Cecaelia: You're a Kid Now, You're a Squid Now
Sept 3, 2018 21:50:02 GMT -6
Post by Traskus on Sept 3, 2018 21:50:02 GMT -6
These creatures live in the shallow waters of their worlds, evolved or created wholecloth to live in those pelagic zones that still have sunlight. They have an appreciation for craft and the arts, building their society around the natural beauty that surrounds them. Their technology is either ramshackle, forged from their surroundings or an imitation of the surface life that lives or lived on their world. They are never the first intelligent life to show up on their worlds. Usually they evolve from the cephalopod sea life of their world to fill the intelligent niche left behind from a previous civilization. Others are engineered to continue a life away from an inhospitable surface, or so the elves claim.
To humans and their client races, they are called "pelagers." The elven races call them "the hideauze." The soratami and kitsune call them "ika" or "tako." But they prefer to call themselves "cecaelia."
Cecaelia have an appreciation for crafts and the various arts left behind by their forebears. They wear bright colors, most wars are fought over territory to put graffiti and murals on, they all learn a visual and/or audio art, and their homes are built on top of coral reefs with clear roofs. Their technology is either ramshackle and simplistic or derivative of those that came before. The octopoid cecaelia call it "2x4 technology," in reference to their bilateral symmetry.
Physical Characteristics
Average Height: 1.1-2.2m
Average Weight: 35-90kg
Languages: Aquan, trade
Common Personality Traits: Relaxed, artsy, ambitious, shifty, territorial
Common Physical Traits: Rubbery skin, cartilaginous skeleton, beak, suckers
Example Names: Tobin, Llawan, Marie, Elaine, Ursula
Characteristic Bonus: +1 to Fellowship or Wisdom
Skill Bonus: +1 to Crafts and Perform
Power: Polypod: You're a cephalopod with ten limbs. You count as many people for purposes of protracted work (maintaining vehicles, crafting, making art, etc.) as your level*2.
Size: 4
Racial Feats
Hydrostatic Skeleton [Cecaelia]
Cecaelia skeletons are made of cartilage and they can fit into small spaces as a result. A cecaelia can fit into spaces as little as 1/5 their size (minimum 1).
Inkredible Ink [Cecaelia, Walktapus]
Cecaelia love to fight, but they know when to run. You may produce Ink of whatever colors you desire to use as you would paint or dye: marking territory, making graffiti, dying clothes, etc. Beyond that, once per scene you may spray your Ink as a natural weapon following the profile of a Smoke Grenade.
Inkvader [Cecaelia]
Some Cecaelia adapt to travel further inland and usurp whatever civilization lives there. The benefit of your polypod power is halved. Your form changes enough that you might pass for an elf breed of some sort. Take -1 to size. You count as always having a climbing kit when traversing wet surfaces.
Renaissance Craftsman [Cecaelia, Paragon]
The greatest cecaelia hone their abilities to compensate for their less than stellar physicality. Choose one physical skill: you may use Crafts in place of that skill. Choose another physical skill: you may use Perform in place of that skill. You (just you) may treat any liquid on the ground as 4m deep. Lastly, gain +1k1 to stealth rolls while submerged.
Tidewater Tentacles [Cecaelia, Walktapus]
Cecaelia are adapted for life on land, but you are equally at home beneath the waves. You are able to freely breath underwater and gain the Amphibious trait.
Physical Qualities
Like the walktapi, the cecaelia are sapient cephalapods that can live above or below water, fresh or salt. Unlike the walktapi, cecaelia don't blend in. They begin life as conventional cephalopods like squids or octopi, forming their anthropoid upper half throughout their childhood. Most cecaelia live under the water of, or on and near beaches or other such water-adjacent features to stay hydrated. They all have the capacity to develop more elven features if they deem it necessary to venture further inland, but the change is permanent.
Playing a Cecaelia
These creatures are obsessed with celebrity and fame, all seeking to be the most well-known and remembered in their own way. This comes from the fact that during their time in armed service, they are not referred to by name but by designation. Rank, number, etc. Jai could go his entire adolescence only addressed as "Numbah 009." It wears on the ego, and creates a voracious appetite for recognition.
Cecaelia Heroes
Agent 808 worked as a double agent in the CIA for a decade before deciding it wasn't for him. In that time, he learned that we aren't all that different and if we spent more time enjoying one another's company there would be no war. Now he spends his time painting happy little kelp forests and hosting a public access tv show.
Alexander Von walked through the temple in introspection. He understood that the dragons' forces were too powerful to oppose and it was only a matter of time before they wiped the last survivors out. The cecaelia around him were in the middle of an orgy, whether to call out to their kind's god/dess or make the most of their last moments he didn't know. He stood on the podium in front of a silver sword and recited an incantation as he placed his hands upon it. He hurried the ritual as he saw and heard the tieflings bomb their way into the temple. Alexander's body disappeared and his belongings fell to the ground before any tiefling saw him.
To humans and their client races, they are called "pelagers." The elven races call them "the hideauze." The soratami and kitsune call them "ika" or "tako." But they prefer to call themselves "cecaelia."
