Rodentfolk

Rodentfolk are a widespread and well-known group of short rodent-like people who travel across the world in groups ranging from caravans, train crews, and sometimes ships. They are best known for their adept skill at merchantry and caravanning, a talent that seats them at the head of most thriving markets. While skilled at all manner of trade, rodentfolk are widely traveled and adept at both living and thriving anywhere, an aspect that has seen them at home in nearly any town or city. Within their own home federation rodentfolk often take up roles as engineers and industrialists, forming the complex and specialist labors while working closely with their federation allies.

In the area of merchantry the rodentfolk are consummate capitalists, every action even among their own clan is some form of trade or bargain, be it for material, money, or favors. Charity is an entirely foreign concept to rodentfolk, they may at best offer something for 'free' with the sometimes-vague hint that they will be owed a favor or return on investment later. This attitude surprisingly does not engender ire from other races as it allows most who know rodentfolk to know where they stand and what is expected, as long as one is ready to wheel and deal few rodentfolk can be considered unreasonable. While charity is not a concept to Rodentfolk, honesty is, and a rodentfolk who is not honest is an exiled pariah at best. This self policing attitude towards honest dealings is how rodentfolk maintain a good reputation as even the worst of them will be fair, even if it means abusing wording and the letter of a contract rather than the spirit.

Those who shy away from the merchant path that rodentfolk are most known for will usually go towards mercenary or food-related works. Rodentfolk are exceptional snipers, with peerless aim and talents with rifles and handguns that put most races to utter shame. This natural talent make them common mercenaries on train cars where rodentfolk stay positioned atop the cars ready to gun down bandits or gnoll raiders with ruthless efficiency. Many rodentfolk live by the motto that, if you find yourself in melee, you messed up. Most trains and railways are owned by rodentfolk and can find them serving on the galley cars where rodentfolk chefs make exceptional quality food. A common saying among rodentfolk is they live by their stomachs and will only settle for the best and most delicious food. This innate need makes many become chefs with their own galla of secret recipes, spices, and dishes that are traded and sold for the same price one would trade silver and gold.

Lastly, though making up a small portion of the rodentfolk, are batfolk or 'spirit touched' of their race. In ages past, ratfolk lived deep underground in caverns lit by glowing fungi largely devoid of any light besides the dim gleam of bioluminescent mushrooms. The hundreds of miles of caverns were where the primitive rodentfolk lived, largely remaining near the relative safety of the glowshrooms and only venturing out when guided by their batfolk. These rare individuals were able to see far better within the darkness, mapping out the caverns and evading dangerous underground predators with ease. In these primitive times, batfolk were treated as seers, diviners, and shamans who were highly regarded as the most important members of a tribe. While their necessity and importance has waned once the rodentfolk reached the much better lit surface world, batfolk are still highly regarded, having shifted more into a priest caste among the federation and still venerated by the superstitious and religious as favored by the gods.

A quick-start guide:

• Rodentfolk come in three varieties, mousefolk, ratfolk, and batfolk. Rodentfolk are members of the Warren Federation and make up must of their industrial and trade sectors.
• All rodentfolk ignore speed penalties for moving in darkness and receive a +20% movement speed perk (This gives them equal speed to large races)/
• Mousefolk Bonuses: +15 vigilance, +5 biology, -5 robustness. Mousefolk gain the snackivore perk, giving them bonuses for eating preserved/sweet food.
• Ratfolk Bonuses: +10 vigilance, +5 toughness, +5 cognition, -5 biology. Ratfolk gain the market professional perk and can always tell the exact value of an item.
• Batfolk Bonuses: +20 vigilance, -5 mechanical. Batfolk gain the seer's sight perk and can see better in darkness via echolocation.

Biology

Rodentfolk are bipedal humanoids with rodentlike features such as large circular ears, long hairless tails, furred bodies with hairless hands and footpaws, and large incisors. Fur colors range from white, black, gray, to brown, wheat, blonde, tan, and very rarely blue-gray and navy. Patterns may be present which generally fall along the lines of different colored arms, legs, or belly as either lighter or darker than the majority of their fur but normally a matching color. Rodentfolk universally have claws but they are too thin and weak to serve as weapons. Rodentfolk incisors will grow through out their life and maintenance requires gnawing, chewing, or grinding their teeth on tough or hard objects to shave the bone and prevent it from growing too long and thus impacting their general health and comfort. In terms of height, ratfolk measure as the tallest on average, usually coming to an impressive five feet tall at the absolute greatest. Mousefolk and batfolk tend to be shorter, coming closer to four feet and rarely breaking four and a half feet. Outsiders can often tell what ethnicity a rodentfolk is at a glance with some familiarity, aside from height mousefolk tend to have larger ears and more 'stubby' faces with shorter snouts while ratfolk tend to have smaller ears and thinner, longer snouts. Batfolk are often immediately obvious as their ears come to points and their noses end in pointed upturned flaps of skin, either coming to a single point or taking the shape of a three pointed leaf. Contrary to rumors, batfolk to not have wings or the ability to fly, with the running joke calling them land bats to differentiate them from regular bats.

