[Hourglass of Zihaja] Chapter 4: PC Races

[Zeta Kai]

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Table 4-1: Random Starting Ages

{table=head]Race|Adulthood|Barbarian / Rogue / Sorcerer|Bard / Fighter / Paladin / Ranger|Cleric / Druid / Monk / Wizard
Gnoll|14 years|+1d4|+1d6|+2d6
Half-Genie|25 years|+2d6|+3d6|+4d6
Half-Ghul|20 years|+2d4|+2d6|+3d6
Human|15 years|+1d4|+1d6|+2d6
Kobold|6 years|+1d3|+1d4|+2d4
Lizardfolk|20 years|+1d6|+2d6|+3d6
Sabi|17 years|+1d4|+1d6|+2d6[/table]

Table 4-2: Aging Effects

{table=head]Race|Middle Age*|Old**|Venerable***|Maximum Age
Gnoll|35 years|53 years|70 years|+2d10 years
Half-Genie|75 years|113 years|150 years|+2d% years
Half-Ghul|60 years|90 years|120 years|+1d% years
Human|35 years|53 years|70 years|+2d20 years
Kobold|60 years|90 years|120 years|+3d6 years
Lizardfolk|50 years|75 years|100 years|+2d20 years
Sabi|40 years|60 years|80 years|+3d20 years[/table]

* = @ Middle Age, -1 to Str, Dex, & Con; +1 to Int, Wis, & Cha
** = @ Old Age, -2 to Str, Dex, & Con; +1 to Int, Wis, & Cha
*** = @ Venerable Age, -3 to Str, Dex, & Con; +1 to Int, Wis, & Cha

Table 4-3: Random Height & Weight

{table=head]Race|Base Height|Height Modifier|Base Weight|Height Modifier
Gnoll, male|5’2”|+2d12|180 lbs.|×(2d6) lbs.
Gnoll, female|5’4”|+2d12|200 lbs.|×(2d6) lbs.
Half-Genie, male|4’10”|+2d12|150 lbs.|×(2d6) lbs.
Half-Genie, female|4’5”|+2d12|110 lbs.|×(2d6) lbs.
Half-Ghul, male|5’5”|+2d12|160 lbs.|×(2d6) lbs.
Half-Ghul, female|4’10”|+2d12|125 lbs.|×(2d6) lbs.
Human, male|4’10”|+2d10|120 lbs.|×(2d4) lbs.
Human, female|4’5”|+2d10|85 lbs.|×(2d4) lbs.
Kobold, male|2’1”|+2d4|40 lbs.|×1 lb.
Kobold, female|1’10”|+2d4|30 lbs.|×1 lb.
Lizardfolk, male|5’7”|+2d12|180 lbs.|×(2d6) lbs.
Lizardfolk, female|5’3”|+2d12|160 lbs.|×(2d6) lbs.
Sabi (Hawasabi), male|4’10”|+2d10|120 lbs.|×(1d4) lbs.
Sabi (Hawasabi), female|4’5”|+2d10|85 lbs.|×(1d4) lbs.
Sabi (Masabi), male|4’10”|+2d8|120 lbs.|×(2d4) lbs.
Sabi (Masabi), female|4’5”|+2d8|85 lbs.|×(2d4) lbs.
Sabi (Narsabi), male|4’10”|+2d12|120 lbs.|×(1d6) lbs.
Sabi (Narsabi), female|4’5”|+2d12|85 lbs.|×(1d6) lbs.
Sabi (Tarisabi), male|4’10”|+2d10|120 lbs.|×(2d6) lbs.
Sabi (Tarisabi), female|4’5”|+2d10|85 lbs.|×(2d6) lbs.[/table]

Table 4-4: Singular & Plural Forms

{table=head]Singular|Plural
Human|Humans
Gnoll|Gnolls
Lizardman/Lizardwoman|Lizardfolk
Kobold|Kobolds
Sabi|Sabi
Half-Ghul|Half-Ghuls
Half-Genie|Half-Genies
Ghul|Ghuls
Djinn|Djinni
Efreet|Efreeti
Marid|Marids
Dao|Dao[/table]

Table 4-5: Reincarnation Chart

{table=head]Original Race|Worthy Reincarnation|Unworthy Reincarnation
Aasimar|Deva|Homa
Aazlai|Houri|Ghul
Camelotaur|Houri|Ghul
Demon|Almasti|Div
Deva|Karkadan|Samandar
Devil|Vulture Harpy|Div
Genie|Hafaza|Ammut
Ghul|PC Race|Demon
Gnoll|Houri|Ghul
Half-Genie|Houri|Ghul
Half-Ghul|Houri|Ghul
Houri|Homa|PC Race
Human|Houri|Ghul
Kobold|Houri|Ghul
Lizardfolk|Houri|Ghul
Pahari|Houri|Ghul
Sabi|Houri|Ghul
Tiefling|Hafaza|Demon[/table]

[Zeta Kai]

Gnoll

3rd Edition Statistics

Spoiler

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• Strength +2, Wisdom -2.
• Humanoid (Gnoll): Gnolls are subject to spells or effects that affect humanoids only, such as charm person or dominate person.
• Medium Size: As Medium creatures, gnolls have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
• A gnoll’s base land speed is 30 feet.
• Darkvision out to 60 feet.
• Racial Skills: A gnoll character has a +2 racial bonus on Listen, Spot, & Survival checks.
• Social Acumen (Ex): +2 circumstance bonus to Diplomacy & Sense Motive checks made when dealing with members of another culture. Gnolls are canny & adaptable in social situations.
• +1 natural armor bonus.
• Automatic Languages: Gnoll. Bonus Languages: Common.
• Favored Class: Ranger.
• Level Adjustment: +0.

4th Edition Statistics

Spoiler

Show

Average Height: 6’0” - 7’0”
Average Weight: 250 - 300 lbs.

Ability Scores: +2 Strength, +2 Constitution OR +2 Charisma
Size: Medium
Speed: 7 squares
Vision: Low-Light

Languages: Common, Gnoll
Skill Bonuses: +2 Diplomacy, +2 Endurance
Glory in Battle: When you bloody an enemy or reduce an enemy to 0 hit points or fewer, you gain a +1 racial bonus to attack rolls until the end of your next turn.
Pack Fighter: You gain a +1 racial bonus to damage rolls for every ally within 2 squares of you.
In addition, you can use the Disheartening Cackle encounter power.

Disheartening Cackle (encounter power)

• You strike fear into the hearts of your foes with a ferocious cackle.
• Encounter * Fear
• Minor Action Close Burst 5
• Target: Each enemy in burst
• Attack: Constitution +2, Wisdom +2, or Charisma +2 vs. Will
• Hit: The target takes a -2 penalty to their next attack roll before the end of your next turn.
• Special: Increase the attack bonus to +4 at level 11, & increase the attack bonus to +6 at level 21. At character creation, choose one of Constitution, Wisdom or Charisma. That ability score becomes the one you use for this racial power. Once made, this choice cannot be changed.

Favored Classes: Assassin, Druid, Ranger, Warlock

[Zeta Kai]

Gnoll: Overview

Population: 64,420,000 worldwide
Height: 6’4” tall (average)
Weight: 280 lbs. (average)
Languages: Common, Gnoll

Gnolls are a strong & hardy race hailing from the eastern shores of the continent of Admaja. Tall & muscular, they resemble humanoid hyenas, with short black muzzles & hair covering their entire bodies. Also known as the Saraqanas (an Admajai word, meaning “Fur-People”), gnolls walk upright or with a slight hunch forward. Their arms are even longer & thinner than their lanky, digitigrade legs, often giving them a springy appearance & a loping gait.

Biology
An average gnoll adult weighs between 250 & 300 pounds, & reaches between 7’ & 8’ in height. Gnoll females are usually as tall as the males, though they typically weigh slightly less when not with child. Gnolls are among the strongest of natural humanoids on Siraaj, roughly on par with the aazlai. Gnolls are naturally immune to ammonia ingestion, most food-borne bacteria & rabies, although they can carry & transmit the latter.

Diet
Gnolls are primarily carnivores, though they often supplement this diet with other sources of nutrition. Their habit is to have a large meal, consisting mostly of meat, no more than once every few days; this has given them an undeserved reputation as gluttons. Gnolls also prepare grain flour, eat tubers & can scavenge easily, as their digestive tracts can cope with the bacteria from decaying carrion. Gnolls can also eat insects, though this is usually avoided due to the many poisonous arachnids known on Siraaj. They also have a predilection both for subcutaneous fat & for marrow, & seeing two gnolls chew on strips of gristle or bone while conversing is not uncommon. Gnolls enjoy honey & fruit juices, but they drink relatively little water in comparison to their size. They dislike alcohol & ruminant milk (though they do enjoy butter), & consider chicken eggs to be a dietary staple.

Reproduction
Gnolls become sexually mature around 15 years of age, at which time females go through estrus cycles one week out of eight. Males at this age experience a thickening of their previously-soft body hair, including the growth of a beard.

Gestation is around seven months; gnoll cubs are born small, but awake, with incisors & canines already in place, & can crawl & eat soft food within a week or so of birth. Carnassials, premolars & molars develop within the first two years. Sadly, a full quarter of first-time mothers give birth to a stillborn child, & 10% of all first-time mothers die without extreme care & treatment.

Gnolls of both genders can mate with shaghals, as well as with shape-shifted creatures such as genies or ghuls, & the gnoll-descended offspring of such a union. The offspring of a gnoll-shaghal mating will effectively be either a gnoll or a shaghal (50% chance of each). Mating with a genie or a ghul (that has shape-shifted into a compatible form) will create a half-genie or a half-ghul, respectively. Due to their differing physiology, gnolls can only mate with half-genies, half-ghuls, & sabi descended from gnoll stock. They cannot successfully mate with any other sentient creatures, such as humans, dvernin, kobolds, lizardfolk, or pahari.

Growth
Gnoll children grow quite quickly, reaching their full height by their fourteenth year & their full weight by age 20. Both genders develop a coat of hair behind their ears down the length of their necks, & males will see a beard develop down the sides of their faces after puberty. Females have finer whiskers on their muzzles than males, & keep the soft body hair of their youth; they also have wider hips than their male counterparts, & a small pair of teats on their upper chests (although these are mostly hidden by their fur). Males have two enlarged canines & thicker, coarser hair than females; gnoll-men also have larger, wider shoulders & more muscular chests, giving them a top-heavy appearance compared to the females.

[Zeta Kai]

Gnoll: Nahr Culture

Population Base: Alhurus Lake, Nahraldikh, Saqiyah River
Primary Religions: Adimas, Akasha, Limalia, Sunya
Dominant Language: Common

The Nahr culture is centered around urban areas, chiefly Nahraldikh in the easternmost reaches of the continent. Descended from the people of the former kingdom of Uqalizar, the Nahr people are the inheritors of a rich mercantile spirit & cleave to many long-standing traditions. Well-established trade routes to the profitable western cities have spread the active & mobile Nahr around Alhurus Lake & deep into Ilud, where they move various wares & establish themselves in commerce.

Internal Relations
The Nahr are concentrated around major city-states & established trade routes, especially around the Saqiyah River & Alhurus Lake. There, they encounter many other peoples who share their traditions, but are perhaps more settled. In Nahraldikh, the Nahr culture is all-pervasive, encompassing even members of other races. To be Nahr is to be a member of a group that ignores race, although the public image is always that of a gnoll. The Nahr are typically friendly to one another, & often share trade stories & favored routes.

External Relations
The Nahr people are extremely affable & get along well with other societies; even the most evil among them know how to be minimally charismatic. The Nahr culture are fast friends with the kobolds of Ilud (with whom they share many business deals & trading contacts), & generally civil with most other races. Notable exceptions include the shaghali (their mortal enemies), the people of the Empire of Ostaz (who enslaved Nahr traders decades ago & have shown bad faith ever since), & all of ghul-kind. They are wary of the religiously dogmatic, but while rather uncomfortable with wizardry & sorcery, they have a fascination for the fantastic. The few Nahr children descended from genie-kin are loved no less by their mortal parents, & members of the community who are comfortable with their existence will help to shield & raise these children in an environment safe from paranoia.

Occupations
Nahr are traders, by & large; unsurprisingly, most Nahr choose to enter mercantile professions. Whether settled merchants or traveling peddlers, the Nahr people enjoy acquisition, transferral, & commerce. Exchange & appraisal are skills taught to nearly all Nahr from a very young age, & arithmetic is valued more highly than literacy by far. This is not to say that the Nahr do not produce goods; however, unlike many other cultures, the Nahr see their products as items for sale, rather than in terms of sheer personal benefit.

Very few Nahr choose to join a clergy, & only a relative minority of them become warriors or soldiers. Young Nahr, especially Nahr gnolls, enter the workforce very early in life doing odd tasks & acquiring skills for later in life. Many of the Nahr become apprentices to craft or trade masters, some as early as the age of ten.

Names
Nahr draw their names from the Common tongue, or less commonly, from Gnoll; however, they do not hold to any tradition of family name. Rather, as Nahr believe that the child takes on the traits of its same-gendered parent, the child is given said parent’s name as a surname. Boys take on the median gar (“son of”) & girls the median wawa (“daughter of”); so, for example, Aziz the son of Shoaib & Naheed would be Aziz gar Shoaib; his sister would be Bawra wawa Naheed. This is most commonly practiced among Nahr gnolls, however, & is less common among non-gnoll Nahrs.

Male Sample Names
Aswad, Auwa, Dib, Ghadhab, Hakim, Hasim, Kalb, Masud, Mubarak, Rafik

Female Sample Names
Adiba, Barakah, Fadila, Haifa, Imkan, Isra, Karima, Saida, Uduni, Zada

Food & Drink
The Nahr have a taste for seafood unlike any other land-faring culture on Siraaj. They prepare & serve it in manners unseen anywhere else, & will always take it where available. Salted fish is in high demand in any inland community where the Nahr are present. In Nahraldikh & surrounding towns, the locals catch hideous-looking sea insects known as prawns, which they eat as a delicacy. Non-gnoll Nahr generally consider themselves to be among the finest connoisseurs of wines, & that opinion is not entirely without merit. The Nahr also have an unusual habit of adding salt & herbs to social beverages, such as fruit juices, or of eschewing drink altogether with meals in favor of a boiled tuber pulp; more other cultures find both practices to be repulsive. In terms of livestock, their favorite meat is that of a goat, & they are notorious among those they meet for their raw egg dishes & their aversion to new foods.

Appearance
The Nahr value a variety of colors in their clothing, which is always kept practical but visible enough to be distinguishing. It is rare for gnolls to wear leggings, but the non-gnoll Nahr usually wear loose, blousy breeches; Nahr of all races will typically wear a colorful long-sleeved tunic, often with a vest in some complimentary color. For Nahr gnolls, females currently favor a full neck of hair, often with dyes, while males favor a short trimmed mohawk, brushed down & sometimes oiled. Older gnoll-men keep their neck hair mid-length & shaggy, but gnoll beards have been out of fashion for a century. Merchants in & around Nahraldikh have recently taken to applying colored nail polish, which is a lacquer made from meska, egg whites, & dyes. Nahr maintain long hair as a general rule, & often wear leather belts with several pouches. Taller Nahr men have wooden canes to walk about & gesture with.

Arts & Education
The Nahr value mathematics above literacy by far, & as such, few Nahr below the wealthiest elite know how to read & write. Some learn specifically to read trade manifests & contracts, usually via rote, but most Nahr can scribe numbers & do relatively complex calculations. Learning local tongues is common for many Nahr, especially travelers, & those who grow up in the Nahraldikh region tend to acquire a basic grounding in the Gnoll tongue. Oratory, & thus an oral storytelling tradition, flow strongly throughout the Nahr people. Debate, fast talk, & bartering are considered talents, & wit is highly prized. The Nahr keep their education informal; most teaching is done parent-to-child or master-to-apprentice. Scripting is rare & books are almost unheard of, except for personal use & private collections. The body of Nahr literature is therefore rather sparse, & most of it consists of mercantile law & arithmetic treatises.

Relationships
The Nahr do not generally marry, which is a holdover from the days of Uqalizar. Instead, they may take a preferred mate or common partner with which to form a family. Nahr women have the upper hand in mate selection, & the men will often compete for the approval of a lady, sometimes violently. Though casual sexual relationships are the norm for younger Nahr, especially the gnolls, settling down with a family grouping becomes more common in their later years. Whether this is an actual family or a group of friends who live & travel together in a band, the Nahr people tend to grow quite close to longtime associates, considering such companions family in a way that other cultures value blood relatives. The Nahr are open about their sex lives to a degree that embarrasses most other people.

Crime
The Nahr peoples do not experience nearly as much corruption or crime as many other cultures do, due to their broadly social nature & intolerance for criminality, but it does happen. Whether it is a natural consequence of a commercial society or a residual taint from shaghal influence, dark eddies within the Nahr are real & visible. Despite their affable nature & social deterrence mechanisms, crime still occurs among the Nahr, & so several law enforcement traditions have developed over time.

Minor crimes among the Nahr are treated as such: payment of the debt incurred, whether to another or to local law, is usually sufficient to wipe the slate clean. Repeat offenders will find their reputation tarnished, though, & the close-knit nature of Nahr society means that a stain on one’s name will spread farther than one might fear. More severe crimes, including failure to repay debts from minor crimes, are treated more seriously. Seizure not only of goods but also of person is not uncommon, & in settled areas forced indenture is a common penalty. Such servitude is dictated by local governance where legitimate, but is normally degrading. In lands where slavery is forbidden, seizure of goods & remanding into local custody is considered an acceptable substitute.

Serious crimes warrant serious punishment, so the Nahr have capital offenses, as well as punishment to match. These sentences are rarely waived; a crime of such nature deserves no reprieve in the minds of the Nahr. They do not like being pushed to this extreme, & so the punishment is meted out rapidly & without fanfare. For an execution, the criminal is forced to stand (the condemned is rarely bound, as this is viewed as distasteful), & their head is struck fiercely from the side with a greatclub. The body is left to the vultures unless it can be cast to the sea, & in either case it is abandoned to its fate as quickly as possible.

Cannibalism
The Nahr gnolls believe that the flesh of the dead should not be wasted, & are taught from an early age that the eating of a dead being confers a portion of that being’s essence unto themselves. A Nahr’s remains are usually eaten by their immediate family members, who sometimes share the body with their friends & neighbors as a great & generous honor. The carcasses of enemies or criminals are never eaten, as to do so would be to disgrace oneself & taint one’s spirit. Dead humanoids found during travels are scavenged if salvageable & eaten as a tribute; the quality of the meat is not excellent, but it is a quick & efficient way to respect the deceased. If the body can be identified, then the skull & femurs are kept intact & returned to next of kin if at all possible.

Inter-Species Relations
Young Nahr sometimes “cross lines” & engage in juvenile fumbling with their peers, regardless of race. Adults consider this to be highly embarrassing, but allow it to transpire, dismissing the dalliances as “just a phase.” Painful lessons are swiftly learned, & life goes on as it always has. Nahr who have been party to this type of experience will find the topic of inter-species mating even more embarrassing than most, although a rare few retain their fondness for the practice later in life.

Legends
Though the Nahr all have a tale to tell, their well-established travel routes keep them well clear of most legendary beasts & supernatural events. As a culture, they are mostly blind to the fantastic, & so encounters with creatures out of fables & myths are invariably startling. Comparatively, many Nahr have run into magic of some small kind in their lives, & a notable minority is aware of the sabi & even the half-genies living amongst them. This stark contrast leaves the Nahr ill-equipped to deal with the truly exotic, since their familiarity with low-level magic narrows the scope of their imaginations.

Sexism
The Nahr culture exhibits a slight gender inequality, though by & large it is more in the vein of friendly competition. The slight female dominance in the gnoll ranks has given rise to an under-the-table trade in small, pagan symbols of Sunya & Akasha, which men & women keep to declare their allegiance to bantering sexism. The contrast of the gnolls’ man-chasing women & the humans’ women-chasing men within the same society ensures that services hoping to cater to the lovelorn find themselves wondering which way the wind will shift. The juxtaposition of these attitudes is both amusing & illuminating to people of both races.

Slavery
As mentioned previously, the Nahr do not keep slaves as a general rule, & many of the settlements that they inhabit have banned the practice outright. A common exception is to allow indentured criminals, which are forced to work for up to three years, based on the severity of their crimes. They are commonly assigned the worst tasks in a community & are always the last to eat. Compared to the extremes of places such as Ostaz, however, Nahr indenture is considered tame & benevolent. For one thing, indentured convicts are expected to survive their servitude, & wanton violence toward them is strongly discouraged, for another.

[Zeta Kai]

Gnoll: Rizzadobo Tribal Culture

Population Base: Rizzadobo, the Northern Wastes
Primary Religions: Limalia, Sunya
Dominant Language: Gnoll

In contrast to the southerly, urbane Nahr peoples, the culture of the gnoll tribes of the north reflects a far harsher view of the world. Scattering themselves into caravans & tribal bands across the Northern Wastes, the nomads provide a different sort of trade, one focused more on practicality & survival. After the fall of Uqalizar, these tribes came to dominate the uncharted trade landscape, & formed a convergence around Rizzadobo as a nexus of information, a meeting place, & a rest stop. It is said among the councils at Rizzadobo that the tribes are ever-moving & ever-changing to deprive the Lord of Loss of his spoils; whether any truly recall the meaning of this myth is unknown.

Internal Relations
The nomadic gnolls form tight family groups that work together when dealing with outsiders of any sort. These groups may be as small as three or as large as forty, although the average is about a dozen or so members. Tribal leaders, normally the wisest senior members, use crude landmark maps as well as their own insight to arrange meetings with other groups (called accords) & direct the thin flows of trade through the Northern Wastes.

External Relations
Though the nomads provide an important service in trade, they are far more insular than more urban-oriented gnolls. Few among the nomadic caravans are non-gnolls, & only at larger accords & trading posts do the tribe members truly stop to converse with outsiders. While still friendly, the nomad tribes see themselves as providers of an important service, both to others & to themselves, & thus keep ostentation out of their interactions with buyers & sellers.

Villagers & towns-people sometimes distrust the wandering merchant bands, whose way of life they find strange & contrary to their own lifestyle. So in several city-states of the Northern Wastes, however, members of the tribes settle down to establish trading posts & take up a profession. More often than not, these sojourners begin raising livestock or growing & milling grain. In this way, the tribes draw new blood from the children of those who settle the region, keep close ties to their customer base, & develop new opportunities for trade.

Occupations
Members of the nomadic bands fill many different roles as needed. Some manage the livestock brought along on the caravans, while others collect eggs & churn butter. Guards for the caravans, wood-workers for repairing wagons, weavers to make fabrics, even cooks to prepare meals; all of these roles are vital for the continued survival of a caravan.

Many bands have a cleric with them to aid their travels. Others prefer a druid or a ranger, & a fortunate few have a geomancer. Many caravans take on additional hires at trading points, to serve as escorts for a dangerous journey. Of course, some tribesmen do settle in with cultures that the nomads encounter, to better assist their brethren in their business. Tribal life is therefore a combination of self-sufficiency, survival, & sales.

Names
The tribes use the Gnoll tongue almost exclusively for naming children; even non-gnoll members do likewise. Family names are uncommon; more likely, a child is called by the occupation of the mother, who has precedence in the band. The medians gar & wawa are used as honorifics for men & women, respectively, rather than to indicate familial relationship.

