Leaves of Chiaroscuro Kemet Species book

Transcription

1 Leaves of Chiaroscuro Kemet Species book

2 Humans Humans are the eldest of the world s intelligent species, and of all intelligent beings are the most firmly grounded in earthly existence. Also while most intelligent beings have a ba (the ba is an innately magical aspect of a being s soul, capable of traveling between worlds), humans are typically born without one. It is however common belief that the Pharaoh always is born with one, and that the ba of other humans is birthed upon their death. Because of this, humans have some ability to counter magical forces and the supernatural: this is an ability innate to humankind, and makes them well suited for anything that requires counteracting the negative affects of magic, and also hunting things which are supernatural in nature. Human stats Attribute modifiers: Humans may place a +1 in a single attribute if their choice. Human endurance Humans are very enduring beings, capable of maintaining relatively high levels of activity for longer periods of time than many beings, and well suited for things like long distance running. For this reason, they treat their physique as being one higher for the purposes of determining how long they can keep up any activity which requires physical exertion. Resist the Supernatural Humans are creatures truly of the mortal realm, and this is of advantage to them when dealing with magical forces. On their roll to resist the effects of a spell or other supernatural ability or effect humans always gain a +1 bonus. Stability of Ta In addition humans can spend a point of ka to re-roll a check made to resist spells and supernatural effects of any sort. For 2 ka a human can grant another person within close range of them this same advantage. For 2 points of ka a human can also choose to re-roll one magicka skill check should that check have come 2 up with three ones (or have otherwise fumbled). They can help others within close range stabilize their magic in the same way, but this costs 3 points. Osirions And so did Set cut Osiris into many pieces which the goddess Isis did search for and Anubis did reunite, returning the god as Lord of Duat. However not all of Osiris many fragments were in fact reunited with the rest of the god s ba, instead they have found their way into unborn humans. Some say that Anubis decided, instead of stitching these little pieces back into the whole of Osiris instead to stitch them into a mortal being. When this happens, an Osirion is born. Osirion s are beings connected to the life and death cycle in a strange way. As Osiris own fertility was lost and never recovered after he was slain, so too are Osirion a sterile race. Osirions are always born to human parents, and it is tradition that such a birth be sent to be raised amongst others of their kind, though occasionally human parents will hold fast to these strange children. Osirion s look almost human, especially early in the day, but their skin is either the deepest midnight black, or a rich green. Osirion s go through a transformation over the course of each day, further proof of their connection to Osiris himself. They wake up alive, vital and of youthful visage. When the sun sets they undergo a change, making them appear to be walking corpses, mummies. Thus, do the very forms of the Osirion mimic the cycle of life and death on a daily basis. This process of withering from youthful living visage to death-like mien is not in fact painful for the Osirion. Though this race s strange cycle of daily life to death-like state may seem quite disturbing to some, the Osirion among Egyptian society at large they are not treated as outcasts. Instead they will find themselves quite welcome. Because of their particularly honored connection to the divine there are many rather positive superstitions surrounding Osirions. Despite their own infertility there are many beliefs held regarding the race s ability to bring fertility to others, to raise the dead, and to assure an abundance of crops. Not all of these superstitions are good for the Osirion

