Dao

Dao are malicious genies from the Elemental Plane of Earth. (Dao is both singular and plural.) There they dwell in great numbers, continually delving and shaping the rock around them. On the Prime Material Plane, dao are usually solitary, although powerful individuals sometimes manage to command a group of them. Of all the genie races, dao are the most simple and brutish, and can often be cozened into service.

Male or female, dao are powerfully muscled individuals. Their polished skin is the color of earth, sand, or granite, and their finger- and toenails are made of a durable but lustrous metal. The fingers themselves are wide and pudgy, even if the dao assume other forms. Both sexes are bald and free of body hair. Males do have facial hair, worn in mustaches and angular beards. All dao enjoy adorning themselves with jewelry, such as earrings, bracers, chokers, nose rings and studs, ankle bracelets, rings, and bells. Many don shirts of lamellar plates.

Like most genies, dao have a limited form of telepathy that enables them to converse with any intelligent being (low intelligence or better). They may use this ability as translators, but will often accentuate the negatives when doing so, making each side appear hostile and boastful to the other. Dao also speak Midani and the native tongue of all geniekind. The dao dialect is rumbling and low-pitched, with grinding consonants and trilling vowels.

Note: Dao originally appeared in this form in the Al-Qadim: Land of Fate for the AD&D game from TSR. Their use here is for the purposes of providing context for the campaign only.