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Solaris
2008-10-21, 04:57 AM
I apologize for the lack of fancy formatting. The internection here likes to give out. A lot. I'll work it in as I get the chance.
Anyhoo, these're the 'heartless' elves of my campaign setting. Fairly standard fare, really. I'm just posting them for wandering critics and people interested in playing mah game.

Clan Elves
"I do believe the gods left something out of the elves at Creation. Humility? Humanity? Or maybe the elves took it out themselves." - Dulandau, Jelkeshan merchant-prince

Elves claim a descent from the mythical fey folk. Humans, on the other hand, are more apt to think that elves are descended of the same race that gave rise to humans. Given their history, the human perception may be more accurate - but there is still the question of the elf's innate gift with magic.
Roughly ten thousand years ago, elves were quite a bit like humans though still different in mindset and slower to age. Not that they knew it, of course, as humans and elves had minimal contact during that time. Elves refer to that time period as the Infancy, referring to the infancy of the elven people as a culture. Hard facts on the history are impossible to come by, but somehow the elves suffered a major cataclysm - and verification through human myths from around the same time indicate that it was a worldwide event of epic proportion. The Manitorn histories record it as the Night of Sky Fires, the night when fire fell from the sky and depopulated vast stretches of Arken, played havoc with ecosystems, and generally did nasty things to the planet. The Manitorn histories do not record a human or elven presence on Arken before the Night, hinting that perhaps the two races arrived then. The elven response to this cataclysm was to make use of magic - accounts differ on its source, but the elves believe it arose from the fey folk in their lineage - to alter the surviving three-to-four thousand elves. With this magic, they gave themselves long lifespans and instilled a gift for manipulating magic into the race.
This connection to magic allowed the elves to survive, though they did not come together into one government. In fact, they did quite the opposite. The elves, who had previously been united in one loose kingdom, fragmented into dozens of tribes. There were one hundred and twenty-four tribes once the elves settled down again. These tribes kept to themselves for the most part, although they warred and allied with each other from time to time. Few tribes achieved any sort of dominance, as they averaged at about thirty members apiece. The elven population did not increase much, as their breeding rate decreased tremendously due to the inbreeding and magical infusion. Still, the magical infusion did prevent them from losing too many from accidents and old age.
Time passed and a handful of tribes banded together in tighter alliances than had previously been seen. The reversal of the trend towards splitting up saw the rise of the Sylvastrano, Luna, Solanari, Lanoroa, Yoni-Yonadano and other clans. Over the millennia, these clans blended together more thoroughly and established distinct bloodlines. Three elven generations ago, however, the Sylvastrano King Garrel Sagescient des Sylva Phalainoel began moving against unassociated tribes that had not joined his clan. It took him about a century for his sorcerers to establish Sylvastrano dominance in their part of the elves' subcontinent. His empire grew, and about eight hundred years ago he had conquered the bulk of the nearby Solanari holdings. The joint Sylvastrano and Solanari forces, who were linguistically and culturally very similar and thus made easy allies despite the invasion, conquered the Yoni-Yonadano clan, the Palui clan, the Mara clan, and about a dozen tribes. Now the largest empire on the elves' subcontinent, Garrel's empire turned against its only rivals: The joint Luna-Lanoroa alliance and the Quelledan empire, composed of the Quelledan, Allorien, and Thellessar clans with a handful of tribes. The Quelledan High King Zar saw High King Garrel as an obstacle in his path towards achieving supremacy, and the feeling was mutual. The Sylvastrano and Quelledan fought for centuries while the Luna-Lanoroa alliance suffered their wrath. The Luna and Lanaroa clans were no match for either empire and only managed to survive because they were too distracted with each other. High King Zar's empire fragmented upon his death, the Quelledan clan splitting into two because his son and daughter fought over who would ascend the throne and the other clans resuming their own independence, while High King Garrel abdicated the throne to his eldest son, Aust Sagescient des Sylva Nyarlaoeth.
High King Aust managed to keep his empire together, strengthening Sylvastrano ties with the Solanari and Yoni-Yonadano clans by marrying his children to their royal heirs. As with almost all elven royalty, they were of predominantly Siou blood, and thus the normal punishable-by-exile taboo of inter-clan marriage was nulled. The Siou were the elves who claimed to most closely resemble the elven progenitors, although in actuality it was barely a passing resemblance. The small Grugach clan, a minor player almost completely isolated from the other clans, was actually the clan closest to the progenitors. Still, the Siou existed as a sort of royal caste at the top of the larger clans. Zar, Garrel, and Aust, for example, were all Siou. Despite a scandal involving two of Aust's sons which started with one of them dead and ended with the other exiled, it seems that the Sylvastrano empire is going to hold - at least for a little while longer.

Personality: Elves are arrogant. They believe themselves to be the highest form of life imaginable, and such is their hubris that they do not actually have a religion. The idea of a deity is so alien to them that many an elf who has seen humans at worship has attributed religion to some form of mental illness that afflicts many lesser humanoids. They attribute divine magic to some form of magic that stems from the human spirit, much like sorcery stems from the elf spirit. Elves see nothing wrong with tinkering with another form of life or even creating a new organism from nothing but the raw materials. They actually regard it as an art form and think of the human predisposition towards creating golems and undead as a pale imitation of the 'real thing', something only amateurs do. Sorcery is deeply ingrained into elven culture, to the point that elves do not often physically make manufactured goods or raise their own food - either they magically make it happen or they rely upon magically-created servitors to do it for them. Elves are, by any standards, lazy.
Because elves are so long-lived, they generally take the broad view of things. They also tend to dismiss the concerns of others as trivial, and it is only mild exaggeration to say that they have trouble with the concept that other races deserve to exist. They are also emotionally blunted and apathetic by human standards, although an elf would say that a human is too volatile and passionate. The one major problem most humans have with elves is that elves generally lack any sort of parental instinct. That is not to say that elves do not love. They just do not automatically love their children. Consequently, it is not unusual for an elven child to grow up in multiple households, adopted by an older elf who he gets along with better than his parents. Affection is something that elves keep very private.
Elves also have difficulty understanding the love and loyalty other races show for their leaders. This might be linked to their inability to comprehend worshipping a deity. An elf will respect his leader, but will not be upset to see him deposed unless the new leader somehow harms the elf or those he cares for. This concept is one other races have difficulty with - particularly the dwarves.
Despite their arrogance and haughtiness, elves do have senses of humor. They find life too long to spend nursing grudges and bemoaning the horrors of life. That sort of thing gets boring after the first century or so. The elf's most common response to an insult - especially one from a human - is to laugh it off. They simply aren't so stuck on matters of honor that they're willing to spend time getting worked up over it. Still, their sense of humor is subtle, dry, and difficult to draw out - and thus humans tend to not get their wisecracks or understand their sarcasm is just an expression of mirth, not bitterness.
Physical Description: Most clan elves are shorter and slimmer than humans, standing between four and a half feet tall and five and a half feet tall and weighing in between ninety-five and one-thirty-five pounds. There is no difference in height between elven men and women, though elven women are slightly lighter in build than elven men. Humans find elven men to be androgynous, while they find elven women to be quite delicate and feminine - both genders are, by human standards, physically attractive. The reverse is not true, as elves find humans to be crude and primitive, with excessive hair and graceless movements. Elves have ears that taper up to a point, features that range from being sharp to simply delicate, and almond-shaped eyes with a slight slant to them. They do not have facial or body hair, with smoother and finer skin, and the hair on their scalps tends to be finer and softer than human hair.
Elves reach physical maturity at age twenty-five, although they are incapable of reproducing until age seventy-five and are not considered adults until age one-hundred-and-ten. While most elves live between five hundred and six hundred years, it is not unusual for one to live seven hundred years.
Elves also do not sleep. Part of the magic infusion meant that their bodies rejuvenated themselves without actually entering into sleep - and elves find sleeping to be one of the odd and inefficient quirks of lesser beings - but their minds still require four hours of a sort of meditation commonly called trance. If an elf doesn't trance, he'll start to suffer similar mental breakdown to what a human would suffer without sleep. Elves do not experience a biological clock quite like humans do, and thus they do not feel the imperative to trance during the night and be active at day. They generally trance whenever it is most convenient.
The specific traits of an elf's coloration are dependent upon which clan he's from, but all have fair skin - although the Luna take it to an extreme, with papery-white skin that sunburns notoriously easily. Consequently, the Luna clan usually trances in the hours around midday. The Sylastrano elves have eyes that range from viridian to vibrant emerald and hair ranging from brown to black. This archetype is the most common. Notable exceptions include the Solanari, who have eyes ranging from hazel to yellow to violet red (but no true reds, and oranges are exceedingly rare) and blonde hair colors, and the Luna with their snowy white hair and milky bluish-white to crystal blue eyes. The Quelledan elves have grey eyes and hair ranging from brown to black, and the Yoni-Yonadano have the darkest eyes of any elf clan, with no distinction between the iris and the pupil - but their hair is a shade of ashen grey. Smaller clans and tribes who have not had much contact with those clans are likely to have other archetypes, and an elf who strays from the archetype, the physical ideal of his particular group, is usually a bit of an outcast among his clan. The elves place great value on the purity of their clan's blood.
Relations: Elves see 'mortals' - and they lump true humans, dwarves, and whatever else walks bipedally that might be found on Arken in this category - as only slightly above the animals. Humans, after all, have a greater manual dexterity and their primitive language can express more concepts than just the most simplistic grunts and howls. They find any races other than themselves to be boorish and unrefined, an attitude that doesn't win exiled elves many friends. Elves and dwarves tend to get along like cats in a bag, as the elves simply cannot understand the dwarf's deeply-ingrained loyalty to king, kin and clan. The rare elf who accepts his exile and learns to appreciate the lesser races for what they are, though, often finds himself adopting their behaviors and mannerisms - the human's passion and ambition, the dwarf's loyalty and honor - and will oftentimes suffer quite a shock when jarred with normal elf behavior after having been separated from it for so long.
Half-elves are a special case in elven eyes. They are born of the perverse deviance of an elf lusting for a human, or a human raping an elf. Either way, they spring forth from a crime against elvenkind. Many elves see this as a reason to passionately hate them, but others point out that, while they are tainted with human blood, they are half elven and thus are better than humans could ever hope to be.
Alignment: Elves prefer to be left alone, and greatly dislike someone telling them what to do - this last a chaotic trait. As they tend to not really care about anything beyond themselves or those they are fond of, elves tend more towards moral neutrality - or even evil.
Elven Lands: Compared to even the sparsely-populated continent of Fieria, the elven homelands are pretty barren of sentient life. They do have an abundance of plants and animals, and the natural beauty of the lands are such that many exiled elves weep when they tell of it. The elven homelands have supposedly never known a human or dwarf's foot, and the only elves who leave for any real length of time are those who have been exiled. Consequently, humans and dwarves know next to nothing other than what exiled elves have said. Most exiled elves usually just make the simple statement of 'better than here in every conceivable way'. The city-states are located north of the Beastlands, between Fieria and Kundarath.
Religion: Elves, being atheistic, often regard religion as a form of mental illness.
Language: Each elven clan has its own dialect of the elven language, a soft and flowing tongue of such intricacy and subtlety that it is almost impossible to learn without having been raised speaking it for a century or so. Elves found that having a simplified language was useful for inter-clan trade and the rare dealing with outsiders, and thus the language of Allannyar was born. Allannyar is quite similar to what elven children speak, if a little more refined and polished so the adult elves could stomach listening to it. The elven languages lend themselves naturally to music and song, and many exiled elves have made good livings as bards and minstrels. While an elf might learn to understand Tradespeak, none lower themselves so far as to utter such crude words. Aside from their clan languages, elves tend to not learn any other tongues.
Names: Elves have a naming system that even they admit is needlessly complicated. An elven child is given a birth name, which is often akin to something one would name a pet. Calling an adult elf by his birth name solicits a reaction that depends upon the relationship the addresser has with the elf - using the birth name is something that only very close friends from childhood or lovers do, and doing it in public is considered in very bad taste. Upon reaching adulthood at age one-hundred-and-ten, an elf chooses a first name. His first name is a unique creation, usually a twist on a word or imitating the names of people who influenced him as he grew up. Elves also have two surnames and a shortened form of their clan's name, with an honorific designating their class thrown in the middle. It is arranged as follows:
(First name) (Paternal surname) (honorific) (Clan name) (Maternal surname)
It gets more complicated. The surnames an elf gets from the parents depends upon the elf's gender - if the elf is male, he receives his father's paternal surname and his mother's paternal surname, while a female elf receives her parents' maternal surnames. Oftentimes the only real ties an elf has is a loose one to his clan - siblings rarely, if ever, feel any sort of bond beyond what is normal for friends.
As elves do not distinguish between the genders in their society, there tends to not be much difference between the names given to children of either gender. There are a handful of exceptions, but those are quite rare and not very commonly used. There are no hard and fast distinctions between first names elves take, although male names end with consonants and female names with vowels about half the time.
Male Names: Aramil, Aust, Enialis, Heian, Himo, Ivellios, Laucian, Quarion, Soveliss, Thamior, Tharivol
Female Names: Anastrianna, Antinua, Drusilia, Felosial, Ielenia, Lia, Mialee, Quillathe, Silaqui, Vadania, Valanthe, Xanaphia
Honorifics: The common elf's honorific is 'ara' for males and 'ra' for females, the noble lord's honorific is 'ian', the noble lady's honorific is 'ion', the royalty's (including the king's) honorific is 'des', and the wizard's honorific is 'tia'.
Surnames: Amastacia, Amakiir, Galanodel, Holimion, Liadon, Meliamne, Nailo, Siannodel, Ilphukiir, Xiloscient
Adventurers: Elves take up adventuring out of wanderlust, but remain in their homelands if they have a say in the matter. Elves who are exiled adventure to avoid having to spend too much time in the same dull settlement for any appreciable length of time. They tend to be arcane casters, with bards composing significant minorities of the adventuring elf population. Others are rogues, with fighters and rangers as quite rare and druids almost impossible to find.

Clan Elf Racial Traits
- Ability Modifiers: +2 Dexterity, -2 Constitution: Elves are graceful but frail. An elf's grace makes her naturally better at stealth and archery.
- Type: Humanoid (Elf).
- Medium: As Medium-sized creatures, elves have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
- Speed: Elf base land speed is 30 feet.
- Magic Infusion (Su): All elves begin play with a mana pool of 2 points.
- Low-Light Vision (Ex): Elves ignore concealment due to darkness (but not total concealment). They retain the ability to discern color under low-light conditions.
- Keen Senses: +2 racial bonus on Listen, Search, and Spot checks. A clan elf who merely passes within 5 feet of a secret or concealed door is entitled to a Search check to notice it as if she were actively looking for it. An elf's senses are so keen that she practically has a sixth sense about hidden portals.
- Mystic Will (Su): All elves are immune to sleep and charm effects. In addition, they have a +2 racial bonus to Will saves.
- Spell-Like Abilities (Sp): Elves gain the use of prestidigitation at will. In addition, an elf with a Charisma of 13 or higher gains the following spell-like abilities usable once per day: disguise self, mending, unseen servant. All spells are caster level 1st or the elf's arcane caster level, whichever is higher. The saves are Charisma-based.
- Weapon Proficiency: Elves receive Weapon Group Proficiency (Bow) and can choose between WGP (Heavy Blades) or WGP (Light Blades) as free proficiencies at first level. Elves esteem the arts of swordplay and archery, so all clan elves are familiar with these weapons.
- Automatic Languages: Allannyar, native clan tongue; Bonus Languages: Tradespeak (understand only).
- Favored Class: Wizard. An elf who has more than half of his hit dice in Wizard gains a +10% bonus to experience point accrual.
- Restricted Classes: Cleric, Druid. Each of these classes imparts a -20% experience point penalty.

Half-Elves
"I'd always thought him a quiet, normal-minded chap - just ears a bit pointier than most - until the mind flayers ambushed us. He stared them down, a manic grin on his face, and damn me if those brain-eaters didn't break and run!" - Sigirith Stormsword, on the half-elven ranger Mad Mordekai Elfblood

Half-elves are the least-accepted race on the continent of Fieria. Most humans think of them as being tainted with elven blood - and there is a good deal of superstition going along with that, ranging from the southern Avalonians and the people of Sanctuary expecting half-elves to be mischievous pranksters to the Galganians' dire ire towards anything with pointy ears due to the belief that there is a race of elves roaming the Northwood marauding travelers and leaving their bodies to rot. Some versions of the tale involve soul-stealing. Half-elves whose elven component is Luna or some other pale-skinned and/or pale-haired clan are especially wary of the Galganians. While they wouldn't likely get lynched if traveling in a party including at least a couple of humans, traveling alone in Galgany is asking to die. Naturally, there aren't many half-elves involving a Galganian parent - and certainly none involving a wildsman parent.
As a people, half-elves have no culture of their own. They generally try to integrate into human society, but are generally outcasts even in southern Avalon and Sanctuary. Thus, those with the ability often become adventurers, either banding together to form parties of their own or joining up with a group that either has a fair-minded northlander, a slow-moving northlander, or no northlander at all.
Most people, when talking about half-breeds, are referring to half-elves. However, the term can more broadly apply to sealtuans and changelings, as well as other, rarer mixes of human and something else.

