Explore the Twelve Tyrants Series

Homeland: forest

Languages: Hapha, Commontongue

Taphes, the most numerous race in the forest, are a deerlike people crowned with branching antlers, bearing cloven hooves, and covered in brown fur. Taller and more agile than humans, Taphes wear clothing dyed in arboreal colors of brown and green, with leaders and shamans sometimes donning ceremonial dress made from animal skins, bone fragments, and decorative feathers. Many Taphes are skilled hunters, trained in the art of the sling; others are knowledgeable healers working with medicinal herbs.

Every Taphe belongs to a band, one of eighteen tribal groups named after a sacred tree and claiming its own territory. Although the bands concern themselves primarily with their own affairs, they share a unified culture bound together by worship of the same gods and spirits; respect for Tephrana, the law of the forest; and annual meetings at a chain of blessed lakes, where shamans and leaders gather to resolve disputes, form agreements, and discuss significant events.