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“My brother followed a krik-sparrow to the north one winter, when he dreamed doing so was his destiny. My sister fell in love with a human farmer who traded all he owned in exchange for her. I swore I would never leave my tribe, yet each step I take puts them at a greater distance. The power within my mind stirs, but does not spring forth; a gorg’s eggs will not hatch in treetops, nor will a flower bloom in stone. So I walk on, seeking the place that will teach me to become what I am meant to be.”

-Mketlot, ngakoi psion

Ngakoi are a tribal people who walk between the absolutes of the world. They live at peace in areas other races cannot or will not populate, and find valuable resources in the monstrosities that share Avadnu’s wilderness. Though outsiders see them as strange at best, and corrupt at worst, ngakoi have no such prejudices about others; to ngakoi, the world and its inhabitants are exactly as they should be.

No one knows the origin of the ngakoi, and the ngakoi’s own stories vary from tribe to tribe. Some believe that they were humans who found great power within their minds, or spirits who descended to the physical plane. Ngakoi in distant lands say that they burst from the earth during an instant when Avadnu’s heart stopped. Whatever the truth, evidence shows that they have existed since at least the coming of the xxyth.

While ngakoi tribes can thrive in places considered uninhabitable by other races, they rarely stray far from lands inhabited by humans. It is estimated that one ngakoi lives for every hundred humans, but city-dwellers and nobility living far from civilization’s borders may live without ever meeting an ngakoi.

Personality

Ngakoi’s attitudes vary as much as humans’, ranging from cheerful to grim, from ambitious to laid-back. They are often perfectionists, and take pride in displaying and practicing their skills. They excel at problem-solving and adapting to difficult situations, though their solutions tend to be focused on the short term. (A long view of matters is valued in tribal elders.) Riddles and mental puzzles are commonly exchanged as a pastime among ngakoi, often framed in myths or parables. Ngakoi rarely show signs of stress in tense situations; while not fearless, they accept situations for what they are and refuse to let anxiety or inexperience harm them.

Few ngakoi desire wealth in the abstract, but some have a taste for comfort or power. Most value the safety of their tribes above their own lives, but even exceptions generally recognize the power of teamwork and community. Ngakoi tread a fine path between the absolutes of good and evil, acknowledging the beliefs of others while finding no place for them in their ways. They view each situation as unique, taking an often amoral stance in an effort to find the best path to survival in their daily lives.

Physiology

Ngakoi typically stand no taller than 4 feet, and weigh between 50 and 70 pounds. Their bodies are slender and long-limbed, and their bald heads are slightly large in proportion to their bodies. They are born with blue, yellow, green, and brown eyes, and their skin tones range from dark gray to chalky white. In rare cases, albino ngakoi are born with solid white eyes. In most tribes, ngakoi bear abstract tattoos symbolizing family, beliefs, names, or other personal items. Ngakoi live an average of 35 years, with especially lucky elders reaching the age of 60 without malady or mishap.

An ngakoi’s most unusual feature is the third eye in his or her forehead, but no ngakoi is born with three eyes. When ngakoi reach puberty, they are taught to physically manifest their connection to the supernatural. In most tribes, only one in four ngakoi has the will and clarity to grow a third eye without sewing his or her original eyes shut, and many tribes have rituals meant to develop ngakoi mystical abilities further later in life. Ngakoi can produce gentle green or yellow glows from their third eyes. An ngakoi is considered adult upon manifesting a third eye, usually around age 14.

Ngakoi are omnivores, and despite their small frames, they can survive for extended periods without food. Most ngakoi have diets composed of fruit, small game, fish, nuts, and other scavenged resources. Honey is a common sweetener in ngakoi drinks.

Attire

Ngakoi generally wear as little as is practical. Their clothing is loose and earth-toned, often taking the form of sleeveless coats and knee-length pants. Red, purple, and blue dyes are occasionally used by ngakoi, but these colors often have familial or ritual significance. Jewelery is commonly worn only by elders, but as with many ngakoi traditions, this varies form tribe to tribe.

In Battle

Most ngakoi are not hardened by battle, with combat experience limited to self-defense and defense of their tribes. When necessary, slings are used from a safe distance, hurling stones from shadows or from behind cover. In groups, ngakoi often set ambushes to throw foes off-guard before closing to melee. Hand axes and similar tools double as weapons for ngakoi, and because they are physically no match for many adversaries, ngakoi rely on psionic and magical attacks to defeat powerful entities.

Society

Ngakoi live in semi-nomadic tribes consisting of between thirty and over one hundred individuals. Tribes generally live out of small villages with numerous huts built from local materials, or out of underground caverns. Every ngakoi tribal territory is within a week’s travel from at least one human community, allowing ease of trade. Most tribes have two homes, and travel between them twice a year. Winter villages are often underground or along a coast, while summer villages are built on plains or in forests. While migrating, ngakoi carry simple tents and collapsible shelters, but take little else with them.