Male Sample Names
Gaspar, Khorshed, Rashne, Roshan, Sarosh, Shah, Siamak, Sirus, Tabor, Tallis

Female Sample Names
Arezou, Jasmina, Kira, Nasrin, Parisa, Roshan, Sadira, Soraya, Zenda, Zuleika

Food & Drink
Any reasonably-sized caravan will have with it many chickens, & cooked egg dishes of all kinds form a staple of the tribal diet. Unlike the normal gnoll diet, the tribes generally eat one large meal or two small meals each day. Tubers & grains, when available, are cooked into unleavened cakes while traveling, as food must be prepared on the go. The nomad bands tend to hunt for their larger dinners, & will scavenge without complaint.

When the plants are available, or a windfall of wealth appears, a band will enjoy a dish called charba, which is a thick, slurry-like stew, thickened with coarse flour & often heavily spiced. Wanderers who have traveled with the nomads all agree that this dish is indeed a treat, as are the simple repasts made from no more than egg & butter. Bands always make sure to carry sufficient water, as well as a cache of honey for the ill, & often bring oil or almonds along to compliment any meat that they may find or hunt.

Appearance
Textiles in general are very important to their trade, so the tribes generally dress plainly in comfortable & suitable fabrics, saving the finer cloth for later sale. They are perfectly content to wear uncolored material in heat-shedding robes & practical tunics, usually with hoods (which are only worn at night). The leader of a band will wear a dark-colored sash to indicate trade seniority, but otherwise such decor is left for other peoples. When a caravan has arrived at a settlement & is ready to trade, they announce their presence by displaying a motley of decorative fabrics.

The gnoll-men of the tribes wear their whispery beards long & often braided, over closely-shorn neck hair (which is done for comfort). The women choose to braid their neck hair into many small queues, which are adorned with beads made of wood, bone, or shell. Both sexes of sharpen their nails & teeth with jandal-stones, which are specially shaped & polished to each gnoll’s preference. Jewelry made of simple metals is sometimes worn among more prosperous bands, as a modest sign of their good fortune.

Arts & Education
The nomad bands receive no formal education in any subject; practical skills are passed along from older members to younger, usually along sharp gender lines. Males usually are trained to tend livestock, while females commonly learn fabric-weaving. Cooking, hunting, & foraging are all basic skills that are taught to each member of the band. Matters of trade, travel, & negotiation are taught from a leader to their heir (or their second-in-command).

Those who have set up shop in a town or city apply their lessons to agriculture as best as they can, providing most of the goods that the caravans need in trade to continue their travels. Among the tribes, one of the greatest draws to towns & cities is craftsmanship. Craftwork & fabricated goods, such as pots, pans, needles, & tools, are the most difficult for the bands to provide themselves. Therefore, they have a great respect for those with the skill, time, & focus to make such useful items.

Relationships
Every relationship within the tribe is defined by the caravan & its nomadic travels throughout the continent. When tribes mingle, they regularly exchange members, who take the opportunity to experience a new life with a new group of people. Many personal relationships begin & end with transfers among different bands, or a sojourn in Rizzadobo. Some band members choose to settle in among their own kind in a fixed locale, & take up permanent residence in one of the small city-states that dot the Northern Wastes.

As with the gnolls of nearby Nahraldikh, the tribes prefer common partners or declared mates rather than true marriages. However, unlike the Nahr, the tribes do not concern themselves with monogamy or monoandry. Band leader females can take multiple willing mates as they choose, though they seldom do so if concerned about leaving the caravan in the hands of another while a pregnancy runs its course. Younger tribe members are often encouraged to travel on their own for a while, or to live life in a settlement & experience that culture. Of these, more than three-quarters will return to the bands within three years, & some third of the returners bring along a new member or two (often a mate &/or children) to join the tribes.

Crime
It is up to each band leader to mete out verdicts to the accused in cases with insufficient evidence. Rarely does this occur, however, as false accusations slow travel & impede the whole band, for no benefit. While within the territory of another authority, the punishment for any notable crime is exile into that territory with a brand of shame (often seared into the face or forehead with a hot iron). This is considered lenient, & barring later exoneration is as good as a permanent banishment from the tribes. If the tribes are the only governing authority, however, then the punishment is simple: the condemned is lashed to a heavy wooden stake, & abandoned to the will of the wild.

Cannibalism
The bands will accept the corpse of a humanoid as scavenged meat, just like any other body. However, they will not attack a living person in order to cannibalize them, except in dire circumstances, & they would never eat the body of a band member. In an echo of a similar belief among the Nahr, the bands refuse to eat the flesh of a foe, fearing that to do so will accept that foe into oneself, tainting their own spirit.

Legends
The tribes run into more “legendary” creatures than most, perhaps, but their adventures keep them well clear of any serious dealings with such entities. These stories propagate at trading points, however, & tend to keep the legends alive. They are more ready to believe in the fantastic than the Nahr, for instance, but they have little practical knowledge concerning wizardry.

Masters of the Wastes
The tribes often meet & know the whereabouts of such persons, for they often must negotiate safe passage through a master’s territory. Most masters of the wastes are reclusive beings who dislike dealing with people, so their lairs are usually as far from civilization as possible, & difficult to find, as well. Some tribal leaders can find a master’s hidden sanctum, as that knowledge has been past down from their ancestors, but this lore is something that they will not impart readily.

Najmah
More than one band has wandered a crooked path in the wastes & ended up passing over into Najmah. Sometimes a band will cross over at a fading point, a place where the two planes merge subtly, & not even be aware of their transition. From time to time, one such band will find its way back; rarely, something of importance may be lost with such a band.

Racism
Though not actually racist in the traditional sense, it is true that apart from their trade stops & the cultural center at Rizzadobo, the tribes are almost entirely gnoll, & take no pains to change that reality. The few non-gnolls are usually hybrids (such as half-djinn, half-ghuls, or sabi), which are almost invariably the result of a dalliance between a tribal gnoll & shape-changing outsider. The bands mostly draw divisions between tribe-members & non-members, not between races, so they mostly accept non-gnoll members without question.

Sexism
Most bands have a matriarchal leadership, headed by a gnoll-woman that has been elected by the band’s elders. Since the fall of Uqalizar, tradition has held that the tribes pass leadership duties through the daughter’s line. Men are relegated to camp & chattel work unless they have clearly preeminent skills to offer in another capacity with a caravan. Very few bands are led by gnoll-men, & most of those are cases in which the previous Band-Mother died without a female heir.

Slavery
The tribes will take slaves from captured aggressors, from debtors, or from those they find lost along the trade routes. Per tradition, slaves may only be kept for up to three months, & are the collective property of the entire band. To remind them of their place, slaves sleep together in a single tent, & are tied to a stake similar to that which is used to condemn criminals. They are treated harshly only if they are captured enemies; otherwise, they are regarded as servants who deserve respect & have a burdensome task.

[Zeta Kai]

Half-Genie

3rd Edition Statistics

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• +4 Strength, +2 Dexterity, +2 Constitution, +2 Charisma.
• Outsider (Native): Half-genies are not subject to spells or effects that affect humanoids only, such as charm person or dominate person. They also can be raised, reincarnated, or resurrected just as other living creatures can be, & they need to eat & sleep.
• Medium Size: As Medium creatures, half-genie have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
• Half-genie base land speed is 30 feet.
• Genie Blood: For all effects related to race, a half-genie is considered a genie.
• Elemental Birthright: A half-genie, being descended from genies, has inherited some of their ancestors’ abilities. Each half-genie manifests one of the following additional traits, based on their lineage:
  
  • Dao: Once per day, a half-dao can cast stone shape &/or soften earth & stone (as the spells). Caster level 8th. The save DCs are Charisma-based.
  • Djinn: Once per day, a half-djinni can cast fly for up to 8 minutes &/or gaseous form (as the spells) for up to 16 minutes. Caster level 8th.
  • Efreet: Once per day, a half-efreeti can cast produce flame &/or wall of fire (as the spells). Caster level 8th. The save DCs are Charisma-based.
  • Jann: Once per day, a half-janni can cast invisibility for up to 8 minutes &/or enlarge/reduce person (as the spells). Caster level 8th. The save DCs are Charisma-based.
  • Marid: Once per day, a half-marid can cast water breathing (as the spell) for up to 1 hour &/or control water (as the spell). Caster level 8th. The save DCs are Charisma-based.
• Elemental Resistance: A half-genie is resistant to a particular element, based on their lineage:
  
  • Dao: A half-dao gains Acid Resistance 10.
  • Djinn: A half-djinni gains Sonic Resistance 10.
  • Efreet: A half-efreeti gains Fire Resistance 10.
  • Jann: A half-janni gains Electricity Resistance 10.
  • Marid: A half-marid gains Cold Resistance 10.
• Magical Sensitivity (Ex): All spells cast on a half-genie character function as if they had +1 caster level.
• Racial Feat: A half-genie character gains a bonus feat, based on their heritage:
  
  • Dao: A half-dao gains either Endurance or Improved Initiative.
  • Djinn: A half-djinni gains either Improved Initiative or Lightning Reflexes.
  • Efreet: A half-efreeti gains either Lightning Reflexes or Run.
  • Jann: A half-janni gains either Iron Will or Run.
  • Marid: A half-marid gains either Endurance or Iron Will.
• Racial Skills: A half-genie character has a +4 racial bonus on Spellcraft & Use Magic Device checks. A half-genie character also gains additional skill bonuses, based on their heritage:
  
  • Dao: A half-dao gains a +4 racial bonus on Balance & Tumble checks.
  • Djinn: A half-djinni gains a +4 racial bonus on Hide & Move Silently checks.
  • Efreet: A half-efreeti gains a +4 racial bonus on Bluff & Intimidate checks.
  • Jann: A half-janni gains a +4 racial bonus on Diplomacy & Sense Motive checks.
  • Marid: A half-marid gains a +8 racial bonus on Swim checks, & can always choose to take 10 on a Swim check, even if rushed or threatened.
• Darkvision out to 60’.
• Automatic Languages: Common. Bonus Languages: Aquan, Auran, Borean, Ignan, & Terran.
• Favored Class: Sorcerer.
• Level Adjustment: +2.

4th Edition Statistics

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Average Height: See the Mother Race racial feature
Average Weight: See the Mother Race racial feature

Ability Scores: +2 Charisma, +2 Strength OR +2 Intelligence
Size: Medium
Speed: 6 squares
Vision: Normal

Languages: Common, see the Elemental Origin racial feature
Skill Bonuses: +2 Arcana, +2 Bluff
Mother Race: Select a humanoid race. You count as a member of that race for the purposes of feats and other racial-based prerequisites, as long as you fill any other prerequisites. Your average height and weight are 0’2” higher and 20-30 lb. heavier than your Mother Race, respectively.
Elemental Origin: You are a descendant of some type of Genie, so you are considered an elemental creature for the purpose of effects related to creature origin. In addition, you gain one of the following bloodline benefits:

Half-Dao

• Bonus Language: Terran
• You have the earth subtype
• When an effect forces you to move - through a push, pull or slide - you can move 1 square less than that effect specifies. This means that an effect that normally pushes, pulls or slides a target 1 square does not move you if you don’t want it to.
• In addition, you gain the Stone Smash encounter power.

Stone Smash (encounter power)

• An attack of solid stone puts your foe in his place.
• Encounter
• Free Action Personal
• Trigger: You would make a melee or ranged attack
• Effect: If the attack hits, the target is dazed until the end of your next turn.

Half-Djinn

• Bonus Language: Auran
• You have the air subtype
• You gain a +1 racial bonus to all your movement speeds.
• In addition, you gain the Wind Form encounter power.

Wind Form (encounter power)

• You dissolve into the air, gaining the ability to flow through small spaces.
• Encounter
• Minor Action Personal
• Effect: You gain the insubstantial quality, a speed of fly 3 (hover) and you can fit through even the tiniest crack until the end of your next turn. If you are in the air when this effect ends, you take falling damage as normal. While under the effect of this power, your only movement mode is the fly speed granted by this power. You can dismiss the effect as a free action. Your Half-Djinn racial feature increases your Fly speed with this power to Fly 4 (hover).

Half-Efreet

• Bonus Language: Ignan
• You have the fire subtype
• You gain proficiency with the saber, khopesh and scimitar. You also gain a +1 racial bonus to attack rolls with the above weapons.
• In addition, you gain the Heart of Fire encounter power.

Heart of Fire (encounter power)

• Your soul burns with an inner flame that burns as brightly as elemental fire.
• Encounter * Aura, Fire
• Minor Action Personal
• Effect: Spend a healing surge. In addition to regaining hit points, you gain an aura of fire out to two squares. At the end of each of your turns, each enemy in the aura takes 5 fire damage. Increase this damage to 10 fire damage at level 11 and to 15 fire damage at level 21. The aura lasts until you are bloodied.
• Special: You cannot use this power if you are bloodied.

Half-Jann

• Bonus Language: Choice of one other
• You gain resistance to one of the following keywords equal to 5 + ½ your level. Fire, Cold, Force, Acid, Lightning, Thunder. The resistance increases to 10 + ½ your level at level 21.
• In addition, you gain the Attunement Shift power.

Attunement Shift (encounter power)

• You adapt your elemental resistance to present dangers.
• Encounter *
• Free Action Personal
• Trigger: You roll initiative
• Effect: You can permanently change your resistance granted from being a half-jann to one of the other choices on the initial list.

Half-Marid

• Bonus Language: Aquan
• You have the water subtype
• You gain a swim speed of 8, and you can breathe normally under water.
• In addition, you gain the Healing Rain encounter power.

Healing Rain (encounter power)

• You can channel your life energy into elemental water, which you can use to rejuvenate yourself and your allies
• Encounter * Aura, Healing
• Minor Action Personal
• Effect: Spend a healing surge. In addition to regaining hit points, you gain an aura of healing rain out to two squares. At the end of each of your turns, each ally in the aura gains 5 temporary hit points. Increase to 10 temporary hit points at level 11, and to 15 temporary hit points at level 21. The aura lasts until you are bloodied.
• Special: You cannot use this power if you are bloodied.

Favored Classes: Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard

[Zeta Kai]

Half-Genie: Overview & Culture

Population: 5,350,000 worldwide
Height: 5’8” tall (average)
Weight: 220 lbs. (average)
Languages: Aquan, Auran, Common, Ignan, Terran

Population Base: Widespread
Primary Religions: Limalia, Maqur, Umaj, Waharim

The various genies once lived only on the world of Najmah. But eons ago, most of them managed to migrate to the world of Siraaj, where these magical beings interbred with the indigenous sentient peoples. The creatures that resulted from these unions were able to breed true, forming a race known as the Half-Genie.

Also known as Numar-Sim (from the Admajai, meaning “half-breed genie”), the half-genies are a conflicted people. On one hand, they have supernatural powers that set them above the more common races. However, by the same token, they are often compared to full-blooded genies, which are far more powerful than their hybrid offspring. This adds to their society’s fractious nature, creating a culture where consensus is rare, organization is mostly local, & disagreements on even the most fundamental issues are commonplace. Most other races see the half-genie as an alienating & contrary people, but their divisions are always erased (at least temporarily) by external threats.

Biology
Physically, half-genies are similar to the forms of other mortal beings. Most of them are descended from human stock (although there are many born from gnoll, kobold, lizardfolk, or other parents), & are therefore humanoid in form. Their skin color is an unnatural shade (yellowish for djinn, reddish for efreet, greenish for dao, bluish for marid, & purplish for jann), & their eyes dimly glow with a similar hue. The only other sign of their otherworldly heritage is their hair, which reflects the type of genie that begat them.

While their outward appearance is mostly that of a mortal creature, their internal nature is something else entirely. A half-genie’s body is infused with a classical element; fire courses through a half-efreet’s veins, while a half-dao’s bones are as dense as ferrous stone. Their bodies are partially composed of one of the fundamental elements of the universe, which makes their simplified physiology radically unlike that of their mundane brethren. For example, a half-djinn’s organs are mostly gas-bladders of some sort, while a half-marid’s “bones” are actually rigid sacks of liquid. These differences, both internal & external, set them far apart from other races, who have difficulty relating to such magical beings.

Diet
While a half-genie can gain sustenance from normal foods, few of them actually have a taste for fleshy fare. Most of them would rather eat materials related to their inherent elements. Half-dao like to consume gems & other crystals, particularly quartz. Half-djinn, who hardly eat any solid foods at all, prefer the magically-pressurized fruit of the nusubrih tree. A half-efreet will choose hot coals or burning oil over grains or meat. And a half-marid will refuse solid food of any kind, obtaining their sustenance from copious liquids instead. Half-genies mainly eat conventional meals in public, so as to assuage those who find their nature unsettling (which is most folk, really). While they cannot help their unnatural appearance, they can at least dine like normal creatures.

Reproduction
A half-genie is the result of a pairing of a genie & a mortal, a full-blooded genie & a half-genie, or two half-genies. Since genies appear similar to humans in size & shape, most mortal-born half-genies have a human parent, but all races could declare parentage of some genie-kin, were they to want such a claim. A half-genie born of a mortal will have the form of that mortal; for example, a half-genie with a kobold parent will have the size & shape of a kobold. They can only sire offspring with mortals of the same form as themselves, so a half-genie with a camelotaur parent couldn’t spawn with a human, or even another half-genie who was born of human stock.

The half-genie race breeds true, so a couple can mate & produce viable, fertile offspring of their own. If the parents are of the same elemental lineage, then the child will be of that type, as well. But if the parents are of differing lineages, like an efreet-kin paired with a dao-kin, then the offspring will be of either one type or the other.

Half-genies generally gestate more quickly than mortal beings do; as a rule, they are born in 10%-30% less time after conception. This is believed to be a result of the potent elemental magic that permeates their bodies. Mortal women are often injured or killed during the birth of a half-genie, although genie-kin females are usually able to give birth to numar-sim without incident.

Growth
When a half-genie is born, its elemental legacy is readily apparent, even though it won’t reach its full potency for many years. An infant numar-sim has the eye & skin color of their kind, but their hair will be fairly normal (albeit strangely colored), & they won’t have any of their race’s magical abilities. Other than their bizarre coloration, they are relatively-ordinary creatures, similar to human or gnoll children. That is until puberty, which is between the ages of 10 & 15, when their more extraordinary powers manifest for the first time.

At some point during their early adolescence, a half-genie’s eyes will begin glowing, the first sign of their growing power. Shortly thereafter, their hair will begin to reflect their elemental nature. It may be somewhat subtle, like a half-djinn’s hair blowing about as if they were caught in a breeze, or a half-jann’s hair standing on end & crackling with static electricity. More often, though, the effect is quite overt, such as a half-marid’s hair becoming translucent & gelatinous. Even more extreme, a half-dao’s hair will turn into long clumps of stone, & a half-efreet will appear as if their head were engulfed in flames, their hair transforming permanently into a nimbus of harmless fire. This change presages the manifestation of a numar-sim’s special abilities, which will begin activating within a year of this development, further setting them apart from their mortal kin.

Half-genies grow much more slowly than mortal folk, & in fact, they take longer to reach maturity than any other race. It can take 25 years before they are fully grown, & another few years after that before they are truly ready to strike out on their own as fully-functional adults. Most mortal parents, already put off by their unnatural offspring, don’t have the patience to raise a child for a quarter-century or more, & so many half-genies are orphaned before they reach adulthood, forced to fend for themselves as adolescents.

Internal Relations
The half-genie race is not unified in the least; they have no collective identity, no shared culture, & no universal language. They lack a distinct society of their own, existing only as a clade of individuals. When a half-genie encounters another of their own kind, they don’t necessarily have anything in common with them, & would treat them as they would any stranger. Some half-genies, having been persecuted by mortal folk, have gathered together in isolated communities of their own kind (& perhaps some sabi). But for the most part, they exist as a neglected fringe element within the greater mortal civilization.

External Relations
Most mortal people would prefer to forget that half-genies & others of their kind exist. The common folk are highly averse to magic, magical effects, & the creatures associated with said magic. In a world where sorcerers & wizards are shunned & ostracized, many humans, gnolls, kobolds, & the like simple cannot deal with a genie or their kin in a rational manner. Some mortals can get past this prejudice & see the genuine people behind the glowing eyes, but most don’t even bother. While many half-genies can find places where they are tolerated, there are those who lump all numari (a catch-all term for half-genies, half-ghuls, & sabi) together into one unwelcome category.

Full-blooded genies treat their half-mortal progeny much better, if perhaps a bit patronizingly. They understand the difficulty that the half-genies have when dealing with the mortals, who greatly outnumber the dwindling genies. However, their vastly-stronger magical powers set them as far apart from the numar-sim as the numari are from mundane people. The purebloods often talk down to the halfbloods, even when they are in an inferior position, & few of them take the numari seriously. These two peoples sometimes live together, but it is always out of strict necessity, as the two groups would rather live apart.

Occupations
Half-genies live on the fringes of civilized lands, barely acknowledged by mortal folk. Therefore, they tend to find jobs that either keep them on the periphery or which allow them to remain hidden from those who would discriminate against them. Many find work as guides, explorers, mercenaries, or other traveling folk, which allows them to be far from other people. Others are in urban areas, but secluded from loveless eyes, working in basements or in upper floors. These numari often perform manufacturing tasks, like tanners, candle makers, miners, divers, & smiths. Many of them grow tired of mortal society & head off to the wilderness, to live as hermits or pioneers, adventurers or settlers, making their own way in a world that doesn’t understand them.

Names
Half-genies are a race that is caught between two mutually-exclusive worlds, & their names often reflect that conflicted, divergent nature. Those raised among mortals usually bear genie-inspired names, while the minority that are raised by their genie parents typically have names from the mortal realm. Because their names are seldom from the culture that they are raised in, they often need only a single given name, but in places where multiple names are the established norm (such as large urban centers), they will follow custom & take a familial surname. Since most cities are of mortal residence, this commonly leads to a half-genie with a genie first name & a mortal last name, which can sound strange to the ear.

Genie names are from their native languages: Aquan, Auran, Ignan, Terran. These strange tongues are ancient & elemental, deeply tied to the far-off places & long-dead realms. They strongly reflect the classical elements that the genies are composed of (& limited to), making it difficult for other beings to speak or understand.

Aquan (Marid) Names
Aewa, Aenea, Eemaliae, Eeyael, Lameer, Layaea, Maewia, Meenae, Naeri, Neelae, Rayi, Reeya, Waemya, Walaei, Yeerae

Auran (Djinn) Names
Aidhu, Aishu, Chehai, Dhutha, Echud, Ehukha, Hudhai, Khaisha, Khuthai, Shethu, Thuhai, Uchetha, Ushai, Zhai, Zhesha

Ignan (Efreet) Names
Ahtis, Auksat, Fausihk, Fiksa, Iftak, Ihtfas, Kahkap, Kaupsa, Kihtpas, Paukta, Pihpik, Sahfsi, Sihpf, Tautap, Tihkpah

Terran (Dao) Names
Boda, Bujab, Dovar, Durg, Garja, Gozur, Jovo, Jubar, Odurba, Orva, Ugdar, Uzor, Vuzar, Zabor, Zordo

Food & Drink
See Diet, above.

Appearance
In contrast to the supernatural look of their natural bodies, half-genies tend to dress quite simply. Many of them wear plain, practical garments with dull, drab colors in an effort to better fit in with mortal folk. They don’t wear a lot of jewelry, usually just a few select pieces of mostly sentimental value, & some eschew ornamentation altogether. The stereotypical half-genie ensemble is a sleeveless vest, loose breeches (called a salwar), & a pair of sandals.

