Tribes of the Pale People (3.5e Race)
Tribes of the Pale People
The pale people are hunter-gatherers who inhabit the northern reaches of the habitable lands, north of Midland Sea and the warm realms of the sun people and south of the glacial walls that mark the boundaries of the winterlands and the domains of the cave people. They are skilled archers, famed and feared for their talents with a bow.
Personality
The pale people are reticent and mistrustful of strangers, and are proud and honorable to a fault. They are also steadfastly loyal to kith and kin, and a pale man who neglects his duties to his clan is branded an outlaw and banished from his clan grounds on pain of death. There are few fates worse than that for the pale people, for they are then forced into the shame of seeking adoption into another clan or perish. Pale people dislike liars and thieves, and both lying and stealing are grounds for the immediate enslavement, banishment, or death of the transgressor if caught, depending on the wishes of the transgressor's victim. They particularly revere and respect age, and young pale people defer to their elders as having greater spiritual power and being closer to divine beings themselves. The pale people do not see death as an ending, but merely a transition from bodied to unbodied spirit, and thus they keep their ancestors 'alive' and accumulating greater power through reverence and memory.
Physical Description
The pale people are fair-skinned and tall, with the average height of a man between 5'7" and 5'11", and women significantly shorter at 5'2" to 5'7" tall. Men weigh an average of 170 pounds, while women weigh an average of 140 pounds. They have brown, blue, green, hazel, or grey eyes, while hair colors range from platinum blonde to red and dirty blonde to brown and black. Their hair colors often grey with age, at least for those pale people who live to be middle aged. Pale men grow beards and keep their hair trimmed short, while pale women wear their hair long. Both genders decorate their bodies and faces with tattoos denoting their tribe, clan, and accomplishments in battle, and the pale people believe these tattoos bear magical power. Pale people live to an age of 40 on the average, though some particularly venerable elders make it to 60 or even 70 years old.
Pale people dress in clothing made from cotton, wool, and flax fibers, deerskin, and other furs. Wolf and bear furs are prized for warriors, while rabbit furs are worn by women hoping for children and all wear reindeer furs to keep warm in winter. Men wear jackets, tunics, and trousers, while women wear blouses, skirts, and dresses. Female warriors wear trousers as men do. They use capes of dried grass to protect against inclement weather, as grass is surprisingly water-repellant. The pale people wear moccasins and boots made from leather and lined with dry grass to keep their feet warm and dry. They wear jewelry made from silver, copper, sea shells (especially mother-of-pearl), carved bone and mammoth ivory, precious stones, and bird feathers. Pale people use flint and stone weapons, and almost every one of them has a bow, flint knife, stone axe, and several flint-headed arrows with them at all times.
Relations
Pale people keep to themselves, and have little interaction with any race save for the sea people raiding their homelands and the horse people they compete with for space. The one race they fear more than any, however, are the brutish and cannibalistic cave people.
Alignment
Pale people may be of any alignment. The best and worst are found among them.
Lands
The pale people live in small, semi-nomadic villages of 200 or fewer souls. They follow the mammoth and reindeer herds, wintering in a fixed location but spending most of the spring and summer roaming the wilderness chasing the herds. Their homelands are a mixture of grassland, tundra, and forest, home to mammoths, bears, smilodons, unicorns, wolves, deer, and other creatures of the wild at home in the cold. Their villages are typically ruled over by a chieftain and his druid advisor, often with a captain of the warriors and an elder or two to advise him.
Men are the warriors and hunters, while women rule the hearth-fires and the family by learning crafts and medicine. Unmarried women without children may become warriors and hunters, though they are expected to someday settle down and attend to their duties to the clan. It is considered shameful for a man to not be an able warrior and hunter, though it is not shameful for a man to be skilled at crafts, medicine, and other traditionally female work. After all, a hunting party may roam wide for days on end, and clothes mended in the field serve their wearer better than clothes mended later on - and all men appreciate a belly well filled with good food.
