Cyclops
GUTS AND GEARS — THE BEASTS AND MACHINES OF THE IRON KINGDOMS
When the Skorne Empire made its first incursions into western Immoren, human refugees spoke in terror of the giant warriors that walked among them. The survivors claimed these huge soldiers wore heavy armor and wielded great bladed weapons with horrifying skill. The refugees told stories of these hulking warriors reveling in slaughter and bellowing with hideous laughter as they committed all manner of atrocities. As the nations of the Iron Kingdoms clashed more often with the armies of the skorne, they soon learned the truth about the creatures that had inspired such dread. That these were not skorne warriors at all but savage beasts trained by the skorne’s paingivers offered little comfort.
Standing over nine feet tall, cyclopes intimidate even without the armor and weaponry with which the skorne equip them. The most distinguishing cyclops feature is, of course, the single giant eye that dominates its face. Set above a pug nose and a mouth filled with sharp, incising teeth, the eye of a cyclops is typically brown or hazel and grants the species their peculiar ability to see into the future. If a cyclops suffers the loss of its eye, it also loses its foresight. The muted earth tone of their skin allows them to blend into the wastelands and mountains where the species makes its home in the wild. Cyclopes are gifted with opposable thumbs but have only four digits on each hand. The creatures still find this sufficient to use weapons and other tools.
Their natural diet is entirely carnivorous, and their preferred prey are the huge desert hydras and titans. Attacking in groups, the cyclopes rely on their primitive clubs and bludgeons to bring down their prey. Even when successful, some of the tribe may be injured or killed. Survivors regard this as a dual benefit; more meat is left for them, and the dead can be made part of the feast as well. When their preferred prey is unavailable, cyclopes will attempt to kill and eat anything that moves. This has lead to ongoing conflict with the remote skorne villages which share the cyclopes’ range. In the wild, cyclopes are found in the rugged terrain north of the Skorne Empire. They primarily inhabit the Shroudwall Mountains and the plains to the east of Mirketh Lake, but cyclopes tribes will live out their brutish lives wherever they can. Although they can use tools, the species almost never builds its own shelters, preferring to inhabit naturally occurring caves or ruined buildings whenever possible. On rare occasions, cyclopes are observed erecting their own shelters — invariably crude lean-tos they abandon as soon as possible.
Somewhat smaller than the males, female cyclopes are equally vicious and only nominally in charge of rearing young. Cyclopes mature rapidly, as even the inherent strong maternal instinct of the mother lasts only a few short months. By then, the young cyclops is, at best, tolerated by its mother, who allows it to share scraps from her own meals. Cyclopes reach adolescence within two years, adulthood within four.
The majority of young do not see the end of their first year, as they succumb to starvation or cannibalism within their own tribe or are killed in attacks by other cyclops tribes.
Cyclops society is a simple and unpleasant affair. Bands of 10 to
50 cyclopes organize themselves in patriarchal tribes led by whichever member proves himself the strongest. Cyclopes do not make these claims in the rude language they speak but in regular battles for dominance among the tribe. Larger cyclops tribes may see a rapid succession of several chiefs as survivors die of their wounds or at the brutal hands of an endless stream of rivals. Beneath the chief the other members establish their own pecking order, a hierarchy that constantly changes as individuals die or are weakened by wounds or famine. The tribe grants pregnant females and those caring for their young a respectful distance, as these individuals are extremely territorial and vicious even by the standards of the species.
In the wild, cyclopes rarely live past their 15th year. Constant in-fighting, cannibalism, and starvation as well
as the large predators that share their environment make the lives of cyclopes nasty, brutish and short. Skorne beast handlers, however, have found that, in captivity cyclopes have a potential life span in excess of 40 years.
This is not to say that captive cyclopes live longer than their wild brethren. On the contrary, few cyclopes live past their 10th year in the armies of the Skorne Empire. The skorne have been making cyclopes into beasts of war for untold centuries. Indeed, the first beast handlers learned much of their art
by torturing the vicious creatures. At present, many of the anatomy lessons comprising the formal education of the chirurgeons and beast handlers are performed on cyclopes.
