Talk:Skoros (5e Race)

Original History Section

In the original History section, this passage of text appeared:

At some point, an unknown event caused the plane of the skoroi to weaken its boundaries. Skoroi were able to move into the material plane. They assimilated into society and brought shamanism. These skoroi had the urge to adventure and many of them did. Skoroi are very rare in the world. There are still pockets of space where the two planes overlap.

While I would have liked to incorporate this somehow, I struggled to do so coherently given how early in their history I positioned them to make all of the other parts work. Also, I'd already adapted the "weakened boundaries" idea somewhat to explain why a race was suddenly inhabiting a canonically undeveloped plane. Further, I didn't want to make lore that could disrupt a DM's main narrative, or similarly provide lore that may prompt the DM to reject the race from their campaign.

However, this is still worth saving for a couple reasons. One, a DM, player, or worldbuilder could take this idea and have it be an event that happens later in the race's history, further creating subspecies and evolving the race as a whole. Two, this would be a solid premise for a DM to create a module for their campaign off of.

Ultimately, I think this is worthwhile information, but not easily incorporated into the current entry, and would like to leave it here for posterity so others might work off the concept. --TalesUnfinished (talk) 19:17, 16 November 2021 (MST)

Original Society Section

The original Society section was written as such:

There are two forms of skoros society. There are traditional settlements which are common all throughout the plane of the skoroi and rare in the material plane. There are also hybrid settlements which are more common than traditional settlements in the material plane. Traditional society is rooted in insect shamanism. The skoroi were surrounded by insects in their home plane and forged bonds with them. They developed insect shamanism to use the insects to their full potential. The importance of shamanism made shamans important in society. Settlements were led by grand shamans, shamans that were able to tame great drakeflies. Grand shamans trained other skoroi to be shamans. Men in society were more shamanistic and laborious. Most shamans and food producers were men. Women in society were seen as scholars with the duty advance society. Hybrid societies appeared in the material plane as skoroi came into the plane. Skoroi settlements merged with existing towns and culture mixed. Hybrid societies do not closely resemble traditional society. The only consistent culture was shaman culture. Shamans were less important and less prevalent. Instead of being leaders, they tended to become adventurers to fulfil themselves. Skoros from both societies want to be fulfilled and strive to better themselves. That is why close traditional society works to improve itself and the loose hybrid society has skoroi leave to better themselves.

I realize this is quite a lot to cut, but I do so for similar reasons to the History section: the timeline I wrote the other information to make it make sense keeps this version of the Skoroi from making sense, and a DM may reject a Skoros from their game if too much is done to change the default 5e world or imposes too much upon a homebrew world. While that might not be so much of an issue given they would work similarly to Aaracockra, it still wouldn't make sense from a chronological perspective just yet.

Again, however, this is valuable information surrounding how settlements of Skoroi would work and differ in the Material Plane, and thus is worthwhile for any DMs, worldbuilders, or players who might like to incorporate them further along in their advancement as a race. --TalesUnfinished (talk) 15:35, 27 April 2022 (MDT)

A Word on Gender Roles

Official D&D content has long since gravitated away from depicting defined gender roles in their races. I happen to agree with that inclination; I feel it provides the most character freedom and imposes the least story constraints or assumptions on the DM's world.

However, the original user who created the race imposed gender roles on them, and I wanted to respect both the original author and the spirit of the wiki to remove as little of the race's various beats as possible while also making the article fuller and more coherent. Additionally, I think it's realistic for various races to have different perspectives on gender and its implications in their society (though, personally, I would apply them differently to a moth species than as depicted here). Lastly, it makes sense for a society in early development to not have it all figured out, though as mentioned, some clans may be ahead of the curve.

With that in mind, I suspect that as the Skoros branch out to the Prime Material and experience other cultures, the race as a whole would become more egalitarian to match, though perhaps not every clan would be quite so swift to adapt. Regardless, I leave that largely up to DMs or players who choose to incorporate this race into their games.

--TalesUnfinished (talk) 02:33, 28 April 2022 (MDT)