I find it super interesting that some races can properly interbreed with each other and some can't.
Like are Half-foots just miniature hourse versions of Tall-men? Why are Ogres miex in with them? Can a Half-foot breed with an Ogre and make a kid who can have children?
It's just a guy! Perhaps I should have chosen a more dynamic subject for my tall-man, given they look just like irl-people, but I think it featuring a random farmer fits the vibe.
As with all my cards in this series I'm attaching my lore head-canon and His Majesty the Worm Mechanics under the read more. It was pretty interesting because unlike the other fantasy races which have one main face to thier culture in the series, we get a good look at two distinct Tall-men cultures, people from the Northern Continent (Laios and Falin Touden) and the Eastern Archipelago (Toshiro+ his retainers). We also have a bunch of cultures mentioned briefly (Westerners like Kabru, the mountain people Laios' village fought with, the wanderers Kiki and Kaka were born to), and more implied by the population maps (what are the tall-men on the southern continent doing, or those pockets on the elf majority central continents?).
So naturally I had to make up cultures for all of these, warning of lots of rambling ahead! (If the name of the blog wasn't warning enough)
Tall-Men
Short-lived, gangly, frail, most find little to admire in tall-men. Which only makes it more surprising how they manage to thrive in places others struggle to survive.
Despite their towering height, tall-men fill in the cracks in world. They live in the margins of more powerful dwarven or elvish nations, eking out an existence in the places too cold, too dry, too distant, or too dangerous for the long lived races to settle in. But in these margins they have thrived. Tall-men cultures have adapted to these conditions, and used them to learn new ways to travel, farm, and trade. Tall-men merchants, bards, and mercenaries can be found in port cities around the world, and their languages are large contributors to local common tongues.
As a result you can say that tall-men are the most powerful short lived race. Though just like the tallest half-foot, how much that matters is up for debate. With the exception of the very isolated nations of the eastern archipelago, tall-men nations work around the interests of those ruled by the long lived races. Some small tall-men run nations even exist as explicit compromises between two long lived races, granted disputed territory to act as a neutral buffer state.
Nothing Too Special
In many ways Tall-men seem less exceptional than other humans. Even their namesake tallness is eclipsed by ogres, and that height doesn't deliver much strength. They have no innate talent for magic, but can be capable students of the arcane. Their senses are dull, and reflexes unexceptional. But tall-men do have several less obvious advantages.
Firstly their long limbs give them exceptional reach, and that reach doesn't come at the cost of speed. A tall-man could juggle knives above the reach of a half-foot, assuming they know how to juggle. Tall-men also have impressive endurance, able to travel vast distances without tiring and fight in pitched battles well after most would collapse from exhaustion. Many also say that tall-men are exceptional musicians and dancers, but whether they actually have any better sense of rhythm is debated.
Tall-man Cultures and Names
Because their populations are so scattered and their lifestyles so adapted to their local environments, tall-men show the greatest range between their various cultures. There is not one tall-men language, naming scheme, or lifestyle. There are several, and most of them are convinced that they are only ones doing things right.
Easterners 2,4,5
The tall-men of the eastern archipelago are in a unique position, as other than dwindling population of oni they have the entire massive island chain to themselves. Within the islands they only consider tall-men to be human, and are generally quite surprised to see that most societies are swarming with people who are at least a head shorter then them. They are also unique in that they are the only group of tall-men to make their own magic technique, which compels spirits by means of prayers and charms written on paper slips. While there is great interest from other short-lived cultures in this method of channeling magic, its reliance on the uniquely complex easterner writing system and the reluctance of its creators to teach outsiders has kept it limited to the islands.
Easterners are chiefly farmers and fishermen, with rice and millet being the staple crops, though among the nobles there is a proud warrior tradition which has produced many of the best swordsmen in the world. Most islands are currently undergoing an isolationist period, but if an easterner does travel abroad they can be easily distinguished by their straight jet-black hair and pale to tan skin.
The top half of the northern continent is a bleak and desolate tundra, and the bottom half is nearly as hard and rugged of a land. The bitter winters and rocky soil of this land held little interest for the long lived races, so tall-men rule the entire continent. However, unlike the eastern archipelago, there are sizable minorities of all the human races. Many are only there temporarily, dwarven smiths selling quality metalwork, gnomish missionaries seeking to commune with spirits of the deep woods, half-foots seeking money to send back home, but there are plenty who stay as well. Dwarves have had a particularly strong influence on northerner culture, with most of the cities dotting the southern coast hosting a dwarven quarter of significant size.
Northerners are well known as seafarers, often showing up in unexpected places where they settled after initially coming to trade or pillage, but most are farmers or shepherds. Tubers, wheat, dairy, and mutton make up much of the diet, with pork and seafood being more popular along the southern coast. Northerners typically have fair hair, and pale skin which tends to burn in sunnier climates.