3 however: there is a black market for their parts, which are said to be extremely useful in medicine and in magical craft. Osirion stats Attribute modifiers +1 charisma In light and in darkness Osirion s undergo a dramatic change from day to night and their abilities reflect this. Daytime Vitality During the day Osirion heal scratched wound points very quickly, at the rate of 1 an hour. If an Osirion is at rest they heal their scratched wound points at the rate of 1 every half hour, or all of them within 4 hours, whichever is faster in a given circumstance. More terrible wounds they heal in half the standard amount of time. Osirions can heal 2 dice of damage to themselves, or another by touching them and expending one point of ka. This expenditure of ka takes an action. Night-time Descent At night they become undead creatures. Undead resistance The effects of any diseases or poisons they are suffering from are temporarily lifted (though they will return when the sun again rises unless cured) and they are immune to falling under the affects of further disease or poison. At night Osirions also become immune to sleep inducing affects, and do not need to breathe. See in darkness The Osirion in this state can see in total darkness as well as light, though in darkness their vision is in black and white. Undead weakness However, at night they lose the healing abilities that they have during the day, and will not naturally heal during this time. They are also affected like undead beings by void and 3 life energies at this time: the void heals them, life energies harm them. They are affected by necromantic abilities like other intelligent undead beings. Sleepless Osirion do not need to sleep (in fact, thanks to their condition they can only even sleep should they want to, in their daytime state) but, they must enter a meditative state for four hours every 24 hour cycle, and during this time may as well be asleep as far as their ability to notice things around them is concerned. This cycle is unaffected by being inside or underground. Sutey Storm, chaos, burning sand, the most hostile elements of nature. These things are in the very blood of a Sutey. They are elemental beings and are regarded quite differently by the upper kingdom than they are the lower. In the lower kingdom they are regarded as outcasts, and often villainized. Some believe they are truly fiends come to bring illness, famine, pestilence and other ills. This is, in part because a large number of Sutey claim Set as their patron god and because some believe they actually are personal minions of the god (and apparently, those from certain other lands tend to call themselves children of Typhon). In the upper kingdom while they on the other hand may find they can garner equal parts fear and respect from humans. As hostile and untrustworthy as Set is, he too fights for the sun to assure it rises each day. He is the chaos of creation, not the chaos which seeks to wipe creation away, and those whom honor him like to remind others of this, and in the upper-kingdom, well, they remember. Each Sutey has a kinship with a particular element: earth, fire, air, or even more rarely (at least among the Sutey of Kemet) water. Their elemental aspect may manifest in a variety of ways: the intermittent crackle of electricity in their eyes, a constant breeze blowing their form about even when their is no apparent source, or flesh that has a dancing pattern as if running water, or a scent of smoke about them. Their fingernails are claw-like and possibly made of gemstone, earth, crystal, or glow as if heated metal.

4 A Sutey s facial features range from human-like (in which case, they are invariably red-headed), to instead having the head of an animal. The strange Set-animal is especially common, but, hawks, hyenas, jackals, and all sorts of other creatures can be found amongst them. One trait that all Sutey have in common however is a long tail which is forked at the end, just like the tail the Set-animal is often depicted with. The Sutey are a culture with wanderlust, preferring a nomadic lifestyle. They also tend to be quite adept at dealing with dirty work and when someone needs darker forces to be dealt with... though what exactly that might mean is variable. Sutey stats Dark-sight Sutey can see even in complete darkness as well as in bright light. In darkness vision is however, in black and white. Further abilities depend on the Sutey s elemental affinity. Note on elemental resistances: Sutey whom reduce the damage of an element such as fire, lightning etc.. should they reduce the damage down to one point, they ignore that single point of damage. Earth +1 physique Earth sutey can burrow through earth and stone at half their standard movement speed. In addition, environmental heat or cold do not bother these beings. Earth sutey also get +1 to their defense rolls, so long as they are on the ground. Air +1 intellect Air sutey are capable of manifesting wings freely, which vary from one sutey to the next from leathery and bat-like, to feathered and birdlike, to being made out of their element: the stuff of mist and perhaps crackling with electricity. Their flying at speeds equal to their land speed. They are highly resistant to harmful weather, gaining a +1 to checks made when dealing with it. They also take 4 only half damage from either lightning or sonic damage (one must be selected at character creation). Fire +1 charisma The fiery sutey take only half damage from fire. In addition, while they need to breath, they can breathe anything gaseous without harm. Fire sutey can spend a point of ka and spend an action to channel their inner fire to manifest a small flame in the palm of their hand. This flame sheds light as a torch, and can do a die of fire damage, adding this to their punches, or even using it to heat metal to add that extra die of damage to it. This ability lasts for minutes equal to half the character s level rounded down (minimum of one level). Water +1 grace The graceful water sutey have a swim speed equal to their standard land speed, and do not need to make swim checks unless they are in dangerous water conditions or trying to pull off some sort of swimming move trick. Water sutey can also breathe water as easily as air. They start with swim at dabbler ability for the purposes of making any tricky swim checks. Water sutey take only half damage from either acid or ice (one must be selected at character creation). Superstition People have differing superstitions regarding the Sutey. This is so extreme that, the GM should either increase or decrease the target numbers of manipulation checks for them by one when dealing with other races, representing the strong reactions the Sutey tend to engender. Sekhem Their very name means power, might. The sekhem are intelligent felines. Though humans have a legend that they were created when Sekhemet decided to gift some of her favored warriors with the shapes of lions and lionesses, most Sekhem refute this and claim no such kinship with

