Stevie Lambert: (via JWB)

2026-05-10T12:40:54Z

(via JWB)

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{{Infobox:TwilightAgeGroup
|Type = Kin'toni clan
|Name = Rubel Kin'toni Clan
|Parent Groups = Unknown
|Descended Groups = Unknown
|Areas Controlled = [[Hon'kin Temperate Forest]]
|Date Founded = 4E 220
|Date Disbanded = N/A
}}

==History==

The Rubel clan was founded by Vinic Rubel, whom the clan honours by taking his name. Vinic led the clan deep into the forest where the massive trees could hide their large forms. Once settled in their tree home, the clan began studying the plants within their new territory. Unlike many of their fellow clans, they weren't interested in using physicality when hunting and fighting. Instead, they used their increased intelligence to use the wildlife of their forest to create simple poisons and traps. Vinic helped his clan learn how to use their environment to their benefit in numerous different ways.

With their way of life rooted as firmly in their forest as their giant trees are in the ground, the clan reached out to the neighbouring regions. They invited emissaries to come and see the wonders of the forest and the bounty of the trees. They built a hall with a long table for a giant feast for their guests to enjoy during the summit. They then stood back and watched as all the pieces fell into place. Only some of the regions sent emissaries, and only out of sheer curiosity. However, upon entering the forest, these emissaries discovered a land of lush beauty that hid deadly traps if they took a single wrong step.

Of the initial fifteen emissaries, only six made it to the summit hall. Vinic instructed the rest of the clan to appear as small and docile around their much smaller guests so they didn't appear imposing. This helped create an atmosphere where the emissaries felt comfortable and lowered their guards. They praised Vinic for his hospitality as they are the food off his table. Vinic convinced them to sign a non-aggression pact before sending them back to their home regions. Shortly after they reached their homes and gave their reports, every emissary fell over dead from poison.

But with the new pacts freshly in place the Rubel clan was never pursued in retaliation for the deaths. The clans that didn't send emissaries finally gave in to their curiosity but did not trust the invitations. So instead, they sent scouts into the forest and instructed them to stay away from the trails and stay hidden. But they didn't know the forest, or what the Rubel were capable of. They didn't know that the forest was allied with the Rubel. And the traps finally closed around them. The only two scouts made it out of the deceptively peaceful forest, only to die at the gates of their home.

Thus began the strange game the Rubel play with all those who enter their land. If they are simple explorers looking for peace and rest, the Rubel would keep their distance and hide beyond the trees. This was to let the travellers discover the freshly laden table in the summit hall. They'd watch as the explorers ate their fill and continued on. When they finally fell unconscious because of the poison, the Rubel would take the bodies to feed off of. Those who sought out the Rubel with aggression were given to mercy of the trap covered forest. To this day none have left the forest and survived for long.

==Biology==

With their eyes of light pink irises with black sclerae and horizontal slit pupils, the Rubel are slightly nearsighted and instead rely on their superior sensation of taste, better hearing, and good sense of smell to help them navigate through their forest of giant trees. Their sense of smell and taste especially help as they hunt the forest for specific plants and fruits to use in their creation of the different poisons and concoctions they use. Their hearing allows them to know when others enter their forest and especially how far they are, giving them a chance to hide and set the traps before being spotted clearly.

However due to their poor far vision they are unable to compete in ranged combat. Standing tall at ten heads over the tallest of the zu'aan, the Rubel have thick burgundy fur covering their massive muscular frame. This fur helps insulate them from the moderate cold of their winters. However, they are extremely vulnerable to very cold weather and cannot survive subzero temperatures. The fur on the small of their backs are a dark brown. This allows them the ability to be mistaken for tree trunks at a glance from a distance.

While their fur is thick and somewhat protective to the elements, their skin is soft and tender. This makes them vulnerable to piercing and slashing attacks. Their thick arms and legs give them the strength to tear down the trees in their forest, which they use to help build their traps.
They have a highly developed brain which gives them slightly elevated intelligence and aids in the designing of traps and the creation of poisons, medicines, and concoctions. It also led to their relying more on cunning than on using their brute strength to fight.

This intelligence spike has allowed them to use subterfuge and and tricks to attack their enemies while playing their friend, yet also gave them a superiority complex which causes them to not consider the possibility of a straight forward attack. Due to their bulk and their enormous frame they often appear intimidating. Yet these traits also make them relatively slow despite their long strides. They can however use the massive trees to aid in getting them around quicker by swinging on the thick branches. Doing so allows them to get twice as fast in half as long and aids in their moving around quietly.

