Badgerfolk

• Stocky bipedal humanoids with broad shoulders, slightly hunched posture, thick necks, and powerful forearms ending in long digging claws.
• Have keen, short muzzles full of formidable teeth and small bright eyes adapted to both aboveground and underground low-light.

• Ley Resonance: Though not overt spellcasters, Grunthar bodies subtly resonate with local ley lines, grounding unstable magic and even diffusing minor curses simply by proximity.
• Burrow Sense: Feel vibrations and subtle shifts in the ground with uncanny precision, capable of detecting intruders or even changes in mineral patterns deep below.
• Adrenal Surges: In moments of rage or fear, muscles flood with alchemical compounds granting bursts of immense strength.

• Live in large extended family burrows called Clawholds.
• Typically have 2–4 cubs per litter. Cubs remain in the home den for many years, learning digging songs and clan lore.

• Cub: Until ~12, playful and often mischievous diggers.
• Youngling: ~12–25, train in specific crafts, mining, or tunnel stewardship.
• Prime: ~25–90, take on major responsibilities, lead burrow expansions, or oversee stone wards.
• Elder: ~90+, serve as lorekeepers and advisors, often seldom emerging from the deepest ceremonial chambers.

• Favor dense forests with rolling hills or rocky outcrops.
• Create vast interconnected warrens, complete with mushroom gardens, root larders, and subterranean stone halls that echo with song.

• Omnivorous: love root vegetables, insects, hearty greens, fungi, and occasional small game.
• Brew thick savory stews and strong fungal ales. Keep communal pantries with dried tubers and salted meats.

• Slightly more lethargic in the coldest months, often holding long communal feasts underground.
• Seasonal molting of fur patches is common, replaced by thicker or differently patterned pelts.

• Extremely loyal, stubborn in argument but quick to stand shoulder to shoulder once a decision is made.
• Value honest speech and despise unnecessary deception.
• Fierce defenders of kin and territory, willing to fight to the last claw.

• Organized into Clawholds, sprawling burrow-fortresses occupied by multiple interrelated families.
• Each Clawhold is overseen by a council of the eldest matriarchs or patriarchs called the Root Circle.
• Decisions are reached slowly, with much debate, but then pursued with unstoppable unity.

• Express emotions through whisker twitches, ear flicks, and vocalized rumbles.
• Many adorn themselves with claw-carved bone or stone beads tied into their facial fur.

• Dense populations beneath the Vale’s forest floors and in low hills.
• Smaller outposts near leyline-rich stone ridges, helping maintain magical stability underground.

Highly intelligent but with a methodical, practical cast. Think in terms of generations and stones laid, rather than abstract philosophies.

Keen low-light vision, sense of smell equal to a tracking hound, and seismic sensitivity that allows them to detect footsteps from hundreds of feet away.

• Given names are rough, gravelly, often echoing the sounds of digging or stonefall. Examples: Grumbar, Tharok, Belka, Nurran, Haska.
• Family lines take names from historic burrows or great ancestors: Stonepaw, Deepgrub, Burrowshield.

Admire thick healthy pelts, strong claws, and impressive tusk-like teeth. Scars from burrow collapses or battles are signs of valor.

Gender is straightforward, but roles are fluid — both males and females dig, defend, lead, or tend cubs interchangeably.

Partnerships often cemented by co-building a new warren tunnel together, blending each partner’s family roots literally and symbolically.

• Exceptional stonecutters and tunnel engineers. Known for building warded keystone arches that diffuse wild magic or prevent collapse.
• Craft durable bone-and-stone tools, enchanted with low leyline hums to strengthen them.

Speak a rumbling dialect of Sylvanelle thick with growls and rhythmic subsonic pulses meant to carry through tunnels.

• When visiting another’s tunnel, scratch or stomp rhythmically to announce presence.
• Always bring a small gift of food or a carved token when entering a new Clawhold.

• Little clothing needed due to thick fur; often wear harnesses with tool loops, stone or bone bead sashes, and ceremonial claw-engraved gorgets during councils.

• Maintain extensive tunnel murals depicting family lines and historical battles against blights or predators.
• Hold Root Festivals, great underground gatherings with drumming, communal feasts, and ritual storytelling of each Clawhold’s founding.

• Tunnel Songs: Chanting work songs that sync group digging or commemorate ancestors.
• Stone Toasts: Clink cups against walls to honor the tunnels themselves before drinking.
• Burrow Blessings: When founding a new tunnel, press claws into damp earth to leave protective rune imprints.
• Molting Feasts: Celebrate seasonal fur sheds with spicy root stews and raucous wrestling.

• Collapsing another’s tunnel through negligence is one of the greatest disgraces.
• Never leaving food to rot in a shared larder is a sacred rule; mold can spread disastrously in close quarters.