5 humanity. The Sekhem look like powerfully built lion-like felines. Their forepaws are quite capable of grasping weaponry and manipulating objects (though they have a bit harder time at fine manipulation than humans do. But while they may fight on their hind legs when wielding a sword or other weapon (though they tend to prefer using weapons which simply enhance their natural ones), they are much more at home when running on all fours. The Sekhem certainly can be told visually from an actual lion: they have after all adapted to be able to walk on their hind legs, though they are not as good at it as humans. They also have those forepaws which have adapted to be used as hands, complete with opposable thumbs. OK, so you could probably confuse one for a lion from a distance if it was going on all fours, but, Sekhem also wear jewelry, and often some manner of barding, which is just decorative unless they mean business. Males especially though, will tend to have elaborately styled fur, and lots of decorative jewelry. The Sekhem are matriarchal, and it is not considered ideal, or really even appropriate in polite Sekhem society for males to be warriors, but, amongst outcast Sekhem, such males are far less unusual. Outcasts whom have fallen so out of favor that they have been banished from Sekhem society (or for whatever reason have chosen to abandon Sekhem society) and those born to such outcasts are called the clawless. Sometimes outcasts will even be declawed and de-fanged before they are sent away. The Sekhem so despise such outcasts that they do not even acknowledge them as the same species. Such outcast Sekhem may form dangerous prides or at least as commonly serve as mercenaries. It would be a mistake however to assume the Sekhem do not see the need to deal with human populations and maintain relations with them, they do, and have carefully trained emissaries to handle human-sekhem relations. Sekhem value trade with humans, both because they rather like to have access to human slaves, and because they do see the value of items of human make. What you ve read so far about these prideful, matriarchal, felines might lead you to think they are very 5 austere and don t know how to have a good time: on contrary! These cats are also indulgent and there is little that one of these felines loves more than beer or wine. There is a saying that the spirits can turn a Sekhem from a lion to a kitten, and though it takes an awful lot of alcohol to manage, if you ve ever watched one get completely drunk, well, you would see this is true. Sekhem stats Attribute Modifiers +1 physique +1 perception -1 intellect They are powerfully built creatures and have keen senses, but while Sekhem are intelligent beings, they are on average... not quite as, well, intellectually refined as humans. Don t dare tell them that though! Heavy-weight imbiber The Sekhem can really hold their own when it comes to alcohol, or for that matter pretty much any substance. They gain a +1 to checks made to resist not only alcohol but any other drug or toxin. Quadruped When moving on all fours, a Sekhem is twice as fast as a typical human. However, they must move about on their hind legs to wield weapons beyond their natural ones. In addition, Sekhem need to wear barding, rather than standard humanoid armor. Paw-like hands A Sekhem s paws are adapted to usage as hands, but, compared to human hands are a bit clumsy. They suffer a -1 penalty to any rolls made to do something which requires fine manipulation with their hands (this does not impact their ability to use weapons). Bite and Claw Sekhem have powerful jaws and sharp claws. Their claws each deal damage as light weapons and their bite deals damage as a medium weapon. The Sekhem also see nothing about fighting tooth and claw that would make them more animal or savage no, the Sekhem say, this certainly isn t a sign they are anymore beast than the humans are.