Tribes are most often loosely governed by councils of three to seven elders (male and female), and crimes–limited mainly to forms of assault and betrayal of the tribe–are punished by exile or shunning (for periods ranging from days to decades), or, in cases where perpetrators are deemed highly dangerous, death. Tribes within a given region tend to share similar stories, traditions, and rituals, but distant tribes often have little in common.

All tribe members, male and female, share the same duties and tribulations throughout their lives. In many tribes, an ngakoi’s first great trial comes at a very young age, when he or she is left in the wild for three days without food or water. The child must survive without assistance, living with nature before being welcomed back by the tribe. While harsh, the ritual prepares the child for a rough life, and grants confidence that helps the child face unforeseen circumstances. Surprisingly few ngakoi fail this test, and some outsiders suspect that the children are secretly aided by adults.

At the age of 12, an ngakoi begins developing a third eye. It is fully evolved by the age of 14, when the ngakoi goes though rites of passage to become an adult. Afterward, the adult ngakoi is free to choose any path that benefits the tribe, whether crafting tools, hunting and foraging, or becoming a soothsayer. While mastering one trade, ngakoi are expected to continue learning other skills, and to assist the tribe in any capacity they are able. Individuality is prized, but an ngakoi’s talents belong to the tribe first.

The focus on tribal welfare is vital to ngakoi survival. Tribes have been known to settle and survive in forests replete with man-eating plants and cruel spirits, caverns formed by oozes and frequented by the dead, and plains swept by living storms. Ngakoi use these environments to their advantage, learning to live among the inhabitants and take whatever the land offers. But the moment an ngakoi steps out of the ecological niche the tribe has carved–by trying to kill an important predator, by draining too much sap from a sentient tree, or by avoiding the power spilling from a portal to the Void–the entire tribe is put at risk. By extension, not using a resource can be just as dangerous, so ngakoi occasionally traffic with necromancy and corrupt magic with a confidence that astonishes other races. Ngakoi know the need to be mindful of the tribe’s welfare, and it rarely becomes a matter of contention; by understanding their place and the dangers of the world, ngakoi are free to act within the limits of safety.

Several times each season, each tribe arranges to meet with humans from a nearby city or village to trade. These meetings are usually held close to the human community, and the ngakoi receive information and luxury items such as metal tools and weapons, jewelry, and trinkets. In exchange, ngakoi offer rare foods and plants, and guidance through ngakoi lands. Plains tribes may herd packs of ubu and sell any they cannot care for, often in pairs for others to breed. Perhaps the most valued ngakoi service is their divinations; for the often-impoverished villagers ngakoi trade with, the ngakoi may be their only source of magic.

Ngakoi tribes rarely meet, and ngakoi virtually never marry into tribes not their own. (Incidents of ngakoi leaving to marry humans have occurred.) Ngakoi who wish to leave their tribes are permitted, and usually welcomed back if they return. In the world beyond, some ngakoi find little of interest or meaning, but others seek power, magic, understanding of other cultures, or beliefs denied them at home.

Religion

Ngakoi possess a rich oral tradition of stories about gods and spirits, but do not directly relate to divine beings. They avoid anthropomorphizing the gods, recognizing them as distinct entities equating to natural forces, but with few mortal desires. Gods define the world’s borders, and are to be respected, but worship and tribute are unnecessary. Ngakoi occasionally feel an affinity for particular deities, but while they may passionately learn certain stories or tattoo themselves with divine symbols, they neither offer nor receive anything. Nature spirits and the Green River are similarly acknowledged, but ngakoi are willing to offer favors to spirits and fey in return for boons.

Ngakoi morality is based upon survival. Good and evil, wilderness and civilization, and life and death are all equal tools, to be used when appropriate. Some tools are clearly more dangerous than others, but using one over another has no inherent virtue. Ngakoi have no animosity toward evil beings, accepting Void denizens and undead as readily as they do paladins and phylaern. Other beings and belief systems are accepted as having natural roles, but ones not meant for ngakoi; some creatures are meant to be good, and others evil, but ngakoi walk the line between absolutes.

Race Relations

Ngakoi have frequent contact with humans, and though each race thinks itself superior to the other, they have an appreciative (if cautious) relationship, and get along well on an individual level. Zeidians are respected for their resourcefulness, and are treated much like humans. Dealings with vulnar vary between regions, but vulnar take interest in ngakoi’s supernatural abilities, and ngakoi are drawn to the vulnar’s incredible craftsmanship. Though ngakoi have little use for exotic weapons, trinkets such as vulnar puzzle devices can provide hours of amusement. However, vulnar caravans can also interfere with the relationship between ngakoi and humans, making humans secondary trading partners for tribes. Vulnar usually respect the relationship and try to avoid interfering, but tension does develop at times.

