Geographic Base: Himalayan Mountains of Northern India

Appearance: In their natural state, Yecks are only about 4" tall and look rather like miniature gorillas with extremely soft thick white fur all over their body. Their left hand however is bare and covered with a dense black tattoo. This body design is more magical than decorative though, as it gives the Yeck the power to shape-shift into a unique form determined by the pattern of the ink. Generally, Yecks take on an appearance similar to their natural one, but many, many times larger than usual. In this form, Yecks have tremendous strength and when being pursued can lift up whole mountains, find a crack, and change back to their small size to hide in the crevice until danger passes. Yecks have bright green claws and baby blue eyes. There are both males and females and they bare young much as humans do, though no intermarriage has ever been recorded.

Lifestyle: Despite their ability to take on tremendous physical stature and power, Yecks are very peaceful creatures and generally very shy. Living in the barren, cold, and largely isolated environment of the Himalayas, Yecks subsist on snow water and small lichen cakes, live in tiny open caves, and ask little else of the world. Nevertheless since their maintenance takes very little, Yecks enjoy spending most of their time engaged in various types of snow frolic and sport. A favorite activity is rolling in a furry ball down the sides of a snow-covered mountain toward a precipice to see who can stop themselves closest to the edge without falling off.

Human Interaction: Given the Yecks' playful nature and curiosity about their world, the rare human traveler in their area is often watched closely and may even be cautiously approached. Unfortunately, very few human adventurers notice such tiny creatures' advances, especially given the Yeck's white fur camouflage. However, should the Yeck shift to it's larger more noticeable frame, while the human certainly notices the Yeck, the men are usually terrified and race away, sometimes even doing themselves harm in their rush. Though one or two inter-species conversations have been tried, Yecks are greatly pained by how uncomfortable such engagements make the humans and, given the extreme language barriers, the attempts at interchange seem to the Yeck to be hardly worth the effort. Therefore Yeck culture remains very isolated from the human world, although they are known there, albeit in a very twisted form of the truth and by a skewed version of their name, as the gigantic beasts, the Yeti.