These strange people have been seen a lot in Venice recently, but what are they?
It’s time for a deep dive (hah) into Rashaar mythology and physiology. Did you ever want to know what a Rashaar is? Or where they live or what they do in their downtime?
Well, in celebration of the new Deeper Denizens box coming Friday, we’re going to answer (some of) these questions!
What Is A Rashaar?
Well there’s no simple answer to that question!
The Rashaar are in fact an entire race of creatures. From the smallest Lesser Ugdru to the colossal Morgraur, all are Rashaar! There’s a single genus that’s found throughout, meaning these fishy, froggy monsters all share a single origin source: Dagon.
Yes, there’s a little bit of endlessly ancient god in every Rashaar (sounds like a bad pick-up line). But to what extent is the real question.
Forced Evolution
So, how exactly does this work? Well, imagine that there’s a line of evolution:
With Dagon on one end, and a human on the other. The more “pure-bred” the Rashaar, the closer they are to Dagon, and the more “watered-down” their genetic code is, the closer they are to a human.
This is where it gets a little… not so child friendly. Without going into too much detail, most of the Rashaar creatures are able to breed with most other creatures. Whether they’re humans, or other Rashaar, or fish or anything! Regardless of sex, or even cooperation, the Rashaar will find a way. Speaking of fish – if you replace the “human” on that scale with “shark”, somewhere in the middle you’ll find the Karcharos!
So where do we find our other Rashaar?
As we can see in this (approximate) diagram, the Raadru is fairly close to Dagon with very little human in there at all. Human/Rashaar interbreeding has been going on for thousands of years, back and forth between Earth and whatever that place is beyond the Rent in the Sky. The Raadru is pretty much a pure-bred Rashaar, with only a few more humanoid features.
A little further down the line is the Lesser Ugdru. These aren’t exactly “pure” Rashaar, but definitely aren’t human! They sit somewhere in the middle, a classic foot soldier of the Rashaar.
So if a Lesser Ugdru was to mate with a human, the likeliest result would be a Hybrid. Human DNA is fairly strong in this exchange, so the chances of creating another creature of Lesser Ugdru or higher on the scale is pretty slim. Those monsters are thankfully quite rare! More likely is an Advanced Hybrid – someone who is still mostly humanoid, but couldn’t pass for human when walking the streets. If two of those bred together, the Dagon part of their DNA would be stronger and more likely to birth a Lesser Ugdru or higher. It’s rare for humans to birth Raadru, but not entirely unknown, it’s just the luck of the genetic lottery!
This all seems pretty straightforward, but when you look at the Aglaope, you see that the genepool of Rashaar creatures can be a very muddy place!
How Come There Are So Many Variants?
While the Rashaar have existed for aeons, and have even been on Earth for thousands of years, they haven’t had a foothold in reality until the Rent tore open the heavens. So how are there so many?
Well, the reason is that Rashaar breed quickly.
One of the reasons that these creatures can live to be millennia-olds is the way they age. Their growth is extremely fast early in their lives, and slows down drastically as time goes on. A Raadru for example can come full-term in a matter of weeks, grow from a baby to a teenager in a few months, and be a fully grown adult in less than a year. The remarkable turnaround is one of the reasons that the waters around Venice have suddenly becoming teeming with sea creatures unlike any seen before!
No one really knows how long a Rashaar can live, and how much that’s impacted by bringing human DNA into the mix. The Church of Dagon seem to have an unending supply of followers, replenishing their ranks week to week.
Judging by the look of some of the Hybrids, the strange mix of genes is pretty unhealthy-looking! With open wounds that don’t look like they’re healing, bits of skin falling off, and crazed looks in their eyes, it suggests that they aren’t exactly very stable, genetically speaking.
If playing Darwin appeals to you, don’t forget to pick up the Deeper Denizens boxed set when it goes on pre-order this Friday in the TTCombat webstore. And don’t forget: eat as many Slaves and throw away as many Hybrids as you want – there are plenty more where they came from!