Talmont
The island nation that lies north of Eastern Continent, across the Fasadan straight from Tirivahn. The Talmontese are the most estranged race in the world, partly due to their bizarre physiology and partly due to their nocturnal lifestyle. The Talmontese, unlike the other races of the mortal world evolved from carniverous plants rather than animals.
A few terms to clarify:
Talmont: The island of Talmont, usually considered 1 unified country by the other nations in the world. In actuality, the land is divided up into territories of some hundred different tribes with no unified government.
Talmontese: The English adaptation of the people of the land of Talmont. They don't have a specific name for their race, but often refer to themselves as Taemon Ghli, or the Will of Nature.
Talmontese: The English adaptation of the language spoken by the Talmontese. Each tribe has its own dialect, all of which are continuously changing. There are literally hundreds of different dialects and variations on pronunciation and vocabulary within Talmontese tribes. Likewise, they simply refer to their speech as Taemon Xsi, or the Tongue of Nature.
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| Taema ~ A Talmontese |
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The Country
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The Talmontese
The Talmontese is a race of beings evolved from a form of carniverous plant. The exact breed of plant seems to have evolved entirely as it no longer exists, although distant cousins can still be found in the Verx Ash Krtoughx (or Creaking Bite Crawler) and the Rlagga Ershmun (Rolling Spike-Flower). Because of this unique origin, the Talmontese procreate quite differently and their physical parametres are very alienating. Nocturnal creatures because of their bizarre eyes and with an aging system that transmutes them instead of killing them, the Talmontese are difficult to catagorize often.
Appearance:
Talmontese start out smooth enough, but as they grow older their skin begins to roughen into something more like bark. Eventually they grow moss and ridges that peel from their forms, but this will be discussed in the Death section. Their bark-skin is a olive brown-green and can have striations of more pure tones of both of these colours as a human might develope freckles. Their eyes are opposite to a human's, in that they are a ring of pupil between the flesh of the eyeball and the circle of muscle that is the iris. Their forward vision always has a bit of a blind spot in it, depending on how flexed or relaxed their iris tissue is. However, they rely primarily on peripheral vision - which is far superior to that in humans. Their eyes are also more phtosensitive, able to see quite keenly int he dark, picking up refracted and reflected light as well as infrared frequencies of the light spectrum. In fact their eyes are so sensitive that direct light most often blinds them, and when the sun rises they hide and sleep. Their need for darkness is so complete that they have developed a racial ability to create a filmy substance that blocks out light in the event of being stranded out in the wild when the day rises. Their eyes possess two pairs of eyelids, a sphyncter-like puckering that closes over the orbs in the daylight and a thin flicking membrane that lubricates the eyes when they are open. In the reference picture above of Taema, her eyelids have been cut away in punishment leaving only the scar tissue around her eyes that can no longer close and are blind. The nose and mouth are but ridges in the face, the nose more a protrusiong that anything over scoring the mouth. Their noses are actually for scenting pheremones, where as their tentacles pick up scent and smell. Their tentacles are actually in palce of hair and have limited reactive motion to light and moisture. These tentacles gather scattered starlight and moonlight for photosynthesis as well as helping to absorb airborne humidity for moisture and scent in the air. Talmontese have no teeth, merely a strong tongue and rigid hard jaws and gum their foods. They are also said to have no tastebuds, or certainly no objection to flavours as other species seem to have and can and will consume anything that has any nutritional value whatever. Their "fingers" and "toes" are more like roots than anything else. A Talmontese can have any number of these digits and can in fact regrow digits lost in climbing, dnager or accident. These digits range from one to four inches long and develope sensative hair-like projections that help them register things like air current, warmth, moisture level, and to some extent mineral content of the things they touch. Their feet are equally equipped, buth e digits tend to grow longer, and thus have a more vine-like grip on things, maknig them even more efficient than their hands for keeping footing. Considering that the Talmontese live in and around massive trees, this ability to climb is crucial to their survival. In terms of sexual organs, the Talmontese are the most individual of any species. The female Talmontese has actually a gathering of prehensile tentacles between their legs that they extend towards the male. The males have a stamen, a tube headed in a spherical pod of sorts. The female's tentacles pry opent he tip of this pod and plant their egg into the male's stamen. The male then carries the offspring during the gestation period, during which the pod at the end of their stamen swells and grows in size. By the final stage of development the male is actually incapable of moving around, so large has the pod grown. At this point the pod actually breaks off from the male in a sudden searing pain, and then the pod peels open to reveal the new young Talmontese. In time (usually 3 to 4 months) the male will regrow a new stamen pod.
