Race :: Vicar,[Vee-ck-are] meaning vicarious, was the most suitable name the Lexophiles could give to the Vicar based off how they acted in times of war.
History:: The Vicar, 300 years ago, where finally freed from the Aurocks by the Lexophiles. They settled in the hills just a few miles away from where the Lexophiles where beginning to settle. Vicar’s being fine craftsmen and quick workers made the rebuilding of their city very quick. This time using masonry to make a stone wall for the main city named Hood. They also had the time to settle in lands farther away, in plain areas. The Vicar where always loyal people, and very good learners. They became great metal workers, and there weapons and architecture is the most beautiful in design. Vicar are the ‘artist’ people. They are also tamers of various Beast, an used them to help rebuild their long lost home.
Native name(s):: The names the Vicar have tend to be very short. The Vicar’s family line is a unique one. The Vicar have three names. There middle name is the name given to them by their parents (normally give years after the child is born.) There first and last name are inherited from their mother and father. ((for example. have one man named Terry Joe Bill. A girl named Sue Annie Mike. They marry and have a boy they would like to call, Henry. Henry's full name will be, Sue Henry Bill... This reflects the Vicar are not affected by gender difference when it comes to names. Also the vicar use very short words, they make up with he lexophile language.))
The types of the names the Vicar ‘shoot’ for are normally five letters per name. Also, they like having unquie lettering to the names. Like silent letters, or more than one letters that only make one sound. For Example “Th, Sh, ch” things like that are very common. Some times you’ll find a “ion” at the end of a name. They will also leave out letters in a word, and say it’s they way they spell the name, as long as it is still pronounced the same. A Common example is the name ‘Du’ when they took the word Dew, or Due, and shortened it but still pronouncing it the same. To add uniqueness to the names, they might double letters in the name, as long as its pronounced the same. Reusing the ‘Du’ name example, one would make the name ‘Duu’ or Duoo. The reasoning to their different names is simple, and really quiet sad. The Vicar where enslaved for so many years, that their culture was lost, along with their language, and native names. So the Vicar had to use Lexophile naming system, and didn’t like it. They made their own, and made it more fitting for them. Hence the very short names.
Personality:: Very loyal to their loved ones. They are very companion based people, meaning they will find one person and stick to them, or one animal, or their immediate family. Lexophiles say they seem to have a mate that’s almost innately theirs. The Lexophiles named them ‘Vicar’ short for ‘Vicarious’ meaning ‘endured for somebody else.’ These people would quickly die for their loved ones, but most likely fight fearsomely for them till death, rather stick up for themselves. Sometimes the Vicar put their emotions before logic. They could do foolish things for those they love. Every Vicar is a hopeless romantic. The Vicar are normally lovers, and not fighters, but become fierce fighters if you threaten a loved one of theirs. Vicars are quick forgivers, and very rarely will make a enemy, if they ever do. This is not necessarily a good trait, for they trust people to much, and those races not like the Vicar might fool them. They are also very brave, and will be quick do anything dangerous for their loved ones. They are very obsessive over things also, whether it be ideas, people, or work. The Vicar seem to be friendly to everyone, but eventually they will look for ‘true love.’ A lifelong companion. Once they find someone they believe to be their chosen one, they tend to obsess about them and might stalk them. It isn’t a perverted obsession normally, but a very innocent like one. The Vicars hearts are the strongest, and easiest to make a deep scar. They can become easily hurt by the one they love, and through this ‘first love’ period of their life are very unpredictable and live like it’s the last moments of their lives.
Age:: males 120, females 140 is the average age of death. Around 17 -20 is when they become men and women. Once they are in their 30’s they begin to have children. Once they are in their 30’s-40’s they begin to have children, but fiscally being able to much younger. They wouldn’t succeed over 5 children.
