Grippli

Gripplis are small, frog-like humanoids that that live in the humid forests in the south of the continent of Aligoria. They generally live in fairly close proximity to humans, as the latter have slowly filtered into the area over the past 300 years. Gripplis are still somewhat suspicious of the newcomers, and some in the group claim that the humans should have been kicked out long ago. (And some still scheme to do so.)
The grippli however are very secretive and skittish around other humanoids, especially humans.  They have evolved, or been created somehow, to be wary of humans.  Their defenses against the Older Ones are incredible, ingenious, and deadly.  The Older Ones have long-since learned to leave the Grippli alone.  Besides, the Grippli are almost impossible to track through the forest and swamp.
In any case, Grippli still hold the core of their home, more deep in the forest, especially in wetter lands where there are ponds and lakes, rivers and isolated swampland. They are well-versed in both swimming and tree-climbing, with their webbed feet and sticky toe-pads. The Grippli live in colonies along in among bodies of water.
Grippli have no major history of warfare against others, although there have been scuffles with humans before. They are good hunters however, and they are skilled in the use of weaponry.
The Grippli are not known for their sense of humor. Their large, unblinking eyes sometimes give others the idea that they’re too serious, and perhaps even a bit dull. They are very serious about life, especially about their forest homes and communities, but their intelligence is generally sharp, especially when it comes to life in the forest.
Gripplis’ religious practices are little known to outsiders. Those who have gone into the forest to pay them a visit have seen rituals related to the water, and the beings of water, although there may be more to it than that…
Grippli architecture comsists of the wood of small forest trees, and mats and tussoks of reeds and mud. These materials are used to make low tree houses in the marshy forests of Thitherland, with viewing platforms looking out over the lakes and swamps. Sometimes bridges of planks and weed-rope are stretched out over strategic areas, although in most areas the Grippli will swim and hide in the water.  There are places out in the swamp that have been worked down into hard mud and reeds, and they say the Grippli use these spaces for some kind of ritual or meeting space.

Grippli have no written language, although they use some pictographs to convey information. Grippli who have moved among literate ancestries have picked up their hosts’ writing and reading.
Elite Grippli will have trained (or have others train) the Sleek Woverotters of the Thitherland swamps.  They are oily-furred, vicious mustelids some six to eight feet long, semi-intelligent and of deadly teeth.  They swim well and are stealthy on land and on water.  Again, only the most prestigious Grippli--the Clan chiefs and mighty warriors--would ever receive the honor of such a mount.

GRIPPLI RACIAL ATTRIBUTES!!

If you're interested in playing a Grippli character, check out the ATTRIBUTES here. Add them to your character when you're ready to choose. Grippli Player Character Attributes

ORIGINS... Varied Stories...

The Grippli themselves claim fiercely that they were created from the swamps of the Thitherland Forest, drawn up and out through a magical metamorphic process known as the gripping. The gripping transformed them in stages since the beginning of time, through the metamorphosis that still drives their development today. There are obscure deities that drove this process, such as the Insakect and the Klarbisett. These deities are now obscure, but some claim still to know them and hear them speaking.
The more practically minded in the Thitherland community offer a story of a lonely hermit-magus who, having lived among the frogs of the swamp for so long, gave part of her life force to bring the frogs to new life, as humanoids. She did this to create firends for herself, but the Grippli gave her no such friendship but ignored her, casting her aside as they began their new life in the swamp. The story is told with a teaser at the end: They say that the lonely old witch left a her modest home preserved in the swamp-land, along with a great collection of oddities and items.
The Biologists in Thitherland have a different story altogether. According to them, when the Older Ones left the north and moved on into the Thitherland Forest, they posed a great threat to the creatures there. Especially, they loved the taste of Giant Frog, the meat for which was plentiful and easy to hunt. The quickest and most intelligent of the frogs were the only ones to survive this invasion, and soon the only of these would survive, and on until the only Giant Frogs remaining were cunning and stealthy, able to hide--and to intelligently cooperate, and to defend themselves aggressively--from the human intruderss. Thus, in the very short space of 200 years, the Grippli evolved.
Stories among the Thitherlands also claim that a specific, lone biologist--the most learned in the land--came to the land to study the giant frogs in the forest. She got very involved and lost her objectivity, and became very close the frog-creatures. Something happened, and the eggs were in her somehow, and she bore the tad-pole offspring of frog, and the child was half-frog, half-human. The biologist become the mother of all the Grippli, until they could breed among themselves.
Another story is that the Grippli were giant tree-frogs that suffered a terrible human invasion, (the Older Ones, long long ago), and they were forced to evolve or die. Within a century they went from giant frog to frog-human. Many died, but those who survived were completely capable of hiding, making war, and building wooden towns in the swamp and the forest. The defenses in their villages are incredible, involving skilled archers, fortified walls that can go up any time, or camouflage. (They need these fortifications less and less, but still they are active.)
The Older Ones the Grippli still insist are "mortal enemies," but the truth is that the former no longer hunt in the Grippli territorry, as if they have forgotten the rivalry altogether.

GRIPPLI BY REGION

There are only two locations on all of Summer's Tale where the Grippli make their native homes. These two locations have different societies, but the same Attributes

Forgotten Forest Forgotten Grippli have skin of light emerald green, with red eyes… The are slightly smaller than their Thitherland cousins–shorter and thinner. Many of these Grippli have had little or no contact with tne world outside the forest, although those that do inevitably love the new experiences. Their forest gets a great deal of rain, and the hemlocks and fir trees are impressively tall.
Thitherland Forest Thitherland Grippli have richly colored skin of blue or green, rarely purple… Their forests are rich, green and semi-tropical, with many streams and ponds. Relationships with humans can be tenuous, as the population of Grippli in this forest is more shy and secretive, and much smaller. Habitat destruction has been an issue in Thitherland, or it is threatening to become so.  Here the Grippli Wise use red clay to paint their faces in elaborate patterns.  It is a sign of the Apdept or a Wise One of the village.