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Alphabet:
T - (tuh or duh)
A - (ah)
E - (eh or ih - this letter includes both the english translations of E and I)
M - (muh)
O - (oh/or)
N - (nuh)
G - (guh)
Y - (eer)
P - (puh)
S - (sh or kuh or suh - this letter is interchangeable in pronunciation)
R - (arr or a purred rrr)
U - (oo)
B - (buh)
L - (luh)
H - (hah)
W - (wuh or vuh - this letter includes both the english translations of W and V)
X - (ks)
Q - (kwuh)
a few combinations:
EU - (yoo)
GH - (chth (ahe sound))
LH - (lub)
NT - (ing)
PH - (puhff)
WX - (a more distinctive Vee)
SN - (zee)
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Comparative Statistics:
Intelligence: 5/16. The Talmontese have the most primal intelligence of all the 'sentient' races. Their simplified perception of the world makes advanced contraptions or equations impossible for them. They see no shades of grew. Everything either is or is not a certain quality. You are either right or wrong, friend or foe, helpful or dangerous. No middle ground and no reasoning to the contrary. They do not have the capacity to understand such grey areas. As they are so stunted in this respect some of the other races do not consider them a sentient race even though they build and create.
Wisdom: 9/16. Their wisdom is slightly better, but this is because of their natural understanding of animal and plant-life. They are able to sense the qualities of plants - like animals sense pheromones. This makes their skills with medicine very good, and their herbology and botany is unparalleled. They are also acute to the movements and signs of animal life around them, as they are an integral part of the food chain. Their skills of picking up movement and their night vision are extremely good.
Agility: 11/16. The Talmontese are very agile so long as they keep moving. If they stay still on one area for too long, their roots start sinking into the soil. This is part of the reason they live in trees. They build momentum, and their fully flexible root-hands and feet enable them to dextrously grip tools or weapons in both hands and feet.
Strength: 10/16. The Talmontese have an unbreakable grip (unless you cut off their root-fingers) meaning weapons or objects they hold cannot be knocked out of their grip, and their power for crushing force is about 90 psi. Their actual physical strength of how much they can carry is very good, but their muscualture for hitting force or raw damage isn't as impressive.
Resistance: 14/16. Talmontese have extremely good resistance. Their bark-like skin gives them a basic armour class of 2 without any clothing or added protection. Moreover, their 'blood' fluids when contacting oxygen, chemically changes to a frothing green poison that ranks 5 on the toxicity scale. Their resistance to blunt force is also very good due to their dense structure. However, they are suceptible to a wide range of fungi, bark rot, moisture damage, insects and birds burrowing into their bodies, lichens, ivy, moss - even mould all taking root on or in their bodies. While they have a good immunity to plant poisons, they are highly suceptible to basic chemicals, like borax, arsenic, chlorine, sodium etc.
Recovery: 15/16. The Talmontese recovery extremely well. So long as they have moonlight/starlight, water, soil and clear air they can heal all injuries. They can even go so far as to regrow limbs, heal lacerations, burns, cuts, lesions etc. They can digest poisons and break down either through digestion or through root absorption any material - organic, animal or rock given time. Their blood froths when contacting oxygen to create a poisonous foam, protecting them from blood loss.