Physical appearance:: Their bones seem to be fairly sharp, giving a very chiseled look. Their bodies are broad for the men, not as much for the women. They arent normally fat, (can become fat) but they have somewhat wider bones in comparison to a Lexophile. Their skin is normally tan and sometimes can become darker. Their biggest difference between their own Race is the very large verity of eye colors they have. Nearly every color imaginable. Their irises are very ‘web’ like, with a thick solid color on the edge. They have short claws on their five fingers and four toes. Their hair colors are varieties of browns, with the occasional black streaks or black patches with their brown hair. All the men have facial hair, but nothing to wild. There isn’t much of a hair style, they tend to let it grow out wild, without it getting to long. Normally the hair is a mess, but they will push their hair back out of their face, and men tend to cut the back of their hair short, leaving the front and sides alone. The women will tie their hair normally, but the Vicar tend not to care about their appearance, and normally just look the way the wake up as. The males and females normally aren’t considered beautiful in comparison to the Lexophiles, but are very quaint. Some Vicar might have freckles, but normally if they do its only on the face. They tend to bath 3-4 times a week. Women normally more than the men. 5’8 - 6 feet average height.
Physical Abilities:: The Vicar are naturally physically fit and very agile. They’re known to scale trees with ease and are animal like climbers using their claws. They aren’t necessarily super strong, but more accurately adamant. They’re the hardest to kill in a battle because they never give up, and their skin is the toughest of the races. This also is why some people consider them the humanoid of a pack mule, because the Vicar are known to take heavy things and take them long distances completely based on will power. Some have been known to lose limbs and continue to fight as if nothing happened. Of course if you badly injure a vicar, chances are they will die eventually, but if their adrenaline is pumping the vicar can stay alive a lot longer and still fight.The Vicar will also be able to rush at someone on all fours, or even fight that way. This is not for speed, but for agility.
Supernatural:: The vicar do not have any notable supernatural abilities other than they seem to be able to innately know what another living thing is feeling. Making them very good beast tamers. One more oddities to the Vicarious, is that those Vicar whom have a deep love for another, Man or Beast, they are able to very slightly since when those loved ones are in distress. This also isn’t very strong, and could be nothing more than thoughts popping up in their head suddenly.
Cloths:: The Vicar tend to wear heavier, and tight cloths. Leathers made from bears or various other thick skin animals. This is partly because of their claws, strength and toughness of their skin that they tend to dislike fragile material. They will have Cloaks with deep hoods. They may also own Vests that also have deep Hoods. Commonly all torso clothing will be high and tight on the neck. Also many buckles and straps that fasten various things or simply for fashion will be found on the Vicaric clothing. Not all male Vicars wear pants, but more commonly wear Leather Skirts, called Sroy’s. Do to the fact the vicar have a high resource on a variety of animal skins, one would find that Furs are a big impact on the common Cloths. The Vicar like patterns in their clothing, mostly stripes, argyle, checker, and flannel patterns. The fashionable colors are blues, greens, browns, blacks, and most of all grays. The hill people also have a ranking system using autumn leaves as a symbol of various ranks and professions. Epaulettes straps, and multiple other straps are height of fashion, including buckles, and belts that can (but don’t have to) serve a purpose of holding anything. When wearing cloaks the epaulettes would be used to hold it. Also, soldiers wear a arm cape connected to the Epaulettes concealing one arm (or both) and showing the units rank. The soldiers where think armor on their forearm, shins, and chest. Sometimes using metal pads to cover their arms, chest, and legs... The Vicar are the most less caring people when it comes to how they look. They wear what they like, or what fits without caring about others opinions. However if it was their loved one who minded, they would change their appearance in a heartbeat. One very unique about these people are their love for masks. It’s a known fact every single Vicar has at least one mask, that they most likely made themselves.
Region:: They come from Forest areas, and when enslaved for 1800 years, they were forced to live in drier, bright, less foliage like climates. Due to this years of change, some of the Vicar, after feared, didn’t like the darker and less open parts of the forest areas. So some Vicars settled in the plains. Where the majority returned to the Forest areas in the Hills. Even still, where their are woods, the Vicar will settle their.
