Olman (Greyhawk)

The culturally dominant people thousands of years ago, in an age where gods where more inhuman and less good than today. The Olman eventually abandoned their empire and left their gods for shamanism. Today they live in semi-barbarism, often exploited by other peoples.

Cultural Traits

Fatalism, Piety, Grandiosity, Tradition

Real-World Model

Native American

Alignment

Olman goods are almost universally evil, and often chaotic. This makes even good Olman societies seem cruel and bloodthirsty to others. Good Olman submit to the demands of these gods while trying to make the best they can of life. Evil Olman relish their gods' lust for blood and pain and often advance in their service, attaining high social rank even in a society that is not otherwise evil. An Olman high court can be very evil and cruel, yet administer a prosperous land where many people lead good lives.

Practices

Incest, Nudity, Sadomasochism.

Taboos

Promiscuity.

Family

Conventional, group marriage, or theogamus. Strictly regulated by tradition. Matrilinear. Barbarian tribes tend to Conventional or group marriage.

Magic

Olman magic is graphic and ceremonial, seeking to impress and terrorize as much as possible. Their gods rarely grant protective or healing spells. They lack wizards or bards, and their sorcerers find themselves gifted with destructive spells that affect large areas.

Pantheon

The Olman pantheon is dominated by evil gods who demand human sacrifice and ritual cannibalism, yet their society is not evil. These gods are tolerant of worshipers of other alignments, as long as they proper sacrifices are made. Good people can support such a society (but cannot be priests of evil gods or perform sacrifices) because it maintains the social order and the continued existence of the world. Certain clerics have a trait that allows any alignment, regardless of which patron they serve.

Most Olman today have rebelled against the demands of their cruel gods and live in small primitive communities allied to local spirits. However, it seems such tribes cannot advance and build cities without help. Olman who subjugate themselves to foreign gods tend to either misinterpret their teachings to be as cruel as those of their own gods, or to lose their Olman identity and be assimilated. Olmans generally think foreign gods are merely their own gods in disguise.

The Olmec world passes through ages where different gods claim domination. The gods gather at the end of each age to renew the sun and select a ruler amongst themselves. The current sun god is Camazotz, god of bats, but he was not strong enough to make the other gods sacrifice (and thus renew) themselves at the beginning of the age; thus all the Olman gods are currently weakened and their empires have fallen. Previous suns include Tezcaltipoca, Quezalcoatl, Huhueteotl, and Chalchiuhtlicue.

Toci is often identified with Beory (or Oerth), the global earth-mother.

Name	Translation	Rank	Alignment	Sphere	Domains
Camaxtli	Cloud serpent	Lesser	N	Hunting, War, Fate, East, Stars	Animal, Fire, Fate, War
Camazotz		Lesser	CE	Bats, Insects, Sun, Volcanoes	Animal, Cavern, Dream, Trickery
Chalchiuhtlicue	She of the Jade Skirt	Lesser	CG	Water, Childbirth, Fertility	Water, Creation, Earth, Plant
Ciuacoatl	Snake woman	Lesser	CE	Childbirth, Ghosts, Hunger	Lust, Undeath, Hunger, Pestilence
Huhueteotl	Aged god	Intermediate	LN	Fire, Home, Hope, Rebirth	Fire, Pact, Protection, Renewal, Mysticism
Huitzilopochtli	Hummingbird of the South	Lesser	LE	War, Youth, South	Strength, Celerity, Pride, Mysticism, Sun
Mictlantecuhtli	Lord of Mictlan	Intermediate	LE	Death, North	Darkness, Death, Deathbound, Mysticism
Quezalcoatl	Plumed serpent	Intermediate	N	Air, Knowledge, Warriors	Air, Knowledge, Nobility, Travel, Mysticism
Tezcatlipoca	Smoking mirror	Intermediate	CE	Jaguars, Obsidian, Strife, Sorcery	Oracle, Magic, Trickery, Darkness, Mysticism
Tlaloc		Intermediate	LE	Rain, Storms, Fertility	Water, Mysticism, Storm, Plant, Slime
Tlazolteotl	Eater of filth	Lesser	CE	Sin, Forgiveness, Sex	Domination, Illusion, Lust, Charm
Toci	Grandmother	Greater	N	Nature	Animal, Earth, Plant, Gluttony
Xipe Totec	The flayed one	Lesser	LE	Suffering, Renewal, Spring	Renewal, Earth, Suffering, Plant
Xochipilli	Flower prince	Lesser	CN	Love, Games, Beauty, Dance, Flowers	Plant, Competition, Charm, Courage
Yacatectli	God of the nose	Lesser	CE	Merchants	Greed, Travel, Protection, Trickery

Traits

Animal Aspect

You have an affinity for one of the ancient warrior totems of the Olman.

Benefit: When you take a critical hit or enter a rage, something bestial comes over you. You take on an animalistic appearance, retaining your normal form and attributes but distorting your normal human features to be like a jaguar or other predator native to Olman lands. For the rest of the fight you gain DR 2/Iron. This is overcome by normal iron or steel, like most normal melee weapons are made from, but still protects against wodden weapons like the club and against natural attacks. This DR stacks with barbarian damage reduction.

Giver of Blood

Lawful and even good Olman can worship deities of chaos and evil, accepting the burden of placating these evil powers for the benefit of the people.

Benefit: If you worship an evil or chaotic deity, you can ignore all alignment restrictions based on class or patron deity. Performing the required functions of your position in a cult does not change you alignment, as long as you perform them piously and without excess. Nor does casting aligned spells affect your alignment, but the results of such spells can affect your alignment as normal. If you worship a patron of an alignment different from yours, base all alignment-derived powers of your class (channel energy, casting aligned spells and so on) on your patron's alignment.

Jungle Tribesman

You are a member of one of the Olman tribes that succeeded the Olman empire and prosper in the jungle wilderness.

Benefit: You gain a +2 trait bonus on initiative checks and Perception, Stealth, and Survival skill checks when you are in jungle terrain. When traveling through jungle you leave no trail and cannot be tracked (though you may leave a trail if you so choose).

Olman Throwback

You belong to a group of Olman who have been assimilated by invaders or colonists, and live as a client people in their societies, but are still recognizably Olman.

Benefit: You have a suppressed affinity for the faith and practices of the old Olman. Select one class from this list: Barbarian, Oracle (for an Olman deity), Sorcerer, Witch. This class is a favored class for you (in addition to your normal favored class).

Native Guide

You have become a guide for explorers from faraway lands.

Benefit: Select one skill from this list: Knowledge (local), Knowledge (geography), Survival. The selected skill is a class skill for you, and you get a +1 trait bonus to checks using this skill.