As part of its conditioning regimen, a captive cyclops undergoes a delicate surgery on its lower brain and optic nerves. Dubbed “savages,” these beasts possess only the most rudimentary of prescient abilities, and the skorne find it desirable to augment them. (More cunning “brutes” and shamans are not tampered with at all for fear of disrupting their more powerful natural abilities.) While the brain of the beast is exposed for this surgery, the skorne also take the opportunity to surgically augment the creature’s vicious temper, making it even more dangerous when commanded in battle. This delicate, tedious surgery must be performed hundreds of times each year, as new Savages must be conditioned and operated upon to replace those lost in battle.
The unfortunate side effect of this procedure is that the already mercurial and unpredictable cyclopes become lethally difficult to handle. To counteract this problem, paingivers lace the cyclopes’ food with powerful soporific drugs. A drugged state also makes the creatures more suggestible to commands. The beast handlers take advantage of this by implementing much of their discipline training while the cyclopes are under the effects of the soporifics. Even when drugged, though, the creatures are capable of tremendous violence and are treated with cautious respect by their handlers. The beasts often fight among themselves to establish dominance within the kennels. When the beasts are required for service, the drug is withheld and, as the beasts enter their fully aware predatory state, they are given to the most senior beast handlers.
Cyclopes occasionally become addicted to the drugs and suffer agonizing withdrawal. Cyclopes in this state are typically killed by their handlers, as they are capable of incredible violence while they seek out the drug they crave.
Given the cyclopes’ bestial nature, the skorne primarily turn them into extremely powerful shock troops. Most of the beasts are equipped with the lacquered plate armor the skorne favor and then armed with a single great falchion. These weapons and armor are built for function and endurance but lack the fine ornamentation and artisanship applied to the weapons of real skorne warriors. Although the falchions are honed to a razor edge prior to battle, the tremendous and indiscriminate force with which the cyclopes fight quickly dulls the blade. The creatures wreak almost as much carnage by crushing blows as by slashing blade wounds.
Less commonly, some individual cyclopes possess a deeper cunning than their brethren. Trained with shield and spear, these Brutes hold flanks and counter-charges from enemies in battle. Their prescient abilities make them ideal bodyguards, and many commanders will keep a Brute with their personal retinue. This practice also extends to skorne civil life. The ability to see an assassin’s killing blow before the knife is drawn serves as a powerful deterrent in the Skorne Empire’s day-to-day political conflicts.
The tyrants and dominars of the skorne consider the shamans of the cyclopes tribes a rare prize. No beast handler has ever been able to awaken the strange arcane powers of these cyclopes in captivity; they must be captured in the wild. Whether these cyclopes learn their sorcerous abilities from elder shamans or their abilities simply occur naturally in a small percentage of their species is a subject of ongoing (and centuries-old) debate among skorne scholars.
Skorne chirurgeons and paingivers have made extensive anatomical study of shaman eyes. These studies have not revealed or suggested the origin of the cyclops shaman’s powers, but they have proven that the eye of a shaman is greatly developed. Its optic nerve is supported by a complex bundle of secondary nerves. The purpose of this novel part of the nervous system remains a mystery to skorne anatomists, but they conjecture that this structure develops as the shaman learns or gains access to his powers and presumably strengthens prescient abilities. Anatomical study of some
of the most powerful shaman has also revealed enormous tumors in the occipital lobe. These masses do not seem to harm the shaman, despite
its being the size of an adult skorne’s fist. Some mortitheurges have gone so far as to experiment with ingesting the tumors, which possess powerful psychotropic properties.
Many mortitheurges claim the induced state enhances their powers, a claim under serious debate among practitioners. As the skorne continue their expansion into the west, the beasts have continued to prove themselves valuable assets to the skorne armies — the most versatile of the skorne’s beasts. As the skorne encounter new battlefield challenges, they will inevitably find new ways for the cyclopes to brutalize and terrify their enemies.
Cohorts of Tyrant’s Lash
East of the Castle of the Keys is the recently constructed fortress called Tyrant’s Lash, the northernmost bastion that houses skorne mustering for attacks on the west. The cohort permanently stationed to guard this important fortress wear the distinctive emblem of House Mokrar, and have chosen to adopt black armor not dissimilar to that preferred by those who protect the Abyssal Fortress. There is a persistent rumor since the Conqueror fled that edifice that the Cohorts of Tyrant’s Lash were also more loyal to Vinter than to Supreme Archdomina Makeda. This has prompted Lord Tyrant Mokrar to send his forces into battle with orders to restore the honor of their name in battle, fervently sacrificing their lives to regain standing in the new Skorne Empire.
Fonte: No Quarter 25
