Umber Hulk

looking like some kind of flesh-eating humanoid beetle the umber hulk is a massive creature towering over all but the biggest of races. at the end of its long arms are claws as strong as iron capable of digging though dirt and stone alike with ease. the umber hulk lacks any kind of neck, has 2 large mandibles, and underneath its exoskeleton are bulging muscles making it look large and intimidating hence the 'hulk' part of its name.

Culture

this creature is an oddity in nature. while umber hulks have brains with the capacity for sentience the umber hulk spends its entire life as bestial as possible, they hate thinking, talking, learning, emoting, love, or any other action that would hint at higher thinking. they dont do this to hide their sentience they simply do not 'want' to be sentient. and do everything possible to avoid acts of sentience. they use their intellect for only 2 reason: knowing when to retreat and setting up traps.

the umber hulk is the maker of dungeons. if you ever walk into a vast cave complex and think "theres no way the stupid orcs made this" then at some point in the past the cave was carved by umber hulks looking for food. because of their vast knowledge of caves the umber hulk can easily set a cave-in into motion to kill any would-be prey. should an umber hulk decide against such a strategy it may instead decide on a surprise attack. umber hulks can dig through the ground with ease and can place themselves into walks with tiny cracks they can use as peepholes to see when potential food walks by and burst out when the enemy is unprepared, and an umber hulk is no pushover with its strength mixed with is powerful claws and its rapid attacks even a group of 8 adventurers may struggle against a single umber hulk what makes matters worse is the umber hulk gives off a minor psychic pulse in a 20' radius around itself so unless its obstructed by earth and rock everything in a 20' radius as to roll vrs mind or be confused.

umber hulks are solitary creatures but if they happen to run into other umber hulks they have no qualms with teaming up to guarantee a nearby food source before going their separate ways. their main weakness is when they are not burrowing through the ground they are slow lumbering creatures that could be outrun by a dwarf

for breeding a male and female umber hulk will sire a single egg when they randomly find each other while this egg is growing the female will hold it and the male will follow but both will take care of themselves unless the egg is attacked. once the egg hatches the mother will leave and the father will raise the child teaching it everything it needs to know about being an umber hulk until it is mature and the umber hulks go their separate ways

umber hulks are technically omnivores since a starving umber hulk can survive temporarily on cave fungus, but this diet is extremely unhealthy to an umber hulk so while they are omnivores 99% of their diet must be meat or ts health will start to suffer

History

as you may have noticed by this point in reading the umber hulk is highly insectoid, however i must note that it is NOT an insect. the umber hulk originate from the realm of famine while the creature that the umber hulk once was is unknown and no one can even guess what it could have once been the umber hulk has internal organs comparable with mammals and is warm blooded. the umber hulk is much like the remorhaz a creature twisted into the form accidentally by the lord of famine: Melkor. but many scholars are confused as to not just 'what' the umber hulk used to be but also 'where' because the umber hulk is far more effected by the influence of melkor then even the remorhaz. the leading theories are either is was a creature that lived directly below melkors original ant colony so his influence hit them for extended periods of time from very close proximity or that umber hulk are a failed experiment Melkor attempted to directly influence a none insect race then assimilate them once they were insectoid enough but even after they were made he could not assimilate them so he threw them out

as mentioned earlier the umber hulk has a minor psychic presence that is how they cause confusion amongst enemies, however a side effect of this is they make themselves into attractive prey to illithids