Mahûd (3.5e Race)

Mahûd
Summary::What a Neanderthal is to the tundra, a Mahûd is to the desert.

Personality
Mahûd are savage and brutal, reflections of the feral waste that created them. They react with suspicion or open hostility toward unknown developments, since they learn early on in childhood that the unknown is something to fear. If you understand the enemy, you have nothing to fear, for you know what needs to be done to overcome him. Yet among friends, Mahûd are much more relaxed and sociable, and enjoy dancing, singing, tale-telling, feasting, and other pastimes involving large numbers of people.

Physical Description
Mahûd have very little hair and are thickly built, with long arms and barrel chests. Their heads are a bit larger than a human's, with a prodigious jaw filled with large strong teeth capable of cracking bones. They often adore their skin with crude tattoos and war paint, which not only helps protect them from the sun's rays but is also used to strike fear into the hearts of enemies. Scars are often held to be marks of honor and esteemed in Mahûd society, and are openly displayed both to honor the fallen enemy and to increase that person's prestige in the eye's of his kin. Mahûd are towering figures, often standing between 7 and 7-1/2 feet tall and weighing about 350 pounds. They reach adulthood at the age of 14, and live about 65 years.

Relations
Mahûd have traditionally had poor relations with other races. Orcs, giants, and similar savage races treat them the same way as they treat humans: enemies at best and food at worst. Yet the Mahûd cannot look to the civilized societies for aid, since they live in the most inhospitable wastelands in the world. This causes the Mahûd to have to raid more advanced races for iron weapons and armor, as well as valuables that they can later trade for more commodities. No one has ever been able to truly subdue the Mahûd; every time a large force is gathered to eliminate them, they simply vanish back into the desert.

Alignment
Mahûd lead relatively simple lives and are at one with the natural world. Good and evil, law and chaos have little interest to them, and they prefer to react to new situations based on similar previous encounters. The Mahûd are always interested in expanding to a slightly cooler climate; they furiously defend their villages and any towns they have captured. While they may be bound by longstanding ancestral traditions and religions that are viewed as laws of a sort, these traditions are highly mutable and prone to change when each new generation comes into power.

Lands
The Mahûd are pastoralists, and typically travel around in groups that contain one or two extended families. Each of these "clans" typically contains one to three elders, who pass on knowledge to the young generation, and are often spellcasters and shamans, and also contains a chieftain who has some control over the other families. They have no concept of land as property, and the main form of wealth for the Mahûd are goats that they follow and care for. THe Mahûd's most precious possessions, however, are their camels. They are mounts in times of war, provide transport and milk, and in times of desperation, food. The Mahûd are a primitive people, and their weapons and armor are made out of what they find naturally. They are very adept at training animals, and have even managed to domestic some of the "dire" species.

Religion
The sun is very popular in most of the religious beliefs of the Mahûd, as is fire and, of course, rain. The most important deity is the patron of camels, since the humped beasts of burden are a Mahûd's greatest ally. The Mahûd also have several gods of sandstorms, mirages, and strange types of sand. They are used in curses.

Language
The Mahûd speak a pidgin tongue of different words from common that also includes a wide vocabulary borrowed from the various desert giants they have interacted with. Anyone with an understanding of Undercommon can understand a Mahûd.

Names
The Mahûd have simple names, but they attribute great power to them. There is no formal clan name to distinguish two Mahûd with the same name, so they often adopt suffixes based on the deeds they performed. There are little distinguishing factors between male and female names, or at least none that the other races would understand. Because of their suspicion of others, the Mahûd will typically introduce themselves by their suffix.

Sample Names: Kraibag Lionkiller, Nakhurz the thief, Goruz Faceslasher, Naur the hyena.

Racial Traits

 * ,, , . Mahûd are strong and hardy, but are hampered by slow intellects and reflexes.
 * Type::Humanoid (Subtype::Human): Mahûd are very similar to their close cousins, humans.
 * Mahûd base land speed is 30 feet.
 * Primitive Weapon Mastery: Mahûd have a +1 racial bonus on attack rolls made(and are considered to be proficient with) with the following weapons: bolas, club, dart, greatclub, javelin, longspear, quarterstaff, primitive machete, shortbow, shortspear, sling, spear, and throwing axe.
 * +3 racial bonus on Listen, Spot, and Survival checks. Mahûd have excellent senses and know how to get along in the desert with ease.
 * Desert Tolerant : Mahûd suffer little harm from environmental extremes of heat. They do not have to make Fortitude Saves to protect against extreme heat conditions of 180 degrees or less. This ability does not provide any protection from fire or cold damage.
 * Human Blood: For all effects related to race, a Mahûd is considered a human. Mahûd are just as vulnerable to special effects that affects humans as humans are, and they can use magic items that are only usable by humans.
 * Illiteracy: Mahûd do not automatically know how to read and write. A Mahûd must spend 2 skill points to gain the ability to read and write all languages he is able to speak. He does not automatically gain this skill when taking a class, with the exception of the wizard (or similar classes).
 * Automatic Languages: Undercommon. Mahûd speak their own pidgin version of Common.
 * Bonus Languages: Common, Giant, Orc. Mahûd are familiar with the languages of giants, humans, and orcs, for they are often competing for the same land and territory.
 * Favored Class:
 * Favored Class: