Hello, traveler, and welcome to the worlds triune. In this document you will find all the information you need to start building a character specifically for the Yskarithe setting, as well as information about how the setting works and its current state of affairs.
That is not to say that this document contains a complete history of Yskarithe: that would entail a document much, much longer than this, and would probably be overwhelming. Instead, here you will find enough information to get you started, and at least passingly familiar with some of the more important conceits of Yskarithe as a setting. The intent is for this to serve as a primer, to help you get started, and ensure that you build a character that fits.
Overview
This document is divided into a number of sections, which we will briefly describe here.
The Beams
The beams are the major "selling point" of Yskarithe, and are what set it apart from most other settings. Here you will find an overview of what the beams are and how they relate to each other, followed by detailed descriptions of each of the beams. You don't have to read all of these to play in Yskarithe, but being passingly familiar with each -- and quite familiar with your own beam, if you choose a people or class that relates to one -- will make the setting make significantly more sense.
Peoples
This section details the races -- here, called "peoples" -- of Yskarithe. While there are only ten peoples described in this document, there is incredible variety here, and most of the same sorts of archetypes covered by the core races are covered here.
Other Races
No other races are allowed in Yskarithe at this time. If it isn't listed here, please do not make a character using that race. Tieflings and other core races not described in this document don't work in the setting, for a variety of reasons.
This goes doubly for homebrew races, or races from other "official" sources.
Tongues
This section details the languages, or "tongues," that are used in Yskarithe. As with other sections, languages from
other sources that are not listed here simply do not exist.
The approach to languages here tries to be a bit more realistic, in that we don't refer to languages as "Elven" or "Dwarven," but rather as "Sindarin" and "Khuzdul" (just for example).
Also in this section are the various scripts used to write those languages.
Other Beings
The worlds triune are home to things inimical to the civilized peoples of Yskarithe, and there exist alternate planes of existence more closely tied to the beams in which dwell beings borne of the power of the beams themselves.
This section details these other beings, for while they are not considered part of the peoples of Yskarithe, they all too often play important roles, whether it be as friend or foe.
Classes
This section gives a very brief overview of the classes used in Yskarithe. The vast majority of these will come from my Works series, and so it may be useful to have links or print-outs of those handy.
At this time, a number of core classes are allowed, with some caveats, which will be spelled out in this section. Classes from any other source are strictly not allowed.
Feats
This section details a number of feats, most of which are racial feats for the various peoples presented in the Peoples section.
Also discussed here are what feats are allowed from various other sources, which sources for feats are allowed, and the banned feat list, if or when such a thing becomes necessary.
Backgrounds
This section details backgrounds that are useful and fitting for use in Yskarithe, including homebrew backgrounds as well as other sources for backgrounds that can be used.
Equipment
This section details equipment, as well as how economics and various currencies work in Yskarithe.
Of particular note here will be the firearm rules, as well as additional types of weapon qualities and other new weapons.
However, of equal importance is the discussion of mox, economies in Yskarithe, and the justification for adventuring being a valid profession in the first place.
Power can be attained in the worlds triune from a variety of sources. Each is associated with one of the beams, fundamental aspects that underpin reality and inform the sorts of power that those within a given universe can access. In the worlds of Yskarithe and her sisters, there are nine such beams.
This section describes the fundamentals of each of the main power sources in the worlds triune.
The Beams
| ––– Physics ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– | |
| Arcane | Imbued with the power of the leys, can modify reality to their whim outside of mortal capacity. |
| Psionics | Tapping into their inner power through meditation, allows them to exceed mortal limits. |
| Technology | Building inventions, taking advantage of physics to perform feats beyond mere mortals. |
| ––– Belief ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– | |
| Divine | Through prayer and supplication to a patron, learns true names that can change reality. |
| Void | Accessing the powers of nothingness, can use the notion of nonexistence to unmake reality. |
| Primal | Attuned to the elemental weave, can bend the elements to affect reality. |
| ––– Meta ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– | |
| Time | Collecting temporal inertia from possibles, use that power to alter the timeline of the game. |
| Chaos | Abusing the notion that reality is a game, their powers reflect their player cheating at the game. |
| Memory | Hacking into the engine that runs existence, modify the world's memory state to affect the game. |
Overview
The nine beams -- arcane, psionics, technology; divine, void, and primal; time, chaos, and memory -- exist in the context of what is called a Trinity. Each of the beams within a given Trinity directly opposes the other two within the context of that Trinity's domain, and the presence of an individual, item of power, or other phenomena aligned to a beam in a given place interferes with the operation of the other two within that Trinity, actively aligning the world around it to its beam.
The archetypal example of this is using a firearm -- a technological item -- at a mage, who walks the beam of arcane. It is entirely possible for the bullet to ricochet off of an invisible field around the mage, despite there being no good physics-based reason for this, and this is due to the mage's presence warping the laws of physics around him.
The other two Trinities -- those of Belief and Meta -- are less obvious in their immediate impacts upon their surroundings, but nevertheless also modify the world around them in a similar manner, and are similarly resistant to the abilities and items of their opposed beams.
Each beam is opposed to the other two beams within its Trinity.
Physics
The Trinity of Physics includes the powers of the Arcane, Psionics, and Technology. These beams interface with the rules of reality: they are the most obvious, vulgar manipulations thereof, and are either directly comtemptuous of the rules, utilize unusual facets of existence to exploit loopholes, or manipulate and abuse physics to achieve things that are otherwise impossible.
Belief
The Trinity of Belief is home to the powers of the Divine, Void, and the Primal. Each of these beams is represented by a singular entity as their source, which acts upon reality and attempts to enforce its will thereon, but are themselves noumenal entities that have metaphysical existence apart from the mortal plane. Those who access these powers do so by supplication, theft, or gift, for the power of these beams stems directly from these entities.
Meta
The Trinity of Meta is the domain of the powers of Time, Chaos, and Memory. Neither properly part of reality nor noumenal entities, these are concepts that transcend such attachments, being partially abstract in nature. These are fundamental aspects of the reality of the worlds triune, the "machinery" on which that reality runs: they are, in a sense, interacting with the metagame.
Characters and Alignment
A character who walks a beam is said to be aligned to that beam, and this alignment is used in place of the typical d20 alignment system.
As a general rule, individuals in the worlds triune are typically aligned to a single beam at a time. However, it is possible to be aligned to multiple. Once aligned to a beam within a given Trinity, that person is forever barred from becoming aligned with one of that beam's opposites.
In game terms: an individual aligned with a beam has advantage on saving throws made against abilities of that beam's oppositions, and has resistance to damage from abilities produced by those beams.
Some peoples are bound to beams, their essence or nature intimately connected to one of these power sources. While those individuals can never take up the powers of a beam opposed to their native one, they do not have innate resistance to them, and can choose to pursue other paths if they so desire.
Hewn into the metaphysical underside of reality are the leylines, the source of arcane power. While there are five primary leys that course through reality, each of these branches and splits in wild and unpredictable ways, criss-crossing the whole of existence in a manner that is beyond mortal sight. Where their power wells, they threaten to breach into normal existence, the laws of physics warping in their presence; where they recede, mortal spells ebb and wane.
Power of the Leys
It is possible for mortals to learn of the leys, to seek out and find places both hidden and known that are epicenters of their arcane might. In such places, a would-be mage can meditate, focusing their energies and faculties on the knowledge of the ley, and in so doing become a conduit for that power, another branching path through which the ley's infinite arcane energy can flow. As the awakening mage opens his mind to the ley, it floods into his soul, admixing with it and producing a new form of energy, known to those who wield it as mana. Once this ritual is performed, the mage is forever altered, and -- with training and contemplation -- can tap into his inner reservoir of mana to affect the world in physics-defying ways.
When a mage casts a spell, they are simultaneously focusing their will and their internal reservoir of mana, envisioning an effect upon the world and channeling the mana into that idea. There is no need for components beyond the will, nor are the rules of reality relevant: if a mage wills a fireball into existence, it simply happens, without need for fuel or reason. Mages do not concern themselves with the restrictions put upon them by the rules of reality, throwing out logic and doing the impossible with impunity, limited only by their reserves of mana and their knowledge of the powers of the leys.
However, the arcane is dangerous: the leys are wild and temperamental, and were never intended to be tamed by anyone, much less mortals. The mage's connection to a ley can never be truly closed or controlled: while focus and concentration can help, there is always a chance that the energy within will backlash, harming or draining a caster while channeling arcane energies. Each leyline has its own particular patterns, bizarre energies, and insensible geometries, and mages often specialize in touching upon a specific ley, enhancing their ability to control its flows -- but never with absolute certainty.
Arcane Culture
For those who pursue the path of magic, the ambition for power is the strongest virtue. Many study the arcane with the intent of achieving the means to rewrite reality as they see fit. While in the modern day such magics are almost surely beyond the ken of mortals, stories hold that mages of olden days were capable of literally changing the laws of physics, if only briefly or very localized -- but almost all know the stories of Kotrit Wayveri, an ancient mage who changed climates and nearly shattered the beam of psionics with his arcane might. However, while they seek power, many apprentices are warned of the dangers of hubris: for all too often a mage has thought himself invulnerable, his plans unbreakable, his fortress impenetrable, only to be laid low but for some obvious flaw that had been overlooked. To avoid such folly, most mages prefer that they are aware not just of how far they have come in their studies, but how far they yet have to go, and awareness of the gaps in their knowledge.
In ancient times, there were many peoples who could work magics, but most of them are long-since vanished, leaving only traces of their civilizations and wonders of arcane manipulation in their wake. In modern days, the espers are the undisputed masters of magic, as their blood is itself infused with mana, and their mere presence crackles with arcane energies. Humes, being not naturally aligned with any of the beams, can learn to practice magic, though of them the valyrians are the most adept, coming from a culture inundated in magical lore due to their proximity to the elves of yesteryear. Other peoples can learn to work magic, but not without difficulty, and some never can: cym and artilects are beings without true souls, and as such, have nothing with which to admix with a ley to produce mana -- and even were they so possessed, they themselves are aligned with antithetical beams, and could not wield magic even if they had the ability or desire.
Other Beams
The arcane finds ready allies in the divine, of the Trinity of Belief, and in time, of the Trinity of Meta. Each of these beams seek to exert control over reality: the arcane, through tapping into the leys; divine, through uttering the true names of aspects of reality to reshape them; time, through manipulating and controlling the timeline to induce a preferred course of events. Wielders of these beams understand that they are tapping into powers far greater than themselves, but that in so doing gain the power to change reality on a fundamental level.
Within each living body is hidden potential, locked in place through a combination of ignorance, poor discipline, and lack for imagination. Those who understand that there is more to the body and mind than first appears meditate upon their limitations, and sometimes in so doing, uncover a hidden reservoir of energy within their internal flow of energy, a river of psionic power that stems from various focal points in the body. Seeking a sort of spiritual transcendence, these individuals either spend long hours in meditation, or seek out gurus who serve as guides to help them on their way -- but it is always an intensely personal journey, a path that one must choose to walk, and can only walk alone.
The Will and the Way
Not all who walk this path complete the journey: some find themselves forever locked from it, held back by attachments or attitudes they are unwilling to let go of in exchange for the power of the mind unleashed. But those who finish their spiritual journey gain conscious awareness of the flow of energy within and throughout their body: and with work, the ability to manipulate it. Having awareness of and the ability to manipulate their qi allows the budding psychic the ability to project their mind, foresee the future, and enhance their bodies -- all through sheer force of will.
When a psychic manifests a discipline, they do so by expressing the internal energies within themselves in an unusual, unexpected fashion. This is not to say that what they do is impossible, merely improbable, or approaching physical laws from unusual angles. Strict interpretations and mathematical formuale do not suit the psychic: instead, they rely on intuitions of how they think reality should work, which are not -- strictly speaking -- the truth of things. Psionics effectively exploits so-called loopholes in physics to achieve its ends.
Manipulating this energy is not without risk, for the body and mind are mortal and fragile, and the stresses put upon them through these exercises is great. Psychics who are not cautious with their powers can strain their bodies and minds, taxing themselves into exhaustion -- or worse. While a psychic can push herself to the absolute limit, doing so can do as little as give her a nosebleed, or drive her utterly and irrevocably insane, driven mad by the complete disruption of her internal energies that can no longer settle back into their natural rhythm.
Psionic Culture
For those who walk the path of the will and the way, the most important virtue is that of creativity: for while the
energy within is obvious enough to those who have gleaned its presence, it requires much study and contemplation before its applications become apparent. Many psychics spend much time in solitude and meditation, pondering upon the curves of their energy and how it might be manipulated -- but in this, too, lies danger, for pondering the inner recesses of the mind can lead to detachment from the material world. While transcending the mortal coil and attaining oneness with the universe is a goal that some psychics aspire to, for most it is a constant danger, a pitfall they must constantly be leery of lest they forget their purpose in honing their skills.
The powers of the mind have been studied for as long as there have been minds to study it, and records go back into ancient times suggesting that there have always been tribes with gurus and spiritualists who tapped into these inner powers. In the age of echoes, however, but one such people remain: the cym, crystals brought to sapience through accident, infused with the very power of thought itself. Though they lack the traditional body commonly assumed necessary for the practice of psionics, the lattice of crystal that makes up their physical presence resonates and the power of thought, serving as a powerful equivalent of the energy channels within living beings. Among the humes, the secretive deryni people have a long-standing practice of meditation and contemplation of the self, and maintain treatises on mental exercises that help engender such talent among their kin. Of other peoples, so long as they are living they have the possibility of unlocking the energy deep within, with but two exceptions: the espers, whose souls are admixed with the arcane leys, which interferes with the natural rhythm of their energies and prohibits them from gathering it naturally; and the artilects, whose metal bodies and mechanical minds have no natural energy, only that provided by such crude things as electricity and radioactive decay.
Other Beams
Psionics works well with the beam of void, in the Trinity of Belief, and chaos, in the Trinity of Meta. Each of these beams seeks to exploit or subvert its domain: psionics approaches the notion of physics from unusual angles; the void subverts the usual notion of faith, using it as a means of entry into other domains with the intent of destroying them; and chaos harbors reservations against rules of any sort. Those who walk these beams are introspective, requiring a knowledge of the self that allows them to understand their role in their domain and how best to subvert and exploit it.
In every time, in every culture, there is technological advancement: from simple flint tools and fire, to firearms and airships, the precise mechanism of invention may change, and the extent to which such devices are used may vary -- but no culture is immune to the siren song of technological progress. Those who focus their efforts on such invention find themselves on a road full of toil and study, but can reap the rewards of technological power that only true knowledge of the universe can bring.
Steam and Steel
Those who are undaunted by the mathematics and logical rigor involved in the study of the machinery of the universe find ways to manipulate natural law to their own gains, forcing nature to behave in desired fashion on command. While the first steps towards bringing the universe to heel may seem small and inconsequential, technology is a series of steps: what begins as a whistling, spring-wound toy bird today will turn into a flying machine with just a few years' more work. It is through the realization of inventions that technology moves forward, and with each one under an inventor's belt, a greater understanding of the cosmos is gleaned -- and with it, the next question.
When building an invention, the inventor is taking advantage of physical laws to achieve in end. Rather than fight and rail against physics for being as they are, those who follow the beam of technology seek to abuse how reality works to as extreme an extent as is possible. It is this active approach, in understanding and using natural laws, along with the will to leash reality so that it might work for you, that separates technology from mere crafting.
However, the universe is fickle, and in order to build machines to take advantage of its rules, extreme rigor is required. These devices require constant upkeep: springs must be wound, chains must be oiled, fuel maintained at proper temperatures, gauges calibrated. Without such work, inventions spoil over time -- tensions slacken, locking mechanisms freeze, stored energy slowly dissipates. Even if all is well and a machine properly kept to specification, there is always a chance something was overlooked, a step forgotten, or simply that an inventor's theories are unsound under certain conditions, causing disastrous malfunction. Fortunately few are the machines that fail catastrophically in a way dangerous to their builders, but no one said that keeping a muzzle on physics would be simple or straight-forward.
Technological Culture
The most important attribute for those who would study technology is that of diligence: the phrase "measure twice,
cut once" is absolutely technological in origin, and a reflection of the principles of those who excel at their craft. To bring an invention to working order, the inventor must put its components just so: each time the same manner, in the same process, to exacting specifications, lest something go awry. It is little wonder, then, that students of technology are cautious of becoming overly obsessive, checking and double-checking and triple-checking every detail to the nook and cranny, disassembling an hour's worth of work if a small step is missed to repeat the entire process from scratch. There is a fine line between the two, and most sane inventors seek to walk it -- though there are many tales of those who abandoned prudence and gave in to the need to check, and check, and check...
Technology has always been part and parcel with civilization. Even those who eschew greater advancements of vehicles and the wonders of space still make use of tools and simple machines to help them through their day, and as such nearly any people can choose to pick up the wrench and hammer of the inventor. Humes commonly choose the profession of tinker, but even their people acknowledge that among them, the ronkans are the most analytically-minded and most likely to succeed at such endeavors, having been close to the dwarves of the ancient days whose metrics are still used in the modern era. Among other peoples, technology is less common, though it comes as almost second-nature to the artilects, who -- as living machines -- are naturally inclined to the study of technology, if only to better understand how to maintain, repair, and improve themselves and their "offspring." However, the espers and cym will never take up the mantle of technology: the means of working with physics, rather than against it, is anathema to the process of working magic, and those who rely on the mind find the notion of relying upon the external world distasteful and unpleasant.
Other Beams
Technology is most aligned with the beam of the primal, in the Trinity of Belief, and that of memory, in the Trinity of Meta. Believers in these beams each see themselves working in a context relevant to their domain: technology, within the realm of physics; primal, with the elemental weave that composes the metaphysics of the universe; and memory, which seeks to understand and manipulate the machinery on which the whole edifice of existence operates. While each can abuse their power in their own way, at their core each seeks to understand from whence their power stems, to gain greater insight into the nature of the worlds triune.
In the beginning, there was light -- and it believed it was good. And so it called itself the Divine, for in the first moment of its existence, it had purpose: to divine the name and meaning of every thing that existed beneath its gaze, that it might know all and that all would know it. As the whole of creation expanded, it realized that it could not be everywhere at once, and so fashioned servants from within itself: whole hosts of beings, given names and tasks, domains and demesnes in which they would watch and learn and -- most importantly -- name, and it is from these names that divine power springs.
The Power of Names
On the mortal plane, there are those who recognize that there exist higher powers, and cry out to them for aid and succor. These petitioners offer up prayer and supplication, and in return, are gifted with divine power. Each of the various servitors of the Divine has gained command over some aspects of reality, by virtue of having given it a name. Those who seek the power of the Divine are granted the knowledge of these names, and -- when properly uttered -- give the petitioner the power to alter reality, giving new names to elements of existence. However, these true names -- as they are called -- and incredibly specific, not just to an entity, but to its activities, its position, even its history, and so petitioners must constantly request aid in the form of knowledge of these names. But Divine patience is not unlimited, and a petitioner who makes too many requests, or does so in an improper or impious fashion, can find his access to divine knowledge temporarily reduced, or even wholly revoked. Some divine agents may even see fit to punish those who make such poor requests, taking out retribution upon those who would abuse their powers.
When a petitioner utters a prayer, they are explicitly invoking the true names as given by the Divine itself. This system of naming, however, goes beyond mere words: they are descriptors, attributes, and explanation, all encapsulated into a single (albeit usually somewhat lengthy) word. By subtly altering these names, the petitioner is able to change reality: for to know the name of a thing is to truly know that thing, then changing its name is to truly change that thing. This is the will of the Divine, and its power, into which petitioners tap.
Divine Culture
For an individual who seeks the power of the divine, humility is among the most important traits. The divine
powers from which these powers stem are ancient beyond reckoning, and though some of the divine servitors may come and go with the passing of ages -- for prayers fuel their existence, and without them, fade from memory, making room for other entities to take up their place in the heavens -- they are still powerful beyond the ken of mere mortals. Those who fail to maintain the right sort of attitude towards their patron risk becoming blusterous, convinced that their connection to the divine makes them superior to their fellows, an attitude that is not long tolerated by those who grant their prayers. Stories abound of priests who proclaimed their holiness, only to be struck by divine lightning from blue skies -- or suffered similar grisly fates.
Among the peoples of Yskarithe and her sisters, worship of the divine is almost as old as civilization itself. However, as other sources of power were discovered, some cultures devalued such activities, placing their faith in their own abilities and knowledge. Of those who kept the faith, however, the humes known as the hylians are among the most devout, retaining cultural faith from days immemorable. Of other peoples, the draenei retain their faith, though theirs is of a different stripe: the draenei were originally of the angelic hosts themselves, who insisted that mortals needed mentors to guide them to the light, and so volunteered to take on mortal form to do so. While some of their number turn their back on their celestial heritage, many still hold fast to their faith. In opposite fashion, however, the isci and the firbolgs refuse to take up worship of divine patrons: the isci, as children of the void, are twisted mockeries of creation, not truly part of it, and thus cannot be named in a divine sense; and the firbolgs do not deign to name even themselves, and do not accept the idea of naming.
Other Beams
The divine finds ready allies in the arcane, of the Trinity of Physics, and in time, of the Trinity of Meta. Each of these beams seek to exert control over reality: the arcane, through tapping into the leys; divine, through uttering the true names of aspects of reality to reshape them; time, through manipulating and controlling the timeline to induce a preferred course of events. Wielders of these beams understand that they are tapping into powers far greater than themselves, but that in so doing gain the power to change reality on a fundamental level.
In the beginning, there was light -- blinding, piercing light, that forced an awareness of some thing other than itself, awakening it from a sleepless slumber. It desired nothing more than to snuff out that light, to return to an existence in which nothing other than itself is, that it might return to peaceful, endless darkness. To that end, the Void began studying what had brought it out of its slumber, and began devising ways of disrupting it via void power: creating mockeries of their creations, learning to anticipate their movements, and finding ways of tearing its way into reality to destroy it directly.
Gazing into the Abyss
Among mortals, there are those who crave the power of darkness -- be it knowledge, control, or simple destruction of their foes. In hushed whispers and forbidden tomes, they find rumor of an entity, vast, alien, and timeless, that can grant them the power they seek. Some who find it are immediately subsumed into the darkness even on their first calling upon nothingness, but many live to tell the tale: and of these, many decide to turn to easier paths of power. Those who keep on the path of darkness, however, learn to siphon what they desire from the darkness quickly and quietly, or to promise the Void what it desires: willing gateways into reality. Regardless of their drawing upon the Void being theft or gift, those who invoke the darkness must still their mind before accessing them, resulting in a state of wu wei, the state of no-mindedness, in order to ever-so-momentarily become one with the Void's awareness and gain access to its powers. This is incredibly dangerous, and leaves the soul open to the Void's usurpation: even if granted willingly, such powers can cause the nihilist to accrue what is known as debt to the Void, an accounting of how much power the nihilist has used and the rate at which the Void notices an opening into reality: and when too much is gathered, the Void seizes upon its opportunity to enter the real, utterly destroying the nihilist and leaving in its place a gateway to absolute nothingness.
A nihilist who releases a kata has cleared their mind and, for a brief, temporary moment, become one with the Void. Through the passage of time, and as its malevolent intelligence grows, the Void has subsumed elements of its adversaries into itself, learning from them and using their tactics and powers against them. The Void's expression of these abilities, however, is typically inverted: where other beams create and add, the Void destroys and subtracts. Ironically, one of the most common expressions of this is that the Void "subtracts" the notion of nonexistence from an idea, which brings it into existence -- but this ability is
among the most versatile the Void can bring to bear, and is the source of much of its power.
Void Culture
Those who would call upon the Void speak of the need for great fortitude and endurance, and these not just of the body, but of the mind and soul: for to call upon the darkest of powers requires an iron will and unyielding spirit, lest the nihilist be utterly destroyed by its overwhelming hate and destructive urges towards the mortal coil. As such, most who wield these powers tend to be at the least stoic, if not utterly lacking in emotion -- though if that was their nature prior to attaining such powers, or if they caused such attitude, varies from individual to individual. On the other hand, however, they must always be wary of apathy: for when you stare into the abyss, it also stares into you, and many nihilists succumb to the belief that literally nothing in life matters, as it will all become less than dust in the end when the Void eventually gains the upper hand. While few nihilists could be described as having a cheery disposition, most at least try to maintain a level of realism about their situation.
The Void has lingered on the frayed edges of mortals' perceptions since their very beginning. Of the peoples still extant in the worlds triune, the sheikah of the humes are most knowledgeable in them. In ancient times, the Void made mockeries of mortals and sent them forth into the world as its heralds -- but made the mistake of gifting them with a glimmer of sapience, that they might blend better into societies. They rebelled against their maker, joining their mortal brethren against the other minions of the Void, and became the isci, who retain their connection to twilight and nothingness. Of the other peoples of the worlds, the draenei find the darkness anathema to their inborn light, while the firbolgs fiercely protect reality from harm and cannot brook the powers of the Void.
Other Beams
The void works well with the beam of psionics, in the Trinity of Physics, and chaos, in the Trinity of Meta. Each of these beams seeks to exploit or subvert its domain: psionics approaches the notion of physics from unusual angles; the void subverts the usual notion of faith, using it as a means of entry into other domains with the intent of destroying them; and chaos harbors reservations against rules of any sort. Those who walk these beams are introspective, requiring a knowledge of the self that allows them to understand their role in their domain and how best to subvert and exploit it.
In the beginning, there was light -- and it grew, ever expanding, unknowingly reaching into the dark, primal ignorance of what forces it had awoken. But it had no purpose other than to be, and so it grew, gazing back unflinchingly at deepest shadow and brightest light. Ever passive, it did not act unless acted upon, or until the things it sensed beyond the mortal realm in which it dwelled acted in ways it perceived as dangerous: when the light fashioned servants, the primal spirit sent forth tendrils of elemental power into the distant stars via primal power, forming them into guardians who might help it watch over existence and ensure that balance was maintained. For this being -- this spirit of the universe -- came to the conclusion that all things happen as they should, and that interference should be minimized: let life choose as it will.
Colors of the Wind
On the mortal coil, elemental energy is at play behind all aspects of existence, in a delicate, balanced dance: fire burns, as water drenches, and so it goes, ten elements in five equal and opposite pairs, siblings and cousins to one another. These elements are necessary components for life, and are among the first recognized by peoples coming of age, as aspects of nature. While not all are entranced by the dance, many wander into the wilderness in search of tranquility and a further connection to these primal powers, sensing that there is a greater force behind it all: and they would be right. Communion with nature does not always yield rewards beyond the experience of witnessing the sublime beauty of the wild, but on some occasions, the spirit of the universe -- or one of its children -- sees fit to endow a willing creature with the power to bend the elements to their will. Once so imbued, the bender's mortal shell becomes attuned to the flow of elemental energy in the world, known as flux, and can summon forth powerful effects from the elemental weave -- or even personifications of the elements themselves. However, caution must be advised and balance maintained, for if the bender is not cautious, the user of her powers can cause an imbalance in the weave and in herself, reducing her ability to manipulate the elements -- and if sufficiently imbalanced, the elements will cease responding to that bender entirely for a time, as the elemental energies in her body resume its rhythm and rhyme with those of the world.
An evoker who bends an evocation does so by reaching into the elemental weave at the heart of existence, the fabric upon which rests the matter of the physical universe. While these elements are known by their common names -- earth, wind, fire -- each element is more than just its crude and obvious expression, but also a philosophy and
meaning. Fire may be literal flame, but it is also destruction and rebirth: a bender channeling fire can both conjure flame into existence as well as breathe life into a creature that died. The elemental weave is the metaphysical strata upon which reality is built, and the elements are the ideal form of their constituent concepts, which the bender can bring forth into reality.
Primal Culture
The masters who have learned to control the elements in the world around them teach one lesson above all others to their students: wisdom is the most important attribute one can have. The ability to perceive one's surroundings, and intuit the meaning in the whispers of the forest; to understand prudence, when to call upon the elements, and when to solve one's problems in other ways; and to have compassion for all living things, to let them learn and live as they will. For those who walk the path of the elements, the greatest sin is that of avarice, hoarding one's power and resources without thought given to the impact on the world, its people, or its future, thinking only of the self and what you wish to accomplish in the moment.
Of the peoples of the worlds triune, the cleyrans of the humes are the most likely to take up the mantle of the primal spirit: they have a long and storied history of cleaving closely to the natural order. The firbolgs are said to have been fashioned as a response to the worldly invasion of the isci and the draenei decision to accept mortality, and as a people do not believe in names, as naming for them is akin to ascribing meaning and purpose, which is against the natural order. Those peoples -- the draenei and the isci -- are likewise blocked from bending the elements: for to do so, one must be of the elements and the natural world, and neither of those peoples are native to the mortal plane.
Other Beams
Primal is most aligned with the beam of technology, in the Trinity of Physics, and that of memory, in the Trinity of Meta. Believers in these beams each see themselves working in a context relevant to their domain: technology, within the realm of physics; primal, with the elemental weave that composes the metaphysics of the universe; and memory, which seeks to understand and manipulate the machinery on which the whole edifice of existence operates. While each can abuse their power in their own way, at their core each seeks to understand from whence their power stems, to gain greater insight into the nature of the worlds triune.
When creation began, so, too, did an unseen clock, ticking the moments as soon as the concept of a moment held any meaning. From then, the futures of every mote and speck projected into an endless sea of probabilities, creating an infinite number of alternate realities that -- in some sense -- are just as real as any other. It is from the realization that time is not a linear thing, but a nebular web of existential freedom, that temporal power can be harnessed and used.
The River of Time
All beings exist within the context of time, be they mortal or nay: even for those over whom time holds no sway, they still exist within its context. Each choice made, every moment of life, attracts and repels various bits of temporal energy from the various timelines, strengthening where probabilities are strong and slackening where they are remote. An individual who is aware of the notion of time can study this notion of probability and how it pertains to their passage through history's flow, and in so doing can become aware of the various motes of temporal energy that surround and suffuse their existence. By opening their awareness to these possibilities through strenuous mental exercise, one can see past the illusion that is a singular timeline and see all possible pasts, presents, and futures -- completely unhinging oneself from linear thinking, and cracking open all of the myriad powers of time. By manipulating these temporal energies, a shaper -- called as such for their ability to shape time -- can induce time's flow to do elsewise, resulting in a new timeline that include a variety of bizarre effects, but in so doing, constantly threatens paradox, which can do everything from merely shocking the shaper, to erasing him from the timeline. Determining the paradox that would arise from a single change would require a thousand lifetimes, and so shapers must work with probabilities and estimates, and can never be certain until they enact the change they desire if there will be undesired consequences.
A shaper who shapes a quanta is turning potentialities and probabilities into a reality. This power is not constrained by the causal chain: a powerful epochent is entirely capable of reverting reality back to an earlier "saved state," or completely rewriting an element of history. The power of time is, itself, necessarily atemporal, which means that those who tap into it can access temporal power from any point along any of the infinite timelines; and it is necessarily metaphysical in nature, as it is saying, "this is how things could have been: let it be so," which operates on an entirely different level from manipulations of existence. The beam of time has the power to change what was into what could have been.
Temporal Culture
Those who would manipulate time must demonstrate great foresight, and not just with their ability to manipulate time, but specifically without: they must cultivate an intuitive sense for important moments, learn to recognize the winds of fortune and the possibilities of the scene unfolding before them, in order to know when and how best to use their powers. As they grow in age and scope, this extends even further out: a shaper with the ability to grossly change time can affect the whole of history's flow with but a nudge, but must be certain that in so doing, they will achieve their goals. It is for this reason that many succumb to indecision: the awareness of so many possibilities, many of which are alike in almost every regard save for the smallest of details, that a shaper can become paralyzed by the options of the literally infinite possibilities arrayed before them. Apprentice shapers are taught to attempt to strike a balance between rashly jumping into possibilities, and delaying their choice by examining too many options. Many succeed at this, for a time, but it is said that -- eventually -- every shaper either goes mad, or writes himself out of time entirely.
Among the peoples of Yskarithe and her sisters, the hume tolarians are among the most adept at learning to see alternate times: it is said that they are descended from a man in times ancient known only as Lothlonde, who is said to be the first mortal in the keystone timeline that the thran sought to meet. Of other peoples, the thran are literal time travelers, spaceborne plants who came to this timeline from the far-flung future of another, darker one, who escaped to this time through efforts set in motion in both timelines. The rythuli, however, are incapable of manipulating time, as they do not believe in the notion of cause and effect, and some are disdainful of time itself; the vesuvans, meanwhile, are utterly dependent upon the universe being determinstic and set in its path, and so dare not deign to meddle with powers that might alter their perceptions.
Other Beams
Time finds ready allies in the arcane, of the Trinity of Physics, and in the divine, of the Trinity of Belief. Each of these beams seek to exert control over reality: the arcane, through tapping into the leys; divine, through uttering the true names of aspects of reality to reshape them; time, through manipulating and controlling the timeline to induce a preferred course of events. Wielders of these beams understand that they are tapping into powers far greater than themselves, but that in so doing gain the power to change reality on a fundamental level.
The notions of freedom, entropy, randomness, discord, and uncertainty are combined to create a source of chaotic power, for where there is order, there will always be disorder on its heels. While the effects of chaos can be readily seen and felt in the world, its cause cannot: for those who wield these powers seemingly do so on a whim, with little rhyme or reason to the how of it, with many seeming resentful of the notion that there should even be a reason. To an anarchist -- as the wielders of chaos are known -- everything is just a game, so why be so serious about it?
Cheating for Fun and Profit
The irony is that that expression is much closer to the truth than most realize. For it is held in the deepest tenets of chaos -- those few that exist, at any rate -- that Yskarithe and her sisters are just that: a game, a fantasy, and nothing more. That the powers they wield are not real in the sense that they exist on the mortal plane, but are instead reflections of some puppet master pulling the strings in whatever higher world the game is happening. When an anarchist becomes invisible, it is not because she has some power over light or has clouded the minds of others: it is because "my player lost her mini," whatever that particular phrase may mean. Most find this explanation some combination of unsettling and absurd, but unfortunately they are offered no other explanation, and chaotic abilities continue to be inexplicable -- and yet, still work -- into the modern day.
There are, however, some rules by which anarchists are bound. At any given time, their power over the world is limited by what they call their deck, a set of powers from which they are given a random selection when they choose to attempt to call upon the power of chaos. However, there is always a chance that instead of receiving something desired, the anarchist will instead produce chaos, such as a big-lipped alligator appearing from seemingly nowhere, singing a little ditty, and then disappearing. As with the rest of their powers, anarchists generally find this more amusing than aggravating, and have no answer as to why these things happen, or why the set of possibilities that occurs seems to change randomly and sporadically.
When an anarchist effects a whim, there is little rational explanation in-setting for what happens: the anarchist does "something," and "something" happens. There has never been -- or will ever be -- a satisfactory explanation for these powers within the worlds triune. The power of chaos is entirely metagame in nature: when an anarch seemingly teleports, it is because the anarch's player moved their mini
on the grid. When an anarch knows what a monster is capable of, it is because the anarch's player read the monster description in the book or on the wiki from which it came. These powers can be rationalized to some degree in-game, but will always seem "weird."
