Kor - Creepy White People

[Amanojyaku]

The enigmatic kor hail from a death world that was very recently lost to the Abyss. Notably, in addition to being very nearly a daemon world whose landscape changed regularly enough to set a chrono by, this crystal sphere was alive with magic, a crackling locus of energy whose existence may have been the very beacon that drew the daemons who swallowed it. The kor fought for their world, but were ultimately driven out.

Now a race of exiles, the kor can be found scattered across the Wheel, though rarely more than one or two in the same settlement. They rarely put down roots... "the heart is a moving organ," or so they say. Kor are very often sought after as Navigators, earning free passage on spelljammers to assuage their racial wanderlust, and are notably among the few outsider races readily allowed into Elysium.

Physical Characteristics
Average Height: 1.7-2.0m
Average Weight: 75-95kg
Languages: Trade, Kor
Common Personality Traits: Austere, restless, respectful, reliable, stoic
Common Physical Traits: Pale skin, white hair, shadowed eyes, lithe build, skilled fingers
Example Names: Nahiri, Tazri, Smara, Abeena, Haruhy

Racial Statistics
Characteristic Bonus: +1 to Constitution or Willpower
Skill Bonus: +1 to Athletics and Perception
Power: No Rest for the Weary: Double your Constitution for the purpose of determining how much Fatigue you can take before passing out.
Size: 4

Racial Feats

Astral Seer [Kor, Satori]
Your homeworld is one where maps become useless as soon as they're finished, and landmarks disappear as often as they're memorized. You can clearly see much less impermanent landmarks in the Warp overlaid on the Materium, giving you an unerring sense of direction and allowing you to act as a Navigator regardless of other magical ability.

Hookline and Sinker [Kor]
These newfangled guns and power swords are all well and good, but sometimes the only weapons you really need are your climbing hooks and a good, sturdy rope. Tying a climbing hook to a length of rope or cable yields an improvised weapon that uses the stats of a flail, except that it deals R damage and has the Reach property. Your climbing hooks can be used as Thrown weapons with a range of 3*Strength meters (or the length of the rope, whichever is shorter), and you always have proficiency with them.

Levo Tolerance [Kor]
Mirrored proteins are both blessing and curse. You gain three free raises on saving throws or tests made against most drugs and poisons, as well as the Toxic weapon property, and increase the rarity for finding drugs that can actually affect you by one step. However, fare that sits well with most organics doesn't quite agree with your system, so whenever you eat something that hasn't been prepared by your own hands or an establishment that caters to kor with this specific "allergy," you have to make a Constitution test (TN 15) or else take a point of E damage to your Gizzards.

Para-Psionic [Kor, Paragon]
A sufficiently exalted Kor is indistinguishable from a mindbender. Gain Dark Sight and the feat Minor Magic. You recover a Pressure Point whenever Psychic Phenomena occur or you lose Resolve.

Roil Ranger [Kor]
Your world is the real test of mettle, one far less forgiving than others cry about. Any time not spent fighting for your life is time you can relax... that is, you can treat any level of activity that doesn't include combat as time spent resting, for the purpose of removing Fatigue. Gain a free Constitution specialty in Enduring Hardship, as well as free Athletics specialties in Climbing and Jumping.

Physical Qualities

Kor are lean and hardy folk, with an easy grace that tells of the skills necessary to develop to live in their former home. They are pretty much exclusively white in color - hair, eyes, everything - except for a tendency to develop dark rings around the eyes. Males don't grow facial hair, but develop barbels on their chins as they age. Some greybeards have noted that the kor's general pallor is not due to a lack of pigment, but to white pigment, and theorize that they may produce melanistic individuals at about the same rate as humans produce albinos.

Those same greybeards, or at least the ones who can get hold of bodies to work with, have also found that unlike most other organics on the Wheel, who have "left-sided" proteins, the kor have "right-sided" ones. This can result in nasty allergic reactions to standard levo-organic foods, though it comes with the fun side-effect of sugars not being stored as readily... meaning, in non-greybeard, that you'll almost never see a fat kor.

Kor generally make their own clothing and equipment out of salvage, resulting in a very functional patchwork appearance, that generally isn't considered complete without the loops of rope, cable reels, and climbing hooks that kor are known for.

Playing a Kor

The kor are a people in exile, but they don't look for pity. Scattered across the Wheel as they are, it's a wonder they've adapted so quickly to the levo-organic fare that most of them have subsisted on since the loss of their homeworld. Kor rarely remain in one place for long, usually just enough to do work in exchange for a berth and some supplies for the next leg of their journey. Kor are used to adversity and the physical exertion of adventuring in less-civilized crystal spheres.

For a kor, idle hands are the worst possible thing. Time spent doing nothing is time that could be spent checking your gear for wear, repairing your climbing ropes or weaving new ones, or even something seemingly as trivial as making sure your boots are laced properly. Most kor eat while performing these restive tasks, with the result that they eat almost constantly throughout the day. They tend to deny themselves sleep for the same reason, forcing themselves awake and active until they inevitably pass out on their feet.

While kor groups only consist of small families at the largest, those families keep their traditions alive and well. Kor language is flowing and has an almost singing quality, but the syntax and constructions are strange compared to most others. Notably, words ending in "a" are masculine, while "y" is feminine. It's not uncommon for kor to adjust the spelling of their names to suit whatever identity they've decided on for themselves.

Kor Heroes

Kawora lives a life of bitterness, thinking on what the fate of his lost home might have been had he found the golden fruit before it sank into the Abyss. Now, he seeks a new world, one that he can claim by right of his newfound divinity and provide as a new home for his people.

Nahiri doesn't quite fit in with other kor anymore. In an attempt to stop the daemon incursion that claimed her world, she sought the enlightenment of the land, besought a similarly enlightened elder dragon for aid, all to no avail. She was among the last to leave when her attempt failed, locked in meditative stasis in the same stone prison with which she intended to keep the daemons at bay.

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