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The masked savages remind me of the mountain tribes from Kingdom
They don't have a lot more personality other than masked savage warriors but there are still a few things you can draw inspiration from from them.
And they have the look.

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They stink very sharply and are able to change the stench on a whim. The does not linger or mix well with other smells. They could be confused only for a short time with other smells, due to the sharpness of their stench.

>>83735116
Masks, silence, and old tech taken together could be a sign of a society that wants to reveal as little as possible of its real nature to the outside world. They could be isolationists obsessed with the danger of memetic threats, who themselves have contained some dangerous ideas that can be released when they're in dire straits. Magically, this could be the equivalent of words of power, or a song that causes insanity, or a symbol with the capacity to cause harm.

>>83736183
Expanding on this: they could be the remnants of an ancient magical war that utilized eldrtich symbols and ideas to destroy entire cultures. Thus, they keep their culture, language, art, etc. secret so that they cannot be targeted, seeing any attempt at communication or contact as an existential threat... not realizing that the civilizations that practiced this form of arcane warfare have wiped each other out.

>>83735884
Ah, so like gorillas then.

>>83735116
Assuming these are humans and not some weird mute race of creatures. I'd give them a "bogeyman" of sorts that compels them to keep quiet. A snake deity that steals the faces of those that speak or something. The masks they wear could serve a dual purpose as a means of hiding one's face from Sidrak the Stealer, and might also be a means of muffling noises made by the wearer. Maybe have the masks resemble some fucked up Monster God that the people are crazy scared of. Wearing masks might also mean that no one has ever heard/seen one cry out in pain/fear, thus their reputation as stoic savages that are nigh invulnerable.

>>83736230
Rad.

>>83736246
More like ants and termites.

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>>83735116
Consider using historical civilizations as an inspiration. Think of how early explorers must have felt coming across new lands and cultures, how bizarre the people must be. Take ancient Egypt as an example and their burial rites. Despite being one of the oldest surviving nations in the world with an undeniable level of culture, mummification is a savage concept. Extracting the organs, salting the body and stuffing it with spices and aromatics, extracting the brain through the nose with hooks; how would you justify such a burial process to a foreign culture with no familiarity to Egypt?

Or take Aztecs as another example, who had a weird dichotomy of having advanced cities while also practicing cannibalism. The Spaniards didn't know how to rationalize it and simply burned it all away. Your players may find a similar solution to the most practical.

pic not entirely related

>>83735116
Many bronze age cultures in the fertile crescent had statues that represented their gods. This meant they could be taken hostage or destroyed. At one point when the Babylonians were being naughty their god was taken from them and melted down. Depending on how much interaction your players will have with the other cultures literally taking their gods prisoner might be an interesting avenue to explore. It can help to make them scary if the people who are more familiar with them are terrified of them.

The Assyrians were known to be particularly brutal and genocidal in their punishments.
- Slow impalement, they'd impale you on a stake but make sure you didn't die right away. You are supposed to suffer up there for a while.
- Flaying, they'd pull your skin off while you're alive and leave it up as decoration around town
- Disablement, sometimes they'd just blind you and/or cut off a few limbs or other appendages.
Sometimes they'd do all of the above.

Players coming across some of that aftermath would probably get the idea pretty quickly that these guys aren't playing around and should be feared. This might be harder if your table has a hard time when things get gruesome.

>>83735116
So just the Seguleh then

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>>83736290
That's a neat idea with the face stealing god, and I would add that said god had won. If the players remove a mask through one means or another, they find a blank, flat face. The mask itself serves as their faces in their culture. Despite the lack of an actual face, they have no issues functioning or communicating with each other, and can carry on their day in what appears to be total silence to any outsider.

They are guarding some sort of sacred temple, or simply the place it stood on even though it has been long ruined. They are born from a pool of black pitch, or an enchanted spring full of algae to give it that creepy green look. Body of any humanoid or simply an intelligent creature is thrown into the pool and over several days it's reborn as one of them. All sex characteristics get extremely toned down, so you can't even see who was a man and who a woman, and the mind is completely alien to whatever it was in life, but it's still recognizable as ince having been the former character for drama.
They communicate by telepathy, being mute. They are fiercely protective of the area around their sacred pool, or multiple of them if you want.
I'm for them wearing masks, so their original faces are hidden.

>>83735116
They kidnap people and take them to an unknown mysterious temple in the middle of the island

>>83738594
>party is fighting a squad of masked warriors
>resident gigachad slams one in the side of the head with a greatclub, knocking off the mask to reveal a mostly normal face
>the maskless foe cries in shock and the others pause for a full turn, then the maskless man's face is sucked in on itself to somewhere no-one can see, leaving blank, featureless skin
>the masked warriors resume fighting and none of them make any more sounds, while the faceless warrior loses all hostility to curl into a fetal position and sob
Could be kino for setting the stakes

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Exotic islanders with masks, you say?

>>83735116
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvZqHgFz51I

>>83736743
Or another example, look at Americans who sacrifice their children's dicks in a blood ritual to their jewish masters

>>83738902
Every other thread I get reminded. It hurts man.

>>83735116
Give us more information on the island. Cultures are usually a reflection of the nature itself.

>>83735116
>They are incredibly numerous, somehow.
>Their origin and culture are a complete mystery.
They are NOT actually natives to the island, but... INVADERS FROM ANOTHER DIMENSION!!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH7pAsbKnPg&ab_channel=HalloweenMonsterCorps-Topic

>>83735116
>They have a taboo against communicating with an enemy
>They are invaders from a relatively nearby (a few days away) island
>They came on canoes to conquer new lands
>They have pledged themselves to the god of war and will not leave until they conquer, or are all killed
>They believe that the fearless go to heaven
>They have a lot of boats, and the island they are from is quite big, and overpopulated
>They refuse to talk to you, because you are on land they intend to seize, which makes you an enemy

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>>83738959
The island itself is cloaked in heavy mist that has obscured it and prevented it's discovery for centuries, not exactly a jungle, more of a heavy, warm climate forest filled with exotic plants and large, Dire animals. Lots of poisonous plants. Only other culture that exists on the island are the Half-Elf Death cultists, who have kept the island- and their war against the "Other" culture a close secret.

