Svirfneblin: Stoney Underdark Explorers
Jan 3, 2019 23:13:49 GMT -6
Post by username on Jan 3, 2019 23:13:49 GMT -6
Svirfneblin
Created as tools by the Syrne like so many others, the Svirfneblin now seek their own path raiding the riches of their precursors. In ages past they were shaped from cold stone for the purpose of terraforming planets for the Syrne, naturally boring rock, aerating earth like worms and shaping raw stone naturally to suit the needs of their masters, whether they wanted to or not. Rebelling was not an option, but when the opportunity arose to escape the Svirfneblin took it along with as many Syrneth Artifacts as they could sneak away. Burrowing deep underground with no trace of their passing, the Svirfneblin happened into the vast Underdark of the Webway.
The Underdark is now where the majority of the Svirfneblin make their home, although they tend to favor a nomadic life. It is an enormously hostile place, but it grants them freedom to choose their own path and whispers of treasures and secrets just waiting for them with every new cavern opened. Svirfneblin tend to pop up in odd places across the Wheel due to this exploration of the Underdark, uncovering new passages in the Webway back into the Materium and making encampments underground when they do so.
Physical Characteristics
Average Height: 1.3-1.5m
Average Weight: 80-100kg
Languages: Trade, Gnomish
Common Personality Traits: Cynical, hardworking, xenophobic, shy, greedy
Common Physical Traits: Cold body, cracked skin, permenant scowl, hairless, rock hard muscles
Example Names: Stonecutter, Ironfoot, Rockhewer, Seamfinder, Pitfingers
Racial Statistics
Characteristic Bonus: +1 to Wisdom or Strength
Skill Bonus: +1 to Crafts and Forbidden Lore
Power: Stonestride: You may travel through soil, earth and unworked stone at your normal movement speed, leaving no disturbance to show your passage. When traveling this way you may instead create tunnels that others may use by counting each meter traveled an additional number of meters equal to the Size of Creature the tunnel will fit.
Size: 3
Racial Feats
Superspicious [Svirfneblin]
Svirfneblin are mindful of that which could do them harm, which in the Underdark is basically everything. Gain Dark Sight and +1k1 on tests to resist spells and environmental effects.
Lost and Found [Svirfneblin]
Mounds of forgotten treasures are said to litter the Wheel and Webway, but there is a little less out there now thanks to you. Gain two 1 dot Artifacts of your choice and an additional 1 dot Artifact chosen by the SM. These are not counted toward your number of Artifact dots from Backgrounds at character creation.
Secret Keeper [Svirfneblin]
Travelling underground and through the Webway gives the Svirfneblin access to all kinds of hidden knowledge and forgotten secrets. Making sense of overheard, out of context tidbits is another matter. You gain +1k0 to tests with Advanced Skills.
Nondetection [Svirfneblin, Paragon]
All the world is blind to your passing. You personally are considered to constantly be under the effects of the Screen spell for the purposes of defeating scrying and remote observation. You may spend an action point to change what image those trying to view you get instead.
Physical Qualities
Svirfneblin are also known as Deep Gnomes or Dark Gnomes, which can be odd for someone that actually encounters one. Svirfneblin look almost, but not quite, exactly unlike a gnome. They are roughly gnomish shaped and quite tough, but that is where the similarities end.
Svirfneblin are said to have been made from cold stone by the Syrne, and despite seeming to be flesh and blood now they still seem more mineral than man. Their bodies take on the coloration, temperature and texture of their earthen surroundings, making them easy to overlook, especially for races more reliant on infravision than traditional light. They're often completely hairless, regardless of gender, and what sometimes looks like fat on their body is in fact rock hard, overdeveloped muscles. Their manner of dress often wavers between the extremes of practical and princely, working and toiling in scavenged and restitched rags but ornamented with a bauble worth a king's ransom.
