Also known as Wood Singers or Tree Sages, pithlings are a relatively young race of small humanoids native to Mangal. They are kindhearted, but most are aloof and disinterested in the affairs of other races. They dwell within Havenwood groves, using their peculiar song magic to open tunnels and chambers far too small for other races to navigate. Their society has become devoted to rituals to soothe the Havenwood, bringing calm to the discordant aura pooling within them. Their placid temperaments are unsettling to many outsiders.  

Physiology and Lifecycle

Pithlings are small, averaging around 3ft tall. They tend to be heavier than their frames suggest, weighing an average of 40 pounds. Their skin ranges from golden yellow to ruddy brown and bears whirling linear patterns of a darker hue. Their hair is often wild and ranges from blond to brown to green. Pithling eyes are usually orbs of pale white, yellow, or green, with no visible iris. They tend to have a calm demeanor and are often quite patient. Most prefer to avoid conflict where possible.   Pithling communities tend to be large extended families. Children reach adulthood in their early 20s. They age slowly, with lifespans well over a hundred years. Born with an innate aptitude for nature and song magic, they are strangely unaffected by hagblight. Most live out their days within Havenwood groves in channels opened by their Woodsong, seldom interacting with other races. When they die, their bodies are laid to rest and absorbed by the Havenwood. Those who decide to venture into the wider world tend to want to share the serenity they have found with others or protect their homes from some looming danger.  

Woodsong

Pithlings possess a natural ability to control and shape plants with song. These songs can vary from repetitive chants to choral melodies and is the primary way pithlings craft and "build." Individuals singing can draw simple objects from living trees or clear a pathways through brush. Whole communities singing together can open passageways and chambers within even the most resilient Havenwood trees.  

Culture and Traditions

There is no record of pithlings before Havenwood groves overtook the landscape, making them one of the youngest races in Mangal. Incongruous with the harshness of the rest of the world, their small communities are places of safety, security, and song. Pithlings seldom build with other races in mind; humans, elves, and other taller races would find pithling settlements impossible to navigate.   Many pithlings devote themselves to druidic magic. The race as a whole share a connection to Havenwood trees in a way few others understand. The Havenwood draw in souls that would pass on after death. Pithlings feel their songs can influence the temperament of those collected souls, soothing them. They believe that the energies pooling within the Havenwood will Awaken into some higher form. They seek to ensure that all the pain and suffering those souls experienced in life do not taint the forms they take after Awaking.   Pithlings venturing outside of their home groves seek to make life more pleasant for the others, ensuring that pooling souls in the Havenwood are more peaceful and content.  

Views on Other Races

• Bindlewise Goblins. "Cheerful folk, if a bit selfish at times. Still, fine friends, and one of the few small enough to invite home and meet the family!"
• Canopy Elves. "Strong souls and great warriors. Always looking backward; never forgetting what they feel they have lost, never thinking where their Hunt will ultimately lead them."
• Hagspawn. "Hags have done much evil to the world, but not all their children wish to harm. They are too often born from tragic circumstances. But if there is nothing else we small folk believe, it's that evil deads need not lead to evil ends. And kindness will grow in even least likely of places."
• Humans. "Of all the races, our human neighbors are the most joyous and inventive and accepting of outsiders. Their embrace of the Baatori Warlocks in their midst is concerning, of course."
• Lizardfolk. "Their ways are not our ways, but they follow them no less diligently. No other race knows and accepts itself so well, I think."