Torust Kin'toni Clan

History

The clan was founded when Thandul was approached by a group of young zu'aan hoping for a sanctuary in his woods. He let them in and gave them food and let them rest. And in the dead of night, he drank and turned all of them. When they woke up and discovered what had been done to them, the people refused to leave. They forced Thandul to teach them how to hunt and feed and survive in the woods. Unable to get away from them, Thandul gave in and became their general. He taught them the ways of the forest and how to hunt both prey and any kin'toni who happen to trespass on their land.

Soon they held complete control of the land. They honed their skills in ranged combat and moving through the trees so they could easily take on all those they found. Their ranks grew fast and wild. It drew the attention of the neighbouring clans and strained Thandul’s ability to hide their presence. Soon it was clear that he no longer resided alone in his forest sanctuary, and the other clans prepared for war. Thandul grew tired of hiding in his self-made prison and began teaching his clan the rest of what they were capable of.

When the forces of the enemy clans entered the forest looking for war, the forest seemed to be the one fighting back. Warriors disappeared into trees and bushes, fell into the ground, grabbed by some thing and dragged away, and all the while it rained arrows from every direction. What was supposed to be a simple campaign to remind Thandul why he was alone, became a battle they were unprepared for. After four days of dealing with the tactics of the Torust clan, the remaining invaders left the forest. They vowed to return if Thandul or his people stepped outside the boundaries of their territory.

As a response one of the Torust loosed an arrow from deep within the forest. It flew high and far until it struck an enemy warrior as just outside the border. The message was clear. And the neighbouring clans decided to keep their distance. The Torust clan thrived and flourished in their forest home without the threat of invasion. Often they hunted the zu'aan without relying on their many different traps as a way to show they were not afraid. And then one day Thandul called for a truce between the neighbouring regions and the Torust.

He reminded the other clans of the power of the Torust before he made his offer, the Torust would trade zu'aan for the resources they couldn't get in the forest. He outlined the benefits and the potential dangers so everyone knew what he was thinking with this trade. In the end the other clans agreed and soon the Torust became known for their skill at hunting zu'aan. Now the clan gets paid to travel into the wilds just to hunt down any zu'aan they happen to find.

Biology

Their eyes have light yellow irises with white sclerae and horizontal slit pupils and this gives them a heightened sense of sight, that doesn't lessed at night. Their sense of touch is also somewhat heightened and allows them to find the best places to set their feet when moving through the branches of the trees. However, they have a dulled sense of smell and that allows them to miss those who they don't see when they are scanning through the trees for prey. Their sense of hearing is just above average and helps them hear when the brush is disrupted.

Their sense of taste is skewed from that of most kin'toni. While the others tend to enjoy the taste of zu'aan blood, the Torust despise the taste and have to mix the blood with other liquids to mask it and avoid the strong urge to throw it up. At the same time no other food tastes good except for liquids so they are forced to live off no solid food to survive. Tall and lean with more pronounced muscles in their legs and upper arms, the Torust clan members’ height is often hard to really tell due to a more squat way of standing to give them better balance.

Their skin is smooth and thick and tough like tree bark. It allows them to take a bit more damage before it gets dangerous. It also allows them to withstand the effects of the changing weather. However, they are susceptible to the effects of extreme heat and extreme cold. Their arms and legs help them move quickly through the trees and operate their bows with cold efficiency. They have short hooked claws for aid in climbing trees and they are capable of jumping five feet into the air, which helps them make quick escapes. They move fast on the ground but better in the trees with partial quadrupedal leaps and swings.

Their jaws are slightly smaller than normal and they have sparse sharp fangs that are just long enough to reach the arteries of a zu'aan. This also means that their jaws are more fragile and easily broken on impact. They are agile and dextrous and have a slightly heightened strength that lets them handle the heavy bows they wield and the numerous traps they hide throughout the forest. Their sense of balance has adjusted to moving through the branches and has affected their centre of gravity to the point where the best time to strike is on solid ground.

Their hair is coarse and wild and often a darl murky brown that matches the leaves of the trees. They are vulnerable to fire and heavy piercing attacks such as barbed spears and pikes. Their vocal cords operate on a different frequency and they can use their voices to hurt and disorientate their prey. This allows them the opportunity to capture more zu'aan alive when hired to hunt. However their throats are extremely sensitive and the slightest wrong touch can cause damage to their voice that takes months to heal.