Personality: Half-elves, because of their hybrid natures, demonstrate a range of personalities that may well be even wider than those of the humans. Their personalities can range from basically elven to basically human, and anywhere in between. On average, though, they take more after their human ancestor than their elven ancestor - if only because they're usually raised by humans. Humans who are familiar with elves find that half-elves remind them of humanized elves, while elves find half-elves depressingly human. One trait just about all half-elves share is a surprising sensitivity and empathy as compared to either race. This is especially pronounced in half-elves whose elven parent was a ghost elf, though such half-breeds are rare even among half-elves. Another is their half-crazed fearlessness in the face of danger. Some have it more than others, but all half-elves are just a little bit unbalanced.
Physical Description: To humans, half-elves look like elves. To elves, they look like humans - indeed, elves call them half-humans. Half-elf height ranges from under five feet to about six feet tall, and weight usually ranges from one hundred to one-eighty pounds. Half-elf men are taller and heavier than half-elf women, but the difference is less pronounced than is found among humans. Half-elves are paler, fairer, and smoother-skinned than their human parents, but their actual skin tone, hair color, and other details vary just as human features do. Some look almost exactly like humans, save for slightly pointed ears and unusual eyes, while others look almost exactly like elves to anybody but elves. Half-elves' eyes almost always match their elf parent's eyes, and they usually take another trait or two such as hair color or an unusual skin tone from them, too. A half-elf reaches adulthood at age twenty and can live to be more than one-eighty years old.
Most half-elves are the children of human-elf pairings. An extremely rare few - there have been under a dozen in the past hundred years - are the children of parents who themselves are partly human and partly elf. They only happen at all primarily because half-elves tend to seek each other out. Some of these "second generation" half-elves have humanlike eyes, especially if their elven grandparents were of two different clans, but most look just like their parents.
Unlike elves, half-elves do sleep. Meditation still comes naturally to them, and many half-elves find it necessary to trance and meditate in order to calm the seething turmoil within them.
Relations: Surprisingly, half-elves don't really get along well with either humans or elves. Both races generally look at half-elves as a crime against their respective race. While most people aren't going to demand the half-breed's destruction, the undercurrent tends to make the half-elves feel quite unwelcome. The majority of half-elves are born out of either an elf's sexual deviance and perversion (by their standards, anyways) or rape. This does not make either parent race particularly happy to have a half-elf around.
Most half-elves, having grown up around humans, are taught to despise their elven ancestors and especially the elven traits within them. This is a phenomena very similar to what happens when one divorced parent has almost exclusive control over a child, and occurs for exactly the same reasons.
Exceptions can and do exist, of course, as no one member of any race is going to be an exact copy of the average of the race. After all, despite what standard fantasy says and Manitorns tend to think, people aren't always stereotypes of their general kind. For instance, some Galganians have actually been pretty well-disposed towards elves, and at least one Siou has lived in a Galganian village for the better part of a century.
Oddly, it is the Manitorns who are usually best-inclined towards the half-elf. The Manitorns usually choose to see more of the half-elf's human side, and give them the benefit of the doubt when it comes to their elven parent. In the Manitorn's eyes, the half-elf has the advantage of being like a human, only living longer and thus can really become friends with a Manitorn.
Alignment: Although half-elves tend towards chaos, like their elven parent, their human side often expresses itself in a more ordered personality. Thus, half-elves tend towards no particular alignment - much like humans, the best and worst are found among them.
Half-Elven Lands: Half-elves own no lands, but instead live among humans. Though they tend to get along well with Manitorns, they find living in their culture stifling at best - to say nothing of how half-elves usually find living underground to be inherently uncomfortable.
Religion: Half-elves generally adhere to the religious practices of the land they grew up in, although some reject their human parent's religion either out of anger or a bit of the elf's atheism showing up either through adopted behavior or innate trait. It's usually the first.
Language: Half-elves usually speak the local languages, being raised amongst humans. Some seek out the elven trade language of Allannyar, making them excellent translators for human-elven negotiations - after all, nobody else bothers learning Allannyar unless they're making a habit of dealing with elven merchants.
Names: Half-elves are usually given elven names, but only first and surnames - none of that overly-complicated elven naming system. The pronunciation of the elven name varies from rather accurate to horribly corrupted. The rare half-elf born when an elven man rapes a human mother (obviously abandoning her afterwards) is usually given a human name in accordance with the traditions of the area.
Adventurers: Half-elves make natural adventurers. Never truly at home among other races, and with no communities or lands made up of their own people, wandering the continent just comes naturally to them. Most are simply drifters, but a few do engage in the dangerous adventurer's lifestyle. Their motives vary, just as those of humans do.

Half-Elf Racial Traits
- +2 Dexterity, -2 Constitution, +2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, +2 Charisma. Half-elves share their elven parent's physique, but they have a distinct cleverness uniquely their own.
- Medium: As Medium creatures, half-elves have no special bonuses or penalties due to size.
- Half-elf base land speed is 30 feet.
- Half-elves are humanoids with the human and elf subtypes.
- Mystic Madness (Su): Due to the touch of madness that suffuses the race, half-elves are immune to confusion and insanity effects. Half-elves use their Charisma modifier on Will saving throws instead of their Wisdom modifier. While this madness very rarely expresses itself outwardly, half-elves (accidentally or not) harm those who try to touch their minds - any sane creature (typically anything but an aberration) who tries to make mental contact with the half-elf must make a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 half-elf's hit dice + half-elf's Charisma modifier) to avoid taking 1d3 points of Wisdom damage from their brush with madness. Mental contact includes but is not limited to telepathic communication and many spells of the compulsion subschool (dominate person and the various charm spells, for example). This does not include attempts to discern the half-elf's alignment or other things that relate more to the soul than the mind.
- Low-Light Vision (Ex): Half-elves ignore concealment due to darkness (but not total concealment). They retain the ability to discern color under low-light conditions.
- Keen Senses: +1 racial bonus on Listen, Search, and Spot checks: A half-elf does not have the elf's ability to notice secret doors simply by passing near them. Half-elves have keen senses, but not as keen as those of an elf.
- Fearless (Ex): Half-elves, while not completely immune to fear, gain a +4 racial bonus to saving throws against it. They do not fear death quite as much as other races do.
- +2 racial bonus on Diplomacy and Gather Information checks: Half-elves rapidly learn to get along with other people, or they live very short and miserable lives.
- Automatic Languages: Local languages and Tradespeak. Bonus Languages: Any. Half-elves who wish to explore their elven heritage learn Allannyar. Half-elves who do not often shy away from learning the language.
- Favored Class: None. While half-elves are exceptionally flexible, they do not truly excel at any one area.
- Restricted Classes: None. Their elven ancestry gifts them with ability to use magic, while their human ancestry gifts them with the adaptability to do just about anything else. Half-elves may play any allowed base class without experience point penalty.

Solaris
2008-10-21, 04:58 AM
Ghost Elves
The tale of the ghost elves is a tragic one. Elven bards tell it both for the entertainment value and as a cautionary tale, for it speaks against the apathy of the clan elves. Even the Siou failed the ghost elves, and the few Siou who know of the ghost elves are reluctant to tell of the tale for they still hold shame for their part in the ghost elves' suffering. Elven bards who tell this tale are generally in human lands. Elves do not like to be reminded that they, too, are fallible.
The ghost elves were a small cluster of tribes who had isolated themselves from the other elven clans about eight thousand years ago. Back then, they were part of the Grugach clan. They held no animosity towards their kinsmen, and even maintained the mutual defense and aid pacts many elven clans had sworn, but they simply preferred to be left to their own devices. This arrangement suited them fine, clear up until the Drow Rebellion. The drow marauded and enslaved the Grugach to use as fodder against the Siou. The isolated Grugach stood no chance against them. Despite the Grugach's pleas, the other elves did not send aid. They were a sacrifice, a diversion for the Siou to get time for a major counterstrike.
When a mysterious being calling itself Thule offered to deliver these Grugach from their assailants in exchange for their service, the leaders of most of the Grugach tribes agreed without a second thought. They have regretted it ever since.
Thule held up his end of the bargain with terrible power, but the Grugach tribes were foully betrayed when he demanded his payment: Eternal servitude in his domain in the netherworld. The agreement was binding, and thus every surviving member of the tribes who had signed Thule's contract vanished from this world in a flash of fire and brimstone, doomed to serve the Archdevil Thulikazt for an eternity. Thulikazt experimented on them. The elven magical infusion had intrigued him, and with many years of cruel experimentation that left many Grugach to die screaming deaths - or worse - he finally managed to sever their connection to the magic of the mortal world, emptying them and filling them with the infernal power the Dark Ones wield. He was trying to break their spirits, and when it appeared he had succeeded he placed them in his armies to fight the other Dark Ones in the endless war between the fiends. These elves learned the art of war from fiendish generals, and quickly became famous in the netherworld as skilled warriors and curiosities. They were Thulikazt's elite troops and bodyguards, grim warriors who pursued and destroyed whatever opponents their master saw fit to slay using ethereal blades manifested by force of will. The ghost elves were the envy of many of the lesser archdukes and demon princes, especially those not powerful enough to gain the service of more powerful devils and demons.
Unfortunately for Thulikazt, this envy bought him enemies, and his own actions bought him many more. Secretly contacting Thulikazt's rivals, the ghost elves agreed to give their service in exchange for his destruction. An army of fiends lay siege to Thulikazt's fortress, which served as enough of a distraction for the ghost elves in his bodyguard to cut him down. The ghost elves escaped to the mortal world through a portal they tricked a wizard who worshipped Thulikazt, and the fiends found only Thulikazt's corpse and a note of thanks when they finally broke the siege. The ghost elves had won their freedom.
When they returned to the mortal world, the ghost elves found that they were fundamentally different from the clan elves. The ghost elves' strange new magical abilities that Thulikazt had sparked when he severed their connection with the world and infused them with dark power were something that the clan elves couldn't understand, and the Grugach who remained on Arken were wary of their long-lost kin, changed as they were into an almost unrecognizeable - albeit still undeniably elven - form. The ghost elves, for their part, remembered well that none of their elven kin had seen fit to lend them assistance and had not forgiven them for abandoning the ghost elves to millennia of torment and brutal experimentation. The ghost elves retreated to isolated citadels in the upper reaches of the Northwood, although some took to wandering Arken in search of a meaning in life. In some citadels, the ghost elves and Siou live side-by-side, but in most the ghost elves are alone.
The Dark Ones have not forgotten the ghost elves, however, and some fiends have attacked their settlements. The ghost elves know they are probing the defenses, preparing a massive attack. The ghost elves live in terror waiting for that day, for they know that the legions of the netherworld would easily crush their small population - and they can expect no help from anyone else.

Personality: After millennia in the netherworld, the ghost elves' personalities and temperaments are quite different from the clan elves. Before the Tempering, they were selfishly carefree and easygoing like the other elves. After the Tempering, most of that lightheartedness has evaporated. The ghost elves appear stern and stoic, as grim and dour as any dwarven warrior. In truth, they are far gentler and more nurturing than just about any clan elf. If they could get over their bitter resentment, they would get along splendidly with the Siou. As it is, the majority of ghost elves could see the other elven races burn for all they care - they're just returning the favor.
Ghost elves, having lived their lives under the heels of monstrous fiends whose powers surpass those of most mortals, are decidedly humble when compared to clan elves. They actually despise their cousins' arrogance, but they are just as emotionally distant. Ghost elves seem cold to others, rarely speaking of their feelings and instead letting their actions show their intent. Ghost elves also have a surprising solidarity, loyalty to their own kind that borders on being dwarf-like in magnitude. They developed an attitude of 'no man left behind' in the netherworld and kept it ever since. The ghost elf's refusal to abandon his kinfolk often extends to his comrades, making them rather popular with the rare military units or adventuring parties that manage to recruit a ghost elf.
Much like their cousins, ghost elves lack parental instinct. With ghost elves, moreso than with other elves, it truly does take a village to raise a child. They are capable of real love and affection like humans and dwarves, but show it even less than the clan elves do. For a ghost elf to demonstrate those emotions, even in private, is a very touching thing for another ghost elf. A ghost elf will just about never demonstrate love or affection for a clan elf; those they treat with quiet disdain.
Physical Description: Ghost elves are shorter and slimmer than humans, standing between four and a half feet tall and five and a half feet tall and weighing in between eighty and one-twenty pounds. There is no difference in height between elven men and women, though the women are slightly lighter in build than the men. Humans find elven men to be androgynous, while they find elven women to be quite delicate and feminine - both genders are, by human standards, physically attractive and hauntingly beautiful. The reverse is not true, as elves find humans to be crude and primitive with excessive hair and graceless movements. Elves have ears that taper up to a point, features that range from being sharp to simply delicate, and almond-shaped eyes with a slight slant to them. They do not have facial or body hair, with smoother and finer skin, and the hair on their scalps tends to be finer and softer than human hair.
Ghost elves reach maturity at age thirty - much younger than their kin, and more in line with half-breeds. Ghost elves also have shorter lives, averaging between three and four hundred years with a maximum of six hundred years.
Elves also do not sleep. Part of the magic infusion meant that their bodies rejuvenated themselves without actually entering into sleep - and elves find sleeping to be one of the odd and inefficient quirks of lesser beings - but their minds still require four hours of a sort of meditation commonly called trance. If an elf doesn't trance, he'll start to suffer similar mental breakdown to that a human would suffer without sleep. Elves do not experience a biological clock quite like humans do, and thus they do not feel the imperative to trance during the night and be active at day. They generally trance whenever it is most convenient.
The ghost elves are just as homogenous as the clan elves. They have pale skin and iron grey hair, although lighter grey is fairly common and the rare throwback has jet-black hair. Their eyes, though, are quite thoroughly unusual: They are like twin reflective mirrors, with no whites, irises, or pupils. Their skin glows with a faint pale silvery light, hence their common name. Ghost elves rarely take pains to disguise themselves, either through ethnic pride or bitter vindictiveness, letting the other elves see the results of their abandonment.
Relations: The other elves pity ghost elves, and the ghost elves despise other elves. The dark elves in particular draw ire from the ghost elves for their willingness to kill weaker members of their society to strengthen their society as a whole - not to mention their role in making the ghost elves what they are now. While the ghost elves do not like the Siou as a whole, they have let their grudge against them slide a bit - the Siou, after all, have been more than generous in protecting the ghost elves. The ghost elves do get along much better with the humans and dwarves, though. They admire the dwarves in particular, and many who adventure with a dwarf seek to emulate them as much as possible - it's the loyalty. The ghost elves admire the human and (especially) dwarven traits of strong loyalties towards each other and their friends.
Alignment: Surprisingly, the Tempering has left the ghost elves rather altruistic and fiercely opposed to anything the Dark Ones stand for. Thus, they tend towards chaotic good and neutral good alignments, although the more bitter ones are neutral or chaotic neutral. They are very rarely, if ever, evil.
Ghost Elven Lands: Ghost elves don't really regard their Northwood citadels as their homeland, thinking of themselves as a people without a home and perpetually outcasts. Ignoring the fact that they actually encourage others to treat them like outcasts, this does mean they are more inclined to go to other lands than are the clan elves.
Religion: Elves, being atheistic, often regard religion as a form of mental illness. Even the ghost elves can't quite grasp the idea of worshipping an alien entity, even though they have managed to learn admiration.
Language: Each elven clan has its own dialect of the elven language, a soft and flowing tongue of such intricacy and subtlety that it is almost impossible to learn without having been raised speaking it for a century or so. Elves found that having a simplified language was useful for inter-clan trade and the rare dealing with outsiders, and thus the language of Allannyar was born. Allannyar is quite similar to what elven children speak, if a little more refined and polished so the adult elves could stomach listening to it. The elven languages lend themselves naturally to music and song, and many exiled elves have made good livings as bards and minstrels.
The Ghost Elven language is a blend of Nessuan and the ancient Grugach clan language, using the Nessuan script and showing definite Nessuan influence in military and magical terms. Ghost Elven is no less complex than the clan languages, though, and thus they learn Allannyar if they are going to travel outside their citadels.
Names: Elves have a naming system that even they admit is needlessly complicated. An elven child is given a birth name, which is often akin to something one would name a pet. Calling an adult elf by his birth name solicits a reaction that depends upon the relationship the addresser has with the elf - using the birth name is something that only very close friends from childhood or lovers do, and doing it in public is considered in very bad taste. Upon reaching adulthood at age one-hundred-and-ten, an elf chooses a first name. His first name is a unique creation, usually a twist on a word or imitating the names of people who influenced him as he grew up. Elves also have two surnames and a shortened form of their clan's name, with an honorific designating their class thrown in the middle. It is arranged as follows:
(First name) (Paternal surname) (honorific) (Clan name) (Maternal surname)
It gets more complicated. The surnames an elf gets from the parents depends upon the elf's gender - if the elf is male, he receives his father's paternal surname and his mother's paternal surname, while a female elf receives her parents' maternal surnames. Oftentimes the only real ties an elf has is a loose one to his clan - siblings rarely, if ever, feel any sort of bond beyond what is normal for friends.
As elves do not distinguish between the genders in their society, there tends to not be much difference between the names given to children of either gender. There are a handful of exceptions, but those are quite rare and not very commonly used. There are no hard and fast distinctions between first names elves take, although male names end with consonants and female names with vowels about half the time.
Adventurers: Ghost elves adventure primarily to find a sense of purpose and to exult in their newfound freedom. They are most commonly soulknives, a class they developed during the Tempering, and a few have developed other magical abilities. They have a great proficiency with spirit magic, power gained at the expense of their physical health. Ghost elves are also commonly sorcerers or wizards, but are very, very rarely fighters or barbarians.

