Tortle
Tortles are humanoid tortoises. Most are peaceful beings, content to Ignore the world outside their tribes. Others adapt to the more advanced cultures and live as peasants.
Each tortle stands approximately 5 or 6 feet tall and appears human-like except for a shell and tail like those of a tortoise. The natural shell color of a tortle range from shiny black to a deep, lustrous purple, and tortle chieftains often encrust their shells with sparkling gems or channel them with gold intaglios. The creature's mouth is beaklike and toothless, and Its head, feet, legs, and tail are green, yellow, or black, sometimes one solid color and sometimes pied. Most tortles forego clothing, although warriors often don breastplates and greaves.
Tortles tend to avoid combat whenever possible. When danger threatens, a tortle's first instinct is to plunge into any nearby water and hold its breath until the threat has passed. When forced to fight, tortles form regimented groups called warbales and approach their enemy in groups. Young tortles often form noncombatant bales that carry spare tridents for the warbales.
Most tortle tribes possess little technology and subsist primarily as hunter-gatherers. They maintain loose contact with other nearby tribes, joining them for hunts, hut building, and
other communal activities. A typical tortle village consists of a cluster of mud and thatch huts just off a beach. Sentry huts, each equipped with a gong or conch shell horn for sounding alarms, form a perimeter a few hundred yards from the central cluster. Since tortles are adept at working underwater deposits, tribes are often self-sufficiently acquiring what is available to them both above and below the waves.
Tortles are spiritual creatures. They worship Mother Ocean, the protector; Father Earth, the life-bringer; Brother Shell, the warrior; and Sister Grain, the patron of farmers and fertility. The typical tortie hut contains a seashell shrine dedicated to at least one of these deities.
A tortle hatches from a thick-shelled and spends the first few weeks or their life crawling on all fours. Those nearer the end of their days spend what time they have telling stories to their offspring. Within a year the young tortle learns what it needs to survive on its own.
A young tortle and its siblings inherit whatever tools, weapons, and gifts their parents left behind. Each young tortle is expected to fend for itself, eventually leaving the place of its birth to find a corner of the wilderness in which to hunt, catch fish, and get by. With each passing
year a tortle hones its survival skills. It forms friendships with neighbors while also respecting their privacy.
At some point, a tortle feels an almost overwhelming urge to venture far away from home and see more of the world retuming months or years later with stories of its exploits and new skills.
When a tortle nears the end of its natural lifespan it seeks out a mate and procreates. Tortles lay their eggs, numbering as few as one or as many as a dozen, in a fortified compound enclosed by stone walls that are easily defensible. If no such compound exists. they build
one. The parents spend the remainder of their lives guarding the compound, defending their offspring and sharing a lifetime of knowledge before they die. When the children are old enough to leave the compound they pick up whatever weapons and tools their parents left
behind and set out on their own.
RPG Datasheet
Tortle
The Tortle Package page 4Much of this section, by necessity, ties into the Dungeons and Dragons Role Playing Game by Wizards of the Coast. Any non-original material that is found herein remains under the ownership of the originating author and is not intended to violate any laws. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the views of any person, living or dead or undead, real or fictitious, male or female, religious or atheist, bald or full head of hair, stubbled or fat-bearded. No people or animals, other than the author's sanity, were harmed in the creation of this article. Please wash your hands after going to the washroom. For entertainment purposes only.
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