How to Roleplay as a Draelish

Fel here. This article is by no means an exhaustive list nor acts as an authoritative voice in how to play as a Draelish. I have have created them, but my brother Bananafire is the one who knows how to bring these characters to life. Below lies an attempt on my part to set the stage, though the set pieces are still under construction, with the story being written as we play and as my brother writes. And you may play a part in how they are shaped as well!

Little Effort Given

If you want to play as a Draelish, make sure to read your Roleplay traits as well as the descriptions featured among the other how-to-play-as-a-Draelish ttrpg articles. These articles give you some control over how your Draelish perceives the space that it is moving in. Next, go explore and read some of the articles I'm producing on this website in order to give yourself a sense of what the society and culture I'm building looks like.

Some Effort Given

If you read the other articles, then congratulations! You are embracing what it means to roleplay as a Draelish. The main hurdle is over: I've convinced you to play as one and secondly, you've read some of my articles. As for the next step, I would say start crafting your backstory. What clan were you a part of? A pre-existing one I have listed in other articles or, using the naming conventions outlined by existing examples or in the Language/Grammar article, do you come up with your own? Following this, what is your name? Do you follow any of the popular legends, like chasing after a tararagnir artifact, finding ancient stelas, seeking glimpses of the Slumbering Halls, or following up of leads and clues as to whatever happened in the War of Heaven? Or do you seek to walk in the claw marks of Kykuun/Akulus by becoming their champion or furthering their influence in the clans? Or do you seek to gain power and prestige for your clan by laying claim to a new Essence spring/hotspot/ley line, further your clan's agenda by completing projects, gathering resources, and defending/taking out threats, or seek to become the leading Dynasty or organizer of a Meeting of the Clans? These are just some ideas, the more I write, the more you and I can come up with! And I do plan on making some tables to help out with this later on.

Much Effort Given

Developing a voice to go alongside your character is what I consider the pinnacle of roleplaying. Draelish, both male and female, naturally have a voice that relies on hard consonants and pronounced vowels, given that their maw is quite wide and cavernous compared to a human's small mouth, compact teeth, and flexible lips. Draelish typically have a voice that's lower rather than higher, humming at times and vibrating their throat to produce bass notes. Try to talk while opening your mouth a bit more than normal or give your tongue some room to move in order to replicate the larger mouth size of a Draelish. The word I would associate with this is voluminous.
Of course, some Draelish may have smaller snouts, allowing a voice that almost matches a human (though it will always be wider). Draelish don't have lips, so they can't replicate B, V, F, O, and Th sounds, so it is up to you if you want to roleplay these sounds out, though some of these can be replicated through creative use of the tongue. I won't be able to pinpoint the exact accent of a Draelish until I either have a host of people volunteer themselves to it, find enough references, produce a contraption that has the shape of a Draelish mouth and can produce sounds, or manage to get Bananafire to write down enough Draelish scenes so that I can put them here and have whatever they sound like be interpreted by you.

by Sam Santala

by Sam Santala