Re: Skin & Hair Colour

From: jorganos <joe_at_i2E4WKPM0rCooMdeI4luIcTN5lWCGswN0XaXCr3x6FVyL9HVMx6vgCRdV4mA-gkbnW0uHvnu>
Date: Fri, 06 Jan 2012 16:51:20 -0000


Orlanthi with specific ancestry may display other skin colorations than the final mixture that is called olive below. There are known cases of fairer skin and hair in bloodlines with solar ancestry, bluish skin in bloodlines with strong Helering ancestry, orange skin or coppery skin, and plenty more.

In a mythic way, the Orlanthi are mongrels, of a plethora of different ancestries. Even the gods are descended from mixed elements, with a few purer-blooded exceptions (like Heler, Mastakos and presumably Elmal and Rigsdal).

You don't need actual deities in your ancestry to display unusual skin colorations - children born from intercourse in holy rituals (there are plenty such) may well inherit features from the deities represented in the rituals.

When you write Umathings, I presume you mean Third Age Umathelans. These are descended from western Manirian Orlanthi transported there (directly or indirectly via Jrustela) by the Waertagi, and then coexisting with Western-descended Malki(oni) both in Jrustela and in Umathela, which may have added some Western blood even to backwater clans. Rarer instances of interbreeding with native Pamaltelan humans (in these regions - I suppose in Fonrit there have been concubines of any racial types owned by the powerful and bearing their children) may have introduced darker skin colorations.

If you as the narrator or one of your players insist on a specific skin coloration, you can have a nice session of back story writing how that came about. Or simply skip the explanations and let yourself and your players be surprised when the story catches up with that fact.

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