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''''Hotai'''' originated many ages ago when early kindreds of Teor and Daine were captured and corrupted through forced breeding and mind & spirit altering magics. Hotai are cunning and intelligent, but are considered to be wholly evil and black at heart. Although skilled in metalcraft, stone working and woodcraft, they never deliberately create anything of beauty. They have no arts, in other words; all of the output of their physical culture is utilitarian in nature, and in nature is generally intended to be tools of destruction and torture. Even music and poetry are turned to vulgar utility, in the form of work shanties and slave chants. In truth, if the Hotai have any art at all that can be said to be an art, it would be the heroic elegy, which certain members of the clan devise in praise of their leaders and fallen heroes. They are known generally as evil monsters and worthy only of destruction.

Occasionally, a Hotai will be born who is strong in the "ancestral traits", that is, the traits of the Hotai's pre-corruption Daine and Teor ancestors. Such individuals rarely survive long, as they are subject to frequent abuse and receive no support or defense from family and clan. These either give up their artistic preferences in favor of the prevailing culture of abuse and violence, or else learn to keep their art to themselves. A couple Hotai have, over the course of milennia, been known to attain a high degree of artistic ability and have managed to escape the lairs of their clans and find some reasonably safe place among other races where they can practice their arts without abuse. 

When controlled by a powerful mind, such as an evil sorceror or dark Power, Hotai can be quite skilled at building and crafting intricate and powerfull engines of destruction and mayhem. Some of the greatest weapons of ages past, including firework spears as tall as trees and great bombs that were sent trundling along on mighty wheels, were built by orckish hands at the behest of an evil wizard. Hotai are known to rove in packs, sometimes mounted on Wargs or other terrifying beasts and are known to sometimes raid at night.

The Hotai are little known in the Eastlands, for the last war with them and their allies was in 1413, when a great army of Hotai and their allies descended from the Northlands (probably having travelled along the Great Northern Road) and having ravaged Husick and Heckla, attacked the Kingdom of Hoopelle. The path of their destruction is still known as the Orck Road. The Telerani aver that the Hotai were turned aside from their attack on that country when the icon of Our Lady of Rainy Heavens and Bountiful Lands was unveiled before their advancing columns. 
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[[The World]]