A small minority, though, do the exact opposite, dressing extravagantly with many layers. They wear fine silks & expensive furs, bright colors & intricate patterns, with many tassels & tails. They also pile on the jewelry, with many necklaces & bracelets, a dazzling & gaudy cacophony of gold, silver, & gemstones of many varieties. They seem to do this as an attempt to distract from their abnormal skin, glowing eyes, & unnatural hair. Few people fail to look past the outlandish garb & see the half-genie underneath, so the degree to which this approach is effective in the eye of the observer.

Arts & Education
Half-genies are a passionate, expressive people, who are at home nowhere & have few close relationships with others, save those of their own rare kind. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that they have produced many talented (& tormented) artists, who have created some of the most famous & celebrated works in history. Poets, composers, musicians, painters, & sculptors of great talent & fame have come from their race throughout the ages, so much so that if an artist kept themselves hidden from the public eye, & their identity wasn’t well known, it is often assumed that they simply must have been a half-genie of some sort. Of course, this cannot be true in all suspected cases, but the number of possibly-numari artists from the past is enough that, odds are, some of them certainly were.

Despite their aptitude, half-genies are rarely able to hone their talents in a scholastic setting, as few of them complete a formal education. Their obvious physical differences mark them as aberrant beings by normal folk, & so they are often the targets of bigotry in schools, even at an early age. Therefore, most of them seek learning elsewhere, either as apprentices or from tutors. Some rare places offer to teach anyone who is willing to learn (& who can pay their dues), regardless of their race, but sadly these places are often short-lived.

Relationships
The life of a half-genie is often a lonely one, with few allies & many potential enemies. They don’t necessarily encounter others of their own kind often, & even then, a kinship is far from guaranteed. If anything, this increases the romantic aspects of their personalities, & half-genies are said to be either the most pessimistic of cynics or the most dogged of optimists.

When they do find a kindred spirit, half-genies will proudly celebrate, sometimes for days at a time, exulting in their unlikely joy. Many songs have been written of these discoveries, & the moment of true connection even has a term: al-wajada (the finding). As a people with deep elemental passions, their marriages are truly epic affairs, even though divorce is fairly common. A couple will often scrounge & save for years to afford their wedding ceremony, & more than one tragedy has been told of a marriage brought to ruin by the cost of their extravagant nuptials.

Half-genies have little in the way of support networks, so marriages are very seldom arranged by a parent. Much more likely, a couple will find one another through sheer chance & circumstance, establish a bond on their own, & progress toward marriage at their own pace. This means that they tend not to get married until they are well into their adulthood, & it is rare for them to be married before they are 40 years old. Such young marriages are possible, but the divorce rates are extremely high. Polygamy & polyandry are seen as highly unromantic, & so they are almost unheard of practices among the numar-sim.

Crime
Half-genies have a conflicted view about criminal behavior. One on hand, they don’t usually want to break the law, for fear of disproportionate punishment & a potentially worse reputation. On the other hand, they are often destitute & unemployable, & are thus forced to steal in order to survive. Thus, while most numar-sim glare at those who repeatedly violate the law, they can easily understand the necessity of committing a crime when the law is extremely inconvenient or unjust. This pragmatic approach has helped many of them survive in a world that doesn’t particularly like their presence, although not everyone can appreciate the moral flexibility that this standpoint requires.

Aging & Death
Aside from being estranged from other people by their appearance & abilities, half-genies are also cut off by the sheer passage of time. Not only do they grow & develop more slowly than mortal folk, but they age much slower, as well. They don’t even reach full adulthood until their 25th birthday, & they aren’t considered middle aged until they are over 75 years old. Barring injury or disease, a half-genie will live for over 150 years, & documented cases exist of individuals living for nearly three & a half centuries.

Unlike their full-blooded genie sires, half-genies are not immortal. And unlike mundane beings, whose bodies merely degrade as they grow old, aging half-genies become more closely tied to their inherent element over time. Eventually, their bodies cannot contain the growing elemental energies, & they collapse, expiring as they disintegrate. A half-djinn’s body sublimes into smoky vapor, while a half-efreet’s body bursts into flames. A half-dao’s body crystallizes into stony sand, & a half-marid’s body melts into liquid. The process of disintegration is fairly quick, & completely painless, but it can be extremely disconcerting to those who don’t understand that they are seeing a “natural” end to the half-genie’s lifecycle.

Genie Culture
The Pactspell drew the vast majority of the genies from their native Najmah onto the sun-scorched plane of Siraaj. During the Ten Dark Years that followed, most of them were either bound into Admajai relics or slaughtered by the ghuls that openly roamed the countryside at the time. A few lucky genies were able to survive, & many of them bred with mortal folk. This produced a huge surge in the number of half-genies, which had been a somewhat rare sight in the Dayrealm prior to this. While the purebloods rebounded from this near-extinction, they are still seldom seen today, usually relegated to remote corners of the world.

The genies today usually keep to themselves, reluctant to venture into the open. Although they are immortal, & have many magical powers, they have seen how little their power matters, & how long an eternity of servitude & suffering truly is. They learned to fear the ghuls & the binding rituals, & they carry these phobias with them to this day. The marids were able to weather the Ten Dark Years better than most, & they have thriving cities underwater, but the other purebloods were not so fortunate. The dao suffered worst of all, & even today there are few of them left to wander the deserts & the mountains. Some of them have gathered their half-genie relatives into small communities, far from mortal eyes, but most prefer to be alone, secluded in their isolated sanctums

Najmai Half-Genies
On the night-cloaked world of Najmah, half-genies are treated much differently. There, they are much more numerous, with a more cohesive culture. They actually have traditions, rituals, & legends in common. They are not merely reacting to the world around them, but they act with dignity & purpose, as a true race of people, rather than as mere individuals.

After the Pactspell, the world of Najmah was rocked by the Great Calamity. Nearly all of the genies, the most numerous race at that time, suddenly vanished en masse (only the Janni remained). Their abrupt absence left a huge void, as many settlements were virtually abandoned. This power vacuum was swiftly filled by the rakshasas, who spread their tyranny until the devas could defeat them. The demonic hordes took advantage of this time of upheaval to wreak havoc, slaughtering millions until the houris drove them back to Sergala once again. The Great Calamity was a particularly dark time on the Plane of Night, & it took decades to recover from this period of destruction & bloodshed.

The half-genies rose to partially fill the shoes of their missing forebears. Before the Pactspell took the purebloods away, the half-genies were a demeaned minority in the genies’ territory; the full-blooded genies treated them like children, to be cared for & kept away from positions of power. After the Great Calamity, the half-genies were virtually left alone, so they took control of their own destiny for the first time. They bred rapidly & kept to the urban areas, their numbers swelling until they had retaken most of the towns & villages in the former genie-lands. In a way, they replaced the genies, adopting much of their ancestors’ culture. Although things could never be the same as they once were, & no half-genie is alive that remembered the days of the purebloods, their legacy lives on in the hearts of the current generation.

[Zeta Kai]

Half-Ghul

3rd Edition Statistics

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• Strength +4, Constitution +2, Intelligence +2, Wisdom +2, Charisma +2.
• Outsider (Native): Half-ghuls are not subject to spells or effects that affect humanoids only, such as charm person or dominate person. They also can be raised, reincarnated, or resurrected just as other living creatures can be, & they need to eat & sleep.
• Medium Size: As Medium creatures, half-ghuls have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
• Half-ghul base land speed is 30 feet.
• Elemental Resistance (Su): A half-ghul is resistant to all damage from cold & fire energy (including non-magical forms of cold/fire damage); they ignore the first 5 points of damage from those types each round.
• Ghul Blood: For all effects related to race, a half-ghul is considered a ghul.
• Natural Weapon (Ex): 2 Claws (1d6 + Str); slashing damage.
• Racial Skills: A half-ghul character has a +4 racial bonus on Bluff, Disguise, & Intimidate checks.
• Spell-Like Abilities
  
  • At Will: detect magic, obscuring mist, touch of fatigue (DC14).
  • 3/Day: darkness, sleep (DC15).
  • 1/Day: gust of wind (DC15).
  • Caster level 8th. The save DCs are Charisma-based.
• Toughness: Half-ghuls gain Toughness as a bonus feat.
• Darkvision out to 60’.
• Automatic Languages: Common & Ghul. Bonus Languages: Archaic & Gnoll.
• Favored Class: Fighter.
• Level Adjustment: +2.

4th Edition Statistics

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Average Height: See the Mother Race racial feature
Average Weight: See the Mother Race racial feature

Ability Scores: +2 Constitution, +2 Charisma OR +2 Strength
Size: Medium
Speed: 6 squares
Vision: Low-Light

Languages: Common, Ghul
Skill Bonuses: +2 Arcana, +2 Intimidate
Mother Race: Select a humanoid race. You count as a member of that race for the purposes of feats & other racial-based prerequisites, as long as you fill any other prerequisites. Your average height & weight are 0’6” higher & 30-50 lbs. heavier than your mother’s race, respectively.
Shadow Origin: You are a descendant of a Ghul, a haunting creature of the shadows, so you are considered a shadow creature for the purpose of effects related to creature origin.
Elemental Resistance: You gain resistance to either cold or fire equal to 5 + ½ your level. At character creation, choose either fire or cold. Your Elemental Resistance applies to that element. Once made, this choice cannot be changed.
In addition, you can use the Dark Before the Dawn encounter power.

Dark Before the Dawn (encounter power)

• You pull up your wellspring of natural magic, shrouding a foe in deceivingly inane darkness. The finale will catch them by surprise.
• Encounter
• Standard Action Ranged 10
• Target: One enemy within range
• Attack: Intelligence +2, Wisdom +2, or Charisma +2 vs. Will
• Hit: The target takes ongoing necrotic damage equal to your Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma modifiers (save ends). Aftereffect: the target takes 1d8 radiant damage.
• Special: Increase attack bonus to +4 & the aftereffect to 2d8 radiant damage at level 11, & increase attack bonus to +6 & the aftereffect to 3d8 radiant damage at level 21. At character creation, choose one of Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma. That ability score becomes the one you use for this racial power. Once made, this choice cannot be changed.

Favored Classes: Barbarian, Sorcerer, Warlock, Warlord

[Zeta Kai]

Half-Ghul: Overview & Culture

Population: 2,670,000 worldwide
Height: 6’2” tall (average)
Weight: 230 lbs. (average)
Languages: Common, Ghul

Population Base: Widespread
Primary Religions: Adimas, Daq, Limalia, Sunya

Ghuls are truly nightmarish creatures, rivaling demons in their malice & cruelty (in fact, they are often confused with dark beings such as devils or demons). But their evil, while all-consuming, does not reduce their wit & cleverness. They possess a keen-yet-depraved intellect, & are known for their sinister schemes. Many such plots involve disguising themselves as humanoids, & they are not above mating with humanoid races to further their vile goals. It was from these temporary unions that the first Half-Ghuls were born.

The half-ghuls are now a race in their own right, able to create viable offspring of their own kind. Sometimes called Numar-Jalaq (“half-malign”), or simply Numar-Gul, half-ghuls are a race in search of an identity. While some take after their ghul parents, indulging in wanton acts of villainy as a means of revenge upon the world that rejects them, many others of their kind strive to overcome their foul lineage & forge their own path through life. This dichotomy in their culture has engendered many conflicts, not only among their own race, but also with other peoples. Like half-genies & other numari, they do not usually rule their own domains, so they almost always live among the lands of their parents. Even the most civilized of half-ghuls, though, must struggle with the darkness in their souls.

Biology
From a short distance, a half-ghul may appear to be simply a gray-skinned mortal being, like a gnoll, a human, a kobold, or some other intelligent race. Upon closer inspection, though, several significant differences appear. Their hands & feet end in bony claws, & their mouths are fanged maws. Most unnatural of all are their eyes, which have vivid crimson irises, & gleam with seeming wickedness.

The exact physical structure of a half-ghul depends on their mortal lineage; those from a particular race will take on the general characteristics of that race, albeit with a dark twist. Half-ghuls descended from humans typically have stringy black hair & long pointed ears, while gnoll-blooded half-ghuls are covered in matted oily fur & have long wedge-shaped snouts. Reptilian half-ghuls have smoky gray scales; those of lizardfolk descent have reddish flesh in-between the dark plates, while those of kobold heritage have tightly-packed scales with no flesh visible between. Those of other races have similar traits, generally looking like sinister mockeries of their mortal parents.

The taint of the ghul goes far deeper than the skin. Half-ghuls are almost invariably gaunt, wiry beings, with ropy muscles & lean, angular frames. Their bodies are cool to the touch, so much so that an unconscious one is often thought to be dead. Their blood is a purple so dark that it is almost black, & it boils in contact with the air, leaving only an acrid smoke & a thick scaly scab. They are hardy beings, & they have been known to survive injuries that would kill the average mortal, which further sets them apart from their peers. Virtually every facet of their being is stained by the evil energies that spawned them.

Diet
Most half-ghuls don’t eat very well, & few of them are finicky eaters. As the vast majority of them are poor, if not completely destitute, they will generally consume whatever fare that they can get their hands on, regardless of the meal’s content or condition. They have been known to eat carrion, over-ripe fruit, or other spoiled food, even though they have no special resistance or immunity to toxins. Most of them will ravenously devour anything that you put before them, for many of them do not know where from their next meal comes.

One of the main reasons for this (besides their poverty) is something that they call the Skethra, which translates roughly as “the Hunger” or “the Longing”. Each half-ghul has a powerful craving to consume some specific substance, usually something that most people would consider inedible. Examples of this Skethra include: curdled milk, the liver of a sentient being, a handful of desert sand, blood, & raw aged eggs. They must indulge in their Skethra at least once per month, or suffer from a starvation-like effect. After a solid month without their craving, a meal without it will not sustain them, & they begin to react as if deprived of food. While this effect is never deadly in & of itself (it cannot cause lethal damage), it is very unpleasant, & most half-ghuls have learned to heed their Skethra often & in secret.

Reproduction
The origin of their race is a sensitive issue for many half-ghuls, one which they would rather avoid. Ghuls are vile, heartless beings, & if they have any goal at all, it is to destroy & corrupt everything that they can touch. While they sometimes kill their victims in a straightforward (if gruesome) manner, they are more apt to torture their prey, prolonging the suffering & fear. Ghuls revel in the many flavors of misery experienced not only by their victims, but also by their victims’ loved ones, & even by the resulting offspring.

A ghul has a sharp (albeit wicked) intellect, is capable of taking many forms, some of which can be pleasing to the eye. While they are not patient beings, they are able to set elaborate traps for their victims, to better bring about their ruin. Physical torment is not their only goal, but also mental anguish & corruption, as well. Therefore, they will often disguise themselves as enticing mates for their prey, to tempt the innocent into committing a cultural transgression. If a pregnancy results from one of these unions, then it is so much the better, for it allows the ghul to show the victim’s peers the result of their sin.

Ghuls are often more direct than this, though, allowing their malevolence & spite to manifest in more immediate ways. Rather than take the time to lure in their prey & deceive them into having illicit sex, they will commonly just capture a mortal & rape them. These encounters are typically violent assaults, meant to destroy rather than corrupt, & many victims do not survive the agonizing ordeals. Those that do, however, may later find that a child has resulted from such a traumatic event.

Ghuls are genderless creatures, & are able to take either male or female form when they disguise themselves as mortals. Therefore, they are able to act as either sex during the act of mating, as well as carry a child to term if they choose to be the female. Gestation is invariably short & painful, lasting less than 20 weeks, & many mortal women don’t survive it. Fortunately, most half-ghuls today are born of pairings of older half-ghuls, & incidents of ghuls seducing or raping mortals are relatively rare.

Growth
Half-ghuls are born without any of the extraordinary & supernatural abilities that they will possess later in life, but they are still quite exceptional compared to mortal infants. They develop skills quite rapidly, learning how to crawl within weeks of birth, & walking before they are yet four months old. They take a long time to grow, however, & their physical development seems to take place in pronounced stages. They will maintain a certain size for years, before suddenly growing up to a foot in height & appearing to have aged rapidly in mere hours. These transformations are painful, & unless an older half-ghul is present to explain, the developing child will have no idea what is happening to their body. After a growth spurt (called a Nakhthal), a half-ghul will usually have gained a special power possessed by adults, such as a skill bonus or a spell-like ability.

Internal Relations
Ostracized & persecuted by mortal folk, half-ghuls often live a lonely life. Other numari treat them a bit better, understanding their isolation, but genie-kin have suffered greatly in the hands of ghuls, so there are tensions from that direction, as well. And true ghuls are as likely to attack them as not, despite their kinship. The only true acceptance that they may find is in the arms of their own kind.

Thus, half-ghuls often gather together in groups of mutual support & protection. Their bonds are strong, far more so than those of other numari, & they are even beginning to form the foundation of their own racial culture. They gather together in small tribal camps, nomadic caravans, or urban enclaves within larger communities, which are usually called Thuzekhu, or Herds (singular Thuzikh). These groups have a semi-communist cooperative based on the needs & means of individuals, combined with the collective needs & means of the whole. They are commonly led by a Speaker, who is elected by all members of the herd (even children) to advocate on their behalf.

External Relations
Scarred by the act of conception, the half-ghul’s soul is a restless one. Living concealed almost everywhere they travel, half-ghuls often have no links & no home. Few mortal parents willingly care for their ghul-blooded offspring, & true ghuls are not truly capable of raising or nurturing children. As such, most of them are orphaned at a young age, forced to fend for themselves & strike out on their own.

Before the Pactspell, half-ghuls were a rather rare sight, but after the Ten Dark Years, they became much more common. In the days of the Old Empire, a half-ghul could get by as a leper or a plague victim, & while no one was comfortable looking at them, they were not shunned as demonic spawn. Nowadays, though, the widespread familiarity with (& fear of) ghuls prevents most of them from successfully using that gambit.

Half-ghul react to their lot in life in different ways, depending on their individual character. Some try to hide from the mortal world, living alone & lamenting their accursed nature. Others lash out at those who have spurned them, sometimes attack innocents in the process & generally living up to the foul reputation of their kind. Still others gather with their fellow ghul-blooded & attempt to redeem their people in the eyes of mortal folk, seeking acceptance (or at least coexistence). Lastly, there are those who just try & get by, living day to day on the fringes of the world, facing the challenges of life with either gritted teeth or an irrepressible grin.

Occupations
Half-ghuls have a hard time finding honest employment, even in areas where they have gathered in decent numbers. As a result, most of them are quite poor, & are forced by their poverty to take unpleasant jobs. In more tolerant places where they are marginally accepted, they can find work as taxidermists, morticians, tanners, miners, or menial laborers. In less-broadminded lands, they are often beggars, bandits, or thugs, unable to find proper work & forced to do whatever it takes to survive.

Outside of civilized lands, in the wilderness between the towns & villages, more opportunities are available for the half-ghul seeking a living. Their hardiness & resilience make them able scouts & guides, while their natural stealth & dark magic lend them to become mercenaries or assassins. They make for poor slaves, & even worse prostitutes, but they are hard workers, & they are skilled at getting what they need, via any means necessary.

Names
The vast majority of half-ghuls are raised among the mortal races, so they are typically given names of Alhaggi, Common, or Gnoolun origin. These names can be ill-fitting though, & the half-ghul seeking to make their own way in the world will sometimes pick up a smattering of the ghul tongue & take a name for themselves from it. These ghul-based names are considered exotic & dangerous-sounding, & so they are favored by those who wish to make an impression upon others. Many of these individuals will even take the name of a particularly infamous ghul, hoping to siphon some of that notoriety for themselves.

Ghul Sample Names
Akhur, Churz, Dhakh, Hurkh, Jheth, Kharz, Khuru, Makhu, Phaal, Rakh, Rikh, Shaz, Thekh, Zeph, Zhula

Food & Drink
See Diet, above.

Appearance
The nascent half-ghul culture has no conventions regarding fashion, so they tend to wear whatever their numari or mortal peers are wearing. Since most half-ghuls are of the lower class, they usually wear the clothing of a peasant: a tunic or a robe (dishdasha), a pair of loose trousers (sirwal), & belted sandals. These garments are rarely dyed, & are therefore typically a creamy off-white or a dingy brown in color. Some of the more affluent half-ghuls wear more elaborate dress, adding scarves, vests, & dyed cloth of various patterns & fabrics. They tend not to be ostentatious, though, as they know all too well how people of other races react to their presence, & they don’t want to add jealousy to the list of reasons why others deem them repulsive. For this reason, they almost never wear jewelry of any sort, & any decorations that they do put on are modest & understated pieces.

Arts & Education
The half-ghuls are a long-suffering people, who have dealt with persecution for their entire existence, & do not expect their lot to improve significantly in the future. Therefore, they tend to put their pain & their repressed passions into works of powerful & poignant art. Several comedic playwrights in the past have actually been half-ghuls ghostwriting for other writers, penning some of the most timeless & brilliant comedy ever seen on stage. Many of their best artists, though, are painters with surprisingly delicate & subtle brushwork, able to evoke feelings of loss & regret that transcend time, space, & racial barriers to move all but the hardest hearts.

In addition to painters, the half-ghul race has produced singers of unsurpassed talent & skill, whose songs have become modern classics over the past few centuries. Most of their performances are done in poorly-lit cafes or in smoky hookah bars, although some vocalists have found work as hidden performers in musical plays. In fact, because of the influence of half-ghuls, an entire branch of theater has developed in which the audience doesn’t actually see the true singers, only actors on stage that are obviously pretending to sing. While not all hidden artists are of ghul descent, a great many of them are numari of some sort.

As outcasts in civilized society, half-ghuls rarely have the opportunity to participate in formal education. While they are often quite gifted intellectually, they are regularly excluded from schools & academies, whether officially or covertly. This racial bias has forced many half-ghuls to seek knowledge elsewhere, & those with the means often hire private tutors, although these privileged individuals are in the minority. The greater part of them have no choice but to solicit training from other, elder half-ghuls, or to seek knowledge on their own, learning from experience or sneaking into libraries in the dead of night.

Relationships
Half-ghuls often find solace in each others arms, & their lack of acceptance elsewhere has consistently driven them to form communities among their own kind. It should be of no surprise then to learn that they form romantic relations almost exclusively within their race, more so than with any other people. Their emerging culture is too young to have any mating rituals or arranged marriages, so their methods of pairing tend to be based solely on mutual attraction, for better or for worse.

When a half-ghul of either gender likes another, it is becoming customary for them to write a brief love poem, a sonnet detailing their feelings & promoting their own qualities. It is common to respond to these odes, which are also called Khezethu (singular Khezith), with an answering poem, although the content of the response depends on the level of interest. If the pair are agreeable to one another, then an informal courtship will commence, one that will progress towards marriage at its own pace; it may takes mere weeks, or it could drag on for years & have several incremental stages of development.

Half-ghul weddings are usually simple affairs, & they are often performed clandestinely. Ghul-blooded folk are often excluded from public places & events, & these usually include churches, so a couple that wishes to get married must commonly hire a willing priest to perform the ceremony during their off hours, in some private place where mortal folk rarely tread. Once this has been done, their marriages are much like those of other races, although the stress of their daily lives makes for a relatively-high divorce rate, despite their strong sense of community.

Crime
Half-ghuls tend to view crime as a necessary evil, an unfortunate & unpleasant affair which must be undertaken for the greater good. They are often poor, & deprived of opportunities to improve their lot in life, so they often see trespassing, minor theft, & similar petty crimes as acceptable or even crucial to their survival. More serious crimes, like assault or murder, may be judged more harshly, but even these are seen through a prism of moral flexibility & relativism.

