PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
The Dredfel are nearly twice the size of the average human. They have legs similar to those of a horse, but they walk upright like a man. Their long, powerful arms are enough to rip a man’s limbs clean off his body, and their large tails, horns, claws, and teeth all act as effective weapons in the midst of combat. In addition, Dredfel are excellent predators, as they have heightened senses of smell, sight, hearing, and taste.
Their thick fur protects them not only from the coldness of their natural climate, but it is also thick and coarse enough to act as a natural armor, providing some protection against man-made weapons, which is why Dredfel aren't known to wear man-made armor. Because their attacks are heavily reliant on their great strength and speed, any armor would simply weigh them down and strip them of this advantage. In addition to their dark fur, the Dredful have white hair growing from their head, which suggests they may have at one point descended from humans. Dredfel also use the hair of their defeated enemies to make rope, which they tie around their arms. If their arm is deeply wounded in battle, these ropes help to prevent them from quickly bleeding to death by keeping the blood flow relatively low.
Anyone unlucky enough to come face to face with a Dredfel would be wise to know that they have little tolerance for magic spells. Although some Dredfel are capable of casting very basic spells, their ability cannot compete with that of more intelligent humanoids, and their thick fur provides little resistance to powerful spells. However, don't think that successfully hitting a Dredfel is an easy task. Despite their large size, these creatures are extremely agile, as they not only use their legs for mobility, but they utilize their arms and even their tails to maneuver in combat, making them a difficult target to strike. They are well aware of this advantage, and because of this, they specialize in barrage style attacks, evasion, and counter attacks.
Because of this, a Dredfel will rarely attack head on, nor will they typically stand in one place to attack. A fight with a Dredfel usually consists of the adventurer struggling to even face the Dredfel, who will try to attack either from the side or from behind. It is also common for them to provoke you to attack, only to dodge to one side and strike you while undefended.
Should anyone brave enough to challenge a Dredfel actually defeat it, he or she will find that their strong horns can be very useful for creating powerful weapons with superior durability.
BACKGROUND
The Dredfel are a powerful and savage race. Although rather brutish, these creatures are by no means unintelligent, although their intellect is nowhere near comparable to that of humans. Their savage nature spawns from their religiously motivated existence. The Dredfel believe that earning the favor of their god, Umbra, is the ultimate goal in life, and is the only way with which to ensure their safe passage into the afterlife. In order to earn that favor, they must make sacrifices. Because they acknowledge humans as their most formidable opponents due to their intellect, they believe human sacrifices to be more valuable than any other creature (except for Dredfel sacrifices, as they believe themselves to be the chosen of Umbra).
The Dredfel feel that to die in battle is to die without Umbra’s favor, because once a Dredfel has made enough sacrifices to ensure their favor, they are sacrificed themselves, upon which they will enter the afterlife. Therefore, the Dredfel keep the skulls of their victims as a means of recording their achievements in order to prove they’re worthy of being sacrificed. Because of their religous fervor, they will never surrender, they will never show mercy, and they will never stop killing, as to do so would be to deny their very purpose in life.
WHY I CHOSE THIS CREATURE
I found it relevant to discuss why I chose to create the creature as I did.. I’m tired of seeing the same orcs, goblins, dwarves, etc. that we see in so many RPGs nowadays. However, the reason they’re used so frequently is because they’re good concepts. They give you the sense that you’re in a fantasy world, and they have a very traditional RPG feel to them, which is a good thing. What needs to be changed isn’t the concepts, nor the traditional feel, as doing this is difficult and would most likely result in some kind of preposterous creature that, although unique, would just seem very out of place, perhaps even comical. I don’t want to see flying pink and purple colored alien-like jelly bean monsters just because it’s “original.”
I created this creature so that it had a very natural feel to it, nothing crazy or too ridiculous, and my goal was to make it fit within MO’s theme (which I believe to be somewhat dark). However, it’s unique in that it doesn’t exist in any book, game, or movie, so when you see it, you still get the feeling that you’re seeing something new, yet you don’t suddenly lose the feeling that you’re playing a fantasy RPG.
Sure, we’ve seen lizardmen before, but we’ve never seen Sator. We’ve seen human characters before, but we’ve never seen Tindremere. We’ve seen beastlike creatures with tails, hooves, and horns before, but we’ve never seen Dredfel. We’ve seen many traditional concepts before, and we’ve grown to be comfortable with them, but we also get bored of seeing the same races and creatures over and over. What we need is something new, something we haven’t seen before, but something that won’t deviate too much from what we expect when we play a fantasy RPG, otherwise we risk losing that feeling we get that’s unique to fantasy RPGs like MO.
I created Drefel out of my need for something new, but my desire for something familiar... something that fits.