Welcome to Curious Quill, an original content resource for d20 roleplaying.
Choosing a class typically is more about its capabilities: what will it allow the character to do? But when building your character, theorycrafting on why the character, versus the player, followed that path can play a large role in creating an interesting back story. Some classes are more straightforward, while some are more open-ended. In these Class Theory features we will explore and present ideas to help illustrate the reason a character follows a class path.
Gwyven: Mother of Beasts
Gwyven, known as mother of beasts, is a divine being from whom nearly all beasts originate from. Created by the Caelestine, the gods of the four elements, she was given features and qualities from each of them, features that would be the source of the fauna and other beasts.
Read More about Gwyven.
The Baest Notera: A Taluman Bestiary
The Baest Notera is the most well-known and comprehensive bestiary in the land of Taluma. Written hundreds of years ago by the Lokk explorer Nyklandr Sylvfar, with the help of the legendary Curious Quill itself, it still is respected as the foremost authority on beasts. It accomplishes this by presenting age-old folklore and knowledge of many cultures in the classical taxonomy of the Aymirian people.
Read More about the Baest Notera.
New Feat: Predator’s Sense
Orc hunters who follow the path of a Gwyvenclaw develop abilities like a natural predator. Their instinct become honed to strike first when they spot their prey.
Read More about the hunting instincts orc hunters develop.
Background: Orc Gwyvenclaw
Orcs are known as exceptional hunters, but there are some who are renowned for taking this expertise to another level. Some orcs train to be monster hunters. They are known as Gwyvenclaws, after the Taluman divine mother-of-all-beasts Gwyven.
Read More about the Gwyvenclaw Background.
Orcish Monster Rending
After they have hunted and killed a monster, orcs are known to eat the flesh of all manner of creatures. But the other parts of a monster can be as—if not more—valuable than the meat. The process of breaking down a monster is called rending among the orcs, similar to dressing among other people. .
Read More about orc monster rending.
Orc Tattoos
Many cultures are known to use tattoos, including tattoos. While they are often found among subcultures or specific groups in other cultures, among the orcs it is more of a rule.
Read More about how important tattoos are to orcs.
Orc Eidol-Stones
Though orcs of Taluma honor Gwyven above all god’s, they do worship all of them. In addition to the primary gods, they also honor other spirits, eidolons, immortals with transcendental power. The different people of Taluma have different eidolons: such as the exemplars of Luministic humans. They do not build temples or even smaller shrines, instead they worship their eidolons at monoliths called eidol-stones.
Read More about eidol-stones.
New Feat: Hunters’ Edge
Orc hunters travel across the land in pursuit of beasts and monsters alike. Some of the greatest hunters learn to take advantage of the qualities of piercing weapons which are uniquely suited for hunting over bludgeoning and slashing ones.
Read More about how the edge orc hunters have over their prey.
Orc Fall Migration
As the days, and especially nights, start to cool in advance of winter, many creatures - mostly birds and flying beasts - start an annual migration from the northern reaches to the southern lands where the snow and chill of winter won’t reach. While some orcs remain and endure the harsh winters, many migrate along with the beasts.
Read More about the urchin locust harvesting.