There is a countermovement within the half-ghul community, however, which views this laissez-faire attitude as contributing to the negative perception of half-ghuls everywhere. Some see any crime committed by a half-ghul as a justification for the discrimination displayed by mortal folk, & therefore only by living faultless lives can their people ever overcome the stigma of their legacy. These people treat every crime as a serious matter, & they work hard to prevent their own brethren from violating the law in any way. A vocal minority within their burgeoning culture, they realize that others believe that they have no choice, so they endeavor to provide for the neediest of half-ghuls, giving them a viable alternative to criminal behavior.

Half-ghuls are understandably distrustful of mortal beings, & this skepticism sometimes is extended to other numari as well, such as half-genies & sabi. They would rather police their own people, investigating & punishing crimes without the intervention of external law enforcement. When a serious crime has been committed, one that threatens the community as a whole with escalated bias or potential violence, the local Speaker will, with the entire community’s majority approval, appoint a Scourge to find the guilty party & make an example of them. A scourge is given wide discretion to carry out their chosen duty, & even those non-ghuls who are familiar with them give them a modicum of respect. Their punishments can sometimes be quite severe, & public executions are not uncommon, but it is thought that these rare extremes will benefit the community (& even the entire race) as a whole.

Ghuls
Even though mortal races are disgusted by the very existence of half-ghuls, & even the act of merely tolerating their presence takes some effort for the average mortal, the vast majority of ghul-blooded are still raised by humans, gnolls, kobolds, & other mortal races. This is because, even though they face hatred & fear from their mortal parents, they would still be better off with them than they would if they had been raised by the ghuls.

Ghuls are heartless, malicious creatures, incapable of feeling empathy, love, or other nurturing emotions. They do not need to reproduce sexually, & they seemingly feel nothing for their half-blooded progeny. They are selfish, solitary beings, who disparage the foolish tendency of mortal beings to gather in easily-hunted groups; in fact, their term for a settlement (such as a town or city) is thuzikh, or herd, an example of their predatory mindset. Unsurprisingly, they make for terrible parents, & any half-ghuls in their care are as likely as not to be killed before they are fully grown, even if the ghul that is raising them is of their own flesh & blood.

The few half-ghuls that survive being reared by ghul parents are typically feral, monstrous beings, as violent & destructive as the ghuls themselves. They display no remorse for the wanton acts of depravity that they commit, & they don’t seem to possess any overarching agenda for their behavior, despite their keen intellect; therefore, these merciless beasts seldom live for long. While it is possible that one of these warped & twisted creatures could be redeemed if given the proper treatment, it is just as likely that they would pose too great a danger to others to be rehabilitated.

[Zeta Kai]

Human

3rd Edition Statistics

Spoiler

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• Humanoid (Human): Humans are subject to spells or effects that affect humanoids only, such as charm person or dominate person.
• Medium Size: As Medium creatures, humans have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
• A human’s base land speed is 30 feet.
• 1 extra feat at 1st level.
• 4 extra skill points at 1st level & 1 extra skill point at each additional level.
• Automatic Language: Common. Bonus Languages: Any (other than secret languages, such as Druidic). See the Speak Language skill.
• Favored Class: Any. When determining whether a multiclass human takes an experience point penalty, his or her highest-level class does not count.
• Level Adjustment: +0.

4th Edition Statistics

Spoiler

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Please see Human in the Player’s Handbook (pages ???), Monster Manual 1 (pages 162-163), & Monster Manual 2 (pages 144-149).

[Zeta Kai]

Human: Overview

Population: 128,850,000 worldwide
Height: 5’6” tall (average)
Weight: 155 lbs. (average)
Languages: Common

Like a virus that has spread out of control, humans are everywhere in the world, & their influence has only grown over the years. Humans occupy any niche that they can, living in the valleys & the hills, in the mountains & the plains, in the deserts & the tundra. No other race has proved as versatile, ambitious, & persistent as they, for good or ill.

About half of the world’s sentient population is made up of humans, also known as the Alqanasi (singular Alaqanas, from the Admajai word for “people, group, or population”). No other race has taken so well to city life; the kobolds may have been the first race to urbanize, but humans have outdone them in their drive to gather together in metropolitan communities. This strength-in-numbers strategy has served them even better than the development of agriculture before it; they are better able to defend themselves & their territory from the bastion of these municipal centers than they were ever able to before. Many other races have followed their lead, founding larger & more concentrated settlements in a bid to remain competitive.

A human is about 5’-6’ tall & weighs around 130-180 pounds. They speak Common, although some of the brighter ones speak another language, such as Alhaggi, Archaic, or Gnoll. They are primarily influenced by the society that they grew up in, although humans from urban areas tend to adopt the cultural norms of their native city, which can differ greatly from the customs of the surrounding area.

[Zeta Kai]

Human: Mamlaqai Culture

Population Base: the Red Sands, Sahra Basit
Primary Religions: Akasha, Daq, Johoum, Limalia
Dominant Language: Common

The Mamlaqai culture is concentrated around the southeast quadrant of the continent, particularly near the Admajai ruins. Descended from the people of the former Empire of Admaja, these people are named for the Mamlaqah Coast, which forms the eastern edge of the land where it meets the Ramul Sea, running for thousands of miles from the Cape of Amal in the south to the town of Uqalibet in the north. They were once a great people, with a mighty army, vast wealth, & an advanced culture. They were masters of the sword & the wand, commanding arcane forces as easily as they did martial ones. But the Pactspell destroyed their empire overnight, & the Ten Dark Years that followed shattered what remained of their culture. The survivors of that cataclysm lost their magic, their power, their loved ones, their cities, their lands, their technology, & even their history. While the people have since survived & partially recovered, they are a broken weary people, & many things that were lost could never be replaced.

Internal Relations
The Mamlaqai have scattered since the Ten Dark Years, but they are still most commonly found along the eastern coast of the Admaja Continent, as well as the Red Sands & the Sahra Basit. The people here share a common history, one of grief, pain, & a loss which can scarcely be understood by those from other cultures. Mamlaqai can be of nearly any race (although lizardfolk are rare), but they are by far predominantly human. They tend to trust a Mamlaqai over people of other backgrounds, even if they have never met them before. They will gladly take a fellow Mamlaqai to their hearth or campfaire & share a meal with them, so that they may trade stories, sing half-remembered songs, & forget the cares of the past or present.

The Mamlaqai are mostly gathered in small thorps & villages, although there are some who live in tiny one-family camps with only a half-dozen people or so. They tend to avoid the cities in the area, such as Dajajah, Mamluk, & Ostaz, just as they steer clear of the many ruins of the Admajai, especially the necropolises of Asanam & Zaladuz. They keep to themselves, & seldom travel far from their homes, preferring to live their simple lives out of harm’s way. They fear larger settlements, due to a belief that corrupting influences pervade such places, & will one day turn them all into haunted ruins like those of the Old Empire.

External Relations
The Mamlaqai have a complex relationship with other cultures. While no outside force caused the Pactspell (the imperial archmagi brought their ruin upon themselves), they have a difficult time trusting people from other societies. They often feel that they have little to offer the world nowadays, & they envy those who have not lost so much. They do have some kinship with the kobolds, who can easily relate due to the psychological effects of the Hijra. They also sympathize with the Numari (half-genies, half-ghuls, & sabi), who often carry the stigma of their mixed heritage; Numari are more at home among the Mamlaqi than they are with almost any other culture, as the Mamlaqai do not concern themselves with race, & they have nothing to gain by shunning a potential friend. But for the most part, they keep to themselves, not wishing to interact with outsiders. This is particularly true when it comes to city-folk; people from the cities confound & upset the Mamlaqai, & they avoid large urban areas at almost any cost. While many of them live in small towns or villages, they associate the lifestyle of the city dwellers & their traditions with their own downfall, & are therefore highly superstitious of anything to do with large cities or the people from them.

Occupations
Mamlaqai are mostly farmers & craftsmen; very few of them care to work as merchants or soldiers, & their small communities don’t require more than one or two clergy members per settlement. They highly value hard, honest work, & are even more prejudiced against mages than other Admajai cultures. Starting at a very young age, most Mamlaqai will either begin work in the fields or will start an apprenticeship with a local professional artisan. Nearly every member of the Mamlaqai is adept at surviving in the desert, & a majority of them are trained in the art of handling animals, which is needed to work with their beasts of burden. Most of their animals are unsuitable for use as mounts, so skilled riders among their people are very rare.

Names
While the Mamlaqai may speak the Common tongue nowadays, their Admajai traditions run deep. They usually take their names from the Archaic tongue, often adopting the name of some great historical figure from the imperial era. A descriptive adjective is also a popular choice for the naming of one’s children, in the belief that a child will exemplify the virtue that their name represents. The Admajai of old typically only had one name, but their modern-day descendents often add a family name or the name of their hometown.

Male Sample Names
Adua (third-born), Adul (masculine), Baluqar (moon), Buqa (second-born), Duaz (closed/narrow), Eqar (eye), Farun (blood), Haza (leader/ruler), Hizu (bravery), Izar (son), Jaruq (???), Lazaqa (guardian), Manas (warrior/soldier), Mira (first-born), Nadim (plain/field), Naz (good/kind), Nuraz (wash/cleanse), Qalim (mountian), Qanuil (nomad/wanderer), Qashi (resolve), Qira (rock/stone), Saj (claw/talon), Sarqai (hairy), Shuqa (wing), Teshiq (hero/savior), Zihara (road), Zimbal (lion)

Female Sample Names
Alaja (life), Arun (feminine), Dilam (hand), Gazila (fate/destiny), Haqara (wind/air), Huzia (oasis), Ibari (golden), Izud (daughter), Jahazi (island), Jima (hope), Mali (light one), Mari (white one), Muarzi (divine/holy), Naduza (ocean), Nasid (angel), Nuza (water/sea), Qehala (earth/ground), Qurai (small/little), Selash (peace/harmony), Sisana (coast/shore), Taqma (fidelity), Udal (forever), Zadi (sand), Zarqa (fire/blaze), Ziria (river), Zui (star)

Food & Drink
The Mamlaqai mostly eat simple fare, as they are a simple people. The most common dish is a simple wheat-based flatbread called burashi (also known as khubz elsewhere), which is often topped with leafy vegetables & covered with olive oil. Lamb is their main meat staple, although hunted poultry is also popular. Those near the coast eat salted fish, but the inland folk usually don’t, as trade is minimal among their settlements. Like nearly all people on Siraaj, they grow rice, & have several different rice dishes.

Their Admajai forebears ate more fruit & vegetables, back when the deserts were smaller & the land was more fertile. They still grow some ancient crops, like dates, olives, & spinach, but others (such as pomegranates & melons) are mostly forgotten. They have never been very fond of dairy products, considering both eggs & milk to be unpalatable. While the Admajai enjoyed many different types of wine, their modern descendents instead brew a wheat-based beer called rezal, which is mostly drank during special occasions, such as weddings, holidays, & other religious ceremonies.

Appearance
A typical Mamlaqai looks like the average villager from almost any region on the Central Continent. They generally wear a long tunic or robe called a dishdasha, with a pair of loose trousers (known as shalwar) underneath. The men will wear a keffiyeh, a headdress meant to protect the head & face from sun & sand, with an outer cloak known as a bisht that is only worn on special occasions. The women typically wear some sort of head scarf whenever they are outside, & young maidens often cover their faces with a gauzy veil, to symbolize their purity.

In imperial times, these garments were always brightly colored, made of fine materials like silk, & embellished with beads, jewels, feathers, & even tiny bells, to celebrate the opulence of the era. Nowadays, though, most Mamlaqai wear simple linen clothes in drab colors, most commonly white, black, brown, or gray. They eschew decorations such as makeup, nail polish, & jewelry, denouncing them as decadent & ostentatious. They wear their hair very long, & some local customs forbid the cutting of hair at all, except minor trims for maintenance (although how much the barber deems necessary to cut is sometimes negotiated in secret). The men always sport facial hair, & any male without a thick beard is seen as immature or lacking masculinity.

Arts & Education
The Empire of Admaja placed an emphasis on art & science, seeing them as one & the same. Their artists & engineers were members of the same revered profession, the work of creation. They were masters of many fields, such as mathematics, architecture, poetry, astronomy, magic, & medicine. Though their empire was shattered, their people were scattered, & most of their great achievements have been lost to time, relics of their era remain, buried beneath the sands, waiting for the winds of time to uncover them once again.

The Mamlaqai of today have mostly forgotten about the days of the empire, but its shadow is long, & some traditions remain. They highly value knowledge, in any form, & they take great care to preserve any lore or artifacts of the past. The elders of each settlement diligently train the young from an early age, teaching them not only the practical skills of everyday life, but also whatever information that they have about the Admajai. Almost every citizen is literate (although almost no one writes, either in Common or Archaic), as they are all taught to read the scrolls & tomes that their ancestors managed to rescue from the Pactspell. While much of their history has become legend or myth, & the relics of the past paint only a small fractured picture at best, some of the flawed greatness of the imperial age has been preserved to this day.

The artists of the Mamlaqai are mostly sculptors & potters, carving & shaping the earth into forms reminiscent of the imperial styles. A great importance is placed on the natural forms, especially those of the human body, whose proportions are thought to be divinely inspired. Artists of other races usually find this racial bias distasteful, but as it is a long-standing tradition among the Mamlaqai, so most of the non-humans choose to simply ignore it & focus on abstract forms, like geometric shapes & mathematically-precise lines or curves.

Relationships
The Mamlaqai are a conservative people, & as such, they have strict codes of conduct for courtship & marriage. When a boy or girl comes of age (officially on their 12th birthday), the local elders organize a celebration, called an aluqa-ahuz (literally “[the] end [of] childhood”). At this party, which is a tradition dating back to the late imperial era, the family’s friends & neighbors attend to congratulate the child on reaching adulthood, & several rituals are performed to mark the occasion. One of these is an extended dance where the new adult is briefly paired with each attendant of the opposite sex, at least all of the ones that are still unmarried. The parents observe, selecting those that they think are most compatible with their child, & then approach the parents of their selected partner. If the partner’s parents agree, then the couple is permitted to court each other.

Courtship is a complex system of rituals & practices, where almost every word & action of the either party is considered part of the “game” of preparing for marriage. Gifts are given, poems are written & recited, dinners are eaten, & a great deal of time is spent on learning about & judging one’s partner. The parents of each partner assist with the courting in any way that they can, but it is often left up to the young couple to complete the various rites. Each partner can end the courting at any time, although there is usually pressure from both families to complete the courtship & get married. As a result, most young adults marry the first person that their parents pair them up with, regardless of whether the couple is truly in love with each other or not. The courtship is designed to teach the couple how to work together to achieve a common goal, a necessary skill in a culture that has lived in such a harsh & unforgiving land for over 350 years.

Crime
In the parched dunes of the Red Sands & the bleak rocky wastes of the Sahra Basit, the Mamlaqai survive only because they work together to do so. Theirs is a harmony born of deprivation & desperation, with little room for error or failure. In this culture, any crime is taken very seriously, as a deviation from the law could spell disaster for the community as a whole.

Because of this, most of the Mamlaqai are rather conscientious & polite to one another, abiding the law for the good of the entire group. Criminals are seen as deviants, possessed or corrupted by dark spirits to commit acts against the community. A theft from one house is viewed as taking from them all, & an assault on one member is an attack on everyone. Thusly, even minor crimes are punished severely, so as to deter anyone from committing a similar act.

The local elders in each settlement are tasked with the responsibility of judging whether a person is guilty of committing a crime or not. The accusers present their grievance in full, & then the accused speaks on their own behalf. If any party is unavailable or unable to speak for themselves, their family is given the task of presenting their case to the court. The elders then confer, & publicly cast their votes for or against the indictment. A minor infraction is usually dealt with swiftly by having the guilty party beaten by a citizen chosen by the victims. More severe crimes are settled by a combination of restitution, exile, &/or execution, at the discretion of the elders.

Legends
The Mamlaqai have mixed feelings about their imperial forebears. While some see their ancestors as a corrupt, decadent people brought down by their own hubris, most of them view the Admajai as a great culture that did not deserve its ill fate. They have a saying which sums up their complex relationship with the past: “We could not have fallen so far had our fathers not flown so high.”

As stated before, most of the knowledge of the Admajai has since been lost, either during the Ten Dark Years, or in the centuries since that cataclysm. What lore remains is often distorted, warped by repeated retellings & incomplete records. Because of this, the Mamlaqai have many fanciful tales & wild myths concerning their imperial ancestors. There are many legends of multi-headed beasts, dark mages leveling cities with their sorcery, holes in the sky from which flying spirits usher forth, & other such imaginative wonders. While most people today scoff at such tales as fodder for fools & children, the Mamlaqai believe in these legends more than they admit, & even the most skeptical of them has little to explain away the mysteries & wonders of the strange world in which they live.

Sexism
There is significant degree of sexism in Mamlaqai society, more than in most post-imperial cultures. The Admajai were a very egalitarian people, where men & women had all the same rights & privileges. But after the fall of the Old Empire, the men began to resent this arrangement, & over time, women were relegated to an inferior position. Nowadays, women must dress more conservatively than in the past, are forbidden from becoming elders within a community, & wives are discouraged from voting differently than their husbands. There are some women who are trying to reverse this trend & regain some of the rights that they once had, but so far there has been little luck on this front, & some activists are already disheartened.

Slavery
The Admajai never practiced slavery, even in their earliest days, & the Old Empire outlawed slavery in every land that they controlled. They had their magic to assist them with laborious endeavors, & they viewed each person as a thinking being of value, one with a soul that is no better or worse than any other. But later generations faced hardships & strife that the Admajai could scarcely imagine, & as a result, the owning of slaves is no longer illegal in most Mamlaqai settlements.

Slavery is still considered shameful by many people, & most cannot afford to own one, but some of the wealthier citizens have convinced the local elders to permit the practice. Slavery is still illegal in Dajajah, as it was in Mamluk before the Ostazai annexed it, so slaveholders tend to avoid that city-state’s territory whenever possible. A few daring Mamlaqai who oppose slavery have recently banded together to liberate slaves & smuggle them out of the region, mostly to the gnoll-lands of the north.

[Zeta Kai]

Human: Iludai Culture

Population Base: Ilud, Burdusq
Primary Religions: Akasha, Pashati, Qirus, Sidaru
Dominant Language: Common

The Iludai culture is centered in the region of Ilud, in the southwest quadrant of the continent. Heavily influenced by the long-dead Dominion of Alaqanas to the north, both the region & the people are named for former kingdom of Ilud, which ruled this forested region for many centuries. Having mostly escaped the ravages of the Pactspell, the Iludai retained a majority of their technology & knowledge after the final collapse of their kingdom, & therefore remained a more sophisticated society than the barbaric post-fall Mamlaqai. The people here are mostly wealthier & more comfortable than those from other parts of the continent, & their more pleasant climate grants them longer, healthier lives. They sometimes see themselves as divinely blessed, & some would argue that it is their right to spread & rule over the land. But their easy living has made them softer than the hardy desert folk found elsewhere, & long periods of peace have left them without the martial prowess needed to invade & conquer.

Internal Relations
The Iludai are settled all over the region of Ilud in various cities, towns, & villages. Their settlements many be of nearly any size, their largest being the cities of Babalarud, Sa’ifah, Zawraq, Naranj, & Fandaq. Unlike the Mamlaqai, who generally avoid the cities in their territory, the influence of Iludai culture does not stop at the gates of a large settlement. The people in the cities are as much a part of Iludai culture as those in the rural parts of the region. Local politics is usually in the hands of an elected leader known as a rabb, who administrates the law, directs the local militia or constable, & presides over court cases. Larger settlements may have a network of rabbs, all under the direction of an elected overlord called a malik, which is a title that was used by the kings of the ancient Iludai.

External Relations
The Iludai are generally quite open & inviting to strangers, accepting the customs & practices of foreigners without offense or judgment. In ages past, they were much less hospitable towards outsiders, treating them with suspicion & discourtesy. This incivility was born out of centuries of warfare with their neighbors, who they came to see as coveting the paradise that the Iludai had created. But a long period of peace, coupled with a robust & lucrative industry of mercantile trade, has dulled the edge of hostility, & nowadays the locals are friendly & accepting of people from foreign lands, especially if they are willing to spend their foreign coin on local goods.

While the vast majority of the Iludai are human, people from all races can claim the heritage of the Ilud, as the kingdom was known for its cosmopolitan population. The modern Iludai gets along well with kobolds & lizardfolk, who have lived here for untold generations & have integrated well with the human locals. Gnolls are an uncommon sight, as their homelands are on the other side of the continent, but traders & nomads have travelled this far in great numbers, so they are far from unknown. Those with genie or ghul blood are tolerated, if perhaps a bit coldly, & they tend to form their own private enclaves in Iludai lands, either plainly or (more commonly) as an open secret. While the Iludai have no explicit qualm with the Numari, they are much more distrustful of magical forces (& the beings that wield them) than their ancestors were, & spellcasting has been illegal here for years.

Occupations
An Iludai can be of almost any vocation, so diverse are its lands & its people. Shepherds tend flocks of sheep & herds of goats over the grassy hills of the southern reaches. Farmers work the fields & orchards of the plains. Woodsmen make a living in the forests. Fishermen stalk the lakes & rivers for prey. Merchants cross the region in their caravans. Soldiers guard the cities & the villas. Nobles lie about, as decadently as their ancestors. And like everywhere else, nomads & explorers wander about, going where fortune leads them.

There are more druids & rangers here than in any other place on the continent, due to the verdant landscape. Barbarians are less common than elsewhere, as are masters of the wastes. The services of a bard or a rogue are always in high demand, as there are many who will pay for a song or buy stolen goods. Clerics & paladins have their work cut out for them, as corruption is widespread & many temples are in decline after years of malaise.

Names
The Iludai use Common names for their children, & have largely forgotten Alaqanasai, the language of their forefathers. Few people are named after figures from Ilud’s long history, as they prefer simple evocative names that describe the individual. In the days of the king, people usually had a short first name & a longer family name, & their descendants carry on that tradition, after a fashion. Modern Iludai are typically given a first name, followed by their family name, which is preceded by a prefix denoting their relation to the family (son of, daughter of, of the, etc.). Some family names are derived from hometowns, especially for families from smaller communities, but this is not a common practice.

Male Sample Names
Ali (exalted/noble), Anwar (bright one), Aziz (powerful one), Bashir (good omen), Emir (charming prince), Farid (unique/unrivaled), Gadil (spiritual), Gamal (camel), Hadi (guide/leader), Haqim (wise/judicious), Harun (enlightened), Jalil (majestic), Maliq (master/king), Mustafa (chosen one), Nasir (supporter/protector), Nuri (fire), Omar (first-born), Qadir (powerful), Qaled (eternal), Qarim (noble/generous), Rashid (well-guided), Salah (good, righteous), Sayed (lord/master), Tariq (night visitor), Usaf (gift), Wasim (handsome one), Zafar (triumphant one)

Female Sample Names
Adiva (pleasant/gentle), Amani (aspiration/desire), Amirah (princess), Aqila (intelligent/wise), Azra (virginal/chaste), Basimah (smiling one), Fatima (abstainer), Ghada (graceful), Haifa (slender), Iman (faith/belief), Jamilah (beautiful), Jehan (flower), Layla (intoxicating), Malaqi (angel), Nada (generous one), Noor (light), Qadira (powerful), Qalila (beloved), Qantara (small bridge), Rabi (harvest/spring), Rana (beautiful), Sahar (dawn), Sumehra (pretty face), Tahira (pure/virtuous), Zada (lucky one), Zaira (rose)

Food & Drink
Iludai cuisine is an eclectic collection of foods & drinks, taken from cultures across the continent. Their diverse cuisine was brought by traders over the centuries, who collected dishes from far-flung peoples & introduced the locals to them as they peddled their wares. Foods from Burdusq, Sheqari, the Alhurus coast, & even the lands of the far east have eventually made their way here. The Iludai took these meals, adopted them as their own, & gave them a regional twist by adding their own ingredients.

