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Description

A trio of Atrox Sapients keeps watch near the main entrance of their troop’s lair. This guard role is usually reserved for the largest and strongest adolescents, who are more aggressive than older adults and more adventurous. They still need a considerable amount of sleep however, as Atrox Sapients can and will sleep throughout most of the day if possible, especially during winter months. The guards operate in shifts, sleeping in warm piles of animal skins and tending to small oil fires, or no fires at all, while surveying the landscape outside for any possible threats. While most troops are a small family or friend group of under a dozen individuals, there exist numerous large troops, often called hordes, that may include well over two hundred members. These usually occupy deep caverns and generally have a sizable guard force guarding the entrance(s) at all times. This is well within reason, as caves and manually excavated shelters are highly coveted by any number of dangerous wild animals, as well as rival Atrox Sapients. Besides enemy tribes, the primary threat is the Atrox Hog. These hogs winter in caves and the abandoned burrows of large animals. Hogs preparing to hibernate congregate in immense groups and, when motivated to find shelter and food in the colder months, are one of the few entities that can pose a threat to an Atrox Sapient horde. Large caves thus often alternate between hogs and sapients in their occupancy, festering with all kinds of waste and disease left by the rivals during their extended stays.

In smaller caves and burrows, Atrox Sapients often wall of the entrance with a thick curtain of animal hides. Due to their smooth, rubber-like structure, the hides of their prey rarely suffer from the various fungal and bacterial ailments suffered by Earth fabrics. However, as Atrox Sapients use very crude tools and brute strength to rip hides from carcasses, these hides are often battered and torn. Visually, this is good, as they match the rock, mud, and detritus more than cleanly cut hides. However, Atrox lairs are only really well-hidden visually, as the stench from their meals and feces can be detected by most contemporary fauna from miles away. Depending on the tribe and the lair, waste is either dumped outside or buried deep within. In large caves, there are extensive ravines and pits filled to the brim with feces and inedible bits from kills.

Atrox Sapients are not a uniform species (there are actually two). There are a variety of physical and cultural differences found across their range. Much like humans, they are prone to tribalistic behaviors and a general hatred of outsiders. Foreign diseases, introduced by sharing a winter hideout, can easily wipe out an entire tribe. Not to mention the frequent cannibalism. Also much like humans, they are capable of empathy and understanding, and it is not rare to find individuals from a race native to the other side of the continent in a tribe of would-be rivals. Present are two morphologically distinct kinds of Atrox Sapient. The individual in the foreground is a heavily built kind from a lineage normally found further north and closer to the coast, while the two in the back are from more temperate wastes inland. It is likely that they joined after losing/being abandoned by/leaving their original troop, though babies orphaned in raids are usually taken and raised by the raiders as one of their own. Atrox Sapient troops, unlike many social animals, can often be comprised of completely unrelated individuals brought together by circumstance, though they are just as likely to be family units.

Though Atrox Sapients normally bear quite a few scars, bruises, and bacterial/fungal infections (especially in winter), these individuals are especially beat up. A significant portion of this comes from play fights and hunting, but guard work is dangerous, and facial injuries such as the one present on the individual in the background are a frequent, eventual outcome of this. The hooked thumb claws of Atrox Sapients are lethal weapons.

Description

A trio of Atrox Sapients keeps watch near the main entrance of their troop’s lair. This guard role is usually reserved for the largest and strongest adolescents, who are more aggressive than older adults and more adventurous. They still need a considerable amount of sleep however, as Atrox Sapients can and will sleep throughout most of the day if possible, especially during winter months. The guards operate in shifts, sleeping in warm piles of animal skins and tending to small oil fires, or no fires at all, while surveying the landscape outside for any possible threats. While most troops are a small family or friend group of under a dozen individuals, there exist numerous large troops, often called hordes, that may include well over two hundred members. These usually occupy deep caverns and generally have a sizable guard force guarding the entrance(s) at all times. This is well within reason, as caves and manually excavated shelters are highly coveted by any number of dangerous wild animals, as well as rival Atrox Sapients. Besides enemy tribes, the primary threat is the Atrox Hog. These hogs winter in caves and the abandoned burrows of large animals. Hogs preparing to hibernate congregate in immense groups and, when motivated to find shelter and food in the colder months, are one of the few entities that can pose a threat to an Atrox Sapient horde. Large caves thus often alternate between hogs and sapients in their occupancy, festering with all kinds of waste and disease left by the rivals during their extended stays.

In smaller caves and burrows, Atrox Sapients often wall of the entrance with a thick curtain of animal hides. Due to their smooth, rubber-like structure, the hides of their prey rarely suffer from the various fungal and bacterial ailments suffered by Earth fabrics. However, as Atrox Sapients use very crude tools and brute strength to rip hides from carcasses, these hides are often battered and torn. Visually, this is good, as they match the rock, mud, and detritus more than cleanly cut hides. However, Atrox lairs are only really well-hidden visually, as the stench from their meals and feces can be detected by most contemporary fauna from miles away. Depending on the tribe and the lair, waste is either dumped outside or buried deep within. In large caves, there are extensive ravines and pits filled to the brim with feces and inedible bits from kills.

Atrox Sapients are not a uniform species (there are actually two). There are a variety of physical and cultural differences found across their range. Much like humans, they are prone to tribalistic behaviors and a general hatred of outsiders. Foreign diseases, introduced by sharing a winter hideout, can easily wipe out an entire tribe. Not to mention the frequent cannibalism. Also much like humans, they are capable of empathy and understanding, and it is not rare to find individuals from a race native to the other side of the continent in a tribe of would-be rivals. Present are two morphologically distinct kinds of Atrox Sapient. The individual in the foreground is a heavily built kind from a lineage normally found further north and closer to the coast, while the two in the back are from more temperate wastes inland. It is likely that they joined after losing/being abandoned by/leaving their original troop, though babies orphaned in raids are usually taken and raised by the raiders as one of their own. Atrox Sapient troops, unlike many social animals, can often be comprised of completely unrelated individuals brought together by circumstance, though they are just as likely to be family units.

Though Atrox Sapients normally bear quite a few scars, bruises, and bacterial/fungal infections (especially in winter), these individuals are especially beat up. A significant portion of this comes from play fights and hunting, but guard work is dangerous, and facial injuries such as the one present on the individual in the background are a frequent, eventual outcome of this. The hooked thumb claws of Atrox Sapients are lethal weapons.