Viashino - Lizard Men
Aug 9, 2018 1:45:59 GMT -6
Post by Amanojyaku on Aug 9, 2018 1:45:59 GMT -6
Once, long ago, the Syrne ascended beyond their own crystal sphere, and walked the Wheel as beings like unto gods. Once, the Syrne began to grow forgetful of their origins, and so to keep themselves grounded and remember their past mistakes, they uplifted the reptiles of their home, gifted them with intelligence and objectivity, and charged them with keeping their history. Once, the Syrne forgot themselves, and became embroiled in a great war with the C'tan, and disappeared from history.
Their own history remains, etched into panels of orichalcum searched for and kept by their first servants, the lizards who watched them leave.
The Viashino keep themselves to themselves, mostly, maintaining great libraries and museums dedicated primarily to Syrneth histories, though some have branched out to maintaining the knowledge of other ancient subjects, such as the Tiamat Heresy or the War of the Monster's Fall. Viashino typically leave their enclaves only to hunt down some artifact or another related to their favored subjects, or to gather materials to found another museum-arcology in some other crystal sphere.
Physical Characteristics
Average Height: 1.5-2.5m
Average Weight: 120-240kg
Languages: Trade, Saurian
Common Personality Traits: Dispassionate, focused, objective, observant, patient
Common Physical Traits: Lean, powerful build, scaled hide, sharp teeth, strong tail
Example Names: Chakax, Corus, Gor-Rok, Kroq-Gar, Skive
Racial Statistics
Characteristic Bonus: +1 to Strength or Intelligence
Skill Bonus: +1 Academic Lore and Athletics
Power: Cold-Blooded: Viashino begin play with the Jaded feat, and subtract their Level from the number of checks on a failed Fear test when rolling on the Shock table, to a minimum of 0.
Size: 5
Racial Feats
Ogdoad Librarian [Viashino, Slaad]
You have studied the tablets left by the Syrneth to such an extent that you can actually make heads or tails of them. You can speak, read, and write in the Syrneth language.
Oldblood [Viashino, Paragon]
It's a well-known fact that Viashino only get tougher as they get older. A dinosaur like you is practically daemonic. Gain extra Hit Points and armor equal to your Excellence for living longer than most of these grey-bearded mammals. This armor stacks with all other sources of armor.
Predatory Fighter [Viashino]
Some Viashino embrace the amazing weapons available in the greater portion of the Wheel. You scorn weapons in general, in favor of those that come with your reptilian body. Gain the following natural weapons: Claws and Teeth (1k1 R; Brawling) and Tail (0k1 I; Brawling, Flexible). Embracing your wild side has a cost, however; if an enemy disengages from you, not chasing him down requires a successful Willpower test (TN 15).
Saurian Throwback [Viashino]
Your brightly colored hide is a warning: "I'm just full of nasty things and you will die if you touch me." Choose one of the following benefits:
- Monitor: You've got venom glands attached to claws or fangs, or your spit's just a nasty cocktail of virulence nobody wants any part of. Your natural melee attacks gain the Toxic property. In addition, you can spend a half action licking a melee weapon, granting it the Toxic property on its next successful hit.
- Salamander: Your bright red and orange hide is a mark of your affinity for fire, and the burning slime produced by your flesh. You are immune to damage from being on fire, and your melee attacks gain the Incendiary property.
Scaled Skin [Dragonborn, Viashino]
Your hide is proof against most sidearms. Gain Armor equal to your Constitution on all body locations. This doesn't stack with other sources of Armor. You can take this feat a second time starting at Level 3; if you do, double the Armor granted by this feat as your scales grow thicker and heavier, but you are considered to be wearing heavy armor with a Max Dex of 3.
Physical Qualities
Viashino are, to be perfectly blunt, great fething lizards that walk on two legs like men. They're generally lean, with dense muscle covered in a pebble-scaled hide. While their hands closely resemble a human's, with four fingers and a thumb, they walk on three clawed toes, hunched forward and balanced by a long, sinewy tail. Older Viashino often proudly display horn-crowned heads. Most other races can't tell the difference between male and female Viashino; females are generally larger, but otherwise lack any secondary characteristics that would make it obvious.
A Viashino's hide can be nearly any color, but most commonly tend toward blues, greens, and browns, sometimes mottled in various colors, with amber-colored eyes and slitted pupils. Most consider albinism to be an auspicious mark. Beyond that, brighter colors usually indicate a throwback, an example that has a venomous bite or an affinity for fire.
Young Viashino grow faster than human children do, walking hours after hatching and considered adults by the age of ten. They live for much longer, though.
Playing a Viashino
Despite their powerful bodies, Viashino prize knowledge, collecting it and maintaining it for future generations to enjoy. One becomes strong for the sake of safeguarding one's collected knowledge, and collecting knowledge can make one strong. They strive to remain objective, detached, even when discussing their own lore and history... it's not uncommon for members of more mammalian races to become disturbed when a Viashino goes from discussing a new artifact to reporting a modron attack without changing the tone of its voice.
This unhurried, disinterested take stems mainly from their outlook. Viashino live enormously long lives, measured in centuries rather than decades. They can afford to be patient... usually. When faced with the question of its own survival, a Viashino will fight with all the ferocity of a cornered animal. Even in battle, however, the Viashino will observe its enemy, learning from the experience, to scratch down in notes later and use it in the future.
Viashino Heroes
Gor-Rok is a paragon of all that Viashino hold in regard. An albino, skilled with axe and shield, virtuoso of lute and lyre, and knowledgeable in all fields (but a savant when it comes to cooking ancient Syrneth dishes), his glaring red eyes are known to have been the last thing several hundred Orks saw during an assault on a Syrneth library founded rather precariously in Acheron.
Drango lives in a world of blood and honor, attached to a dragonborn clan to pay an ancient life-debt her own draconic blood demands. She's long considered the dragonborn to be her new family, teaching them the ways of honorable battle with great axe and searing breath, and more, she's managed to keep them looking to Bahamut in the face of countless attacks from Tiamat's heretics.
Skive is a hunter separated from his pack, a feral lizard who no longer cares for the lure of knowledge. A mishap with sorcery exposed him to a particularly nasty variety of Warp energy, twisting his mind and body and raking his hide with the black spiral marks of Malal.