Stoneborn

High above the clouds, on the tallest peak of a mountain range, a Stoneborn sits quietly, watching the sunrise. On the steep slopes below, a small village comes to life with the sounds of bells, morning prayer, and martial practice. Scattered throughout the inhospitable high places of the world, Stoneborn live reclusively, rarely gracing the lowlands with their presence.

Mountain folk

Imposing creatures of muscles and concentrated energy, Stoneborn are large, usually standing between 7 and 8 feet tall, and weighing between 400 and 500 pounds of dense, solid muscle. Their skin is usually shades of gray, often covered in swirling patterns, reflecting the mountains in which they make their home.

Stoneborn are bald and usually hairless, with bright eyes, typically the striking colors of gems and minerals. As they age, their skin softens and takes on a more weathered appearance. Made of the stuff of mountains, Stoneborn do not feel cold as other races do, and often are seen walking high mountain paths in simple clothes or even little more than a few pieces of hide and fur.

Stoneborn tend towards simple lifestyles, having no use for the gold and treasure of the world below. They do, however, prize fine craftwork in metal or stone, and many Stoneborn wear intricate jewelry.

Stoneborn are considered an adult by their late 20s, but usually don’t settle into fully adult roles until their 30s. Stoneborn typically live at least 300 years.

Proud and Independent

Like many long-lived Elder Folk, Stoneborn perceive the flow of time differently than humans. While they tend to prefer the slow pace of mountain life, where change comes rarely as the slow movement of a glacier, they are also the people of avalanches and volcanoes. Stoneborn see the decadal crawl of a glacier and the thunderous destruction of an avalanche as equal parts of the ebb and flow of the world.

Stoneborn are deeply connected to their homelands, and tend to see themselves as masters of their domain. This attitude tends to encourage a fierce independence in Stoneborn society. Stoneborn tolerate few outsiders on their lands, and those they do allow rarely become trusted members of the community.

Individual Stoneborn tend to be proud and confident in their mastery of their discipline. Like many Elder races, they tend to be slow to trust outsiders to their society, but they also greatly respect skill and honor demonstrated masters even if they are not Stoneborn. They tend to be accepting of the ebb and flow of circumstance, resilient in failure and stoic in success. This can lead to a certain appearance of passivity, and among some Stoneborn this attitude leads to detachment from the trials and challenges of life outside their mountain refuges. Few Stoneborn care much for wealth, seeing little point in accumulating material goods; those that do find attachment to possessions generally prize skill in craft over raw value.

Disciplined Masters

Stoneborn are the embodiment of and draw magical power from the mystical founder of their race, Entamba, the Elder Mountain. Entamba is the first Stoneborn, born in the slow uplift of ground into mountains or the fiery blast of a volcano, and the last Stoneborn, the dust of mountain slowly worn away over eons and scattered into the sea and air. Through their connection to Entamba, Stoneborn are capable of feats of concentration, single-minded focus, and supernatural mastery over their bodies and the stone of their mountain homes.

In Stoneborn society, the concentration and discipline arising from their connection to Entamba leads to a high value being placed on expertise and training. Young Stoneborn apprentice themselves to masters in a skill or trade, and by years of training and practice become masters themselves. Stoneborn society is built around these relationships and specializations, and Stoneborn honor the training and dedication necessary to become true masters of any skill, whether in combat, crafting, teaching, tending the young, or healing.

While Stoneborn themselves rarely leave the mountains, they do sometimes accept members of other races who meet the rigorous standards they set for themselves for training and apprenticeship. Warriors who have trained with the Stoneborn usually find renown in battle, craftsfolk find fame in their craft, and teachers find themselves with large and loyal followings.

Consensus-Builders

Stoneborn live in small communities, usually centered around one or a few gymnasiums or academies, where a renowned master may ply their trade. While they honor skill and training above all, these communities tend to make decisions based on consensus and share resources based on need. Stoneborn find hierarchical societies and the greed that drives many other races hard to conceptualize.

