Explore the Twelve Tyrants Series

Homeland: forest

Languages: Hapha, Commontongue

The more numerous race in the forest, Taphes are a deerlike people covered with brown fur, crowned with branching antlers, and limbed with cloven hooves. More nimble than humans, Taphes wear clothing dyed in arboreal colors of brown and green, with their leaders and shamans donning ceremonial garments made from animal skins, bone fragments, and decorative feathers. Many Taphes are skilled hunters, trained in the sling as a weapon; others forage for resources, while some serve as healers working with medicinal herbs.

Each Taphe belongs to a group called a band, one of eighteen tribes named after a sacred tree. Although each band dwells in its own territory, all of the bands share a similar culture united by worship of the same gods and spirits; respect for Tephrana, the law of the forest; and decennial meetings at a chain of blessed lakes, where shamans and leaders gather to form agreements and resolve disputes.