sunlight. You can speak, read, and write Draconic and Common. Triolo may build all its ships in its own harbor, but many of its best crews come from Kyprion.

Minotaurs are imposing and powerful, with a reputation for ferocity that borders on monstrous. That reputation is well-earned. They chafe under the yoke of being a vassal state, but their Queen Kitane understands that without Triolo, the Dragon Empire would swallow Kyprion whole. At least for now. Minotaurs display their achievements proudly by decorating their horns with engraved sigils and designs. If one is versed in minotaur custom, one can tell at a glance 24 the achievements and prowess of a minotaur by examining the decoration on her horns.

A minotaur who loses part or all of a horn suffers considerable stigma and must strive to prove his worth. Perhaps somewhat against type for their bulk, they are an absolute terror on the sea. The corsairs of Kyprion have carved a tale of bloody blades and shattered hulls on the water, and even the mighty Dragon Empire has learned to respect them.

Every settlement and structure of any size created by the bull-folk sports a twisting labyrinth of switchbacks and dead ends. None is more famous than the Great Labyrinth in the city of Vespras, the capital of Kyprion.

In the center of this maze is the Palace of the Bull, another labyrinth in its own right. At night, the clash of arms and screams of the dying find their way out of the maze. It is said that the queen invites both friends and enemies to enjoy the hospitality of the palace, but only her friends survive the stay. No matter how many children a minotaur has, odds are the males will all have the same first name as their father and the females will all have the same first name as their mother.

Your Strength score increases by 2, and your Constitution score increases by 1. Minotaurs age at roughly the same rate as humans but mature 3 years earlier. Childhood ends around the age of 10 and adulthood is celebrated at Minotaurs possess a wide range of alignments, just as humans do. Mixing a love for personal freedom and respect for history and tradition, the majority of minotaurs fall into neutral alignments.

Adult males can reach a height of 7 feet, with females averaging 3 inches shorter. Your horns are natural weapons, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you move at least 10 feet toward a target and hit it with a horn attack in the same turn, you deal an extra 1d6 piercing damage and you can shove the target 5 feet as a bonus action. You can apply this extra damage once per turn. At 11th level, when you shove a creature with Charge, you can push it 10 feet instead of 5.

You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to your Constitution modifier, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest. Labyrinth Sense. You can retrace without error any path you have previously taken, with no ability check. You can speak, read, and write Minotaur, as well as one other language of your choice typically the Trade Tongue or Southern languages.

They are about the same size as halflings but of a slimmer build. They often wear hooded cloaks or long robes to conceal their true nature from the gaze of casual onlookers.

Ratfolk can be found throughout Midgard, from Zobeck and other cities of the Crossroads region to the dusty streets of Per-Bastet in distant Nuria Natal and the valley of Golden Ulthar. The little creatures often inhabit the fringes of human society, scraping a living as petty thieves and tricksters.

Many make their homes in decrepit slum tenements, in disused dockside warehouses, or even in sewers and other warrens beneath the city streets. Some, particularly in the Southlands, live a nomadic existence, wandering from place to place and trading in whatever odds and ends they acquire along the way, through honest means or otherwise. Other groups can be found on small tropical islands in the Tethys Ocean. Family is important to ratfolk, and their strong communal ties mean they often form or join tight-knit criminal societies.

Whoever their master may be, ratfolk are loyal to their kin. Ratfolk enjoy collecting interesting trinkets and baubles, and hoard these items in their homes, often in preference to more valuable but dull gold and silver coins.

They seldom use these names among non-ratfolk, however. Instead, they seem to derive perverse pleasure and great humor from giving themselves nicknames that make humans and elves uncomfortable, such as Plaguesores and Stinqface. Ratfolk are infamously hard to offend, so the more offensive the nickname, the more it amuses them.

These nicknames are no different between males and females. Ratfolk Nicknames. Your Dexterity score increases by 2 and your Intelligence score increases by 1, but your Strength score reduces by 2.

Ratfolk have shorter lifespans than humans, reaching adulthood at around age They live up to 60 years. Ratfolk care more about their close-knit families and acquiring material goods than any lofty ideals. Most tend to be neutral in alignment. Ratfolk are about 3 feet tall and weigh around 40 pounds. Your base walking speed is 25 feet.

Ratfolk are capable, if slow, swimmers. You have a swimming speed of 10 feet. Accustomed to living underground and in other dingy places, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. To a distance of 60 feet from yourself, you can see in dim light as if it were bright light and in darkness as if it were dim light. Pack Tactics. You have advantage on your attack roll against a creature if at least one of your allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn't incapacitated.

Rodent Empathy. You have advantage on Handle Animal checks to influence the behavior of rodents. They make their rookeries in every major city. Depending on whom you ask, they might condemn the ravenfolk as solitary wanderers bearing misfortune or praise them as messengers from the gods.

Ravenfolk are loyal comrades and treacherous thieves, brave warriors and contemptible cowards. They are despised for their strange and secretive culture, and criticized for having no true culture of their own. The ravenfolk are a study in contradictions. These truths, half-truths, and lies conceal a greater mystery that few outsiders know. None of these are large, but in Nuria Natal at least, they serve honorably as temple guards and as defenders of the faithful of Horus.

In truth, the ravenfolk are a bridge between everyday life on Midgard and the realm of the gods. They build their rookeries from found items, and much like normal ravens, have a great fondness for shiny baubles. Beyond physical thievery, they live to steal secrets. Ravenfolk are naturally adept at being unobtrusive, and they use that trait to feed their insatiable curiosity. The Tsar of Vidim employs a great flock of huginn as his personal spies and assassins. Aside from their larcenous instincts, ravenfolk are scrupulous about keeping their word.

Otherwise, their personalities are as varied as those of other races. They adapt readily to whatever environment they occupy, from remote wilderness to big cities—although their presence in cities is not always welcome.

They frequently take on local customs, traditions, and beliefs to fit in with the community. Your Dexterity score increases by 2 and your Charisma score increases by 1. Ravenfolk reach adulthood at 10 years old, and can live to be Ravenfolk tend toward chaos thanks to their capriciousness and insatiable curiosity.

Greed overwhelms some ravenfolk, drawing them toward evil. Ravenfolk are slighter and shorter than humans. They range from 4 feet to just shy of 6 feet tall. Sudden Attack. You have advantage on attack rolls against a surprised creature.

Make a Charisma Deception check against the passive Wisdom Insight of any listeners. Success indicates they believe the sound you created was real. You have proficiency in the Deception and Stealth skills. When choosing human-friendly names, ravenfolk borrow liberally from local traditions, mythology, and popular songs and poetry. They swap names whenever they feel like it, until they finally settle on one that really suits them.