I had ended re-reading the novel "Baudolino" (2000;Umberto Eco) recently and I realized there is no such thing as the humanoids exposed in Pliny the Elder's Naturae Historiae in any sword and sorcery setting I know.
As there still continents and places to be seen from Golarion, we are going to find strange humanoids as the cynocephalus, the astomi or the pygmy?
I think Erik Mona? or Wes? I can't remember mentioned they might someday stat up the Cynocephali as a 0 HD race. It was mentioned in one of the threads complaining about animal like races as being Furry-catering.
I doubt Pygmy would make it (because those have real life connotations with certain ethnic groups, plus in mythology they are little different from other short races like gnomes, etc).
I would say all the other races have a chance of showing up in a bestiary someday, especially since Paizo likes pulling from myth and legend.
Cynocephalus would make sense in setting context, perhaps a remain of a race blessed by the Beast God slain by Lamashtu and which now worships Desna?
Blemmyae and sciapods/monopods call more my attention, I picture them in Golarion as a result of humans trapped in the magic conflagration which spawned the Mana wastes and for their strange condition condemned to be nomadic tribes in that hostile environment.
Astomi could be quite interesting to roleplay, being a race which doesn't need to consume water nor food but only aromas and which also doesn't have mouth. And they could be located in Jalmeray.
Blemmyae have actually had some interesting stuff done in recent books with them...I think they are a main antagonist in the Monstrumologist books. I could easily see them being played for horror as monstrous humanoids.
Sciapods I have trouble as seeing as anything other than fey.
Astomi would be a good race to make telepathic...I have seen some creepy mouthless telepathic creatures in the genre, like the telepathic demons from the third season of Buffy
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Cynocephalus would make sense in setting context, perhaps a remain of a race blessed by the Beast God slain by Lamashtu and which now worships Desna?
Blemmyae and sciapods/monopods call more my attention, I picture them in Golarion as a result of humans trapped in the magic conflagration which spawned the Mana wastes and for their strange condition condemned to be nomadic tribes in that hostile environment.
Astomi could be quite interesting to roleplay, being a race which doesn't need to consume water nor food but only aromas and which also doesn't have mouth. And they could be located in Jalmeray.
Astomi may be based on Indian legends of Gandharvas; one of the traditional etymologies of gandharva* is "scent-eaters," and the Astomi live in India in Greek bestiaries. Gandharvas were said to survive off of the smells of flowers and fruit. However, Gandharvas certainly have mouths, since they sing a lot.
The gandharva are also possibly related to satyrs and centaurs, and are often depicted as a mixture of horse and man, with a horse's head (sort of like Wil Wheaton). Some variants have them with avian features.They are mostly interested in frolicking, music, and sex.
*Gandhi, the occupation and last name, means "perfumer."
I discussed blemmyae with Adam Daigle less than a week ago. Its hard to find a good fit for them in an adventure.
Nevertheless, he knew them by name when I brought them up. Paizo knows.
:)
Actually, small trivia here.. I wrote up a version of the blemmyae for Murder's Mark, but ol' Tim Hitchcock had to put a headless undead giant with a face in it's chest in The Ruby Phoenix Tournament. So I had to yank it out at the last minute and I put the panotti in there instead.
I think there are blemmyae-like creatures in the Glorantha setting.
Cynocephalus and Astomi sound interesting, I would like a playable dog/wolf race and the Astomi kind of reminds me of Samsarans but don't eat like most living creatures.