Hith society

Note: This material is known only by hithkindred, and would not be known outside those initiated in hith culture.

Biology

Hith resemble humanoid salamanders. They have short noses, wide-set, bulging eyes, broad mouths, and short tails used for swimming. Their bodies are completely hairless. Their skin color is highly variable but tends towards bright oranges, reds, greens, yellows, and blues. Elders grow large crests or protrusions on their heads or necks that, while not useful for combat, illustrate their rank and age. Males and females are essentially indistinguishable from one another except by hith themselves. They stand a little shorter than a full-grown human male, with an average height of about 5'5", and weigh between 120 and 170 pounds.

Hith are ectothermic and require regular exposure to heat (usually sunlight) to regulate their body temperature (but see below). Their lifespans are long, around 140-170 years; they breed slowly; females lay many eggs at a time, but only one usually is fertilized and hatches successfully, with an incubation period of around eleven months, and a long period of infancy, roughly ten years. During the incubation period, adjusting the temperature of the egg has been refined to a science to control the sex of the infant. Around 10% of hith retain the ability to use temperature control to change their own sex, a process that takes around a week of controlled exposure to sun and deep sunless sea.

Abilities

Hith are biologically cold-blooded, but have mastered techniques to control their body’s temperature so they do not need to spend much time in sunlight. Nevertheless, they have an ancestral respect and veneration for the sun, sellu, which is the name of their (genderless) deity. They also have the ability to control their bodies’ healing - they recover from injuries rapidly in water, and are extraordinarily tough in general. Not only do they breathe water freely, they can, with a touch, share that capacity with a human for a time. Adult hith have such bodily control that they can dehydrate a living thing with a touch, and heal their own injuries in so doing. Mature hith can even change the consistency of water to suffocate water-breathers around them.

Age Grades

Hith society is governed by a strict set of six age grades that govern social status and political authority. These are as follows:

#	Name	Starts at	Age	Age (human)	Roles
1	Hifis	Birth	0	0	Learning and growth
2	Sese	Hindlimbs developed	12	10	Contributing to society
3	Whesef	Sexual maturity	30	20	Producing and rearing children
4	Lethillae	Eyes change colour	50	35	Participation in politics
5	Hesethi	First crests	75	50	Leadership and authority
6	Lihesethi	Second crests	110	70	Keeping and transmitting lore

The hifis or dawn grade is an extended larval stage. Hifis have underdeveloped hindlimbs and spend almost all their time underwater - they can breathe aboveground but their locomotion is limited. Hifis are physically distinguished by their tails occupying a much larger percentage of their body mass, and are generally brown or green in colour with black eyes.

At the sese, or juvenile, grade, hith are already capable of full mental and physical action other than reproduction, but are excluded from decision-making. These are often warriors, workers, hunters, fishers, and apprentices to various crafts. Sese grade hith are often more muted in colour - tending towards browns, greens, and softer versions of the bright yellows and oranges that many adult hith have. Hithkindred achieve this rank at 1st level.

At the whesef, or adult, grade hith become sexually mature, which is usually indicated visually through acquiring their adult coloration with spots or stripes. Sexual maturity is later than human adolescence - hith consider it bizarre that humans can and do reproduce before full social adulthood. Continuing to participate in productive activities, the whesef are not involved in political life, ostensibly so they can focus on rearing young. Hithkindred achieve this rank at 5th level.

The lethillae, or mature grade, are the youngest hith to be involved not only in production and reproduction, but decision-making about social life. Their eyes change colour, from a pure black to have flecks or stripes of gold, and sometimes spots or stripes on their bodies turn gold as well. Hithkindred achieve this rank at 11th level.

The hesethi or elder grade is occupied by individuals at the height of their mental and social prowess, who may occupy positions of leadership or esteem within society. At this time, both male and female hith grow crests or protrusions on their heads or necks, signalling their new status. No hithkindred has ever achieved this rank.

The lihesethi or sunset grade are the eldest of all hith, and they hold this status until death. While some lihesethi retain political authority for some time after reaching this stage biologically (marked by the growth of a second set of crests or protrusions on the head), this is meant as a time for reflection, contemplation, and turning over active roles to the hesethi, while taking on new roles and projects as keepers of knowledge, protectors and teachers.

The exact time at which an individual makes the transition from one stage to another is not predetermined, but requires physiological and psychological transformations that are confirmed by the solars (priests) of the group. A delay of a couple of years compared to others of the same chronological age is perfectly normal. Occasionally an individual may be greatly delayed in the achievement of the next age grade - these delays are matters for gossip and concern, and occasionally progress in the age grade system is halted entirely.

Solars can, where warranted, perform rituals that in most cases, hasten the advancement to the next age grade. This is sometimes used in cases where individuals have accomplished great actions beyond their rank, for early promotion to lethillae or hesethi grades. It is believed that sometimes the solars can cause delays or even halt life cycle advancement, as punishments for serious crimes, although no one is ever prohibited from advancing to the sese grade.

