Species: Clackers

When you make a character in The Snarl, you can choose from twelve different species that live in the world known as the Weald. Today I’m going to talk a bit about one of the stranger ones: Clackers.

Before I go into clackers, however, I must first mention Dream Pools. Dream Pools are a central fixture to Wealdfolk settlements — when someone dies, their body is interred into the pool, where it is dissolved. In the process their mind is absorbed into a shared consciousness called the Dreaming, which serves as a repository of knowledge and lived experiences. Living folks can immerse themselves within a Dream Pool and commune with the Dreaming.

The clackers found among the Weald’s societies are non-sapient trees that were carefully pruned, shaped, grafted, and trained by woodshapers since they were young saplings, each grown into an individually unique form. Upon maturity, they are transplanted to a Dream Pool. As they draw nourishment from the pool’s liquid, they grow a mind crystal within their form that absorbs an intelligence from within the pool’s Dreaming. In this way, a mind is granted a second life, in a new clacker body. Clackers are venerated as resurrected elders, each granted an opportunity to continue to share their wisdom. It is possible for PCs of other species to be resurrected as clackers if they die.

Clackers come in a wide variety of forms, large and small. Many mimic the forms of other Weald species; others are more esoteric. Their sap-like blood possesses regenerative capabilities.