Homebrew Urgal Species Details

The Urgals (or Urgralgra in their language)[1] are a race of sentient creatures that inhabit Alagaësia. They are considered evil by most humans, but are not inherently so. Though most are uneducated in the normal definition of the word, they make up for this with brute strength, as well as exceptional combat and command skills. The Urgal language is simple and guttural. Only a few phrases are known to outsiders and most of those are related to war and combat. Angela, the herbalist, is one of few who can speak their language. As with other races, they are capable of using Magic, to the ignorance of both humans and dwarves.

Physical Description

Urgals are mostly humanoid in appearance, with yellow to grayish skin covered in bristle like hair, bowed legs and thick arms. They have yellow, piggish eyes, claws on their hands in place of nails and a pair of long, twisted horns protruding from above their ears. Urgals can be anywhere from six to nine feet tall: an Urgal's height depends mostly on heredity factors. If an Urgal is eight or more feet in height they are considered a Kull. Urgals usually have seven toes on each foot as dwarves do, a similarity that Eragon observes when traveling with Nar Garzhvog, although both rather believe it be the creativity of their deities than any possible relation.

Female Urgals are somewhat slimmer than their male counterparts, though just as tall. While still massive, their horns tended to be shorter and more delicate. Urgal children often accompanied the dams. Children who have not yet grown their horns look surprisingly similar to human children (excepting the difference in skin and eye color).

Although Humans and dwarves think of them merely as bloodthirsty beasts, Urgal mothers care well for their young. Their entire culture revolves around violence and physical strength: one's prestige being directly connected with how many kills one had or how many opponents they had beaten in combat, as well as their size and the size of their horns. Their horns are a sign of pride, if an Urgal were to lose his horns it would be equivalent to being stripped of his being and manhood.

While Urgals have, on average, lifespans similar to humans, they are stronger and faster, and can run for much longer distances than any human or dwarf. This, as can be observed, makes them subject to tales of beasts among other species.

Culture

The Urgal culture is centered around warfare: the societal ranks of both males and females are decided by their ability to kill. Urgals are a tribal race and each tribe is under the authority of a warchief, or "Nar" in the Urgal tongue. These tribes often fight each other as well as Human settlements or cities. Urgals are known to fight both alone and in groups. The terms for young Urgals is cub, an adult male is a ram and an adult female is a dam. Male Urgals wore loincloths, though during battle they donned metal and leather armor.

Urgal villages are well-hidden and well-protected, residing in well-defended caves in the central Spine region Humans avoid. The villages contain carved animal motifs from logs which stand vertical, which the Urgals believe will scare off animals that the motifs represent. Urgal families weave the Namna, an ornate piece of cloth. The namna hangs outside the family's cave and describes their own history. When a male Urgal cubs' horns begin to show (or bud), he must go into the wilderness and kill an animal to prove himself. Most young rams hunt mountain goats, wolves, or other less threatening prey. Nar Garzhvog, however, became warchief of the Bolvek Tribe by strangling an Urzhad, a gigantic cave bear, to death when he came of age. In Brisingr, he fashions the Urzhad's stomach into a makeshift pot to cook venison stew.

The Urgal diet consisted of mainly meat, venison, Nagra (giant boar), Bear, Fowl and wild roots, berries and leaves. The meat was usually roasted or put into a stew cooked in a leather pot using hot stones with tubers and leaves. They make a type of wine from berries and tree bark. Humans such as Eragon believed it to be even stronger then Dwarven brew, and it tasted like cherries gone bad.

Just as Humans hated Urgals, Urgals hated Humans. Urgal legends portrayed the Human race as evil and corrupt. This age-old hatred led to many wars, with heroes and villains on both sides. Urgals have signed peace treaties with other races, but they rarely last, as the entire Urgal culture is based upon war. The young rams must win a mate by proving themselves in combat and they often attack those with whom they have treaties.

Two ranks in Urgal society are the rank of "Nar" (chief) and "Herndall" (female leader). Individuals who bore these titles were treated with great respect. The Kull leader Garzhvog has the title Nar. Also, the Urgals are very considerate of titles for other non-Urgals, like Ajihad and Nasuada as Nightstalker, Eragon as Firesword and Saphira as Flametongue. When one wanted to pay respect to another, they would look up and bellow, showing their throat, before butting heads with them (which was avoided by other species).

Even though their violent nature may seem utterly senseless at first, Urgals had codes of honor when it came to the reasons behind killing. If an allied Human were to kill an Urgal out of self-defense or because Urgals killed people close to him, they would accept it. However, if a Human were to kill an Urgal without a reason to do so, this would cause a great uproar among them.

Kull

Urgals are generally stronger and more deadly than the average human. However, the tallest and most powerful of the race are the Kull, who stood above eight feet tall on average and had legs like tree trunks. Kull seem to be trained Urgals, though it is not clear just how they grow to be Kull or "normal" Urgals. In Eragon's sweep of Garzhvog's memories in Eldest there is mention that it is due to the "Old Blood in his veins," but no further clarification is made. In Inheritance, when Eragon visits the Urgal village near Fläm Lake, he notices that Kull children are visible among the young Urgals and it appears there was no pattern that determine which parents bore Kull and which did not.

 

Urgal Traits

Your Urgal character has certain traits deriving from your Urgal ancestry.

Ability Score Increase

Your Strength score increases by 2, and your Constitution score increases by 1.

Age

Urgal mature a little faster than humans, reaching adulthood around age 14. They age noticeably faster and rarely live longer than 75 years.

Size

Urgal are somewhat larger and bulkier than humans, and they range from 5 to well over 6 feet tall. Your size is Medium.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Darkvision

Thanks to your Urgal blood, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Menacing

You gain proficiency in the Intimidation skill.

Relentless Endurance

When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.

Savage Attacks

When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and Urgal. Urgal is a harsh, grating language with hard consonants. It has no script of its own but is written in the Dwarvish script.