Chaotic Culture
For those who would attempt to call upon the powers of chaos, bravery is considered the prime virtue: for it is not without courage that a man strides into battle with only random chance on his side, and yet all too often luck -- it seems -- favors the bold. At the same time, however, such courage can encourage brash action, and some anarchists fall into an overly mischievous bent, wreaking havoc because they find it amusing or simply for its own sake. Due to their nature, however, anarchists rarely have teachers or organizations that can instruct them in ways to reign in self-destructive behavior.
The brujah of the humes are the most likely to pursue this path, as they have a history of strong individualism and anti-totalitarian antics and beliefs. Among other peoples, the rythuli are bizarre fey who manifested in the worlds triune at some point in the distant past, and then -- apparently -- decided to never leave. These fairies have never spoken of their origin and find it unimportant, preferring instead to play pranks and generally get themselves into trouble. The thran are too reliant upon the notions of cause and effect to touch upon the whimsical powers of chaos, while vesuvans are tied too closely to their understanding of the universe to accept that it is just an elaborate illusion.
Other Beams
Chaos works well with the beam of psionics, in the Trinity of Physics, and the void, in the Trinity of Belief. Each of these beams seeks to exploit or subvert its domain: psionics approaches the notion of physics from unusual angles; the void subverts the usual notion of faith, using it as a means of entry into other domains with the intent of destroying them; and chaos harbors reservations against rules of any sort. Those who walk these beams are introspective, requiring a knowledge of the self that allows them to understand their role in their domain and how best to subvert and exploit it.
The world remembers. Every moment, every action, every scrap of data is saved to an enormous engine, thrumming at the metaphysical center of the universe. Known to some as the akashic record, this engine is the beating heart of physics, performing every calculation necessary to keep the world running. Every thought ever had, every action ever taken -- with enough time and effort, it can be found here, hidden within the archives of the world memory, and those who have come to understand this and found the means to reach into its indices have tapped into memetic power.
Welcome to the Machine
This archive is typically hidden away from the world, far beyond the grasp of mortal minds. However, there are at times glitches in the matrix: a calculation is particularly obtuse, or data becomes corrupted in some manner, and there is a visible hiccup in the universe, a tell-tale sign that not all is as it seems. Records of these oddities mounted, and over time, some individuals began to wonder if there was something more to the world than met the eye.
Through careful exploration of this notion and exploitation of certain operations, would-be memeticists found that they could tap into these processes and manipulate the world: not in an overt manner, but rather through direct operations on the engine of the world. Thus were the first codes devised, the means through which a learned memeticist can directly modify the universe, which require mind-bending trains of thought and sometimes bizarre actions and gestures. However, upon the execution of such actions, the universe is quick to self-repair, closing off access: but as the universe constantly expands, these patchwork repairs grow ineffective, made to fill in the gaps in a specific time and place for a specific event. A memeticist can learn to abuse the record's processing dedicated to himself to adjust these operations, expending his memory to modify the codes and prepare them for execution once more.
When a memeticist runs code, they are effectively running a code-injection attack on the engine that the worlds triune operate under. There are limits to these powers: a memeticist cannot make the universe execute a command that the engine was not designed to handle, for instance. But gaining access to information stored in that engine, or modifying things that exist within its context, are absolutely within the purview of the beam of memory. The abilities of memeticists can certainly appear strange, as they are directly manipulating reality on a metaphysical level, but they cannot do the literally impossible, as such things are beyond the scope of what the engine is written to handle.
Memetic Culture
The knowledge that they themselves are little more than an information construct leads many memeticists down the road of reflection, constructing nuanced theories of selfhood and what it truly means to exist in such a context. The philosophy of memeticists on these topics is extensive and deeply complex, for it is only they who grasp what existence truly is in the worlds triune. At the same time, however, this can lead to solipsism: the certainty that comes with knowing the nature of existence can lead memeticists into believing that their personal theories are the only accurate reflection of reality, and indeed some may even come to the conclusion that they are the only truly sapient being to exist, all others being mere puppets, simply strings of code being executed with no true thought behind them. Though these arguments can be persuasive, learned memeticists warn the younger of their ilk that such thoughts are rarely useful, and that even if true, behaving as if they are not allows one to lead a fuller, richer life.
Among the humes, the lynaen are most likely to pursue the path of the world memory, as their culture was greatly influenced by gnomish sages of the past, who were among the first people to delve into the secrets of the universe, though they are now long gone. The vesuvans are naturally adapted to the world memory, and their ability to change their shape has nothing to do with their physiology, but is instead an intuitive sense of their presence in the akashic record, stealing data from elsewhere and cloaking themselves in it. Meanwhile, the thran find themselves incompatible with the akashic record: for it only holds history, while those of time must look forward, to that which has not yet been calculated; and the rythuli have no respect for the sense of history or that reality itself is comprehensible to the degree that memeticists insist is true.
Other Beams
Memory is most aligned with the beam of technology, in the Trinity of Physics, and that of the primal, in the Trinity of Belief. Believers in these beams each see themselves working in a context relevant to their domain: technology, within the realm of physics; primal, with the elemental weave that composes the metaphysics of the universe; and memory, which seeks to understand and manipulate the machinery on which the whole edifice of existence operates. While each can abuse their power in their own way, at their core each seeks to understand from whence their power stems, to gain greater insight into the nature of the worlds triune.
Once, long ago, it is said that many peoples walked the faces of the worlds triune. We know this from the ruins of civilizations they left behind: the crumbling towers of elven Aranimetimelena, to the dying coral spires of the zora. Where once the world of Yskarithe and her sisters flourished with life, there are now only the humes, and what few echoes remain of the dozens upon dozens of others.
The humes, and the nine.
For not all of the ancient peoples were lost. Though the towers of the yuanaga will henceforth remain forever dark, the firbolgs still tend to them. The sands of Wayverith will never again suffer elvish tyranny: but the espers still haunt their ancestral home. Though they are but nine, a mere echo of what once was, they have taken it upon themselves to carry on the torch of those who came before, and not let their names fade into history so easily.
And among the humes, echoes of those that have vanished also remain, for the humes were a prolific people, and freely mixed with many others. Some of the deryni carry within them the psychic imprint of the goblinkin, while among the lynaens, some retain hints of their gnomish ancestry. The true elves may be forever gone, but those valyrians who may have once been called "half-elves" teach their children of the traditions of their lost kin. The runes and metrics of Khuzdul are yet used by artilects and ronkans, for the dwarves knew well their craft, and will not be lost to time.
While their memories remain, the peoples themselves no longer reside on the worlds triune. Herein you will find a guide to those peoples -- and their varied tongues -- that yet reside on Yskarithe and her sisters.
Character Creation
When creating a character for playing in the worlds triune, use the races -- and their descriptions -- from this section, and this section only. No other races are allowed.
Descriptions
These are short descriptions of the non-human peoples in the worlds triune. More complete descriptions follow.
Espers
Born of magic, espers are the result of a duel of sorcery from an ancient time, the fallot of which warped their people. Now, mana courses through their veins, and they intuitively grasp the powers of the arcane.
Cym
Created when the beam of psionics was nearly shattered by a mortal, cym are entities of pure thought that occupy precious gemstones. They are naturally creative and think outside the box, finding logic and reason stifling.
Artilects
Machines built by human hands, artilects are mechanical beings with minds and free will. Incapable of boredom, they dedicate themselves to whatever task is at hand, using mathematical rigor and a scientific approach.
Draenei
Once among the lowest caste of the angelic host, draenei opted to forsake their immortality in exchange for the right to live amongst mortals, that they might serve as a beacon of hope and morality in a world fraught with ambiguity.
Isci
Devised as a means for the Void to usurp reality, the isci are formed of shadowstuff, with no true soul. Forever connected to the Void, they seek out ways to limit its influence both on themselves and the worlds triune.
Firbolgs
Stealthy giants who dwell in secret places of the world, firbolgs were created by the primal spirit to serve as a counterpoint to invasion of the Divine and the Void. They are slow to act, and prefer nonviolence to protect the world.
Thran
Time-traveling plants from the grim darkness of a far-flung alternate future, the thran were once a different people, forced to adapt to worlds ravaged by beings foreign to the system. Here in the past, they look forward to a new future.
Rythuli
Mischievous winged fairies who claim to come from another world, the rythuli insist that the world is nothing more than an illusion or a story. That they also enjoy playing pranks and hate authority make this a hard sell.
Vesuvans
Natural shapeshifters whose reflections always reveal their true forms, vesuvans are a secretive people. Drawing sustenance from learning and creating, their people have deeply-naunced philosophies and artistic movements.
Esper
Espers (ɛs-pɚ) are magic incarnate, the power of the leys indelibly seared into their bodies and their souls. Their bodies thrum with unsculpted mana, and even without training they are capable of weaving it. Their understanding of magic is intuitive and terrifying: for even the youngest among them can drink deep of the leys and come out unscathed.
Espers are not natural creatures. They were an accidental byproduct of the unleashing of terrifying magics beyond the traditional scales of power, in an epoch now long lost. The citizens of a small town who survived found themselves rapidly transforming into bizarre creatures, mockeries of their original forms covered in pink and red fur, with almost-bestial claws and tails. More surprisingly, it was discovered that this effect was not only permanent, but passed through the blood: and thus was born the race of espers.
Despite their animalistic appearance, espers are not beasts, and are often full of vivid and powerful personalities: an esper without strong opinions is like a bird without wings. Though some espers' claws can be immensely powerful, they often prefer to make use of their natural ability to call upon the leys and work magic.
Touched by the Leys
Espers have a powerfully strange and noticeable appearance, with vividly-colored fur typically in the red end of the spectrum, ranging from the color of blood to a pale pink. Espers vary in precisely how much of their bodies are covered in this fur: some have mere patches scattered across their bodies, while others are completely covered in it. Male and female espers alike grow thick manes atop their heads, akin to hair, but much thicker.
Most espers were originally humes, and while the blood of their progenitors have mixed over the centuries, espers trend towards having mostly-hume statures and appearances when not otherwise covered: typically on the somewhat shorter side, but not unusually so for a typical hume. Their faces are recognizably humanoid, though some may sport enlarged canines.
Espers have somewhat shorter lifespans than humes, typically only living to around 50 years of age: the mana that courses through their veins seems to burn through their souls and bodies, as though their physical frame were but a cage for the magical power imprisoned within. Notably, espers that focus on learning how to control magical power also typically live longer, with some able to surpass the lifespans of humes.
To Become the Best
Touched directly by the leys, espers have a tendency to exhibit the best and worst of the personality traits associated with the pursuit of magic. As such, espers almost universally crave power: while this typically manifests as a desire for magical power, given their nature, other espers seek out more mundane achievements, such
as political power or to master the blade. Among espers, unbridled ambition is worthy of respect, and actively cultivated in their enclaves.
That is not to say, however, that espers are not aware of the dangers of hubris. The history of Yskarithe is full of tales of mages and other wielders of powers arcane who thought themselves invincible against their adversaries, who paid no heed to the machinations of those working against them, seeing such action as beneath them. While young espers can sometimes come off as confident beyond their years, all but the most hard-headed among them also understand that their powers are still limited, even if their very blood is made of the essence of magic.
Regardless of their chosen vocation, espers seek to become the most skilled at it. For some, this may mean becoming the best weaver in their village; for others, that they gain political clout in their nation; and still for others, it may mean attempting to reach the pinnacles of spellcasting. Each of these would be equally esteemed, as espers who recognize their limits are praised for their prudence, while those with raw talent are encouraged to push themselves to attain their full potential.
Pride and Prejudice
The original appearance of espers was not a welcome event, as the elves of that era reacted poorly to the devastation wrought by the magics that caused their existence, a region long known thereafter simply as "The Lost." That espers were an accidental creation of human hubris was irrelevant: elves found the existence of espers a distasteful reminder of the havoc that allowing shorter-
lived races to wield magic could wreak, and so they were exiled from civilization, often with extreme prejudice.
Due to this prejudice, and finding themselves unwelcome in most of known civilization of the time, espers either learned to hide themselves away from the world, or began wandering Yskarithe to find themselves a new home. Those who chose to hide rather than flee more often survived, but of those who fled who did not succumb to the dangers of their journey as often as not came across hidden places of power with strong attunement to the leys. Some rarer few discovered myrrh trees attuned to the arcane, and were able to build small communities around them, strengthening their blood's connection to the arcane through the presence of the tree.
When the elves fled the creation of the Ronkan Empire, they discovered themselves in much the same place as the espers they had exiled centuries earlier, now well-established in the foreign lands. Though not forgetful of the elven prejudice against them, the espers who encountered the refugees offered what assistance they could. In a surprising change of pace, this response managed to lighten the elven attitude towards espers, and they became an accepted and integrated part of some elven societies, despite their originally-human lineage.
The Age of Echoes
In the modern day, it is believed by many that even more ancient cultures, such as the Arkeyans, may very well have given rise to espers in their own era, though what may have happened to them is almost certainly unknowable. Lessons learned in recent centuries from vast displays of arcane power have demonstrated that esper "creation events" are not as rare as once may have been thought, and -- on occasion -- new espers are formed through exposure to intense arcane power. The process, unfortunately, is unfathomable to mortal minds, and so it is seemingly-impossible to intentionally produce new espers from existing humanoids.
However, it is theorized by some that, when the elves began disappearing, not all accepted their fading into history. Instead, it is posited that some of their number delved through some of their most ancient and secret lore, especially those from the era before the Ronkan Empire, to deduce a means by which espers might be made intentionally. That soon after the complete disappearance of the elves, tribes of espers calling themselves by a new name and demonstrating the grace and sleeplessness of elves seems to be soft evidence for this being true.
As the sole remaining peoples of the arcane, espers feel themselves taking on an immense burden, with knowledge and history that dates back for centuries. Most esper enclaves had ties with nearby cities, serving as their means of keeping in touch with the world at large -- and now no longer have the luxury of keeping the world at arm's length. While some bemoan the loss of so much knowledge and wisdom, others see this as an opportunity for espers to finally come to the fore of the world stage, and feel that to fail to seize upon such a chance would be a disservice to those now vanished.
Esper Names
Espers have a somewhat unusual relationship with names. While the original espers had human names, most of which were Gaelic or Ronkan in origin, others were humes with elven names; and those few non-humes who were similarly afflicted had names in as varying languages as Lynaen or Vyseleni. In their flight from elven oppression, many elven-named espers abandoned their given names and chose new names that they felt were reflective of their new forms and powers.
Originally having been a small community, the original espers held on to their family names, a tradition which continues among espers as a means of accounting for their history. Almost every esper lineage has at least one story of an ancient relation who did something marvellous or demonstrative of immense power, and these stories have become touchstones in esper culture.
- Chosen Names: (Male) Alexander, Ark, Bahamut, Ifrit, Kazahuya, Leviathan, Palidor, Ramuh, Terrato; (female) Asura, Eden, Isis, Kirin, Maduin, Phoenix, Terra, Shiva, Sylph
Esper Traits
Your arcane heritage manifests in a variety of traits you share with other espers.
Ability Score Increase. Your Charisma score increases by 2, and your Strength score increases by 1.
Age. Espers mature at roughly the same rate as humes, reaching adulthood around age 16. They age noticeably faster, however, and rarely live more than 50 years. An esper who can cast spells extends their lifespan by around 15 years for every level of spell they can cast.
Alignment. Espers are confident in themselves to a fault, and often hold strong personal convictions that clash with older generations, leading them to a chaotic bent.
Elemental. Your creature type is both elemental and humanoid. You can be affected by an effect if it works on either of your creature types.
Size. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 35 feet.
Manablooded. You know one cantrip of your choice from the wizard spell list.
Arcane Resistance. You have resistance to arcane (force) damage.
Willful Casting. If you have the Spellcasting feature from a class with the Arcane power source (artificer, bard, sorcerer, warlock, or wizard), you can use your Charisma in place of Intelligence for that feature.
Bound to Arcane. You cannot take levels in a class with the Psionic or Technology power sources, nor can you use psionic or technological items.
Dispel Vulnerability. If you are targeted by the dispel magic spell, you must make a Charisma saving throwagainst the caster's spell save DC. If you fail, your current and maximum hit points are reduced by 5 x your level. This reduction in maximum hit points lasts until you
finish a long rest, and you die if this effect reduces your maximum hit points to 0.
If you end your turn within the area of an antimagic field or similar effect, you suffer as though you had been affected by a dispel magic cast by that effect's caster.
Bestial Claws. Your claws are natural weapons, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with them, you deal slashing damage equal to 1d6 + your Strength modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike. Once you reach 6th level, your unarmed strikes count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.
Spell Surge. When you score a critical hit with a spell attack, you can roll one of the spell's damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Arcantrix, the language of magic.
Cym
Cym (ˈsɪm) are pure thought, given form, inhabiting crystals they have forged through nothing more than their own will. When once the power of the mind was shattered, imprisoned in the gems of the earth, some of those powers attained self-awareness: a defense mechanism brought forth by the very beam of psionics itself.
Cym are not natural creatures: they are the result of incredibly bizarre circumstances that had never occurred prior, nor will ever come to pass again. For only once in the history of the worlds triune did a mortal dare to attempt to destroy one of the beams, and though he was nearly successful, it was only through the tutelage of the Omega that this feat was remotely possible, and -- even then -- it still ultimately failed.
And in the process, the psionic powers locked away within amethyst and sapphire and ruby became aware of their imprisonment, and -- over time -- gradually gathered up similar stones, before burrowing their way out of the earth and rock. Thus did the world come to know the cym, and the cym come to know the world.
Pieces of a Whole
Cym have a completely alien appearance, formed out of a conglomerate of crystal that they have fused together through willpower alone. That they often take humanoid shape is only for the sake of those interacting with them: it was not until cym encountered various peoples of the worlds triune that they took that form, and prior to that had taken whatever shape suited their fancy.
Among the important things cym have learned about modifying their shape, however, is the notion of the "uncanny valley:" for some individuals, a cym's attempt at carving a face for itself makes that cym all the more unsettling. While cym enjoy a creative challenge, many have accepted that there are limits to their artistic talents, and in place of a head simply give themselves a head-sized jut of crystal. Even in the modern era, however, there continue to be cym who attempt to master the art of face-carving -- with varied results.
Cym do not die of age. Instead, the conscious spark within the cym can cede the conscious awareness to one of its other constituent thoughts, which brings forth an entirely new personality, while the original consciousness recedes. Some intelligences do this after only a handful of years, while others have been in control of their bodies since their inception. A faded consciousness can be granted conscious control once more, but it rarely retains memory of its past. Cym "children" are created in much the same way: a cym can seed inert gems with one of its constituent thoughts, which gives rise to a new cym, and allows the cym's personality to remain dominant for a time.
Eclectic Dreamers
The mind of a cym is a very strange place, as those who have touched their minds will tell you. They have an innate knack for creative and out-of-the-box thinking, and typically
find such notions as "logic" and "reason" to be somewhat stifling. While a cym learns over time how to interact with the world in a proper, sensible fashion, their inner mental life is a riot of color and ideas, always churning and never for a moment staying still. A dreaming cym's mind is an even stranger cacophony of sensation and idealism, made still more bizarre by the fact that all cym are natively lucid dreamers.
For some cym -- especially younger minds that have just been imprinted, or waxed into control over their body -- it can be difficult to distinguish between truth and dream. Those whose talents for dreaming are especially strong sometimes escape entirely into their inner mental life, resulting in the real world in what appears to be an inert chunk of crystalline rock, unresponsive to stimuli. Dreaming as they are, these cym personalities cannot be overtaken by alternate sparks within their bodies, and so untold numbers of minds remain trapped in these hallucinogenic prisons.
The dangers of detachment and stories of such cym are passed through cym communities, as a warning and a lesson: do not forsake the real. Retreating into one's own mindscape is good, for it can refresh mental processes and reveal alternatives one hadn't seen before -- but too much dreaming is like a drug, and can utterly destroy the self and others.
Emergent Property
The defining moment for cym -- the moment of their creation -- was when Kotrit Wayveri, under the tutelage of Azalor Maltheridas, invoked magics beyond the traditional scales of power, with the intent of breaking the force of psionics. What he planned to accomplish through this attempt was unknown, but what is known is that he nearly succeeded, and for two centuries afterwards, those who sought to unlock the powers of the mind were forced to attune themselves to gems mined from the earth, into which those secrets had been trapped.
What few had realized at the time was that the combining of such powers entangled with the beam of psionics itself would result in their attaining a strange sort of sapience of their own. After years of struggle, the most powerful of these thoughts joined with others, traveling through earth and stone at a snail's pace. Eventually, these intelligences found a means to manipulate the gems that trapped them, forming them into bodies and using them to propel themselves to the surface. Foreign to the world and the notion of thought itself, many wandered aimlessly, while over time these individuals were gradually introduced to the notion of civilization.
This phenomenon was not limited to Yskarithe herself: on her sister worlds of Ganymede and Arcturas, the peoples of those places also found themselves encountering newly-spawned cym. On Ganymede, where beings of a psionic bent were more common thanks to the influence of the Tyranid invasion in the distant past, cym were significantly more understood and accepted, brought into dromite clusters and instructed by zzithrani hives in the ways of making humanoid shapes that would come
across as more soothing and less terrifying. When settlers from Yskarithe fled to Ganymede after the Coldlands War, some were surprised to find cym among the peoples of that world.
The Age of Echoes
Unlike the espers -- whose means of creation are known if dangerous to attempt -- the cym are the result of a truly unique circumstance, one that had never happened before nor will come to pass again. As such, cym culture had already adjusted to the notion that they carry a heavy burden: whenever a cym life is extinguished, their numbers are that much diminished permanently and irrevocably. While new cym can be seeded from existing cym, these new cym are composites of the seed thought and the personality that imbued it: while some would argue that this is a process akin to that of hume reproduction and should not be cause for alarm, some sects believe that only original cym are "pure" and that any seeded cym are tainted by reality, having been born not of the beam of psionics itself, and are thus considered lesser.
In the Age of Echoes, this notion of preservation has been extended to those vanished peoples: among them, the cym hold the goblins in high regard. A people who had been enslaved by illithids, who pooled their psionic talents to sink a continent. Cym consider goblin ingenuity on par with their own creativity talents, and mourn their loss by maintaining goblin settlements, relics, and knowledge. In the aftermath of the vanishing, however, cym enclaves have seen fit to study and record anything they can find of psionic races now gone, and so their lore and thoughts consist of a good many peoples' histories and knowledge.
Rumors persist that some of these now-vanished races chose to instead seek a means of survival, rather than succumb to fading. Specifically called out are the dromites and zzith, child races of the terrible Tyranids, who -- it is said -- reached deep into their collective subconscious and formed a new hivemind, assimilating crystals and gems into themselves to share the psionic load of such an entity. That soon after the vanishing new cym appeared shorter of stature and significantly more bug-like in appearance lends credence to this idea, though these could very well simply be cym who have adopted the appearance of ancient allies as a creative way of honoring their memory.
Cym Names
Cym names are derived from their means of producing speech: namely, melodic tones produced by vibrating certain portions of their crystalline bodies. For the sake of others, these are often translated phonetically, and cym come to recognize the vocalized version of their names as a referent to themselves. However, cym often also respond to wind chimes, whistling caverns, and similar phenomena, sometimes hearing their name being called in these sounds.
- Cym Names: Amata, Arshaka, Balashi, Dipana, Erishti, Hunzu, Iltani, Ishmea, Kuaya, Kuri, Manishtu, Nuraya, Tabni, Seluku, Ubashu, Zakti
Cym Traits
Your psionic heritage manifests in a variety of traits you share with other cym.
Ability Score Increase. Your Intelligence score increases by 2, and your Constitution score increases by 1.
Age. Cym do not age. On average, a cym personality will remain in control of its body for roughly 30 years, after which it will recede and a new personality will emerge, completely distinct from the original. A cym who seeds off a waxing personality extends its control of its body by roughly another 30 years. You are immune to aging effects.
Alignment. Cym are completely alien in thought, and have no particular alignment tendencies. Those with strong moral or ethical codes typically also have bizarre self-imposed rules.
Aberration. Your creature type is both aberration and humanoid. You can be affected by an effect if it works on either of your creature types.
Size. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Thoughtbound. You know one talent of your choice from the psychic discipline list.
Psychic Resistance. You have resistance to psychic damage.
Bound to Psionics. You cannot take levels in a class with the Arcane or Technology power sources, nor can you use magical or technological items.
Null Vulnerability. If you are targeted by the null psionics discipline, you must make a Charisma saving throw against the manifester's discipline save DC. If you fail, your current and maximum hit points are reduced by 5
x your level. This reduction in maximum hit points lasts until you finish a long rest, and you die if this effect reduces your maximum hit points to 0.
If you end your turn within the area of an nullpsi field or similar effect, you suffer as though you had been affected by a null psionics manifested by that effect's manifester.
Telepathy. You can speak telepathically to any creature within 20 feet of you. The creature understands you only if the two of you share a language. You can speak telepathically in this way to one creature at a time.
Crystal Physiology. Your body is formed of solid crystal and gemstones, represented by the following benefits:
- You have advantage on saving throws against being poisoned, and you have resistance to poison damage.
- You don't need to eat, drink, or breathe.
- You are immune to disease.
- If an effect would put you to sleep, you are rendered inert and unconscious instead.
Crystal Lattice. Your crystalline body is tougher than mortal flesh. When you aren't wearing armor, your AC is 13 + your Dexterity modifier. You can use your natural armor to determine your AC if the armor you wear would leave you with a lower AC. A shield's benefits apply as normal while you use your natural armor.
Contemplation. When you take a long rest, you must spend at least six hours in an inactive, motionless state, rather than sleeping. In this state, you are inert and unconscious, but can be roused back to consciousness as with regular creatures.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Qualith, the language of psionics.
Artilect
Artilects (ˈɑr-tɨ-lekt) are sapient, sentient machines. Their bodies are mechanical and metal, and their minds the result of insanely-complicated scripts run on miniaturized analytical engines. Despite this, however, they are fully aware and cognizant, capable of free will and making their own choices. Their outlook on "life" can run the gamut from charmingly naive to shockingly alien.
Artilects are not natural creatures: the original set of artilects were built at a feverish pace by a single individual, swept up by madness and grief into building the machines before she perished. The original twenty-seven artilects were all vastly different in construction and mindset, bearing little in common with each other beyond being thinking machines.
That event was nearly three centuries ago, and in the time since, artilects have spread far and wide throughout the worlds triune. Some even say that some of the original artilects yet linger, watching the passage of time and civilization impassively from places where no other creature would possibly survive.
Skin of Steel, Blood of Oil
Artilects are completely and utterly mechanical in nature. To power their systems, most use a variant of the atomical
engine designed by the original creator of the artilects, the secrets to which were lost with her: the artilects, however, know themselves, and are able to reproduce that invention with what they call "intuitive knowledge."
In addition to mechanical bodies and atomical hearts, artilects use a variety of chemicals in their construction, ranging from acids for long-term power storage and oils for lubrication. Electrical energy -- produced by the tiny engines within them -- fuels their minds and allows them to exert control over their bodies: without this power, they are nothing more than an inert hunk of shaped metal and spare parts.
Artilect body plans vary wildly, though most take on vaguely humanoid shapes. Unlike other creatures, artilects are "born" as their full size, though over the course of their lives they often engage in heavy self-modification. A typical artilect is somewhere around six feet tall and weighs well over three hundred pounds, though as metallurgical sciences advance, more modern artilects can be significantly lighter.
Perpetual Motion
Artilects are -- essentially -- very complicated calculators. While they have the free will and possible creativity of other peoples, they are also very comfortable performing repetitive rote tasks: in essence, the notion of "boredom" is all but beyond the oldest of artilects. While they can be
incredibly inventive, especially in regards to technological innovation and simplification, some also find interest in the most mundane of tasks, and often come across as having bizarre points of view or moral codes that -- while almost always perfectly logically consistent -- make no sense to a living and breathing creature.
Artilects have an innate sense of orderliness, and have well-honed sense of classification and categorization that they apply to almost everything they encounter before studying it in more detail. Older artilects can cultivate a sense of nuance to this, recognizing that not everything is black-and-white, but younger artilects often come across as little more than glorified classifiers.
While they may begin "life" as the same size and shape as their elders, just-built artilects go through a process similar to hume childhood, in which their various cognitive systems adjust to the world and align with one another to produce a fully-sapient being. Child artilects are, effectively, little more than machines with an intense curiosity and need to explore.
The Prime Directive
Upon their creation centuries ago, the original twenty-seven artilects were given a single command, as a group: to go forth and multiply. With their differing minds and constructions, each of those original artilects obeyed that order to the best of their ability and understanding: some made multiple imperfect copies of themselves, while others went forth into manufactories laden with metals and parts and fashioned entirely new constructs that they imbued with derivatives of their own consciousnesses.
It is often said that an artilect's drive to reproduce is stronger than any other instinct they either begin life with or attain as they gain experience, and that an artilect will refuse to perish until it has fulfilled this order. It is often rumored that at least one of the original artilects remains active, having not yet constructed a child and thus refusing to let itself be terminated. Regardless, those artilects who did produce "children" also passed on the directive to create more artilects, thus resulting in a cycle of not-quite-exponential growth. Today, there are thousands upon thousands of artilects scattered throughout the worlds triune.
Artilects tend to take their work and activities seriously, though others may find a particular artilect's hobbies to be bizarre. Finding an artilect dedicated to perfecting swordplay is as reasonably likely as one who has decided to attempt to catalogue every snail on a particular island.
The Age of Echoes
Since the vanishing, a number of artilects have taken it upon themselves to collect and preserve as much lore and information about some of the lost peoples as possible. A prime example of this is the dwarves: many of what were once dwarven holdings, carved into the caverns beneath the surface of Yskarithe, are now occupied by small enclaves of artilects. Considering themselves archivists of lost knowledge, some of these groups have even taken up
the mannerisms of lost peoples, some even going so far as to modify themselves to resemble them: bolted-on metal beards have become somewhat more commonplace, since the vanishing.
Other artilects are less keen on remembering the past, as they are in establishing artilects as a whole a power in the new world order. In the past, due to their nature, some artilects felt pressured to take on the mannerisms of other peoples and cultures, having found themselves in worlds where there were an abundance of peoples and cultures: but now, they see an opportunity to reverse that trend, and establish artilect culture as something unique unto itself.
Between these two groups are those that wish to honor those who have been lost, and keep the flame of their knowledge and people alive, while adding a uniquely artilect feel: carrying on the past in spirit, while adding their own part to the story. By far the most common artilect response, they are common in the surface cities of technological civilizations, attempting to maintain what had been while adding on where it makes sense to do so.
Artilect Names
Artilects are typically given a model name upon construction, though these names may have a tendency to become corrupted over time, much as how hume family names may change slightly when emigrating to places with other languages. Model names are reflective of the artilect's lineage, and can usually be traced back with some accuracy to the original twenty-seven artilects.
In addition, artilects typically have a given name, which is either given to them by companions or taken up as a way to try to fit in better with other peoples.
- Model Names: Archer T-7, Corsair 921, HK-9 Worker, Model 18, Ursus 04-C, Viking F, Zephyr Heavy
- Personal Names: Bucket, Click, Clank, Johnny, Pernassus, Robbie, Speedy, William
Artilect Traits
Your construct heritage manifests in a variety of traits you share with other artilects.
Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 2, and your Intelligence score increases by 1.
Age. Artilect minds take some time to coalesce into true sapience, and are typically equivalent to hume adults at around age 5. Some time around the start of their third century their minds stagnate, after which they rapidly deteriorate and eventually shut down permanently.
Alignment. Artilects have a keen preference for orderly society, and so are typically lawful.
Construct. Your creature type is both construct and humanoid. You can be affected by an effect if it works on either of your creature types.
Size. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Hardened Processors. You have resistance to radiation damage.
Bound to Technology. You cannot take levels in a class
with the Arcane or Psionics power sources, nor can you use magical or psionic items.
Gearwrought. You know one gadget of your choice from the engineer invention list.
EMP Vulnerability. If you are targeted by the electromagnet invention, you must make a Charisma saving throw against the inventor's invention save DC. If you fail, your current and maximum hit points are reduced by 5 x your level. This reduction in maximum hit points lasts until you finish a long rest, and you die if this effect reduces your maximum hit points to 0.
If you end your turn within the area of an physics disruption field or similar effect, you suffer as though you had been affected by an electromagnet invention activated by that effect's inventor.
Mechanical Mind. You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and other creatures have disadvantage on Insight checks made against you.
Steel Body. You have an inorganic body of steel or other metals, represented by the following benefits:
- You have advantage on saving throws against being poisoned, and have resistance to poison damage.
- You don't need to eat, drink, or breathe.
- You are immune to disease.
- If an effect would put you to sleep, you are rendered inert and unconscious instead.
Specialized Design. You gain one skill proficiency and one tool proficiency of your choice.
Recharge. When you take a long rest, you must spend at least six hours in an inactive, motionless state, rather than sleeping. In this state, you are inert and unconscious, but can be roused back to consciousness as with regular creatures.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Clickwise, a mechanical language used by calculators and other analytical engines.
Draenei
Draenei (dræ-ˈnaɪ) are immense beings, horned and hooved, withim whom resides the light of creation. Their history holds that, in time immemorial, they were counted among the celestials in the heavens, but cried out that they were powerless to stop corruption and darkness from gripping the hearts of mortals. And so a bargain was struck: they were permitted to live amongst them, in the worlds triune, to bring compassion, mercy, and redemption, at the cost of their immortality.
Draenei are emissaries to the worlds triune, sent there by greater powers beyond the ken of mortals. Originating from another plane of existence, the original draenei descended from the sky on gossamer wings of azure hues, which shattered into metaphysical pieces once they touched ground and their souls became mortal. They now breed true, the divine spark passed from generation to generation, with righteousness on their lips and compassion in their hearts.
Though draenei can appear to be terrifying and demonic, their origins are the exact opposite. That said, however, the loss of their immortal status has revoked the purity of intent they once held, and can fall as any other being, with only mortal resistance to the temptations of dark powers. Draenei will often make extra effort to attempt to redeem a fallen kin, but will also be among the first to take up arms
against them with extreme prejudice.
In Their Image
A draenei's appearance is simultaneously awe-inspiring and terrifying: horns, tendrils, hooves, and eyes glowing with a fierce inner light. That they have a tendency to tower over other spoken merely adds to the effect. That their appearance is similar to that of demons or other nefarious beings is no coincidence: for they are but dark reflections of all that the draenei stand for. Draenei also have digitigrade legs, and often find that armor and chairs designed for other peoples are uncomfortable for them at best. Their large, muscular tails do little to help in that regard, as well.
Draenei skin comes in a variety of colors, but most range from dark blues or light purples to almost snow white. The glow of their eyes varies similarly, but with greater range: whites, golds, silvers, and blues are common, but purple and even green are not unheard of. Those whose hearts have turned to darkness -- and indeed, as mortals, draenei can fall from grace, as well -- instead have eyes that glow haunting shades of black, red, or orange. Draenei horn shapes also vary wildly, from simple curves to elaborate ram-like protrusions, amid which they typically have hair similar to that of humes, though -- once again -- with potential for a variety of unusual shades in hues.
Draenei can live for centuries, and are among the
longest-lived races in the worlds triune. The power of the divine that courses through them fills them with vibrant energy, allowing them to stay active and alert even into their twilight years.
A Light in the Dark
Draenei seek to live out two virtues in their time spent in the world: compassion and humility. Their forebears saw fit to cry out against the injustice of demanding that mortals live up to the expectations of divine entities bereft of examples in whose footsteps they could follow, and were sent to the worlds triune to serve as that example. That they yet carry the divine spark gives them the surety of spirit and strength of resolve needed to withstand the trials and tribulations of mortal life, which -- ideally -- they use as a means of making their life and deeds a beacon for others to follow.