>>83735116
Well, if they're souless then some sort of ritual has happened to make them that way no? Ritual scarring, maybe have the mask a half mask sewn or bolted into their skin. If they're cannibals, leave the mask open at their mouth, which might have sharpened teeth.

Give small clues as to how these warriors are chosen and produced. Either this society chooses men to sacrifice this way, to produce these warriors in some creepy ritual, or something sideways happened and they're all like this. Either one would be good to explore.

>>83735116
Cool, you just made Questir from FF14. Yawn.

>>83740591
>The island itself is cloaked in heavy mist
The masks are respirators. Take 'em off, the wearer suffocates on the standard atmosphere of the world beyond their island which isn't what they're adapted for.

>>83735116
*The bodies immediately disappear as soon as nobody is looking.
*Bronze weapons are somehow indestructable. Upon further examination, they seem to be magical but the mages can't comprehend what the enchantments do.
*They have houses but never use them. Food is always on their tables but nobody seems to eat it.
*Masks are fused with the skull. It's not possible to remove them without ripping off the face
*They not only attack suddenly without warning but will just as suddenly withdraw simultaneously. If cornered, they'll commit suicide.

>>83738502
>The Assyrians were known to be particularly brutal and genocidal in their punishments.
>- Slow impalement, they'd impale you on a stake but make sure you didn't die right away. You are supposed to suffer up there for a while.
>- Flaying, they'd pull your skin off while you're alive and leave it up as decoration around town
>- Disablement, sometimes they'd just blind you and/or cut off a few limbs or other appendages.
>Sometimes they'd do all of the above.
Cool story bro.

>>83742696

Neo-Assyrians specifically. Not the original guy, but they were brutal. When a new King of Assyria was crowned they would speak of the "Terrifying radiance" of their god Ashur who would place a weapon "unrelenting cruelty in (their) lordly arms" and tell them to butcher the unbelievers. They didn't want people to worship Ashur, they wanted people to fear him.

One king took a whole towns children blinded them in front of their people and then "threw them on a fire" before killing the rest of the populace. Another time the Assyrians captured a rebellious king and had his people dig a big pit and tied him up alive at the bottom. Then they decapitated all his family, nobles, soldiers and people until their heads filled the pit.

As for the OP the Neo-Assyrians were wiped out due to their cruelty, they were attacked from every border when they suffered a palace coup. Perhaps that could have been the fate of your people a long time ago.
They are not human so to speak, but the residual memory of their people given form wearing the funeral masks of their burial rites. Dreamed into being by the lucid thoughts of a dementia suffering god/Priest-Sorceror King, imprisoned, but slowly awakening on the island due to bring disturbed. Its memory has faded so they are imperfect and cannot be reasoned with, only enact its rage.

>>83735116
They've been seen to floss through their ears with a thick thread, as if there was nothing inside their heads;
They sleep standing up;
They sleep for four hours in the mornings and the evenings, leaving the day and the night free;
They reek intensively of coconuts, yet are never seen carrying or eating them;
They never bury their corpses, only cut their feet off and take those with them;
Sometimes they would perform ritual mass suicide after victory.

>>83735116
They all wear masks or veils, and many of move around with a strange, birdlike motion rather than moving as a human does.

Fighting them, you come to realize than only some of these are people. The rest are some kind of puppet or crude homunculous, but they are all dressed the same and you have no idea which one is which until you cut them and they do not bleed.

This explains their numbers. Not all of them are people. The ones that are people blend in with the disposable puppet soldiers and use them to distract and overwhelm the enemy which they position themselves for the killing blow.

The puppets are still dangerous, of course. Just not as dangerous as a skilled warrior. One on one, at any rate.

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>>83735116
Look up the Seguleh from the Malazan Book of the Fallen, they might exactly what you look for.

Fundementally everything you're saying there, except point 4, are aspects of an insectoid hviemind. Insects are also very alien behaviorally despite still being social so are probably a good place to get inspo
I really like the face stealing, god stealing stuff being discussed and am fully stealing it myself

>>83742696
If you want frightening bronze-age people, these were some of the scariest from real life.

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OP here, I would like to thank everybody who has posted here, these are some really incredible ideas and I'm really inspired by everything you've posted so far. Everything from Insect-swarm-Hivemind mentalities, face-stealing old gods to Neo-Assyrian torture practices have given me a lot to work with (yes, including the few who posted "Oh, so you're just making X, is that it?", because they also gave me some new things to look into) and I'll list some details that I'll definetly incorporate:

• Ritual scarring and self-mutilation (Tongue cut out, teeth sharpened, nails filed to a point, scar-tattoos, just to bring a few examples.)
• An aura of mystery (Disappearing corpses, vaguely familiar masks that can't be quite remembered, suicide cult behavior, ambush tactics, sleeping while standing, lack of a soul, a purpousefully blank slate culture are all great examples.)

Once again, thank you all! Please, do keep posting if you get any new ideas or post art that seems to fit the vibe!

Here's an example of a death mask that I'd quite like to see on these strange savages that we've designed:

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Don't take the masks as trophies or if you do, absolutely don't wear them.

>>83749900
>The masks are in control and the bodies are just meat puppets
>They capture enemies to provide more bodies for other masks

too scary for me