Part animal and part human, the beastmen are a macabre melding of those kinds. The first beastmen were human tribesfolk who violated their sacred pacts with the Beastlords enshrined in tribal law. For such crimes, the Beastlords handed down irremediable sentences, cursing not just the individual but also their seed. Unable to resist their natural obligations, the cursed multiplied like rabbits, forming the dastard hybrid hordes feared today. As diverse and innumerable as the animals they take after, beastmen are perhaps the most recognized enemy to all humans.
From deep within the twisted forested woodlands of the old world and beyond, the beastmen are a violent, war-driven race that seeks only to plague and destroy the civilizations of humankind. Most prey on the weak and defenseless, striking at lonely settlements without warning in a rampage of destruction before disappearing into the protective darkness of the wilderness, running away from the dire retribution that fails to follow. Nor is the collaborative nature of their human sides lost to them. Gathered hordes of beastman, rallied by their Curs (Chiefs), are a danger to any settlement unfortunate enough to fall within their cross-hairs. Yet pompous city elites love to tell their citizenry that these creatures of the wild are disorganized and incapable of fielding armies that can threaten their crenellated, high-walled cities.
They are quite wrong. To underestimate the beastmen is a fatal mistake. These cursed beings are far more human-like and cunning than people believe. Worse still, the more noble and haughty the foe, the more driven beastmen are to prove their supremacy by casting them down from their lofty pedestal and trampling their body beneath blood-encrusted claws, hooves, talons, paws, feet, and the like.
Appearances
Like animals, all beastmen are fiercely territorial and savage. Like humans, they are ingenious and political. They are capable of building encampments and siege structures, and can make use of boats and metallurgy. Hybrid anatomies aside, each kind of beastman shares some facet of their animal side's behavior: elephant-men navigate in trains, hippo-men seek the cool of rivers, wolf-men run in packs, lion-men prowl stealthily between the grasses, vulture-men have their picks at carrion, and so forth.