Ilud’s lush orchards & fertile fields produce the best & most abundant crops on the continent, growing many fruits & vegetables that are found nowhere else on Siraaj. The Fields of Salam & the area around Mathar Lake are famous for their farms, but the pride of the region is the fine wine that is made in the northern parts of the region, especially on the grape vineyards south of Naranj. The farms there produce a rich-bodied, full-tasting wine called dawaq that is world-famous. The farmers have been making this wine for hundreds of years, & as a result, it is not too difficult to find a good bottle of dawaq that was made in the imperial era.

Appearance
The Iludai dress as their ancestors did for millennia, maintaining the traditional fashions as a way of staying connected with their past. Both genders wear knee-length tunics over a simple loin-cloth, cinched at the waist with a belt, & they typically wear open-toed sandals on their feet. The men wear plain, single-colored garments with thin tight belts & short-banded sandals, while the women wear bright patterns on their cloths with wide loose-fitting belts & sandals that tie up the calf almost to the knee. Neither men nor women wear any head covering, & they take great pride in the elaborate hairstyles that they wear. This is in stark contrast to the dress of people from other parts of the continent, where people usually wear long robes & a headdress of some sort. The people here seem to like this distinction, as it allows them to easily identify a foreigner among their ranks, even one who is attempting to become a native, as they seldom are able to pick up the subtleties of Iludai fashion.

Arts & Education
The Iludai take great pride in their heritage & their history; they have a long tradition of melding art & science into a potent & beautiful practice. Their most notable achievements were in the field of architecture, where they were unrivalled masters. Their style is to use tall columns, flying buttresses, & airy spaces to evoke a feeling of grandeur & openness, as opposed to the Dajajai style of architecture, which favors thick walls & short buildings. In the days of the king, the Iludai built marvels of architectural design that still stand to this day, such as the Great Lighthouse, the Tomb of Shumartim, & the Temple of the Colossus. Countless bridges, aqueducts, & ziggurats were constructed in their angular, geometric style, & their sound understanding of engineering ensured that their works would stand the test of time.

This architectural skill still exists among the Iludai; even though the region is fractured politically & socially, they still invoke the memory & talent of their ancestors to produce buildings of great beauty & strength today. The modern Iludai place a great emphasis on the power of knowledge & the importance of obtaining a rich education. There are many colleges & libraries in the region that date back to the Age of Kingdoms, such as the University of the Finest Arts, the Academy of Seafaring, & the Halls of Wisdom (all in Naranj), the Library of Zarim in Babalarud (formerly the Library of Corah), the Academy of the Truest Art in Sa’ifah, & the College of Zawraq (currently closed).

While these facilities are mostly for the wealthy elite, all citizens receive a mandatory education in the basics of literature, mathematics, & history. Those who show particular aptitude are eligible for acceptance in a college, & those who cannot afford such a luxury are routinely offered a scholarship or a patronage. This practice dates back centuries, as the kingdom of Ilud was the first nation to implement a standard educational system for all of its citizens, which gave them a long-term advantage over their neighbors.

Relationships
If there is one thing that the modern Iludai are not proud of, it is the debauchery of their ancestors. The kingdom of Ilud was notorious for its immorality, & some would even have called them depraved. Many familial ties were strained by rampant adultery, social isolation, & even incidents of incest. The common attitude seemed to be that it wasn’t an issue to commit a crime, but it was a grave matter to be caught doing so. It was this widespread corruption that prompted the formation of the Decree of Mahubarim, the world’s first code of codified law.

Nowadays, the Iludai are much more conservative & law-abiding, & their family values are a reflection of that. Fidelity to one’s family is of paramount importance to them, second only to one’s religious devotion. The family unit is considered sacrosanct, & most people identify themselves & their neighbors by their family name. Modern marriages are typically arranged by the parents of the couple, to ensure a strong & mutually-beneficial union of the two families, although the couple often has a say in the matter, & can usually veto an unpleasant union on various grounds. People do not generally travel far from home, so communities tend to be organized by their extended familial relationships with their neighbors, which can sometimes become very complex & intertwined.

Crime
The Iludai are more lenient towards criminals than most other cultures, & they have a long tradition of judicial justice & organized law-enforcement. The first code of organized law, the Decree of Mahubarim, was created here thousands of years ago, as a result of the kingdom’s infamous corruption. While the decree did not immediately curtail the committing of vice (merely made it taboo to be publicly exposed), its influence on the Iludai was widespread, eventually leading to the conventional law-abiding culture that they have today.

There is a saying among the Iludai: “Truth is what divides the innocent from the guilty; they cannot be separated by Fortune or Belief.” In this proverb, Fortune means both luck & wealth, while Belief refers to religion & conviction. This foundation of Truth, & the pursuit thereof, forms the basis for the entire system of law for the Iludai, & indeed all law is meaningless to them unless it is based on what is factual & real. If one has committed a crime, one’s luck, wealth, religion, & reputation mean nothing; one’s guilt is said to follow them like a specter.

Pantheon
In the days of the king, long before the Ten Dark Years, the Iludai worshiped an entire pantheon of gods & goddesses, a polytheistic collection of divine beings that are virtually unknown in today’s world. While the modern Iludai all revere a single deity (such as Adimas, Daq, Pashati, Qirus, or Sidaru), their ancestors were devoted to several divinities simultaneously. These gods formed a loose family (a reflection of the casual relationships of the ancient Iludai), which were constantly bickering, competing, cheating, & sleeping with one another.

The oldest goddess was Il, the embodiment of the heavens, who mated with her brother Na, the god of the earth, to produce the cosmos, along with all the other gods. The eldest of these offspring was Ultat, the goddess of the air & matron deity of Gazafa Ashir (modern-day Sa’ifah). Next was Ulna, the goddess of freshwater, female fertility, & knowledge; she was the first of the three matron deities of Naranj. Then there was Alilli, the god of sexual love, male fertility & warfare; he was the patron deity of Babalarud. Next was Laltat, the god of the air & husband of Ultat; one of the patron deities of Gazafa Ashir, he was believed to reside in the same temple as his wife. Then there was Lalerki, the goddess of war, agriculture, & storms; she was the matron deity of Fandaq & one of the three matron deities of Naranj. Next was Eke, the goddess of the sun, who was primarily worshiped at the Gir’Giri Temple of Haraj. There was also Lilli, the goddess of the moon & the last of the three matron deities of Naranj. Lastly, there was Lalmit, the husband of Lilli & god of the stars; he frequently cheated on his wife with the other goddesses, although this was not particularly unusual.

Nowadays, the old gods are all but forgotten, completely replaced by monotheistic faiths. But some remnants of the pantheon still remain, in the form of statuary & pottery, murals & friezes. The coinage of Fandaq still has Lalerki on one side, while imagery of Alilli still adorns the gates of Babalarud. The parliament buildings in Sa’ifah are named after Ultat & Laltat, & there are several streets in Naranj that bear the name of one of the three matron deities. Most of the Iludai regard these characters as historical or mythical figures, but many scholars in the region know the truth, even though they are usually reluctant to speak of it openly, as polytheism is considered barbaric & uncivilized.

Sexism
Modern Iludai are quite egalitarian, treating both genders as basically equal & stressing the importance of treating everyone with respect & courtesy. While true equality is their preferred ideal, the realities of daily life are somewhat different. Women are allowed to vote, but they almost never hold positions of power unless they are widows who inherited them from their late husbands. They are able to work, own property, & veto arranged marriages just like their male counterparts, but their opportunities are more limited than those of men, who are still the dominant gender.

In the old days, women were at even more of a disadvantage than they are today. There was a time that a woman was considered mere property, passed from her parents (her father, really) to her husband along with a substantial dowry to cover her costs & expenses. They could not vote, work, or own property, & their right to reject a suitor was much more limited than today, as well. Women were expected to be attractive daughters, faithful wives, caring mothers, & little else. Those who did not conform to these social restrictions were labeled a zaniya & were ostracized.

This was complicated by the fact that several women have sat of the throne of the kingdom of Ilud over the years, including such notable rulers as Queen Sasu Zaduqim & Queen Ashmur. These queens were all dowagers: monarchs who inherited their authority from their deceased husbands. While they each contributed to the cause of gender equality, loosening some of restrictions on females, it wasn’t until the reign of Queen Tari Hezaruqad, in the waning days of the kingdom, that women were fully liberated & given the same rights & status as the men of Ilud.

Slavery
Slavery is banned in the region of Ilud, & slaveholders have no legal means of maintaining control over their slaves in the lands of the Iludai. The outlawing of slavery was decreed by King Qasim Nahutilud, who was eventually assassinated for his trouble. Before his reign, slavery was practiced throughout the kingdom, & slaves had absolutely no rights, being mere chattel, so their masters could do (& often did) anything that they wished to do with them. Qasim’s successors never reinstituted the practice, however, & as a result, Ilud became a haven for escaped slaves from neighboring regions. This influx of people from all over the western half of the continent led to a great blossoming of ideas, tempering some of the less pleasant aspects of the culture & making Ilud the diverse, open region that it is today.

[Zeta Kai]

Nomadic Tribal Culture

Population Base: the Northern Wastes, Satha Laylanuha
Primary Religions: Al’Sihr (Adimas), Al’Qahhar (Johoum), Limalia, Al-Qaniss (Umaj)
Dominant Language: Common

Unlike the Mamlaqai & the Iludai, the nomads of the north didn’t descend from a great nation that broke apart. The Northern Wastes & the mountains beyond them were largely avoided by the kingdoms & empires of ages past, creating a political no-man’s-land where governance never extended past one’s tribe. In this harsh landscape, survival means everything, & the tribal leaders hold absolute authority (& total responsibility) within their tribe. Most of the tribes follow a migratory pattern on an annual cycle, walking the same paths that their ancestors have for thousands of years. The life of a nomad is not an easy one, with hunger, thirst, predators, & inclement weather all a constant threat. But still they press on, surviving when others could not, thriving where others would not. They do this because it is the only life that they know, because it is tradition, & because their lands cannot sustain them for long before they are forced to move ever onward.

Internal Relations
The nomads live in a family-based camp called a rahth (literally “tribe”), which are kept small by necessity. These tribes can be as small as three members, or as large as thirty, although the average is about 16 or so people. They are generally autonomous, each having almost complete independence from the other tribes, although some of them have mutual protection treaties & formal trade agreements with each other. Each rahth is usually headed by a chieftain (known as a ra-iss), who is elected by the tribal elders from among the best hunters & seekers. These elders commonly act as the chieftain’s advisors, counseling the chieftain on matters that affect the rahth as a whole.

External Relations
The nomads are an insular people, who have little to do with the world outside of their migratory paths & their annual cycles. They even consider the locals from the cities within their lands (Alaqur, Mushayar, Qaziz, Qulzai, & Rizaj) to be outsiders, as the urban culture is alien to their own. Their self-imposed isolation means that they have very few non-humans among their ranks, despite centuries of cohabitation with aazlai, desert centaurs, gnolls, kobolds, & various numari. While they will gladly trade goods & services with foreign folk, they do so only to ensure that they will always have what they need to survive, & they generally refuse to allow non-members to travel with them for more than a day or two. This seclusion sometimes even extends to nomads from other tribes, but this is mostly a practice of the most extreme tribes, & not indicative of the entire culture. The tribes will unite against a common enemy, but only a strong outside threat can overcome their traditional separation from each other.

Occupations
Nearly all of a tribe’s activities are centered around their continued survival, & every member of a rahth is expected to work in the best interests of the community. Most of the men are hunters or elders, while most of the women are gatherers or caretakers. Those who don’t fit into these rigid vocational roles are almost always seekers, which can be of either gender. The ra-iss (chieftain) of each rahth is chosen from the best hunters & seekers by the elders, making them almost always male. While most members of a nomadic tribe are commoners or warriors, some of them can be adepts, barbarians, experts, rangers, or even druids; some nomads may have a bardic or roguish bent, but they are rare exceptions. Occasionally, a rahth will employ a speaker to negotiate with outsiders for necessary goods & services, but this is usually a temporary role, filled by a seeker or an elder with a gift for diplomacy or storytelling. Larger tribes may have a permanent speaker on-hand (most often a bard or an expert), as they need supplementary supplies more often than small tribes.

Names
Members of a nomadic tribe are given only a single name, as each rahth is small & every member is well known by all the others. They often refer to each other by their family relations; for example, an elder may call a younger tribe-mate Great Nephew, Sister-in-Law or Eldest Grandson (the nomads have a long list of unique titles for such relatives, taken from the Admajai tongue). On the rare occasions that a nomad deals with strangers, they may address themselves by their birth-name, followed by the name of their particular rahth as a sort of surname. Distinguished tribe-mates may garner a special title, based on some famous incident or notable accomplishment, becoming known as Hizu the Ghul-Slayer or Aqila Spring-Finder. But these titles are for truly exceptional deeds, & are not handed out lightly, so most nomads are known only by the name given to them at birth.

For sample names, choose from either the Mamlaqai sample names list or the Iludai sample names list.

Food & Drink
For countless years, the nomadic tribes have travelled the desert, moving onward every few weeks in search of fresh pasture for their camels, goats, & sheep. They feed on the simple products of their livestock: dairy products & meat, supplemented by commodities (such as rice, sugar, tea, & flour) that they obtained in trade with the roving caravans of merchants & the urban peoples along their annual routes. The flour & sugar are commonly mixed with the goats’ milk to make sweet unleavened cakes, while the rice is most often boiled & flavored with desert rock salts. Their primary meat is either goat or sheep; they will not eat a camel, as most tribes consider them sacred creatures. If a seeker can find one, & the hunters can bring one down, they will feast upon a sarsaok, but this is a rare treat, & a hunter who can take one down single-handedly is worthy of story, song, & title.

Appearance
The nomads dress as most desert peoples do: a cloak (bisht) over long robes (dishdasha), which in turn is worn over loose trousers (shalwar). These protect the wearer from the harsh desert conditions, such as the scorching heat of the day, the frigid cold of the night, & the scathing wind of the sands. In addition to these garments, the tribes are notable for their use of the head-scarf, called the cheche. All members wear these scarves, which cover most of their heads, leaving only their eyes exposed. They wear their cheche at all times while outside, removing them only in the relative safety of their tents.

The nomads are not a wealthy or prosperous people, so their garments are most often colorless, lacking dye & bleached white from the sun. The women will make up for this by attaching scales or bits of metal to edges of their clothes, which often cause them to make a tinkling sound whenever they move as the pieces strike each other (female seekers eschew this practice). The men wear long tangled beards, which they tuck into their robes whenever they are outdoors to keep sand out of them; the length of their beards is proportional to their status within the tribe’s hierarchy, with the ra-iss wearing the longest beard. Members of both genders wear a small tattoo on the bridge of their nose, which is a symbol of their particular rahth. All tribe members wear the same tattoo, so as to identify themselves to each other without exposing their faces.

Arts & Education
Nomads do not receive any formal education, & the vast majority of them are illiterate, even those that speak multiple languages. Knowledge is past on from the elders (male) & the caretakers (female), & most of this training is in regards to practical matters related to the survival of the tribe. Boys are taught to make tools & to hunt, while girls are trained to tend livestock & care for the young, the sick, & the elderly. Both sexes learn to seek out resources, set up & break down camp, & speak to others. The rahth encourages its members to learn as much as possible, & to practice what they know often, so that the tribe may survive the sudden death of most of its members.

The tribes do not create much art, as they are a simple people with limited means of expression. They do, however, carve intricate stone markers, to denote their migratory routes & indicate where their dead are buried. Often these are the same sites, & due to their significance, these marker-stones are usually rather large (between 4’ & 7’ tall, & at least 2’ across) & are always very complex. Their detailed carvings typically portray the history of the rahth, its people, its tools, its prey, & its environment, all with hieroglyphic pictograms. Members of a tribe may also create art with paint or song, but the nomads are most known for these carvings/sculptures.

Relationships
The nomads have a patriarchal, straight-laced culture, one steeped in tradition & custom. They live as their ancestors have for untold centuries, & they maintain their rigid gender roles without question. Only a man can become the tribe’s chieftain, & only men (as the elders) can advise him. It is said that long ago, the women (as the caretakers) had an equal voice, & even that they could aspire to become the ra-iss, but these tales lack any corroboration, & they are widely dismissed as mere fancy.

The tribes mostly keep to themselves, but they do regularly meet with each other to trade goods & services, the same as they would do upon meeting a merchant caravan or an urban settlement. The only difference is that they will also intermarry with other tribes, so as to form mutual-benefit alliances. Upon meeting another rahth, which takes place once every few years, a tribe’s elders will select one of the available children of marrying age (15 years or older). They will then present the youth to the other rahth, which will present one in kind. If the two are of the opposite sex, then they will be wed, & live with the young man’s tribe. If the two are of the same sex, then the tribes part ways without a union.

Within the tribe, marriages are usually arranged by the caretakers, who observe the children & decide who among them will be the most compatible. The couple has a limited say in the matter, but tradition weighs heavily upon them to follow through with the decision of the tribe’s caretakers. The unmarried members of the rahth are permitted to have friendships with members of the opposite sex, but unauthorized courting is forbidden.

Crime
The chieftain of a tribe rules with absolute authority, & his is the last word on many matters, including those related to crime. The tribe’s elders often advise the ra-iss on what can be considered a violation of custom, but his verdict is final. Law is a simple matter for the nomads: act according to the traditions, or submit to the chieftain for judgment. If he accepts the action, then it is not a crime; if he rejects it as against the best interests of the rahth, then the accused is guilty, & will be punished.

Minor transgressions (like lying, neglect of duty, or gluttony) are dealt with quickly, usually by administering a simple beating or forbidding the guilty to eat with the rest of the rahth for a day or so (this is basically a de facto fast, as it is rare for a tribe member to have their own provisions). More serious crimes (such as assault, theft, or adultery) are usually punished by stripping the guilty parties of all possessions, including clothing, & exiling them from the tribe. The most heinous crimes (rape, murder, & treason) will earn the guilty a death by stoning, in which the entire tribe is expected to participate.

Masters of the Wastes
One of the proudest traditions of the nomads is that of the masters of the wastes. Only the finest of their people, the most accomplished hunters & seekers, are eligible to become true masters. Those rare individuals who qualify usually begin their career as a master by hosting a ritual feast, in which they symbolically say goodbye to their fellow tribe members. They then leave the rahth, walking alone & unaided into the wasteland. If they survive for two full days, without food or water, & they meet the other requirements, then the path of the master is said to open before them. If they fail, then they are unlikely to ever be seen again.

A returning master is met with great fanfare by the tribe, & it is customary that a celebration be held in their honor. While it is not mandatory, it is a common tradition that a ra-iss who is not a master of the wastes will cede their title to the new master, & it is their choice whether to accept the mantle of chieftain or not. Masters are revered as nearly-divine beings, wise & hardy creatures who have taken everything that the desert can throw at them & transcended beyond such earthly hardships. Often, a master will grow restless within the confines of a tribe, & eventually leave them to seek a greater communion with the wilderness, leaving behind their former life along with the legends of their exploits.

Routes
Each rahth has its own annual route, which is followed with little deviation. Most of the tribes will hole up for a month or so in the foothills of the Sathan Range during the middle of winter. Then, before the approach of spring, they will pack up & wander southwards, usually along one of the three Sister Rivers or their tributaries. They will stop periodically throughout the spring to let their livestock graze, to hunt for game, & to gather other supplies.

By the summertime, most of the tribes have reached the northern banks of Alhurus Lake, where they will spend a few days or weeks resting & conducting trade negotiations. While they can & do run across caravans anywhere along their routes, many merchants know that the tribes will be on the shore during the middle of summer, so they flock to meet the weary nomads as they arrive. After this period of relative leisure, the nomads will pick up once more & make their way north, travelling through the autumnal months along the river banks & across the wasteland. They follow their marker-stones (& occasionally those of the other tribes) back to their winter havens, where they will begin the cycle anew. The nomads have done things this way for thousands of years, following in the footsteps of their ancestors as they march ever onward.

Religion
While the tribes are all very similar to one another culturally, they worship a number of different gods, & there seems to be little chance of them reaching a consensus of the issue of religion. Some of the nomads pray to Al’Sihr (Adimas) for blessings & good fortune, while others ask Al’Qahhar (Johoum) for mercy from the punishing sun. Many tribes revere Al-Qaniss (Umaj) as a personification of the wilderness, while others believe that Limalia merely uses the wasteland as a testing ground for her chosen people. Some of these differences can be traced back to a conversion by a cleric traveling with a caravan, or a chieftain receiving a dream-vision, or some more obscuring reason. But regardless of their faith, the tribes maintain the traditions to which they have always adhered.

[Zeta Kai]

Kobold

3rd Edition Statistics

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• Strength -2, Dexterity +2, Constitution -2, Intelligence +2.
• Humanoid (Reptilian): Kobolds are scaly & coldblooded, but are still subject to spells or effects that affect humanoids only, such as charm person or dominate person.
• Small Size: +1 bonus to Armor Class, +1 bonus on attack rolls, +4 bonus on Hide checks, -4 penalty on grapple checks, lifting & carrying limits ¾ those of Medium characters.
• A kobold’s base land speed is 30 feet.
• Darkvision out to 60 feet.
• Racial Skills: A kobold character has a +2 racial bonus on Appraise & Tumble checks. They also receive 4 bonus skill points at 1st level. These points may only be allocated to Craft (any) or Knowledge (any).
• Kobolds have a +1 racial bonus to Reflex saves & a -1 racial penalty to Will saves.
• +1 natural armor bonus.
• Automatic Languages: Common. Bonus Languages: Alhaggi, Archaic, & Draconic.
• Favored Class: Rogue.
• Level Adjustment: +0.

4th Edition Statistics

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Average Height: 2’0” - 2’5”
Average Weight: 35-45 lbs.

Ability Scores: +2 Intelligence, +2 Dexterity OR +2 Wisdom
Size: Small
Speed: 5 squares
Vision: Low-light

Languages: Common, choice of two others
Skill Bonuses: +2 History, +2 Thievery
Conservation of Energy: You gain a number of additional healing surges equal to the higher of your Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma modifiers (minimum 1). Every time you are bloodied or reduced to 0 hit points or fewer, you lose one healing surge, up to a number of times per day equal to the higher of your Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma modifiers (minimum 1).
Intellectual Mind: You gain a +4 racial bonus to monster knowledge checks.
In addition, you can use Quick-Witted Positioning as an at-will power.
Lastly, you can use Tactical Knowledge as an encounter power.

Quick-Witted Positioning (at-will power)

• Your steps are too fast for a foe to follow.
• At-Will
• Minor Action Personal
• Effect: Shift 1 square

Tactical Knowledge (encounter power)

• You decipher clues about a target’s weak spots.
• Encounter
• Minor Action Close Burst 10
• Target: One enemy in burst.
• Requirement: You must be trained in a knowledge skill that covers the target’s origin
• Effect: The target grants combat advantage to you until the end of your next turn.