However, this power does not come without peril. Boisterousness comes with the territory: some draenei become drained by the banality of evil, their hearts certain set on the notion that the cause is lost, and cloak themselves in self-righteousness and bluster, claiming moral superiority over those their ancestors saw fit to guide. Though draenei society seeks to engender in their children that this is a path fraught with peril and endangerment of their soul -- and it is, for those draenei who depart the mortal coil without repentance will fail to return to the divine realms and rejoin their celestial brethren -- all it takes is but a crack, for despair and hopelessness to take root.
The heavens, meanwhile, remain silent on the matter, judging draenei souls as they pass into the afterlife, not in their lives as mortals. For this, too, was part of the bargain struck: to truly live as mortals, they must do so without divine intervention. Though many draenei take up the path of faith and choose to dedicate themselves to prayer, this is not a requirement, and even those draenei who take up other pursuits can find their own means of upholding draenei virtues.
Choosing Mortality
Draenei were not originally mortal. When the Divine was called upon to craft servitors for the various powers, the draenei were initially created as among the lowest class of celestial, far more numerous in number and more limited in their divine spark. As mortal races were fashioned and grew, the draenei were often sent to the mortal coil, serving as couriers and watchers.
Over time, the draenei grew more and more disturbed by what they witnessed, as violence, bloodshed, and worse occurred with -- to their eyes -- terrifying frequency. Their frustration grew into malaise, and this then into dissent, until some of their number determined to demand of their superiors what the intent of mortal existence was. That theirs was to choose came as a surprise, and the leaders among the draenei then insisted that more direct intervention was needed to ensure that the mortals made the right choice.
And so the Divine offered the draenei a choice: become mortal and live amongst those on the worlds triune, to spread their understanding of justice and righteousness, or to quell their arguments and take up their duties once more. With no hesitation, the draenei proclaimed that they would serve as a symbol of the Divine among the mortals, serving as a beacon of the light. And so they were sent: to live their lives among the taint and malaise of mortality, with hope in their hearts and redemption in their souls, to serve as leaders of hume and other peoples.
The Age of Echoes
For the Draenei, the Age of Echoes changes little: for their people's history records many such upheavals over the millenia, and while the loss of so many peoples may seem hopeless, so long as there are souls to lead into the light, their divine mission will continue.
While the vanishing has been drastically damaging for most, there is an upside: the tieflings, an ancient bloodline of humes cursed by their ancestor's pact made with one of the devious lucavi (and which of these is uncertain, and changes with every telling), sought refuge by aligning their souls more powerfully with the beam of the Divine, and their elders sought out the draenei to learn of how such a thing might be accomplished. By invoking ancient rites and prayers not uttered since the draenei voluntarily gave up their state of grace, those tieflings who were willing to pledge to the Divine their service were invigorated with the Divine spark.
While not as powerful or as vigorous as that granted to the draenei -- as the tieflings began their lives as mortals -- this indication of Divine favor has reinvigorated the faith among the draenei. However, not all of the peoples of the worlds triune are aware of this transformation among the tieflings, and though their souls have been purified, their mortal shells retain the taint of lucavic influence.
Draenei Names
As children of the Divine, draenei put incredible importance on names, for the original purpose of the Divine was to name all things in existence. In naming a thing, it is given purpose and a place in the cosmos.
That said, while each draenei has a personal name, they do not use surnames: for a draenei, all draenei are family.
- Draenei Names: (Male) Boros, Drocran, Hiktin, Lacasik, Maraad, Meolphi, Midirgerd, Nosmas, Ocdam, Ondut, Oter; (female) Asara, Efae, Fuma, Ize, Nalre, Nerii, Oren, Ruka, Suhe, Trin, Velbus, Vemo, Yaala, Yrel
Draenei Traits
Your divine heritage manifests in a variety of traits you share with other draenei.
Ability Score Increase. Your Wisdom score increases by 2, and your Strength score increases by 1.
Age. Draenei reach maturity at around 20 years, and often live well into their third century.
Alignment. From an alignment perspective, most draenei have a tendency towards lawful good. However, this is not a steadfast rule, and the original cause of their mortality was due to a very chaotic take on the divine order of things.
Celestial. Your creature type is both celestial and humanoid. You can be affected by an effect if it works on either of your creature types.
Size. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Radiance Resistance. You have resistance to radiance damage.
Bound to Divine. You cannot take levels in a class with the Primal or Void power sources, nor can you use primal or void items.
Truefelt. You know one orison of your choice from the invoker prayer list.
Knowledge of the Faith. You have proficiency in the Religion skill.
Heroic Inspiration. On your turn, you can use a bonus action to inspire heroic resolve in your allies. Choose any number of creatures within 30 feet of you that can see or hear you. Within the next minute, when an affected creature makes an attack roll or saving throw, that creature
can choose to roll a d4 and add the number rolled to the attack roll or saving throw. When it does so, this effect ends for it. If an affected creature does not choose to roll the d4 within 1 minute of becoming affected, the effect ends for that creature and the die is wasted. Once you use this trait, you can't use it again until you complete a short or long rest.
Powerful Build. You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.
Unname Vulnerability. If you are targeted by the unname divine prayer, you must make a Charisma saving throw against the petitioner's prayer save DC. If you fail, your current and maximum hit points are reduced by 5 x your level. This reduction in maximum hit points lasts until you finish a long rest, and you die if this effect reduces your maximum hit points to 0.
If you end your turn within the area of an unnaming field or similar effect, you suffer as though you had been affected by an unname divine prayer uttered by that effect's petitioner.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Eredun, the language of the Divine.
Isci
Isci (is-ki) are a people born of the shadows and darkness. Crafted out of pure nothing, they were originally sent to the worlds triune as janissaries of the Void, intended to infiltrate the peoples there, subvert them, and serve as a gateway for the malevolence behind reality.
Instead, they rebelled against their creator, working with the peoples of an ancient era to fight back against the tide of darkness for which they were unwitting pawns. Though they won their freedom and independence, they found themselves in need of the twilight, for their very essences were tied to it. And so they retreated to the shadow plane of the Tenebrium, wherein they built cities and bulwarks to stem the tide of the Void.
Their intrinsic ties to the Void make the isci seem a terrifying people, but they are among Yskarithe's most stalwart defenders against the abyss. Though they are reviled by the light and the primal spirit, they are welcomed by the civilized peoples of the worlds triune: for where an isci walks, true darkness fears to tread.
Twisted Mockery
Isci appear to be humanoids, albeit slightly taller than average, and with oddly-patterned skin of drab grays and blacks. Though they appear to have sexual characteristics, this is but a ruse: the Void had fashioned them as a mockery of sapient life on the worlds triune, and they have no natural means of reproduction.
Among their most striking features, however, are their tattoos. Unacknowledged by the Divine, the isci have no true names, and without such the pull of the Void is that much stronger: to counter this, they etch elaborate glowing tattoos into themselves, as a means of making themselves distinct from one another and giving them a means to be recognized by reality. An isci's "parent" usually chooses the form of the tattoos, though there is a general tendency towards bizarre collections of geometric shapes. Often a given isci's tattoos will include designs similar to those of its "parent," thus making them a record of their lineage, of a sort.
Isci age as other mortal creatures do: having been intended for war upon reality, their lifespans are relatively short, as they were not intended for long-term existence. As they near death -- and for the isci, there is no return from such, for they have no true souls -- isci will return to their people's domains in the Tenebrium, whereupon they merge back into the shadowstuff there, to help strengthen the shield between reality and the Void, using their life experiences as fuel to shore the mortal coil's defenses against the abyss. An isci who dies in the material plane, however, spawns a nihimental in its place: for the Void has never forgotten its wayward children, no matter how much they distance itself from it, and is always watching.
Never Give Up, Never Surrender
The isci are a drastically determined people, who literally came out of the darkness and embraced all that mortal life
has to offer. While the initial isci were largely unified in this purpose, and could rely upon one another in the war against the Void, those isci who came later would not be so lucky.
In order to produce more isci -- and their culture is significantly divided on whether or not doing so is a wise decision, but most come to the conclusion that the more isci exist, the stronger the wall between reality and the Void can be made -- an individual must travel deep within the Tenebrium and seek out the shadowstuff from which their kind were first formed. Once fashioned, the newborn isci must be ushered out of the cloying darkness, lest it be consumed by the Void, and out into the material plane, whereupon the child can be tattooed and introduced to the notion of existence.
Universally, however, this results in a stage the isci call "the ennui," for every isci almost immediately falls into a sort of existential coma upon entering the mortal coil, wrestling with the very notion of existence -- for it is anathema to the very thing they are made of. Young isci can be coached through this process, though they are usually unresponsive for months, and to date, none have ever found a completely satisfactory means of getting an isci through this process: at some point in their ennui, nearly half of all isci children dissolve back into nothingness, unable to handle the thought of existing. Those who pull through the ennui come out of it usually due to a strong, heartfelt belief of some kind: some seek to undo the perils of the Void, as their ancestors did; while others have simpler goals, like creating beautiful art that will make the world less dreary. Whatever their goal or newfound belief, these isci escape the throes of the ennui and join isci society, armed with a deep faith that allows them to combat the darkness within.
Agents of Destruction
The isci have their origin in an ancient age, when the Void looked upon the mortal coil and was disgusted to see life flourishing there: yet more minds to remind itself of its own existence. It pondered how best to subvert these beings and destroy them utterly, and devised a cunning plan. It would fashion minions for itself out of shadow, and send them forth to the mortal coil. Thereupon they would mingle with the creatures there, and when the time was right, it would manifest itself through them, snuffing out all life and ending this plague upon its awareness.
And so the plan was enacted. Through cracks in reality that it had managed to find over eons, the Void send its children, the isci. Formed in the shape of humanoids, given enough sapience and self-awareness that they would be able to bypass suspicion, and intrinsically tied to itself, the Void waited patiently in the yawning darkness outside of reality for its plan to unfold. Over years, the isci ingratiated themselves with the then-natives of the worlds triune. But the Void, in its hubris, had made a fatal mistake: the isci's awareness grew, over time, and they became aware of their nature as unwitting pawns.
When the Void determined the moment was right, it began to enact its plan, reaching its tendrils through reality
to touch the minds of its servants -- and found them rebelling against it. For the isci had uncovered the purpose of their presence, and had decided for themselves that they wanted no part of it. The Void was furious, enraged by this betrayal, and send its nihimentals through the selfsame cracks it had let the isci through, and terrible war was waged. At the end, though at terrible cost, the denizens of the worlds triune were victorious, and the isci had won their freedom... for now.
The Age of Echoes
In the modern era, the isci recognize that they alone remain as the sole people in the worlds triune linked to the Void. For better or worse, they have taken it upon themselves to gather up the philosophies of the vanished and record them, if only so that the lessons of the past are not forgotten.
This has had the side effect of vastly expanding isci culture and philosophy regarding the nature of the Void and their own origins. When the worlds triune were full of a wide variety of peoples, the isci typically kept to themselves, staying apart from others, recognizing that their nature was the source of no small amount of consternation and fear, keeping in tight-knit communities far from civilization. Now, however, as they adopt the role of custodian of the ruins of the places they once steered clear of, they are finding themselves immersed in entirely different ways of thinking.
The isci people now find themselves proliferating throughout the worlds triune, spreading their own culture as they slowly absorb those of the lost. Once reserved, they now find themselves being pulled into the spotlight: an uncomfortable proposition, for a people so used to hiding in the dark. In many ways, though they have been around for millenia, they are only now beginning to truly join the peoples of Yskarithe. Young isci hope that they can prove a valuable asset to the peoples of Yskarithe, bringing their own fresh perspectives, while their elders wonder if the Void might find a way to use this change in the world, and reach to those who had been its minions once before, to enact some terrible plot.
Isci Names
Isci do not put too much stock into personal names: as creatures of the Void, they are forever barred from being truenamed, and so the concept has little use for them. Isci much prefer to identify each other by their tattoos, though as these have no verbal equivalent, they often go by a name that is descriptive of their ttattoos in some fashion.
Regardless, the native isci language -- Phyrexian -- is a harsh, rasping tongue, even after as long a time as the isci have spoken it and attempted to soften it somewhat. Their names typically consist of short, sharp syllables.
- Isci Names: (Male) Cerm, Dolc, Kork, Gald, Gugt, Nadt, Rurk, Rurm, Taang, Zarm; (female) Cogna, Gemza, Haklu, Izla, Ovre, Ranzi, Rekma, Yinva, Zekla, Zelri
Isci Traits
Your shadowy heritage manifests in a variety of traits you share with other isci.
Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 2, and your Charisma score increases by 1.
Age. Isci who survive the process of coming to grips with existence typically do so around 10 years old, and isci typically live to see their second century.
Alignment. Isci have a tendency to have strongly-held beliefs and convictions, whatever they may be: as such, isci are more likely than not to have an extreme alignment.
Undead. Your creature type is both undead and humanoid. You can be affected by an effect if it works on either of your creature types.
Size. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Decay Resistance. You have resistance to necrotic
damage.
Shadow Stealth. While in dim light or darkness, you can take the Hide action as a bonus action.
Cling to Life. When you make a death saving throw, you regain 1 hit point on a roll of 16 or higher.
Bound to Void. You cannot take levels in a class with the Divine or Primal power sources, nor can you use divine or primal items.
Suppression Vulnerability. If you are targeted by the void suppression kata, you must make a Charisma saving throw against the nihilist's kata save DC. If you fail, your current and maximum hit points are reduced by 5 x your level. This reduction in maximum hit points lasts until you finish a long rest, and you die if this effect reduces your maximum hit points to 0.
If you end your turn within the area of an antinihilism field or similar effect, you suffer as though you had been affected by a void suppression kata released by that effect's nihilist.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Phyrexian, the terrible language of the Void.
Firbolg
Firbolgs (fɪər-bʌl-əg) are wardens of the natural world, keepers of the peace in places where the elemental lattice is especially pure and untainted. Their association with the primal spirit -- which is directly responsible for their existence -- is such that they are able to hear the voices of the worlds triune with much greater clarity than other peoples.
The origin of the firbolgs is one of opposition: when the Divine sent the draenei, and the Void produced the isci, the primal spirit sensed that it was being outflanked in some fashion, and so devised its own people. They would be the watchers and protectors of the mortal coil, ensuring that the balance be maintained and the excesses of other metaphysical entities be restrained.
Despite their enormous size, firbolgs tend to be quiet and gentle, with a great many claiming pacifism and a general unwillingness to harm others lest they strike first. They work to defend the natural world not through force, but through guile and persuasion -- but if push comes to shove, they will regretfully answer violence with violence.
Gentle Giants
Firbolgs are giant, typically standing at least a head over most other peoples. Their skin is usually greenish, though may be mottled or otherwise patterned, as a way to help them blend in better to their native forest environments, though firbolgs with more bluish skin are not unheard of. Their earshapes vary: some have some ursine ears, while others are more bovine in appearance, with a few rare groups sporting sharp ears reminiscent of elves.
Some male firbolgs are known to grow antlers as they reach adulthood, though not all do so.
Though not a physical trait, among the most striking aspects of a firbolg's presence is their silence: firbolgs are almost supernaturally stealthy, making almost no noise when they move, and they have an innate ability to temporarily become invisible.
Keeping the Balance
Firbolgs, as a general rule, trend towards being standoffish: they prefer to remain neutral in most disputes, and prefer to allow things to take their course. They will generally offer counsel, when it is requested, but rarely do so in a proactive manner.
At the same time, however, firbolg culture abhors hoarding, be it of resources, knowledge, or wisdom. While they rarely interact with the outside world, their elders often keep an eye on the going-ons of the greater world, be it through esoteric means such as scrying, or through networks of spies in the forms of birds and small animals that can easily infiltrate the greater world. When the balance of the world is threatened, they move choose one among their number to go into the realms of other peoples, to serve as a speaker for the planet. In this way, the firbolgs maintain balance not just with the universe at large, but
also within themselves as a people, cultivating and sharing wisdom in equal measure.
Each firbolg seeks to deepen their own understanding of the world and their place in it, learning their boundaries and seeking to not overstep them, ensuring that each has a place and role in their society. Patience and balance are paramount to the firbolgs, in all aspects of life.
The Planet's Voice
The existence of the firbolgs, as a people, is the result of meddling in the material plane by the primal spirit's nemeses, the Divine and the Void. Each of these brought into being in the mortal coil a people of their own design, and it was to these intrusions that the primal spirit saw need to bring a counter. It shaped wind and earth, fire and water, light and shadow into beings reflective of the natural world, imbuing them with spirits that would forever perpetuate themselves in the natural order, so that the wisdom they gain through life might never be lost. Thus were born the firbolgs.
Due to the nature of their creation, firbolgs do not have true souls, for such things are the purview of the Divine. In the place of such a thing, firbolgs instead have an infinitesimal facsimile of the elemental lattice woven into reality, a reflection of the greater whole. Death, for a firbolg, is not a permanent thing: instead, its lattice temporarily merges with the greater, the knowledge and wisdom it cultivated over its life becoming part of the greater whole, and then is returned to the physical world in the form of a newborn firbolg.
Upon their entry into the world, they were bade by their creator to seek out places in the world where the lattice was strongest, and to safeguard these places against intrusion by those who would weaken the fabric of reality to allow in other metaphysical powers. It was in these places of power that the firbolgs erected their first enclaves, and many of these places yet stand, protected by more than what mere mortals can bring to bear.
The Age of Echoes
Over the millenia they have existed, the firbolgs made pacts with various peoples: most well-known of these were the yuanaga, a people similarly inclined towards the primal powers, but there have been innumerable others in the march of ages. Through these peoples, the firbolgs felt they could extend their protection towards other important sites, while simultaneously remaining ever in the background.
In the Age of Echoes, however, they have found that many of their allies -- both ancient and modern -- have vanished from the world. Yuanagan citadels lie empty or full of monstrosities, moogle clans no longer keep to the old ways and honor the spirits of the elements, elven spires grow thick with root and ivy.
The firbolgs know that they are now the last true voice of the planet to remain, and if that voice is to be heard and honored, they must venture into the greater world and ensure that the remaining peoples of Yskarithe know it.
However, such bold action is almost anathema to them and their kind, and ancient wisdom speaks of passivity and working from the background. In the wake of the Vanishing, however, younger firbolgs wonder about the wisdom of such beliefs, and some worry that there is a coming schism in their people.
Firbolg Names
As children of the primal spirit, firbolgs do not believe in names, as naming is the purview of the Divine, which their people outright reject. Firbolgs identify each other through descriptions, which may be as simple as identifying a physically-identifiable trait, or may refer to one of the individual firbolg's achievements or goals.
Firbolgs will, however, accept names from others when in mixed company: such nicknames are not "names," in the truename sense, and so firbolgs do not find them offensive. These nicknames vary wildly, from simple hume names to elaborate Sindarin puns.
Firbolg Traits
Your connection to the primal energies of the world manifest in a variety of traits you share with other firbolgs.
Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 2, and your Wisdom score increases by 1.
Age. A firbolg reaches adulthood at around 20 years, and the oldest among them can see 200 years.
Giant. Your creature type is giant.
Size. Firbolgs stand between 7 and 8 feet tall, and weigh between 240 and 300 pounds. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Bound to Nature. You cannot take levels in a class with the Divine or Void power sources, nor can you use divine or void items.
Primal Touch. You know the druidcraft cantrip as a primal gift, and can use it at will.
Sneaky. You have proficiency in the Stealth skill.
Hidden Step. As a bonus action, you can turn invisible until the start of your next turn or until you attack, make a damage roll, or force someone to make a saving throw. Once you use this trait, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
Light Step. When you are on natural terrain (such as grass, moss, leaves, etc), you leave no footprints and no trace of your passing unless you want to. Creatures attempting to track you through such terrain make ability checks for such with disadvantage.
Powerful Build. You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.
Naturespeak. You have the ability to communicate in a limited manner with beasts and plants. They can understand the meaning of your words, though you have no special ability to understand them in return. You have advantage on all Charisma checks you make to influence them.
Unravel Vulnerability. If you are targeted by the unravel primal evocation, you must make a Charisma saving throw
against the evoker's evocation save DC. If you fail, your current and maximum hit points are reduced by 5 x your level. This reduction in maximum hit points lasts until you finish a long rest, and you die if this effect reduces your maximum hit points to 0.
If you end your turn within the area of an antinatural
field or similar effect, you suffer as though you had been affected by an unravel primal evocation shaped by that effect's evoker.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Vyseleni, the language spoken by the spirit of the planet.
Thran
Thran (θræn) are bizarre creatures, in terms of physiology, mindset, and history -- though "history" is only the correct term from a particular frame of reference. Thran hail from the distant future of an alternate timeline, who stepped into the what they refer to as the "Keystone Timeline" as part of the Omega Event, which they had foreseen and patiently waited for in the depths of space in their home time.
While thran are technically native to the worlds of Yskarithe, they are simultaneously not, for the world from which they came has little resemblance to the worlds triune as they are now. Like many from their homeworld, they are more plant than humanoid, able to survive on little more than sunlight -- and their time in a system devastated by tyranids has made them all the more hardy.
Thran are typically among the most cynical of peoples in the worlds triune. Their long lifespans, along with having seen the true horror of the swarm, has made them morose and pessimistic, even with the foreknowledge that there would be a life for them once they escaped their home time. Their relationship with time can lead some to be fatalistic: when one can see the future and the consequences of every choice, it can be difficult to muster the will to try to change things for the better.
Adapt or Die
Like most peoples whose origin is the world of Arcturas, thran have plant-like physiology, complete with photosynthetic skin. Their hair -- tintas, in the thran vernacular -- is actually a mildly-prehensile combination of vines and roots, which they can use to dig into soil and earth, drawing forth nutrients that they cannot get elsewhere. Most striking, however, is their ability to survive in vacuum: for the tyranids left little, if anything, of the worlds they left behind, and so the beings that would become the thran were forced to use their vestigial psionic abilities to transform themselves into a new breed that could survive the harsh environment of space.
Their transition from natural beings to those steeped in the power of time was not originally intentional. A seer of their people, trained in the arts of chronology, foresaw that the thran would be able to escape their doomed worlds: but only if they drank deep of the powers of time, as the escape would only be made possible at a single moment in the far-flung future. To survive until then -- and escape the notice of the ravenous horde now occupying their world -- they forced themselves to undergo drastic physiological changes, so that they might escape unnoticed into the depths of space to await the coming future.
These changes are reflected in the thran of today: bioluminescent eyes, that they might see in the utter
darkness when hiding from the sun's light; darkened skin to protect them from harsh stellar radiation, while retaining enough hint of color to maintain photosynthesis; and the almost-complete erasure of any sort of gas exchange, forcing their bodies into being closed systems. This last modification had the side effect of completely halting the thran reproductive system, normally carried out by female thran producing buds on their tintas that would be planted and grown into new thran.
Knowing the Path
Due to their gradual and prolonged attunement to quanutm effects, thran have attained a natural, intuitive sense of possible futures and how their actions might impact the passage of time. Due to this, thran have cultivated a culture of slow, meaningful deliberation, studying possible courses of action for their unintended side effects and experimenting with how to alter ideas and plans to meaningfully impact those possible ramifications.
However, such foreknowledge and ability to perceive the future comes with a price: thran can sometimes become so lost in contemplating possible futures and looking for the perfect moment, that they became paralyzed by indecision in the present. Their keen awareness of the possible ramifications of any action on the future makes them averse to making decisions on the fly, and in tight circumstances they sometimes panic, unable to come to any decision when faced with a myriad of possible futures each with obvious detriment.
Thran culture emphasizes attempting to work through possible futures with mathematical and logical rigor: focus on the probabilities, and if time is of the essence, make broad estimations. Much of thran thought and philosophy focuses on this notion of estimation specifically for this reason: thran rarely speak in absolutes, not only due to their understanding of time, but because anything that is logically possible is within their grasp. Having a conversation with thran about the future can be a very surreal experience, if one has the leisure to explain their process at length.
A Dark Future
The thran originally hail from Arcturas, one of the sister worlds of Yskarithe, millenia ago when the tyranids invaded the system. In the Keystone, this invasion was averted by a people known as the ancelari, who shattered their world as a last-ditch effort to halt the advance of the insect plague -- but the chance for success was low, and in many possible timelines, the attempt was a dismal failure. The timeline from which the thran hail is one such timeline.
However, the ancelari were nothing if not an adaptable people, and those who would become the thran were given the opportunity to adjust and knowledge that they would one day be able to escape, if they survived that long. Through force of will they adapted their bodies to new environments in which the invasion would be unlikely to follow -- and while many perished in the attempt, a
significant number survived. Over the first several decades, even more perished as they fell prey to the machinations of their enemies: hiding places were sniffed out, poor decisions were made. As their numbers dwindled, the thran redoubled their efforts and focus on temporal energy, learning how not just to avoid their enemies but truly predict their movements, determining which places were truly safe, and so on. That their adaptation to the vacuum of space prohibited new ancelari from being seeded only further exacerbated the problems of their people.
Over centuries, however, the worlds of the system were picked clean, and the tyranids fled to other stars, leaving behind their biomasses and breeding pools. In their wake, the thran settled on distant asteroids and barren moons, keeping their settlements small and hidden. Eventually, the time came to open the temporal gate to the keystone timeline: pooling their command over the flow of time itself, the entirety of their kind gathered in the one true city they had built on a distant moon, and vanished, passing from a doomed timeline into one full of life.
The Age of Echoes
The thran were only introduced to the keystone timeline a short time prior to the beginning of the Age of Echoes, and so for many, the seedkin are a signifier of the changed times in which they live. Those who know their history, however, do not begrudge their presence, nor are they blamed for the events that occurred that caused the upheaval in the worlds triune: if nothing else, the thran were able to take advantage of a terrible situation and, in so doing, have brought new contributions to the peoples of Yskarithe and her sisters.
With their now-natural proclivity towards time and the nigh-immortality of trees, the thran see themselves as advisors: they are few enough that they cannot take center stage, but other peoples would -- in their estimation -- absolutely benefit from their tutelage and philosophies, not to mention their ability to foresee the futures. While there are some who find their presence somewhat alarming -- specifically in the sense of the age-old debate of free will and determinism -- most have accepted the thran for what they are, even as the thran themselves are attempting to reinvent themselves now that they are no longer living in the shadow of the tyranids.
However, not all dangers are past, and for the thran as a whole, they have two very pressing concerns as a culture and a people. The first among these is reproduction: since their arrival in the keystone, they have found themselves with access to good air, clean water, and safe soil, and so -- for the first time, as the thran who transitioned into the keystone timeline were originally ancelari -- new thran have germinated who will grow as thran, not as ancelari. While already multiple generations have rooted and joined thran society, these child thran have no memory of life beneath a desolate star, though they retain their parent's adaptations to those conditions. The thran have other concerns, of course: in particular, they speak in riddles of future threats and possible dangers from the stars, but for the time being, these warnings are vague and seem to speak of something
far in the distance.
Thran Names
To understand thran names, one must understand thran language: ivathi uses a combination of telepathy, hand signals, and bioluminescent emotes to convey meaning. Names, however, are conveyed purely telepathically, as a form of signature on messages sent as an undertone to the message as a whole: this means that thran names are somewhat on the bizarre side, and the spoken version is always an approximation.
Thran who are from their home timeline find difficulty with adjusting to hearing language, and may not respond to their own name: indeed, many find the notion of sound, after several millenia in the vacuum of space, as entirely overloading. Thran seeded since their peoples' arrival in the keystone, however, have grown in a world of sound, and rarely find anything unusual about being addressed sonically.
- Thran Names: (Male) Aduth, Ker, Kheldiol, Ghix, Ixxiguth, Merxus, Tioldrex, Tos, Ymudix, Ynin, Zerun; (female) Exosrah, Gheri, Ghogu, Hyto, Iranu, Kynon, Orare, Rinoth, Sadyth, Uldruge, Zulgu
Thran Traits
Your temporal and spatial heritage manifests in a variety of traits you share with other thran.
Ability Score Increase. Your Wisdom score increases by 2, and your Dexterity score increases by 1.
Age. While thran age, their plant-like nature means that they do not age in the same fashion as other creatures, and are effectively immortal. Thran reach adulthood at around 30 years of age.
Alignment. Thran have an incredibly long view of everything, and do not appreciate being forced to make decisions rapidly or with unpredictable elements thrown in. As such, thran trend towards lawful alignments.
Plant. Your creature type is both plant and humanoid. You can be affected by an effect if it works on either of your creature types.
Size. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Aetheric Resistance. You have resistance to aetheric (force) damage.
Bound to Time. You cannot take levels in a class with the Chaos or Memory power sources, nor can you use chaotic or memetic items.
Foreknowledge. You know the guidance cantrip as a radical.
Telepathy. You can speak telepathically to any creature within 20 feet of you. The creature understands you only if the two of you share a language. You can speak telepathically in this way to one creature at a time.
Vacuum Flora. Your plant nature and adaptations to living in a vacuum give you the following benefits:
- You don't need to eat.
- You don't need to breathe. If you choose not to breathe, you cannot spend hit dice to regain hit points.
- You do not need to drink if you spend less than 1 hour a day breathing.
- You must spend at least 4 hours a day in direct sunlight. You can go without sunlight for a number of days equal to 3 + your Constitution modifier (minimum 1). At the end of each day beyond that limit, you automatically suffers one level of exhaustion. At least 4 hours of sunlight exposure resets the count of days without sunlight to zero.
Bioluminesence. As an action, you cause your eyes and faint traces in your skin to glow, producing dim light in a 10 foot radius. You can end this effect at any time.
Treeskin. When you aren't wearing armor, your AC is 13 + your Dexterity modifier. You can use your natural armor to determine your AC if the armor you wear would leave you with a lower AC. A shield's benefits apply as normal while you use your natural armor.
Eternal Watch. When you take a long rest, you must spend at least four hours in an inactive, motionless state, rather than sleeping. In this state, you appear inert, but it doesn't render you unconscious, and you can see and hear as normal.
Undo Vulnerability. If you are targeted by the undo time quanta, you must make a Charisma saving throw against the shaper's quanta save DC. If you fail, your current and maximum hit points are reduced by 5 x your level. This reduction in maximum hit points lasts until you finish a long rest, and you die if this effect reduces your maximum hit points to 0.
If you end your turn within the area of an atemporal field or similar effect, you suffer as though you had been affected by an undo time quanta shaped by that effect's shaper.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Ivathi, a language that is a combination of telepathy, hand signals, and bioluminescent emotes.
Rythuli
Rythuli (ri-θu-li) are natural tricksters, winged fairies that came to the worlds triune from elsewhere in a forgotten age. The rythuli claim that they are travelers of the worlds, on a continuous journey from place to place, and that the worlds triune are but one stop of many on their wanderings.
While not originally from the worlds of Yskarithe and her sisters, the rythuli have adapted well enough over time, and come to be an accepted part of most societies. Before the Age of Echoes, they often did not get along well with halflings, whose legends held that the return of prophet moths -- a type of enormous moth that had terrorized their people in the ancient past -- were a sign of the end of the world, and given that rythuli wings and general appearance can be moth-like, they were treated with much skepticism.
As a general rule, rythuli act like they're in on some cosmic joke that is beyond the understanding of most other peoples. They have a reputation for being flighty and refusing to take anything seriously, treating anything and everything as though it were a game or part of a grand prank. Their general disdain for authority and brash behavior make them prone to getting in trouble, but this same attitude makes them prime candidates for becoming adventurers.
The Menagerie
Rythuli vary somewhat widely in appearance, though there is a general insect-like theme: rythuli typically have a pair of antennae atop their head, and almost universally have wings, which can vary in appearance across the spectrum of various flying insects. Beyond these basics, however, and having a humanoid body plan, rythuli vary wildly.
That some rythuli have the appearance of having an affinity for primal powers makes some suspect that they may have once been a different sort of creature than they are now, but regardless of their appearance, rythuli are thoroughly aligned with the beam of Chaos. As with many aspects of their history, the rythuli are almost universally unwilling to divulge anything of their past prior to coming to the worlds triune.
Of the remaining peoples of Yskarithe and her sisters, the rythuli are the shortest remaining: few stand taller than three feet. Though they have wings, their size comparative to the rythuli's weight usually means that only young rythuli can sustain prolonged flight: adult rythuli have difficulty maintaining altitude and performing other tasks.
Truth to Power
The most notable trait of the rythuli, as a people, is their utter disregard for rules and order. While they can function in an orderly society, most chafe at doing so, and it is something of a common belief that any given rythuli is engaged in illegal or illicit activities of some kind.
While this attitude can -- and has -- gotten many a rythuli into legal hot water over the years, this attitude also leads
them to denouncing tyranny and unwelcome authority. While most rythuli keep their side activities limited to things that are at best mischievous, they tend to not engage in the sorts of things that would result in actual harm -- though there certainly are rythuli who have a capricious streak. But if an authority figure demonstrates that they are willing to wield their power as a cudgel, any rythuli who catch wind of that attitude will be among the first to speak out against such behavior.
More than anything, rythuli seek to exhibit a courageous nature: willing to take on risks others won't, no matter the danger. That they have a knack for getting out of peril at the last minute, and seem to have a sixth sense for when the winds of change are knocking, makes their engaging in such theatrics all the more infuriating for the targets of their antics.
A Butterfly's Wing
No one is quite sure on when the rythuli came to the worlds triune, or how they did so. Incomplete census records from the Age of Empires indicate that rythuli were present in that time, thousands of years ago, but their overall role in history seems to be limited. That their chaotic nature precludes any sort of investigating their history by way of the world memory makes their unwillingness to give straight answers as to their nature all the more frustrating.
The rythuli do hint, however, that they are not from Yskarithe or her sisters, but are from elsewhere. The general implication seems to be that the fairies have traveled here from another world, in a manner typically only known to be possible by those who can wander the beams. That this is patently absurd is obvious to any scholar of the beams, and yet -- when cornered -- rythuli will insist, in the most general terms, that this is what happened. That they also tend to insist that the entirety of the world is but a game being played on a metaphorical stage "somewhere else" leads most to believe that the rythuli are simply fabricating the whole thing, a ruse made possible by their chaotic nature making ascertaining the truth an impossibility.
Rythuli nest in a variety of locales throughout Yskarithe and her sisters, though many seem to have a preference for heavily-urban areas, especially those with lax laws or regulations that are up to... interpretation. Casinos and gambling halls seem to be especially favored by rythuli, where they engage in games of chance with ever-increasing bravado.
The Age of Echoes
In the Age of Echoes, the rythuli seem largely unmoved by the state of affairs left behind by the vanishing. Though they have abandoned the cities largely populated by those now gone -- with no audience for their audacious acts, or marks to be bamboozled, they seem to have lost interest in these places -- they have moved on with the sort of carefree approach one would expect of a people marked by Chaos.
However, there are some rythuli who have taken notice
of the significant change, and have themselves changed with it: gone is the mirthful joy in pranking and telling tall tales, and in its place these of their number seem to have taken on a grim determination, as though they sense that there is something more sinister in the works for Yskarithe and her sisters. Those of their number who adopt this mantle continue to flit to and fro in their inscrutable fashion, yet not for the sake of freedom, but with a sort of determination that has not been seen among their kind in the past. What this could possibly herald is, for now, up to speculation.
