WORLD BOOK WORLD BOOK WORLD BOOK 0042 0042
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None of Khitus’s established races welcomes added
competition in these challenging times. Most see Oritahl as brutes, useful for hard labor and little more. Any
Cold Skins who can speak are treated like freaks—sometimes even by other Oritahl that prefer older methods of
communication involving tail movements with guttural
noises. While often considered little more than pests,
Cold Skins make excellent guards and provide some
unexpected thrills as gladiators in savage games. Some
communities place bounties on Oritahl out of malice
or greed, reducing their numbers to prevent any encroachment on human territories. Many now find their
natural prejudice about Oritahl as ignorant beasts difficult to overcome; few Cold Skins have opportunities to
disprove these prejudices. Startled humans or pachyaur
challenge many oritahl who demonstrate subtle intellect out of surprise and/or fear, and such confrontations
often devolve into violence.
History & the Future
Dubbed the Oritahl by the Daragkarik, these bipedal
lizards long languished on the edges of the maps. Dangerous only if provoked or trapped, Cold Skins never encroached on territories held by other societies, content
with swampy or less-than-ideal terrains for homelands.
For millennia, the Oritahls’ only connection to other societies was as a strong but docile slave race.
The rise of Oritahl intelligence is both sudden and
unpredictable. As recently as twenty to thirty generations ago, Cold Skins existed only as bipedal animals,
never boasting intellects comparable with humans’.
Today, within any clutch of eggs, perhaps one or two
may yield a bright “emergent” hatchling, but more
often than not there are none. This is no immediate
problem for nascent Oritahl societies, as normal Cold
Skins are intelligent enough to learn skills—like using a plow—even if they could not invent such on their
own. However, if no Cold Skins of greater intelligence
hatch in a village over several generations, that village
may soon die out.
All eyes turn expectantly toward those “emergents,”
youngsters with greater-than-average brainpower. The
present and future of every community depends on
them, and the resulting pressure to succeed can be challenging. When a village has a problem, they expect an
emergent to have or find a solution. While success carries
with it great praise and physical rewards, failure is humiliating and often intolerable. Many Oritahl wandering
the world left their home villages after failing to measure
up to the community’s expectations during some crisis.
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Ranks & Types
Even with the recent changes, the vast bulk of a Cold
Skin community appears closer to their animal brethren than human society. Most Oritahl address only the
baser needs to feed and mate and base their decisions
on simple fight-or-flight instincts, not reason. Cold Skin
society mimics that of ancient human farming villages—each community is highly insular and protective as
they build toward more organized cultures.
• Farmers: The majority of Oritahl are farmers, cultivating tasty weeds and reeds with sufficient moisture (in harsher climes, they wander as gatherers
instead).
• Laborers: Next in numbers are laborers, who work
at accumulating resources, building homes and
defenses, and patrolling their frontiers against adversaries.
• Emergents: The most intelligent might naturally
rise to prominent positions, depending on each
individual settlement (but not necessarily, as
proven among humans). Emergent Cold Skins are
masters of logic and language compared to other
Oritahl, but they remain simpletons compared to
many other races. Emergents can master simple
engineering and mathematics, metalworking,
and tool use fairly easily. They recognize community needs and act accordingly, organizing
less-aware relatives to maximize food supplies,
protect egg clutches and hatchlings, and nurture
or expand their populations. A village’s oldest
emergent tests its young hatchlings for intellectual aptitude; the series of simple tests and quests
used are the sorts of puzzles most human children
would figure out easily.
Wanderers & the Banished
Only the extremely smart venture beyond Orithal village society to trade or explore, but not all seek new
lands or new deals. Some simply seek the new, as a curse
for the emergent is the lack of mental stimulation in
Cold Skin lands. More Oritahl every month now venture
into areas of Khitus untouched by their kind before.
Banishment is an ever-present possibility among the
Cold Skins. Political challenges can have harsh consequences for those inciting change but failing to sway the
people. The failures of any new process or technology—
even after long periods of success—can invite expulsion
as the “one who broke tradition.” In the long run, banishing an emergent spreads oritash influence out into
the world, which can ultimately benefit the race. That