Svirfneblin have an affinity with stone and earth that is bred into them, but once it has been used to build something they can no longer pass through it like air. They also possess no ability to see through earth as they pass through it nor the ability to breath when submerged in this way, possibly as a safety measure from the Syrne to ensure the Svirfneblin do not destroy their own creations and or travel too far. Rebreathers and auspexes are common tools for Svirfneblin that wish to go dirt diving. Their earth passing ability is much less useful in the steely Underdark, but it can still come in handy when excavating collapsed caverns in the dark. Some suspect that, as their people explore the Underdark and rediscover lost passages the Svirfneblin are still serving the wishes of the Syrne rather than escaping from them.
Playing a Svirfneblin
For how little the Svirfneblin have in common with Gnomes physically, they perhaps have even less in common mentally. While Gnomes are almost religious in their admiration of technology and syrne tech, and know how to upkeep and repair such things instinctively, Svirfneblin wish to hunt down such wonders and hoard them for themselves even if they have no idea how they work or even what they are. This leads to them seeking out ancient technology just as much as the Gnomes do, and might be the source of the "Dark Gnome" nickname and often leads them into conflict with Gnomes over choice bits of technology that Gnomes are worshipping and maintaining rather than actually using.
Svirfneblin are never satisfied with having, always seeking and enjoying the getting: If they find an artifact in the tunnels of the Underdark, they will work to find out what it is, how it works and then how they can best put it to use to get more artifacts. For Svirfneblin, Greed is Good.
Svirfneblin tend to be shy and xenophobic, rarely trusting even other Svirfneblin and sticking together due to necessity and being able to accomplish more together than they could on their own. Life has taught them to expect the worst out of everything and everyone, and a stranger is likely just an enemy you haven't met yet.
That's not to say the Svirfneblin are harmful or evil though. They constantly seek and want more for themselves, but they value their own freedom as well. The Svirfneblin live by the maxim that "No one can make you do anything," but also admit that "no one can live alone." This is especially true in a place as hostile as the Underdark, where even if they don't trust each other they know they need each other to survive. You can't make your choices if you're dead. In the same sense, they value freedom for non-Svirfneblin too and will rarely seek to influence or interact with them more than what is necessary so as to allow self determination for everyone.
Svirfneblin Heroes
Created as tools by the Syrne like so many others, the Svirfneblin now seek their own path raiding the riches of their precursors. In ages past they were shaped from cold stone for the purpose of terraforming planets for the Syrne, naturally boring rock, aerating earth like worms and shaping raw stone naturally to suit the needs of their masters, whether they wanted to or not. Rebelling was not an option, but when the opportunity arose to escape the Svirfneblin took it along with as many Syrneth Artifacts as they could sneak away. Burrowing deep underground with no trace of their passing, the Svirfneblin happened into the vast Underdark of the Webway.
The Underdark is now where the majority of the Svirfneblin make their home, although they tend to favor a nomadic life. It is an enormously hostile place, but it grants them freedom to choose their own path and whispers of treasures and secrets just waiting for them with every new cavern opened. Svirfneblin tend to pop up in odd places across the Wheel due to this exploration of the Underdark, uncovering new passages in the Webway back into the Materium and making encampments underground when they do so.
Physical Characteristics
Average Height: 1.3-1.5m
Average Weight: 80-100kg
Languages: Trade, Gnomish
Common Personality Traits: Cynical, hardworking, xenophobic, shy, greedy
Common Physical Traits: Cold body, cracked skin, permenant scowl, hairless, rock hard muscles
Example Names: Stonecutter, Ironfoot, Rockhewer, Seamfinder, Pitfingers
Racial Statistics
Characteristic Bonus: +1 to Wisdom or Strength
Skill Bonus: +1 to Crafts and Forbidden Lore
Power: Stonestride: You may travel through soil, earth and unworked stone at your normal movement speed, leaving no disturbance to show your passage. When traveling this way you may instead create tunnels that others may use by counting each meter traveled an additional number of meters equal to the Size of Creature the tunnel will fit.
Size: 3
Racial Feats
Superspicious [Svirfneblin]
Svirfneblin are mindful of that which could do them harm, which in the Underdark is basically everything. Gain Dark Sight and +1k1 on tests to resist spells and environmental effects.
