Post by GuardianTempest on Sept 25, 2022 20:52:36 GMT -6
Ijomes were originally encountered in scattered fringes across the Great Wheel, rarely seen and few in numbers. These peculiar mammals communicate visually through facial expressions, body gestures, and symbols projected by their antennae. First contact situations resulted in miscommunication that caused Ijomes to be mistakenly overlooked as nothing more than featherless bipeds you encounter by the wayside. Altruistic parties considered them to be an endangered species and launched conservation efforts, only then was their apparent sapience recognized. Now their treatment has changed from "ultimately minor novelties" to "immigrating second-class citizens".
The weird thing about this is that there is no universal "Ijome Conservation Council" or anything of the like. This same outcome was reached in different places independently of each other. Prospecting xenobiologists are flabbergasted when a completely different group has the same research as they do.
Physical Characteristics
Average Height: 1.1-1.9m
Average Weight: 55-90kg
Languages: Trade, Maps Ijome
Common Personality Traits: Appreciative, needy, gregarious, solicitous, admiring
Common Physical Traits: Blue skin, white hair, vaguely canine, verbally silent, electric antennae
Example Names: (◕‿◕) (Joy), ⌘ (Clover), 🚑 (Amber Lamps), Hali, Bue
Racial Statistics
Characteristic Bonus: +1 to Wisdom or Willpower
Skill Bonus: +1 to Perception and Persuasion
Power — Signal Antennae: Ijomes are unable to speak verbally but they have a pair of antennae that conjure text and images near their heads. They can still cast spells with the Verbal keyword and use their racial feats as long as their antennae are intact and exposed. They are considered "mute" if their antennae are severed, heavily damaged or obstructed (e.g. covered by a helmet without special modifications or a pair of socks).
Size: 3
Racial Feats
Synaptic Shock
Ijomes display bio-electricity when they "speak", electricity that can shock people. There are those who do this deliberately by "yelling". Gain the Luminen Blast feat. As a reaction, your Signal Antennae may be used to electrocute anyone in contact with your head as if they're subject to the Shocking special quality.
Radiohead
Visible images are merely one part of the electromagnetic spectrum. You can perceive or transmit radio waves with your Signal Antennae by concentrating as a Full Action. Maintaining this ability requires spending a reaction action at the start of your turn. The range of your transmissions is 500m at Level 1, 5km at Level 3, and 50km at Level 5. You can only listen to one radio frequency at a time and you can't do it while already broadcasting.
Orgone Feelers
You channel Warp energies instead of bio-electricity. Your Signal Antennae can be used as an Implement and you may use Perception + Wisdom instead of Ballistics + Dexterity for the ranged touch keyword. Also, your "speech" looks slightly fancier and more magical than normal.
Cerebral Resonator (Paragon Asset)
Your Signal Antennae go past the eyes and reach out directly to the neurons. Each dot in Excellence gives you a spell which is cast using Excellence + Willpower instead of the normal magic test. These spells ignore the Language Dependent keyword and gain Mind-Affecting if they don't already have it. Any Psychic Phenomena rolled by casting with this asset instead gives you Fatigue equal to 1/20th of the d100 result. These spells don't affect characters without brains or biological equivalents even if they don't have the Mindless trait (such as Elementals), unless cast without this asset.
- Excellence 1: Whisper
- Excellence 2: Stun
- Excellence 3: Horrid Wilting
- Excellence 4: Mind Net
- Excellence 5: Amnesia
Physical Qualities
The most notable feature Ijomes have is their communication. They compensate for their muteness by creating text and images with bio-electricity. In some ways this is more limiting than normal speech. An Ijome's "loudness" is determined by the visibility of their "speech", but there's only so much room in a message and so much bio-electricity that can be channeled at once. An Ijome would have to choose between "yelling" a few words at a larger size, or "whispering" lengthier statements that can only be read up close. Not to mention the reliance on the observer's comprehension and attention span. On the other hand, being able to create small images streamlines some of the more difficult parts of a conversation by using images to save space and displaying exactly what is on your mind. Discussion between two Ijomes is mostly just a rapid display of text and symbols arranged in a peculiar way.