Ghost Elf Traits
- +2 Dexterity, -4 Constitution, +2 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom: The ghost elves were left frail from their years of torment and experimentation, a trait even their children born on the mortal world share. Losing the magical infusion left them sickly, as elven biology is rather dependent on magic. They are, however, quick to adapt, rather agile, and uncannily perceptive.
- Type: Outsider (Elf, Native).
- Medium: As Medium creatures, elves have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
- Elf base land speed is 30 feet.
- Darkvision (Ex): A ghost elf can ignore concealment due to darkness (including total concealment). Darkvision is black and white only, but it is otherwise like normal sight. Ghost elves can function just fine with no light at all..
- Low-Light Vision (Ex): A ghost elf ignores concealment due to darkness (but not total concealment). She retains the ability to discern color under low-light conditions.
- Weapon Proficiency: Ghost elves receive Weapon Group Proficiency (Bows). Ghost elves retained their elven proficiency in archery even through the Tempering, and many ghost elves find a bit of peace and solace in archery practice.
- Weapon Grace: Ghost elves receive the Weapon Grace feat for free and may apply it to the spiked chain or scimitar. Weapon Grace serves as Weapon Finesse when qualifying for other feats.
- Glowskin (Su): A ghost elf glows with the brightness of a candle in the dark (five-foot radius of light). She can suppress this ability at will as a free action, or increase it anywhere up to the brightness of a torch. The glowskin's light is a lot like that of a firefly, although the light is a cool silvery white color rather than the firefly's yellowish-green. It will fade away moments after the ghost elf dies, but doesn't go away when she is unconscious - most ghost elves check for the glow rather than a pulse to determine if their compatriot is still alive.
- Spell-Like Ability: 1/day - dancing lights. A ghost elf with a Charisma score of at least 11 can also has the following spell-like abilities: 1/day - protection from evil, faerie fire, true strike. Caster level is first level or the ghost elf's character level, whichever is higher; save DC 10 + ghost elf's Cha modifier + spell level.
- Keen Senses: +2 racial bonus on Listen, Search, and Spot checks. A ghost elf who merely passes within 5 feet of a secret or concealed door is entitled to a Search check to notice it as if she were actively looking for it. An elf's senses are so keen that she practically has a sixth sense about hidden portals. Given the ghost elves' unusual magic predisposition, that might not be that far off.
- Automatic Languages: Ghost Elven and Allannyar. Bonus Languages: Other clan languages, Tradespeak, Gut-Tamaug, Palaou. Unlike the other elves, ghost elves really don't seem to mind speaking other languages - as a matter of fact, they often pick up and use favorite phrases from languages they know. One of the few languages they avoid learning is Nessuan, the language of devils - Thulikazt, after all, was a devil.
- Favored Class: Soulknife. A multiclass ghost elf's soulknife levels do not count when determining multiclass experience point penalties. The class was ingrained into them, and is as much a part of their natures as sorcery is for most elves. Most ghost elven combatants are actually soulknives - true fighters are quite rare. A ghost elf who has more than half her hit dice in Soulknife gains a +10% bonus to experience points.
- Restricted Classes: Cleric, Druid, Paladin. The elves' atheistic natures do not lend themselves well to becoming clerics or paladins. Even elves who adhere to a religion do so on a quite casual level. Due to the Archdevil cutting them off from the natural world for so long, the ghost elves also suffer penalties for being druids. Each of these classes imparts a -20% experience point penalty to the elf.

Siou Elves
The Siou are unusual as compared to the other clan elves, although they developed alongside them. The Siou have developed a sort of 'altruism through logic' approach to things, and their ordered minds have given them a bit more of a lawful bent. Thus, neutral good and lawful good Siou are just as common as neutral or chaotic neutral clan elves. The Siou are the most noble and regal of all elves, although the drow of Ravenskoff would readily challenge that claim. The Siou have black hair - often curly - and cerulean, indigo, or violet eyes. Like the drow, they have arched eyebrows that function much like whiskers, though to a lesser extent than their drow kin. Taller and grander in physical appearance than other elves, Siou have a reputation for being aloof and arrogant (even by elven standards). Siou prefer clothing that is at once comfortable and grand in appearance, generally snowy white or very dark in color. They dress austerely, moving sedately and gracefully. Even the youngest of the Siou has an aura of ancient wisdom and power about him, especially around the younger races.
Reclusive to an extreme, the Siou are rarely seen outside of their mountaintop retreats. These small enclaves are well guarded, allowing entry to only a select few outsiders. For a non-elf to gain entry to a Siou citadel is an event that happens but once in an elven lifetime. They are more reclusive than the clan elves - which is saying a great deal - preferring peace and quiet to hustle and bustle. Oftentimes, this gives them a reputation for being arrogant - even among the elves - and it is not always inaccurate. Still, they do not mind indulging another in conversation, especially if it gives them a chance to share knowledge. Many feel this is simply showing off, an accusation only partly true. Many Siou think that knowledge is something that ought to be shared for the good of all, and more than one exiled Siou has set up libraries in human lands for just this purpose. For whatever reason, the Siou take better to exiled life than the other clan elves, often adopting a human family and taking on the role of a family friend and mentor to their children. They regard their humans as something like a human would look at his grandchildren - although some treat their humans more like pets than people.
The Siou are the rulers of the clan elves, blending their lineages with the clans they rule only enough to satisfy a token requisite that they might retain their prestige and power. While the Siou are just as atheistic as the clan elves, they are a good deal more altruistic towards 'lesser' races, taking a paternalistic view towards humans, elves, and other people. The only ones they hate are the raven elves, who rebelled against their rule. It was the rivalry with the Siou that led to the raven elf exile to Fieria and their hatreds have yet to cool.

Siou Elf Traits
- -2 Strength, +2 Dexterity, -2 Constitution, +2 Intelligence: Elves are graceful but frail. An elf's grace makes her naturally better at stealth and archery. The Siou in particular are lightly-built, but their keen minds and razor wits surpass most any other demihuman or human race.
- Type: Fey (Elf).
- Medium: As Medium creatures, elves have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
- Elf base land speed is 30 feet.
- Magic Infusion (Su): All elves begin play with a mana pool of 2 points.
- Low-Light Vision (Ex): Elves ignore concealment due to darkness (but not total concealment). They retain the ability to discern color under low-light conditions.
- Keen Senses: +2 racial bonus on Listen, Search, and Spot checks. A Siou elf who merely passes within 5 feet of a secret or concealed door is entitled to a Search check to notice it as if she were actively looking for it. An elf's senses are so keen that she practically has a sixth sense about hidden portals.
- Mystic Will (Su): All elves are immune to sleep and charm effects. In addition, they have a +2 racial bonus to Will saves.
- Spell-Like Abilities (Sp): Siou can use mage hand at will. In addition, a Siou elf with a Charisma of 11 or higher gains the following spell-like abilities usable once per day: charm person, faerie fire, and light. All spells are caster level 1st or the elf's arcane caster level, whichever is higher. The saves are Charisma-based.
- Weapon Proficiency: Elves receive Weapon Group Proficiency (Bow) and can choose between WGP (Heavy Blades) or WGP (Light Blades) as free proficiencies at first level. Elves esteem the arts of swordplay and archery, so all Siou elves are familiar with these weapons.
- Automatic Languages: Siou clan language and Allannyar. Bonus Languages: Other clan languages, Tradespeak, Gut-Tamaug, Palaou. While the Siou are often loathe to do so, they are more likely to speak another language than are other elves.
- Favored Class: Wizard. Wizardry is natural to the Siou, who claim to have taught it to the Magi. The Magi dispute this claim, but the relationship between the Siou clan language and the language the Magi use for their spellbooks and other arcane writings is readily apparent even to the layman. A Siou elf who has more than half his hit dice in Wizard gains a +10% bonus to experience points.
- Restricted Classes: Druid, Ranger, Cleric, Paladin. The Sious' atheistic natures do not lend themselves well to becoming clerics or paladins. Even elves who adhere to a religion do so on a quite casual level. Unlike other elves, the Siou have difficulty manipulating the natural world enough to draw upon its power - they are that connected to arcane magic. Each of these classes imparts a -20 % experience point penalty to the elf.

Solaris
2008-10-21, 05:01 AM
This one I'm real sorry about the time crunch with. Clearly, it's incomplete - but it's really ganked from OA. The Dunadorians really hate 'em.

Hengeyokai
"They look like people, but they're beasts at heart. Hengeyokai are monsters, forest demons, no matter what they claim." - Gerard Warwood, Dunadorian outrider

Fluff text.

Personality: Hengeyokai tend to be secretive, reclusive, and solitary, dwelling alone or in small bands. They often display personality traits similar to their animal type - so monkey hengeyokai are curious and inquisitive, hare hengeyokai are peaceful but easily startled, and so on. Hengeyokai usually do not try to fit into human society, knowing they are different and believing that they are more closely connected to the natural world.
Physical Description: In animal form, hengeyokai are almost indistinguishable from normal animals except through magic. Naturally, their behavior often provides proof of their intelligence, so careful observation of a hengeyokai in animal form can reveal that it is not what it appears to be.
Hengeyokai can also assume a bipedal, animalistic ("hybrid") form similar to the more virulent and dangerous therianthropes. They stand on their hind legs (or similar appendages) to the height of their human form. The front paws, wings, or fins change into hands capable of gripping and using normal equipment. The rest of the body retains the general appearance of the animal, including fur, feathers, wings, tail, and other characteristic features, but in the overall shape of a humanoid head and torso.
In humanoid form, hengeyokai look almost exactly like normal elves (the rare half-human hengeyokai is nearly identical to her pureblooded kin save for a more half-elven appearance), though (again like lycanthropes) they often display some feature associated with their animal form. For example, a sparrow hengeyokai might have a sharply pointed nose, while a rat hengeyokai might have beady eyes and a long moustache.
Relations: Hengeyokai often live near humans, hobgoblins, or elves, and good hengeyokai sometimes assume a protective role over a nearby community. A hengeyokai never feels a part of a mortal community, however, even when grateful villagers offer food or gifts to reward the hengeyokai for the protection she offers. Evil hengeyokai instead prey on mortal communities, and are rewarded with fear and hatred.
Hengeyokai believe themselves to be closer to the natural world than humans, and therefore feel a closer affinity for the nature spirits that druids and shamans revere.
Alignment: Most hengeyokai are chaotic, with a strong independent streak. They are wild and value freedom - theirs and often others'. Some types of hengeyokai strongly favor good or evil: carp, crane, dog, hare, and sparrow hengeyokai are usually good, while badger, fox, raccoon dog, rat, and weasel hengeyokai are usually evil.
Hengeyokai Lands: Hengeyokai do not claim lands for their own as humans do, but they can be found throughout Fieria and Kundarath. They live - alone or in small bands - near human communities, usually on the edge of civilization, near regions of unsettled wilderness. Given their strong chaotic streak, hengeyokai are frequently on the move, particularly when the advance of civilization turns their wilderness retreats into bustling metropolitan areas.
The hengeyokai who live in the Fierian northlands are mostly foxes, badgers, and hares. The fox and wolf hengeyokai were the ones who gave the Dunadorians a superstitious fear of the 'forest demons'.
Religion: Hengeyokai do not worship the Flames that humans venerate, but they may practice the disciplines of a philosophical school, sharing a spiritual orientation with certain monks. Hengeyokai druids command the power of the natural world not through veneration, like human druids, but through partnership.
Language: Hengeyokai speak their own language, which is common to all hengeyokai regardless of animal type.
Names: Hengeyokai names follow the patterns of the dominant race in whatever lands they dwell.
Male Names: Examples.
Female Names: Examples.
Surnames: Examples.
Adventurers: Hengeyokai are commonly adventurers, since the sedentary life of a commoner or expert holds little appeal for them. They are usually motivated by little more than wanderlust, or perhaps curiosity about the world; the thought of wealth holds little appeal to them.

Hengeyokai Racial Traits
- Ability Modifiers: -2 Wisdom. Hengeyokai tend to be flighty and weak-willed. A hengeyokai's physical ability scores vary wildly in its animal and hybrid forms; the character's generated ability scores apply to its human form. In hybrid form, the hengeyokai gains a +2 adjustment to one physical ability score, as shown below. Its physical ability scores in animal form are shown below.
- Hengeyokai are Fey with the Shapechanger subtype.
- Medium-Sized: As Medium creatures in humanoid form, Hengeyokai have no special bonuses or penalties due to size.
- Speed: Hengeyokai base land speed is 30 feet in humanoid form.
- Alternate Form (Su): Hengeyokai can change shape, assuming one of three possible forms. This supernatural ability functions like a polymorph self spell, but a hengeyokai can change form and back a number of times per day equal to 3 + her Con bonus (minimum +1) + one-half her character level. Thus, a 1st-level hengeyokai with a Constitution of 13 can switch form from human to animal form and back again twice in a single day. Changing form is a full-round action that does provoke attacks of opportunity.
A hengeyokai's animal form is an animal of Small or smaller size. Possible animal forms include badger, carp, cat, crab, crane, dog, fox, monkey, raccoon, rat, sparrow, weasel, and wolf. Equipment the hengeyokai is carrying or wearing transforms to become part of the animal form, and magic items (usually) cease functioning while the hengeyokai remains in animal form. In animal form, the hengeyokai has low-light vision and the supernatural ability to communicate with other animals of its kind. This is the same as a familiar's ability to speak with animals of its type. Hengeyokai gain the size, speed, natural AC, natural attacks, and physical ability score modifiers of their animal forms. In animal form, a hengeyokai is effectively disguised as an animal, gaining a +10 racial bonus on Disguise checks while in this form.
Hengeyokai in hybrid form retain their low-light vision and the ability to communicate with animals of their type. Their physical characteristics are modified as shown in the hybrid lists. In this form, a hengeyokai can typically wear light or medium armor without modification, but wearing heavy armor is impossible. Equipment worn or carried by a hengeyokai in human form does not transform when the hengeyokai assumes hybrid form. When a hengeyokai in animal form assumes hybrid form, her equipment returns to its normal form and magic items resume functioning.
- Automatic Languages: Savage Tongue (Sylvan). Bonus Languages: Allannyar, Giant, Gut-Tamaug, Tradespeak, Yango, Wildspeech.
- Favored Class: Bard. +10% experience point bonus for having more than half the levels in this class.
- Restricted Classes: None.

Hengeyokai Hybrid Forms
Animal Ability Modifier Special
Badger +2 Con Speed 20 ft., burrow 10 ft.
Carp +2 Dex Speed 10 ft., swim 30 ft.
Cat +2 Dex +4 Balance
Crab — +1 natural armor, +4 Swim
Crane +2 Dex Speed 20 ft., fly 20 ft.
Dog +2 Con +4 Wilderness Lore when tracking by scent
Fox +2 Dex +4 Escape Artist
Frog +2 Dex +4 Jump, 10 ft. reach (unarmed attacks only)
Hare +2 Dex Speed 40 ft.
Monkey +2 Dex +4 Climb
Raccoon +2 Str +4 Wilderness Lore when tracking by scent
Rat +2 Dex +4 Hide
Sparrow +2 Dex Speed 20 ft., fly 20 ft.
Weasel +2 Con +4 Move Silently

Hengeyokai Animal Forms
Animal Ability Mods Size Nat. Armor Nat. Attacks Speed
Badger -2 Str, +6 Dex, +4 Con Small +1 2 claws (1d2), bite (1d3) 30 ft., burrow 10 ft.
Carp
Cat -6 Str, +8 Dex Tiny +0 2 claws (1d2), bite (1d3) 30 ft.
Crab* +2 Con Small +1 2 claws (1d4) 20 ft.
Crane -6 Str, +4 Dex Small +0 Bite (1d3) 10 ft., fly 40 ft. (average)
Dog +2 Str, +6 Dex, +4 Con Small +1 Bite (1d4) 40 ft.
Fox -4 Str, +6 Dex, -2 Con Small +1 Bite (1d4) 40 ft.
Frog** -8 Str, +2 Dex Fine +0 Bite (1) 10 ft., climb 10 ft.
Hare -6 Str, +4 Dex, +2 Con Tiny +2 Bite (1d3) 40 ft.
Monkey -6 Str, +4 Dex Tiny +0 Bite (1d3) 30 ft., climb 30 ft.
Raccoon***
Rat -8 Str, +4 Dex Tiny +0 Bite (1d3) 40 ft., climb 20 ft., swim 20 ft.
Sparrow -10 Str, +4 Dex Diminutive - 10 ft., fly 40 ft. (good)
Weasel -6 Str, +4 Dex Tiny +0 Bite (1d3) 20 ft., climb 20 ft.

