Kuulik

Kuulik

A Sawdager Kuulik Rogue

Strain	Kuulik
Pronunciation	🔊 koo-OO-lihk
Scientific name	Homo Ingeniosus
Plural	Kuulik
Possessive	Kuuliki
Substrains	Sawdager, Tenizi, Uris
Patron Deity	Woden
Eyesight	Lowlight
Lifespan	100 years
Language	Common, Kuulik
Climate	Moderate
Terrain	Kuulik Trade Company, major cities
Height	8 Kol (~120 cm)
Weight	3 Tas (~30 kg)
Skin Color	Green, Olive Green, Gray-Green
Hair Color	Black to Gray
Eye Color	Yellow, Orange, Red
Build	Slender, Petite
Distinctions	Short, Agile, Green, Pointed Ears

The Kuulik (🔊 koo-OO-lihk) are a diminutive race of green-skinned fonts of ambition. Lacking the might to take territory, most Kuulik are itinerant in nature, frequenting other nations for trade.

Overview

The Kuulik are unaware of their origin, but assume that it is likely cursed. Lacking the numbers or physical prowess of other strains, they have had their settlements chased out of every nation in Otan. Relegated to a tiny peninsula in the northeast, they make their living far differently from other strains in Otan.

The nation they call home is based on a scarcely habitable peninsula, and is organized more like a company than a government. The Kuulik Trade Company is a place for an enterprising Kuulik to establish their own trading brand and protect their brand through the KTC's governing body, all while traveling the world to conduct trade.

Physical Characteristics

The Kuulik are a diminutive race, with an average height of just over a meter (4 feet). They are easily identified by their green coloring and large protruding ears. Their ears extend perpendicular to their heads by as much as 20 centimeters (8 inches).

The skin tone varies within the Kuulik strain. The Sawdager Kuulik tend to have a reddish-tipped nose and red in their ears (and possibly other places). The Tenizi Kuulik, in contrast, have a more olive green complexion without any color variations. The Uris Kuulik are similar but with a gray-green complexion.

Placed next to the silhouette of a human, a Kuulik would appear to have oversized hands, ears, and heads as compared to their distant human cousins. With a change in colouring, however, they would be indistinguishable from Sweardaelfes in the size and shape of their anatomy.

All three substrains sport black hair, which typically thins and grays with old age.

Natural and Latent Abilities

It is uncommon, but possible for some Kuulik to be able to see in very low light. The Sawdager Kuulik possess a heightened business sense, enabling them to identify emerging markets and anticipate trends and customer desires.

Society and Culture

The Kuulik are a downtrodden folk. After the Great Erasure, the nations of the world woke to decide that the Kuulik were more likely a pest than a people. Many Kuulik were lost before this trend was turned around. Lacking the power or numbers to fight fire with fire, the Kuulik retreated to safe pockets of every nation in the world, and from this vantage point, they shaped a new nation.

The Kuulik Trade Company is a nation in three parts. There is a peninsula upon which the Kuulik capital resides, including the Kuulik Trade Commission, a body that regulates and enforces laws that protect the Kuulik from other Kuulik. They specialize in bad-faith deals and unfulfilled contracts. Any Kuulik operating under the protection of Kuulik law is also subject to Kuulik law.

The Sawdager Kuulik have a natural predilection to engage in trade. Their cousins, the Tenizi, have a different calling: to adventure. The Tenizi make up the bulk of the Kuulik Merchant Navy and Kuulik Merchant Air Force. Nearly their entire substrain lives their lives aboard one vessel or another. The last of their strain are the Uris, who preoccupy themselves with martial affairs.

After two centuries of being bullied, and worse, seeing their cousins bullied, they have taken to the martial arts like few others. From Brute to Bard, they train constantly with deadly intent to protect their corporate nation's goals.

History

As with the other strains, the Kuulik have only guesswork and religion to piece together their history from before the Great Erasure. As near as they have been able to determine, the Kuulik had their own lands, possibly what is now the Ungir Federation land, and were bountiful in that land. Rifts with other strains, however, forced them to flee to fields afar.

Most of their Kuulik people settled in what is now called the Kuulik Peninsula, presumed to have formerly been Grendel territory. It is not known whether the Grendel ceded that land or if it was fought for, but no enmity between the Kuulik and the Grendel remains if there was a major conflict.