To avoid making much noticeable tracks in their forest, the Rubel mainly use the trees and set any traps while hanging from the branches. One oddity in their biology is the presence of long articulated toes that can move a lot like fingers and come in handy when handling the rope triggers for the traps while hanging from the trees. They also use this to help stay hidden as they trigger the traps set for those who don't take the paths, and to pick and poison the fruits used for the feast in the summit hall so that the forest seems abandoned.

==Culture==

Taking on the life of a forest hermitage, the clan members reside in the hollowed-out trunks of the giant trees in the forest. They make their tools and such mainly out of rough wood and tree bark. Their ropes are often made from their own fur and the moss from the trees wrapped around each other for a strong hold. The only stone tools they use are mortars and pestles for grinding up the plants and berries they use to make their poisons, medicines, and other concoctions. They then store the separated ground up ingredients in stone jars etched with a specific symbol for easy identification.

They store the jars in the second-largest tree in the forest, which they use as an apothecary. They often go naked due to being covered in their thick long fur but will cover themselves in random leaves and twigs to aid in their natural blending in with their environment. However, when they are going to work in their apothecary, they first wash out their fur and put on cloth garments they received from a nearby clan. This is done to prevent accidents while they handle the ingredients for potentially deadly poisons. They will then carefully take off the clothes.

And make sure to wash them before putting them back with the other sets. Everything is done with the utmost care and attention so that the clan is safe. When they have invited guests, they will often wear robes of light brown cloth that can easily hide the fact they are usually crouching to appear half their actual size. In those situations, Vinic will don a tree bark crown and twisted staff to give the appearance of a king despite never caring for that sort of power. He'll even sit in a giant seat made from the stump of a felled tree to make it seem like a throne.

Hidden a little ways beyond the hermitage is a garden of flowers that include oleander, monkshood, larkspur, and nightshade. This garden is carefully tended by Vinic and houses some of the most dangerous ingredients the clan uses. While the other herbs and plants used are allowed to grow free, this garden is kept separated by a fence of wood surrounded by a ring of stone. Before handling any of the flowers from the garden, Vinic will wrap his hands in tanned hides to make sure no residue gets on his body. He will then soak his hands in a mineral rich stream of a nearby cave after he is done working with the poisonous materials.

The only built structures within the whole village are the summit hall, it’s long banquet table they keep stocked with fresh food they have poisoned, and a large flat circle that is lashed to the tops of three of the tallest trees. This is called the night floor, and it’s where clan members go to meditate and relax when the night is clear and the stars shine bright in the black void of the sky.

==Government==

Living in a hermit style community, there isn't much need for a standard government. Instead, the clan is structured like a school with Vinic at its head. They gave him the title The Humble Sage, and learn everything they can under his tutelage. He takes his role seriously and will rigorously study and experiment with his materials before he begins teaching them the topic. He will focus first on teaching them how to protect themselves from the harmful effects of the materials themselves. Then on how to make a poison and the different stages and effects the target will suffer through.

Some are immediately lethal, while others will merely make them sick or knock them out. He will then begin teaching them on how to use the same materials to make antidotes for the same poisons they employ and medicine to protect themselves from possible infections. He also has taught them how to treat wounds and illnesses they are likely to face when dealing with those from beyond their forest. Lastly he teaches them how to set traps throughout their forest and how to recognise where a trap has been set and how best to disable them safely for use elsewhere.

Helping with some of the finer aspects of teaching Are his most learned students who call themselves scholars and each specialise in a different subject. One will teach on how to identify ingredients in the wild and what effects they can cause if eaten raw. Another will teach on how to properly grind, store, and mix the ingredients to make the desired outcome as well as what to use to counteract the effects. There’s one who will teach how to poison food and how to spot when food has been poisoned. While another deals only in teaching how to make liquid based concoctions that have different effects depending of who ingests them and how much they have.

There’s a pit trap teacher who also gives lessons on how to survive and escape from the very same traps. The gravity trap teacher will also give lessons on using the trigger rope to lift them into the trees to escape detection. And the rope trap teacher likes to teach the finer points of different knots and how to untie them under pressure. The most extreme teacher is likely the log trap teacher who likes to have his students run through a gauntlet of his design and then ask how each trap worked and what the trigger was. If they answer correctly he will then give them the instructions on how to set them up.

If they get one wrong he has them run the gauntlet again. The last of these masters is the teacher of medicine, who will instruct them on how to set limbs using cloth and sticks, how to safely remove arrowheads and spear tips, how to wash and bandage their cuts, what plants will act as anaesthetic, and how to survive if they fall ill without being poisoned.

