Re: Metacultures

Hmm... strange how they don't have hands but are regularly given wands and
staves (at least the Free Neogi Traders of Oerth from War Captain's
Companion). I grant them good dexterity with their front pair of legs, in
terms of holding stuff by wrapping around it. And finer manipulation they
would also use mandibles to perform.

Then again, I usually tweak the neogi considerably when I use them.

¤ A Psh


-----Original Message-----
From: Ben Wafer [mailto:bwafer@?????.net]
Sent: Sunday, May 06, 2001 6:50 PM
Subject: Re: Metacultures


Adam Miller wrote:
>         Most of the races you mentioned were tacked on as an afterthought.
> Heck, some were taken from Star Frontiers (TSR's first attempt at a Sci
> fi game, fairly successful in it's day).
Heck, they transplanted all of the important races from Star Frontiers
(man I used to love that game) into Spelljammer. I like what they did
with the Yazirians/Hadozee, but I really wish they had made the
Sathar/Syllix into a more credible long-term threat.
>         Neogi I could see as former slaves themselves, escaping into
wildspace
> from a fallen empire to found their own little empires.  Or maybe some
> god crafted them in his image, then gave them enslaved umber hulks after
> slaying the hulk gods.  Whatever floats your boat :)
Well, OK, I think it's time for me to put forth my theory about how the
neogi became a slave-keeping race. The neogi have a strange biology that
allows them to create a few different types of poison (usually they
secrete the slowing poison that's useful in combat, but they also
secrete special poisons for reproductive purposes, so it seems
reasonable to me that they can create other types of poisons as well,
perhaps ones that aren't used in combat because their effects aren't
immediate enough, or perhaps they have to consume certain rare foods in
order to create them). Some time thousands of years ago, the neogi were
a primitive, but cunning race that lived on a planetoid (or wherever)
that also was inhabited by many umber hulks. The umber hulks hunted the
neogi, and as a defense mechanism the species developed special poisons
that clouded the minds of the umber hulks. Eventually these poisons
developed to become specialized enough that they warped the minds of the
umber hulks such that they would follow the orders of the neogi, and
eventually all of the local umber hulks were enslaved as neogi servants.
>From there it's not hard to imagine what would happen when spacefarers
landed on the planetoid, only to be captured by legions of enslaved
umber hulks.

--
The most merciful thing in all the world, I think, is the inability of
the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island
of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not
meant that we should voyage far.


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