Favored Classes: Artificer, Rogue, Swordmage, Wizard

[Zeta Kai]

Kobold: Overview

Population: 18,780,000 worldwide
Height: 2’4” tall (average)
Weight: 40 lbs. (average)
Languages: Alhaggi, Archaic, Common, Draconic

Kobolds are canny & entrepreneurial. These small reptilian people have a nose for opportunity, a zest for living, & a heritage of tenacity. Though less numerous than other peoples, their long history & prolific spread has led to their traditional tongue becoming the common trade language. They are indigenous to the warm flatlands north of the Satha Laylanuha, although in modern times they can be found anywhere on the continent of Admaja, especially in urban areas. Also known as Araqurai (from an Admajai phrase, meaning “little lizard”), they have weathered all storms with an industrious & persevering attitude that has served them well over the ages.

Biology
An average adult kobold weighs between 30 & 50 pounds, & reaches between 2’ & 3’ in height. They resemble humanoid agamids, with scales coating much of their skin & distinctive reptilian features. Kobold females are often as tall as males, though they weigh less & have more slender limbs. Kobolds are adapted to crawling as easily as to walking, although they vastly prefer the latter & so usually walk upright. Kobold dental structure is acrodontal, resembling a snake’s mouth rather than a lizard’s. Their coloration may change slightly in order to regulate body temperature.

Diet
From birth, kobolds are extremely inquisitive about what does & does not qualify as food. Thus, adult kobolds’ diets are large & varied, ranging from insects, fish, birds & small reptiles to commonly-accepted meats, as well as grain, fruit, vegetables, flowers & other plants. Kobolds have a (somewhat) deserved reputation as extreme omnivores, though they do not eat great amounts of food. They prefer a large number of small meals throughout the day, somewhere on the order of five meals per day or more.

Reproduction
Male kobolds become sexually mature at around the age of six, though most do not become sexually active for another year or so. Female kobolds become sexually mature earlier, as young as four years old in many cases, though uterine development & cultural expectations typically delay them from becoming sexually active until their male counterparts “catch up” to the females.

Kobolds give birth to live young in a birth sac. Gestation is around five to six months; it is quite common for kobold mothers to give birth to twins or even triplets. Kobold newborns require 24 hours to adjust after escaping the birth sac, & exhibit a catlike curiosity in their first few weeks. They are born able to crawl & eat, although their senses require some time to gain acuity. They often prowl their surroundings just a few days after birth, hunting for rodents, lizards, & other tiny creatures; this sharpens their minds & teaches them survival skills. When their hunger is satiated, they eagerly return to the mother.

Over ten percent of kobold pregnancies are fatherless, as the female’s own hormones stimulate development of an amniote. There is physically no difference between a kobold child with two parents or one birthed parthenogenically, apart from a lack of heredity from a paternal line. Parthenogenesis used to be very rare, only occurring if there were no males present for an extended period of time, but since the Pactspell, it happens much more frequently, for reasons that are not fully understood.

Kobolds of both genders can mate with shape-shifted creatures such as genies or ghuls, & the kobold-descended offspring of such a union. Though kobolds & lizardfolk share certain physical traits, they are sexually incompatible & thus cannot successfully mate.

Growth
Kobold children develop at a very rapid pace, typically attaining adult height & weight in only six years of age. Kobold puberty is awkward for both genders: Males experience a thickening of the legs & pectoral muscles, & begin secreting a waxy substance from their femoral pores, while females experience abdominal cramps & may begin exuding pheromones. Some females pass an empty birth sac or (rarely) two during the year-long pubescence, which is known as the Change (aq-Edala). After the Change is complete (usually by one’s seventh birthday), a kobold is considered fully grown, & is treated as an adult.

Cross-Cultural Customs
Kobold males normally wear clothing that will cover their pectoral muscles. Kobold females may be topless when it suits them. Kobold children in drier climes are often veiled to retain moisture around their still-developing teeth. Kobolds enjoy a mild opiate derived from rayseed, which their jaws are uniquely capable of crushing & extracting.

[Zeta Kai]

Kobold: Sulafati Culture

Population Base: Sulafat, Burdusq
Primary Religions: Adimas, Sidaru
Dominant Language: Alhaggi

Sulafati culture is all that remains of the traditions of old Haz-Hurad, a kingdom of kobolds that was destroyed over 1,400 years ago. Unyielding, & full of tension & uncertainty, it is a culture founded on the sad experience of being pushed to the edge time & time again. Choked off by natural hazards & uncertain relations with neighboring cultures, the Sulafati are rarely found outside their home regions in any significant number.

Internal Relations
The Sulafati are rarely encountered outside of their primary population bases. The culture is extremely insular, & is protective of its own kind to a clannish degree. Sulafati have an easy time recognizing & accepting one another, but are very guarded around outsiders, even other kobolds. Among their own kind, they tend to form tight communities that emphasize conformity & discourage diversity. They are steeped in ancient, unyielding traditions, & their long proximity with one another has bred a collective peer pressure that borders on stifling.

External Relations
The Sulafati have a hard time trusting anyone who is not Sulafati; while many attribute this to simple racism, they notably often extend this distrust to other kobolds, as well. Though trade is accepted, outsiders’ markets are always under guard. Sulafati have particular difficulties with lizardfolk; the memories of both peoples are long, & the lizardfolk have never fully forgiven the kobolds for seizing the city of Sulafat during the Sheqari-Hurad Wars. Their long-ago invasion has come back to haunt them; it was an ancient victory that they are often blindly proud of, even though it now tastes like ashes in their mouths. The Sulafati of Maisan are somewhat more tolerant of other nearby cultural groups, but are ever watchful for signs of change. Individual Sulafati find it difficult to adjust to being surrounded by alien cultures while adventuring.

Occupations
To better build & maintain their communities, the Sulafati gravitate toward occupations involved with growth, maintenance, & stability, so most of them are farmers, hunters, or craftsmen. Not many desire work in governance, with the majority of these being formal guards & soldiers. Very few Sulafati seek out religious vocations, & most of the smaller communities lack formal merchants or entertainers. The only real clerical work is to be found in the capital, where the heavy administration that keeps goods & services flowing requires bureaucrats, tax officials, & scribes.

Names
Traditionally, it has been the custom to use names from the Common tongue. Sulafati have one given name, & may have an acquired identifier related to themselves somehow. For example, “Westherder” could be the name of a sheep farmer from the west side of town, or “Goldscale” could be the name of a Sulafati with particularly yellowish scales. Though for the few years during the peace talks with the lizardfolk, it had been the fashion to bestow names to children of Alhaggi origin, practices have since returned to names in Common.

Male Sample Names
Abbas, Aqbar, Burhan, Faruq, Hani, Jabir, Masud, Nabil, Qateb, Rafiq, Sadiq, Shaqar, Tamir, Wahib, Zahir

Female Sample Names
Abia, Amala, Anisa, Fadila, Hasna, Helima, Majida, Munira, Nazira, Qamila, Qebira, Sabira, Salima, Ulima, Wasima

Sample Identifier Names
Alemaker, Barbender, Coinfinder, Dawnwalker, Farseer, Goldscale, Hogfoot, Longtail, Mudcrawler, Newlover, Pestwaver, Raincharm, Snaketooth, Vinefarmer, Westherder

Food & Drink
The Sulafati are the cultivators of several rich & valued staple crops, including many varieties of rice. Their cuisine includes more greens & roots, as opposed to the emphasis on grains & spice their southern counterparts have. Sulafat farming prizes milk-giving animals, & thus tends to include milk & derived foods, with almost no beef or poultry. Their cooking also uses pig meats heavily, including many parts of the animal which other cultures find unsuitable for consumption, such as the snout, the tail, & the hooves. Sulafati raise a dark bean which they brew into a bitter beverage called kaf or qaph.

Appearance
The Sulafati most often have dull mottled scales (in various patterns of ochre, tan, &/or brown), making them far less colorful than their Hijra counterparts. They may have small horn ridges or disseminated cranial bumps. Their tails tend to be on the short side, & are sometime quite stubby.

They usually wear traditional Hudarai garb: ankle-length robes with short sleeves, belted sandals, & tall caps or helmets for the males. The height & decoration of a male Sulafati’s hat denotes his status, with the lower class men wearing simple crested caps, while the aristocracy sport hats of implausible complexity & tremendous stature. Females tend to wear highly decorated tunics regardless of class (the amount & quality of their jewelry is the only way to determine their standing), & they often have more than one layer, as shawls & wraps are quite popular.

Arts & Education
The Sulafati in rural areas are given a standard agrocentric education, both by their families & by state administrators. Classes are taught biannually on trending information, as well as introducing & reinforcing ideas such as crop rotation, crop diversification, & storage needs. In the cities & some of the larger towns, formal schools exist where the young can go to learn literacy, management, arithmetic, & governance. These schools are exclusive to kobolds; members of other races are barred from them, & even non-Sulafati kobolds can have difficulty getting in. Sulafati are not known for their artistic endeavors, but they excel in civil engineering & structural planning.

Relationships
The Sulafati are a reserved & private people, but they do socialize & marry. Separation is permitted by either party up until the birth of a child, at which point only the woman may choose to annul the marriage. Men initiate courtship most often, & the societal expectation is that it is the male’s role to forward the relationship. Adultery is seen as extremely scandalous, with adulteresses in particular being ostracized or even exiled from their communities, their marriages annulled & their children given to the slighted husband (or in the case of cuckoldry, to the nearest female relative of the paramour, should the male not wish another man’s children in his home). Sulafati do not discuss their relationships or those of others, & are often quite insular, courting only within their own ranks.

Crime
Being an orthodox, conformist people, the Sulafati take any deviation from the norm very seriously, especially criminal behavior. They take a dim view on illegal activity, & punishments for convicted criminals can be extremely harsh. Even minor crimes (like pick-pocketing & fraud) are dealt with severely, & repeated offenders are regularly executed. Major offences such as murder, rape, & kidnapping are grounds for capital punishment, which is usually by stoning the condemned to death. Vigilantes & anonymous informants are commonplace, as they have little tolerance for any aberrance.

Adventuring
The issue of adventurism as a career is an awkward one for the Sulafati, due in large part to their xenophobic culture. They sanction mercenaries, & they even support vigilantes, but the idea of traveling to far-off lands, hunting monsters, & raiding tombs is hard for them to understand. They have a hard enough time dealing with pilgrims & merchant caravans, let alone parties of armed soldiers-for-hire wandering through their territory. They usually give a cold reception to adventurers, letting them know in no uncertain terms that their kind is unwelcome. And the rare Sulafati that desire to become adventurers are looked at as insane, & often become exiled for their aspirations.

Architecture
The Sulafati take great pride in their structural design & urban planning. Like most kobolds, they prefer low-level buildings, favoring sprawling plazas to tall spires. They tend not to decorate their edifices, aiming for a simple geometric design that is distinctive & practical. Their buildings are often made of hemispherical domes, connected to each other by narrow round-roofed halls.

Even though there is ample wood available for construction near the city of Sulafat, most of the buildings are made of stone, like in many other settlements on the continent. Because the city is near the equator, the stone is often needed to insulate the interior from the outside heat. And the Sulafati sometimes emulate the style of Dajajai homes, which often have a second floor underground for added space & better insulation.

Legends
The Sulafati had a better chance of retaining the historical records & lore of Haz-Hurad, but much of that was irrevocably lost in that kingdom’s violent collapse. Since then, much of their history has become conflated with folk tales, becoming little more than entertaining myths. These stories are still told at the hearth & the altar, their cultural value outlasting their factual worth.

There is the tale of Queen Ismu, who founded the capital city of Araqibet at a site which she saw in a dream. There are several stories involving the Huradai facing off against the dragons of Azhan & the lizardfolk of Sheqari, often losing after a valiant struggle. There is a legend that tells of how the gods saved the kingdom by granting them the use of iron to defeat the bronze-using Sheqarai (although an alternate myth describes a Huradai trickster goading a dragon into smelting the first iron for him). And there are many tragedies involving the fall of Haz-Hurad, even more than the many patriotic tales of how the kobolds seized the city of Sulafat.

[Zeta Kai]

Kobold: Hijra Culture

Population Base: Ilud, the Northern Wastes, Alhurus Lake, the Sahra Basit
Primary Religions: Adimas, Pashati
Dominant Language: Common

When Johoum & his demonic hordes destroyed the kingdom of Haz-Hurad, the citizens of that realm (the vast majority of who were kobolds) fled to safer lands. Most of these refugees went southward, through the Lost Pass, to the central parts of the continent. This mass migration later became known as the Hijra. The former Huradai scattered to settlements all over the central, western, & southern regions, where they partially integrated with the people already living there.

Today, the post-Hurad kobolds are known as the Hijra, after their emigration from their ruined homeland. A cosmopolitan & extroverted society, they are far worldlier than the isolationist Sulafati. Concentrated in the urban areas of the western & southern regions, the Hijra are rarely found in any settlement smaller than a large town.

Internal Relations
Hijra culture is extremely open & accepting, although they do form close-knit communities. All Hijra are informally neighbors unless they have a personal feud, & they spend a great deal of time mixing with one another to share news & stories each day. They do not necessarily seek each other out, nor are they primarily concerned with their own people, but the traits they value simply naturally draw them to one another.

External Relations
The Hijra are a tremendously outgoing group, visible & interspersed in the populations of many major cities & regions. They have strong ties with the Iludai humans, the Diaspora lizardfolk, & even the Nahr gnolls. Their culture is considered fairly infectious, & in several cities it provides the foundation for many local customs & legends. Hijra food, music, festivals, & style of dress can be seen even in places beyond their base, & have been adopted by many other races & cultures in the urban areas that they cohabitate. A good example of this would be the folk figure Ras Naranj, who is popular among kobolds in the far south; he actually descends from a Hijra folk hero from the city of Naranj.

Occupations
The Hijra enjoy traveling, & so they often find employment as merchants, explorers, & diplomats. It is hard to find a caravan that doesn’t have at least one Hijra in it. The trade & service industries are full of them, even in places where they are less concentrated. They tend to avoid manufacturing jobs, preferring administrative work to farming or smithing. They also don’t often work as professional soldiers, so guards or mercenaries that are Hijra are somewhat rare.

Names
The Common tongue has always been used for giving Hijra children their names, a tradition that dates back to days of old Haz-Hurad. Their parents usually give them a first name (which is often the name of a deceased relative), a middle name (usually the name of a close family friend), & the family’s last name (which is always descended from the father’s side). Some exceptional Hijra also acquire a title related to some famous exploit of theirs, but this is rather rare. Less than one in twenty Hijra have earned a widely-excepted title of this sort, although some individuals insist upon using one, despite their lack of accomplishments.

Male Sample Names
Abdel, Ahmed, Fadil, Hafiz, Hassan, Jamal, Mamud, Qalil, Qoman, Rahman, Raza, Sabir, Tahir, Yasir, Zafar

Female Sample Names
Adiba, Alima, Aziza, Faiza, Hadya, Isra, Maysa, Nadira, Qalida, Raja, Safia, Samirah, Saqinah, Zaida, Zarifa

Sample Family Names
Amala, Badiya, Chahir, Firdaus, Ghamam, Hararat, Jar, Macha, Mathir, Qitabi, Ramil, Sadiq, Safara, Shamis, Thariq

Food & Drink
Hijra cuisine is somewhat dependent on the local flora & fauna that are available, but there are certain staples that are omnipresent. Like the Sulafati, they often use rice in their dishes, even if it has to be imported from other lands. Unlike their northern counterparts, they eat a lot of grains, which are often ground into flour to make leavened breads. They rely on poultry as their primary meat, especially chickens & other small birds. They are known to use far more spice in their dishes than other peoples are comfortable with; this is due to their natural immunity to capsaicin. When guests are around, their chefs are very careful to reduce the spices to tolerable amounts.

Appearance
The scales of a Hijra kobold are usually bright & vibrant shades of red, blue, orange, green, &/or purple. Their bodies are normally either one solid color, or have two strongly contrasting tones; they lack the complex patterns of the Sulafati scales. They often have a noticeable frill on the backs of their heads, which can partially cover their necks. Their tails are typically long & spindly, although some have their tails bobbed short for a number of reasons.

It’s difficult to describe Hijra fashion, due the myriad themes, counter-themes, styles, permutations, fads, & local variations. However, there are a few trends that can normally define one’s dress as particularly “Hijra.” They are fond of sashes, bandoliers, & baldrics, wearing them over their robes or shirts. They also like garments with built-in pockets & pouches, which is quite a rarity for clothes on Siraaj. They seldom wear footgear of any sort, they like vests, & they don’t generally sport a lot of jewelry, as they don’t want to offend others with displays of ostentation.

Arts & Education
The Hijra place a great deal of importance on a proper education, & will tutor their children in a great number of fields of study. They are the ones who are responsible for maintaining the high literacy rate of urbanites in the post-Admajai era. They appreciate & encourage a well-rounded education, one that emphasizes first-hand knowledge & its practical application. They often send their children away to prestigious colleges, such as the many academies of the Iludai, so that they can become independent & well travelled at an early age.

As a dynamic, gregarious people, it should come as no surprise that the Hijra have a long & proud tradition of performance art. While there are many talented painters & sculptors among the Hijra, & they value art in any form, their world-famous singers & dancers are the ones that exemplify their culture as a whole, if such a thing is possible. Their songs are sung in taverns & plazas across the continent, & their intuitive, provocative dances are infectious to the point of being hypnotic. Hijra bards are legendary for their musical talent, & many of their merchants & politicians are noted for their gift of oratory. It has been said that when the Huradai fled their burning kingdom, they were only able to take with them one gift of their long-dead gods; the legend says that they brought their music, wrapping their children up in a blanket of song & dance.

Relationships
The Hijra people are generally friendly & sociable with everyone, & their formal affiliations are a reflection of that. They have fairly liberal ideas concerning marriage & parenting, & as a result, their relationships tend to be rather fluid & difficult to classify. While some of them do go through an official courtship period, get married, & then raise their children together, this is hardly the norm.

Hijra rarely get married before they are 20 years old, & some never get around to it at all. They usually have casual romantic relations with members of the opposite sex from the time they are sexually mature (around the age of seven years old) until they feel ready to settle down, which can be anywhere from ages 10 to 30. Couples (or more complex multi-partner groupings) often live together unmarried, & these arrangements can last for as long as all participants wish to do so. Some partners feel a pressure to get married later on, especially after having children, but this is not always the case.

Accidental pregnancies are somewhat common, & while certain primitive contraceptives exist, females generally carry their young to term. Children are raised by both parents, either parent, grandparents, designated family members, or close friends who show an interest in adopting. Since their communities are so closely-knit, children are often cared for & disciplined by the neighborhood as a whole, so the role of an individual parent is less important than in other cultures.

Crime
One would expect that the Hijra might take a relaxed view on criminal activity, based on other aspects of their society, but in fact, the opposite is true. They are very harsh towards convicted criminals, & they do not tolerate illegal behavior within their own ranks. This is offset by the fact that they only have a short list of acts that they consider to be truly against the law, & everything else is fair game. Prostitution, drug use, & other “victimless crimes” are not thought of as wrong in Hijra society.

However, any act that violates the rights of another person is regarded as a heinous offense. Murderers, rapists, & committers of assault can face an executioner’s axe if convicted. Thieves, committers of fraud, & kidnappers are usually branded & exiled for their misdeeds. And even more lenient judges can sentence a prisoner to perform community service, effectively forcing the condemned to act as a public slave for a set period of time. These severe punishments are seen as an effective deterrent, as few Hijra turn to a life of crime.

Cities
It has been said that kobolds are naturally urban creatures, & that they have been drawn to gather together in great numbers since the world was young. In modern times, they are more at home within the gates of a sprawling metropolis than almost any other race, humans included. The larger the city, the more comfortable they seem to be, taking to the hustle & noise of the urban streets like a Pahari takes to the ocean currents. The Hijra especially are fond of large cities, & are almost never found living in any settlement smaller than a large town. They don’t usually establish cities of their own, preferring to add to the population of an already-existing municipality.

Travel
The Hijra people love to go on trips, & will readily embark on a journey at the slightest provocation. Their wanderlust has been explained as a result of their evacuation from the ruins of Haz-Hurad, but the few remaining records of that long-lost kingdom suggest that the Huradai were always fond of traveling. The kobolds’ natural curiosity & industriousness are particularly pronounced in the Hijra, who often find employment that will facilitate their desire to leave home & see new places. While they are most at ease within the confines of a city, they will gladly trek across a barren desert or delve into a forgotten underground complex in the name of exploration & discovery. A young Hijra may even leave home early & join a caravan as a merchant or a mercenary, just to be able to sate their longing to travel.

The Sea of Fiery Knives
For nearly 2,000 years, the great kobold kingdom of Haz-Hurad prospered in the equatorial greenery north of the Sathan Range. But one fateful day, the kobold nation was destroyed by an army of demons led by the demon-lord Johoum. The surviving kobolds fled to Maisan, Sulafat, & other nearby settlements in a mass flight now referred to as the Hijra. The ruins that were left behind are still standing, although the ravages of sand & time have reduces some of them to mere rubble.

The parched, sandy desert that has claimed the ruins of Haz-Hurad is now known as the Sea of Fiery Knives. Named for the sharp desert sands, the intense heat & deadly monsters here deter all but the most intrepid explorers. Every year, dozens of Hijra come here to survey the remains of the lost kingdom, hoping to find some relics or records of a bygone era. Most of these travelers never return, having been slaughtered by the demons, dragons, & ghuls in the region, or else swallowed up by the hellish sands themselves.

[Zeta Kai]

Lizardfolk

3rd Edition Statistics

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• Dexterity -2, Constitution +2, Wisdom +2.
• Humanoid (Reptilian): Lizardfolk are scaly & coldblooded, but are still subject to spells or effects that affect humanoids only, such as charm person or dominate person.
• Medium Size: As Medium creatures, lizardfolk have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
• A lizardfolk’s base land speed is 30 feet.
• Racial Skills: Lizardfolk have a +4 racial bonus on Balance, Jump, & Swim checks. They also have a +2 racial bonus on Survival checks.
• +2 natural armor bonus.
• +2 racial bonus on Fortitude saves to resist Poison effects.
• Natural Weapon (Ex): Bite (1d4 + Str); piercing damage.
• Cold-Blooded: Lizardfolk are mesothermic, meaning that they can only partially regulate their internal body temperature. For them, the ambient temperature is considered one category colder than it actually is. However, they only suffer from cold exposure in temperatures below 40°F.
• Hold Breath (Ex): A lizardfolk can hold its breath for a number of rounds equal to four times its Constitution score before it risks drowning.
• Musk: A lizardfolk exudes certain oils from its skin that have a faint but distinct odor. This allows them to be more easily tracked, granting a +4 circumstance bonus to such checks.
• Water Dependence: A lizardfolk must ingest a minimum two gallons of water a day or suffer a cumulative -1 Con penalty. A full day of rest with complete hydration is necessary to eliminate this penalty.
• Automatic Languages: Alhaggi & Common. Bonus Languages: Draconic & Pahrai.
• Favored Class: Druid.
• Level Adjustment: +0.

4th Edition Statistics

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Average Height: 5’10” – 6’6”
Average Weight: 280-320 lbs.

Ability Scores: +2 Wisdom, +2 Constitution OR +2 Strength
Size: Medium
Speed: 6 squares, swim 6
Vision: Low-Light

Languages: Common, Alhaggi
Skill Bonuses: +2 Nature, +2 Athletics
Reptilian Heritage: You have the reptile subtype. You also gain a +5 bonus to saving throws against poison. 

Jungle Hunter: You ignore difficult terrain that is a result of dense foliage or shallow water. You gain combat advantage when attacking an enemy who is standing in a square of shallow water or dense foliage that the target is treating as difficult terrain.
Also, you can use The Hunt Begins as an encounter power.

