The Seven Fears of the Shoanti

There are seven things that an adult Shoanti is allowed to be afraid of. But I'm not sure what all of them are.

1) Yayosha, the Angel of Storms: the Cinderlands tornado. They're allowed to be afraid of these.

2) The Great Angry Dead: basically, undead with ten or more hit dice. Lesser undead don't qualify. The Shoanti know about skeletons and ghouls, and they're not scared of them.

3) The Old Places: ruins of the Thassilonians. I'm not 100% sure these qualify, though.

4) Old Ugly Mouth: IMC, that's the name of a great wyrm dragon who lives in the Cinderlands. He's been treating the Shoanti as snack food for centuries now.

That leaves three or four more things that should qualify.

(Note that an individual Shoanti could be afraid of all sorts of things. But you're not allowed to /show/ fear, or let it visibly influence your actions, unless you're dealing with one of the Seven Fears.)

Things that do not qualify: orcs, gargoyles, dragons, or pretty much any fauna native to the Cinderlands other than Old Ugly Mouth. Cindermaw -- they respect the hell out of the giant worm, but they're not afraid of him. Magic. Heights. Starvation, fire, or pain.

The Cinderlander is an interesting borderline case. A few Shoanti occasionally refer to him as "the Eighth Fear". That said, he's not on the official list.

I think #7 should be something odd and unexpected ("No! Not BEETLES!"), but I'm still a bit stumped for 5 and 6.

Thoughts?

Doug M.

#5: Baths/Soap

^_^

Dishonor and/or shame in the eyes of the tribe.

#5: Baths/Soap

Nah, Shoanti are totally rocking the hot springs and pumice rock up on the Cinderlands. ;)

Dishonor and/or shame in the eyes of the tribe.

Yasha wrote:

#5: Baths/Soap

Nah, Shoanti are totally rocking the hot springs and pumice rock up on the Cinderlands. ;)

Yeah, I'd agree. I only posted that tongue in cheek.

Dishonor/cowardice would be something all Shoanti don't/refuse to accept in fellow tribal members, but I'm not sure it could be on a list of fears.

I legitimate fear might be "Dying in bed, old and feeble." Instead of dying on the battlefield, war cry in your lungs, klar on your arm and blood of your enemies on your lips as your last breath wheezes out.

Perhaps Arkrhyst, the white dragon from Pathfinder #5 (Sins of The Saviors). He is mentioned as being a great enemy of the Shoanti 200 years previous, though he had not been seen in some time before that adventure.

I legitimate fear might be "Dying in bed, old and feeble." Instead of dying on the battlefield, war cry in your lungs, klar on your arm and blood of your enemies on your lips as your last breath wheezes out.

I considered this one, but it's kind of been done.

Doug M.

Perhaps Arkrhyst, the white dragon from Pathfinder #5 (Sins of The Saviors). He is mentioned as being a great enemy of the Shoanti 200 years previous, though he had not been seen in some time before that adventure.

I never read that one. Huh.

I ended up plugging in an ancient wyrm of my own anyway, and he's #4 on the list above.

Dragon, superstorm, bad undead, ancient ruins. Beetles, maybe. What else?

Doug M.

5) The one that lives inside (Rovagug)
6) mind-sickness (mental illness)
7) Gnomes

5) The one that lives inside (Rovagug)

6) mind-sickness (mental illness)
7) Gnomes

Not bad!

Any others?

Doug M.

I'm unclear if you're asking for suggestions, or for information which is in canon.
However (Curse of the Crimson Throne, A History of Ashes spoiler):

I'm unclear if you're asking for suggestions, or for information which is in canon.

Suggestions. I have "A History of Ashes". My PCs visited the Cinderlands at 3rd-4th level and were very happy to get out alive. (I nerfed it a little, obviously.) But they'll be coming back at 7th or 8th level to run through "History of Ashes" properly. So I want to flesh out the Shoanti a bit more.

So: Suggestions?

Doug M.

Well, as a suggestion, brushfires then. You can't fight a brushfire with a klar. All you can do is run.

I'd be inclined towards anything with poison in a tooth or claw or sting, too. Not being afraid of things like that can get you dead (unless you happen to be poison immune).

And now for a silly alias post...

Dear Mr. Muir,
I would suggest that perhaps the Shoanti might be afraid of tea - and anything to do with it. A pot of afternoon tea is viewed in some (sophisticated) circles, as the ultimate civilised experience, and of course civilisation steals Shoanti lands and makes the tribesmen weak. (It doesn't actually steal their lands. Hellknights and greedy Korvosans do that, only a fraction of whom drink tea, but that's a by the by.
It's also entirely possible that for some reason succubi have gotten caught up in the mythology (or are responsible for it in the first place) being known and dreaded merely as 'The Tea-Drinkers' (with a gesture to ward off the evil eye as the speaker says the phrase). Although a natural fear and respect for succubi is not actually that unreasonable given that we prefer (in general) not to fight with overt weapons which our targets see coming, but with gossip, and rumour, and political alliances. Well okay, those and the more direct 'shapeshift into a buxom wench and seduce and suck them dry' approach that enthusiastic youngsters amongst succubuskind sometimes employ...)
Hoping that this post has been Helpful.

Yours,

Ask A Succubus.

Great stuff!

Shoanti aren't exactly a seafaring culture, let alone a riverine culture, so anything and everything to do with water above the scale of a body of water more than a few miles across is likely anathema to the Shoanti.

Great stuff!

Shoanti aren't exactly a seafaring culture, let alone a riverine culture, so anything and everything to do with water above the scale of a body of water more than a few miles across is likely anathema to the Shoanti.

Yes, my two players with Shoanti characters both have the same opinion regarding water.

Swim in it? Yes, if you have to cross a river.

Bathe in it? Why? Water is far more polluted than pure clean sand to scrub your skin, plus sand is an exfoliator. This is the secret to Shoanti complexion.

So, along with fear of a Cinderlands firestorm, baths are definately way up there on their list.

Great, now I'm imagining hardened Shoanti warriors freaking out over getting wrinkly fingertips after a long soak. :D

"WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME!?!?"

Great, now I'm imagining hardened Shoanti warriors freaking out over getting wrinkly fingertips after a long soak. :D

"WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME!?!?"

It's not the fingertips that wrinkle that they freak out over, its well you know.......shrinkage lol!!

Great, now I'm imagining hardened Shoanti warriors freaking out over getting wrinkly fingertips after a long soak. :D

"WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME!?!?"

And you mocked me before for suggesting baths as a fear! For Shame!

For what its worth...I'm picturing it too. Obviously, that 'bath' is a variant of a gelatinous cube...the Slow Gelatinous Pool. The poor shoanti will just think its dissolving them very slowly....like a sarlacc.

Confined spaces
Spiders.