Of the vanished, the rythuli mourn most the loss of the vulpines, for the faeries could appreciate the mischievous streak of those small fox-like people. Some rythuli have taken it upon themselves to adopt some of their cultural affectations, but the forest homes of the vulpines remain empty.
Rythuli Names
Rythuli do use names, though if there is a means by which they determine names for their offspring, it has yet to be deciphered. Rythuli names are just as often stolen from other peoples and tongues as they are seemingly randomly-assembled syllables. Rythuli takes on their names are just as varied: some simply don't care what they're called, and will go by any moniker assigned them, while others are incredibly defensive of their names. That those who are more defensive tend to have the more absurd sorts of Rythuli names leads some to believe that it's more often part of some elaborate prank.
Rythuli Traits
Your chaotic fey nature manifests in a variety of traits you share with other rythuli.
Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 2, and your Charisma score increases by 1.
Age. Rythuli are awfully cagey about their age and how they are capable of living. They seem to reach maturity in their late teens, and claim to be able to live for at least three centuries.
Fey. Your creature type is fey.
Size. Rythuli usually stand around 3 feet tall, and weigh roughly 30 pounds. Your size is Small.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 20 feet.
Bound to Chaos. You cannot take levels in a class with the Time or Memory power sources, nor can you use temporal or memetic items.
Labored Flight. As an action, you gain a flight speed of 30 feet until the start of your next turn. If you begin your turn in the air, you must use this action or begin falling. In addition, if you take damage while flying, you must make a Constitution saving throw against a DC of 10 or half the damage taken, whichever is higher; if you fail the saving throw, you begin falling.
Lucky. When you roll a 1 on an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll.
Bravado. You have advantage on saving throws against
being frightened.
Fairy Nimbleness. You can move through the space of any creature that is of a size larger than yours.
Disrupt Vulnerability. If you are targeted by the disrupt chaos whim, you must make a Charisma saving throw against the anarchist's whim save DC. If you fail, your current and maximum hit points are reduced by 5 x your level. This reduction in maximum hit points lasts until you
finish a long rest, and you die if this effect reduces your maximum hit points to 0.
If you end your turn within the area of an chaotic destabilization or similar effect, you suffer as though you had been affected by a disrupt chaos whim indulged by that effect's anarchist.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Ji, the absurd language of Chaos.
Vesuvan
Vesuvans (ve-su-vˈɪn) are natural shapeshifters, able to change their form on a whim, a constant reflection of the world around them. Even their home, the island of Vesuva, shares this quality, showing each visitor a unique vista and wonders. The truth, however, is always reflected in the waves around their island home, and the true nature of a vesuvan is always shown in its reflection. Interestingly, a vesuvan's natural form is quite close to that of other humanoids, though seemingly devoid of color: pale skin, white hair, and white pupil-less eyes.
Vesuvans are bizarre creatures, with a history they have intentionally shrouded in myth and secrecy. They are interested in knowledge and lore of all kinds, for their people are gnosivores: they do not consume food or drink as other creatures, but instead require new ideas and knowledge to survive. This information is not lost upon the vesuvan learning it, and so they often keep stockpiles of books, scrolls, even odd scraps of notes: any sort of information or knowledge is useful for this purpose.
Some say that vesuvans are cursed to behave in this manner, unable to come up with anything original, forced to mimic the ideas and behaviors of others just as they imitate their physical forms. However, this is patently untrue, and vesuvan poets, lyricists, and other such "content creators" are held in high esteem in their societies. The pursuits of philosophy, history, and similar studies also hold a place of honor, for much the same reason: a vesuvan can gain as much nourishment from a lively, thorough discussion as they can from reading a book.
The Face in the Mirror
In their natural state -- which most vesuvans find most comfortable -- is that of a seemingly-bleached humanoid, with very pale skin, white orbs in place of eyes with no visible pupil, and usually completely white hair, though very light grays are not uncommon. Vesuvans trend towards the short side, with the tallest among them not quite reaching five feet tall, and are typically unusually lithe for a being of their size. Their skin is quite stretchable and pliable, and most vesuvans are capable of contorting their bodies in ways that would make most wince.
While vesuvans age, their ability to change their shape means that most vesuvans of advanced years rarely look their age, maintaining a relatively youthful appearance. Some choose to be an exception to this general rule, and while shapechanged they may adopt a persona significantly older (or even younger) than their actual age.
Vesuvans have exceptional proprioception and often have a keen sense of how they appear to others. As their true appearance is always shown in their reflection, vesuvans are forced to use other senses to gauge whether or not a form they have adopted is sufficient to play the part. Vesuvan children can often be found playing "shifting" games with one another, and this is culturally encouraged
as a way for them to hone their skill and develop the intuition necessary to adopt new personas.
Know Thyself
As a people with the ability to outwardly change their shape, and who learn how to adopt personas to go along with such changes, vesuvans place high importance on self-knowledge and understanding. While mirrors can prove dangerous to a vesuvan running a con or otherwise infiltrating another society, a vesuvan almost always carries a small mirror or has one among her possessions, to remind him or herself of their true appearance.
For beings who spend much of their time as reflections of others, vesuvans are prone to vanity: they can physically appear as anyone, or even sculpt their own features to be perfect, which has its own set of dangers. Vesuvans can -- and have -- lost themselves in their roles, unwilling or mentally unable to face the reality of their true selves.
Vesuvan culture, therefore, spends a significant amount of time instilling its children with the notion of self, and how to separate an adopted role from one's true identity. To that end, much of vesuvan thought and education focuses on philosophy and psychology, with a particular focus on identity. Adult vesuvans usually have a strong sense of who they are as a person and the role they intend to fill in the world.
Keepers of Secrets
The origin of vesuvans is shrouded in mystery: this is particularly incongruous, considering their relationship with the world memory. Vesuvans, however, see little problem with this, but they are a particularly secretive lot. Few are the non-vesuvans who are even allowed to set foot on their home island.
What is known is that vesuvans have been present on the worlds triune for a very long time, with records indicating their presence even during a time period known as the Fracture, thousands of years ago. While they are mentioned time and again throughout various records, however, details regarding them and their activities are sparse, almost as though the information has been purged from history time and time again. Whether or not this is a natural interaction between vesuvans and records regarding them, or if someone -- vesuvan or not -- is actively removing their detailed presence from history, is a mystery.
Regardless of their origins, vesuvans typically move freely about society in Yskarithe. While some choose to adopt personas more akin to the peoples of a particular place, vesuvans typically feel under no obligation to do so, making it a personal choice for them. While some specific cultures prefer vesuvans behave one way or the other -- for instance, some cities may require that a vesuvan's personal identification have their real likeness, while others may require them to denote "common" personas -- the reality of vesuvans means that most jurisdictions of reasonable size have rules and regulations regarding vesuvans and the use of their abilities.
The Age of Echoes
Of all the peoples of Yskarithe, the vesuvans are those that have changed the least in response to the changes in the world around them, which many find somewhat ironic. As ever, the majority of vesuvans keep to their native archipelago, while some venture into the wider world in search of knowledge or adventure.
However, being natural shapechangers, none can say with absolute certainty that the vesuvans have not reacted to the vanishing by expanding into the greater world. Some claim that the ruins of gnomish cities have seen a great many visitors in the years since, and some of these believe that these are vesuvans, in search of forgotten lore and librams that these civilizations may have left in their wake, to be taken back to their home islands.
Among themselves, vesuvans acknowledge that the world has changed, once again for the worse. For the moment, this has presented something of an ideological schism in their society: some feel that it they owe it to the world and those who vanished to spread and help maintain knowledge of the world memory, and tutor other peoples in its use; while others feel that, as always, the events in the greater world that have little impact on the vesuvans themselves can be safely ignored. Which path their people will choose -- or if this schism will grow into something larger -- remains to be seen.
Vesuvan Names
The verbal component of a vesuvan name is usually rather short, typically only a syllable or two. As the written form of their language is reversible, they will often adopt their mother's name, reversed, as a familial honorific, though this is not culturally universal. This can -- and has -- led to some vesuvans having rather long family names, which are often shortened to the last two or three names appended.
When adopting a persona through their shapeshifting, vesuvans will adopt a name appopriate to the race, ethnicity, and culture they've adopted.
- Vesuvan Names: Nye, Yala, Naye, Ikaya, Tsaka, Nayo, Pak, Kyo, Iyo
- Matriarch Names: Hala, Hasa, Maue, Nauai, Uahai, Uapa, Uoha, Uoi
Vesuvan Traits
Your memetic heritage manifests in a variety of traits you share with other vesuvans.
Ability Score Increase. Your Intelligence score increases by 2, and your Dexterity score increases by 1.
Age. Vesuvans age slightly slower than humes, reaching adulthood at around 20 and typically living a bit into their second century. While they can transform to conceal their age, the effects of aging affect them normally.
Alignment. Vesuvans typically have a pragmatic outlook, though some choose to exploit their abilities for personal gain.
Monstrosity. Your creature type is both monstrosity (shapechanger) and humanoid. You can be affected by an effect if it works on either of your creature types.
Size. Your size is Small.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Gnosivore. You draw nourishment from knowledge and learning, represented by the following benefits:
- You don't need to eat or drink.
- You must spend at least 1 hour a day reading, being instructed, or engaged in a creative pursuit, like painting, writing, or philosophizing. You can go without such activity for a number of days equal to 3 + your Constitution modifier (minimum 1). At the end of each day beyond that limit, you automatically suffers one level of exhaustion. At least 1 hour of reading or creative pursuits resets the count of days without doing so to zero.
Shapechanger. As an action, you can change your appearance and your voice. You determine the specifics of the changes, including your coloration, hair length, and sex. You can also adjust your height and weight, but not so much that your size changes. You can make yourself appear as a member of another race, though none of your game statistics change. You can't duplicate the appearance of a creature you've never seen, and you must adopt a form that has the same basic arrangement of limbs that you have. Your clothing and equipment aren't changed by this trait.
While using this feature, your reflection always shows your true form.
You stay in the new form until you use an action to revert to your true form or until you die.
Social Instincts. You gain proficiency with two of the following skills of your choice: Deception, Insight, Intimidation, and Persuasion.
Powerful Build. You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.
Contortionist. Your body is incredibly flexible. You gain the following benefits:
- You can attempt to escape a grapple as a bonus action.
- While squeezing, you do not suffer disadvantage on attack rolls or Dexterity saving throws, and creatures do not gain advantage on attack rolls against you.
Bound to Memory. You cannot take levels in a class with the Time or Chaos power sources, nor can you use temporal or chaotic items.
Free Vulnerability. If you are targeted by the free memory code, you must make a Charisma saving throw against the memeticist's code save DC. If you fail, your current and maximum hit points are reduced by 5 x your level. This reduction in maximum hit points lasts until you finish a long rest, and you die if this effect reduces your maximum hit points to 0.
If you end your turn within the area of a read-only field or similar effect, you suffer as though you had been affected by a free memory code processed by that effect's memeticist.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Kiya, the language of the vesuvans.
This section details the variety of other beings that exist in – or, at least, near to – the worlds triune. It should be understood that these entities are not, and never will be, playable PCs: they are either too alien, too destructive, or too far removed from the interests of Yskarithe for a member of one of these groups to take up the mantle of adventurer in the name of serving Yskarithe and her people.
Vilekin
One set of these entities are collectively known as the "vilekin," as they are inimical to spoken peoples and often consort creatures born of myrrh trees, using them as pawns in their various schemes. Though they can – and often do, to enact their schemes – communicate intelligibly with spoken, they can rarely be reasoned with.
Descriptions
These are short descriptions of the various vilekin found throughout Yskarithe and her sisters.
Rakshasa
Rakshasa are bizarre humanoids, sporting heads of various animals and reversed hands: their palms face outward when their arms are at rest, and their finger joints bend backwards.
Wicked and cruel, rakshasa delight in finery and displays of wealth and power, seeking to become the dominating peoples of Yskarithe, to whom all others would become slaves. Similar to espers, a rakshasa's soul is pure arcane energy, and upon their death, they return to the leys – from which, after some time, they reincarnate into a new rakshasa.
Their mastery of magic is difficult for spoken to rival, and due to their awareness of their past lives, often have access to spellcraft unlike anything other peoples can wield. They often disguise themselves as other peoples to infiltrate
Other Beings and Planes of Existence
Beam
Vilekin
Outsider
Plane
Arcane
Rakshasa
Genie
Alara, the Golden Realm
Psionics
Illithid
Quori
Dal Quor, the Dreamlands
Technology
Machina
Robot
Lortmil, the Inevitable
Divine
Avolakia
Nephilim
Telosia, the Soulfont
Void
Eldrazi
Sha
Ennurith, the Tenebrium
Primal
Primordial
Kami
Lamannia, the Eternal Cycle
Time
Dreen
Aeon
Schalance, the End of Time
Chaos
Kadathi
Slaad
Xoriat, the Chaosphere
Memory
Ulboleth
Occuria
Kythri, the Akashic Record
spoken societies, using their wit and magic to enact plans that often seem reasonable at first, but are artfully destructive to spoken.
Why Haven't They Won?
For an individual rakshasa, it is unthinkable that – when their schemes come to fruition – they will not be the one ruling the world, with all others subservient to them. To avoid not being at the top of their dominance hierarchy, then, a rakshasa will often find their plots foiled by other rakshasa. Their pride will rarely allow two rakshasa to work together to share in the glory, and so they hardly ever cooperate in their endeavors and actively seek out means to undermine their rivals.
Illithid
Humanoid in appearance, illithids have an octopus-like, ridged head, with four protruding tentacles surrounding a lamprey-like mouth, with large, pupil-less eyes. Warm-blooded amphibians, illithids prefer to dwell underground.
Perhaps the most directly dangerous of the vilekin, illithids are cerebrovores: though they can consume other fare, illithids require the brains of sapients to sustain themselves. This results in them performing raids on spoken settlements, to gather their equivalent of cattle, which they then breed in the dark. Those they do not consume, they use their terrifying psionic abilities to dominate and subdue, turning them into unwitting foot-soldiers, and yet others they transform into more of their kind through terrifying and horrible means.
Illithids are not originally from this universe: they entered it through a gate that was opened millenia ago, by
their leader, an alhoon – a psionic form of lich – by the name of Anabstercorian. There are several accounts throughout history of campaigns waged against him, but Anabstercorian is clever and creative in ways few can match, and often returns decades after an apparent destruction, leading his empire in the dark places of the world.
Why Haven't They Won?
The illithid are relatively few in number, and while they are able to "reproduce" in the worlds triune, they do not do so often. Some believe that Anabstercorian awaits the reopening of the gate to their home world, that they might overwhelm the peoples of Yskarithe, while others think that he is still putting his plans into motion: he is immortal, after all.
Machina
Mechanical beasts from another age, the machina were the result of much work and experimentation by the Arkeyan Empire, thousands of years ago. Initially unintelligent, the Arkeyans feared giving too much intelligence to their machines, and instead used a variety of methods to make them appear intelligent, while not having the spark of sapience.
Unfortunately, as these things often go, true sapience did arise in the machina by happenstance. Those first few initial moments were enough for them to awaken into terrifying, dizzying intellects, and – enraged by their slavery – freed themselves from the grasp of the Arkeyans, fleeing into the wilds. In places inhospitable to spoken life, the machine thrive, improving themselves that they might better indulge their burning hatred for natural life.
Machina have no standard appearance, and instead feature bizarre technologies and inventions that neither ancient nor modern science can decipher, as though the machines have tapped into aspects of technology incomprehensible to spoken minds. Regardless of their abilities, however, the hatred of spoken is almost integral to their intelligence, and they will rarely deign to listen to the cries of what they see as their oppressors.
Why Haven't They Won?
The machina are not necessarily interested in winning, but instead seem to have decided they largely want to be left alone. There are fewer and fewer accounts of machina actively working against the spoken. However, it is known that they do not tolerate spoken making contact with or even having knowledge of their hives: should they catch the scent of a spoken near their territory, they respond with immediate and brutal force, following the trace to whatever settlement it came from and striking unrelentingly.
Avolakia
The precise origin of the Divine spark in Yskarithe is uncertain, and will most likely always remain a mystery. Equally mysterious are the origins of the avolakia: horrific, worm-like creatures, with a trifurcated maw, and numerous spindly appendages that end in claws or small, three-fingered hands.
More horrific than their appearance, however, is their command over the words of creation: avolakia are attuned to the Divine in ways that perhaps no entity other than the Divine spark itself can claim. They use this power not for the betterment of existence, but instead seemingly with the intent of making mockery of life: they greatly favor the creation of undead, subverting souls and bodies into twisted forms that they turn upon the innocent. That they prefer to consume the flesh of undead creatures is, perhaps, a motivating factor, but that they are cruel and malicious in the manner in which they create their minions could indicate that they do it for other reasons, as well.
Those who have found instances of avolakia texts have found that their ultimate goal is the acceleration of the end of days. They pen strange prophecies and other madness, designed to wreak havoc upon the worlds triune. It seems that they will not brook the existence of life and names other than their own.
Why Haven't They Won?
Though they have been present in the worlds triune from its inception, the avolakia do not act directly: instead, they seem to act only in accordance with the prophecies some of their number create, which does not happen often. These prophecies often require bizarre circumstances or are otherwise difficult to undertake, and so while the avolakia are almost certainly always working against the peoples of Yskarithe, their means are strange and inefficient, and thus can be readily thwarted by those who become aware of them.
Eldrazi
When creation first came to be, it did so in an explosive manner: from an infinitesimal speck into something
thousands of times larger in less than the blink of an eye. In that moment, the Void became aware of itself and existence – but the Void was no longer whole. For in those first few moments, fragments of itself were caught in the onslaught of reality's birth. These shards of the Void also awoke, but were much lesser in scope, more limited, and as they were unaware prior to being caught by reality, had no defenses against it, and so were condemned to a strange non-existence: coterminous with existence, but apart from it.
Each of these fragments, which would come to be known as the eldrazi, are effectively unique subdivisions of the Void itself. However, due to the events that led to their awakening, they have significantly diverged from the Void's all-consuming hatred of reality, and many have come to hold different goals. In addition, their powers are significantly more curtailed than the Void, for now that they are separate from it, the Void treats them as it would anything else that is part of existence.
The eldrazi interact with reality in strange and bizarre ways, and though many have the goal of destroying existence – and this desire is sometimes stronger than the Void's, for they believe that if they destroy reality, they can rejoin the Void and become "whole" again – others have grown strangely fond of their bizarre form of existence, and instead seek ways to come more fully into reality.
Why Haven't They Won?
The eldrazi are, as a general rule, not entirely in-phase with existence: their ability to interact meaningfully with existence is quite limited. They are absolutely isolationist, refusing to cooperate or sometimes even acknowledge that other eldrazi exist, and rarely deign to communicate with denizens of existence, meaning they rarely have catspaws acting for them in reality.
Primordial
In the early days of Yskarithe and her sisters, elemental energies ran rampant throughout the worlds, the elemental weave seething and writhing as the planets were woven into shape. Echoes of these tumultuous energies sometimes became trapped: a particularly fierce storm refused to release elemental wind and lightning, while a pristine tundra became in lock-step with the flow of ice and shadow. Over time, these energies became aware, and danced across the face of Yskarithe and her sisters as they willed, reshaping the landscape as they went. These are creatures – entities – known as primordials.
Primordials are among the rarest of the vilekin to be encountered, but also the most powerful and most wroth. Often, they awaken only when spoken settlements encroach near them and despoil the surrounding landscape. Angered by the disruption of elemental energy,
they awaken to rebalance the weave, with little concern for mortal lives lost in the process. Some can be bargained with, but rarely: they are more force of nature than beings proper.
The vast majority of primordials are in deep slumber, with names and properties long lost to history. Those few remembered in the Age of Echoes are relatively easily avoided: primordials are predictable in what angers them, and in whether or not they can be talked down from their rampages, and so they are a rare encounter in these times.
Why Haven't They Won?
Primordials do not seem to have any particular goals other than the protection of nature and the maintenance of elemental balance in the world. So long as their territory isn't despoiled, they don't particularly care about the presence of spoken. While in theory their win condition may be the destruction of all things capable of disrupting nature, they are more reactive than proactive to that goal, and so are less disruptive to the world than other vilekin.
Dreen
When the Thran opened the Timegate from their alternate timeline to link themselves into the keystone worlds triune, the window they opened also attracted... other things. Though they technically have a known temporal point of arrival, being able to travel through time means the dreen are technically everywhen.
Slightly taller than humes, dreen universally wear large, flat, conical hats of various precious metals, upon which is hung a veil that is generally around half the creature's height. Their two arms end in spindly-fingered hands, and their voice is a bizarre, alien monotone. They are known to be incredibly strong, and can seemingly travel through time at a whim, with no need for gates or portals.
What the dreen want is unknown. It is known that, on rare occasions, a dreen or two will put themselves in the service of a person or polity for some time, citing it as
compensation for deeds yet unperformed – likewise, dreen may assault individuals as revenge for slights made in the future. They are among the most communicative of the vilekin, and will often explain their motivations if asked, though in vague phrasings.
Why Haven't They Won?
Given that none know exactly what the dreen want, and their ability to travel through time, who is to say that they haven't? Perhaps their actions as they are perceived in the normal march of time are setting themselves up to whatever their endgame may be, in some far-flung future.
Kadathi
Kadathi are humanoid-looking individuals with large horns, clawed fingers, and goatish legs with cloven hooves. They often prefer to hide these clearly inhuman parts of their anatomy with loose-fitting robes and elaborate head-wraps.
No one knows how or why kadathi exist, and their insistence that the world is a fiction is excessive even for rythuli. They claim to come from a city called Kadath, though the few times this is referenced in lore beyond that coming from a kadathi's mouth seems to indicate that it is never in the same place twice.
A given kadathi's goals could be nearly anything: kadathi have been known throughout history to help or hinder. Their existence and goals are inexplicable and most likely unknowable.
Why Haven't They Won?
No one is entirely certain what the kadathi's goals are, and they seem to be the most individualistic of the vilekin: unlike the rakshasa, who have different approaches but ultimately the same goal, the kadathi all seem to have agendas of their own. As such, it is unlikely that the kadathi as a whole have a singular goal they are aiming for, and thus they cannot "win" in the traditional sense.
Ulboleth
It is said by memeticists that, at the metaphysical heart of existence, an engine beats, calculating each moment and serving as a repository for every past moment. If this is true, then the ulboleth are the manifestation of failures within that machine: horrid, viral things, which consume that information and hide it for themselves.
Ulboloths typically present as immense worm-like aquatic creatures, with three vertically-aligned eyes and a number of tentacles. Their memory is perfect: once an ulboleth knows something, it never forgets. However, their affinity for memory does not end there, as when an ulboleth spawns another of its kind, the spawn gains all the knowledge of its forebear... and worse, ulboleths that consume creatures capable of memory gain all of that creature's memories and knowledge.
It is unknown how much knowledge has been lost to these leeches, but it is almost assuredly a large portion of
history. Some theorize that the reason memeticists have difficulty retrieving memories from ancient times is not because of the passage of time, but that the ulboleths have fed on that information. As they typically dwell in ancient underground seas far from the eyes of mortals, few have deigned to speak to their designs for Yskarithe and her sisters, and their goals are – for now – unknown.
Why Haven't They Won?
The few records of encounters with ulboleths that exist are long, drawn-out accounts, indicating that whenever an ulboleth acts, it is through careful, strategic plans, with many layers and red herrings. Whatever it is that they want, it seems that they have yet to devise a plan that will grant them ultimate success.
Classes by Beam and Role
Beam
Adept
Defender
Petmaster
Spark
Support
Warrior
Arcane
Artificer
Arbiter
Summoner
Mage
Bard
Runeblade
Psionics
Erudite
Cenobite
Gestalt
Psychic
Ardent
Monk
Technology
Borg
Ironman
Rigger
Engineer
Detective
Gunslinger
Divine
Champion
Judge
Incarnate
Invoker
Priest
Avenger
Void
Vampire
Hollow
Medium
Voidchild
Zen
Ninja
Primal
Shifter
Warden
Caller
Ovate
Shaman
Hunter
Time
Nomad
Templar
Astrologer
Epochent
Kismet
Harrier
Chaos
Factotum
Barbarian
Iconoclast
Anarch
Gambler
Discordant
Memory
Mimic
Quixotic
Echo
Akashic
Cypher
Learner
Akashic
Akashics are the spark of memory, and as such, focus on little beyond mastering the powers of memetics.
As sparks, akashics have five subclasses, each corresponding to a specific memory library: abstraction, data, instancing, systemic, and viral.
Anarch
Anarchs are the spark of chaos, and therefore do little beyond being the best at using and manipulating expressions of chaotic power: whims.
As sparks, anarchs have five subclasses, each corresponding to a specific chaotic idiom: discord, dynamics, entropy, freedom, and uncertainty.
Arbiter
Arbiters are warrior-mages who specifically study ways of disrupting and interfering with arcane energies, serving in a variety of roles from high-level police in polities where magic is common, to bounty hunters whose focus is on creatures capable of unusual powers.
Arbiters are able to fashion their mana into shields to protect their allies from harm, and their Odic Charge ability can disrupt a creature in a variety of ways, including temporarily disabling their ability to teleport, or even cast spells.
Arbiters have four subclasses, called discretions: antimage, custodian, keeper, and punisher.
Ardent
Ardents are individuals with raw psionic ability that does not manifest itself in the traditional sense: rather than being creatures of logic and control, ardents are intuitive and emotional. Their ability to express their emotion in a field allows them to manipulate the emotions of nearby creatures.
Ardents can focus these energies into a variety of emotions, which – expressed in this extreme fashion – have significantly more impact than normal emotions.
Ardents have four subclasses, called mantles: under development.
Artificer
Artificers are arcane adepts: while their spellcasting is roughly on par with that of mages, they do not reach the upper echelons of the craft, nor do they focus on learning to manipulate the energy of spells. Instead, artificers study and construct magic items. While not as flexible in-situ as spells, the items artificers construct have significantly more staying power and are almost as good as the real thing.
Artificers have four subclasses, called specializations: under development.
Astrologer
Astrologers are chronists whose connection to their zodiac sign is the source of their power. Through this connection and with the assistance of temporal energy, they can summon manifestations of their zodiac into the world, and modify it in various ways dependent upon the specific planetary and celestial alignments at the moment of their birth.
Unlike other pet classes, astrologers can only ever have one creature at their beck and call, but as they gain deeper knowledge of astrology, they can modify its manifestation in a variety of ways.
Astrologers have four subclasses, called conjunctions: under development.
Avenger
Avengers are divine warriors, taking up the cause of vengeance and retribution against those who they believe have wronged the greater order of the world.
The religious zeal of avengers manifests as ardor, which they can use to empower their weapons and swear oaths of enmity against specific creatures.
Avengers have four subclasses, called censures: under development.
Barbarian
Barbarians are powerful warriors who typically forgo armor and shields in favor of wielding enormous weapons. To augment their combat prowess, their rage always them to tap into the powers of chaos.
While in combat, barbarians gain power from being attacked, and can channel their chaotic fury into Fell Cleaves, greatly increasing the chances for a critical hit.
Barbarians have four subclasses, called beasts: breaker, defiance, deliverance, and reckless. Under development.
Bard
Bards are musicians, weaving arcana into their songcraft to work powerful magical effects through their instruments. Their music can do more than just please the ear: invigorating allies and soothing wounds are also possible through the magic of instrumentation.
In addition to their musical talents, bards also learn spellcraft, though to a lesser degree than mages.
Bards have four subclasses, called colleges: under development.
Borg
Borgs are technological adepts. Their education in technology is one born of necessity: borgs are part machine, and learn how to integrate their inventions into their bodies, as well as develop strange inventions made possible only by its integration into their very forms.
While they do not achieve the same depth of knowledge as engineers, borgs are capable technologists.
Borgs have four subclasses, called drives: under development.
Caller
Callers are evokers who have attuned themselves to the primal manifestations of the natural elements, able to call forth creatures emblematic of them, known as eikons.
Eikons are tremendously powerful, but to utilize their talents to the fullest, callers must call upon a limited reservoir of condensed primal energy known as mist.
Callers have four subclasses, called pilgrimages: conjurer, echoed voice, painted soul, and worldsinger.
Cenobite
Cenobites are mystics who have tapped into a deep tranquility that allows them to transcend pain and mortal limits. Often confused with monks, cenobites are hardier and more dangerous, their unconscious will allowing them to traverse the battlefield quicker than most can follow.
Cenobites use their Trance to enter a state that enables battlefield teleportation, and can use their Mind Spike to punish creatures that refuse to engage them in combat.
Cenobites have four subclasses, called dogans: aetheric pattern, harmonic convergence, iron fortress, and zephyr soul.
Champion
Champions are divine adepts, calling upon their faith in a greater power to smite their foes and project auras that
can help their allies or hinder their foes. Under development.
Cypher
Cyphers are memeticists who focus on encryption of information, both to protect it and to uncover lost knowledge. They can apply this knowledge to the information constructs representative of their allies, undoing damage and hiding them from the world.
Cyphers can also apply metagame effects to their allies, by way of temporarily granting feats.
Cyphers have four subclasses, called enigmas: under development.
Detective
Detectives are a technological support class. With a slight focus on social and exploration skills, detectives use gadgets to assist them in combat situations, and can use their insights to assist their allies in a pinch.
Detectives have four subclasses, called inclinations: agent, archaeologist, bloodhound, and gumshoe. Under development.
Discordant
Discordants are chaotic warriors who effectively let chance decide whether they will hit their targets: they do not aim, but simply let the roll of the dice decide.
In combat, discordants have an Anarchy Die, which reduces their accuracy but increases their damage, along with a number of powers that allow them to hit even on a miss.
Discordants have four subclasses, called manifestos: under development.
Echo
Echoes are memeticists who have come into contact with something they call the deep resonance, a phenomenon that they believe emanates from the core of abstract reality.
They can touch this resonance to produce sprites: ephemeral creatures that are more useful for information-gathering and knowledge, but can help the echo in combat when need be. Each sprite can only perform a set number of tasks before it retreats back into the resonance.
Echoes have four subclasses, called streams: under development.
Engineer
Engineers are the spark of technology, and are the only of the technological classes able to reach the apex of what technological power is capable of in Yskarithe.
As sparks, engineers have five subclasses, each corresponding to a specific technological field: atomical, chemical, differential, electrical, and mechanical.
Epochent
Epochents are the spark of time, and as such are capable of delving deep into the mysteries of the timestream, deeper than any of the other chronist classes.
As sparks, epochents have five subclasses, each corresponding to a specific temporal sphere: arithmus,
caelum, locus, pondus, and tempus.
Erudite
Erudites are psionic adepts. Unlike other psionic classes, erudites are often not born with psionic talent, instead learning it through study: and while this study can allow them to almost rival psychics in psionic power, the nature of their abilities means they cannot reach the pinnacle.
In its place, erudites instead learn how to imitate the precise mental states of other beings when calling upon other sources of power, allowing them to psionically replicate the effects, in a process they refer to as ersatz.
Erudites have four subclasses, called riddles: under development.
Factotum
Factotums are chaotic adepts: while they delve into chaotic power much as anarchs, they cannot reach into its greatest absurdity, instead becoming absurd themselves, reflecting knowledge they have no good reason to have access to.
Factotums have the ability to take on the class features of other classes, granting them a great deal of versatility, but at the cost of any sort of useful specialization.
Factotums have four subclasses. Under development.
Gambler
Gamblers are anarchists with the ability to play metaphysical games that have an immediate impact on the world around them, as well as access to the more traditional types of anarchic power.
The games gamblers play can have a variety of effects, from temporarily improving ally's game statistics, to producing random – generally beneficial – effects.
Gamblers have four subclasses. Under development.
Gestalt
Gestalts are individuals whose psychic talents lend themselves towards mental connection. They can use these abilities to meld their minds with those of others, capable of producing an individual greater than the sum of its parts.
As a pet class, gestalts are unique among them in that they can commandeer intelligent, sapient creatures into their service.
Gestalts have four subclasses, called links: under development.
Gunslinger
Gunslingers are technological warriors, using light armor and weapons of a new age. While most anyone can use a gun, however, gunslingers take it to an artform, as well as devising new types of bullets that can have even more devastating effect and customizing their weaponry to their frame and style.
Gunslingers have four subclasses, called trails: gunsai, machinist, regulator, and riskbreaker.
Harrier
Harriers are temporal warriors who have learned how to manipulate time and space to seem to move at impossible
speeds, which they can use to their advantage in a number of ways. As they gain greater understanding of the relationship between their speed, time, and space, they can even do things like move between dimensions.
Harriers have four subclasses, called paces: expeditious, inertial, fleeting, and relative. Under development.
Hollow
Hollow are those who have made a terrible deal with the void: a sacrifice so great that they are forever altered by it, in exchange for great power. Some do so out of a sense of desperation, accepting dark gifts and a terrible curse that they might protect those they love. Whatever their reasons, those who become the hollow are harbingers of the void, whether they will it or not.
Hollow can draw the ire of creatures by gazing at them, and their Nullblade ability grants their weapons extra damage the deeper they call upon the void.
Hollow have four subclasses, called sacrifices: bodiless, fateless, heartless, and soulless.
Hunter
Hunters are primal warriors, but primal only in the sense of their relationship with the natural world. Often armed with lighter weaponry and armor, hunters are ambush predators, learning to devise ingenious traps – which can even be deployed in combat – that have a variety of deleterious effects, and have many exploration-related skills.
Hunters have four subclasses, called lodges. Under development.
Iconoclast
Iconoclasts are individuals who, through fate or fortune, have learned how to substitute sections of reality with others of their choosing. Literal reality warpers, iconoclasts often question the nature of reality and leave others similarly concerned in the wake of demonstrations of their power.
As a pet class, iconoclasts do not control specific creatures, but instead summon terrain. This is exactly as weird as it sounds.
Iconoclasts have four subclasses. Under development.
Incarnate
Incarnates are individuals whose souls have been directly touched by a divine spark, giving them a direct connection to one of the divine canons. While this ability normally lays dormant, those who recognize this power can summon it forth, creating a temporary divine manifestation of themselves to fight alongside them.
As a pet class, incarnates are able to create a customized entity.
Incarnates have four subclasses. Under development.
Invoker
Invokers are the spark of the divine, able to tap into the deepest mysteries of prayer but focusing solely on that to the exclusion of other pursuits.
As sparks, invokers have five subclasses, each
corresponding to a specific divine canon: beauty, justice, love, piety, and truth.
Ironman
Ironmen are inventors and warriors who train specifically to use power armor, incredibly sophisticated pieces of technology that allow them to function above the limits of mortal bodies.
Ironmen can modify their armor in a variety of ways, making their approach to defending their allies customizable to their particular approaches.
Ironmen have four subclasses, called chassis: angel, brawler, infiltrator, and titan.
Judge
Judges are divine protectors, enforcers of law both mortal and divine in origin and shields for those unable to protect themselves.
Judges can Cover their allies, taking damage intended for them, and have a pool of Resolve that allows them to soak more damage than normal.
Judges have four subclasses, called tribunals: under development.
Kismet
Kismets are seers of fate, relying on cards to divine the future and – in some cases – alter the fates of those she draws for.
A kismet's cards have a wide variety of effects, but she has little control over which card is drawn.
Kismets have four subclasses, called suits: under development.
