Boggarts
  1. Ancestries

Boggarts

Boggarts header image

Shape, & be Shaped, by the World

Set against the backdrop of a gloomy and dour country, the cavalcade of shapes and forms that Boggarts come in could almost be considered jovial or humorous. These creatures who make their homes in the homes of others come in such a shocking variety of forms that there is quite literally no way to classify them outside of a couple of very broad categories.

The bestial creature-folk of the Gnaw Kindred with their variety of animal like features seemingly created from singular beasts or even an amalgam of creatures and slapped into a humanoid form. The Gnarl Kindred who appear as diverse and unique as true flora and brambles, sometimes even with noticeable faces. Then there are the Grim Kindred who seem to be nightmares writ in miniature darting through the shadows, bearing often bat-like ears, green cobbled skin and terrifying teeth. In Etomesto the Boggarts are known as Domovoy who are more acclimated to the cold and prefer a more solitary life among psoglavi families. Its hard to truly understand the bonds of kinship these creatures share with each other without being one.

Gnaw Kindred

Gnaw Kindred - Typically appear to be diminutive, bipedal anthropomorphic animals. Bipedal badgers, little men with crow's heads and the such. Though these adaptations are typically aesthetic in nature, they typically have claws that allow them to climb much easier and seem strangely capable of speaking with small woodland creatures. They have a great affinity for animals and fall right into jobs of husbandry and tending beasts of burden. Despite their wild empathy, they also make excellent fur-trappers and hunters, though they prefer humane approaches to these tasks.a159c11b-bf27-4e00-93fb-89a2ae6da164.webp

  • Bestial Features - Your bestial form grants you a climbing speed of 5 Pace, which allows you to climb surfaces without making Athletics rolls, provided it is not a sheer surface such as metal or glass. You also ignore penalties of Dim and Dark Illumination 10' around you, but only in shades of red.
  • Woodland Mimicry - You can mimic the sounds of woodland creatures, which allows you to communicate simple ideas to Beasts of your Size or smaller.
  • Prehensile Tail (Alternate Ability) - Many gnaw kindred have tails, but some have long, flexible tails that can be used to carry items. While they cannot wield weapons with their tails, they can use them to retrieve small (1 pound or less), stowed objects carried on their persons as a free action. This replaces Bestial Features.
Gnarl Kindred

Gnarl Kindred - Shambling mounds of humanoid ash, oak, nettle, ferns, roots, vines and whatever hodgepodge of flora one can think of. They often give off a loamy or floral scent, some even smell of compost. Much like plants, they do not eat, rather absorbing nutrients from the soil and are resistant to most bludgeoning attacks. Their knowledge of plants both big and small makes them amazing agrarians and farmers. Cultivating crops and herbs with incredible ease. Plants under their care tend to be incredibly sturdy and verdant.a159c191-0dad-4531-9057-be66adad904b.webp

  • Bark Hide - Your bark-like skin leaves you resistant to bludgeoning damage, receiving -4 damage from such attacks.
  • Gnarled Anatomy - You do not need to sleep, rather you must remain motionless for four hours. Additionally you do not need to eat or drink, provided you have access to fertile soil which you can sink your feet or hands into and remain motionless for an hour.
  • Grapevine (Alternate Ability) - Gnarl Kindred made from a grapevine can produce magically infused fruit that can heal her allies. Once per day, this boggart can attempt to cast healing (Spirit roll to activate). This replaces Bark Hide.
Grim Kindred
  • Grim Kindred - Some scholars believe that while the other Kin are some manifestation of the inisa's natural elements, the Grim Kindred are the manifestation of the only other natural resource of the land; fear. Their warty, cobbled green skin, mouths filled with far too many small and needle-like teeth, eyes that glow like ghost-light in the moors and haunting cackle make them surprisingly unsettling creatures and great at intimidating or even scaring their colony's foes. Something about their curious mindset makes thema159c170-236f-46d5-9b37-baf176ac3f00.png resistant to fear as well. Perhaps, truly, they are the small worries of the mortal tribes made manifest.
  • Darkvision - You ignore Illumination penalties for 10" around you, but only see in shades of green.
  • Scary Critter - The night and its terrors hold no special fears for you; you have +1 to resist Fear rolls and you likewise have +1 to Intimidation rolls.
  • Night-Caller (Alternate Ability) - Calling on the shadows, a grim kindred can darken an area. Once per day as an action, the boggart can cast minor darkness as an Innate Power. This replaces Scary Critter.
Domovoy (Alternate Ability)

