Ahoggyá

“Ah-hog-yah”

“Or you might find a normal man to jolly you?” Old White-side gurgled a chuckle. “Some say that your body is appealing in spite of your veil. Now if it’s pleasure you seek, then know that we Ahoggyá have eight sexes...”  - from The Man of Gold by M.A.R. Barker, ©1984 DAW Books

Ahoggyá come from coastal lowlands. They are powerful and fearless, but unappealing to humans because of their rudeness, rank odour and monstrous appearance.

Ahoggyá are radially symmetric creatures around 1.5 meters tall, with four legs, four arms, and a barrel-shaped body about .8 m in diameter topped by a thick, domed carapace.  They are brown, blue, green, grey, or dun in color (or a mixture of those). Their extremely strong arms extend out of their body at equidistant intervals, and have hands with three digits and a thumb.  Between each pair of arms is a “face” protected by a horn-like ring. Each face includes two eyes; one face also has a fanged mouth, while the others have other sensory or reproductive organs. The Ahoggyá’s legs are bowed and very powerful.  Their excretory organs are centered up beneath their body. Ahoggyá can use weapons made for humans, though somewhat awkwardly.

Some Ahoggyá emerge from their swampy homelands to serve as mercenaries in the Tsolyáni legions, fight in the arenas, or take other jobs, usually involving strength and violence.  They generally stay in Tsolyánu for only a few years, though some stay longer, and have little interest in complying with human customs or values. Ahoggyá have eight sexes, so the difficulty of getting a suitable group of mates together may be part of the motivation to return to the Ahoggyá homeland as often as practical.

### Stereotypes

As far as humans are concerned, Ahoggyá are smelly, noisy, rude, and crude, beyond even what one would expect from most sentient non-humans. The phrase "eating like an Ahoggyá," popular around Jakálla, is used to refer to a noisy, open-mouthed eater.

Their eating habits also include extreme omnivorousness, with Ahoggyá happily eating carrion, insects, and other foods disgusting to humans. Worse still, they have no compunction about eating sentient beings, and find human flesh delicious.

Ahoggyá are valued for their strength, bravery, reliability, and robustness. An Ahoggyá with a job to do will do it, or die trying, at least to the best of its understanding. Their typically subhuman intelligence, and poor language skills, mean that an Ahoggyá's employer must take special care to make instructions clear.

The Reality: Ahoggyá once built starships, but despite this, most of the stereotypes are true enough. Modern Ahoggyá would not be capable of such a feat, and it must be presumed that their intelligence has degenerated since their arrival on Tékumel. That low intelligence, combined with the fact that humans are as little interested in truly understanding Ahoggyá culture and customs as Ahoggyá are theirs, leads to frequent misunderstanding and significant cultural gulfs between the two races. Ahoggyá seem irrational, obsessive, uncontrolled and impulsive, to humans. Furthermore, they really do love the taste of human flesh, and so are barred from entrance to the Tsolyáni necropolises.

Ahoggyá are uncouth creatures with little interest in religious matters, sorcery, and scholarly studies. They are largely found as travelling merchants, caravan guards, bodyguards, and mercenaries.

Ahoggyá smell bad to every race and are generally avoided because of this. A deep maroon color makes the Ahoggyá uneasy.

### Physical Attributes

The Ahoggyá are four-armed and four-legged, barrel-bodied, bristly and knobbly. Their four arms extend out at equidistant intervals from under a domed, thickly armoured carapace on top of the body. Between and below these arms, protected by a horny ring, are the eyes and other organs: two eyes and a fanged mouth on one side, and two eyes and other organs on each of the remaining three sides. Excretory organs are tucked up under the body. Their thickly muscled legs extend out from the base of the body in a permanent crouch, and their hands and feet both possess three digits and a thumb. They range from 1.41 to 1.60m in height, but their torso is perhaps 80 cm in diameter. They have eight sexes, but their reproductive processes are largely unknown.

### Clan and Lineage

It is rare indeed that an Ahoggyá would desire to join a human clan, and rarer still that a clan would accept one as a member. Most clans would be insulted even at the suggestion, as an Ahoggyá member could seriously reduce their prestige.

### Religion

Ahoggyá appear to hold no religious rituals other than large community dances, but even these may really be primitive courtship rites with no particular religious context. Their apparent lack of religion means that Tsolyáni law treats them as animals for most purposes, preventing them from gaining citizenship (but meaning they only need pay half as much tax as supposed sentient creatures).

### Enclaves

Along the southwestern coasts of Salarvya, across the sea in Haida Pakala, and in a large and as yet unexplored region in the far southeast called Onmu Tle Hlektis, an autonomous Ahoggyá state.

