The smallest intelligent race of all of Caelereth, Brownies average about half a fore in height. Their skin comes in all the shades of tree bark, with matching hair and eyes. They are strong for their size, energetic, and agile, with a tendency to be mischievous. Redbark Brownies (all female) have an innate potential to become adept at Life Magic (a form of Xeuá magic).

Appearance. Laid out end-to-end, a little bit less than seven Brownies make a ped, on average. Their skin comes in all the shades of a tree bark, with matching hair and eyes (more info), and they have a somewhat angular look, having high cheekbones and a rawboned but lithe build. They are strong for their size, highly energetic and very agile, with a tendency to be mischievous. This description applies to four of the five tribes, namely the LLaoihrr, Memnoor, Aohu'o, and Milken. Rat Brownies are quite different, and their various appearances are covered under the entry covering their tribe.

Mode of Living/Habits. Brownies tend to live in large to VERY large communities. They live in trees, under trees, on the ground, under the ground - just about everywhere, so that a small area can host a large Brownie population. Brownies are generally cautious of big people, especially elves.

Family, Society and Culture. Brownies generally have strong family ties. They enjoy and utilize nature, and often prefer to live close to it, but do not particularly reverence it, except as a renewable resource and as a dwelling place for the spirits of rock, tree, and stream. They are fun loving, independent, cautious but confident, reckless and a tad mischievous. Each tribe is culturally distinct from each of the others.

Brownies tend to dress in mouseskin or the skin of other small animals, or in leaves and other tree-parts. Coming from the greatest Herb, their knowledge of roots and herbs and plants of all sorts and their uses is exceptional. They thus excel at the healing arts, and also at the art of potions and poisons.

Brownies have a gestation period of 80 days, or 2 2/3 months. Single births and twins are equally common. Triplets are as common for them as twins are for humans, quadruplets for them as common as triplets for humans, and so on. The average number of surviving children per family is somewhere between 4 and 5. On average, only half of children born survive to childbearing age even under favorable conditions, mainly because of predators and accidents. In these rare places having conditions favorable to Brownies, maximum life expectancy is around 60.

When hunting or fighting Brownies tend to use bows, arrows, blowguns, spears, deadfall spikes or any other weapon that can be sharpened to a point, on which they smear concoctions that will bring sleep, unconsciousness or death (or worse) to those that are pierced by such weapons. See the individual tribe entries for particular methods and weapons unique to each tribe.

Life Magic, a sort of magic which Xeuátan Khaelvan III. in his Magic Compendium interprets as a specification of Xeuá magic, is unique to Brownies. While members of other races can learn the basics, only a rebark Brownies can become truly adept. Brownies believe that the moment of their creation from pieces of bark ripped from the Tree of Life instilled in them the potential to manipulate life and living things to a great degree. It is said that the knowledge of Life Magic today is paltry compared to that which was wielded in long-ago Birn.

Diet. Each of the tribes has a somewhat different diet. LLaoihrr grind greenbark moss and bake the result into bread, just as the ancient Birni did. Memnoor are not fussy, eating any of the plants of the desert, and the meat of any animal they can get their hands on, including those summoned from other worlds through the Void for this express purpose. Aohu'o live almost exclusively on what they hunt, eating roasted meat, flavored with available vegetables, fruits, and herbs. Milken share the food of the Helcrani. Rat Brownies scrounge for scraps.

Beliefs. Brownies have their own story about the Tree of Life from where they originated, which goes like this: A jagged spear of lightning arced through the sky, cutting deep into the Tree of Life before exploding. Leaves fell, scorched and burning, to the ground, and the magic that tied the tree together began to unravel and then with a crackling sound, finally burst. A burst of uncontrolled magical energies spread out in a ripple from the Tree, altering forever everything in its path. Leaves grew wings and became dragons. Trees and grasses argued and fought. The sky churned in a funnel of greens and purples. The odd human was imbued with a deep natural talent for magic. Gale-force winds blew. Pieces of broken bark from the Tree tumbled, shimmered, and metamorphized into the first Brownies. According to Brownie legends, there were 272 individual Brownies in this, the first generation of Brownies.

The most typical Brownie belief is the worship of the spirits of rock, tree, and stream, but spirit worship is by no means the only Brownie belief (more info).