Cuisine:: They Love starch food, fruits, and vegetables; but also will eat beef, pork, chicken, and other beasts gathered from various hunts. Consuming Rice, Potatoes, wheat, apples, grapes, carrots, lettuce, green beans, and various other fruits and vegetables, they will mix the ingredients for a multitude of different meals.. The Vicar can eat rice for days and never get tired of it, but when they want something different they go for Stews and Sandwiches. They Love Chunky stews, with various vegetables and a few meats. Sandwiches are best eaten with one particular famous side item, crisp diced potatoes, with red pepper seasoning. They make all kinds of varieties of Sandwiches. Every meal of theirs however, always has Rice on the side. They will normally eat 3 to 4 meals a day, the first and last having a large quantity of food, and the two meals in the middle still being a lot of food, but not as much. This makes the Vicaric people difficult for traveling, for the fact they eat so much, and drink plenty. However it is in their personality to carry there own weight and not slack behind, so this only slows them down a little.
Resources:: Mounts—horse, wolfhorse. Food—Largest variety of vegetables, fruits, peppers, beef, chicken, pork deer, bear, coon, squirrel, rabbit Metal—iron, gold, bronze, silver. Various pets. Cloths – leather, furs.
Professions (Army/citizens) :: Citizen -- Innocent, Spur, Oath, Craftsmen, Blacksmith, Carpenter, Painter, Chiefs, Merchants, Tailors, Tamers, Tobacconist, Fur trader, School teacher, Farmer, Guild Master, Hunter, Masonry, Miners, Pottery. _ The Vicar have a special soldiers that train from infancy Called "Vawn" which is a old Vicar word for Leaf. Army – 5 point leafs to 1 point leafs are rankings to different soldiers. 5 point is a Rider, A vicar who mounts a large tamed animal and charges into battle. 4 point is a Guardian (large shield) is for defensive line and holding ground, 3 points is a Protector (small shield), 2 point is a Avenger(skilled with two blades) the Avengers will bring beasts to battle with them and fight using them as a weapon, (cant mount these beasts), Martyr is a single leaf, the ‘scout,’ not really meant for fighting but for recon, and sometime is the most endangered. Each pointed leaf, has rankings in themselves. Green, is a Vicar in training. Most Vicar start training at a very young age and it is Vicar culture to be trained in combat. Then Brown is actually used in combat, and is the newest soldier. Yellow are Skilled fighters, and could command a small group of Browns( but normally its only commands sent from a higher rank), Orange is A battle commander and very skilled. Red is the highest ranking and normally is a limited ranking to only one per point. A black leaf, with the inside of the leaf one of the five colors means a vet, or a fallen soldier. The term “he/she has ‘blacked out’” means out of battle, or normally dead. When a Vicar becomes a soldier, the processes is called Anointing. So many Soldiers are called the Anointed.
Weapons:: The Vicar don’t like using anything longer than their forearm. They are masters of short blades, and knives. A Vicar from the age of 14 can hit a target from 25 feet with a throwing knife. The Vicar’s are outnumbered in weaponry in comparison to some of their neighbors, but its their belief that if you are skilled with a few, rather than unskilled with many. When it comes to knifes, and short swords, the Vicar have no equal. Yet, they too had to improve with time, and easy a little with their obsession with knives and short swords. Not by much though. All they improved on was Shields. Another Item, that is now quiet new to the Vicar is the giant round shield that’s 54 inches, (4 feet and 5 inches), they have immensely improved in battle. The Vicar also are known as the ‘riders.’ Taming beasts and mounting their backs to use them for battle. The Vicar are the first to use beasts this way and the most talented at it.
Pets (mounts):: the Vicar have the largest verity of pets in their land. Most of their pets can only be kept by the Vicar. They differ in all shapes in sizes, but the Vicar tend to appreciate the more dangerous pets. Bears, wolfs, Large cats, Deer, squirrels, ferrets, Rabbits, chipmunks, small cats, dogs, various other forest animals, and a small amount of birds.