* - As Small Monstrous Crab (Stormwrack p 141)
** - As Poison Frog (Animal Archives Collection 2, p 20)
*** - As Dire Rat

... Yeah, they just turn into the animal and apply their stat rolls to its physical ability modifiers.

Solaris
2008-10-21, 05:03 AM
The Kanorati are basically LN duergar, the Manitorns basically... well, LN dwarves, and the Myrmidons are a retake on warforged with a bit of Vaundei (non-magic people in a high-magic setting) thrown in for shiggles.

Kanorati Dwarves
The Kanorati dwarves are grim folk who lead lives of neverending toil in great underground foundry-cities carved into the volcanoes of the Nemesis Mountains. Kanorati cities exist only for the manufacture of wealth through unending labor. They are the preeminent smiths of Fieria, surpassing even their Manitorn kin, and Kanorati caravans travel vast distances through the Netherworld's upper reaches to trade with distant lands.
The nation of Kanorat is younger than Manitol, having originated some time shortly after the Night of Sky Fires. They were prisoners of an ancient race of untold evil deep in the Netherworld, escaping to the surface in the cataclysmic chaos. While Kanorati history does not recall exactly what these creatures were, they do have a longstanding hatred and fear of slimy things with tentacles. Their time as slaves of these elder evils warped the Kanorati and changed them from mundane dwarves to creatures of magic and fire.

Personality: Kanorati dwarves have few good points beyond courage, determination, and loyalty. They are avaricious, short-tempered, sullen, and unsympathetic. Kanorati nurture grudges for a lifetime, only letting them go when they've gotten even with the offending party. They believe that might makes right, and they have no pity for those who are too weak to defend their property or their selves. That's not to say they don't have a sense of right and wrong; quite the opposite. Kanorati have a strong sense of honor and justice, with a draconian legal code that backs them up. There is just little consideration for the victim in their justice, merely punishing the guilty with either hard labor or death - the Kanorati do not believe in prisons. Prisoners are wastes. Moreso than any other people, the Kanorati dwarves believe that they simply exist to work and die for the king. They believe individual lives are just about meaningless, and can't understand the selfishness of other races. If they actually cared about other people, they might be a tremendous force for good. Unfortunately, the Kanorati only believe in cold, hard money.
On the positive side, Kanorati believe in minding their own business and working hard to excel at their chosen crafts. No obstacle daunts a Kanorati dwarf who has settled on a goal. Kanorati believe their word is their bond, and a Kanorati's promise is as good as a guarantee. They do not lightly give their word, for they know that they must fulfill their oath lest they be barred from joining their ancestors in the Halls of Gammerond. A Kanorati never leaves a job half done.
Kanorati are slow to laugh or jest and suspicious of strangers, but they are generous to those few who earn their trust. Kanorati value loyalty above all else, but they are rather fond of gold, gems, jewelry, and art objects made with these precious materials. Kanorati appreciate things that last, and have little time for ephemeral wealth or pleasures. They are a very private people, and so very little is known about them save for the fact that their forges produce some of the finest arms and armor in the world.
On the continent of Fieria, the word 'Manitorn' is practically synonomous with 'Dwarf'. This is because the Kanorati are more reclusive, dwelling deep in their volcanic homes both in their kingdom of Kanorat and in a few outposts throughout Arken. The Kanorati actually dislike being called dwarves, much like their Manitorn kin, and don't quite understand why humans don't mind being called humans - they generally make a point of calling someone from Avalon an Avalonian, a man from Jelkesh a Jelkeshan, a man of Dunador a Dunadorian, and so forth. They do not identify themselves so much by their race as their homeland. A Kanorati's loyalties are to his country, his king, his family, and his clan. His self has no place in that equation - although adventuring Kanorati tend to be different from the common mold. After all, if they fit perfectly, they wouldn't be adventurers. Kanorati are generally honest and blunt to a fault. It's not that they don't care about others' feelings, it's that they feel it best to show things as they are. "What is, is. What is not, is not" is a favorite saying among the dwarves.
Kanorati, unlike most dwarves, are gifted in the arcane arts. Despite their low charisma, they have a surprisingly high rate of sorcerer births. While the Kanorati do not have a very prominent arcane tradition (not that much of anything in their society is prominent save the forges), Kanorati wizards can trace their teachings back thousands of years.
Physical Description: Kanorati dwarves stand four to four and a half feet tall, but are so broad and compact that, on average, they are heavier than humans. They are hard and angular compared to other dwarves, with men being slightly taller and noticeably heavier than Kanorati women. Their skin is light tan, often with a greyish cast from years of living and working in the fine ash that covers their volcanic homes, and their eyes are black and cold. Kanorati men usually have no hair above their ears, simply thick, bushy beetle brows and a full beard of wiry iron-grey or black. They braid their beards and what hair they have on their heads. Kanorati women, on the other hand, have short-cropped hair of dull black and no facial hair, with eyebrows significantly lighter than their menfolks'.
Their clothing is plain, functional, and utilitarian. Even the aristocrats don't wear clothing more impressive than the commoners, something human nobles find decidedly odd. They do, however, wear fine if understated jewelry. Kanorati are considered adults at about age forty, and they can live to be more than four hundred years old.

Relations: Kanorati, as a rule, have nothing to do with other races unless they stand to gain something out of it. Thus, they do not have allies - they have business partners. The root of their falling-out with their Manitorn kin lies in the lost desert empire of Magiran. The Kanorati allied with the magi in the ancient war between Magiran and the Mandate, selling their soldiers the finest weapons and armor to come out of the forges in Kanorat. While the Kanorati never fought against the Manitorns and only rarely against the humans, this ancient alliance with a long-dead nation colors their interactions with their kin and other humans to this day.
Kanorati generally don't consider the individual humans to be much more than acquaintances. The best Kanorati-human friendship is often between a Kanorati who liked the human's parents and grandparents - a truly, truly rare thing. Kanorati dislike what they've seen of the elves, but elves are such an uncommon sight that most Kanorati have only heard stories about them - which only helps add into their dislike and distrust of the flighty blighters. Kanorati, moreso than other races, tend to apply national stereotypes to their understanding of other people. They expect other dwarves to be stout and loyal, Avalonians to be just and honorable - if a little softhearted, Jelkeshans to be gold-hungry but tolerable, Dunadorians to be rustic and simple, Galganians to be barbaric, Magirans to be evil and megalomaniacal power-grabbers (they haven't quite caught on that Magiran crumbled centuries ago), and so forth. People who don't fit those stereotypes are generally regarded with a bit of surprise.
Alignment: Kanorati who stay in Kanorat are lawfully-aligned, with little regard for the fairness of the laws. Their draconian society breeds extremely axiomatic conformists, crushing individuality out of the Kanorati dwarves. Those Kanorati who leave Kanorat are usually people who, for some reason or another, do not fit in with the rest of society.

Kanorati Lands: The underground kingdom of Kanorat lies in the Nemesis Mountains between the Twilight Forest and the Northwood, just north of Myradine. Several of these peaks are still active volcanoes, churning out thick clouds of smoke that loom over the kingdom. The Kanorati use the heat of these volcanoes to smelt iron and run their foundries, even turn steam turbines that power their factories. While the Kanorati did not invent the labor-saving steam engine, they knew better than to say no to a good thing. Unlike their Shieldmount-dwelling kin, the Kanorati have very few above-ground settlements. They trade with the Myradine and hobgoblins, selling them manufactured goods in exchange for food and other resources difficult to come by underground. The Kanorati are not entirely dependent upon outsiders, however; they have underground gardens lit with electric lights that can support them for months or even years without resupply.
Religion: Religion is a major facet of Kanorati life. Services are held at the temples on a monthly basis, and those who do not attend are reported to the church - which has the ears of the state. Separation of church and state, after all, is a strictly modern human concept. They revere their ancestors, not either of the Flames, and believe the best way to venerate the grim dead is through tireless toil.
Language: Most Kanorati speak Gut-Tamaug and the secret Kanorati language of Kudrakharik. Adventuring Kanorati generally learn Tradespeak, but speak it with a thicker accent than do most humans. Gut-Tamaug is what most people think of when they think of the dwarven language. It is written with a runic alphabet that the humans adopted for their languages. Kanorati literature is almost nonexistent; their only writings are related to work and survival.
Names: A Kanorati receives his name from his clan elder, in accordance with tradition. Every proper Kanorati name has been used and reused down through the generations. A Kanorati's name is not his own. If he misuses it or brings shame to it, his clan will strip him of it. A Kanorati stripped of his name is forbidden by law to use any Kanorati name in its place. Kanorati stripped of their names are traditionally ignored by other Kanorati, and either become complete outcasts from their society, left with little choice other than to raid garbage piles or starve, or leave the underground kingdom and live among the humans. Given how strict Kanorati law is, it's entirely possible for a normally honorable Kanorati to slip up and suffer this fate. A Kanorati's surname is often based on his or her chosen profession. Surnames can change over time as the dwarf who holds them takes up different occupations or wins honors in battle.
Male Names: Bruthwol, Horgar, Ivar, Murgal, Thangardt.
Female Names: Brilmara, Dorthis, Olga, Ulara, Weltha.
Clan Names: Coalhewer, Firehand, Goldcrown, Hammerhead, Ironthew, Steelshadow.
Adventurers: Few Kanorati dwarves have any time for nonsense, which is how they view adventuring. However, individuals with no stomach for a life of unceasing toil occasionally appear in Kanorati society, and these rare dwarves find it expedient to strike out on their own before their fellows decide that they're not pulling their weight. Other Kanorati adventurers are exiles or fugitives, driven out of their home cities by their crimes or crimes against their honor.

Kanorati Racial Traits
- Abilities: +2 Constitution, -4 Charisma: Kanorati are stout and sturdy, but tend to be gruff and reserved. Other races rarely enjoy their simple blunt honesty.
- Medium-Sized: As Medium creatures, Kanorati have no special bonuses or penalties due to size.
- Kanorati base land speed is 20 feet. However, they can move this speed even when wearing medium or heavy armor or carrying a medium or heavy load (unlike other creatures whose speed is reduced in such situations). Kanorati are quite stable and sturdy, comparable to locomotives.
- Darkvision: Kanorati can see in the dark, negating concealment from poor illumination (including total concealment). Darkvision is black-and-white only, but it is otherwise like normal sight, and Kanorati can function just fine with no light at all.
- Stonecunning: This ability grants a Kanorati a +2 racial bonus on Search checks to notice unusual stonework, such as sliding walls, stonework traps, new construction (even when built to match the old), unsafe stone surfaces, shaky stone ceilings, and the like. Something that isn't stone but that is disguised as stone counts as unusual stonework. A Kanorati who merely comes within ten feet of unusual stonework can make a Search check as if he were actively searching, and a Kanorati can use the Search skill to find stonework traps as a rogue can. A Kanorati can also intuit depth, sensing his approximate depth underground as naturally as a human can sense which way is up. This tends to make them a little uncomfortable at extremely high elevations. Kanorati have a sixth sense about stonework, an innate ability that they get plenty of opportunity to practice and hone in their underground homes.
- Stability: Kanorati receive a +4 bonus on ability checks made to resist being bull-rushed or tripped when standing on the ground (but not when climbing, flying, riding, or otherwise not standing firmly on the ground). The martial training they receive means that, when combined with their natural stability, they pretty much always stand firm, unconsciously using stances that assist with keeping their footing.
- Magma-Born (Ex): Kanorati dwarves have immunity to paralysis, phantasms, and poison as well as fire resistance 5. Generations of living in the upper reaches of the Underdark and working near volcanoes has inured the Kanorati dwarves to many ailments and granted them almost supernatural resistance to heat.
- Spell-Like Abilities (Sp): 1/day - enlarge person and invisibility as a wizard twice the Kanorati's class level (minimum caster level 3rd), these abilities affect only the Kanorati and whatever he carries.
- Light Sensitivity: Kanorati are dazzled in bright sunlight and within the radius of a daylight spell. Wearing smoked lenses negates this drawback, but also cancels out the Kanorati's darkvision.
- +4 racial bonus on Move Silently checks and a +1 racial bonus on Listen and Spot checks.
- Stonefolk: +2 racial bonus on Appraise checks that relate to stone or metal items: Kanorati are familiar with valuable items of all kinds, especially those made of stone or metal. +2 racial bonus on Craft checks that are related to stone or metal: Kanorati are especially capable with stonework and metalwork.
- Automatic Languages: Tradespeak, Gut-Tamaug, and Karakhatan. Bonus languages: Any in use on the continent of Jelkesh. Kanorati, while not exactly famed diplomats, are on reasonably good terms with most of the other nations - and adhere to the principle of "Know thy foe" and thus learn the languages of their enemies.
- Favored Class: Master (from Dragonlance Campaign Setting). A Kanorati dwarf with more than half of his levels in Master gains a +10% experience point bonus. Kanorati culture extols the virtues of craftsmanship and the vocation comes easily to them.
- Restricted Classes: None.

Manitorn Dwarves
The Manitorns have been allies of the Avalonians since the days before Artur Pendraegon. They have stood by Avalon through thick and thin, sharing in their wealth and helping them in times of need. Manitol's alliances are quite similar to Avalon's, to the exception of the peace between Manitol and Galgany.
Manitorns believe that they were created from stone, whereas they believe humans were created of fire. They are an old race, older than the humans or elves, and their history spans from times long ago with surprising accuracy. It is, given their traditionalist tendencies, surprisingly bland when compared to the more chaotic human history. There have been few coups, few secret plots, and even in the thousands of years of recorded history the Manitorns have never once had a civil war. Humans learned civilization at the feet of the Manitorns, though Manitorn historians sometimes lament how poorly a job humans have done of it. Manitorn history is of only peripheral use in understanding human history, as they only note events which had direct Manitorn involvement or affected the Manitorns directly.
The current king is Oskar Holderhek. He, like so many of his ancestors before him, rules his land from the traditional capital of Khand, known to humans as the Iron Mountain. Oskar has a council of thanes from each of the other cities in his kingdom, and is noted for listening to only a pair of them: Bartokk Redhide, thane of Harthon, and Ulfgar Strakeln, thane of Maetra. The three are good friends, but there has been an unusual outflux of dissenters stripped of name and honor under Oskar's rule.
In other words, Oskar is a tyrant. Detractors call him Oskar the Grouch due to his infamous temper, and Manitorn law is such that the king's will is the rule of the courts.