Tribes. The five tribes that currently exist in Caelereth consist of the LLaoihrr, Aohu'o, Memnoor, Milken, and the Rat Brownies. The following quick-reference chart shows the strengths, weaknesses, and unique qualities of each. The long-gone Birni are also included in the chart for comparison purposes.

	Milken	Rat Brownies	Birni (extinct)
Location	In and around the city of Milkengrad.	Under most major cities throughout Caelereth. Also occasionally found in isolated areas aboveground.	Believed to have lived primarily along the northern edge of what is now the Paelelon Forest.
Technology	Same as the Helcrani.	Stone age, at best (except for Field Rat Brownies).	Advanced technology completely integrated with their Life Magic.
Magical Focus	Sparse Life Magic.	Life Magic, if any.	Highly advanced Life Magic, far beyond anything seen today.
Cultural Heritage	Part of the Helcrani.	Scant oral history.	Many cultural records of the Birni were discovered by Keekoo, Greybark, and others. Their memory has been a strong influence on the Brownie tribes of today.
Metalurgy	Same as the Helcrani.	Virtually none (except for Field Rat Brownies).	Yes.
Population	Possibly a few hundred thousand.	There are too many undiscovered bands to be sure. Numbering at least in the tens of thousands.	In the millions.
Government	Each Brownie family has loyalty to the Helcrani family they live with, and then to their Frata.	Each band is controlled by a chief or witchdoctor, ruling by fear.	Highly stratified oligarchy, with Redbarks at the top, Greenbarks and Brownbarks in the middle, and everybody else in the slave class at the bottom.
Religion	They are the only Brownies to worship Avá the Dreameress.	Frantic worship of the spirits of darkness, death, and the depths.	Fervent worship of spirits of rock, tree, and stream.
Housing	In or under the house of the Helcrani family they live with.	In sewers and other underground places under large cities (except for the Field Rat Brownies).	In, under, and around trees. Living underground as well.
Language and Dialect	Same as the Helcrani.	The languages spoken by the Rat Brownies differ from band to band. Each of these languages is unique, and several of them may be directly descended from one of the languages spoken by the first generation of Brownies.	Several different languages were spoken in Birn, each unrelated to the others, many with their own unrelated writing systems. The Redbarks had their own secret language. The Greenbarks and Brownbarks each had their own language as well, and it was these two languages that were later adapted by Keekoo into modern Browniin. At least several other languages were spoken among the slave class.
Details	[Further Details]	[Further Details]	[Further Details]

Celebrities. Keekoo is the center of Brownie history, having ended the harsh years and started three of the modern tribes.

Greybark taught the LLaoihrr to fly again. The general of the Brownie Flying Militia in SW III, he also began the process of joining the LLaoihrr tribe to the future Unified Santharian Kingdom.

