Jermlaine
| Jermlaine | |
|---|---|
 Jermalaine depicted in the Monstrous Manual 2e, (1993). | |
| General information | |
| Size: | Tiny |
| Alignment: | Neutral evil |
| Type: | Fey |
| Subtype: | Gremlin |
| Patron deity: | Pyremius |
| First appearance: | D1 |
Jermlaines, also known as jinxkin, bane-midges, gremlins, atomites, and minimi (singlular: minimus), are evil underground dwellers who spend their days sneaking, hiding and plotting to humiliate larger races and create general badness. The word "jermlaine" is Old Oeridian for "troublemaker"
In the second edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game, "jermlaine" was commonly used as both the singular and plural form. In the third edition Monster Manual II, however, the plural "jermlaines" is used, in keeping with third edition D&D's general trend toward using more standard English plural forms in monster names (for another example, the second edition plural "lillendi" became "lillends" in the third edition of the game).
Ecology
Jermlaines feed mainly on carrion, insects, fungi, and molds, but will devour larger prey if they can get it; usually this means lizards and the like. They have a real fondness for sweet foods like candy and fruit, and will accept these as bribes.
Jermlaines may be related to other creatures categorized as "gremlins," including mites and snyads. Some sages have theorized that these other races are "stages of regression between jermlaine and gnome."
Environment
Jermlaines are particularly common in the caverns beneath the Hellfurnaces, where they were first created, but they may be found in virtually any underground area, even in the arctic and on other worlds. Normally their homes are networks of tunnels appropriate to their size, but they will inhabit buildings made by "giant" races (that is, any larger than themselves) provided their previous inhabitants are safely gone. Some have been known to lair in the sewers of major cities, even allying themselves with local thieves' guilds.
Jermlaines are usually associated with rats, giant rats, camprats, osquips, and the like, sharing their homes with them and pooling their resources. They treat these vermin as trusted equals, and jermlaine clans name themselves after the type of rodent they share their lives with. Those fortunate enough to dwell with osquips shape osquip dung for a variety of useful forms, as when it dries it becomes nearly as hard as stone.
Jermlaine lairs and nearby environs are festooned with traps, which help compensate for their lack of size.
Typical physical characteristics
Jermlaines resemble small (approximately fifteen inches in height), misshapen, grey-skinned humanoids covered with warts and pimples and random tufts of hair. Their faces are grumpy and big-nosed, their limbs scrawny and thin with swollen joints. Their skin is baggy and loose enough to resemble clothes, their foreheads wrinkly enough to make them look like they're wearing caps; some sages believe this is because they were created from gnomes whose bones were shrunk but not their skin. Some wear scraps of clothing, while others don't bother; it is difficult for others to tell the difference in any case. They have slightly rat-like traits. Their appearance, however ugly, could even be described as slightly cute.
Jermlaine eyesight is weak, but they can see in pitch darkness up to thirty feet.
Alignment
Jermlaines are typically Neutral Evil.
Society
Jermlaines dwell underground in large extended families ranging from about twelve to fifty individuals living only to plot and scheme. A clan consists of four to sixteen such families, each led by a patriarch. The strongest and cleverest of the patriarchs becomes clan chief. With foul dispositions and evil designs, jermlaines are also extremely adept at hiding and sneaking. They also seem to have a kinship of sorts with rats; jermlaine groups are often accompanied by up to an entire plague of rats, including a few giant ones. A jermlaine lurking in the shadows can itself be mistaken for an oddly shaped, vaguely humanoid rat.
Male jermlaines are warriors; females are warriors before and after their childbearing years, but remove themselves from combat while rearing children. They teach their young how to ambush and humiliate larger species.
Jermlaines show one another they can be trusted by flopping the loose skin hanging from their protruding bellies to show they have no weapons concealed in there (as they often do).
"Rovers" are lone traveling jermlaines who make themselves useful delivering messages and transporting good between communities, using rats as mounts and beasts of burden. Occasionally a rover will take on an apprentice.
Religion
Jermlaines normally worship Pyremius.
Language
The jermlaine language sounds like high-pitched, ratlike squeaking, and rats and their kin seem to be able to understand it readily. This is perhaps related to the famed gnomish knack for communicating with burrowing creatures. They may understand other languages, but cannot clearly speak them. Jermalaines have no concept of reading and writing, and they detest music.
