These would be a tribe of ratkin (or wererats in a traditional D&D-type setting) living in the sewers of maybe a Maldor or Ammeni city (or as close as the population of Near allows). Probably have some kind of storytelling tradition revolving around borrowing snatches of popular bardic tunes and adding their own chittering lyrics about growing up ghetto and their (embellished) adventures in and around their home. Maybe at the end of every adventure/chapter, the players would basically have a "poetry/rap slam" and just Bring Down the Pain on each other to see who has the best rat-rhymes.



(here is mouse's train of thought, for the curious:

I live near Mount Hood in Oregon. I was driving in the morning with the mountain to my back, and half the mountain was in shadow; I thought there was enough sunlight, and that it was just really barren this winter. But later in the day, coming back home, I could see, yep, indeed, plenty of snow. Which means that at sunrise/sunset, there's a dark side of the mountain. Which of course leads us to Dark Side of the Moon. Now, 'moon' and 'moun' are pretty danged close, so the first splice is simply 'moontain'. That 'i' isn't really neded at all, so then you have moon-tan, immediately suggesting some kind of lycanthrope, and of striking similarity to the occasionally-mentioned 'Wutang Clan'. Originally this was going to be a werewolf clan, but, you know? Wererats got that whole city-living-in-sewers vibe going on.

And there you are.)

Old Dirty Rat-Bastard

High ranks in Litter Bond, Freeload, and Story-tell. Respectable ranks in Streetwise, Scrapping, and Savoir-Faire.

Key of Glittering Gold, because cash rules everything around him. Key of the Litter, because you have to defend your krew.

Secret of Rat Familiarity. Secret of Rat Companions. Perhaps Secret of the Addiction too, if you can have cross-species Secrets.

Carries a hive of killer bees, in case he needs to sow chaos.
Also, a Liquid Sword.

AWESOME.

Seriously, I listened to a whole lot of hip-hop while writing TSOY. I don't know if it had an influence, but... well, this is a fun idea.