The Ihiri

It’s time to take another look at the different species and cultures that inhabit the world of the Kazarim Campaign Setting!

The ihiri originate from Karsekus, the enchanted city of the fey, which exists partially in the Twilight Realms and partially within the mortal world. They are the descendants of bird-like fey who colonized Penan in ancient times and who eventually became mortals. Since making this choice, the ihiri have integrated into the larger societies of the known world, establishing themselves on all three continents.

Smaller than most of the other common species, ihiri rarely top three feet in height, and tend to possess slim, but muscular frames. Their vision is exceptionally acute, as is their hearing. Descended from fey associated with birds and the sky, ihiri have unusually large eyes with blue or golden irises. They have several rows of feathers along their triceps and flexors muscles, and smaller feathers covering their heads like hair. Skin tones vary from dark brown to pale yellow or white, while their feathers tend toward red, brown, black, blue, or white. Traditional clothing for both genders consists of a light tunic and breeches, often dramatically colored. Their tunics and garments tend to be sleeveless or have open sleeves to show off their arm plumage. Some non-ihiri believe this also allows them to fly better; but this is simply untrue, as their flight ability comes from innate magic.

One notable feature of ihiri culture is the segregation of males and females, although where ihiri have adapted to the local societies of katasuro, humans, and aagren, this is becoming less formalized. However, in rural villages on Penan or Arganaen that are dominated by ihiri, males and females do not reside with each other except during breeding periods. While ihiri are capable of sex regardless of the breeding period, ihiri women are only fertile for roughly a three-year period out of every decade. As a result, they take their procreation very seriously, and actively encourage homosexual relationships during the rest of their lives, with children raised by communities as a whole. This means that ihiri do not have family names per se, as their kinship groups are really established by the settlement or band they belong to, not biological parents. Given names usually reflect their birth season or a distinguishing trait, and can change over time, especially among male ihiri.

Most ihiri follow the Laera, especially Bet’amoh, Gaerllyn, and Lohle. Most priests are female. They are typically chaotic good.

Female ihiri traditionally form permanent communities with other female ihiri, although these groups sometimes incorporate other species (of any gender). Many settlements are known for their weaving and herbalism, which they use to trade with outsiders. During breeding periods, ihiri women travel in search of a mate. Once mating has been secured and the woman becomes pregnant, she returns to her home, where the fledglings (ihiri are live births, despite their association with birds) are raised communally by all of the women. Male children are given to one of the local male ihiri bands after they reach their twelfth birthday, or if none are present within the area, they will sometimes be fostered with other species.

Many female ihiri become adventurers during their breeding period, with women most often taking up the cleric, gunslinger, ninja, or sorcerer classes. Quite a few ihiri adventurers never return to their settlements, instead preferring life on the road without children, although this is considered to be a particularly selfish act by more traditionally-minded members of the species.

Male ihiri usually gather in small bands of ten to twenty individuals who migrate within a specific territory that contains two to three female settlements. These groups spend their time hunting and fishing, although some hire out as mercenaries. Many of these bands take the sort of names you’d expect to find with a kazarim circle or mercenary group, while others claim a prominent geographic feature to indicate their territory. Sometimes they use their own language for these names, and sometimes they translate them (or create them) in the languages of other local cultures. Male ihiri do not experience the same intense sex drive during the breeding season that the women do; they instead have a high continual sex drive that enables them to easily mate with many females from different settlements.

Most male ihiri are gunslingers, occultists, rangers, or rogues. In addition to subsistence living or serving as mercenaries, groups living near larger cities often act as scouts, mapmakers, and sailors, for which the ihiri flight ability provides a significant advantage.

A Slithering Surprise

The aagren woman was shouting again. Always shouting. She gestured with her meaty arms and stomped back and forth across the camp, pointing first at the ninja, then at Onshuro. The ninja just stared at the aagren with his three eyes, but Shovari could feel the hatred radiating off him even if the aagren couldn’t.

Shovari couldn’t remember the atama ninja’s name. Nor most of these others. The only one he cared about was Onshuro; the katasuro spoke Ihiri and had proven himself a friend at the monkey bridge. The others—except maybe the human, who was kind to animals—the others were merely present. But Onshuro had some stake in this undertaking, and was working with the rest of the kazarim, so Shovari worked with them too. It didn’t much matter that only Onshuro knew his language, or that Shovari’s grasp of common dialect of Kashu was rudimentary at best. Shovari had spent years learning to intuit other people’s intentions based on a gesture or a glance.

He sat on the ground near the fire and tried to concentrate on the crackle of the burning wood. It helped drown out the crashing and bellowing of the aagren. The shackles on his wrist clanked against his belt buckle.

Click-clank. Click-clank. Ssssssss!

Shovari stood up so fast he nearly launched into the air. The rest of the kazarim circle stared at him. He raised a hand, cocked an ear. There! He pointed into the ruins.

“Yaoshu,” Shovari said in Ihiri. “Dozens of them.”

Shovari in Irons, the iconic slayer.

Shovari in Irons

Kazarim of the Deptara Jepthek Expedition

Shovari is an ihiri slayer. He freed himself from his owners in the Shan city of Yunkai three years ago by brutally murdering them, most of their servants, several other slaves he held grudges against, and a few locals who tried to get involved. Then, two months ago, slave-catchers caught up to him at the Bridge of the Celestial Ape, one of the major bridges across the Long River. The merchant he had hired on with knew that Shovari’s past was murky, but thought the iron manacles that still adorned the ihiri’s wrists were the result of a crime, not that he was property. The merchant promptly turned Shovari over to the slave-catchers. However one of the passersby, a katasuro named Goda Onshuro, decided to intervene and help the escaped slave, fighting off the slavers and inviting Shovari to come on a grand adventure.

Level 5 ihiri slayer, Lawful Evil

Str 16, Dex 16, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 15, Cha 8

Skills: Acrobatics +11, Fly +13, Intimidate +7, Perception +12, Stealth +15, Survival +10, Sense Motive +10

Feats: Toughness, Catch Off-Guard, Double Slice

Slayer Talents: Foil Scrutiny, Ranger Combat Style (Two-Weapon Fighting)