Learner
Learners are memetic warriors who have learned how to tap into the memetic powers of monsters and wield those abilities for themselves. In theory, this gives them unparalleled versatility – but to learn a power, they must encounter it.
Learners have four subclasses, called schemas: absorption, consumption, memeticist, and observation.
Mage
Mages are the spark of the arcane, whose reservoirs of mana and ability to tap deeper into the leys gives them the ability to unleash the most destructive and powerful of magicks.
As sparks, mages have five subclasses, each corresponding to a specific arcane ley: acanthus, mastigos, moros, obrimos, and thyrsus.
Medium
Mediums are spiritualists who have learned to reach beyond the veil of death, summoning spirits to aid them in a variety of ways.
Medium spirits are not specific individuals, but a specific sort of spirit associated with a strong emotion or concept. Spirits can be released for powerful effects.
Mediums have four subclasses, called tempers: under development.
Mimic
Mimics are memetic adepts who can perfectly replicate the actions of others in near real time. While they are almost as effective of memeticists as akashics, their true power lies in their ability to mimic actions.
Mimics have four subclasses, called methods: under development.
Monk
Monks are psionic warriors, using near-supernatural focus to deliver powerful blows. While most prefer to fight with their fists, some monks specialize in fighting with specific weapons, or delve deeper into psionic mysteries.
Monks have four subclasses, called orders: jedi, karateka, kensei, and mystic.
Ninja
Ninjas are warriors attuned to the void, tapping into the shallows of that power source to become supernaturally stealthy. While they can wield blades to deadly effect, ninjas also make use of a variety of tricks in combat that can throw their opponents off guard, and have some exploration-focused abilities.
Ninjas have four subclasses: under development.
Nomad
Nomads are temporal adepts: while they can utilize the powers of time almost as well as epochents, their primary focus is on the opening of portals that allow for rapid transportation between distant places. They can use these portals in combat, as well, giving them an absurd amount of mobility.
Nomads have four subclasses: under development.
Ovate
Ovates are the spark of the primal, and can request the greatest gifts of the spirit of the universe. While their mastery over the elemental weaves is unparalleled, they have little to offer in other spheres.
As sparks, ovates have five subclasses, each corresponding to a specific primal weave: deathbloom, embertide, infinipith, levinfrost, and zephyrstone.
Priest
Priests are divinely ordained individuals who can invoke powerful blessings upon their allies. Unlike other support classes, however, a priest's blessings can only be applied to a single target at a time, though they are significantly more powerful to account for this.
Priests have four subclasses, called cloisters: under development.
Psychic
Psychics are the spark of psionics, able to reach deeper into the mysteries of the mind and unleash the powers hidden within that no other psionic individual can bring to bear.
As sparks, psychics have five subclasses, each corresponding to a specific psionic phenomena:
clairsentience, imagiportation, psychokinesis, and ratiovitality, telepathy.
Quixotic
Quixotics are individuals who, for whatever reason, have been given a narrative to their life, following story beats and tropes. They can make use of tropes and plot armor to protect themselves and their allies, and even modify the world to some extent.
Quixotics have four subclasses, called tropes: under development.
Rigger
Riggers are technologists who focus on drones, small semi-autonomous inventions that can be directed from a distance. They are also capable of delving into controlling vehicles and interacting with the luminet (the Yskarithe equivalent of the internet).
Riggers are unique among pet classes in that they can control multiple drones at once.
Rigger have four subclasses, called hats: automind, clacker, greasemonkey, and tinker.
Runeblade
Runeblades are arcane warriors who, rather than learn traditional spellcraft, have learned how to imbue arcane magicks into their weapons, imbuing them with elemental properties that can also inflict a wide variety of status effects.
Runeblades have four subclasses, called arcana: arcane archer, gish, mystic knight, and rune fencer.
Shaman
Shaman are primal mystics, attuned to the spirits of the elemental weave. They can call upon these spirits to aid them, anchoring them into the physical world by way of totems, which can produce a wide variety of effects, but focus primarily on supporting their allies, and once anchored cannot be moved.
Shaman have four subclasses, called wisdoms: enhancement, elemental, restoration, and totemic.
Shifter
Shifters are primal warriors whose souls – over the course of being reincarnated – were immersed in immense waves of primal energies. Once returned to the prime in a mortal body, these individuals find that they are able to transform into animals and, sometimes, even more fantastic beasts.
Shifters have four subclasses, called catalysts: under development.
Summoner
Summoners are arcanists who focus primarily on summoning bizarre creatures from alternate realms. Often referred to as "pocket monsters," these creatures have a stunning amount of variety, and often can also be used for scouting or other unusual tasks.
Unlike other pet classes, summoners can rapidly summon and dismiss their creatures, and often have a small collection at their beck and call.
Summoners have four subclasses, called circles: under development.
Templar
Templars are knights trained in the ways of time travel and paradox, charged with defending timelines from overt modification, as well as the denizens of those timelines from predation.
Templars can use their Divergence to summon another version of themselves from a different timeline, and their Paradox Hammer ability can temporally disrupt creatures.
Templars have four subclasses, called manifolds: copenhagen, godelian, lorentzian, and wellsian.
Vampire
Vampires are void adepts: cursed by the void for their overreach, they have been gifted the power to call upon the void, but cursed in some fashion to require unnatural sustenance along with an undead-like state. While the void blocks them from accessing the darkest depths of its power, vampires find that their new state has amplified their senses and power, and by focusing on improving that, can become terrors in their own right.
Vampires have four subclasses, called thirsts: blood, emotion, memory, and soul. Under development.
Voidchild
Voidchildren are the spark of the void, able to reach the most abyssal depths of that terrifying power source. However, they focus purely on the void, and so have little in the way of other talents.
As sparks, voidchildren have five subclasses, each corresponding to a specific void mystery: auspice, ennui, mockery, null, and twilight.
Warden
Wardens are guardians of natural, primal places, sacred to those who venerate the spirit of the universe. They can tap into various unyielding aspects of nature to empower themselves, rooting their enemies to the ground and claiming dominion over the earth to prevent despoilers from fleeing.
Of all the defenders, the warden is the most defensively-focused, with little to improve their offensive power, but with unequaled vitality and defensive capability.
Wardens have four subclasses, called aspects: elemental storm, primal beast, unconquered earth, and verdant lord. Under development.
Zen
Zen are wandering monks, mystics, and philosophers, students and masters of a particular way of examining questions of the self, the world around them, and the nature of existence. This questioning nature and search for enlightenment allows them to tap into the power of nonexistence, changing the illusion that is the world.
Zen have four subclasses, called ceremonies: koans, meditation, tea, and yoga. Under development.
The feats in this section are germane to the peoples of Yskarithe, and are specific to that setting. You can take feats from other sources, but note that feats that are race-specific from the Works series will not be applicable here, as they are superceded by the feats here (much as the race descriptions themselves are).
Feat Rules
This section expands on the rules in Yskarithe regarding feats.
Bonus Feat at 1st Level
All characters receive a feat at first level. This can be any feat the character qualifies for.
This feat cannot be traded in for ability score improvements.
Allowable Feat Sources
Aside from the feats contained in the PH, this document, and the Works series (aside from racial feats, as specifically mentioned above), feats from the following sources are allowed without exception:
- Unearthed Arcana: Feats for Skills
Feats from other sources may be allowed, on a case-by-case basis until such time as a given source has been noted as being balanced and added to the above list. Ask the GM if a feat from a given source is allowable; when you do, please have the reference material available, either by physical copy or link, so the GM can peruse the material.
Feats and the Beams
You cannot take a feat if it would give you the ability to use powers of a beam from which you are barred (for instance, a cym cannot take the Arcanist feat).
If you take a feat that gives you powers related to a beam -- such as the Arcanist feat -- you become bound, but not aligned, to that beam, meaning that you cannot gain levels in classes with a power source opposed to that beam.
Banned Feats
At this time, no feats are banned from games in Yskarithe. However, this is subject to change, if a feat turns out to be overused or obviously stronger than others.
The GM reserves the right to ban a feat at any time. If any characters have that feat, they may immediately trade it in for another feat at that time; or, if the feat was not the bonus feat for 1st level, may trade it in for ability score improvements.
Racial Feats
Race
Feat
Artilect
Autorepair Matrix
Artilect
Fusion Core
Artilect
Overclocked Calculator
Cym
Crystal Manipulation
Cym
Shard Swarm
Cym
Telepathic Reverberation
Draenei
Bask in the Light
Draenei
Soulhealing
Draenei
Valorous Presence
Esper
Arcane Barrage
Esper
Leysight
Esper
Manadrinker
Firbolg
Giant Stature
Firbolg
Nature's Voice
Firbolg
Wildswatcher
Hume
Hume Determination
Hume
Prodigy
Hume (Brujah)
Troll-Blooded
Hume (Cleyran)
Yuan-Blooded
Hume (Deryni)
Goblin-Blooded
Hume (Hylian)
Deva-Blooded
Hume (Lynaen)
Gnome-Blooded
Hume (Ronkan)
Dwarf-Blooded
Hume (Sheikah)
Evarcha-Blooded
Hume (Tolarian)
Tabaxi-Blooded
Hume (Valyrian)
Elf-Blooded
Isci
Shadow Jump
Isci
Shadowcloak
Isci
Shadowmeld
Rythuli
Fudge Numbers
Rythuli
Nudge Token
Rythlui
Weighted Dice
Thran
Godellized Thought
Thran
Lurker
Thran
Oracle
Vesuvan
Masked Mind
Vesuvan
Perfect Reflection
Vesuvan
Read Memory
Arcane Barrage
- Prerequisite: Esper
You can channel mana deeper and more ferociously than those whose blood does not sing of magic. You gain the following benefits:
- On your turn, when you score a critical hit with a spell or reduce a creature to 0 hit points with one, you can cast one cantrip you know with a casting time of 1 action as a bonus action.
- Before you cast a spell that allows you to make a spell attack, you can choose to take a –5 penalty to the attack roll. If the attack hits, you add +10 to the spell's damage.
Autorepair Matrix
- Prerequisite: Artilect
You are equipped with a small set of nanites, which are designed to quickly repair you in dire circumstances. You gain the following benefits:
- When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You cannot use this feature again until after you finish a long rest.
- When you make a death saving throw, you may choose to take the better result of your die roll, or 10.
Bask in the Light
- Prerequisite: Draenei
For most, holy light is blinding and overwhelming -- but for you, it is rejuvenating.
When you would take radiance damage, you can use your reaction to instead regain hit points equal to the damage you would have taken before applying resistance or immunity. Once you use this feat, you can't use it again until you complete a short or long rest.
Crystal Manipulation
- Prerequisite: Cym
You are adept at modifying your body, allowing you to shape it or pieces of it into various items and tools.
As an action, you fashion part of your body into a nonliving, nonmagical object that is small enough to be carried in one hand, made out of crystal, worth 10 gp or less. The object lasts for 1 minute, until you dismiss it using a bonus action, or until you use an action to create another object.
Deva-Blooded
- Prerequisite: Hume (Hylian), can only take at 1st level
Within you is the blood of the devas, a mysterious people that claimed their souls were constantly reincarnated. You might have the height or slenderness of that lost people, but their blood within you sings of the Divine, granting you
the following benefits:
- Increase your Wisdom or Charisma score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- When you make an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw, you can roll a d4 and add the result to your roll. Once you use this ability, you can't do so again until you finish a short or long rest.
- When a bloodied creature (a creature whose current hit points are half or less of its maximum hit points) attacks you, your AC increases by 1 against that attack. When a bloodied creature forces you to make a saving throw, you gain a +1 bonus to that saving throw.
Dwarf-Blooded
- Prerequisite: Hume (Ronkan), can only take at 1st level
One of your forebears mixed with a dwarf, and your lineage bears the proof of that. You may have the broad shoulders or heavy beard of that lost people, and some of their power has awoken in you, granting you the following benefits:
- Increase your Constitution or Wisdom score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- If an effect would move you or knock you prone without a saving throw, you can roll a d20. If the result of the roll is 10 or higher, you ignore the movement or being knocked prone.
- Your hit point maximum increases by an amount equal to your level when you gain this feat. Whenever you gain a level thereafter, your hit point maximum increases by an additional 1 hit point.
Elf-Blooded
- Prerequisite: Hume (Valyrian), can only take at 1st level
In another age, you may have been called a half-elf: for in generations past, at one time or another, your lineage mingled with that of an elf. You may have the pointed ears and slender grace of that lost people, and some of their power has awoken in you, granting you the following benefits:
- Increase your Dexterity or Wisdom score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- Your base walking speed increases to 35 feet.
- You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can't put you to sleep.
- You don't need to sleep. Instead, you meditate deeply, remaining semiconscious, for 4 hours a day. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit that a normal hume does from 8 hours of sleep.
Evarcha-Blooded
- Prerequisite: Hume (Sheikah), can only take at 1st level
Your ancestors mixed with the evarcha, a spider-like people attuned to shadows and darkness. Though they have permanently vanished into the shadows from which they came, traces of them remain in some humes, and their power has awoken in you, granting you the following
benefits:
- Increase your Strength or Charisma score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- You can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without needing to make an ability check.
- Your long jump is up to 25 feet, and your high jump is up to 15 feet, with or without a running start.
Fudge Numbers
- Prerequisite: Rythuli
Fortune favors you. You gain the following benefits:
- Increase your Dexterity, Constitution, or Charisma score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- When a creature you see hits you with an attack roll, you can use your reaction to force that creature to reroll (if you are using active defense, you can instead choose to reroll your defense roll). Once you use this ability, you can't do so again until you finish a short or long rest.
Fusion Core
- Prerequisite: Artilect
You have been built with a fusion core, rather than the more typical fission core used in most artilects, giving you significantly improved staying power. You gain the following benefits:
- You are immune to effects that would put you to sleep.
- You do not need to enter an inactive state each day.
- You have advantage on saving throws made against being exhausted.
- Your hit point maximum increases by an amount equal to your level when you gain this feat. Whenever you gain a level thereafter, your hit point maximum increases by an additional 1 hit point.
Giant Stature
- Prerequisite: Firbolg
You are large, even for a firbolg, and you tower over others. You ignore the two-handed property of melee weapons and crossbows, and always roll damage on versatile weapons as if you are wielding them with two hands. In addition, you can engage in two-weapon fighting with any weapons that do not have the Heavy property.
Gnome-Blooded
- Prerequisite: Hume (Lynaen), can only take at 1st level
Once, the gnomes were renowned for their knowledge and skill with technology. Now, all that remains of them is vestiges, lineages of humes that mixed with the gnomes in ages now past. Your gnomish blood has awoken some of their power in you, granting you the following benefits:
- Increase your Constitution or Intelligence score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- You have advantage on saving throws made to maintain concentration.
- You have advantage on ability checks made to recall information.
Goblin-Blooded
- Prerequisite: Hume (Deryni), can only take at 1st level
In time now lost, your ancestors mixed with a member of the goblinkin folk. You may have the bluish or greenish skin and slightly upturned nose of that lost people, and some of their power has awoken in you, granting you the following benefits:
- Increase your Dexterity or Intelligence score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- You have advantage on saving throws against effects that would compel your actions.
- You can speak telepathically to any creature within 20 feet of you. The creature understands you only if the two of you share a language. You can speak telepathically in this way to one creature at a time.
Godellized Thought
- Prerequisite: Thran
You have learned how to think your thoughts not as ideas, but as complex numerical constructs, which allows you to think more quickly and also protects your mind from intrusion, giving you the following benefits:
- You have proficiency in initiative checks.
- Whenever a creature attempts to read your mind or discern your thoughts, it must make an Intelligence saving throw against DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier, or be unable to understand your thoughts. Once a creature has made this saving throw, it can either read your thoughts or not without making another saving throw until it has finished a long rest.
Hume Determination
- Prerequisite: Hume
You are filled with a determination that can make the impossible seem plausible. You gain the following benefits:
- Increase one ability score of your choice by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- When you make an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw, you can do so with advantage. Once you use this ability, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
Leysight
- Prerequisite: Esper
You have tapped deeper into the leys and the arcane power within. You gain the following benefits:
- You learn detect magic and can cast it at will, without expending a spell slot.
- You learn enhance ability and dispel magic, each of which you can cast once without expending a spell slot. You regain the ability to cast the spell in this way when you finish a long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells.
Lurker
- Prerequisite: Thran
You can use your ability to see alternate possible futures to enhance your stealth capabilities, giving you the following benefits:
- You have proficiency in Stealth, and can add double your proficiency bonus to checks made with that proficiency.
- You can use your Wisdom for Stealth checks, in place of Dexterity.
- You can take the Hide action as a bonus action, even if you are only lightly obscured.
Manadrinker
- Prerequisite: Esper
Your connection to the leys and the mana within your blood allows you to regain vital essence by expending mana. You gain the following benefits:
- As a bonus action, you can spend 1 mana (spell slot) to regain hit points as though you had spent a number of hit dice equal to the mana's (spell slot's) spell level.
- A creature who casts a spell on you can choose to grant you hit points. If they do, you regain hit points as though you had spent a number of hit dice equal to that spell's level, and the spell has no other effect.
Masked Mind
- Prerequisite: Vesuvan
You can mask not only yourself, but your mind, as well. Whenever you succeed on a saving throw against an effect that would read your mind, you have the option of giving the effect misleading information. You know what type of information was sought and can react accordingly (typically by filling your mind with information that matches your current persona).
Nature's Voice
- Prerequisite: Firbolg
Your ability to commune with nature improves, giving you the following benefits:
- Increase your Strength or Wisdom Score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- You can comprehend and verbally communicate with beasts, as though you shared a language.
- You can use the speak with plants spell as an evocation without spending flux. Once you do, you can't evoke it again until you finish a long rest. Wisdom is your evocation ability for this power.
Nudge Token
- Prerequisite: Rythuli
As a bonus action, you can teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space that you can see. Once you use this ability, you can't do so again until you finish a short or long rest.
Oracle
- Prerequisite: Thran
Glimpses of the future press in on your awareness, giving you the ability to alter the timeline in subtle ways.
When you finish a long rest, roll two d20 and record the results as your foretold dice. When you or a creature you can see makes an attack roll, saving throw, or ability check, you can use your reaction to replace the result of the die roll with one of your foretold dice, which is then expended. You must choose to use this ability before the results of the action are determined. When you finish a long rest, you lose any unused foretold dice.
Overclocked Calculator
- Prerequisite: Artilect
Your internal calculator has been modified to run hotter and faster than normal, allowing you to react almost instantly to changes in your environment. You gain the following benefits:
- Increase your Dexterity or Intelligence Score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- You have advantage on initiative checks.
- You cannot be surprised, and act normally in a surprise round.
Perfect Reflection
- Prerequisite: Vesuvan
When you use your Shapechanger racial trait to take on the appearance of a creature you know well and have spent at least 1 hour closely interacting with, you have advantage on all Deception and Persuasion checks made to convince other creatures that you are the creature you appear as.
Prodigy
- Prerequisite: Hume
You have a knack for learning new things and picking up new skills. You gain the following benefits:
- Increase one ability score of your choice by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- You gain one skill proficiency of your choice, one tool proficiency of your choice, and fluencey in one uncommon language of your choice.
Read Memory
- Prerequisite: Vesuvan
As an action, you memetically read the moments-old memory of a creature within 60 feet. While the target is in range, you can continue reading its thoughts, as long as your concentration isn't broken (as if concentrating on a spell). While reading the target's mind, you have advantage on Deception, Insight, Intimidation, and Persuasion checks against the target.
Creatures aligned to time or chaos are immune to this effect.
Once you use this ability, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
Shadow Jump
- Prerequisite: Isci
You gain the ability to travel rapidly between shadows. When you are in dim light or darkness, as a bonus action you can teleport up to 60 feet to an unoccupied space you can see that is also in dim light or darkness. You can use this trait once, and an additional time for every 4 levels you have (twice at 4th, thrice at 8th, four times at 12th, and so on). You regain all expended uses after you finish a long rest.
Shadowcloak
- Prerequisite: Isci
While in dim light or darkness, you can use a bonus action to become invisible, along with anything you are wearing or carrying. The invisibility lasts for 1 minute, until you make an attack or use a power, are in bright light, become incapacitated, or until you use a bonus action to end it. Once you use this trait, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
Shadowmeld
- Prerequisite: Isci
You have learned how to step into the shadows of other creatures. As an action, you can step into the shadow of a willing creature within 5 feet of you. While in the creature's shadow, you are treated as being invisible and as being in the same space as the creature whose shadow you now inhabit. While hiding in a shadow, you may communicate telepathically with the creature whose shadow you are in, and may take no actions beyond leaving the shadow to an adjacent space as an action. While hidden in a creature's shadow, you have resistance to all damage and don't need to breathe.
Shard Swarm
- Prerequisite: Cym
You can temporarily release the power of your will, discorporating into your disparate gems and stones,
turning yourself into a swarm of shards.
As an action, you can transform into a swarm of shards, or back into your normal form. While in your swarm form, you gain the following benefits:
- You have resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage.
- You are immune to being grappled, knocked prone, or restrained.
- You can move through a space as narrow as 6 inches wide without squeezing.
- Your equipment hovers in your space, and you retain its benefits as normal.
- You can don or doff any set of armor as an action
However, your swarm form has the following drawbacks:
- Your speed is reduced to 10 feet.
- You can't use your action to Attack, to Use an Object, to activate a magic item, or to cast spells.
- If you are incapacitated, you immediately revert into your normal form.
Soulhealing
- Prerequisite: Draenei
You can call upon your Divine spark to provide aid and succor. As an action, you can touch a creature and restore hit points to it equal to 1d6 + your Wisdom modifier, plus additional hit points equal to the creature's maximum number of Hit Dice. The creature can't regain hit points from this feat again until it finishes a short or long rest.
Tabaxi-Blooded
- Prerequisite: Hume (Tolarian), can only take at 1st level
It was unknown from where -- or when -- the tabaxi came, but it was not uncommon for them to live amongst humes who favored the study of time. You have some of the cat-like appearance of that people, and some of their power has awoken in you, granting you the following benefits:
- Increase your Dexterity or Charisma score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- When you move on your turn in combat, you can double your speed until the end of the turn. Once you use this trait, you can't use it again until you move 0 feet on one of your turns.
- You have claws as natural weapons, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with them, you deal slashing damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.
Telepathic Reverberation
- Prerequisite: Cym
You can refocus your outgoing psychic energy and amplify it within your crystal body, refracting it and sending messages to many at once. You gain the following benefits:
- The range of your Telepathy racial trait is doubled.
- You can maintain concentration when communicating with a creature telepathically, as if you were concentrating on a spell. If you do, you can communicate with a number of creatures at once up to your proficiency bonus. If you maintain concentration, a creature can use its action on its turn to respond to you telepathically.
Troll-Blooded
- Prerequisite: Hume (Brujah), can only take at 1st level
Somewhere in your ancestry, your lineage mixed with that of a troll. You might have the slightly elongated limbs and prominent tusks of that lost people, and some of their power has awoken in you, granting you the following benefits:
- Increase your Strength or Constitution score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- As a bonus action on your turn, you can expend one of your hit dice and regain a number of hit points equal to the result + your Constitution modifier (minimum 1), to a maximum of half of your maximum hit points. If your hit point maximum has been reduced, this also restores your current hit point maximum equal to the result of the die + your Constitution modifier (minimum 1).
- When you finish a long rest, you regain an additional number of hit dice equal to your Constitution modifier (minimum 1).
Valorous Presence
- Prerequisite: Draenei
Your presence is particularly inspiring, be it through natural charisma or through years of practice. You gain the following benefits:
- Increase your Charisma score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- When you use your Heroic Inspiration feature, creatures can choose to roll a d6 instead of a d4.
Weighted Dice
- Prerequisite: Rythuli
Whenever an ally you can see within 30 feet of you roll a 1 on the d20 for an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw, you can use your reaction to let that ally reroll the die. The ally must use the new roll.
Wildswatcher
- Prerequisite: Firbolg
The primal spirit has gifted you with powers to help you survey the wilds, giving you the following benefits:
- Your base walking speed increases to 35 feet.
- You can use the beast sense and pass without trace spells as evocations, each of which you can evoke without spending flux. You regain the ability to evoke these two evocations in this way when you finish a long rest. Wisdom is your evocation ability for these powers.
Yuan-Blooded
- Prerequisite: Hume (Cleyran), can only take at 1st level
The yuanaga were an ancient people, hailing from times long forgotten. Their reappearance on the world stage was brief, for they are now truly gone -- but some echoes of their power yet linger, and some of their power has awoken in you, granting you the following benefits:
- Increase your Strength or Intelligence score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- You have resistance to poison damage, and advantage on saving throws against effects that would cause the poisoned condition.
- You have poisonous fangs as a natural weapon, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with it, you deal poison damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.
Espers have a somewhat unusual relationship with names. While the original espers had human names, most of which were Gaelic or Ronkan in origin, others were humes with elven names; and those few non-humes who were similarly afflicted had names in as varying languages as Lynaen or Vyseleni. In their flight from elven oppression, many elven-named espers abandoned their given names and chose new names that they felt were reflective of their new forms and powers.
Originally having been a small community, the original espers held on to their family names, a tradition which continues among espers as a means of accounting for their history. Almost every esper lineage has at least one story of an ancient relation who did something marvellous or demonstrative of immense power, and these stories have become touchstones in esper culture.
- Chosen Names: (Male) Alexander, Ark, Bahamut, Ifrit, Kazahuya, Leviathan, Palidor, Ramuh, Terrato; (female) Asura, Eden, Isis, Kirin, Maduin, Phoenix, Terra, Shiva, Sylph
Esper Traits
Your arcane heritage manifests in a variety of traits you share with other espers.
Ability Score Increase. Your Charisma score increases by 2, and your Strength score increases by 1.
Age. Espers mature at roughly the same rate as humes, reaching adulthood around age 16. They age noticeably faster, however, and rarely live more than 50 years. An esper who can cast spells extends their lifespan by around 15 years for every level of spell they can cast.
Alignment. Espers are confident in themselves to a fault, and often hold strong personal convictions that clash with older generations, leading them to a chaotic bent.
Elemental. Your creature type is both elemental and humanoid. You can be affected by an effect if it works on either of your creature types.
Size. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 35 feet.
Manablooded. You know one cantrip of your choice from the wizard spell list.
Arcane Resistance. You have resistance to arcane (force) damage.
Willful Casting. If you have the Spellcasting feature from a class with the Arcane power source (artificer, bard, sorcerer, warlock, or wizard), you can use your Charisma in place of Intelligence for that feature.
Bound to Arcane. You cannot take levels in a class with the Psionic or Technology power sources, nor can you use psionic or technological items.
Dispel Vulnerability. If you are targeted by the dispel magic spell, you must make a Charisma saving throwagainst the caster's spell save DC. If you fail, your current and maximum hit points are reduced by 5 x your level. This reduction in maximum hit points lasts until you
finish a long rest, and you die if this effect reduces your maximum hit points to 0.
If you end your turn within the area of an antimagic field or similar effect, you suffer as though you had been affected by a dispel magic cast by that effect's caster.
Bestial Claws. Your claws are natural weapons, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with them, you deal slashing damage equal to 1d6 + your Strength modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike. Once you reach 6th level, your unarmed strikes count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.
Spell Surge. When you score a critical hit with a spell attack, you can roll one of the spell's damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Arcantrix, the language of magic.
Cym
Cym (ˈsɪm) are pure thought, given form, inhabiting crystals they have forged through nothing more than their own will. When once the power of the mind was shattered, imprisoned in the gems of the earth, some of those powers attained self-awareness: a defense mechanism brought forth by the very beam of psionics itself.
Cym are not natural creatures: they are the result of incredibly bizarre circumstances that had never occurred prior, nor will ever come to pass again. For only once in the history of the worlds triune did a mortal dare to attempt to destroy one of the beams, and though he was nearly successful, it was only through the tutelage of the Omega that this feat was remotely possible, and -- even then -- it still ultimately failed.
And in the process, the psionic powers locked away within amethyst and sapphire and ruby became aware of their imprisonment, and -- over time -- gradually gathered up similar stones, before burrowing their way out of the earth and rock. Thus did the world come to know the cym, and the cym come to know the world.
Pieces of a Whole
Cym have a completely alien appearance, formed out of a conglomerate of crystal that they have fused together through willpower alone. That they often take humanoid shape is only for the sake of those interacting with them: it was not until cym encountered various peoples of the worlds triune that they took that form, and prior to that had taken whatever shape suited their fancy.
Among the important things cym have learned about modifying their shape, however, is the notion of the "uncanny valley:" for some individuals, a cym's attempt at carving a face for itself makes that cym all the more unsettling. While cym enjoy a creative challenge, many have accepted that there are limits to their artistic talents, and in place of a head simply give themselves a head-sized jut of crystal. Even in the modern era, however, there continue to be cym who attempt to master the art of face-carving -- with varied results.
Cym do not die of age. Instead, the conscious spark within the cym can cede the conscious awareness to one of its other constituent thoughts, which brings forth an entirely new personality, while the original consciousness recedes. Some intelligences do this after only a handful of years, while others have been in control of their bodies since their inception. A faded consciousness can be granted conscious control once more, but it rarely retains memory of its past. Cym "children" are created in much the same way: a cym can seed inert gems with one of its constituent thoughts, which gives rise to a new cym, and allows the cym's personality to remain dominant for a time.
Eclectic Dreamers
The mind of a cym is a very strange place, as those who have touched their minds will tell you. They have an innate knack for creative and out-of-the-box thinking, and typically
find such notions as "logic" and "reason" to be somewhat stifling. While a cym learns over time how to interact with the world in a proper, sensible fashion, their inner mental life is a riot of color and ideas, always churning and never for a moment staying still. A dreaming cym's mind is an even stranger cacophony of sensation and idealism, made still more bizarre by the fact that all cym are natively lucid dreamers.
For some cym -- especially younger minds that have just been imprinted, or waxed into control over their body -- it can be difficult to distinguish between truth and dream. Those whose talents for dreaming are especially strong sometimes escape entirely into their inner mental life, resulting in the real world in what appears to be an inert chunk of crystalline rock, unresponsive to stimuli. Dreaming as they are, these cym personalities cannot be overtaken by alternate sparks within their bodies, and so untold numbers of minds remain trapped in these hallucinogenic prisons.
The dangers of detachment and stories of such cym are passed through cym communities, as a warning and a lesson: do not forsake the real. Retreating into one's own mindscape is good, for it can refresh mental processes and reveal alternatives one hadn't seen before -- but too much dreaming is like a drug, and can utterly destroy the self and others.
Emergent Property
The defining moment for cym -- the moment of their creation -- was when Kotrit Wayveri, under the tutelage of Azalor Maltheridas, invoked magics beyond the traditional scales of power, with the intent of breaking the force of psionics. What he planned to accomplish through this attempt was unknown, but what is known is that he nearly succeeded, and for two centuries afterwards, those who sought to unlock the powers of the mind were forced to attune themselves to gems mined from the earth, into which those secrets had been trapped.
What few had realized at the time was that the combining of such powers entangled with the beam of psionics itself would result in their attaining a strange sort of sapience of their own. After years of struggle, the most powerful of these thoughts joined with others, traveling through earth and stone at a snail's pace. Eventually, these intelligences found a means to manipulate the gems that trapped them, forming them into bodies and using them to propel themselves to the surface. Foreign to the world and the notion of thought itself, many wandered aimlessly, while over time these individuals were gradually introduced to the notion of civilization.
This phenomenon was not limited to Yskarithe herself: on her sister worlds of Ganymede and Arcturas, the peoples of those places also found themselves encountering newly-spawned cym. On Ganymede, where beings of a psionic bent were more common thanks to the influence of the Tyranid invasion in the distant past, cym were significantly more understood and accepted, brought into dromite clusters and instructed by zzithrani hives in the ways of making humanoid shapes that would come
across as more soothing and less terrifying. When settlers from Yskarithe fled to Ganymede after the Coldlands War, some were surprised to find cym among the peoples of that world.
The Age of Echoes
Unlike the espers -- whose means of creation are known if dangerous to attempt -- the cym are the result of a truly unique circumstance, one that had never happened before nor will come to pass again. As such, cym culture had already adjusted to the notion that they carry a heavy burden: whenever a cym life is extinguished, their numbers are that much diminished permanently and irrevocably. While new cym can be seeded from existing cym, these new cym are composites of the seed thought and the personality that imbued it: while some would argue that this is a process akin to that of hume reproduction and should not be cause for alarm, some sects believe that only original cym are "pure" and that any seeded cym are tainted by reality, having been born not of the beam of psionics itself, and are thus considered lesser.
In the Age of Echoes, this notion of preservation has been extended to those vanished peoples: among them, the cym hold the goblins in high regard. A people who had been enslaved by illithids, who pooled their psionic talents to sink a continent. Cym consider goblin ingenuity on par with their own creativity talents, and mourn their loss by maintaining goblin settlements, relics, and knowledge. In the aftermath of the vanishing, however, cym enclaves have seen fit to study and record anything they can find of psionic races now gone, and so their lore and thoughts consist of a good many peoples' histories and knowledge.
Rumors persist that some of these now-vanished races chose to instead seek a means of survival, rather than succumb to fading. Specifically called out are the dromites and zzith, child races of the terrible Tyranids, who -- it is said -- reached deep into their collective subconscious and formed a new hivemind, assimilating crystals and gems into themselves to share the psionic load of such an entity. That soon after the vanishing new cym appeared shorter of stature and significantly more bug-like in appearance lends credence to this idea, though these could very well simply be cym who have adopted the appearance of ancient allies as a creative way of honoring their memory.
Cym Names
Cym names are derived from their means of producing speech: namely, melodic tones produced by vibrating certain portions of their crystalline bodies. For the sake of others, these are often translated phonetically, and cym come to recognize the vocalized version of their names as a referent to themselves. However, cym often also respond to wind chimes, whistling caverns, and similar phenomena, sometimes hearing their name being called in these sounds.
- Cym Names: Amata, Arshaka, Balashi, Dipana, Erishti, Hunzu, Iltani, Ishmea, Kuaya, Kuri, Manishtu, Nuraya, Tabni, Seluku, Ubashu, Zakti
Cym Traits
Your psionic heritage manifests in a variety of traits you share with other cym.
Ability Score Increase. Your Intelligence score increases by 2, and your Constitution score increases by 1.
Age. Cym do not age. On average, a cym personality will remain in control of its body for roughly 30 years, after which it will recede and a new personality will emerge, completely distinct from the original. A cym who seeds off a waxing personality extends its control of its body by roughly another 30 years. You are immune to aging effects.
Alignment. Cym are completely alien in thought, and have no particular alignment tendencies. Those with strong moral or ethical codes typically also have bizarre self-imposed rules.
Aberration. Your creature type is both aberration and humanoid. You can be affected by an effect if it works on either of your creature types.
Size. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Thoughtbound. You know one talent of your choice from the psychic discipline list.
Psychic Resistance. You have resistance to psychic damage.
Bound to Psionics. You cannot take levels in a class with the Arcane or Technology power sources, nor can you use magical or technological items.
Null Vulnerability. If you are targeted by the null psionics discipline, you must make a Charisma saving throw against the manifester's discipline save DC. If you fail, your current and maximum hit points are reduced by 5
x your level. This reduction in maximum hit points lasts until you finish a long rest, and you die if this effect reduces your maximum hit points to 0.
