Yao

If you're down in the crags and you think, even for a second, that you might hear the beat of a drum? Run. Leave your supplies behind, if you have to. Trust me, it's better than letting them find you.

— Khvicha of Gumbati, Makelian Scoutsman

Known commonly as 'Mountainfolk' across much of Western Eletheros and 'Somrothirik' (People of the Cavern) in the Vosqodi tongue of Ivskia, the Yao are a species of goblinoid demikith found variously across the mountain ranges of Ivskia, Eletheros, Yojin, and Karda alike. With average figures tall enough to dwarf even their orcish and hobgoblin cousins, the appearance of a yao is characterized by its flattened face and lengthy skull, the tufts of coarse, matted hair that often sprouts from its back, and the odd length of its forearms — in central Karda, the Yao which inhabit the Snakespine mountains are reffered to as Ape-Men or Monkey-Men in many of the local languages.
The name yao itself comes from the Shotzian words 妖 (yāo) and 妖魔 (yāomó) meaning 'monster' or 'demon', owing this title to the long history of bloodshed which the yao inhabiting the Emmar Mountains have held with both the Eletherosi and Yojini peoples which their native territory separates from one another; the mountains themselves were named for an ancient warlord of the yao who, in the time of the Gitaean Empire, banded together a large enough warband to spill from both sides of the mountain range, raiding and pillaging across Gitaean lands and the ununified lands of what is now Xingparkang alike.
What is known about the culture and livelihood of the yao comes mostly from the so-named 'Vanara' of the Snakespine, for while their culture is thoroughly isolationist in nature – although trade is conducted lower in the mountains near Kata Durbar in Katajagga and Kandaragarh in Srangatrajya, it is fleeting and occasional at absolute best, and the death of outsiders lost within the mountain ranges is spoken of as a natural and unpreventable outcome – they hardly harbor the vile hatred for those of seemingly any other species or race of kithfolk which their brethren amongst the northern continents hold. These vanara live primarily in clans or tribal confederations where familial ties are considered of the utmost importance and loyalty to ones own people is of the highest virtue; a proud and defensive people, their lengthy potential lifespans have contributed to a culture which shuns bloodshed and warfare though promotes that each member learns how to defend their people. It has been observed through limited contact with the vanara peoples that members of the yao species require minimal sources of food or energy even despite their advanced size in comparison to humans, and seem to enter a state of near-hibernation when sleeping — features which doubtlessly allow them to better survive the mountainous habitats they inhabit across the world.
It is unknown, as yet, whether the Vanara of the Snakespines possess some unique disposition in comparison to other members of their species, but this inclination towards defensive peace and diplomacy is a quality wholly foreign to their brothers found across the northern continents. The yao of Eletheros, Yojin, and Ivskia alike have never been recorded showing anything but immediate hostility towards any but their own kin.
Those of the Emmar Mountains have slain any outsiders entering their territory so soon as the tresspassers have been sighted, with diplomats, scouting parties, and military excursions alike butchered within mere days or hours of crossing into their mountainous terrain for what seems to stretch back to the very beginning of recorded interactions between the two. Even today do the Emmar Mountains remain entirely wholly impassible by any who are not of the yao themselves, effectively dividing the Eletherosi-Yojini continent in two along with The Midland Plains below them, which the yao are occasionally spotted patrolling the northern regions of.

by Nick Keller

Attempts at expansions into the Emmars have been made from both sides of the mountain ranges – both for access to any resources housed within the rocky crags and to open up trade between the eastern and western continents – though have failed spectacularly each and every time. Their imposing sizes make them terrifying combatants even when unarmed, and unlike their ogrish and trollish cousins, they possess sharp enough intellects for proper warfare; outfitted in arms and armor of blacksteel which their mountains carry in abundance, the yao will often wait for days at a time before striking a well-equipped invasive force, allowing their prey's confidence to dwindle towards anxiety before finally descending upon them in the dead of night.
Those slain by the Emmarian Yao are most often displayed with their dismembered heads mounted upon spikes — set ahead upon the paths of other outsiders, displayed outside encampments, or worn upon the backs and belts of their blacksteel armor. Such macabre treatment is hardly reserved for humans, however, as the skulls and mangled bodies of goblins, troglodytes, and the occasional hobgoblin may often be spotted amongst the dead.
In the far west, the somrothirik yao of Ivskia keep a far less unified grip on the native mountain ranges, though this in itself does little to quell their hatred of outsiders. Historic feuds between their own species and the mountain-dwelling durgeshi of modern-day Veghdarihm and Kherdaruhm see frequent lives traded between the two into the modern day, and the elvishfolk of the North-Ivskian Confederacies and the Avrolaran Empire alike are well acquainted with skirmishes involving somrothirik who stalk from the abandoned durgeshi mountain holds to raid wealth from nearby settlements.

by Nick Keller