Taguel

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

Taguel

There are five "Great Tribes" of Taguel and one smaller tribe; all Taguel belong to one (and only one) of these ribes, which defines their appearance and innate abilities. Players are welcome to flesh out their appearance within that general tribe; you can just look like a dude with rabbit ears or go full bore with dark skin and protruding veins (a la Panne from Awakening) or split the difference and go with whisker marks and a tail for a cat, a la Lethe from Radiance. Just remember that the extremes (pure human, completely furry) are off limits; all Taguel should be easily identifiable as Taguel, but still primarily human in this form. Beast form - go ham.

• Cat
• Dog
• Rabbit
• Bear
• Bird

The Snake tribe is a unique subspecies, and their lore topic is highly recommended reading if you are interested in playing one.

Beast Form

All Taguel save for Snakes have access to a monstrous transformation, commonly termed Beast Form or War Form, which represents the duality of their existence. Much like dragons, they can transform into this altered form at will; unlike dragons, it is simply another facet of themselves, rather than an entirely different body, and there is no immense boost in elemental power or esoteric abilities available from transformation, simply a sizable increase in physical capabilities.

While most beast forms are basically oversized versions of whatever animal they represent (spoilers: most rabbit Taguel look like giant rabbits when transformed), some are vaguely humanoid, capable of walking on two legs; it is of little surprise that a species whose existence revolves around evolution and adaptation might vary a bit in how they look. Functionally speaking, however, all transformations are mechanically identical, and humanoid war forms have to buy a Weapon Seal to use weapons when transformed just the same as the giant fluffy bunnies.

The Snake Tribe does not have access to any form of half of full shifting, being permanently stuck in a state midway between, but in return they gain permanent access to the full mechanical benefits of a full shift.

Species Skills

While all Taguel are capable of directing their personal evolution along any vector, there are a few constants - each species has a certain strength unavailable to others. Commonly referred to as Species Skills, they mimic human Skills with eerie similarity - or were they the progenitors of those skills among humans? If there is an answer to that question, it is long since lost to history.

Taguel of each Tribe gain access to the Basic version of this special skill at no cost at 200 posts and the Advanced version at 400 posts, but cannot otherwise learn skills from the shop; who needs petty tricks when you can simply change your body to make the impossible, possible?

• Cats: Shade
• Dogs: Daunt
• Rabbit: Celerity
• Bears: Counter
• Birds: They can fly they don't need another skill
• Snakes: Nihil

Adaptations

The heart and soul of the Taguel supremacy of their own evolution, "Adaptations" represent the general paths available to all Taguel, the general lines along which their mastery of combat grows over time. Some represent taming the beast within and traveling a path similar to humanity, while others revel in metahuman possibilities that pushes the difference between species as far as it can go, rivaling or in some fields exceeding even dragons in speed, strength, or durability.

• All Taguel begin play with one free Adaptation of choice
• Further upgrades are purchased for 1000g each in shop, working similarly to Skills - buy 3 of an Adaptation to reach its Mastery version.
• Tools and Tomes allow access to physical and magical weaponry respectively, and must be purchased for each weapon type or lore of magic you wish to access. They can be mixed and matched as desired.
• Buying Tomes/Tools just unlocks the ability to use weapons of that type - you still have to buy them normally
• Any ability tagged with [War Form] offers double bonuses while transformed
• How you fluff these abilities (especially Shockwave) is up to you, but it should fit the character - Shockwave is often a roar of some sort for Bear Taguel, for example. That said, there's no law against having a super fast Volcanon-toting Shockwave-spewing bear...

The List

Juggernaut [War Form]

• Basic: Power akin to an Olympic weightlifter
• Advanced: Strength of a Grizzly Bear
• Mastery: Might of a Silverback Gorilla

Quicksilver [War Form]

• Basic: Dash as quickly as a deer
• Advanced: Charge with the speed of a lion
• Mastery: Match even a cheetah for short bursts of superhuman speed

Colossus

• Basic: Can block weapons unarmed
• Advanced: Flesh becomes hard enough to deflect weapons; equivalent to light or leather armor
• Mastery: Extreme natural durability akin to heavy plate armor with none of the weight

Regenerator

• Basic: Naturally recover at 2x human rate; can rapidly heal minor cuts and bruises
• Advanced: Naturally recover at 5x human rate; can repair moderate wounds and re-set bones, but this takes significant energy, rapidly causing exhaustion, and drastically slows the user during the process
• Mastery: Naturally recover at 10x human rate; can regenerate from major wounds and reattach limbs, but the process is extremely painful, rapidly exhausts even the sturdiest of users, and completely immobilizes the user during major healing. Decapitation and other one-shot kills still just kill you.

