The
Gaunt-men are an Arpid people native the Underdark. They look somewhat like undermen, especially from a distance and in the dim tunnels of the Underdark, pale and hairless, but their long, spindly limbs and reflective eyes give them away.
They capture undermen and use them as cattle within their small tribes. These undermen are harvested for meat while kept still living. The Gaunt-men then use specially cultivated healing salves to regrow these harvested portions, though hair and skin does not regenerate. After some time of harvesting, these undermen cattle are turned into
fleshless. These healing salves also modify the physiology of their cattle, infusing them with some kind of magic. The Gaunt-men harvest their vomit and dry it into bile salts, which they trade with the
Dwarves in exchange for manufactured goods.
Jakhzar
One of the most common words to see written in
Undercommon, commonly inscribed in stone or written in some sort of paint is the word "ՅԱԽԶԱՌ" (
jakhzar), meaning "taker" or "copper", referring to Gaunt-men. The word's spelling is consistent, and is likely both read and written symbolically by the illiterate. The word comes from a Dwarvish root "յախզաբ" (“jakhzab”, to take), but with a decidedly non-
Dwarvish way of verbal noun construction. The expected Dwarvish version would be *ընըյախզաբ (
ynyjakhzab - a dummy pronoun prefixed to the infinitive). The sign is sometimes abbreviated just to the first letter, "Յ”, sometimes even written backwards, “Ɛ”. These signs are used to indicate areas where Gaunt-men live or set up traps to capture men. Occasionally the sign is used to ward off undermen from areas where someone has hidden something or wishes to reside unmolested.
Comments