The Hunt Begins (encounter power)

• You mark an enemy as your target, signaling for your allies to steer clear.
• Encounter *
• Minor Action Close Burst 10
• Target: One enemy in burst.
• Effect: Until the end of your next turn, you deal an additional 1d6 points of damage on all attacks against the target.
• Special: Increase bonus damage to 2d6 at level 11 & to 3d6 at level 21.

Favored Classes: Druid, Invoker, Ranger, Shaman

[Zeta Kai]

Lizardfolk: Overview

Population: 37,570,000 worldwide
Height: 6’6” tall (average)
Weight: 260 lbs. (average)
Languages: Alhaggi, Common, Draconic, Pahrai

The reserved lizardfolk are a conservative race, deeply community-oriented & sensible to the world around them. Preferring a slower-paced lifestyle, lizardfolk have taken a corner of the world for their own, from which they may spread to sample or integrate with members of other cultures. Though more devoted to art than to science, lizardfolk have taken to the seas with aplomb, & are experts in the nascent art of sail. Also known as the Arqanasi (singular Araqanas; from an Admajai phrase, meaning “Lizard-Person”) or the Waranass, they have had a long, difficult time adjusting to the demands & routines of life in the civilized society, made harder by their natural territorial instincts.

Biology
Lizardfolk are solidly-built reptiles, with ropey muscles & almost no body fat. They have a large lower jaw, which facilitates their biting capability. This powerful bite is further enhanced by their large prominent teeth, which are often used by both sexes during intimidation displays.

Most lizardfolk have a dark green coloration, with accents of brown & black featuring prominently. Some desert-dwelling tribes feature reddish scales, although this is rare. Their ventral underbelly (which actually extends from their chin to the tail) is often pale, which white, gray, or yellowish scales being the most common. Scale patterns range from bands & stripes to splotches, speckles, & circles, which can change as they mature. These patterns follow family lines, with juveniles typically having brighter coloration than adults.

As a semi-aquatic race, the lizardfolk spend as much time near the water as possible. They can only go without water for so long before becoming dangerously dehydrated, & they are adept swimmers. Their powerful tails are used to help propel them through the water while swimming, & they can hold their breath for much longer than most other races. On land, their digitigrade feet & long tails give then a superior ability to remain balanced, & their strong springy legs allow them to jump surprisingly high.

Diet
Lizardfolk are mostly carnivorous, although they also eat some fruits. They prefer to eat their meals whole, as their teeth are not suited to chewing, & thus they only eat small prey, which is more abundant. They are not particularly picky about their food, & will eat fish, amphibians, small mammals, birds, lesser reptiles, & eggs. Infants will eat insects almost exclusively, but they generally lose their taste for such fair after their first few years.

Avid carrion eaters, lizardfolk will feed on the carcasses of most dead creatures, as the flesh is often easier to bite into & digest than fresh meat. The smell of rotting meat is considered attractive to them (which unfortunately follows them, adding to their already musky odor). They do not eat the bodies of dead sentients, out of respect for their kindred souls.

Reproduction
Lizardfolk are oviparous creatures, laying 2-5 eggs in a single clutch. Mating generally occurs in the summer months, & any viable eggs are laid in the early autumn. The females lay their eggs in an earthen mound & cover them up with sand; any adults in the household share the duties of watching over the eggs and warming them as needed.

After nearly a year of incubating, the eggs finally hatch when the infants break through their tough shells with the help of an egg tooth, which is shed shortly after hatching. Because hatching is such an exhausting effort, infant lizardfolk will usually remain within their shattered shells for several hours before crawling out of the top of the mound.

Lizardfolk are able to mate with shape-shifted creatures such as genies or ghuls, & the lizardfolk-descended offspring of such unions. While lizardfolk & kobolds share certain physical traits, they are sexually incompatible & thus cannot successfully mate.

Growth
Lizardfolk children grow up much more slowly than kobolds, & even slower than humans & sabi. It takes about 20 years from the time of their hatching until a lizardfolk youth is considered an adult. Even then, most lizardfolk are still lanky & slim upon reaching adulthood; it can take another ten years of growth to achieve their full size. This protracted development period allows the lizardfolk to mature mentally, learning a great deal & gaining the practical wisdom that other races don’t acquire until later in life.

Because lizardfolk grow at such a slow pace, they do not need to molt their entire skin at once. Rather, they go through biannual periods of partially molting, once in the summer & again in the winter. During these week-long moltings, known as Rughaz ul-Haura in Alhaggi, a youth’s scales will shed independently of one another, revealing larger or split scales underneath. Also, sometime during a lizardfolk’s tenth year, their musk glands (known as ir-Zathud) will activate, secreting certain oils from the skin that have a faint-yet-distinct odor; these glands will continue exuding this musk for the rest of their natural life.

[Zeta Kai]

Lizardfolk: Sheqarai Culture

Population Base: Sheqari
Primary Religions: Pashati, Sidaru
Dominant Language: Alhaggi

Sheqari was once the site of a great lizardfolk kingdom of the same name, forged by the legendary Amir Jathi. The Great Amir united the Seven Nations (although there were more than seven) to form the kingdom of Sheqari, with himself as their lord. He ruled wisely for decades, & his kingdom lasted far longer. After many centuries, the federation finally suffered an economic collapse due to the corrupting influence from the she-da-zhong (who were working with a group of demons). Today, while the kingdom may be long replaced by autonomous city-states, the culture of the Sheqarai lives on, centered around the cities of Rasalhague & Rasaljathi.

Internal Relations
All Sheqarai communities have a sage, known as a ras (plural rasi), who is a person of great wisdom & listening ability. A ras is not exalted in any particular fashion, but is often respected as an elder or advisor, even among some other races. Rasi are chosen via meritocratic consensus of the community, often requiring the recommendation of a druid (many rasi have been druids or priests in the past). They typically have judicial powers within their chosen settlements, rendering judgment upon the accused & interpreting the laws of the council. They are always influential, meritorious individuals whose opinions are highly regarded out of tradition. A ras tries to determine the best course for the general population.

The legislative powers in a Sheqarai settlement are usually held by a local council of elected elders. The council elders are primarily those with a great deal of experience, not necessarily with merit. They set the laws of the community, defining what is legal & what is not. A civic council only convenes as needed, & the only constant session is an introductory gathering just after the annual elections, during which an administrator is appointed.

An administrator (or two, or three) is appointed by the council & given executive powers. These administrators are the official leaders of a Sheqarai community, although they are beholden to the local ras & the council, both of which advise the administrator. Their task is to execute the laws: directing policy, overseeing community projects, & managing the local constabulary. Their appointments last for a year, after which the council must select a new one. They can be chosen to serve multiple terms, but this somewhat rare, so often, the appointment is for one year only.

Females possess a lot of power in Sheqarai politics. Lizardwomen organize the community in terms of distributions & requisitions. They also fill many civic council positions in times of need, holding most of the council seats. Respected members of the community are recommended to council by women as often as not. They are the guardians of bloodlines, the young, & of family histories. They have insider info on personal qualifications. They are the majority on the council because many lizardmen don’t want the job. More males take the route of travel, becoming druids, merchants, or diplomats, which means they spend less time in a fixed community.

External Relations
Lizardfolk as a race consider most forms of demagogy to be dangerous. Political maneuvering is discouraged, & as a result, the Sheqarai have a difficult time understanding the politics of other races. They do, however, embrace the territorial nature of their ancestors, which makes for strained relations with other peoples at times, despite their generally peaceful intentions.

This tension is most pronounced in regards to kobolds, because of the latent enmity left over from the Sheqari-Hurad Wars. The Sheqarai make a conscious effort to surmount their bias, which can lead to an ingratiating overcompensation. Some members of other races find it amusing to watch Sheqarai attempting to be pleasant when they are obviously annoyed & contemptuous.

Occupations
The Sheqarai believe in sustaining their past, prospering in the present & laying track for the future. They also believe that everyone is served by these goals, so those who best exemplify this cultural belief are most highly regarded. They respect those who watch over the next generation, those who supply water & healing, & those who provide food for the community.

Farming & fishing are seen as the most respectable professions, while banking & money-lending are the least respectable. There are lizardfolk bankers & lenders; their families are just very puzzled & occasionally disappointed. Priests, healers, & midwives are, of course, held in high esteem, while soldiers are seen as almost superfluous (at least in times of peace). They have a loose class system (from the bottom to the top, approximately): Cleaners, warriors, merchants, sportsmen, artists, architects, scholars, farmers, caregivers, council, druids, administration, diplomats, & rasi.

The greatest virtue in lizardfolk society is contribution to the community, & the Sheqarai are no different. Some lizardfolk that get more money than they can spend find ways to funnel it back into the community; many have self-interest or familial welfare to put before the community benefit, & act accordingly. Within reasonable limits, this is understood & accepted.

Both genders can be found in almost any profession. Men are more likely to work outside a fixed community; they may work in several periodically, or on the outskirts of one. Within a greater community they’ll still be local, but they generally prefer occupations that won’t tie them down to a single place. Females have more of a nesting instinct; younger females are probably even more adventurous than their male counterparts, however.

One vocation that is unique to the Sheqarai is that of the mother-for-hire. Since many females work outside of the home, a clutch-mother is not always available to raise their young. These women therefore hire someone else to take care of their children, typically an older lizardwoman who has extensive parental experience.

Names
Sheqarai are likely to only have a single name, given to them by their clutch-mother. While some names are taken from the Common tongue in modern times, most of them have Alhaggi names. Those who travel away from their hometowns often use the name of their native settlement as a second name. This second name is preceded by “ul-” for males, & “il-” for females; people who aren’t too concerned about their gender sometimes use the neutral “el-” prefix, although this is rare. But a Sheqarai encountered within their settlement of origin will typically use only their given name, even if there are others in the area with the same name.

Male Sample Names
Asazi, Buzha, Duraq, Ghiloor, Hoom, Hosni, Jathi, Murauji, Qurab, Rakhiz, Saqathi, Tafil, Tagh, Urza, Zhir

Female Sample Names
Amnur, Asmar, Bakhul, Ellad, Gazzud, Hizul, Jhauggar, Khur, Mulkhar, Nada, Nakhar, Naur, Shasad, Whalum, Zannar

Food & Drink
Because of the many oases in their territory, the Sheqarai eat more fruit than most other lizardfolk. They eat dates, figs, & even some citrus fruits imported from the south. Pomegranates are rarely eaten raw, but they are the primary ingredient in the local aril wine. While they don’t have any vegetables in their diet, they do eat some nuts, particularly almonds & pistachios, which they crush & swallow with the shells still on.

The rest of Sheqarai cuisine consists of various types of meat, particularly cuts of lamb & poultry. Camel meat is eaten on special occasions, such as during holiday feasts, but is avoided at other times. The consumption of pork is forbidden as a cultural taboo, & is a minor point of contention with other cultures, which largely lack this aversion. Beef is consumed from time to time, but it is only eaten raw, & even then it is often long-dead, as the fresh meat is considered too tough & stringy. Most of the meat that they eat is cooked rare, & being served a well-done piece of meat is considered an insult.

The Sheqarai used to eat more traditional lizardfolk fare, IE carrion & small game, which was often swallowed whole. However, a cultural revolution instituted by Grand Amir il-Zalatha in 196 IR changed many aspects of their society, including their diet. This was done to emulate the practices of the Admajai Empire, who were spreading their influence across the continent. Even today, nearly a thousand years later, most urban meals feature cooked meat from large animals that has been freshly killed. Only in the rural villages & the remote camps, far from civilized urban centers, do the old traditions remain.

Appearance
The lizardfolk have no nudity taboo, unlike humans & many other races. Their genitalia are discreetly internal, & the climate of northwest Admaja is hot & humid. Traditional Sheqarai garb is therefore minimal, consisting mainly of belts, bandoleers, baldrics, & other straps. These are primarily functional, used to carry tools, coins, & other items. Over the years, though, these bands have become more decorative, elaborate, & stylized, with many different fashions available.

The lizardfolk have no hair, of course, & their skin is covered in thick scales, so the Sheqarai place an emphasis on good scale care. A person with dull, scuffed, or uneven scales is seen as poor, uncouth, & low-class, while a person with smooth lustrous scales is viewed as wealthy, refined, & high-class. Many of them have their scales polished, & sometimes even waxed (an old practice that was originally done to hold in moisture, but has fallen out of favor in the cities). These techniques can be very time-consuming, taking hours for even a simple polish, so they are most often done just before a special occasion, such as a wedding or a funeral.

Arts & Education
Lizardfolk have been telling each other elaborate, poetic, & fanciful stories since before the counting of years. While this, in & of itself, is not wholly remarkable, it is the quality & quantity of these tales that makes their storytelling tradition so renowned. Every settlement, no matter how small, has a storyteller; even a group of three lizardfolk has at least one individual known for their storytelling prowess. The Sheqarai have a rich lexicon of poetry, theater, & other forms of conveying tall tales, fables, legends, myths, & sagas. Their poets & bards are celebrated for their lyrical abilities, crafting verses & tunes that are resonant to other cultures all across the continent.

Most Sheqarai are taught (at least in part) by their local ras, who works with the clutch-mothers & the mothers-for-hire to ensure that the young have all the skills that they will need to become valuable members of the next generation. The most common scenario is for the mothers to gather all of the local children into one place, such as a large house, a theater, a temple, or even a public park. There they, along with the ras, will tutor the young ones several times a week, placing an emphasis on reading, writing, & poetry. The teaching of science is a bit scant, as art is considered more important & more highly respected. Formal education is rare, & almost no Sheqarai go on to attend a college of higher academics, even if their collected poems end up being taught in such places.

Relationships
Like most lizardfolk, the Sheqarai usually mate for life, often pairing up with a partner around the onset of adulthood. Pairings are arranged by the couple’s parents, who put the union together based on their families’ mutual advantage, as opposed to the couple’s affection for one another. Their weddings are typically elaborate affairs, with large feasts, long ceremonies, & copious poetry recitals. A wedding is usually presided over by the local ras, with the entire community attending. Divorce is rather rare, as they are a conservative folk, although separations are not expressly illegal. Polygamy & polyandry are forbidden, & couples do not cohabitate prior to marriage.

Crime
The worst vice of the Sheqarai is called “bloating”, a sin unique to the lizardfolk. Bloating is caused by the excessive consumption of water or juice, since they need to drink a fair amount anyway. Bloating is roughly analogous to obesity in humans, but looks quite a bit different. The body of a bloated lizardfolk swells to great size, becoming round & spongy. Their skin is not able to stretch to properly cover their engorged form, so the scales separate from one another, & the flesh between can crack & even bleed in extreme cases. The waterlogged flesh shakes & shudders with every movement, making the inflated body resemble a gelatinous blob. This repulsive appearance is even more abhorrent to other lizardfolk, because of the cultural aversion to selfishness & misuse.

Their most deplorable deed is the destruction of food & water, even more than the slaying of the meritorious without fair cause. Wastefulness, selfishness, & greed, especially if at the expense of others of the community, earns the condemned a harsh sentence. Such perpetrators are commonly exiled without resource, which is often a death sentence unless they are near an oasis. They do not believe in direct execution as a punishment, & are puzzled by the finality of civic killings when they see it. They prefer the uncertainty of exile, as the intent is to have the exiled survive as a living deterrent to nearby communities. However, no resources will be spared on those who have wasted them, a poetic redirection of their own crime onto themselves.

For lesser crimes, the guilty party is indentured to the community to serve out restitution, as overseen by local administrators. An alternative to indenture or exile, the Test of Poison can be chosen by a ras as deemed appropriate. For the test, the condemned are given a dose of toxin; some are fairly lenient, while others are more potent, but none are lethal. The idea is to convey to the guilty the pointlessness of crime, & the suffering that it causes to others.

A Tale of Two Cities
The story of the Sheqarai revolves around the two great cities in the region, Rasalhague & Rasaljathi, & the complex relationship between them. Rasalhague is a pleasant, broadminded, & benevolent city-state devoted to Pashati, while Rasaljathi is a sterner, more authoritarian theopolis dedicated to Sidaru. They are rival cities, who have come close to conflict in the past, an ongoing metaphor for the schism in the culture of the Sheqarai.

During the Ten Dark Years, the Sheqarai were attacked by hordes of ghuls, which slaughtered indiscriminately & could not be stopped. While the city of Rasalhague accepted as many refugees as they could hold, Rasaljathi closed its gates to outsiders, for fear of infiltration & invasion. This offended the people of Rasalhague, & the philosophical difference between the two cities soured, so they have been at odds ever since.

Legends
As a conservative people with strong traditions & a long racial memory, the Sheqarai have many myths & legends from their past, stories that they have passed on to their children for generations. Many of these tales involve Amir Jathi, who originally founded the kingdom of Sheqari over two & a half millennia ago, becoming a folk hero of sorts. Stories about his life abound, from one about his early childhood when he was visited by a sphinx, who foretold of his future greatness, to another concerning his adulthood, when he pulled a mysterious hammer (the Aswad Midaq) that could shatter any stone from the bottom of an oasis. Other Jathian myths concern his struggles to unite of the Seven Nations, the betrayal of his closest ally Sadiq Qawan, & his fruitless search for the Talisman of the Immortal Blood. The most famous legends that don’t involve Jathi in some way are the Flood of the World, the Lost Oasis, the Ghosts of Zaqazu, the City of Pearls, & the Red Monster of Ulz.

[Zeta Kai]

Lizardfolk: Raheel Culture

Population Base: Alhurus Lake, Burdusq, Ilud, the Sahra Basit
Primary Religions: Akasha, Daq
Dominant Language: Common

While the Sheqarai mostly keep to themselves, rarely straying from the Sheqari region, the children of the Diaspora have spread far & wide, settling into the cities of other races. In these foreign lands, they have done their best to make a home for themselves, forming small lizardfolk enclaves in many communities across the continent. These people, known as the Raheel (which means “[of the] Exodus”), exhibit a dichotomy between being insular & being sociable, between segregation & integration.

Internal Relations
The Raheel feel most comfortable around other lizardfolk, clinging together in enclaves of their own kind. Originally, this was a reaction to the trauma of the Ten Dark Years & the rapid emigration to foreign lands, but now it is merely a cultural tradition to live among other Raheel. They have their own taverns, their own grocers, & their own healers, in addition to the exclusively-lizardfolk business of scale-polishing. They even raise their children together in communal dormitories, which are somewhat similar to the Sheqarai practice of employing mothers-for-hire.

While they appear at a glance to remain quite removed from the cities in which they live, the Raheel do make an effort to integrate themselves with other races, with mixed results. They often volunteer for service in local militias & garrisons. They ply their trade as farmers & merchants, working beside other locals in the fields & markets. And their hardiness & natural heat resistance make them impressive fire-fighters, which is invaluable in the areas where most buildings are made out of wood, such as Ilud & Alhurus Lake. They may look to their local rasi for guidance, but the rasi defer to local laws & traditions whenever possible.

External Relations
Raheel lizardfolk have integrated reasonably well into most human-dominated city-states; they treat & are treated as any other citizen, although they are more low-key & reserved than their neighbors may be used to. They also get on fairly well with the kobolds, though there is no great friendship between the two races. They are rare in gnoll-majority cities, but there is no real enmity between them; this is mostly a geographical issue, seeing as the two races are from opposite sides of the continent.

While they do make an effort to assimilate, the Raheel are still sometimes seen as outsiders, which can easily lead to intercultural tension. Their enclaves are rather exclusive to lizardfolk, if not by intent then by circumstance. Those who have felt disadvantaged by their presence or who wish to rally against an accessible target claim that they have committed various transgressions against the “decent honest folk” or harbor some hidden agenda to do so in the future. Although it is rare, these tensions have led to violence in the past, & discrimination again Raheel is a common fact of life in many settlements.

Occupations
Lizardfolk are not entirely a desert people, having clustered around the oases of the northwest & stayed near the Lisan Coast for millennia. But they are fairly resilient, provided that they drink plenty of fluids on a regular basis. So they tend to be adept at working under the harsh desert sun, either farming the irrigated soil, constructing a stone building, or guiding a party through the wasteland. They favor jobs that keep them outside, but close to home, such as defensive soldier, shipwright, or fisherman. Their most valued skill is as recent as it is unexpected: they often enjoy the nascent art of sailing. Despite their inclination to avoid long journeys away from home, many Raheel have become adept sailors, manning the crew of the new ships & setting off on exploratory expeditions & trade voyages.

Names
The children of the Diaspora usually have more than one name, unlike their Sheqarai brethren. Their first name is often given to them by their clutch-mother, which is the only name that they have while they are young; this is typically from Common or Alhaggi origin. After they reach adulthood, they will choose a second name for themselves, which is commonly based on their vocation. The vocational names can change if the person switches to a different job, but this is uncommon, as they don’t generally change professions entirely.

For first names, choose from the Sheqarai sample names list.

Sample Vocational Names
Archer, Baker, Carpenter, Cooper, Hunter, Keeper, Maker, Mason, Porter, Shepherd, Singer, Smith, Tailor, Tanner, Weaver

Food & Drink
Being primarily urban creatures, they avoid eating meat that has spoiled, for fear of alienating their non-lizardfolk neighbors. Those in larger cities get almost as much fruit as their Sheqarai cousins, but those in smaller settlements eat hardly anything other than meat. They tend to cook their food more than other lizardfolk, although a well-done cut of meat is still offensive to them.

Their staple meal is a whole rat, although in areas where rodents are scarce, they prefer lizards, frogs, or roaches; this keeps the city streets clear of vermin, which endears them to other races (as long as they eat their meals in private). They have no ban on eat pork, but they consider eggs a delicacy, & so they will not eat poultry.

Their most notable specialty, however, is a dish that has less meat than any other Raheel meal. It is a stew-like mixture of tenderized beef, beans, diced vegetables, & spices, cooked over a pot for many hours. This hardy fusion of unlikely foods is called hulluri, & it can be served either hot or cold.

Appearance
Unlike most other lizardfolk, who often walk about nude or nearly so, the Raheel are relatively quite modest. They see the minimalist belt-style clothing of the Sheqarai to be primitive & indecent. They tend to emulate certain dress conventions of other races, particularly those of urban humans, favoring tunics & trousers. They are fond of capes & cloaks, & most of them will wear one, regardless of the weather. One notable exception to this is the fact that they always go barefoot; they never cover their feet except in the case of an injury or other necessity.

Raheel do not wear jewelry, makeup, or other bodily decorations, which they see as ostentatious. One exception to this is the practice of scale painting: many of them have their scales painted with varying colors, often making pleasing patterns or shapes with them. While most of these are a simple monotone, some talented painters turn the body into a canvas for images which are nothing less than works of stunning art. The more elaborate pieces are for the wealthiest of citizens, but even the poorer of them get their scales painted from time to time. The paintings are temporary, usually lasting 8-15 days, although there are said to be magical means of making the paintings permanent.

Arts & Education
Like the Sheqarai, the Raheel place a great deal of importance on their storytelling, passing myths & legends from their past onto their descendents. But unlike the natives of Sheqari, the children of the Diaspora live among other peoples, & draw upon their neighbors’ tales for inspiration. Their culture is evolving rapidly as a result, as new stories & values become integrated into their heritage.

Rather than rely upon a single bard or poet to relate a story or a song, the Raheel enjoy the art of theater, & work collaboratively to produce plays & operas of unparalleled quality. These elaborate productions sometime involve hundreds of participants to realize, & can be tremendously expensive. Audiences are often moved to laugh hysterically, or weep despairingly, at the emotional power of the stories told in this relatively-recent art form, & they pay appropriately for tickets to see such spectacles.

