[Alchemy] Base races

[pyrephox]

Doshen are a playable race.

Appearance: Doshen are tall, almost always slender, humanoids of avian nature. They have clawed feet, wings with exceptionally dextrous tips and thumbs, and a fine coating of downy feathers from head to feet. Their facial features are sharp, with prominent brows, cheekbones, and stiff, beak-like lips. They also have no 'ears', as such, and their earholes are hidden beneath their feathers. Despite the beak-like qualities of the lips, Doshen have little problem with most languages. Their own language is fluting and high-pitched. Doshen tend to be light in wight, but surprisingly tough, despite their hollow bones.

Abilities: Doshen have a +1 bonus to Strength and Endurance, and a -2 penality to Grace. They possess the native ability of flight, and with a successful Will roll can gather latent electrical current from the air and focus it into either a defensive or offensive aura. When in its defensive mode, the lightning aura provides 3 points of armor, with bursts of electrical force deflecting the blows. In its offensive form, the aura can produce up to three bolts of lightning a round, doing up to 10 damage in total, divided as the character wishes (declared at time of attack). These bolts can be dodges and reduced by armor as normal. Directed into water, they do one-half damage (rounded down) to everyone within a 20 foot radious in the water, and 1/4 damage 20 feet beyond that. Switching from one mode to another takes a full combat round between one mode being powered down, and the second powered up. In groups of ten or more, Doshen can call storms, although they cannot control the raw forces they have summoned, making this an attack of last resort.

Personality and Culture: The doshen are a fierce, proud, and arrogant people with a long warrior tradition. They are mostly found in mountaintop villages perched upon the highest crags, built like fortresses and very well defended. On the rare occassions that anyone is foolish enough to attack a doshen aerie, the avians lure the attacking forces high into the mountains with skirmish-and-run tactics, then retreat into their fortress, batten down the hatches, and summon fierce tempests to freeze, fry, or drown the invaders.

Younger doshen often leave aeries to travel the world, hiring themselves out as mercenaries and escorts. Although they despise restrictive armor, and cannot use most weapons while in flight, their native abilities allow the doshen to compete with even a heavily armed and armored foe. As such, they tend to consider armor and weapons as compensation for a shameful weakness. A dosh who wears or wields such before his own kind will face scorn, snickers, and pointed jests about his or her 'potency' in battle and other places. An exception is made for war spurs, sharpened sheathes for a dosh's clawed feet. These are standard wear in battle, and are one of the few weapons the dosh can use in the air.





Gonn are a playable race.

Appearance: Gonn are small humanoids who appear to have been carved out of precious metals. They have metallic skin, usually gold, buy silver, red, and green colors are not particularly rare. All gonn have stiff, white hair, and large, hypnotic eyes of shifting colors. Note that the skin of the gonn is not actually metal; it simply has that appearance. An adult gonn is rarely taller than five feet high, but the race favors elaborate fashions and hairstyles that make them look taller.

Abilities: Gonn recieve a +2 to Will, and a -1 to Intelligence and Strength. Additionally, gonn can exert their Will to give themselves an allure that is beyond the natural. This attraction can even transfix the unwary, stopping whole crowds in their tracks. This aura can be used in two ways. The first method gives everything the Gonn does an impressive and fascinating air. With a successful Will roll, the gonn gets a +3 bonus to all performance rolls (such as singing, dancing, juggling, etc.), as well as lying and acting attempts. At the same time, they get an equal penalty to any attempt to go unnoticed! This effect will last for an hour. Note that this effect does not make the performance actually /better/...if a gonn succeeds only because of the aura, the viewer will recall the true worth of the performance once the fascination wears off. The secone use of the aura turns the gonn into a mesmerizing beacon. All others able to see the character must roll Will, or be stunned for a combat round, unable to do anything other than stare at the character. If the gonn is moving, the target makes their Will roll at a +2, and if the gonn is attacking a target, that target rolls will at a +4. This aura does not work at all on people who cannot actually see the character. Whent he aura is active, attacks against the gonn are made at a +2 to connect, as it is exceptionally easy to focus on them.

Personality and Culture: Gonn tend to be a gregarious and friendly race, enjoying the company of all the other races, as well as the press and bustle of cities. Gonn run several cities along the stretch of continental shore called the Bright Coast. Aside from those strongholds, gonn can be found in almost every city and town, usually as entertainers, con men, teachers, and diplomats. They excel at imparting information and skills, as their attractive qualities ensure the attention of their students, but their tendency to coast along on their abilities tends to make finding a gonn tutor who actually knows what they're teaching can sometimes be difficult. As such, the reputation of the gonn with other races is complicated. They are seen as fun, attractive, and talented, but with an undercurrent of resentment and mistrust, due the the race's manipulative tendencies. It can be difficult for a gonn to recieve true respect without using their aura, no matter how good they are at their chosen career.





Appearance: The earthen are tall and broad creatures, bipedial humanoids with natural, overlapping bone platers over their chest, shoulders, legs and arms, and dark, thick skin, rather like an elephant's in appearance. Earthen faces are square, with deep-set eyes, wide, flat noses, and small, floppy ears. Earthen women have splotches of bright colors over their skin, and armored pouches where young earthen are incubated for up to a year after birth. Male earthen have curved horns which form a protective circle on eighter side of their heads. Each sex will stand about seven to nine feet in height at adulthood, with broad shoulders and heavily muscled builds.

Abilities: Despite their fearsome appearance, the earthen are connected to the cycles of life and death in a deep and often gentle way, understanding the transfer of strength, weakness, and energy. All earthen have a +1 to Endurance and Strength, and a -2 to Grace. Also, earthen can harness their instinctive understanding of life to transfer energy from one form to another. In mechanical terms, the earthen can give his own health points to a target, or take from a target to heal himself. This ability will also work on diseases and poisons, but not on magical effects or purely mental impairments. Nor will it allow the transfer of birth defects. To activate this power, the earthen must be touching the target and make a successful Will roll. The difference between the success roll and the character's Will score in health is transferred. Conscious, sentient creatures may resist this effect with a Will roll. If this ability is used offensively in battle, the earthen must be able to touch the bare skin of their opponent, which may require a called shot on a heavily armored opponent. This ability cannot raise anyone's health (including the earthen) above its maximum, nor may the earthen take other actions (such as attacking) while using it.

Personality and Culture: The earthen tend to be a peaceful, agrarian race who dislike cities and large, fast-paced communities. They usually group together in forest villages of 3 to 20 families, living interconnected homes beneath the ground. They raise the best crops and livestock in all the world, willing to spend a hundred years to perfect a single bloodline or strain. Despite their dislike of large organizations, the earthen control a large stretch of forest land, dividing it among villages according to population, as measured every 200 years at the Convocation of Autumn.

Earthen are attracted to sedentary, meticiulous lives that put them in touch with the world's natural cycles. They prefer being craftsment, builders, farmers, and rangers. Many are also attracted to spiritual vocations, and can be found in temples and hermitages, as quiet and wise healers, scholars, or priests. Occassionally, they may be drawn to the wandering or martial life...earthen make fierce (if defensively minded) warriors when roused, and frighteningly deadly assassins.