Since I'm terrible at posts and lurking is kind of my thing therefore, here comes a spontaneous "wtf is this" art from someone with 10 posts total. Couldn't get back home to my relatives during easter so I was bored, thinking I could concept a new race just for fun.
v1
General description:
These are obviously bears, and they are in comparison to the rest not keen on grouping up in communities as they rather roam the wilderness, gathering medicinal herbs.
They are quite friendly but due to their sheer size they are for the most part left alone for a good reason, as they tend to grow anxious and easily irritated when they visit the villages to sell their wares.
Recently all races have found them to be invaluable merchants due to the frequent battles as the medicinal herbs do save many lives; which have in return made them very wealthy. They do try to hide this by not buying or wearing anything too flashy.
However many of them who get ahead of themselves go down in ambushes, often in vain as they never carry all of their money with them at any time. The herbs they carry in their backpack are valuable though, but since it's very difficult to sell them across the races it's considered too risky to be worth it, and therefore often let to wither along with the corpse.
Social structure:
They do socialize but they rarely meet each other in person as you would expect perhaps neighbours to do. They build cottages that are submerged under ground-level and usually very well hid from even the trained eye.
Each individual can have several of these hidden cottages and they are used from time to time by basically anyone who happens to be nearby. There have been more than a few stories that tells how desperate survivors find themselves saved after by a sheer stroke of luck banging their foot on a hidden trapdoor.
However as common courtesy goes they do expect the visitor to leave something behind, plentiful of money or food can usually be found in these cottages. However if someone steal from this supply or don't leave a token of their gratitude, they will track down whoever was inside with their sensitive nose and make sure they pay back several times over. In money or blood.
They have a council, which are most of the time not politically influenced by other races, but there have been times in the past where they have sided. Such as the one time a few generations ago that left the race in shambles.
They gained a new ally after such a treaty since the trade was almost too good to pass up on, but in the process they also gained many more enemies that each day burned down more and more of their cottages, forcing them to stick together just in order to survive. Then when they finally had to retreat to the army settlements of their ally - far out of their comfort-zone - fights soon started as they grew restless and intimidated.
It all ended up with them being hanged out to the enemies as traitors and basically left to die, and after that event their numbers have been extremely low and the council are sworn to never take sides for all of them ever again. The current council for that time of course was punished, as each and every survivor after that ripped away pieces of their fur (and skin in the process) and then banished them to die in the wilderness. Many of the cottages still have these patches of the "Old Council" as a reminder of the deed that almost made them extinct.
Combat:
It's not unusual for forests where a bear tries to mark his territory and scaring away others by practising with the sickle at cutting down smaller trees. And usually, they succeed at doing just that. Certain individuals have been said to cut down full-grown trees as well, but it's widely regarded as tall-tales.
They train rigorously in using their larger frame to exert deadly force in just a few blows, which results in a brute force that is often enough to cause even a single blow to be fatal or when wielding a sickle to easily dismember the enemy.
The form of the sickle as well has proven ideal for disarming enemies, as spears gets shattered and swords twisted out of its owner's hands. Therefore in most single encounters against a bear the attacker find himself with a broken wrist and ankles, but life still intact.
However - quite logically - the chance of ever being able to buy his goods are effectively reduced to zero.
But they have a very apparent weakness.
They aren't even close as nimble as the other races, and are easily outmanoeuvred when there's more than one attacker. And since they work alone you can always count on that there never is another one that will back him up once you attack. However, usually one does not want to slay a bear as even though they help the enemy, their own kin will usually fare just as bad. And the worst thing that can happen is when a village gets blacklisted; usually judged out by the council if there's been assaults for no apparent reason.
Then it doesn't bode well for the future of said village in the long term.
Therefore the larger military forces have branded them as neutral under all conditions (same which can't be said for the rogue bandits of course).
Artwork:
To motivate their outfits I figured they wear these huge backpacks that they carry the herbs in.
Also I just went something on their armour, but I figured that making their armour out of wood and leather made sense and works with their size. Haven't bothered looking for better alternatives on the design on the armour yet, so the helmet looks pretty wonky for a good reason I guess.
The sickle felt right since it's somewhat contradicting for them to carry something that look this delicate for battle, but it does make sense for them to carry one of these.
The paint on the face is a simple white color that they just smack with their hand across the muzzle. Simple enough.
That's it for now anyway, back to lurking!