The Beastfolk

The Druhokas -

Their name for themselves is druhok, pronounced d-ruh-hawk (males) or druhoka, pronounced d-ruh-hawk-uh (females). Druhokas for plural, and in combat, they're known for being tough-as-hell to kill. 

They all have large horns or large antlers, sometimes both and a sloping face, but these features are defined more-or-less randomly during puberty.  Sometimes this chaotic process produces results that are similar to elk or deer, but their faces just as often resemble no other known animal.  While their faces are furry the rest of their body is hairless, which makes the bestial face look a bit odd. 

Druhok are incomprehensibly virile.  They can certainly impregnate any mammal, and quite a few non-mammals.  Smaller mammals give birth to skewed little halfbreeds that are usually sterile and sometimes have small horns of their own.  (Animals in their homelands sometimes feature horns for this reason.)  Larger mammals actually produce genetically normal Druhokas, so in theory, a solitary beastman could buy a cow and repopulate.

And it's not just the usual methods of transmission.  Even their blood and spit carry their seed, and fertilization can occur like catching a cold (aside from the more traditional vectors).  After warring with beastfolk, soldiers are advised to wash their hands before returning to their wives.

Druhokan warbands on extended campaigns sometimes travel with herds of goats that they use for food, recreation, and procreation.  Druhok warbands are bad news.  Sometimes they go on world tours.  Twenty years later, the warband that returns home contains only a few original members and quite a lot of their children.  Also lots of plunder.  Also a shit-ton of goats.

When a druhok is born, it resembles a baby goat or lamb.  After about six years, the young druhok quickly metamorphizes into their adult forms.  It's a more awkward puberty than most.  It's also a good reason to only buy your baby goats from licensed goat sellers.

Druhoks remember their childhood, when they walked on four legs and could only bleat.  For this reason, many of them empathize with horses, deer, goats, sheep, etc.  It certainly doesn't stop them from hunting, but they treat baby farm animals very well, and most beastfolk are at least mildly uncomfortable with horseback riding, some even defend horses against this abuse with force. 


Beastmen lack a nimble tongue and full lips. Their language is a mixture of grunts, barks, and hand signals.  It's a complex language full of nuance, metaphor, and meme-forms (not the internet meme)










Culture and Women
The Beastfolk worship in hot springs, believing all hot springs to be sacred places.  They cover their kings and queens with ribbons and bells, and their two biggest trades are brewing vast amounts of wine and being the only race known to have perfected yogurt making. The techniques and recipes needed to make yogurt are religiously kept secrets. The Druhok word for Yogurt is Dahirm (Dah-heer-m) 

They're a bit misogynistic, as you might suspect, though not in the "I beat up women" way, but rather in the "Women have a role and Men have theirs, and these should not be mixed" way.  Most people don't know about Druhoka, the beastfolk women.  Unlike the males, they lose most of their animal affections during their pubescent metamorphosis, so that they perfectly resemble humans in adulthood. The only bestial aspect that Druhoka retain are their cloven feet and their unguligrade legs which add 6" to their height.  They still speak in the grunts and waves of their mother tongue, but their perfectly human faces allow them to learn other languages with relative ease.  They, like their male counterparts they retain their goat eyes.

Diagram of Unguligrade legs that I stole from some furry artist.

Only the women can ever learn to be magic-users, since the males can't pronounce words. The women also fulfill the religious niches of society and  wield significant sway on domestic issues.  It's consider vulgar in their society for women to arm themselves, and so the women that do must use "non-weapons" like flat, bladed shovels and big kitchen knives (sometimes with a hilt).  A beastman would likely blush and faint if he saw a woman fighting with a broadsword.

Most beastfolk come from big families and the family bond of a Druhokan family group cannot be overstated. Druhokans are nomadic people, and they usually travel within these tight knit family groups. Most have a few dead siblings that they quietly honor by setting out bowls of water in quiet places, and then letting them evaporate. It is said that a sibling who goes thirsty in death must truly be hated. 

STATS N SHITT

• +2 Con, +2 Wis, -1 Cha
• Men can't speak or wear helmets; women can't wear shoes.
• Can survive just fine on grass and leaves, although they must eat a lot of it.
• Men can gore/butt with their horns when they charge.  1d6+Str bludgeoning damage.
• Women can easily run through rocky terrain and steep hillsides. While you're hammering pitons they're jogging up.  They can climb non-vertical surfaces without using their hands.
• If you have Cha 13+, and die from an injury (drop to 0 hp) you may attempt to roll under half your charisma score on a d20, if you succeed you instead survive with 1 hit point.  (This doesn't work if their head is cut off or something.)

And you know that Beastfolk warlords have, like, 16 charisma.