In the era of the Dusk Sages the Jevumm were feared and respected. The Sages themselves treated the great cats with caution, bartering knowledge of storms for safety from the hunt. The Jevumm roamed all over the land bestowing a kind of primal order to things, where creatures were categorized by their strength and intelligence. The weak and the dim-witted were prey for the mighty Jevumm, who feared nothing but the lick of fire.
The arrival of the Cheldrun, the Cataclysm of Fiery Skies, has been devastating to the pride of the Jevumm. The children of steel are masters of fire, using it to power their machines, cook their food, burn their fuel and as a weapon against the forest. From the perspective of the Jevumm, the Cheldrun hide their weakness behind the power of flame to usurp the place of the tiger-people at the apex of the food chain. With wounded egos the Jevumm have slowly retreated deeper and deeper into the jungle as the Cheldrun loggers advance, muttering curses and threats, but slinking away from the churning machines all the same.
The Jevumm are perhaps the least ‘civilized’ of the Karians, because they don’t have to be. They’ve always been the scariest race, able to take what they want – produced by others most of the time. They have the least peaceful interaction with other Karians. Indeed, the other races carry torches with them on long journeys to fend off the tigers, and then it rains and they all get eaten. Since the days of the Dusk Sages the Jevumm have been associated with storms and rain, when outdoor fires are put out and people disappear into the jungle without a sound.
Known as tiger-people, the Jevumm are actually quite diverse. Each tribe manifests as a different variety of great cat, from lions, to jaguars, to cougars and every type of tiger. They have a shorter lifespan than humans, dying on average near their 50th year. Mothers can be quite protective of their offspring, but Jevumm culture sets the 5th year as a firm boundary line at which point the cub must prove itself strong enough to survive. Fathers often step in at that point and chase the cub away into the jungle. Cubs that are too slow or weak often get killed by their fathers.
Jevumm aren’t very numerous, preferring wild places with low populations where there are plenty of individuals and small groups to prey on. They live mostly solitary lives, though they do gather occasionally in tribes. They are highly intelligent and proud, but also lazy and not courageous. They have sporadic interests that stave off boredom – notably poetry. Think, indolent cats that like to play with their food.
Amongst themselves they have a storytelling culture driven by one-upmanship. When summoned together from their wide-ranging territories for a tribal meet it is customary to share stories of prowess, usually told in verse. Everything between two Jevumm is a competition and it does occasionally get violent, though intraspecies fighting is rarely lethal. Sometimes a tribe will announce a Wild Hunt, which involves many Jevumm working together to bring down large prey or to break up a persistent group. Hunting cooperatively like this, the Jevumm are positively terrifying. Even so, these Wild Hunts have not been successful against the Cheldrun.
***Players who wish to play a Jevumm should decide what type of great cat and thus what tribe they are from. Different tribes will have different cultures and personalities depending on the variety of cat. Players should take this into account and detail out the relationships of the character to the tribe. What status does this character have in an ultra-competitive society? Players should consider the poetry that they may have written, and how they will relate to the other races, since the Jevumm are not always peaceful with other Karians.
Example Names: Aburala, Igola, Ihlosi, Isilo, Ithayiga, Kakhona, Leeu, Paka, Shenxisa, Ukaba, Varissa, Xelela, Yomisa
Example Attributes: Combat Technique, Extra Actions, Extra Defenses, Heightened Awareness, Heightened Senses, Jumping, Land Speed, Massive Damage, Melee Attack, Melee Defense, Special Movement (fast), Superstrength, Tough
Example Skills: Acrobatics, Area Knowledge, Burglary, Climbing, Controlled Breathing, Cultural Arts, Interrogation, Intimidation, Performing Arts, Seduction, Stealth, Swimming, Wilderness Survival, Wilderness Tracking, Writing
| Jevumm attitudes towards…. | |
| Cheldrun | Hiss! The fire-lovers are a plague on Karia. At every opportunity, when they are separated from their beloved flames, we will eat them. |
| Allskins | The weakest of the fire-lovers, we enjoy the smell of their terror on the breeze. |
| Biomade | These fire-lovers are mind-sensors. They cannot read our thoughts, but many a hunt has been spoiled because they detected our approach. |
| Mechified | More than anything we hate these fire-lovers who incorporate the flames into their own bodies, fueling engines that drive them like demons of destruction. |
| Karians | We are the people that belong, a natural outgrowth of Karia’s will to diversity and strength. |
| Anakarix | Undesirable to eat, these tree-dwellers are clever enough to make up for their sloth and weakness. |
| Gogajin | Perhaps the only people with a physical prowess we can respect, they are still no match for us because of their dim wits. |
| Jevumm | We are the storm-bringers, the lightning-harbingers, the ones who promise death-rain. We are to be feared. You are to be eaten. |
| Prill | Ha! Singing is no defense against tooth and claw. They eschew their nature to the detriment of their survival. They will sing sad songs while we feast on them. |
| Vorax | The world is mourning the death of these raptors, but it is their own weakness which destined them for the grave. |
| Zipsum | So… hard… to… catch… so… little… to… eat… waste of our time. |
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