Domovoy (Alternate Ability) - While the Boggarts of Inis Mona are wild in their appearance, their cousins in the northern country of Etomesto are much more uniform taking similar appearances as their cousins but touched by the cold and desolate climate. While they still appear via the apparatus known as a Greeble, this is almost always a hearth in a household. Domovoy also do not seemingly pop up in homes based on its boggart population but rather the size of the family that inhabits the home, thus they are not quite as community-oriented with other Boggarts. Losing out on their Mob-Mentality they gain separate abilities based on their climate; a resistance to colder weather. While they are similar to Boggarts in many ways, Domovoy a0137d59-dbf3-4a9a-8d18-14977a4585e1.webptake their charge as keepers of the domestic home front very seriously and view any dwelling they inhabit as theirs. Often, however, they choose a life of solitude and typically choose to remain unseen and undisturbed in their nocturnal activities while the family is asleep. While they are not given to the "walking sickness" like other boggart , they will sometimes elect to leave a house that has too many Domovoy and choose to wander looking for a new home. This sometimes entails a great and prolonged journey that they lose themselves in. However, because of their solitary nature, many wandering Domovoy come off as grumpy and taciturn. They can be easily won over, however, with gifts and praise for their services and are quite fond of drink and smoking plants.a0137e69-43f8-4196-bb0e-2ccdde6aaa78.webp

Something about the dour nature of Etomesto affects the Boggarts that reside in it. They are less communal, but their forms are adapted to the cold. Gnarl Kindred take on the shape of pines and evergreens, Gnaw Kindred smaller bears or marmots and Grim Kindred lose their cobbled green flesh beneath short, thick ivory fur. They gain Environmental Resistance (Cold). This replaces Mob-Mentality.

Boggarts as Adventurers

Interpersonal Reactions

Boggarts are a jovial series of creatures most people have no real difficulty getting along with. To the Daoine of the Grim Countries, they are seen as helpers and often given jobs they are well suited for in rural areas, but treated as unwanted tenants in cities. In Ynis-Gwysrin, by contrast, Fwoarians give them no assistance and generally malign them. Though, their ability to be coerced into useful tasks makes Boggarts one of the few Fey ancestries that Fwoarians will tolerate.

Origin Archetype

Boggarts are a socially diverse people with many of them guided by their natural abilities on what career paths to choose. Gnaw Kindred make great shepherds and animal masters while Grim Kindred often become firebrands and thugs:

  • Gnaw Kindred: Cavalry Lord, Fell Hunter, Nomad, Survivalist.
  • Gnarl Kindred: Forager, Herbalist, Nomad, Ritualist, Survivalist.
  • Grim Kindred: Fell Hunter, Iconoclast, Occultist, Thief.

Character Archetype

The jovial, carefree and capricious nature of Boggarts and their typical career choices often makes for a very eccentric adventurer. Many Boggarts choose to widen their field of study but retain the core values of their Origin:

  • Alchemist, Beast Master, Jester, Sailor, Treasure Hunter, Titan Slayer, Thief.

Common Names

Unisex Names

Boggarts will acquire names that suit them as they gain their first year of "Thinking Real" and developing memories. Its really up to the boggart, its colony and any number of nonsensical reasons what they end up calling themselves.

Domovoy by contrast usually receive a name from the psoglavi they live with, whether or not they use them is up to the Domovoy.

Family Names

Boggarts have no real family names, but instead, will often describe of themselves the places where they "popped up" and the families that employ them. Clan names like Farmer Clover's Gang, Boggy Bottom Boys, Seaward Street Attendants and Grumble's Bó-Breakers are exemplary of the hallmark of Boggart colony names.

Domovoy usually take the family name of the family whose house they reside within.

November 5th, 2024 August 10th, 2026

Culture

Culture

Originally the boggart colonies lived alongside the Huldufolk serving in the unseelie courts much as redcaps do today. When Huldufolk finally got their hard-won freedom and escaped to the surface they took their smaller kin with them. Since then, boggarts have grown and spread out across the inisa. Considered by many to be extremely helpful at the various tasks their suited for (and for very little pay) they can be found in caern-raths, caern-hearths, farms, camps, forts and there are even a few small colonies in the fwoarian lodges.

Rather than adopt the cultural heritage of their employers and landlords, the boggarts often parody them. A gaggle of boggarts wrapped in leathers and adorned with bones and weapons like a marauding band scouring the streets is not an uncommon sight in Ynis-Gwysrin.

The Boggarts of Syppria Iuna are primarily native to the plains of Unknown and treated much like third-class citizens. Often given leave to only inhabit districts in settlements set aside for long-term mercenaries. The Boggarts, here called Midikans or "Wild Soldiers", for their part are fine with this. They concern themselves only with warfare. Yet, not for loot or glory, but because they have become mildly addicted to sensations of tragedy and triumph. Win or lose, any Midikans receive a mild euphoria after a physically intensive conflict. Symerans often choose to employ them as nuisance forces and skirmish units after bribing them with things the Midikans cannot be bothered to gather themselves; such as food and water.

Among the Rekiret the Boggarts are known as "Hem" or servant. They occupy a base slave caste at the bottom of their society.

Native Languages

Boggarts either speak New Moni or Sióg. Domovoy usually speak Psovrazgo.

Customs & Values

Boggarts believe that family and home come first, in most cases. Then you may ask why one would ever leave their home or family. Typically not willingly, although some exceptions do occur. Sometimes Boggart colonies grow too large and its with a heavy heart that they move out to found new colonies or join other families. Some boggarts get what they call a "walking sickness" where they feel the need to travel with good company constantly. Still some are raised on the tall tales of Daoine heroics, Fwoarian battle lust (one of the few fey Fwoarians tolerate in their lodges), Cait-sidhe crookery, or Huldufolk skullduggery and can't help but to go out and get a taste of their own. Communal creatures like boggarts cultivate their friendships quickly, sometimes despite the other party, and declare family readily. These individuals may feel burdened, but its lucky for them because once a boggart considers you a part of its colony, it will go above and beyond for you.