Religion:: To give a quick description to the Vicaric religion, it is one base around the unknown and dreams. Vicars believe that life is meant for living, and what living entails is experience, and learning. Vicars have a strong believe that Ignorance is a good thing, and that Vicars (and any other race) aren’t meant to know everything. A religious Vicaric person is called the ‘Innocent’ for they believe the Innocents are closest to the purest form of their soul. The Innocent, like most Vicaric professions, are started out as children. They are actually taught of many things and an older Innocent will be the most intelligent Vicaric people, for they send their time reading or practicing guiding rituals. The Innocent are taught to never do harm, and always go by what is their innate good. Innocents work from the purest form of the Vicaric souls, and are the ones guild the souls of the Vicaric people. When an Innocent is ready and old enough, they become a Spur. Spurs’ are the physical guilds that can be asked to accompany travelers and give them pure guidance. The Innocent, when ready could also become an Oath, which leads a lost soul to where they must go through their dreams. If someone is feelings lost, or a great pain is weighing on their heart, the go to the Oath. The Oath then does a Dream ritual, that involves first a bathing of the individual in a pure temple. Second, the person puts on the Sroy (native Vicar clothing) and is to lie down alone in front of the Oath. The Oath then holds out a hallow ball connected to a chain. The top of the ball has inside of it different incents that change depending on the problem at hand. The Incents are lit as the vicar falls asleep, and then sand inside of the tube is slowly poured out onto the Vicar, and the Vicar hums old Vicar words. The Vicar then experiences a very vivid dream that helps them to learn whats needed to know about their problem. Sometimes the dream says there is a journey to be made, and that’s where the spur joins them.
Dreams for the Vicars are held as special things. They are said to be links to the unknown. Vicars will normally have, normal dreams, but one type of dream is shared and known about the Vicar people. The Vicars have a special connection to dreams and once in a vicars life they will have a dream about a person. This person might be someone they have never met, but the person will reoccur within their dreams. From this the Vicaric heart opens up, and it is believed that the Vicar’s soul has bonded with someone. That person will also have dreams about the other if the bond is complete. Sometimes this does not happen, but doesn’t mean the dreams end for the Vicar. Only until the vicar Dreams of someone else we they ever be able to sleep soundly if the bond is not complete. Yet if the bond is complete, the Vicars are destined to love each other, and do. This is why the Vicars don’t really have much of a wedding, rather the have a bonding. This bonding is done by having the Vicars sleep in the same bed together in a house for of the Vicar’s friends and family. Then the last text to see if the bond Is complete is to have the Vicars share the same dream.
Vicars believe in destiny because of their bonds. They also believe Bonds where also made not to just bring the souls together, but also to conceive a ‘Destin’ child. However, love is different from Bonding, and many people find false love. The same goes for the Vicar’s, and sometimes people believe their in love but turn out to be in infatuation. If to Vicars, who don’t not have the Bond, have a child. That child is Called the ‘’Carnal.” This is perhaps the beings insult a person can give( next to calling them Auroc) for the vicar people. It not only says that the person was never destined to be, therefore has no purpose in learning, but also says their Parents are impure.
There is another belief the Vicars share, and is their respects to the Gods and Goddess’s . Vicars, having unique bonds with many creatures, feel that the gods have a connection to the people. Vicars will make a bond with one type of animal that’s as strong as the soul finding bond, and its believed that from birth the bond is made with another living animal. So occasionally a Vicar will make a bond with a God, and from then on they give their lives up to the God. Those Vicars are called the ‘keepers.’ Keepers eventually will change entirely when they live for their god, and normally share the personality of that God. The Keepers are given rein over the animals of the Gods and some power from the God. The Keepers will live and protect the home of the Gods they watch over.
