Nurth in the Steel Realms

Steel Realms

@RP Impact:

the [contentblock id=playlink1] is the defacto starting point for characters and races of the Steel Realms. The Nurth of the Steel Realms correlate to the Human of DnD.

The Nurth are the cursed, disease-wracked filth of an over-engineered breeding program hides from the other races in caves, tunnels, deep forests, and remote dark places. Manifesting as a type of Duathi, it is what is left of the people of Nurthland, after “The Faul of Nurthland“. Those dwelling on the fringes of the darkness have made pacts with their former masters and serve as scouts and lookouts for raiding bands of Orrish. The Nurth populations are gradually vanishing outside the darklands and where they are not protected by The Deeping. Even within, they tend to stay among themselves, so the tolls of inbreeding and violence affect them only slower – though they have a constant infusion of Orrish blood (and the priests are worried about the Sun-Ban affecting them at some point) and raid to take living prisoners to gets mates for their breeding “cauls”. Nurth always travels in groups numbering six or more – their only advantage is numbers.

Unwelcome:

Accepted

Welcomed:

The peoples of Nurthland – faerie, grollen and human alike were given over to the Orrish breeding troughs, eventually giving rise to the evil Nurth. mixed with Ork blood and had their fear and hatred cultivated. The Orrish way of life – death, suffering, strength, cannibalism; all the most ghastly parts of Darkland culture and society were integrated into their life. The Priests of Everdark bred them in the hopes of creating an army that would withstand the Sun-Bane. For 20 generations they were mixed and bred to produce brutal, blood thirsty warriors. Just before they were to be unleashed on the lands of light, they rose up and rebelled. The twisted, horrific Nurth fled from the confines of the darklands around 2650. Many fled into the mountains, some fled west over the mountains and found places in the lands of light, many others went north, and still so many simply were hunted down and slaughtered. In a few places, large enough bands made deals with the priests of darkness and a pact was struck – the Nurth would serve their dark masters willingly. The experiment ended in failure however. The Nurth are able to withstand the sunlight, but they cannot see in it. And while it does not kill them, it incapacitates them quickly – a useless result.

Now, where the Nurth do not serve their Orrish masters, they have fled into the deep earth. The Nurth are attracted to the effects of The Deeping – they seem to be immune to its effects AND seem to be able to move the “Dark Trap” zones with great numbers of them moving together – perhaps it is drawn to their evil.

Point of View

Sameness and life without strong emotions is how a good Nurth lives their life – imperfections on the surface is how the Nurth were once divided, now these differences mean nothing to them. It is the place of the Nurth to provide an example alternative to the divisive ways of ‘others’. This manifests more as a “become one of us – or you are against us” mentality. They will not respect those who do not know it and use the Sign of The 2 underground rivers. The Nurth have had their self-image driven into the ground, and their grooming and sanitation habits leave much to be desired. Due to the disease and environment, all suffer from severe ugliness to outsiders.

History as Understood by the Nurth

The Nurth were forsaken by the gods. To them, it is mere bad luck to be a Nurth, for the gods strike those that they are jealous of, those that displease them, and sometimes merely to placate unnatural yearnings in their minds which touch the abyss. Once the Nurth were good folk, proud folk, and prosperous folk. The gods saw fit to take this from them – far into the mists of history they placed a curse upon them and so they were conquered by the Orrish hordes who enslaved them and tortured them. The Nurth were strong though, and survived, and found among their captors aspects of their own faith that eventually felt compassion for them. But they had to prove that they were worthy of compassion from these strange powers that would harbor them – and so came the Dark Rivers – the acts of veneration for a ‘propitious life’ – one filled with good tidings (survival, shelter, sharing) and avoids bad tidings (shame, slaughter, and strangeness).

Regarding Adventurers/Player Characters

Player characters of this species typically (or at least eventually) fall outside the normal Point of View of typical species members, and the Natural Wisdom of species lore. As such, generally, they cannot be the target of Favored Prey.

  • Ordu
  • Baecoe: These are the breeders and warriors – male and female, the mainstay of the Nurthling population. These are of various forms, pale and spindly (Size 7, VGR 3 (4 for warriors), STR 3, RCT 7, CHA 2, RSN 3; +4 on all hearing and smell PER checks), covered in puss filled sores, weeping wounds, and disease. Their eyes are milky and are barely able to distinguish light and darkness – nothing distinct.
  • Ru-Lak: Originally a type of nobility or leader month the Nurth they kept order in the population. Nearly wiped-out in the uprising, they were bred for tighter control and have compulsions instilled from birth to allow docility around their masters and to check any talk of betrayal or change inside their culture.

      • Religion

      Their faith is a simple one, oriented around the family. The mother is both she who gives sustenance and protects the young, and walks her children from the grave into the depths and the Cave of Shadows – were their spirits dance to the music of their clan on sacred nights, and consume the sacred offerings she shares with them – and they are but shadows and cannot hurt forever more. The Nurth are bound to their 6-limbed Black Mother (Gloombringer), the Blind Father (an evil, animalistic aspect of The Lord of Beasts – Darupet), and sometimes the son – the “desired one” (Sun Stealer). Also sacred to them is the great demon Tizre’al – Lord of the Flies – a servant of Mog Creoch; his clergy are known as the Grub Masters, and able to summon a Devouring Spawn of Mog Creoch.

