Grunkak – They Hail From The Feywyrd…

This is the first part of a series about a new race from Feywyrd: The Grunkaks. This race is “new” becuase they were not part of our original line up of races in the Loaerth & Feywyrd, an adventure we are developing for use with the Savage Worlds Roleplaying Game.  Things change – and one of the beautiful things about our crowd sourcing style is that, new ideas sometimes overtake the old ones. Enjoy, and please – let us know what you think in the comments.

Background

These mischievous reptilian humanoids are giant-sized fey native to Feywyrd. They are highly intelligent and have an affinity for elemental and trickster magic. After the Helfay brought the elves back to Feywyrd, the two races clashed intermittently over territory and resources. Fortunately for both races, grunkak orators, quite skilled at persuasion and charm, were able to negotiate truces when the hexes of the elves proved too powerful for the giant race. Eventually, as some groups of elves acclimated to the harsher conditions of the deep interior of Feywyrd, they grew close to the grunkaks and became valuable allies. These elves learned the magical art of rockshaping from the grunkaks and used this knowledge to build several elaborate, protected villages in high-elevation rocky deserts.

Recently, some grunkaks have been seen on the Island and in Loaerth. These characters are typically social outcasts or curious adventurers drawn by the promise of this new land of science and craftsmanship.

Physical Description

Grunkaks are covered in tough scales, which give them natural protection against physical attacks. The tops of their heads are encrusted with elaborate sets of horns and knobs. Some grunkaks notch or otherwise modify their horns for aesthetic purposes, and creative practitioners of this body art are respected and sought out by others who would like to wear their designs. Although reptilian in appearance, their heads bear a similarity to hyenas and jackals. Their jaws are wide and perpetually smiling, showing rows of sharp, dangerous teeth. Their pupils are diamond-shaped; some say that making eye contact with a grunkak puts a person at risk for being enchanted and held in thrall.

Grunkaks do not hatch from eggs like most reptiles; instead they are born live from the womb, like mammals. Young grunkaks develop clumsy wings during their first three years, and by the age of four they can fly short distances. However, these wings never catch up with the immense and steady growth of the body, and by the time a young grunkak is ten year of age, the wings become virtually useless; within a few years they painlessly shrivel and drop off, leaving “wing scars” on their backs.

Infant grunkaks up to four years of age, before the wings have developed fully, are generally cared for by their mother. Once the wings develop, young male grunkaks cling to their fathers while the females stay with their mothers. Immature grunkaks, up to the age of ten, are often seen impishly perched on a shoulder of their parents when not engaged in mischief with their peers.

A mature grunkak stands somewhere between 14 and 20 feet tall and weighs from 450 to 1000 pounds. Males tend to be a couple of feet taller than females, and heavier.

Culture

Grunkak society tends towards egalitarianism. While types of work are traditionally aligned with one gender or another, grunkaks appreciate the unique qualities of individuals, so that it is not unusual for a large or tough female to rise to prominence as a warrior, nor is it considered taboo for a male to focus on domestic or cultural work, if that is where his skills and talents lie.

Stories, drama, jokes (practical and verbal), and physical humor are widely appreciated by grunkaks. Grunkak rocksculptors, creative artisans skilled in rockshaping architecture and statuary, are esteemed in grunkak society.

Taks and Utaks

The essential unit of grunkak society is the tak (house), which is an extended family related by blood and marriage. Taks interwoven through marriage and bonded by shared social custom form an utak (nation). Taks typically consist of around 15-30 grunkaks, and utaks may be composed of as few as two to as many as a few hundred taks. Utaks grow larger and more powerful as centuries pass and more taks are drawn into the nation through marriage. Smaller utaks are frequently assimilated by larger ones through prestigious marriages.

Grunkaks and Hodolu Faeries

Grunkaks have a primal fear of hodolu faeries, whom they believe to be malignant spirits. The recent phenomenon of hodolu animals is has greatly disturbed the grunkak elders who fear that the hodolu faeries might one day possess the grunkaks themselves.

Gears on Fire! – Loaerth & Feywyrd Logo Development

One of the really fun aspects of working with Nevermet Press is the process of creating new things that – honestly – you have no prior experience doing. A close second is how our development process works (think herding cats). All too often we are “figuring it out” as we run forward, stopping just long enough to lick our wounds and learn from our mistakes along the way.

My case in point: logo design. Lesson learned? Yes. The point? Let people do what they do best and stay out of the grass unless you know how to mow it.

A few weeks ago I posted to the Nevermet Press Content Developers Forum a call for logo designs for Loaerth & Feywyrd. It took only two hours for one of our excellent artists to volunteer for the task: Rob Torno. The idea gristmill started churning immediately. Emails started flying back and forth brainstorming ideas, concepts, and themes. Rob started in on me with some fundamental questions. Things for him that were obvious, but for me I had not even thought about beyond “Hmmm, Loaerth & Feywyrd need a logo or something…” I threw together a really sucky version of something I had in mind using (cough) Word. See the horribleness below.

