Races

Half-Masoq - by D.M. Schneider @2021 1.0
Creative Credit to T.A. Saunders

Racial Articles History and Culture of the Half Masoq

It all started in Kasiq, a city of grime and filth and crime, governed by Warlords and the mad priests to various gods that find refuge there. Anything goes in Kasiq, as long as you have the power to get away with it. Zoda’s rejects are confined there: clanless Dwarves, tribeless Half-Giants, Northlander marauders, and the worst and most desperate of the Masoq. These Masoqi rejects are forced to live in squalid conditions and engage in trade with the surrounding races, much to everyone’s displeasure. They often work as slaves, laborers, or disposable bodies in mercenary companies.

No one knows what unfortunate set of circumstances lead to the first Half-Masoq being born. It is almost universally considered to be one of the great tragedies of the Kasiq slums, and maybe all of Imarel. It is known that all Half-Masoq are descended from a Human-Masoq coupling. No other race seems capable of breeding successfully with Masoq. What is produced from such an unholy union is almost never claimed by either parent and Half-Masoq infants are usually left to die in the streets.

What most people do not realize is that the Half-Masoq is, by nature, tenacious, and before long, there was a small and growing community of Half-Masoqs. Interested researchers from the Windsong School of Magic and missionaries from the Church of Mercy had only found a hundred or so Half-Masoq by 1250 AC, most of which were located in Kasiq. The researchers and missionaries found that the Half-Masoq of Kasiq had developed their own tribal society founded on the principles of survival and nothing else. It was lawlessness within lawlessness, but at least the Half-Masoq had a social structure they could use to cooperate and protect one another. In the hundred-or-so years since their initial discovery, it is not believed that Half-Masoq numbers have increased by much, but there is also no active census of the creatures.

While the War of the Deceiver raged, the vile Kiris Miran actually held a brief interest in the Half-Masoq, thinking them easy to breed and dispose of for all manner of experimentation. After managing to bolster the population of Half-Masoq to five-hundred or so, they quickly stopped their research and abandoned the project, mostly due to the species’ tendency to either outright die during experimentation or resist the process entirely, sometimes even with bloody efficacy. In 1323 AC, after an incident at the mass experiment site, all of the Kiris-Miran Half-Masoq were returned to Kasiq or dumped into the ocean. The ones that returned to Kasiq were accepted into the tribal society. Those that were dumped into the ocean mostly died; however, extremely small amounts of Shalzaari and Tal`Rahan citizens reported seeing Half-Masoq washed up along the coasts, but no serious source has been able to confirm those reports or whether the Half-Masoq in question were alive or dead.

Half-Masoq are not able to procreate with each other nor any other, being sterile one-hundred percent of the time. Any child that was forced out of that bonding would no doubt be a further mistake along the genetic pathway and fail to live through their first week. Half-Masoq tend to worship Abador, for the filth and squalor they live in, Meklah, for the shadows they must hide in, and Miron, for the petty power that is the only social structure they understand. Some enlightened governments may award Half-Masoq with residency or, rarely, citizenship, but most Half-Masoq live on the fringes of society, hidden away and willfully forgotten. The majority of the population still live in Kasiq, with scattered reports of Half-Masoq appearing in Sundown, Mira’s Hope, and even as far inland as Am-Xitha.