In mockery of Halflings and Elves, Greylings were created as an army for the Evil forces as scouts, engineers, and battle fodder during the wars of Grief. A ferocious race. Being akin to feral animals, they showed a cunning side to take down large foes in clever ways. Due to their weak affinity in close combat, these dark creatures dug themselves deep into Altera’s stone, then created Earthspawn as their muscle. However, once the wars ended and Corruption & Magic left the world, they began to go extinct. This has left them struggling to survive after the many years Earthspawn had risen against their slave masters. Now only in a few numbers, they are left to find themselves once more. Either it be by killing, stealing, and praising dark entities. To rise once more to place a bigger mark upon the world than they did.
[ PHYSIOLOGY ]
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HEIGHT: Females tend to average between 3’ft and 3’8ft. Males can stand between 3’5ft and 4ft tall.
WEIGHT: Females can weigh anywhere between 30lbs and 50lbs. Males are usually between 40lbs and 70lbs. These weights could increase or decrease based on muscle mass, diet, health, and/or height.
BUILD: The build of a Greyling is more akin to an Halfling than a Dwarf, despite the size. They boast a slight frame and diminutive size. They are, at times, confused for a Halfling with leprosy.
EYES: The color of their eyes are usually those of dark tones to absorb light. A dark black, maroon, or dark yellow. On an extremely rare occasion a Greyling can have blue eyes, though this is an extremely rare genetic miracle. Greylings acclimate to dark areas better than other races, but essentially still require dim lighting in order to see. They are a little more sensitive to bright, sun-lit areas.
SKIN: The skin tones of Greylings vary just as much as any race above ground. Their skin tones tend to be matching with stone with colors of mossy green, gray and dark green being the more prominent colors. The skin of Greylings to match their natural home of caves and underground systems.
HAIR: Greylings tend to have little to no hair. The hair upon their head is thin, making some Greylings prone to baldness. Unable to grow facial hair. Their hair color ranges from tones of black due to the lack of light within caves. As they near the end of their life, their hair becomes more white.
OTHER TRAITS: Greylings have large pointed ears. Despite this, their hearing is no different to that of a Human. But the size makes it easier to pick up echoing sounds in caves and contained spaces as if they were a elf. The feet are rough from being barefoot most of their life. They tend to not wear shoes or gloves due to their clawed hands and feet.
LIFESPAN: Greylings tend to live up to around eighty years old, though their small bodies experience physical degradation around fifty years and at seventy years old they also experience mental degradation.Greylings seem to mature at the age of fourteen years old.
LANGUAGE: Greylings speak to each other in a guttural speech. A name unknown of the language but most referred to as Greyling. Speech is one of the most difficult languages to learn in Altera. Near impossible for other races to learn due to the Greylings having physical differences allowing this speech, making non-greylings unable to physically speak it. The written language is also near impossible to learn. Most races that have learned Greyling only seem to learn a couple words of speech in their lifetime.
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PHYSIOLOGY: Greylings generally have disfigured faces and bodies considered ugly by the Overworld races of Altera. The rows of needle-like teeth do not help in the slightest. They are short of stature, generally standing between three and four feet tall. Their grey and green skin tones help them to blend into their surroundings while their slight frame, natural agility, and claw-like hands make them adept at climbing. Greyling gestation lasts 11 excruciating months with usually three offspring, fortunately for the women they only ovulate once every 2 years. Female Greylings are similar in appearance to male Greylings, their hair being longer on the head, less hair on the general body, and higher pitched voices. Greylings don’t hit maturity until fourteen years old. From which point they are then seen as an adult. And finally, these creatures are small and mostly silent compared to other races- they’re able to traverse with quieter sounds during stealth missions.
PERSONALITY: From a social standpoint Greylings are generally more aggressive than most Alteran races. In the past, there is a constant struggle for territory with dwarves, who the Greylings claim to be trespassers onto 'their' underground world. On their own, Greylings generally lived a violent existence in camps or tribes ranging in size between 20 and a few thousand individuals. Now, due to their near extinction, this merely is not relevant anymore. Greylings now find where they can fit in. This is out of a survival instinct, it is better off to be in a group than alone. Males will fight each other for mates, usually resulting in serious injury to the loser, but rarely death. In short, Greylings are small, vicious and brutal. Do not let their prominent brow and guttural tongue fool you; however, they are clever and naturally apt when it comes to skill.
HIERARCHY & SOCIETY: In olden days, greyling societies were established in hereditary monarchy dictatorships. The crown rarely passed to another bloodline as intrigue and manipulation are a successful Greyling's shield and sword and few are better at this than the ruling class. If all else fails for a monarch resisting a usurper, Assassins were considered a form of political response in the Hollows, their origins. Now the Society of Greylings are bound to their clans and close-knit groups in order to survive at all, due to their ostracization. There tends to be a leader, but work is distributed equally beneath them.
HISTORY: The greylings were created by Queen Grief during the first great war for Altera as scouts, engineers, and battle fodder. It is unclear what race she perverted to make these monsters, though most scholars agree it was most likely halflings or perhaps elves due to their natural affinity for the arcane arts. Greylings are frail beasts that do poorly in close combat but more than make up for it in primal cunning.
Not long after their creation, the Greylings created the Earthspawn to serve as their muscle and to replace them in the role of battle fodder for the dark armies. Though exactly how they were able to do it is unknown to even the most learned of Altera's scholars.
COMMON BELIEFS: With the death of nearly their whole race. Greylings worship the Gods out of need to survive. The gifts and boons found useful to living through what would usually kill them. This strives now their hunger for powers of magic and divine. For their lack of physical strength, surely their minds and souls will make up for it. Although the majority turn to the gods, a few neglect them and scorn them for the pain they went through during the wars of Grief and Gods.
COMMON NAMES: Grim, Takka, Nolkif, Tagalok, Sharik, Glock, Karn, Torgrif, Shalack, Hertic, Corig
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