DM-Nastics #116: Mysterious Myths and Legendary Legends

9. The Kitab People

The Kitab People were originally ideas on paper of a group of scholars and Wizards who were into creating creatures out of other living (or undead) creatures. The Kitab People was this group's first and last idea that actually worked, and was their most basic idea. They stuck with a skeleton-type being to start with before going on with more advanced shapes. The Kitab People are named that way, as "kitab" means "book" in the language that the scholars used, and since the Kitab People were originally ideas in a book, the Wizards and scholars thought the Kitab People was a suitable name.

Though the Kitab People are undead, and were made out of dead human skeletons, they can reproduce like any other creature. The Kitab People only have one gender, and when they get to the age of thirteen, they Kitab People have to choose an honorary gender out of ten honorary genders that have certain rules to follow, and and abilities and disadvantages gotten from the society. Sometimes parents (if the Kitab Person has any parents), force a gender upon the child, where, when the Kitab Person gets to legal maturity in the society (eighteen years old), the Kitab Person can say that his parents forced an honorary gender upon the Kitab Person in question, and there will be a trial to see whether the Kitab Person is saying the truth or no, with a a Wizard who can tell whether the Kitab Person in question is telling the truth or no. If the Kitab Person is telling the truth, it can choose a new honorary gender. The Kitab People are separated into different tribes, but they all follow the same law, and if a tribe goes against the law or goes "renegade", all the other Kitab People tribes will work to destroy this tribe. The Kitab People tribes are all across the world, and they maintain contact through messengers. For the Kitab People, the ice on their backs are like the heart of their body, and pump life into their skeleton-bodies so that they can live with thought, reason, and intelligence. They can also eat and drink and do things like all other life that undead can't really do. If the ice on their back gets chopped off, the Kitab Person becomes a normal skeleton. A Kitab Person can be created either by being raised from a grave by one of their own Wizards or a human Wizard, and are instantly born with the intelligence (but not the appearance!) of a human child, or by being born by two parents. After that, each Kitab Person follows the same system of maturity as a human child and adult goes through (except for the appearance!). A Kitab Person that is born like a human child would from two parents is at first small and then grows bigger like a normal human child, and then withers when the Kitab Person gets older. However, a Kitab Person that comes from a grave looks like what the Kitab Person looked like when it was raised from the grave, and will always look like that.

The Kitab People speak a language of touch by fingers that is based on the spoken language of their creators, because the Kitab People don't have tongues and therefore cannot speak. Many Kitab People, however, go to a Wizard and pay a certain amount of money so that they can speak like a human through magical ways, so they can communicate with the rest of the world. All Kitab People can magically say "kitab ruhal" (that's their name that was given to them by the original creators of the Kitab People), in their language since they begin their life, as their tribe automatically gives them that ability. Their name: "kitab ruhal" is used in amongst the words in the language of touch by fingers that they use. The Kitab People can feel, and can taste, etc. they just can't speak naturally as they have no tongues and the Wizards and scholars decided that giving the Kitab People ability to speak was too much work.

The Kitab People follow a god named Uzad or 4321 in their own language of touch by fingers. Uzad is a minor god, and didn't have any godly-purpose until he found the Kitab People, and decided to get the Kitab People to worship Uzad himself. Uzad is also called the "God of Fingers" as the Kitab People have to cut off all of their fingers by the end of their life, when they die. Usually, the Kitab People cut the last one off just when their about to die and on their death bed. For this reason, the Kitab People try not to die in a fight, and dying in a fight is considered disgraceful because of this. If a Kitab Person hasn't cut off all their fingers by the end of their life, the Kitab Person will become the object of a ceremony where all of the tribe will have "fun" destroying the Kitab Person into little bits, and then eating the little bits for the ceremonial dinner.

Hope some people might add some additional information on this race!

#9: Blizzard Soldier

Cathrus the Conqueror was a ruthless warlord who aggressively expanded his empire for nearly a decade before overreaching and meeting an untimely end.

The story goes that after a failed invasion by the kings of the North, Cathrus mounted a counteroffensive, invading full-force just as winter was settling in. His armies razed villages and pillaged indiscriminately from the coast, making their way into the heartland of the snowy country. As they pushed onward, the air became bitterly cold and each day the sky was a bit darker, the winds a bit faster, the snow a bit thicker...

Cathrus' officers began to call for retreat in the face of the worsening weather, but their concerns were ignored--Cathrus' thirst for revenge overrode all calls for reason. When conscripts began deserting for fear of the fast-approaching winter storms, they were executed on the spot and made into examples for the rest. When his generals began to protest a little too strongly, they were executed as well.

Finally, in the infamous windswept Granite Pass, only a day's march across open fields to the first king's stronghold, the blizzard struck in full force. Poorly equipped conscripted peasants froze to death in their boots. Entire units of men became disoriented by the blinding whiteout of the blizzard and wandered to their doom. What began as an invading force of nearly 500,000 strong arrived at the gates of the castle as an army of about 65,000.

Already in poor condition from the storm, and being in no position at all to make camp for a siege, the failure of the expedition finally became clear to Cathrus when sentries from the fortress spotted his men and warmly bundled cavalry sorties began harassing the edges of his forces. The frostbitten, untrained, terrified peasant infantrymen did not hold their lines well.

