Grongs

Grongs are small, mostly feral creatures who dwell in natural cave structures all over The Mortal Realm. They have a fairly short lifespan of only around 20 cycles, but mature very quickly compared to other races. Civilized society tend to look down on grongs, whereas wilder folk have found ways to coexist with them. Not that the grongs care.

Appearance
A grong is small in stature, and covered in hair. They have fairly sharp features, such as their ears, teeth, claws and noses. Since they're so furry, most grongs are comfortable wearing little clothes beyond simple shorts or a loincloth for modesty. Most races wouldn't consider grongs particularly beautiful to look upon, and this only adds to the negative image grongs have been given by other folk. In spite of this, some grongs have made a place for themselves in towns and cities, performing manual labor.

There are few visual differences between male and female grongs, except that the females are typically somewhat smaller than the males. Both males and females have unruly hair covering the lower jaws, although male grongs' head and facial hair is often darker than the rest of their fur.

Culture
Grongs are almost closer to beasts than men, and their society reflects this. Grongs typically take to natural cave structures, where they make their homes together with one another, albeit heedless of family or any other relations. Their society is violent, and the bigger, stronger grongs tend to take a larger part of the cave for themselves. Lesser grongs then follow the big grongs as leaders, although without much loyalty. These gatherings are called gronglets, and most grong caves have two or three gronglets at least.

Gronglets often fight amongst themselves for more power, but on the rare occasion that they are at peace, they tend to organize and raid nearby towns and villages for food and shinies. This is because grongs are instinctively infatuated with shiny things, and will often hoard large piles of treasure for themselves, until they are inevitably stabbed in the back by the next grong in line.

Grongs live a simple life, and care little for gods or heroes. Some grongs are strong, and some grongs are sneaky, but by and large they all live life the same way. The odd ones out are those who choose to abandon their grong cave, to seek out new shinies elsewhere. These grongs have a tough time trying to fit into civilization, and are often thrown out to face the dangers of the wilderness on their own. In spite of this, some rare few have managed to solidify their position within other races' societies.

Naming Conventions
Grongs usually have simple, harsh-sounding single syllable names derived from the word "grong". Examples include Gronk, Bonk, Brong, Srong, Frong, Dronk, Frorg and Nurg.