Personality: Manitorns are slow to laugh or jest and suspicious of strangers, but they are generous to those few who earn their trust. Manitorns value loyalty above all else, but they are rather fond of gold, gems, jewelry, and art objects made with these precious materials. Manitorns appreciate things that last, and have little time for ephemeral wealth or pleasures. They are a very private people, with a strong sense of honor and justice. At its worst, this sense of justice can turn into a powerful thirst for vengeance.
On the continent of Fieria, the word 'Manitorn' is practically synonomous with 'Dwarf'. The Manitorns actually dislike being called dwarves, and don't quite understand why humans don't mind being called humans - they generally make a point of calling someone from Avalon an Avalonian, a man from Jelkesh a Jelkeshan, a man of Dunador a Dunadorian, and so forth. They do not identify themselves so much by their race as their homeland. A Manitorn's loyalties are to his country, his king, his family, and his clan. His self has no place in that equation - although adventuring Manitorns tend to be different from the common mold. After all, if they fit perfectly, they wouldn't be adventurers. Manitorns are generally honest and blunt to a fault. It's not that they don't care about others' feelings, it's that they feel it best to show things as they are. "What is, is. What is not, is not" is a favorite saying among the Manitorns.
Manitorns are universally unable to work arcane magic, and as such regard those who are with a fair degree of suspicion. Many Manitorns also dislike water travel, and the best way to get the normally grim and stoic Manitorns to start complaining is to get them wet. They hate being wet. Most Manitorns regard water as a necessary evil.
Physical Description: Manitorns stand only four to four and a half feet tall, but they are so broad and compact that, on average, they are as heavy as humans - if not heavier. Manitorn men are slightly taller and noticeably heavier than their women. Their skin is typically a deep tan or light brown, and their eyes are dark. Every once in a while, a Manitorn is born with crystalline blue-green irises. These Manitorns are regarded as being decidedly odd, much like a redheaded human. They have the reputation for being wild cards with extraordinary luck, although there is really not much behind the superstition. Manitorns' hair is usually black, gray, or brown, and worn long. The men value their beards highly - their beards being a sign of their virility - and groom them very carefully. Braids are considered barbaric, and the most complex hairstyle most Manitorns will wear is drawing their hair back in a ponytail. Similarly, their clothing is plain, functional, and utilitarian. Even the aristocrats don't wear clothing more impressive than the commoners, something human nobles find decidedly odd. They do, however, wear fine if understated jewelry. Manitorns are considered adults at about age forty, and they can live to be more than four hundred years old.
Relations: Manitorns and humans of the Mandate have been allied for so long that most Manitorns consider the Avalonians, Dunadorians and Jelkeshans to be honorary Manitorns. They get along passably well with other humans, although some find the barely-civilized Galganians to be annoying and too impulsive and remember well that the Magi have long been the enemies of their allies, the Avalonians, and the enemies of Manitol in the past. Despite this, Manitorns generally don't consider the individual humans to be much more than acquaintances. The best Manitorn-human friendship is often between a Manitorn who liked the human's parents and grandparents. Manitorns dislike what they've seen of the elves, but elves are such an uncommon sight that most Manitorns have only heard stories about them - which only helps add into their dislike and distrust of the flighty blighters. Manitorns, moreso than other races, tend to apply national stereotypes to their understanding of other people. They expect other Manitorns to be stout and loyal, Avalonians to be just and honorable - if a little softhearted, Jelkeshans to be gold-hungry but tolerable, Dunadorians to be rustic and simple, Galganians to be barbaric, Magirans to be evil and megalomaniacal power-grabbers (like their cousins, they haven't quite caught on that Magiran has been gone so long no humans who live remember it), and so forth. People who don't fit those stereotypes are generally regarded with a bit of surprise.
Alignment: Manitorns who stay in Manitol are lawfully-aligned, with little regard for the fairness of the laws. Those Manitorns who leave Manitol are usually people who, for some reason or another, do not fit in with the rest of society.
Dwarven Lands: The underground kingdom of Manitol spans the Shieldmount Range, with a handful of above-ground outposts oftentimes placed near their cities. Humans of the Mandate are usually welcomed within their underground cities, but they find their access to certain areas restricted. Whatever wealth the Manitorns can't find in the mountains, they acquire through trade. Manitorns grow most of their food on the sides of the Shieldmounts or in underground fungus gardens, but they do like to supplement their diet with more exotic foods - particularly livestock.
Manitorns in human lands are typically mercenaries, weaponsmiths, armorsmiths, architects, jewlers, and artisans. Dwarf bodyguards are renowned for their courage and loyalty, and they are well-rewarded for their virtues.
Religion: Religion is a major facet of Manitorn life. Services are held at the temples on a weekly basis, and those who do not attend are reported to the church - which has the ears of the state. Separation of church and state, after all, is a strictly modern human concept. They revere the same creator deity that the Mandate's humans do, but have a different group of patron celestials - in particular, the Soulfather, who they believe makes the souls that all mortal, sentient beings have. This is in opposition to the Mandate's approach, that the creator makes the souls, but the two races have long since learned to just deal with it - only the most diehard fundamentalists of either side would bother bringing the subject up.
Language: Most Manitorns speak Gut-Tamaug and the secret Manitorn language of Karakhatan. Adventuring Manitorns generally learn Tradespeak, but speak it with a thicker accent than do most humans. Gut-Tamaug is what most people think of when they think of the dwarven language. It is written with a runic alphabet that the humans adopted for their languages. Manitorn literature is almost universally nonfiction, as they regard fiction as something solely for children. Their honesty is such that they are a bit uneasy about fiction, and some think it an immoral thing.
Names: A Manitorn receives his name from his clan elder, in accordance with tradition. Every proper Manitorn name has been used and reused down through the generations. A Manitorn's name is not his own. If he misuses it or brings shame to it, his clan will strip him of it. A Manitorn stripped of his name is forbidden by law to use any Manitorn name in its place. Manitorns stripped of their names are traditionally ignored by other Manitorns, and either become complete outcasts from their society, left with little choice other than to raid garbage piles or starve, or leave the underground kingdom and live among the humans. Given how strict Manitorn law is, it's entirely possible for a normally honorable Manitorn to slip up and suffer this fate. A Manitorn receives his surname from the master who trains him in his craft, while he inherits his clan name from his father. Each clan name stems from a great ancestor whom the dwarf traditionally reveres as a patron and guide through life. A Manitorn traveling among humans will give his given name and clan name or surname, but rarely both.
Male Names: Barendd, Brottor, Eberk, Einkil, Oskar, Rurik, Taklinn, Torderk, Traubon, Ulfgar, Veit.
Female Names: Artin, Audhild, Dagnal, Diesa, Gunnloda, Hlin, Ilde, Liftrasa, Sannl, Torgga.
Surnames: Balderk, Dankil, Gorunn, Holderhek, Loderr, Lutgehr, Rumnaheim, Strakeln, Torunn, Ungart.
Clan Names: Hanseath, Laduguer, Moradin, Mya, Roknar, Tharmekhul, Thautam, Valkauna.
Adventurers: Manitorns can adventure for a number of reasons. Usually, honor is involved. Manitorns are usually fighters, but clerics and even paladins are fairly common, too. Rogues are quite rare and more likely to think of themselves as scouts and dungeon delvers than thieves.

Manitorn Racial Traits
- Abilities: +2 Constitution, -2 Charisma: Manitorns are stout and sturdy, but tend to be gruff and reserved. Other races rarely enjoy their simple blunt honesty.
- Medium-Sized: As Medium creatures, Manitorns have no special bonuses or penalties due to size.
- Manitorn base land speed is 30 feet. However, they can move this speed even when wearing medium or heavy armor or carrying a medium or heavy load (unlike other creatures whose speed is reduced in such situations). Manitorns are quite stable and sturdy, comparable to locomotives in the real world.
- Darkvision: Manitorns can see in the dark, negating concealment from poor illumination (including total concealment). Darkvision is black-and-white only, but it is otherwise like normal sight, and Manitorns can function just fine with no light at all.
- Stonecunning: This ability grants a Manitorn a +2 racial bonus on Search checks to notice unusual stonework, such as sliding walls, stonework traps, new construction (even when built to match the old), unsafe stone surfaces, shaky stone ceilings, and the like. Something that isn't stone but that is disguised as stone counts as unusual stonework. A Manitorn who merely comes within ten feet of unusual stonework can make a Search check as if he were actively searching, and a Manitorn can use the Search skill to find stonework traps as a rogue can. A Manitorn can also intuit depth, sensing his approximate depth underground as naturally as a human can sense which way is up. This tends to make them a little uncomfortable at extremely high elevations. Manitorns have a sixth sense about stonework, an innate ability that they get plenty of opportunity to practice and hone in their underground homes.
- Weapon Familiarity: Manitorns may treat the dwarven waraxe (see Chapter 7: Equipment in the PHB) as an axe for purposes of weapon group proficiencies, rather than an exotic weapon.
- Stability: Manitorns receive a +4 bonus on ability checks made to resist being bull-rushed or tripped when standing on the ground (but not when climbing, flying, riding, or otherwise not standing firmly on the ground). The martial training they receive means that, when combined with their natural stability, they pretty much always stand firm, unconsciously using stances that assist with keeping their footing.
- +4 racial bonus on saving throws against poison: Manitorns are hardy and resistant to toxins.
- +4 racial bonus on saving throws against spells and spell-like effects: Manitorns have an innate resistance to magic spells.
- +1 racial bonus on attack rolls against orcs and coblinoids: Manitorns' stonecunning and training greatly assists them when battling against their most hated enemies.
- +4 dodge bonus to Armor Class against monsters of the giant type: This bonus represents special training that dwarves undergo, during which they learn tricks that previous generations developed in their battles with the biggest folk.
- +2 racial bonus on Appraise checks that relate to stone or metal items: Manitorns are familiar with valuable items of all kinds, especially those made of stone or metal.
- +2 racial bonus on Craft checks that are related to stone or metal: Manitorns are especially capable with stonework and metalwork.
- Automatic Languages: Tradespeak, Gut-Tamaug, and Karakhatan. Bonus languages: Any in use on the continent of Jelkesh. Manitorns, while not exactly famed diplomats, are on reasonably good terms with most of the other nations - and adhere to the principle of "Know thy foe" and thus learn the languages of their enemies.
- Favored Class: Fighter. A Manitorn dwarf with more than half of his levels in Fighter gains a +10% experience point bonus. Manitorn culture extols the virtues of combat and the vocation comes easily to them.
- Restricted Classes: Sorcerer, Wizard, Bard. Dwarves are unable to manipulate arcane magic, and are cut off from it even more than most humans. A Manitorn suffers a -20% experience point penalty for each of these classes.

Myrmidons
"We claim to be the cleverest inventors on Arken, but the only device we developed before the myrmidons was the firearm." - the alchemist Robert Redbeard

Gammerond the Creator forged the myrmidons in the First Age, long before the Great Twelve ascended to godhood. He intended them to be automatons, mindless soldiers whose sole purpose was to fight and destroy his enemies. Over the successive generations of myrmidons, he experimented with them and tweaked the design to combat the creations of his rival, Guraash the Orc-Father. As new varieties emerged from his forge, Gammerond realized his once-mindless soldiers were now thinking, feeling beings in their own right. He continued to create them, but instead of treating them as automatons he treated them as equals. Gammerond would go on to create dwarves, sealtuans, and humans with the lessons he'd learned from making the myrmidons. Though the war between the Great Twelve and the Eighteen dragged on, when the First Age ended and the Flames claimed their servants to places unknown for millennia in the Night of Sky-Fires, the myrmidons remained behind - the first children of the gods, the only ones the gods treated as equals.
In the thousands of years between their creation a few centuries before the Night of Sky-Fires and the present day, the myrmidons have changed a great deal from their roots as divine warriors. They live a semi-nomadic lifestyle on an island chain in the middle of the South Sea. While they do have permanent cities, places of exotic wonder filled with strange devices and strange magic, a good deal of the myrmidon population is out exploring on steam-driven surface ships, lighter-than-air craft, and magic-driven airships. A few myrmidons, exploiting their immunity to pressure and virtual immortality, have taken to exploring the bottom of the ocean on foot. The myrmidons have created an intricate society of scholars, researchers, and engineers that belies their prowess in combat.

Personality: Despite their warrior roots, a myrmidon would much rather study something than kill it. They are an intensely curious people, with keen scientific minds and an inborn understanding of the laws that guide Arken thanks to their schooling in the Gregaris of their clans. Though they are predisposed more towards logical thinking than letting emotions rule them as mortals do, the myrmidons have the full suite of emotions and intuitive leaps that humans do. While they aren't as great technological innovators as humans and dwarves are, their ability to work magic combined with their creativity lends myrmidons an edge in one-upping the elves and other magical races. Myrmidons are afflicted with wanderlust from a young age, and many of them become adventurers at some point in their long, long lives. Despite their longevity, myrmidons are not immortal; when one grows weary of this world, he surrenders his body to the Gregari that birthed him to give way for a new myrmidon to wander the world and learn it anew.
The most important part of a myrmidon's life is the period immediately after his creation, usually six to eight months, when his personality takes shape. Called the Galating, it is akin to a human's childhood. The pinnacle of the Galating is the Galateation, the time when the myrmidon switches over from being a semi-aware entity to a fully-fledged sapient being. Myrmidons keep new myrmidons who are still in their Galating in a large complex called a Gregari, a robust academy that trains them in the sciences and the arts. The Gregaris also hold the massive Kindling Forges that instill new minds and life in old myrmidon bodies.
Physical Description: Myrmidons have a unique composite physiology combining organic and inorganic materials in a semi-living form. A myrmidon has an internal body composed of a flexible, animate woody fiber that fills the roles of muscle, skeleton, and connective tissues in living beings. A stony exoskeleton covers much of his fibrous frame, protecting it and giving it shape. This exoskeleton bears a strong resemblance to coral, and it grows in much the same way to repair minor damage the myrmidon sustains in its activities. Tiny polyps cover the myrmidon's exoskeleton, drawing energy from the Weave itself to sustain their lives.
An average myrmidon stands approximately six feet tall and weighs about two hundred and fifty pounds. A myrmidon has a stocky frame, clearly modeled along the same lines as humanity. Myrmidons universally appear masculine, though they have little native concept of gender beyond what they've observed from animals and humanoids. They have two toes on their feet and two thick fingers with a single opposable thumb. A kite-shaped jewel engraved with a rune marks a myrmidon's forehead, helping the myrmidons identify each other as well as binding the magic that animates them to his body. The rune is the only part of the myrmidon destroyed when he gives himself to the Gregari, and they believe the type of gemstone involved has a strong influence on the resultant personality, while the rune itself actually defines his lineage. Bloodstone, coral, hematite, jade, moonstone, and turquoise all are common stones to carve the rune on. A myrmidon's face is nearly featureless, bearing a lipless mouth, no nose, and two eyes that are little more than glowing points in his face.
Relations: Myrmidons have a reputation as everybody's second-best friends. Less warlike than the humans, less traditionalist than the dwarves, and far more agreeable than their similarly-ancient rivals, the elves, myrmidons get along well with nearly everybody in Fieria and Kundarath. They do not much care for elves, but then no one really does.
Alignment: Myrmidons tend towards altruistic behavior, looking for the greater good, but they can forget the individual lives have meaning in and of themselves. While often traditionalist, myrmidons are too free-spirited to be really lawful.
Myrmidon Lands: The myrmidons lay claim to the Vaundei Isles, a volcanic island chain south of Kundarath. The chain of eight islands has fertile soil, thick jungles, and are home to their glittering, seemingly-utopian cities. While life in Vaundei is far better than life on the mainland, political dealings between the four major clans has sometimes resulted in full-scale war between the cities. Usually, though, they remain at peace under their democratic republic.
Religion: Myrmidons approach religion with a casual, familiar air that shocks more pious human clergy. A good number of myrmidons actually remember the First Age; it's not their fault a lot of their elders remember Gammerond stuttered when he got nervous. While casual, a myrmidon's faith can also be surprisingly strong and is not limited to just Gammerond; they freely worship all of the Great Twelve in Vaundei.
Language: Myrmidons speak their native tongue, Vaundeiian, a complex language that had a major influence on Tradespeak's development thanks to myrmidons trading with Jelkeshans early in their history. Many also speak Tradespeak and other human languages picked up in their travels. Few myrmidons enjoy speaking the elven tongues; they're too fluid and too subtly nuanced for any sensible language.
Names: A myrmidon has three names: a given name, which he chooses for himself and carries from his Galateation onward, a clan name which denotes which lineage of myrmidon he arises from, and a guild name which reflects his profession. The myrmidon has his clan name from creation onward, changing only in the exceedingly rare instance where a myrmidon forsakes his clan for a new one. He usually inherits his clan name from his progenitor, unless the Gregari was overrun and the surviving myrmidons cast into the Gregari's Kindling Forge to be reborn as members of the victorious clan.
Given Names: Aeneas, Gacis, Fale, Ionus, Joneu, Musa, Telemachas, Xerita
Clan Names: Heteiaregan, Krasochtate, Meosidem, Zegemalv
Guild Names: The myrmidon's guild name tends to reflect the guild's primary profession, such as Blacksmith or Navigator. Unlike the clan name, the guild name can change several times in his life.
Adventurers: Myrmidon adventurers are frequently youths who have just ended their Galateation or elders grown bored with life in Vaundei. Many are wizards or rogues, but a good number are fighters or multiclassed fighters.