The local ras plays a prominent role in the education of the poorer Raheel, but richer of them are taught in formal schools alongside children of other races. These wealthy elite grow up to be far worldlier & more roundly skilled. These academies teach their students literature, poetry, & history like the Sheqarai usually learn, but they also instruct them in the fields of mathematics, alchemy, & astronomy. This creates a wide disparity between the two sides of Raheel culture, which the affluent upper class becoming urbane generalists & the underprivileged lower class remaining more conventional specialists.

Relationships
While they typically mate for life, the Raheel seldom have weddings that are as elaborate as nuptials of the Sheqarai. Weddings are generally simple ceremonies, officiated by a ras & attended only by close family & friends. They most often wed later in life, as well, sometimes well into their adulthood, & few of them marry before they are 30 years old. Couples are not arranged by the parents, & are based on mutual affection, not strictly on social or material advantage. Divorce is uncommon, but not unheard of, & can be initiated by either spouse; about 5-10 percent of all Raheel marriages end in divorce or annulment. Due to the later weddings, courtship is a protracted process with many steps, degrees, & rituals attached to the route toward marriage, which is considered by outsiders to be needlessly convoluted & tricky.

Crime
The Raheel take a dim view on bloated lizardfolk, which are more common in their urban enclaves than they are in the mostly-rural Sheqari region. Those who have become bloated can expect to be ostracized & discriminated against, if not outright exiled. This is done ostensibly to encourage the offender to change their ways & become a more productive member of society, but the reprobate is often seen as simply repugnant & undesirable to other people.

While the Raheel try to integrate with their neighbors from other races, they usually prefer to deal with their own criminal matters. Crimes committed within their enclaves, or those done by one of their own, are often investigated by a local ras, who is appointed by the community to settle the matter as quickly as possible. Discretion is a must, for some non-lizardfolk are prejudiced against the Raheel, & look for any excuse to blame them for problems in the area, both real & imagined. Therefore, the rasi are sometimes tasked with the unpleasant duty of executing the lawbreakers that they apprehend, if doing so would cast a bad light upon the local enclave. Such actions are of course illegal in most places, so the unfortunate rasi conduct their business with the utmost secrecy, & more than a little trepidation, for the moral qualms are strong, & any rasi caught in their ultimate act is a transgressor & embarrassment themselves.

Sailing
One thing that even their most ardent opponents begrudgingly admire is their talent for building & manning sailboats. Their talent in the emerging industry of sailing vessels is unrivaled, & no ship would dare set sail without at least one or two Raheel onboard. The reasons for this new talent are unclear; some think that it has something to do with their traveling experience during the Ten Dark Years, while others believe that their natural emphasis on teamwork & cooperation suit them well on a ship. The truth may never be fully known, but regardless, the Raheel are beginning to rival the pahari & the marid-kin as the masters of the sea.

The Diaspora
During the Ten Dark Years, the people of Sheqari-That-Was-&-Will-Be-Again were under siege by ghuls. Many people fled from the southern regions into former Sheqarai lands. While the city of Rasalhague accepted as many refugees as they could hold, Rasaljathi closed its gates to outsiders, for fear of infiltration & invasion. For six long, gloomy years, food, water, & shelter were scarce, with supplies constantly dwindling. And just when it seemed that the sun would rise again, the world was plunged into an even deeper darkness. New hordes of ghuls, chasing after the genies & Qirus separately, converged upon Sheqari-That-Was. A wave of lizardfolk preceded the black hordes, fleeing ahead of the chaos & blood. This second influx of refugees sought shelter from the coming storm.

By now, Rasalhague could house no more refugees, & Rasaljathi still refused to allow their fellow lizardfolk to enter their gates. Repulsed & despondent, the expatriates moved onward, heading westward toward the coast & away from the thrust of the ghul hordes. Migrating down the Lisan Coast, the lizardfolk found solace among the tranquil villages. They survived the fall of Sheqari, & now the worst catastrophe that they could imagine, & still they stood, alive & resolute. They flowed east & south, into Ilud & around Alhurus Lake, eager to take on new challenges, see new sights, & make new lives for themselves. This vast expansion of the Araqanasi is now known as the Diaspora, & it marked a new age in the history of that great people.

[Zeta Kai]

Sabi

3rd Edition Statistics

Spoiler

Show

Hawasabi (Air Sabi)

• +2 Dexterity, +2 Wisdom.
• Outsider (Native): Hawasabi are not subject to spells or effects that affect humanoids only, such as charm person or dominate person. They also can be raised, reincarnated, or resurrected just as other living creatures can be, & they need to eat & sleep.
• Medium Size: As Medium creatures, hawasabi have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size. Hawasabi of kobold stock are actually of Small size, & possess all of the bonuses & penalties inherent to that size category.
• Hawasabi base speed is 30 feet.
• Darkvision up to 60 feet.
• Breathless (Ex): Hawasabi do not breathe, so they are immune to drowning, suffocation, & attacks that require inhalation (such as some types of poison).
• Elemental Resistance: A hawasabi gains Sonic Resistance 2.
• Genie Heritage (Su): A hawasabi gains a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against all [Air] spells & effects. This bonus increases by +2 for every 5 class levels the sabi attains.
• Racial Skills: A hawasabi character gains a +2 racial bonus on Hide & Move Silently checks.
• Racial Feat: Hawasabi gain a bonus feat, chosen from the following list: Clever Wit, Diverse Background, Elemental Attunement, Legacy of the Genie, Magically Sensitive.
• Spell-Like Abilities
  • 3/Day: stinging breeze
  • 1/Day: gust of wind (DC12)
  • Caster level 5th. The save DCs are Wisdom-based.
• Automatic Languages: Auran. Bonus Languages: Common.
• Favored Class: Ranger.
• Level Adjustment: +1.

Masabi (Water Sabi)

• +2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma.
• Outsider (Native, Water): Masabi are not subject to spells or effects that affect humanoids only, such as charm person or dominate person. They also can be raised, reincarnated, or resurrected just as other living creatures can be, & they need to eat & sleep. Water creatures always have swim speeds, & can move in water without making Swim checks. A water creature can breathe underwater & usually can breathe air as well.
• Medium Size: As Medium creatures, masabi have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size. Masabi of kobold stock are actually of Small size, & possess all of the bonuses & penalties inherent to that size category.
• Masabi base speed is 30 feet. They swim at a speed of 30 feet.
• Masabi breathe water as an extraordinary ability.
• Darkvision up to 60 feet.
• Elemental Resistance: A masabi gains Cold Resistance 2.
• Genie Heritage (Su): A masabi gains a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against [Water] spells & effects. This bonus increases by +2 for every 5 class levels the sabi attains.
• Racial Skills: A masabi character gains a +4 racial bonus on Swim checks.
• Racial Feat: Masabi gain a bonus feat, chosen from the following list: Clever Wit, Diverse Background, Elemental Attunement, Legacy of the Genie, Magically Sensitive.
• Spell-Like Abilities
  
  • 3/Day: hydrate
  • 1/Day: fog cloud
  • Caster level 5th. The save DCs are Intelligence-based.
• Automatic Languages: Aquan. Bonus Languages: Common.
• Favored Class: Bard.
• Level Adjustment: +1.

Narsabi (Fire Sabi)

• +2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence.
• Outsider (Native): Narsabi are not subject to spells or effects that affect humanoids only, such as charm person or dominate person. They also can be raised, reincarnated, or resurrected just as other living creatures can be, & they need to eat & sleep.
• Medium Size: As Medium creatures, narsabi have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size. Narsabi of kobold stock are actually of Small size, & possess all of the bonuses & penalties inherent to that size category.
• Narsabi base speed is 30 feet.
• Darkvision up to 60 feet.
• Elemental Resistance: A narsabi gains Fire Resistance 2.
• Genie Heritage (Su): A narsabi gains a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against [Fire] spells & effects. This bonus increases by +2 for every 5 class levels the sabi attains.
• Hot to the Touch (Ex): Each time that a narsabi character makes a successful attack with a natural weapon or an unarmed strike, they deal an additional 1 point of fire damage. This damage cannot be added to any other melee or ranged attack. In addition, they deal 1 point of fire damage per round to all opponents that are grappling them.
• Racial Skills: A narsabi character gains a +2 racial bonus on Bluff & Intimidate checks.
• Racial Feat: Narsabi gain a bonus feat, chosen from the following list: Clever Wit, Diverse Background, Elemental Attunement, Legacy of the Genie, Magically Sensitive.
• Spell-Like Abilities
  
  • 3/Day: flickerflame
  • 1/Day: flame blade
  • Caster level 5th. The save DCs are Intelligence-based.
• Automatic Languages: Ignan. Bonus Languages: Common.
• Favored Class: Rogue.
• Level Adjustment: +1.

Tarisabi (Earth Sabi)

• +2 Strength, +2 Constitution.
• Outsider (Native): Tarisabi are not subject to spells or effects that affect humanoids only, such as charm person or dominate person. They also can be raised, reincarnated, or resurrected just as other living creatures can be, & they need to eat & sleep.
• Medium Size: As Medium creatures, tarisabi have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size. Tarisabi of kobold stock are actually of Small size, & possess all of the bonuses & penalties inherent to that size category.
• Tarisabi base speed is 30 feet.
• Darkvision up to 60 feet.
• Elemental Resistance: A tarisabi gains Acid Resistance 2.
• Genie Heritage (Su): A tarisabi gains a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against [Earth] spells & effects. This bonus increases by +2 for every 5 class levels the sabi attains. This bonus also applies to all saves against petrification & disintegration effects.
• Racial Skills: A tarisabi character gains a +2 racial bonus on Balance & Tumble checks.
• Racial Feat: Tarisabi gain a bonus feat, chosen from the following list: Clever Wit, Diverse Background, Elemental Attunement, Legacy of the Genie, Magically Sensitive.
• Spell-Like Abilities
  • 3/Day: resistance (DC10)
  • 1/Day: barkskin
  • Caster level 5th. The save DCs are Wisdom-based.
• Stability (Ex): A tarisabi gains 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).
• Automatic Languages: Terran. Bonus Languages: Common.
• Favored Class: Fighter.
• Level Adjustment: +1.

4th Edition Statistics

Spoiler

Show

Please see Genasi in the Forgotten Realms Player’s Guide (page ???).

[Zeta Kai]

Sabi: Overview & Culture

Population: 10,710,000 worldwide
Height: 5’6” tall (average)
Weight: 150 lbs. (average)
Languages: Aquan, Auran, Common, Ignan, Terran

Population Base: Widespread
Primary Religions: Adimas, Daq, Johoum, Maqur, Sidaru

Among the mortal races of Siraaj, there are individuals that are unlike the masses. They are strange, unusual, & special. While they (mostly) appear to be normal everyday folk, they possess an elemental power that transcends the mundane, a power that they often don’t understand. These people have an inherent bond with the natural world, even though their ties are to the supernatural realm. They go by many names (witchlings, moonfolk, genie-kin, et cetera), but the most common term for these magic-touched beings is simply Sabi.

The children of the dancing blood, sabi are the heirs of genie bloodlines, & feel the allure of their sorcerous ancestry strongly. Though many choose to hide these traits, blending in to be merely ordinary citizens of their lands, some tap their racial power with great zeal. Descended from four disparate races, sabi have nonetheless come to know their own kind & have banded together in many areas. Most of these communities are clandestinely disguised as mortal neighborhoods, but some exist in the open, & others have been revealed over the years for what they truly are.

Biology
To the unwitting eye, a sabi looks much like a member of a mortal race. The kobold merchant in the bazaar, the human soldier patrolling the streets, the gnoll guide leading the caravan, or the lizardwoman staffing the temple; any one of these people could be a sabi. While there are sometimes fairly obvious giveaways, most sabi can pass for a mortal if & when they choose to do so. From a physiological standpoint, a sabi is little different than their non-numari peers.

Even a doctor may not be able to tell that a particular individual is a sabi, depending on the strength of their manifestation. The blood of the genies has been diluted by generations of intermingling with mortal folk, but some telltale signs can linger in certain individuals. A hawasabi never needs to breathe, so their chest does not heave with effort. A masabi will be drawn to water, & can swim as well as any pahari. A narsabi always seems to be running a high fever, while a tarisabi seems be unnaturally sure of foot. These traits are sometimes overt, but they are usually subtle, requiring a discerning eye to discover.

Diet
A sabi will eat whatever their non-sabi brethren regularly eat. For details on a particular race’s preferred foods, refer to Diet section of that race’s article, or Food & Drink sections of that race’s cultures.

Reproduction
A sabi can & will reproduce with their mortal kin, in a manner indistinguishable from that of their mundane peers. However, they are drawn to one another more strongly than they are to mortal folk (especially if they are of the same elemental heritage), although even they cannot always tell if an individual is a sabi or not. One interesting consequence of their nature is that they cannot always mate with other sabi. A sabi of human stock can only mate with other sabi that are compatible with humans, & the same goes for other races; a kobold-born sabi cannot mate with a sabi of gnoll descent, who in turn cannot mate with a lizardfolk-sabi, & so on. This biological restriction does not preclude sabi of incompatible types from forming emotional bonds, & thus more than one tale of their kind has told of a tragedy whereby two sabi fall in love, but cannot realize their passions.

Growth
Sabi develop more slowly than most of their mundane kin, sometimes significantly so, & all sabi grow at approximately the same rate, regardless of their parent races. They take over 17 years to reach full adulthood, which is only a couple of years behind humans & gnolls. This is actually a few years faster than the maturation time for a lizardfolk, but not so quickly as to be immediately suspect. For sabi of kobold stock, however, this rate of growth is a major concern; mundane kobolds reach their full maturity in a little over 6 years, which is almost a third of the time required for a sabi to become an adult. Some sabi of kobold descent are excused by their parents as having some disease or growth-related condition, but many of them are exposed for the magical beings that they are, more so than any other kind of sabi.

When sabi are first born, they are impossible to tell apart from mortal children, & they remain so for years (aside from any differences in their growth rates). Manifestations of their elemental power are subtle at first, & can be easy to miss: a sudden breeze indoors, a nearby fire flaring up without cause, or inexplicable pools of water forming. These may be written off as coincidence or external phenomena, but those who are familiar with the signs (or those who are particularly superstitious) may suspect that the young sabi is the source of the disturbances.

A sabi will age at a different rate than members of mortal races, although the difference can be difficult to discern. They grow old a bit slower than gnolls & humans, but a bit faster than kobolds & lizardfolk. As they get old, their connection to their respective element becomes stronger & more noticeable. Eventually, the marriage of flesh & elemental energy begins to break down, & the magical forces that they were born with finally escape the confines of their corporeal form as they perish.

Internal Relations
Sabi live among other races, but they often feel as if there is something missing in their lives, as if they somehow don’t belong. When they meet another sabi, they often feel as if they have just encountered a kindred spirit, even if they cannot explain why. They are drawn together by a common set of circumstances, in addition to their mutual abilities.

They sometimes gather together in small enclaves of mutual support within larger communities of mortal folk. More often, though, they live among the mortals that vastly outnumber them, rarely seeing another sabi. While not all sabi get along, most of the time, they are cordial to one another, trading information about their kind. This can often result in widespread networks of sabi, sharing secrets & lore with one another, which is even more disturbing to mortal beings than the existence of the sabi.

External Relations
Most sabi live disguised within communities of mortal races, their elemental nature concealed from the common folk. Those that live openly as numari are treated coldly by mortals, shunned & sometimes even persecuted for their magical abilities. To mortal beings, sabi are a hidden threat, a lurking menace with an unknown agenda. Only when they masquerade as mundane beings can they be accepted by civil society.

The sabi get along much better with the other half-breed races, particularly the half-genies, whom they see as cousins. They can often be found living within communities of half-genies, especially those that share their element. They understand the loneliness & lack of acceptance that other numari experience, even if they don’t feel it quite so acutely. They are able to hide among normal people, unlike other numari, who cannot usually pass for mortals. While they may fear the half-ghuls, their sympathy often overrides their trepidation. Full-blooded genies feel a kinship with sabi, albeit a distant one, & they are more likely to aid a sabi in need than a mortal being.

Occupations
Sabi are able to find employment in almost vocation, although there are specific trends that certain types of sabi tend to follow. Hawasabi prefer to work outside, & will avoid jobs that are exclusively indoors; they often are scouts, messengers, or sentries. Masabi tend to work near the water, & are commonly employed as divers, fishermen, or (most recently) sailors. Narsabi like to work in the desert heat or near sources of flame; the most common occupation for them is that of a blacksmith or a glassblower. And Tarisabi usually find jobs that are close to the earth, usually working as farmers or miners.

The sabi are nothing if not a diverse & varied people, so the above tendencies are far from absolutes. Many of them are not beholden to their stereotypical vocations, & in fact, some of them work in fields that defy their inclinations, to maintain a better cover. This is particularly troubling to the rare individuals tasked with exposing them, as they could be anywhere. Most sabi are aware that these hunters exist, so they change their jobs more often than the average person, trying to stay one step ahead of those who would out them.

Names
The parents of a sabi typically try to give their genie-blooded children the best, most normal life possible, & the first step is to give them a name that will help them fit in with their peers. They usually have very plain, nondescript names, commonly the most popular names from the time that they were born. These names are particular to the race & culture that they are attempting to integrate with. Their names rarely stand out in their home community, although they are sometimes conspicuous elsewhere. This is often countered by the fact that sabi tend to travel a bit more than the average mortal folk, so their names might still sound peculiar to the citizens of the lands that they move to later in life.

For sample names, choose from a sample names list for any other race (except the half-ghuls).

Food & Drink
See Diet, above.

Appearance
Most sabi try to look as unremarkable & ordinary as possible, the better to hide among mortal society. To that end, they generally dress as plainly as possible, in the style of clothing that is most common for the culture in which they live. They tend to wear somewhat conservative garments, eschewing jewelry or colorful fabrics, so as not to stand out. A few of them may go against this trend, but they are a very small minority.

Arts & Education
Like the half-genies, the sabi are an emotional, animated people, prone to vibrant passions & creative drives. Many of history’s greatest artists have actually been sabi in disguise, although most of them were never officially disclosed as such & mortal folk would likely deny it if they found out. They excel in many talents, including music, painting, poetry, & sculpture. Perhaps their greatest skill, though, is in the art of prose writing; they have produced some of the best authors & journalists in the past few centuries, even though most people are unaware of their magical heritage.

Unlike other numari, who rarely receive a formal education, many sabi actually attend scholastic institutions, & they often have a strong belief in the importance of proper schooling. This gives them a distinct advantage within the numari community, which consists of races that are more powerful than they. They commonly use their academic learning to help further the causes of their brethren, as well as ease the way for future generations of numari. They hope to eventually create an acceptance of numari in mortal society, but so far this dream has eluded them, despite their efforts.

Relationships
A sabi’s attitude toward relationships depends on a number of factors: what culture they live in, which mortal race they appear to belong to, & whether or not they live openly as sabi. Those that live in hiding are often concerned about being exposed as numari, & are therefore quite cautious when it comes to forming close bonds. They only reveal their true nature to a select few friends & family members, & are usually reluctant to expand their circles of trusted allies. They tend to fret over whether their potential partner will accept them, & they are sometimes shocked to learn that the reason they were drawn to their mate was because their partner was a sabi, as well.

Publicly-known sabi have no such compunctions, & they will generally pair up with whomever they fancy. They typically seek out other sabi, although some prefer mortal mates, & a rare few are drawn to half-genies. They are also less likely to follow the conventions of their native culture, including the traditions regarding marriage. This usually results in a reputation for fickleness, unpredictability, & a disregard for society’s rules, which is a stereotype that is commonly applied to the sabi race as a whole by more conservative folk.

Crime
Like all numari, sabi generally have a complex relationship with the law, which frequently discriminates against their kind. Most of them feel the need to obey the law, so as not to draw unwanted attention to themselves. But by the same token, their very existence sometimes puts them at odds with civil & state authorities, so they are occasionally forced to commit crimes in order to maintain their veil of secrecy. To prevent the exposure of one sabi from setting off a chain reaction that would reveal an entire network of sabi-in-hiding, they often police their own kind, dealing with problem individuals before they can endanger a whole group. Some extremists even hunt other sabi that have been outed, to prevent a possible leak of information, but these are almost unanimously condemned by other sabi.

The Elements
Although they are, at most, only one-quarter genie, the sabi still feel a deep connection to their respective elements. This affinity manifests in many ways, & not all of them are physical; it is said that their personalities are affected by their elemental association. For instance, hawasabi are often portrayed as being blustery & inconstant as the wind, masabi are seen being as fluid & dependable as the sea, narsabi are depicted as being as energetic & wild as an open flame, & tarisabi are represented as being as steady & unwavering as a boulder. These stereotypes do indeed have some merit, but they are far from absolutes, & they fail to paint the whole picture of a complex & varied race.

Hunters
The biggest fear that a sabi living hidden among mortals has is being exposed, to have their secret revealed to their friends & neighbors. For this reason, many sabi are guarded & private people, some even bordering on paranoia. This caution is not without cause, for those who have been outed have faced harassment, imprisonment, exile, & even death in some cases. Not only that, but there appears to be a network of operatives as clandestine as the sabi themselves, one dedicated to finding them & exposing them for what they truly are.

Nearly everything about these Hunters (as they are most commonly called) is unknown. No one can say for sure how many there are, where they come from, or why they are outing sabi. They seem to be a small group of well-equipped loners, as they always appear to work alone, & they do not strike often. Their methods are many & varied, ranging from attacking a sabi directly (so as to force them to defend themselves with their powers) to organizing lynch mobs to purge them from their homes. None of the Hunters has ever been caught, & they seem to be a fairly recent phenomena, but sabis the world over would like nothing more than to counter & disband them by any means necessary.

Dark Sabi
They have never been conclusively confirmed, & many dismiss them as mere myth, but tales persist of rare, strange breeds of sabi, creatures utterly unlike the known sabi types. These dark sabi, as they most commonly known, are said to be beings of acid, cinder, plague, & storm, bizarre & unwholesome mixtures of more pure elements. Some posit that they are descended from both half-ghuls & half-genies, while others blame demonic influence on regular sabi. Whatever the cause for their existence (if they are indeed real), they are even more feared than other kinds of sabi.

[Zeta Kai]

Well, that's it for the PC races. Other racial options have been considered for a full write-up, such as the Aazlai, the Dvernin, & the Pahari. But those (& any others) would be relegated to the bonus material chapter, so don't expect them here.

Also, I think that it would be appropriate at this point to take a break for the holidays, so we will postpone the release of Chapter 5: Advanced Classes until Sunday, December 26th. We will be using this time to polish/edit what has been released, as well as prepare more material for release after the holiday. Feel free to post any comments, questions, or critiques regarding the PC races, their statistics, or their cultures here, & we will respond in a timely fashion.

[Pokonic]

They are utterly fantastic so far! Keep up the good work!

[Zeta Kai]

They are utterly fantastic so far! Keep up the good work!

Thank you very much. I appreciate the positive feedback. You keep it up, too.

For the record, there has been some strong criticism regarding the Human overview. Despite the fact that there was only a single word that could arguably be cited as a factual error (which was fixed day ago), & my own personal design aesthetic (which demands a full balanced write-up for each race), it seems as if the details of human biology were unwanted in this project. Therefore, most of the human overview has been removed. You win this time, world. This time...

[apocalypsePast2]

Can we get a bigger overview on the Dark Sabi? That seems like it would really interest me a lot of people.

[afroakuma]

Can we get a bigger overview on the Dark Sabi? That seems like it would really interest me a lot of people.

Sure you can, it's called playing 4E.

We don't actually have them on our side.

[apocalypsePast2]

Noooooooooooo!