Appearance[]
Name: Setagn
Size: Three to seven feet in height, usually thin though there are rare ones that are round.
Skin: Pale shades are predominant, though washed-out reds and browns are not uncommon.
Hair: None. They have mushroom caps instead of hair, the style of which depends on the species of mushroom they're from.
Eyes: 2 lightless holes.
Legs: Two.
Arms: Two.
Artistic Style[]
Associated colour: Any, though all are pale tones.
Associated mood: Neutral
Their clothing and tools are usually made of wood, but parts of the giant insects are also common. As such, a Setagn warrior would likely wear armor that glistened like oil on water, as some insects often appear. Similarly, insect chitin is the material of choice for weapons and important symbols and the like.
Ability[]
Combat Ability: Poor for most, Good for Death Caps.
Magic Ability: Poor-Normal for most, Good for Ghost Fungus.
Alignment and Faction[]
Alignment: Neutral
Home City: Mycolgn
Primary Faction: The Setagn
Background[]
When wild magic radically altered the landscape, some magic residue imbued sentience in a number of the enlarged mushroom species. Ambulatory and capable of abstract thought, they began to carve out lives and culture for themselves. Living in homes carved out of enormous shelf fungus, they eat while they sleep by resting in fresh, damp earth. This earth is also often fertilized with the remains of giant insects, and when that's not available rotting wood. As their sustenance isn't exactly hard to find, they've been able to spend more time developing in other aspects. They discovered magic for themselves, and the bioluminescent mushroom races seem to have a natural aptitude for spellcasting.
They Have to defend themselves occasionally, be it from the giant insects or the occasional predator that makes it's way down from the canopy. As such they have developed some martial traditions, all of which use their own poison as a core part.
The Setagn life cycle is odd. At first they appear as simply another giant mushroom, until they fall off of their root system as though cut. Newly sentient at this point, they stumble around, learning to walk. If they aren't killed by giant insects, they are then found by other Setagn and brought to a settlement. From there they join their kin in carving a place out of a world where their existence is an odd afterthought. The ones gifted with magic assume one of a number of roles, from healer to shaman to fungus shaper. Some of the more combat capable breeds take on roles as scouts, recovering newly awoken Setagn, and defending settlements against the giant insects. The breeds not especially gifted in either combat or magic instead learn to work the shells of the insects, carve homes from the shelf fungus or any number of other jobs critical to the ongoing existence of the settlements.
Setagn usually age quite gracefully, up to a certain point. They don't die of age like animal races often do, but instead have an entirely unique path that can't even properly be called the end of their life. Just as the young Setagn grow from giant mushrooms, old Setagn make their way back to a giant mushroom outcropping. As they climb in among the mushrooms, they grow roots and connect with the existing root system of the mushroom grove. From there their consciousness slips in and meshes with the entire fungus grove. It's been proven that the more old Setagn go to their rest in a particular grove, the better the chance of any given giant mushroom from that grove developing into a Setagn. Also, due no doubt to this, the Setagn have a very rudimentary grade of racial memory, usually little more than causing them to trust the Setagn scouts when they are young and giving them some simple knowledge of giant insects (i.e. recognizing the buzz of wings even if they've never seen them).
The Setagn have no real religion to speak of, though they do have a tradition of mysticism. This discipline focuses on rot, though not in a fatalistic way as the Southern races might interpret. Rotting wood and vegetation is more than simply what they need as food, it's a symbol of how all things that aren't growing will in time break down. In time, the giant insects will be pushed back. In time, they will move beyond the monolithic walls that set the boundaries of their homeland. In time, all obstacles will break down and be overcome. Shamans of this discipline are usually decked out in decorative, rotting wooden armor. They can help meat to decompose faster, so that the Setagn can consume it. Also, if pressed into combat, they can channel their power into causing flesh to begin to decompose from the bones of the living.
Inspirational Reference[]
http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs51/f/2009/287/4/d/Mushroom_Man_by_LonelySpark.jpg
Basically anthropomorphic mushrooms.