      Their faith is a simple one, oriented around the family and survival. The Nurth understand on some primitive level all that has befallen them, and that their faith is one that is symbolic and constructed for them alone. It is based on a search for allies and a means of survival over a thousand years or more.

      Offerings

      Nurthrot

      “Light Swallower” – Offering [major]: Sacrifice a living, sentient creature as part of rite + 1 essence (temp; returns in 1 day). Requires consumption of Nurth blood to function as well – One use of Channel PER to be used in the next 24 hours. Any use of the radiance spark to make light has a 50% chance of being “Dark Light” – swallower of light and darkness. Illumination is washed out gray/yellow/sepia, and this will do [hard] damage equal to the Conviction of the ceremony leader to any who brought forth the light or darkness for a number of rounds = Power Level each round the illumination effect in active (doing the same damage to ceremony leader once as well). Otherwise, it will shower the area in a spark shower. Each mote (2-12) in the shower has the chance (Conviction check) to dispel any light or darkness based effect it touches, and aggravate every wound those touched have, no matter how small (VGR to resist).

      Communication

      Their speech is high and punctuated with high pitched chirps and pips of their own creation to communicate without their one-time masters understanding. What little written communication they have are nothing more than drawings of hand-sign. All Nurth must learn the Sign of The 2 underground rivers (twined fingers) – it is the universal greeting for them. They communicate silently in the dark by forming their long fingered hands into shapes and pressing them into the palm of the one they are communicating with or carving them in relief backwards for others to “read”. Little deep communication can come of this (maximum level 2); and it is easily hidden on rough walls and nearly invisible to non-Nurth (PER -4 to notice even).

      Names

      Common Names: Common names are Orrish sounding, all derived from derisive, insulting terms and phrases.

      Combat

      The Nurth typically try to overwhelm with numbers – nearly never traveling in groups less than 6. They use stolen weapons stone/flint knives + petrified wood small spears (3 AM/6 damage), never use fire, never wear armor. they typically kill fallen members of their own kind and take the bodies as they retreat – for eating later.

      Tunnel Brave: Roughly 2% of all Nurth warriors are the Tunnel Braves – dedicated to the Nurth Mother (though their “gift” seems to come from the Lord of Flies and the breeding with fiends). They have a mutation on their palms and soles that makes them like a spider – they can grip surfaces with myriads if tiny stiff hairs. The character gets +6 to climb, but has an Unadapted Grip. However, such characters would be equipped with special daggers, shortswords, and/or spear for their comfort. It can support no more ENC then the average Nurth (at least 3 surfaces attached – a Climb check required if only 2, Climb -8 for a single surface), and they must be completely unencumbered.

      • If 10 Baecoe Nurth die in a single combat, that area is covered in a disease miasma; VGR checks -1 per 10 killed or suffer a -1 to all actions.
      • The Nurth use a virulent poison which, on each hit that damages a character, inflicts a cumulative toxin with a POT of 2 (only Toxin resistance can resist, treat as if it were 8 POT); Creatures of creature than double their won size (15+) take only half POT. Once it exceeds their CON, they are exhausted, and automatically Impaired! POT stays in the system for 1 week.
      • Any character striking a perfect/critical blow against a Baecoe Nurth in close combat runs the risk of getting their disease through their nose or mouth; they must make a RCT check (-4 if blood lust or Berserk) to get out of the way. Affected characters have 4 POT of their poison.

      Battle Stew

      “Musroom Battle Stew” Botany check to prepare (100 silvers cost ingredients equiv.), Aura Sight for perfect timing = Ceremonial Rite of the Blind Father; Can involve a number of equal to 1+ conviction of ceremony leader. The Bad Luck of those involved can fuel a super-hexing (Project Aura). The super hex can be used any time within a number of hours = conviction of ceremony leader, taking 1 full round to call down the curse. 10 synergy, and 1 essence (returns 1/day). It takes the bad luck those participating and it throws it on a group of enemies, 1 per member. They can be targeted from up to 50m away, and the resistance is at -4. Success of failure both causes them to lose initiative the following round. During the duration of the encounter the hex took place on, no bad luck resulting from the hex can be used against the ceremony participants. VGR check for those involved or throw up at the end from using the mushrooms; 1 round can only be defensive; and their actions are penalized by -1 CS for 4 rounds.

      D20 Nurth Information

      Left to rot, without being consumed, the nurth become a foul ooze, semi-sentient and hostile to all. The same effect is the Corruption of Mog Creoch upon the dying and dead, or even Malek’s putrescent spirit of corruption. Use the statistics for Vegepygmy.

      Incarna Core Nurth Information

      Major Settlements/Societies

      Halls of Hungerdouse: The Nurth now rule the lands. The tunnels to the surface have been sealed, broken and re-sealed by the Druids and Lightbringers both. Hated True Light glyphs are carved at every tunnel end and tunneling seems to result in the earth rebelling and collapsing when the surface is neared – a curse by the Druids the Nurthlings believe. The Orrish are gone and they do not want a return to the old days. They guard the treasure of the Fortress in their thousands, but have no use for it themselves.

      The site is featured in Rescue of The Golden Child

      Hungerdouse, the Nurth city

      Hungerdouse, the Nurth city

      Realm's Aptitude Powers: Divine, Occult, and Psychic