Myrmidon Racial Traits
- +2 Constitution, +4 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma. Myrmidons are tough and preternaturally intelligent, but they have a certain inhuman characteristic about them that unnerves living people.
- Construct with the living construct subtype.
- Medium-Sized: As Medium creatures, myrmidons have no special bonuses or penalties due to size.
- Speed: Myrmidon base land speed is 30 feet.
- Wonderworkers: +4 racial bonus on all Craft checks. Bearing Gammerond's blessing even after all these eons, myrmidons have a unique gift for invention and manufacture. In addition, all Knowledge skills are permanent class skills for the myrmidon.
- Low-light Vision (Ex): Myrmidons ignore concealment due to darkness (but not total concealment). They retain the ability to discern color under low-light conditions.
- Innate Armor: The metallic exoskeleton protecting the myrmidon grants him a +2 armor bonus and DR 2/-. This is not natural armor; it counts as light armor, and takes up the same slot as a robe or suit of armor would. A myrmidon's innate armor has a maximum Dexterity bonus of +5 with no armor check penalty or arcane spell failure chance. Myrmidon monks (and other classes, up to the purview of the DM) are not treated as wearing armor for purposes of their special abilities.
- Spell Resistance (Su): equal to 11 + hit dice.
- Clan Rune: The myrmidon's clan rune directs the arcane energies within him that give him life. He becomes inanimate in an antimagic field and reacts to dispel magic and similar spells as a magic item with a caster level equal to his hit dice because of this intensely magical nature. Dispel magic and similar spells must first overcome the myrmidon's spell resistance.
- Automatic Languages: Vandaiiar, Tradespeak. Bonus Languages: Any. Myrmidons are well-traveled and gifted linguists.
- Favored Class: Fighter. Originally created to be soldiers in the ancient war between the Great Twelve and the Eighteen, the myrmidons still retain a strong aptitude for fighting and combat.
- Restricted Classes: None.
- Level Adjustment: +2

Solaris
2008-10-21, 05:06 AM
Humans (Incomplete)
"The very nature of the human is to change and grow. I truly believe that, with time, they will surpass the gods." - Grimrore Sagescient des Sylva Conjeirtei, Siou wizard

Fluff text.
(For the relations, lands, language, and names section, be sure to give entries for all of the various human nations and regions - Jelkesh, Dunador, Avalon, Baelnoel, Sanctuary, the Highlands, the Crawling Desert, Galgany, Gan-Buru)
Personality: Humans are the most adaptable, flexible, and ambitious people among the common races. They are diverse in their tastes, morals, customs, and habits. Others accuse them of having little respect for history, but it's only natural that humans, with their relatively short life spans and constantly-changing cultures, would have a shorter collective memory than, say, the Manitorns.
Physical Description: Humans typically stand from 5 feet to a little over 6 feet tall and weight from 125 to 250 pounds with men noticeably taller and heavier than women. Thanks to their penchant for migration and conquest, humans are more physically diverse than other races. Their skin shades range from the Gan-Buru's nearly black to the very pale Dunadorians, their hair from black to blond (curly, kinky, or straight) and their facial hair (for men) from sparse to thick. Plenty of humans have a dash of nonhuman blood, and they may demonstrate hints of elf, orc, or other lineages. Members of this race are often ostentatious or unorthodox in their grooming and dress, particularly in the Mandate's upper classes. Humans have average lifespans, reaching adulthood at about age 15 and rarely living even a single century.
Relations: While describing a human's relations with other races requires a more detailed explanation of where he's from, in general humans mix as readily with each other as they do with members of other races. Humans serve as ambassadors, diplomats, magistrates, merchants, and functionaries of all kinds.
In the Knights' Mandate, the lands of Jelkesh, Dunador, and Avalon, humans and Manitorns get along especially well. Other races are tolerated, though goblins and hobgoblins find themselves rarely welcomed and treated as second-class at best. In Jelkesh, the sealtuans are a slave race - with all the associated problems of racism and bigotry.
The people of Baelnoel have a similar relationship with the rhannocs, and while Baelnoel has chilly relationships with Manitol the people tend to get along reasonably well. Being a rather cosmopolitan nation, Baelnoel turns away members of no race - though some may find their welcomes very thin. The magi keep their main universities in Baelnoel, and so the Baels have gotten somewhat used to wizards and otherworldly things.
The Galganians and Highlanders have a deep and abiding superstitious fear of all sorts of elves, calling them forest demons and treating them as dangerous, capricious creatures. Other races they view with some suspicion, but rarely outright hatred like they treat the elves with. The Galganians and Highland barbarians get along halfway decently with the wildsmans who live in the northlands, but their history has some stains in it. Galgany has a long-standing blood feud with Dunador that reaches back generations, and the Galganians have long been at war with the Mandate.
The Silver Kingdom, on the other hand, welcomes elves with open arms as kin of the fey folk who protect and guide Sanctuary. They are almost as welcoming of everyone else, up to and including goblinoids.
Myradine, a former part of ancient Galgany that Kyga later conquered, has a roughly equal population of goblinoids and humans. They share their northerly neighbors' hatred of the elves, adding on a distrust of the Manitorn dwarves. They are trading partners with the Kanorati dwarves, but that doesn't mean they much like them, either.
The majerai horsemen who live in the Crawling Desert treat all with equanimity, save for the magi. Remembering their old history as slaves in the magocratic empire of Magiran, the majerai have an old hatred for the race of wizards.
Alignment: Humans tend towards no particular alignment save perhaps lawfulness in the Mandate. The best and worst are found among them.
Human Lands: Geography.
Avalon
Dunador
Jelkesh
Baelnoel
The Silver Kingdom, a human-ruled nation nestled in a valley hidden in the Shieldmounts between Baelnoel and the Crawling Desert,
The Highlands
Galgany
Myradine
The Crawling Desert
Gan-Buru, a vast region of jungles and ancient stone cities.
Religion: Some humans are the most ardent and zealous adherents to a religion, while others are the most impious people around.
Language: Humans of the Mandate speak Tradespeak, a bastardized language born of the native languages of Jelkesh and Avalon melded with a good influence of Gut-Tamaug and the language Artur Pendraegon and his men spoke. It has since suffered the influence of just about every language commonly spoken on Arken, making it incredibly diverse - if somewhat unrefined. Tradespeak uses the runic language of the dwarven script, with each rune standing for a syllable.
Dunador, while using Tradespeak for legal functions, high society, trade, and government, has its own language. Similar to the Savage Tongue, Dunadese uses an alphabetical script with each letter standing for one or more sounds.
Humans of Galgany and the Highlands speak a language the Mandate refers to as the Savage Tongue. While the language is not at all crude, the goblin barbarians and orcs who barely speak it have given it a reputation for being the language of crude brutes. The Savage Tongue uses an alphabetical script uniquely its own, with each letter standing for one or more sounds.
The Myradine speak Yango, the language of the Yangorothi and the goblinoids. It sounds gutteral and crude to people who are unfamiliar with the language, but is surprisingly nuanced and complex. Yango uses a curving, jagged hieroglyphic script, with each symbol standing for a single syllable. Each syllable has a meaning, and the written words are strung together according to meaning rather than sound. While exceptionally difficult to learn, the Yango written script is quite precise and accurate in the hands of a proficient writer. The spoken language is no less so; non-native speakers often find it impossible to learn more than a handful of phrases.
Names: Humans receive their names shortly after their birth, and usually celebrate their nameday rather than their birthday. A human inherits his surname from his father, but his given name is one both parents come up with.
Male Names: Examples.
Female Names: Examples.
Surnames: Examples.
Adventurers: Human adventurers are the most audacious, daring, and ambitious members of an audacious, daring, and ambitious race. A human can earn glory in the eyes of her fellows by amassing power, wealth, and fame. Humans, more than other people, champion causes rather than territories or groups.

Human Racial Traits
- Medium-Sized: As Medium creatures, Humans have no special bonuses or penalties due to size.
- Speed: Human base land speed is 30 feet.
- Birthsign (Su): Every human is born under the sign of one of the Great Twelve, a group of constellations sacred to the deities of man. Vantileer the Just's sign grants a +2 bonus to Strength and a +2 bonus to Sense Motive checks, Kerttikeya the Invincible's sign grants a +2 bonus to Strength and a +1 bonus to Fortitude saves, Gammerond the Creator's sign grants a +2 bonus to Dexterity and a +2 bonus to Craft checks, Arrevan the Messenger's sign grants a +2 bonus to Dexterity and a +2 bonus to Diplomacy checks, Nevron the Protector's sign grants a +2 bonus to Constitution and a +1 bonus to Will saves, Elladonna the Wild's sign grants a +2 bonus to Constitution and a +1 bonus to Reflex saves, Loac the Archivist's sign grants a +2 bonus to Intelligence and a +2 bonus to Knowledge (arcana) and Knowledge (history) checks, Quarion the Moonwhisperer's sign grants a +2 bonus to Intelligence and a +1 bonus to Will saves, Taelessa the Forgiving's sign grants a +2 bonus to Wisdom and a +2 bonus to Heal checks, Tyrna the Watcher's sign grants a +2 bonus to Wisdom and a +2 bonus to Knowledge (nature) and Knowledge (religion) checks, Balderai the Joker's sign grants a +2 bonus to Charisma and a +2 bonus to Bluff checks, and Arabelle the Beautiful's sign grants a +2 bonus to Charisma and a +1 bonus to Fortitude saves. A human cleric worships the deity whose sign he was born under, and a human who receives a flametouched mark manifests the mark of the deity whose sign he was born under. Though they possess the potential, humans almost never break free from their fates.
- Bonus Feat: 1 extra feat at 1st level, because humans are quick to master specialized tasks and are varied in their talents.
- Bonus Skill Points: 4 extra skill points at 1st level and 1 extra skill point at each additional level, since humans are versatile and capable. (The 4 skill points at 1st level are added on as a bonus, not multiplied in.)
- Automatic Languages: Tradespeak. Bonus Languages: Any (other than secret languages, such as Druidic). Humans mingle with all kinds of other folk and thus can learn any language found in an area.
- Favored Class: Any. Being adaptable and flexible, humans may select any class as their favored class. They do not gain a bonus to experience points for it; being a jack-of-all trades has its downsides.
- Restricted Classes: Wizard, Sorcerer. Humans take a -20% experience point penalty for each, being more disconnected from arcane magic than most other races.

Magi
The magi have a drop of otherworldly blood inherited from their ancestor, the Archmage Aldebaran. While this blood is sufficient to enable them to learn to manipulate magic from the world around them, they never have innate magic that fuels a sorcerer's power.
Traditionally, only the male magi receive training in wizardry. While their daughters do have enough magic blood to learn some wizardry, sometimes even enough to cast spells, they are almost always just ordinary humans. Most true magi are male. Not all offspring of the magi have inherited their father's power; the magi have been in decline since their empire crumbled many years ago.

Personality: The general attitude of the magi is summed up as follows: "While we may not be gods, from down where you are the difference is moot." While not as insufferably hubristic as the elves tend to be, the magi are pretty haughty. They regard themselves as being above most any sort of law, including the natural laws, and rarely have concerns for creatures lesser than themselves - a group that includes pretty much everything in the mortal realms. Exceptions exist, of course, and variations are many - but haughty arrogance is the norm for the magi, and it is exceedingly rare to find one who doesn't look down his nose at people who can't tell the laws of physics to shut up and sit down. Magic is an all-consuming addiction for magi, and they devote their lives to its pursuit.
Necromancy, however, is viewed as distasteful at best and more commonly outright wrong. The magi have no more love for the undead than do anybody else, and while they are somewhat tolerant of mindless undead - particularly skeletons, as zombies do have that unpleasant smell and rotting problem - they draw the line at self-willed undead. The magi view lichdom as an unnatural end, and thus the number of magi liches that existed in the past century can be counted with the fingers of one hand.
Physical Description: Like the humans they are descended from and live among, the magi come in a wide variety of heights and builds. They tend to have darker skin than the locals, black or dark brown hair, and very commonly have grey eyes. Magi tend to dress according to the local fashions, preferring fine and regal clothing as befits their station in life.
Relations: Between their attitude and the little-understood and oftentimes frightening magic they wield, magi tend to be unpopular. Fortunately for them, they are usually content to stay at home and not bother with other people.
Alignment: Magi are usually lawful, usually lawful neutral or lawful evil. A good number are lawful good, as the inclination towards evil is more due to their delving in arcane power which man ought not than anything inherent in the race. The discipline required to master their magic instills a lawful streak in them, but a chaotic magus is quite possible.
Magi Lands: Magi once ruled the land of Magiran, a powerful magocracy in the Crawling Desert. It's long since withered and the magi have scattered to the four winds. In the nine hundred years since their civilization crumbled, the magi have changed a good deal from their original state to become a loose apolitical organization of scholars and sages. They live throughout the lands of Fieria, with individual magi answering to various archmagi as the archmagi wander and will, and all archmagi answering to the High Archmagus. The High Archmagus recognizes powerful magi as having become archmagi in their yearly Conference of the Tors.
Any who engage the High Archmagus in a duel and defeat him may sieze the title, but those who fail usually experience a fate worse than death. The current High Archmagus, Harim Sabeer, has lived over a thousand years and reigned since he was three hundred years old. He does not take kindly to dissent amongst the magi, and has very little patience for factional infighting. The few times some magi factions broke down to actually bringing spells to bear against each other, Harim Sabeer personally eradicated the ones who were too slow to escape. He has a reputation for cunning, as well, and so few are willing to entertain the notion of plotting against him.
Religion: Magi tend to not bother themselves with matters of religion, but those that do usually take to fiendish patrons who promise them knowledge and power. There are, of course, a good number who do exactly the opposite: swear to destroy those fiends and those who serve them.
Language: The magi speak their own language, the Arcanist's Tongue, in their spellcasting. It is the language of spells and magic, a difficult language whose power even the magi do not fully understand. They also speak the local languages, and many magi learn numerous ancient and modern languages.
Names: The magi, like most humans, have first names and surnames, both of which are given to them at birth. One magi addressing another puts the title "Magus" or "Archmagus" before his name, while anybody else refers to all magi as "Master (Surname here)".
Given Names: Alistair, Kyne
Surnames: Habarad, Jude
Adventurers: Magi quest to achieve greater power. Their motives can vary, but they are almost universally interested in achieving greater power. Many seek to surpass the arcane fatigue they suffer from in order to completely outstrip the elven spellcasters, either through infusing themselves with arcane energies or other means. As all magi start off as wizards, it is unusual for them to multiclass into anything except rogues or prestige classes.

Magus Racial Traits
- +2 Intelligence: Magi are geniuses. Evil geniuses.
- Medium: As Medium creatures, magi have no special bonuses or penalties due to size.
- Magi base land speed is 30 feet.
- 1 extra feat at first level, because magi are quick to master specialized tasks and varied in their talents.
- Arcane Addiction: Magi are addicted to the use of arcane magic. A magus must spend 1 hour each morning in meditation, resisting the distractions of addiction, or take a -1 penalty to skill checks and attack rolls and a -2 penalty to saving throws against spells for that day. He does, however, get a +1 bonus to his caster level. This bonus stacks with the bonus from feats and spellstone. Most magi take this time during their normal rest. If he does meditate, the magus gets a +2 bonus on saving throws against spells for that day.
- Collegiate: Magi wizards begin play knowing six first-level wizard spells, plus an additional one per point of Intelligence bonus. At each wizard level after that, they gain four spells instead of the usual two. Magi also receive a +2 racial bonus on all Knowledge (arcana) and Spellcraft checks.
- Automatic Languages: High Magiran and Arcanist's Tongue. Bonus Languages: Low Magiran, Tradespeak, Old Tradespeak, Cacor, Nessuan, Gut-Tamaug, Palaou, Allannyar.
- Favored Class: Wizard. Because of the uniformity of their training, all Magi are wizards at first level. They can branch out to other classes, though most do not. A magus who has more than half his hit dice in Wizard gains a +10% bonus to experience points.
- Restricted Classes: Sorcerer. While Magi are trained for wizardry, they are able learners and can adapt well enough to pick up any class except sorcerer. They simply do not have the innate power to pull it off. A magus who has levels in Sorcerer takes a -20% experience point penalty.

Sealtuans
The sealtuans are a nomadic race quite adapted to living in and on the water. They have lived on the islands off the coast of Fieria since time immemorial. The sealtuans claim they were present since the dawn of time and the creation of the species, saying that they are the race born of water just as humans were created from fire and dwarves from stone. While Gammerond the Creator made humans, dwarves, and other demihuman races, the sealtuans claim a different creator: Yeathan, Taelessa's father and the dark master of the depths. Since Yeathan has devolved into an evil servant of the Ebon Flame, the sealtuans have abandoned his worship for his daughter's.
Sealtuan society has become one ruled by a loose confederation of nobles, all of whom answer to the Jelkeshans. As members of the Mandate, whether they like it or not, sealtuans are usually treated as second-class citizens. Sealtuans are forbidden under Jelkeshan law from owning gold or land, preventing them from ever getting above middle class without leaving their homes.
The Jelkeshans have occupied the sealtuan floating cities since roughly six hundred years ago, but only closed the net and took over the whole of the sealtuan nation just a decade ago. The sealtuans have since spread throughout the Mandate, particularly the younger sealtuans who don't remember anything but life as subjects of the Mandate. The elders fear they are being diluted, that the sealtuan way of life might one day vanish from Arken.

