Chapter 2: The People
This chapter opens with a half-a-page fiction and I can't even get past paragraph three. It's not grabby.
But it does go on to admit that the racial descriptions are brutally reductive stereotypes.
... if we described terrestrial species in these terms, we would count all humans as a single species - the physical and cultural differences between a typical white American man and a typical !Kung hunter-gatherer woman are minor compared to the differences between a Herethroy and a Cani. We would say that humans are social, egotistical, and rarely make plans for the long term. On the whole this description is true, but there are plenty of individual humans who are antisocial, not egotistical, and only concerned with the long term. Don't expect the World Tree stereotypes to be any more accurate about an individual.
The 'physical' differences part might be true, though I think the 'cultural' differences part really isn't. That's not surprising, really alien cultures are difficult to portray.
Also, we have some general demographics. Neat. So of the eight prime species, the Cani (dogfolk) make up 24% of the population, the Herethroy (cricketfolk) make up 35%, the Orren (otterfolk) make up 19%, the Rassimel (raccoonfolk) make up 22%... and we're out of percents. The other four species are essentially a statistical rounding error, adding up to less than one half of one percent all together. Gormoror (bearfolk) are 0.2%, Khtsoyis (air-heptapuses) and Sleeth (non-anthro panthers) are 0.1% each, and the Zi Ri (cat-sized dragons) are <0.01%.
That's not really represented in the art, by the way. The art is heavily weighted towards Cani and Rassimel (proportionately, it's probably more weighted towards Zi Ri, or else there wouldn't be
any Zi Ri art, but there still isn't much of them). Considering that they're a plurality, I'd have expected to see a lot more Herethroy. It's not a very big deal, but the art does set a lot of the baseline expectations of the setting, and there really aren't any visuals of large numbers of Herethroy. In social and marketplace scenes, they're barely present.
Each of the prime species gets a multipage writeup with subheadings for appearance, social structure, art, diet, moral attitudes, a few others depending on species, and finally a general breakdown of attitudes towards the other species. It's actually very helpful.
Cani
'You seem a decent fellow. I hate to kneecap you for status.'
The dogfolk are extremely social and instinctively loyal; any group they're with for a few weeks they become loyal to, which I imagine could lead to some nasty Stockholm syndrome effects. They are very sensitive to status and have a whole ritualized status-challenge culture. They tend to have big group-marriage families with a dozen or so co-spouses. Like dogs, they have very acute smell, but no concept of 'unpleasant smell,' so Cani foods are often fermented or spiced beyond the endurance of other primes. Cani are the dominant prime species because they organize and hang together in a way that none of the others do.
Gormoror
Gormoror tend to wear a lot less than the slinky-dressed bug girl, but not in a fanservice way.
The bearfolk are a lot like DS9-era Klingons: they basically live a violent and overly dramatic tribal lifestyle. They have a special word-of-honor they can give, and if they break it, for a year they have a kind of psychic stain that other Gormoror can see. They can be mind-controlled into breaking it, and it counts, but they have an innate resistance to mind control.
Gormoror also have a significant sexual dimorphism, which shows up in their game stats later. Males are larger and more bear-like, females are more enduring and human-like.
Herethroy
'Hey, wanna box?'
Art for the Herethroy is all over the place. Some of them have Jiminy Cricket eyes, which are just disproportionately large human eyes, others have big ol' compound insect eyes. The description here does not clarify, though I assume it's Jiminy, because they don't seem to have distinct vision from the other peoples.
They have a compromise skeleton, a carapace with some internal bones as well. Spines and ribs are fused to the carapace. They are warm blooded, and have six limbs - two arms, two legs, and two that can serve as either. They frequently wield something like sword, shield, and quarterstaff. The carapace counts as moderate armor they can wear actual armor on top of, so they seem kind of unfair in combat.
They have a fairly interesting four-gender set up I'm not going to go into. They are strict herbivores, which I mention because the Cani and Gormoror despite appearances are omnivores. They usually live in tiny hamlets of 50-100 people, which also act as an extended family, but don't organize on any larger scale.
Khtsoyis
Dapper heptapus mobster. Hell. Fucking. Yes.
First product of the fuck-up god (his second try was the Gormoror), the Khtsoyis are a lot like monsters that just happen to be classified as primes. Seven-limbed octopus-like floating weirdos with five stalked eyes who have active camouflage and a limited healing factor. They are a
little dim, but they seem dumber because they have tiny lungs and have to pause a lot in the middle of speaking. They have a stereotype as Titus Pullo-like good-natured thugs. They have a strange affinity for clubs and can wield three at once.
Orren
The otterfolk actually change shape to full otters when they go in the water; they also have a crazy adrenal burst which can help in combat. Faddish and not very serious, they tend to commit themselves intensely to something for a couple of weeks, then move on to the next thing.
Rassimel
'I am very serious about wealth redistribution.'
The raccoonfolk are characterized as obsessives - each has their own 'thing' that they pursue compulsively. Otherwise they don't have much going for them but being fast learners. They are a little like the 'humans' of the setting - few special abilities, but more skill points - but as you'll see when we get into the rules, skill points include magic, so they aren't a sucker's game.
Sleeth
Once you go horizontal, you never go back. Unless you're one of those bipeds
and just stand back up again.
Sleeth are non-anthropomorphic cats, about 5-6 feet long. They're kind of terrifying against poorly-armored opponents because they have three claw attacks (claw/claw/rake), but they aren't big attacks, so armor can kind of stop them cold. They have a limited innate TK effect to make up for their lack of hands. They are almost pure carnivores - they occasionally chew grass or something. They have a rep as cruel, vicious, and untrustworthy, and many of them deserve it. Most live like werewolves in the wilderness in small bands.
Zi Ri
Pictured: A questionable evolutionary strategy.
Zi Ri fill the elf niche in the world. About thirty pounds of little dragon, they do not have a maximum lifespan, and do not age. A dozen of the Zi Ri from the making of the world are still alive. Not having a lot of physical prowess, they tend to focus on magic, and living a long time, the oldest ones are the archetypal archwizards of the setting. They have a weird immortal perspective, patient and hesitant, and also don't really 'get' leadership - they don't make good leaders
or followers. They are resistant to fire and can breathe a little jet of fire - but it's not a very good weapon against anything larger than a mouse. They're all hermaphrodites.
edit: extra thoughts
It's strange, because while on average there's a lot more differential between these species than the D&D races, the more divergent ones kind of lampshade how samey some of them still are. Like, the Cani, Gormoror, Rassimel, and even Orren are all just 'animal-person with a some light thematic elements.' I think it comes down to body layout. Like, the Herethroy's extra limbs make them interesting to think about in a way that the Gormoror's honor nonsense doesn't; same with the Sleeth's quadrupedalism and the Khtsoyis'... everything.
I suppose it was probably intentional, so that people who just wanted to play as a human-like body-type and not have to worry about
another layer of strangeness would still have some choices. To me, it feels like a missed opportunity.
And yeah, while the descriptions do flesh out the different societies and cultures a lot more than I have, they aren't really that different, and some of them just cold don't have particularly distinct cultures at all; Orren and Rassimel really just have personality stereotypes, and Khtsoyis and Zi Ri don't have enough population to maintain cultures of their own - even Sleeth and Gormoror only have something like a distinct culture because they mostly live in tiny bands outside the cities; and those cultures are pretty thin.
Not everyone can be Larry Niven or Doc Smith, but I feel like most everyone can
read those guys for some really good distinct non-human perspectives. And there isn't much sense of that.
This chapter isn't over, but I think the next section deserves its own post.