**Names**: Ahoggyá names are incomprehensible and unspeakable to humans (the Tsolyánu say that their names sound like sewage going down a Dráin), so humans tag them with nicknames, and the Ahoggyá do not seem to care.  Here are some examples of Ahoggyá nicknames: Barrel of Swords, Big Bag, Black-Spotted One, Dirty One, Gnarled One, Loudest Belly, Old Mud-Pie, Old White-Side, Red-Eye, Scar-Gut, Yellow Splotched One.

**Low Pedhtel**: Ahoggyá are rarely spell casters and are discouraged from being spell casters.

## Notes

-The Blue Room, David Bailey - not real Tekmel "a "possible" piece of Tekumelani knowledge" -Barker

[Moderator's Note: This treatise comes from David Bailey, and grew from the campaign he is a part of. It is not "Real" Tekumel but I did forward it to him for his comments, which are interspersed throughout, and set off by a leading >. ]

[> = Professor Barker's comments ]

[ = Original message. ]

>This is delightful. It IS a little too "scientific" in its phraseology for the Tinaliya to have written. (Note spelling: "Tinaliya" with one "l." I have fixed this throughout.)

>My group long ago learned NOT to use Ahoggya as player characters. Who wants to smell bad, defecate on fine carpets, mate with 7 other smelly, hairy creatures, and talk like a retarded gorilla? (Reminds me of some friends I once had -- but that's another story...)

This is the text of a little hand out that was given to a player who insisted on being an Ahoggya. Partly because they made it clear that intended to try to make some sort of super-character out of their choice. (Perhaps they had read the combat and physical statistics, but little of the social or practical matters).

>I have always warned players that this is NOT a fun thing to be, in spite of the Ahoggya;s great strength. On Tekumel the goal is to achieve SOCIAL status and power -- not to be Mr. Musclebound Superhero!

So why are Ahoggya smelly, stupid, violent and wierd [sp. "weird" is correct.]

The following is a summary of the translation of the research notes of the Tinaliya family-hive of Tkit tlin tisisiti. It dates from several hundred generations before the current game time.

>The name of the Tinaliya "hive" (= underground city?) is incorrect. It should be Tkit Tlinet Ses Ti, which one Tinaliya told me meant "Why do you care what we call it?" How did this author get the nice accents, umlauts, etc.? Why can't we do this on our (American?) machines?

It is believed that they captured a family of Ahoggya by the simple expedient of drugging a huge pile of fruit and fish heads which they left on a raft moored near an Ahoggya village. How they carried the captives back into the nest, and what they used to restrain them is unknown.

The Tinaliya carried out their experiments over a period of three years, utilising all of the charges in a rare eye of healing that had been 'tuned

>What an interesting use of umlauts and accents! How did he do it?

[Moderator's Note: My text file doesn't show the accents. Sorry. I have had to remove the characters. ]

to Ahoggya. The results were encrypted in the form of gel matrix that could only be understood by specially bred messenger clones and then passed on to other hives. With the loss of this particular caste of hive member the knowledge was lost. The knowledge matrix has been resting in the archives for millennia, and will, by now, have mainly decayed beyond recovery. Fortunately some of it has been recovered and passed to a human scholar.

The huge text of the research covers all aspects of Ahoggya behaviour, physiology, metabolism and anatomy. It was not able to cover the reproductive behaviour of the Ahoggya, although some direct field observations were appended. (One suspects that it is easier, and safer to observe Ahoggya from under a densely foliated bush if one is about a metre tall).

>..Or else from a GREAT distance ...!

One of the fundamental points addressed was the reason for the slow but steady collapse of Ahoggya civilisation in the period since the times of darkness. From a space faring species to a barely sentient swamp dwelling race of mercenaries. There was considerable dispute as to whether the collapse was genuine, or the Ahoggya were trying to perpetrate some form of deception on the other races.

The Tinaliya concluded that the observed facts were congruent with a loss of lower brain function. Viral, bacterial and fungal disease were ruled out at an early stage, so, in the slow, methodical manner of the Tinaliya, they began a series of delicate vivisections and biochemical experiments...

>Here things get a little too "modern-scientific" for anybody on Tekumel. Even the Tinaliya don't know that much about biochemistry. So much was lost during the Latter Times...!

It is widely known that the Ahoggya have four large areas of nerve tissue that are loosely referred to as 'brains

>Cute!

Each of these is capable of acting in an independent manner, and at any one time, the degree of dominance of any one brain area will vary according to a complex temporal pattern as well as in response to external stimuli. To put it another way, the 'brains' take it in turn to rest, control mobility, communicate, and monitor basal functions such as breathing, circulation and digestion.