Personality: To the sealtuan, family comes first. All else is second. They take care of each other, look after each other, and work side-by-side with each other pretty much from birth until the day they die. Most sealtuans couldn't begin to contemplate abandoning their family, and distant relations treat each other just as warmly as first cousins or siblings. This creates a unique solidarity in the race, one that could very easily result in the sealtuans uniting to overthrow the Jelkeshans.
By contrast, the sealtuans are very suspicious of outsiders. They are actually rather xenophobic, a fear not entirely unfounded given their history with the Jelkeshans. While they travel, live, and work among other races, sealtuans don't make friends with other people.
Physical Description: Sealtuan height ranges from under five feet to about six feet tall, and weight usually ranges from one hundred to one-eighty pounds. Sealtuan men are taller and heavier than sealtuan women, but the difference is less pronounced than is found among humans. Sealtuans are more graceful than humans, but also lack their strength - either in spirit or in body. While they appear to be mammals, sealtuans are actually a race descended of fish that an ancient sea-god shaped into something very similar to Gammerond's demihuman creations. They have fin-like serrated ears roughly four inches long and fairly slender, used to help steer in the water. Their eyes are almond-shaped and solid black save for their metallic gold, blue, green, or violet irises. A sealtuan's skin is smooth and fair, though it usually has a pale blue tint to it. Sealtuan skin is hairless, instead covered in scales too small to be seen or felt like those of a loach. The sealtuans have hair on their scalps matching their eyes, and thick, ridged scales growing in patches on their backs, shoulders, arms, lower legs, and necks in a shade matching their hair and eyes. Some have fewer scales, some have none at all, and rarely some sealtuans have bodies completely covered in scales. Sealtuans completely covered in gold scales are regarded as bad luck and used to be abandoned at birth, but in recent years Jelkeshan nobles have taken to raising them to be personal servants and entertainment. All sealtuans have fins on their forearms, shoulders, hips, and calves as well as webbed hands and feet with rather long, slender fingers and toes. A sealtuan woman's fins are thin and gossamer, but there are sharp bone spurs on the fins on a sealtuan man's forearm, calf, and shoulder fins that he could use as a natural weapon. While sealtuans do have lungs, they also have gills on their backs, just below the rib cage, and on the sides of their necks.
Sealtuans lay eggs, soft-shelled external wombs much like a shark's egg. These eggs require care for seven months, the mother keeping it submerged in fresh water and cleaning it regularly. A sealtuan child takes about fourteen years to reach physical and sexual maturity, though they are rarely considered full adults until about seventeen to nineteen years of age. Sealtuans usually live for about a century, though sometimes they can live up to two hundred years. On average, sealtuans live about as long as humans do.
Relations: Sealtuans are pretty xenophobic, disliking humans because they lump all humans together in with the same group as the Jelkeshans and dwarves in with the same group as the humans. Thus, relations between the races are generally unfriendly, although sealtuans have been known to form individual friendships with humans, dwarves, and other races.
Alignment: Though they tend to respect family and tradition, a lawful trait, most sealtuans are too free-spirited to be much of anything but chaotic alignments. They aren't necessarily anarchists who exist to destroy, but they do dislike governments and laws on general principle. Morally, sealtuans tend slightly more towards good than evil, looking after themselves and their own without much compassion or malice for outsiders who don't interfere with the sealtuans. They'll generally help someone in need, but don't make a habit of looking for people in trouble.
Sealtuan Lands: The only lands the sealtuans can really call their own now is the Sealtuan Archipelago, a cluster of islets south of the Jelkeshan Isles that ranges from small rocks jutting out of the ocean to small islands with a patch of forest on them - most of those are too marshy to really be of much use.
Religion: Sealtuans approach religion fairly casually, and often don't understand the depth of faith humans and dwarves can exhibit. One of their favored patrons is Taelessa, although some of the sealtuans more violently opposed to the Jelkeshan occupation reject her as demanding that the sealtuans be too passive about accepting the Jelkeshans' occupation.
Language: The sealtuan language is Palaou, a language given to many vowels and few consonants, with almost no hard consonants. People mock it by using ululations, and even the sealtuans will admit that it isn't exactly the most well-developed language when compared to Tradespeak or Gut-Tamaug. Still, they take pride in learning and speaking it and refuse to speak Tradespeak - sealtuans traveling abroad often learn Gut-Tamaug instead.
Names: Sealtuans, much like some humans, have first names and surnames, both of which are given at birth and stick for the rest of their lives. Some have Jelkeshan names, while others have more traditionally sealtuan names. They inherit their surnames from their mothers.
Adventurers: Many sealtuan adventurers seek fame and glory, a place above the peasant life they were born to, are rebels against the Jelkeshans, seek revenge against the Jelkeshan overlords, or any combination of the above.

Sealtuan Racial Traits
- -2 Strength, +2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma. Sealtuans aren't as strong as most humans, but they are more graceful and charismatic than the norm.
- Medium: As Medium creatures, sealtuans have no special bonuses or penalties due to size.
- Sealtuan base land speed is 30 feet. Sealtuan base swim speed is 40 feet.
- Sealtuans are monstrous humanoids with the aquatic and amphibious subtypes.
- Sealtuans have the Aquatic subtype, but have no trouble breathing in air due to their amphibious nature. Sealtuans have gills on their necks and backs, but they seal up so as to be all but undetectable when not in the water. They also have a pair of lungs identical to those humans have, kept separate from the gills and sealing off when the gills are open. The gills function only in fresh water, and the sealtuan reacts to saltwater much like a human does to thick smoke - they have to make a Fortitude save every round (DC 15 + 1 per previous check) or spend that round choking and gagging. A sealtuan who spends two consecutive rounds choking takes 1d6 points of nonlethal damage and 1d6 points of nonlethal damage every round spent choking after that.
- Oxygen Efficiency (Ex): As sealtuans are far more efficient at drawing oxygen from air and using it than humans are, they can hold their breath for quite some time - about eight minutes, on average. Sealtuans can hold their breath for a number of rounds equal to their constitution score times eight before they start to suffocate. Note that using their gills counts as breathing.
- Low-Light Vision (Ex): A sealtuan can negate concealment due to darkness in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination (but not total concealment). She retains the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.
- Keen Senses (Ex): +2 racial bonus to Listen, Search, and Spot checks. A sealtuan who merely passes within five feet of a hidden object (such as a secret or concealed door) is entitled to a Search check to notice it as if she were actively looking for it. An sealtuan's senses are so keen that she practically has a sixth sense about these things - a handy trait for living and working in a world where danger can come from anywhere at any time.
- Underwater Blindsight (Ex): The sealtuans have a form of echolocation, much like that of dolphins and whales, that enables them to maneuver in the murkiest water without much trouble. This blindsight only works underwater out to a range of 120 feet, and a silence spell or similar effect negates it. For some reason or another, sealtuans cannot detect each others' echolocation waves, and thus can neither confuse each other nor communicate using echolocation. Underwater, sealtuans usually don't need to make a Spot or Listen check to pinpoint a target's location, and invisibility, darkness, and most forms of concealment are irrelevant, although the sealtuan needs line-of-sight to discern that creature or object - hiding behind something is still an effective means of ambushing an underwater sealtuan.
- Blindsense (Ex): Outside the water, the sealtuan's echolocation is greatly reduced in effectiveness. She usually does not need to make a Spot or Listen check to pinpoint the location of a target within the blindsense's 20-foot range, so long as the sealtuan has line-of-sight to the object. Blindsense does not negate concealment, nor does it enable the sealtuan to keep its dexterity bonus to armor class against attacks from creatures it cannot see, but it does prove mighty useful in pinpointing an invisible target's location.
- Spines (Male only): A sealtuan man has sharp, bony spines in the fins on his forearms, shoulders and calves that he can use to make slashing attacks for 1d4 points of damage, combining the fins into one attack. A sealtuan monk could use them in his unarmed strikes, changing the bludgeoning damage into slashing damage and adding +2 damage to his attacks.
- Automatic Languages: Palaou. Bonus Languages: Tradespeak, Gut-Tamaug, Allannyar, Old Tradespeak.
- Favored Class: None. Sealtuans are equally adept at just about any pursuit.
- Restricted Classes: None. The sealtuans are able to pursue any class they choose, although receiving magical training can be difficult and they are not as gifted at it as the magi, half-elves, or elves.

Wildsmans
Once a common and ubiquitous race, the wildsmans have been in a slow decline for millennia. They now live primarily in the Northwood and Highlands, preferring the colder forests to other terrain. Wildsmans have a reputation as savage, animalistic, and brutally stupid barbarians, little better than orcs, a reputation that gets worse the farther away from Galgany and the Highlands the teller is from. They are a nomadic people light on history and heavy on myths and legends, and more than one adventurer has found that asking a wildsman storyteller is often just as good as, if not better than, consulting a library for information more than a few hundred years old that pertains to the northlands. The wildsman culture is steeped in traditions and the glories of yesteryear, and their hunter-gatherer way of life means their fortunes wax and wane with the natural world's far more than the agricultural humans'. Wildsmans have primitive technology as compared to the majority of humanity, although they have nothing against it and gladly trade the Galganians steel blades for furs and pelts. Native wildsman technology is stone and bone tools, although they tend to be skilled archers and spearsmen. Wildsmans usually dislike using swords, much preferring the more practical knife if they have to get into melee. For them, warfare is not an agreeable choice, especially a straight-up fight - far better to snipe an opponent and wear him down, keeping yourself safe from harm while taking down a threat. These guerilla tactics are a large part of the reason the Galganians have yet to become part of the Mandate. The Galganians recognize this.

Personality: Wildsmans are not so much stupid as they are slow. They can reach the same conclusion as a human can, but it takes them longer to do it. They tend to be intuitive and impulsive, and wanderlust is a common feature in their society - especially their youths. Wildsmans are quite in touch with their history, as they have a sort of racial memory. This racial memory spans back to time immemorial, though memories older than a few hundred years are flitting and quite hazy, and memories that the wildsman did not experience himself are more like one would expect from reading a book than personal experience. Converse to modern real-world human logic on genetics, this memory is not restricted to what the wildsman's parents knew before conceiving him but rather spans the entire lives of their ancestors. A wildsman is updated a few days after the parent or grandparent experiences something, and many sages believe that this ability is rooted in telepathy.
This racial memory has a rather profound impact on the wildsman. When out traveling, they very rarely feel homesick - after all, they're getting updates from their parents if the parent is still alive, as is usually the case with a young wildsman adventurer. The wildsmans do not believe in an afterlife, as they continue on in their descendants. Thus, one of the most terrifying things for a wildsman is to contemplate the oblivion of dying without children. Several wildsmans have something very close to an imaginary friend; that is, a particular persona from one of their ancestors that they have a close bond with and achieves a sort of life. This ancestor often takes the role of a mentor, teacher, friend, companion, and playmate - they are not limited to just the age they died at, but can take on a mental age of any they lived while retaining all of their memories. Curiously, this ancestor's memories are updated retroactively in all wildsmans who are descended from him.
Needless to say, the wildsmans have almost unparalleled racial unity. While they are by no means hive-minded, separate tribes are far more likely to greet each other as distant cousins than beat on each other. Exceptions exist, especially between tribes that are more distantly-related to each other, and assumptions are dangerous.
While the wildsmans fear an end of life just as other humans do, they are curiously unique in that they see the dead body as only so much meat. They believe the spirit of a living creature departs after death, leaving nothing behind. Thus, their burials are often quite simple, and they do not object to animating the dead nearly as strenuously as other races. Wildsmans who become self-willed undead such as vampires are cut out of the racial memory from the point of their conversion and onwards. It is quite possible that a wildsman could encounter the undead form of his ancestral spirit companion, and the only objection there is the fact that the vampire would be an evil, twisted mockery of the ancestral spirit.
Wildsmans are slow to anger, but when roused to ire their wrath is legendary. The best way to get a wildsman angry very quickly is to threaten him or his kith and kin with physical harm - wildsman barbarians have no trouble going into a rage in a fight. They are unusually independent-minded, and tribes often have little more leadership than a shaman and a couple of elders whose decisions are respected. They cannot understand the human need for governments, and they find the Manitorns to be just downright perplexing. Because the wildsmans live so closely with nature, they have a healthy respect for it and tend to know quite a bit about their environment.
While the wildsmans have a shorter adolescence than humans, the fact that they have the experience of their entire ancestral line at their disposal helps them mentally mature much, much quicker.
Physical Description: Wildsmans are shorter than most humans, with men standing at an average of five and a half feet tall while the women stand at an average of five feet tall. They usually weigh between two hundred and two-fifty pounds, with the women being lighter than the men as is the case with other humans. Wildsmans are considerably more robust than other humans, looking almost like human-dwarf crossbreeds, with barrel chests and heavy builds. Some who are unfamiliar with the wildsmans suggest this is the case, and are usually laughed at by members of both races. Wildsman skin ranges from dusky to chocolate brown, and their hair is straight and dark brown or black, and the men grow beards and moustaches - oddly, frost doesn't seem to stick to their beards, unlike with other humans. Wildsmans have a low, flat, elongated skull, heavy eyebrows and low brows, large, projecting noses, and a lack of a protruding chin. In short, they look stupid and primitive. Wildsmans have copious body hair, helping with their image of subhuman savages.
Relations: Just about everybody who encounters a wildsman has trouble getting over the preconceived notion that the wildsman is a clumsy and dull-witted oaf. On the surface, they appear to be the common notion. Many wildsmans take advantage of this, pretending to be much stupider than they actually are. Normally, the wildsmans have the same relations with outsiders that the Galganian humans do. They dislike the Dunadorians, as the Dunadorians have attacked a number of wildsman tribes in the past, they find the civilized Avalonians and Jelkeshans to be a little annoying - especially with their smugly superior attitudes. Many wildsmans have offered to trade places with the city-dwellers - and most wildsmans adapt far better to living in the city than Jelkeshans or Avalonians do living in the harsh northern forests. Wildsmans actively dislike the magi, and they are often murderous towards the elves. They believe that elves are demon-spirits, an attitude they imparted to the Galganians. Although the wildsmans find the axiomatic dwarves to be confusingly stiff-necked, the two races generally get along reasonably well - especially in human lands, where the dwarves feel like outsiders and the wildsmans are treated as inferiors. The Galganians and wildsmans get along reasonably well, although they usually like to keep each other at arm's length.
Alignment: Wildsmans tend to be chaotic, but beyond that slight tendency have little predisposition towards one alignment or another. Wildsmans who are evil and destructive are usually exiled from the tribe, if not killed outright.
Wildsman Lands: Most wildsmans live in the Northwood and Great Forest of the Highlands. These cold forests are home to wolves, deer, bears, and other animals, enabling the wildsmans to live reasonably well by hunting. Wildsmans, unlike other societies, have more vigilante justice than a codified set of laws. They can get away with this because so few wildsmans are willing to harm a fellow tribesman. Their very survival depends upon cooperation.
Religion: Wildsmans tend to be druidic. They taught druidism to the Galganians, and the Galganians have spread their teachings to other lands. They do not worship their ancestors, although they usually give them a healthy degree of respect.
Language: The wildsman language varies slightly from tribe to tribe, but is similar enough that someone who speaks one tribe's language can easily understand any other tribe's language. Their language borrows heavily from Old Tradespeak, the language the Galganians favor, but maintains several unique characteristics of its own.
Names: Wildsmans have simple names, yet they attribute great power to them. Names are typically guttural and savage-sounding. A wildsman's given name is a jealously guarded secret known only to his most trusted friends and the other members of his clan. To outsiders, a wildsman typically refers to himself by his profession in the clan along with his clan's name. For example, a hunter might introduce himself as a hunter of the Elk Clan.
Male Names: Artok, Becksor, Brulak, Garthak, Kalak, Llurg, Murak, Orick, Ralagh, Thogart, Torak, Urak.
Female Names: Ayah, Bahgdra, Cirah, Drelli, Durana, Illka, Kara, Lana, Magala, Neruh, Onsi, Svelani, Zura.
Clan Names: Clan names are typically named after a predominant animal in the region; Bear Clan, Eagle Clan, Elk Clan, Mammoth Clan, Raven Clan, Tiger Clan, and Wolf Clan are excellent examples. Rarely, a clan may take the name of a particularly powerful menace, such as Dragon Clan, Spider Clan, or Yeti Clan.
Adventurers: Wildsmans who adventure are usually young men or women out to explore the world a bit before settling down. They tend towards the wilderness classes - barbarians, rangers, and druids - and generally feel uneasy in a city, particularly large ones like Draegoncrest, Dolca and even Derote or Brindinford. This can lead to the wildsman acting a little sullen, moody, and snappish, which only helps to feed the common perception of them as simple-minded brutes.

