Garm

The garm are from a destroyed kingdom further south than even the warren federation, being victims of the elves first outward incursions. Formerly a civilized assembly of clans living in partially buried homes that formed large communities, much of their culture and ways have been destroyed in the preceding wars. Many garm also suffer from an affliction known as the feasting, a supernatural curse that causes garm to eventually devolve into wendigo if exposed to too much death and violence, a fact that leads many garm to face prejudice, if not outright bigotry.

Garm find kinship in only one other race, the lagus, with the spirit touched lagus known as jackalopes carrying a similar monstrous quality that sets them apart from their kin. The garm are a race scattered to the far reaches of the federation and carry little of their old ways in the common era. What little is remembered varies and changes from oral tradition and thus the garm are a people lost, more so than the result of the feasting. The feasting itself is a curse that often results in only two ends when a garm begins to show signs of the affliction. The 'normal' garm that succumb fully to the feasting become wendigo, retaining their mind but becoming horribly monstrous in appearance while being granted an unholy fortitude. These garm are just sane enough to be allowed to still live within the federation but few chose to do so, the prejudice and mistrust they face for succumbing to their affliction makes their lives brutal and short.

Still, those are the lucky ones, some garm fully succumb to the feasting and with it go entirely mad, evolving into supernatural and blood thirsty creatures capable of mysterious and deadly powers. Wendigo that have fully succumbed are often referred to as the 'lost wendigo' and cannot be redeemed, they will kill and rampage across the land until slain. A cruel irony of the garm is all of them wish to take revenge on the elves, both for destroying their homeland and for cursing them with the feasting, but garm succumb to the feasting by being exposed to death and violence. As a result, they are barred from the war front for their own safety and thus are left to languish with their revenge unfulfilled.

All is not misery for the garm though, many find their place within factions of societies more willing to tolerate them and their curse. The Sons of Baitaal are notorious for recruiting garm as the structure, order, and religious organization allows for many garm to control their curse and avoid becoming further afflicted or prevent becoming a wendigo entirely. For this reason, some rare garm do move on to become professional soldiers and mercenaries, often within close knit companies and troupes.

A quick-start guide:

• Pure garm gain +10 robustness, +10 toughness, +5 vigilance, and -10 spirit. Pure garm do not gain any additional perks.
• Afflicted garm gain +5 robustness, toughness, vigilance, +10 vitality, and -10 spirit. Afflicted garm gain more power the more creatures that they witness die, increasing robustness with every kills to a max of +20.
• A fully succumbed wendigo garm gains -10 spirit and +25 vitality. Wendigo also gain the ability to, once per shift, cheat death. If a wendigo would die, they are fully regenerated, remove all forms of loss of control, and restore all missing limbs and organs. They must then kill something or someone else within the next ten seconds to take their place or immediately be stricken dead by Xaal.

Biology

Garm biology is subject heavily to mutation thanks to the feasting, but generally follow a rather simplistic form. Garm are large size humanoid wolves, being wolf-like in features and covered in fur whose color generally ranges from black, gray, and white to earthy tones like brown or mahogany that may have a mixed fur pattern. Garm has sharp teeth and claws that largely are not suitable as weapons normally. All garm has a single wolf-like tail that can range in size and garm builds are generally athletic, but do not have the strength of orcs and ogres nor the speed of minotaurs, being somewhere between both. Garm succumbing to the feasting or becoming full fledged wendigo will often have a wide variety of highly mutated features. Afflicted range in mutation by severity with some having only minor mutations such as lack of pupils in the eyes, large more vicious claws, large teeth coming close to sabers, and having longer, spindly limbs with more defined muscles trimmed of any excess weight. Severely afflicted garm will often begin growing antlers, sometimes appearing as small horns and even growing as large as full blown antlers. Said antlers look entirely normal and are not shed like normal antlers are, though some garm may choose to saw them off they will inevitably grow back within a few days. A full blown wendigo is normally marked by carrying all the mutations of an afflicted (lack of pupils/spindly limbs/antlers etc.) while also having the flesh of the face peel off to reveal the skull beneath. The skull resembles a flesh-less wolf skull, usually being colored bone white, gray, or even black and will generally reveal the full face. Despite the appearance, the condition does not weaken wendigo, who are said to be supernaturally strong beyond even the likes of trolls. Rather than healing rapidly however, wendigo garm are said to be able to come back from the grave by eating the souls of other creatures when they become horribly injured.

One exception to the above is the fully succumbed wendigo who was unable to retain their mind and thoughts, these unlucky individuals go completely insane and become much bigger, stronger, super natural creatures that are said to be unstoppable. A fully succumbed wendigo will generally tower over their fellows with powerful heavily built bodies. The flesh of a succumbed wendigo head will entirely fall off, leaving behind only a skull with white lights in place of eyes. The antlers will shed and be replaced with two massive bull-like horns suited for combat and the body of a wendigo will lose its definitions, becoming stuck in a state between severe rot and partial regeneration. For all intents and purposes, these creatures are considered undead and even if the body is destroyed will take on a spirit form and regenerate elsewhere. Permanently killing a succumbed wendigo is not possible even for members of the Chosen of Xaal or the Sons of Baitaal, the only sure method is to imprison one to stops its rampage and from escaping through spiritual regeneration elsewhere.

Culture

Garm do not have a unified culture after the destruction of their fledgling empire, the best that can be remembered by the few garm that passed on their traditions was that garm were originally a culture of savage warriors and hunters who wore leather and furs and wielded weapons of iron in battle. Being a people primarily of fauna hunters, shepherds, and quasi tribals just on the cusp of transitioning to the next age before the elves destroyed them. The modern garm may cling to their culture, taking work as hunters, leather workers, and woodsman but their depleted numbers means that finding a garm is extremely rare. Garm will generally adopt whatever culture surrounds them and can be seen in any empire, but are most common within the warren federation. The active distrust that garm get for being known as being marked for death by Xaal often leads them to actively seeking isolation. Garm can be found among trolls, gnolls, and the sons of baitaal. Trolls generally treat garm as equals, being the only other race marked by a specific god, and use their druidic and natural mysticism to aid trolls in resisting the feasting. The sons of baitaal offer organized structure and prayer, often teaching garm to control themselves and find strength through faith using prayer, a method so successful that some garm move on to become crusaders for the sons or mercenaries with small private companies willing to give them a try. Gnolls, however, are the worst friend that a garm can make as gnolls will actively exploit the feasting through torture and blood letting to drive a garm into becoming a wendigo, with the hope that said garm will fully succumb into a supernatural beast that they can then chain and goad into battle like an enslaved beast. While no fault of the garms, this is another contributing factor as to why they face prejudice, as even squads of seasoned warriors will hesitate to hunt members of a gnoll tribe that have a wendigo under their semi-control even when said tribe is using the beast to wreck havoc everywhere.

Mentality

The garm mentality is simply too scattered to concisely pin down. Some garm have given in to despair, some seek solace in faith, and others are just trying to live day by day. Much of how a garm thinks is effected by the culture they grew up in, simply because they have few other garm from which they can develop a mindset with. The best that can be said of garm is that they are largely reserved, as any garm who shows signs of the feasting is often mistrusted and feared, because they will eventually succumb to the feasting and may need to be put down. It may take years, even decades, but that is the fate for all garm and a coin toss if they retain their sanity or become a true monster.

Back to Races