May 22, 2013
Far more reclusive than even the Dushum, Trappers are a people fighting to retain their independence. Masters of guerilla warfare, they live in elaborate underground tunnel systems. Setting deadly traps, ambushes, and utilizing poisonous weapons, they retain control of their ancestral jungles in spite of overwhelming opposition.
Craftiness and ingenuity are highly valued among the Trappers. Everyone learns to fashion deadly traps, how to navigate the terrain unseen and unheard. The group is more important than the individual, and skills in cooperation and working in groups are vital to their society. Skills are taught to children at a young age, and while everyone is taught to trap, forage, dig, and craft tools, ability is taken into account. Some will naturally be better at trap making, others better at digging or fighting. Everyone must be equally trained, but scouting groups will be selected according to aptitude – those weak at traps will be accompanied by a master trap-setter, skilled hunters will come from protection, and so on. Everyone assists one another and plays off each other’s strengths and supplements weaknesses.
While Trappers are close knit and tend to stick close to home, there are circumstances that will drive them to leave their families or homes and seek outside lands. Those who endanger the group – whether by accident or malicious intent – are often banished if no deaths were caused. These ostracized criminals are usually branded – often on the face – and are thus shunned from other Trapper groups, forcing them to seek their livelihoods elsewhere. Sometimes, bands tight on food and resources will hire their skills out to foreign interests as assassins. Their knowledge of poisons and traps are unsurpassed, and Trapper assassins are a highly sought commodity. Recently, earthquakes are common in their home region, destroying tunnel systems and forcing some Trappers from their homes to seek new lands.