WORLD BOOK WORLD BOOK WORLD BOOK 0065 0065
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Chapter 3: RACES & REALMS
environment, without regard for height—one with a fear
of heights would be considered quite mad, and, if anything, the exact opposite can be true for Penmai.
Penmai spend their entire lives high above the ground,
so they have no fear of heights. More common is a fear
of being too close to the ground, a malady derived from
psychological and cultural stimuli. The ground is where
predators live and where dangers cannot be so easily escaped as they can up in the branches. Also, most childhood fables make the surface a source of wickedness.
Even if one has mastered fear of the ground, no penma
wants to spend much time there without a good reason.
Even then, they find comfort by occupying the highest
places—on tables or atop shelves, even on the tops of
buildings rather than inside them. One seldom speaks
with a penma without looking up at him. Worse still,
Penmai removed from immediate access to the sky and
open spaces become agitated and alarmed, if not downright terrified. Caves are difficult for them, and actual
tunnels or subterranean undergrounds can be almost
impossible to bear. As with humans, continued exposure
to unpleasant circumstances can minimize their effects.
Physiology & Appearance
Penmai are diminutive humans who are quite at home
in high places, especially forest canopies and rocky crags.
They do not appear to be humans at all at first glance.
The tiny Penmai are just over three and a half feet tall but
with long, thin arms and legs, and weighing just eight or
ten bricks each. Their fingers and toes are especially long,
double the length of a normal person’s, with an extra joint
in each. Most notably, Penmai have a three-foot-long prehensile tail. Fine fur covers the entire body, longer around
the back, rump, and face. Their humanity is distinct in their
faces—narrow and thin but with bright, knowing eyes.
Penmai are of a gentle stature, but their coloration
and appearance can vary wildly. Skin color ranges from
a light pink to dark brown or even dark gray, and that
shade lightens measurably around the face and along
the fingers and toes. Fur and hair are just as varied,
ranging from white to black, but tending toward tans
and even oranges; mottled pelts with mixed colors are
not unusual. Like humans, Penmai hair grows lighter
and grayer with time. Their eyes are most commonly
gray with flecks of reflective silver or bronze, but they
can vary to more human-typical eye colors too.
Penmai cannot muster the raw physical strength of a
human, having considerably less muscle mass and similar size and limb leverage. One can carry only half the
weight of a full human, but what they lack in strength,
they make up in agility and dexterity. Penmai are quick
and fast, able to run half again faster than normal human pace; this is even more obvious in any environment where they can bring their tail into play. Their
fingers and toes are equally manipulative, and their
slender, long fingers set to a task with a precise, spiderlike quality. A penma’s many knuckles have the capacity
to bend back against themselves, so it can artfully grasp
an object with just a couple of fingers while the rest set
about some separate task. Intricate tasks like weaving
and tying knots come quite naturally to them.
Their fingers are especially adapted to grabbing thin
branches, even those an observer would think unsuitable. Instead of breaking the branches, their hands
and toes can fan out twice the span of a human hand to
spread their weight among many tiny leaves and twigs.
Penmai fingers are longer than those of other humans,
but they take pains to lengthen them even further. Children wear painful splints that stretch the fingers from
knuckle to knuckle, exaggerating their length further
than they would if grown naturally. Finger length is a
point of pride, something to measure oneself against
others. Penmai attribute such things as leadership potential and trustworthiness to finger length, much in
the same way humans arbitrarily associate such things
with height or having an “honest face.”
Penmai fashion varies widely by location, status, and
occupation. Females have less body hair and fur than
males, made more pronounced by the cultural tendency
of females to keep theirs more neatly trimmed and tied
or braided in place. Nudity is perfectly acceptable among
Penmai, though most wear a leather or vine harness at the
very minimum for carrying personal items. Jewelry and
body piercing are common, as is temporary body coloring, often used during festivals, to celebrate the change of
the seasons, or just as a matter of personal choice. Gloves
and shoes are almost unheard of. Any manner of shirts
and pants are common, and among the working classes
these are close-fitting so they do not snag on branches.
A penma’s status can sometimes be measured by the impractically billowing nature of his clothing, indicating
the wearer’s dismissal of personal movement as he has
others who move for him.
History
Penmai are enigmas to outsiders and prefer to remain that
way. They neither share tales or histories of their origins nor
do they help many who try to pry secrets out of them. More
properly, asking Penmai about history leads to very longwinded (but swiftly told) stories, legends, and “honest-thishappened-to-the-wife-of-my-friend’s-blade-crafter” accounts that strain credulity of all but the most gullible.
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