Wildsman Racial Traits
- +2 Strength, -2 Dexterity, +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence: Wildsmans are strong and hardy, but are hampered by slow intellects and reflexes.
- Medium-Sized: As Medium creatures, wildsmans have no special bonuses or penalties due to size.
- Speed: Wildsman base land speed is 30 feet.
- Racial Memory (Su): Wildsmans have a unique racial memory. It updates with a lag of roughly two nights, conveying the memories of their direct ancestors. These memories cease updating upon the ancestor's death, meaning that the last two days and nights of that ancestor's life are lost and not continued in the racial memory. This allows them an unparalleled knowledge of history. Firsthand knowledge, after a fashion. This grants the wildsmans a +2 racial bonus to Knowledge (history), Knowledge (nature), and Survival checks. They always treat these as class skills.
- +2 racial bonus on Hide, Listen, Move Silently, and Spot checks. Wildsmans have excellent senses and know how to move without their prey (or predators) detecting them. They have to; they're not the top of the food chain in the frozen northlands.
- Scent (Ex): The wildsman's sense of smell is so acute that he can detect approaching enemies, sniff out hidden foes, and track by sense of smell. A wildsman can identify familiar odors just as humans do familiar sights.
The wildsman can detect opponents within 30 feet by sense of smell. If the opponent is upwind, the range increases to 60 feet; if downwind, it drops to 15 feet. Strong scents, such as smoke or rotting garbage, can be detected at twice the ranges noted above. Overpowering scents, such as skunk musk or troglodyte stench, can be detected at triple normal range.
When a wildsman detects a scent, the exact location of the source is not revealed - only its presence somewhere within range. The wildsman can take a move action to note the direction of the scent. Whenever the wildsman comes within 5 feet of the source, he pinpoint's the source's location.
A wildsman with the Track feat can follow tracks by smell, making a Wisdom (or Survival) check to find or follow a track. The typical DC for a fresh trail is 10 (no matter what kind of surface holds the scent). This DC increases or decreases depending on how strong the quarry's odor is, the number of creatures, and the age of the trail. For each hour that the trail is cold, the DC increases by 2. The ability otherwise follows the rules for the Track feat. Wildsmans tracking by scent ignore the effects of surface conditions and poor visibility for tracking, though those might slow him down in going after his prey.
- Climate Tolerant (Ex): Wildsmans suffer little harm from the environmental extremes of heat or cold. They do not have to make Fortitude saves in extreme environments between -20o and 140o F (severe cold to severe heat). This ability does not provide any protection from fire or cold damage. This ability counts as if a wildsman had the Cold Endurance feat for purposes of fulfilling prerequisites for other feats or prestige classes.
- Primitive: Wildsmans start with proficiency in basic weapons, primitive weapons, spears, and bows rather than their ordinary class proficiencies. In addition, they are always illiterate and must spend two skill points to gain literacy (even if they take a class other than Barbarian).
- Automatic Languages: Wildspeech. Bonus Languages: Giant, Goblin, Gut-Tamaug, Old Tradespeak, Orc, Tradespeak. Wildsmans are familiar with the languages of giants and orcs, for these two groups are common enemies that vie for competing land with them. Likewise, their penchant for dwelling in caves and underground ruins often puts them in contact with dwarves and goblins.
- Favored Class: Barbarian. Unsurprisingly, wildsmans take well to the barbarian class. A wildsman who has more than half his hit dice in Barbarian gains a +10% bonus to experience points.
- Restricted Classes: Sorcerer, Wizard. Much like other humans, wildsmans are incapable of manipulating the arcane magic needed to cast sorcerer or wizard spells. With proper training, though, they can achieve any other class. A wildsman who has levels in Sorcerer or Wizard takes a -20% experience point penalty for one or -40% for both.

Solaris
2008-10-21, 05:12 AM
Dark Elves
Known to themselves and those familiar with them as the raven elves, the dark elves are a hard people. The dark elves and the Siou were once allied, the dark elves the special enforcers of the Siou rule. When the dark elves rebelled under their famed leader, the warrior-woman Araushnee, the Siou eventually won after a long and terrible war that left all sides decimated. The dark elves only somewhat reluctantly accepted exile to the human lands, while the Siou retreated to their mountaintop citadels to nurse their wounds.

Personality: Male dark elves are raised since birth to be highly skilled and powerful fighters, and all dark elves are inspected at birth for any deformity, defect, or weakness. Any dark elves infant who fails this inspection is cast away to die in the sea. All dark elves have another such test at the age of seven (for, despite their incredibly long lifespans, elves physically mature at roughly the same rate as humans), and males have it again at the age of twenty-five and one hundred-and-ten. The price of failing any of these tests is death. Unlike most elves, who have an egalitarian society, dark elves are divided along gender lines; men are the warriors and statesmen, women are the spellcasters, artisans, and priestesses. All are fiercely proud and defiant, allowing only warriors mightier than they to command them. Both genders are trained in the arts of warfare as a matter of course.
Physical Description: The dark elves are physically impressive, with a great deal more gender dimorphism than other elves evince. Both genders stand a little over six feet tall, with some of the larger males reaching almost seven feet tall. The men are muscular and broad-shouldered, a sharp turn from the normally androgynous elf males, the women sleek and curvaceous. Other elves tend to hint that the dark elves might possess some taint of human blood, or perhaps orc or hobgoblin ancestors. They generally don't do this when the dark elves are within earshot. Those dark elves who do not meet their physical standards are killed in the successive tests. There are no weak, clumsy, or ugly dark elves. dark elves have snowy white hair and ebon-black or deep purple skin, with eye colors ranging from blue to violet to red. They have angular facial features, long pointed ears, and slit pupils that give them a feral appearance. Their eyebrows arch out like whiskers, and serve much the same purpose. The dark elves prefer minimal clothing, but they adjust their garb to account for the weather. They decorate their clothing with raven feathers, symbols of their prowess in combat. A dark elf wearing a cloak of raven feathers is either very, very cocky or someone to be very, very respectful around.
Relations: The dark elves get along well with warrior societies, such as the Kygans and Galganians, but get along very poorly with their elven kin. Unlike most elves, the dark elves see much to admire in the Manitorns and individual Manitorns. Dark elves have become great friends over the years but Ravenskoff and Manitol have not entered into any alliance. Ravenskoff is allied with the Kygan Empire and Baelnoel, making it a political rival of the Knights' Mandate.
Alignment: The dark elves have a regimented and militaristic society, a lawful trait. They have little regard for morals but are not particularly malevolent to those who respect them. Thus, they tend to be lawful neutral and lawful evil - but that's only as a society. Adventuring dark elves tend to be chaotic good or another non-standard alignment.
Dark Elf Lands: Ravenskoff is a peninsula jutting off of the southern portion of the Kygan Empire, near the Beastlands and far south of the elven city-states. The Jelkeshans have several ports on the peninsula, and many of the merchant-princes employ dark elf bodyguards.
Religion: The dark elves revere their Warrior Queen Araushnee, founder of the Ravenskoff state. Her priestesses oversee the Tests and see to it that those who fail are drowned in the sea. It was Araushnee who led the dark elves to their new homeland of Ravenskoff, and it was Araushnee who helped them accept the new land as a homeland rather than a home-in-exile as so many of the weaker elves did. It was also Araushnee who led the dark elves to cull the weak from their numbers. When the Warrior Queen died in battle against the Kygans, the Ebon Flame took her to with it in the Netherworld and promised to return her to lead the dark elves of Ravenskoff to a new golden age. The dark elves prepare for that day with razor-sharp spears and ready shields.
Language: The dark elf language is quite similar to the Siou clan language, but has a good deal of Kygan influence.
Names: Dark elves have a naming system that even they admit is needlessly complicated. A dark elf child is given a birth name, which is often akin to something one would name a pet. Calling an adult dark elf by his birth name solicits a reaction that depends upon the relationship the addresser has with the dark elf - using the birth name is something that only very close friends from childhood or lovers do, and doing it in public is considered in very bad taste. Calling a male dark elf by his birth name is grounds for him stabbing the offending parties. Upon reaching adulthood at age one-hundred-and-ten, a dark elf chooses a first name. His first name is a unique creation, usually a twist on a word or imitating the names of people who influenced him as he grew up. Dark elves also have two surnames and a shortened form of their clan's name, with an honorific designating their social class thrown in the middle. Raven elf warriors have the honorific of rae, statesmen have ryl, and women have ist. It is arranged as follows:
(First name) (Paternal surname) (honorific) (Clan name) (Maternal surname)
It gets more complicated. The surnames a dark elf gets from the parents depends upon the dark elf's gender - if the dark elves is male, he receives his father's paternal surname and his mother's paternal surname, while a female dark elf receives her parents' maternal surnames.
Adventurers: There are two kinds of dark elf adventurers: Those who passed the Tests and those who have not. The ones who failed their Tests were usually twenty-five years old, but some were seven-year-olds whose parents spirited them away. The ones who passed their Tests are normal members of their society, at least as normal as adventurers can be. Raven elf males tend to be fighters, rangers, and other combat-oriented classes, whereas the dark elf females tend to be divine or arcane spellcasters. The ones who failed the Tests tend to be rogues or barbarians, living on the fringes of hobgoblin, human, or elven society. Almost all dark elf adventurers are outcasts from their society in one way or another - it's not at all unusual to find one who plots to overthrow the current regime and remove the Tests entirely.

Dark Elf Racial Traits
- +2 Dexterity, -2 Constitution, +2 Intelligence, +2 Charisma: Dark elves are graceful but frail. A dark elf's grace makes her naturally better at stealth and archery.
- Type: Humanoid (Elf).
- Medium: As Medium creatures, dark elves have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
- Dark elf base land speed is 30 feet.
- Magic Infusion (Su): All elves begin play with a mana pool of 2 points.
- Darkvision (Ex): Dark elves ignore concealment due to darkness (including total concealment). Darkvision is black-and-white only, but is otherwise like normal vision.
- Keen Senses: +2 racial bonus on Listen, Search, and Spot checks. A dark elf who merely passes within 5 feet of a secret or concealed door is entitled to a Search check to notice it as if she were actively looking for it. An elf's senses are so keen that she practically has a sixth sense about hidden portals.
- Mystic Will (Su): All elves are immune to sleep and charm effects. In addition, they have a +2 racial bonus to Will saves.
- Spell Resistance equal to 6 + class levels.
- Spell-Like Abilities: Dark elves with a Charisma of 15 or higher can use their dancing lights, fly, and invisibility spell-like abilities once per day. Caster level equals the dark elf's character level, and saving throws are Charisma-based.
- Weapon Proficiency: Dark elves receive Weapon Group Proficiency (Bow), (Spears and Lances), and dark elf men receive Weapon Group Proficiency (Heavy Blades) while the women receive Weapon Group Proficiency (Flails and Chains). These are the traditional weapons of Ravenskoff, and all dark elves youths learn their use as they grow up.
- Automatic Languages: Tradespeak and Allanyar. Bonus Languages:
- Favored Class: Fighter (male), Sorcerer (female). A male dark elf who has more than half his hit dice in Fighter gains a +10% bonus to experience points. Likewise, a female who has more than half her hit dice in Sorcerer gains a +10% bonus to experience points.
- Restricted Classes: Sorcerer (male). Fighter (female). Cleric, Wizard (both genders). Each class imparts a -20% experience point penalty to the dark elf.
- Level Adjustment: +1.

Night Elves
When most of the dark elves revolted against the Siou, there were some who did not follow Araushnee. While they were exiled alongside the of the traitors, these dark elves instead chose to settle in the Beastlands, a region of primeval forests and grasslands home to untamed nature at its greatest. Like their Ravenskoff cousins, they were once ordinary elves who bear the Siou's curse for turning against them.

Personality: Night elves are fiercely proud and defiant, much like their Ravenskoff cousins. They view things in terms of hunter and hunted, predator and prey. The night elves are aloof and quiet, fair-minded and honorable. They are practical and superstitious.
Physical Description: The night elves are bigger than most of their elven kin, about the size of ordinary half-elves. Both genders stand a little over five feet tall, with the males being taller and heavier than the females. The men are muscular and broad-shouldered, a sharp turn from the normally androgynous elf males, the women sleek and curvaceous. Other elves tend to hint that the night elves might possess some taint of human blood, or perhaps orc or hobgoblin ancestors. They generally don't do this when the dark elves are within earshot, but they're probably right. Night elves have snowy white hair and ebon-black or deep purple skin, with eye colors ranging from silver to pale blue, with the odd throwback having deep green eyes. Their eyes have a very striking contrast against the elf's dull skin in shadowy conditions, almost seeming to glow. They have angular facial features, long pointed ears reaching up to eight inches long, and slit pupils that give them a feral appearance. Their eyebrows arc out like whiskers, and serve much the same purpose. The night dark elves wear snugly-fitting leather clothing decorated with owl feathers (which are thought to grant good fortune in the hunt), silver jewelry (symbolic of the spirit world), and jade amulets (symbolizing both heaven and earth).
Relations: The night elves have little contact with anyone outside the human and humanoid barbarians of the Beastlands. Those they avoid, maintaining an air of mystique even if they are in close contact with the other races.
Alignment: The night elves understand quite well that those who do not work do not eat, and those who look to themselves at the expense of others are exiled from the group. The night dark elves are honorable, just, and noble - vastly different from their elitist cousins in Ravenskoff. Still, they are defiant and refuse to be controlled, a chaotic trait.
Night Elf Lands: The night elves live in the Beastlands, a wild region of deep primeval jungle and open grasslands. They live in semi-nomadic tribes, moving from season to season with the herds they hunt. They grow small fields of vegetables in the summer months, packing up and roaming after the herds of deer in the winter months.
Religion: The night elves are shamanistic, revering the spirits of the natural world around them.
Language: The dark elf language is quite similar to the Siou clan language, but has a good deal of Kygan and Sylvan influence.
Names: Elves have a naming system that even they admit is needlessly complicated. An elven child is given a birth name, which is often akin to something one would name a pet. Calling an adult elf by his birth name solicits a reaction that depends upon the relationship the addresser has with the elf - using the birth name is something that only very close friends from childhood or lovers do, and doing it in public is considered in very bad taste. Upon reaching adulthood at age one-hundred-and-ten, an elf chooses a first name. His first name is a unique creation, usually a twist on a word or imitating the names of people who influenced him as he grew up. Elves also have two surnames and a shortened form of their clan's name, with an honorific designating their class thrown in the middle. It is arranged as follows:
(First name) (Paternal surname) (honorific) (Clan name) (Maternal surname)
It gets more complicated. The surnames an elf gets from the parents depends upon the elf's gender - if the elf is male, he receives his father's paternal surname and his mother's paternal surname, while a female elf receives her parents' maternal surnames. Oftentimes the only real ties an elf has is a loose one to his clan - siblings rarely, if ever, feel any sort of bond beyond what is normal for friends.
As elves do not distinguish between the genders in their society, there tends to not be much difference between the names given to children of either gender. There are a handful of exceptions, but those are quite rare and not very commonly used. There are no hard and fast distinctions between first names elves take, although male names end with consonants and female names with vowels about half the time.
Adventurers: The night dark elves are usually barbarians, rangers, druids, or other such wilderness-oriented classes. They could be survivors of a decimated tribe or even just individuals afflicted with wanderlust.

Night Elf Racial Traits
- +2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma: Night elves are graceful, clever, and wise but are also cold and aloof.
- Type: Fey (Elf).
- Medium: As Medium creatures, night elves have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
- Night elves base land speed is 40 feet.
- Immunity to magic sleep effects and magic charm effects. Night elves also receive a +2 racial bonus on Will saves against spells and spell-like abilities.
- Darkvision (Ex): A night elf can negate concealment due to darkness (including total concealment). Darkvision is black-and-white only, but is otherwise like normal vision. A night elf can function just fine with no light at all.
- +2 racial bonus on Listen, Search, and Spot checks. A night elf who merely passes within 5 feet of a secret or concealed door is entitled to a Search check to notice it as if she were actively looking for it. A dark elf's senses are so keen that she practically has a sixth sense about hidden portals.
- Light Blindness: Abrupt exposure to bright light (such as sunlight or a daylight spell) blinds night dark elves for 1 round. On subsequent rounds, they are dazzled as long as they remain in the affected area. Night elves are nocturnal creatures, ill-suited to operating in the environments other races are most comfortable in.
- Spell Resistance equal to 11 + class levels.
- Shadowblend (Su): Night elves get a +10 circumstance bonus to Hide checks at night or in low-light environments while stationary. Additionally, when a night elf would gain concealment from low-light conditions, she instead gains total concealment.
- Automatic Languages: Tradespeak and Allanyar. Bonus Languages:
- Favored Class: Druid. A night elf who has more than half her hit dice in Druid gains a +10% bonus to experience points.
- Restricted Classes: Wizard, Sorcerer. Each of these classes imparts a -20% experience point penalty to the night dark elves.
- Level Adjustment: +2.

... Yeah, I know. They're a blatant rip-off of Warcraft-universe night elves. Sue me.

Lappy9000
2008-10-21, 05:34 AM
I apologize for the lack of fancy formatting. The internection here likes to give out. A lot.

Well, that's cool, but at least give me some bolded or underlined text. It's all an immense text wall at the moment.

Anyway, adding extra experience for taking a certain class seems to be an odd mechanic. It ciuld function fine enough, but it looks like it would be alot of extra book work.

Solaris
2008-10-21, 08:22 AM
Trust me, I hate massive text walls as much as the next guy.

Well, the +10% experience point thing had always been rather fun back in AD&D. It kept my so-so fighter on par with my brother's high-powered paladin. I took out the stat requirements, but added in race-specific classes.

Zeta Kai
2008-10-21, 09:12 AM
Here's a tip that can help your formatting & make it much easier to read:
You need spoilers, badly. Quote this post to read the code for spoilers. It's quite easy to add, & it makes for much better posts.

Solaris
2008-10-21, 09:14 AM
Ooh, shiny. I'll do that, thanks.

Lorien077
2008-10-21, 05:51 PM
Very interesting flavor stuff in there. I really really like what you did with half elves.
For a text wall remedy (I'm sorry even I skimmed D:) I would put things like "Alignment:" and other such labels in bold, perhaps put a line of space between each block.