Elminster Speaks

(Part #66) : Khôltar, Part 17

More on the Onsruur

Ready for more of the local villains? Then let us list the remaining self-styled nobles of Khôltar.

Izimmur: Izimmurs are lack-haired and -eyed, slender and small in bloodline; secretive; careful investors in crafters while spying on them, continually urging them to more profits, and tending them like a prize herd of cattle; and poisoners and vicious grudge-holding foes.

Jhalahaskur: Jhalahaskurs are fair-haired, tall, and strong in bloodline; martial; and weapons-merchants and investors in costers, slavers, and mercenary companies.

Khaundrove: Khaundroves are squat, heavily-muscled, and plain in bloodline; dabblers in Tashlutan trade and politics; owners of "cheap copy" casting firms; archconservatives; antidwarf; and longtime rivals of the Horthanders.

Lhamalask: Lhamalasks are short and solid-built in bloodline; makers and vendors of scents, oils, ointments, poisons, antidotes, and (magic) potions; lovers of luxurious clothing who are often privately ridiculed by fellow Onsruur for adopting fashions that ill-suit their build and usual scuttling gait.

Lurpryn: Lurpryns are handsome, dusky-skinned, dark-haired, and emerald-eyed in bloodline; indolent and languid of manner due to upbringing; superior and "lazily cool" in attitude; and landlords and investors in drug-smugglers, slavers, and slayers-for-hire. They refuse to ever be seen "working" for even a moment.

Mieruura: Mieruuras are brown- and black-haired but otherwise nondescript in bloodline; sly-tongued and urbane by upbringing; traditionally masters of drafting trade documents and arranging mercantile deals; and large-holdings landlords in Khôltar and Lapaliiya. They dislike confrontations.

Mispurr: Mispurrs are nondescript in bloodline but fashion plates who love "show" and excess in dress, furnishings, and behavior; and they are good dancers, singers, and patrons of many bards. They consider themselves learned and "preferred of the gods" and are often privately ridiculed by fellow Onsruur for their "airs."

Naganthuur: Naganthuurs are reclusive and repressive, with bodyguards swift to lash out -- and for good reason. Some blood-taint or other got into this family centuries ago, and they quite often have limited (one or two limbs) shapeshifting abilities, so that they can seem monstrous if caught in an unguarded moment or cornered so as to feel their "beast-blood" abilities will serve them best. Otherwise they are tall and rather homely in bloodline; dispassionate short-loan, stiff-penalty-fee investors in many Kholtan businesses; and collectors and sellers sculptures of all sorts (those with hidden storage cavities are a family specialty).

Olophyn: Olophyns are handsome in bloodline and former Tethyrian commoners who adopted full-blown heraldry and courtly manners of their own invention upon arrival in the Iron City. They consider themselves "true nobility" and their fellow Onsruur "money-grubbing pretend-nobles." They despise their fellow Onsruur and for the most part are enthusiastically despised in return. Additionally, they love to hunt humans as game (in the wilderlands, mounted and with lances, to the death); and they are slavers and weapons- and armor-merchants who collect many-powered magic armors to use as their own.

Osstiurr: Osstiurrs are fat, short, and pudgy-featured in bloodline (most family members are waddling, comically ugly beings); exceedingly wealthy moneylenders, dealers in stolen goods; arms-dealers; sponsors of many firms in Calimshan and Amn; keepers of slaves trained to personally praise individual Osstiurr often; fathers of dozens of bastard offspring while consorting with their slaves (training the most promising of these as family agents in Amn and Calimshan, and slaying the rest); and dabblers in sales of and experimentations with gases that bring sleep, death, or obedience, or mad visions. They are treated warily by other Onsruur.

Pelardh: Pelardhs are sharp-featured and small in bloodline; energetic and fair dealers with Deep Realm dwarves; bitter rivals of the Voaphangh; and owners of several firms specializing in chasing, engraving, and plating; gourmands who import cooks and food often for personal pleasure. They are among the most fair and principled of Onsruur.

Phangarl: Phangarls are nondescript in bloodline; widely regarded as buffoons by other Onsruur for their love of comedy and acting and enthusiastic involvement in comedic pursuits; vicious traders (who deal with Shaaryan raiding bands to attack caravans of rivals but leave those of the costers they sponsor untouched); owners of trading businesses in Var and hinge-makers in Khôltar; breeders and sellers horses (but have no interest in riding); and owners of several coach-making firms and decorating firms.

Surlpar: Surlpars are fair- or white-haired but otherwise nondescript in bloodline; landlords and moneylenders to Kholtans in need; hedonists; fractious and feuding within the family (and a "fallen power" because of this); and once great among the Onsruur and therefore hated by many. They are reputed (correctly) to keep and breed monsters in the cellars of their mansion to be guardians, sport-kills, and for sale.

Voaphangh: Voaphanghs are nondescript of bloodline; urbane and expertly self-controlled actors by upbringing; and energetic and ruthless "seekers of supremacy" among the Onsruur, which has made them feared and hated by most other Onsruur except their close allies the Yulzaunt. They reserve their most biting rivalry for the Pelardh family. They are also everchanging dabblers in all aspects of business and Iron City goods-making and covert supporters to claimants for thrones and rule in dozens of city-states in the Vilhon, Chessenta, and Sembia (hoping to win wealth, property, and influence if those claimants ever seize power).

Yulzaunt: Vulzaunts are very tall and slender in bloodline; experts in matters of health and healing, medicines and sicknesses (expertise they sell to the ailing); sponsors of many gnome and halfling Iron City businesses; extensive Kholtan landlords; close allies of the Voaphangh family; and ranchers who sell "beasts for the table" in a dozen countries. They regularly try to arrange temporary shortages to raise prices -- which they then rush for-sale beasts in to take advantage of.

And thankfully that's all of the Onsruur in their glory -- dangerous foes, to be sure.