Races Among the Stars 3: Borai
Despite the fact that the planet Eox exists as a, while not quite good, respected member of the Pact Worlds, the fact of the matter is that Paizo continues to be pretty wishy-washy about the whole “undead as playable characters” thing.
While I understand wanting to limit the player’s access to undead immunities, which we see with both today’s subject and the varculak race, I disapprove of the way they tried to tone down the undead nature of the borai.
In any case, what is a borai? According to their information, they are unusual in that rather than being animated by negative energy, they are mostly-dead beings that are held in a state of animation by the persistence of their soul. Some are the result of botched resurrections, while others simply refuse to die. Already this doesn’t make much sense, as most intelligent undead do retain their soul, which we know due to the constant narratives of “sending undead to their final judgement”.
Physically, borai resemble their parent race, though their skin is pale and fragile, with “dark veins of negative energy blossoming across their body” (Wait, I thought they didn’t have negative energy?). Regardless of what signs of death mark their form, they are certainly viscerally disturbing, especially to members of their origin species.
Despite their deathly nature, borai share many biological needs with the living, and can in fact age and die, though there is some mystery to what happens to their soul upon true death.
It is this in-between status that proves most vexing for borais. Most of them are ostracized from their own former communities due to their nature, but even settling on dead worlds like Eox does not bring relief, for their mortal needs mark them as “less” according to the undead masters of that world.
While I rag on this playable race for its weird inconsistencies, I can respect the attempt to make an undead race that incorporates some of the traits of the original race into itself. No matter what kind of mental hoops you have to jump through to reconcile or reinvent the borai race, it is nevertheless a worthy addition to the setting and system.
Borai tend to be tough and driven, if a bit unstable.
Despite being undead, their half-living status causes them to still be susceptible to the conditions of life, including not only living needs but also living frailties.
That being said, they are certainly more resistant to things that undead are normally immune to, and are totally immune to negative energy. This includes the negative side effects of having their energy drained, though this can still kill them.
They also sport the night vision that undead typically have.
As half-living things, they can also be healed and resurrected as if they were completely alive, processing positive energy like normal.
Borai can belong to any sapient species before their death and revival, and thus can have any number of physical forms. As such, they inevitably inherit the benefits of their form. In game terms, borai gain a single racial trait from whatever their original species is. While as written it gives several examples, the recurring theme is typically some physical trait rather than a mental or cultural one whenever possible. Things like a kasatha’s four arms, a vesk’s claws, and so on. Talk with your GM about what trait gets carried over when playing a borai from a species not on that short list.
Tough and charming as they are, vanguards, soldiers, and solarians are good choices, as are envoys, social operatives, and witchwarpers. Mystic may seem like a weak choice at first, but I imagine that borais are willing to look in all sorts of directions, including the spiritual, in order to find their place in the multiverse. Others may use their long half-lives to pursue intellectual lines such as biohacker, mechanic, and technomancer.
Another entry down, but we still have a few more to go this week!