Culture

Making their village deep within the heart of the forest, the Torust build their huts out of twigs, branches, vines, and folliage to prevent easy discovery. The only one to do different is Thandul, who prefers to sleep in the crook of the tree branches. The village is spread out with several clan members clustered together in makeshift families of that are bound by the experience of when they were turned. They protect each other on hunts and whenever they’re scouting out new areas in search of their hired targets. To hide themselves amongst the folliage of their forest home.

The clan members of the Torust wear dark cloth outfits that cover their entire body andthen wrap themselves with vines and leaves. While on hunts in foreign regions, they wear much of the same dark cloth, but with more of themselves exposed to the elements. They always carry cloth and wooden quivers along with vine corded rope strapped to their hips with a short curved knife for gathering supplies for crafting arrows and traps. The tree tops of their forest are lined with different coloured cloth bands to help them navigate the dangerous trap laddened terrain.

White for rope slip traps. Black for soft ground pits. Red for clothesline spikes. Brown for bush grab traps. Violet for archer perches. And any green bands they see means clear tree paths out of their forest. Near the borders on all sides are small totems of skulls from when Thandul was first placed in the forest. Several old wooden hides make up a second canopy and workshop where Thandul creates his traps and the bows that everyone in the clan uses. Just south of the centre of their forest is a makeshift clearing where they practice their archery and train for hunts outside their forest.

Further south beyond the training ground is where Thandul helps them test any new traps on the local wildlife. The entire section is sanctioned off with bands of yellow to emphasise the use of caution but no specific danger. Outside their territory, the Torust clan is known as one of the best clans of zu'aan hunters. They do not care about borders or territorial pacts. They hunt as families and will travel all over the continent in search of their target. Their skill with a bow and willingness to go anywhere has made the other clans willing to hire them to track down zu'aan tribes that escaped capture.

They even take contracts to hunt and kill other kin'toni for even more supplies. For the right price they will go anywhere for a target, including into zu'aan cities just to get a rare trophy or to send a declaration of war by killing one of the city leaders. For such actions the clan is given enough supplies to last them for many years. However they do not offer their loyalty to those who hire them. They will take a contract from anyone who will pay. Even from a zu'aan.

Government

Unlike many clans, Thandul did not become the actual leader of the clan he founded. Instead, he acts as the general and the armourer and trap smith. The real leaders of the clan are the members of the Family Council. They are comprised of the heads of each of the families that make up the clan. Each new family appoints a head to have a vote on the Council. It is the Council who votes on what contracts to take, what contracts to refuse, who to turn, who to kill, if they will try new trap designs, or if they need to retire an old design.

They appoint a representative for all negotiations with the other clans before the offer is taken to be heard by the Council. This representative also acts as an emissary when they are hunting across controlled regions. This is to make sure no action is taken against the clan because of the hunt. Each family head is in charge of the rest of their household and responsible for each member. When a new contract is taken on, each family head must decide if they want their family to be the ones to take it on. During hunts, the family head is in charge of planning and strategising how to accomplish the desired outcome.

They instruct their family members in the different aspects of each hunt and make sure everyone is prepared. The clan follows certain laws to guide them in their dealings with the world. The first of these laws is “Family comes firs, Clan second, Survival third, nothing else matters.” This means that each clan member is responsible to the family above all others and even on a hired hunt they must put their family and the clan ahead of their own survival or even the completion of the job. The second law is “We are never slaves.” This means that while they are hired out for their skills as hunters.

They must always get paid and never do more than was initially asked without further negotiations. Those who have attempted to cheat the clan or get greedy with ordering them about on a job have found that the Torust make for nightmarish enemies. Whole clans have fallen due to such arrogance from their leaders. The third law is “We are hunters, not mercenaries.” This is a distinction based solely around what jobs they are willing to take on. For the right price they will hunt, capture, and/or kill any target anywhere on the continent.

However, they will not fight someone’s war for them, and they will not act as bodyguards. The only jobs they take are those of a hunter. The last major law they follow is “The client does not matter, the prey does not matter, only the price they are willing to pay.” This means that they hold no loyalty towards those who hire them and will take jobs against former employers. This also means they are willing to work of zu'aan as well.