Ngakoi rarely have contact with sulwynarii and mistji, as most see ngakoi as tainted by the Void. The ngakoi willingness to use corrupt magic is the main cause of this, but the belief is augmented by uncertainty about the race’s origin, believed to have occurred during the coming of the xxyth. One sulwynarii historian has suggested that the true source of anti-ngakoi sentiment is resentment over the fact that the ngakoi race has never truly suffered, and a general fear of the unknown. Most sulwynarii and mistji find that thought absurd, and ngakoi care little about their unseen neighbors.

While ngakoi keep a distance from skarren, the races share an ability to adapt to places too dangerous for other races. Though skarren see ngakoi as weak, they find the ngakoi command over mind and magic intriguing, and have been known to take ngakoi slaves.

Lands

Ngakoi tribes can be found just beyond wherever humans expand. Some of the largest known tribes winter in caverns beneath the Gulthen Expanse, trading with large cities such as Se’arne and Lamneth. Many smaller tribes make homes in the hills of Uridor, the Leriad Forest, and the Mardulan Bogs. Beyond Kaelandar’s mainland, tribes live freely among the adithari of the Broken Isles. The only regions completely lacking in ngakoi are the Wasteland and the Kaarad Lands. Not only are these places virtually devoid of civilized life, but they are home to skarren kulvraks–and ngakoi have little desire to provoke such adversaries.

Alignment

While rarely embracing strong ideals, most ngakoi see value in all things. They understand the wisdom of benevolence while recognizing evil as a tool for survival, and know the efficiency of law and the variety of chaos. A sizeable minority of ngakoi favor chaos to some degree, but this varies between tribes.

Occasionally, ngakoi decide that embracing certain values offers a more direct path to their goals. Some believe that a sense of virtue is indispensable when dealing with other races, and helps their own kind find greater peace. Others, whether as a result of tragedy, lust, greed, or exposure to evil forces, become manipulative, cruel, or ruthless. Ngakoi at either extreme can be a danger to themselves and their tribes, and are often asked to leave. A few are imparted with guidance from soothsayers before going.

Language

Ngakoi speech is rapid and punctuated by glottal stops, but possesses an almost buzzing undertone from numerous transitions between consonants. The ngakoi alphabet consists of less than two dozen simple characters, and has a rhythm even when written. Most ngakoi history is passed through oral tradition, using varying levels of pitch and inflection to ensure complex tales can be remembered over generations. Some ngakoi soothsayers and wizards keep journals and spellbooks as well, written on parchment acquired by trade. Obsessive ngakoi have even scrawled words upon their own flesh, tattooing knowledge across their bodies.

Names

Ngakoi names are usually two or three syllables, derived by shifting the accents on ngakoi words for natural and spiritual places, creatures, and objects. The only exception is for a tribal elder, who gains a second, honorary name that is spoken first. This name is defined by the elder’s role in society, whether as a soothsayer, wizard, diplomat, or otherwise.

Male Names: Arintul, Jyobek, Mokad, Npotli, Rawokl, Rewilkite, Traptot, Waradur, Wildais, Yntaklek.

Female Names: Belakle, Dapmet, Ersit, Hareda, Jenameak, Lararsa, Merakep, Mketlot, Quekra, Tegera.

Adventurers

While few ngakoi leave their tribes, those who do often become adventurers. Most ngakoi leave home because of a desire to lead a different life; some have values unacceptable to their tribes, some are loners, and some are drawn to the outside world. Other ngakoi are sent away by their tribes on quests, as exiles, or to fulfill deeds foreseen by soothsayers. A few–mainly psions–leave regretfully, after finding they cannot develop their powers properly within the survival-oriented lifestyle of the tribes.

Wizards–particularly diviners, with necromancers a close second–and psions (often seers) are the most common ngakoi adventurers, as magic and insight come easily to ngakoi. Bards and sorcerers are also common, as many ngakoi can draw upon internal magic, and storytelling is integral to their culture. Virtually no full-fledged druids are found within ngakoi tribes, as such a devotion to nature can exclude many options, but some ngakoi spellcasters dabble in druidism.

Martially-oriented ngakoi usually become rangers or psychic warriors (or both), combining their unique skills with a flair for combat. A high number of exiled ngakoi become rogues, resorting to thievery in large cities.

Relatively few ngakoi have time for the training required of fighters and monks, and the wild combat style of barbarians can be suicidal in ngakoi lands. Paladins and devouts are rare due to the strict beliefs needed for such paths, though some ngakoi leave home because of such beliefs.

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