Qufit (koo-fit)

Gregarious But Distractible Treegoing Merchants and Alchemists

The Qufit are an active, interplanar, Humanoid race mainly located in the Arborian and Silurian Eighths of the Greater Eridún Crux Region (GECR). They were a major culture within the the Kelpeater Empire on First Age Waking Materia. The are no longer present on Materia in its Third Age.

Originally from the plane of Arboria, qufit are primarily reclusive, but a gregarious subspecies would eventually emerge to begin a cultural partnership with the majority wood elves. It soon became apparent they were exceptionally clever when a hobby caught their focus, with an aptitude for engineering and alchemy. It is a population of this subspecies that would find its way to Materia, centuries later.

The qufit have a strong and long-lasting inter-species partnership with the large and imposing onidoshi.

Preferred classes include rangers, druids, alchemists and artificers.

Appearance

See also: Qufit Image Gallery (External)

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Primarily a treegoing species, Qufit are small Humanoids with long, dextrous fingers, lemur-like bodies and bat-like faces, most closely resembling the aye-ayes of Earth, with large eyes and ears suggesting an originally nocturnal disposition. The Alanthians sometimes called them Šalm'atmu or "Starchildren", from the way their large eyes gleam in the night, as they look down from the canopy.

Due to their treegoing nature, it's possible Qufit are one of the closest species to basal humans in the GECR, or perhaps an example of convergent evolution. Offspring between Qufit and other Humanoids are not recorded.

Ancestrally nocturnal, Qufit have sensitive eyes to daylight and were known to wear shaded glasses or goggles outside their forested homes; these devices, which are popular to this day among drow and dwarves, are thought to be their invention or the onidoshi's, with modern versions only being reverse-engineered from these First Age designs.

Society

On Waking Materia, Qufit had no shortage of tall jungle canopies in which to build their treetop settlements. This granted a number of benefits in Alanthian society: they needn't bicker with other tradesmen for urban real estate (which would often irritate the ruling Luga'al) and were much better able to keep their secrets from ishka'ari inquisitors.

As they are very "outward focused" in interests and drawn to the unknown, Qufit have a reputation as being materialistic, distractable and aphilosophical. They get along especially well with the onidoshi, whose affinity for building and handywork matches the canopyfolk's love of engineering. As the qufit find walking on flat ground awkward, they can often be seen riding the shoulders or even "riding harnesses" of Onidoshi business partners/mercenaries. While some races might find this demeaning, it is simply an accepted cultural practice between the two.

Onidoshi settlements tended to occupy the same land area as qufit canopy cities. This was highly beneficial for both: the onidoshi helped maintained ground security while the qufit were an easy source of treetop fruit & vegetables that were otherwise difficult to cultivate.

Qufit are thought to be the inventors of shaded goggles that partially block the sunlight, to which their large, nocturnal eyes are sensitive. These devices remain popular among particularly light-sensitive dwarves and drow in modern times.

History

The Qufit were already an interplanar species when Inum'indiron'aravaut and the Kelpeater Empire began their exodus from Lorgain. A very social and curious people, some "clans" of interplanar merchants and anthropologists likely became aware of Waking Materia during the height of the Dye Wars in the early First Age, as there is no historical record of them before this time. It's likely they entered power initially as interplanar trader barons during the massive spike in the price of dyes.

Despite their distrust of races foreign to their home plane, the First Empire gave the qufit above average leeway, due seemingly to the canopyfolk's reliability as materiel suppliers during the Dye Wars.

Qufit remained interplanar even after the colonization of Materia, with Elder "Horizonseekers" keeping the knowledge of Voidwalking carefully guarded, lest other races begin to exploit them for this knowledge. Qufit society itself was quite egalitarian however, and lesser-ranked qufit could request certain pieces of knowledge from the Elders so long as they were sufficiently surreptitious about it.

It seems as if the qufit used this retained knowledge to collectively flee Materia (due to the Deluge most likely, though possibly earlier) as there is no record of them in the Second Age.