Rūwhiti

 

Short and Stout

  Bold and hardy, Rūwhitis are known as skilled warriors, miners, and workers of stone and metal. Though they stand well under 1.5m tall, rūwhitis are so broad and compact that they can weigh as much as a tāngata standing nearly 1m taller. Their courage and endurance are also easily a match for any of the larger folk.   Rūwhitis skin ranges from deep brown to a paler hue tinged with red, but the most common shades are light brown or deep tan, like certain tones of earth. Their hair, worn long but in simple styles, is usually black, gray, or brown, though paler rūwhitis often have red hair. Male rūwhitis value their beards highly and groom them carefully.  

Long Memory, Long Grudges

  Rūwhitis can live to be more than 300 years old, so the oldest living rūwhitis often remember a very different world. This longevity grants them a perspective on the world that shorter-lived species such as tāngatas and hawhes lack.   Rūwhitis are solid and enduring like the mountains they love, weathering the passage of centuries with stoic endurance and little change. They respect the traditions of their clans, tracing their ancestry back to the founding of their most ancient strongholds in the youth of the world, and don’t abandon those traditions lightly. Part of those traditions is devotion to the gods of the mountains, who uphold the rūwhitis ideals of industrious labor, skill in battle, and devotion to the forge.   Individual rūwhitis are determined and loyal, true to their word and decisive in action, sometimes to the point of stubbornness. Many rūwhitis have a strong sense of justice, and they are slow to forget wrongs they have suffered. A wrong done to one rūwhiti is a wrong done to the rūwhiti’s entire clan, so what begins as one rūwhiti’s hunt for vengeance can become a full-blown clan feud.