Military

Every member of the Torust clan is part of their fighting force. As hunters for hire, much of their life is spent training how to kill other living things in numerous ways. Their primary weapon of choice is the heavy wooden great bow made from wood taken from their own forest. These great bows were initially designed by the founder of the Torust clan, Thandul, for the purpose of protecting himself from hostile invaders. He also designed and built the first traps the clan used when fighting against the neighbouring clans. He became their general and trap smith.

It was his lessons that formed the basis for the tactics that make the clan a nightmare to fight in their own territory, and his style of archery that made them legendary hunters. Once they won the war for the future of their clan, the Torust made Thandul responsible for making sure they are ready for any job and that no one could ever be ready to invade their forest again. On the orders of the Family Council, Thandul is constantly improving the design of the Torust great bow. As well as coming up for more devious and deadly traps. Both large ones for the forest.

And smaller more portable and easily configured ones for use on hunts outside their territorial borders. While he is a capable fighter in his own right, Thandul is not allowed to leave his forest. Instead, it is the different families that form the rest of the clan that is hired to go on hunts. Each hunt is taken on by a different family so they are able to take on more than one contract at a time, and each family has different strategies for dealing with the different targets they hunt. Due to them being willing to take contracts on other kin'toni, the clan is well versed in the crafting and usage of fire arrows.

They always send scouts to learn everything they can about a target before setting out from their forest. In special circumstances they will have Thandul build traps designed to handle specific kin'toni targets. Outside of their custom traps, the Torust clan practice their aim and the speed and distance of their ranged attacks. They are capable of sending seven heavy arrows as far as several thousand paces in an open area. In a forest or otherwise obscured areas, their distance is cut in half. However, it is rare for a Torust archer to miss their target.

When hunting zu'aan, they will often use their voices to stun their targets and capture them with little fuss. On those hunts, they refuse to bring lethal traps. Instead, they always use their rope traps to tie up any who attempt to resist them. This is because they are always hire to capture any zu'aan alive to be fed on and turned by the kin'toni who hired the Torust. They are rarely hired to just capture the kin'toni they are sent after. So for those contracts they go all out.

Religion

Every member of the clan believe that they exist to hunt. They also believe that the hunt will bring them closure to the end of all existence. According to them, the end of the world will start when they are all hired by different employers to fulfil a single impossible hunt. As they strive to locate the target, their forest will die and the rest of the clans will begin an unending war with each other. The zu'aan will all be turned, and the Torust will become the prey. They believe that after this they will find a path to a new land where their taget will be revealed.

And while the rest of the world dies they will be locked in the eternal chase after the best prey they have ever encountered. This is not a future they wish to avoid, but rather one they plan to ensure. This is why they do not care about hunting those who they have worked for in the past, and why they will work for zu'aan as well as kin'toni. To them the thrill of the hunt is sacred. The only thing that matters more is their family and the clan. They believe they are the only clan who will see what lies beyond the end of everything else by being the chosen hunters of the sacred prey.

They believe that their dead will join them after the end and they while build a new world to chase after the sacred prey and start all over once they sacrifice the prey to the final arrow. They do not know what will occur once the new hunt starts, nor do they believe theirs is the first of such hunts. Instead they believe the first hunt began twenty worlds previously and it was a single hunter who made it to the new land and the forming of the new world. they call this hunter Demetros and look to her as a guiding spirit who chooses who will take on the next hunt.

They believe Thandul was cast out because he was the only person chosen to participate in the hunt in the last world and that he was guided to found the clan as a way to give this hunt more of a chance as finally succeeding where he failed. They believe that Thandul failed by giving up the hunt and angering the spirit of Demetros. Thandul, unlike the rest of the clan, follows a god he calls Arctos. He believes Arctos is a great white bear made of ice who will swallow the world. He believes Arctos sent him the first clan members as a way to fulfil the great work that he was prevented from completing before.

He believes the great work is the utter anihilation of all living things before Arctos will swallow the world. This is what first started his crafting of elaborate traps and why he has studied the common ways to hunt and kill kin'toni as well as zu'aan.

Miscellany

Nearby Groups

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Torust Kin'toni Clan

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