History
The ancestors of the jermlaines were gnomish (probably svirfneblin, given the location and era) slaves of a Suloise wizardly cabal dwelling in caverns beneath the Hellfurnaces (then known as the Southern Crystalmists). The cabal, known as the Inheritors of the Red Gloom, was a society of Pyremius worshipers, most of them fire elementalist magi or mage-assassins, dwelling underground because of their opposition to the government of the Suloise Imperium.
Some of the gnomish slaves became priests of Pyremius themselves, escaping their masters and relocating to the mountains adjacent Jeklea Bay. Using the appearance of their patron god as a model, they used captured Suel humans (including some of the Inheritors) and their own flesh to create a minute race of spies and guards. The gnomes were destroyed by spellcasters of the Imperium circa -1,600 CY, but their servant race survived and flourished.
Creative origin
Gygax lists Stanley G. Weinbaum in Appendix N of the Dungeon Masters Guide in first edition as a source of inspiration. In Weinbaums's novels, The Valley of Dreams and Moon of Madness, there are small, rat-like aliens known as "Slinkers" who are malevolent thieves. They have very loose, baggy skin, which can be mistaken for clothing or cloaks, like the way jermlaine are described in the Fiend Folio. There are definite strong similarities, and though the jermlaine are not a straight, simple adaptation of the Slinkers, the Slinkers are likely the inspiration for the jermlaine.
"Jermlaine" appears to be a corruption of "gremlin", with a soft "j" and long second syllable.[citation needed]
Gallery
-
By Alan Hunter, 1e Fiend Folio (1981). -
By Tony DiTerlizzi, 2e Monstrous Compendium, vol.2 (1989). -
By Terry Dykstra, "Ecology of the Jermlaine" (1999) -
By Justine Mara Andersen, Monster Manual II 3e (2002). -
By Emi Tanji, Mordenkainen's Fiendish Folio Volume 1 (2019)
References
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
- Bonny, Ed, Jeff Grubb, Rich Redman, Skip Williams, and Steve Winter. Monster Manual II. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2002.
- Gygax, Gary. Descent into the Depths of the Earth. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1978.
- Moore, Roger E. "Legacies of the Suel Imperium." Dragon #241. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 1997.
- Richards, Johnathan M. "The Ecology of the Jermlaine." Dragon #262. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 1999.
- Turnbull, Don, ed. Fiend Folio. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1981.
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Encyclopedia Greyhawkania Index
The Encyclopedia Greyhawkania Index (EGI) is based on previous work of Jason Zavoda through '08, continued by numerous other fans. The EGI article has a list of sources, product names, abbreviations, and a link to the full, downloadable index.
| Topic | Type | Description | Product | Page/Card/Image
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jermlaine (Gremlin) | Monster | D1 Descent into the Depths of the Earth | 3, 4, 12 | |
| Jermlaine (Gremlin) | Monster | D1-2 Descent into the Depths of the Earth | 3, 4, 24, 25 | |
| Jermlaine (Gremlin) | Monster | Fiend Folio, AD&D 1e | 53, 54 | |
| Jermlaine (Gremlin) | Monster | From the Ashes: References Card | #12 | |
| Jermlaine (Gremlin) | Monster | GDQ1-7 Queen of the Spiders | 53 | |
| Jermlaine (Gremlin) | Monster | GDQ1-7 Queen of the Spiders: Map/Monster Booklet | 15 | |
| Jermlaine (Gremlin) | Monster | Living Greyhawk, Living Onnwal Gazetteer, D&D 3.5e | 68 | |
| Jermlaine (Gremlin) | Monster | MC2 - Monstrous Compendium Volume 2 | Insert (Jermlaine) | |
| Jermlaine (Gremlin) | Monster | MC5 Monstrous Compendium Greyhawk Adventures Appendix | Encounter Tables | |
| Jermlaine (Gremlin) | Monster | Monstrous Manual, AD&D 2e | 176, 177 | |
| Jermlaine (Gremlin) | Monster | Monstrous Manual, AD&D 2e (Premium Edition) | 176, 177 | |
| Jermlaine (Gremlin) | Monster | World of Greyhawk boxed set (1983) | 15 |