Grath

Physical
Grath are typically taller, larger, and more resilient than average humans. Along with physical hardiness, Grath men and women do not have any statistically significant variance between heights, weights, and physical strength. While there are minor variances in specific proportions and individual muscle groups between the sexes, it ultimately does not cause a significant difference. It is theorized that these muscular variances are to compensate for skeletal differences. Both men and women can compete equally in physical challenges, and grath athletic competitions have no explicit separation between males and females.

Appearances can vary with each grath, but most grath enjoy typical human range of eye color, skin tones, and hair types. There are many grath specific variances that are caused by ancient biomods within the localized gene pool. Coloration variance and patterns are uncommon (skin stripes), and there a number of rarer traits (hair color fade).

Language
Grath languages are very similar to each other in structure and function, with variance coming from particular collections of words and phrases to regional preference. The differences in dialects are hard to detect without extensive knowledge of the huge vocabulary that each dialect maintains. One key trait among is conservative use of modifiers, as most grath language speakers use spectrums of related words to express differences in degrees. Modifying words ("very", "extremely", "barely", and etc...) are used to relay concepts outside the normal spectrum. Grath languages typically do not have words to represent "and", "or", "but", and other connective words. These are verbally represented by a change in tone or inflection, and written down with symbols. Contractions don't exist in most grath dialects, and any are informal, regional at best.

Those raised with grath as the primary language can often have difficulties sentence flow in other languages due to being uncomfortable with certain words and practices, but are often proficient with handling large vocabularies and concise expression.

Society
In Grath governed territories, compulsory reservist military service was not uncommon, due to a number of conflicts that threatened grath communities. Such practice has waned in recent years, and education in self-defense and survival knowledge has been shifted to required high school courses. Professional military service is voluntary, and adventuring has grown to satisfy the need to handle certain threats. There are certain groups in grath culture that seem to place a lot weight upon honor and pride in military service, and want to seek a return to "Glory Days" in modern society. The validity of such practice and desires is debated and such beliefs have recently been relegated to the outer fringes of society and bad stereotypes.

Grath practice organizing into "Houses" for their familial units that have no prescribed structure. The tradition started hundreds of years ago in the grath origin region of the world, during a time when confronted by regional conflicts and terrible natural disasters. What started as a means for individuals and families to pool resources to survive evolved into a familial organization that handles the "business" aspects of the group. It is often compared to a family "company" where duties and responsibilities are delegated and managed cooperatively, includes child-bearing and child-rearing. Modern Grath society is very polyamorous and open about sexuality. Even house members are not confined to the house, and can be encouraged to date. Grath relationship dynamics are on multiple layers that are regarded equally to their purpose.

Food focuses upon the main ingredient in grath kitchens. While grath dishes tend toward less ingredients, they do focus upon involved preparation and cooking methods. Traditional grath cooks will go for quality of a few, rather than overwhelming complexity. Seasonings are used carefully, to allow the main ingredient's flavor to have priority overall. Very spicy and "hot" foods are rare, as tradition sees too much spice as hiding flaws with the main ingredient. A typical grath meal has many dishes prepared with a main and several sides that can be independently prepared from each other. This tradition persists from historically difficult times and not knowing exactly what would be available to prepare for meal and when they could prepare it. A modular meal with roots in "Meat and Three" style restaurants.