Lost and Found [Svirfneblin]
Mounds of forgotten treasures are said to litter the Wheel and Webway, but there is a little less out there now thanks to you. Gain two 1 dot Artifacts of your choice and an additional 1 dot Artifact chosen by the SM. These are not counted toward your number of Artifact dots from Backgrounds at character creation.
Secret Keeper [Svirfneblin]
Travelling underground and through the Webway gives the Svirfneblin access to all kinds of hidden knowledge and forgotten secrets. Making sense of overheard, out of context tidbits is another matter. You gain +1k0 to tests with Advanced Skills.
Nondetection [Svirfneblin, Paragon]
All the world is blind to your passing. You personally are considered to constantly be under the effects of the Screen spell for the purposes of defeating scrying and remote observation. You may spend an action point to change what image those trying to view you get instead.
Physical Qualities
Svirfneblin are also known as Deep Gnomes or Dark Gnomes, which can be odd for someone that actually encounters one. Svirfneblin look almost, but not quite, exactly unlike a gnome. They are roughly gnomish shaped and quite tough, but that is where the similarities end.
Svirfneblin are said to have been made from cold stone by the Syrne, and despite seeming to be flesh and blood now they still seem more mineral than man. Their bodies take on the coloration, temperature and texture of their earthen surroundings, making them easy to overlook, especially for races more reliant on infravision than traditional light. They're often completely hairless, regardless of gender, and what sometimes looks like fat on their body is in fact rock hard, overdeveloped muscles. Their manner of dress often wavers between the extremes of practical and princely, working and toiling in scavenged and restitched rags but ornamented with a bauble worth a king's ransom.
Svirfneblin have an affinity with stone and earth that is bred into them, but once it has been used to build something they can no longer pass through it like air. They also possess no ability to see through earth as they pass through it nor the ability to breath when submerged in this way, possibly as a safety measure from the Syrne to ensure the Svirfneblin do not destroy their own creations and or travel too far. Rebreathers and auspexes are common tools for Svirfneblin that wish to go dirt diving. Their earth passing ability is much less useful in the steely Underdark, but it can still come in handy when excavating collapsed caverns in the dark. Some suspect that, as their people explore the Underdark and rediscover lost passages the Svirfneblin are still serving the wishes of the Syrne rather than escaping from them.
Playing a Svirfneblin
For how little the Svirfneblin have in common with Gnomes physically, they perhaps have even less in common mentally. While Gnomes are almost religious in their admiration of technology and syrne tech, and know how to upkeep and repair such things instinctively, Svirfneblin wish to hunt down such wonders and hoard them for themselves even if they have no idea how they work or even what they are. This leads to them seeking out ancient technology just as much as the Gnomes do, and might be the source of the "Dark Gnome" nickname and often leads them into conflict with Gnomes over choice bits of technology that Gnomes are worshipping and maintaining rather than actually using.
Svirfneblin are never satisfied with having, always seeking and enjoying the getting: If they find an artifact in the tunnels of the Underdark, they will work to find out what it is, how it works and then how they can best put it to use to get more artifacts. For Svirfneblin, Greed is Good.
Svirfneblin tend to be shy and xenophobic, rarely trusting even other Svirfneblin and sticking together due to necessity and being able to accomplish more together than they could on their own. Life has taught them to expect the worst out of everything and everyone, and a stranger is likely just an enemy you haven't met yet.
That's not to say the Svirfneblin are harmful or evil though. They constantly seek and want more for themselves, but they value their own freedom as well. The Svirfneblin live by the maxim that "No one can make you do anything," but also admit that "no one can live alone." This is especially true in a place as hostile as the Underdark, where even if they don't trust each other they know they need each other to survive. You can't make your choices if you're dead. In the same sense, they value freedom for non-Svirfneblin too and will rarely seek to influence or interact with them more than what is necessary so as to allow self determination for everyone.
Svirfneblin Heroes