Open player race
enjoy the yeens - accidental project team
Background lore
Hylow, their name meaning "from great heights to down low", named as such, from their deviation from other races from a time long gone, having now circled back around and re-gained their humanity throughout the ages, these "half-animals" are slowly re-integrating into civilization either by forming their own tribes, or attempting to integrate straight into pre-existing civilizations and/or cultures by learning of their language and their customs.
not very widely/well known until recently
Appearance
The Hylow is a bipedal spotted hyena, with a long muzzle filled with sharp canine-like teeth that make it difficult for them to show conventional facial expressions. With their generally strong frames and an average height of somewhere between 1,60m and 2m. Their neck is generally covered by a thick mane that’s covered in spots, which they use to identify one another. said spots can sometimes continue down their upper bodies, such as their shoulders, backs, and arms
Culture
the two primary demographics of Hylow are the tribal demographic, known for a primitive hunter-gatherer lifestyle outside the grid and eye of greater civilization, with an emphasis on scavenging and hunting, their diet is strongly fitted towards mostly raw if not even old meat, but are compatible with small amounts of common plant-life like berries
the other, without much history beyond their discarded past, their culture heavily relies on integrating into the culture of others, children are tough to read early on but mainly to become hands-on workers like farm-hands, swords for hire, woodworkers, construction, and so on. attitude greatly varies depending on the family, but most hylow tend to stick together as they are not commonly found in large amounts in the same city, and are a very new presence in society
Strengths and Weaknesses Strengths: raw diet: can live off of unclean water and old raw meat, while it is far healthier for them not to, they do appear to have quite the resistance to disease from years of living in such a way, also giving them the ability to sense the smell of rotten flesh especially well over any other scent can revert from ill-shape (inactive, weak, malnourished) to good performance very quickly, granted the right conditions (nourishment and a conductive environment + a job to perform at). quick natural recovery: blood coagulates quickly around wounds, minor cuts can vanish in a matter of a few days, each day making visible progress even without aid, assuming the damage isn't fatal or irreversible (like damage to the fatal organs or an amputation). Athletic: Hylow are able to grow strong very quickly if they're well fed and work hard, making them good at jobs that require strength and endurance, lest they over-push their limit(which is an important thing we'll talk about later)
strength with weaknesses: Senses and Reaction Time: they posses fast reaction time and a good sense of smell. they may respond recklessly to certain things due-to their instincts though; a hylow may take an instinctive heavy swing at a bee that startled them, with no hope or plan to hit them, they may also stagger and quickly freeze in response to sudden loud noises such as explosions or yells, unless they spend a great deal of mental focus to be ready for that Rejects afflictions: hylow can not catch afflictions like lycanthropy or vampyrism, though that may make them seem immune, this is not true, their systems are good at fighting off afflictions such as the aforementioned, but this comes with a con, for about a week, they will manifest all the weaknesses of the affliction and none of the advantages while they get the affliction out of their system
Weaknesses: Over-Heat: though their energy can seem undoubtedly plentiful and unrelenting, they don't posses the same constant regulation of their internal temperature such as sweating, this makes an overworked hylow that isn't allowed to stop for a long breather far more likely to drop before most other races, their typically athletic builds tend to land them far ahead in early competitions like foot races, but the longer said race is, the more likely they are to burn out before they can win, lest they risk passing out from overheating speech complications: although they are quite capable to work around the complications that their more animal-like faces can bring, this still makes their speech-patterns come across slower and sometimes more emphasized around certain sounds that may be hard to produce without extensive training, this doesn't particularly limit their verbal communication, but it does put a speed-bump on it that must be worked around carefully. this may make them come across as suspicious to other races too reactive instincts: staggers and freezes in response to sudden loud noises. instinctively swings their fists at any other sudden noises that happen too close to them, such as a bee for example spells never come naturally: Hylow barely ever get born with any sorts of magical talents, and while they have magical potential, this barely goes well or anywhere really unless they invest an immense amount of time in usually either elementalism, or enchanting, as those are the two magic circles that they have enough natural connection to that they don't have to spend most their lives to master, even then though, these two select magic types still takes a huge amount of effort, time, study, and skill to use for this race, most tribes that even have a spell-caster of any kind have that caster specialize entirely on their magic to make sufficient use out of it to even begin rivaling what another Hylow can do without magic in the same time it takes to cast a spell, making it a very difficult and unpopular skill in the typical hylow's tool-set
credits:
OwlinIllustrates (concept, balancing, proof-reading, first race players, skin-maker and finalized presentation/thread tweaks) Depressing_Fox (proof-reading, WIP skin-making, partial balancing) GABRIELDAHLEN (main writer, concept, balancing, first race players, project management) Z3Tuna (co-writer, proof-reading, writer's-block aid) Cinderfell staff for putting up with my(GABRIELDAHLEN's) shit and enabling this small project to exist. and lastly 3 anonymous helpers (project management, proof reading, and writer's-block aid)