	First Epoch of Birn (ca. 15.000-14.000 b.S.) ca. 15.000  b.S. -14.000 b.S. The beginning of Browniekind. Individuals become groups. Groups join together to form proto-tribes. Four of these proto-tribes join to form Birn. The fifth left to become Rat Brownies. ca. 15.000 b.S. Tree of Life hit by Lightning The first 272 members of the Brownie race, speaking 144 different languages, are formed from pieces of bark from the Tree of Life. ca. 14.500 b.S. End of First Brownie Generation The last of the long-lived and prolific first generation of Brownies dies. Second Epoch of Birn (ca. 14.000-13.000 b.S.) ca. 14.000  b.S. -13.000 b.S. Redbark monarchs rule an upper class of reds, a middle class of greens and browns, and a lower class made up of everyone else. Third Epoch of Birn (ca. 13.000-12.000 b.S.) ca. 13.000 b.S. -12.000 b.S. Two dynastic families, one green and one brown, struggle constantly for the throne during this epoch. Reds become the new middle class. Fourth Epoch of Birn (ca. 12.000-11.000 b.S.) ca. 12.000 b.S. -11.000 b.S. Various disasters are the norm during this epoch. The social system falls apart. Most Birni die. Fifth Epoch of Birn (ca. 11.000-10.000 b.S.)  11.000 b.S. - 10.000 b.S. Drow hunting parties no longer enter the now well-protected Birn. Greens and browns struggle for the throne, as in the third epoch. However, reds are now the real power behind the throne. From its new center in the Everbark, Birn expands and becomes strong once again. They regularly send raiding parties to make life miserable for the Eophyrhim drow. 10.003 -4.013 b.S. The Harsh Years ...is an endlessly terrible time for the Brownie people, in which they grow few and scattered, coming dangerously close to dying out completely. Only a very few survive, living precarious lives among many of the other races. They are viewed as vermin by all. Elves ignore them, dwarves keep them near their forges in cages as good-luck charms, orcs eat them, and humans do some of all of the above. An old recipe book should be found later that includes a recipe for Brownie pot pie that was apparently considered quite a delicacy. They fare no better among the other races, and long to be free, but are dependent on their oppressors for food and shelter, having for the most part forgotten the skills necessary for basic survival. 4.107 -3.979 b.S. In the Shadow of the Elves The Brownies living off of the paltry refuse left by elves learned to adapt archery to the Brownie scale, and quickly moved off, eager to regain their independence. Hunting began in earnest, and the blowpipe was invented. Moss farming was rediscovered. The field mouse was again domesticated, becoming an important source of food and clothing. Brownies living among the other races began to hear of what had been accomplished among the free Brownies, and departed en masse, many with the help of Keekoo the Deliverer, to take part in the new life of freedom. A small number, left behind, found refuge together with other Brownies already living in the sewers of major cities and became the Rat Brownies, now also considered a Brownie tribe. Keekoo spent years developing a composite modern Brownie language, a revived world-view that took current Brownie superstitions and gave them the substance of the ancient Birni beliefs in the spirits contained in every natural thing, and a philosophy of life based on a five-element system (Earth, Wood, Fire, Water, Metal). In the last few years of his life, Keekoo directed the dispersal of the Brownie people (3983-3979 b.S., one every two years). They were divided into three groups, and went in search of homelands far away from the suffocating influence of the other races. (Different for each tribe. Reference the above entry and the four below entries) The Wandering Years The groups of Brownies sent out by Keekoo the Deliverer wandered for many generations before they found what they were looking for. As time passed, each group's language, culture, and mentality began to diverge from the other two groups. 3.638 b.S The LLaoihrr tribe begins to inhabit the Vale of Brownies A scout from second of the groups dispersed by Keekoo long ago, while exploring upstream through a deep gorge, stumbled upon what would later be known as the Vale of Brownies. Tall, healthy trees spread their branches as far as the eye could see. After ascertaining that the valley was uninhabited, and in fact unknown before this time, he rushed back to make his report. The group eagerly passed through the gorge and made their valley their home, naming it LLaoihrr (The Valley City) and themselves Rrao-LLaoihrr (The Valley City Brownies). 3.109 b.S The Aohu'o tribe makes landfall on the coast of Akdor The first tribe sent out by Keekoo. After traveling through North Sarvonia, they traveled by as yet unknown means to Akdor. They were restricted by the environment of the Akdorian steppe to living as tribal hunter/gatherers. Every time a nomadic group outgrew the land's carrying capacity, it would split and one group would move far enough away from other groups so as not to be in direct competition with them. Today there are hundreds of distinct Aohu'o tribes tribes living on the Akdorian steppe. 2.970 b.S The Memnoor tribe begins to inhabit the Etherial Void After crossing deserts and burning seas, the battered descendents of the third group sent out by Keekoo staggered into the Etherial Void and found relief - and torment. They were betrayed and attacked by the products of their own fevered imaginations. But they no longer had the strength to recross the desert and so had no choice but to stay. It took many years for them to make their peace with the Void, but eventually they developed a unique culture that used the uncertainties and unrealities of the Void to their advantage. They called their village Memnoor (The Void City) and themselves Ro-memnoor (The Void City Brownies). 1.649 b.S The Year of Darkness ....had the unlikely side effect of creating a new Brownie tribe known as the Milken. Fleeing from Akdor and from spirits they felt had abandoned them, they were assigned the job of guarding the Artapherana (magical trees) on the site of what is now the city of Milkengrad. When the Helcrani arrived, these elfinized Brownies, according to instructions, released the magic protecting the trees and allowed the Helcrani to be guided to the spot. The Helcrani founded the city of Milkengrad (named after the Milken), and a Brownie family was soon to be found in every household in Milkengrad.

Note: The history of individual Brownie tribes can be found under their respective entries.

Information provided by Greybark