What the blooming hell is a Wylk?

[Genth]

So writing my homebrew world, working on the races, and in my Mythology I've written the phrase;

"The outcast races, the Orcs, the Gnolls, the Wylks, all emerged from Greykin academies. "

Only problem is, I have no idea what a Wylk is. Nobody knows what a Wylk is. I just made up the word so I had three races.

Now YOU, forum, tell me. WHAT THE BLOOMING HELL IS A WYLK?

(Throw out ideas. No matter how silly.)

[Khaleid]

The name Wylk to me has a nature-like ring to it, so why not make it into a nasty fey or plant-like creature with small hairs that sting, like you find on nettles?

[rlc]

It makes me think of yaks, so maybe a minotaur variant.
They could be dark halflings
Or a type of gremlin
Or narwhal people

[Corneel]

It made me think of "wulk" (in my native language (Dutch)) or in English whelk. So maybe a giant sentient whelk/snail?

ETA: and give them a natural talent for psionics.

[rg9000]

I picture a fish-like race that lives in the forests and has nature powers.

[Ninjadeadbeard]

A snub-nosed snake monster covered in shaggy hair, topped with horns. He has talons for hands and feet. They are basically a really, really nasty Muppet about the size of a Bugbear or Ogre. They are actually pretty sneaky, love to lie and manipulate, and can eat anything.

They have lovely singing voices, and their throat singers are world-renowned. They live most anywhere that's kinda damp and warm, meaning swamps and some forests and Dungeons aplenty.

[Genth]

Keep awesome ideas coming, people! I may decide to use all and none of them, and write in that nobody in the world has ever actually -seen- a Wylk. So all of these ideas are rumors.

Love the muppet idea especially.

[macsen]

the word reminds me of whelk, so I imagined a barely-sentient species of fish people who live in shallow waters, but not too far out to sea.

They would travel by rivers to inland lakes, and probably engage simple trade with other species that don't kill them.

I imagine they'd be simple because wylk is a simple short word, and sentient, ruling species who fancy themselves noble and civil tend to put a little more in what they call themselves, I imagine wylk is an exonym; anything they'd call themselves would probably just mean "waves" in their own language. They see themselves as individual waves on the ocean, rising out and sinking back in as effortless as the waves do, crashing waves, cresting waves, foamy waves.

This was all train-of-thought freewriting, so sorry if I repeated any ideas given you.

[rlc]

A race of really fat and droopy looking humanoids
A half-orc, half-gnoll
The race of [some famous wylk]

[avr]

A wylk is one of the wyld kind. They appear to be animals with magical powers and when killed their essence finds a new home in a nearby animal - unless they are trapped in their dying body by magic which wards against possession.

[Yora]

Wylks are tall and almost willowy humanoids related to weasels and ferrets. They are not only fast, but also clever and sneaky.

[Thunderfist12]

My suggestion is in the form of a scholar's account. Because I felt like it.

Wylks are a tall, thin race that secludes themselves in the mountains. Their tools and huts have been discovered and documented widely, but there have been no reliable accounts of the wylks themselves. What we do know for certain is that they have a loose tribal structure, and, from the placement of various items and huts, it seems as though they have hunters or warriors on the outer rims of their temporary "towns", to protect the tent of their shaman, who lives at the center.

It has been determined that wylks hunt large birds of prey and various beasts of the mountains. They seem to revere above all else a wind god whom we have termed "Wylkanin". He is among their five-god pantheon of Creators, which also includes an earth god, a sun goddess, a moon goddess, and a tree god. They are known to be light of weight and step, due to the impressions of their tracks, which are three-toed and distinctly avian. However, it must be noted that a wylk's tracks have never been seen ending in a sudden takeoff pattern, and thus they must be flightless.

Many accounts of wylk encounters say that they are like tall and grotesquely thin birds that stand on their hind legs, are covered in a strange mixture of coarse feathers and matted fur, and have long, hooked, and toothed beaks. They are said to hold their clubs and spears with their wings, and they are said to have a digit similar to a thumb on these wings: an aposable, long-feathered extension at the inside of the wing. Most accounts say they are tawny or snowy-white in color. They have been said to climb trees and wait for their prey with traps and bait, which is heavily supported by the tripwires and pressure nooses they have left behind in their abandoned "towns".