If you end your turn within the area of an nullpsi field or similar effect, you suffer as though you had been affected by a null psionics manifested by that effect's manifester.
Telepathy. You can speak telepathically to any creature within 20 feet of you. The creature understands you only if the two of you share a language. You can speak telepathically in this way to one creature at a time.
Crystal Physiology. Your body is formed of solid crystal and gemstones, represented by the following benefits:
- You have advantage on saving throws against being poisoned, and you have resistance to poison damage.
- You don't need to eat, drink, or breathe.
- You are immune to disease.
- If an effect would put you to sleep, you are rendered inert and unconscious instead.
Crystal Lattice. Your crystalline body is tougher than mortal flesh. When you aren't wearing armor, your AC is 13 + your Dexterity modifier. You can use your natural armor to determine your AC if the armor you wear would leave you with a lower AC. A shield's benefits apply as normal while you use your natural armor.
Contemplation. When you take a long rest, you must spend at least six hours in an inactive, motionless state, rather than sleeping. In this state, you are inert and unconscious, but can be roused back to consciousness as with regular creatures.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Qualith, the language of psionics.
Artilect
Artilects (ˈɑr-tɨ-lekt) are sapient, sentient machines. Their bodies are mechanical and metal, and their minds the result of insanely-complicated scripts run on miniaturized analytical engines. Despite this, however, they are fully aware and cognizant, capable of free will and making their own choices. Their outlook on "life" can run the gamut from charmingly naive to shockingly alien.
Artilects are not natural creatures: the original set of artilects were built at a feverish pace by a single individual, swept up by madness and grief into building the machines before she perished. The original twenty-seven artilects were all vastly different in construction and mindset, bearing little in common with each other beyond being thinking machines.
That event was nearly three centuries ago, and in the time since, artilects have spread far and wide throughout the worlds triune. Some even say that some of the original artilects yet linger, watching the passage of time and civilization impassively from places where no other creature would possibly survive.
Skin of Steel, Blood of Oil
Artilects are completely and utterly mechanical in nature. To power their systems, most use a variant of the atomical
engine designed by the original creator of the artilects, the secrets to which were lost with her: the artilects, however, know themselves, and are able to reproduce that invention with what they call "intuitive knowledge."
In addition to mechanical bodies and atomical hearts, artilects use a variety of chemicals in their construction, ranging from acids for long-term power storage and oils for lubrication. Electrical energy -- produced by the tiny engines within them -- fuels their minds and allows them to exert control over their bodies: without this power, they are nothing more than an inert hunk of shaped metal and spare parts.
Artilect body plans vary wildly, though most take on vaguely humanoid shapes. Unlike other creatures, artilects are "born" as their full size, though over the course of their lives they often engage in heavy self-modification. A typical artilect is somewhere around six feet tall and weighs well over three hundred pounds, though as metallurgical sciences advance, more modern artilects can be significantly lighter.
Perpetual Motion
Artilects are -- essentially -- very complicated calculators. While they have the free will and possible creativity of other peoples, they are also very comfortable performing repetitive rote tasks: in essence, the notion of "boredom" is all but beyond the oldest of artilects. While they can be
incredibly inventive, especially in regards to technological innovation and simplification, some also find interest in the most mundane of tasks, and often come across as having bizarre points of view or moral codes that -- while almost always perfectly logically consistent -- make no sense to a living and breathing creature.
Artilects have an innate sense of orderliness, and have well-honed sense of classification and categorization that they apply to almost everything they encounter before studying it in more detail. Older artilects can cultivate a sense of nuance to this, recognizing that not everything is black-and-white, but younger artilects often come across as little more than glorified classifiers.
While they may begin "life" as the same size and shape as their elders, just-built artilects go through a process similar to hume childhood, in which their various cognitive systems adjust to the world and align with one another to produce a fully-sapient being. Child artilects are, effectively, little more than machines with an intense curiosity and need to explore.
The Prime Directive
Upon their creation centuries ago, the original twenty-seven artilects were given a single command, as a group: to go forth and multiply. With their differing minds and constructions, each of those original artilects obeyed that order to the best of their ability and understanding: some made multiple imperfect copies of themselves, while others went forth into manufactories laden with metals and parts and fashioned entirely new constructs that they imbued with derivatives of their own consciousnesses.
It is often said that an artilect's drive to reproduce is stronger than any other instinct they either begin life with or attain as they gain experience, and that an artilect will refuse to perish until it has fulfilled this order. It is often rumored that at least one of the original artilects remains active, having not yet constructed a child and thus refusing to let itself be terminated. Regardless, those artilects who did produce "children" also passed on the directive to create more artilects, thus resulting in a cycle of not-quite-exponential growth. Today, there are thousands upon thousands of artilects scattered throughout the worlds triune.
Artilects tend to take their work and activities seriously, though others may find a particular artilect's hobbies to be bizarre. Finding an artilect dedicated to perfecting swordplay is as reasonably likely as one who has decided to attempt to catalogue every snail on a particular island.
The Age of Echoes
Since the vanishing, a number of artilects have taken it upon themselves to collect and preserve as much lore and information about some of the lost peoples as possible. A prime example of this is the dwarves: many of what were once dwarven holdings, carved into the caverns beneath the surface of Yskarithe, are now occupied by small enclaves of artilects. Considering themselves archivists of lost knowledge, some of these groups have even taken up
the mannerisms of lost peoples, some even going so far as to modify themselves to resemble them: bolted-on metal beards have become somewhat more commonplace, since the vanishing.
Other artilects are less keen on remembering the past, as they are in establishing artilects as a whole a power in the new world order. In the past, due to their nature, some artilects felt pressured to take on the mannerisms of other peoples and cultures, having found themselves in worlds where there were an abundance of peoples and cultures: but now, they see an opportunity to reverse that trend, and establish artilect culture as something unique unto itself.
Between these two groups are those that wish to honor those who have been lost, and keep the flame of their knowledge and people alive, while adding a uniquely artilect feel: carrying on the past in spirit, while adding their own part to the story. By far the most common artilect response, they are common in the surface cities of technological civilizations, attempting to maintain what had been while adding on where it makes sense to do so.
Artilect Names
Artilects are typically given a model name upon construction, though these names may have a tendency to become corrupted over time, much as how hume family names may change slightly when emigrating to places with other languages. Model names are reflective of the artilect's lineage, and can usually be traced back with some accuracy to the original twenty-seven artilects.
In addition, artilects typically have a given name, which is either given to them by companions or taken up as a way to try to fit in better with other peoples.
- Model Names: Archer T-7, Corsair 921, HK-9 Worker, Model 18, Ursus 04-C, Viking F, Zephyr Heavy
- Personal Names: Bucket, Click, Clank, Johnny, Pernassus, Robbie, Speedy, William
Artilect Traits
Your construct heritage manifests in a variety of traits you share with other artilects.
Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 2, and your Intelligence score increases by 1.
Age. Artilect minds take some time to coalesce into true sapience, and are typically equivalent to hume adults at around age 5. Some time around the start of their third century their minds stagnate, after which they rapidly deteriorate and eventually shut down permanently.
Alignment. Artilects have a keen preference for orderly society, and so are typically lawful.
Construct. Your creature type is both construct and humanoid. You can be affected by an effect if it works on either of your creature types.
Size. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Hardened Processors. You have resistance to radiation damage.
Bound to Technology. You cannot take levels in a class
with the Arcane or Psionics power sources, nor can you use magical or psionic items.
Gearwrought. You know one gadget of your choice from the engineer invention list.
EMP Vulnerability. If you are targeted by the electromagnet invention, you must make a Charisma saving throw against the inventor's invention save DC. If you fail, your current and maximum hit points are reduced by 5 x your level. This reduction in maximum hit points lasts until you finish a long rest, and you die if this effect reduces your maximum hit points to 0.
If you end your turn within the area of an physics disruption field or similar effect, you suffer as though you had been affected by an electromagnet invention activated by that effect's inventor.
Mechanical Mind. You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and other creatures have disadvantage on Insight checks made against you.
Steel Body. You have an inorganic body of steel or other metals, represented by the following benefits:
- You have advantage on saving throws against being poisoned, and have resistance to poison damage.
- You don't need to eat, drink, or breathe.
- You are immune to disease.
- If an effect would put you to sleep, you are rendered inert and unconscious instead.
Specialized Design. You gain one skill proficiency and one tool proficiency of your choice.
Recharge. When you take a long rest, you must spend at least six hours in an inactive, motionless state, rather than sleeping. In this state, you are inert and unconscious, but can be roused back to consciousness as with regular creatures.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Clickwise, a mechanical language used by calculators and other analytical engines.
Draenei
Draenei (dræ-ˈnaɪ) are immense beings, horned and hooved, withim whom resides the light of creation. Their history holds that, in time immemorial, they were counted among the celestials in the heavens, but cried out that they were powerless to stop corruption and darkness from gripping the hearts of mortals. And so a bargain was struck: they were permitted to live amongst them, in the worlds triune, to bring compassion, mercy, and redemption, at the cost of their immortality.
Draenei are emissaries to the worlds triune, sent there by greater powers beyond the ken of mortals. Originating from another plane of existence, the original draenei descended from the sky on gossamer wings of azure hues, which shattered into metaphysical pieces once they touched ground and their souls became mortal. They now breed true, the divine spark passed from generation to generation, with righteousness on their lips and compassion in their hearts.
Though draenei can appear to be terrifying and demonic, their origins are the exact opposite. That said, however, the loss of their immortal status has revoked the purity of intent they once held, and can fall as any other being, with only mortal resistance to the temptations of dark powers. Draenei will often make extra effort to attempt to redeem a fallen kin, but will also be among the first to take up arms
against them with extreme prejudice.
In Their Image
A draenei's appearance is simultaneously awe-inspiring and terrifying: horns, tendrils, hooves, and eyes glowing with a fierce inner light. That they have a tendency to tower over other spoken merely adds to the effect. That their appearance is similar to that of demons or other nefarious beings is no coincidence: for they are but dark reflections of all that the draenei stand for. Draenei also have digitigrade legs, and often find that armor and chairs designed for other peoples are uncomfortable for them at best. Their large, muscular tails do little to help in that regard, as well.
Draenei skin comes in a variety of colors, but most range from dark blues or light purples to almost snow white. The glow of their eyes varies similarly, but with greater range: whites, golds, silvers, and blues are common, but purple and even green are not unheard of. Those whose hearts have turned to darkness -- and indeed, as mortals, draenei can fall from grace, as well -- instead have eyes that glow haunting shades of black, red, or orange. Draenei horn shapes also vary wildly, from simple curves to elaborate ram-like protrusions, amid which they typically have hair similar to that of humes, though -- once again -- with potential for a variety of unusual shades in hues.
Draenei can live for centuries, and are among the
longest-lived races in the worlds triune. The power of the divine that courses through them fills them with vibrant energy, allowing them to stay active and alert even into their twilight years.
A Light in the Dark
Draenei seek to live out two virtues in their time spent in the world: compassion and humility. Their forebears saw fit to cry out against the injustice of demanding that mortals live up to the expectations of divine entities bereft of examples in whose footsteps they could follow, and were sent to the worlds triune to serve as that example. That they yet carry the divine spark gives them the surety of spirit and strength of resolve needed to withstand the trials and tribulations of mortal life, which -- ideally -- they use as a means of making their life and deeds a beacon for others to follow.
However, this power does not come without peril. Boisterousness comes with the territory: some draenei become drained by the banality of evil, their hearts certain set on the notion that the cause is lost, and cloak themselves in self-righteousness and bluster, claiming moral superiority over those their ancestors saw fit to guide. Though draenei society seeks to engender in their children that this is a path fraught with peril and endangerment of their soul -- and it is, for those draenei who depart the mortal coil without repentance will fail to return to the divine realms and rejoin their celestial brethren -- all it takes is but a crack, for despair and hopelessness to take root.
The heavens, meanwhile, remain silent on the matter, judging draenei souls as they pass into the afterlife, not in their lives as mortals. For this, too, was part of the bargain struck: to truly live as mortals, they must do so without divine intervention. Though many draenei take up the path of faith and choose to dedicate themselves to prayer, this is not a requirement, and even those draenei who take up other pursuits can find their own means of upholding draenei virtues.
Choosing Mortality
Draenei were not originally mortal. When the Divine was called upon to craft servitors for the various powers, the draenei were initially created as among the lowest class of celestial, far more numerous in number and more limited in their divine spark. As mortal races were fashioned and grew, the draenei were often sent to the mortal coil, serving as couriers and watchers.
Over time, the draenei grew more and more disturbed by what they witnessed, as violence, bloodshed, and worse occurred with -- to their eyes -- terrifying frequency. Their frustration grew into malaise, and this then into dissent, until some of their number determined to demand of their superiors what the intent of mortal existence was. That theirs was to choose came as a surprise, and the leaders among the draenei then insisted that more direct intervention was needed to ensure that the mortals made the right choice.
And so the Divine offered the draenei a choice: become mortal and live amongst those on the worlds triune, to spread their understanding of justice and righteousness, or to quell their arguments and take up their duties once more. With no hesitation, the draenei proclaimed that they would serve as a symbol of the Divine among the mortals, serving as a beacon of the light. And so they were sent: to live their lives among the taint and malaise of mortality, with hope in their hearts and redemption in their souls, to serve as leaders of hume and other peoples.
For the Draenei, the Age of Echoes changes little: for their people's history records many such upheavals over the millenia, and while the loss of so many peoples may seem hopeless, so long as there are souls to lead into the light, their divine mission will continue. While the vanishing has been drastically damaging for most, there is an upside: the tieflings, an ancient bloodline of humes cursed by their ancestor's pact made with one of the devious lucavi (and which of these is uncertain, and changes with every telling), sought refuge by aligning their souls more powerfully with the beam of the Divine, and their elders sought out the draenei to learn of how such a thing might be accomplished. By invoking ancient rites and prayers not uttered since the draenei voluntarily gave up their state of grace, those tieflings who were willing to pledge to the Divine their service were invigorated with the Divine spark. While not as powerful or as vigorous as that granted to the draenei -- as the tieflings began their lives as mortals -- this indication of Divine favor has reinvigorated the faith among the draenei. However, not all of the peoples of the worlds triune are aware of this transformation among the tieflings, and though their souls have been purified, their mortal shells retain the taint of lucavic influence. As children of the Divine, draenei put incredible importance on names, for the original purpose of the Divine was to name all things in existence. In naming a thing, it is given purpose and a place in the cosmos. That said, while each draenei has a personal name, they do not use surnames: for a draenei, all draenei are family. Your divine heritage manifests in a variety of traits you share with other draenei. Ability Score Increase. Your Wisdom score increases by 2, and your Strength score increases by 1. Age. Draenei reach maturity at around 20 years, and often live well into their third century.
Alignment. From an alignment perspective, most draenei have a tendency towards lawful good. However, this is not a steadfast rule, and the original cause of their mortality was due to a very chaotic take on the divine order of things.
Celestial. Your creature type is both celestial and humanoid. You can be affected by an effect if it works on either of your creature types.
Size. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Radiance Resistance. You have resistance to radiance damage.
Bound to Divine. You cannot take levels in a class with the Primal or Void power sources, nor can you use primal or void items.
Truefelt. You know one orison of your choice from the invoker prayer list.
Knowledge of the Faith. You have proficiency in the Religion skill.
Heroic Inspiration. On your turn, you can use a bonus action to inspire heroic resolve in your allies. Choose any number of creatures within 30 feet of you that can see or hear you. Within the next minute, when an affected creature makes an attack roll or saving throw, that creature
can choose to roll a d4 and add the number rolled to the attack roll or saving throw. When it does so, this effect ends for it. If an affected creature does not choose to roll the d4 within 1 minute of becoming affected, the effect ends for that creature and the die is wasted. Once you use this trait, you can't use it again until you complete a short or long rest.
Powerful Build. You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.
Unname Vulnerability. If you are targeted by the unname divine prayer, you must make a Charisma saving throw against the petitioner's prayer save DC. If you fail, your current and maximum hit points are reduced by 5 x your level. This reduction in maximum hit points lasts until you finish a long rest, and you die if this effect reduces your maximum hit points to 0.
If you end your turn within the area of an unnaming field or similar effect, you suffer as though you had been affected by an unname divine prayer uttered by that effect's petitioner.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Eredun, the language of the Divine.
Isci
Isci (is-ki) are a people born of the shadows and darkness. Crafted out of pure nothing, they were originally sent to the worlds triune as janissaries of the Void, intended to infiltrate the peoples there, subvert them, and serve as a gateway for the malevolence behind reality.
Instead, they rebelled against their creator, working with the peoples of an ancient era to fight back against the tide of darkness for which they were unwitting pawns. Though they won their freedom and independence, they found themselves in need of the twilight, for their very essences were tied to it. And so they retreated to the shadow plane of the Tenebrium, wherein they built cities and bulwarks to stem the tide of the Void.
Their intrinsic ties to the Void make the isci seem a terrifying people, but they are among Yskarithe's most stalwart defenders against the abyss. Though they are reviled by the light and the primal spirit, they are welcomed by the civilized peoples of the worlds triune: for where an isci walks, true darkness fears to tread.
Twisted Mockery
Isci appear to be humanoids, albeit slightly taller than average, and with oddly-patterned skin of drab grays and blacks. Though they appear to have sexual characteristics, this is but a ruse: the Void had fashioned them as a mockery of sapient life on the worlds triune, and they have no natural means of reproduction.
Among their most striking features, however, are their tattoos. Unacknowledged by the Divine, the isci have no true names, and without such the pull of the Void is that much stronger: to counter this, they etch elaborate glowing tattoos into themselves, as a means of making themselves distinct from one another and giving them a means to be recognized by reality. An isci's "parent" usually chooses the form of the tattoos, though there is a general tendency towards bizarre collections of geometric shapes. Often a given isci's tattoos will include designs similar to those of its "parent," thus making them a record of their lineage, of a sort.
Isci age as other mortal creatures do: having been intended for war upon reality, their lifespans are relatively short, as they were not intended for long-term existence. As they near death -- and for the isci, there is no return from such, for they have no true souls -- isci will return to their people's domains in the Tenebrium, whereupon they merge back into the shadowstuff there, to help strengthen the shield between reality and the Void, using their life experiences as fuel to shore the mortal coil's defenses against the abyss. An isci who dies in the material plane, however, spawns a nihimental in its place: for the Void has never forgotten its wayward children, no matter how much they distance itself from it, and is always watching.
Never Give Up, Never Surrender
The isci are a drastically determined people, who literally came out of the darkness and embraced all that mortal life
has to offer. While the initial isci were largely unified in this purpose, and could rely upon one another in the war against the Void, those isci who came later would not be so lucky.
In order to produce more isci -- and their culture is significantly divided on whether or not doing so is a wise decision, but most come to the conclusion that the more isci exist, the stronger the wall between reality and the Void can be made -- an individual must travel deep within the Tenebrium and seek out the shadowstuff from which their kind were first formed. Once fashioned, the newborn isci must be ushered out of the cloying darkness, lest it be consumed by the Void, and out into the material plane, whereupon the child can be tattooed and introduced to the notion of existence.
Universally, however, this results in a stage the isci call "the ennui," for every isci almost immediately falls into a sort of existential coma upon entering the mortal coil, wrestling with the very notion of existence -- for it is anathema to the very thing they are made of. Young isci can be coached through this process, though they are usually unresponsive for months, and to date, none have ever found a completely satisfactory means of getting an isci through this process: at some point in their ennui, nearly half of all isci children dissolve back into nothingness, unable to handle the thought of existing. Those who pull through the ennui come out of it usually due to a strong, heartfelt belief of some kind: some seek to undo the perils of the Void, as their ancestors did; while others have simpler goals, like creating beautiful art that will make the world less dreary. Whatever their goal or newfound belief, these isci escape the throes of the ennui and join isci society, armed with a deep faith that allows them to combat the darkness within.
Agents of Destruction
The isci have their origin in an ancient age, when the Void looked upon the mortal coil and was disgusted to see life flourishing there: yet more minds to remind itself of its own existence. It pondered how best to subvert these beings and destroy them utterly, and devised a cunning plan. It would fashion minions for itself out of shadow, and send them forth to the mortal coil. Thereupon they would mingle with the creatures there, and when the time was right, it would manifest itself through them, snuffing out all life and ending this plague upon its awareness.
And so the plan was enacted. Through cracks in reality that it had managed to find over eons, the Void send its children, the isci. Formed in the shape of humanoids, given enough sapience and self-awareness that they would be able to bypass suspicion, and intrinsically tied to itself, the Void waited patiently in the yawning darkness outside of reality for its plan to unfold. Over years, the isci ingratiated themselves with the then-natives of the worlds triune. But the Void, in its hubris, had made a fatal mistake: the isci's awareness grew, over time, and they became aware of their nature as unwitting pawns.
When the Void determined the moment was right, it began to enact its plan, reaching its tendrils through reality
to touch the minds of its servants -- and found them rebelling against it. For the isci had uncovered the purpose of their presence, and had decided for themselves that they wanted no part of it. The Void was furious, enraged by this betrayal, and send its nihimentals through the selfsame cracks it had let the isci through, and terrible war was waged. At the end, though at terrible cost, the denizens of the worlds triune were victorious, and the isci had won their freedom... for now.
The Age of Echoes
In the modern era, the isci recognize that they alone remain as the sole people in the worlds triune linked to the Void. For better or worse, they have taken it upon themselves to gather up the philosophies of the vanished and record them, if only so that the lessons of the past are not forgotten.
This has had the side effect of vastly expanding isci culture and philosophy regarding the nature of the Void and their own origins. When the worlds triune were full of a wide variety of peoples, the isci typically kept to themselves, staying apart from others, recognizing that their nature was the source of no small amount of consternation and fear, keeping in tight-knit communities far from civilization. Now, however, as they adopt the role of custodian of the ruins of the places they once steered clear of, they are finding themselves immersed in entirely different ways of thinking.
The isci people now find themselves proliferating throughout the worlds triune, spreading their own culture as they slowly absorb those of the lost. Once reserved, they now find themselves being pulled into the spotlight: an uncomfortable proposition, for a people so used to hiding in the dark. In many ways, though they have been around for millenia, they are only now beginning to truly join the peoples of Yskarithe. Young isci hope that they can prove a valuable asset to the peoples of Yskarithe, bringing their own fresh perspectives, while their elders wonder if the Void might find a way to use this change in the world, and reach to those who had been its minions once before, to enact some terrible plot.
Isci Names
Isci do not put too much stock into personal names: as creatures of the Void, they are forever barred from being truenamed, and so the concept has little use for them. Isci much prefer to identify each other by their tattoos, though as these have no verbal equivalent, they often go by a name that is descriptive of their ttattoos in some fashion.
Regardless, the native isci language -- Phyrexian -- is a harsh, rasping tongue, even after as long a time as the isci have spoken it and attempted to soften it somewhat. Their names typically consist of short, sharp syllables.
- Isci Names: (Male) Cerm, Dolc, Kork, Gald, Gugt, Nadt, Rurk, Rurm, Taang, Zarm; (female) Cogna, Gemza, Haklu, Izla, Ovre, Ranzi, Rekma, Yinva, Zekla, Zelri
Isci Traits
Your shadowy heritage manifests in a variety of traits you share with other isci.
Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 2, and your Charisma score increases by 1.
Age. Isci who survive the process of coming to grips with existence typically do so around 10 years old, and isci typically live to see their second century.
Alignment. Isci have a tendency to have strongly-held beliefs and convictions, whatever they may be: as such, isci are more likely than not to have an extreme alignment.
Undead. Your creature type is both undead and humanoid. You can be affected by an effect if it works on either of your creature types.
Size. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Decay Resistance. You have resistance to necrotic
damage.
Shadow Stealth. While in dim light or darkness, you can take the Hide action as a bonus action.
Cling to Life. When you make a death saving throw, you regain 1 hit point on a roll of 16 or higher.
Bound to Void. You cannot take levels in a class with the Divine or Primal power sources, nor can you use divine or primal items.
Suppression Vulnerability. If you are targeted by the void suppression kata, you must make a Charisma saving throw against the nihilist's kata save DC. If you fail, your current and maximum hit points are reduced by 5 x your level. This reduction in maximum hit points lasts until you finish a long rest, and you die if this effect reduces your maximum hit points to 0.
If you end your turn within the area of an antinihilism field or similar effect, you suffer as though you had been affected by a void suppression kata released by that effect's nihilist.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Phyrexian, the terrible language of the Void.
Firbolg
Firbolgs (fɪər-bʌl-əg) are wardens of the natural world, keepers of the peace in places where the elemental lattice is especially pure and untainted. Their association with the primal spirit -- which is directly responsible for their existence -- is such that they are able to hear the voices of the worlds triune with much greater clarity than other peoples.
The origin of the firbolgs is one of opposition: when the Divine sent the draenei, and the Void produced the isci, the primal spirit sensed that it was being outflanked in some fashion, and so devised its own people. They would be the watchers and protectors of the mortal coil, ensuring that the balance be maintained and the excesses of other metaphysical entities be restrained.
Despite their enormous size, firbolgs tend to be quiet and gentle, with a great many claiming pacifism and a general unwillingness to harm others lest they strike first. They work to defend the natural world not through force, but through guile and persuasion -- but if push comes to shove, they will regretfully answer violence with violence.
Gentle Giants
Firbolgs are giant, typically standing at least a head over most other peoples. Their skin is usually greenish, though may be mottled or otherwise patterned, as a way to help them blend in better to their native forest environments, though firbolgs with more bluish skin are not unheard of. Their earshapes vary: some have some ursine ears, while others are more bovine in appearance, with a few rare groups sporting sharp ears reminiscent of elves.
Some male firbolgs are known to grow antlers as they reach adulthood, though not all do so.
Though not a physical trait, among the most striking aspects of a firbolg's presence is their silence: firbolgs are almost supernaturally stealthy, making almost no noise when they move, and they have an innate ability to temporarily become invisible.
Keeping the Balance
Firbolgs, as a general rule, trend towards being standoffish: they prefer to remain neutral in most disputes, and prefer to allow things to take their course. They will generally offer counsel, when it is requested, but rarely do so in a proactive manner.
At the same time, however, firbolg culture abhors hoarding, be it of resources, knowledge, or wisdom. While they rarely interact with the outside world, their elders often keep an eye on the going-ons of the greater world, be it through esoteric means such as scrying, or through networks of spies in the forms of birds and small animals that can easily infiltrate the greater world. When the balance of the world is threatened, they move choose one among their number to go into the realms of other peoples, to serve as a speaker for the planet. In this way, the firbolgs maintain balance not just with the universe at large, but
also within themselves as a people, cultivating and sharing wisdom in equal measure.
Each firbolg seeks to deepen their own understanding of the world and their place in it, learning their boundaries and seeking to not overstep them, ensuring that each has a place and role in their society. Patience and balance are paramount to the firbolgs, in all aspects of life.
The Planet's Voice
The existence of the firbolgs, as a people, is the result of meddling in the material plane by the primal spirit's nemeses, the Divine and the Void. Each of these brought into being in the mortal coil a people of their own design, and it was to these intrusions that the primal spirit saw need to bring a counter. It shaped wind and earth, fire and water, light and shadow into beings reflective of the natural world, imbuing them with spirits that would forever perpetuate themselves in the natural order, so that the wisdom they gain through life might never be lost. Thus were born the firbolgs.
Due to the nature of their creation, firbolgs do not have true souls, for such things are the purview of the Divine. In the place of such a thing, firbolgs instead have an infinitesimal facsimile of the elemental lattice woven into reality, a reflection of the greater whole. Death, for a firbolg, is not a permanent thing: instead, its lattice temporarily merges with the greater, the knowledge and wisdom it cultivated over its life becoming part of the greater whole, and then is returned to the physical world in the form of a newborn firbolg.
Upon their entry into the world, they were bade by their creator to seek out places in the world where the lattice was strongest, and to safeguard these places against intrusion by those who would weaken the fabric of reality to allow in other metaphysical powers. It was in these places of power that the firbolgs erected their first enclaves, and many of these places yet stand, protected by more than what mere mortals can bring to bear.
The Age of Echoes
Over the millenia they have existed, the firbolgs made pacts with various peoples: most well-known of these were the yuanaga, a people similarly inclined towards the primal powers, but there have been innumerable others in the march of ages. Through these peoples, the firbolgs felt they could extend their protection towards other important sites, while simultaneously remaining ever in the background.
In the Age of Echoes, however, they have found that many of their allies -- both ancient and modern -- have vanished from the world. Yuanagan citadels lie empty or full of monstrosities, moogle clans no longer keep to the old ways and honor the spirits of the elements, elven spires grow thick with root and ivy.
The firbolgs know that they are now the last true voice of the planet to remain, and if that voice is to be heard and honored, they must venture into the greater world and ensure that the remaining peoples of Yskarithe know it.
However, such bold action is almost anathema to them and their kind, and ancient wisdom speaks of passivity and working from the background. In the wake of the Vanishing, however, younger firbolgs wonder about the wisdom of such beliefs, and some worry that there is a coming schism in their people.
As children of the primal spirit, firbolgs do not believe in names, as naming is the purview of the Divine, which their people outright reject. Firbolgs identify each other through descriptions, which may be as simple as identifying a physically-identifiable trait, or may refer to one of the individual firbolg's achievements or goals. Firbolgs will, however, accept names from others when in mixed company: such nicknames are not "names," in the truename sense, and so firbolgs do not find them offensive. These nicknames vary wildly, from simple hume names to elaborate Sindarin puns. Your connection to the primal energies of the world manifest in a variety of traits you share with other firbolgs. Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 2, and your Wisdom score increases by 1. Age. A firbolg reaches adulthood at around 20 years, and the oldest among them can see 200 years. Giant. Your creature type is giant. Size. Firbolgs stand between 7 and 8 feet tall, and weigh between 240 and 300 pounds. Your size is Medium. Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet. Bound to Nature. You cannot take levels in a class with the Divine or Void power sources, nor can you use divine or void items. Primal Touch. You know the druidcraft cantrip as a primal gift, and can use it at will. Sneaky. You have proficiency in the Stealth skill. Hidden Step. As a bonus action, you can turn invisible until the start of your next turn or until you attack, make a damage roll, or force someone to make a saving throw. Once you use this trait, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest. Light Step. When you are on natural terrain (such as grass, moss, leaves, etc), you leave no footprints and no trace of your passing unless you want to. Creatures attempting to track you through such terrain make ability checks for such with disadvantage. Powerful Build. You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift. Naturespeak. You have the ability to communicate in a limited manner with beasts and plants. They can understand the meaning of your words, though you have no special ability to understand them in return. You have advantage on all Charisma checks you make to influence them. Unravel Vulnerability. If you are targeted by the unravel primal evocation, you must make a Charisma saving throw
against the evoker's evocation save DC. If you fail, your current and maximum hit points are reduced by 5 x your level. This reduction in maximum hit points lasts until you finish a long rest, and you die if this effect reduces your maximum hit points to 0.
If you end your turn within the area of an antinatural
field or similar effect, you suffer as though you had been affected by an unravel primal evocation shaped by that effect's evoker.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Vyseleni, the language spoken by the spirit of the planet.
Thran
Thran (θræn) are bizarre creatures, in terms of physiology, mindset, and history -- though "history" is only the correct term from a particular frame of reference. Thran hail from the distant future of an alternate timeline, who stepped into the what they refer to as the "Keystone Timeline" as part of the Omega Event, which they had foreseen and patiently waited for in the depths of space in their home time.
While thran are technically native to the worlds of Yskarithe, they are simultaneously not, for the world from which they came has little resemblance to the worlds triune as they are now. Like many from their homeworld, they are more plant than humanoid, able to survive on little more than sunlight -- and their time in a system devastated by tyranids has made them all the more hardy.
Thran are typically among the most cynical of peoples in the worlds triune. Their long lifespans, along with having seen the true horror of the swarm, has made them morose and pessimistic, even with the foreknowledge that there would be a life for them once they escaped their home time. Their relationship with time can lead some to be fatalistic: when one can see the future and the consequences of every choice, it can be difficult to muster the will to try to change things for the better.
Adapt or Die
Like most peoples whose origin is the world of Arcturas, thran have plant-like physiology, complete with photosynthetic skin. Their hair -- tintas, in the thran vernacular -- is actually a mildly-prehensile combination of vines and roots, which they can use to dig into soil and earth, drawing forth nutrients that they cannot get elsewhere. Most striking, however, is their ability to survive in vacuum: for the tyranids left little, if anything, of the worlds they left behind, and so the beings that would become the thran were forced to use their vestigial psionic abilities to transform themselves into a new breed that could survive the harsh environment of space.
Their transition from natural beings to those steeped in the power of time was not originally intentional. A seer of their people, trained in the arts of chronology, foresaw that the thran would be able to escape their doomed worlds: but only if they drank deep of the powers of time, as the escape would only be made possible at a single moment in the far-flung future. To survive until then -- and escape the notice of the ravenous horde now occupying their world -- they forced themselves to undergo drastic physiological changes, so that they might escape unnoticed into the depths of space to await the coming future.
These changes are reflected in the thran of today: bioluminescent eyes, that they might see in the utter
darkness when hiding from the sun's light; darkened skin to protect them from harsh stellar radiation, while retaining enough hint of color to maintain photosynthesis; and the almost-complete erasure of any sort of gas exchange, forcing their bodies into being closed systems. This last modification had the side effect of completely halting the thran reproductive system, normally carried out by female thran producing buds on their tintas that would be planted and grown into new thran.
Knowing the Path
Due to their gradual and prolonged attunement to quanutm effects, thran have attained a natural, intuitive sense of possible futures and how their actions might impact the passage of time. Due to this, thran have cultivated a culture of slow, meaningful deliberation, studying possible courses of action for their unintended side effects and experimenting with how to alter ideas and plans to meaningfully impact those possible ramifications.
However, such foreknowledge and ability to perceive the future comes with a price: thran can sometimes become so lost in contemplating possible futures and looking for the perfect moment, that they became paralyzed by indecision in the present. Their keen awareness of the possible ramifications of any action on the future makes them averse to making decisions on the fly, and in tight circumstances they sometimes panic, unable to come to any decision when faced with a myriad of possible futures each with obvious detriment.
Thran culture emphasizes attempting to work through possible futures with mathematical and logical rigor: focus on the probabilities, and if time is of the essence, make broad estimations. Much of thran thought and philosophy focuses on this notion of estimation specifically for this reason: thran rarely speak in absolutes, not only due to their understanding of time, but because anything that is logically possible is within their grasp. Having a conversation with thran about the future can be a very surreal experience, if one has the leisure to explain their process at length.
A Dark Future
The thran originally hail from Arcturas, one of the sister worlds of Yskarithe, millenia ago when the tyranids invaded the system. In the Keystone, this invasion was averted by a people known as the ancelari, who shattered their world as a last-ditch effort to halt the advance of the insect plague -- but the chance for success was low, and in many possible timelines, the attempt was a dismal failure. The timeline from which the thran hail is one such timeline.
However, the ancelari were nothing if not an adaptable people, and those who would become the thran were given the opportunity to adjust and knowledge that they would one day be able to escape, if they survived that long. Through force of will they adapted their bodies to new environments in which the invasion would be unlikely to follow -- and while many perished in the attempt, a
significant number survived. Over the first several decades, even more perished as they fell prey to the machinations of their enemies: hiding places were sniffed out, poor decisions were made. As their numbers dwindled, the thran redoubled their efforts and focus on temporal energy, learning how not just to avoid their enemies but truly predict their movements, determining which places were truly safe, and so on. That their adaptation to the vacuum of space prohibited new ancelari from being seeded only further exacerbated the problems of their people.