Culture:: Vicar culture needs to explain from the ground up. It all originates from there innate traits. The most significant fact the Vicar fall in love so deeply. Because of their ‘true loves’ the Vicar are settled to two in a relationship, and normally when a Vicar falls in love it’s with another Vicar, who in return falls madly in love back. They don’t necessarily have a wedding, but they have something that can be understood as a finding true love celebration, simply called ‘Love’ Celebration or the ‘Seeking’ celebration. In this celebration, everyone invited all make similar masks. The boys make the same mask, and the girls make the same mask. This is to hide the identity of the lovers among the crowd. Of course like any good celebration, there is music and dance. The large party of identical males and females dance in circles with each other, locking hand and arms, then slinging on and other to another circle. Eventually, the two ‘seekers’ find each other and knock off the mask of the one they believe is the right one. Normally the Vicar will somehow know who their love ones are, but sometimes they make a mistake. If the Vicar do find there lover, the party wishes them full life time of never weakling love and happiness. If they mistake another for their love, the Vicar don’t find this as a bad thing but instead something very funny. Then they tell the Lovers ‘Best stick together, or you’ll forget where you are.’ The Vicar also Celebrate a the day they had finally became free from the Aurocs. This day falls in the time the flowers bloom (February). Like most vicar celabrations, they have a large feast, and they pay respect for the dead. Some venture off to old lands and find the old grave runes to pay respect. Another Celebration that’s yearly celebration. Its when fall comes around and the leaves change. This is a celebration towards the Vicar army, where they praise veterans, and soldiers. There is a big feast for this time which also celebrates the large harvest of this time. Then when the sun is highest in the sky they will have ‘talent’ shows, with small ‘arena’ like fights. This is strictly voluntary, and is a bit of a macho type event (not hindered to gender). Before the sun goes down, is most likely the most important part of the whole day celebration. Its where Green leaves who have been training for a 3 years, will finally be given the brown leaf, and the points there trainers think is best fit. Once all the Green Leaves become brown, the moon by this time is high. The fires light up the city, and music from all over begins to play and it is another ‘mask’ celebration for the remainder of the day.
The funeral practices is some of the few things that survived through the knowledge of the Vicar’s. In older times, the vicar would dig a hole in the ground at the base of a tree, through roots or around it the roots. The Vicar would place the bodies under the tree and make them a bed of medium sided rocks to lay on, and the cover the body with more rocks. After refilling the hole with dirt, the Vicar would carve the persons name into the tree very deep. When the family of that person died, they family would dig up the spot again and place the new dead family member on top of the rocks that covered the original, and then cover the new dead with more rocks. After refilling the hole the Vicar would carve the name into the tree under the first. Through time the tree would grow taller, and the names would rise up. The Vicars would continue carving names under previous names, and eventually the tree would become so tall, that one could look up at one side of the tree and see a long line of Vicar stacked on each other. The flaw to this old tradition is that the tree would die. When the Aurocs came and burned the forest they destroyed most of the graves. The funeral custom evolved to stacking stones on each other, and chiseling the names onto them. This would eventually build a tower of stones, or a wall of stones if the rocks covering the bodies began to reach the surface.
Another important culture fact is the houses they live in. Anyone on the outside of the Cities walls are normally the most pure ‘Vicar’ with the least amount of Lexophile influence. These people’s houses are either giant hallow trees, or houses made up in tail sturdy trees with rope ladders hanging down from them. These people are considered the ‘country folk’ and are sometimes very different from the ‘city folk.’ The biggest difference is that the country folk can speak Aurok, and Lexophile; are some of the oldest Vicar, with the largest families; Will believe in keeping their culture, instead of mixing it so much with the Lexophiles. Many of the Restruants and food places have three walled rooms to separate the groups. Some of these people where so worried about losing their culture, do to inconvenience and population difference in the city. There was a large group that settled in distant lands, in plain areas. Ironically the Plains Vicar ended up drawing in more of a Lexophile influence, because the plains area had a lower amount of trees to live in. So the majority of the city people in the forest moved to the plains, for the Lexophiles culture, and the majority of log cabins. Vicar will wrap up like a cocoon, or have bag like beds to sleep in. Making them not have to carry a tent when going on long trips, for they will be covered completely. The vicar have made the outside lining of the bags to make rain slide off, so it’s a perfect weather protector too.