Basically, flightless bird people who worship the world in their small, shamanistic pantheon. That's what i'm getting from this.

[Aolbain]

A moose like humanoid.

[ReaderAt2046]

"Wylk" is an archaic word for goblinoids.

[jqavins]

A good oportunity to use the Ozian flying monkeys.

[Landis963]

A delicacy and the source of a specific deep blue dye.

[enderlord99]

An adult radio station.

[Lappy9001]

There is no such thing as a single Wylk, a group of Wylks, or a civilization of Wylks, there is only Wylk, a single, ancient, cohesive entity. Noone know when or where the Wylk originated, but since creation it has expanded its influence to almost every inch of the world. This great alien entity interacts with the world through various Wylk that take on roughly humanoid form to further the mysterious goals of the Wylk. There are various degrees of freedom and power allowed to these lesser Wylk, but the study of these creatures is poorly understood. Wylk are not mindless automatons, nor that they are completely free. It is indeed possible for Wylk to go rogue, but even then there share a kindship with all Wylk, even a hivemind when Wylk accumulate in large groups.

The most general form of Wylk is that of a small grey goblinoid with ears longer than it is tall, twitching constantly to hear the wishes of Wylk. However, Wylk can occasionally take any form (any of the above or below races could be Wylk), and more disturbing, small numbers of the common races have reported forsaking their former identity for Wylk. This leads some scholars to believe that Wylk seeks to encompass all, until nothing left is Wylk. All is Wylk, and all wyll be Wylk. Wylk, Wylk, WYLK.

[Genth]

Ok, that one is my favorite.

KNEEL BEFORE WYLK

GROVEL IN THE DIRT BENEATH WYLK

ALL HAIL WYLK

[Jakodee]

Orcs are a barely concealed metaphor for those savage, uncivilized brutes over the hill . Gnolls are the sentient equivalent of dangerous wild animals who raid small camps and settlements. Welks are a third fear. Welks are not savage people or nature. Welks are invaders. Not orcs looking for plunder and violence or gnolls for food. Welks are more civilized than that. Welks want land, and slaves, and civilization in the barren wasteland of the human kingdoms. To the Welks, we are the orcs, and we must be civilized.

[GorinichSerpant]

Orcs are a barely concealed metaphor for those savage, uncivilized brutes over the hill . Gnolls are the sentient equivalent of dangerous wild animals who raid small camps and settlements. Welks are a third fear. Welks are not savage people or nature. Welks are invaders. Not orcs looking for plunder and violence or gnolls for food. Welks are more civilized than that. Welks want land, and slaves, and civilization in the barren wasteland of the human kingdoms. To the Welks, we are the orcs, and we must be civilized.

Wylk will put the non-wylk into wylk, whither they wynt it or not.

I feel that wylk comes as stick thin grey figures among misty swamps and hills, whispering and singing a melody of haunting grace. Some have beaks and feather, others long ears, another might have been your buddy Jeff at some point, but that doesn't matter, what matters is that wylk is there and it will bloody damn civilize you.

[jqavins]

Original Post:

So writing my homebrew world, working on the races, and in my Mythology I've written the phrase;

"The outcast races, the Orcs, the Gnolls, the Wylks, all emerged from Greykin academies. "

Only problem is, I have no idea what a Wylk is. Nobody knows what a Wylk is. I just made up the word so I had three races.

Now YOU, forum, tell me. WHAT THE BLOOMING HELL IS A WYLK?

(Throw out ideas. No matter how silly.)

There is no such thing as a single Wylk, a group of Wylks, or a civilization of Wylks, there is only Wylk, a single, ancient, cohesive entity. Noone know when or where the Wylk originated... [Remainder of cool idea deleted for brevity]

Ok, that one is my favorite.

It's a very cool idea, but does it really fit in the original context? To be listed as they are in the mythology, shouldn't they be more concrete and mundane-ish? (As opposed to a mun danish, which is a Purim treat.)

[Genth]

It's my mythology :P I can do what I like. I'm GOD! MWUAHAHAHAHAHA

And the Wylk being a mystery is all good. People can assume they came from Greykin Academies (The mythology is written from P.O.V, that particular part written by a historian) but they're wrong. :D

[jqavins]

It's my mythology :P I can do what I like. I'm GOD! MWUAHAHAHAHAHA

Ohhhh keydoke. (backs away slowly)