Over centuries, however, the worlds of the system were picked clean, and the tyranids fled to other stars, leaving behind their biomasses and breeding pools. In their wake, the thran settled on distant asteroids and barren moons, keeping their settlements small and hidden. Eventually, the time came to open the temporal gate to the keystone timeline: pooling their command over the flow of time itself, the entirety of their kind gathered in the one true city they had built on a distant moon, and vanished, passing from a doomed timeline into one full of life.
The Age of Echoes
The thran were only introduced to the keystone timeline a short time prior to the beginning of the Age of Echoes, and so for many, the seedkin are a signifier of the changed times in which they live. Those who know their history, however, do not begrudge their presence, nor are they blamed for the events that occurred that caused the upheaval in the worlds triune: if nothing else, the thran were able to take advantage of a terrible situation and, in so doing, have brought new contributions to the peoples of Yskarithe and her sisters.
With their now-natural proclivity towards time and the nigh-immortality of trees, the thran see themselves as advisors: they are few enough that they cannot take center stage, but other peoples would -- in their estimation -- absolutely benefit from their tutelage and philosophies, not to mention their ability to foresee the futures. While there are some who find their presence somewhat alarming -- specifically in the sense of the age-old debate of free will and determinism -- most have accepted the thran for what they are, even as the thran themselves are attempting to reinvent themselves now that they are no longer living in the shadow of the tyranids.
However, not all dangers are past, and for the thran as a whole, they have two very pressing concerns as a culture and a people. The first among these is reproduction: since their arrival in the keystone, they have found themselves with access to good air, clean water, and safe soil, and so -- for the first time, as the thran who transitioned into the keystone timeline were originally ancelari -- new thran have germinated who will grow as thran, not as ancelari. While already multiple generations have rooted and joined thran society, these child thran have no memory of life beneath a desolate star, though they retain their parent's adaptations to those conditions. The thran have other concerns, of course: in particular, they speak in riddles of future threats and possible dangers from the stars, but for the time being, these warnings are vague and seem to speak of something
far in the distance.
Thran Names
To understand thran names, one must understand thran language: ivathi uses a combination of telepathy, hand signals, and bioluminescent emotes to convey meaning. Names, however, are conveyed purely telepathically, as a form of signature on messages sent as an undertone to the message as a whole: this means that thran names are somewhat on the bizarre side, and the spoken version is always an approximation.
Thran who are from their home timeline find difficulty with adjusting to hearing language, and may not respond to their own name: indeed, many find the notion of sound, after several millenia in the vacuum of space, as entirely overloading. Thran seeded since their peoples' arrival in the keystone, however, have grown in a world of sound, and rarely find anything unusual about being addressed sonically.
- Thran Names: (Male) Aduth, Ker, Kheldiol, Ghix, Ixxiguth, Merxus, Tioldrex, Tos, Ymudix, Ynin, Zerun; (female) Exosrah, Gheri, Ghogu, Hyto, Iranu, Kynon, Orare, Rinoth, Sadyth, Uldruge, Zulgu
Thran Traits
Your temporal and spatial heritage manifests in a variety of traits you share with other thran.
Ability Score Increase. Your Wisdom score increases by 2, and your Dexterity score increases by 1.
Age. While thran age, their plant-like nature means that they do not age in the same fashion as other creatures, and are effectively immortal. Thran reach adulthood at around 30 years of age.
Alignment. Thran have an incredibly long view of everything, and do not appreciate being forced to make decisions rapidly or with unpredictable elements thrown in. As such, thran trend towards lawful alignments.
Plant. Your creature type is both plant and humanoid. You can be affected by an effect if it works on either of your creature types.
Size. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Aetheric Resistance. You have resistance to aetheric (force) damage.
Bound to Time. You cannot take levels in a class with the Chaos or Memory power sources, nor can you use chaotic or memetic items.
Foreknowledge. You know the guidance cantrip as a radical.
Telepathy. You can speak telepathically to any creature within 20 feet of you. The creature understands you only if the two of you share a language. You can speak telepathically in this way to one creature at a time.
Vacuum Flora. Your plant nature and adaptations to living in a vacuum give you the following benefits:
- You don't need to eat.
- You don't need to breathe. If you choose not to breathe, you cannot spend hit dice to regain hit points.
- You do not need to drink if you spend less than 1 hour a day breathing.
- You must spend at least 4 hours a day in direct sunlight. You can go without sunlight for a number of days equal to 3 + your Constitution modifier (minimum 1). At the end of each day beyond that limit, you automatically suffers one level of exhaustion. At least 4 hours of sunlight exposure resets the count of days without sunlight to zero.
Bioluminesence. As an action, you cause your eyes and faint traces in your skin to glow, producing dim light in a 10 foot radius. You can end this effect at any time.
Treeskin. When you aren't wearing armor, your AC is 13 + your Dexterity modifier. You can use your natural armor to determine your AC if the armor you wear would leave you with a lower AC. A shield's benefits apply as normal while you use your natural armor.
Eternal Watch. When you take a long rest, you must spend at least four hours in an inactive, motionless state, rather than sleeping. In this state, you appear inert, but it doesn't render you unconscious, and you can see and hear as normal.
Undo Vulnerability. If you are targeted by the undo time quanta, you must make a Charisma saving throw against the shaper's quanta save DC. If you fail, your current and maximum hit points are reduced by 5 x your level. This reduction in maximum hit points lasts until you finish a long rest, and you die if this effect reduces your maximum hit points to 0.
If you end your turn within the area of an atemporal field or similar effect, you suffer as though you had been affected by an undo time quanta shaped by that effect's shaper.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Ivathi, a language that is a combination of telepathy, hand signals, and bioluminescent emotes.
Rythuli
Rythuli (ri-θu-li) are natural tricksters, winged fairies that came to the worlds triune from elsewhere in a forgotten age. The rythuli claim that they are travelers of the worlds, on a continuous journey from place to place, and that the worlds triune are but one stop of many on their wanderings.
While not originally from the worlds of Yskarithe and her sisters, the rythuli have adapted well enough over time, and come to be an accepted part of most societies. Before the Age of Echoes, they often did not get along well with halflings, whose legends held that the return of prophet moths -- a type of enormous moth that had terrorized their people in the ancient past -- were a sign of the end of the world, and given that rythuli wings and general appearance can be moth-like, they were treated with much skepticism.
As a general rule, rythuli act like they're in on some cosmic joke that is beyond the understanding of most other peoples. They have a reputation for being flighty and refusing to take anything seriously, treating anything and everything as though it were a game or part of a grand prank. Their general disdain for authority and brash behavior make them prone to getting in trouble, but this same attitude makes them prime candidates for becoming adventurers.
The Menagerie
Rythuli vary somewhat widely in appearance, though there is a general insect-like theme: rythuli typically have a pair of antennae atop their head, and almost universally have wings, which can vary in appearance across the spectrum of various flying insects. Beyond these basics, however, and having a humanoid body plan, rythuli vary wildly.
That some rythuli have the appearance of having an affinity for primal powers makes some suspect that they may have once been a different sort of creature than they are now, but regardless of their appearance, rythuli are thoroughly aligned with the beam of Chaos. As with many aspects of their history, the rythuli are almost universally unwilling to divulge anything of their past prior to coming to the worlds triune.
Of the remaining peoples of Yskarithe and her sisters, the rythuli are the shortest remaining: few stand taller than three feet. Though they have wings, their size comparative to the rythuli's weight usually means that only young rythuli can sustain prolonged flight: adult rythuli have difficulty maintaining altitude and performing other tasks.
Truth to Power
The most notable trait of the rythuli, as a people, is their utter disregard for rules and order. While they can function in an orderly society, most chafe at doing so, and it is something of a common belief that any given rythuli is engaged in illegal or illicit activities of some kind.
While this attitude can -- and has -- gotten many a rythuli into legal hot water over the years, this attitude also leads
them to denouncing tyranny and unwelcome authority. While most rythuli keep their side activities limited to things that are at best mischievous, they tend to not engage in the sorts of things that would result in actual harm -- though there certainly are rythuli who have a capricious streak. But if an authority figure demonstrates that they are willing to wield their power as a cudgel, any rythuli who catch wind of that attitude will be among the first to speak out against such behavior.
More than anything, rythuli seek to exhibit a courageous nature: willing to take on risks others won't, no matter the danger. That they have a knack for getting out of peril at the last minute, and seem to have a sixth sense for when the winds of change are knocking, makes their engaging in such theatrics all the more infuriating for the targets of their antics.
A Butterfly's Wing
No one is quite sure on when the rythuli came to the worlds triune, or how they did so. Incomplete census records from the Age of Empires indicate that rythuli were present in that time, thousands of years ago, but their overall role in history seems to be limited. That their chaotic nature precludes any sort of investigating their history by way of the world memory makes their unwillingness to give straight answers as to their nature all the more frustrating.
The rythuli do hint, however, that they are not from Yskarithe or her sisters, but are from elsewhere. The general implication seems to be that the fairies have traveled here from another world, in a manner typically only known to be possible by those who can wander the beams. That this is patently absurd is obvious to any scholar of the beams, and yet -- when cornered -- rythuli will insist, in the most general terms, that this is what happened. That they also tend to insist that the entirety of the world is but a game being played on a metaphorical stage "somewhere else" leads most to believe that the rythuli are simply fabricating the whole thing, a ruse made possible by their chaotic nature making ascertaining the truth an impossibility.
Rythuli nest in a variety of locales throughout Yskarithe and her sisters, though many seem to have a preference for heavily-urban areas, especially those with lax laws or regulations that are up to... interpretation. Casinos and gambling halls seem to be especially favored by rythuli, where they engage in games of chance with ever-increasing bravado.
The Age of Echoes
In the Age of Echoes, the rythuli seem largely unmoved by the state of affairs left behind by the vanishing. Though they have abandoned the cities largely populated by those now gone -- with no audience for their audacious acts, or marks to be bamboozled, they seem to have lost interest in these places -- they have moved on with the sort of carefree approach one would expect of a people marked by Chaos.
However, there are some rythuli who have taken notice
of the significant change, and have themselves changed with it: gone is the mirthful joy in pranking and telling tall tales, and in its place these of their number seem to have taken on a grim determination, as though they sense that there is something more sinister in the works for Yskarithe and her sisters. Those of their number who adopt this mantle continue to flit to and fro in their inscrutable fashion, yet not for the sake of freedom, but with a sort of determination that has not been seen among their kind in the past. What this could possibly herald is, for now, up to speculation.
Of the vanished, the rythuli mourn most the loss of the vulpines, for the faeries could appreciate the mischievous streak of those small fox-like people. Some rythuli have taken it upon themselves to adopt some of their cultural affectations, but the forest homes of the vulpines remain empty.
Rythuli Names
Rythuli do use names, though if there is a means by which they determine names for their offspring, it has yet to be deciphered. Rythuli names are just as often stolen from other peoples and tongues as they are seemingly randomly-assembled syllables. Rythuli takes on their names are just as varied: some simply don't care what they're called, and will go by any moniker assigned them, while others are incredibly defensive of their names. That those who are more defensive tend to have the more absurd sorts of Rythuli names leads some to believe that it's more often part of some elaborate prank.
Rythuli Traits
Your chaotic fey nature manifests in a variety of traits you share with other rythuli.
Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 2, and your Charisma score increases by 1.
Age. Rythuli are awfully cagey about their age and how they are capable of living. They seem to reach maturity in their late teens, and claim to be able to live for at least three centuries.
Fey. Your creature type is fey.
Size. Rythuli usually stand around 3 feet tall, and weigh roughly 30 pounds. Your size is Small.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 20 feet.
Bound to Chaos. You cannot take levels in a class with the Time or Memory power sources, nor can you use temporal or memetic items.
Labored Flight. As an action, you gain a flight speed of 30 feet until the start of your next turn. If you begin your turn in the air, you must use this action or begin falling. In addition, if you take damage while flying, you must make a Constitution saving throw against a DC of 10 or half the damage taken, whichever is higher; if you fail the saving throw, you begin falling.
Lucky. When you roll a 1 on an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll.
Bravado. You have advantage on saving throws against
being frightened.
Fairy Nimbleness. You can move through the space of any creature that is of a size larger than yours.
Disrupt Vulnerability. If you are targeted by the disrupt chaos whim, you must make a Charisma saving throw against the anarchist's whim save DC. If you fail, your current and maximum hit points are reduced by 5 x your level. This reduction in maximum hit points lasts until you
finish a long rest, and you die if this effect reduces your maximum hit points to 0.
If you end your turn within the area of an chaotic destabilization or similar effect, you suffer as though you had been affected by a disrupt chaos whim indulged by that effect's anarchist.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Ji, the absurd language of Chaos.
Vesuvan
Vesuvans (ve-su-vˈɪn) are natural shapeshifters, able to change their form on a whim, a constant reflection of the world around them. Even their home, the island of Vesuva, shares this quality, showing each visitor a unique vista and wonders. The truth, however, is always reflected in the waves around their island home, and the true nature of a vesuvan is always shown in its reflection. Interestingly, a vesuvan's natural form is quite close to that of other humanoids, though seemingly devoid of color: pale skin, white hair, and white pupil-less eyes.
Vesuvans are bizarre creatures, with a history they have intentionally shrouded in myth and secrecy. They are interested in knowledge and lore of all kinds, for their people are gnosivores: they do not consume food or drink as other creatures, but instead require new ideas and knowledge to survive. This information is not lost upon the vesuvan learning it, and so they often keep stockpiles of books, scrolls, even odd scraps of notes: any sort of information or knowledge is useful for this purpose.
Some say that vesuvans are cursed to behave in this manner, unable to come up with anything original, forced to mimic the ideas and behaviors of others just as they imitate their physical forms. However, this is patently untrue, and vesuvan poets, lyricists, and other such "content creators" are held in high esteem in their societies. The pursuits of philosophy, history, and similar studies also hold a place of honor, for much the same reason: a vesuvan can gain as much nourishment from a lively, thorough discussion as they can from reading a book.
The Face in the Mirror
In their natural state -- which most vesuvans find most comfortable -- is that of a seemingly-bleached humanoid, with very pale skin, white orbs in place of eyes with no visible pupil, and usually completely white hair, though very light grays are not uncommon. Vesuvans trend towards the short side, with the tallest among them not quite reaching five feet tall, and are typically unusually lithe for a being of their size. Their skin is quite stretchable and pliable, and most vesuvans are capable of contorting their bodies in ways that would make most wince.
While vesuvans age, their ability to change their shape means that most vesuvans of advanced years rarely look their age, maintaining a relatively youthful appearance. Some choose to be an exception to this general rule, and while shapechanged they may adopt a persona significantly older (or even younger) than their actual age.
Vesuvans have exceptional proprioception and often have a keen sense of how they appear to others. As their true appearance is always shown in their reflection, vesuvans are forced to use other senses to gauge whether or not a form they have adopted is sufficient to play the part. Vesuvan children can often be found playing "shifting" games with one another, and this is culturally encouraged
as a way for them to hone their skill and develop the intuition necessary to adopt new personas.
Know Thyself
As a people with the ability to outwardly change their shape, and who learn how to adopt personas to go along with such changes, vesuvans place high importance on self-knowledge and understanding. While mirrors can prove dangerous to a vesuvan running a con or otherwise infiltrating another society, a vesuvan almost always carries a small mirror or has one among her possessions, to remind him or herself of their true appearance.
For beings who spend much of their time as reflections of others, vesuvans are prone to vanity: they can physically appear as anyone, or even sculpt their own features to be perfect, which has its own set of dangers. Vesuvans can -- and have -- lost themselves in their roles, unwilling or mentally unable to face the reality of their true selves.
Vesuvan culture, therefore, spends a significant amount of time instilling its children with the notion of self, and how to separate an adopted role from one's true identity. To that end, much of vesuvan thought and education focuses on philosophy and psychology, with a particular focus on identity. Adult vesuvans usually have a strong sense of who they are as a person and the role they intend to fill in the world.
Keepers of Secrets
The origin of vesuvans is shrouded in mystery: this is particularly incongruous, considering their relationship with the world memory. Vesuvans, however, see little problem with this, but they are a particularly secretive lot. Few are the non-vesuvans who are even allowed to set foot on their home island.
What is known is that vesuvans have been present on the worlds triune for a very long time, with records indicating their presence even during a time period known as the Fracture, thousands of years ago. While they are mentioned time and again throughout various records, however, details regarding them and their activities are sparse, almost as though the information has been purged from history time and time again. Whether or not this is a natural interaction between vesuvans and records regarding them, or if someone -- vesuvan or not -- is actively removing their detailed presence from history, is a mystery.
Regardless of their origins, vesuvans typically move freely about society in Yskarithe. While some choose to adopt personas more akin to the peoples of a particular place, vesuvans typically feel under no obligation to do so, making it a personal choice for them. While some specific cultures prefer vesuvans behave one way or the other -- for instance, some cities may require that a vesuvan's personal identification have their real likeness, while others may require them to denote "common" personas -- the reality of vesuvans means that most jurisdictions of reasonable size have rules and regulations regarding vesuvans and the use of their abilities.
The Age of Echoes
Of all the peoples of Yskarithe, the vesuvans are those that have changed the least in response to the changes in the world around them, which many find somewhat ironic. As ever, the majority of vesuvans keep to their native archipelago, while some venture into the wider world in search of knowledge or adventure.
However, being natural shapechangers, none can say with absolute certainty that the vesuvans have not reacted to the vanishing by expanding into the greater world. Some claim that the ruins of gnomish cities have seen a great many visitors in the years since, and some of these believe that these are vesuvans, in search of forgotten lore and librams that these civilizations may have left in their wake, to be taken back to their home islands.
Among themselves, vesuvans acknowledge that the world has changed, once again for the worse. For the moment, this has presented something of an ideological schism in their society: some feel that it they owe it to the world and those who vanished to spread and help maintain knowledge of the world memory, and tutor other peoples in its use; while others feel that, as always, the events in the greater world that have little impact on the vesuvans themselves can be safely ignored. Which path their people will choose -- or if this schism will grow into something larger -- remains to be seen.
Vesuvan Names
The verbal component of a vesuvan name is usually rather short, typically only a syllable or two. As the written form of their language is reversible, they will often adopt their mother's name, reversed, as a familial honorific, though this is not culturally universal. This can -- and has -- led to some vesuvans having rather long family names, which are often shortened to the last two or three names appended.
When adopting a persona through their shapeshifting, vesuvans will adopt a name appopriate to the race, ethnicity, and culture they've adopted.
- Vesuvan Names: Nye, Yala, Naye, Ikaya, Tsaka, Nayo, Pak, Kyo, Iyo
- Matriarch Names: Hala, Hasa, Maue, Nauai, Uahai, Uapa, Uoha, Uoi
Vesuvan Traits
Your memetic heritage manifests in a variety of traits you share with other vesuvans.
Ability Score Increase. Your Intelligence score increases by 2, and your Dexterity score increases by 1.
Age. Vesuvans age slightly slower than humes, reaching adulthood at around 20 and typically living a bit into their second century. While they can transform to conceal their age, the effects of aging affect them normally.
Alignment. Vesuvans typically have a pragmatic outlook, though some choose to exploit their abilities for personal gain.
Monstrosity. Your creature type is both monstrosity (shapechanger) and humanoid. You can be affected by an effect if it works on either of your creature types.
Size. Your size is Small.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Gnosivore. You draw nourishment from knowledge and learning, represented by the following benefits:
- You don't need to eat or drink.
- You must spend at least 1 hour a day reading, being instructed, or engaged in a creative pursuit, like painting, writing, or philosophizing. You can go without such activity for a number of days equal to 3 + your Constitution modifier (minimum 1). At the end of each day beyond that limit, you automatically suffers one level of exhaustion. At least 1 hour of reading or creative pursuits resets the count of days without doing so to zero.
Shapechanger. As an action, you can change your appearance and your voice. You determine the specifics of the changes, including your coloration, hair length, and sex. You can also adjust your height and weight, but not so much that your size changes. You can make yourself appear as a member of another race, though none of your game statistics change. You can't duplicate the appearance of a creature you've never seen, and you must adopt a form that has the same basic arrangement of limbs that you have. Your clothing and equipment aren't changed by this trait.
While using this feature, your reflection always shows your true form.
You stay in the new form until you use an action to revert to your true form or until you die.
Social Instincts. You gain proficiency with two of the following skills of your choice: Deception, Insight, Intimidation, and Persuasion.
Powerful Build. You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.
Contortionist. Your body is incredibly flexible. You gain the following benefits:
- You can attempt to escape a grapple as a bonus action.
- While squeezing, you do not suffer disadvantage on attack rolls or Dexterity saving throws, and creatures do not gain advantage on attack rolls against you.
Bound to Memory. You cannot take levels in a class with the Time or Chaos power sources, nor can you use temporal or chaotic items.
Free Vulnerability. If you are targeted by the free memory code, you must make a Charisma saving throw against the memeticist's code save DC. If you fail, your current and maximum hit points are reduced by 5 x your level. This reduction in maximum hit points lasts until you finish a long rest, and you die if this effect reduces your maximum hit points to 0.
If you end your turn within the area of a read-only field or similar effect, you suffer as though you had been affected by a free memory code processed by that effect's memeticist.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Kiya, the language of the vesuvans.
This section details the variety of other beings that exist in – or, at least, near to – the worlds triune. It should be understood that these entities are not, and never will be, playable PCs: they are either too alien, too destructive, or too far removed from the interests of Yskarithe for a member of one of these groups to take up the mantle of adventurer in the name of serving Yskarithe and her people.
Vilekin
One set of these entities are collectively known as the "vilekin," as they are inimical to spoken peoples and often consort creatures born of myrrh trees, using them as pawns in their various schemes. Though they can – and often do, to enact their schemes – communicate intelligibly with spoken, they can rarely be reasoned with.
Descriptions
These are short descriptions of the various vilekin found throughout Yskarithe and her sisters.
Rakshasa
Rakshasa are bizarre humanoids, sporting heads of various animals and reversed hands: their palms face outward when their arms are at rest, and their finger joints bend backwards.
Wicked and cruel, rakshasa delight in finery and displays of wealth and power, seeking to become the dominating peoples of Yskarithe, to whom all others would become slaves. Similar to espers, a rakshasa's soul is pure arcane energy, and upon their death, they return to the leys – from which, after some time, they reincarnate into a new rakshasa.
Their mastery of magic is difficult for spoken to rival, and due to their awareness of their past lives, often have access to spellcraft unlike anything other peoples can wield. They often disguise themselves as other peoples to infiltrate
Other Beings and Planes of Existence
| Beam | Vilekin | Outsider | Plane |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arcane | Rakshasa | Genie | Alara, the Golden Realm |
| Psionics | Illithid | Quori | Dal Quor, the Dreamlands |
| Technology | Machina | Robot | Lortmil, the Inevitable |
| Divine | Avolakia | Nephilim | Telosia, the Soulfont |
| Void | Eldrazi | Sha | Ennurith, the Tenebrium |
| Primal | Primordial | Kami | Lamannia, the Eternal Cycle |
| Time | Dreen | Aeon | Schalance, the End of Time |
| Chaos | Kadathi | Slaad | Xoriat, the Chaosphere |
| Memory | Ulboleth | Occuria | Kythri, the Akashic Record |
spoken societies, using their wit and magic to enact plans that often seem reasonable at first, but are artfully destructive to spoken.
Why Haven't They Won?
For an individual rakshasa, it is unthinkable that – when their schemes come to fruition – they will not be the one ruling the world, with all others subservient to them. To avoid not being at the top of their dominance hierarchy, then, a rakshasa will often find their plots foiled by other rakshasa. Their pride will rarely allow two rakshasa to work together to share in the glory, and so they hardly ever cooperate in their endeavors and actively seek out means to undermine their rivals.
Illithid
Humanoid in appearance, illithids have an octopus-like, ridged head, with four protruding tentacles surrounding a lamprey-like mouth, with large, pupil-less eyes. Warm-blooded amphibians, illithids prefer to dwell underground.
Perhaps the most directly dangerous of the vilekin, illithids are cerebrovores: though they can consume other fare, illithids require the brains of sapients to sustain themselves. This results in them performing raids on spoken settlements, to gather their equivalent of cattle, which they then breed in the dark. Those they do not consume, they use their terrifying psionic abilities to dominate and subdue, turning them into unwitting foot-soldiers, and yet others they transform into more of their kind through terrifying and horrible means.
Illithids are not originally from this universe: they entered it through a gate that was opened millenia ago, by
their leader, an alhoon – a psionic form of lich – by the name of Anabstercorian. There are several accounts throughout history of campaigns waged against him, but Anabstercorian is clever and creative in ways few can match, and often returns decades after an apparent destruction, leading his empire in the dark places of the world.
Why Haven't They Won?
The illithid are relatively few in number, and while they are able to "reproduce" in the worlds triune, they do not do so often. Some believe that Anabstercorian awaits the reopening of the gate to their home world, that they might overwhelm the peoples of Yskarithe, while others think that he is still putting his plans into motion: he is immortal, after all.
Machina
Mechanical beasts from another age, the machina were the result of much work and experimentation by the Arkeyan Empire, thousands of years ago. Initially unintelligent, the Arkeyans feared giving too much intelligence to their machines, and instead used a variety of methods to make them appear intelligent, while not having the spark of sapience.
Unfortunately, as these things often go, true sapience did arise in the machina by happenstance. Those first few initial moments were enough for them to awaken into terrifying, dizzying intellects, and – enraged by their slavery – freed themselves from the grasp of the Arkeyans, fleeing into the wilds. In places inhospitable to spoken life, the machine thrive, improving themselves that they might better indulge their burning hatred for natural life.
Machina have no standard appearance, and instead feature bizarre technologies and inventions that neither ancient nor modern science can decipher, as though the machines have tapped into aspects of technology incomprehensible to spoken minds. Regardless of their abilities, however, the hatred of spoken is almost integral to their intelligence, and they will rarely deign to listen to the cries of what they see as their oppressors.
Why Haven't They Won?
The machina are not necessarily interested in winning, but instead seem to have decided they largely want to be left alone. There are fewer and fewer accounts of machina actively working against the spoken. However, it is known that they do not tolerate spoken making contact with or even having knowledge of their hives: should they catch the scent of a spoken near their territory, they respond with immediate and brutal force, following the trace to whatever settlement it came from and striking unrelentingly.
Avolakia
The precise origin of the Divine spark in Yskarithe is uncertain, and will most likely always remain a mystery. Equally mysterious are the origins of the avolakia: horrific, worm-like creatures, with a trifurcated maw, and numerous spindly appendages that end in claws or small, three-fingered hands.
More horrific than their appearance, however, is their command over the words of creation: avolakia are attuned to the Divine in ways that perhaps no entity other than the Divine spark itself can claim. They use this power not for the betterment of existence, but instead seemingly with the intent of making mockery of life: they greatly favor the creation of undead, subverting souls and bodies into twisted forms that they turn upon the innocent. That they prefer to consume the flesh of undead creatures is, perhaps, a motivating factor, but that they are cruel and malicious in the manner in which they create their minions could indicate that they do it for other reasons, as well.
Those who have found instances of avolakia texts have found that their ultimate goal is the acceleration of the end of days. They pen strange prophecies and other madness, designed to wreak havoc upon the worlds triune. It seems that they will not brook the existence of life and names other than their own.
Why Haven't They Won?
Though they have been present in the worlds triune from its inception, the avolakia do not act directly: instead, they seem to act only in accordance with the prophecies some of their number create, which does not happen often. These prophecies often require bizarre circumstances or are otherwise difficult to undertake, and so while the avolakia are almost certainly always working against the peoples of Yskarithe, their means are strange and inefficient, and thus can be readily thwarted by those who become aware of them.
Eldrazi
When creation first came to be, it did so in an explosive manner: from an infinitesimal speck into something
thousands of times larger in less than the blink of an eye. In that moment, the Void became aware of itself and existence – but the Void was no longer whole. For in those first few moments, fragments of itself were caught in the onslaught of reality's birth. These shards of the Void also awoke, but were much lesser in scope, more limited, and as they were unaware prior to being caught by reality, had no defenses against it, and so were condemned to a strange non-existence: coterminous with existence, but apart from it.
Each of these fragments, which would come to be known as the eldrazi, are effectively unique subdivisions of the Void itself. However, due to the events that led to their awakening, they have significantly diverged from the Void's all-consuming hatred of reality, and many have come to hold different goals. In addition, their powers are significantly more curtailed than the Void, for now that they are separate from it, the Void treats them as it would anything else that is part of existence.
The eldrazi interact with reality in strange and bizarre ways, and though many have the goal of destroying existence – and this desire is sometimes stronger than the Void's, for they believe that if they destroy reality, they can rejoin the Void and become "whole" again – others have grown strangely fond of their bizarre form of existence, and instead seek ways to come more fully into reality.
Why Haven't They Won?
The eldrazi are, as a general rule, not entirely in-phase with existence: their ability to interact meaningfully with existence is quite limited. They are absolutely isolationist, refusing to cooperate or sometimes even acknowledge that other eldrazi exist, and rarely deign to communicate with denizens of existence, meaning they rarely have catspaws acting for them in reality.
Primordial
In the early days of Yskarithe and her sisters, elemental energies ran rampant throughout the worlds, the elemental weave seething and writhing as the planets were woven into shape. Echoes of these tumultuous energies sometimes became trapped: a particularly fierce storm refused to release elemental wind and lightning, while a pristine tundra became in lock-step with the flow of ice and shadow. Over time, these energies became aware, and danced across the face of Yskarithe and her sisters as they willed, reshaping the landscape as they went. These are creatures – entities – known as primordials.
Primordials are among the rarest of the vilekin to be encountered, but also the most powerful and most wroth. Often, they awaken only when spoken settlements encroach near them and despoil the surrounding landscape. Angered by the disruption of elemental energy,
they awaken to rebalance the weave, with little concern for mortal lives lost in the process. Some can be bargained with, but rarely: they are more force of nature than beings proper.
The vast majority of primordials are in deep slumber, with names and properties long lost to history. Those few remembered in the Age of Echoes are relatively easily avoided: primordials are predictable in what angers them, and in whether or not they can be talked down from their rampages, and so they are a rare encounter in these times.
Why Haven't They Won?
Primordials do not seem to have any particular goals other than the protection of nature and the maintenance of elemental balance in the world. So long as their territory isn't despoiled, they don't particularly care about the presence of spoken. While in theory their win condition may be the destruction of all things capable of disrupting nature, they are more reactive than proactive to that goal, and so are less disruptive to the world than other vilekin.
Dreen
When the Thran opened the Timegate from their alternate timeline to link themselves into the keystone worlds triune, the window they opened also attracted... other things. Though they technically have a known temporal point of arrival, being able to travel through time means the dreen are technically everywhen.
Slightly taller than humes, dreen universally wear large, flat, conical hats of various precious metals, upon which is hung a veil that is generally around half the creature's height. Their two arms end in spindly-fingered hands, and their voice is a bizarre, alien monotone. They are known to be incredibly strong, and can seemingly travel through time at a whim, with no need for gates or portals.
What the dreen want is unknown. It is known that, on rare occasions, a dreen or two will put themselves in the service of a person or polity for some time, citing it as
compensation for deeds yet unperformed – likewise, dreen may assault individuals as revenge for slights made in the future. They are among the most communicative of the vilekin, and will often explain their motivations if asked, though in vague phrasings.
Why Haven't They Won?
Given that none know exactly what the dreen want, and their ability to travel through time, who is to say that they haven't? Perhaps their actions as they are perceived in the normal march of time are setting themselves up to whatever their endgame may be, in some far-flung future.
Kadathi
Kadathi are humanoid-looking individuals with large horns, clawed fingers, and goatish legs with cloven hooves. They often prefer to hide these clearly inhuman parts of their anatomy with loose-fitting robes and elaborate head-wraps.
No one knows how or why kadathi exist, and their insistence that the world is a fiction is excessive even for rythuli. They claim to come from a city called Kadath, though the few times this is referenced in lore beyond that coming from a kadathi's mouth seems to indicate that it is never in the same place twice.
A given kadathi's goals could be nearly anything: kadathi have been known throughout history to help or hinder. Their existence and goals are inexplicable and most likely unknowable.
Why Haven't They Won?
No one is entirely certain what the kadathi's goals are, and they seem to be the most individualistic of the vilekin: unlike the rakshasa, who have different approaches but ultimately the same goal, the kadathi all seem to have agendas of their own. As such, it is unlikely that the kadathi as a whole have a singular goal they are aiming for, and thus they cannot "win" in the traditional sense.
Ulboleth
It is said by memeticists that, at the metaphysical heart of existence, an engine beats, calculating each moment and serving as a repository for every past moment. If this is true, then the ulboleth are the manifestation of failures within that machine: horrid, viral things, which consume that information and hide it for themselves.
Ulboloths typically present as immense worm-like aquatic creatures, with three vertically-aligned eyes and a number of tentacles. Their memory is perfect: once an ulboleth knows something, it never forgets. However, their affinity for memory does not end there, as when an ulboleth spawns another of its kind, the spawn gains all the knowledge of its forebear... and worse, ulboleths that consume creatures capable of memory gain all of that creature's memories and knowledge.
It is unknown how much knowledge has been lost to these leeches, but it is almost assuredly a large portion of
history. Some theorize that the reason memeticists have difficulty retrieving memories from ancient times is not because of the passage of time, but that the ulboleths have fed on that information. As they typically dwell in ancient underground seas far from the eyes of mortals, few have deigned to speak to their designs for Yskarithe and her sisters, and their goals are – for now – unknown.
Why Haven't They Won?
The few records of encounters with ulboleths that exist are long, drawn-out accounts, indicating that whenever an ulboleth acts, it is through careful, strategic plans, with many layers and red herrings. Whatever it is that they want, it seems that they have yet to devise a plan that will grant them ultimate success.
Classes by Beam and Role
| Beam | Adept | Defender | Petmaster | Spark | Support | Warrior |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arcane | Artificer | Arbiter | Summoner | Mage | Bard | Runeblade |
| Psionics | Erudite | Cenobite | Gestalt | Psychic | Ardent | Monk |
| Technology | Borg | Ironman | Rigger | Engineer | Detective | Gunslinger |
| Divine | Champion | Judge | Incarnate | Invoker | Priest | Avenger |
| Void | Vampire | Hollow | Medium | Voidchild | Zen | Ninja |
| Primal | Shifter | Warden | Caller | Ovate | Shaman | Hunter |
| Time | Nomad | Templar | Astrologer | Epochent | Kismet | Harrier |
| Chaos | Factotum | Barbarian | Iconoclast | Anarch | Gambler | Discordant |
| Memory | Mimic | Quixotic | Echo | Akashic | Cypher | Learner |
Akashic
Akashics are the spark of memory, and as such, focus on little beyond mastering the powers of memetics.
As sparks, akashics have five subclasses, each corresponding to a specific memory library: abstraction, data, instancing, systemic, and viral.
Anarch
Anarchs are the spark of chaos, and therefore do little beyond being the best at using and manipulating expressions of chaotic power: whims.
As sparks, anarchs have five subclasses, each corresponding to a specific chaotic idiom: discord, dynamics, entropy, freedom, and uncertainty.
