 MUIRHAUT
Muirhauts are clever, capable opportunists. Muirhaut individuals and clans find room for themselves wherever they can. Often they are strangers and wanderers, and others react to them with suspicion or curiosity. Depending on the clan, muirhauts might be reliable, hardworking (if clannish) citizens or they might be thieves just waiting for the opportunity to make a big score and disappear in the dead of night. Regardless, muirhauts are cunning, resourceful survivors. Personality: Muirhauts prefer trouble to boredom. They are notoriously curious. Relying on their ability to survive or escape danger, they demonstrate a daring that many of the larger race can’t match. Muirhauts have ample appetites, both for food and for other pleasures. They like simple meals, cheap drink, hallucinogenic tobacco made from catnip, and comfortable clothes. While they can be lured by the promise of wealth, they tend to spend the silver they gain rather than hoarding it. Muirhauts are also famous collectors. While more orthodox muirhauts may collect teapots, books, or pressed flowers, some collect such objects as the hides of wild beasts––or even the beasts themselves. Wealthy muirhauts sometimes commission adventurers to retrieve exotic items to complete their collections. Physical Description: Muirhauts resemble large, bipedal rats or mice, standing about 3 feet tall and usually weighing between 35 and 40 pounds. They are covered in short fur ranging from brown to white to black in color and have pink, hairless tails, which tend to be as long as the muirhaut is tall. They have beady brown or black eyes, which look red in dim light and long whiskers near their large, pointy noses. They like to wear simple, comfortable, and practicle clothes. Unlike members of most races, they prefer actual comfort to shows of wealth. A muirhaut would rather wear a comfortable shirt than jewelry. Muirhauts have a strong, musky odor that most non-muirhauts find unpleasant, but which they use to discern information about one another. A muirhaut reaches adulthood in her early teens and generally lives into the middle of her fifth decade. Relations: Muirhauts try to get along with everyone else. They are adept at fitting into a community of humans, minotaurs, dwarves, or even giak and making themselves valuable and welcome. Since human and minotaur society changes faster than the societies of the longer-lived dwarves, it is human and minotaur societies that most frequently offers muirhauts opportunities to exploit, and muirhauts are most often found in or around the lands of these two races. Muirhauts tend to be neutral and practical, relying on intangible constants, such as clan ties and personal honor to carry them through unfamiliar areas and to help them through what ever the road ahead brings their way. Alignment: Muirhauts tend to be neutral and practical. While they are comfortable with change (a chaotic trait), they also tend to rely on intangible constants, such as clan ties and personal honor (a lawful trait). Muirhaut Lands: Muirhauts have no lands of their own. Instead, they live in the lands of the other races, where they can benefit from whatever resources those lands have to offer. Muirhauts often form tight-knit communities in human, minotaur, or dwarven cities. While they work readily with others, they often make friends only among each other. Muirhauts also settle into secluded places where they set up self-reliant villages. Muirhaut communities, however, are known to pick up and move en masse to some place that offers a new opportunity, such as where a devastating war has made skilled workers hard to find. If these opportunities are temporary, the community will pick up and move again once the opportunity is gone, or once a better one presents itself. If the opportunity is lasting, the muirhauts settle and form a new village. Some communities, on the other hand, take to traveling as a way of life, driving wagons or guiding boats from place to place, with no permanent home. Regents: The chief Regent of the muirhauts is Brae, the lover. She is the protector of the muirhauts, and she expects her flock to work for the betterment of the muirhaut race. Brae promises blessings and protection to those who heed her guidance, defend their clans, and cherish their families. The large majority of muirhauts are aligned to three Regents; Brae, Erda, and Kaedara. But like all races on Kirrac they may be aligned to any of the twelve Lord Regents. Muirhauts as a race are religious in nature and they pay homage to whichever Urathear they are aligned to ensure safe journeys as they travel from place to place, strong families, and practical rewards for their toils. Language: Muirhauts speak their own language, Maundling, which uses the script of the Common tongue. They write very little in their own language so, unlike dwarves, elves, and lacertilians, they don’t have a rich body of written work. The muirhaut oral tradition, however, is very strong. While Maundling isn’t secret, muirhauts are loath to share it with others. Almost all muirhauts speak Common, since they use it to deal with the people in whose land they are living or through which they are traveling. Names: A muirhaut has a given name, a family name, and possibly a nickname. It would seem that family names are nothing more than nicknames that stuck so well they have been passed down through the generations. Male Names: Abundie, Alfrred, Beegie, Bosie, Burritt, Dainis, Dalis, Goncalo, Hann, Hazari, Ish, Laksmono, Laru, Macky, Mawuli, Nattapong, Nyklus, Orvall, Oryan, Rykeir. Female Names: Almaadele, Berneatha, Bophary, Camy, Canida, Chantle, Chrystee, Cynthanie, Deolanda, Etelani, Genovela, Ieshia, Iwyna, Jantel, Jeehee, Mirdula, Mufijo, Nachele, Reyene, Suchin. Family Names: Amberdown, Bushgather, Candlematch, Dragsman, Endsweep, Fancywhiskers, Goodbarrel, Greenbottle, Highhill, Hilltopple, Idleman, Journeysend, Leadpath, Leagallow, Shorttail, Tealeaf, Thorngage, Tosscobble, Underbough, Westcome. Adventurers: Muirhauts often set out on their own to make their way in the world. Muirhaut adventurers are typically looking for a way to use their skills to gain wealth or status. The distinction between a muirhaut adventurer and a muirhaut out on her own looking for “a big score” can get blurry. For a muirhaut, adventuring is less of a career than an opportunity. While muirhaut opportunism can sometimes look like larceny or fraud to others, a muirhaut adventurer who learns to trust her fellows is worthy of trust in turn.
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