"These fishmen have lived their last day south of the river! Soon, we will drive theses screaming wretches into the sea! Let their lamentations make a proper offering to Sonzagan!"

-Chief of the Sunwalkers, Kan-Suchif Nan-ber-Nan

Grung Culture

Jungle Slavemasters

The Grung are a people to be avoided. They live in and under the massive Rathian Jungle in Arathia, clinging to their spawning ponds. The Grung have always, as long as anyone can remember, been a violent and dominance-obsessed slaver race. Adhering to a naturalistic-caste system, the grung assign positions to their kin before birth into hatching pools, coloring their flesh to mark them in their position. The Grung have never been able to fully compete physically with the other races of Arathia, and in a one-on-one battle with a giant, goliath, firbolg, or their hated rivals, the bullywugs, the grung would always lose. However, the grung reproduced quickly, and enslaved their opponents to fuel their ambitions, and free up more of their people to fight in battle. In the constant wars with their neighbors, the Grung used speed, trickery, stealth, and overwhelming numbers to overcome their foes, striking quickly from the darkness and disappearing within seconds. Their numbers are so great, and the effectiveness of their raids, if not regulated by any other force, would likely overwhelm the whole of Arathia. However, the Grung have plenty of competition in their fight for dominance, not only against settled peoples on the periphery of the jungles, but the many monsters, beasts, and raiders that cohabitate the jungle with them. Furthermore, the Grung are not a united people, and Grung fight among each other as much as they fight anyone else. However, were the Grung ever united, it is doubtless that the whole continent would fall to their brutality, dominance, and enslavement.

         The Grung obviously have many qualities that are undesirable in an adventuring companion. They are, as a rule, aggressive to the greatest extent possible. Many races and cultures, the Noregran, Goblinoid, or Western Yogan to name a few, are known and feared as violent and aggressive peoples. However, these other people are violent in certain contexts, and generally, one can negotiate or even break bread with them under the right circumstances. However, this has not been true for those who have braved the jungle pathways to Grung encampments. In fact, map-makers have only ever been able to mark a general guess as to the location of a tribe's grounds, for no proto-anthropologist has been brave enough to try and record the locations accurately (and those who tried never left the forest to tell the tale). Indeed, the only situation in which grung can be trusted to be reasonable is when they are removed from a group of other Grung. Grung are not a literal hivemind, but they play off of each other, seeking to impress and one-up members of their own caste, show up members of a lower caste, or challenge members of a higher caste. This means that no Grung, no matter how friendly their natural disposition, would ever dare to treat an outsider with kindness while in the presence of their kinsmen. Grung also practice slavery in its most brutal variant to be found on the material plane. While no form of slavery is particularly wonderful, the Grung hold no pretexts, and their treatment of captured prisoners, who are made to work 18 hours a day, are fed poisoned rations, and made to sleep in muddy trenches, could make a devil blush. Often, when slaves are no longer able to work, the Grung simply butcher and feast upon them, not wasting anything of value. In rare cases, the slaves are sold for ransom, though the exorbitant prices are rarely matched with payment. The Grung hierarchy, while strictly enforced at birth, is strangely pliable. Grung constantly push and struggle for greater positions within the caste, and while this ambition is rarely rewarded, it still persists, for Grung have no respect for authority, but only for naked power. Because the Grung live so short of lives, they tend to live truly and authentically, rarely putting on airs for anyone. When Grungs have been reformed, this quality can be refreshing, though when they have not, it can be extremely disturbing.

          The Grung people are most highly concentrated in the Rathian Jungle, spread across it from north to south. The races of the Grung is most predominately grung. For a non-grung to be accepted into the Grung culture wouldn't be impossible, but would require extraordinary circumstances. While the worship of Devils and Demons is far from uncommon, the prevailing belief among most grung is in Dramirus and her pantheon; the idea that people are born with a purpose and a plan, and one must either assent to the plan, or violently revenge oneself against it, fits perfectly into the grung worldview. In particular, they admire and adorate the God of Domination, Sonzagan. Grungs tend to be genuine, determined, and ambitious. They also tend to be violent, cruel, and competitive. The dominant language among the Grung is Grung.

If you choose the Grung Culture, you gain the following:

~A +1 to your Dexterity score~

~Either a -1 to your Charisma score or a -1 to your Wisdom score~

~As a known language, Grung~

~A Sub-Discipline in every knowledge skill on checks relating to Grung Culture~

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