Piney

Pineys are a race of humanoid plants who inhabit the Old Margreve Forest of Midgard, a campaign setting for Pathfinder and Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. Formerly humans, the Pineys have been warped by the magic of their home over generations into creatures far more plant than human, to the point they no longer have individual genders and instead can assume functioning male or female aspects at will for mating and reproduction. Physically, they resemble humans with wood-grain patterned skin, too-long limbs, and blank inchoate eyes... at least, this is what those pineys who have been exiled from the Margreve and thusly reverted to a form closer to that of their human ancestors look like.

One of the weirdest things about pineys is that they are totally irreligious; they loathe the gods and refuse to have anything to do with them, instead cleaving to worshipping the living spirit of the Old Margreve. They justify this in that the Margreve is clearly a living, thinking entity, and one that they know will punish them if they do not keep on its good side. Even their seeming faith of ceremonies and blood sacrifices are rooted in the very real fact that without such appeasement, the Margreve will lash out against them. Those pineys who do embrace religion are immediately expelled from the forest, never to return. Pineys refer to their not-religion as "The Old Ways"; an unspoken series of social contracts generally centered around respecting the Margreve’s power, honoring the memories which lie in the forest’s loamy floor, and making the required sacrifices to ensure the village remains in good standing with the creatures and spirits beyond the village’s borders. These rules are learned by young pineys through cautionary tales told by village elders, and through accidental infractions which are quickly corrected.

As part of this "faith", pineys are averse to all magic outside of the primal magics practiced by druids and rangers, as well as their own traditions of fetish magic, which use small tokens and jewelry crafted from natural materials to channel primal magics from the Margreve itself.

As you can probably expect, pineys tend toward suspicion of outsiders, and their interaction with the other folk of Midgard is extremely limited. Late at night along the great trade road north of the forest, cloaked pineys sometimes appear with coin and crafted charms to trade for salt and iron. These ambassadors make their trades quickly and with obvious discomfort. In general, pineys leave the Margreve only when they absolutely have to, usually as a result of being banished for breaking the laws of the Old Ways too often.

Piney villages are located deep in the Margreve forest. Though their homes evoke human architecture, the villages are often melded into the trunks of trees or dug into the side of grassy hills. A piney village is a foreboding place with strange symbols etched into the wooden walls of the darkened homes. From these enclaves, pineys patrol their territory from dusk until sunrise ensuring the woods are safe and free from interlopers. Pineys feed through photosynthesis, which often requires them to chase patches of sunlight throughout the day before returning to their villages for a few hours of rest. Pineys abroad tend to live in small, agricultural communities, and many find they are capable guardians of the small villages they inhabit. They are slow to warm to strangers, though fiercely loyal to friends and family.

Over years of isolation, pineys have developed their own unique language, which mixes many Elvish words with a vocal approximation of the sounds heard in the forest. Some pineys speak a rough form of Common which is taught to individuals destined to trade with the outside world. Pineys abandoned the naming conventions of outsiders centuries ago. There are no names which are distinctly male or female among the pineys, who declare their own names each Spring. It is not uncommon for a piney to have had a different name for each year it has lived. Piney names evoke the sounds, colors, flora, and fauna of the Margreve without relying on distinct words. A piney name is an act of play; it has a musical quality and is sometimes onomatopoeic for a common forest sound. The names of piney villages, on the other hand, follow a very strict set of conventions which honors the oldest tree standing within five miles. If the tree dies, the village name is changed to include the next oldest – in this way, piney villages may have the same name for centuries then go through a period of frequent change. The names are often one or two elvish words that describe the most prominent feature of the tree honored by the village. Though simple, these words carry great weight in their villages and anyone dishonoring the village’s namesake is severely punished.

Pineys debuted as a PC race in the Margreve Player's Guide, alongside the Alseid and the Erina.

5e PC Stats

Ability Score Increase: +2 Wisdom, +1 Constitution

Size: Medium

Speed: 30 feet

Darkvision 60 feet

Roots: You are Proficient in Nature and Survival.

Margreve Within. As a piney adventuring beyond the Margreve, you have lost the more extreme, occasionally monstrous, qualities of your forest-dwelling kin. Nonetheless, the magic of the elder forest marks you. You can meet your daily alimentary needs by consuming a suitable amount of food or by standing in direct sunlight for 30 minutes. In addition, your organs are partially made from plant matter. You have advantage on saving throws against poison, and you have resistance against poison damage.

Margreve Without. Regardless of the time and distance between you and the Margreve, the forest’s influence on you manifests in the form of strange alterations to your body. Although you are humanoid, your connection to the Margreve marks you with plant-like characteristics. Create a growth of your own in consultation with your GM or pick one from the following list:

Your skin is rough with harmless cracks resembling tree bark.

Heavily-perfumed flowers grow wherever your body hair is dense. They can be plucked, but they grow back within a few days.

Your eyes are twice as large as a human’s, and their color is a changing swirl of green and brown.

Your finger and toe nails are wood.

Your major joints (shoulder, hip, knee) creak like tree branches when you move