Cathrus ordered an emergency retreat, but it was too little too late, and the worst was yet to come. Back in the thick of the blizzard, the men began to see hints of shadowy shapes stalking the edge of visibility. Finally one low-ranking officer spotted armor of their own design and called out in relief. He moved to embrace his comrade... and suffered a fatal bite to the jugular. All at once, their very recently former comrades lurched in force out of the blizzard, caked-on snow and ice thickly covering their faces, blown into jagged spikes by the howling wind.

Only eighty-three men managed to make their way back through the pass and survive in an abandoned farmhouse until the blizzard passed. They made their way back to the beachhead and sailed home. They say that Cathrus was torn to pieces in that field, though the odds that one of the surviving infantrymen was standing next to the emperor himself and watched him die are rather slim. Even now, the pass is avoided at night and in winter storms. Too many people disappear.

5. Undying Phoenix

Unlike it's immortal cousin, who is often seen as a symbol of life, hope, and rebirth. The undying phoenix, also sometimes called the Ice Shriek or Death Shriek can lock a mortal into a continual state of undeath - a neverending cycle in which a person is destined to relive their moment of death every year at midwinter.

Local legend tells that the undying phoenix was created by a god as the punishment for a man who, in a jealous and unjust rage, murdered his wife and children before turning the knife upon himself in the hopes of escaping judgement. The man woke up the next morning, completely unharmed in the carnage of his own making and fled his village, believing this was proof that his actions were justified and that he had miraculously escaped the wrath of both man and god.

He lived out the year in peaceful isolation up in the mountains until, a few weeks before midwinter, he began to hear the deep thrumming of wings in the night. Soon, those wing-beats brought distant, echoing, happy sounds of laughter, which he realized were the voices of his deceased wife and children. Every night the sounds would return, louder and clearer till he felt he could almost see the shapes of his family darting past his periphery in slashes of bright colour.

On midwinter day, he thought to escape the now-constant swirl of sound and colour by racing out into the woods beyond his rough cabin. In the woods, he finally faced the source of the thrumming, heavy wing-beats in the form of the giant crystal-laden raptor. In it's shadow, unable to control his own body, he stabbed himself again as he had done on that horrible day the year before. However, the next morning, he awoke in the snow, shivering but unharmed. Both the bird and the voices were gone. Through the following decades the man tried many means of escape from distant travel to suicide, but nothing could save him from repeating his midwinter fate.

Some even say, thought none seem to agree on exactly how, that in his madness, despair, and decay this man slowly transformed into the first Wendigo. Perhaps, all Wendigo are the final result of the god's wrath being carried out through the undying phoenix.

8. Frystiklofa



In the frozen realm between air and water, legendary legend tells of a beast born to the Frostfell from freezing winds and ice. The gargantuan beast, Frystiklofa, is a swirl on the horizon, but moves with such unyielding speed and agility that few see its approach, and even fewer see its leave.

Frystiklofa does not eat; it kills for the sake of killing. Like some cats, Frystiklofa will toy with its prey, maiming and slowly killing its playthings. The ones that it allows to escape are left to suffer and to eventually succumb to the cold of the Frostfell.

Myths pass from mouth to ear, generation to generation, of Frystiklofa, a catlike elemental of ice and wind, that dwells in the Frostfell where it stalks and kills its prey swiftly and mercilessly. Lore holds that every now and then, Frystiklofa will make its way to the material plane to hunt, and on even rarer occasions, allowing one of its prey to escape here, too.

These creatures left by Frystiklofa are said to be neither living nor dead, yet they are not quite undead, either – they are in a cruel limbo. They are said to inhabit the frozen lands of Dayeimbe, and they move with the wind, stalking, killing and eating, showing a type of mercy not shown to them by Frystiklofa. But a Wendigo is not truly merciful, for its tainted spirit will poison the corpses of its prey, and even those who come near the creature, slowly turning both the dead and the living into Wendigo, doomed to share its fate.

#1
In the frozen wastes of Vasoror, rumors spread among the clans of a beast that some say is a guardian of the tundra, others say that she is the embodiment of the land's soul itself. They call her "Straigsgarra"

The Guardian Stag

Straigsgarra appears to many travelers as both friend and foe, and often makes herself known via mental connection first. Most tribes panic at the site of rapidly increasing snowfall, as this is often a sign of her presence. In the tales, she is sometimes depicted as a deity of the tundra, supporting those in Vasoror who help protect the land from outsiders. Other times, it is said that she is an arch druid, connected to Vasoror as its protector, achieving immortality through her power.

The latter is the truth, and to earn this role, she successfully delved deep below the surface, released the one known as Ourrukan from its slumber. She successfully formed a mental bond with the ancient one, making him her animal companion. With Ourrukan as her faithful companion, she wanders the frozen landscape, protecting the land and regulating its climate, maintaining balance with the rest of the planet. Though Ourrukan brings fear to all those who see him, he has not actually committed any violence since his bond with Straigsgarra. In fact, she woke him and the two began training for the coming of an even more imposing figure prophesied to Straigsgarra by an oracle many years ago to devastate Dayeimbe: The Tarrasque.

Love this idea! It reminds me of the sandworms in Dune.