Races of Adel: The Cuporo

Cuporo were born of nature, and though they have embraced community and civilization to the fullest, they are still marked as the children of the forests and flowers. The Cuporo are the second most prolific race on Adel, behind the Iomadi. They are the second of the races to join the Iomadi civilization – thereby helping to transform it into a wider Adelian civilization – unlike the Damakran and Droemedae who appeared and made their peace with the Iomadi much later on. They are the race that first contributed agriculture to the initial hunter-gatherer Adelian tribes, and are thus extremely important to the historical development of the Adelians as a unified people. While the Iomadi are blessed by the beast spirits, Cuporo derive their markings from the flora around Adel. They are unimposing in stature, and yet quite strong, swift and capable in their own way nonetheless.

The following is a more thorough look at this race to better help you portray them.

Physical Appearance: Cuporo follow the basic human template like the other races of the Adelian civilization. The most noticeable thing about the Cuporo, aside from their markings, is their average height. The very tallest Cuporo top out at five feet, and they are on average four to four-and-half feet tall. Cuporo physiology varies as that of the Iomadi – some are pleasantly plump, others slight and athletic, some are fine-limbed and others more muscular. They show a distinct growth cycle, unlike the Droemedae – their children look like children, but all Cuporo grow to distinctly adult proportions despite their smaller size. Cuporo’s skin tends to be shades of brown, though some rare Cuporo have green or even red skin. Their hair tends to be long, wavy or curly and pretty colorful, with red and green being common colors, though some Cuporo just have brown or black hair.

Cuporo tend to have heterochromia. Their ears are slightly sharp and cartilaginous like a human’s, with no decorative touches (as opposed to the “marked” ears of the Iomadi and Damakran), but they are not as long as an Elf’s. Cuporo have no tails and can’t control the movement of their ears, so they don’t have the specific body language Iomadi do. However, Cuporo’s markings are used for their own form of body language. A Cuporo’s markings are floral in nature. Most Cuporo have a flower growing out of their head, often from the side, but sometimes at the top. Some Cuporo have little mushroom caps, while others have vines growing alongside their hair. Their plant markings can change color, or even wither or fall off and regrow, at the Cuporo’s command. They often use their plant markings to relay messages about their emotional state, or about their health.

Life And Growth: Cuporo reproduce sexually and give Mammalian birth. A Cuporo child is born without markings – instead they have a little bump on their head. Though someone unacquainted with Cuporo physiology might consider it a distressing sight, this bump will eventually flatten out as the Cuporo’s markings extend from it – be they the Cuporo’s first head-toadstool, flower or vines. Or even a combination of these. A Cuporo is sexually mature at around 11 or 12 years of age, when their markings will start giving off a tangy perfume. This is often embarrassing to the young Cuporo, particularly as it tends to happen when he or she is longing for another person. As the Cuporo matures, the perfume will lose its pungency.

A Cuporo can shed and regrow his or her markings on command. This takes some energy, and can tire the Cuporo out. Cuporo show marginally less signs of chronological decay than Iomadi, but will still look distinctively aged. Aside from typical signs of aging, once a Cuporo reaches between 80 to 90 years of age his or her markings will wither and fall off entirely. This signals the Cuporo’s natural death. They cannot again be regrown. Plant-less Cuporo may feel sickly, weak and even confused until death, unable to take in the rays of the sun through their markings again, a sensation once calming and familiar to the Cuporo.

Cuporo worship primarily Spirits of plants, animals and natural processes. But like all Adelians, they’ll worship other Spirits as need arises. They partake of the same culture and rituals as the Iomadi.

Place In History: One could say the Cuporo were there from the very beginning of Adelian history – which is true for every race, but the Adelians aren’t really aware of that – and the exact point at which they joined the Iomadi is mostly irrelevant. At the very beginning of the Iomadi’s history, they were alone, arranged into hunter-gatherer tribes. They eventually came into contact with Cuporo communities. Cuporo began as a mostly nonviolent, submissive race, but under the Iomadi’s tutelage they quickly grew to master their environment. The Iomadi taught the Cuporo to fight and hunt, to strike down the Wyverns and Drakes and giant bears and other forces of nature that beset their communities. In exchange, the Cuporo taught the Iomadi to settle. They taught them to grow food from the soil, rather than constantly seek it out. They taught them to create permanent communities. Both races were mystified and awed by each other’s way of life, and grew close together.

During the Aptoan age, Iomadi formed most of the important hierarchy of the Empire. However, many Cuporo also held positions of great power and respect – the same could not be said for Damakran or Droemedae. The Cuporo have a bond with the Iomadi that has lasted the full history of Adel. In the current age of equality and egalitarianism, however, this does not tend to show, and nobody gets any racial privilege. But many Iomadi and Cuporo still hold each other in great regard and recognize the mutual achievements of their races, that could not have been accomplished apart from one another.

Particular Abilities: Cuporo have a way with plants. A Cuporo can tell a plant’s species, age and health just by touching it, through a supernatural communion. Some Cuporo are powerful enough that they can even “see through the plant’s eyes” for a few moments, invoking the plant’s muddled memories of its environment to help in tracking down prey, or finding information about an event that occurred in the plant’s vicinity. The success rate of these activities varies wildly, and the younger or shorter-lived plants tend to be notoriously unreliable when contacted through this ability.

Despite their size, Cuporo can be great martial artists, and can invoke a lot of strength out of their bodies. They can even use full-size Iomadi weapons without trouble, though they tend to prefer lighter revolver pistols and short swords and batons to massive cleaving blades, full-size morningstars or larger battle rifles or longbows.  Cuporo don’t tend to be drawn to the arcane, though that’s not to say there aren’t accomplished Cuporo arcanists. Instead, Cuporo with magical aspirations commonly join the clergy, as they can feel the Spirit’s influence more easily than others.