Culture

Rodentfolk culture can largely be described as fanatically competitive. Rodentfolk separate themselves into 'clans' similar to the lagus but rather than it being through a familial blood connection these clans are chosen based on social groups that will often later form into guilds, business, and artisan halls. The social aspect of recruitment is largely dependent on personality, where as a rodentfolk vocation will allow them to court guilds specializing in the same line of work, how they are chosen and recruited often depends on who you know or how well your general beliefs and personality mesh with the overall group. Rodentfolk are immensely loyal to their clans as it is often through said clans that rodentfolk will find friends, potential mates, work, and other benefits such as housing or amenities. Said clans are hyper competitive against clans in the same vocation, such as engineering clans trying to out-compete others on making the greatest feat of engineer or artisan cooking halls vying to become the greatest restaurant in town, but extremely cooperative with clans outside of their vocation to cover aspects existing members cannot. One of the largest reasons that rodentfolk who come of age are encouraged to look at other vocations besides what their guild represents is to send them off to other clans to forge bonds and alliances through familial lines. This has created a dizzying maze of complex relationships all across rodentfolk society, to such a degree that tracing alliances, family bonds, and secret alliances is a prospect so challenging that it is often deemed impossible.

While other races would presume such a complex society built first on fellowship and second on blood would be a hotbed for political intrigue, backstabbing, and shifting alliances, this is largely far from the truth. While such back stabbing does exist, rodentfolk are consummately honest and will rarely lie. Often times such double dealings are done purely based on interpretations of the law or a contract, usually through exploiting loose or vague wording to dishonestly but *legally* betray someone else trust. A rodentfolk who is caught lying will become a pariah, ousted both by his clan and shunned by his family line. Such an act is a permanent stain that cannot be forgiven and, often times, will be handled internally by a clan through branding and exile. A branded rodentfolk has the words liar seared into their forehead and along the snout with a magical flame that leaves a disfiguring scar that cannot be healed or otherwise removed, even by weaving. They are then exiled and no rodentfolk will aid them or make a deal with them, sometimes even enforcing this standard on business partners and other groups they trade with. Most branded rodentfolk will leave the federation entirely, usually before being branded if possible, as the lagus and kobold will generally offer the same treatment that rodentfolk give. While escaping branding might be able to wipe the slate clean outside the federation, such a status is tracked by federation officials and enforcers, the name of the offender will never be forgotten.

One additional factor that separates the rodentfolk from the other members of the federation is, while nominally being clan based, is that their clan is often separated and spread out across multiple locations. As travelers by heart, rodentfolk will often rarely have a singular apartment, house, or location that they designate their home. Depending on rank and money, one member can have multiple apartments across multiple clan holdings in different cities that they travel between based on personal or clan needs. This spread out nature generally means rodentfolk may not know members of their own clan, even in passing, and have a much larger chance of having non-rodentfolk marry into the clan due to meeting so many other species. Generally speaking, rodentfolk do not much care to differentiate themselves from other races, a child born within a clan that belongs to another race will be raised like any other rodentfolk, with the only difference being tailoring their vocation to whatever they happen to be racially suited for, such as goblins in engineering, kaxxis towards psionics, etc. etc. Some clans may even purposefully seek members of a specific race to hire or marry into if their clan has a great need for said races qualities, such as mercenary clans seeking orcs, weaving clans and deerkfolk, or metal workers and salamanders.

Mentality

Rodentfolk are competitive to the point of not truly understanding the concept of charity. Every action is, at the end of the day, a transaction even if it as minor as paying for drinks on the understanding that someone else will buy the next round. Rodentfolk are keenly aware that the very nature that leads their clans to success divides them when compared to the larger, more militarized and authoritarian clans of the lagus or the global politique that kobolds have in everything they do. This is a cloud with a very thick silver lining. While they cannot compete in the same way that lagus can individually or kobolds can as a collective, rodentfolk consider themselves having the most freedom of any individuals within the federation. A clan is a collection of its individuals, not a master and servants or a commune acting as a whole. This quality has filled the coffers of clan vaults, making rodentfolks some of the wealthiest and most productive clans across the known world. Cooperation without sacrifice is the name of the game. As a result, most rodentfolk hold equal reverence for the goddess of freedom as they do the god of order and due to their propensity to travel often maintain shrines along the paths between clan holdings rather than within their homes.

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