>I'm not sure this is correct. But then I am not a extra-terrestrial physiologist either!

As well as the general abilities each 'brain' has a major function. One will be specialise in each of these functions, and will usually be given control of a situation that requires its full attention if the current 'brain' thinks that the task requires specialist help. A key example of this is the Ahoggya response to surprise combat stimuli whilst it is occupied with another task: the creature will initially react in a disorganised fashion, but quickly becomes a ferocious and talented fighter.

>Possible? Never noticed. The creatures seem rather disorganised most of the time anyhow.

The four areas each have higher functional areas, roughly equivalent to the human cerebral cortex, as well as four lower functional areas. One of these areas is a highly specialised segment that carries knotted fibrous connections to each of the other four 'brains'. It is this segment that, if compared to the records of the ur-Ahoggya appeared to have atrophied in all of the experimental subjects.

>THe Ahoggya were, of course, a major spacefaring race. They probably got their technology from the Pe Choi, however, and they never developed it much beyond the simplest Three Light Drive mechanism. They may also have had help from other races -- no one really knows.

As a consequence of this, there is imperfect co-ordination of the brain areas. To explore this further the Tinaliya used four sorcerers one to read each of the brain areas of the last surviving subject (an immature specimen). What they found is not translatable (unless you can read with four pairs of eyes simultaneously), but it was felt that the specimen exhibited symptoms not unlike schizophrenia in humans. This co-related with the behavioural observations of random violence, inability to communicate, and inability to concentrate on problems.

The primary conclusion of a long series of experiments, the details of which are not repeated here as they make some of Ebon Bindings seem palatable, was that there was some form of long term, or chronic, dietary deficiency. This was tracked down to one a small number of very rare (on Tekumel) elements, the most likely being Caesium.

>I am not sure even the Tinaliya can identify trace elements, and Caesium is so rare on Tekumel that I wonder how the Tinaliya even knew of it.

There appeared to be a neurological enzymic co-factor linked to this element which was required for the efficient function of the junctions between the local 'brains' and the connecting fibres.

Other elements were also noted as being required by Ahoggya that are almost completely missing on Tekumel, especially Bismuth and Tungsten. Sadly they lead to poor dietary efficiency and imperfect nitrogen metabolism, further impairing nerve function. (The excess venting of partially nitrogenated compounds leading to a strong smell of decay around adult Ahoggya).

>Good reasoning -- but too complex even for the Tinaliya? This race has some scientific knowledge, of course, but -- well -- hmm...

Searches for replacement sources for the missing elements came up with a few species of brackish water succulent plants (which the Ahoggya are known to collect in the swamps) and the local ores of Copper and Manganese. It was also noted, from a search on the literature of previous experiments, that Shen eggs and certain deep sea creatures concentrated Caesium in the shells. No practical use was found for this data.

>Interesting. I never knew this.

A spin off of the lack of co-ordination of the brain areas was that they tended to 'interfere' with each other when attempting magical actions. This made it very hard to read their minds or use delicate magical forces in their vicinity. Again this tallied with behavioural observation.

Sadly, for Ahoggya, the deficiency is not reversible in adult life. If the creature does not receive adequate amounts during gestation and throughout infant life, the damage is permanent. There is no mechanism in their metabolism to store the element, and any taken is excreted rapidly. There may be a temporary mental 'hig

>(What?)

if the creature is able to ingest large quantities, but this will quickly fade. It was deduced that the element was very common on their home world.

The Tinaliya commented that it was unfortunate that the Ahoggya had failed to adapt to the new circumstances, and set up a long term project to observe their decline. This experiment continued for five hundred years, until the results were unequivocal, then it was discontinued.

## Games System Rules

#### Ahoggyá Traits for D&D5e

Ability Score Increase: STR +2; CON +2
Age. Ahoggyá have a lifespan comparable to humans; reaching adulthood in mid-teens, and live to about 80 years old.
Powerful Build: Counted as one size larger when determining carrying capacity, weight to push, Drag, and lift.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Ahoggyá and one human language, usually Tsolyáni. Ahoyggá may learn to speak human Languages, with their usual ghastly accent.
Size: Ahoggyá are 4’7” to 5’3” tall barrel shaped creatures, averaging 220 and 244 lbs. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Ahoggyá Resilience:  You have advantage on saving throws against Poison, Disease, and resistance against poison damage.
Natural Armour: You have a natural Armour Class of 13.
Stability: You have four legs, and have advantage against checks and saves that would make you prone.
Extra Arms: You have two sets of arms which allows you to have multiple weapons at the ready (e.g. long sword, shield AND a two-handed sword). You can use a bonus action to make an additional attack with an additional weapon. The weapon’s do not need to be light as per Two-Weapon Fighting.
Extended Field of Vision:  Ahoggyá have a 360-degree sphere of sight, allowing them a perfect view of creatures that might otherwise flank them. Thus, flanking opponents gain no bonus on their attack rolls, and anyone is denied their sneak attack ability unless they are hidden.
### D&D 3rd Edition Rules for Tékumel

