Pukwudgie
They were an influential race within the colonial, extraplanar Kelpeater Empire on First Age Waking Materia. Unlike the First Empire itself, they were not natives of Lorgain; records of their presence began suddenly during the Dye Wars of the 2nd and 3rd centuries I.M., suggesting they populated Materia as pirates or tradesmen during the wars' explosion in economic activity.
"Pukwudgie" is a common bastardization of their name in their native language: bahk-vajj, meaning "those who emerged"; a reference to their ancestors' emergence from their ancient, watery homes.
Favoured classes of Pukwudgies include rangers, druids, rogues, witches and alchemists.Biology
Pukwudgies are a unique and genetically isolated Humanoid species, most often thought to be a branch of the Ur-Boggra Family (true goblins, boggarts, et cetera). They are as tall as dwarves on average and about as wide, though not as muscular. They possessed long, narrow snouts similar to Earth echidnas, giving them an excellent sense of smell.
Most notably, their backs are covered in sharp spines, which they can splay or collapse at will. The quills of all pukwudgies carry a weak toxin which causes minor pain, fever and muscle weakness, but is almost always nonfatal. However in rare cases, individuals are born with a more powerful toxin, whose paralytic properties can be heart-stopping. How these individuals are treated varies from culture to culture, though in a majority of cases they are seen as ill omens and treated as social pariahs. As they regrow when removed, it is lucrative for toxic pukwudgies to sell their spines to assassins on the black market.
Pukwudgies also have large flaps of skin between their arms and legs, similar to Earth flying squirrels, which serve two purposes: 1. the flaps could wrap around their body when curled up and displaying their spines; 2. combined with an undulating technique, the flaps assist the swimming speed of these often marine-coastal people.
Culture
Excellent swimmers but poor climbers, Pukwudgies prefer coastal lowlands, lagoons, marshes, prairies and light-deciduous parkland. Squat and well-furred, they are comfortable in colder climates which most humanoids find inhospitable. Pukwudgie merchants and diplomats who lived among the boggy jungles of Alanthan'aravaut often commissioned shaded swimming pools and sealed "coldrooms" to host others of their kind.
History
Of all the First Age species on Waking Materia, the heavily coastal, amphibious Pukwudgies were most devastated by the Deluge. Though aspects of their lifestyles and politics are contained in surviving First Age texts, Pukwudgie settlements are impossibly out-of-reach to Third Age archaeologists, though as the Sunken Expanse has now begun to slowly retreat, there is some renewed hope of learning more about this strange people.
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