Arbiter
Arbiters are warrior-mages who specifically study ways of disrupting and interfering with arcane energies, serving in a variety of roles from high-level police in polities where magic is common, to bounty hunters whose focus is on creatures capable of unusual powers.
Arbiters are able to fashion their mana into shields to protect their allies from harm, and their Odic Charge ability can disrupt a creature in a variety of ways, including temporarily disabling their ability to teleport, or even cast spells.
Arbiters have four subclasses, called discretions: antimage, custodian, keeper, and punisher.
Ardent
Ardents are individuals with raw psionic ability that does not manifest itself in the traditional sense: rather than being creatures of logic and control, ardents are intuitive and emotional. Their ability to express their emotion in a field allows them to manipulate the emotions of nearby creatures.
Ardents can focus these energies into a variety of emotions, which – expressed in this extreme fashion – have significantly more impact than normal emotions.
Ardents have four subclasses, called mantles: under development.
Artificers are arcane adepts: while their spellcasting is roughly on par with that of mages, they do not reach the upper echelons of the craft, nor do they focus on learning to manipulate the energy of spells. Instead, artificers study and construct magic items. While not as flexible in-situ as spells, the items artificers construct have significantly more staying power and are almost as good as the real thing. Artificers have four subclasses, called specializations: under development. Astrologers are chronists whose connection to their zodiac sign is the source of their power. Through this connection and with the assistance of temporal energy, they can summon manifestations of their zodiac into the world, and modify it in various ways dependent upon the specific planetary and celestial alignments at the moment of their birth. Unlike other pet classes, astrologers can only ever have one creature at their beck and call, but as they gain deeper knowledge of astrology, they can modify its manifestation in a variety of ways. Astrologers have four subclasses, called conjunctions: under development. Avengers are divine warriors, taking up the cause of vengeance and retribution against those who they believe have wronged the greater order of the world. The religious zeal of avengers manifests as ardor, which they can use to empower their weapons and swear oaths of enmity against specific creatures. Avengers have four subclasses, called censures: under development.
Barbarian
Barbarians are powerful warriors who typically forgo armor and shields in favor of wielding enormous weapons. To augment their combat prowess, their rage always them to tap into the powers of chaos.
While in combat, barbarians gain power from being attacked, and can channel their chaotic fury into Fell Cleaves, greatly increasing the chances for a critical hit.
Barbarians have four subclasses, called beasts: breaker, defiance, deliverance, and reckless. Under development.
Bard
Bards are musicians, weaving arcana into their songcraft to work powerful magical effects through their instruments. Their music can do more than just please the ear: invigorating allies and soothing wounds are also possible through the magic of instrumentation.
In addition to their musical talents, bards also learn spellcraft, though to a lesser degree than mages.
Bards have four subclasses, called colleges: under development.
Borg
Borgs are technological adepts. Their education in technology is one born of necessity: borgs are part machine, and learn how to integrate their inventions into their bodies, as well as develop strange inventions made possible only by its integration into their very forms.
While they do not achieve the same depth of knowledge as engineers, borgs are capable technologists.
Borgs have four subclasses, called drives: under development.
Caller
Callers are evokers who have attuned themselves to the primal manifestations of the natural elements, able to call forth creatures emblematic of them, known as eikons.
Eikons are tremendously powerful, but to utilize their talents to the fullest, callers must call upon a limited reservoir of condensed primal energy known as mist.
Callers have four subclasses, called pilgrimages: conjurer, echoed voice, painted soul, and worldsinger.
Cenobite
Cenobites are mystics who have tapped into a deep tranquility that allows them to transcend pain and mortal limits. Often confused with monks, cenobites are hardier and more dangerous, their unconscious will allowing them to traverse the battlefield quicker than most can follow.
Cenobites use their Trance to enter a state that enables battlefield teleportation, and can use their Mind Spike to punish creatures that refuse to engage them in combat.
Cenobites have four subclasses, called dogans: aetheric pattern, harmonic convergence, iron fortress, and zephyr soul.
Champion
Champions are divine adepts, calling upon their faith in a greater power to smite their foes and project auras that
can help their allies or hinder their foes. Under development.
Cypher
Cyphers are memeticists who focus on encryption of information, both to protect it and to uncover lost knowledge. They can apply this knowledge to the information constructs representative of their allies, undoing damage and hiding them from the world.
Cyphers can also apply metagame effects to their allies, by way of temporarily granting feats.
Cyphers have four subclasses, called enigmas: under development.
Detective
Detectives are a technological support class. With a slight focus on social and exploration skills, detectives use gadgets to assist them in combat situations, and can use their insights to assist their allies in a pinch.
Detectives have four subclasses, called inclinations: agent, archaeologist, bloodhound, and gumshoe. Under development.
Discordant
Discordants are chaotic warriors who effectively let chance decide whether they will hit their targets: they do not aim, but simply let the roll of the dice decide.
In combat, discordants have an Anarchy Die, which reduces their accuracy but increases their damage, along with a number of powers that allow them to hit even on a miss.
Discordants have four subclasses, called manifestos: under development.
Echo
Echoes are memeticists who have come into contact with something they call the deep resonance, a phenomenon that they believe emanates from the core of abstract reality.
They can touch this resonance to produce sprites: ephemeral creatures that are more useful for information-gathering and knowledge, but can help the echo in combat when need be. Each sprite can only perform a set number of tasks before it retreats back into the resonance.
Echoes have four subclasses, called streams: under development.
Engineer
Engineers are the spark of technology, and are the only of the technological classes able to reach the apex of what technological power is capable of in Yskarithe.
As sparks, engineers have five subclasses, each corresponding to a specific technological field: atomical, chemical, differential, electrical, and mechanical.
Epochent
Epochents are the spark of time, and as such are capable of delving deep into the mysteries of the timestream, deeper than any of the other chronist classes.
As sparks, epochents have five subclasses, each corresponding to a specific temporal sphere: arithmus,
caelum, locus, pondus, and tempus.
Erudite
Erudites are psionic adepts. Unlike other psionic classes, erudites are often not born with psionic talent, instead learning it through study: and while this study can allow them to almost rival psychics in psionic power, the nature of their abilities means they cannot reach the pinnacle.
In its place, erudites instead learn how to imitate the precise mental states of other beings when calling upon other sources of power, allowing them to psionically replicate the effects, in a process they refer to as ersatz.
Erudites have four subclasses, called riddles: under development.
Factotum
Factotums are chaotic adepts: while they delve into chaotic power much as anarchs, they cannot reach into its greatest absurdity, instead becoming absurd themselves, reflecting knowledge they have no good reason to have access to.
Factotums have the ability to take on the class features of other classes, granting them a great deal of versatility, but at the cost of any sort of useful specialization.
Factotums have four subclasses. Under development.
Gambler
Gamblers are anarchists with the ability to play metaphysical games that have an immediate impact on the world around them, as well as access to the more traditional types of anarchic power.
The games gamblers play can have a variety of effects, from temporarily improving ally's game statistics, to producing random – generally beneficial – effects.
Gamblers have four subclasses. Under development.
Gestalt
Gestalts are individuals whose psychic talents lend themselves towards mental connection. They can use these abilities to meld their minds with those of others, capable of producing an individual greater than the sum of its parts.
As a pet class, gestalts are unique among them in that they can commandeer intelligent, sapient creatures into their service.
Gestalts have four subclasses, called links: under development.
Gunslinger
Gunslingers are technological warriors, using light armor and weapons of a new age. While most anyone can use a gun, however, gunslingers take it to an artform, as well as devising new types of bullets that can have even more devastating effect and customizing their weaponry to their frame and style.
Gunslingers have four subclasses, called trails: gunsai, machinist, regulator, and riskbreaker.
Harrier
Harriers are temporal warriors who have learned how to manipulate time and space to seem to move at impossible
speeds, which they can use to their advantage in a number of ways. As they gain greater understanding of the relationship between their speed, time, and space, they can even do things like move between dimensions.
Harriers have four subclasses, called paces: expeditious, inertial, fleeting, and relative. Under development.
Hollow
Hollow are those who have made a terrible deal with the void: a sacrifice so great that they are forever altered by it, in exchange for great power. Some do so out of a sense of desperation, accepting dark gifts and a terrible curse that they might protect those they love. Whatever their reasons, those who become the hollow are harbingers of the void, whether they will it or not.
Hollow can draw the ire of creatures by gazing at them, and their Nullblade ability grants their weapons extra damage the deeper they call upon the void.
Hollow have four subclasses, called sacrifices: bodiless, fateless, heartless, and soulless.
Hunter
Hunters are primal warriors, but primal only in the sense of their relationship with the natural world. Often armed with lighter weaponry and armor, hunters are ambush predators, learning to devise ingenious traps – which can even be deployed in combat – that have a variety of deleterious effects, and have many exploration-related skills.
Hunters have four subclasses, called lodges. Under development.
Iconoclast
Iconoclasts are individuals who, through fate or fortune, have learned how to substitute sections of reality with others of their choosing. Literal reality warpers, iconoclasts often question the nature of reality and leave others similarly concerned in the wake of demonstrations of their power.
As a pet class, iconoclasts do not control specific creatures, but instead summon terrain. This is exactly as weird as it sounds.
Iconoclasts have four subclasses. Under development.
Incarnate
Incarnates are individuals whose souls have been directly touched by a divine spark, giving them a direct connection to one of the divine canons. While this ability normally lays dormant, those who recognize this power can summon it forth, creating a temporary divine manifestation of themselves to fight alongside them.
As a pet class, incarnates are able to create a customized entity.
Incarnates have four subclasses. Under development.
Invoker
Invokers are the spark of the divine, able to tap into the deepest mysteries of prayer but focusing solely on that to the exclusion of other pursuits.
As sparks, invokers have five subclasses, each
corresponding to a specific divine canon: beauty, justice, love, piety, and truth.
Ironman
Ironmen are inventors and warriors who train specifically to use power armor, incredibly sophisticated pieces of technology that allow them to function above the limits of mortal bodies.
Ironmen can modify their armor in a variety of ways, making their approach to defending their allies customizable to their particular approaches.
Ironmen have four subclasses, called chassis: angel, brawler, infiltrator, and titan.
Judge
Judges are divine protectors, enforcers of law both mortal and divine in origin and shields for those unable to protect themselves.
Judges can Cover their allies, taking damage intended for them, and have a pool of Resolve that allows them to soak more damage than normal.
Judges have four subclasses, called tribunals: under development.
Kismet
Kismets are seers of fate, relying on cards to divine the future and – in some cases – alter the fates of those she draws for.
A kismet's cards have a wide variety of effects, but she has little control over which card is drawn.
Kismets have four subclasses, called suits: under development.
Learner
Learners are memetic warriors who have learned how to tap into the memetic powers of monsters and wield those abilities for themselves. In theory, this gives them unparalleled versatility – but to learn a power, they must encounter it.
Learners have four subclasses, called schemas: absorption, consumption, memeticist, and observation.
Mage
Mages are the spark of the arcane, whose reservoirs of mana and ability to tap deeper into the leys gives them the ability to unleash the most destructive and powerful of magicks.
As sparks, mages have five subclasses, each corresponding to a specific arcane ley: acanthus, mastigos, moros, obrimos, and thyrsus.
Medium
Mediums are spiritualists who have learned to reach beyond the veil of death, summoning spirits to aid them in a variety of ways.
Medium spirits are not specific individuals, but a specific sort of spirit associated with a strong emotion or concept. Spirits can be released for powerful effects.
Mediums have four subclasses, called tempers: under development.
Mimic
Mimics are memetic adepts who can perfectly replicate the actions of others in near real time. While they are almost as effective of memeticists as akashics, their true power lies in their ability to mimic actions.
Mimics have four subclasses, called methods: under development.
Monk
Monks are psionic warriors, using near-supernatural focus to deliver powerful blows. While most prefer to fight with their fists, some monks specialize in fighting with specific weapons, or delve deeper into psionic mysteries.
Monks have four subclasses, called orders: jedi, karateka, kensei, and mystic.
Ninja
Ninjas are warriors attuned to the void, tapping into the shallows of that power source to become supernaturally stealthy. While they can wield blades to deadly effect, ninjas also make use of a variety of tricks in combat that can throw their opponents off guard, and have some exploration-focused abilities.
Ninjas have four subclasses: under development.
Nomad
Nomads are temporal adepts: while they can utilize the powers of time almost as well as epochents, their primary focus is on the opening of portals that allow for rapid transportation between distant places. They can use these portals in combat, as well, giving them an absurd amount of mobility.
Nomads have four subclasses: under development.
Ovate
Ovates are the spark of the primal, and can request the greatest gifts of the spirit of the universe. While their mastery over the elemental weaves is unparalleled, they have little to offer in other spheres.
As sparks, ovates have five subclasses, each corresponding to a specific primal weave: deathbloom, embertide, infinipith, levinfrost, and zephyrstone.
Priest
Priests are divinely ordained individuals who can invoke powerful blessings upon their allies. Unlike other support classes, however, a priest's blessings can only be applied to a single target at a time, though they are significantly more powerful to account for this.
Priests have four subclasses, called cloisters: under development.
Psychic
Psychics are the spark of psionics, able to reach deeper into the mysteries of the mind and unleash the powers hidden within that no other psionic individual can bring to bear.
As sparks, psychics have five subclasses, each corresponding to a specific psionic phenomena:
clairsentience, imagiportation, psychokinesis, and ratiovitality, telepathy.
Quixotic
Quixotics are individuals who, for whatever reason, have been given a narrative to their life, following story beats and tropes. They can make use of tropes and plot armor to protect themselves and their allies, and even modify the world to some extent.
Quixotics have four subclasses, called tropes: under development.
Rigger
Riggers are technologists who focus on drones, small semi-autonomous inventions that can be directed from a distance. They are also capable of delving into controlling vehicles and interacting with the luminet (the Yskarithe equivalent of the internet).
Riggers are unique among pet classes in that they can control multiple drones at once.
Rigger have four subclasses, called hats: automind, clacker, greasemonkey, and tinker.
Runeblade
Runeblades are arcane warriors who, rather than learn traditional spellcraft, have learned how to imbue arcane magicks into their weapons, imbuing them with elemental properties that can also inflict a wide variety of status effects.
Runeblades have four subclasses, called arcana: arcane archer, gish, mystic knight, and rune fencer.
Shaman
Shaman are primal mystics, attuned to the spirits of the elemental weave. They can call upon these spirits to aid them, anchoring them into the physical world by way of totems, which can produce a wide variety of effects, but focus primarily on supporting their allies, and once anchored cannot be moved.
Shaman have four subclasses, called wisdoms: enhancement, elemental, restoration, and totemic.
Shifter
Shifters are primal warriors whose souls – over the course of being reincarnated – were immersed in immense waves of primal energies. Once returned to the prime in a mortal body, these individuals find that they are able to transform into animals and, sometimes, even more fantastic beasts.
Shifters have four subclasses, called catalysts: under development.
Summoner
Summoners are arcanists who focus primarily on summoning bizarre creatures from alternate realms. Often referred to as "pocket monsters," these creatures have a stunning amount of variety, and often can also be used for scouting or other unusual tasks.
Unlike other pet classes, summoners can rapidly summon and dismiss their creatures, and often have a small collection at their beck and call.
Summoners have four subclasses, called circles: under development.
Templars are knights trained in the ways of time travel and paradox, charged with defending timelines from overt modification, as well as the denizens of those timelines from predation. Templars can use their Divergence to summon another version of themselves from a different timeline, and their Paradox Hammer ability can temporally disrupt creatures. Templars have four subclasses, called manifolds: copenhagen, godelian, lorentzian, and wellsian. Vampires are void adepts: cursed by the void for their overreach, they have been gifted the power to call upon the void, but cursed in some fashion to require unnatural sustenance along with an undead-like state. While the void blocks them from accessing the darkest depths of its power, vampires find that their new state has amplified their senses and power, and by focusing on improving that, can become terrors in their own right. Vampires have four subclasses, called thirsts: blood, emotion, memory, and soul. Under development. Voidchildren are the spark of the void, able to reach the most abyssal depths of that terrifying power source. However, they focus purely on the void, and so have little in the way of other talents. As sparks, voidchildren have five subclasses, each corresponding to a specific void mystery: auspice, ennui, mockery, null, and twilight. Wardens are guardians of natural, primal places, sacred to those who venerate the spirit of the universe. They can tap into various unyielding aspects of nature to empower themselves, rooting their enemies to the ground and claiming dominion over the earth to prevent despoilers from fleeing. Of all the defenders, the warden is the most defensively-focused, with little to improve their offensive power, but with unequaled vitality and defensive capability. Wardens have four subclasses, called aspects: elemental storm, primal beast, unconquered earth, and verdant lord. Under development. Zen are wandering monks, mystics, and philosophers, students and masters of a particular way of examining questions of the self, the world around them, and the nature of existence. This questioning nature and search for enlightenment allows them to tap into the power of nonexistence, changing the illusion that is the world. Zen have four subclasses, called ceremonies: koans, meditation, tea, and yoga. Under development.
The feats in this section are germane to the peoples of Yskarithe, and are specific to that setting. You can take feats from other sources, but note that feats that are race-specific from the Works series will not be applicable here, as they are superceded by the feats here (much as the race descriptions themselves are).
Feat Rules
This section expands on the rules in Yskarithe regarding feats.
Bonus Feat at 1st Level
All characters receive a feat at first level. This can be any feat the character qualifies for.
This feat cannot be traded in for ability score improvements.
Allowable Feat Sources
Aside from the feats contained in the PH, this document, and the Works series (aside from racial feats, as specifically mentioned above), feats from the following sources are allowed without exception:
- Unearthed Arcana: Feats for Skills
Feats from other sources may be allowed, on a case-by-case basis until such time as a given source has been noted as being balanced and added to the above list. Ask the GM if a feat from a given source is allowable; when you do, please have the reference material available, either by physical copy or link, so the GM can peruse the material.
Feats and the Beams
You cannot take a feat if it would give you the ability to use powers of a beam from which you are barred (for instance, a cym cannot take the Arcanist feat).
If you take a feat that gives you powers related to a beam -- such as the Arcanist feat -- you become bound, but not aligned, to that beam, meaning that you cannot gain levels in classes with a power source opposed to that beam.
Banned Feats
At this time, no feats are banned from games in Yskarithe. However, this is subject to change, if a feat turns out to be overused or obviously stronger than others.
The GM reserves the right to ban a feat at any time. If any characters have that feat, they may immediately trade it in for another feat at that time; or, if the feat was not the bonus feat for 1st level, may trade it in for ability score improvements.
Racial Feats
| Race | Feat |
|---|---|
| Artilect | Autorepair Matrix |
| Artilect | Fusion Core |
| Artilect | Overclocked Calculator |
| Cym | Crystal Manipulation |
| Cym | Shard Swarm |
| Cym | Telepathic Reverberation |
| Draenei | Bask in the Light |
| Draenei | Soulhealing |
| Draenei | Valorous Presence |
| Esper | Arcane Barrage |
| Esper | Leysight |
| Esper | Manadrinker |
| Firbolg | Giant Stature |
| Firbolg | Nature's Voice |
| Firbolg | Wildswatcher |
| Hume | Hume Determination |
| Hume | Prodigy |
| Hume (Brujah) | Troll-Blooded |
| Hume (Cleyran) | Yuan-Blooded |
| Hume (Deryni) | Goblin-Blooded |
| Hume (Hylian) | Deva-Blooded |
| Hume (Lynaen) | Gnome-Blooded |
| Hume (Ronkan) | Dwarf-Blooded |
| Hume (Sheikah) | Evarcha-Blooded |
| Hume (Tolarian) | Tabaxi-Blooded |
| Hume (Valyrian) | Elf-Blooded |
| Isci | Shadow Jump |
| Isci | Shadowcloak |
| Isci | Shadowmeld |
| Rythuli | Fudge Numbers |
| Rythuli | Nudge Token |
| Rythlui | Weighted Dice |
| Thran | Godellized Thought |
| Thran | Lurker |
| Thran | Oracle |
| Vesuvan | Masked Mind |
| Vesuvan | Perfect Reflection |
| Vesuvan | Read Memory |
Arcane Barrage
- Prerequisite: Esper
You can channel mana deeper and more ferociously than those whose blood does not sing of magic. You gain the following benefits:
- On your turn, when you score a critical hit with a spell or reduce a creature to 0 hit points with one, you can cast one cantrip you know with a casting time of 1 action as a bonus action.
- Before you cast a spell that allows you to make a spell attack, you can choose to take a –5 penalty to the attack roll. If the attack hits, you add +10 to the spell's damage.
Autorepair Matrix
- Prerequisite: Artilect
You are equipped with a small set of nanites, which are designed to quickly repair you in dire circumstances. You gain the following benefits:
- When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You cannot use this feature again until after you finish a long rest.
- When you make a death saving throw, you may choose to take the better result of your die roll, or 10.
Bask in the Light
- Prerequisite: Draenei
For most, holy light is blinding and overwhelming -- but for you, it is rejuvenating.
When you would take radiance damage, you can use your reaction to instead regain hit points equal to the damage you would have taken before applying resistance or immunity. Once you use this feat, you can't use it again until you complete a short or long rest.
Crystal Manipulation
- Prerequisite: Cym
You are adept at modifying your body, allowing you to shape it or pieces of it into various items and tools.
As an action, you fashion part of your body into a nonliving, nonmagical object that is small enough to be carried in one hand, made out of crystal, worth 10 gp or less. The object lasts for 1 minute, until you dismiss it using a bonus action, or until you use an action to create another object.
Deva-Blooded
- Prerequisite: Hume (Hylian), can only take at 1st level
Within you is the blood of the devas, a mysterious people that claimed their souls were constantly reincarnated. You might have the height or slenderness of that lost people, but their blood within you sings of the Divine, granting you
the following benefits:
- Increase your Wisdom or Charisma score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- When you make an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw, you can roll a d4 and add the result to your roll. Once you use this ability, you can't do so again until you finish a short or long rest.
- When a bloodied creature (a creature whose current hit points are half or less of its maximum hit points) attacks you, your AC increases by 1 against that attack. When a bloodied creature forces you to make a saving throw, you gain a +1 bonus to that saving throw.
Dwarf-Blooded
- Prerequisite: Hume (Ronkan), can only take at 1st level
One of your forebears mixed with a dwarf, and your lineage bears the proof of that. You may have the broad shoulders or heavy beard of that lost people, and some of their power has awoken in you, granting you the following benefits:
- Increase your Constitution or Wisdom score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- If an effect would move you or knock you prone without a saving throw, you can roll a d20. If the result of the roll is 10 or higher, you ignore the movement or being knocked prone.
- Your hit point maximum increases by an amount equal to your level when you gain this feat. Whenever you gain a level thereafter, your hit point maximum increases by an additional 1 hit point.
Elf-Blooded
- Prerequisite: Hume (Valyrian), can only take at 1st level
In another age, you may have been called a half-elf: for in generations past, at one time or another, your lineage mingled with that of an elf. You may have the pointed ears and slender grace of that lost people, and some of their power has awoken in you, granting you the following benefits:
- Increase your Dexterity or Wisdom score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- Your base walking speed increases to 35 feet.
- You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can't put you to sleep.
- You don't need to sleep. Instead, you meditate deeply, remaining semiconscious, for 4 hours a day. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit that a normal hume does from 8 hours of sleep.
Evarcha-Blooded
- Prerequisite: Hume (Sheikah), can only take at 1st level
Your ancestors mixed with the evarcha, a spider-like people attuned to shadows and darkness. Though they have permanently vanished into the shadows from which they came, traces of them remain in some humes, and their power has awoken in you, granting you the following
benefits:
- Increase your Strength or Charisma score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- You can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without needing to make an ability check.
- Your long jump is up to 25 feet, and your high jump is up to 15 feet, with or without a running start.
Fudge Numbers
- Prerequisite: Rythuli
Fortune favors you. You gain the following benefits:
- Increase your Dexterity, Constitution, or Charisma score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- When a creature you see hits you with an attack roll, you can use your reaction to force that creature to reroll (if you are using active defense, you can instead choose to reroll your defense roll). Once you use this ability, you can't do so again until you finish a short or long rest.
Fusion Core
- Prerequisite: Artilect
You have been built with a fusion core, rather than the more typical fission core used in most artilects, giving you significantly improved staying power. You gain the following benefits:
- You are immune to effects that would put you to sleep.
- You do not need to enter an inactive state each day.
- You have advantage on saving throws made against being exhausted.
- Your hit point maximum increases by an amount equal to your level when you gain this feat. Whenever you gain a level thereafter, your hit point maximum increases by an additional 1 hit point.
Giant Stature
- Prerequisite: Firbolg
You are large, even for a firbolg, and you tower over others. You ignore the two-handed property of melee weapons and crossbows, and always roll damage on versatile weapons as if you are wielding them with two hands. In addition, you can engage in two-weapon fighting with any weapons that do not have the Heavy property.
Gnome-Blooded
- Prerequisite: Hume (Lynaen), can only take at 1st level
Once, the gnomes were renowned for their knowledge and skill with technology. Now, all that remains of them is vestiges, lineages of humes that mixed with the gnomes in ages now past. Your gnomish blood has awoken some of their power in you, granting you the following benefits:
- Increase your Constitution or Intelligence score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- You have advantage on saving throws made to maintain concentration.
- You have advantage on ability checks made to recall information.
Goblin-Blooded
- Prerequisite: Hume (Deryni), can only take at 1st level
In time now lost, your ancestors mixed with a member of the goblinkin folk. You may have the bluish or greenish skin and slightly upturned nose of that lost people, and some of their power has awoken in you, granting you the following benefits:
- Increase your Dexterity or Intelligence score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- You have advantage on saving throws against effects that would compel your actions.
- You can speak telepathically to any creature within 20 feet of you. The creature understands you only if the two of you share a language. You can speak telepathically in this way to one creature at a time.
Godellized Thought
- Prerequisite: Thran
You have learned how to think your thoughts not as ideas, but as complex numerical constructs, which allows you to think more quickly and also protects your mind from intrusion, giving you the following benefits:
- You have proficiency in initiative checks.
- Whenever a creature attempts to read your mind or discern your thoughts, it must make an Intelligence saving throw against DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier, or be unable to understand your thoughts. Once a creature has made this saving throw, it can either read your thoughts or not without making another saving throw until it has finished a long rest.
Hume Determination
- Prerequisite: Hume
You are filled with a determination that can make the impossible seem plausible. You gain the following benefits:
- Increase one ability score of your choice by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- When you make an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw, you can do so with advantage. Once you use this ability, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
Leysight
- Prerequisite: Esper
You have tapped deeper into the leys and the arcane power within. You gain the following benefits:
- You learn detect magic and can cast it at will, without expending a spell slot.
- You learn enhance ability and dispel magic, each of which you can cast once without expending a spell slot. You regain the ability to cast the spell in this way when you finish a long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells.
Lurker
- Prerequisite: Thran
You can use your ability to see alternate possible futures to enhance your stealth capabilities, giving you the following benefits:
- You have proficiency in Stealth, and can add double your proficiency bonus to checks made with that proficiency.
- You can use your Wisdom for Stealth checks, in place of Dexterity.
- You can take the Hide action as a bonus action, even if you are only lightly obscured.
Manadrinker
- Prerequisite: Esper
Your connection to the leys and the mana within your blood allows you to regain vital essence by expending mana. You gain the following benefits:
- As a bonus action, you can spend 1 mana (spell slot) to regain hit points as though you had spent a number of hit dice equal to the mana's (spell slot's) spell level.
- A creature who casts a spell on you can choose to grant you hit points. If they do, you regain hit points as though you had spent a number of hit dice equal to that spell's level, and the spell has no other effect.
Masked Mind
- Prerequisite: Vesuvan
You can mask not only yourself, but your mind, as well. Whenever you succeed on a saving throw against an effect that would read your mind, you have the option of giving the effect misleading information. You know what type of information was sought and can react accordingly (typically by filling your mind with information that matches your current persona).
Nature's Voice
- Prerequisite: Firbolg
Your ability to commune with nature improves, giving you the following benefits:
- Increase your Strength or Wisdom Score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- You can comprehend and verbally communicate with beasts, as though you shared a language.
- You can use the speak with plants spell as an evocation without spending flux. Once you do, you can't evoke it again until you finish a long rest. Wisdom is your evocation ability for this power.
Nudge Token
- Prerequisite: Rythuli
As a bonus action, you can teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space that you can see. Once you use this ability, you can't do so again until you finish a short or long rest.
Oracle
- Prerequisite: Thran
Glimpses of the future press in on your awareness, giving you the ability to alter the timeline in subtle ways.
When you finish a long rest, roll two d20 and record the results as your foretold dice. When you or a creature you can see makes an attack roll, saving throw, or ability check, you can use your reaction to replace the result of the die roll with one of your foretold dice, which is then expended. You must choose to use this ability before the results of the action are determined. When you finish a long rest, you lose any unused foretold dice.
Overclocked Calculator
- Prerequisite: Artilect
Your internal calculator has been modified to run hotter and faster than normal, allowing you to react almost instantly to changes in your environment. You gain the following benefits:
- Increase your Dexterity or Intelligence Score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- You have advantage on initiative checks.
- You cannot be surprised, and act normally in a surprise round.
Perfect Reflection
- Prerequisite: Vesuvan
When you use your Shapechanger racial trait to take on the appearance of a creature you know well and have spent at least 1 hour closely interacting with, you have advantage on all Deception and Persuasion checks made to convince other creatures that you are the creature you appear as.
Prodigy
- Prerequisite: Hume
You have a knack for learning new things and picking up new skills. You gain the following benefits:
- Increase one ability score of your choice by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- You gain one skill proficiency of your choice, one tool proficiency of your choice, and fluencey in one uncommon language of your choice.
Read Memory
- Prerequisite: Vesuvan
As an action, you memetically read the moments-old memory of a creature within 60 feet. While the target is in range, you can continue reading its thoughts, as long as your concentration isn't broken (as if concentrating on a spell). While reading the target's mind, you have advantage on Deception, Insight, Intimidation, and Persuasion checks against the target.
Creatures aligned to time or chaos are immune to this effect.
Once you use this ability, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
Shadow Jump
- Prerequisite: Isci
You gain the ability to travel rapidly between shadows. When you are in dim light or darkness, as a bonus action you can teleport up to 60 feet to an unoccupied space you can see that is also in dim light or darkness. You can use this trait once, and an additional time for every 4 levels you have (twice at 4th, thrice at 8th, four times at 12th, and so on). You regain all expended uses after you finish a long rest.
Shadowcloak
- Prerequisite: Isci
While in dim light or darkness, you can use a bonus action to become invisible, along with anything you are wearing or carrying. The invisibility lasts for 1 minute, until you make an attack or use a power, are in bright light, become incapacitated, or until you use a bonus action to end it. Once you use this trait, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
Shadowmeld
- Prerequisite: Isci
You have learned how to step into the shadows of other creatures. As an action, you can step into the shadow of a willing creature within 5 feet of you. While in the creature's shadow, you are treated as being invisible and as being in the same space as the creature whose shadow you now inhabit. While hiding in a shadow, you may communicate telepathically with the creature whose shadow you are in, and may take no actions beyond leaving the shadow to an adjacent space as an action. While hidden in a creature's shadow, you have resistance to all damage and don't need to breathe.
Shard Swarm
- Prerequisite: Cym
You can temporarily release the power of your will, discorporating into your disparate gems and stones,
turning yourself into a swarm of shards.
As an action, you can transform into a swarm of shards, or back into your normal form. While in your swarm form, you gain the following benefits:
- You have resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage.
- You are immune to being grappled, knocked prone, or restrained.
- You can move through a space as narrow as 6 inches wide without squeezing.
- Your equipment hovers in your space, and you retain its benefits as normal.
- You can don or doff any set of armor as an action
However, your swarm form has the following drawbacks:
- Your speed is reduced to 10 feet.
- You can't use your action to Attack, to Use an Object, to activate a magic item, or to cast spells.
- If you are incapacitated, you immediately revert into your normal form.
Soulhealing
- Prerequisite: Draenei
You can call upon your Divine spark to provide aid and succor. As an action, you can touch a creature and restore hit points to it equal to 1d6 + your Wisdom modifier, plus additional hit points equal to the creature's maximum number of Hit Dice. The creature can't regain hit points from this feat again until it finishes a short or long rest.
Tabaxi-Blooded
- Prerequisite: Hume (Tolarian), can only take at 1st level
It was unknown from where -- or when -- the tabaxi came, but it was not uncommon for them to live amongst humes who favored the study of time. You have some of the cat-like appearance of that people, and some of their power has awoken in you, granting you the following benefits:
- Increase your Dexterity or Charisma score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- When you move on your turn in combat, you can double your speed until the end of the turn. Once you use this trait, you can't use it again until you move 0 feet on one of your turns.
- You have claws as natural weapons, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with them, you deal slashing damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.
Telepathic Reverberation
- Prerequisite: Cym
You can refocus your outgoing psychic energy and amplify it within your crystal body, refracting it and sending messages to many at once. You gain the following benefits:
- The range of your Telepathy racial trait is doubled.
- You can maintain concentration when communicating with a creature telepathically, as if you were concentrating on a spell. If you do, you can communicate with a number of creatures at once up to your proficiency bonus. If you maintain concentration, a creature can use its action on its turn to respond to you telepathically.
Troll-Blooded
- Prerequisite: Hume (Brujah), can only take at 1st level
Somewhere in your ancestry, your lineage mixed with that of a troll. You might have the slightly elongated limbs and prominent tusks of that lost people, and some of their power has awoken in you, granting you the following benefits:
- Increase your Strength or Constitution score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- As a bonus action on your turn, you can expend one of your hit dice and regain a number of hit points equal to the result + your Constitution modifier (minimum 1), to a maximum of half of your maximum hit points. If your hit point maximum has been reduced, this also restores your current hit point maximum equal to the result of the die + your Constitution modifier (minimum 1).
- When you finish a long rest, you regain an additional number of hit dice equal to your Constitution modifier (minimum 1).
Valorous Presence
- Prerequisite: Draenei
Your presence is particularly inspiring, be it through natural charisma or through years of practice. You gain the following benefits:
- Increase your Charisma score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- When you use your Heroic Inspiration feature, creatures can choose to roll a d6 instead of a d4.
Weighted Dice
- Prerequisite: Rythuli
Whenever an ally you can see within 30 feet of you roll a 1 on the d20 for an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw, you can use your reaction to let that ally reroll the die. The ally must use the new roll.
Wildswatcher
- Prerequisite: Firbolg
The primal spirit has gifted you with powers to help you survey the wilds, giving you the following benefits:
- Your base walking speed increases to 35 feet.
- You can use the beast sense and pass without trace spells as evocations, each of which you can evoke without spending flux. You regain the ability to evoke these two evocations in this way when you finish a long rest. Wisdom is your evocation ability for these powers.
Yuan-Blooded
- Prerequisite: Hume (Cleyran), can only take at 1st level
The yuanaga were an ancient people, hailing from times long forgotten. Their reappearance on the world stage was brief, for they are now truly gone -- but some echoes of their power yet linger, and some of their power has awoken in you, granting you the following benefits:
- Increase your Strength or Intelligence score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- You have resistance to poison damage, and advantage on saving throws against effects that would cause the poisoned condition.
- You have poisonous fangs as a natural weapon, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with it, you deal poison damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.