==Military==

Being physically passive to all outward appearances, the clan does not have a separate military or hunting force. Instead they use the entire forest as their means of fighting and hunting. Their primary weapons of choice is that of poisons and traps. They will also use subterfuge to lure those who could pose a genuine threat into lowering their guard and unknowingly open themselves up for a trap. Combat within their forest occurs as a battle of wits instead of the clash of conventional weapons. Those who openly seek to be hostile will often find themselves having to try to outsmart what can appear to be a sentient forest.

To ensure no rival clan can sneak close to their home, the Rubel always lace the traps they lay away from the main paths with a poison derived from oleander and nightshade. This makes it likely that those caught in said traps are unable to escape. For zu'aan travellers they will lace the food set on the banquet table with a slow acting poison based on larkspur that will render them unconscious and allow them to be moved without waking. This poison also will dilute in the body after its initial effect, thus making it harmless for the Rubel to then feed on their captives.

The first poison they ever used against the neighbouring regions was a delayed reaction contact poison soaked into the wood of the hilt of the etching hammer used in the signing of a nonaggression treaty. This was a special concoction made only by Vinic and never used again or taught to the rest of the clan. Another poison tactic they use is to leave berries coated with ground up monkshood at the main opening that leads to the outside world. These are often taken by passing bands and eaten without thought. When it comes to making traps, the Rubel clan will often cover for every possibility to ensure their success.

The most common ones are the pit and the rope pull traps. Sometimes the pits will have branches fashioned into spike at the bottom, but often they are deep and empty with the sides weakened so those caught will have trouble getting hand holds unless they are the same height as a Rubel. Another trap used is the stone gravity trap, which when triggered will drop a large stone on the person below. They use log pendulum swings, log rolls, rock slides, tree falls, wooden spike swing doors, noose rope drops, trip ropes, and hidden spikes.

They even have traps they can trigger from the cover of their trees. Traps such as the net drop, the lasso tug, and the spike toss. Each have been crafted with the express intent on capturing and or killing those who trespass into their territory. The final tactic they use and the biggest trap of all is their use of subterfuge. They will use their size and fur to hide amongst their trees, or they will dress in long robes and crouch to hide their size in order to make those who get close drop their guard and be convinced to have some food and drink before continuing on.

==Religion==

The Rubel believe in the abilities of their mind to create and invent and out think others. They don’t put much faith in the ideas of the mythic or the supernatural. The closest they come to a religion is the code of rules that guide each clan member in their decision making. Other than that they only trust what can be proven and learned. The one exception is their fascination with the stars. They often spend hours in the treetops gazing up and trying to find shapes and figures within the glittering mass of celestial bodies held in the night sky.

The first rule of their code is “Might fades, rely solely on the mind.” This is what prompts their outward show of pacifism. To them it means that it is better to be able to outthink and outwit their enemies instead of engaging in open warfare. To practice and excel at this, the clan members will engage each other in pranks that entail puzzles to solve or they will communicate with each other in riddles to see how fast they can solve them without aid. The more they succeed in such games the harder they will try to trick each other.
The second rule of their code is “to strengthen the mind, one must also strengthen the body.”

This is taken to mean that they must keep in shape and not ignore the needs of their flesh. This prompted them to be omnivores and to exercise daily while often meditating at night. They will travel their forests, both on foot and using the trees, every morning and then eat a breakfast of fruits and vegetables they pick on their runs. They bath daily and make sure to take care of any wounds they receive before they can get infected. The third rule of the code is “The wise never show their power, but instead appears weak and innocent while plotting the deaths of their enemies.”

This is the reason they are poisoners and trap makers. To them this means that it is better for those who encounter them to believe they are harmless despite any stories they may have heard. That way they can easily trick and kill them without any retaliation. And so they hide in their trees and dress as peaceful monks and gardeners whenever someone wanders in from the outside world. And they offer food and drink and rest to weary travellers. All before the poison takes hold and they can feed in peace. The last rule of the code is “the wise man knows that what may kill can also heal, and what may hurt may be used to save.”

This is the foundation of their interest in medicine. To them it refers to the duality of the ingredients and materials for their poisons and traps. And it promoted the experimentation of positive uses for all poisons as well as how to counter their effects and how to heal wounds taken by any attackers they might face.

==Miscellany==

{{NearbyGroups
| Centre = {{PAGENAME}}
| North = Unknown
| Northeast = Unknown
| East = Unknown
| Southeast = Unknown
| South = Unknown
| Southwest = Unknown
| West = Unknown
| Northwest = Unknown
}}

{{CrossSiteAttribution
| User = [https://www.fiverr.com/xoishtar xoishtar]
| Holder = xoishtar
}}

[[Category:3rd-century Twilight Age kin'toni clans]]
[[Category:xoishtar's contributions]]

Rubel Kin'toni Clan - Revision history

Stevie Lambert: (via JWB)