The southern continent is defined by the rift which splits the landmass, and its tall-man population, in two. On the western landmass the tall-man population has been displaced up into the highlands, and has closest ties with the half-foots that live among the foothills and deltas. In contrast the tall-men of the eastern landmass control a long stretch of coastline, along with they have long traded and intermarried with tall-men from the eastern archipelago. This separation has led to clear differences between the two groups, those on the eastern landmass have straighter hair and live off fish, sweet potato and pork, in contrast to the tall-men of the western highlands that tend shorter from their half-foot ancestry and rely on cattle and grain. Yet both groups of southerners have a great deal in common as well, not just their dark eyes and brown skin, but also many of the same struggles.
If you asked most people around the world to picture someone from the southern continent, they would likely imagine a dwarf or a gnome. Which makes sense as all the best territory of the continent is ruled by them. Dwarven mines snake below the surface, extracting copper and precious gems, and gnomish orchards and plantations produce fruit and spices that grace the plates of the wealthy and powerful across the world. While they make up a smaller portion of the population than the short lived races their magic and technology have ensured their dominance.
The western continent is massive, and the vast majority of its lands are ruled by tall-men, but its not the great center of tall-men culture one might expect. Firstly there is a reason that the long lived races have mostly ignored the continent. The interior is largely desert and monster infested badlands, and mountains make travel difficult and mudslides and avalanches common. Most places only have enough water and arable land for a scattering of small villages, or a few feuding kobold clans. Secondly most of it is not as independent as it would first appear. The continent is heavily influenced by elven culture and several kingdoms are direct tributaries of the elves; especially in the northeast. As a result the western continent only hosts slightly more tall-men then the eastern archipelago, and has roughly as much influence on the rest of the world.
Living in such a rugged environment required westerners to learn a wide variety of survival skills, leading to their reputation as exceptional overland navigators, hardy soldiers and clever irrigation engineers. Aside from a preference for drought resistant crops and livestock, there are as few commonalities in the local cuisine as the local population. Westerners have the largest variance in height and skin-tone of any tall-men group, ranging from light tan in the snowy north to deep brown along the southern coast, though all of them tend to have dark wavy hair.
While the above cultures are the largest groups among tall-men, there are a wide range of other cultures throughout the world. Some of the more distinct are noted below.
Central Tall-men- 3,7,8 The tall-men native to the Central Continents. While a large group in terms of population they have always been politically subservient to the elven nations, and thus relatively irrelevant on the world stage. They tend to have light skin and brown or red hair.
Mountain People- 2,4,6 While they also hail from the Northern Continent, the mountain people have long fought with the northerners and current relations are so hostile northerners normally kill them on sight. They look relatively similar to northerners, but are distinguished by their language which is unintelligible to them.
Wanderers- 1,2,6 Originally hailing from the eastern half of the southern continent, the wanderers fled long ago from an ancient war and now live in nomadic groups across several continents. They normally make a living as merchants or entertainers, but the prosperity of their clans varies widely, dependent on the goodwill of the lands they travel through.
*Below are the His Majesty the Worm Game Mechanics, so if you are just here for the headcanon feel free to stop*
Tall-Men kin
While tall-men have immense cultural variation, they are very similar in most ways that matter. Regardless of culture, tall-men characters begin the game with the following talent:
Kin Talent: Exceptional Reach
The long limbs of tall-men allow them strike and weave through the battlefield, dancing out of the reach of their foes. After you make a melee attack you can choose to immediately become disengaged.
Additional you have favor on any test of fate to reach or grab an object.
Tall-man Arete
Tall-men cultures vary wildly on what is considered a great accomplishment, when you make your character choose three of the following feats. Typical feats for each culture are indicated the three orange numbers by their name. You gain arete by preforming the three feats previously selected.
• Getting married
• Fulfilling a sacred oath
• Buying or being granted land
• Defeating a foe far larger then you in single combat
• Gaining a title of nobility
• Having a song composed in your honor
• Creating something that will outlive you
• Winning the respect of an important person from a long lived race
Arete Talent: Tireless
Tall-men’s exceptional endurance allows them to push though struggles others cannot bear. You can wound this talent to recover from being Exhausted, if the effect is permanent it will return after a Watch.
Tall-man role-playing concepts
• While some rural villages still fear magic, most most tall-men rulers in larger settlements have seen the utility of magic and trying use it to their advantage.
• Tall-men typically use gnomish magic, as their less precise methods allow tall-men mages to get results relatively quickly.
• Any sort of group bond, like that present for half-foots or even orcs, is wholly absent for tall-men. Tall-men readily make war on each other at the slightest provocation, even if they are closely related groups.
• Tall-men usually find tall people with long legs attractive, most others find this rather weird.
