|
 |
| Caarth | |
|---|---|
| |
| skill | 10 (Male); 8 (Female); 4 (Young) |
| stamina | 11 (Male); 9 (Female); 5 (Young) |
| Habitat | Deserts |
| Number Encountered | 2-7 |
| Type | Humanoid |
| Reaction | Hostile |
| Intelligence | High |
The Caarth were a powerful and evil race of snake-headed humanoids who lived in deserts.[1][2]
Description[]
Because of the difficulty in surviving an encounter with the Caarth, they had been subject to numerous myths and misconceptions. Past writers of bestiaries and legends sometimes called them "bald, snake-tailed monstrosities", yet they were closer in form to snake-headed Humans. The typical Caarth stood at between two and two-and-a-half metres in height and has smooth, hairless skin of golden hue. They had claws instead of fingernails, yet suffered no loss of human dexterity for this, and a pair of fixed fangs at the forefront of their mouths. It is unknown whether Caarth were poisonous or not, though scholars who made a study of such things suggest that their anatomy doesn't lend itself towards being venomous.
Caarth wielded weapons such as bows or swords when in combat.
Origins & Distribution[]
The Caarth were the oldest and dominant race of the varied species that made up the Snake People. They were created a millennium ago by the Demon Prince Sith, who blended large numbers of humans and snakes together in a vast spawning vat, eventually producing S'hghkull and H'ssghkull. These two entities quickly produced several dozen offspring, that Sith immediately secreted in the hottest parts of what would one day be the Desert of Skulls and the Scythera Desert, leaving them to thrive.
History[]
The Snake-Mutations[]
A caarth brandishing a sword.
The Caarth saw themselves as the highest form of life on Titan, and strove unceasingly for the continuation of their creator's work. This had resulted in a number of horrific aberrations and mutations being spawned and then abandoned to the desert, possibly including the gretch.
However, greater success had been enjoyed with the kassistra, justrali and xen-vipers, all of these disturbing blends of man and serpent, and serving the Caarth in the ways best suited to them.
Forbidden Knowledge[]
Despite their species' youth, relative to such ancients as humans or elves, the Caarth had amassed a great deal of knowledge extremely rapidly; excavating desert cities and using hypnosis, torture and mind-weakening concoctions on captured prisoners in an unmatched search for learning.
Their skill with poison had no equal, and they knew all that there is to know about them. Caarth weapons and tools were invariably coated with some kind of venom, be it to kill or drive an enemy mad, or to make their body break out into scales in preparation for some new ghastly experiment. As a result of this poison coating, a Caarth or Justrali weapon was invariably fatal, even if it only grazed an opponent.[3]
Furthermore, they have great knowledge concerning mutations and interbreeding, for whilst they themselves appear to lack the mutating curse of Chaos, they have been utilising necromantic and transformational magic for centuries in an attempt to reshape prisoners' bodies so that their ancient rulers can be resurrected within them, as well as creating many other beings to serve them or even by mere accident. Perhaps the most famous (or infamous) of these is the notorious Serpent Queen of Port Blacksand.[4]
Caarth sorcerers also performed archaeological digs on desert ruins in order to discover lost magical knowledge. [1] The Caarth recently sent agents to investigate the tomb of the evil Pharaoh Akharis in the southwest of the Desert of Skulls.[5]
Caarth had observatories with enormous telescopes, with which they used to map out the universe. It was widely believed that the Caarth had discovered other planets in Titan's star system, something that human scholars had suspected but had not been able to prove so far.[1]
The Constraints of the Snake People[]
Because the Caarth and most of their creations were cold-blooded, they cannot survive outside of the Desert of Skulls or the Scythera Desert for long. It was this alone that had kept their actions so restricted, and their numbers few.
However, some elementalists believed that the Caarth were beginning to utilise magic powerful enough to cause the deserts themselves to spread, overriding natural law. Even if this was not the case, the physical power and raw intelligence of individual Caarth made them more than a match for almost any other opponent, and certainly the lizard men, whose great empire was already beginning to encroach upon that of the Caarth. Several battles had already broken out between lizard men and Caarth armies in the Snakelands, as each side tried to annex the region. [6]
The Caarth controlled their empire from their three great cities - their capital S'hchtiss (Jewelled Oasis of Sighing Worship), K'rrstal (Heart of Glimmering Stone), and S’turrak (Cool Providence of Shadows). There were also about a dozen small fortifications situated in a wide ellipse around these citadels, each housing a garrison of Caarth and Justrali warriors and little else.[7]
Further Notes[]
In the original article about the Caarth, there was an excerpt from a book called Travels, written by a seer called Belisarius . It read: "With a stifled gasp, the Apeman fell forward, dropping his brandished club; a throwing-dagger protruded from the small of his back. There was alight step on the stone floor of the ruined temple, and I looked up into the coldest, cruellest pair of eyes I ever wish to meet . . ." [8]
Further Information in Canon[]
More information can be found at:
Source[9]
Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World'(Large) (pg9, pg16, pg40, pg70, pg86-pg89, pg87*, pg89*)
Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World'(Small) (pg10, pg23, pg78, pg153, pg192-201 (pg193*, pg200*), pg202)
The Fighting Fantasy 10th Anniversary Yearbook
(paraCover*, pg123, pg146)
Out of the Pit
(Large) (pg24#*, pg76, pg101, pg127)
Allansia
(pg131, pg160-162, pg166)
Blacksand!
(pg135)
Battleblade Warrior
(para22, para24, para84, para139, para176, para227, para247, para272, para309, para358*, para383)
Magehunter
(para210*)
Curse of the Mummy
(para50#, para158, para231, para267, para307*, para335)
Demonstealer
(pg142, pg143*, pg144, pg149-150, pg161, pg163-164, pg173, pg177)
Warlock Issue 4
(pg4#*)
Notes[]
# - denotes a reference with statistics
* - denotes a picture
Appendix[]
Gallery[]
Appearances[]
Adventures
Sourcebooks
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World pp. 86-9
- ↑ Advanced Fighting Fantasy – The Roleplaying Game , pg. 117, 123
- ↑ Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World - 200/??
- ↑ Out of the Pit - pgs. 101-102
- ↑ Curse of the Mummy - para 307
- ↑ The Fighting Fantasy 10th Anniversary Yearbook - p.150
- ↑ Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World - 197/??; Out of the Pit - ???; Battleblade Warrior - ???; Curse of the Mummy - ???
- ↑ "Out of the Pit", Marc Gascoigne, Warlock Issue 4 , p. 4
- ↑ Complete list of references catalogued by FF Titan Bestiary