Shockwave

• Basic: Able to exude bursts of force that knock back lighter objects like small projectiles and momentarily stun opponents
• Advanced: Can knock men to the ground and knock away larger projectiles with a powerful bursts of force
• Mastery: Able to launch the equivalent of momentary gale force winds, hurling armored humans around like rag dolls or damage smaller structures

Blessing

• Basic: Can heal minor wounds of others
• Advanced: Can heal moderate wounds of others
• Mastery: Can heal major wounds of others

Emperor

• Basic: Nearby allies become very resistant to fear
• Advanced: Nearby allies fight with additional fervor
• Mastery: Nearby allies gain perfect morale, becoming completely immune to fear, and fight with drastically increased ferocity

Predator

• Basic: Emit a momentary burst of spiritual pressure that gives pause to opponents
• Advanced: A temporarily sustained burst of spiritual pressure invokes a strong fear response in opponents; weaker minds may fray while even equal or stronger opponents will hesitate
• Mastery: Create an immense pulse or strong sustained aura of fear that can chill even the strong-willed to a degree and crush the wills of weaker foes

Tools

• Acquiring a Weapon Seal from the shop grants access to a single class of weapons of your choice; can be purchased multiple times for multiple weapon types.
• Does not lock the purchase of Magic Seals.
• You can use your starting Adaptation on this.

Tomes

• Acquiring a Magic Seal from the shop grants access to a single school of magic of your choice, following the universal magic rules.
• Does not lock the purchase of Weapon Seals.
• You can use your starting Adaptation on this.

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

Legendary Adaptations

Taguel evolution is driven by necessity - once they find a strong enough pack to run with, most find the need for absolute strength to dwindle, growing far more slowly. Those who continue to push themselves to the limit through countless brutal battles and harsh landscapes however occasionally find an entirely new strength slumbering within themselves; these rare individuals awaken the might of their greatest predecessors, bringing life to legends as reborn Alphas. Capable of the incredible feats that most Taguel believe to be mere myth, these alpha predators are the ultimate expression of Vinland's brutal mantra - survival at all costs.

The Basics

At 500 posts, and every 500 posts thereafter, a Taguel may elect to upgrade one of their level 3 adaptations to Legendary status. Doing so requires them to complete a great challenge, something akin to one of Heracles' Twelve Labors, that pushes them to their limits and forcibly evolves that trait. It is up to the player exactly how they wish to tell the story; a duo topic with a friend, a solo, whatever you feel is adequate. There is no minimum post count, but for your own sake I suggest making a fun story of it - VERY few Taguel ever reach this height, it's like a Divine Dragon is to dragons, or a Scouring Hero to humans.

Note that while humanity is still undecided on Taguel as a whole, using these abilities is likely to rapidly gain the attention, and fear, of powerful forces in Elibe, who may see a monster as terrible as the dragons of lore in these acts...

The List

• Juggernaut - this Taguel wields strength on par with a 50% halfshifted dragon, with similar limitations; capable of battering through stone walls or reinforced gates, but doing so requires halfshifting to a level that makes one's bestial nature quite evident.
• Quicksilver - functionally similar to the Teleport staff, this alpha has reached such agility that they can cross uncanny distances in the blink of an eye with a bit of prep, or easily outrun the fastest animals with sustained effort.
• Colossus - akin to 250 post dragon durability, this allows the user to halfshift limbs and parts of their body to temporarily become incredibly resilient to basic weaponry. Similar to dragons, this doesn't actually make you immune to damage or able to ignore large scale magic.
• Regenerator - a healing factor unrivaled by any other, the user naturally heals almost any injury overnight and can regenerate limbs in seconds during battle, though doing so repeatedly will tire them over time. The user can escape even near-fatal injuries like a lost heart, but doing so is exhausting and instantly fatal wounds like decapitation or being completely incinerated still just kill you. You can keep the scars from survivable wounds if you want to be edgy.
• Shockwave - a massive blast shatters stone and sky, breaking through fortifications or entirely destroying small to medium sized buildings, or sending entire platoons of armored soldiers flying. While powerful, it is an exhausting technique and lacks the sheer destructive force to tear apart castles, dragons, and the like.
• Blessing - a soothing aura of life essence that rapidly mends the wounds of all nearby allies; any that still live can be saved. The more healed by this ability and the greater the injuries, the more of a toll is taken on the user.
• Emperor - presence so overbearing it threatens to subsume the will of all around; the awakened ancestral memory of the first King of Heroes granting all allies in eyesight the courage and fervor of the lion's pride. Channeling this force of will is exhausting and immobilizes the wielder of this power for a time.
• Predator - awakening the ancestral memory of the first predators, a wave of killing intent so vast it can stop the hearts of the weak-willed entirely flows outward, bringing pause to even the bravest hearts and shattering the will of those lacking. Note that only minor NPCs will actually die to this, and the technique is exhausting to perform.

Tools and Tomes are human inventions and cannot be 'evolved' in the same manner as naturally Taguel abilities.