Cecaelia have an appreciation for crafts and the various arts left behind by their forebears. They wear bright colors, most wars are fought over territory to put graffiti and murals on, they all learn a visual and/or audio art, and their homes are built on top of coral reefs with clear roofs. Their technology is either ramshackle and simplistic or derivative of those that came before. The octopoid cecaelia call it "2x4 technology," in reference to their bilateral symmetry.
Physical Characteristics
Average Height: 1.1-2.2m
Average Weight: 35-90kg
Languages: Aquan, trade
Common Personality Traits: Relaxed, artsy, ambitious, shifty, territorial
Common Physical Traits: Rubbery skin, cartilaginous skeleton, beak, suckers
Example Names: Tobin, Llawan, Marie, Elaine, Ursula
Characteristic Bonus: +1 to Fellowship or Wisdom
Skill Bonus: +1 to Crafts and Perform
Power: Polypod: You're a cephalopod with ten limbs. You count as many people for purposes of protracted work (maintaining vehicles, crafting, making art, etc.) as your level*2.
Size: 4
Racial Feats
Hydrostatic Skeleton [Cecaelia]
Cecaelia skeletons are made of cartilage and they can fit into small spaces as a result. A cecaelia can fit into spaces as little as 1/5 their size (minimum 1).
Inkredible Ink [Cecaelia, Walktapus]
Cecaelia love to fight, but they know when to run. You may produce Ink of whatever colors you desire to use as you would paint or dye: marking territory, making graffiti, dying clothes, etc. Beyond that, once per scene you may spray your Ink as a natural weapon following the profile of a Smoke Grenade.
Inkvader [Cecaelia]
Some Cecaelia adapt to travel further inland and usurp whatever civilization lives there. The benefit of your polypod power is halved. Your form changes enough that you might pass for an elf breed of some sort. Take -1 to size. You count as always having a climbing kit when traversing wet surfaces.
Renaissance Craftsman [Cecaelia, Paragon]
The greatest cecaelia hone their abilities to compensate for their less than stellar physicality. Choose one physical skill: you may use Crafts in place of that skill. Choose another physical skill: you may use Perform in place of that skill. You (just you) may treat any liquid on the ground as 4m deep. Lastly, gain +1k1 to stealth rolls while submerged.
Tidewater Tentacles [Cecaelia, Walktapus]
Cecaelia are adapted for life on land, but you are equally at home beneath the waves. You are able to freely breath underwater and gain the Amphibious trait.
Physical Qualities
Like the walktapi, the cecaelia are sapient cephalapods that can live above or below water, fresh or salt. Unlike the walktapi, cecaelia don't blend in. They begin life as conventional cephalopods like squids or octopi, forming their anthropoid upper half throughout their childhood. Most cecaelia live under the water of, or on and near beaches or other such water-adjacent features to stay hydrated. They all have the capacity to develop more elven features if they deem it necessary to venture further inland, but the change is permanent.
Playing a Cecaelia
Cecaelia society is warlike, strangely enough. Every able-bodied cecaelia is required to enlist in armed forces against their fellow cephalopod. They feel an instinctual need to conquer everything in the Wheel that doesn't belong to them. Vast wars are fought between the longitude-based seas for the landmasses in between. The elven races have a one-sided animosity toward the cecaelia after a series of wars forced them off their worlds.
Cecaelia love fighting, making up for their less than powerful anatomy with their equipment and training. Cecaelia are conscripted into their military at the beginning of their adolescence, the day they can physically pick up a weapon with a hand. They serve until their 18th birthday, after which they are free to either stay with the military or pursue a trade. There is no predicting which cecaelia does what without meeting them.
These creatures are obsessed with celebrity and fame, all seeking to be the most well-known and remembered in their own way. This comes from the fact that during their time in armed service, they are not referred to by name but by designation. Rank, number, etc. Jai could go his entire adolescence only addressed as "Numbah 009." It wears on the ego, and creates a voracious appetite for recognition.
Cecaelia Heroes
Agent 808 worked as a double agent in the CIA for a decade before deciding it wasn't for him. In that time, he learned that we aren't all that different and if we spent more time enjoying one another's company there would be no war. Now he spends his time painting happy little kelp forests and hosting a public access tv show.
Alexander Von walked through the temple in introspection. He understood that the dragons' forces were too powerful to oppose and it was only a matter of time before they wiped the last survivors out. The cecaelia around him were in the middle of an orgy, whether to call out to their kind's god/dess or make the most of their last moments he didn't know. He stood on the podium in front of a silver sword and recited an incantation as he placed his hands upon it. He hurried the ritual as he saw and heard the tieflings bomb their way into the temple. Alexander's body disappeared and his belongings fell to the ground before any tiefling saw him.
Tara was an adventurer, seeking the origin of the cecaelia. Her travels took her to Eldarin fleets, where she fought her way through craftworlds. Her travels took her to Comorragh, where Dark Eldarin attacked her on sight. Eventually, she went to a maiden world, where elves refused to help her and insist she leave at once. She kept going, eventually coming across a vast military complex. After exploring it, she destroyed it.
