Excited to be doing Glaugust this year! It'll be my first, and I think it'll be a nice return to blogging for me.
Here we goooooo
Species: Gorilla | Reroll STR+3 | You can lift and carry 10x a mere man | You cannot speak verbally
“The Great Zoo of Galderad has opened today to startling news; the gorilla display has been vandalized! Someone
broke inside of the display during off hours and wrote messages on the inside of the viewing windows in an attempt
to frighten visitors. Scrying has yet to be used, as a prank of this sort is not believed to be very important by Her
Defenders. Messages ranged from ‘Let me out’ to ‘I am thinking’...” Excerpt from Her Empire's Times
This article was distributed a few months before their awakening was undeniable. For that intervening period, many
such “pranks” were reported at zoos, ecological sites, and exotic pet owners’ homes. In the background, secretive
groups of wizards and many druid conclaves convened to diagnose what was happening. Was something possessing
gorillas? Was a rogue spellcaster awakening them to a higher consciousness? Druids had long since believed human
consciousness to be a mistake, so the cases of it being inflicted onto such noble beasts were seen as wildly cruel.
Many accused high profile Wizard Eccentrics of the crime, but before battles could break out between the wizards
and the druids an answer appeared.
A collective known simply as O (always depicted in green pigment) began destroying enclosures of gorillas and
other primate species and setting the animals free. These releases were always preceded by anonymous
correspondence to the owners urging them to release them as they were “children of the stars, same as any tallman
or elf or orc.” After the request was inevitably ignored, O would free the captive animals and disappear with them,
and it would later be learned that they were returning them to natural habitats.. Their calling card, a simple
depiction of their name in splattered chloroplasts, made them quite a novelty in the news before their public debut.
O revealed themselves in a public demonstration at Her Empire's capital as a group of sympathetic peoples,
druids, and newly conscious gorillas who believe that they were the star-wandering progenitors of the Tallman race.
After near destruction in a great cosmic calamity, these space gorillas deployed an emergency cache of young to a
distant and life-supporting planet (Ours) with minds wiped. The reason for this consciousness reset is unclear, but
many O members believe the threat that nearly destroyed them was something that targeted the mind of sapients in
ancient times. After reaching our planet, gorillas adapted to nature so well that sapience never reemerged. Gorillas
eventually developed into the wide range of primates that can be found here, most notably Tallmen. Some O
members don’t believe all of this, but this is the public line.
So, why now? What caused all gorillas in the wild and living in captivity to simultaneously develop minds? O is
not sure, but theories range from a deity’s intervention to an implanted failsafe in the original spell that wiped their
minds. Regardless of the reason, people have been reacting to the emergence of a new sapient species in many
ways. Some are receptive, having been taught that anything thinking is an equal. They welcome the new people
into the world with open arms. Others are reluctant to even acknowledge a new people, stuck inside the old
separation between animal and person. Gorillas often challenge this division, seeing all animals as worthy of
autonomy and respect that equals a person's.
Gorillas are often strict vegans and nudists, believing that the natural world must be unaltered and to make as
little an impact on the lives of other beings as possible. This is paradoxically not applied to other sapients, who they
often gently try to convert. Many who live in community with other peoples “liberate” housepets from their
owners. Gorillas have largely remained in the wilderness, however, still being familiar with the lifestyle of their
predecessors. Though now it is common to see gorillas with carefully carved spears, nets woven of thick braided
vines and roaring fires under scraps of abandoned metal now serving as cookware. They are hospitable,
welcoming those who crave the mostly natural lifestyle and those who simply want a paper published about them
with equal kindness.
“We are not going to devolve into small, simpering babes unable to survive without this or that tool. Our bodies are
our greatest gifts, and this world provides all we need. Yet, we feel now the pull of innovation and convenience just
as you do. We will be tempered by our love for the planet, and will not indulge so much as to weaken ourselves or
become reliant. A spear is one thing, but my fur will never be covered by a dress or woolen pants.” - Quote from
Ong, Matriarch and Speaker for the Kikiro Wetland Forest
These tribes of gorillas have found much in common with those displaced by Her growing Empire, and those who
live on the outskirts of charted land. Many have elected to be the muscle that protects these unspoiled spots of
nature from colonization and exploitation. Those gorillas affiliated with O are often also trained in druidic arts,
though they see the “question of thought” differently than most sects. Gorillas see their awakening as a gift, an
ability to ascend higher than just meeting their baseline needs. They believe all animals will one day awaken to
sapience. and on that day all will be in community with one another. Druids HATE this line of thinking, but are
reluctant to rally against a gorilla druid clan as they are naturally gifted in the arts.
There are some gorillas who dwell in the denser parts of Her Empire, often originating from zoos. These gorillas
tend to speak highly of industrialization and the expansionism of tallmen, believing that this is the legacy that their
progenitors left for them: to one day reconquer the stars! They have often been taught or raised by scholars or
wealthy owners who relished the novelty of a talking, thinking animal companion. They believe primates are the
most superior of all animals, and often keep lemurs and monkeys as pets to further illustrate their greatness when
they are set free from their family. These gorillas often integrate into businesses or groups as mascots, get into
Tallmen religion, or strike out on their own as adventurers. The image these gorillas cultivate as “Tallman
Supplicants” are dire and embarrassing to O.