Shea

**Shea** (shee-ay)

The Shea are a race of small, frog-like humanoids known for their burgeoning middle class.

## Physical Description

A Shea, on average, grows to 3'8" - 4'2" and can weigh anywhere between 80 - 130 lbs. They are bipedal with incredibly strong legs which, along with their lanky arms, are disproportionately larger than their bulbous torsos. Each hand and foot has 3 elongated digits that end in sticky bulbs, useful for grabbing and climbing. They have large eyes that sit atop their heads under expressive eye ridges. Their irises are black, crescent-shaped slits.

## History

The history of the Shea is a tumultuous subject that varies almost daily. It can be explained in two parts, their creation, the Post-Void Contact times, and the Shea Perception:

### Creation

Originally the Shea were made as an experiment by the early Litani magi who learned to harness pure Creation. Realizing they couldn't replicate the power of the gods and instill a whole power of mind to the creatures, the Litani limited the scope of the Shea. During a newfound time of shaky peace they were made as servants, lackeys, and pet-companions. Nearly every Litani family was accompanied by a personal Shea for hundreds of years.

### Post-Void

When the threat of the Void plunged Fera back into the horrors of war, the need for Shea servants quickly declined. Shea bodies were usually too frail to fight and providing for them became too burdensome on every Litani who was unfortunate enough to live outside of the well-guarded capital cities. As the Litani succumbed to the Void, tens of thousands of Shea were also plunged into darkness. The majority became corrupted but enough escaped by banding together. Bands of abandoned Shea became subjected to Fera's whole ferocity after the void armies were pushed back or moved on to un-corrupted lands. They roamed across unforgiving terrain to and from destroyed villages, crumbling castles, and ruined battlefields. However, due to the nature of their creation the Shea displayed an intuitive knack for rebuilding and reclaiming these ancient ruins. Each newly discovered place would be collectively transformed into a new home and tended to with great diligence.

### the Shea Perception

With their somewhat limited intellect offered by the Litani, the Shea have a very mutable concept of time and, indeed, their own history of events. For Shea, most amounts of time that are not the present moment are constituted as "many years", thus presenting a confusing outlook on their current events. Since any amount of time is equatable to an eternity for the Shea, their concept of culture is also highly in flux. Cultures tend to crop up sporadically, take a Shea settlement by storm, and then be replaced at any new moment by the next most-convincing "truth". The Shea take immense pride in their history and stories and rarely forget moments they have experienced but cannot grasp the relation in time of those events.

Shea are also notorious of claiming every new home in the name of their people. Once a new settlement is found, a short while later it will be paraded as a great Shea accomplishment. They often warble tales of their newfound home to quickly establish a culture and history for this new place.

## Society

Shea society may be one of the most complex, incomprehensible concepts to have developed on Fera. They clearly hold to a hierarchy of power within their homes that is sorted out during the Wander before. This usually takes the form of a resident King and is distributed according to skill set or predisposition. It could be a wonderfully efficient system, but rarely can a Shea hold up to their own perception of their abilities or skill sets. Their concept of self and mind is as mutable as their culture and society, which leads them to constantly shift between built-up personas. It's not uncommon for Shea to even claim to be another Shea, be it a king, an ancestor, a great smith, anything. This leads to a great deal of chaos within Shea settlements that is often settled quickly for the good of the group. Disputes are handled by storytelling or aggressive displays in which each Shea will engage in a "Great Warble", lashing their long tongues about and puffing up their cheek-sacs.

### Family

There is no concept of family or mating amongst the Shea as they are genderless creations. Furthering their race involves laborious and dangerous conjuration to create new spawn. Therefore, Shea are nearly timeless when it comes to age and instead focus intently on preconceived notions of what family means: namely Dads, Sons, and Rocks.

#### The Rock

It is impossible to explain the Shea family without first explaining its most crucial aspect: The Rock. Rocks carry a heavy significance to Shea although they are admittedly common nearly everywhere. A Rock, when chosen/discovered by a Shea, imprints an intensely strong emotion upon them. The association can be an image, a thought, a sound, a color - nearly anything will have the same emotional impact regardless of subject or form. The Rock becomes a constant reminder of Family and the commitment to being a Dad or Son. The extremely precious objects are passed between Shea to establish familial ties that are intense but oftentimes short-lived.

Paradoxically, gifting another Shea one's personal Rock establishes two situations:

1. The rock-receiver becomes a Son.
2. The rock-giver becomes a Dad, who must immediately choose a life of adventure over his newly established Son.

Although there is great significance, importance, and emotional attachment formed between Dads and Sons in this short moment of abandonment, any Shea can become a Dad or a Son at nearly any moment.

#### Dads

Shea with the title of Dad are respected universally for the terrible decision they have decided to make in gifting away their rock. The responsibility of Adventure is important to Shea as the adventuring life is the least forgiving to their kind. While adventuring a Shea is a Dad until their quest is completed. Whatever it may be. Some Shea forget their quest partially through or have it interrupted by once more becoming a Son.

#### Sons

Most Shea don't particularly acknowledge being a Son, except for in their moment of abandonment. It is sometimes cited as a lack of experience, but since the two states of family are so similar the accusations don't carry much weight.