*Source: http://tekumel.com/downloads/EPT3e.zip*

Ahoggyá
Ahoggya are radially symmetric creatures around 1.5 meters tall, with four legs, four arms, and a barrel-shaped body about .8 m in diameter topped by a thick, domed carapace. They are brown, blue, green, grey, or dun in color (or a mixture of those). Their extremely strong arms extend out of their body at equidistant intervals, and have hands with three digits and a thumb. Between each pair of arms is a “face” protected by a horn-like ring. Each face includes two eyes; one face also has a fanged mouth, while the others have other sensory or reproductive organs. The Ahoggyá’s legs are bowed and very powerful. Their excretory organs are centered up beneath their body. Ahoggyá can use weapons made for humans, though somewhat awkwardly.
Some Ahoggyá emerge from their swampy homelands to serve as mercenaries in the Tsolyáni legions, fight in the arenas, or take other jobs, usually involving strength and violence. They generally stay in Tsolyánu for only a few years, though some stay longer, and have little interest in complying with human customs or values. Ahoggyá have eight sexes, so the difficulty of getting a suitable group of mates together may be part of the motivation to return to the Ahoggyá homeland as often as practical.
**Names**: Ahoggyá names are incomprehensible and unspeakable to humans (the Tsolyanu say that their names sound like sewage going down a drain), so humans tag them with nicknames, and the Ahoggyá do not seem to care. Here are some examples of Ahoggyá nicknames: Barrel of Swords, Big Bag, Black-Spotted One, Dirty One, Gnarled One, Loudest Belly, Old Mud-Pie, Old White-Side, Red-Eye, Scar-Gut, Yellow Splotched One.
• +4 Strength, +4 Constitution, -4 Dexterity, -2 Intelligence, +4 Wisdom, -8 Charisma
• Low Pedhtel: Ahoggya have a -4 penalty to any spellcasting attribute to determine bonus spells, save DCs to spells, and maximum spell level castable and their wisdom bonus does not apply to spellcasting.
• Large-Sized. Ahoygga take a -1 size penalty to Armor Class, a -1 size penalty on attack rolls, and a -4 size penalty on Hide checks. They gain a +4 size bonus on grapple checks. Their lifting and carrying limits are twice those of a Medium-sized character. Ahoggya may use large-sized weapons one handed, huge-sized weapons two handed, and light weapons for them are medium-sized or smaller. An Ahoggya fills a 5' x 5' fighting space and has a natural reach of 10 feet.
• An Ahoygga's base speed is 30 feet.
• Natural Armor: The Ahoggya's central barrel is heavily armored, but their limbs are not, so they have a +4 natural armor bonus.
• Extra Arms: The Ahoggya has four arms, it may make +3 extra attack actions with normal off-hand penalties, but cannot attack an opponent with more than two of its limbs (since they are evenly spaced around its central barrel).
• Stability: An Ahoggya's four legs grant it a +4 stability bonus on checks made to resist bull bush and trip attempts.
• Expanded Field of Vision: Ahoggyá have a 360-degree sphere of sight, allowing them a perfect view of creatures that might otherwise flank them. Thus, flanking opponents gain no bonus on their attack rolls, and anyone is denied their sneak attack ability because they do not lose their Dexterity bonus (but they may still sneak attack them if they are caught flat-footed). Their Spot and Search checks gain a +4 enhancement bonus. Concurrently, they take a –4 penalty on saves against all gaze attacks.
• -2 to all Charisma-based checks when dealing with Shen.
• ECL: +2, Ahoggya are treated as being two levels higher than normal for determining experience needed to advance.
### AD&D 2nd Edition Rules for Tékumel

*Source: http://www.weirdrealm.com/tekumel/dl/addept.pdf*

Ahoggya: +2 Str, -1 Int, -2 Dex, +2 Con, -5 Cha\* (minimum 1), base AC 6, 3 HD. Ahoggya have two attacks per round (against different targets if they are man-sized, or they may be against the same target if larger) at no penalty, and may have four attacks per round if surrounded.