Sciences/inventions :: The Vicar are the best in Craftsmanship when it comes to the small detail. When in comes to carpentry, anyone else fails in comparison to their wood work. They also are the best at metal working and stone work. The Vicar are obsessed with art work and it is shown in their handiwork. So the Vicar are some of the best tailors when it comes with finding new ways to make designs. They are known for their craftsmanship and from cloths to weapons, is what they market the most. The Vicar are normally inventing new ways to show there artistic skills. The Vicar do not come close to their neighbors, the Lexophiles, when it comes to inventing exploring, or war inventions, but if a Lexophile taught their many sciences and inventions the Vicar are good learners.
Language The Vicar language died out from being ruled by the Aurok. So some of the older Vicar know how to speak Aurok, but do not like the language. They only kept it alive for fear the Vicar might forget their history. The common language is the Lexophile language. However the Vicar are very visual people and tend to ‘speak’ better through acting out what they are saying. The Lexophile language is ‘butchered’ by the Vicar, whom shorten most words, and miss use sentence structure. Some examples are when they say ‘tomorrow’, they will instead say ‘Morrow.’ This is an example of how they shorten syllables in words. Another saying is “ Lets Feed” or “feeding time” meaning its time to eat. Ive Fed, means im full. For different occasions, or even recurring event in the day, the will through “times” in the end of it. Examples “Birthday Times, Feed times, Work times.” In a sentence it could be used as “ Its work times” or “I Had a Thrill at Nights’ birthday Times.” Nights is their way of saying Last night. T’nigh is tonight, of course, also removing the ‘t’and tomorrow night, logically being ‘Morrow nigh.’ They also leave the ‘g’s off of words ending with ‘ing’. Workin, walkin, runnin. The Vicar’s use many riddle words, or to words with the same meaning, and splice them together creating a new word.( taking the word Dash, and Rush, and making Dush.) Two more sayings very commonly used are types of 'replacement' words to say something harsh, but making it sound not as harsh. Death is a common word that is hard to here, and the Vicar's, has stated in professions, have a warrior ranking system based from fall leaves. When a soldier dies its custom to blacken the edges of their medal leaves. From this the Vicar picked up on a saying replacing the word death, and instead they say "Blacken" or "Blacked out". Another unrelated saying is saying something is "backwards" implying the subject moves backwards, identifying it as queer or strange. With every new generation of Vicar pops out multiple sayings to replace the sayings of their parents, and only the most catchy sayings remain. The Vicar’s reasoning is described in their native names, but to reinstate why the alter the Lexophile language is because there are attempting to make their own.
City description :: (see culture) The first city of the Vicar is in the hills and forest area, not far from the Lexophile giant Harbor city. This is the city of Hood. ‘Hood’ is from combining two Lexophiles words, ‘Hill’ and ‘Wood’. The second city was settled in far away Plain area, with a forest ring halfway around it. When it was found that the plain lands unused by the people who settled in the trees around the plains eventually broke down and built Lexophile like houses on the plains to farm them. This City is called, Morn, which is sort for 'morning.' The settlers chose this name with the belief that they where leaving the Lexophile life style behind them, and starting a new. Like The sun rising for a new day.
Population:: Hood- 79 % Vicar, 18% Lexophile, 2% Muse, 1% ‘Stray’ Trekan. House around Hood is 100% Vicar. Nome- 85% Vicar, 8% Lexophile, 4% Muse, 3% ‘Stray’ Trekan.
Law:: Naturally the Vicar are peaceful people and Crime was always low if never accruing, But since there are other people living in their cities, the laws have changed. The Vicar mimic the Lexophiles form of law, but are a lot more lenient. The Vicar instead of trying to talk their way out of punishment, but instead have to ‘prove’ their innocence’s by visually showing their side of the story. The Vicar have prisons in the Hood city, built into the stone. The Vicar’s are innately forgivers, so the time in jail isn’t that long normally, but if the crime is terrible, then the person can stay for the remainder of their life. Laws are no stealing, no harming others, no vandalizing land, no murder. If the criminal harms another person in some way, that harmed person gets to say when the criminal is released.
RACE ABILITES
• valiant Heart : still able to attack and move even while dying.
• +2 to animal empathy, handle animal, climb, wilderness lore.
• medium