Fortunately for me, and for Nevermet Press, Rob didn’t run for the hills. He pushed, he pulled. He asked tons of questions. He produced over a dozen concept designs in the process. At one point, I even snapped an iPhone photo of some (even worse) doodles I did on a sheet of paper with a Sharpy and sent it to him by MMS. Feast you eyes on this …

GEARS ON FIRE!!! Yeah… that was the result of about five too many double espressos. Nonetheless – Wow! … hats off to Rob for putting up with me. Not all was lost… Iron Maiden and Metal aside, we still managed to home in on something that really worked.

And this is where the beauty of Nevermet Press comes into play – the crowd. The above horrible image (read: my hand drawn image in the upper left) was shared with everyone in NMP’s development forum and recieved tons of feedback – everyone pitched in and shared their thoughts, criticisms, and comments. Eventually, the version in the lower left above image was used as the seed for the next round of logo designing. Rob pushed on.. firmed it up with his PhotoShop magic wand, and in a returned the silhouetted image below.

Rob quickly followed up with this to say in the forums:

… I think it has more to do with the fact that this logo has occupied almost twice as many hours of work then the troll painting did. If the end result works out that’s great and the process has taught me a lot, but I’m clearly more adept at pushing pixels illustratively…

… The amount of time had more to do with my limited knowledge of what I was doing, but as i said it, was a good learning experience, so time well spent. Maybe I’ll have to try and tackle another one of these in spite of my misgivings, just to cement a process. I’ll try and have a refined B&W and a color for you soon.

Emphasis mine. After all that – he was STILL on board for more. It also goes to show how much all the back and forth between myself, Rob, Michael Brewer and the other content developers really ends up benefiting everyone involved, including the content developer (in this case, Rob). Not to mention we got a great looking logo to boot! Here’s the colorized version he sent me a few days later:

Need I say more? He’s a class act all the way around. I’ll leave it at that.

The logo(s) alone gets me excited to see what else is in store… how about you.

What do you think? Awesome?! Meh? How could we improve this design? Or is it good just the way it is? Let us know in the comments!

oh, wait – there is more!

Come back tomorrow and check out the Malachrome Gaurd Dog; a new fully illustrated creation by Charles Dickey and Rob Torno for Loaerth & Feywyrd due out Friday, April 2nd!

Written by Jonathan Jacobs.

All (good) artwork by Rob Torno.

Edited by Cassey Toi.

Devdanchar Art

click each image for a high resolution version

In the Time Before Time, in the Great Darkness (a couple of months ago, online) the Creator (John Payne) brought forth a world called Shayakand. It is a land shrouded in mystery. One inhabited by a great evil known as Devdanchar. As one of the content developers and artists here at Nevermet Press, I was asked to form a likeness of this evil (I get to make pictures!). A form was selected from the many that the Darkness birthed (the pencil version of a thumbnail sketch) and was given shape (the shaded image) and then life was breathed into it (the pixels were pushed around until it looked better).The Almighty Founders (Jonathan and Michael) spoke and proclaimed that this image should be made known to the world (they said to post it on the site).  It is so.

I hope you like it. Check out the link to Devdanchar’s concept and backstory and compare to the image above. There’s an important detail missing – can you spot what it is? What explanation could be given for its absence in light of the backstory? (see the secrete upside down answer below)

Let us know what you think by posting comments (even nasty ones), but know that the Mighty Founders see all (and they’ll probably delete the nasty).

The Feytroll – Now with Video!

Heya folks. Jonathan asked me if I would be willing to do a character portrait of Felix Sundown. Intrigued by the concept of the feytroll, I jumped at the chance.

Here on the left is the initial sketchwork stage. I emailed this to Jonathan and asked if he had any suggestions/critiques he could offer at this point.

I like this stage in the process. It’s ‘fast and dirty’, but it feels like real progress very quickly. Later in the process, things move a bit more slowly and I sometimes get bored too quickly. At this point, I’m able to make massive changes to the image without feeling like I wasted time with previous versions.

Jonathan’s suggestions all seemed to point to making our little friend a bit more… repugnant, so I moved in that direction fairly quickly.

And here we have a more refined version in greyscale.

Hairy little bugger, with those bulging eyes (though he tries to hide them a bit with his glasses and hat) and I think that I managed to make his wings a bit more realistic. And those jowels… yeesh.

Anyone else think he looks like a certain singer who really liked his peanut butter and banana sandwiches?

Anywhoozle -- I’ve included a quick video to show you the process better than I could describe. As always -- I welcome your feedback! Leave a comment and let me know what you think!