Religion
The pale people honor the Great Dragon as the creator of all things, and revere their ancestors as protectors and guides. They see the Great Dragon as being a part of all things, and all things parts of the Great Dragon. It is a luminous spirit energy that flows through all living things and binds them together. The Great Dragon is represented in its physical form as an enormous horned snake with scales like a shark's teeth and a mane like a horse's, varying in size between a beast as small as a man's arm or large enough to encircle the world.
The spiritual leaders of the pale people are druids, priests and priestesses of the Great Dragon who gather for their rites in sacred circles of standing stones deep in the forests of their homelands. Some of these rituals are secret, known only to the druids and the bards, while others are public and attended by all of the pale people. These public rituals, known as moots, draw clans from far and wide to meet and give homage to the Great Dragon in festivals, contests, and sacred rites. It is common for young pale people to get married in moots, and announce their children's names at moots under the auspices of the druids.
Certain ancestors are widely regarded and revered by many clans and families. Somewhere between deities and folk heroes, their deeds are remembered and shared in stories told by the bards. One of the greatest honors in the pale people's society is to have one's deeds made into such a story.
Language
The pale people speak a dialect unique to their clan. The language is intelligible between clans, though this might be limited to simple concepts for clans long isolated from one another. The pale people language is a fluid tongue with a lyrical sound.
Names
A pale person is given a child name at their second birthday, and assumes an adult name upon marriage. It is very rude to call an adult pale person by their child name, especially in public. They inherit their surnames from their fathers at birth. Men take on their clan names with their first successful hunt at around twelve years old, while women take on their husband's clan name when they marry.
Male Names: Aramil, Arthir, Baelwulf, Coras, Einan, Heian, Himo, Ivell, Laucin, Sovfreid, Thamor.
Female Names: Anastri, Brighaed, Epona, Felosial, Ielena, Leianne, Mia, Quillathe, Silaqui, Vandela.
Family Names: Baelbron, Hallastar, Kaythean, Janaith, Throtrillan, Tuanan, Vaelad.
Clan Names: Crowning Star, Falling Waters, Hawk Feathers, Red Dog, Shadow Walker.
Pale People Racial Traits
- +2 Dexterity, +2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma. The pale people are agile and perceptive, but their small tribes and mistrust of strangers leave them little opportunity for social interaction.
- Humanoid (Human): The pale people are members of Homo sapiens sapiens.
- Medium: As Medium creatures, the pale people have no special bonuses or penalties due to size.
- Pale people base land speed is 30 feet.
- Primitive: Pale people are illiterate, and they lack proficiency with metal weapons and armor.
- Boastful Bravery: Pale people have a +1 morale bonus on attack rolls against creatures larger than themselves, and they enjoy a +2 morale bonus on Will saves against fear effects.
- Silent Hunters: The pale people learn the bow practically from birth, and receive Martial Weapon Proficiency with bows (including composite bows and longbows). They enjoy a +2 racial bonus on Hide and Move Silently checks, and on Survival checks made in a woodland environment.
- Bonus Feat: Pale people receive a bonus feat at 1st level. This may be any bonus feat for which they meet the prerequisites.
- Bonus Skills: Pale people receive 4 extra skill points at 1st level and 1 extra skill point at every level thereafter.
- Automatic Languages: Clan dialect, Common, Undercommon Bonus Languages: Any, other than secret languages such as Druidic.
- Favored Class: Ranger or Druid, chosen at 1st level.
Vital Statistics
| Adulthood | Simple | Moderate | Complex |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 years | +1d4 | +1d6 | +2d4 |
| Middle Age1 | Old2 | Venerable3 | Maximum Age | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 32 years | 49 years | 65 years | +2d10 years | |
| ||||
| Gender | Base Height | Height Modifier | Base Weight | Weight Modifier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male | 4' 10" | +2d10 | 120 lb. | × (2d4) lb. |
| Female | 4' 5" | +2d10 | 85 lb. | × (2d4) lb. |
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