Classes / Roles

Pfethus “Thorn”

The pfethus, or thorn, is an expert in the use of the pfethe, the short, one-handed barbed spear of the hith. They are the soldiers and defenders of hith communities both above and below the water. Valorous and aggressive, they heal from wounds rapidly and deliver severe blows with their barbed weapon of choice.

Thorns have exceptional fighting abilities with the pfethe, which they use to bleed their opponents with brutal efficiency. They also develop skills using their tails for combat, which other hith don’t do. Their withering touch ability, common to all adult hith, is developed to a high degree.

Sellesu “Solar”

The solars are the priests of the hith, dedicated to their deity, embodied by the sun (sellu). All solars are of the whesef (adult) age grade or older. Even though hith have learned to adapt their bodies to not need sun as much as most other ectotherms, the reverence for the sun is powerful among their kind, and the solars lead rituals at sunrise, sunset, and particularly during solar eclipses. The solars channels great divine energy through their touch - their bodies becoming vessels through which the sun’s energy accumulated within them takes on new form.

The holy touch of a solar has numerous and powerful effects - some involve knowledge, some heal conditions, and some cause pain, or so you hear. They also draw on the sun’s power to create light and effects relating to light, radiance, and the sun.

Llus “Heron”

The llus, or heron, is expert in speaking to creatures both sentient and otherwise. They are poets, singers, and orators, responsible for recounting the histories and lore of their people. They maintain peace among different communities and across the boundaries of species, but their words also allow them to draw on great strength. They have particular responsibility for, and power over, animals, and draw on nature’s power in battle and to gain wisdom.

… and probably some others!

Material Culture

Pfethe

The pfethe is a short (2-3’ long) spear with a three-pointed barb on the front and a set of sharp barbs pointing in either direction along the first foot or so of the shaft. Traditionally made of bone, they are now more customarily made of bronze with a thick bone or wood shaft. They are notable for their ability to cause serious bleeding injuries. The thorns, the warriors of the hith, are masters of the pfethe.

Lithus

HP/inch: 10; Hardness: 10

Lithus is a yellowish resinous substance that hith at the whesef age grade and older can, with some effort and energy, excrete through pores. A hith can produce around half a pound per hour if not engaged in any other activities. Lithus is thick, gooey, and yellow-gold in colour. Originally it was used as a protective coating, especially for eggs prior to hatching, and it is still used for that function, helping to secure against breakage and control temperature. Over time, as hith society has developed technologically, lithus is used increasingly for a variety of functions. It is relatively lightweight but is slightly heavier than neutral buoyancy, so it is suitable for weapons, armor, and architecture. It serves as a substitute for wood in contexts where wood might decay underwater. It is lightly translucent so allows the passage of some light. When prepared properly, lithus can become nearly as hard as steel, and holds an edge extremely well.

Lithus is used architecturally, sometimes hardened with the addition of sand, to create beautiful elements that shimmer in sunlight and would be nearly impossible to create out of stone or metal. Weapons and armor made of lithus are particularly valuable and sought after. It is also used in jewelry, as a craft product for creating luxury items, and in artistic production. Coloured powders can be added to raw lithus to create a variety of hues. Because it must be created by a hith using their own body, supplies are limited, but there are some hith whose main productive activity is to produce raw lithus for these purposes.

Lithus armor provides damage reduction against natural weapons: 1/- if light armor, 2/- if medium, and 3/- if heavy. When a weapon constructed entirely of lithus confirms a critical hit, it absorbs some of the life force of the creature hit, releasing it upon its next strike. The weapon receives a +1 bonus to damage the next time it strikes an opponent successfully. Weapons constructed of lithus add +200gp to the cost.

Armor	Type	Cost	AC	Max Dex	Armor Check	Spell Failure %	Speed	Weight
Lamellar	Light	1800gp	+4	+5	-1	20%	30	20 lbs.
Breastplate	Medium	3500gp	+6	+5	-3	25%	20	30 lbs.
Banded	Heavy	5500gp	+7	+3	-5	35%	20	35 lbs.

Hith Religion

Most but not all hith venerate the sun as a monotheistic, if somewhat impersonal, genderless deity. The sun is the source of all life and of all change, providing life energy as well as taking it away. When egg-tenders take the unhatched into the sun to shape their development, this is both a practical and ritual activity. Drawing on the sun’s heat is a form of communion with the deity. The withering touch of adult hith - drawing out liquid from another’s body - parallels the sun’s dessicative power, and the laying out of the dead on rocks under sunlight to dry out embodies the reunion of the material essence of the body with the sun that granted it vitality. There is always a tension - as with any cold-blooded creature - between sun as giver of life and source of danger, and hith theology, which can be quite abstruse, embodies this contradiction. This is a unitary, not a dualistic, ontology of matter - the body and spirit are both seen as fundamentally material, rather than made of different kinds of substance. The solars (sellesu) are the guardians of religious practice and are given to long, deep debates on the matter amongst themselves. A small minority of hith are essentially deistic, and see all of nature, not just the sun, as embodying spiritual power, and reject the concept that the sun should be valued specially as a god. This view is frowned upon by hith authorities but not actively persecuted.