Stoneborn society has little organization beyond the village or local community. No kings or queens rule over the Stoneborn, and no leaders hold sway. When decisions must be made that affect more than the local community, especially decisions about war and peace, the elders will gather, meet, and discuss in one of the many sites sacred to Entamba. A consensus is reached, and all are bound by it. Stoneborn act as one, or not at all.

Those individuals that cannot abide by the consensus of their community or the elders find themselves cast out from Stoneborn society. While free to return and accept the strictures of community, these indviduals often seek their way alone in the world, reliant on their individual skills and talents. As a consequence of this, Stoneborn society tends towards sameness, as dissident voices drift away.

While other races may sometimes live in Stoneborn communities, generally while apprenticed to a master, they are rarely given a voice in deliberations, and are expected to follow the will of the community. Those who don’t quickly find themselves no longer welcome.

Reclusive

Rarely do Stoneborn venture down from the summits of the high places of the world, preferring to live in isolated communities of their own kin. In their mountain strongholds, they are rumored to be able to mold stone with prayers to Entamba, the first Stoneborn, to cut villages from the cliff, and warm the high mountain meadows to create lush fields with days of meditation.

Those that do leave the mountains are generally either outcasts, departing their homes due to a disagreement, tragedy, or some other unusual circumstance, or individuals seeking training, knowledge, and skill not available except in the outside world.

Strange and Foreign

Stoneborn tend to find the ambitions and greed that drive other races hard to understand, and rarely live among such folk. While they appreciate a desire for mastery, and the ambition to be the best at something is one that many Stoneborn feel, for them the skill is reward enough, and a desire for fame and fortune is foreign to them.

The exception is the dwarves, who despite their rigid, hierarchical society and lust for mineral wealth, share a long history of being allies in wars against the Orcs and hobgoblins. Stoneborn still find dwarven society incomprehensible, but the proven loyalty and prowess in war of the dwarven armies has ensured a trusting, if not exactly warm and friendly, alliance.

Stoneborn also tend to get along well with lizardfolk, who share some of their attitude towards the natural world and their love of their homeland, although Stoneborn find the lizardfolk love of swamps, forests, and and green living things to be strange.

Stoneborn Names

Stoneborn names are a living, changing part of their identity. All Stoneborn have a birth name given by their parents, and clan name reflecting the community they belong to. While in many cases this is the community they were born into, Stoneborn who join a new community will often change their name when they feel they are fully a part of their new settlement. A Stoneborn’s training and discipline is as much a part of their identity as their family and community, and most Stoneborn take a use name reflecting their skill or the lineage of the master they trained under. Names are not gendered in Stoneborn society. In normal usage, Stoneborn either go by their use name or their birth name.

Use names typically either reflect a skill, or the name of a master. For example, a skilled stonemason may take the use name Stonebreaker or Stonecarver; a skilled warrior may take the use name Quickblade or Strongaxe; or a skilled teacher may take the use name Loremaster or Mindshaper. Alternatively, a use name may reflect the lineage of the master a Stoneborn trained under. For example, a student of the master Maumak Ironforger may take the use name Maumakandi or Maumakundi (student of Maumak). It is also common to adopt the use name of your master, so if your master is Maumak Ironforger, you may also take the Ironforger use name.

Like dwarves Stoneborn ascribe meaning to their use names as therefore often introduce themselves with use names in the trade tongues. But some may not follow this custom. And some may invent new names for themselves when they travel outside their homeland.

Birth Names: Arvid, Aglath, Anathi, Bomika, Cebo, Dumoth, Elethu, Ivak, Kamva, Lumiko, Luvoth, Malimi, Maumak, Masandith, Nandi, Onako, Saliza, Songath, Sumeyad, Thandeka, Themba, Unathid, Yandisa, Zola

Community Names: Anakalambo, Elanithino, Kalawa, Ogolakanu, Starkast, Thunakalathi, Yanmeigala

Use Names: Ironforger, Stonebreaker, Stonecarver, Quickblade, Strongaxe, Mindshaper, Loremaster, Farseer, Longstrider, Bloodbasher, Fistmaster, Steelbender, Quartzminer, Heartsinger.