Ijomes look like they are a combination of the other races. They have blue skin like Tau, pointy ears like Elves, snouts like dogs, speak in symbols like the Dabus, and so on. There are multiple theories explaining this. Some speculate that Ijomes were cobbled together as living transceivers by the Mind Flayers or the Syrneth. Others presume that a rich person commissioned them for carnal purposes before his negligence lets them escape and flourish. There are those who believe that the Ijomes are native to Pandemonium or Carceri, whose visual communication is an adaptation for the environment. Conspiracy theorists claim that Ijomes are instruments of psychological warfare, though they don't take into account their lithe physique and their abilities have nothing to do with direct mind control. It's also possible that the current Ijome populations are a small remnant of what they used to be, having lost most of their numbers in the ancient past by some unknown cataclysm. It's hard to say for certain what the truth is.
Ijomes can be distinguished by their eye color. Males have blue eyes and females have red eyes, which become purple when they reproduce and become parents. Unfortunately this is a rare phenomenon due to the the sheer dearth of males. The lopsided sex ratio results in a rather sparse population though they have a very long lifespan to compensate (around 1000 years), long enough for potential couples to meet. Maybe. Ijomes age bizarrely compared to other races. Once they mature, they remain adults throughout their entire lifespan before their internal physiology rapidly succumbs to age. Over the last decade of their life, their eyes turn grey, their cranial capacitors wear out, and their internal organs slowly lose vigor until they become brain dead for their final year. This is also a rare phenomenon since they die much earlier from various circumstances.
Playing an Ijome
If there's one prevailing attitude that's common among most Ijomes, it's "I'm just happy to be here". Gratitude is a universal virtue among them as they would be extinct without the generosity of the other races. Ijomes try to avoid stepping on people's toes and meekly participate in community matters when they can. After all one shouldn't bite the hand that feeds them. They still think of themselves first and foremost so they won't be involved in extraneous matters unless it would also affect them. Ijomes don't have a lot of merits of their own so they don't stand out in daily life apart from their quirks, though some of the more creative races might figure out how to make more use of them. For example, Dark Eldarin might use Ijomes as living batteries.
There's no such thing as Ijomean civilizations, or even cities. The largest Ijomean populations "in the wild" are small clusters of families in the frontier that either die off or merge into the larger societies of other races. Ijomes frequently live among other races but not in enough numbers to become notable. At most they will always be that exotic family neighboring you but don't always get to see. Otherwise they would be living in remote, isolated areas trying to stay away from danger.
Ijomes have very few traditions of their own, if any. Instead they adopt customs and ideas from patron races with their own spin on it. For example, an Ijome that lives alongside Aasimar would pepper their dialogue with holy symbols while another that lives with Squats would have fancier "lettering". Orks aren't the Ijome's first choice of patrons but they would put up with their brutishness if they safety is guaranteed, although it's more likely they would leave and look for a different patron. Ijomes prefer living alongside more peaceful and/or more stable races like the Tau or Dryads, who are a lot more accepting of xenos living in their borders. If anything goes wrong and staying with the other races becomes unfeasible, Ijomes will flee back to the wild or to find a new patron.
Ijome Heroes
A feisty orphan is trying to take care of her younger brother single-handedly. She doesn't like relying on others unlike the other Ijomes, but her fledgling career as a prizefighter was off to a poor start. The threat of starvation forced her and her brother into accepting a part-time job in a restaurant while she receives tutelage from a foul-mouthed swordsman. Her battle-hardened mentor is willing to put up with her attitude as he sees a lot of potential in her. She might even surpass him one day as a Paragon, if she could just swallow her pride. Everyone calls her "Lassie" but someday she will be addressed with a more epic name. This maid outfit is kinda getting in the way of that.
