Timus

Living below the sight and feet of their towering neighbors, the timus are a small, courageous, and devoted people. They've got a deep love of art, craft, and storytelling, and often seek work as artisans. To be tasked with keeping their (rather large) family history is one of the greatest honors a timus can have.
With bravery far beyond their size, many an adventurer has been shocked to discover how far a timus will journey in their quest, and the danger they'll face that their larger companions won't.

Indominable Spirit

Despite their tiny and meek appearance, timus are a very strong-willed people. Often brave to the point of foolhardiness, timus have been known to find themselves right in the middle of situations that far outsize their physicality. It's not uncommon to encounter a traveling timus that has seen their fair share of danger and trouble.
Despite what other species may assume, timus make capable rangers, merchants, mercenaries, adventurers, and spies. Their quick paws, keen senses, and ability to maneuver into small spaces that others can't can land a timus in plenty of trouble, but also make them invaluable parts of an adventure.

Deft Hands

A timus' tiny paws and nimble fingers make them excellent artisans. Threading a needle, blowing glass, kneading dough - it all comes naturally to the timus. It's common for timus families to run a craft business in cities or larger towns rather than working in fields or in mines. Walk through an alley in a big city and you'll see signs and hear timus merchants hawking their crafts everywhere you look. From jewelry to clothing, baked goods to brewed meads, wooden toys, colorful beads, potions and lotions, art, pottery, clocks, instruments, and savory street foods - if you need to find a gift for someone, visit a timus neighborhood.

Life Underfoot

Timus often find themselves fitting into the small gaps in society. The spaces hidden around a city that larger species ignore are ripe with opportunities for the enterprising timus. What a lycan would consider an attic crawlspace is a comfortable living area for a timus family to raise their children. Cramped alleyways become busy market streets, a gutter a canal, a closet a bunkhouse, a shed a storefront, and a sewer a fortress. They tend to see all this as "wasted space", perfectly good locations that other species simply ignore for no good reason. The fact that many larger species will rent these cramped spots to timus for a paltry amount of coins might have something to do with it, however.
You can use the timus profession table to find a craft or artisan profession your timus character had before adventuring, or to inspire one of your own.

d6	Table
1	I trained as an alchemist originally.
2	I spent a time making jewelry.
3	I went to an artist's academy as a painter.
4	I once worked as a baker.
5	I apprenticed with a furniture maker for a time.
6	I'm skilled at weaving and sewing.

Names

As timus tend to have very large families, they often only go by their personal name with those they're quite familiar with. In large gatherings, especially family reunions, there may be six cousins with the same given name. In these situations, they go by family name first, personal second.
Family Names: Alton, Cooke, Darrow, Greeneleaf, Odell.
Female Names: Bronwyn, Dayana, Ivy, Rona, Serra.
Male Names: Abram, Benn, Jasper, Silas, Walmond.

Timus Traits

Your timus character has the following species traits:
Ability Score Increase Your Intelligence score increases by 2, and your Dexterity score increases by 1.
Age A timus matures around 5 years of age, and lives into their 30's.
Alignment Most timus are neutral and tend towards good.
Size Your size is small.
Speed Your base walking speed is 25 feet.
Keen Senses You have proficiency in the Perception skill.
Nimble Dodge When attacked by an Attack of Opportunity, you may use your reaction to impose disadvantage on that attack. In addition, you may move through the spaces of creatures at least one size larger than you.
Outsized Bravery You have advantage on saving throws against being frightened.
Small Paws You gain proficiency with one type of tools or one musical instrument.
Language You speak Common and Critteran.

Origin/Ancestry

Adressia/Ikarell

Lifespan

30

Average Height

2'2"

Average Weight

25 lbs.

Related Organizations

• Adressia
• Ikarell

Medicine Mice

There persists an old folktale in some remote villages that timus have powers of medicine and healing. The stories go: with just a touch they can close a wound, purify sick blood, and ease an upset stomach. If someone is dying, a timus fur potion will cure them by morning. There's a more sinister take as well: some truly rural folk believe that timus bring disease everywhere they walk, and simply choose when and who to inflict it upon. This vision of the timus as supermagical plague-casters or natural-born healers is based in no sense of reality of course, but it's curious how many distant villages hold these same beliefs.

Too Small to Notice

One old myth recorded in timus texts from before the Moot speaks of a time when "the animals did talk, but they had not yet fire for themselves". It goes on to say how each night, all the species shivered in the dark, cold to the bone. A powerful monster guarded the only fire in the whole World, and the folk were never able to defeat it and take fire for themselves. The tiny timus kept volunteering to help, but the bigger ones told him he was too little. One day, as they battled the monster again, the timus snuck right past the fight, scooping up fire in a spoon and running away before the monster ever noticed. When the tired and beaten animals returned home, they found a warm fire waiting for them, the timus sitting cozily.

A Brief Autobiography

By now, dear reader, you must be curious as to where a simple timus like myself found such a penchant for adventure. I trained at the Bard's College of Salen. I recited poems and told tall tales, even sang a few songs to earn my coin. What pushed me to a life beyond that?
My father was a sailor. Well, a galley cook really, but he traveled the world at sea for many years before he met my mother. The yarns he spun of his seafaring adventures were infectious to wee child Rodanté, and influenced me more than I perhaps cared to admit only a few years ago.
If I am to be honest, I feared leaving Salen and my family behind. To venture out on my own was frightening. My first ride on the back of a paracera was frightening. My first night in the wide open plains of the Pridelands was frightening. My first solo visit to an iruxi village was frightening. My first trek through the mountains of Honamaya was absolutely dreadful.
By the time I rode my third ship across the seas of our magnificent World, I found it exhilarating. I listened to the gulls, smelled the sea, and felt the wind rush through my fur. My first time experiencing the wonders to be found in our World I was frightened. But if you push beyond that fear, dare yourself to see what lies on the other side, that is where you find excitement and beauty. I now can say I have friends all across the World, from all walks of life and of all species. I've seen incredible things, met incredible folk, eaten incredible foods. The bard who recited poetry for paltry coins never could've dreamed it.
I adventure and write of those adventures, dearest reader, so that I may in however small a way, gently nudge others to grow above their fear and live a more remarkable life.
-Rodanté