Ratfolk
Ratfolk (or the Choohajesh as they call themselves) are small, rodentlike humanoids with twitching snouts, bony feet, and long, pink tails. They are about the same size as halflings but of a slimmer build. They often wear hooded cloaks or long robes to conceal their true nature from the gaze of casual onlookers.
Ratfolk can be found where ever there's a city large enough that no one will bother to chase them away, or has some kind of sewer system complex enough to make flushing them out nearly impossible. The overwhelming majority of ratfolk in Rhyduania are from the Karthin Cities or the cities of western Nehemen, with a small handful hailing from the dwarven tunnels in the Khalvarn mountains.
Family is important to ratfolk, and their strong communal ties mean they often form or join tight-knit criminal societies. Although some ratfolk have been known to ally themselves with goblins, kobolds, or the darakhul, they prefer to serve a mysterious “rat king” who is usually, but not always, a powerful rodent or rat-like creature of some sort. Many of Zabiqia's ratfolk are loyal servants of the city’s infamous Mouse King—picking pockets, burgling mansions, and smuggling goods in and out of the ports on behalf of their monarch. Others serve any powerful figure as scouts, saboteurs, and infiltrators on their master’s behalf. Whoever their master may be, ratfolk are loyal to their kin. Ratfolk enjoy collecting interesting trinkets and baubles, and hoard these items in their homes, often in preference to more valuable (but dull) gold and silver coins.
Most ratfolk forego actively criminal endeavors in favor of a highly motivated scavenger ethos, building their homes and communities with the detritus of the dominant society of their city. Garbage pits are their agriculture, and junk is their currency. Some communities have managed to find themselves a niche as an ad hoc tinker guild, repairing things with the scraps of other things.
RATFOLK NAMES
Among themselves, ratfolk use names that identify their family and their place within the family, in the same mold as human names like Ivan Ivorson. They seldom use these names among non-ratfolk, however. Instead, they seem to derive perverse pleasure and great humor from giving themselves nicknames that make humans and elves uncomfortable, such as Plaguesores and Stinqface. Ratfolk are infamously hard to offend, so the more offensive the nickname, the more it amuses them. These nicknames are no different between males and females. Some examples of ratfolk nicknames are Bloodylips, Carrionsqarfer, Fleshstripper, Gutspill, Puslicker, Rotstench, and Sewergass.
Culture
Major language groups and dialects
Ratfolk don't really have their own language so much as in incredibly elaborate creole that is completely unintelligible to speakers of the languages it borrows from. This creole has distinct regional variances which may obstruct communication between ratfolk of different communities, but rarely for more than a few days. The few ratfolk to engage in long distance travel have generally identified the main language groups to be Northern Karthin, Southern Karthin, Zabiqian, Baqubairi, Khasahni and Khalvarnish.
Shared customary codes and values
Ratfolk values focus heavily on the idea of loyalty to family and community, and individuals who don't fit into communities might find themselves de facto exiled, if not de jure. The lucky among these lone rats learn that found family can be a valid community, too.
While many people of other cultures dismiss ratfolk as uncivilized trash monsters, they generally take pride in the sophistication of their culture, and consider it virtuous that their sophistication is built on the waste of other cultures. They have their own chefs, who know the best trash pits to scavenge ingredients from, and their own sculptors, who craft powerful social commentary from found objects. Some would argue the wastefulness of other cultures makes that of the ratfolk both necessary and more advanced. People who grew up in other cultures often find these finer points to be a hard sell when they're being discussed over a dented codpiece full of "wine" brewed from discarded banana peels.
Common Etiquette rules
In Choohajeshan culture, food scraps and waste visible in the fur or clothing of another adult are considered to be fair game for an observer to eat, but to reach into a pack or pouch for food is theft and grounds for a mild to moderate stabbing. A traveling companion might be startled to find a rat person eating crumbs out of their beard during a meal, but to the rat person, this is as polite as small talk.
Common Dress code
Ratfolk dress is exceptionally individualistic. Their culture contains no nudity taboos to speak of, and so uniform clothing habits never developed. As a result, all clothing is purely decorative in nature, and usually scavenged from the discarded articles of other cultures. Whether or not these articles are even being worn as intended by their creators seems to be a matter of chance. Ratfolk fashion sense will occasionally include mockery of the local trends through clothing arrangements they find amusing.
Foods & Cuisine
Fermentation is king in Choohajeshan culture, and much culinary debate centers around the ideal amount of aging for particular ingredient or dish. Pasty consistencies are praised, and savory deserts are common. Alcoholic beverages get their initial sugars from varied and creative sources, and most ratfolk learn from an early age to not waste their top shelf dairywine on human guests.
Funerary and Memorial customs
Ratfolk believe that the transition to the afterlife is not fully complete until the corpse cannot be smelled anymore.
Common Myths and Legends
Ideals
Beauty Ideals
If the bawdy songs they sing are to be believed, ratfolk are greatly enamored by the shine of an oily coat of fur, and smooth tail skin. Individuals who prefer to live a saucy lifestyle have been known to shave a bit at the base of the tail to expose an inch or two of extra skin.
Gender Ideals
Ratfolk culture has a complex and multi-faceted gender culture, with hundreds of widely known genders and hundreds more gender modifiers.
External cultures have trouble telling any of them apart, and even biological sex is almost entirely undetectable.
Ratfolk who live in frequent close contact with other races will sometimes adopt gender coding from other cultures, mostly in the form of voice pitching, or wardrobe choices (like pulling a tattered, threadbare dress over leather armor to declare oneself feminine.) They will adopt feminine, masculine or neutral identities within mixed social groups, but generally find the inability of most humans to distinguish more than three categories to be another symptom of the lack of subtlty in human cultures. Much like how one must learn to deal with the fact that humans can't distinguish the sublime contrast in flavors between an onion that was sauteed a week ago versus one that was sauteed three weeks ago.
Courtship Ideals
Courtship rituals often involve the exchange of gifts created by beautifying a found object.
Related Locations
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