6 Feline senses Sekhem can see as well in dim lighting conditions (but not in complete darkness) as in daylight, and thus suffer no penalties under such conditions. The sekhem also have exceptional hearing and can hear pitches outside the human range of hearing such as a dog whistle. Neheh If anyone could steal from the very gods themselves and get away with it, well, it was the neheh, or at least the first of them. The first of them was according to lore a mage whom sought to gain the most powerful ba for himself, and manged through his art to seize upon the great Bennu and take Bennu s ba (or at least a pretty good sized piece of it!) to make his own from. While all mages are changed by their mysterious spiritual transmutation which grants them a ba, the first neheh s transmutation birthed an entire new species. This didn t go exactly how this mage planned though. In any case, when he stole that divine spark, instead of it just cooperating and granting him its powers alone, it exploded into many little pieces, each becoming another bird and flying off. All these little birds became more neheh, in fact, if the common lore is true, these little birds were all the neheh there will ever be, and neheh are continually reborn. Neheh appear to be nearly human, but, especially up close, it s pretty easy to tell they aren t really, since, wherever humans would have hair the neheh have feathers, and their eyes, well they look rather avian too. Some neheh prefer to cloister themselves away amongst their own kind in what they and others refer to as flocks, though, perhaps along with some of the more intellectual and studious members of other races. Others are far too flighty, curious and adventurous for such things. While the former may have personalities more like owls (or Ibis, Thoth is very popular with them), the later have personalities more like crows or magpies. Neheh are valued as scholars and scribes, as well as for spies. Not all neheh are what you would call respectable law-abiding members of society of course, after all, their very origins are in a form of theft. Neheh actually have trouble with the concept of hierarchy, and deal poorly with any sort of caste or class 6 system. That, of course, can get them into trouble in general when dealing with humans and many others. The Sekhem in particular have problems with this because of that: they could care less that the neheh are birds (thus this isn t a bird vs. cat thing really, they say), rather it is that the neheh have so little sense of honor, and proper place in relationship to their betters, that drives them nuts. Neheh get along with Osirions no better or worse than humans. As far as the Sutey go, the neheh at least tend to harbor less prejudices against them, for good or ill, than humans and the other races do, plus, there s a certain degree of mischievousness that the two might find they share. Neheh have another ability too: they can change their forms, becoming those little birds mentioned before (well, OK, for birds, not really that little, but still, small compared to when they are human ). A Neheh is pretty easy to identify in their avian form too though, they become bennu birds, or what in other places are called phoenix (see, something like that just has to be tied to some sort of cycle of rebirth). These birds look like some fusion of heron and eagle, at times with long peacock-like tails,at least in the case of males. They are graceful creatures, long of leg and neck, with brilliant golden plumage, along with purples, reds, and other bright colors. Neheh stats Attribute Modifiers +1 intellect Gift of the Phoenix Neheh thanks to their connection to bennu, the phoenix, do have some resistance to fire, though not nearly to the point that the fire-touched sutey do. However, they are not bothered by hot weather and ignore one point of fire damage from anything which deals it. Past Lives This lends credence to the fact the neheh have indeed been reborn many times, they can meditate and tap into other lives whether they are past lives, or the lives of their ancestor. If they do this for one hour during a day, they can pick one skill. They treat this skill as if it were at one rank higher in it. If the skill chosen has no ranks they gain dabbler rank in it. Once the skill has been selected for the day, it cannot

7 be changed until the next day. Neheh Avian form As an action the character can spend a point of ka and shape-shift into avian form. They can shift back into their humanoid form as an action without spending additional ka. In their avian form, the Neheh s are quick and graceful, but rather fragile creatures. Their attributes are altered, becoming +1 perception +1 grace and -2 physique. They keep their racial +1 to intellect. The neheh can fly at 3x typical human land speed They gain claw and bite attacks which do damage as light weapons. Since they are much smaller in their avian form, standing at around 3ft in height, the Neheh can fit into spaces their human form could not. The neheh can speak in their avian form, and cast magic as normal. They cannot wield weapons which require being held in a creature s hands, and other things which require hands they can attempt to do with their talons, but only with great difficulty, suffering a -4 to them. The avian form has exceptionally keen eye sight and hearing: they can see twice as far as a human, and hear things outside the human range of hearing (such as for example, a dog whistle) and their avian vision grants them the ability to see in the ultraviolet spectrum. The Lure of Shiny Birds love shiny objects, and so do the neheh, though, for them, a shiny might not simply be literally a shiny object. It could be anything from a bit of knowledge to some other object. In any case, they are terribly curious, and may even resort in thievery or all kinds of things if tempted enough. This is mostly a role-playing thing, but, every once in a while the GM may decide something is just so tempting to a Neheh that they HAVE to have it, whether that means making questionable deals, stealing it, or some other tactic. The character gets a intellect roll to resist (the tier of the challenge may be set as the GM deems appropriate, the more tempting the shiny is the higher the tier should be), but, should they fail, they have to start acting on their goal to have whatever it is, that they just HAVE to have. 7