Since the Great Erasure, the Kuulik found themselves spread all over Otan. They quickly evolved into the Kuulik Trading Company, taking advantage of their "foreign" nature in most lands assured others that they were familiar with things in other lands (they usually were not). As the corporation grew, they managed to improve communication between cells of Kuulik in every nation where they were allowed to operate.

Early Kuulik scavenged battlefields for weapons and armor, which they would in turn sell to the side they disliked least. Over time, nations began to realize that they could equip entire battalions with enough coin by contacting a single Kuulik merchant. The Kuulik became very well connected and masters of logistics, able not only to source goods, but to find the right buyer and deliver anywhere in Otan.

Today, they have trading posts and shops in nearly every nation of Otan, the Garis Triumvirate, and the nation of Kiskentay being the two most notable exceptions.

Kuulik Variants

Sawdager

The Sawdager (🔊 SAW-dah-gur) are perhaps among the most ambitious people in all of Otan. While even the simplest creatures understand basic trade, the Sawdager have perfected trade into an art form.

A regular Human will understand that goods can be exchanged for pieces of gold, for example. A Sawdager will understand so much more. A Sawdager will understand that goods have a cost of production, production durations and completion schedules, cost of transport, logistics costs, insurance, and of course storage.

Not only do they instinctively understand how to get the goods to a wholesaler, they they automatically consider distribution to retail outlets, how to maintain customer relations with retailers, handle special circumstances and requests, and manage the localization issues with distributing products in foreign lands.

Tenizi

If ever a buckle was swashed, a Tenizi (🔊 ten-NEET-see) a swashbuckling Tenizi probably swashed it. Their brand of Kuulik-ness has made fishermen and seafarers of them all.

It would be as unheard of for a Tenizi child to grow up away from the water as an Ungir child who would not play in the dirt. The Tenizi often form tight communities with their Sawdager cousins, as the swashbucklers often provide a means of distribution for their trade-hungry kinfolk.

Tenizi ambitions are somewhat different than the rest of Otan as well. While anyone from a noble Human to a revered Grendel will think about acquiring a large keep with many servants and tracts of land, a Tenizi dreams of more assets at sea. The very richest of the Tenizi create huge floating fortresses that are sometimes found circling the coastal waters of Otan. These fortresses often provide tax-free refuges for their Sawdager kinfolk and are often sought after as excellent opportunities for trade (particularly trade for rare items).

Uris

For anyone who's had an older sibling, they'll have some insight as to how the Uris (🔊 OO-riss) Kuulik blend into Kuulik society. They are the martial Kuulik members.

At a young age, Uris children might challenge one another in a competition of who can hit themselves in the head the hardest with a stick. With encouragement and training from parents and village leaders, they grow to make these competitions more applicable to real life, and heat each other with sticks, and later spells and swords.

There is no time in the life of an Uris Kuulik where some form of violence isn't shaping them. By the time an Uris has been recruited to the battlefield, they will have delivered and received hundreds of small wounds. What an ordinary strain would call "training", the Uris regard as simply "growing up".

When Uris receive their call to adventure, they answer the call with thicker skin than their other Kuulik cousins, having practiced for battle most of their lives. When anyone tells you that they are afraid of the Kuulik, they are most likely imagining an Uris Kuulik, whose martial gaze has the very look of death.

Half-Kuulik

The Half-Kuulik are half... Kuulik. Their appearance will depend a great deal on the other half. Even with wildly different mating partners, for example, a Sawdager Kuulik and an Akimsilik Garis, the offspring might not have a hint of a fox-like quality. Similarly, the offspring might not look very Kuuliky. Genetics is a gamble.

Because any of the 49 human-based substrains can interbreed with any other, there are 1,176 possible half-races. The offspring of a Friggaelf and Wodaelf would certainly be Aelfen in nature, but whether that individual tended toward one aesthetic or the other would put the Norns into confusion.

Editor's Note: The expansion rules for Deworgen and other half-strains will be covered after the first edition of the Will to Power: Role-Playing Game is released to the public.

Kuulik Countries

Kuulik Trade Company, Home of the Kuulik.

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