Taboos

Boggarts cannot abide treachery on any level. They hate liars, abusers and cheats, even more so those who do it to their own kin. Many an abusive parent has been put on their ear by their domestic boggarts for hurting their children or spouse. In the old days, when the unseelie mistreated their servants it was not the huldufolk who originally took up arms; but the boggarts. Fed up with seeing their kin mistreated by those they considered family, they stole away with weapons and secrets before rebelling in what they call "Great Comeuppance".

However, it is not overly hard to convince them to work against this instinct. Strong personalities, such as Huldufolk families, can make them act treacherous and abusive to the family's serfs. Even Boggarts themselves can accidentally trick themselves into becoming vicious, such as a small band in Tailté na Bearú so used to "playing" Skilti & Skilti Mór that they eventually just become bandits.

November 5th, 2024 October 9th, 2026

Art & Style

Art & Architecture
Depending on the colony, boggarts with often festoon their quarters within a home with colorful livery for their family. A colony of farm workers may adopt the sickle as their sigil and paint one in heinous rainbow fashion on every surface of their housing. Others may string leftover clippings, discarded garments and other social detritus up as if proud of them.
Clothes & Dress


Boggarts often wear things that accentuate their forms. Gnarl Kin wear woven fabrics or bind metal jewelry into their branches and vines, Gnaw Kin will wear thick furs and animal parts to seem more bestial, grim kin wear dark and insidious clothes to make themselves even more unsettling. Some may even wear "big folk" clothes as well, often gaudy or ostentatious, to really drive home their unique appearances. These small creatures in their big coats, billowing capes, frilled collars and jangling bracelets are often a comical scene.

Myths & Legends


Its said of the boggarts that many of their "leaders" or as they call them; bosses, eventually develop such an intense communal bond with their colonies that they become a nexus for telepathic communication between its members. If this is true though, the bosses keep it as a trade secret for running their colonies.

November 5th, 2024 March 21st, 2026

Age, Birth & Funerary Rites

Birth & Baptismal Rites

Boggarts are not born, they sort of "pop up" as they say. They come into existence fully grown and fully alert through an apparatus called a Greeble. Greebles can be anything; a pile of laundry, an old cupboard, a knot in a tree, the loft of a barn, beneath the kitchen sink and so on. Why or how no one knows and any investigation proves the Greeble to be a normal "whatever it is". The type of boggart is just as random. Although, it does seem that certain Greebles are more prone to certain kinds of boggarts. Tree holes, burrows, gardens and the like producing Gnarl Kindred. Farm lofts, water troughs, birds' nests produce more Gnaw Kindred. Old pantries, boxes long forgotten in the attic, moldy laundry and salting crates beget Grim Kindred.

Coming of Age Rites

A boggart isn't considered to be an adult until after its first year and if its mastered all its colony has tried to teach it. Then its reached adulthood, or as boggarts call it; "thinking real". From then on its treated as an adult, afforded independences and allowed to make decisions in the colony.

Funerary Rites
When a boggart dies its an incredibly sad affair for the colony. Often times they cremate their kinsmen while wailing and keening near the pyre. The colorful and ridiculous frivolity decorating the house is removed and its left to sit in such a somber state until the last of them stops mourning. Then they slowly rebuild the colorful and intricate rubbish decorations anew. This symbolizes the colony losing something momentous, but continuing onward despite their incredible grief.
November 5th, 2024 March 21st, 2026

Beauty, Gender & Relationships

Beauty Ideals

Boggarts by and large cannot consider or possibly even understand a beauty ideal. Sure they can understand the majesty of nature or the beauty of jewelry, but they cannot grasp the idea of having a standard by which to judge others' appeal as boggarts do not have a standard of appearance. Typically, a boggart finds something appealing for its own reasons; perhaps its shiny, smooth, soft, tastes delicious or makes a nice noise. For people, as long as they treat the boggart fairly, as far as its considered, they're beautiful too.

Gender Ideals

Boggarts do not breed, they do not have a gender. They're aware the other tribes do and so often will "adopt" a gender for ease of communication, but there's no true gender to boggarts. They may even change their minds mid-conversation if they don't think the person they're communicating favors the one they've picked.

Courtship Ideals

Boggarts only court in pantomime of the culture that they've adopted. Largely its a nonsensical affair and is just a way for them to ostentatiously declare who in their colony they like the most. Some popular boggarts even have a harem of hangers-on; multiple partners that just really enjoy being around the individual.

Relationships

Boggarts are incredibly communal. Whether its with other boggarts or an adoptive family of adventurers, they hate being alone for any considerable stretch of time. They will develop intense attachment to the people they consider family and the places they consider home. Most, but not necessarily all, boggarts will sacrifice life and limb to ensure the safety of said family.

November 5th, 2024 March 21st, 2026

TEST

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