Wemics are centaur-like creatures with the upper torso of a humanoid atop a lion’s broad shoulders. They are a proud and noble people who may be the most skillful hunters in all Faerûn.
From head to rump, wemics are 10 to 12 feet long, and they stand 6 to 7 feet tall from their front paws to the tops of their heads. They weigh around 600 pounds. Dusky golden fur covers them from head to tail. Their tails feature a brush of black hair, and the males have a long black mane. Wemics’ faces are a mixture of humanoid and leonine, and their golden eyes have the slitted pupils of a cat. Their ears are set high on their heads. All six of their limbs end in claws, but the ones on their hands and their front paws are retractable.
Wemics remain children for only five years, and live about 40 years on average. Most wemics die in dangerous hunts on the savanna long before age can take them.
Wemics have the same life expectancy and age categories as half-orcs.
History: The wemics are a tribal people with no writing skills or interest in recording history. Nature gave the wemics their hunting grounds, so they fight tooth and claw against the civilizations encroaching upon them from all sides. The wemics aren’t evil and don’t want to hurt anyone in particular, but they do want strangers to stay well clear of their hunting grounds and the wemics’ plentiful prey.
Small tribes of wemics live in the arid plains of southern Anauroch and the Shining Plains west of Turmish. However, most wemics belong to large, nomadic tribes that roam vast regions of the Shaar. Several times over the last few centuries, Shaaran wemics have formed great hordes to drive off encroaching human settlement, especially along the southern frontiers of Unther and Mulhorand.
Outlook: Wemics live in harmony with nature, uncivilized and proud of it. They eschew the ways of civilization, since they can’t see why anyone would ever want to live under a shingled roof when she could have the sky itself as her roof. Wemics are a proud people, usually slow to anger, but they have no patience for civilized folk who take their lack of familiarity with human society for ignorance.
Wemics learn to hunt and fight from a very young age. Female wemics do most of the hunting. The males sometimes lead the hunt, but more often they roam the plains, protecting the pride from outside threats.
Adventuring wemics sometimes leave their remote homes to see more of the world. They are fascinated by the colourful human merchants who travel through their territory. With civilization creeping closer to their hunting lands every year, some of the more adventurous wemics realize that it’s in the interest of the pride for them to learn everything they can about their neighbours before it is too late.
Characters: Close as they are to nature, there are many druids among the wemics. They have no other spellcasters in their tribes, although wemics that have spent some time in the “civilized” world have sometimes picked up levels as various kinds of spellcasters. In any case, the wemic’s favoured class is, of course, barbarian.
Society: Life as a wemic is simple. Most of the day is spent playing around, basking in the sun or hunting for food.
In a single pride of wemics, there are usually 1 to 4 males, 2 to 12 females and 1 to 6 cubs. The cubs are allowed to play freely until they reach 5 years of age, at which point they are brought out on their first hunt to make their first kill. Once they have proven themselves, they are considered adults.
In these prides, the males spend the nights patrolling the area, protecting the pride from any threats. They mostly sleep during the day while the females hunt for food. The leader of the pride is the strongest male. When he is eventually challenged and removed from power, he usually wanders off to live alone or join with other males who have left their prides for various reasons. Sometimes prides join together to form a tribe that can defend itself against a threat larger than a single pride could handle.
Older wemics eventually slow down too much and are picked off from the pride by predators, much in the same way that a wemic might cull a herd of antelope. This is considered the natural order of things. Some older wemics, realizing that they are slowing down the pride, instead wander into the nearest humanoid community, retiring from the pride but taking up a whole new life elsewhere.
Language: Wemics normally speak Sylvan. Wemics who interact with outsiders pick up Common to hire themselves as guides or scouts in their homelands, or (more often) to warn away settlers or hunting parties trespassing on wemic territory.
All wemics are illiterate, except for those with a player character class other than barbarian.
Religion: Wemics worship Nobanion, the demigod of noble animals and woodland creatures. Nobanion is a nature deity and may grant spells to wemic druids and rangers. Some wemics are lured by the feral bloodlust of Malar, and worship the Beastlord instead.
Relations: Isolated as they are, wemics don’t have much of an opinion about the other races. They prefer to deal with people who recognize the sanctity of nature, but they are willing to guide just about anyone through or around their homelands for the right deal.
Equipment: Wemics prefer to use clubs, spears and large wooden shields. They only use weapons they can make themselves.
Animals and Pets: Wemics hold a deep reverence for all animals, especially the game animals they hunt most often. They are careful not to take too many kills from the same herd, and never kill more than they can eat. Wemics are enraged by humanoid hunters who slay an animal for a small portion of its body, such as a rhino’s horn, and then abandon the carcass.
Regions: The Shaar
Source: Races of Faerûn (Page 149)
Your character can be either male or female.
Every player character starts as an adult. You can choose or randomly generate your character’s age. If you choose it, it must be at least the minimum age for the character’s race and class (see Table: Starting Ages). Your character’s minimum starting age is the adulthood age of his or her race plus the number of dice indicated in the entry corresponding to the character’s race and class on Table: Starting Ages.
Alternatively, refer to Table: Starting Ages and roll dice to determine how old your character is.
| Adulthood | Intuitive1 | Self-Taught2 | Trained3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14 years | +1d4 (15—18) years | +1d6 (15—20) years | +2d6 (16—26) years |
1 This category includes barbarians, rogues and sorcerers.
2 This category includes bards, fighters, paladins and rangers.
3 This category includes clerics, druids, monks and wizards.
With age, a character’s physical ability scores decrease and his or her mental ability scores increase (see Table: Aging Effects). The effects of each aging step are cumulative. However, none of a character’s ability scores can be reduced below 1 in this way.
| Middle Age1 | Old Age2 | Venerable3 | Maximum Age |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 years | 45 years | 60 years | +2d10 years |
1 -1 to Strength, Dexterity and Constitution; +1 to Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma.
2 -2 to Strength, Dexterity and Constitution; +1 to Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma.
3 -3 to Strength, Dexterity and Constitution; +1 to Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma.
When a character reaches venerable age, the DM secretly rolls his or her maximum age, which is the number from the Venerable column on Table: Aging Effects plus the result of the dice roll indicated on the Maximum Age column on that table, and records the result, which the player does not know. A character who reaches his or her maximum age dies of old age at some time during the following year, as determined by the DM.
The maximum ages are for player characters. Most people in the world at large die from pestilence, accidents, infections or violence before getting to venerable age.
Choose your character’s height and weight from the ranges mentioned in the appropriate race description or from the ranges found on Table: Height and Weight. Think about what your character’s abilities might say about his or her height and weight. A weak but agile character may be thin. A strong and tough character may be tall or just heavy.
Alternatively, roll randomly for your character’s height and weight on Table: Height and Weight. The dice roll given in the Height Modifier column determines the character’s extra height beyond the base height. That same number multiplied by the dice roll or quantity given in the Weight Modifier column determines the character’s extra weight beyond the base weight.
| Gender | Base Height | Height Modifier | Base Weight | Weight Modifier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male | 4’ 10" | +2d12 (5’ 0"—6’ 10") | 150 lbs. | ×2d6 (154—438 lbs.) |
| Female | 4’ 5" | +2d12 (4’ 7"—6’ 5") | 110 lbs. | ×2d6 (114—398 lbs.) |
Source: Player’s Handbook (Page 109)