NMP: 2/6. The Talmontese connection to the Manna Weave and Huskline is extremely good, but their transformation and channelling to form it into casting magic is very pour. They absorb a great deal of what they try to conjure for the use of magic, meaning there is often not enough left to cast. Trying to over-absorb to compensate can cause illness.
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Night Shroud ~ The first skill a Talmontese manifests, and crucially so, as this one often protects them from blindness and from being hunted while they sleep in the daytime. The Night Shroud is a liquid-like film that the Talmontese can gurgitate, the more they make the larger an area they can cover with it. This mucousous membrane fully blocks out light, natural or magical, thereby protective their sensitive vision from blindness.
Toxic Discharge ~ When wounded, the sap in the Talmontese veins undergoes a chemical reaction when it hits oxygen, causing it to foam into a pale green toxic sludge that equates to a Level 5 poison, proving corrosive to touch and particularily harmful to skin.
Noxious Gas ~ Once every two to three hours, a Talmontese can discharge a cloud of gas that is thick and smoky and filters gradually through the air (speed depending on what kind of wind or air currents are active). This gaseous vapour has a foul smell that can turn the weaker stomachs at first scent, but that breathed for any length of time can cause compounding damage to the digestive tract, organs and tissues of any non-Talmontese creature.
Tribal Mask ~ As they grow older, Talmontese "skin" grows progressively less smooth and more textured, rough and bark-like. By the time they have developed the beginnings of this texture, they can "flex" this skin, or instantly harden it as a natural defense. This reflexive hardening stiffens their body and reduces their already low agility to almost nothing. It is, however, a useful skill for bracing themselves, and acts as a natural, all-covering, low-level armour shell.
Waterstone ~ A Talmontese can align any pebble or stone salvaged from the lakes of Talmont into a Waterstone by performing this unique skill. They absorb from the stone via their tentacles (hair or genitalia) or roots (hands and feet) all of the nutrients and latent energy signatures of the stone. This transforms the rock into a semi-transluscent water-coloured pebble. Once completed, this stone has the ability to absorb any toxin, poison or clear a State of Poison. Neutralized in this state, the Talmontese can then absorb this toxin as nutrients so that the stone can be used again.
Moonblade ~ Once a Talmontese has mastered the Waterstone technique, they are capable of this skill. Made from fossilized wood, the Talmontese fashion these into a crescent shaped istrument that is round in girth rather than flat like a blade. This weapon once crafted has the ability of discharging a blast of repellent energy to its target, doing an explosive blast of damage. For some reason of anatmoy and chemical make-up with explosive reaction to combat contact is only usable by the Talmontese.
Corosion ~ The Talmontese needs to have their hands bare for this skill to take effect. Once they take hold of an object (such as armour or a weapon) they can erode the integrity of the minerals and ores from which it is crafted, slowly lowering its strength and protective value. If they manage to keep hold of it for time equal to the strength of the item, they can actually destroy the item.
Pollinate ~ The Talmontese usually pollinate to attract other Talmontese mates. But they can, as they grow more proficient, manifest and release pheremones to attract level 1 to 3 Light, Earth and Water elemental Sprites. Once they release the pheremones, the Elementals are drawn out of the natural elements available in the environment. These Sprites are bodily manifestations of their route element, and while limited in skill, are also potent source of their elements.
Earth Shaper ~ The Talmontese's strongest skill, they can learn to willfully mold the earth, stone and trees into sheilds, bridges, shelters or even weapons. Unlike some of the magics that can cause similar effects, the Earth Shaper does not require NMP and has no cost of expenditure of Casting pool. In fact, while the Shaping can fade or otherwise be reshaped gradually by nature, it is not a reversible effect that suffers the weakness of reverting instantly or mutating if sustaining damage. The shape will remain so long as the Talmontese who shaped it remains in its presence.
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