Rhûk

The Rhûk are a custom race I designed to fit into my homebrew world, Tenaria. Rhûk are excellent rangers, rogues, or druids, but can be adapted to fit any class or playstyle. The Rhûk were once a secluded people but have recently been woven into the fabric of the Aratraxian Empire.

Highly Adapted

The Rhûk are a race of humanoids that resembles a cross between a squirrel and an otter. They are tall and slender, covered in fur that comes in colors from brown to black that covers them from head to toe; males are typically shorter than females. Rhûk adorn themselves with ceremonial markings on their face and body colored to contrast with their fur. Their eyes tend to be gold, red, or green and glow in the low light of twilight and dawn. Rhûk have an otter-like snouts but pointed, tufted ears and long bushy tails like a squirrel that tends to poke out from underneath the long robes that commoners favour. Adapted to living in their deadly homeland, their clawed hands and feet are partially webbed for swimming and their feet have thick pads that enable them to move silently past predators; rhûk do not wear shoes.

A Dangerous Homeland

The rhûk reside in a swampy territory, called the Neb'zintabar'rhiod (or Neb'zin by most denizens of Aratraxia), latticed by rivers in the far south of Aesluin. Far from a pleasant place to live, these swamps are filled with a poisonous fog only rhûk can breathe and in the waterways lurk a menagerie of fearsome predators. Their shamans believe that the fog was put in place by nature spirits to protect the rhûk from outsiders and that the fog gave form to the first of their kind. Travelers seeking an overland route through rhûk territory will have to navigate around hidden sinkholes and muddy pits that can suck down a horse in moments. Even the mighty Starlight Empire dared not enter into their lands.

A Lethal Edge

The rhûk have survived, and even thrived, by building their settlements in the boughs of large trees that grow in their homeland. Their children are taught how to survive from an early age; each boy and girl begins mastering a selected weapon when they reach seven years of age. As a matriarchal society, males are assigned to serve as warriors, hunter-gathers, or crafts people while females are allowed to train as shamans, leaders, and the deadly assassins for which the rhûk are known. Females who become assassins are forbidden to marry and cannot serve in leadership positions outside their secretive order, the Shadow Guard.

Rhȗk in Modern Aratraxia

Prior to their integration into the Empire, the rhûk hunted some of the less dangerous game in their swamps and leapt from tree to tree gathering fruits. Approximately three hundred years after the founding of the Aratraxian Empire, a flight of dragons tasked with exploring the region spotted a rhûkan settlement from above. Since being integrated young rhûk, and their race’s representatives on the council, have traveled beyond their swamps equipped with special equipment that allows them to breathe the life-sustaining gas from their homeland. Visitors to their realm are equipped with similar breathing devices designed to protect them from the gas which causes vivid hallucinations, vomiting, and, eventually, death to all non-native species. The rhûkan prefecture’s include fine pottery, woven baskets and mats, exotic fruits, skins, rare herbs, potions, poisons, and assassinations.

Playing a Rhȗk

Rhȗkan Names

In the treacherous swamps, danger assails the rhûkan people daily; survival is never guaranteed. Rhûk children are not given names until they survive their fifth year of life. Once they are of age, children are given names in the rhûkan that represent their strongest qualities; Rhûk names are gender neutral. Often they adopt a different, gendered name, usually in elvish, for interacting with outsiders and only share their true name with close friends and loved ones. Family names often represent that family’s role within rhûk society.

Rhûkan Names: Mercy, Patience, Cunning, Climber, Hopper, Loyal, Nimble, Keeneyes

Family Names: Potspinner, Weavemaker, Marsh-hunter, Gatherfruit, Shadowclaw, Leafmender, Blackfur, Birdsinger, Featherbiter, Windchaser

Rhȗk Traits

Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 2 and your Constitution or Wisdom score increases by 1.

Age. Rhûk give birth to precocious young which are able to clamber on all fours hours soon after birth; they are typically walking upright on their own a few months later. Rhûk reach maturity around 18 and typically live for 70 to 80 years.

Alignment. Given the harsh environment of their homeland, rhûk value loyalty to the tribe and adherence to its rules in order to survive. As such they tend towards lawful alignments. Members of the tribe who flout law and tradition are quickly ostracised by the group so even rhûk who are inherently self-serving tend to keep their activities within the confines of the social order.

Size. Most rhûk at maturity stand just over 5 feet all with the females standing closer to 6 feet. Your size is Medium.

Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet. Your evolutionary history in an amphibious environment has given you slightly webbed hands and feet and your tail helps act like a rudder; your swimming speed is 30 feet.